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Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club

The Olive Oil Hunter News #96

Easy Pizza Dough for Personal Pies Recipe, Spotlight on Pizza, White versus Wheat Flour, Why Thinking is Exhausting and Why Daily Exercise is Not

Who doesn’t love pizza? The problem is that it’s often saddled with the “unhealthy” label. But I’m here to tell you that homemade pizza can be delicious and nutritious. It all depends on the ingredients, and by that I of course mean the toppings! And I have some more food for thought: Why thinking is exhausting and why daily exercise nuggets are not (they’re actually invigorating!).

Easy Pizza Dough for Personal Pies

  • Easy Pizza Dough for Personal Pies Easy Pizza Dough for Personal Pies

    Using bread flour is the secret for crusty pizza—one that holds up to a lot of sauce and toppings! You can make two large rounds from this dough, but making individual pizzas is more fun. Note: If you’re able to find instant yeast, you can streamline the technique even further, as it can be mixed with the other dry ingredients for a few seconds before adding the water and oil, before proceeding with the kneading as described. 

    Ingredients

    • 1 1/2 cups warm water, about 110-115°F, plus more as needed
    • 1 teaspoon sugar
    • 2 1/4 teaspoons (or one envelope) active dry yeast
    • 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
    • 4 cups bread flour, plus more as needed 
    • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

    Directions

    Step 1

    Place the water, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. Turn it on for a few seconds to mix and then wait 5 minutes for the yeast to bubble up. 

    Step 2

    With the mixer on the lowest setting, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the salt, and the flour to the bowl. Once a doughy mass forms, slowly raise the speed and continue kneading until the dough ball is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. If the dough feels too dry, add more water, a scant tablespoon at a time. If too wet, add more flour, a scant tablespoon at a time.

    Step 3

    Lift the dough out of the bowl, remove the dough hook, and pour in the last tablespoon of olive oil, coating the bowl thoroughly. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise for about 60 minutes or so (depending on how warm your kitchen is) until double in size and spongy.

    Step 4

    Preheat your oven to 450° or 500°F, depending on how high it goes. Gently transfer the dough from the bowl to a large piece of parchment paper. Use a knife or pastry cutter to cut the dough into quarters. Transfer three of the pieces onto their own sheets of parchment. If the dough is sticky, first sprinkle the parchment paper with flour or some cornmeal. One piece at a time, stretch out the dough with your hands, rotating it by quarter turns until it reaches your desired thickness. The shape—round, rectangle, or oblong—is up to you, but keep a slight lip all along the perimeter. Transfer the pizzas to large baking sheets (you should be able to fit two per sheet). Use scissors to trim the parchment to within two inches of the dough.

    Step 5

    Working in batches as needed based on your oven capacity, bake the pizzas for 8 minutes. Carefully take them out of the oven, add your desired toppings, and return to the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes or until bubbly.

     Yields 4 individual pizzas

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Perfectly Petite Pork Tenderloin

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

“Healthify” Your Pizza

One of the things I love most about making individual pizzas is that everyone can customize their pie. I like to “healthify” my pizza with loads of veggies, like onions, mushrooms, Brussels sprout halves, and broccoli rabe. Cherry tomatoes are a fun addition when there’s no time to make sauce (or even in addition to it). Topping your pizza right as it comes out of the oven with arugula and a drizzle of olive oil gives it a fresh and slightly peppery finish. Of course, almost any ethnic dish that you’d eat with bread, from chicken tikka marsala to shish kebab, can top your pizza for a delicious twist.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: Meat Safety: Temperature is Everything

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

White versus Wheat Flour

Another trick to making pizza good for you is replacing about 25 percent of the white flour with whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour. Because these flours are the least processed, they retain fiber and nutrients. At the other extreme is 00 pizza flour. It’s been getting more attention lately as Italian brands become more readily available (there’s also 00 flour for pasta, and they’re not interchangeable). It has the silkiest, smoothest texture of all flours and, consequently, retains virtually no fiber. Since, as always, the proof is in the pudding, you might do your own taste test to see the difference and even experiment by using 00 along with some whole wheat flour.

