Everything in Moderation

As a housewarming gift, my parents arrived one day with a brand-new chest freezer.  When we lived in the condo, this just wasn't an option due to space and quite frankly, that's why I got into canning--it was the only way to buy or cook in bulk and preserve the results without extra freezer space.

So the other day, I made one of my routine trips to the wholesale club and explored the wealth of new items I could now buy because I had cold storage for them.  I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but my shiny new freezer is now home to this:

Yes, that bag says EIGHT POUNDS and no, we won't be eating them all at once.

With all of the discussion about obesity in America, poor quality school lunches, and other related topics lately, our good friends the Tater Tots are suddenly being looked at with a permanent scowl.  In fact, I'd rank it up there with the treatment McDonalds got shortly after the "Supersize Me" documentary was released.  And that's a shame because it isn't the Tater Tot that's making America obese.  It's our personal choices.

There's nothing wrong with a little junk food now and then.  Whether it's Oreos, Tater Tots, Frozen Pizza, Full-Fat Ice Cream, or whatever your personal vice is, it isn't inherrantly bad if it's thought of as a periodic treat.  None of these products are really meant, nutritionally at least, to be foods consumed as 90% or more of your daily diet.  It's something called "moderation" and it's a concept our grandparents understood and were taught from a young age.  Then again, our grandparents weren't exposed to the kind of mass-media marketing we are today and they had a bit of a slower lifestyle and less discretionary funds.  They also raised their families back when it was practical to roast your own potatoes for 2 hours in the oven for a weeknight meal.

We'll be storing this gigundo bag of greasy potato treats downstairs in the bulk freezer and I'll be bringing up handfuls at a time to store in quart-sized bags in the main freezer or in portion sizes for dinners.  And we won't be eating them more than once a week--probably even less frequently.  Heck, everyone loves to take an extra-crispy Tater Tot, dip it into some good old American ketchup, and devour it.  There's nothing wrong with that.  It just doesn't have to be done 4 out of 7 days a week and served alongside fish sticks or commercial chicken nuggets.

By the way...  If you really want to feel better about the ketchup thing, Heinz makes an organic version of their ketchup that's absolutely fantastic.  Not only is it made from organic tomatoes, but it has no high-fructose corn syrup and it tastes almost identical to the real thing.  I guarantee your kids won't know the difference.  And, you can always serve your Tater Tots with homemade oven-baked chicken tenders and a side of steamed veggies, fruit juice, or quick and easy homemade microwave applesauce.

You Are What You Eat - It's Really True

Anyone remember that old PSA on the Saturday morning cartoons that went, "You are what you eat, from your head down to your feet...?"  The more I learn about food, gardening, and cooking and the more I read about research into food, the true I believe that statement is.

I recently ran across this post on the Wild Yeast Blog that talks about the health benefits of sourdough bread.  As a carb-phobic generation, we don't usually associate delicious crusty bread with being healthful.  Instead, we mentally place it into a category with ice cream, candy, and Oreos.  However, sourdough is made through natural fermentation processes--very similar to the processes and involving some of the same beneficial bacteria as active-culture yogurt, wine, and beer.

We've all heard the studies about red wine and its health benefits (a glass a day will keep the doctor away, or something like that).  And you can't watch TV without seeing Jamie Lee Curtis on an Activia commercial.  Apparently, someone recently did a similar study to the wine study in an extremely healthful village in a remote area of Greece and came up with a similar conclusion that sourdough bread can help us lead long and healthful lives (along with 10 other factors including reducing stress).

I love when a seemingly "bad" food like wine, chocolate, or almonds are shown to be healthy through scientific studies.  It shows us that focusing on the latest dietary "fad," be it reduction in saturated fats, cholesterol, refined sugar, or any host of other ingredients, is not nearly important as learning to eat a balanced diet of less-processed, more authentic foods and to and follow an, "everything in moderation," philosophy.

Heck, who wouldn't want to be part of a community where 1 out of every 3 people live past 90?  I know I would.

(Okay, so you caught me.  That's not a sourdough boule shown above--it's a wheat round.  Sorry, but it's all I had available without stealing something from the web.)

