Who's the largest toy distributor in the world?

You'll never guess.
According to Frugal Dad, McDonald's is the world's largest toy distributor, giving out more toys annually than Toys R Us!

Here are a few more interesting stats on the fast food chain.

"(The) infographic lays out some of the details of the recent San Francisco Healthy Food Ordinance, and it also explores some of the facts behind how McDonald’s has become such a popular chain with children".

Source: http://frugaldad.com

Thanks Beth!

Would you eat 16 packs of sugar?

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have done it again...

Remember the Drinking Yourself Fat campaign that told us that "drinking 1 can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter"?

Their new ad asks:

Would you eat 16 packs of sugar?




Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commissioner, hopes “that this campaign will encourage people to consider healthier alternatives to sugary drinks... Even small changes can have real health benefits.”

What Americans are Eating

Click on image to view it.





Source: Fooducate Blog

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Hi!

Did you watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution?
I caught a few shows- the premise was that Oliver, a British chef who has successfully changed the British food program, went to Huntington, West Virginia, the unhealthiest city in America with nearly half of adults considered obese, to start a revolution:

Teach children what food is, and adults how to cook it,
Change the food that's fed to children in schools (french fries are considered a vegetable, pizza is served for breakfast, utensils are unknown),
Make the school system understand the importance of feeding children healthy food as part of their education,
Make people more aware of what they're eating and where their food comes from.

Sure, this is a British guy coming to America, basically telling people they're unhealthy and need to change... on tv. Motives may seem questionable.
The results of the school "intervention", based on answers from students, teachers, and cooks, weren't that great either:
77% students didn't like the food (66% did try it though), removing sugary, flavoured milk resulted in a 25% decrease in milk consumption, cooks had to work harder, and the food cost more.

Regardless, isn't the message such an important one?

It'll be interesting to see what will happen now that the TV crews are gone.
Will this revolution catch on?

Want to support it? (I did!).
Click here to sign the petition.

Below is the trailor of the show- in case you missed it, it's a great overview.
I also included one of my favourite scenes- a Food Flash Mob (flash mob: creating an unusual experience in a normal place)!


Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution- Trailer



Jamie Oliver's Food Flash Mob

Pepsi Bans Sugary Drinks in Schools Around the World

Wow... I haven't blogged in forever and so behind in reading all your blogs... I'm sorry... :(
Wish I could learn to find some balance in my life...!

Saw this and thought I'd share...

Pepsi announced it will voluntarily stop selling its sugary-drinks in elementary and secondary schools... around the world by 2012!

Now, if you're worried about how Pepsi will survive this loss of revenue... don't.

In primary schools, PepsiCo will sell water, fat-free or low-fat milk, and sugar-free juice.

In secondary schools, low-calorie soft drinks like Diet Pepsi will be added to the mix.

Gatorade will only be available in relation to sport, not for everyday use.

A step in the right direction, right?

Source

How to choose a good cereal

A better cereal choice will have

At least 4 g Total Fibre per 30 g serving.

Less than 1-3 g fat per serving - some granola-type cereals* can have up to 5 g per serving!

Less than 10g sugar per serving.

Moreover,

The first ingredient should NOT be sugar.

The first ingredient should be a "whole grain"- the word "whole" should be present.

*A better granola-type cereal will have fruit and nuts listed on the ingredient list before sugar and oil.

Let's look at a few examples:

SPECIAL K

Ingredients

Rice, wheat gluten, sugar/glucose-fructose,defatted wheat germ, salt, malt (corn flour, malted barley), vitamins (thiamine hydrochloride, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, d-calcium pantothenate), iron. BHT added to package material to maintain product freshness.

Ok... Special K's Ingredient list: sugar is not the first ingredient which is good, but the first ingredient is not a whole grain, not so good.

A look at the label, and although there is no fat, there is also no fibre... no good.

All in all, not the best choice- not horrible, since there are only has 2g sugar per serving, but definitely not the best.

SHREDDED WHEAT (original)

Ingredients: Whole grain wheat, BHT is added to packaging material to preserve product freshness.

