Lucky Foods for New Years

Hope you've got some great New Years plans lined up. Since I live way too close to Times Square, I am chilling in for the evening and instead going out tomorrow night. Chris and I are cooking up a nice dinner using recipes from the cookbooks we got for Christmas alongside some old favorites.

On the menu:

*Mixed greens with roasted beets, sliced pear, toasted walnuts, and maybe blue cheese in a balsamic vinaigrette
*Roasted garlic, served with roasted peppers, hummus, and whole wheat flatbread
*Vegetable antipasto—lots of roasted and grilled vegetables, served with olives and feta
*Sesame soy slaw, made with brussel sprouts, sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce and red onion
*Lentil-stuffed peppers

Jury's still out on dessert. We have a lot of sweets we were given over the holiday, so we'll probably use those in some capacity. I also have diet gingerale and Prosecco on hand.

Did you know that in some cultures, certain foods are considered lucky to eat on New Years Eve? For example, greens are supposedly an auspicious thing to chew on since they look like money and are said to attract the green stuff in the coming year. Legumes like beans, peas and lentils are also said to symbolize money. I guess it's good that our New Years meal involves a lot of both.

Some other lucky eats? Pork and fish—but not lobster. According to this article, lobster is considered a decidedly unlucky thing to eat since lobsters move backwards and could lead to setbacks. Good to know.

Happy New Year!

And please, please, please—whatever resolutions you choose to make, remember to be kind to yourself!

Cookie Diet Founder is Suing Kim Kardashian

In today's hilarious news, Dr. Siegel, founder of the Cookie Diet, which I posted about several weeks ago, is reportedly suing Kim Kardashian for calling the cookies "unhealthy" on her Twitter page. Oh dear...

First, the actress sent a cease and desist letter to the company, accusing them of falsely claiming that she was endorsing the diet. Siegel and Co., in turn, are seeking damages again Kardashian. What they reportedly claim is that she had a "commercial motive" to bash the weight-loss cookies, given her work with QuickTrim, another weight loss program. You can read more here.

Yet another reason I hate quick-fix, product-based diets. It's kind of amusing, though. I mean, celebrity names aside, someone is that invested in freaking cookies that they're suing someone over negative comments about said cookies. What is our world coming to?

Whole Foods to Return to its Health-Food Roots

Whole Foods is putting shoppers on a diet: Says CEO John Mackey, "There have been these two dominant values driving our products over the years. One is food as health and the other one is food as indulgence. Those have battled, you might say, for the soul of Whole Foods."

Mackey recently spoke about his intentions to focus less on the indulgent aspect of food and more on healthy foods. This is, in part, because indulgence has fallen out of fashion in this economy, and there seem to be a lot more people interested in healthy eating. He expressed that a push to promote healthy foods may be in step with the broader arc.

The products won't change overnight but will gradually evolve.

You can read more here.

Christmas Cookbooks

I am totally that person who never knows what they want for Christmas. Now that my relatives know I like to cook, however, it means that I get fewer gross-smelling candles and more things like kitchenware and cookbooks.

This year, my mom made my sister and I cookbooks with the recipes for all her "basics." I think that might have been my favorite gift. She also got me Alice Water's book, The Art of Simple Food. Nice!

Chris got Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian from his sister and Tassajara Dinners & Desserts by Dale and Melissa Kent from my parents, which looks great too.

Chris' mom also got me a cute little cutting board and basting brush that's shaped like a...small blue person. It even has a belly-button. She also gave us some olives and olive-wood utensils with which to spear said olives. She also got Chris this weird apron. I can't remember what the translation is, but with the "no" sign over the crotch, it seems to be saying, "Not now, honey, I'm cooking!"

Or something. I could get creative and let my mind wander, but I don't think this is the place for blue-streak kind of blogging.

Merry Christmas

Wherever you are, and whatever you're up to today, hope it's wonderful! I'm in Boston with Chris spending the holiday with his family. It's amazing how much you learn about someone and their families from their holiday traditions—and what food they serve! If nothing else, I have learned that if I ever get married, there will be no—I repeat, no-karaoke at the wedding.

Merry Christmas! Here's a ridiculous picture from last weekend at my parents' house. If you couldn't tell, we're none too fond of posing but were having a good time goofing around with the lights.

Vegan-Friendliness

Sometimes I take for granted how easy it is to find vegetarian and vegan eats in New York. Today, for example, while doing my holiday shopping, I stopped in at Pure Juice for a tall glass of "green spice" juice and raw vegetable sushi rolls (made with jicama-and-pine-nut rice!). A little later, I met up with a girlfriend for coffee at Cocoa V, a vegan chocolate-and-wine place, which just opened up on Ninth Ave.

Of course, our coffee plans actually turned into healthy glasses of Malbec and a sharing of a vegan cheese plate and chocolate once Chris arrived. The portions are small (but in that "perfect taste" way), and it's not exactly cheap, but it was a very nice treat to linger for a couple hours and enjoy a moment of peace before the holiday madness envelopes us all. The hot chocolate samples they brought out were pretty awesome too! Worth stopping in even if you're not a vegan. I mean, hell, I'm not even technically a vegetarian.

After that, we all hit up the Chelsea Market to pick up cellophane for cookies Chris and I had made as well as some last-minute treats for family members. I couldn't believe how many interesting shops and places to eat there were in there! I'm definitely going to go back sometime in the very near future! If you're in the New York area, you should check it out!

Hope your holiday prep has been more fun than stressful!

Never mind

I feel kind of like a dope now for actually believing for a split-second that the FTC's December 15 forum on food marketing to kids and the proposal that I blogged about a few days ago might actually hold some promise. It never fails to amaze me how one source of media will paint a completely different picture from another. I guess during finals week I was a bit lazy about not checking various sources of important stories. Haha but at least finals are over now and I have no excuse!

If you've never read Marion Nestle's blog, Food Politics, or any of her books for that matter, I'd recommend having a look—I find what she writes eye-opening. I went back a few entries today and found some more specifics on what exactly the group proposal (which I posted about a few days ago) entailed.

I'd read that it proposed restrictions on saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, and sodium for foods marketed to children, but what I hadn't seen was what those limits were: 1 gram saturated fat or less per serving and not more than 15% of total calories; less than half a gram of trans fat per serving; no more than 13 grams of sugar per serving; and no more than 200 mg of sodium per serving.

You don't have to be a student of dietetics to see that there are a lot, a lot of unhealthy foods can still meet these guidelines. Not only that, but there's still a lot of discrepancy over what a serving size should be in the first place. Besides that, there's a whole slew of other hazy details complicating the matter. Talk about a mess. While I'm glad the issue is getting some attention (not that it hasn't been getting attention), it's disheartening to see some of the ways in which food companies get around regulations both in place and proposed.

How to Make Your Own Brown Sugar

A lot of baking recipes call for both white sugar and brown sugar. What I didn't know until I took my first food lab was that you don't actually have to buy brown sugar—you can just make your own using granulated sugar and molasses!

