Today's Recipe
If you don't know what to have for dinner tonight ...
Nothing complements the flavor of lamb better than rosemary. And our Quick Broil method makes this dish very fast and easy to prepare. Grass fed lamb is a great source of protein on which the structure of the human body depends. It is also a good source of zinc to help boost immune function and B vitamins for energy production.
Prep and Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
-
12 lamb chops
-
6 TBS fresh lemon juice
-
3 TBS chopped fresh rosemary,
-
3 medium cloves garlic pressed, ¼ tsp salt
-
¼ tsp black pepper
Directions:
-
Press garlic and let sit for at least 5 minutes to bring out its hidden health benefits.
-
Mix together lemon juice, rosemary, pressed garlic, salt and pepper. Rub lamb chops with mixture. Set aside on plate.
-
Preheat broiler on high heat, and place a stainless steel or cast iron skillet large enough to hold the lamb chops under the heat for about 10 minutes to get very hot (about 5-7 inches from the heat source). Be sure that the handle is also metal.
-
Once pan is hot, place lamb chops in pan, and return to broiler for about 4-5 minutes, depending on thickness of lamb. Lamb is cooked quickly as it is cooking on both sides at the same time. This is our Quick Broil cooking method.
Serves 4
Serving Suggestions:
Serve with
Printer Friendly Version of 15-Minute Rosemary Lamb Chops
In-Depth Nutritional Profile for 15-Minute Rosemary Lamb Chops
Daily Food Tip
I've heard that watermelon helps prevent sunburn. Is that true?
No, it's not true that eating watermelon - in and of itself - can prevent sunburn. We haven't seen research showing that any food consumption can prevent sunburn. There is some research on tomato paste and olive oil reducing skin damage from sunlamp exposure, but the researchers did not conclude that sunburn was prevented by consumption of these foods. They only concluded that these foods could help protect the skin-not totally prevent it from being damaged.
Watermelon contains substantial amounts of vitamin C, beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein. (Of these four important antioxidants, watermelon is especially rich in lycopene. It contains almost 7,000 micrograms per cup!). Since each of these four nutrients can contribute to the health of our skin, their combination in watermelon might make this World's Healthiest Food a good choice for anyone wanting healthy skin that is as resilient as possible in the sun. That's far different, however, from saying that watermelon prevents sunburn.
We've posted a detailed article on our website about diet and sunburn, and we have cut and pasted it below to provide you with more information about this important subject.
Q: How can my diet help protect me from sunburn?
A: You might be thinking that the best way to avoid sunburn is to stay out of the sun for too long. If so, you are correct! Staying out of the sun is the best way to avoid sunburn. However, moderate amounts of sunlight are not only healthy but perhaps even essential for our body, and sometimes it is very difficult to know if we've crossed the timeline over into sunburn risk. And even with high-quality sunscreens widely available in every drugstore across the country, wouldn't you want you skin cells to be as vital and resilient as possible for making the most of everyday sunlight?
How Sunburn Works
Researchers have determined that our skins cells can take on a specific form-called sunburn cells, or SBCs-once they've been overexposed to sun. Different wavelengths of light cause different changes in skin cells, and we've learned a lot about sunburn by studying these different wavelengths and the changes they cause. Most sunscreens were initially developed to block ultraviolet-B (UVB) wavelengths, and UVB light remains most closely associated with sunburn. However, ultraviolet-A (UVA) sunlight-longer wavelengths of the sun's energy-may more readily damage the DNA in our cells and may be equally or more responsible for skin aging, and even for skin health problems like melanoma.
Studies on UVA and UVB sunlight have taught us that our cells essentially "shut down" when the damage caused by sunlight becomes too great. When certain kinds of skin cells (called keratinocytes) are overexposed to UVA and/or UVB sunlight, they experience metabolic stress, including one particular type of stress called oxidative stress. This stress can overload our antioxidant nutrient supplies, and it is one reason why we will tell you about the antioxidant-rich foods that can reduce your risk of sunburn. Damage to our DNA is also part of what happens in sunburn cell formation. In this situation, there may be a special role for nutrients that help protect our DNA and the foods that contain these nutrients. We'll tell you about these foods and what research has shown so far.