Shredded Wheat:
Whole grain is the first (and only!) ingredient on the ingredient list- great!!

The label shows that, per serving, there is only 1g fat, 0g sugar and a great 6g total fibre!!

Excellent choice.

CASCADIAN FARM- Organic Oats & Honey Granola

Ingredients (all organic): Whole grain oats, sugar, crisp rice (rice, sugar, sea salt, malt), sunflower oil, whole grain oat flour, molasses, maltodextrin, honey, sea salt, vanilla extract.

So... First ingredient is a whole grain, which is good. However, a look at the label and there are 6g fat and 14 grams sugar per sugar- too much- and only 3 g fibre- not enough.

Not a good choice!

Drinking yourself fat

Augh... disgusting, eh?
But yeah for the NY Health Department for being pioneers in health promotion!

New Yorkers will all start seeing these ads in the next year as well.

Remember that milk can fatten you up too though...

If you currently drink 2 cups 2% milk a day, did you know that if you switched to 1%, you would lose 4 lbs a year?

And that if you switched to skim milk, you would lose just under 8lbs a year?

Don't drink yourself fat...

Preventing a second, or a first, heart attack: Part 3

Eating the right type of fat.

Our dietary fat intake has actually decreased over the years... but heart attack and strokes have increased.

Obviously, fat isn't the enemy and, in fact, including the right type of fat in your diet can help decrease your risk of having a first, or a second, heart attack or stroke.

Unsaturated fats include:

Monounsaturated fat- Olives, olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, nuts, seeds, natural peanut and seed butters and avocadoes.

Polyunsaturated- Fish and corn, soybean, safflower, sunflower, soybean and cottonseed oils.

Replace the Bad with the Good:

Replacing saturated fats or carbs in your diet with unsaturated fats has been shown to decrease the 'lousy' LDL cholesterol (the one that clogs up your arteries), prevent the increase in triglycerides (the fat that's in your blood) that has been linked to heart disease and that increases with high refined carb intake (sweets, desserts, white bread, white pasta, white rice etc.), reduces the risk of blood clot formation, and decreases erratic heartbeats- the main cause of sudden cardiac death.

Dr. Willett and his team at the Harvard School of Public Health calculated that replacing 5% of calories as saturated fat with unsaturated fat reduces the risk of heart attack by 40%!

Assuming you eat 2000 calories, that would means replacing 11g saturated fat with 11g unsaturated fat.

For example, eat 1 oz nuts (about 1/4 cup) instead of 1/2 cup ice cream or eat 2 Tbsp peanut butter instead of 2Tbsp cream cheese or 1 oz hard cheese.

Speaking of nuts, the Nurses' Health Study, published in the British Medical Journal in 1998, looked at the health of more than 86,000 women. It found that those who ate 142 grams (five ounces) of nuts per week were 35% less likely to develop heart disease than women who ate less than one ounce per week.
The 2002 U.S Physicians Health Study found that men who ate nuts two or more times per week were 47% less likely to die of a heart attack and 30% less likely to die of heart disease than men who rarely ate nuts.

Bottom Line

Make sure that every day you replace some of the saturated fat in your diet- found in animal products like meat, milk products, eggs, lard, shortening and butter- and excess refined carbs with various sources of unsaturated fat, including fish, vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, avocadoes, peanut butter, olives and non-hydrogenated margarine.

Want to read more?

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 2

Chew gum, snack less?

The study:

115 men and women who regularly chew gum visited a lab at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center on 2 occasions:

On the first, they were given a lunch and then stayed for 3 hours, chewing Extra® sugar-free gum for 15 minutes, once an hour.

Hunger and cravings were assessed with the help of questionnaires and at the end of the 3 hours, subjects were given a variety of snacks to choose from.

The next visit was exactly the same, but they weren't given chewing gum.

The result:

When subjects chewed gum, they reported significantly less feelings of hunger and cravings for sweet foods and felt significantly less sleepy.

Gum chewers also ate significantly less calories after the 3 hours: 40 calorie less but, more interesting to the researchers, 60 calories less from sweet snacks.