For "dark brown" sugar, use 2 tablespoons molasses per 1 cup sugar, and for "light brown sugar," use 1 tablespoon of molasses per cup of sugar. Voila!

Diet Drinks

As I sit here typing this, I am sipping a tall glass of diet pepsi leftover from our party Friday night (I'm shocked it's still fizzy, like, four days later). While I cut way back on diet soda about a year ago, it's been hard for me to avoid it recently, thanks to finals and needing to stay awake through marathon group study sessions. Sure, it's better than cocaine, but it makes me a little dizzy to think of all the weird chemicals I've taken in over the past three weeks.

This entry on Washington Post blog The Checkup reminded me of some of the reasons I am not such a fan of diet sodas. While so far, scientific studies have shown that artificial sweeteners don't appear to pose cancer risks, there is some speculation that they mess with our perception and processing of real sugar.

David Ludwig of Children's Hospital Boston suggests that diet drinks, with their lack of nutrients and intensely sweet flavors may condition us to be less satisfied by naturally-sweet, nutrient-rich foods like fruits as well as the non-sweet flavors of vegetables, legumes, and the like. This could cause some people to make unhealthy choices, often replacing those calories absent from the drinks with other sources. Being able to associate sweetness with caloric intake is one of the internal cues that may be subdued by excess consumption of diet drinks. I guess only time and long-term studies of the effects of diet drinks will tell for sure.

A sundae is a beautiful thing once in a while, and with a balanced diet, you can easily work in the occasional treat, but it's no substitute for a vitamin-packed piece of fruit—or a meal. I am totally talking to my 19-year-old self here, who was known to eat ice cream with cereal for dinner when the dining hall was having an off-night, which happened pretty often. Glad I learned how to cook.

Federal Group Seeks to Cut Food Advertising to Children

A federal group created by Congress is looking to restrict food marketing to children to include only foods that provide "a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet," according to their proposal. This group also wants to limit the advertising of foods and beverages high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat, which they feel contribute to childhood obesity.

The recommendations this group is working on will be sent to Congress next year after a public comment period.

I would really like to see something like this go into effect. It drives me nuts how aggressively unhealthy foods are pushed on children, and it would be wonderful to see the government do something to curb that. What a concept.

Check out this Wall Street Journal article for more info.

My Pyramid: Tips for a Healthy Holiday

Finally, a source other than a women's magazine about healthy holiday eating and living: My Pyramid. Click here for info about portion sizes, safe cooking, and making good choices so you can enjoy the festivities without having to stress about food.

Study shows fat won't affect weight gain

In recent years, people have become slightly less fearful of fat, there's still this idea that if you're trying to lose weight, you have to eat low-fat versions of products and obsess over how many grams certain products have. While it's true that fat has about twice as many calories per gram as protein and carbs, it is an essential part of the diet, and many weight loss diets even recommend getting about 20-30 percent of your daily calories from fat, preferably unsaturated.

A new UK study, in which researchers followed 90,000 people from six different countries for up to ten years, shows that the percentage of calories a person got from fat, as opposed to carbs and proteins, had nothing to do with how much weight they gained over time. While participants gained an average of a quarter of a pound a year, there was no relationship found between how much weight people gained and how much fat they ate—the kind of fat also appeared not to matter.

Of course, researchers pointed out that this doesn't mean people should eat as much fat as they want—there are things like heart health to worry about—but that it's worth noting that the most "fattening" foods aren't always high-fat. A lot of low-fat products can be jut as high in calories and a lot less satisfying, prompting consumers to eat the whole box. Something to think about next time you've got the choice between an oreo and an imitation.

Read more here.

More on The End of Overeating

I love the New York Public Library. I have gotten to read so many great books without having to pay a dime.

David Kessler's The End of Overeating finally came in for me last week, and I must say, if you have the opportunity to read it, do it.

To give you a quick summary, Michael Pollen says of this book: "A fascinating account of the science of human appetite, as well as its exploitation by the food industry. The End of Overeating is an invaluable contribution to the national conversation about the catastrophe that is the modern American diet."

Kessler gets into the specifics of the sugar-salt-fat flavors people are conditioned to crave and the ways in which foods are engineered to be irresistible. I guarantee, you will never look at a TGIFridays or a Chili's or a Cheesecake Factory menu the same way ever again.

I have to say, though, the way he writes about people's responses to trigger foods and their feelings of powerlessness against them stresses me out a little. I think that's a compliment to his writing and ability to communicate the hold these foods have on these individuals. This book is compelling and fascinating and it makes me feel a tiny bit bad for all the lab rats involved in the experiments cited. In short: it's a must-read.

Joy Bauer's 1-Minute Pumpkin Pudding

I'm a little bit obsessed with pumpkin. I eat it all year round—pumpkin oatmeal and pumpkin risotto are a few favorites. I also have some pumpkin ravioli in my freezer right now (thanks, mom!). I saw this video posted on Self Magazine's Healthy Bites blog and wanted to share it with you. I haven't tried it yet, but it's definitely on the to-do list!

Champagne is the New Red Wine

Good news! According to a recent British Study, a glass of champagne delivers as many health benefits as red wine and chocolate.

Researcher Dr. Jeremy Spencer of Reading University found that it contains the same polyphenol antioxidants, which help promote heart health by slowing down the removal of nitric oxide from the blood, thus lowering blood pressure. Cheaper alternatives to champagne such as cava and Prosecco also contain these antioxidants.

Says Dr. Spencer, "We have found that a couple of glasses a day has a beneficial effect on the walls of blood vessels – which suggests champagne has the potential to reduce strokes and heart disease."

I'm not sure if the guidelines are different in the UK, but here, women are advised to stick to one drink a day and men to two, but hey, I'm always happy to have a reason to drink champagne. I don't drink very often, so when I do, I like it to be something really good!

Green Smoothie=Success!

So I finally gave in to my green smoothie craving today and made one! OMG this thing is good: frozen banana + 1/4 chopped apple + a little chopped pear + a big handful of spinach + 1/3 c kefir + 1/3 scoop vanilla protein powder = awesome!

Pouring on the Fat: Going Viral

Oh wow. This is disgusting and fascinating and I absolutely had to share:

Check out the video on YouTube. When I can figure out how to embed it here, I will!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4t8zL6F0c

What do you think of green smoothies?

I'm not really sure why, but lately I've been curious about green smoothies. Not only is it a convenient way to get in some of your daily vegetables, but I imagine they'd be a nice break from your typical strawberry-banana variety or whatever your personal standby is. I think I'll have to make one in the near future to see if I like them.

Here's a recipe I found online that might be good:

Ingredients

* 1/2 banana, cut in chunks
* 1/2 (6 ounce) tub vanilla yogurt
* 1/4 apple, cored and chopped
* 3/4 cup fresh spinach leaves

Directions

Place the banana, grapes, yogurt, apple and spinach into a blender. Cover, and blend until smooth, stopping frequently to push down anything stuck to the sides. Pour into glasses and serve.

