Loopholes in labeling

Apparently, if the value of a nutrient is lower than 0.5 grams per serving it can be rounded down to zero and labeled as such. For example, a bag of doritos boasts 0 grams trans fats on the front of their bag, but has partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil (i.e. trans fat) in the ingredients list. Considering a serving size equals 12 chips (who really eats only 12 in one sitting?) that most likely contains 0.4 grams of trans fat, you can end up with a good amount of the oil coursing through you. Think of what happens when you throw bacon grease down the drain, not only does it clog the pipes but everything that goes down afterwards adheres to it. Trans fat, over time, clogs the pipes that feed your brain and heart and raises your bad cholesterol while lowering your good cholesterol. Messing with unhealthy cholesterol levels means plaque build up along artery walls. Blah, blah, blah, heart attack and stroke!

Read those labels!

Cooking oil

Olive oil

Of all the different types of oils, olive oil is the healthiest one you can choose. It's highest in monounsaturated fat, which raises your HDL (healthy high density cholesterol), improves your arteries, and lowers your LDL (lousy low density cholesterol). Olive oil is rich in polyphenols and antioxidants, which will protect your cells against damage that can lead to cancer and heart disease. It also contains the anti-inflammatory compound oleocanthal. Extra virgin olive oil is the good stuff, it contains a high proportion of the plant extracts making it healthier, tastier, and more expensive than other olive oils. Cooking reduces the flavor and health benefits, so save the extra virgin for salad dressings, bread, and pasta. When sauteing or grilling go for the refined version, virgin olive oil, it'll be more cost effective.

Other oils

If you want a more neutral flavor, canola oil is a healthy (mostly monounsaturated fat) alternative to olive oil.

Nut and seed oils are good for the occasional seasoning of dishes. However, it's good to know the smoke point of oils so you don't degrade the oil, creating free radicals and other harmful chemicals. Also, oils that are high in polyunsaturated fat (soy, corn, vegetable, sunflower) form the compound HNE when they're heated. HNE gets into food that's cooked in the oil, then is processed in our bodies. In high concentrations, this compound messes with the activation of caspase enzymes or "executioner proteins" (plays a role in programmed cell death), the laddering of DNA, and releases cytochrome c from mitochondria (too complicated to explain but it's very important in making ATP, our fuel). It's being considered as a causal agent for numerous diseases. And if your fried chicken was in the 150th batch fried in reused oil you'll be consuming way more HNE than the guy who got the 1st.

Walmart and Michelle

Walmart is the largest grocery chain in the US. So it's not a big surprise they could get the First Lady onstage while announcing their new nutrition initiative. Here are the 5 main points discussed:

1. Walmart will be reformulating thousands of everyday packaged food item by 2015, reducing sodium, sugar, and trans-fat.--Good idea, but a processed product with less sugar or fat is still a processed product.
2. Making healthier choices more affordable, especially in regards to fresh produce.--They plan on eliminating inefficiencies and unnecessary costs in the produce supply chain while working with local farmers. We'll see how that works...
3. Developing strong criteria for simple front-of-package seal. --Last time the industry tried to tell consumers what's healthy we got fruit loops as a "smart choice".
4. Providing solutions to address food deserts by building stores in urban areas.--Does the NYC area really need a Walmart?
5. Increasing charitable support for nutrition programs.--PR move.

These ideas sound good, but ultimately I don't think such a behemoth of a corporation will pull it off. It's hard to get nutritious, real food (i.e. minimal ingredients on a label and they all can be pronounced) at cheaper prices, especially for the 140 million people who shop at Walmart every week.

You get that cheese girl!

Yogurt

Depending on what yogurt you purchase, it can be a very healthy or very poor snack. I'm going to pick on yoplait to show you what I mean.

Yoplait's original strawberry yogurt:

• serving size: 1 container/6oz/170g
• calories: 170 (8% of daily value)
• calories from fat: 15 (3% of daily value)
• fiber: zilch
• carbs: 33g (11% of dv)
• sugars: 27g (thats more than 5 teaspoons!)

cultured pasteurized grade A low fat milk, sugar, strawberries, modified corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, nonfat mild, kosher gelatin, citric acid, tricalcuim phosphate, natural flavor, pectin, colored with carmine, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3.

Everything highlighted is a source of sugar. 108 of the 170 calories are from sugar. That's 63% of the calories!

Yoplait's light strawberry yogurt:

• serving size: same as above
• calories: 100
• calories from fat: none
• fiber: none
• carbs: 19g
• sugars: 14g (this is 64 calories, equaling 64% of the calories as sugar!)

The only difference in ingredients is the replacement of sugar with aspartame (I'd rather take the sugar), and it still has high fructose corn syrup.

