Eating and Feeding Briefs: The Magic Ratio, Trustworthy Turmeric, Firecracker Thai Red Curry Vegetables with Chicken
Eating and Feeding is a magazine-style publication designed to provide food for thought and restaurant-quality recipes that encourage more seasonal produce and fish—-more food adventure for your table.
This week, I’m reintroducing Eating and Feeding Briefs, short nutrition medicine bites to complement our usual deep dives. Today, I’m sharing a take-out style stir fry. It’s vibrant and adventurous while helping you to stay on track for the New Year.
Eating and Feeding Briefs
The Heart Healthy Magic Ratio
If you are like most omnivores, you probably eat a diet of 3:1 animal to plant protein. Nutritionists have long debated whether animal protein provides superior fuel to plant protein sources. Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have found compelling evidence that reversing the ratio of plant to animal protein is better for your heart. Reviewing 30 years of diet and heart health data, they found those who tipped the balance toward getting their protein from plants enjoyed a 19% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 27% lower risk of coronary artery disease compared with those who ate high animal protein diets. Good sources of plant protein are beans and lentils, nuts, tofu, and whole grains.
At ratios of 1.3:1 plant to animal protein, the benefits come from reducing red and processed meat, as well as some poultry, and by gravitating toward protein dense plant foods like heart healthy nuts. When plants are swapped for animal foods, plant proteins likely help reduce heart disease risk through their amino acid profiles and higher unsaturated/ saturated fat ratio. Their “protein package,” distinct from meats, poultry, eggs, and dairy, also boosts complex carbohydrates and fiber nourishing the gut.
Finding Trustworthy Turmeric
Increasingly spices can be harvested on one continent and processed on another then distributed on yet a third. That makes accountability and traceability elusive in today’s global spice trade.
India produces 80% of the world’s turmeric supply, predominantly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. But, turmeric supply, despite its health-giving reputation, has been vulnerable to toxins. The UK applied extra control measures to rout out ethylene oxide pesticide residues when surveys detected the carcinogen in spices from India. A 2024 Stanford survey found lead levels beyond regulatory limits in 14% of samples attributed to intentional lead chromate adulteration. Buying whole turmeric doesn’t seem to eliminate concerns considering that this study found higher lead levels in ground spice as well as among whole product sold. Contamination occurred with the practice of polishing roots.
Several upstart spice companies are changing the trade by creating pipelines direct from farmers to consumers. Diaspora Co. founded a business based on demand for integrity and “radical traceability utilizing single-farm sourcing to improve consumer access to turmeric root. The company partners with regenerative farmers growing Pragati turmeric, an heirloom they claim is “exceptionally high in curcumin content (around 4.5-5.2% compared to 1-3% in other varieties). Circumin is the bioactive compound in turmeric valued for its antioxidant, anti-tumor, and anti-inflammatory effects. Like most polyphenols, curcumin content depends heavily on the specific plant, region, and growing season.
Circumin has notoriously low bioavailability or ability to be used in the body. By adding black pepper with turmeric, the piperine in black pepper can inhibit the excretion of curcumin -with just 1/20 teaspoon or more circumin becomes significantly more available. Also, pairing turmeric with fat like oil, ghee, or coconut milk or adding nuts of fatty fish to your curry will enhance its absorption.
Firecracker Thai Red Curry Vegetables with Chicken
Eating and Feeding is about food adventure for your future. Knowing a 2:1 ratio of plant to animal protein can reduce heart disease risk provides incentive to “flip the plate” for the people you feed. The protein flip is the Culinary Institute of America’s grassroots strategy to impact human and planetary health one chef and one home cook at a time. I had the opportunity to attend the Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives Conference in 2015 and 2021, a pioneering CIA-Harvard Medical School collaboration bridging health care, nutrition, and America’s chefs.
When you “flip the plate”, poultry or meat becomes the complement rather than the main event. One strategy I use to keep the family satisfied as they adapt to the idea that meat need not be the focus of a good meal is to whip up a take-out style dish focused on a variety of colorful vegetables. This Thai red curry is an explosion of flavor and vibrant vegetables that can be made quickly from red curry paste and a fully stocked produce drawer. I cook the vegetables saving greens and broccoli for last to keep them vibrant green, sweet, and vegetal.
Serves 4
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced for stir-fry
2 carrots, sliced in thin circles
1/2 yellow squash or zucchini, sliced in thin circles
2-3 red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, deseeded and core removed, sliced thin spears
3 crowns broccoli, separated into small florets (about 1 head)
1/2 bunch cilantro, leaves and upper stems coarsely chopped
1/4 wedge red cabbage, core removed, sliced into thin strips
1/2 bunch kale, stems removed, coarsely chopped
1 13.5 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
3 Tbsp red curry paste (Taste of Thai or Mae Ploy brand available widely in grocery)
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 scallions, white and lower green parts sliced thin
1 Tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp brown sugar, optional
1/4 cup fresh Thai basil or Italian basil, optional
Heat 2 Tbsp of canola or neutral oil in a deep-rimmed skillet. Stir fry the chicken until fully cooked. The chicken should no longer be translucent and should lose its pink center. Remove to a clean plate.
Add more canola oil if needed and heat over a medium flame. Add the garlic and allow to cook 45 seconds until aromatic taking care not to brown. Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the curry paste, fish sauce, and sugar, if using.
Add the squash, carrots, and cabbage. Simmer 5-6 minutes until the vegetables are beginning to soften. Add the broccoli, bell pepper, scallions, and cilantro. Cover 3 minutes to allow to steam. Finally, lay in the kale and basil to wilt along with the chicken to warm. Continue to simmer an additional 4-6 minutes ensuring the chicken is fully cooked and the vegetables crisp tender when pierced with a fork. The broccoli and greens should remain vibrant in color; don’t overcook. Serve with brown rice.
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Thank you Ellen, your piece highlights the dirty little big secret of the herb/spice world trade. Adulteration, contamination and substitution, and the twin dilemma of bioavailability of the active compounds.
On the supply line issue, I recommend only companies that quality test every batch, but this info isn’t easily found, but good practitioners have generally made it their business to find out.
Thank goodness for pepper and piperine, for its ability to ramp up absorption of nearly every. But it does come with a significant drug/herb interaction warning. We’ve known this since the early days of interaction research (warfarin level and pepper), but now research has shown the interaction potential of pepper effects every metabolic pathway.
I do love the emerging research supporting traditional food ways. We wouldn’t find a turmeric latte in a Thai or Indonesian village, but we’d definitely find spices ground together with other complimentary aromatics and cooked in oil, the perfect carrier for their flavour and goodness.
Does fresh turmeric have the same adulterants? Could it be dried and ground at home using a spicemill/dedicated coffee grinder?