According to Paula Geiselman, Chief of women's health and eating behaviour and smoking cessation at Pennington, this is the first study to look at the nutrient composition of snack food choices following gum chewing.

What I think:

First of all, 40 or 60 calories doesn't sound like a lot. In fact, it's the equivalent of only 4-6 jelly beans. Nonetheless, that could lead to a 4-6 lbs weight loss a year if it was kept up daily.

However, I wonder if these study findings be the same if the subjects weren't regular gum chewers?

Maybe regular gum chewers that can't chew gum for 3 hours need to keep their mouths occupied and eat more (and have more cravings) whereas people that don't normally chew gum wouldn't have the same problem... In that case, wouldn't it be better to tell people never to start chewing gum in the first place?!

Measuring this only on 2 controlled occasions i very limiting too. For example, the subjects obviously knew the difference between their 2 visits was the gum chewing.

Clearly this is something that needs to be studied way more before any recommendations can be made.

Oh. Did I mention that the study was funded by the Wrigley's Science Institute? Hm.

Want to lose weight? Don't rely on chewing gum!

Honey and Babies

Did you know that infants below the age of 1 shouldn't be fed honey, according to Health Canada?

The only food that has been linked to infant botulism in Canada is honey. The bacterium, Clostridium botulinum, is common in soil and dust but has also been found in samples of honey . When the spores of this bacterium are ingested, they grow and produce a poison in the baby's intestines.

Children over the age of one develop a good bacteria in their intestines that will protect them from the infant botulism-causing spores.

Symptoms of infant botulism include persistent constipation, general weakness, floppy arms, legs and/or neck, lack of head control, a weak cry, a poor sucking reflex, irritability, lacks of facial expression, lethargy and difficulty breathing. Infant botulism affects the baby's nervous system and therefore can also lead to death- but most will make a complete recovery if treated immediately.

Not all honey produced in Canada is contaminated- random sampling shows that less than 5% actually contain bacterial spores. However, the risk exists in both pasteurized and non-pasteurized honey. As a result, to minimize risk, infants below the age of 12 months should not be given honey, nor should it be added to baby food or used as a soother.

Cranberries and Urinary Tract Infections

Most women, and some men, are familiar with the symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infections(UTI): the frequent urge to urinate, the small volume of urine, the painful, burning feeling during urination ... not fun.

UTIs account for about 8.3 million doctor visits a year and 1 in 4 women will experience a UTI (and once you've had one, recurrence rates are high) in her lifetime. Although not as common in men, when they occur they can be very serious.

A UTI is diagnosed by a urine test performed by your doctor and can only be treated with antibiotics. But what did they do before antibiotics? By the mid 1800s, folkloric medicine books were suggesting cranberry juice. A 1994 Harvard study found that women who drank 10 oz of cranberry juice for 6 months were 58% less likely to have levels of bacteria in their urine that would be expected to cause infections. Lots of more recent studies have shown the same thing.

Turns out that compounds in cranberry juice, substances called trimeric procyanidins (proanthocyanidins), prevented bacteria from adhering to the lining of the urinary tract. Although all cranberry products (including cranberry sauce) can help prevent bacteria from adhering, alleviating your symptoms and preventing UTIs, your best bet is to drink 2 cups of cranbery juice- one in the morning and one before bed. Commercial varieties of cranberry juice have lots of sugar added and although you can buy pure cranberry juice, it's very sour. Diluting the pure stuff with diet (low calorie) cranberry juice cocktail (about 25% cranberry juice and 75% water) is best.
You can now buy cranberry pills but, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, it's a "hit-or-miss". Remember that these products aren't regulated so you're not really sure what you're getting in those pills- the label should say something like "made with whole berries". It's important to know that only antibiotics can cure a UTI and avoiding treatment can aggravate the infection that can move to your kidneys and become very serious.

What else can you do to prevent a UTI and/or alleviate the painful symptoms of an infection?

