Green Kitchen: Five Delicious Ways To Eat Broccoli Stalks

Green Kitchen is a bi-weekly column about nutritious, inexpensive, and ethical food and cooking. It's penned by the lovely Jaime Green.

Okay, so, for how long am I allowed to open my column with some reference to my continuing, undiminished excitement to have a working oven? Because I'm still grateful and a little surprised every time I hear that tick-tick-tick-whoosh of the flame igniting, and I may never lose my renewed appreciation for oven cooking. Mainly the part where I put something in the oven and, as I never could with a pan on a hot plate, walk away. 45 minutes later I have food, and that is glorious.

From El_Matador

More times than not, what I'm pulling out of the oven is a sheet of roasted broccoli. I might be addicted. Broccoli's not the cheapest vegetable around – I can eat three or four dollars worth in one sitting – but the recipe is super easy and delicious, and since when is eating a pound of dark green vegetables a bad thing?

The only problem is all the stalks left behind. They're good enough sliced into discs and roasted along with the florets, but they're not amazing that way, and I'd rather devote baking sheet space to more delectable florets. And so all too often the broccoli stems end up with my eggshells and banana peels, going to compost.

Compost is a very silly – and wasteful, and lazy – fate for perfectly good, edible, healthy vegetable parts. Of course, “edible” isn't exactly high praise, or high incentive for the expenditure of kitchen effort, especially when the couch is so comfy. So here – for you and for me – are five recipes and ideas to keep our broccoli stalks out of the trash, and in our happy mouths and bellies. (They're happy because of the broccoli stalks.

1) Fridge pickles. You can make your own pickling brine, or go even more frugal and reuse the brine from a jar of tasty store-bought pickles. Once in a while I splurge on a jar of Rick's Picks, a delicious NYC brand. (Pickling is very chic among Brooklyn hipsters.) When the pickles are gone there is still plenty of goodness left behind in the brine. Peel your broccoli stalks and slice into spears. Pour the brine into a saucepan and bring to a boil, and wash out the pickle jar. Put the broccoli stalks in the jar, then pour in the brine. (Add some white vinegar and water if there's not enough liquid.) Screw on the lid, and pop that jar in the fridge. After two or three days: pickles!

From Cookthink

2) Crudite. Peel and slice into spears and use along with carrots, peppers, and any other raw veggies you like to dip into hummus, dressing, or your spread of choice. You get all the broccoli flavor without the awkward mouthful (and teeth full) of floret.

3) Slaw. Use a mandoline, grater, food processor with a grater wheel, or careful hands and a sharp knife to shred broccoli stems. Add some shredded carrot and mix with your favorite cole slaw dressing.

4) Stir fry. I think part of the reason I love roasting broccoli is that I can never get stir fried broccoli quite right – it's always either underdone or mushy, never as delicious as at a Chinese restaurant or my mom's house. (Mom! What is your secret!) But broccoli stalks – being flatter and more uniform than florets – are a cinch. They make a delicious stir-fry with Chinese flavors – soy sauce, garlic, and five-spice powder are a favorite combination of mine – and cook to a delicious combination of golden exteriors with creamy insides.

5. Soup. Once your favorite cream of broccoli soup (vegan or dairy) is pureed, no one will know if it started as tiny trees or trunks. Ditto chopped up in a quiche or casserole.

That's what I've got so far. (I've also heard that some cats love broccoli, and so also broccoli stalks, but unfortunately my creature isn't inclined to any such adorable predilections.) Do you use – and enjoy – your broccoli stalks? Are there any other often discarded parts of vegetables (or animals) you've got a great use for?

Green Kitchen: Five Delicious Ways To Eat Broccoli Stalks

Green Kitchen is a bi-weekly column about nutritious, inexpensive, and ethical food and cooking. It's penned by the lovely Jaime Green.

Okay, so, for how long am I allowed to open my column with some reference to my continuing, undiminished excitement to have a working oven? Because I'm still grateful and a little surprised every time I hear that tick-tick-tick-whoosh of the flame igniting, and I may never lose my renewed appreciation for oven cooking. Mainly the part where I put something in the oven and, as I never could with a pan on a hot plate, walk away. 45 minutes later I have food, and that is glorious.

From El_Matador

More times than not, what I'm pulling out of the oven is a sheet of roasted broccoli. I might be addicted. Broccoli's not the cheapest vegetable around – I can eat three or four dollars worth in one sitting – but the recipe is super easy and delicious, and since when is eating a pound of dark green vegetables a bad thing?

The only problem is all the stalks left behind. They're good enough sliced into discs and roasted along with the florets, but they're not amazing that way, and I'd rather devote baking sheet space to more delectable florets. And so all too often the broccoli stems end up with my eggshells and banana peels, going to compost.

Compost is a very silly – and wasteful, and lazy – fate for perfectly good, edible, healthy vegetable parts. Of course, “edible” isn't exactly high praise, or high incentive for the expenditure of kitchen effort, especially when the couch is so comfy. So here – for you and for me – are five recipes and ideas to keep our broccoli stalks out of the trash, and in our happy mouths and bellies. (They're happy because of the broccoli stalks.