I think it might be good to use frozen bananas to give it a thicker texture, but I guess it depends what you're in the mood for. Adding pear might be great too. I think I'd also use plain yogurt, since most of the pre-sweetened varieties out there tend to be a little too sweet, but either way, it sounds good to me.

General Mills to Reduce Sugar in Cereal

About time! General Mills announced Wednesday that it plans to reduce the amount of sugar in 10 of their kids' cereals.

For example, the added sugars in Cocoa Puffs could reportedly be reduced by 25% of the original level and 18% off the current level along with an increase in whole grains and nutrients. Some other cereals that are said to be getting the same treatment are Trix and Lucky Charms.

Last year, Kellogg's reduced the sugars in some of their cereals such as Apple Jacks, Froot Loops, and Corn Pops, and Post also plans to retune some of their cereals this year as well. Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles are due for a makeover, apparently.

I can't help wondering just how they plan to reduce the sugar while retaining their token sweet flavor. While it's possible they can probably get by using less and counting on kids not to notice too much, I wouldn't be surprised to learn they're using some other kind of sweetener.

While sugary, low-fiber cereals aren't necessarily the best choices, they're better than a lot of other ready-to-eat foods kids might grab on their way out the door (aka, pop tarts, donuts), especially when consumed with milk. Unlike sugar, kids' and teenagers' diets are much lower in milk than they used to be.

Anyone hear about how the dairy industry's "Raise Your Hand For Chocolate Milk" campaign? I have mixed feelings about it. While it's true that some kids probably wouldn't drink pre-sweetened milk and any milk may be better than none, I don't think we should ascribe that belief to all children. I think this practice of marketing sugary products and other "kid" foods to children should stop. Kids are allowed to drink milk and eat real, whole foods that adults do.

That said, I did just make myself a soy-milk hot chocolate...Once in a while, a treat like that is nice—just a tablespoon of a high-quality organic mix that actually has real cocoa powder in it is all you really need to add. It's the artificial stuff we're telling our kids they like better than everything else is what I have a problem with.

On the other hand, I think that if schools get rid of chocolate milk, then maybe they should also get rid of sodas and sugary juices. While chocolate milk may not be as great a choice as regular milk, I think it's usually a better option than a drink that won't even give you any nutrients (aside from calories) with all that sugar.

Cookie Diet? Seriously?

I'm sorry, I can't believe that there's anybody out there even prescribing a "cookie diet," yet it turns out there are quite a few: Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet, Smart For Life, and the Hollywood Cookie Diet are a few of the most popular programs.

You heard me right: eat pre-packaged cookies (engineered with substances such as glycerine and protein powder) and then have a token "sensible dinner" of lean protein and veggies—all for 800-1,200 calories a day.

Duh, if you take in fewer calories than you burn, you're going to lose weight, but intakes that low can send your body into starvation mode and throw off your metabolism. I am not a fan of single-ingredient diets or diets that require you to purchase special products.

I wish there was a way to convince people that the best way to lose weight ("and keep it off!") or improve their health is by learning how to make small effective changes that can lead to the results they want. You can't get that from a flippin' cookie.

This Wall Street Journal article takes a look at this weird eating plan.

That said, a well-balanced "cookie" makes a much better snack or quick breakfast than a candy bar or pastry. Check out this recipe for a no-bake breakfast cookie you can make ahead and grab on your way out the door. Homemade almost always beats pre-packaged.

Label Makeover

Finally! The food labels are getting a makeover!

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has decided it's time. The new label will be the first update on the labels required on food since the passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act almost twenty years ago. The changes are intended to make labels easier to understand by putting the information into a context consumers can more clearly comprehend.

Some of the proposed changes are (courtesy of Tara Parker-Pope's Well blog):

1. Put calorie and serving size information in larger type at the top of the label so it’s immediately clear how much you are eating.
2. Make the ingredient list easier to read by printing it in regular type instead of all capital letters. Use bullets to separate ingredients rather than allowing them to all run together.
3. List minor ingredients and allergens separately from the main ingredient list. Highlight allergy information in red.
4. List similar ingredients together and show the percentage by weight. For instance, sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and grape juice concentrate are all forms of sugar and should be listed in parenthesis under the catchall heading “sugars.”
5. Use red labeling and the word “high” when a product has more than 20 percent of the daily recommendation for fats, sugars, sodium or cholesterol.
6. Make it clear which sugars are added to the product versus those that occur naturally.
7. Display prominently the percentage of whole grains contained in a product.
8. List caffeine content.

This image shows some of the proposed revisions. You can see and read more here.

I'm curious to see what the labels finally end up looking like!

Not So Slim-Fast

Last week, the FDA issued a recall on ready-to-drink Slim-Fast diet shakes, regardless of flavor or best-by date, lot code, or UPC number. The recall is due to possible contamination with Bacillus cereus, a microorganism which can cause nausea and diarrhea, and vomiting.

I've never tried Slim-Fast, but I do know some people who drink it as a snack when they're on the go. If you know of anyone who would benefit from this information, pass it along.

Visit Slim-Fast online for more details .

Millions of Americans Drinking Dirty Water

It's not every day that the town you grew up in shows up in a front-page story in the Times. Unfortunately, that's rarely a good thing when it does happen. This morning while reading the paper, I noticed that the town my sister and I went to school in (because our town didn't have a high school), where a lot of our friends are from, was one of the towns cited for their contaminated water.

This particular borough tested high since 2004 for arsenic and dry-cleaning solvent tetrachloroethyline, both carcinogens. The town has not been fined, but it has installed filtration systems to deal with the problem. But still, cheerful stuff we're dealing with here.

And this town is just one in the group that makes up about 20 percent of U.S. water systems that have in some way violated the Safe Drinking Water Act over the past five years.

Even more cheerful, studies show that millions of illnesses can be linked to dirty drinking water every year. In the past five years, a reported 49 million illnesses have been attributed to contamination by substances such as arsenic, radioactive material like uranium, and dangerous bacteria found in sewage. Worse, only some 6 percent of violating systems have been fined or punished by state or federal official.

However, the Environment Protection Agency is expected to propose a new policy today for how it polices our country's 54,700 water systems. While I find these kinds of proclamations encouraging, I can't help but feel like there's the way a policy looks on paper and then the way it is enforced in the real world. I guess we shall see. At least if all my old friends start dying off, I'll know why.

Consumers Crave All-Day Breakfast

Living in New York, I think I take it for granted that if I really want, I can get an egg-white omelet or a belgian waffle or oatmeal any time of day or night I want. Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky.

There are, naturally, many people who would like to be able to get breakfast all the time. According to recent restaurant surveys, nearly half of US consumers report wanting full-service restaurants to offer breakfast fare all day and about a third would like limited-service restaurants to do the same.

As noted in Technomic's "Breakfast Consumer Trend Report," consumers in general find breakfast food comforting, but women are even more into the idea of being able to get breakfast at lunch and dinner. I guess I can see that.

