Turn ingredients into ‘superfoods’, thanks to James Wong

to Eat Better

For the carb-conscious, pasta can be a big red flag but Wong has a clever workaround: “Chilling and reheating cooked pasta converts its carbs into a form that is less easy for our bodies to absorb.

“Reheating cooked and cooled pasta [also reduces] the rise in blood sugar by 50 per cent, according to one small pilot trial run by the University of Surrey.”

Wound your veg

Phytonutrients are a substance found in certain plants which are believed to prevent diseases and be beneficial to our health.

If you want to boost the levels of phytonutrients in your food, Wong recommends a process food scientists refer to as ‘wounding’: “Many of the protective antioxidant compounds in leaves are generated at the sites of injury, helping shield their tissues from further damage.

“To non-geeks, this is also known as slicing or tearing, just as you would do when preparing a salad. Pop cut lettuce or leaf endive in a sealed container in the fridge overnight to give these chemical reactions time to happen and their polyphenol levels can jump up to 50 per cent, according to the University of Pisa in Italy.”

If you can handle the heat, try adding some chilli to your diet. Wong refers to “a fascinating trial by the University of Tasmania”, which found that “adding chillies to people’s everyday diet, in the form of basic chilli sauce, could significantly reduce their spikes of insulin after a meal.”

Keep tomatoes out of the fridge

Not only does storing tomatoes in the fridge cause them to lose their flavour, but it can also reduce the amount of lycopene (a phytochemical with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties) they contain.

To combat this, Wong recommends storing your tomatoes at room temperature: “Even once detached from the plant, tomato fruit will continue to ripen, becoming sweeter, more aromatic, redder and, as a consequence, much higher in lycopene.

“In fact, tomatoes can almost double their lycopene levels if stored at room temperature for a week or two according to a Japanese-Indonesian research team. However, the chemical reactions responsible for this transformation will not occur below 10C.”

Pick the right apple

Not all apples are created equal. Wong says some apple varieties can contain varying antioxidant levels despite being the same product: “Pick a Red Delicious apple over an

Potatoes can also be a rich source of phytonutrients, particularly smaller ones: “Up to 50 per cent of polyphenols in potatoes come from their fibre-rich skin. The smaller the spud, the more skin they have, which means that by simply picking new potatoes over giant types will get more phytonutrients.”

... and slice into thin pieces

Once you’ve picked out your small potatoes, Wong recommends slicing them into thin pieces: “By simply slicing them into 5mm-thick pieces and bunging them in the fridge, this combination of mechanical damage to the cells and cold can trigger them into almost doubling their antioxidants in just two days.

“This does require quite a lot of forward planning, but is easy to do if you have the time, and comes with a pretty big potential benefit.”

Microwave your kale

Already a well known superfood, kale gets even healthier when steamed or microwaved first, says Wong: “Steam of microwave kale and its antioxidant and polyphenol levels jump 40 per cent.”

Stick your funghi on the windowsill

Mushrooms have the potential to be an excellent source of vitamin D, Wong explains, if you know what you’re doing: “Doing one simple thing to your shop-brought fresh mushrooms can transform them from containing virtually zero vitamin D to one of nature’s richest food sources.

“Popped on a sunny windowsill, the mushrooms (which commercially are grown in near total darkness) will react to the UV light, churning out loads more of antioxidant vitamin to defend themselves from damage from solar radiation.”

How to Eat Better: How to Shop, Store and Cook to Make Any Food a ‘Superfood’, by James Wong (Mitchell Beazley, £20)