Tag: Nrf2

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Tamarind Powder, Nrf2, and Soup flavoring notes

Really good flavor in today’s batch of soup – notes for the virtual record:

I didn’t measure anything in measuring cups or spoons, so roughly, to one basic batch of soup which includes onion, garlic, celery, carrot, sweet potato and today, pinto beans green beans – written in the order that they are added to the cooking time process:

  • I also used several large bay leaves,
  • approximately 1 tablespoon of Rosemary,
  • 2 tablespoons of ground Cumin,
  • 2 tablespoons of ground Coriander,
  • 1-2 Tablespoons of Tamarind Powder dissolved in some cold water in a small bowl – it tends to clump
  • 1 generous teaspoon Oregano
  • 1 generous teaspoon Sage

All of the ingredients would likely have health benefits and contain beneficial phytonutrients and other vitamins and minerals.

I’ve mentioned a few in the past but haven’t mentioned Tamarind Powder/fruit paste. It has been shown to have medicinal benefits and adds a slightly sweet tartness to foods. It also contains some beneficial fibers which is likely why it tends to clump when I add it directly to a batch of hot soup. It can be purchased as a paste or a dry powder. If purchased in a more whole form the small seeds need to be removed before use. It is a common ingredient in India and can be found in Indian food grocery stores. The paste dissolves better in the hot liquid or sometimes is used to make a sweetened beverage. While the powder may be easier to dissolve in a small bowl where you can continue stir more vigorously until no lumps remain. Tamarind Seed Powder: (1)

Polyphenols in Tamarind Seed Powder have been found beneficial for promoting Nrf2 and reducing oxidative stress. The seeds are edible and are dried and used similarly to lentils/beans. (2) The powder I used is called Tamarind Powder and may just contain the dried fruit. The fruit pulp, leftover from processing, was analyzed and found to contain yellow flavonoids and  polyphenols, (3), both of which are in a group of phytonutrients that may promote our own production of Nrf2 – which can help a variety of chronic health conditions. See this previous post for more information about the potential health benefits and phytonutrients that may promote Nrf2: Nrf2 helps activate beneficial genes that are protective against inflammatory conditions.

The basic bean soup recipe is described in this previous post:   New Year, new recipes.

or at the end of this webpage: G8: Cookies and Bean Soup.

Search result somewhat unrelated to cooking soup – tamarind and pomegranate have low residue tolerance limits for glyphosate (0.2 ppm) compared to wheat, milling fractions other than flour (20 ppm) : https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/galangal – scroll down to the article in the lower right corner – Richard P. Pohanish, in Sittig’s Handbook of Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals (Second Edition), 2015

Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.

  1. adachigroup, Medicinal Benefits of Tamarind Seed Powder, Sept. 26, 2013, https://adachigroup.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/tamarind-seed-powder/
  2. Nurhanani Razali, Sarni Mat Junit, Azhar Ariffin, Nur Siti Fatimah Ramli and Azlina Abdul Aziz, Polyphenols from the extract and fraction of T. indica seeds protected HepG2 cells against oxidative stress, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2015) 15:438. https://bmccomplementalternmed.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12906-015-0963-2
  3. Larissa Morais Ribeiro da Silva, Evania Altina Teixeira de Figueiredo, Nagila Maria Pontes Silva Ricardo, Icaro Gusmao Pinto Vieira, Raimundo Wilane de Figueiredo, Isabella Montenegro Brasil, Carmen L. Gomes., Quantification of bioactive compounds in pulps and by-products
    of tropical fruits from Brazil., Food Chemistry 143 (2014) 398–404. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82174064.pdf

 

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I work for the children and the planet

“Don’t work harder than the client,” was something social workers in public health recommended – for sensible reasons. There was always more clients and more need and sad, sad stories in public health that couldn’t be helped with our limited number of staff and budget. It was also about common sense, you can encourage change and provide guidance but you can’t make people change when they aren’t interested or ready. The strategy helped with preventing work burnout too, not getting too emotionally involved in the difficulties instead focus on compassion for their difficulties.

However I did have difficulty with the recommendation because I also saw the children as my clients. In the book Timequake the author, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote as a repeated statement in different ways the theme that children don’t ask to be born – – – so underlying theme- – – we shouldn’t blame them for the circumstances of their birth or parents or whatever the example included in the section pertained to.

