Sliced into a salad or sandwich, tomatoes usually play a supporting role. But this time of year, tomatoes are at their best.

Today’s Health-e-Recipe celebrates tomatoes as the main ingredient: Broiled Tomatoes Provencal highlights this favorite garden vegetable with a little breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese and oven time to create a flavorful treat brimming with cancer-fighting lycopene. Noted for its ability to prevent prostate cancer and even retard the growth of prostate cancer cells, scientists are investigating lycopene’s possible protection against skin, lung and other cancers, too. Its levels are highest in cooked and processed tomatoes (it is also present in other red produce including red grapefruit, papaya and watermelon).

Try these simple broiled tomatoes as a healthy appetizer or side dish for a light, late-summer fish or poultry entree, along with some leafy greens. Click here to subscribe to Health-e-Recipes.

Diet, Foods That Fight Cancer, Health-e-Recipe, Phytochemicals, recipes Hide

Back to school routines and the cooler autumn season might inspire you to new habits and lifestyle changes to get on a healthier track.

One change worth considering is to pack your lunch for school or work rather than grabbing fast food. The quick or drive-through lunch will probably be full of “calorie-dense” foods – meaning, you’ll get smaller quantities, but higher calories, sugar and fat.
That all adds up to a higher risk of overweight and obesity, which ups risk for several cancers.

So, let’s do a healthy lunch!

For more variety in your lunch, purchase a freezer pack, or freeze water bottles, to keep things cold.

Three To-Go Lunches:
1.  Mixed salad greens, walnuts, chickpeas, diced apple, craisins and vinaigrette tossed together. Add whole grain crispbread, yogurt and a piece of fresh fruit.

2. Whole wheat pita – when ready to eat, stuff with sliced cucumber, bell pepper, low-fat cheese and tuna from a packet. Add grapes and lightly salted whole grain tortilla chips

3. Make a hearty sandwich with whole-grain bread, avocado slices, hummus, tomato and roasted red pepper. Add Greek yogurt with a portion of fruit – frozen or canned in juice.

These quick and balanced lunches, with powerful, cancer-fighting foods, will keep you energized throughout the afternoon without loads of fat, sugar and salt.

Check out our New American Plate and Homemade for Health brochures for more ideas.

What are your favorite on-the-go lunches?

Cancer Prevention, Diet, Foods That Fight Cancer Hide

Peaches are peaking right now. These sweet, juicy orbs are the perfect summertime dessert or snack.

One medium peach has 2 grams of fiber, only 40 calories, 285 mg of potassium and a fair amount of vitamin A. A treat when sliced into fruit or green salads, peaches are prime for pies, too. But today’s Health-e-Recipe is a way to get the delicious combo of peach with a crunchy, baked whole-grain topping without the calories and fat of pie crust.

Our Peach Crumble with Blueberries adds berries’ succulent flavor along with their cancer-fighting phytochemicals called anthocyanins. You can find more delicious fruit recipes from the AICR Test Kitchen. Click here to subscribe to our weekly Health-e-Recipe.

Diet, Foods That Fight Cancer, From the AICR Test Kitchen, Health-e-Recipe, Phytochemicals Hide

Ever tried whole-wheat pasta? Today’s Health-e-Recipe for Confetti Macaroni and Bean Salad is a great opportunity.

Now carried by most grocery stores, all or part whole-wheat pastas give you more health benefits than plain white pastas. The texture and taste of whole-wheat pasta is different from regular pasta, so try out various brands.

Since Americans eat a lot of pasta, choosing the whole-wheat kind can help you get the 3 daily servings of whole grains recommended for good health. Whole grains such as whole wheat have more dietary fiber to keep your digestive system working well and to add a few more cancer-fighting phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals to your diet. If you are gluten-intolerant, try substituting 3 cups of cooked barley, bulgur or brown rice for the pasta. Also whole grains, they blend beautifully with the other ingredients in this recipe.

You can find more recipes for healthy whole grains from AICR’s Test Kitchen. Or get a free download of the newly updated Beans and Whole Grains brochure from AICR’s New American Plate series. Click here to subscribe to our weekly Health-e-Recipe.

Cancer Prevention, Diet, Foods That Fight Cancer, From the AICR Test Kitchen, Health-e-Recipe, New American Plate, Phytochemicals, recipes Hide

Surf summer’s heat waves with AICR’s Blueberry-Watermelon Freeze, today’s Health-e-Recipe. Watermelon’s red color means it has plenty of lycopene, as do cooked tomatoes and red grapefruit. Lycopene is one phytochemical researchers believe may help discourage prostate cancer.