Olive Oil and Tomato Paste
A fascinating study about sunburn protection from two antioxidant-rich foods-olive oil and tomato-was carried out by a team of German researchers with impressive results. Half of all subjects in the study consumed 10 grams of olive oil (about 2 teaspoons) and 40 grams (about 1/4 cup) of tomato paste daily for 10 weeks, in addition to a controlled diet. The other half did not receive this additional tomato paste and olive oil. Prior to the diet changes, researchers measured the amount of sunlamp exposure it would take to produce reddening on a small patch of skin on the back of each subject. The minimum required amount was determined individually for each subject. As the study moved along, the amount of skin reddening in all subjects was measured by giving each subject 125% of the minimum sunlamp exposure required for reddening. By the end of the study, individuals with added tomato paste and olive oil in their diet were experiencing 35% less reddening than regular diet-only group. Although the results of this study did not show large amounts of skin protection from olive oil and tomato paste alone, the ability of these two foods to make a measurable difference in such a short period of time was significant. And given the lycopene in tomatoes and polyphenols in olive oil-phytonutrients that are especially valuable as antioxidants-these findings give us even more reason to think that the foods delivered added protection to the skin of these research participants.
We've put olive oil in a category all by itself on our website as an oil of choice for health protection. You'll also find a discussion of tomato and its various forms (including tomato paste) on our website. They'd be at the top of our list for dietary help with sunburn protection.
Conventional Antioxidants
Vitamin C, vitamin E, and the mineral selenium all have good track records as antioxidant nutrients that help skin cells maintain their vitality. We realize that vitamin E is sometimes used topically to soothe the results of a sunburn, but what we're talking about here is not sunburn treatment, but sunburn prevention, and the ability of vitamin E to help prevent our skin cells from becoming SBCs (sunburn cells). On our website, you'll find ratings for all of the World's Healthiest Foods that are rich in these two vitamins. For vitamin C, we would strongly encourage the addition of bell peppers, broccoli, papaya, Brussels sprouts, and strawberries to your meal plan. For vitamin E, at the top of our list would be sunflower seeds, almonds, olives, and dark green leafy vegetables.
For selenium protection, we'd highly recommend mushrooms and many different types of fish, including cod, shrimp, tuna, snapper, halibut, and salmon. Buying wild (versus farmed) fish would be a huge plus, because pesticide and antibiotic residues in farmed fish can take a toll on your antioxidant supplies and partly (but never totally) offset the benefits of these fish for sunburn protection. And for all of the plant foods above, certified organic foods are you number one choice for this exact same reason.
Phytonutrients
When it comes to DNA damage and other skin cell changes caused by UVA sunlight, you'll find some of the World's Healthiest Foods to have some superstar phytonutrient components. Raspberries and blueberries would be skin support stand-outs because of their ellagic acid content. (Cherries would also be highly recommended in this regard, as well as for their supply of the flavonoids isoqueritrin and queritrin). Also in the fruit category would be oranges, lemons, and limes with their skin-cell protective amounts of limonene.
Green tea would fall into a category all its own, since its epigallocatechins directly block DNA damage from UV light in studies involving human skin cells. You'll find a detailed profile of green tea and its health benefits on our website, with reference to many cutting edge research reports.
Since UV sunlight changes to human skin cells have been stopped in laboratory settings by the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, you'll also want to make sure that lutein-rich and zeaxanthin-rich foods are part of your sunburn prevention meal plan. These two carotenoids are also carefully profiled on our website. The dark green leafy vegetables, including kale, spinach, collard greens, and turnip greens are best-bet foods for these carotenoids. Broccoli, corn, peas, Brussels sprouts, and romaine lettuce are also good choices here.
You Can't Swallow Your Sunblock, But .....
As we stated at the outset, avoiding prolonged exposure to sunlight is your best bet for preventing sunburn. Even with a diet exclusively composed of the World's Healthiest Foods, you will not be swallowing your sunblock in a way that can replace the protection it gives to your skin cells. But you can boost the vitality and resilience of your skin so that UVA and UVB sunlight aren't as likely to transform you skin cells into SBCs. And you can enjoy brief, minutes-long steps out into the sunlight knowing that your skin is well supported by some carefully chosen, delicious foods.
For more information on this topic, please see:
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First 
