If you don't know what to have for dinner tonight ...

Try this Southwestern vegetable dish that is takes advantage of the summer vegetables that are in season. Seasonal produce not only taste the best, but it also has the greatest nutritional value. This recipe is an excellent source of vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant that helps prevent damage to DNA and cellular structures caused by free radicals.

Prep and Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion cut in half and sliced thin
• 4 medium cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cups zucchini diced into ½ inch cubes
• 2 cups yellow squash,diced in ½ inch cubes
• 15oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 4oz can of diced green chili
• 3 + 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro
• 3 TBS fresh chopped fresh oregano
• salt and black pepper to taste
• *Optional: drizzle with olive oil before serving

Directions:

1. Slice onion and chop garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to bring out their health-promoting benefits.
2. Prepare all the vegetables by slicing and chopping.
3. Heat 1 TBS broth in 11-12 inch stainless steel skillet. Healthy Saute onions in broth over medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring frequently, until translucent. Add garlic and sauté for another minute.
4. Add zucchini, yellow squash, remaining broth, green chili, and cook for another 3 minutes or so until vegetables are tender, stirring often. Add tomatoes and continue to cook for another couple of minutes.
5. Stir in herbs, salt and pepper.
   Serves 4

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Calabacitas - Mexican flavored vegetable side dish

Daily Food Tip

I've heard that organic potatoes can have higher levels of alkaloids, but other potatoes can have higher pesticide levels. Which is better to eat?

We have seen one research study (Hajslova J, Schulzova V, Slanina P, et al. Quality of organically and conventionally grown potatoes: four-year study of micronutrients, metals, secondary metabolites, enzymic browning and organoleptic properties that found that organically grown potatoes had higher levels of glycoalkaloids than conventionally grown potatoes. We have pasted the study citation and abstract below.

If other research confirms these results, then the next question we would ask would be whether these types of glycoalkaloids have negative impacts upon your individual health. Some people are sensitive to certain alkaloids (for example many, but not all, with arthritic conditions) while others are not. And not all alkaloids have negative effects; researchers are now looking at isolating soladine alkaloid from potatoes since they have found it to be able to inhibit growth of herpes virus in laboratory studies.

If you were sensitive to alkaloids, the question then would be to look at the rest of your diet to see whether there was room from some alkaloids in it or if it already contained enough to put you over the threshold for sensitivity.

You would need to answer all of these questions before you could determine whether the "risk" involved with the level of alkaloids that MIGHT be present (should other research confirm this) in organic potatoes was too high compared to the health effects that could be imposed by the pesticides contained in conventionally grown potatoes.

If you have specific concerns about alkaloids we would suggest discussing this with your physician. For some more background information on nightshade vegetables which contain alkaloids please see our article: "What are nightshades and in which foods are they found?" located at http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=62#answer.

Abstract: Hajslova J, Schulzova V, Slanina P, et al. Quality of organically and conventionally grown potatoes: four-year study of micronutrients, metals, secondary metabolites, enzymic browning and organoleptic properties.

The quality of potatoes from organic and conventional farming was investigated in this study. Tubers of eight potato varieties, organically and conventionally produced at one or two geographical sites in controlled field trials, were collected in four consecutive harvests from 1996-1999. The parameters analysed included nitrate, trace elements (As, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn), vitamin C, potato glycoalkaloids, as well as chlorogenic acid, polyphenol oxidase and rate of tuber enzymic browning. The results indicated lower nitrate content and higher vitamin C and chlorogenic acid content to be the parameters most consistently differentiating organically from conventionally produced potatoes. Elevated concentrations of glycoalkaloids were also observed throughout the experiments in some potato varieties grown in organic farming systems. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the analytical and other data using three PCs confirmed a good separation between the organically and conventionally produced potatoes when studied in single crop years. However, score-plots (objects) and loading-plots (variables) of pooled results from the consecutive harvests showed that between the years' changes and also variety as well as geographical variations are equally or more important factors determining the quality of potatoes than the farming system. Further studies of various marker compounds of potato quality related to the organic or conventional farming systems should be performed before unbiased information can be given to the consumers.

For more information on this topic, see:

• Potatoes