Also interesting, apparently the purchase of breakfast sandwiches is on the rise. I don't know why I find this so interesting or amusing exactly...maybe because I've always thought of, like, bacon-egg-and-cheese-type breakfasts as hangover food (at least for me, though it's fortunately been a long, long time...).

Even though you could joke that a lot more people are probably drinking a lot because the economy sucks, I think it's also true that a savory breakfast is very comforting and makes people feel like they're getting a good, solid start to their day. I guess you could also say that in times like these, you need to feel like you're getting off on the right foot in at least some respect.

It could also be, too, that breakfast tends to be cheaper than other meals.

Eating Like the Obamas

Okay, the two Obama posts in a row is a sort-of coincidence. I just wanted to share this recipe that someone had re-posted from People magazine, of all places. I haven't read People in years (though I did have to skim through it when I was working in PR to look for clips), and I guess it occasionally runs articles that apply to nutrition.

I tried this out last night on Chris, and he actually liked it! I served it as a side dish to homemade soup, but it might be really great with pork chops or even something like grilled salmon. I'm looking forward to having the leftovers with lunch. I might try it over quinoa and add some tofu or some of the pink beans leftover from yesterday's lunch. We'll see. Cleaning the fridge sometimes helps you flex your creativity muscles.


Obama-Style Sauteed Greens and Sweet Potatoes
Recipe adapted from Chef Sam Kass

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes
2 bunches of greens (chard, kale or collards) (I used one bunch of collards)
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 ground cloves, minced
salt and pepper
1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil (for sauteing the sweet potatoes—I didn't need quite this much)

Preparation:

1. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into bite size pieces.

2. Heat half the oil in pan over medium heat and add potatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until just brown on all sides and soft (about 12-15 minutes, depending on size). When they are ready, add spices and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. While the potatoes are cooking, wash the greens (do not dry), remove stems and cut leaves into small pieces. Heat remaining oil over medium heat, add the garlic and cook for a minute before adding greens. Stir often and cook until tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Combine potatoes, honey and lemon juice with the greens, stir and serve.

ADA Commends Michelle Obama

This week, the American Dietetic Association commended Michelle Obama for her "remarkable efforts to bring good nutrition and healthful eating to the forefront of America's families, especially our nation's children."

In a letter addressed to the First Lady, ADA further details her contributions and describes the ways in which they are currently backing up her efforts to reverse current negative health trends as well as what they plan to do in the near future.

I'll spare you the gushing, since if you read this blog, you probably already know how much I like Michelle Obama, but man, it is so nice to read about something good going on this week. Hope you have a good weekend planned!

Read the letter here.

Pay a Cent Per Calorie at KFC

A few days ago, KFC announced that it will featuring a "penny-per-calorie" holiday promotion. $3.95 gets you a gilled thigh and drumstick plus green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy—395 calories.

I'll believe it when I see it (not that I intend to sample—I've found myself in pescetarian mode lately), but I am glad to see a somewhat more healthy concept used as a come-on. 395 calories is a really decent-sized lunch, and it seems that the meal is pretty balanced. I'd like to see more retailers try this approach.

Read more here.

Word from the Flexitarian Front

I haven't posted about flexitarianism in a while, but I found this segment on NPR's Tell Me More really interesting. Host Jennifer Ludden had ADA's Dawn Jackson Blatner—the author of The Flexitarian Diet—to discuss the need to be a little bit, um, flexible during the holiday season.

In short, the main message is to cut back on meat and load up on vegetables. Blatner also tells vegetarian listeners how to get that savory umami flavor found in meats. She also encourages vegetarians to just have a little turkey and enjoy the meal, treating meat as a condiment.

It's an interesting suggestion. I suppose it all depends on why someone chooses to follow a vegetarian diet in the first place. I will say, I did have a meatless Thanksgiving, and I didn't feel a bit like I was missing out, thanks to the nontraditional yet delicious spanikopita my mom brought!

Really, when it comes down to it, you just have to do what works for you.

Over the weekend, I had a discussion with someone who remarked on how America is perhaps the only country where "the poor are fatter than the rich."

I don't know if we're the only country where those with a lower income tend to have a higher body mass index, but it interesting to think about why this is.

About one in eight people in the US are on food stamps, a quarter of them children, and living off of roughly three dollars a day. That doesn't make it easy to cover one's basic nutritional needs, which causes many people to fill up on cheap, high-calorie foods with little nutritional value.

It seems unfair that foods people really need cost so much. I mean, I spent two bucks on a container of strawberries yesterday, and that's considered a bargain in New York! In a lot of ways, it's like an entire population is excluded from the healthy-eating discussion. Yeah, you can tell someone to eat salmon to get their omega-3s, but a 6-ounce fillet will run you at least five dollars. For someone trying to feed a family on a fixed income, that's just not going to happen.

Stocking up on basics like brown rice and dried beans is a good start, but we have to get more information out there and work to make it more possible to eat well on a budget. I totally sound like an idealist, but it could happen...

Here's an article about the challenges of being on a "food-stamp diet."

Neighborhood Gem

I don't usually post too much about restaurants, but last night when we got home, Chris and I stopped in at this Greek restaurant, Dafni, which opened in our neighborhood this summer. We'd always walked right by it, sort of writing it off because of its proximity to Port Authority, but man, were we wrong!

We split an order of kolokithokeftedes—zucchini fritters with onion, mint and cheese served with tzatziki—and the vegetarian moussaka—layers of vegetables in a tomato sauce with cucumber relish and fava dip on the side. That shut us up.

If you ever find yourself in the area, you should definitely drop in. They also have a pretty good wine list, which I'm looking forward to exploring in the near future.

Photo from restaurant website.

Thanksgiving Yogurt Adventure

As I sit writing this, I am at Chris' mom's kitchen table trying to get motivated to do homework. Yesterday's celebration at his dad's house was really nice, and afterwards, Chris and I stopped by the house of one of my friends from college. A whole collection of people I know from the Boston poetry scene were there, so it was great to catch up.

This morning involved going to the gym with Chris' mom and then enjoying some hot coffee while looking out over the river. Since she's only been in this apartment for about a week, there wasn't a whole lot in the fridge, but there were a few containers of Stonyfield Farms yogurt she told me to help myself to. There was also a half-finished container of whole milk plain yogurt left by the previous tenant.

I tend to prefer plain yogurt, so I will admit, I actually tasted the leftover stuff. It was still good, but I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of whole milk yogurt. I'm sure if I were used to it, I wouldn't have found the taste so weird, but it was just kind of...funny. So I reached for one of the "berry pomegranate" flavored varieties.

The yogurt was pretty good, if a little sweet. While scanning the ingredients, I noted the organic evaporated cane juice (sugar) and the organic fruit juices and the ubiquitous "natural flavor." I always find it funny how companies try to convince you that their product is somehow healthier because it's sweetened with fruit juice or with evaporated cane juice. I mean, sugar is sugar is sugar, and gram for gram, different varieties have the same nutritional value (nil). This yogurt also had pectin in it, which is a naturally occurring substance (a polysaccharide, which is a sugar) found in fruit peels and skins. It's basically what allows cooking apples to gel, and it's often used as a thickening agent.