1) Fridge pickles. You can make your own pickling brine, or go even more frugal and reuse the brine from a jar of tasty store-bought pickles. Once in a while I splurge on a jar of Rick's Picks, a delicious NYC brand. (Pickling is very chic among Brooklyn hipsters.) When the pickles are gone there is still plenty of goodness left behind in the brine. Peel your broccoli stalks and slice into spears. Pour the brine into a saucepan and bring to a boil, and wash out the pickle jar. Put the broccoli stalks in the jar, then pour in the brine. (Add some white vinegar and water if there's not enough liquid.) Screw on the lid, and pop that jar in the fridge. After two or three days: pickles!

From Cookthink

2) Crudite. Peel and slice into spears and use along with carrots, peppers, and any other raw veggies you like to dip into hummus, dressing, or your spread of choice. You get all the broccoli flavor without the awkward mouthful (and teeth full) of floret.

3) Slaw. Use a mandoline, grater, food processor with a grater wheel, or careful hands and a sharp knife to shred broccoli stems. Add some shredded carrot and mix with your favorite cole slaw dressing.

4) Stir fry. I think part of the reason I love roasting broccoli is that I can never get stir fried broccoli quite right – it's always either underdone or mushy, never as delicious as at a Chinese restaurant or my mom's house. (Mom! What is your secret!) But broccoli stalks – being flatter and more uniform than florets – are a cinch. They make a delicious stir-fry with Chinese flavors – soy sauce, garlic, and five-spice powder are a favorite combination of mine – and cook to a delicious combination of golden exteriors with creamy insides.

5. Soup. Once your favorite cream of broccoli soup (vegan or dairy) is pureed, no one will know if it started as tiny trees or trunks. Ditto chopped up in a quiche or casserole.

That's what I've got so far. (I've also heard that some cats love broccoli, and so also broccoli stalks, but unfortunately my creature isn't inclined to any such adorable predilections.) Do you use – and enjoy – your broccoli stalks? Are there any other often discarded parts of vegetables (or animals) you've got a great use for?

