P is for Phytonutrients

I’m writing today about something I’ve been thinking about for a while but have not known how to put to words. A few weeks ago, I attended a wedding. After dinner, the woman seated beside me at the table remarked that now that she had eaten her “protein and vegetables,” it was time to go join the dancing. I hear friends describe how they ate their “protein,”or how they make sure to get the little ones at their tables to eat their protein. It’s like saying you ate your “produce” instead of your tangerine. Or your “fat” instead of your peanuts. People don’t say that. But I am hearing people say that they ate their protein all the time.

To be clear, what I am seeing is that folks are not identifying specific foods by their actual names. Instead of saying that they ate scrambled eggs, wings or drumsticks, chops or burgers, they are grouping them under the heading of “protein.” The woman at the wedding did not say that she ate the steak on her plate. She said she ate her protein. So I ask myself why? What is she really saying? What is happening here? And why?

Are people saying they believe that this portion of the meal is more important than the rest of it? Are they driven by concerns about cost? Is it because, excepting legumes, high-protein foods are usually more expensive than, say, grains and vegetables? 

No one in my family lacks for protein. They all get enough protein, and maybe even more than enough. If, for example, the little ones were to eat the tips off 8 spears of asparagus, followed by a few spoonfuls of rice, and call it dinner, nothing would change. They would still be well nourished. I don’t feel any need to lean on them to eat the protein on their plates. I’m not worried. 

I still don’t know why people are saying this, but I’m going to keep thinking about it. Does it harken back to a time when people were hungry and did not get sufficient protein? Is it because protein is filling, and they are trying to stave off hunger in the hours to come? Is it related to attempts at weight control?

When I look at people who regularly eat lots of greens and other produce, I see a kind of vibrancy in their faces that is difficult for me to describe. But I know it when I see it. 

I’m going to say something that may sound radical. If it were me, I would not put the emphasis on protein. If I were being pressured to choose, I would put the emphasis on phytonutrients. Color. Antioxidant power. If I were choosing components instead of foods, I would go out of my way to get phytonutrients. That’s not because I think they are more important than protein. It’s because I think we are eating much less phytonutrient-rich food than we should, while at the same time most of us are eating more than enough high-protein food.

I am thinking about two things: one is variety. My small grandchildren love eggs cooked sunny-side up. Truth be told, from what I can see, it appears to be primarily a vehicle for eating “yolk gravy.” I’ve seen them dip all kinds of things in their yolks, most recently cucumber sticks and toast. My granddaughter asked her father if she could put leftover “mac & cheese” in the yolk. “Sure,” he said. Anything goes. 

The other is related to the fact that we are privileged to live in a community in which our pantries are full. My family eats sufficient protein, and it’s high-quality protein at that, partly because I suspect that we are consuming many more beans and legumes than the average American family. My protein status is not, therefore, of concern. And the likelihood is that the same is true for my friends and their families. If it’s not beans, it’s chicken, turkey, salmon, cod, tuna, sardines, burgers and probably the occasional steak. 

I think that we are underestimating the nutritional value of phytonutrients, as well as their benefits to feelings of satiety. Phytonutrients nourish us profoundly. If you’re experimenting with ways to keep yourself feeling full, it may be worth seeing how you feel after you eat a generous bowlful of spinach salad with ripe avocados, toasted sunflower seeds, and fragrant olive oil. You may be surprised to discover that it keeps you full longer than you thought would be the case. 


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Strawberry-Pecan Spring Salad

A quintessential springtime salad. Tiny sweet strawberries bursting in your mouth? Soft, gently flavorful leaves of spinach, fresh from the ground. A bit of bite from the onion and satisfying give from the pecans. And, finally, an inspired sweet and sour dressing filled with fresh fruit flavors. Continue reading


Fake Fruit Names for Your Breakfast Cereal

A while back I wrote a post about the high profit-margin-to-cost of the breakfast cereal business. Today I have more to say on breakfast cereal, not about the manufacturing process or profit margins, but about the pervasive use of fruit-related words in the naming of these products.