For Your Best Health: Rethinking Moderate Drinking

For Your Best Health

Don’t overthink it!

New research has found that too much mental effort can be as exhausting as physical labor. What’s more, it can cause toxin by-products to build up in the brain (fortunately, they can be recycled during down time). 

Study co-author Mathias Pessiglione, PhD, of Pitié-Salpêtrière University in Paris, France, explains: “Our findings show that cognitive work results in a true functional alteration—accumulation of noxious substances—so fatigue would indeed be a signal that makes us stop working…to preserve the integrity of brain functioning.”

To better understand what mental fatigue really is, Dr. Pessiglione and his colleagues used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to monitor brain chemistry over the course of a workday. They looked at two groups of people: those who needed to think hard and those who had relatively easier cognitive tasks.

They saw signs of fatigue only in the group doing hard thinking. Those participants also had higher levels of glutamate in synapses of the brain’s prefrontal cortex. This supports the notion that glutamate accumulation makes further activation of the prefrontal cortex more costly, meaning that cognitive control is more difficult after a mentally tough workday.

Is there some way around this limitation of our brain’s ability to think hard? “Not really, I’m afraid,” Dr. Pessiglione says. “I would employ good old recipes: Rest and sleep! There is good evidence that glutamate is eliminated from synapses during sleep.” He also advises people to avoid making important decisions when they’re tired.

Fitness Flash: The Dangers of Too Much Sitting

Fitness Flash

Weight Training in Daily Spurts

We all know how important weight, or resistance, training is—having strong muscles is essential to staying self-sufficient, especially as we get older. But you may have a hard time getting enthused about going to the gym for heavy-duty pumping iron sessions. New research from Australia’s Edith Cowan University (ECU) found that small amounts of daily activity could well be the most beneficial approach for muscle strength.

For their study, researchers from ECU in collaboration with Niigata University and Nishi Kyushu University in Japan had three groups of participants perform an arm resistance exercise (eccentric bicep contractions) using a weight training machine, and then the researchers measured and compared changes in muscle strength and muscle thickness. 

Each group followed a different training schedule across the four weeks of the study. Two groups performed 30 contractions per week, with one group doing six contractions a day for five days a week (the 6×5 group), while the other crammed all 30 into a single day, once a week (the 30×1 group). The third group only performed six contractions on just one day each week.

After four weeks, the group doing six contractions once a week did not show any changes in muscle strength or muscle thickness. The group doing 30 contractions in a single day did not show any increase in muscle strength, though they had a slight increase in muscle size. The 6×5 group saw an increase of greater than 10 percent in muscle strength along with a slight increase in muscle size.

ECU Exercise and Sports Science Professor Ken Nosaka, PhD, says this and other studies suggest very manageable amounts of exercise done regularly can have a real effect on strength. “People think they have to do a lengthy session of resistance training in the gym, but that’s not the case. Just lowering a heavy dumbbell slowly once six times a day is enough. We only used the bicep curl exercise in this study, but we believe this would be the case for other muscles also, at least to some extent,” explains Dr. Nosaka, adding, “Muscle strength is important to our health. This could help prevent a decrease in muscle mass and strength with ageing. A decrease in muscle mass is a cause of many chronic disease, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, dementia, plus musculoskeletal problems such as osteoporosis.”

He stresses that it’s also important to include rest in an exercise regimen. “In this study, the 6×5 group had two days off per week,” he points out. “Muscle adaptions occur when we are resting; if someone was able to somehow train 24 hours a day, there would actually be no improvement at all. Muscles need rest to improve their strength and their muscle mass, but muscles appear to like to be stimulated more frequently.”

Dr. Nosaka also believes that there needs to be more emphasis on making exercise a daily activity, rather than hitting a weekly minute goal. “If you’re just going to the gym once a week, it’s not as effective as doing a bit of exercise every day at home,” he says. The study was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.

