Watkins Products Monthly Customer Newsletter with Tips and Recipes
March 2005

Go Green!

Italian Wedding Soup Meatballs: 1 pound/454 g lean ground turkey or ground beef 1 egg 3 tbsp/45 g grated Parmesan cheese 1 tbsp/15 mL Watkins Beef Soup 2 tsp/10 mL Watkins Italian Seasoning 1 tsp/5 mL Watkins Parsley Broth Base: 1/2 cup/125 mL chopped onion 1/2 cup/125 mL chopped celery 1/2 cup/125 mL chopped carrots 2 tsp/10 mL Watkins Onion Liquid Spice 1/3 cup/80 mL Watkins Chicken Soup 6 cups/1.5 L water 2 tbsp/30 mL acini di pepe or other very small pasta 1 package (10 oz/283 g) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry Cooking Directions Meatballs:  Combine ingredients in order given; shape into small meatballs, using 1 tsp/5 mL of mixture for each meatball. Set aside. Broth Base: In large Dutch oven, cook onion, celery, and carrots in Liquid Spice until soft. Add soup base and water; bring to a boil. Drop meatballs into boiling soup. Add pasta and spinach, simmer 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings, if necessary. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.  Makes 8 servings.

Spinach - Popeye had it right!

• Bone Development - Just half a cup of fresh spinach will provide the daily recommended dose of vitamin K, essential for good bone development.
• Heart Protection - Just one cup of fresh spinach will provide about 50% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin A and 11% of vitamin C. These vitamins are antioxidants and can help fight off "free radicals" which damage healthy cells in your body and can lead to many illnesses including heart disease and cancer. Vitamin C is water-soluble and vitamin A is fat-soluble. When these vitamins work together as a team, they do a great job of reducing your chances of cholesterol - or plaque - sticking to the walls of your blood vessels, which can lead to clogged arteries - which as we all know, increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.
• Spinach is a good source of folate and magnesium. Eating foods high in folate is important because folate helps your body change a potentially harmful chemical called homocysteine into safe molecules. If homocysteine levels in your body get too high, your risk of heart attack and stroke increase. Magnesium is an important nutrient to include in your diet because it can help lower high blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart disease.
• Colon Cancer - The vitamin C and beta-carotene content in spinach helps fight free radicals from damaging the cells of your colon. The folate you get when you eat this dark green leafy vegetable helps protect the DNA in your cells and prevents colon cell mutation even if they’re exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. Significant research has shown that people who eat foods high in vitamin C, beta-carotene and folate reduce their risk of developing colon cancer compared to those who don’t.
• Up Your Iron - Menstruating, pregnant or lactating woman as well as children and adolescents need a lot of iron. And increasing the spinach content in your meals is a natural way to get the boost you need. Some people eat more red meat in an effort to raise their iron level. But what spinach has over meat is that it provides you more iron for a lot less calories and is completely fat-free. Having a sufficient amount of iron in your blood stream is important because if it’s too low the hemoglobin component of your blood has a hard time delivering oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body.

  Return to Your "Roots" and head back to the Cabbage Patch!

• Cancer Protection - Cabbage is high in vitamin C so, like spinach, it acts as an antioxidant when it’s broken down in your body.  A case study published in the September 9, 2003 edition of Cancer Research revealed that women who ate more Brassica family vegetables—which include cabbage, kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts and collard greens—significantly lowered their chances of developing breast cancer.

  Cabbage Salad 4 cups/1 liter finely shredded cabbage 1/3 cup/80 mL cider vinegar 1/4 cup/60 mL chopped green pepper 3 tbsp/45 mL Watkins Original Grapeseed Oil 1 tbsp/15 mL chopped pimento 1 tbsp/15 mL sugar, more if desired 1 tbsp/15 mL Watkins Coleslaw Seasoning Watkins Black Pepper, to taste Combine all ingredients and mix well. Cover and refrigerate 3 hours. Drain salad before serving.  Makes 6 servings.

