Getting Started with FoodTrients

Whether you’re 21 or over 50, your health is important. And what supports a healthy body more—inside and out—than the foods you eat? The recipes in The Age Beautifully and  The Age GRACEfully Cookbook are designed to make good food that is loaded with anti-aging ingredients a joy to eat. Here’s a primer to help you maximize your enjoyment with your FoodTrients cookbooks.

What Is a FoodTrient?

Wholesome foods have nutrients our bodies need to maintain optimum function. The recipes in the cookbook and on the website are presented around an organizing principle I call FoodTrients— the powerful nutrients that promote health, wellness and longevity.

FoodTrient Properties

Since the publication of her first anti-aging book, Grace O has identified nine categories of FoodTrients that are essential to age-defying and healthier living. Specifically designed logos represent each category and are indicated with every recipe along with summaries of the recipe’s healthful properties. These benefits show how specific foods, herbs, and spices in the recipes’ healthful properties. These benefits show how specific foods, herbs, and spices in the recipes help keep skin looking younger, prevent the diseases of aging, and increase energy and vitality. By incorporating these properties in your everyday diet, you are more likely to look and feel younger, have more energy, and improve your mood and mind. Who knew that the right foods in sufficient amounts could do so much good for your body? Now we have the science to prove it.

In time, a healthy lifestyle and a diet loaded with FoodTrients could add 10, even 20, years to your life.

A Word About Ingredients

Whole Foods

My recipes are made with whole foods. This means that I have used ingredients that are unprocessed and unrefined to maximize their nutritional benefits. Whenever possible, I buy organic, seasonal foods. I use fresh fruits, vegetables, and spices instead of canned, frozen, or dried varieties; grass-fed beef instead of grain-fed beef; free-range, hormone-free poultry instead of farmed; fresh fish instead of frozen; low fat or nonfat dairy products; and butter and sugar substitutes. Combining preservative-free foods that contain age-defying attributes with delicious, easy-to-make recipes is a sure path to achieving a joyful, sustainable life!

These days, wholesome foods are more available than they were even a few years ago. You can find them in supermarkets, health food and ethnic food stores, food coops, at farmer’s markets, and through Internet searches.

Ingredients

I am constantly creating recipes that are built on the foundations of modern scientific research and ancient knowledge of medicinal herbs and natural ingredients from cultures all around the world. In my cookbook, you will learn the health benefits of many familiar and unfamiliar ingredients and how to incorporate them in easy-to-follow recipes. Some of the more unusual ingredients – bitter melon, acaí juice, chia, hemp milk, jackfruit, moringa and others — may be unfamiliar to you, but my family has used them in our cooking for generations. They are gaining recognition for their flavor and healthful properties even as this book goes to press.

Substitutes

Butter Substitute

When baking or preparing desserts, choosing healthier fats can help reduce saturated fat while still maintaining flavor and texture. Today, many nutrition experts recommend using minimally processed fats such as extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, or avocado oil butter blends in place of heavily processed margarine-style spreads. These healthier fats contain more heart-friendly monounsaturated fats and antioxidant compounds that may help support healthy aging and reduce inflammation.

If you are looking for a healthier substitute for butter, FoodTrients® recommends choosing products made with simpler, more natural ingredients and healthier oils like olive oil or avocado oil. Some of the better options on the market today include avocado oil-based cooking oils and newer olive oil or avocado oil butter blends with shorter ingredient lists and fewer highly processed additives.

At FoodTrients®, we believe ingredient quality matters just as much as moderation. While healthier oil-based alternatives can be excellent choices for everyday cooking and baking, it’s also important to remember that real butter, especially in small amounts, is still a traditional, natural food made from simple ingredients. The goal is not to eliminate fats, but to choose less processed, more wholesome ingredients that support long-term health and healthy agin

Sugar Substitute

Many people turn to sugar substitutes to reduce added sugar and calories in drinks and desserts, but not all sweeteners are created equal. Today, more consumers are moving away from highly processed artificial sweeteners and choosing plant-based options like Monk Fruit and Stevia, which do not significantly raise blood sugar levels. Some newer blends, including Just Like Sugar, are also gaining popularity for their more natural ingredient profiles.

At FoodTrients®, we believe the healthiest approach is getting back to the basics: choosing minimally processed, natural sweeteners and using them in moderation. Small amounts of whole-food sweeteners like fruit, raw honey, or pure maple syrup can also be part of a balanced lifestyle focused on healthy aging and reducing inflammation. The goal is not simply replacing sugar, but reducing the body’s dependence on overly sweet foods altogethe

Testing for Doneness

As a basic rule, food safety experts recommend using an instant-read thermometer—readily available at markets and cookware shops—to check the doneness of poultry and meat. For chicken, the thermometer should read 170º F for white meat and 180º F for dark meat. For beef, cook to 125º F for rare, 145º F for medium-rare, 160º F for medium, and 180–195º F for well-done. To test the doneness of fish, I usually wait until the fish breaks into clean flakes when pressed. Some cooks rely more on other, low-tech methods to test for doneness: for chicken juices to run clear or for the fish to look opaque, for example. Regardless, your goal is to find the right combination of taste and food safety.

Cookware

Certain acidic fruits—cranberries, strawberries, and mango—require nonreactive cookware, such as copper or enamel-coated cast iron, to keep the acid they produce from interacting with the metal. If you have only aluminum cookware, here’s a neat trick my mother taught me: drop a cleaned penny into the pot. The copper in the penny will keep the acid from reacting with the aluminum. Just remember to remove the penny before serving!