Basic Pursuits

Freyda Siegel, 100, shares 18 tips on how to live well.

18 tips for living a long life well

A recent study suggests that the best way to cook vegetables is to
microwave them. Researchers measured the free-radical eating
anti-oxidants before and after various methods of cooking. Vegies
cooked in the microwave retained the most anti-oxidants.

I've tried this with broccoli and it works pretty good. Put your broccoli in
a microwavable dish with a little water and you have very green
broccoli with a nice texture.

Here is a study that shows no correlation between taking vitamin supplements and a lower of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Indeed, some studies suggest that taking supplements increase the risk of certain cancers. A vitamin E study was stopped in its tracks when researchers suspected that people taking Vitamin E supplements were at greater risk of contracting lung cancer.

Orzo is a pasta that looks somewhat like large grains of rice. You
can cook it like rice and that gives it an advantage over other
pastas. If your flavor the water you cook it in with broth. The pasta
absorbs the flavor of the broth like rice. You can add enough flavor that you
don't have to put a sauce on it, saving you time and calories.

There is another advantage. You can add lots of nutrition. For
example you can throw in a bag of frozen peas and a pound of frozen
spinach.

Furthermore, you can brown up some protein like chicken breast and
add it.

The American Dietetic Association recently offered up 10 diet and lifestyle recommendations to cut the risk of your developing cancer.

Thrive dining is a lifelong process. It's not even steps in the same direction. It's more of bunch of events, some pleasant and rewarding, others a "learning experience." The results over time is that you eat better and better and enjoy the benefits.

If you are a fan of real peanut butter, that is peanuts ground up and put in a jar, your probably don't look forward to opening a new jar. That's because you have to mix the mix the oil that has separated out back with the peanuts. If you're like me, you slop the oil over the edge and make a mess.

Here's a link that might be useful to some of you. It's titled Farmers Market Search and it's courtesy of the US Department of Agriculture. It finds local farmers markets.

Although it's filled with confusing, governmental acronyms, the query works to bring up farmers markets in the areas that you request.

Helpful: Read the instructions. Use the "%" wildcard.

Farmers Market Search

If you know it's bad, don't eat it
Readers Digest just published a piece called 4 Most Harmful Ingredients in Packaged Foods.

Leading the list of slow-acting poisons are trans fats and refined grains. Trans fats clog up your arteries. Refined grains play hell with your blood sugar.