Take a moment and remember what the name means.
Way more than just the start of the summer season.
Archive for category news
Some studies are just more fun to read than others. I can’t hide that fact! Take the French Fry discussion. According to the Journal of Food Science, if you cut potatoes into strips and want them to become French Fries, you’ll need more oil and, they’ll need to cook longer. Translation: They will not be considered a healthy food.
Yet, if you make circle fries out of your potatoes, you’ll shorten the cooking time, i.e. reduce the oil you’ll need and still come up with a similar tasting product, albeit healthier.
This all rests on the premise if you believe potatoes are healthy to start with! I confess: I’m a potato person and like the nutritional benefits from this food!
My prediction: More circle potato products with fun-sounding recipe names!
Just the sound of that phrase makes some people quiver, but there can be fun ways to fill the larder. After touring a new Whole Foods store, I now understand how the company survived so handsomely during this past, difficult year. They signed onto the sale and coupon philosophy and figured out how to communicate their new strategy. Customers no longer needed to quake at the mere thought of entering a store; instead, they have learned how to shop and what to buy with each visit.
Basically, Whole Foods learned how to offer sizable price reductions in each of the major departments. For the consumer, the translation is quite simple: Buy strawberries when they are on sale; not when they are back to their old prices. A basic example. You can plan your menus easily around the sales. This week you’ll buy one type of fish and next week it may be a whole different flavor profile. This type of shopping’s much easier: You buy the freshest foods with the biggest reductions and you leave the store a much wiser, healthier individual. Those are the products you want to plan your meals around. Nothing foreign about this concept. This is how chefs shop for restaurants. What looks good, what just came in, and what about the price point are considerations when they tour the markets.
At this new store, there was a product innovation that is sure to interest the curious and captivate the regulars. Some shoppers will continue to create their own salad/main course meal from the cold and hot selections which are sold by the pound, and then there are the newbies. Individuals who will want the $7.99 box with 3 compartments of items stuffed to the gilder-sterns as long as the lid closes: One price, one huge possibility!
The healthy focus has certainly helped drive their business as more consumers are focused on purchasing healthy foods for their families. Combine that strategy with the emphasis on finding producers of local foods, and you have a pretty good understanding of how the company has made such major strides across the grocery aisle.
Innovations are great as long as the price point stays in the center of the radar. Competition will remain strong, as at the other end of the spectrum is major competition in the form of Wal-Mart. Here’s a company that has made significant strides in its food line this year and just announced plans to continue to increase the depth of possibilities–they call it the aggressive Rollbacks program. We are talking about a major retailer that has reworked its aisles and departments to limit some selections in favor of increasing the overall breadth of food selections. This is where to shop for the basics that every household needs: It’s a win-win situation: You fill your house with great price-point savings on pantry essentials.
Everybody else in between plans to continue its coupon-driven enticements. The consumer has become a more savvy shopper after this past year of economic upheaval and has learned how to save shopping dollars. Markets cannot return to their old ways.
Shopping need not be Guerrilla warfare. I am more a believer than ever.
Water: How Much?
May 19
May is a busy month for accolades. Besides all the food-focused holidays, it is also National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. In order to help with our obesity numbers, physical activity and daily exercise remain important components. If you’ve been thinking about getting outdoors and doing something for yourself, this is a good month to take the pledge. Speaking of the pledge, there is the President’s Challenge which focuses us on daily activities to improve overall health.
Just a few helpful reminders. We need to be properly hydrated. That phrase gets mired in complexity. Does everyone, regardless of size, health condition, or physical activity, need the same amount of water a day? Can the sport dictate the rules? How about the length of the activity? The time of day? All relevant questions, but hydration is not a single-focused, exclusive phenomena. If you plan to start running today, grabbing a couple water bottles will not do the trick. Sure, they won’t hurt but that is not considered proper hydrating.
Let’s look at a few factors. Jimmy Connors one of tennis’s great athletes used to get leg cramps if he didn’t prepare for a match with an intensive amount of water for several days prior to the matches. He could feel them coming on and knew his lack of (water) diligence was going to cause pain. Research also indicates you can overdose on water and that can have a debilitating effect. Getting the balance can be accomplished by a daily intake of water which matches your daily physical commitment. Many recommend a sports drink to supplement water as you’ll be losing too much water through perspiration. Or, just give your water an energy boost with powder packs to turn it into a more powerful beverage. Over or under-doing liquids has severe negative consequences from leg cramps and extreme nausea to heat-related medical problems.
No one needs to remind you about sunscreen and time of day. OK, I just did, but application of the SPF’s and reapplication may be a long-term critical commitment. There are numerous products that reduce the sweating off (as in dripping into your eyes) during physical activity. Until you find the right balance of fluids and have your activity in a manageable zone, consider skipping the high noon workout or consider an indoor regimen when it’s 100 humid degrees. Keep your body hydrated no matter time of day or physical activity.