While I guess it's better than the gelatin I saw listed in a suspisciously-thick Yoplait Light yogurt I had at a rest stop on Wednesday, it just seems weird that one would want to have their yogurt specially thickened. I mean, what's wrong with regular yogurt? It seems thick enough to me. This stuff felt a bit like eating creamy jello.

I don't think that people who buy pre-sweetened, thickened yogurts are bad or anything. Sometimes it's a better alternative than other offerings, especially if you're traveling. I just think it's annoying that the food companies add such weird stuff to otherwise innocuous products.

Anyway, that's my two cents for the day. Tonight we're going to a dosa restaurant in Central Square and to see some of Chris' high school friends. Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday!

McDonald's Goes "Green"

By the end of 2009, about 100 McDonald's restaurants in Germany will be swapping the traditional red background for a hunter green intended to boost the chain's eco-friendly image in Europe. Some locations in Britain and France have already made the change.

Granted, this does reflect the company's recent changes to more environmentally-friendly refrigeration methods and converting used oil into biofuel, but I don't know, reading stuff like this kind of annoys me. This is why I guess I'm not working in PR anymore. I feel like McDonald's is in no position to be luring in customers attempted to lead a greener lifestyle. Can we talk, just for a minute, about the strain obesity (to which a diet rich in fast food may contribute) has on the planet?

Read more here.

"Food Holidays"

While there are a lot of things to love about this time for year (I, for one, get really excited about all the lights), I get so sick of magazines running the same regurgitated story about how to avoid gaining weight during the holidays. How did Thanksgiving come to be such a drama?

Someone asked me the other day what I see myself doing with my degree, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was that I see myself serving as a sort of marriage counselor for America and Food. Of course, what I learn in school and will continue to learn is how to get both parties on the couch as well as how to facilitate an open, constructive discussion.

I have always gotten annoyed by all the hoopla around "Food Holidays" like Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's not the whole "let's celebrate by slaughtering a big bird and gathering around it" thing that bothers me because I can appreciate the tribal element, even if it's not my scene. What I'm talking about is the emotional stakes and the anxiety surrounding the meal. Dealing with your family is stressful enough for a lot of us!

I am of the belief that a lot of people who feel they have problems "controlling" themselves at such events feel that way because they've been told they have problems with self-control around food and therefore they need to buy this or that magazine so it can tell them how to reign it in and stay in line like a "good" girl (or boy). If a publication tells you you're an emotional eater, you're more likely to subscribe to that idea and incorporate it into your behavior. Power of suggestion.

Of course, this is just a theory. I am one of the (supposedly) freakish few people who are not emotional eaters—I have the opposite issue, which can be just as problematic. For example, I've been told that whenever I'm upset, as a woman, of course I always reach for my pals Ben and Jerry. I do? I mean, is that what I'm supposed to do? Am I somehow less of a woman because I prefer to throw a pillow across the room or go to a yoga class? And I'll admit, at times, I feel a little out of the cultural loop. I can observe and speculate but I don't know if I can ever truly understand. I just see what I see and it makes me crazy.

Whatever happened to just enjoying a meal and the company at the table? Why does food have to be the enemy? We seem to have forgotten that food is nourishment, one the basic things we need to stay alive. I hate hearing people talk about guilty they feel for eating a certain item or how "bad" they are for having a slice of pie or a piece of cake. I'm always tempted to say, "Well, I'm not." Actually, what I'm really tempted to say is, "How guilty you feel is your choice. Spare me."

Don't get me wrong, I do like Thanksgiving food okay, but to me, it's simply a nice meal someone put a lot of care into making, and like at any other meal, the foods I place on my plate are placed there to give me energy and the nutrients I need in balanced proportions, not sabotage my life...

Cake Wrecks

More with the birthday stuff. My mom asked me what kind of cake I want, and even though I have my preferences, I usually find myself thinking more about what everyone else would like to have. Meaning, I think I'm one of the only people I know who genuinely loves carrot cake, and for some reason, that's where my taste buds are at this season, but I don't want the rest of my family to be like, "Ew. Carrot cake? Seriously?"

But it's so moist and delicious...

Anyway, I spent the day Christmas shopping with my mom, and near the end of the day, we stopped in a book store with my sister. I swear to god, we laughed over this book Cake Wrecks for a good ten minutes at least! Holy s**t! And there's a blog version too, full of hilarious pictures of cakes gone wrong!

This reminds me of my Confirmation party when I was 14, and as a joke, my mom had the purse-toting purple teletubby put on my cake. I still have no idea what that was about. The bewildered expression on my face in those pictures is almost as good as the ones of me trashed and giggling with a knife in my hand at my 21st.

Oh, memories. And cake. Check out the website, it's a good time. Hardly nutritious, but f-ing hilarious.

Thanksgiving By the Stars

I found this fun little Gobbling By the Signs list that tells you what your astrological sign's typical Thanksgiving behavior is.

I was amused to see that my sign, Sagittarius, is most likely to just go camping for the long weekend. That sounds about right. Well, maybe not camping—I think a tropical locale would be much more my speed. At least that's what I'd rather be doing. I'm not a big fan of Thanksgiving and other holidays that involve traveling and sitting still for long periods of time being on good behavior. Ideally, I like to be able to work in the kitchen or get out and take a walk at some point for some fresh air and alone time.

This year, my family is going up to Boston to spend Thanksgiving with Chris' family. I'm sure it will be fun, but I'm definitely bringing my yoga pants. It's not quite the same as a long walk on the beach, but I'm sure I'll be needing to take me a few vinyasas.

Feast on some astrological insight into the holiday eating habits of your friends and loved ones.

Aries starts eating before everyone else has been seated.

Taurus accepts only the finest pieces of white meat.

Gemini grabs both turkey wings for themselves.

Cancer spends all day slaving over a hot stove and cries when the meal is over too soon.

Leo sulks that Capricorn is at the head of the table.

Virgo will only accept a minimum helping of the meal.

Libra does their best to make sure everyone gets equal portions.

Scorpio puts extra garlic in the mashed potatoes.

Sagittarius goes camping for the long weekend.

Capricorn sits at the head of the table.

Aquarius makes a meal entirely out of soy products.

Pisces wants to be one with the turkey.

Way to be part of the problem, Ms. Moss

I don't know if any of you guys have been hearing about Kate Moss' recent comment in a Women's Wear Daily interview that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."

Ohhhh dear...

While I'm sure there are some who would argue that she just doesn't realize how dangerous a statement like that can be (that exact slogan can be found on websites promoting anorexic behavior in girls), I have a feeling there are plenty more who are outraged and think Moss is being irresponsible. And, um, is this a good time to note that she has a 7-year-old daughter? And that she's supposedly writing a cook book (at least according to British Vogue)?

