photo: Forbes

Mars, the candy maker, not the planet, is trying to do its share to help America lose some weight. While it won’t go to the extreme of making Kale Kandy bars, the company announced last week that it will be discontinuing its King size Snickers Bar (540 calories) by the end of 2013.

In fact, Mars will be discontinuing all chocolate products with more than 250 calories (A regular bar has 280 calories). Additionally, Mars will reduce Sodium by 25% in all its products within the next 3 years.

Should we applaud?

We were going to, but then realized that the replacement product is actually 440 calories!  You see, the new “2ToGo” product will have 2 bars, each with 220 calories. The package will be resealable, so you can “save one for later.”

Yeah right. Show us the man, woman, or child who will stop at one bar. Snickers are tasty, to Mars credit, and we have no doubt that people will be wolfing the 440 calorie snack in one sitting. On the bright side, that’s still 100 calories less than the King size bar.

Two additional suggestions for Mars on the health front:

1. While we applaud you for the brave 2007 decision to stop advertising to kids under the age of 12, how about raising that to kids under 16? High-schoolers are highly impressionable too.

2. Get rid of the artificial colors in M&Ms. They mess with our bodies.

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It seems European lawmakers are more in tune with their constituency than Congress. After reviewing the French Food Safety Authority (ANSES) report on Bisphenol-A (BPA), the French parliament issued a ban effective January 2014.

(Reminder: BPA  is a chemical compound used as a building block of several polymers and polycarbonates that in turn are found in plastic bottles and cans. Which means all of us are exposed to tiny amounts, whether drinking canned juice, milk from a baby-bottle, or any other product sold in a plastic container or a can. Oh, and it screws with human hormones too. Read more here)

The upcoming ban has got the USDA worried because of the financial implications for American exporters of meat and seafood products packaged with materials containing the potentially harmful chemical. According to the USDA:

The French food industry believes it will not be able to avoid a BPA ban due to the public sensitivity on the issue and has requested more time for a transition to BPA-free food packaging.

And here in the US?

Is there not enough public sensitivity? Or is the problem that our elected officials are sensitive, but mostly to their campaign funders?

We propose that the USDA start worrying about consumers in this country, and together with the FDA urge Congress to ban BPA as well.

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Omega-3 has been a hot buzzword in the food space for the better part of the last decade. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that omega-3 is important for a healthy diet.

But not all omega-3′s are created equal. Which means you may be buying a product fortified with omega-3 that has almost no health benefits for you. Be sure you will be paying more than you would have for the standard, un-enriched version.

In order to better understand what’s going on, here’s a quick primer on omega-3, in 10 bullet points.

What you need to know:
1. Food can be broken down to three categories – protein, carbohydrate, fat. Our bodies need all three to function.

2. Fats can be broken down into the “good” and “bad” fats (though this is an over-simplification). The bad fats are “saturated” and “tran-fats” – they increase the risks of heart disease, for example. Again, this is highly simplified, not all saturated fats are bad.

3. The “good” or “heart healthy” fats are called unsaturated fats. They are further divided into polyunsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats. They can be found in olive oil, walnuts, avocado, and fish.

4. Fats are actually composed of different types of fatty-acids. It is the fatty acids that are saturated or unsaturated. For example, Canola oil is regarded a relatively healthy oil because it is composed of 90% unsaturated fatty acids – oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid, and only 10% saturated fats.

5. Fatty acids are further broken down into groups based on their chemical makeup. The omega-3, omega-6, omega-9 classification of fatty acids is based on position of certain carbon-bonds inside the fatty acid molecule. This is the most difficult part of today’s post, so hang in there. Omega-3 and omega-6 are also called “essential fatty acids”; this means our body does not manufacture them on its own, so we need to get them from food.

6. If you’re still with us, omega-3 is actually a family of fatty acids which includes alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). All three are polyunsaturated (reminder: that means good).

