If you have young children, you probably recognize the Danimals brand of yogurt drink and may have even bought some for your children.
Was it the Hannah Montana co-marketing, The mysterious LGG, No High Fructose Corn Syrup, or the promise of “helping kids stay healthy every day” that made you choose?
We decided to take a look inside the product, to see just what our kids are getting… Read more…
Is the massive peanut recall (still ongoing) replaying itself, this time with pistachios?
Could be.
Last night, the FDA issued a consumer alert, warning consumers that
The FDA and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) are investigating Salmonella contamination in pistachio products sold by Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc, Calif. The company has stopped all distribution of processed pistachios and will issue a voluntary recall involving approximately 1 million pounds of its products. Because the pistachios were used as ingredients in a variety of foods, it is likely this recall will impact many products. In addition, the investigation at the company is ongoing and may lead to additional pistachio product recalls.
The first incident was reported last week by Kraft, whose Back To Nature Trail Mix was found to contain salmonella.
This is just another example of how one processing plant selling tainted raw materials to hundreds of manufacturers can create a huge mess for consumers, supermarkets, and the manufacturers themselves. Not to mention hospitalizations and even death.
Until an overhaul of the US food safety system is enacted, we will continue to see these massive recalls.
What to do at the supermarket:
The US manufactures about 136 million metric tons of pistachios a year, so the amount recalled (500,000 metric tons) is less than half a percent.
Do you want to take a chance?
Stay away from pistachio products for now. It may take weeks or even months for all manufacturers to “voluntarily recall” tainted products.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has just published the results of a sodium survey conducted in 2005-2006. Sodium (40%) and Chlorine (60%) are the two elements making up table salt.
High consumption of sodium can increase the risk for hypertension, which in turn increases the risk for heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death in the United States.
According to the CDC, 29% of U.S. adults have hypertension, and another 28% have prehypertension. That’s over half of us with high blood pressure!
Our average sodium intake is 3,436 mg/day(1.5 teaspoons), a whopping 50% higher than the USDA’s recommended 2,300 mg (1 teaspoon) daily allowance for healthy adults.
The recommendation for those in specific groups (people with hypertension, middle-aged and older adults, and all blacks) is to consume no more than 1,500 mg/day of sodium (about 2 thirds of a teaspoon).
Turns out that the special groups are not a small minority, but in fact the majority of consumers - the lower sodium recommendation was applicable to 69.2% of U.S. adults.
What to do at the supermarket:
70% of the sodium in a Western diet comes from processed food (restaurants and prepared supermarket food). The rest is added while cooking, at the table, or is found naturally in foods. So if you really want to cut down on your sodium, start reducing processed foods from your diet.
Buying basic ingredients and cooking at home, lets you control the amount of salt added to a dish. If you find home cooking to be too difficult, look at the nutrition panel of prepared foods you buy and opt for low sodium versions (less than 400mg per serving).
If you are over 40 or suffer from high blood pressure or African American, you need to be extra careful.
Here is a list of 9 tips for reducing your sodium intake.
A recent study conduced by Italian researchers found that two commonly used food additives have the ability to alter human hormones. From The Daily Green:
More than 3,000 preservatives, flavorings, colors and other ingredients are added to food in the United States, and none of them are required to undergo testing for estrogenic activity, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The two suspect additives are:
1. propyl gallate – used to prevent fats and oils from spoiling. Used in baked goods, shortening, dried meats, candy, fresh pork sausage, mayonnaise and dried milk.
2. 4-hexyl resorcinol – prevents shellfish such as shrimp and lobsters from discoloring.
What you need to know:
Food additives are part of food, and always have been. Sugar, salt, and vinegar are probably the oldest known kinds of additives, used as preservatives. Other additives are used to preserve or enhance coloring, improve a food’s texture or viscosity, and to add vitamins and minerals.
As food engineering advances, so do the chemical compounds that make up the various additives. Unfortunately, not all effects of a certain chemical are immediately apparent. It may take decades to understand that a certain compound is responsible for averse health conditions.
Additives won’t be going away any time soon. The B2B market for additives is projected to grow to $33 Billion in a few years!
What to do at the supermarket:
By law, a product’s ingredient list must show the additives used. If you see a long list with unknown terms, you can be sure that some are additives. The best way to avoid them is to buy minimally or non processed foods, usually found in the outer perimeter of the supermarket. These basic products require you to cook, bake, or otherwise prepare them. It will take you more time and effort than popping a TV dinner in the microwave, but you’ll enjoy a healthier and tastier meal.