Participate. Drink. Be smart.
Ground Beef: Food Recalls
May 17
After months of disturbing news about various food recalls, it appears that the USDA is ready to align its forces and impact the way inspections are held. Yes, this has been the year of more Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli outbreaks than one can remember from past years. As the consumer has believed that changes were in place and that everyone in the inspection process was looking out for the safety and well-being of the eater, we were not 100% accurate.
Changes have been mentioned and changes have been suggested, but little has been done in terms of the overall improvement of the system of protecting the purchaser and consumer of foods. Take the often recalled food, ground beef. It has a strong presence in individual family meals, restaurants, and of course, school lunches. By this summer the USDA will have in place tougher guidelines that include more frequent testing and analysis for the foods in the school lunch program.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that school lunches will receive a major overhaul as so much attention has been given to the dire straits of the program and the overall health and well-being of our children. Suppliers can no longer skirt the issue. The safety of the foods for school lunch and nutrition assistance programs has become a top-down focus for the Administration. It should be noted that these new inspections apply to new contracts awarded after July 1. One has to ask about those suppliers who have long-term contracts? Will there be enhanced inspections?
Part of the new standards include increasing sampling frequency and tightening the overall rejection criteria. These are all important steps. We call that the good news. There’s a lot to learn and we have a responsibility in our own kitchens to execute food safety. BTW, ground beef and hamburger are not the same beast according to the guidelines.
Now the focus must be turned to the overall increased inspection of ground beef. Food safety must remain a top priority for all purchases.
Weekend Cooks
May 16
It’s appropriate this month to think about the grill and new recipes during National Barbecue Month. Few people will argue with the outdoor plan after a particularly odd winter weather pattern that seemed to extend into spring. Maybe this weekend, the month’s midpoint, will cooperate for home chefs to fire up the grill. Here are some interesting grill factoids from a poll conducted by the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association:
–65% like “to dress it up” when it comes to grilling. Translation: sauce, marinade, or seasoning while 21 % “strip it down”, grilled food au naturel!
–More men than women prefer to add a spicy sauce.
–As for toppings, more grillers use ketchup on burgers or other grilled meats; mustard comes in a very close 2nd.
–Cheese is a frequent topping (over 60%), and over 70% of respondents say they want a bun for their sandwich, a traditional bun.
As for grilling’s popularity, the largest number of respondents said they like the way grilled food tastes.
No matter how you vote or what you like to grill, it is obvious that the outdoor cooking method makes kitchen clean-up an effortless process.
If you’re stuck without a clue how to get that perfect flavor or what to do with veggies on the grill, for instance, check out the Association’s website. BTW, if you don’t have a grill, but are thinking about buying one, they have advice and guidelines to streamline the process and help you decide whether to get charcoal, gas, or electric: All good options.
So many choices. So easy and delicious.
Nuts to You/Us
May 12
Those teeny tiny handfuls of nuts with the good antioxidant characteristics have not been doing the trick. We enjoyed the product and even thought we were lowering cholesterol fears, but no, not enough.
The news, from California’s Loma Linda University’s Department of Nutrition with funding from the Tree Nut Council, is excellent: Grab a second handful, and you’ll be doing yourself a bigger favor. You’ll love the taste and at the same time you’ll see an improvement in heart-healthy benefits. None of the individuals in the study were taking cholesterol-lowering medicines but if they had high cholesterol, their numbers dropped.
Let’s look at the much maligned Macadamia or similarly, the Pistachio. Both are popular in the Atkins diet universe, but often denigrated as nuts you should avoid. Maybe not; these tree nuts do the same cholesterol and triglyceride lowering as their faithful companions.
What about the lowly peanut that is banished from most pre-school lunch boxes and many school cafeteria but certainly not at the ballpark. As long as you are not allergic, you can benefit from ingesting peanuts for their positive heart healthy ways.
Before you finish a container of nuts, remember that a little more than 2 ounces were given to subjects in this study and that amount lowered cholesterol levels by over 5%. Another takeaway is that the results did not apply to individuals who were considered obese. The nuts did not do the trick! Nor did a smaller helping of nuts lower cholesterol as much as grabbing that second handful!
Of course, we can overdo the nut-eating scenario, but we can help our hearts by not cutting them out of our diets! You’ll be surprised how many nuts are in two ounces! Get out the measuring cup and do your heart a favor!
Definite news to digest.