And blueberries are bursting with anthocyanins, a class of phytochemicals also found in cherries, red grapes and cranberries. AICR grantees have found – you guessed it – these compounds may help protect us from cancer. When you eat combinations of fruits and vegetables, their many kinds of phytochemicals work together to maximize cell protection and help to ward off DNA damage that can lead to cancer. For more delicious summertime recipes using foods that fight cancer, visit AICR’s Test Kitchen. Or, click here to subscribe to our weekly Health-e-Recipe.

Cancer Prevention, Diet, Foods That Fight Cancer, From the AICR Test Kitchen, Health-e-Recipe, Phytochemicals, recipes Hide

This year’s vegetable season may be nearing its end, but there’s still plenty of ways to add those fresh, cancer-fighting foods to your meals. One popular way is through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms. A recent USDA survey found over 12,500 CSA farms.

CSA farms are a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm where growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. The advantages to signing up for a program like this are fairly straightforward: You get fresh food and know where that food comes from; you’re exposed to new types of vegetables/fruits, and you can try new ways of cooking them. Also, some CSA farms offer a customer visit at least once during the farming season. This way, farmers get to meet who their food goes to and build a relationship with their buyers.

For ideas on ways to cook up or enjoy your box of produce, take a look at the New American Plate. To find a CSA farm near you, check out Local Harvest for listings.

CSA, New American Plate Hide

Getting tired of the same old lettuce and tomato salad? Summer’s the time when salads are at their most appealing and today’s Health-e-Recipe for Mango, Cucumber and Red Pepper Salad mixes up salad stereotypes. The crunchy cukes and juice red pepper contrast in color and texture with the soft smooth mango. Here’s how to peel a mango like a pro.

Dressed with citrus, mint and peanuts, this salad still adds lettuce – but red leaf, a darker variety so therefore higher in phytochemicals that fight cancer. Share this zingy salad with friends, and find more unusual salad combinations at AICR’s Test Kitchen. Click here to subscribe to weekly Health-e-Recipes from AICR.

Diet, Foods That Fight Cancer, From the AICR Test Kitchen, Health-e-Recipe, recipes Hide

Today’s issue of Cancer Research Update features the results of a new consumer survey that suggests most Americans are pretty happy with their overall health, yet about two-thirds are concerned about their weight.

The survey, conducted by the International Food Information Council Foundation, found that 57 percent of respondents are extremely or somewhat satisfied with their health and 70 percent were concerned about their weight. The goal of losing weight was the primary reason people changed their diet or were physically active.

And if the survey holds for all Americans, our nation still has more to learn when it comes to nutrition and a healthy weight.
•    With about two-thirds of Americans trying to lose or maintain their weight, 77 percent are not meeting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Physical Activity Guidelines. (Physical activity can help you prevent cancer too.)

•   Only 12 percent of Americans can accurately estimate the number of calories they should consume in a day. (Some healthy-looking foods can be shockingly high in calories; here’s some salad examples.)

•    Only 28 percent said protein is found in plant sources (nuts and beans are good sources of plant-based proteins).

• When it comes to calories consumed versus calories burned, most Americans (58 percent) do not make an effort to balance the two (for maintaining weight, you really need to).

What nutrition news have you learned – from AICR or other health organization – that you didn’t know a year ago?

Diet, Weight Hide

Making homemade pizza usually involves making a crust that has to be tossed and kneaded and put in a warm place to rise. It’s a good way to include physical activity in your cooking – but at the end of a long day, you may want a simpler solution.

Today’s Health-e-Recipe uses rice for a crust that holds a variety of healthy veggies and part-skim mozzarella. Rice is the go-to grain for many of the 2 million people in the U.S. who have celiac disease, where eating any food that contains a protein called “gluten” can cause severe intestinal problems. Gluten is found in wheat and other grains.

Here, rice allows you to avoid highly processed frozen or delivered pizzas, and even mixes in Parmesan for a delicious cheesy flavor to complement the cancer-fighting garlic, mushrooms, peppers, onions and tomato sauce, whose phytochemicals all work together in this dish to protect your health. Click here to subscribe to Health-e-Recipes.

Diet, Foods That Fight Cancer, From the AICR Test Kitchen, Health-e-Recipe, Phytochemicals Hide

No-bake Watermelon Cake AICR’s summer version of Red Velvet cake (no baking and technically, no cake) is cool, sweet and beautiful. And it has an added benefit – it’s cancer-protective.

Watermelon is one of the foods rich in lycopene – a potent antioxidant – and AICR’s expert report list these as foods that probably protect against prostate cancer.

This no-bake cake is gluten-free and perfect for those looking to satisfy their sweet tooth with a tasty, low calorie dessert.

For recipe, keep reading.
(more…)

Cancer Prevention, From the AICR Test Kitchen, recipes Hide