• Researchers discovered that high urinary levels of isothiocyanates, a compound found in Brassica vegetables, was associated with lowered breast cancer risk. Women who ate the most Brassica vegetables had a 45% lower risk of developing breast cancer compared to those women who ate less!
• Recent research conducted at the Institute for Food Research in the United Kingdom discovered that eating cabbage can also help prevent colon cancer. When you digest cabbage, isothiocyanates get released in your system. These compounds help detoxify carcinogens and help kill human tumour cells. Tumours grow due to cell replication (when cells split and divide). If anything interferes with this process, cell replication stops and the damaged cells die. A study published in the July 2004 issue of Carcinogenesis says isothiocyanates disrupt the replication process in colon cancer cells.
• Helps Heal Ulcers - A wide variety of research has been conducted on the benefits of drinking raw cabbage juice in the treatment of peptic ulcers. It has been discovered that people with peptic ulcers who drink 1 litre of cabbage juice over the course of a day—for approximately 10 days— can speed up the healing of their ulcers. Researchers believe that the high content of the amino acid glutamine present in cabbage benefit cells, which line the stomach and small intestine. 

  Dark leafy green vegetables can help prevent cataracts and age-related macular degeneration -

• Vitamin manufacturers often add the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin to their products, but until now there has been no biochemical evidence to support the claim that these substances help protect the eyes.   Results from laboratory experiments on human lens cells at Ohio State University showed that these important antioxidants found in plants such as kale, spinach and collard greens, helped to protect the cells from exposure to ultraviolet light – a leading cause of cataract formation.  The researchers compared the effects of these antioxidants to vitamin E, an antioxidant also thought to reduce the onset of eye diseases.  Lutein and zeaxanthin were nearly 10 times more powerful than vitamin E in protecting the cells from UV-induced damage.  Cataracts are very common. They usually begin to appear after age 50; about half of people aged 75 are affected by the condition which causes the lens of the eyes to cloud over, making it difficult or nearly impossible to see. Current treatment is expensive and involves a surgical procedure.  "Along with the many environmental, lifestyle and genetic risk factors associated with cataracts, exposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight and oxidative stress appear to be the most relevant in this disease," says Joshua Bomser a study co-author. said. "Our results are the first to provide physical evidence suggesting that lutein and zeaxanthin decrease damage caused by ultraviolet radiation."  The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Nutrition. ... So be sure to eat your greens and wear your sunglasses!

  Green tea extract could fight cancer -

• A study on bladder cancer cell lines showed that green tea extract has potential as an anti-cancer agent, proving for the first time that it is able to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.  The study, published in the Feb. 15, 2005 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Cancer Research, also uncovered more about how green tea extract works to counteract the development of cancer, said JianYu Rao, a Jonsson Cancer Center member, an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and the study's senior author.  "Our study adds a new dimension in understanding the mechanisms of green tea extract," Rao said. "If we knew exactly how it works to inhibit the development of cancer, we could figure out more precisely which bladder cancer patients might benefit from taking it."  Numerous epidemiologic and animal studies have suggested that green tea extract provides strong anti-cancer effects in several human cancers, including bladder cancer. It has been shown to induce death in cancer cells, as well as inhibiting the development of an independent blood supply that cancers develop so they can grow and spread.  In the UCLA study scientists were able to show that green tea extract interrupts a process that is crucial in allowing bladder cancer to become invasive and spread to other areas of the body."  In effect, the green tea extract may keep the cancer cells confined and localized, where they are easier to treat and the prognosis is better," Rao said. "Cancer cells are invasive and green tea extract interrupts the invasive process of the cancer."  Rao cautioned that his study was conducted in a carefully controlled environment and that more research needs to be done to discover exactly how green tea extract functions as a cancer fighter. The next phase of his research will analyze urine from bladder cancer patients to determine which subset of patients would benefit most from taking green tea extract.

  "Green" Home Care Products - do more than protect the environment!

• Studies have shown that over long - and short - periods of time, harsh "industrial" chemicals can do great harm to people - even the unborn!  A recent study actually showed that a chemical similar to rocket fuel has shown up in breast milk!  Women who work in the home rather than going out to a traditional "job" stand a much higher risk of developing many kinds of cancer - why?  It's thought that they spend more time using, smelling and absorbing chemicals than women who work outside the home, and don't have the time or energy to make their home "spotless".
• We all remember the fight to get lead out of household paints because of the children who were ingesting it by chewing on painted items like crib rails, etc.  Today no one doubts the seriousness of that study, but we still continue to use so many other dangerous substances!   For example, ammonia, chlorine, toluene, benzene, etc. without giving it a second thought! 
• Are you ready to put your family's health at risk by using chemicals that may lead to long term damage like cancer or even death?  Watkins home care and laundry products are designed not only with the environment in mind, but with YOUR HEALTH in mind!  Learn more about how your home can become totally "green"!