The single biggest day for for avocado is Superbowl Sunday. Avocado is a super food, providing you with heart healthy mono-unsaturated fats, just 250 calories and vitamins A, C, E, the B vitamins, as well as fiber and potassium.

You can scoop it from the skin using a spoon straight into your mouth. It’s just that good. Squeezing a few drops of lemons juice and a tad of salt make it even better. But for most of us, avocado equals guacamole dip. “Guacamole” is Aztec for “Avocado Sauce”, the original recipe calling for crushed avocado, tomatoes and salt.

Unfortunately today, many people settle for sub-par, store brought guacamole dips, which not only taste like bird droppings, but are also nutritional atrocities. We covered one such bastardization of the term guacamole a few months ago.

Today we’d like to offer you a quick recipe. This guac recipe takes less than a time-out to make and will have you dishing out a super bowl filled with a tasty dip that everyone can dig into with whole grain tortillas.

Ingredients:
6 ripe avocados
2 limes (lemons OK)
2 tomatoes (optional)
A bunch of chives
1 TBSP Dijon mustard (or more, to taste)
cilantro or Italian parsley (not a must)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. halve the limes.
2. peel and pit the avocados, immediately squeezing 2 lime halves over the the avocado meat to prevent browning. Optionally add the pits to the avocado mass, it seems to repeal the browning process as well.
3. dice two avocados into quarter inch cubes, and crush the rest with the back of a fork. place in in your super bowl.
4. dice the tomatoes. add to bowl.
5. finely dice the chives and cilantro. add to bowl.
6. add the mustard.
7. mix everything with a wooden spoon (or your hands).
8. taste. add salt and pepper (you’ll need a bit less than normal due to the mustard)
9. douse with juice of the second lime and refrigerate till game time.

Enjoy!

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Still recovering from the most recent UK study showing that organic food is no more nutritious than conventional, we read in the Chicago Tribune that peaches contain excessive amounts of pesticides, some above government safe levels.

It seems that peaches’ delicate constitutions, fuzzy skins and susceptibility to mold and pests cause them to both need and retain pesticides at impressive rates.

So there you go. Even if organic isn’t more nutritious, it’s probably healthier with respect to poison residues your body wont’ get. That’s not to say you should switch to consuming organic food exclusively. Peaches are an extremely sensitive crop. Not all fruits and vegetables are such pushovers.

What to do at the supermarket:

Here’s a short list of the DIRTY DOZEN fruits and vegetables that you can start with.

Apples, Bell Peppers, Celery, Cherries, Grapes, Nectarines, Peaches, Pears, Potatoes, Raspberries, Spinach, Strawberries

And for these items, don’t spend more for organic:

Asparagus, Avocado, Bananas, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Corn, Garlic, Kiwi, Mangoes, Onions, Peas, Pineapples.

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Those giant shiny apples and tomatoes stacked neatly at the produce stand at the supermarket are a marvel of nature. With a lot of help from man. And man’s chemicals.

In order to keep pests from blemishing your fruits and vegetables, farmers spend a fare share of their time and budget on hundreds of chemical solutions. Here are some crazy facts from a group called Pesticide Action Network:

1. 888 million lbs of pesticide are applied each year in the US – about 3 lbs per person.

2. Atrazine, a pesticide that has been banned in Europe, is found in 71% of US drinking water. It’s a hormone disruptor.

3. An average Amercian child gets over 5 “servings” of pesticide residue in their food and water, daily

4. A single strawberry can contain 22 different pesticide residues.

What you need to know:

The problem with pesticides is that they are persistent, they stay in our food even after vigorous washing. Some accumulate in our bodies over years. Not to mention the environmental impact in the soil and water sources. Or the poor farm workers who get sick after handling these toxic chemicals on a daily basis.

The folks at Pesticide Action Network have put together a searchable database where you can see which chemicals are used on which products, and the effect on our bodies. Quite scary.

The effect these residues have on fetuses, infants, and young children is much greater than on adults, so parents should be especially wary.

But please, don’t let this be your excuse not to eat fruit and vegetables! When put into the right context, it is much riskier to your health not to get the nutrients from produce than to be exposed to the pesticide residue.

What to do at the supermarket:

So what’s a worried parent to do?

Switching to organic food seems like a great solution, only it’s out of reach for most people due to the very high price of most organic vegetables, and even higher prices for organic fruit.

An approach taken by many people is selective organic consumption, choosing to go organic for the most heavily chemically drenched products, while sticking to conventional for the rest.

Here are the “dirty dozen” which are simply put, pesticide coated produce. you should buy these organic:

Apples, Bell Peppers, Celery, Cherries, Grapes, Nectarines, Peaches, Pears, Potatoes, Raspberries, Spinach, Strawberries

And for these items, don’t spend more for organic:

Asparagus, Avocado, Bananas, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Corn, Garlic, Kiwi, Mangoes, Onions, Peas, Pineapples

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1. Over 45 Million pounds of Avocado will be consumed today, Superbowl Sunday!