Fitness Flash: The Dangers of Too Much Sitting

A New and Exciting Health Event

Is Your Immune System in Prime Shape?

While we tend to think of the body’s immune system as our first defense against the flu and other viruses, it’s responsible for so much more. That’s why I’m excited to share news about a brand-new online series called The Immunity Solution led by Austin Perlmutter, MD, the internationally recognized educator on the neurobiology of mood and decision-making, and Jeffrey Bland, PhD, the integrative health pioneer.

These well-respected experts know that an imbalance in your immune system can hurt your health, sap your energy, and bring down your mood.  It’s also been linked to poor gut health, painful joints, brain fog, skin problems, and more. But they also know that there’s a lot you can do to improve immunity…and they’ve put together a new 12-episode event to show you how.

Joining Drs. Bland and Perlmutter for this groundbreaking new series are leading experts on health, nutrition, and the immune system. You’ll learn how to beat fatigue and increase energy, improve mood, and optimize your health so that you feel great, all by making some simple diet and lifestyle changes. 

Consider this your personal invitation to attend this incredible event for FREE!

From October 12 to 23 at absolutely no cost to you, you will have the opportunity to learn about the latest discoveries and breakthroughs in immunity and get powerful tools that will work fast and last for the rest of your life. Here are just a few of the featured experts and topics in the 12-episode series:

  • Dr. David Perlmutter: The Brain Immune Connection
  • Dr. Daniel Amen: Mental Health in the Modern Day
  • Dr. Uma Naidoo: Food and Mood Connection
  • Dr. Mark Hyman: The Longevity Immunity Connection 
  • Dr. Austin Perlmutter: Nature, Sleep, Exercise
  • Dr. Jeffrey Bland: Food, Nutrients, Supplements, and Energy Immune Connection
  • JJ Virgin: Women’s Health and Immunity
  • Dr. Tom O’Bryan: The Incredible Gut-Immune Connection
  • Dr. Anna Cabeca: Inflammation: What Is It? And Why Care?

To learn more about this unique series hosted by Dr. Austin Perlmutter and Dr. Jeffrey Bland, go to The Immunity Solution.

Get More Recipes In Your Inbox!

Easy Pizza Dough for Personal Pies

Using bread flour is the secret for crusty pizza—one that holds up to a lot of sauce and toppings! You can make two large rounds from this dough, but making individual pizzas is more fun. Note: If you’re able to find instant yeast, you can streamline the technique even further, as it can be mixed with the other dry ingredients for a few seconds before adding the water and oil, before proceeding with the kneading as described. 

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water, about 110-115°F, plus more as needed
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons (or one envelope) active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
  • 4 cups bread flour, plus more as needed 
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Directions

Step 1

Place the water, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. Turn it on for a few seconds to mix and then wait 5 minutes for the yeast to bubble up. 

Step 2

With the mixer on the lowest setting, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the salt, and the flour to the bowl. Once a doughy mass forms, slowly raise the speed and continue kneading until the dough ball is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. If the dough feels too dry, add more water, a scant tablespoon at a time. If too wet, add more flour, a scant tablespoon at a time.

Step 3

Lift the dough out of the bowl, remove the dough hook, and pour in the last tablespoon of olive oil, coating the bowl thoroughly. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise for about 60 minutes or so (depending on how warm your kitchen is) until double in size and spongy.

Step 4

Preheat your oven to 450° or 500°F, depending on how high it goes. Gently transfer the dough from the bowl to a large piece of parchment paper. Use a knife or pastry cutter to cut the dough into quarters. Transfer three of the pieces onto their own sheets of parchment. If the dough is sticky, first sprinkle the parchment paper with flour or some cornmeal. One piece at a time, stretch out the dough with your hands, rotating it by quarter turns until it reaches your desired thickness. The shape—round, rectangle, or oblong—is up to you, but keep a slight lip all along the perimeter. Transfer the pizzas to large baking sheets (you should be able to fit two per sheet). Use scissors to trim the parchment to within two inches of the dough.

