Team Red
July 14, 2006 by Renee @ 12:35 PMCategory: Featured Food Friday, Food & Nutrition, Summer Edition
For the next 5 Fridays this summer, I'm going to hijack the regularly posted, featured food, and focus on foods by color. I got the idea a few weeks back via the CDC site. Since then, I aim to have @ least one color represented in my daily eats. Each week, I'll highlight the color that got the most attention from me, this week it was my favorite color, Red.
Why Red is Good
When you add deep reds or bright pinks to your daily diet, you are also adding a powerful antioxidant called lycopene. Lycopene is found in tomatoes, red and pink grapefruit, watermelon, papaya and guava. Diets rich in lycopene are being studied for their ability to fight heart disease and some cancers.
Lycopene is associated with the red color in tomatoes. Concentrated cooked sources of tomatoes, such as tomato sauce, are associated with greater health benefits. Heating and adding a small amount of fat makes the lycopene more easily absorbed by the body. Lycopene is being studied for its role to help reduce the risk of several types of cancer, including prostate cancer. Watermelons, pink grapefruits, and tomato-based products such as spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, and tomato juice are all good sources of lycopene. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in America men, killing 32,000 annually. Include foods rich in lycopene as part of your recommended 5 to 9 servings of vegetables & fruit a day.
Best Sources of Lycopene
Spaghetti Sauce
Tomato Juice
Tomato Paste
Fresh Tomato 
Tomato Soup
Guava
Watermelon
Pink Grapefruit
Papaya
Other red vegetables & fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, and beets contain anthocyanins, a group of phytochemicals that are being studied for their ability to fight heart disease and cancer, their anti-inflammatory power and to delay several diseases associated with the aging process.
Best 'Red' Sources of Anthocyanins
Red Raspberries
Sweet Cherries
Strawberries
Cranberries
Red Apples
Beets
Red Cabbage
Red Beans
Red Onion
Kidney Beans
How to get your Red on
- For breakfast add ½ cup fresh strawberries or raspberries to your cereal.
- Take a snack of cherries or an apple with you as walk out the door.
- Enjoy a can of tomato juice and a red bean burrito for lunch.
- Include tomato-based pastas for dinner on a regular basis such as the Creamy Tomato-Pepper Pasta recipe that follows.
- For dessert the Mixed Berry Crisp is a delicious treat.
Mixed Berry Crisp
Makes 6 servings
Each serving equals two 5 A Day servings.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 4 tsp. butter, unsalted
- 6 cups mixed frozen berries, thawed (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries in any combination)
- Vanilla ice milk (optional)
Combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl; blend in butter until mixture is crumbly. Place berries in non-stick baking dish and sprinkle crumb mixture over them. Bake at 375º for 20 to 30 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice milk, if desired. This is an official 5 A Day recipe.
Nutritional Information Per Serving:
Calories 288
Protein 5g
Fat 5g
Calories From Fat 16%
Cholesterol 14mg
Carbohydrates 59g
Fiber 6g
Sodium 33mg
[source]
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This week, I got my red on by eating a few roma & cherry tomatoes & lotsa lotsa strawberries. I almost picked up a pack of cherries, but w/my fruit rotting so fast, I didn't want to take the chance. Next week I'll highlight Team Blue and do a better job of getting a Blue player down my gullet @ least once a day.