It Aint Just McDonalds...

With all the discussion over obesity in America, we're always quick to blame McDonalds for providing us with the means and opportunity. What people don't often do is look at their favorite coffee shop and morning coffee with the same criticism.

The other morning at Dunkin Donuts, I heard a young-ish man walk up and ask for the following, "A medium iced, extra-extra, with two shots of caramel."

For those not from New England, let me translate. He ordered a medium iced coffee with extra sugar, extra cream, and two shots of caramel syrup. At Dunkin, a medium iced drink is 24 oz. That's 4 "cups" on your home coffee pot or two 12-oz mugs. Dunkin doesn't list that exact combination on their nutrition website, but a medium iced with a single dose of cream and sugar and no caramel is 288 calories, 14.4 grams of fat, and 48mg of cholesterol. Since most of that comes from the cream and sugar and he ordered "extra-extra," let's double it (576 calories, 29 grams of fat, and 96 mg of cholesterol).

As it turns out, Dunkin offers two different types of caramel flavoring. The "Caramel Swirl" added to their espresso drinks is standard, sugar-laden caramel sauce like you'd find on an ice cream sundae or a caramel latte. The caramel flavored coffee uses a sugar free caramel flavoring. This gets around having to brew multiple types of beans. I don't know which the young man received in his coffee, but having been a barista, I know that a "shot" usually means the sugar syrup. If we make that assumption, a "shot" is 1.5oz and two shots is 3oz (not to be confused with a "double shot" because Dunkin doesn't work with alcohol jiggers)... According to Smuckers, a 3-oz serving of caramel syrup is 300 calories, no fat, no cholesterol.

That brings us to: 876 calories, 29g fat, 96mg cholesterol.

To put it into perspective the recommended daily allowance is based on a 2000 calorie diet. 876 calories is nearly half that (45%). The RDA for cholesterol is 300mg (32%) and 65g for fat (45%). This is for ONE DRINK. Around here, it's not uncommon for many people to have two or more of these in a day.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not specifically Dunkin's fault this guy ordered and consumed what he did. However, their fantastic advertising (Everyone Runs on Dunkin) encourages us to think that a 24-oz beverage loaded with all that crap is and should be normal and that it'll keep us going all day long when, in fact, it's not and it won't. What's more, they've convinced many of us that it's normal to have at least one a day, or two, or three. Not a far stretch from that well-known not-so-subliminal message, "You want fries with that?"

A Hearty Breakfast

This past weekend, I made a batch of steel-cut oats for breakfast. It takes awhile--a half hour or so, but it's totally worth it to get that rich oat flavor and chewy bite.

I decided to put a scoop of my home-canned apple pie filling on top with a few pecans and wow, was it fantastic!

Food for Thought (or Thoughts About Food)

Something to ponder.... Which of the following is a "more healthful" choice?

Country Kitchen Light Wheat Bread
Ingredients: Wheat Flour (Enriched with Barley Malt, Niacin, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Soy Fiber, Wheat Bran, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Wheat Gluten, Yeast, Whole Wheat, Corn Starch, Guar Gum, Caramel Color. Contains 2% or Less of Each of the Following: Salt, Dough Conditioners (Mono and Diglycerides, Ethoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate), Soybean Oil, Calcium Sulfate, Calcium Propionate, Calcium Peroxide.

Serving Size: 2 slices
70 calories
0.5 grams of fat
190 mg sodium
4 grams fiber

Basic Homemade White Bread (See Recipe)
Ingredients: Flour, Water, Butter, Sugar, Nonfat Milk, Potato Flakes, Yeast, Salt

Serving Size: 1 slice
140 calories
4.5 grams fat
190 mg sodium
1 gram fiber

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the relative benefits and trade-offs of both options. At first, the light bread looks most appealing because it allows you two slices (i.e. a whole sandwich) for less than the fat and calorie intake of one slice of the homemade bread. However, if you look at the ingredients list, the light bread is a scary laundry list of things many of us can't even pronounce, let alone something that we'd expect to find in our food and outside of a lab.