If I had just ten seconds to share advice on improving your nutrition, I suspect you already know exactly what I would say: Eat more fruits and vegetables. And I don’t think that would surprise anyone. We all know that fruits and vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, and we also know that everyone should be eating more of them, especially since most of us don’t eat enough produce to begin with.  Continue reading


And the Winner is Real Food

Years ago, the article Can We Say What Diet is Best for Health?, by David Katz and Stephanie Meller from Yale University School of Public Health, was published in the Annual Review of Public Health. A related essay by James Hamblin, Science Compared Every Diet, and the Winner is Real Food, was subsequently published in the Atlantic.  

Katz and Meller compared low-carb, low-fat, low-glycemic, Mediterranean, DASH, Paleolithic, and vegan diets, concluding that “A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominantly plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention.”  Michael Pollan said, “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” More recent research continues to confirm these findings. Continue reading


The Menu from Bookclub Earlier this Week

This week we had bookclub at my house. I’ve written about bookclub before, and about the incredibly delicious dishes that people bring to share with one other. There’s never a plan, never been a plan, so once in a great while we have ended up with a couple bottles of Prosecco, salad, and two desserts. On the other hand, you are often likely to find grilled salmon, white bean salad, guacamole, green salad, grapefruit, and roasted olives with lemon rind. Everybody shares something. You just never know.  Continue reading


Making Your Kitchen Fruit-Friendly

For the record, I do not want you to think that I have always eaten the way I do now. It has been a process. There have been important milestones and realizations along the way such as, for example, the day I realized that there was absolutely no high-fructose corn syrup in my refrigerator. Or the time I decided that we were going to begin diluting the boxes of marginally nutritious “breakfast cereals” with dried fruit, nuts, seeds (e.g., sesame, pumpkin, sunflower), and rolled (steamed) oats until they contained essentially none of the original agents. 

And then there was the time I realized that we had inadvertently made an important change in the way we unpacked the groceries. This change, though virtually invisible, was to have a significant effect on the way we ate.  Continue reading


Can I Eat Fruit?

On many occasions, patients have asked me whether it’s okay to eat fruit. They’re worried about whether they should eat a food that they know is rich in sugar. Let’s think about this for a minute. Does anyone really believe that fruit is what’s causing the epidemics of diabetes and obesity? You can rest assured that the obesity and diabetes epidemics are not being caused by fruit. I think of fruit as “nature’s candy” and while it’s true that some fruits contain a lot of sugar, it is always accompanied by a large amount of fiber. Continue reading


Self-Care Resolutions

Late last year I had an interview with a major news network on the topic of New Years’ Resolutions. I decided not to talk about the popular though self-defeating goals that are nearly impossible to sustain and end up making people feel badly about themselves and their efforts. I didn’t discuss limiting calories, denying yourself things that bring you joy, joining a gym, or signing up for a yoga class. Instead I decided to talk about being kind to yourself.  Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Greens-and-Grains Winter Salad

I love eating food in season, and many of the ingredients for this recipe have winter written all over them. Leftover nuts and dried fruit from the holidays. Quinoa, a staple in the cabinet. Some fall apples and a few leftover stalks of celery in the fridge. And a sweet memory of the large box of oranges sent every year to my parents by friends who used to spend their winters in Florida. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Red Lentil Soup for Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins tonight at sundown. High Holiday foods tend toward the sweet and the circular: sweet to represent our wishes for a sweet new year, and circular to symbolize the seasons that run one into the next, round and round, year after year.

So it is traditional to eat many different kinds of fruits, especially apples, prunes, pomegranates, dates and apricots; and sweet vegetables such as beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and leeks (sliced into rounds, of course), as well as black-eyed peas and lentils. And lots of honey, especially for dipping bread and apples. Continue reading