- Drink plenty of water to flush out your system- aim for 8-10 cups a day.
- Some evidence is coming out indicating that blueberries also contain procyanidins and act similarly to cranberries (it's blueberry season now so visit your local farmer's market. You can buy pure blueberry juice).
- Urinate when you feel the need (don't hold it in) and empty your bladder completely when you do.
- Avoid using feminine hygiene sprays and douches and wipe from fron to back to keep the urethra clean.

Does sugar make us fat?

Sugars are simple carbohydrates composed of a single sugar (ie. glucose, fructose) or 2 sugars together (table sugar, sucrose, is made of glucose linked to fructose).
In comparison, starch is a complex carbohydrate- made of lots of glucose molecules linked together in very long chains.
The long chains can't be absorbed by the intestine but have to be broken down to single units of glucose to be useable. Simple carbohydrates, though, are readily useable. But do they make us fat?

We know that a calorie is a calorie. Excess calories from sugar will lead to weight gain, just like extra calories from protein or fat. However, when you eat too much glucose at a time, the body can't handle it. What happens is that your pancreas makes too much insulin. Insulin is supposed to take the glucose and put it in your body tissues so it can be used. When there's too much insulin though, it grabs all your available glucose, including the little bit that's supposed to stay in your blood. The result is that your blood sugar drops and you feel hungry. You then eat more and those extra calories will lead to weight gain.
Moreover, your muscles cells start to resist taking in the excess glucose resulting in that excess getting stored as fat.
So yes. Eating too much simple sugars does put you at risk for weight gain.
Fibre slows down the absorption of glucose which is why a high fibre diet- a diet rich in vegetables, fruit and whole grains- prevents heath problems.

The Glycemic Index ranks foods according to how quickly they break down to glucose. Click here to read more about Glycemic Index from a previous blog entry.
In general, highly processed starchy foods- crackers, pretzels, cookies- and sugary foods- sodas, candies, desserts, sugary cereals- have no fiber and will cause havoc for your metabolism, providing a huge influx of glucose.

How much sugar is too much sugar?

Per day, it's recommended that less than 10% of your total calories come from added sugars (this doesn't include sugar found naturally in fruits and plain milk). In a 2000 calorie diet, that means you should be aiming for less than 50 grams (about 10 teaspoons) of added sugar a day. The average American eats double that a day.

Sweet tips to limiting your sugar intake

Avoid or cut back on non-diet soft drinks. A 12 oz can of Coke has practically your daily limit of added sugars, 40 grams!!

Watch out for fruit 'drinks', 'beverages', and 'cocktails'- they contain very little real fruit juice and a lot of sugar.

Limit candy, cookies, cakes, pies, doughnuts, granola bars, pastries and other sweet baked goods- eat fruit instead. Desserts in restaurants, with their huge portion sizes, have a large amount of added sugar. A medium chocolate milkshake at McDonald's has a whopping 111g sugar!

Remember that 'fat-free' does not mean 'sugar-free' or 'calorie-free' .

Look for breakfast cereals with less than 10 grams (ideally less than 8 grams) of sugar per serving- read the label!

I found this cool site, sugarstacks.com , that shows us how much sugar there are in some foods. Pretty eye-opening!
They use sugar cubes- 1 cube is equivalent to 1tsp or 4grams.

Watch out for The Joy of Cooking too much!

I just received the Mindless Eater newsletter put out by the Cornell Food and Brand Lab Team (founded by Brian Wansink, author of the great eye-opening book Mindless Eating) in which they report a study they did published in the Feb 09 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The group looked at 14 of the 18 recipes that appear in each edition of the very popular cookbook The Joy of Cooking throughout its 70 year history and found that the caloric content of the recipes increased by about 43.7% ! Furthermore, 17 of the 18 recipes showed an average of 63% increase in caloric content per suggested serving.

The authors found that in 1936, the average calories per recipe was 2124 and about 268 calories/serving. In 2006, the average calories per recipe rose to 3052 and about 436 calories per serving!

The recipes the team look at included macaroni & cheese, beef stroganoff, brownies, sugar cookies and apple pie. The caloric content increase is due to:

Changes in serving sizes.
What served 7 in 1936 served only 4 people in 1986!
In 1997, the basic waffle recipe made 12 six-inch waffles The same recipe in 2006 make 6 waffles.