A better idea is to purchase a delicious, creamy, plain yogurt and add a bit of jam or honey and fruit (fiber!).

Interesting side note, do you know what carmine is?

"Carmine (pronounced /ˈkɑrmɪn/ or /ˈkɑrmaɪn/), also called Crimson Lake, Cochineal, Natural Red #40, C.I. 75470, or E120, is a pigment of a bright redcolor obtained from the carminic acid produced by some scale insects, such as the cochineal and the Polish cochineal, and is used as a general term for a particularly deep red color of the same name. Carmine is used in the manufacture of artificial flowers, paints, crimson ink, rouge, and other cosmetics, and is routinely added to food products such as yogurt and certain brands of juice, most notably those of the ruby-red variety."

Don't worry, it's completely safe :)

Vaccines and Autism

After 13 years of controversy, the British Medical Journal determined scientist Andrew Wakefield's vaccine-autism link constituted an "elaborate fraud". His 1998 research studied 12 children in which he reported finding a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and autism.

Investigations into his research by BMJ recently revealed Wakefield fabricated the link by falsifying all 12 patient histories. This has led to the scientific community wasting it's resources and global consequences of parents declining vaccination for their children. In the past decade, many children contracted diseases such as measles and pertussis (whooping cough). For example, California reported 6,000 cases of pertussis in 2010, the most since 1950.

Of course vaccines are never 100% safe. And people like Jenny McCarthy will fight to the death claiming her son' s autism was a result of his vaccination.

Deadly nightshade!

Maybe not deadly...

Ever picked up a green potato or potato chip and wondered if it's safe? I always assumed it was a neutral occurrence, but they actually are poisonous! Potatoes grow underground and when they're exposed to the light they take it as a sign they're no longer enclosed by soil. So, they start to produce chlorophyll to use the sun's energy. The chlorophyll is what gives the potato it's green hue. That's no problem, but the light also triggers the production of poisonous compounds which are similar to strychnine. This is because potatoes belong to the family of nightshade. Serious side effects occur when eaten in large quantities, something close to 4 1/2 lbs worth, like impaired central nervous system, convulsions, hallucinations, disrupted digestion, and it may compromise joint functioning.

To avoid greening of your potatoes store them in a cool, dark place!

yummy cool whip

Fiber

If you get an adequate amount of fiber each day you can reduce excess weight, keep disease at bay, and never worry about constipation. It's recommended you get a min of 25 grams a day; the average American only consumes around 10 grams.

Start to think of fiber as your body's janitorial staff. Insoluble fiber puffs up in your intestines, like a sponge, and moves digestive and cellular debris out. Soluble fiber mixes with the water from your food to make a gel. This mops up fat and sugar, helping to lower your cholesterol and regulate your blood glucose levels.

Fiber contains no calories, takes up more space than food without fiber, and moves more slowly through your tract. You'll eat less and be satiated for longer!

Insoluble fiber sources

• wheat; 1 cup buckwheat cereal= 10 grams fiber
• corn
• oat bran
• nuts; 24 almonds= 5 grams
• flaxseed
• skins/peels of many fruits and veggies (apple, potato); medium apple= 4 grams fiber
• dark leafy greens

Soluble fiber sources

• legumes (peas, beans); 3 tbs of lima beans= 13 grams fiber
• barley
• oat bran
• nuts; 30 peanuts= 5.5 grams fiber
• many fruits and veggies (carrots, oranges, inside of apples)

You produce more than a thousand pounds of poop every year, make it easy on yourself and get plenty of fiber!

"Natural" Chicken

I had 3 choices today when I went shopping for chicken. Organic, all natural with no hormones added, and the last was just plain old chicken. I couldn't resist the sale price of the all natural chicken, I fell into temptation!

For future reference, guidelines state that any product can be labeled as "natural" if it contains no artificial flavoring, coloring, chemical preservative, synthetic ingredient, and has been minimally processed- it has only been handled as necessary to slaughter, clean, and make it ready for cooking. It says nothing about how an animal was raised, what it was fed, if it received antibiotics, or if it received hormones.

As for the statement "no hormones added" on the package? Sordid sales technique. Federal law prohibits the use of hormones in poultry (and pork).

So...what exactly made this all natural chicken different than the plain old chicken? Pretty much nothing. I can only take solace in the money I saved over not buying organic, which I'm not.

Yolks

Eggs are a super nutritious food, even the yolk. So many people only dine on the whites and toss the yolks to the dogs. But if your relatively healthy you can consume 1-2 yolks a day without risk to your cholesterol level or heart health. The yolk is packed with heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, omega-3s, vitamin A, D, E, and B12.

Concerned about your heart and arteries?

