Pesto adds wonderful flavor, but a little goes a long way
Q. How healthy a flavoring is pesto?
A. Pesto is a green paste made from fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, garlic, pine nuts and lots of olive oil. It adds wonderful flavor to soups, pasta, rice, pizza and grilled or steamed vegetables.
Just be careful: a little goes a long way, both in flavor and calories. The combination of oil, cheese and nuts makes pesto concentrated in fat and calories (at least 50 calories per tablespoon). The olive oil is healthy oil so saturated fat is low in just a tablespoon or two, but if your portion grows, saturated fat rises.
It's fun to whip up in a blender, or you can buy pesto ready-made in the aisles with ethnic foods or pasta sauces. Check the ingredient list of commercial pesto because some substitute a less expensive oil for the traditional and heart-healthy olive oil, and sodium content varies considerably. If you want to use a lot of pesto, you might like to try a lower-calorie version of the sauce by substituting fat-free low-sodium chicken broth for some of the oil.
Q. I love the oatmeal-fruit mix called muesli I've had in Europe. Is it healthy and how do I make it?
A. Muesli (pronounced MYOOS-lee) is a healthy cereal mix of uncooked oats or other grains with fruit and nuts, usually served mixed with yogurt, milk or juice. You can find commercial muesli mixes, though often they contain quite a bit more sugar than in traditional European versions.
Making muesli is easy: start with uncooked old-fashioned oats (not one-minute or instant). The oats have already been lightly steamed so you can eat them uncooked. Add dried fruit (such as raisins, apricots or currants) and nuts. For a creamy, European-style muesli, gently combine this mixture with fresh fruit and plain (unflavored) yogurt. Let it sit a few hours or overnight before serving. It will keep two days.
If you prefer muesli with a little more crunch, wait to add the fresh fruit and yogurt half an hour before serving. Add a little honey to taste. This muesli is a good source of soluble fiber that can help lower cholesterol and control blood sugar. It provides plenty of nutrients and protective phytochemicals and is great for a substantial, satisfying start to the day without excessive calories.
Q. Does diet affect triple-negative breast cancer any differently than other forms?
A. Triple-negative breast tumors do not have receptors for the hormones estrogen or progesterone nor for the protein HER2. In the Women's Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS), a major study of diet and recurrence of postmenopausal breast cancer, limiting dietary fat lowered recurrence significantly among women who had hormone-negative breast cancer (estrogen, progesterone or both).
However, we don't know whether it was the drop in fat consumption that was responsible, or if it was the modest weight loss that occurred or the increase in healthy foods women ate. We still have much to learn about whether diet affects HER2-positive and negative cancers differently. Preliminary evidence suggests that obesity may be linked with triple-negative breast cancer among postmenopausal women not taking hormone replacement therapy.
Women with triple-negative breast cancer are usually treated with chemotherapy, which sometimes requires dietary adjustments. After treatment, the standard advice for breast cancer survivors includes controlling weight, eating a plant-based diet, daily physical activity and limiting alcohol. Whether survivors of triple-negative cancer should also limit fat or simply choose healthy fats is still not clear.
• This column was provided by the American Institute for Cancer Research. Learn more about the group and its New American Plate program at aicr.org.