Food for Thought

Just thought I'd give you a little food for thought.

Did you know that just four handfuls a week of broccoli will make prostate, breast & colon cancer much less likely?

Want to keep your memory young?  Coffee, walnuts & turmeric have all recently been shown to help do just that!

Wondering what turmeric is?  It's a yellow-hued spice that's widely used in South Asian and middle Eastern cooking.  Try this easy recipe the next time you feel like firing up the grill.

Barbequed Thai Style Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro with roots
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 3 small red hot chile peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 (3 pound) chicken, cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup coconut milk

Directions

1. Cut cilantro roots off at the stem, and mince thoroughly. Set aside a few leaves for garnish. In a blender or food processor, combine cilantro roots and leaves, garlic, chile peppers, turmeric, curry powder, sugar, and salt. Process to a coarse paste. Pour in fish sauce, and blend until smooth.
2. Place chicken in a large shallow dish. Rub with the cilantro paste. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 3 hours, or overnight.
3. Preheat grill for high heat.
4. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place chicken on the prepared grill, and brush liberally with coconut milk. Grill chicken 8 to 15 minutes on each side, depending on the size of the pieces. Turn only once, and baste occasionally with coconut cream. Cook until browned and tender, and juices run clear.  

Breast Cancer & Weight

The weight you lose or gain may alter your risk of breast cancer if you don't take estrogen pills, says a study that tracked more than 87,000 women for up to 24 years.

Weight gain or loss had little impact on women who had taken postmenopausal hormones.  But among women who had never taken hormones, the risk of breast cancer was:

• 57 percent lower in those who had lost at least 22 pounds since menopause than in similar women with steady weight.

• 50 percent higher in those who had gained at least 44 pounds since age 18 than in similar women who had gained little or no weight since their late teens. (Weight gain after menopause didn't alter beast cancer risk significantly.)

The researchers estimate that, among women who never took hormones, 24 percent of breast cancer cases are due to gaining more than four pounds after age 18, and 8 percent are due to gaining more than four pounds after menopause.

What to do:  Lose excess weight, it's never too late.  Excess weight may increase the risk of breast cancer by boosting estrogen levels.  In postmenopausal women who don't take hormones, fat cells are the biggest source of estrogen.  And more fat means more estrogen.

Women who take hormones also have higher levels of estrogen, which increases their breast cancer risk. But the estrogen produced by their fat cells doesn't seem to raise the risk further.
http://shapeupwithsusan.com

J. Am Med. Assoc. 296: 193, 2006