It all kind of makes my head spin. I had a very interesting email exchange with a friend yesterday about the pressures on women to look a certain way yet not too much so and not to look like we actually take the time to take care of our minds and bodies. That might be portrayed as selfish or snobby. And is it a good thing or a bad thing to be a "skinny bitch?" So many blurred lines, so much confusion.

Though I tend to say that everyone is entitled to their opinion, I think that Moss is being irresponsible. She may or may not realize that people only listen to her because she looks a certain way and that her looks give her an influence she really doesn't deserve—or that if she does deserve it, those qualities are rarely on display. For years, girls have looked up to her as a role model, weirdly enough, and at some point, one should acknowledge the responsibility they have to use their influence for good.

Spouting pro-anorexia BS to WWDis not exactly the way to use your (unearned) power to promote a positive message.

Le sigh. I hate the fashion industry.

Happy Early Birthday to Me!

My aunt just sent me this ten-days-early, very grim birthday card. By "grim," I mean darkly comical, and inappropriate for any of your vegetarian loved ones. Lucky for her, I do eat eggs. I laughed.

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Happy Birthday!

Powdered Peanut Butter

I know this stuff is kind of old news, but it just crossed my radar again—Powdered peanut butter sounds a little weird, and while I can't say I'd be able to justify paying a lot for it, I am rather curious. It could be really good in yogurt, smoothies, oatmeal, baked goods, and other stuff. True, you could just add peanut butter or almond butter, but this is powder! So weird! So convenient!

Haha I hate when I am won over by marketing and novelty. If I get around to trying it, I'll be sure to post.

What To Eat When "Healthy" Isn't An Option

Okay, so I know that women's magazines aren't exactly the best sources of dietary advice, but sometimes it's interesting to see where the rest of the world outside of a nutrition grad program is at.

On Glamour Magazine's Health and Fitness section this month, there is a piece called "What To Eat When Healthy Eating Isn't An Option," which describes various scenarios in which you might find yourself in a "nutritional wasteland," and what types of lesser-of-two-evils choices you can make to get the most nutritional bang for your buck.

Check it out here.

Seafood Watch

I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the dueling information about seafood there is out there. What's safe to eat in which areas at which times of year? Who can you trust? Where does my fish come from? Which types should I avoid and why? What about overfishing? The environment? Omega 3's?

The list goes on and on and on. It's hard to keep track and keep a clear head. Luckily, there are a few organizations out there attempting to help people make educated choices. Check out Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch for starters.

Recipe Modification

As you can probably guess by reading this blog, I love to cook. I also happen to have quite a few people in my life with various food allergies and sensitivities and preferences, so I often find myself modifying recipes so that everyone can eat what I make. I am also fascinated by the science of it—using the properties of the ingredients to predict how they will react with each other under various cooking techniques is so much more fun to me than the stuff in my chemistry textbook! I'd rather talk about food than methane.

For a school project, I recently had to adapt a recipe to make it appropriate for someone following the TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Change) diet to lower the risk of chronic heart conditions. I chose pumpkin pie, as it's one of my seasonal favorites. But who am I kidding? I would eat pumpkin pie in July.

I found the easiest way to lower the saturated fat and cholesterol in the pie was to make it vegan, and then I remembered that my friend Leah, who is vegan and sensitive to gluten, was having a birthday celebration today and that I had offered to cook some vegan, gluten-free goods.

Hence, a gluten-free, vegan pumpkin pie! Chris suggested the pecans on top—beautiful!

Here's your "No, duh" for the day!

Echoing what dieticians have been saying for years, an Australian study shows that low-carb diets can be linked to grumpiness.

According to a study of 106 obese people, those following a diet that was low in fat and allowed some carbohydrates tended to be less angry, depressed and confused after a year than those on a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.

This study was published yesterday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. You can read more about it here.

I was surprised that the article I read didn't mention the fact that we need glucose for energy and that you get glucose from carbohydrates. If we don't have enough glucose in our system, our body starts to break down protein and fat for energy. That may sound like a good thing to those trying to lose weight, but some brain and nervous cells rely exclusively on glucose, so a shortage can make you feel mentally and physically sluggish. Of course you're going to feel cranky!

While it's worth noting that both diets were equally effective at reducing overall weight, wouldn't you rather, well, not be in a bad mood for a year?

Let Me Down Easy

On Saturday, Chris and I got student rush tickets to see Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy at the Second Stage Theatre. If you have the opportunity, go see this! It was not exactly cheerful, but you will come away with a lot to think about. You may be stirred up, but you will not be disappointed.

I'd first encountered Smith while I was doing my undergrad at Emerson, when my honors class studied her play Twilight, and ever since, I'd been hoping I'd have a chance to see her perform live. The way she embodies her incredibly varied interview subjects on stage is mind-blowing to me, especially as someone who has performance in my background.

In this one-woman show, she portrays twenty different individuals she interviewed for the play, ranging from Lauren Hutton to Lance Armstrong to a doctor from Charity Hospital in New Orleans to her aunt.

On the surface, the play is about our country and its health care system, but it is also about life and death, winning and losing and all the disparities in between. This write-up in today's Times is a pretty good summary without giving away too much.

One thing I found myself wondering was if anyone will ever be able to write a successful play about our country's twisted food culture. At first, I was thinking, "Gee, someone should do an eating disorders play," but I really think food in our country is such a broad topic and so many different groups of people have so many different and passionate feelings about it, from consumers all the way up through the government and out into the industry. I don't know how you'd keep it interesting without getting too bogged down in "this bill and that lobbyist," but it could be really fascinating.

Lentils & Sweet Potatoes: Who Knew?

In the summer, I tend to eat a lot of salads for lunch, but once the weather cools down, I branch out a lot more and try different things. Today, I found a new favorite: lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach.

I actually got the idea from a blog called Runner's Kitchen, which a former co-worker turned me on to. Though I am by no stretch a runner, I do love exercise, and it's nice to see another young woman out there who sees food as fuel for her busy life and not as an enemy that must be conquered.

The dish was really easy to make—the only hard part was waiting for the lentils and onions to finish cooking. I also added a couple teaspoons of curry paste, mostly to see what would happen. It was a nice addition, but you could also go without it.

Here's my attempt at a single-serving recipe:

Ingredients

1/4 c lentils

1/2-1 c water (start with a 1/2 c and add more if the lentils get too dry)

chopped onions

2 tsp olive oil

1 c spinach leaves

1 small sweet potato

2 tsp curry paste (optional)

Directions

Sautee the onions in oil until translucent.

Add lentils and stir until coated lightly.

Add 1/2 c water and stir in. When the mixture comes to a boil, lower the heat.

While the lentils are cooking, you can cook the potato in the microwave for 4 or 5 minutes.

When it looks like the lentils are almost done, stir in the spinach until it wilts in.

Stir curry paste into lentils and spinach.

Peel and cube potato. Stir into lentils.

Pour into a bowl and enjoy.

Why Fast Eating Leads to Overeating

A group of Greek researchers recently conducted a study in which volunteers ate 300 mL of ice cream at various rates. Both before and after eating, their blood glucose, insulin, lipids, and gut hormones were mentioned.