Okay, so the 200 mg of cholesterol and 2 grams of saturated fat in each yolk make it sound like I'm lying to you. However, most of the cholesterol in your blood comes from your liver, not the cholesterol you eat (emphasis on the word most). You should be more concerned with the saturated fat content of foods, that's what will drive up your blood cholesterol levels. To this point, thank you chickens for putting more healthy fat than saturated fat in your yolks!

Cool things mushrooms can do

1. They neutralize those nasty free radicals. The plain old white button mushroom contains more antioxidants than carrots, green bell peppers, and tomatoes!

2. The antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals in mushrooms aren't denatured or deactivated by cooking like they are in fruits and veggies. In fact, they become more concentrated because cooking removes water. Eating the same volume of cooked mushrooms over raw delivers 2-4 times the nutrients (dependent on the species).

3. Mushroom extracts have demonstrated anti-tumor activity in test tubes. Within humans it ups the immune system's activity.

4. Just like us, mushrooms produce vitamin D when placed in UV light. If the package doesn't already say vitamin D added you can just place the mushrooms on your windowsill for an hour before you cook them. Easy!

...interesting side note, kids with a vitamin D deficiency are more like to be obese.

Happy meal crack down

San Francisco city officials will revisit a vote today which regulates meals that come with a free toy. Last week they voted in favor of the law, requiring any toy-toting meal to fall under 600 calories or only 35% of the calories from fat, no sugary or fatty beverage, and it must contain a fruit or vegetable.

This is obviously geared towards McDonald's happy meals. And I say kudos to SF for attempting to tackle childhood obesity. I don't think this is restrictive enough, considering a child only needs 1,200 calories a day, but at least a step in the right direction.

Of course there is a spectrum of comments going on under the news reports. One woman expressed, "I have two grandchildren who eat McDonald's Happy Meals. Neither are obese or even overweight. In fact they are skinny as rails. Why should they be forbidden to eat what they want to eat? Who has the right to take away their mother's rights? Get lost!".

It's not all about weight! You can be skinny and unhealthy. Think of what these kid's arteries are going to look like! What does this woman care anyways? It's not like parents have to prepare these meals, they're just the wallet. The kids will eat slightly healthier without parents having to do anything.

My bet's on french fries being the vegetable...

So meaty!

Harvard School of Public Health has reported that eating processed meat (deli meat, bacon, sausage, hot dogs) increases your risk of heart disease by 42%, and diabetes by 19%. This is higher than the risk associated with eating unprocessed red meats- beef, pork, lamb- and researchers attribute it to the very high sodium and nitrate content in processed meats.

So what can you do? Limit your intake, especially if you have high blood pressure, prehypertension, or hypertension. Try cooking a chicken on Sunday and slicing meat off for your sandwiches throughout the week.

November fruits and veggies!

We Western United Staters can look forward to these items as our freshest picks this month:

apples

artichokes

avocado

beets

bok choy
broccoli
brussels sprouts
cabbage
chard
cilantro

fig

grapes

grapefruit

green beans

gourds

kale

lettuce

mandarins

persimmons

radish

raspberries
snow peas
spinach

turnip

Check out some good recipes here!

Hunger Games

Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is a book rapidly spreading through the teenage (and adult!) population. The protagonist, Katniss, spends her days in the woods hunting and gathering. She knows the fruits, roots, veggies, and game in season for every day of the year. This knowledge of sustenance keeps her family fed in an otherwise starving community. AND she is healthy, lean, and strong; if you know the book you understand how dire these traits are for the hunger games!

The story line for such an awesome book has of course already been purchased by Lionsgate. I'm excited by this for multiple reasons, one of them being this is the PERFECT opportunity to teach kids about wholesome, simply prepared nutrition. Ms. Collins has depicted a diet of fresh ingredients for her heroine, who's admired for her conditioned body and ability to perform stealthy tasks. I'm a huge proponent for meals consisting of minimal, whole ingredients. We need to make a move into this type of lifestyle, no more packaged "foods" with ingredients we can't pronounce. Meals are fuel! Treat them as such! Would you fill your car's fuel tank with a mixture of gas, pine-sol, and windex?? Hopefully not, so on the same note, minimize your intake of non-food foods. Any which way preservatives, flavors, dyes, and extra sugar get used or stored in the body is adverse. Get to know what each item has to offer , you can even see fast food items here.

Make soda, candy, pastries, etc. treats for yourself (i.e. eat sparingly). I would lose my mind if I couldn't have a Hershey's bar with almonds, or gooey melty cheesy anything every know and then. It's just a matter of budgeting it into the calories, vitamins, and minerals I've consumed that day.

I hope a discussion is started about Katniss's diet. In this society of children raised to accept obesity and diabetes as normal, we sure can use a role model to remind ourselves what food really is.

Thanks for introducing me to the series Katie!