I'm posing this question because it often comes up in our household. My wife, a very proud Weight Watcher's graduate, will often look at a meal or a snack that I prepare and remark, "Oh...THAT's not healthy," or, "That's fattening." Often, the meal is made with a healthy balance of vegetables, starch, and protein or the snack may have whole grain flour and free-range eggs in it. So why do we as Americans automatically jump to the conclusion that these homemade items are "less healthy" than store-bought?

The simple answer is public perception and marketing. The food industry spends billions of dollars a year trying to convince us that a) Their foods are healthier than the competitor and; b) Limiting fat and calorie intake is the most effective way to maintain a healthy weight and nutrition. In reality, if you eat all low-fat, low-calorie foods all the time and rarely consume healthful fats, fruits (high in calories due to sugar), and vitamin-rich vegetables, you're probably not eating a well-balanced diet and you're putting all the chemical and additive crap into your body that the manufacturers replaced the fat and calories with in their products. Instead of exercise, moderation, and portion control, we rely on food manufacturers to engineer foods around our expectations for the nutrition label instead of around the food pyramid.

Personally, I'll take the homemade bread (or a store-bought artisan bread with a similar ingredients list). I think it's much more important to know what all the ingredients are that go into my food than to eat an engineered product that's designed to help me get around good nutrition. If you're really serious about healthy eating habits, then maybe one slice of bread instead of two is a small price to pay. After all, you can always make a half sandwich. :-)

Product Review: Agave Nectar

Each day, I drink a large cup of tea. And I'm not ashamed to say that I like it sweet. In my 16-oz cup, you'll generally see me shovel in 2-3 teaspoons of white sugar to get it just right. Some people look at it as a sign of weakness. I don't. I see it as a perfectly made cup of tea. You drink your tea your way, I'll drink mine my way.

That said, I also know that my family has a long history of sugar problems and I have a long history with weight issues that I really need to start keeping in check. That said, scoops of fine white powder dumped into my morning tea just isn't a great idea long-term. I've tried all of the commercial sweeteners, unimpressed with the funky chemical after-taste. About the best one I've tried so far is Truvia, one of the new stevia plant based sweeteners, but I still find that it ruins the flavor of the cup of tea that I've grown to love. And I don't subscribe to the, "Oh, you'll get used to it," argument. I don't believe in getting used to something you don't like. What's the pleasure in food if you have to eat stuff you don't find appealing?

Recently, I decided to research and try Agave Nectar:


I've seen agave nectar in the store (usually near the breakfast syrups) and have always wondered about its health benefits. After a big of Googling, I've found that it's made from a succulant plant that looks a lot like an aloe, it's supposedly sweeter than honey, and the main health benefit is that it affects blood sugar levels less than just about any natural sugar sweetener on the market--less than honey or corn syrup. Figuring, "What the heck?" I gave it a try.

First, it's pretty neutral in flavor--something you don't get often in syrup sweeteners. I don't know that I'd personally call it sweeter than sugar or honey, but I can get away with about three good teaspoons of it in my big cup-o-tea. For the most part, it doesn't impart much of its own flavor. There's a very slight vegetal note that comes through more like a tartness, but that's not entirely unpleasant in tea.

All in all, I like it and I think I'll keep using it. If you're looking for something natural to put in your morning hot beverage or to drizzle on toast or pancakes, give Agave a try. I recommend it.

Social Responsibility; GMO & Organic?

There's currently a measure on the table over at the FDA to authorize the growth of genetically modified crops of Alfalfa. This is a significant landmark situation for two reasons:

First of all, the FDA has been rubber-stamping genetically modified seeds for years and this is the first time a legal fight started by an activist group has stopped them in their tracks and forced them to use the proper approval process, which includes public commentary. This is going to set a great precedence where we actually get to help make the decision as the people who are eating the food.

