It is 2 o’clock in the afternoon on a cold grey spring day and it’s time for breakfast. No, I did not just get up. I have been alive for a while but I got distracted doing other things and now I am really hungry. I am not sure how your stomach works, but mine tells me what to eat and right now it does not feel like breakfast. It wants lunch and something warm and quick.
This is what I came up with. It does not have a name. It was born from my dinner on Thursday night. It had been a long day and I wanted a quick dinner. I have a tuna recipe I like to make with vegetables, potatoes, lemon, dill and caramelized onions. The kitties like it, too since I share the can of tuna with them. Unfortunately, I had no potatoes so I decide it serve it with corn chips. These are not any corn chips. They are non-GMO organic corn chips cooked with lime. It was surprisingly delicious.
So today, based in what I had in the house, this is what I created. A quick sauté of diced tomatoes, onions, pineapple, black olives, left over roast chicken, garlic and oregano. Call it Italy meets Mexico (pineapples are grown in Mexico). Now the combination of pineapple, black olives and tomatoes is not new as it is based on a pizza I had once in a restaurant and I frequently make it for pizza now. However, this recipe is the combination of savoury and sweet that I personally like. If it is not to your liking, think of what you do like and use those ingredients instead. Scoop it onto the corn chips for a nice warm meal with a bit of crunch.
This recipe also digests well as both pineapple and olives aid the digestion process. Olives are a fermented food, traditionally placed in brine to allow them to ferment and remove any bitter tastes that the olives have naturally. Fermentation creates olives that not only aid digestive and intestinal health, but also allows the nutrients to be more bioavailable. Black olives in particular are loaded with phytochemicals and each one has health benefits. In one study, maslinic acid and oleanolic acid, found primarily in the skin of the olive, inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis (cell death) of colon cancer cells, without being toxic to normal cells. Olives also contain hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein, which act as antioxidants, where in another study, were found help to lower triglycerides and reduce injured heart muscle tissue.
One cup of olives contains 17% of the daily requirement for fibre and, with the phytonutrients and the good bacteria from the fermentation process, olives provide a nice addition to any meal to help aid digestion. And if that is not enough, the oil in olives, known as we all know, as olive oil, activates the secretion of bile and pancreatic hormones to aid fat 
digestion and help to ease symptoms of gastritis and ulcers.
Pineapples contain bromelain, an enzyme that can aids protein digestion in the small intestines. It also has beneficial anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown to be helpful to soothe the intestinal tract and may help to control diarrhea. Pineapples are also a good source of vitamins A and C as well as potassium and calcium. Pineapple should be consumed raw as the best way to get its digestive benefits.
Sometime better digestion is about what you add to the meal, not what you remove.
References
- Olive Fruit Extracts Inhibit Proliferation and Induce Apoptosis in HT-29 Human Colon Cancer Cells, Juan ME, Wenzel U, Ruiz-Gutierrez V, Daniel H and Planas JM. Journal of Nutrition. 2006 October;136(10):2553-7
- The olive constituent oleuropein exhibits anti-ischemic, antioxidative, and hypolipidemic effects in anesthetized rabbits, Andreadou I, Iliodromitis EK, Mikros E, Constantinou M, Agalias A, Magiatis P, Skaltsounis AL, Kamber E, Tsantili-Kakoulidou A and Kremastinos DT. Journal of Nutrition. 2006 August;136(8):2213-9
- Bromelain, the enzyme complex of pineapple (Ananas comosus) and its clinical application: an update, S. J. Taussig, and S. Batkin, J. Ethnopharmacol. 22: 191-203 (1988).
- Bromelains, the pharmacology of the enzymes, J. N. Moss, C.V. Frazier, and G.J. Martin, Arch. Int. Pharmacodyn.145:168 (1963).
