The Healthy Indian Diet

Healthy Indian Recipes: Asparagus Subzi (Asparagus Side Dish)

03/27/2012

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We're trying this for the first time. Here's a recipe from our book "The Healthy Indian Diet," page 156 in the paperback. If you like it or put your own personal twist to the recipe, let us know.

Asparagus is not usually associated with Indian cooking. The long bright-green spears have tender tips while the tough ends are discarded. Asparagus is a nutrient-rich food that is high in folic acid and a good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C and thiamin. Many people tend to overlook this delicious vegetable due to lack of know-how in the preparation stage. Now, you can try fresh and tender Asparagus – the Indian way!
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Asparagus – 1 lb, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Canola oil – 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Fennel seeds (powdered) – ½ tsp
Ginger – 1 tsp, grated or crushed
Garlic – 5 large cloves, roughly chopped
Tomatoes – 2 medium, chopped
Salt – to taste
Red chili powder – to taste

Method:
1. Wash asparagus and snap the white/hard ends and discard.
2. Chop into bite-sized pieces.
3. In a skillet, heat oil on medium heat.
4. Add cumin seeds and allow them to splutter.
5. Add powdered fennel seeds, ginger and garlic and cook for a minute.
6. Add tomatoes and cook until soft.
7. Add asparagus, salt and red chili powder. Mix well.
8. Cook uncovered for 5-6 minutes until moisture has evaporated.
9. Serve hot with paratha.

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Another study shows why spices are the best medicine

03/12/2012

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A new study from Penn State researcher Dr. West and her team suggests a combination of spices can reduce how much triglycerides your body absorbs from a high-fat meal and how much insulin is released in response to a carb-rich mel, which would be good news.

It's why the study is being greeted with a lot of excitement. For instance, see this NPR story on the research -- which is where the picture comes from. Here's a link to the study.
The study design briefly: 6 overweight but otherwise healthy men were given two meals 1 week apart. The first meal was a "control meal" made of a chicken and white rice dish, cheese bread, and dessert biscuit. The second meal was the "experimental meal" of a chicken curry, Italian herb bread, and cinnamon biscuit, which had 14 grams of spices added. The most plentiful spices by weight were turmeric (2.8 g), paprika (2.9 g) and oregano (2.3 g). The other spices were black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, garlic powder, ginger and rosemary. Their blood was drawn just before the meal and then every half hour up to 3 1/2 hours after the meal for analysis. 
 
The results showed a big difference in triglyceride and insulin levels (although not in blood glucose levels). The same men had 31% lower TG levels and 21% lower insulin levels after eating the experimental meal, which was made of the same basic food but with the addition of 14 grams of spices, compared to what their levels were after the control meal.

There are a lot of reasons for caution: the sample size was small, the subjects were overweight but otherwise healthy (so they had for example normal insulin responses to blood glucose, unlike many who have diabetes or insulin resistance), and they used a mix of spices so it's hard to know which spice(s) were the ones that helped prevent absorption of fats into the blood and kept insulin levels from rising too high. Also, 14 grams of spices in a single meal seems excessive, although the subjects had no bad reactions from eating this much spice.

Here's the good news and take away: this study and others like it reinforce a truth discovered by Ayurvedic practitioners centures ago: spices help keep us healthy! Here, we see that eating a fairly large combination of spices as part of our meal, as is typical of a healthy Indian diet, can help keep us healthy even if the meal is full of carbs and fat.

Thanks to my brother for the tip.
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