7. Studies have proven unequivocally that omega-3 consumption is good for our health, in an all round sort of fashion. From raising the IQ of unborn babies, to better heart health, and even more mental stability.

8. But not all omega-3 fatty acids yield the same benefit. They are further classified into 2 groups -  “long chain” such as DHA and EPA, and “short chain” such as ALA (alpha linolenic acid). The long chain fatty acids are the ones that are considered most beneficial. They are readily available from oils of cold water fish such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel.  The short chain ALA is found in flax seeds and chia seeds for example.

9. The human body does know to turn ALA into the more useful EPA and DHA, but only at a 10-15% efficiency. The omega-3 health claims have  regulatory organizations in a tizzy, because manufacturers are fortifying foods with cheap (read vegetable) sources of omega-3 in order to plaster health claims on them, when in fact they may prove less beneficial than omega-3 sourced from fish oils.

10. To complicate things even further, it appears that consumption of foods high in omega-3 is not enough. The proportion of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in our bodies also plays a role in improving health outcomes. The modern diet has raised our consumption of omega-6 (through soybean and corn oils) to levels that way too high compared to our omega-3 levels. This imbalance needs to be rectified by either consuming less omega-6, or more much more omega-3.

What to do at the supermarket:

As you can see from the above example, nutrition is quite complex. Scientists are discovering new interactions every day. And while a better understanding of how our body works with nutrients is important, let’s keep in mind that food itself has been, for thousands of years, a pretty straightforward affair: Grow, harvest, prepare. And somehow, humanity survived.

The modern supermarket has changed our relationship to food. Now it’s pretty much just one verb -  “buy”.

While fortification of processed foods with omega-3 won’t cause harm, and in some cases be healthy for you, the naturally good sources of omega-3 are sardines, salmon, flax oil, with other seeds and nuts to some extent.

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photo: FingerLakesFeasting.com

Happy Presidents Day folks! Lots of friends from abroad are jealous of us for the great long holiday weekends we as a nation have put together during the year. So if you are off work today to celebrate Presidents’ Day, make the best of it.

One of the legends around our founding president was that he chopped down his father’s cherry tree. And of course how he came forth honestly. But had little George known the health benefits of cherries, would he have thought twice about hacking the tree?

What you need to know:

There are 2 main types of cherries available to consumers in the US. The sweet dark red cherries we see in the summertime, and the tart cherries most people use for pie filling. The most famous sweet cultivar is the Bing Cherry.

Nutritionally, cherries have been called a superfood because of their high antioxidant content. They contain an assortment of antioxidants including anthocyanins. These are a type of flavonoid responsible for the red pigment in cherries and berries. In various clinical trials they have been shown to reduce inflammation in lab animals. This can be of potential benefit to people suffering from arthritis and gout.

Cherries are also a good source of vitamin A. Tart cherries are only 9% sugar by weight compared to 13% for sweet cherries.

Another nice benefit of cherries is that over 90% are “Made in the USA”. Top states include New York, Michigan, Washington and Oregon. Cherries are not native to the New World. The earliest known cultivation was in what is now Turkey, over 2000 years ago.

What to do at the supermarket:

When in season, red sweet cherries are glorious. Look for big, firm fruit, with a glossy dark hue. Little kids love cherries, just make sure to pit them beforehand.

Although fresh red cherries have a very short marketing window, you can buy dried or frozen tart cherries all year round. Add them to your granola, cereal, yogurt, and salads.

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Strong4Life, the childhood obesity initiative of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, is back with another youtube video meant to cause a commotion. In the clip, a heart attack victim in his early 30′s is wheeled into a hospital emergency room, while his life of poor food choices flashes before him. Quite moving, though not as punch-in-your-face direct as the previous clips featuring real kids talking about their weight problems.

The clip ends with a warning: 80% of obese kids end up as obese adults…

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A report published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is calling for tight government standards on Arsenic levels in food. This, after tests have shown high levels of the dangerous toxin in ORGANIC BABY FOOD.

