Strange Fruit

A couple of weeks ago, I was on a treewalk in Garfield Park and witnessed my first female gingko trees. I LOVE ginkgo trees. They're the oldest known species of trees, thought to originate over 250 million years ago. They're perfect urban trees -- very resistant to pollution. Plus, I just love those leathery-smooth fan-shaped leaves.

The fruit-bearing females are rare on city streets. The fruit is messy and stinky so most cities, Chicago included, plant the sterile males. Yet the fruit is prized by many Asians. The moment I saw the fruit above, I immediately popped one in my mouth. They taste very apricoty, had the oddest aftertaste, and weren't quite ripe yet (and I fortunately wasn't sensitive to the pulp). And then I learned, it's not the fruit itself that's prized, it's the nut contained in the fruit (and the extract is made from the leaves but that's another story).

Today, I saw another female ginkgo, this one leafless and covered in really ripe fruit and began to wonder what people really did with that fruit and if it was any good for you. Nutritionally, ginkgo nuts are very low in calories (31 calories per oz) compared to other nuts like almonds (161 calories per oz). The nuts contain a number of unique compounds, including bilobol, ginkgol, ginnol, and ginkgolic acid (so unique that they're pretty much named after the tree) but research is not yet conclusive on the nutritional value of those compounds.

Maybe for now, until I learn more about the benefits, I'll continue to appreciate the trees and perhaps experiment with the nuts in small amounts. There are some interesting recipes on the web and I am intrigued by those who hunt the fruit.

Saving the World Auf Deutsch

To offer a more European green perspective today, I present The Sustainable Shopping Basket: A Guide to Better Shopping, published by the German Council for Sustainable Development. My German must have vastly improved since I had no problems comprehending this publication. Oma would be so proud.

Feeding Your City Baby

My friend Jolene has a fabulous new blog called City Baby for which I'm more than honored to serve as her nutritional consultant. Jolene's commitment to good food for her daughter and other city babies has inspired me to restart Veggiepalooza and further explore my love of veggies and all other foods.

She's planning on publishing weekly so check her out each weekend!!

Deep Purple-Red Heart Love

I love beets. I love them pureed in soups, love them in salads, love them grated and sautéed as side dishes, love them juiced mixed in with carrot, apple, and ginger. City Baby also highly recommends pureed beet cubes for baby.

Eating beets is definitely a smart nutritional move. Beets are an excellent source of folate and manganese and, like many veggies, a good source of fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium.

Yet there is some odd nutritional lore surrounding beets. The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia by Rebecca Woods states that, when eating beets, “pink urine may indicate an iron deficiency while magenta stool may indicate adequate iron. . . . As their color suggests, beets are a blood tonic and are good for anemia, the heart, and circulation. They purify the blood, alleviate constipation, aid the liver, and promote menstruation.”

The iron claim is pure myth. Beets only have 0.7 mg of iron per ½ cup serving, about 4% of our daily needs. And, as most beet eaters know, you’ll end up with both pink urine and magenta stool so you can hardly assess your blood iron levels from that (especially since iron isn’t pink or magenta).

The source of that blood tonic claim is likely the source of the beet’s purple-red color – betalains, a recently discovered class of dietary antioxidants, found primarily in red beets and prickly pears (nature makes for odd nutritional bedfellows).

Betalains include two classes of compounds: betacyanins, which are red violet, and betaxanthins, which are yellow, both of which were shown to have powerful antioxidant properties. Just small amounts were found to inhibit lipid peroxidation and heme decomposition. That’s a fancy way of saying that they reduce oxidation of blood fats, reducing the threat of clogged arteries, and they protect the iron that is carried by red blood cells. So in a roundabout way, beets really are a blood tonic since they protect against arterial and blood cell damage.

On a non-betalain note, another claim for beets that seems to be true is that eating beets is excellent for reducing constipation, probably due to the type of soluble fibers in the root.

So eat, enjoy, and don’t be alarmed when, later, things come out a little pink or purple.