Health Food/Food for Health
May 11
I love days when everything in the health news department affirms much of my thinking. Today was certainly one of those days. Here are three beauties to ponder:
–Coffee. I am always on the lookout for the latest positive news about coffee and its potential health benefits. A meta analysis was conducted by researchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health examining over 700,000 people who are coffee drinkers. They found that having more than six, yes, six 8-oz cups of coffee daily, did not boost the likelihood of getting colon cancer. They found the same effect from soda drinking, but we need to think about the sugar-laden drinks as causing other problems such as obesity. Now the tea drinkers did not receive as big a boost in the clean health department. The jury is still a little unclear on this one. Coffee and soda drinks did not yield an increase in colon cancer.
–Dark chocolate. As readers of this blog know, I have a special warm spot for news about dark chocolate. Today’s report from Johns Hopkins University finds that a compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by shielding the nerves from further damage. Researchers hope that this particular property may someday be used to protect people against strokes. So a simple translation means eat and enjoy dark chocolate while at the same time you are insulating yourself from the dangers of getting a stroke. We’ve recognized the heart healthy chocolate benefits so this further validates additional benefit from a little sweet.
–Vitamin D. So much has been written about the vitamins lately and Vitamin D was last year’s attention-grabbing darling as so many people were all of a sudden diagnosed with a D deficiency. Could it be that we are so dedicated to our sunscreen regimen that the sun has no chance to give us its beneficial D attributes? Now that millions have been told to take Vitamin D, this particular study from the Cleveland Clinic says the optimal time to take this vitamin is with your biggest meal of the day. Figure out that simple calculation and pop your D to protect yourself. It will make a major difference.
Keep in mind that this week, May 9-15, is Food Allergy Awareness Week.
Nothing complex about any of these reports, but they are all simple information solutions to improve our overall health.
Settle in with a hot brew and a piece of wonderful dark chocolate, and don’t forget to include your D with whatever meal has the most calories. We can enjoy ourselves and impact our health.
DC Joins the Fray
May 2
Talk about a hot button issue; that’d be the soda tax. Here’s another one, unhealthy school meals. Combine the two and what do you get: A novel approach to meet the message from First Lady Michelle Obama and her emphasis on healthy eating and getting our children out moving.
A DC Council member, Mary Cheh, has proposed a way to support her earlier proposal, the Healthy Schools Act of 2010. Her data is startling as DC’s adolescent population has the highest obesity rate in the nation. It seems there are plenty of categories of startlingly high obesity, remember Huntington, WVA?
Cheh’s proposal would get more money into the school lunch program, provide free breakfast and move that meal into the classrooms where the majority of students are at the poverty level. The list goes on: Improve the meals by adding a strong local food component, drop the reduced lunch budget (get rid of the co-payment) in favor of providing a healthy, free meal, and get the students into an exercise program of at least 60 minutes daily. School gardens would be encouraged. Actually the list of possibilities is almost endless in moving forward in this direction with its emphasis on low-calorie and low-fat foods.
How doable is all of this? Cost will be an issue, but Councilwoman Cheh plans to propose a penny an ounce tax for soda. That concept, of course, is controversial. Yet, necessity may make this strategy a natural, driving force. As DC schools continue to improve in terms of academic performance, they need to focus on the individual student who is suffering from health issues and struggling to have a healthy lifestyle. Of course, they are not the only school system with a lunch program that needs a major overhaul. This proposal may move them to the forefront of strong, positive action in driving healthy results. The Council has approved the bill and it goes to a final vote this week with enactment scheduled for this coming August.
Stalling on such a concept does no one any good. When we speak of the lives of our children, such moves at this particular Act should be applauded. The current path leads us nowhere.
Maybe DC’s actions will move them into the win column for the HealthierUS School Challenge. Let’s go for the Gold!
Is Chocolate the Cure?
Apr 27
Sometimes a study comes out that leaves one with the question: What is the cause and the effect? That sentiment is definitely true with the latest chocolate study. They studied the relationship between chocolate and depression. Are those who are depressed more likely to consume more chocolate or does chocolate consumption contribute to depression?
It doesn’t take too long to scan thru my archives to see how I feel about chocolate. Yes, I enjoy chocolate, especially dark chocolate, for its taste and its health benefits. I know plenty of people who have a mini square as a dessert and are good to go. They are not solving issues of depression; rather treating themselves to a taste they enjoy and appreciate. The mini-square bars have had their own revolution of late as consumer check-out lanes at markets are often filled with the little bites of pleasure. Hey, they don’t cost that much. It’s a simple, satisfying reward. After all, we are the grab-and- go society and what could be better at instant gratification than the mini!
Now the depression issue. Which came first the chicken or the egg? If you’re depressed, a little bite of chocolate or many such bites may help. Assume you are doing something more medically sound for the depression anyway so this is just a mini stop. If you are not depressed, doubt how chocolate could cause it. Wait, maybe if you take in too much chocolate, you’ll gain weight and then become depressed. Apples and oranges.
Different issues. Go for the little square. It won’t hurt.