Currently in the U.S. also adults are facing grim odds – one in two men are statistically likely to develop cancer in their lifetimes and one in every three women — what odds will the next generation likely have? Currently almost two percent of children in the U.S. have autism and roughly twenty percent of the young adult generation have mental health diagnoses and roughly twenty percent identify as something other than heterosexual/customer gender. What will the numbers be for the next generation?  (for those interested in self care information the Nrf2 promoting foods and recipes (Nrf2 posts) are likely helpful for prevention and/or treatment for cancer – unless it is a form of cancer that has developed ways to use Nrf2  to resist chemotherapy – some types of leukemia  cancer strains may have that capability – mentioned at the end of this post: https://transcendingsquare.com/2018/04/05/age-is-a-state-of-mind-and-health/

If tobacco use is preferred but concern for health is also a preference then having a little extra attention to diet may help provide the nutrients that are depleted and that may include a depletion of Nrf2 (research article with animal based study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28641491) so the Nrf2 promoting diet tips may help protect the body when use of tobacco products is a choice – the nicotine itself can provide some benefits to some people. )

I personally am being helped by the health information that I’ve learned and if only twenty people read and use it then I will be glad for them or their children- even if only one child or individual is helped then it will have been worth sharing the information. Kurt Vonnegut cared and likely still cares in some form, in my opinion at least – I will work in his memory – because no child asked to be born and therefore they all deserve e our compassion and help

Disclosure: This information is being provided for the purpose of education within the guidelines of Fair Use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individualized health care guidance. Please seek an individual health care professional for the purpose of individualized health care guidance. Thanks

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Age is a state of mind – and health

Age and health were discussed in the last post and my point was primarily that we don’t know how many tomorrow’s we have so getting priorities done sooner rather than later is important. I feel better now than I did at age 38. The age stands out in my memory because I had trouble standing, trouble walking, trouble not having severe migraines, and even as a dietitian with knowledge regarding weight loss strategies and research, I had trouble losing weight no matter how hard I tried with diet and exercise. Eventually I learned about the need for adequate iodine to counteract body stores of bromide, chloride and fluoride and I started losing weight fairly easily. There is more to that story bit the point is simply that it is difficult to feel young when your body is exhausted and in chronic pain – no matter how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.

At a young age I learned that lesson – when I was four – my eldest sister died that year of cancer/leukemia. I only have two memories of her. In one she was laying in her bed because that is all she had energy for, but she was entertaining me with a beanbag frog and a ping-pong ball – somehow she made it seem like the frog was eating the ping-pong ball and swallowing it – I don’t know if at age 13 she could just hide it or if there was a rip in the cloth frog. It was one of a set that my mother had made – anyone who has had summer fun in a frog pond would know that they can seem both easy to catch because there are so many at times sitting on lily pads and that they are hard to catch because they seem to see you from any direction and leap away in time. A bean bag game makes catching them a lot easier.

In the other memory she was laying in a box with her teddy bear and I was told that she was going away into the ground- or something like that – and my age four self knew she had been sick but I couldn’t understand why her teddy bear was sick too. I was young, it is a wordless memory so I don’t really know what I was told. I don’t think I understood at the time she wasn’t just asleep and eventually over time when I realized she wasn’t coming back to her normal bed the memory fragment gave me comfort because I knew she had her teddy bear with her wherever she was. Life is a circle. The beanbag frog didn’t go away and it was a favorite for me because it always reminded me of my big sister and her playing with me even though she was tired and laying in her bed.

Frogs represent life in an obvious way because you can watch them grow from tiny tadpoles into little tiny limbed frogs and eventually large ones who sit on lilypads chirping their twilight songs or leaping and swimming and eating flies. We all have a place in an equal opportunity circle of life.

Unfortunately fo frogs and other amphibians they are our Canaries in a coalmine. Their delicate skin and life cycle that spends so much time in watery habitats makes them particularly susceptible to pollutants and their health, population count,  and frequency of birth defects are an early warning of environmental toxicity.

Enjoy everyday and every moment – trite but true – today is a present, a gift to enjoy. Having health and having a healthy environment are not guaranteed and we all have to work together to protect both for future generations of children and amphibians and even flies – we all have a place in the cycle of life. Amphibians and insects are also part of the diet of some birds such as Sandhill Cranes. (Sandhill Cranes)

Sandhill Cranes in flight.
Sandhill Cranes in a corn field before spring planting of a new crop.

