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."