We all know the internet is chock full of scam artists finding innovating ways to part your from your money. Free credit reports, performance enhancing drugs, and weight loss miracles are just a few examples. In the past few years, more and more people have fallen for açai berry scams. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has published a warning:
[Do] not to enroll online in supposedly free trials of diet products made with the trendy Brazilian berry açai (pronounced a-sigh-EE). There’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest that açai pills will help shed pounds, flatten tummies, cleanse colons, enhance sexual desire, or perform any of the other commonly advertised functions. And thousands of consumers have had trouble stopping recurrent charges on their credit cards when they cancel their free trials.
There are no shortcuts to being healthy and losing weight. While its nice to daydream about nutrition miracles, they don’t exist. A balanced diet filled with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats, fish and dairy products, together with plenty of exercise are a safer and better bet.
Supplements, detoxes, and other incredible pills, are not going to do the hard work for you, not even if a celebrity endorses them on Oprah.
What to do at the supermarket:
Stick to real foods, the ones found at the perimeter of the supermarket. Look for short ingredient lists.
We have recently covered two of the three “condiment triumvirate” – Ketchup and Mustard.
Today, a look at mayo.
1. The three building blocks of mayonnaise are raw egg yolks, vegetable oil, and vinegar. Seasoning, mustard, and lemon juice may be added for flavor.
2. The source of the word “mayonnaise” is unknown, but one guess is that it is derived from moyeu, Old French for egg yolk.
3. Mayonnaise is made by slowly adding oil to an egg yolk, while whisking vigorously to disperse the oil. The resulting emulsion is what we spread on sandwiches and burgers.
4. Mayonnaise is mostly fat. a serving of one tablespoon (13 grams) contains 90 calories! No wonder “Hold the mayo” has become such a popular expression by weight watchers at fast food joints.
5. homemade mayonnaise will spoil after 3-4 days.
6. Contrary to popular belief , industrial mayo does not spoil if not refrigerated. Commercial mayonnaise is filled with acid and preservatives that can actually extend the life of salads by killing bacteria. The eggs used in prepared mayonnaise are pasteurized as well.
7. Hellmann’s (known as Best Foods west of the Rockies) is the leading US mayonnaise brand. It became part of multinational food conglomerate Unilever a few years ago. According to Unilever, it has over 50% market share.
8. Tartar sauce is mayonnaise spiced with pickled cucumbers and onion.
9. Thousand Island dressing is ketchup, pickle relish, assorted herbs and spices mixed into a mayonnaise base.
10. Ranch dressing is made of buttermilk, mayonnaise, and minced green onion.
11. In the Netherlands, mayonnaise, not ketchup, is the condiment of choice for french fries.
In round one, table sugar was the bad boy. Empty calories, with no nutritional benefits.
In round two, High Fructose Corn Syrup got heat, because of the perception that it is unnatural, and promotes obesity as well.
In round three, instead of both sugar and HFCS slowly disappearing from products, good ol’ sugar is back in many products that have long used HFCS, a cheaper sweetener derived from corn.
According to a recent New York Times article:
Sugar, the nutritional pariah that dentists and dietitians have long reviled, is enjoying a second act, dressed up as a natural, healthful ingredient.
From the tomato sauce on a Pizza Hut pie called “The Natural,” to the just-released soda Pepsi Natural, some of the biggest players in the American food business have started, in the last few months, replacing high-fructose corn syrup with old-fashioned sugar.
ConAgra uses only sugar or honey in its new Healthy Choice All Natural frozen entrees. Kraft Foods recently removed the corn sweetener from its salad dressings, and is working on its Lunchables line of portable meals and snacks.
Calorically, they are the same. Nutritionally, they are also the same – no nutrients whatsoever.
Although a recent study found trace amounts of mercury in HFCS, they are smaller than what you get from going outside and breathing in exhaust fumes from cars and factory smokestacks.
What to do at the supermarket:
Look for sugar , HFCS, and other synonyms on food labels. You’d be surprised in how many places sweeteners have found a place. In many cases, there is more than one sweetener in the ingredient list. Shy away from products who list sweeteners as one of the first ingredients in the ingredient list. As Pat Crawford of the Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley says – “Keep sugar for the desserts”.
Last week we wrote about a paper by Milbank Quarterly which found parallels in the behavior of the tobacco industry 50 years ago and the behavior of the food industry today. The authors of the paper did state that there are distinct differences as well (cigarettes are bad. Period. But almost no food can be categorized as just bad.)
Instead of stepping up to the plate and demanding a ban on marketing of junk food to kids, creating objective standards for defining what healthy foods are, and dismissing the industry’s “personal responsibility” schtick, Martin Yadrick, President of the American Dietetic Association had this to say:
“When it comes to public health, we have to focus on synergy,…Food labels, trans fat substitutions and many other recent changes have come about because everyone worked together and I think all those involved in these changes recognize that.”
