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Lisa: Okra’s Okay

So our neighbor Lisa comes bouncing across - she’s a merry kinda gal - with a couple of green things in her hand.

“You’ve gotta eat these darling!”

She calls everybody darling. I always listen to her because she’s a registered nurse. Specializes in babies, lactation, nutrition. Knows a lot about food.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/aug/27/30363/

They’re little green grooved pods.

“I just gently boiled them,” she says.

I look at them. Uh, eat? They look like the kind of things you’d put led lights in and hang up in strings. But they’re soft, so I take one, chomp and…mm. Not bad. Tastes like beans, peas, sesame paste, but more…slimy.

“Mucilaginous, darling. But guess what? That gooey part is soluble fiber. Good for you! They have tons of fiber, lots of vitamin C, a third of what you need each day, iron, calcium, potassium, lineolic acid…”

“Okay, now you’re losing me. Lineolic…?”

“Don’t worry about that darling. Just remember they’re totally fat-free and cholesterol-free, and they absorb bile-rejected toxins, and guess what, darling.”

She says “Guess what?” a lot, too.

“My daddy’s cholesterol was 237, and in one month, eating a portion of okra like these three to four times a week, he dropped to 200! See, it’s the seeds…delicious and full of oil. As much as sunflower seeds. People drive cars on this oil. But you should eat the skins too. They’re full of goodness.”

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/aug/27/30365/

Have to admit, the seeds are delicious little poppers.

And Lawdie knows, I’ve gotta drop a few cholesterol points.

“But guess what, darling? Just don’t fry it like they do in the south. That undoes all the good it does you.”

Dang. But point taken.

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So our neighbor Lisa comes bouncing across - she’s a merry kinda gal - with a couple of green things in her hand.

“You’ve gotta eat these darling!”

She calls everybody darling. I always listen to her because she’s a registered nurse. Specializes in babies, lactation, nutrition. Knows a lot about food.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/aug/27/30363/

They’re little green grooved pods.

“I just gently boiled them,” she says.

I look at them. Uh, eat? They look like the kind of things you’d put led lights in and hang up in strings. But they’re soft, so I take one, chomp and…mm. Not bad. Tastes like beans, peas, sesame paste, but more…slimy.

“Mucilaginous, darling. But guess what? That gooey part is soluble fiber. Good for you! They have tons of fiber, lots of vitamin C, a third of what you need each day, iron, calcium, potassium, lineolic acid…”

“Okay, now you’re losing me. Lineolic…?”

“Don’t worry about that darling. Just remember they’re totally fat-free and cholesterol-free, and they absorb bile-rejected toxins, and guess what, darling.”

She says “Guess what?” a lot, too.

“My daddy’s cholesterol was 237, and in one month, eating a portion of okra like these three to four times a week, he dropped to 200! See, it’s the seeds…delicious and full of oil. As much as sunflower seeds. People drive cars on this oil. But you should eat the skins too. They’re full of goodness.”

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/aug/27/30365/

Have to admit, the seeds are delicious little poppers.

And Lawdie knows, I’ve gotta drop a few cholesterol points.

“But guess what, darling? Just don’t fry it like they do in the south. That undoes all the good it does you.”

Dang. But point taken.

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