The second reason this is a landmark event is because Alfalfa is a cover crop that's often planted in beds on the off-years and during the winter to give the ground time to rest and acquire nutrients. Alfalfa is an open-pollinated grass, which means that pollen will blow off of the Alfalfa fields and into other fields and pollinate other crops, producing second-generation crops with part of the DNA from the genetically modified Alfalfa, effectively contaminating the gene pool. For folks who are dead-set on eating 100% organic and non-GMO products, this is a nightmare.

I have a slightly different view on the matter. First of all, I do think that we have the right to know where our food comes from and how it was grown. That's what personal choice and American freedom is all about. If I were to choose to eat organic, I'd want to know that I'm truly doing so and not eating organically grown products that have been accidentally cross-bred with GMO crops.

My second opinion on the matter is that the politics behind GMO crops are just plain nasty and hurt the smaller, more quality-oriented farms. People don't realize this, but once you genetically alter a crop, you can patent the seed for that crop. Whenever another farm wants to grow from your seed, you are entitled to payment for using your patent and they pretty much have to buy the seed from you, the patent owner. You can't collect seed at the end of the year for re-use because they want their royalty fees. To make matters worse, there's basically only one company left, Monsanto, that owns the majority of the world's GMO seed patents. Monsanto is so large that they've got all the legal bullying power to put small farms out of business and they use it often and with a heavy hand.

Here's how it works. You're a small farmer that wants to grow non-GMO food. You plant your beds and the farm down the street that is using GMO seeds open-pollinates your field by mistake (the wind blows where it blows). You collect the seeds from your crop at the end of the year with the intention of using them again next year to save money. However, some dude from Monsanto knocks on your door and says, "Prove to us you're not collecting and re-using our genetically modified seeds." And of course, you can't because your seeds do indeed contain part of the genes from their seeds.

The small farmer then gets buried in legal paperwork by Monsanto until he can no longer afford to fight and has to close-up shop. Morally speaking, the farmer is every bit within his right--and probably legally speaking too. However, he doesn't have the money to go up against the giant, so legal or not, he loses.

Kinda sucks, doesn't it? Read more about it here and decide for yourself how you feel. If you feel as strongly about it as I do, be sure to submit your public comment to the FDA before the comment window closes on March 3rd.

Social Responsibility - Shopping Locally When You Can't.

This post is one of a series I've been writing tagged as "Social Responsibility" The series focuses on eating and shopping locally, choosing healthier food sources, supporting your local economy and merchants, and learning to do all these things without hurting your budget. I hope you enjoy the posts.

Recently, I wrote a post about shopping locally and buying local products. I'm sure many of you were thinking, "Yeah, easy for you to say. Do you KNOW how much more money you have to spend to shop locally?" Or, perhaps you thought, "But what if I don't have access to locally produced food?"

Well, there are some really great foods in the regular supermarket that qualify as "local" foods in my book. They may not be local in the traditional sense, but they're companies with the same philosophy on food...that you shouldn't compromise quality to make an extra buck. They also contribute to the communities in which they operate and take good care of their employees.

First, a few national brands...

King Arthur Flour
I've personally been up to KAF headquarters and shopped in the company store. Now here's a company that puts its money where its mouth is. They sell nation-wide but still operate out of a timber frame building in Vermont and they're entirely employee-owned. Their flour may be upwards of an extra buck over the store or national brands, but the quality and love that goes into the product makes the extra money well worth it.

Bob's Red Mill
Here in Rhode Island, you can even find Bob's products in discount stores and they're not second quality. Bob's still operates as a small operation in Oregon and you can really taste the difference. Plus, their products tend to be pretty reasonably priced.

Annie's Homegrown
Annie's is perhaps most known for its line of organic boxed Mac & Cheese, but they also make cereal and organic alternatives to a lot of other kid-friendly foods. They still hold true to their core values and still operate out of the Napa Valley area.

Green Mountain Coffee
Even though they're the parent company of Keurig, a device they themselves admit to be not so Earth friendly (they're working on it!), Green Mountain takes planet stewardship seriously in nearly all of their operations. Not only do they produce organic and Free Trade blends, but they go so far as to do things like distribute their coffee bean hulls for use as garden mulch.

