Hyperfoods: What to eat to boost your health – plus two anti-cancer recipes

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Reasearch shows some foods have disease beating properties (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

You have probably heard of superfoods (nutritionally dense foods that are good for your health), but what about hyperfoods?

This is the term coined by researchers at Imperial College London for ingredients that have been identified as having disease-beating molecules.

Experts at the university tested 7,962 biologically active compounds from dietary sources and found 110 molecules appeared to have anti-cancer properties.

Not only that but, in the advent of Covid-19, they are now looking into foods that have anti-viral properties.

‘Our diet is extremely complex,’ says Dr Kirill Veselkov, assistant professor at Imperial College London.

‘We swallow thousands of biologically active molecules every day that influence our health by interacting with each other.

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Up to 40 per cent of cancers are preventable by dietary and lifestyle changes and lots of everyday ingredients – such as carrots, cabbage and grapes – were found to have cancer beating molecules.

Tea was found to have the largest number of anti-cancer molecules. This time we specifically looked for anti-cancer properties but, as part of our Covid project with Vodaphone, we are now looking at anti-viral properties in foods.

There are a lot of studies on drug treatments and vaccines for coronavirus at the moment, but there are only a few looking at nutrition.’

The university teamed up with chef Jozef Youssef from Kitchen Theory to create a range of ways to use the ingredients in everyday dishes and together they have launched a Hyperfoods Cookbook.

It includes everything from pancakes to pasta in simple and cost-effective recipes, and we’ve got two delicious ideas for you to try over the page.

Antiviral diet recipes for good health

Kimchi pancakes with kimchi

The South Korean specialty has a lot of health benefits

Kimchi ingredients

■ 900g savoy cabbage
■ 200g carrot
■ 100g celery
■ 50g ginger
■ 50g garlic
■ 25g gochujang
■ 100g orange juice
■ 50g lemon juice
■ 10g dill
■ 10g fish sauce
■ 10g sea salt

Method

1. Wash and chop the cabbage.
2. Mix the sea salt with the cabbage, place in a pot or large bowl and press
   overnight.
3. Rinse the excess salt off the cabbage and place in a mixing bowl.
4. Chop the remaining vegetables and mix with cabbage.
5. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
6. Put the kimchi mix into mason jars, keeping the vegetables submerged in the liquid. Ferment the kimchi at room temperature for four days to a week (this will depend on the temperature of the room).

Kimchi pancake ingredients

■ 150g kimchi, finely chopped
■ 75g wheat flour
■ 15g cornstarch
■ 70g cold water
■ 1 egg
■ 20g scallions (spring onion)
■ 10g sesame

Method

1. Mix the kimchi, water, flour, egg and starch.
2. Fry thin pancakes in a hot, oiled pan, flipping it halfway through the cooking process.
3. Top with roasted sesame seeds and chopped scallions.

Ingredients with anti-cancer molecules

Carrot (12), Celery (12), Dill (12), Orange (10), Savoy cabbage (8), Soy bean (8), Lemon (7), Corn (6), Garlic (5), Ginger (4), Chilli (4), Onion (4), Wheat (2), Sesame (2)

Carrots are surprisingly packed with anti-cancer molecules (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)

Tea and citrus semifreddo

This semifreddo is more than just a delicious dessert

Ingredients

■ 10g black tea
■ 10g orange zest
■ 10g lemon zest
■ 10g lime zest
■ 10g mandarin orange zest
■ 1g cloves
■ 25g walnuts
■ 25g dark chocolate
■ 50g sugar
■ 300ml whipping cream
■ 2 medium eggs

Method

1. Bring the cream to a simmer.
2. Add the tea, citrus zest and cloves and leave the mixture to cool in the fridge overnight.
3. Pass the cream through a fine sieve. Place in the fridge for use in step 7.
4. In a small pan, bring the sugar and water to boil.
5. In a stand mixer, start whipping the eggs on a medium speed.
6. Once the sugar and water mixture reaches 120ºC, pour it into the mixing bowl and continue whipping, gradually reducing the speed as the mixture cools.
7. Whip the cream and fold it into the egg mixture above.
8. Pour the mixture into a mould lined with parchment, or a silicone mould. Freeze overnight.
9. Unmould the semifreddo about 5-10 minutes before serving.
10. Garnish with dark chocolate shavings, walnuts and more citrus zest.

Ingredients with anti-cancer molecules

Tea (17), Orange (10), Cloves (7), Lemon (lime) (7), Mandarin (5), Walnuts (4), Chocolate (4)

Big on flavour, cloves also contain cancer-beating molecules (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)

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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/21/hyperfoods-anti-cancer-science-kimchi-tea-orange-recipes-13453182/