The use of higher calorie ingredients.
For example, in the 1997 edition, the beef stroganoff recipe called for 2 Tbsp sour cream. The 2006 edition called for 1 cup!

Wansink points out that people often blame eating out for weight gain, but what we eat and do at home may be equally bad.

What can you do?
Rather than adhering to the cookbook's serving size suggestions, use your judgement. A recipe that claims to serve 4 can probably easily serve 6 or more. Make those brownies or cookies smaller. That cake recipe can be cut into 18 slices insted of 12 etc.

Don't feel that you need to follow a recipe to the letter. Use lower fat ingredients, ie. skim milk instead of 2% milk, low fat sour cream, lean meats. I always cut the sugar they ask for in half. Don't pack down the brown sugar. I replace at least 1/2 of the all-purpose flour (usually all of it) with whole wheat flour. I always use less fat. You can replace some of the oil they ask for in baked good with applesauce. Use less chocolate chips. Use less meat and add more vegetables. etc.

Beth Wareham, editor of the 2006 edition of the Joy of Cooking, even states that " in putting together the latest edition, writers and recipe-testers used their common sense in terms of ingredients and serving sizes, and they figured readers have some common sense of their own. "

The 100 Mile Diet: Local Eating for Global Change

I recently finished the book the '100 Mile Diet: A year of local eating' and I highly recommend it- it will change the way you think about what you eat. The book has spurred a phenomenon (I actually blogged about the movement this time last year!), enticing many to move towards a local-based diet and even inspiring a TV show- The Canadian Food Network hosts the 100 Mile Challenge in which the Canadian authors of the book, partners Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, challenge 6 families from Mission, British Columbia, to follow a 100-Mile Diet for 100 Days.

Not long ago, I blogged about another book that had a similar effect on me: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. (As I mentioned in that blog, if you don't have the time to read the book but have a free hour, check out Pollan's great lecture in which he covers the main point of his book by clicking Here). Equally inspiring but written in a completely different format, the authors of The 100 Mile Diet take turns writing the chapters of their memoir, sharing their experience of eating only foods within a 100 mile radius of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Alisa and James bring us through their very personal journey over their year: their daunting realization of what they wouldn't be able to eat (sugar, coffee, chocolate, chips, peanut butter, orange juice, Cola, canned soup, oreos, Ben & Jerry's, beer, Cheerios, all-purpose flour...), dealing with the monotony of eating a lot of potatoes during their first winter and their relationship troubles to discovering the joys of making a great meal from scratch using ingredients of known origin, learning how different and wonderful fresh food tastes, developing relationships with local growers (and with their food) and finally becoming completely self-sufficient on local foods... All while making their readers feel that they if they could do it, so can we.

Why should we aim to eat locally? The authors explain that we're so separated from our food and value it so little, even ignoring the huge impact eating factory-produced foods and foods shipped from across the country (or the world) has on our environment and our health:

A few facts from the book:

• The food we eat typically travels 1500-3000 miles before landing on our plate.
• A regional diet consumes 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country.
• The United States has lost 2/3 of its farms since 1920.
• Soft drinks, sweets and alcoholic beverages account for 25% of all calories consumed in America. Meanwhile, Americans eat half as many servings of vegetables recommended- 50% of the vegetables eaten include just 3: iceberg lettuce, potatoes and canned tomatoes.

The group Food & Water Watch just posted a great Virtual Grocer that allows you to find out where the food you buy comes from. Try it! It's so interesting.
For example, did you know that if you buy a kiwi in the States, there's a 4 in 5 chance it's imported- most likely from Chile or New Zealand. Asparagus? 57% of the asparagus sold in the States comes from Peru.

What can you do to eat more locally?