2. Avocado competes with buffalo wings and pizza as The Superbowl Food, thanks to a successful marketing campaign by avocado growers over the past 2 decades.

3. All Haas avocados are genetic replicas of a single tree planted in the Haas family grove in the 1920’s.

4. A shortage of avocados is looming this spring, due to the 2008 drought in southern California, where 90% of domestic Avocados are grown.

5. Have no fear, Mexican avocados will be here to supplant any shortage. In fact Mexico is the world’s largest Avocado producer.

6. Avocados are unique fruit. They have a high fat content, but this is a “good” fat – monounsaturated fat.

7. A whole avocado contains 200-300 calories and is a good source of vitamin A, C, E and the B vitamins, as well as fiber and potassium.

8. Guacamole is Aztec for “Avocado Sauce”, the original recipe calling for crushed avocado, tomatoes and salt.

9. Supermarket guacamole tastes plain bad. Avocados don’t store well, that’s why store bought guacamole needs a lot of help from food additives. Here is a sample list of ingredients you’ll find in a ready made container -
Food Starch,
Sodium Alginate (emulsifier – keeps oils and waters mixed together),
Xanthan Gum (increases viscosity),
Erythorbic Acid (retains food’s color) ,Potassium Sorbate (anti mold), Sodium Metabisulfite (anti spoilage)

Ouch.

Luckily, making your own guacamole is quick and easy. Spend ten minutes to make your own. The difference in flavor, let alone chemicals, is worth it:

Simple Guacamole Recipe (serves 4-8 people):

Ingredients:
4 ripe avocados
2 limes (lemons OK)
2 tomatoes (optional)
half a medium onion
1 TBSP Dijon mustard (or more, to taste)
cilantro or Italian parsley (not a must)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. halve the limes.
2. peel and pit the avocados, immediately squeezing 2 lime halves over the the avocado meat to prevent browning.
3. dice one avocado into quarter inch cubes, and crush the rest with the back of a fork. place in large bowl.
4. dice the tomatoes. add to bowl.
5. finely dice the onion and cilantro. add to bowl.
6. add the mustard.
7. mix everything with a wooden spoon (or your hands).
8. taste. add salt and pepper (you’ll need a bit less than normal due to the mustard)
9. douse with juice of the second lime and refrigerate till game time.

Enjoy!

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According to the US Dietary Guidelines, we’re supposed to get 5 servings of vegetables a day, but most of us fall short. A new study presented this weekend at the annual ADA convention has found a solution. Drink your veggies:

University of California-Davis researchers say drinking vegetable juice is an effective way to help people increase their vegetable intake.

Study author Carl Keen says seven out of 10 adults fall short of the daily vegetable intake recommended by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. The researchers studied whether drinking vegetable juice could be a simple behavior change to help boost the intake of vegetables to “strive for five,” or eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Read more…

What you need to know:

There’s great variation in the nutritional content of vegetables. Most contain small amounts of fat and protein, and large amounts of fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. The variation is important, as each color represents different nutrients found in the plant. Here’s a brief color code  breakdown:

Red – tomatoes (especially cooked) – lycopene. Protection from prostate cancer as well as heart and lung disease.

Purple – beets, eggplant, red cabbage, red peppers – anthocyanins – good for the heart.

Orange – carrots, winter squash and sweet potatoes – alpha carotene, beta carotene.

Yellow/green – spinach, collards, corn, green peas, avocado – lutein and zeaxanthin – good for the eyes.

Green – broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale and bok choy – sulforaphane, isocyanate – inhibit the action of carcinogens.

White/green – garlic, onions, leeks, celery, asparagus – allicin and other antioxidants – antitumor properties.

source: The Color Code book

What to do at the supermarket:

When buying vegetable juice, look at the label to see what you’re getting. An 8oz serving of V8 is loaded with salt (480mg / 20% of recommended daily intake). The low sodium version has less than a third of that amount.

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flickr photo: faeryboots

The annual Avocadofest will be celebrated next weekend in southern California, where over 90% of the avocado consumed in the US is grown. This is a good opportunity for a quick refresher on the virtues of this fruit that originated not too far in Central America.

What you need to know:

Avocado is a fruit that they ripens about 10 days after being picked. Avocados are unique in that as fruit they have a high fat content, but this is a good fat – monounsaturated fat. A whole avocado contains 200-300 calories and is a good source of vitamin A, C, E and the B vitamins. Avocados pack plenty of soluble fibers and have more potassium than a banana. This is a very nutritious food.

What to look for at the supermarket:

Most avocados will still be hard when sold. Plan ahead as it may take up to a week for them to ripen. A ripe avocado is a bit softer to the touch. Storing avocados in brown paper bags in the pantry accelerates the ripening process. Nowadays avocados are available year round.