Pick of the Week: TOMATOES

TOMATOES are in season in the New York City area. Tomatoes are one of my absolute favorites, available in an array of wonderful colors from red, orange, yellow, green, purple to brown, the heirloom are particularly beautiful. While commonly referred to as a vegetable, hey are technically in the fruit botanical family. Rich in vitamins C, A and K they are also a great source of lycopene- a carotenoid, which has great antioxidant properties. Lycopene has been proven to prevent many types of cancer and heart disease. So eat up!

Tomatoes are wonderful simply sliced, with a touch of salt and a dash of extra virgin olive oil.

Enjoy them with diced on top of warm bread rubbed with fresh pealed garlic, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar finished with fine ribbons of fresh basil.

for more information on tomatoes and lycopene visit http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=44

Pick of the Week: PEACHES

PEACHES!!
If you live in or around the New York City area, then local peaches are in season!

Peaches are classified by their flesh colors, either white (really sweet) or yellow (sweet and slightly tangy). Peaches are a great source of vitamin A, potassium, lycopene, lutein (lutein gives red/orange/yellow colors to fruits and veg.), flavonoids and carotenes in particular.

Fun Fact: peach flowers have sedative properties, try boiling in water with sugar and honey and drinking to chill out...



Source with additional information:
http://www.everynutrient.com/healthbenefitsofpeaches.html
http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/benefits-of-peach-1624.html

(Each week I am going to feature a locally in season fruit or vegetable, sharing health benefits and recipes)

A Food Odyssey Begins

I LOVE food. I believe firmly that eating well is a huge contributor to living well. I believe that local, organic food is paramount to quality flavor and of course health. Since books like "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson first questioned mass farming techniques a debate emerged- to provide more food at questionable quality? or to provide less food at high quality? with the lines between blurry, farmers had to make decisions. Pesticides? Genetically modified seeds? Growth hormones? Cages? Free range? What were there moral guidelines? How educated were they about the choices that they were making? Did they even know that spraying crops might lead to poisoning our water supply causing a host of health problems? Do they now? Do we know what the long term effects are of eating foods that don't grow in nature...? WIth obesity rates in America at a high, and life expectancy dropping, can we stop these trends and their causes?

Despite the past, we are now living in an era with a huge variety of organic stores, stickers, various levels of quality that baffle even a food loving person like myself. So the journey begins, I am going to pave a path through the cacophony of labels and information. By reading, researching and interviewing, I am going to try to figure it out and share my findings, along with recipes here.