What the Heck Is a FOODTRIENT?

You may ask, What the heck is a FoodTrient? I needed to come up with a term to encompass the anti-aging properties of food, but couldn’t really find a good word, so I created one and called them FoodTrients.  Think of them as nutrients that lead to our overall wellness and help us age well. FoodTrients are wholesome foods and spices that have nutrients our bodies need to maintain optimum function stay healthy from the inside out.

I focus on these FoodTrients in each of my recipes.  I start creating a dish only after I find a fruit or grain or spice that has something beneficial to offer my body.  For instance, I know that the spice turmeric has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Turmeric can therefore reduce swelling in the arteries.  Arterial inflammation leads to things like blood clots and strokes.  I don’t want that! So I reach for turmeric.

So I know I want to get turmeric in my diet.  But how?  Unless I eat Indian food every night, I don’t normally come across this spice.  Here’s where I get to work.  I taste, I experiment, I make meal after meal until I hit upon a delicious recipe or two that incorporates this beneficial food.  To see what I came up with for this spice, look at my Turkey in Turmeric Sauce recipe.

Throughout this website and in my cookbooks — The Age GRACEfully Cookbook and my new cookbook, The AGE BEAUTIFULLY Cookbook, you’ll find that I focus on FoodTrients like fiber, isoflavones, curcumin, Omega-3s, and more. I’ll show you the benefits of these incredible anti-aging nutrients and how they lend themselves to 8 powerful, age-defying categories – Antioxidant (Ao), Anti-inflammatory (Ai), Immune Booster (IB), Mind (M), Beauty (B), Disease Preventing (DP), Strength (S), and Weight Loss (WL) — (see the chart below with the icons). And I’ll also introduce you to some of the lesser known FoodTrients such as anthocyanins and anthocyanidins.  (For the sake of simplicity, I’ll use the term anthocyanins.)  These disease-fighting flavonoids are found in red, purple, and blue plants, especially berries, grapes and eggplant.  They have been shown to improve capillary function and inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

So if I need more anthocyanins in my diet, I come up with a recipe for blueberries like my Blueberry Hemp-Milk Smoothie. Hemp is the natural fiber from the stalk of a cannabis plant. Hemp seeds and the hemp milk made from them are beneficial to your skin. The Omega-3 fatty acids in hemp seeds help keep skin hydrated and reduce inflammation. Blueberries have tons of antioxidant power and contain protective anthocyanins.

Each week in my Age Gracefully blog, I’ll go into more detail about the FoodTrients I focus on in my cookbook and offer some delicious recipes for aging gracefully.

I hope you will try my latest cookbook (The AGE BEAUTIFULLY Cookbook), which is full of new age-defying recipes, and please visit the FoodTrients website often. You’ll always find delicious recipes and helpful information focused on wellness, vitality and longevity. Every day, I learn more about how food can help us look and feel younger. Then I create dishes full of flavor and healthy benefits. You won’t believe how good they are! Learn more about the benefits.