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

Prep and Cook Time: 23 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized butternut squash cut into 1 inch cubes (about 4 cups)
• 1 medium onion cut in half and sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1/8 tsp cumin
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup + 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 TBS chopped cilantro
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cut squash into cubes and steam in a steamer with a tight fitting lid until al dente, about 5-6 minutes.
2. Heat 1 TBS broth in a medium size skillet. Healthy Saute onion in broth for 3 minutes over medium heat stirring frequently. Add garlic and spices and mix well. After about 1 minute add rest of broth and begin to simmer gently.
3. When squash is al dente, almost done, but still firm on the inside, add to simmering sauce and cook together for another 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with cilantro.

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Steamed Butternut Squash with Red Chili Sauce

Daily Food Tip

Where does the digestion of food occur?

The digestion of different types of foods occurs in different areas of the digestive tract. Digestion of starch begins in the mouth with the chewing of food (mastication) and the production of amylases immediately breaking down certain starches. Since the smaller sugars that come from amylase action on starch are sweeter tasting, if you hold a cracker in your mouth and swish saliva around it, you may notice the appearance of a sweeter taste.

Fat digestion also begins in the mouth with the secretion of the enzyme lingual lipase by glands under your tongue. Although this enzyme doesn't do much with the food while it's in your mouth, it does move on down with the food to your stomach, where it can start to break down about 10-30% of the food fat. The taste of food can trigger the stomach lining to produce acid; therefore, your stomach begins to respond to food even before any food leaves your mouth.

The lining of the stomach produces hydrochloric acid (HCl). This acidic environment is critical for helping eliminate unwanted bacteria, as well as initiating the digestion of proteins. The stomach lining also secretes the enzyme pepsinogen, which is present in the stomach much of the time but is inactive until the acid is present, when it becomes activated as pepsin. Pepsin acts to start the digestion of proteins. Fats are also primarily digested in the stomach with the secretion of gastric lipase, the enzyme primarily responsible for fat digestion in humans. As mentioned earlier, lingual lipase from the mouth also helps out in this process.

The small intestine is specifically designed to maximize the digestion and absorption process. The majority of carbohydrate digestion occurs in the small intestine. It is here that disaccharides (sugars composed of two monosaccharides) like sucrose, maltose, and lactose are broken down into monosaccharides, which are then absorbed directly up into the cells that form the intestinal lining. Starches also get special treatment in the small intestine, because the pancreas sends amylase enzymes into the small intestine to carry out the breakdown of certain starches.

Protein digestion also begins in earnest in the small intestine with the aid of pancreatic juices that cut proteins and peptides down into one-, two-, and three-amino acid chains. Although the acids of the stomach help unravel some of the protein strands, the enzymatic processes described above can only take place in the small intestine.

At the end of the small intestine there are some complex nutrients, such as fiber and resistant starch, and a small amount of other food molecules that have escaped the digestion process. For example, about 3-5% of ingested protein normally escapes digestion and continues to the large intestine.