This is doubly worrying: How does such a toxin get into formula, which is consumed by the most susceptible population? Secondly, isn’t the premium that people pay for organic food supposed to assure them toxins will not be found in their food?

What you need to know:

Brown rice syrup is derived by culturing cooked brown rice with enzymes to create a liquid goo. After straining and reduction by heat, the remaining syrup is the sweetener you will find in various foods such as cereal bars, energy drink, and some baby formulas.

Why would there be so much arsenic in rice syrup?

To begin with, rice is very good at absorption of nutrients (and other chemicals) from the soil it is grown in. According to expert pediatrician and health advocate Dr. Alan Greene, the arsenic…

… likely came from arsenical pesticides leftover from decades of chemical farming. They were used on conventional cotton throughout the southern US, and the arsenic remains in the soil long afterwards — even after switching the fields to rice and switching to organic farming methods. Rice grown in California has much less arsenic. Some countries still use arsenical pesticides on their crops. Read more…

When processing the rice to create rice syrup, the arsenic gets much more concentrated. Bummer.

Various consumer advocacy and environmental groups have been asking the government to set a regulatory limit for arsenic levels in foods. Currently the only guideline, By the EPA and over 20 year old, is up to 10 parts per billion (10 ppb) in tap / bottled water.

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Food for thought – presented by Stefani Bardin at  TEDxManhattan 2011.

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photo: Wall St Journal

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times are reporting that Kellogg’s is buying Pringles from current owner Proctor and Gamble. The deal, worth $2.7 Billion dollars, will see P&G completely divest itself from food brands. Pringles, the potato snack known for its iconic shape and tubular packaging, has annual sales of $1.5 Billion.

If you think of Kellogg’s as just a cereal company, think again. The company’s breakfast line includes cereal bars, Pop Tarts, and Eggo Waffles. But Kellogg’s also has a snack line that includes Cheez-it snacks and Keebler cookies.

And now Pringles.

Kellogg’s also owns one health positioned brand – Kashi – which operates as a wholly separate subsidiary.

From nutrition improvement perspective, there’s not much to hope for with the Pringles acquisition. Kellogg’s has not made as significant a change in product formulations as some of its competitors. For example, it is one of the last cereal manufacturers to still include Trans-Fats its children’s cereals (Froot Loops).

In fact, the purchase of a savory snack company whose products cannot legally be called potato chips (not enough potato in the product), will shift more of Kellogg’s focus to snacking. This at a time when we need to be eating (real food) not snacking on processed junk food.

Click here to see Pringles nutrition ratings on Fooducate.

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We were recently contacted by Nature’s Path, maker of organic cereals, granolas, and other goodies. The  Love Crunch Granola line has undergone a makeover and we were sent a sample for review. From the company:

Like all Nature’s Path products, Love Crunch Granolas are USDA certified organic, which means they do not contain artificial preservatives, additives or synthetic pesticides.  Love Crunch Granolas also bear the Non-GMO Project Verified Seal, which helps shoppers recognize products that meet rigorous genetically modified organism (GMO) avoidance practices. 

 We tasted the Dark Chocolate and Red Berries flavor. It was scrumptious. Here’s the list of benefits, according to Nature’s Path

Dark Chocolate & Red Berries (the original flavor) – is the perfect marriage of flax granola, strawberries, raspberries, coconut and dark chocolate chunks that has 14 grams of Whole Grains per serving, no cholesterol, low sodium, no trans fat and is an excellent source of ALA Omega-3.

This is certainly an appealing product line from a taste and philanthropy perspective (each purchase helps the Bite4Bite food bank program).

Could it also be the perfect marriage of nutrition and flavor?

What you need to know:

The ingredient list looks good:

Rolled oats*, evaporated cane juice*, soy oil*, spelt*, dark chocolate chunks* (evaporated cane juice*, chocolate liquor*, cocoa butter*, soy lecithin*, vanilla*), flax seeds*, dried coconut*, cocoa*, freeze-dried berry blend* (freeze-dried strawberries*, freeze-dried raspberries*), rice starch*, sea salt, natural chocolate flavor, sea salt, natural vanilla flavor, tocopherols (natural vitamin E). *Organic. Contains soy. Produced in a facilty that uses dairy, peanuts and tree nuts.

