Product Showcase: Frozen Edamame

 I absolutely love edamame. It's inexpensive and stays well frozen for weeks at a time. It's full of protein and healthy fats. Edamame in the pod can be thrown in boiling water for a couple of minutes or zapped in the microwave for a quick and yummy snack. Or you can buy the shelled kind and toss it in just about any recipe- salads, soups, stir-fries, etc. Just type the word "edamame" in the search box of this blog and you'll get a handful of tasty recipes. But just for good measure, I have a delightful new dip to share with you. And just in time for warmer weather. Enjoy!

Edamame Ginger Dip

Ingredients

8 ounces frozen shelled edamame
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon tahini
1 clove garlic
1/8 teaspoon salt
Hot pepper sauce to taste

Directions

1. Cook edamame according to package directions.
2. Puree the cooked edamame, water, soy sauce, ginger, vinegar, tahini, garlic, salt and hot sauce in a food processor until smooth. Chill for 1 hour before serving.
 *This dip may be covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days.

*You may want to be conservative with some of the stronger ingredients like ginger, tahini, and garlic. It's much easier to add more than the other way around!

Recipe & Picture Source: Eating Well

Do you have any hummus or dip recipes that you love? Please share!

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Summer Diet Plans?

 As the temperatures warm up, you might be considering a new diet plan to get yourself "beach body ready." If that's the case, check this article and think again.

*Note: a version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2011 issue of The Massachusetts Dietetic Association Newsletter.

          

As the weather grows warmer and people begin shedding layers, it’s common for body dissatisfaction and anxiety to grow.  A recent Glamour magazine psychologist-designed poll¹ states that 97% of women experience “I hate my body” thoughts on a daily basis, with an average of 13 negative thoughts each day.  With these statistics, it’s no surprise that, according to a 2008 collaborative survey between Self Magazine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 67% of women aged 25 to 45 (excluding those with eating disorders) are attempting to lose weight.² How? 37% of women regularly skip meals, 26% cut out entire food groups, and 16% have consumed 1,000 or fewer calories per day in an attempt to lose weight.  According to a September 2010 Experian Simmons DataStream, the percentage of women from ages 25 to 54 who are dieting peaks in the early to middle summer.³

Drastic attempts at weight loss continue despite research demonstrating that these types of dieting measures are ineffective.  A 2007 review⁴ analyzing the long-term outcomes of 31 calorie-restricting diet studies concluded that one-third to two-thirds of dieters regain more weight than they lost on their diets.  Another study in 2006⁵ focusing on college students found that a history of weight loss through dieting predicted greater weight gain during the freshman year of college. Research on nearly 17,000 kids ages 9-14 years old concluded, "...in the long term, dieting to control weight is not only ineffective, it may actually promote weight gain."⁶ 

So the next time you're considering a new diet plan to shed pounds quickly, you want to remember this article and reconsider. 

¹ Glamour 2011

² The Chapel Hill News

³ http://www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-forward/2010/09/02/women-dieting-more-but-need-that-seasonal-break

⁴ Mann T, Tomiyama AJ, Westling E, Lew AM, Samuels B, Chatman J. Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: diets are not the answer. Am Psychol. 2007 Apr;62(3):220-33.

⁵ Lowe MR, Annunziato RA, Markowitz JT, Didie E, Bellace DL, Riddell L, Maille C, McKinney S, Stice E. Multiple types of dieting prospectively predict weight gain during the freshman year of college. Appetite. 2006 Jul;47(1):83-90.

⁶ Field AE et al. Relation between dieting and weight change among preadolescents and adolescents. Pediatrics, 2003 112:900-906.

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Considering Kitniyot

Oh, Pesach. So many food rules, so many opportunities for obsessive thinking. Now, I love the holiday's theme of liberation and take seriously the idea of "freeing myself from my own personal Egypt." However, I do think there's an element of irony involved: this holiday, which focuses so much on freedom, also plays right into the food restrictions and regulations that enslave so many people with eating disorders.

For me, nowhere is this struggle more pronounced than around the question of kitniyot. Every year I revisit the same question: Do I eat them, or not? Here are the particulars: I am Ashkenazi; I'm a vegetarian; I'm also fiercely protective of my recovery from almost a decade of anorexia. Each time Pesach rolls around, I have to decide which takes precedence: an ancestral custom that is hundreds of years old, or my internal wisdom that the severely limited diet of a kitniyot-free Pesach might inadvertently reawaken the food-restrictive mentality that I've worked so hard to put to bed.

Aside from the very real halachic issues involved, this dilemma also cuts to the heart of my perfectionist tendencies. If I were to eat kitniyot, would I be doing a "good enough" job of keeping Pesach? Would people find reason to look down on my lenience and criticize my choice? I believe the answer to both questions is yes. Undoubtedly, the norm among observant Ashkenazi Jews is to avoid eating kitniyot on Pesach. The decision to break with this custom would likely meet with some resistance from many members of the observant community. However, there is also the case to be made that where health is involved, the ban on kitniyot is not as stringent as the ban on chametz, and so people are permitted to eat kitniyot if their health requires it. Furthermore, there are Orthodox rabbis who have ruled that Ashkenazi Jews within the land of Israel are allowed to eat kitniyot because the custom of eliminating those foods was unique to Europe and therefore is not binding in the Middle East. Conservative Rabbi David Golinkin takes it a step further in his respons, which clearly argues that all Jews may consume kitniyot during Pesach "without fear of transgressing any prohibition." Again, I fully recognize that these opinions run counter to the prevailing custom among the observant Ashkenazi community. However, their arguments seem valid, especially when recovery is at stake. I would encourage Ashkenazi Jews who are trying to recover from any type of eating disorder to consider giving themselves permission to eat kitniyot on Pesach. I would also suggest that if a person DOES choose to eat kitniyot as a means of safeguarding his/her recovery during Pesach, that family members attempt to view this decision not as a rebellion or transgression, but rather as a way to protect that which is most precious: health and life.

If you do plan to incorporate kitniyot into your Pesach food repertoire, here are some recipes to get you started! It's possible to find KP versions of all the needed ingredients. Both feature quinoa...because, as a vegetarian, I am always looking for new ways to use quinoa on Pesach! The first comes courtesy of fabulous nutritionist Marci Anderson; the second, from Mark Bittman, author of one of my favorite cookbooks (How To Cook Everything Vegetarian...in case you were wondering.)

Bean Salad with Quinoa

Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad (when I make this, I add a 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans for a little added protein)
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