What researchers found was that fast eating limits the release of gut hormones that tell the body it's full. Surprise, surprise. It's good to see some clinical evidence to back up what dieticians have been trying to get across for years: slow down so you can enjoy your food.

You can read more here. The study will appear in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Giving Thanks a little early this year

Today in one of my classes, we discussed renal diseases and the types of diets one must follow when kidney function is impaired.

Let me just say, the renal diet is incredibly complicated and bland—I can imagine it would be frustrating to follow. Not only do you have to limit protein in most cases, but you also have to avoid foods high in both potassium (you can pretty much kiss fresh fruits and veggies goodbye) and phosphorous (so long dairy, meats, and nuts—even soy milk!). Fluids also have to be restricted to as low as 500 mL per day in some cases! That includes soup and ice cream. You also have to monitor sodium intake.

As I downed coffee after coffee while studying for an exam today and washed an almond-butter-and-banana sandwich down with a little soy milk, I took a moment to enjoy the fact that I could.

It's easy to forget how lucky we are to be healthy when we're used to being well. It's important to remember to be thankful for that. I know sometimes I get really busy and focus more on the negative day-to-day events, but practicing a little mindfulness can be helpful—sometimes we need to clue ourselves in again to how lucky we are.

Unless of course you have renal disease and in which case, my sympathies.

Another Day, Another Beef Recall

While reading the paper this morning, I came across an article about another beef recall being put into action after two people died and more than a dozen people fell ill, possibly due to the same source of contamination: ground beef from a company called Fairbank Farms.

The voluntary recall, issued on Saturday by the company, includes 545,699 pounds of ground beef sold to retailers in 8 states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Some of the stores at which these products were sold include Price Chopper, Giant, Trader Joe's Wild Harvest, and Shaws.

While I know that cooking can kill a lot of the bacteria, I still get really nervous when I read stuff like this. It seems to be happening way too often. There is a lot that the consumer can do to lower their chances of falling ill, but if you're starting out with a contaminated product, there's not a whole lot you can do.

Since one of the few foods I don't like is ground beef, it's not a huge deal to me, but I know that my dad, for example, practically lives off of the stuff. I feel like when I read about these things, it's easy to feel like "oh, that's just something that happens to other people," but I'm sure that those people who get sick felt the same way.

While I'm not going to try to advocate a restrictive diet in which potentially dangerous foods are cut out (the list is way too long), I will say that events such as huge meat recalls should make people more concerned with knowing where their food comes from.

Could calorie labeling become part of health reform?

Included in the 1,990-page health care reform bill introduced by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was an outline for general nutrient-labeling requirements for restaurants and retail outlets with 20 or more outlets.

Affected restaurants would be required to prominently post calorie counts on menus and menu boards as well as calories per serving for items in salad bars and self-serve set-ups. They would also be required to post a reminder about the recommended daily caloric intake to help put all those numbers in context as well as let customers know that more nutritional information on their menu items is available upon request.

Vending machines would also be subject to calorie-posting rules.

Read more here.

Personally, I don't see much harm in informing the public—I think that this information can help people make good choices for themselves. Of course, it makes it easier for obsessors to obsess, but a lot of people in that boat look up calorie counts online anyway. I don't think it's necessarily the cure to all our country's diet-related health problems, but I usually am in favor of educating people.

For some, this could have a positive impact, and for others, it could have no impact. You wouldn't really be able to tell the overall effect for a while after substantial research, but I'm interested to find out if it works.

An article that's not about Childhood Obesity!

Sometimes I feel like everyone has been freaking out so much about the "childhood obesity crisis" that we overlook some other important issues—many of them concerning children of normal weight and the ways in which their attitude towards food is so impressionable at a young age.

I'm not saying that I have the magic ad campaign bullet, but I will say that I think there's a lot of room to mess up when the boldface message out there basically amounts to: OMG OUR KIDS ARE SO FAT! SOMEONE (ELSE) DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!

Imagine being, say, a nine-year-old girl and thinking, "Are they talking about me? I had a cupcake yesterday. Maybe I am fat..." Or even a kid who is somewhat overweight or has a borderline BMI could get their head all turned around by the mixed messages or internalize it too much, thinking that they need to be constantly exercising or avoiding all trans fats or whatever it is that spells "weight loss" to them. It sets up a mechanism for disordered eating.

An interesting article I came across yesterday has nothing to do with weight loss in kids or childhood obesity. It's actually about children with Type 1 Diabetes and how they handle Halloween, a traditionally sugar-laden holiday.

Because their bodies don't produce insulin, children with Type 1 Diabetes have to carefully monitor their blood sugar and insulin level as well as follow a modified diet, which helps make sure that carbohydrates are distributed evenly throughout the day.

For years, sweets were heavily restricted, but in recent years, some doctors have begun to allow candy in small amounts as long as it's balanced with the right amount of insulin. They do suggest having a plan before the trick-or-treating starts, though.

I found this a very interesting viewpoint, since I don't read much from this perspective. It's kind of a reminder that not all kids are gorging on candy all the time. It's too bad that kids with Type 1 have to learn moderation because of their disease, but in some ways, it probably does spare them some of the issues other children are dealing with.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes?

Last night, I set out to make sweet potato pie. As I was gathering ingredients, I realized I was short on a few things, so I ended up adapting the recipe to make a vegan version. It came out tasty, but the texture is fluffy—like vaguely sweet whipped sweet potato something-or-other. It's totally its own thing.

I used up most of the flour we had left while making the crust, and am thinking that maybe next time, I'll just buy whole wheat flour, since I'm usually cooking for myself and Chris and he doesn't mind whole wheat products. Of course, we'll make our Christmas cookies family-friendly (read: traditional) with regular flour, but for everyday stuff, it's, like, why not get the extra nutrients in whole grain products?

While procrastinating on a piece I'm writing for work, I came across this recipe for Cottage Cheese Pancakes. I'm not really into pancakes because they make me sleepy, but these sound really good. Plus, the combo of protein and complex carbs is a great way to ward off the yawns...

Ingredients

• 1 pound low-fat cottage cheese
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup oatmeal
• 2 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 6 egg whites
• 
  
• (brush nonstick pan lightly with vegetable oil)

• 
  

Preparation

Mix cottage cheese, flour, oatmeal, egg yolks, honey, milk, vanilla and cardamom in large bowl. Beat whites in another large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into cottage cheese mixture in 2 additions.

Preheat oven to 200°F. Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Brush with oil. Spoon batter onto skillet by 1/3 cupfuls, forming 4-inch-diameter pancakes. Cook pancakes until bottoms are brown and bubbles form on top, about 3 minutes. Turn; cook until bottoms are brown and pancakes are cooked through, about 4 minutes.

Transfer to plate and place in oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter.

McMona Lisa

I know it was announced a few weeks ago, but I'm still not over the fact that the Louvre is going to install a McDonald's in the basement food court of the famous Paris museum.