It’s a more decadent granola, and would make a sweet snack or yogurt topping. But as a cereal you might want to watch the serving size. The company is positioning it as a “premium” granola and using the FDA serving size established for snacks (30 g – a little over ¼ cup), rather than for a cereal.

If it were considered a cereal, the serving size is supposed to be 55 g (required for heavy/dense cereals, like granola), which would be a more reasonable, but still small, ½ cup for this product. Take a look at the pictures of a single 30 gram serving. Does that look like the amount you would consume for breakfast?

A 30 gram serving carries only 140 calories. But if you use the 55 grams FDA guideline – the number would be 270 calories. Although you may think this is high, all granolas are over 200 calories, especially if they contain nuts and seeds that are high in fat (healthy fat). Chances are they will keep you fuller for a longer time compared to puffed cereals.

Although none of the 4 flavors are particularly high in calories or fat, neither are they a good source of fiber… all because of the 30 g (1 oz) serving size. Eat more and you get more of everything, of course. The sugar count for the small serving is 1.5 tsp, but consuming the 55 gram serving size bumps it up to 3 teaspoons.

Now on to other labeling considerations.

Omega-3 Claim: Despite the claims on two of the four granola flavors “Excellent Source of ALA OMEGA-3″, there is no “recommended daily value” for ALA omega-3 fatty acids and no allowed claim regarding ALA omega-3 content (“excellent source”). ALA omega-3 (from plants/nuts rather than fish) is very poorly converted to DHA and EPA (the most valuable forms of omega-3) in the body.

Allergens: FDA requires foods containing grains related to wheat, such as spelt (which contains gluten), to declare the presence of wheat, which this product neglects to do. For example, the Dark Chocolate and Red Berries flavor only declares that it “Contains soy.” All allergens must be listed when the “contains” statement is used.

The “may contain” or “processed in a facility that also processes…” statements are voluntary, unregulated and not the same as declaring actual ingredients that are one of the 8 major food allergens. All these granolas should state that they contain wheat.

Bottom line:  This is a tasty treat, it is organic, and has a good ingredient list. When consumed in a standard FDA portion size (55g/2 ounces) the calories and sugar are above what we’d like to see.

What to do at the supermarket:

When considering a granola, make sure to check the serving size before reading the calorie and nutrient info. It should be 55g, not 30g. If it’s not, do the math and try to visualize your portion size at home to estimate your actual intake.

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Good morning and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Are you planning to blow loads of $$$ as a token of you love? Will you go to a five star restaurant?

The Beatles once sang “Can’t Buy me Love”, but these days it seems Valentine’s Day is all about buying more and more and more.

Here’s an idea that should keep you in budget, gastronomically pleased, and even more in love:

Instead of spending time together consuming dinner at an expensive restaurant tonight, spend the day together and prepare a tasty dinner yourself.

Start the day off preparing your menu by scanning recipes on the gorgeously designed Foodily search engine. Look for recipes with purportedly aphrodisiac ingredients including oysters, figs, asparagus, and honey (see full list here). Don’t forget a good bottle of wine (There are some great tasting wines at less than $15 a bottle).

Instead of your regular supermarket, find a specialty store in your area, or go to Whole Foods Market and wander about, soaking up the scents and sights of fine foods for inspiration.

Weather permitting, instead of driving consider a brisk walk to the grocery store.

Once back home, plan the food preparation so that both of you are in the kitchen together, even if only of you is the dominant cook of the house. Make sure you have great music playing in the background.

Once the preparations are over, don’t forget to dress up both the dining room table and yourselves before serving up your romantic, candle light dinner.

You can thank us tomorrow

What are your creative ideas for today?

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