Step 5

Working in batches as needed based on your oven capacity, bake the pizzas for 8 minutes. Carefully take them out of the oven, add your desired toppings, and return to the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes or until bubbly.

 Yields 4 individual pizzas

The Olive Oil Hunter News #95

Dark Chocolate Crème Recipe, Spotlight on Dark Chocolate, Easier Melting, Well-being and Online Art Viewing Plus Activities for a Sharper Brain

You might not yet think of dark chocolate and olive oil as the perfect pairing, but this week’s recipe is guaranteed to change your mind. Of course, it tastes delicious—that’s a given for every Olive Oil Hunter Newsletter dish. But it also has a silky mousse-like “mouth feel” with a fraction of the saturated fat of heavy cream and a double dose of polyphenols from the olive oil and the chocolate. It’s an experience to savor. Speaking of experiences, two studies, one on mood and the other on cognitive function, found that very specific actions can give you needed boosts in both areas. Count me in!

Chocolate Crème

  • Chocolate Creme Chocolate Crème

    This pot-de-crème-inspired chocolate dessert is simplicity itself, rich and light at the same time. Enjoy it as is or as the filling for an 8-inch tart—a pistachio crust is sensational. 

    Ingredients

    • 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate
    • 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
    • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

    Directions

    Step 1

    Place the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Heat the half-and-half to a simmer and immediately pour it over the chocolate. Wait 5 minutes and then stir until the chocolate is fully melted.  

    Step 2

    Stir in the olive oil until well-blended.

    Step 3

    Pour into four small dessert bowls or coupe glasses and refrigerate until firm, from 4 hours to overnight.

    Yields 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Choosing Dark Chocolate

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Choosing Dark Chocolate

Chocolate often gets a bad rap because of its high sugar content. For more flavanols—one of the most important polyphenols in cacao—swap semisweet and milk chocolates for varieties made from 70 percent or higher cacao. One ounce of a 70 percent bar has just 13 carb grams, three of which are healthy fiber. Though many chocolates above 85 percent cacao can taste bitter, 70–85 percent is the proverbial sweet spot. Guittard, the San Francisco-area chocolate manufacturer, makes a 72 percent called Coucher du Soleil that’s as sweet as anyone could want.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: Easier Chocolate Melting

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Easier Melting

Tempering chocolate is the bane of many home chefs, but it’s chiefly used for getting a glossy finish on icings and on chocolate decorations and fruits dipped in chocolate. It’s not necessary when melted chocolate will be incorporated into ingredients for a filling or batter. Buy coin-shaped wafers because they melt very quickly. Chopping up bars for melting is just a hassle! And chocolate chips are designed not to melt all that well (so they’ll hold up better in cookies). 

When blending cream into chocolate, the above technique is perfect. When you need melted chocolate to add to other ingredients, an easy way is to place three-quarters of the needed amount in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 50 percent for one minute at a time. When the chocolate has melted, add the reserved chocolate to the bowl, let it all sit for a minute, and then fold together—as the additional chocolate melts, it will also bring down the temperature of the microwaved chocolate so you can use it that much sooner.

For Your Best Health: Online Art Viewing Equals Greater Well-being

For Your Best Health

Online Art Viewing Equals Greater Well-being

We know the soothing effects on mood, stress, and well-being that come from viewing art at galleries and museums. But what if you can’t get to an installation as often as you’d like? A new study led by psychologists MacKenzie Trupp, PhD, and Matthew Pelowski, PhD, of the Arts and Research on Transformation of Individuals and Society research group at the University of Vienna, found that a short three-minute visit to an online art or cultural exhibition can lead to significant positive effects. 

As a silver lining of COVID-19, many arts and cultural institutions shifted from stationary buildings to the internet—digital museums and online art galleries became quite popular. This had two effects: First, art and cultural objects could be accessed from your sofa. Second, art had the opportunity to reach a much wider audience than before, including people in rural areas where access is often limited.