Cabot Cheese
Cabot Cheese was started as a farmer-owned co-op and still operates the same way. Even though they ship throughout the northeast, they have let other farms in those states join the co-op.

More Local
Of course, if you look around you, you'll find a lot of locally owned an operated companies that you never even realized were local. Here are just a few I've found in New England:

Marshmallow Fluff
Most people don't realize that Fluff (and the Fluffernutter Sandwich) were born and are still made in Massachusetts. In fact, the state legislature tried to make the Fluffernutter sandwich the "state sandwich."

Cain's Foods
Known for their Mayo and salad dressings, Cains is based in Ayer, Massachusetts.

Pastene
Pastene, importers and distributors of great Italian food, is based in Canton, Massachusetts. Their products are top-quality and delicious.

Autocrat
Autocrat Coffee is based in Lincoln, RI and they still roast all of their beans right there at the main headquarters. In fact, if you drive-by on RI Rte 146 at just the right time of the day or evening, you can smell the roasting coffee.

Supreme Dairy Farms
Located in Warwick, RI, Supreme makes fantastic cheeses, including ricotta and mozzarella.

Rhody Fresh
Rhody Fresh is a collaborative of RI farms who banded-together to produce their own milk brand. When you buy Rhody Fresh, you're supporting local RI cows!

Social Responsibility: What's the Real Benefit to Shopping Locally?

This post is one of a series I've been writing tagged as "Social Responsibility" The series focuses on eating and shopping locally, choosing healthier food sources, supporting your local economy and merchants, and learning to do all these things without hurting your budget. I hope you enjoy the posts.

One of the things I've been trying to do more lately is shop locally. In his book, Food Matters, Mark Bittman says something to the effect that, if you have a choice, choose locally grown organic food first, non-organic locally grown food second, organic non-local food third, and conventional food when you can't get the other three.

Why? A few reasons, actually...

Environmental Impact
Moving our food around the country can actually have a larger impact on the environment than chemical fertilizers. Think about it. Huge factory-owned farms, even organic ones, produce our food in the warmer regions of the country (or even outside of the country). These huge farms have enormous machines pumping diesel fuel into the atmosphere to grow, pick, and then process the crops. Once they're processed, they have to be shipped somewhere via train, truck, or plane, burning even more fossil fuels. Then, they enter the "megamart," big grocery stores that also have high carbon footprints and lots of waste because of the sheer volume of product that moves through the stores. In the end, when you buy from a local source, be it a farmstand, farmer's market, or even a locally-owned grocery store, you're cutting out all that transportation and carbon overhead.

Quality and Traceability
When you buy locally, you may even get to know the farmer who grew your product. Even if you don't, you know the product probably wasn't picked before it was ripe and that it probably is fresher, will last longer, and will taste a lot better.

Supporting the Local Economy
In today's economic mess, we need to support not only our little local stores, but that "Made in America," stamp that you see oh so rarely these days. We've gotten so involved in the "global economy," that it seems we've forgotten how to make stuff ourselves. By buying locally, or even American-made products over foreign or long-distance products, you help create demand within that industry and it will ultimately end-up in job creation and prices more comparable to the nationally or globally produced items.

So next time you're out shopping for groceries, head on over to the locally owned grocer or the farm stand instead. Even if you can only afford to pick-up a few items there or go every third shopping trip, you're still doing something good for your community, the country, and the planet.

Product Review: Jif Natural Peanut Butter

We all know that you can buy all-natural peanut butter in a tub at the health food store or "Teddy" brand peanutbutter in the megamart. However, most of us grew-up with the sweetened, creamy store brands that don't separate into oil and peanuts when left standing.

Jif recently came out with a "Natural" peanut butter product that I find as-good as regular Jif if not better.

Taste & Appearance: The taste, as I mentioned, is as good if not better than regular Jif. If your kid's palate is good enough to tell the difference, I'll be very surprised. It won't separate like other natural peanut butter but it will get a little glossy on top when left sitting at room temperature. A quick stir of the knife helps before spreading it.

Ingredients: The ingredients are all readable and reasonably healthy. In order to keep it from separating, they use some trans-fat free relatively healthy oils in the blend. The first ingredient is peanuts and it's sweetened with cane sugar and molasses instead of high-fructose corn syrup.