Even though there are already a few small food establishments and a shopping mall down there, I can't but help like this is just a bit much...

While this article does go into a few ways in which the French McDonald's is slightly more gourmet than the one we know and love (to hate) in the US, I don't know...Call me old-fashioned, but I feel like the Louvre should be one of those sacred McDonald's-free zones.

Image courtesy of Boggle

Smart Choices Program Suspended

On Friday, the group that runs the Smart Choices labeling program announced that it will be holding off on recruiting new products as well as refrain from promoting the use of their logo while the FDA continues with its examination of the front-of-package labeling issues.

Many nutrition experts are relieved that Smart Choices, which promotes food like "better than a donut" Froot Loops as a "smart" breakfast choice with a little green check-mark on the box, is being put on hold.

You can read more about Smart Choices on Marion Nestle's blog, Food Politics.

In a country where overnutrition and obesity are starting to seem like the norm, it's quite a wake-up call to remember that a billion people in the world still go hungry. It's pretty imbalanced that in the US, we produce more food than we need, yet in many developing countries, people are starving because of a shortage of food.

Here's an article from today's Times about what's being done to address the issue, including the challenges anticipated.

Moms Give Themselves a Gold Star for Nutrition

A lot of research shows that a mother's eating habits and attitude towards food has a big impact on children's food behavior as they grow. Mom's nutritional knowledge dictates what her child eats, so when she eats well, so do they.

A new report shows, however, that while healthy eating may be at the forefront of a lot of moms' minds, attitudes and intentions don't always align with what moms are actually eating and serving.

According to a report by the NPD, a marketing research group, while 75 percent of new moms and 65 percent of "experienced" mom say they actively seek out products with nutritional benefits, they are less likely to actually eat these foods.

And when it came to nutritional knowledge, most moms claimed to be "very of extremely knowledgeable" about nutrition and eating, but when asked to take a test, few actually scored in that category.

Since I haven't had kids yet, I don't know whether doctors give new (or experienced) mothers any info about nutrition for children or turns them on to easy-to-understand resources where they can learn about it, but I think that could be a big help.

Read more here.

Another Look at Calorie Labeling

In this Atlantic article from October 8, author Corby Kummer takes another look at the initial results of New York's calorie-labeling laws by calling into question some of the methods and timing of the study written about in the New York Times article, which offered up a pretty dim outlook.

He points out that the study was perhaps conducted too soon and on too small and specific a population to give a clear idea of whether the laws have had much of a positive impact. In discussing some of the pros and cons of the laws, he also brings up the fact that some companies, in addition to posting the calorie content of their foods, have also begun to reformulate some of their recipes in an attempt to lower calories.

"Public health," he said, "is about protecting the whole public, not any subset, even if underserved and strongly affected subsets are of course its frequent focus. It's about making society safer and healthier."

I tend to agree with that. I find it interesting, though not in a good way, that so much research focuses only on low-income populations. While data shows that these populations do show the highest incidences of obesity and related health conditions, it's just one piece of a much larger societal puzzle, the way that calorie labeling is just one corner of a very big picture.

Another Reason I Like Michelle Obama

When it comes to health and nutrition, the first lady seems to have a good head on her shoulders.

On a recent trip to the Health and Human Services Department, she stressed that even small changes in diet and exercise can have a big impact. Got that? "Not totally evaporating your way of being as you know it today."

"Imagine what we'll be facing in 20 or 30 years," she continued, "if we don't get on this issue. None of us wants a future like that for our children."

I really think that's an important message to put out there, especially now, when stress levels are high and health—especially diet and exercise—is one of the first things to fall by the wayside.

Putting an emphasis on the need for that healthy balance in your life is something I wish we saw more of—why can't our country make a bigger deal out of the fact that preventative care can help you in the long run?

Junk Food Habits—starting early

Last night, I was having a conversation with someone from Sweden about the differences she's noticed in the way people eat in the U.S. versus Sweden, and—surprise, surprise—she told me that whenever she goes home, even if she's still eating favorite treats, she loses weight.

"It's so hard for me to eat healthy here!" she said, griping about how hard unhealthy foods are pushed and how she feels like stores go out of their way to steer you away from the good stuff.

While I've never been to Sweden, I definitely agree that healthy foods are sort of marginalized here and made into these, like, luxury items, even though there are plenty of healthy foods like sweet potatoes and oatmeal and beans and lentils and such that are actually very inexpensive. The thing is, Americans have been programmed in recent years to think that eating healthy costs a lot of money.

This Times article looks at a study that was published in the journal Pediatrics of about 800 low-income Philadelphia school-children ages fourth grade to sixth grade who were able to buy about 400 calories worth of snacks with just the dollar and change in their pocket. Some of the most common snacks were candy (Sour Patch Kids, Peanut Chews) in the morning on the way to school, and chips after school—foods that are high in calories but almost totally lacking in nutritional value.

We start 'em young here, I guess. Maybe I was born an old lady, but my favorite after school snack used to be an apple with peanut butter. Cereal was another go-to. It still is. I guess I did like Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit-by-the-Foot and Gushers when I was younger because "everybody else" was eating them and they were all over TV. At least those things were fortified with vitamin C, if just barely...

What's it going to take for people to stop equating "healthy" with "boring" and "expensive?" That's not the kind of attitude we should be passing down to our children.

NYC Dumpling Festival

I don't know if you're as obsessed as I am with dumplings, but if you are, don't miss the NYC Dumpling Festival on Saturday, October 24th.

True, they may not be the healthiest food on earth, but once in a while, they're a great (often cheap) treat.

The event will run from 12 -5 pm at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on East Houston Street. Go for the plethora of dumplings, and while you're there, witness the 6th Annual Chef One Dumpling Eating Contest. You can even register to participate in the contest until October 16th, if that's your kind of thing.

Americans Not Eating Their Fruits and Veggies

Recent CDC surveys show that only 33 percent of U.S. adults eat adequate amounts of fruit everyday and just 27 percent get the recommended amount of vegetables.

While this figure totally baffles me, I do have to remember that I'm in school to become a dietician and am therefore slightly more inclined to be mindful to eat my 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

Seriously, though, it doesn't have to be hard to get what you need. Here are a few super-easy ways to incorporate these important foods into your day:

*Slice a banana onto some cereal or oatmeal

*Eat an apple for a snack

*Toss a generous handful of fresh berries onto yogurt

*Instead of soda, drink 4 ounces of 100% juice topped off with seltzer

*Try using banana or apple slices instead of jelly with peanut butter on a sandwich

*Carry some baby carrots with you to work or school to munch on

*Throw steamed broccoli into pasta dishes

*Go for marinara sauce over cream

*Pop a sweet potato in the microwave for five minutes and enjoy alongside a veggie burger or some salmon and spinach

*Pile dark leafy greens and tomatoes onto your sandwich

...and the list could go on and on.

Often, a piece of fresh fruit is cheaper than a bag of chips. Not only will it give you more nutritional bang for your buck, it will help you stay fuller, longer and feel better.