In this regard, his views were broadly resonant with those expressed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association regarding industry’s efforts to move towards healthier formulations. The GMA said that industry had reformulated over 10,000 healthier products and would continue to play its part in tackling obesity.
The response of GMA, touting the tiny efforts of the food industry to date, is to be expected, they are well representing their constituents. But why is the ADA on the wrong side of the discussion?
To be fair, Mr. Yadrick did mention that industry funded studies tend to side with conclusions favorable to the funders, but he did not go as far as to explicitly condemn the practice. It would certainly help us consumers to know food research is not funded by the corporations that have vested interet in the results.
Come to think of it, how can you blame the ADA. Just look to find who pays it bills. Membership fees are not enough to cover the cost of ongoing activities. As a result, the organization has to accept sposnorships from…you guessed it, food corporations.
The Coca Cola Company, PepsiCo, Mars Company, Unilever, General Mills and Kellogg’s, to name the biggies.
In speaking with several RDs across the country, we have heard that these sponsorships are a source of great uncomfort to them, but heck, the membership dues are already quite high for someone living off of a dietitans salary.
A study led by the National Cancer Institute clearly shows an association between red meat/processed meat and an increased risk of mortality.
From the Washington Post:
The study of more than 500,000 middle-aged and elderly Americans found that those who consumed about four ounces of red meat a day (the equivalent of about a small hamburger) were more than 30 percent more likely to die during the 10 years they were followed, mostly from heart disease and cancer. Sausage, cold cuts and other processed meats also increased the risk.
Previous research had found a link between red meat and an increased risk of heart disease and cancer, particularly colorectal cancer, but the new study is the first large examination of the relationship between eating meat and overall risk of death, and is by far the most detailed.
Red meat includes beef and pork, and all their processed variants such as bacon, sausages, steaks, burgers, etc…
Research has shown for years that high rates of red meat consumption lead to heart disease and may lead to certain types of cancer. High levels of saturated fat lead to increase in bad cholesterol in the bloodstream.
The importance of this study, published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine [here, subscription required], is its sheer magnitude and its length of time – 10 years.
What to do at the supermarket:
Cut back on red meats by opting for fish or poultry instead. Steaks and burgers are a great treat, but not daily. When you do choose meat, go for lean cuts. Try to stay away from processed meats which on top of the fats, add lots of salt and nitrites.
1. Mustard is made from the ground seeds of a mustard plant, water, vinegar, and optionally some flavorings and spices.
2. The Romans mixed unfermented grape juice, known as must, with ground mustard seeds (called sinapis) to make “burning must”, mustum ardens. That’s the source of the name “must ard”.
3. Cooking food with mustard dramatically decreases the condiment’s pungency.
4. Yellow mustard (a.k.a. regular mustard) is the most commonly used mustard in the US. The rest of the world calls it American mustard. It is a very mild mustard colored bright yellow due to the use of turmeric. It was introduced over 100 years ago in 1904 by George T. French who bet that Americans would prefer milder tasting mustard than what was available at the time.
5. Dijon mustard uses white wine in addition to vinegar. Although Dijon mustard originated in Dijon, France, there is no limitation on the use of “Dijon” for mustard manufactured in the US as well.
6. Honey mustard is simply a blend of mustard and honey, used as a sandwich topping, dip, marinade, or in salad dressings.
7. The Mustard Museum of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin features a collection of over 5,000 jars of mustard from all 50 states and 60 countries. National Mustard Day is celebrated annually at the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum on the first Saturday in August.
8. Per capita consumption of mustard in the US is about 12 oz. annually.
9. Mustard sales are $300 million annually. French’s is the top brand with a third of the market. Private labels are second with around 20%. Kraft’s Grey Poupon has 15% for third place.
10. French’s website aggressively encourages people to opt for mustard as the condiment of choice because mayonaisse is full of fat, and ketchup is full of sugar.
11. Grey Poupon became a popular mustard in the late 1970s and 1980s as American tastes broadened from the conventional American yellow mustards.
12. The ingredients of French’s Yellow Mustard, Classic - Distilled Vinegar, Water, No. 1 Grade Mustard Seed, Salt, Contains Less than 2% of Turmeric, Paprika, Spice, Natural Flavor, Garlic Power.
We wonder what “Spice” and “Natural Flavors” are.
13. Nutrition-wise, a serving of mustard (1 teaspoon) has less than 20 calories, no sugar, no fat, and only 55mg of sodium.
14. Mustard may cause allergic reactions in some people. Since November 2005, products in the European Union must be labeled as such if they contain mustard.
Healthify your supermarket choices.
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