Start small- aim to try making one local meal a week, for example.
Find the farmer's market nearest to you and make it part of your weekly food shopping.
Consider joining a CSA- Community Supported Agriculture- allowing you to support a specific local farm by paying a lump sum at the beginning of the growing season and then receiving that farm's food products (whatever is in season) year-round. If you're in the States, Local Harvest is a great resource to find a local CSA; In Canada, click Here.
Buy local produce in bulk and learn how to preserve it. Click Here for more info on preservation.
Try planting a small vegetable garden!

Kitchen Wisdom & Tips

I haven't tried any of the following kitchen tips... if you have, or if you have any other good ones to share... let me know!

The following tips are presumably from Martha Stewart herself...

• Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of an ice cream cone to prevent ice cream drips.
• To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
• If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato and it'll absorb the excess salt for an instant 'fix-me-up'.
• If you have a problem opening a jar, try using latex dish washing gloves- they provide a non-slip grip.
• Freeze leftover wine into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.

Here are some other good ones. Click here for the entire list:

• To soften hardened brown sugar, place a slice of bread or a few apple slices with the sugar in an airtight container. The sugar will soften overnight.(I actually tried this... it works!)
• Grate orange and lemon peel before peeling. Dry and add to spice cake or any cookies or puddings. The dried grated peel will keep well in a covered jar.
• If you scorch milk by accident, put the pan in cold water and add a pinch of salt to the milk. Takes away the burned taste.
• When measuring sticky ingredients (molasses, honey, peanut butter), try spraying the measuring cups with non-stick spray first (just lightly). The ingredients will come out easier.
• Stir natural peanut butter well and store in the fridge. It won't separate.
• Place stuffed peppers and tomatoes in a muffin tin before sticking them in the oven. They’ll stay upright and keep their shape perfectly!
• Toast oatmeal in the oven before adding to other ingredients when making oatmeal cookies-–delicious!
• To pare pineapple easily cut into rings and peel each slice separately.
• Canned fruit is much better if opened and removed from the can an hour or two before using to restore the oxygen.
• Fill a large salt shaker with flour and use that when needing to dust surfaces with flour- this is handy way to keep a bit of flour on hand instead of digging in the flour bin.

What's a Whole Grain?

We know that the grains we eat should be "Whole Grains"... and i've blogged about Whole Grains in the past. The topic can be a bit confusing though so I'm going to review.

First, a little quiz:

1. Which bread is usually all or mostly whole grain?
a. Whole Wheat
b. Multi Grain
c. Rye
d. Pumpernickel

2. Which of the following (could be more than one) are whole grains?
a. Bulgur
b. Quinoa
c. Couscous
d. Oatmeal

3. Which cereals are whole grains?
a. Shredded Wheat
b. Total
c. All Bran
d. Corn Flakes
e. Special K


1. Bread

In theory, Multi Grain, Rye and Pumpernickel could all be whole grain... but not always.
The answer is a) Whole Wheat bread... but only in the US.

In Canada and the US, read the ingredient list. If the first ingredient starts with "whole", it's a whole grain. For example, if the first ingredient is "Wheat Flour", it's not a whole grain. If it's "Whole Wheat Flour", it is.

Products labeled with words like "made with whole wheat", "multigrain," "stone ground," "whole wheat (in Canada*)," "seven-grain," or "bran" may actually contain little or no whole grain!

*In Canada, it's legal to advertise any food product as "whole wheat" with up to 70% of the germ removed! A label must state '100% Whole Grain Whole Wheat' for a Canadian consumer to know they're getting a whole grain product.

Don't rely on the colour of the bread- lots of products add molasses to get that brown colour.
Don't rely on fiber amount either since products may add processed fiber from peas or other food that can help prevent constipation and diverticulosis but doesn't offer the antioxidants and phytochemicals whole grains do.

When shopping for bread:

Choose ones that are whole grains AND high in fiber:
-Read the ingredient list and choose a bread that has a whole grain as the first ingredient- in most cases, starting with the word "whole".
-Choose a whole grain bread that contains 2-3 or more grams of fiber per slice.

2. Other Whole Grains

b) Quinoa and d) Oatmeal are whole grains.
Bulgur and Couscous are not always (whole grain bulgur and whole wheat couscous are).