I highly recommend adding this product to your pantry.

Product Review: Heinz Organic Ketchup

I think I mentioned awhile back that I bought a bottle of Heinz Organic Ketchup, a new product the manufacturer has come out with to feed the organic and anti-high-fructose-corn-syrup movement. We've now been eating that ketchup for a couple of months and I'm happy to say the product exceeded my expectations.

Taste: In a side-by-side comparison, it tastes incredibly similar to the original product. I doubt any ketchup-loving kid would notice if you swapped it out. The color of it is a bit darker and the texture is a little less glossy, but not in a bad way. I personally thing it tastes better.

Ingredients: Heinz didn't just cheat here and use organic tomatoes with their regular recipe. Every ingredient on the label is a vegetable and it's sweetened with organic sugar rather than corn-based sweeteners. They get extra points for this.

Recommendation: I highly recommend this product. It's about 50 cents to a dollar more than their regular ketchup but it's well worth the price. Pairs just as well with tater tots and chicken fingers as the original recipe.

Smarter Choice Than What?

This post is something I think all parents should at least have a look at...

Apparently, I've been living under a rock, as I haven't been aware of a recent food controversy about a new product labeling program called "Smart Choices." This new labeling program, sponsored by the food industry, not the government, is designed to help consumers "build healthy habits for the long term," by labeling products with a prominent, recognizable stamp of approval from the program.

Sounds great, doesn't it? You can just roam the aisles of the supermarket and grab any item with the Healthy Choices label and feel good about the contents of your shopping cart, right? Have a look at some of the products that have already been approved and maybe you'll think otherwise. Here are a few (mind you, I'm cherry-picking to make a point):

• Froot Loops
• Cocoa Puffs
• Lipton Iced Tea (even non-diet)
• "Bagel-Fuls" Bagels filled with flavored cream cheese
• Kid's Cuisine frozen meals (Hot Dogs, Chicken Nuggets, Toasted Ravioli, Mac & Cheese...to name a few)
• Lunchables Pizza
• Slim Fast
• Classic "Cheese and Crackers" Style Lunchables (listed in the "Snack" category instead of meals)

I should add that there are no plain or pantry ingredients on the list as of yet. The plain veggies category is completely empty and even the processed veggies list is minuscule. Even their "generic benchmark" list, whatever that means.

So how do candy-like, sugar, and fat-filled products like Froot Loops and cream cheese stuffed bagels get on the list? The same way foods like Cheerios can make medical claims like the ability to lower your cholesterol. The companies massage numbers and facts heavily and tweak their recipes slightly to make the product "sound" more nutritious than it is. Here are a few examples:

• Serving Sizes - The calorie and fat counts used on the program's label are by "serving size." If you've ever looked at your favorite foods, you'll realize that most of us realistically use 2 to 3 times the serving size as an actual serving and that often, that's a pretty reasonable serving.
  
• Adding "Healthy" Ingredients in Small Amounts - Manufacturers add vitamins, minerals, and other healthy ingredients to their product recipes like fiber and "whole grains" and then claim the food is healthy. When the first ingredient is still sugar (or corn syrup) and the last is the healthy ingredient, I don't call that healthy.
• Comparing Apples to Oranges - Supposedly, the program lets you choose healthier products. However, the program isn't based on the comparison of two similar products. It's based on nutritional value calculations from the product label and a loose set of nutritional limits set by industry participants. What does this add up to? A box of "Cereal A" may contain the Healthy Choices label while a box of "Cereal B" beside it may not when Cereal B is the healthier of the two by a long shot. Both may meet the criteria for the label, but the manufacturer B produces a product that is two or four times healthier but isn't a member of the program.

The bottom line is that the manufacturers are setting standards that their products already meet and then trying to sell you those standards as a way to live by. My advice? Read the government-mandated nutritional panels yourself and make your own decisions. That's the healthiest choice of all.

Many thanks to GoodEater.org for pointing-out this important issue and helping to spread the word.