KYPHOPLASTY FOR CANCER VERTEBRAL COMPRESSION FRACTURE

Kyphoplasty should be considered an early treatment option for patients with cancer who have symptomatic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs), conclude researchers reporting the first randomized trial in such a patient population.
The results come from the Cancer Patient Fracture Evaluation (CAFE) study, published online February 17 in the Lancet Oncology.
However, an accompanying editorial points out that there are a lot of unanswered questions, and raises the possibility that the benefit seen could be largely a placebo effect.
The trial was funded by Medtronic Spine, which acquired Kyphon, the company that developed the kyphoplasty procedure to improve upon vertebroplasty. Both involve injecting bone cement between cracked vertebrae, but with kyphoplasty, a balloon is first inserted and inflated to increase the space inside the collapsed bone.
The study found that cancer patients with VCFs who underwent kyphoplasty had significantly less pain and disability and significantly better function and quality of life than patients who were treated nonsurgically with standard therapy, including analgesics and bed rest.
"With the results of this new randomized study, there is now clinical evidence of a treatment option for spinal factures in cancer patients," principal investigator James Berenson, MD, from the Institute for Myeloma and Bone Cancer Research in West Hollywood, California, said in a statement.
Previous studies have found that VCFs occur in about 24% of patients with multiple myeloma, 14% with breast cancer, 8% with lung cancer, and 6% with prostate cancer, the authors note.
Could it Be a Placebo Effect?
There are several limitations of the study, including the fact that the randomization was only for 1 month, according to the editorialists.
"This trial leaves unanswered important questions regarding vertebral augmentation in patients with cancer," write David Schiff, MD, and Mary Jensen, MD, from the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville.
They wonder if vertebroplasty would provide similar benefits in this group of patients, and point out that it costs about a third of what kyphoplasty costs.
"There are no good comparative data of vertebroplasty vs kyphoplasty in malignant VCF," Dr. Schiff told Medscape Medical News.
The editorialists also note that the trial was not blinded, and wonder if the benefit of kyphoplasty could be "primarily a placebo effect."
"I find it hard to believe that it could be a placebo effect," Dr. Berenson responded. "The effects are pretty dramatic," he toldMedscape Medical News. Many of these cancer patients were bed-ridden, yet after the kyphoplasty they were walking and moving around, he said.
There was a significant improvement in function and quality of life, and a significant reduction in disability and in the use of analgesic medications, he pointed out.
Dr. Berenson also explained that he believes it would be unethical to conduct a blinded trial in cancer patients. It was for these reasons that the trial was designed to offer cancer patients who were randomized to the control group a chance to crossover after a month of standard nonsurgical treatment.
Editorialist Dr. Schiff, who is the Harrison Distinguished Professor at the Neuro-Oncology Center at the University of Virginia, toldMedscape Medical News that he agrees with Dr. Berenson "that the benefit of kyphoplasty in CAFE is a large effect."
"However, it would be remiss not to point out that in osteoporotic VCFs, vertebroplasty beats best medical care (unblinded) but does not beat injection with anesthetic but no bone cement," he continued.
Dr. Schiff was referring to 2 trials published in 2009 (N Engl J Med. 2009;361:557-568 and 569-579) that showed a similar benefit from vertebroplasty and sham procedures in patients with osteoporotic spinal fractures. At the time, an accompanying editorial (N Engl J Med. 2009;361:619-621) predicted that those results "may change vertebroplasty from a procedure that is virtually always considered to be successful to one that is considered no better than placebo."
With that in mind, Dr. Schiff commented on the CAFE study: "Thus, without a control arm of injection without bone cement, it is not impossible that the beneficial effect of kyphoplasty in cancer-related VCF could be due in large part to placebo effect."
"One could design a placebo-controlled study that at some defined time point allowed individual patients to be unblended and to crossover to kyphoplasty if originally randomized to the placebo control arm and not experiencing symptom improvement," Dr. Schiff suggested, adding that "this would circumvent ethical concerns."
Benefits From Kyphoplasty
CAFE was an international study conducted in 134 cancer patients who had 1 to 3 painful VCFs. Most of the patients had multiple myeloma or breast cancer, but a few had lung, prostate, or other cancers.
All participants could receive various nonsurgical treatments, including analgesics, bed rest, bracing, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, walking aids, radiation, and other antitumor therapy, at the discretion of the treating physician. Patients with concurrent osteoporosis or bone metastasis could also receive treatment with calcium and vitamin D supplements and antiresorptive or anabolic agents, as necessary.
Approximately half of the patients (n = 68) underwent kyphoplasty; the remainder (n = 60) acted as the control group.
A month later, there were significant differences on several measures between the patients who underwent kyphoplasty and those who did not.
The primary end point was change after 1 month in the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ) score, which is validated for back-specific physical functioning. Patients who underwent kyphoplasty had a significantly greater change in RDQ score from baseline to 1 month (mean of 17.6 to 9.1; P < .0001) than those who did not (mean of 18.2 to 18.0; P = .83).
There was also a "marked reduction in back pain" and a significant reduction in the use of analgesics (P = .001). Of the patients who were randomized to kyphoplasty, 94% reported using analgesics at baseline, but only 52% were still using them a month after the procedure; there was little change in the control group (85% vs 82%).
Crossover After 1 Month
After a month in the trial, patients in the control group were given a chance to crossover and undergo kyphoplasty; 34 of 52 patients chose to do so. The remaining 18 patients continued with nonsurgical management.
Assessment at 6 months showed that the original kyphoplasty group and the crossover group both had significantly improved RDQ scores, whereas the patients who remained in the control group did not.
For both groups of patients who underwent kyphoplasty, the improvements seen were generally maintained until the final assessment at 12 months, the researchers note.
"Because of the limited improvement in the control group, the results of this study suggest that balloon kyphoplasty should be considered as an early treatment option for patients with cancer who have symptomatic VCFs," they conclude.
Reducing the use of pain medications decreases the risk for drug-related adverse effects and potential for interactions, and improving function reduces the risk for complications related to being bed-ridden, such as deep vein thrombosis, pneumonia, and decubitus ulcers, the researchers point out.
"Thus, a procedure that effectively treats VCFs for patients with cancer might confer clinical and quality-of-life benefits beyond treatment of the fracture itself," they add.
The CAFE study was funded by Medtronic Spine. Dr. Berenson and several coauthors report receiving consulting fees and research funding from Medtronic, and 2 coauthors are employees of the company. Dr. Schiff reports receiving consultancy fees and acting on the advisory board for Genentech. Dr. Jensen reports receiving consultancy fees from Kuros Biotechnology.
Lancet Oncol. Published online February 17, 2011.

5 Factors Increase Heart Disease Risk

5 Factors Increase Heart Disease Risk - You often to sport, avoid high cholesterol, fat, avoid smoking and other danger habit, are you will far from heart disease?, exactly have any other factor that can trigger and increase heart disease risk.

1. Stress in work place
People with high stress job, and he can't avoid the stress, this people have 40% high of stroke and heart disease risk.

2. Skin Disease
Skin diseases such as psoriasis with the appearance of reddened and scaly skin can trigger inflammation in the body. Thus, this chronic disease can increase your chances of cardiovascular disease.

3. Sleep deprivation

5 hours for Night sleep or less, it can doubles the risk of heart attack, even in healthy people.

4. Gum Disease

People who have a chronic bacterial infection of the gums Periodontal nearly twice as likely to suffer a fatal heart attack than those who do not have this disease.

5. Pregnancy Complications

Symptoms of preeclampsia with blood pressure and protein in urine high likelihood of heart attacks doubled in the future. In fact, gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) increases this risk by 70 percent.