What’s for Dinner?

As summer wanes, jazz up your menus with a new dinner salad. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy a non-meat dish loaded with nutrients that promise fullness.

The tasty Mediterranean Quinoa Dinner Salad uses quinoa (pronounced Keen wah or ke NO ah), a grain crop grown primarily for its seed, as the basic ingredient. If you haven’t tried it, check it out. It’s gluten-free and packed with vitamins, minerals, and about six to eight grams of protein per serving. An added touch of black beans gives even more protein. Other ingredients add flavor, texture, and healthful choices.

Diets eaten in the Mediterranean part of the world include ample fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and olive oil plus servings of seafood, especially tuna and salmon. Choose this eating pattern to improve blood pressure and enhance heart-health. A recent study showed that those seemingly high-calorie nuts, olives, and oil had little effect on body weight or waist circumference when compared to those who ate a low-fat diet. So enjoy this economical, healthy, and tasty dish.

Mediterranean Quinoa Dinner Salad

1 cup                                      Mediterranean Herb Quinoa (uncooked)

2 to 3 tablespoons                   Black beans

5 or 6                                      Black olives

½ medium                              Tomato Wedges

½ large                                  Sliced cucumber

Pine nuts or toasted slivered almonds to taste

Feta cheese

Olive oil

Cook quinoa according to package directions. Layer ingredients on individual plates. Place ½ cup cooked quinoa on each plate.Top with  black beans, olives, feta cheese, and nuts. Arrange tomato wedges around the edge of plate. Place sliced cucumbers on one side. Drizzle all ingredients with olive oil.

The Lemon Gelatin Supreme, a nice blend of lemon gelatin, marshmallows, and bananas topped with a creamy pineapple sauce, shown here gives a tangy taste to the meal. Finish dinner with a rich chocolate pudding made with non-sugar sweetener and low-fat milk. Or if calories allow, enjoy a dish of your favorite chocolate ice cream.

Try this simple dinner salad and let me know what you think.

 

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Is the Paleo Diet Right for You?

The Paleo Diet, touted for weight loss, has a growing number of followers. What is this diet? Is it right for you? The Paleo Diet, also known as the Caveman Diet or Stone Age Diet, refers to foods available during the Paleolithic Age, when early ancestors weren’t farmers but hunters and gatherers. They depended on food caught or gathered from open fields and forests.

According to Paleo enthusiasts, the diet includes lean meats, shellfish, eggs, fruits and vegetables, and healthy oils (olive and coconut). Restricted foods include dairy, refined sugar, potatoes, salt, refined vegetable oils (such as canola), grains, and all processed foods.

A recent study of older women on this diet caught my attention. The study included thirty-five post-menopausal women who followed the diet for two years and lost significant weight. A researcher not involved in the study pointed out that those conducting the study veered from a true Paleo Diet to one that mimicked much of the Mediterranean Diet, an acceptable plan for healthy eating. A study of only thirty-five subjects concerned me.

What can we believe? In January 2016, the U. S. News & World Report listed scores of the most common diets based on a scale from 0 to 5. The Paleo diet had a 2.0 overall score. On weight loss, it scored 1.9. The score for healthy eating was 2.1, and the magazine ranked “ease to follow” at 1.7.

The magazine rated thirty-eight diets, divided into nine categories. How did the Paleo Diet fare? For Best Overall Diet, it ranked number thirty-six, tied for next to last place with the Dukan Diet, and came in last for Best Weight-loss Diet. Not only that, to follow this diet requires more home preparation, thus more kitchen time ― a sparse commodity for busy families. It also tends to cost more.

Supporters of this diet claim it leads to a healthier, fitter, disease-free life. In actuality, it fails to provide a number of needed nutrients. Exclusion of dairy makes it difficult to get recommended levels of calcium and vitamin D. Limited grains and pulses (legumes) restrict needed fiber in the diet.

Before we embark on any diet plan, it’s wise to learn the pros and cons. When tempted to follow popular diets whose claims sound too good to be true, think again. They probably are.

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