A month ago I traveled to Charlotte, NC to explore the Dole Nutrition Institute (DNI), where they do all kinds of intensive testing on fruits and veggies, and produce studies that go on to help us understand the power of the antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals within them.
You know the first thing I was struck by? David Murdoch, the CEO and owner of Dole, is 92 years old, still very active in Dole, and friends, the man moves with greater ease than I do. Want to know what he eats every morning? This smoothie, peels and all:
1 organic DOLE banana, with peel
1/2 DOLE tropical gold pineapple, with core
1 orange, with skin
1 tomato
1 lemon
Handful of DOLE Baby Spinach
1 red bell pepper, whole
1 stalk DOLE celery
His mantra is, “Anything the sun touches is the healthy part of the fruit.” I’m tempted to ask him to be my life coach.
Why eat the peel, right? That was my question, too. Here’s the answer — along with a few more of the interesting nutrition facts I learned:
- Peels, Skins, and Rinds Have More Nutrients than the Flesh. Dole scientists have found that banana peels, for instance, are very nutrient dense, containing 2.3 times the fiber, 2.4 times the beta-carotene and 8.4 times the calcium of regular banana flesh. Read more here.
- Bananas are better than sports drinks for recovery. Bananas deliver the same energy boost, and a much bigger nutrition bang, for a lot less money. Read more here.
- Vegetables Have Protein, too! A bunch of broccoli has 17g of protein.
- Correlation between Food and Depression. From a purely personal/anecdotal perspective, I can attest to the fact that the worse I eat, the worse I feel, and the times I’ve been at my lowest mentally have tended to coincide with me putting on weight and not eating very healthfully, but! I also believe depression stems from a chemical imbalance and a number of factors not solely dependent on our food choices. Nonetheless, this study points out those people with the greatest amount of inflammation (associated with poor diet) had a 41% increased risk of depression compared to those with the lowest inflammation. Knowing which foods help to reduce inflammation (and which increase it) gives us power to adjust–even in small ways. Read more here.
- Antioxidants Do More than We Thought. The job of healthful plant molecules (antioxidants) may not be only to find and destroy free radicals in the body. New research shows that they might actually work by inducing genetic responses that yes, destroy free radicals, but also benefit health. Read more here.
Going to Dole reinvigorated my commitment to eating as many fruits and vegetables as possible. So often, I find myself in a rut of sticking to my favorites–the same salad ingredients, the normal vegetable roster for dinners, my three or four usual fruits. It’s easy to do. But spending a few days at DNI, talking about their focus on Huetrition — and the importance of eating the rainbow, not because it’s pretty and not because it’s trendy to eat clean and green, but because it’s good for me. It’s good for me in ways I can’t see; It’s good for me in ways I probably won’t recognize, or be grateful for, until I’m old and gray–when health is very clearly not just a choice or a goal, but truly all I have.
The most empowering thing to have happened to me years ago, when I started eating healthfully, was when my mindset shifted from “I have to eat healthy” to “I want to eat healthy.” I turned a years-long sense of dread into desire and motivation. Suddenly, choosing fruits and vegetables didn’t feel like a drag, or a chore; it was easy and nurturing.
When I came from this trip, I decided to switch up a few of the things I always buy. I picked different greens for my salad–Dole’s Power Up Baby Kale and Greens blend rather than just baby spinach. I picked up a pomegranate, acorn squash instead of butternut, white potatoes instead of sweet ones, a few grapefruits, and swapped cashews for pepitas. I won’t spend time worrying about getting every vitamin and every micronutrient, but even just trying to diversify helps to cover lots of nutritional bases–and makes for a pretty satisfying life.
With this savory-sweet fall salad, I tried to pack in a whole lot of nutrition and a few of my favorite seasonal ingredients. If you’re not familiar with tahini, it’s ground sesame seeds, and in this dressing, it imparts a toasted, nutty flavor that I like to make a little brighter and sweeter with lemon and a tablespoon of maple syrup. I’d bring this beauty to parties, serve it as a side dish, and add chickpeas, salmon, or chicken for a heartier main course.
Ingredients
-
Maple Tahini Dressing
- 4 tablespoons tahini
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- generous pinch salt
- generous pinch black pepper
-
Salad
- 3 large oranges
- 1 4.5-ounce package Dole Power Up Greens: Baby Kale and Greens
- 1 pomegranate, seeds removed
- ½ cup roasted and salted pepitas
Instructions
- For the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, maple syrup, lemon juice, and garlic. Whisk in the olive oil and salt and pepper until well blended.
- To prepare the oranges, place 1 orange on it’s side and slice off both of the ends. Stand the orange up on 1 of the ends you removed. Starting at the top, use your knife to remove the peel in strips--moving downward to follow the natural curve of the orange. When all of the peel is removed, carefully place the orange on it’s side once more and slice it into thin rounds.
- Divide the greens among 4 small plates or bowls. Top each with 1/4th of the pomegranate seeds, pepitas, and orange slices. Drizzle 1/4th of the dressing over each salad and serve.
Notes
Nutrition Information: Calories 298, Fat 18g, Carb 27g, Fiber 6g, Sugars 10g, Protein 10g
maple tahini dressing adapted from Mind Body Green
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