For their study, the researchers asked participants to visit art exhibitions accessible via smartphones, tablets, and computers. Before and after the visit, psychological state and well-being were measured to determine the extent to which viewing the art might be beneficial. Results showed that even very brief viewings can have significant effects, leading to lower negative mood, anxiety, and loneliness, as well as higher subjective well-being. These results were comparable to other interventions such as nature experiences and visits to physical art galleries. Upon further investigation, the subjective experiences of individuals became an important aspect to consider. The research team discovered that the more meaningful or beautiful people found the art to be and the more positive feelings they had while viewing it, the greater the benefit.

Fitness Flash: Activities for a Sharper Brain

Fitness Flash

Activities for a Sharper Brain

Studies have shown that physical and mental activity help preserve thinking skills and delay dementia. New research, published online in the July 20, 2022 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, suggests that these benefits may vary for men and women, but are still important for both sexes. 

The study looked at the effects of both types of activities on cognitive reserve in the areas of thinking speed and memory. Cognitive reserve is the buffer that occurs when people have strong thinking skills even when their brains show signs of the underlying changes associated with cognitive impairment and dementia.

“We found that greater physical activity was associated with greater thinking speed reserve in women, but not in men,” says study author Judy Pa, PhD, of the University of California, San Diego. “Taking part in more mental activities was associated with greater thinking speed reserve for both men and women.” Greater physical activity was not associated with memory reserve in men or women.

The study involved 758 people with an average age of 76. Some had no thinking or memory problems, some had mild cognitive impairment, and some had dementia. The participants underwent brain scans and thinking speed and memory tests. To calculate cognitive reserve, their thinking test scores were compared against the changes in the brain associated with dementia, such as the total volume of the hippocampus.

People were also asked about their usual weekly physical activity and reported that they took part in an average of at least 15 minutes per week of activities that elevate heart rates, such as brisk walking and biking. 

For mental activity, they were asked whether they had participated in three types of activities in the past 13 months: reading magazines, newspapers, or books; going to classes; and playing cards, games, or bingo. They were given one point for each type of activity, for a maximum of three points. Participants averaged 1.4 points. 

Dr. Pa reports that each additional mental activity people participated in corresponded to 13 fewer years of aging in the processing speed in their thinking skills—17 years among men and 10 years among women.

“As we have arguably few-to-no effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, prevention is crucial. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment,” she says. “To know that people could potentially improve their cognitive reserve by taking simple steps such as going to classes at the community center, playing bingo with their friends, or spending more time walking or gardening is very exciting.”

Dr. Pa also found that, based on the effects seen in the study, a doubling of the amount of physical activity would be equivalent to an estimated 2.75 fewer years of aging when it comes to women’s processing speed in their thinking skills.

It’s important to note that the study doesn’t prove that physical and mental activities help improve cognitive reserve, only that there’s an association. Also, for women, having the APOE e4 gene, which carries the strongest risk for Alzheimer’s, lessens the effects of the beneficial relationship between physical and mental activities and cognitive reserve. A limitation of the study was that people reported their own physical and mental activity, so they may not have remembered correctly. But spending time on enjoyable activities certainly holds potential and can bring immediate pleasure as well. 

Get More Recipes In Your Inbox!

Chocolate Crème

This pot-de-crème-inspired chocolate dessert is simplicity itself, rich and light at the same time. Enjoy it as is or as the filling for an 8-inch tart—a pistachio crust is sensational. 

Ingredients

  • 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate
  • 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Step 1

Place the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Heat the half-and-half to a simmer and immediately pour it over the chocolate. Wait 5 minutes and then stir until the chocolate is fully melted.  

Step 2

Stir in the olive oil until well-blended.

Step 3

Pour into four small dessert bowls or coupe glasses and refrigerate until firm, from 4 hours to overnight.

Yields 4 servings