Nutrition Buzz Words

Friday, October 8, 2021

Antioxidants – a family of chemicals found naturally in plants (include beta-carotene and vitamins C and E). They help prevent cancer by neutralizing free radicals in the body. They also fight chronic diseases like heart disease and hypertension.

  • To ensure you get enough antioxidants per day to combat free radicals, eat at least 2 cups of fruits and vegetables a day.
    • What does 1 cup look like? Tip: The soup bowls hold exactly 1 cup to the brim and the cereal bowls in each dining commons hold 1 ½ cups.
  • Great antioxidant choice: steamed vegetables from the vegetarian line. Or try dipping raw carrots, broccoli, and cucumber slices into hummus.
  • Work in fruit by slicing bananas and adding them to yogurt, cereal, and oatmeal.
  • Instead of soda, combine pineapple juice with sparkling water for a nutritious twist.
  • Salsa makes a fun and tasty salad dressing: just top fresh salad greens with corn, black beans, bell peppers, diced tomatoes, black olives, and salsa. O-House features flavorful salsas made from fresh tomatoes and spices daily.

Isoflavones – natural chemicals found in plants that have been found to fight against cancer and heart disease. An excellent source of isoflavones is soy.

  • Tofu or edamame is offered daily in each dining commons on the salad bar.
  • Edamame is served daily at Bolton’s vegetarian line.
  • Tofu spread, for dipping veggies and pita chips or as vegetarian sandwich filling, is made from scratch daily in each dining commons.
  • Veggie burgers made with soy protein are served at the grills.
  • Two flavors of soy milk are offered every day at O-House.
  • Peas and beans are served daily on the salad bars.
  • A bean-of-the-day is served daily in each dining commons’ vegetarian line.
  • Snow peas are served daily at the Hibachi line in O-House.

Phytochemicals – a naturally occurring part of all plant based foods. Phytochemicals help prevent cancer and heart disease. The most commonly recognized phytochemicals include lycopene, found in tomatoes, and lutein, found in spinach.

  • Phytochemicals abound in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains. In fact every fruit and vegetable contains phytochemicals.
  • Cooking vegetables enhances the antioxidant activity of certain phytochemicals. For example, when tomatoes are heated in dishes like marinara sauce and tomato soup, the lycopene content that can be absorbed by the body is increased.
  • Lycopene devours 10 times more oxygenated free radicals than vitamin E.
  • Phytochemical Powerhouse Meal Idea: Add fresh spinach leaves and diced tomatoes to eggs in the omelet lines in each dining commons.
  • Phytochemical Powerhouse Meal Idea: add spinach and tomatoes to pasta in the made-to-order pasta line at Bolton and O-House. At Summit and Snelling, place fresh spinach leaves and diced tomatoes from the salad bar in a pasta bowl, head to the pasta bar and top it with whole wheat pasta and marinara sauce — by the time you sit down, the heat from the marinara sauce will have wilted the fresh spinach and warmed the diced tomatoes.

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