 

Near death experience survivors from around the world have similar stories to tell about their experience- in their many different languages. As a toddler I had a traumatic experience that I think was a near death, lack of oxygen, experience and based on the others tales of another state of consciousness I do believe that we have an energy form and that there is somewhere my sister is still in existence in energy form – as well as in my two brief memories- may we all coexist in peace.

*Nrf2 promoting foods may not be beneficial in some cases of drug resistant leukemia – the resistant cancer cells use it to protect themselves from oxidative stress. (http://www.pnas.org/content/107/16/7479.full) Research is being advanced in targeting the NRF2 pathways used by the resistant cancer cells – in coordination with other drugs. Inhibiting the Nrf2 pathways can be very toxic to other areas of the body. (https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/809638) Having the Nrf2 promoting foods in the diet as a preventative before cancer occurs would be also protecting against other inflammatory conditions.

Disclosure: This information is being shared for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individualized health care guidance. Please seek an individual health care professional for individualized health care guidance. Thanks.

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Fennel Cookies – lightly licorice; and a Lime variation

Onward to new cookie horizons- 

Fennel Seed is served raw or toasted as crunchy after dinner snacks in India based cuisine. They are digestive aids and have a breath freshening effect. The flavor is similar to licorice with a hint of mint lingering after the initial stronger flavor. I eat a small pinch or two equal to a half teaspoon or a teaspoon after meals as I have found it good for my digestion. Health benefits may also include bone strengthening protection against osteoporosis.

I’ve found that some people have a problem with foods that are too crunchy. The raw or toasted seeds are very crunchy. They are also available at speciality spice shops as a ground powder so when shopping for more Gumbo File Powder I also bought ground Fennel Powder – and the results are delicious. I returned to the original cookie variation that uses Golden Flaxmeal and Coconut Oil because I wanted the Fennel flavor to be the main flavor. The pomegranate adds a tangy distinct fruit background flavor which works with the stronger chocolate or molasses but might overpower the licorice mint flavor of Fennel seeds.

Several of the ingredients in addition to the Fennel Seed Powder may help promote our own production of Nrf2 which helps us make our own anti-inflammatory and possibly anti-cancer chemicals in addition to containing other beneficial phytonutrients.

Fennel Cookies:

Wet ingredients:

  • 3 Tablespoons Golden Flaxmeal
  • 10 Tablespoons boiling Water
  • Stir the Flaxmeal into the boiling water in a small bowl for a couple minutes until it thickens and turns opaque slightly. Then add the melted Coconut Oil and stir until it turns creamy white and opaque. Then add the Brown Sugar, Vanilla, and Apple Cider Vinegar.
  • 3/4 cup Coconut Oil, melted
  • 1 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Dry ingredients, mix together in a large bowl:

  • 1 cup Brown Rice Flour
  • 3/4 cup Coconut Flour
  • 1/2 cup Tapioca Flour/Starch
  • 1/2 cup ground Fennel Seed Powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

Add the wet ingredients from the small bowl to the dry ingredients and stir gently until well mixed. The dough will be soft and sticky, moist enough to easily roll or spoon into small rounds. The batch makes two trays of 24 cookies about one inch around.

Coat the pans with a small amount of coconut oil or pan spray to prevent sticking. Bake at 350’F for 25-30 minutes. Rotate the pans from the top and bottom racks at 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, freezer or at room temperature. Chilling in the refrigerator or freezer will convert the Tapioca starch into a form that can become a healthier form in the digestive system (called resistant starch).

Fennel Cookies – these are so good, words are inadequate.

Lime Cookies

*I tried a variation of this recipe and decided I liked the first batch best but after a couple days the flavor blended better and was also pretty good. Dried lime powder or dried lemon powder are available in Middle Eastern grocery stores. I used two tablespoons of dried lime powder instead of the half teaspoon of vanilla. The flavir blended into the cookie better after a couple days so it might work better if it were added to the melted coconut oil in advance of mixing the cookie dough – melt the oil, mix in the dried lime powder, stir and let it sit for ten or twenty minutes while measuring the other ingredients and then add it to the emulsified Flaxmeal.

The fennel powder could be replaced with more of one of the other flours or the flavor blended well after couple days and both the lime and fennel have anti-inflammatory phytonutrients content – so give it a try eithet way and maybe both would be enjoyable.

Disclosure: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. While I am a Registered Dietitian it is not intended to provide individualized health  care guidance.. Please seek an individual health care professional  individualized health care guidance.