Next time you're ordering Chinese takeout for dinner, scan the menu for ginger beef with broccoli. This menu mainstay's three chief ingredients offer a balanced blend of essential nutrients along with health-promoting potential. If you're watching your waistline, request sauce served on the side for light dipping and ask for a moderate use of oil during cooking. Make your ginger beef and broccoli meal healthier by selecting brown rice instead of white rice.
Ginger
Traditional Chinese medicine has lauded ginger's curative properties for more than 2,000 years. More recently, modern scientific research has backed some of ginger's purported healing powers. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, or UMMC, ginger provides proven relief for numerous stomach ailments, including those associated with motion sickness, nausea after surgery, pregnancy and cancer treatments. Ginger may help reduce the inflammation associated with arthritis. It also shows potential for lowering cholesterol and treating cancer.
Beef
A 3-oz. serving of beef provides you with 51 percent of the US Food and Drug Administration's recommended Daily Value, or DV, for protein. Containing only 179 calories, this serving size provides nearly 40 percent of your DV for zinc and vitamin B-12, 26 percent of your DV for selenium and 20 percent of your DV for phosphorous. You'll also get between 10 and 20 percent of your DV for niacin, iron, vitamin B-6 and riboflavin, as noted by BeefNutrition.org, a website run by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
Broccoli
A cup of broccoli contains 31 calories, 0 g of fat, 3 g of protein and 6 g of carbohydrates, including 2 g of dietary fiber, according to LIVESTRONG.COM's MyPlate. This amount of broccoli provides more than the Food and Nutrition Board's dietary reference intake, or DRI, of vitamin C for both men and women, along with substantial amounts of vitamin A, folate, calcium and potassium.
Brown Rice
Substitute brown rice for white rice to create a healthier platter consisting of whole grains, lean protein and vegetables. Replacing white rice in your diet with brown rice appears to reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, as indicated by a study published in the "Archives of Internal Medicine" in June 2010. Top 1 cup of cooked brown rice with 3 oz. of beef and 2 cups of broccoli and ginger for a balanced meal.
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Ginger
- BeefNutrition.org: Don't Miss Out on the Benefits of Naturally Nutrient-Rich Lean Beef
- LIVESTRONG.COM MyPlate: Broccoli
- Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academies: Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) -- Estimated Average Requirements
- USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Broccoli, Raw
- "Archives of Internal Medicine"; White Rice, Brown Rice, and Risk of Type-2 Diabetes in US Men and Women; Q. Sun, et al.; June 2010
Member Comments