Other whole grains include:
Barley ( but not pearl barley), buckwheat, kamut, millet, brown and wild rice and spelt.


3. Cereal

a) Shredded Wheat and b) Total are whole grains. All Brans, Corn Flakes and Special K are not.

The first ingredient in a whole grain cereal is a whole grain- usually starts with the word "Whole".
For example, the first ingredient in the cereal Grape Nuts is "Whole Grain Wheat Flour" therefore, it's a whole grain.
The first ingredient in the cereal Kellogg's Multi-Grain Rice Krispies is "Rice" therefore it's not a whole grain.

Cereal can be confusing when it comes to choosing a whole grain, partly because of fiber content. For example, Shredded Wheat (a whole grain) has less fiber than All Bran (bran isn't technically a whole grain).

Secondly, sugar added to cereal decreases the amount of fiber. Honey Nut Cheerios (a whole grain) has only 1g fiber per serving. That's because the added sugar takes the place of the whole grain, therefore there's less fiber.

When shopping for cereal:

- Choose a whole grain cereal that is ALSO high in fiber. A whole grain cereal has a whole grain as the first ingredient, usually starting with the word "whole". A high fiber cereal contains more than 5 grams fiber per serving.

- Even though bran isn't technically a whole grain, think of it as a whole grain because the high fiber in the bran has loads of benefits.

- Choose a cereal with less sugar- less than 10g sugar per serving. Sugar replaces some of the whole grain you should be eating.

- Make sure your granola is low fat.

Here's a list of some of the popular breakfast cereals and whether they're whole grains or not:

COLD CEREAL

Whole Grain:
Cheerios
Granola or muesli
Grape Nuts
Raisin Bran
Shredded Wheat
Total
Wheaties

NOT Whole Grain:
Corn Flakes
Frosted Flakes
Just Right
Corn Pops
Puffed Wheat
Rice Krispies
Special K

HOT CEREAL

Whole Grain:
Oatmeal
Oat Bran
Quaker Multigrain
Wheatena

NOT Whole Grain:
Cream of rice
Cream of Wheat
Grits

Stevia/Truvia/PureVia's Safety

About this time last year I blogged about Stevia. Stevia is a plant native to South and Central America and its extracts are 300 times sweeter than sugar without the calories of sugar. This time last year, the use of Stevia in food was banned in Canada and the United States because of a lack of evidence that it was safe.
However, in December 2008, the American FDA approved rebaudioside A, the sweet extract of the stevia plant, a move that has been called "President Bush's parting gift to the soda industry". Canada and the European Union have not approved the use of Stevia in food.

What changed?

The FDA received two notices that rebaudioside A was 'Generally Recognized as Safe' (GRAS). Who submitted these GRAS notices?
Two corporate giants with evident interest in using the stevia extract: Cargill Inc and Whole Earth Sweetener.
These GRAS notices informed the FDA that their ingredients were safe and didn't need pre-market approval... leading to, according to a review prepared for the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the following products being rushed to market too early:

Truvia- from Coca-Cola and Cargill- a tabletop sweetener. Moreover, Sprite Green (from Coca-Cola) is out on the market already and Coca Cola plans to use it in Coke soft drinks and plan to release new Odwalla juice drinks with the sweetener.

PureVia- from Pepsi-Cola and Whole Earth Sweetener- a tabletop sweetener. Pepsi Co has released Trop50 (Tropicana) containing the sweetener and will launch at least 3 new flavours of SoBe Lifewater.

SweetLeaf- Wisdom Natural Brands started selling SweetLeaf sweetener.

Why the concern?

Firstly, the research was industry-sponsored raising questions about the objecticity of the science - authors of the studies are scientists from Cargill and Coca-Cola (or paid by Cargill). The FDA did not follow-up.

Some independent studies have found that the stevia extracts caused mutations, chromosome damage or DNA breakage. Although in 2 studies in which one of the extracts, stevioside, was added to drinking water and fed to rats for 2 years, there was no increase in tumors. However, the most popular extract, rebaudioside A (TruVia and PureVia are 95% rebaudioside A), wasn't tested!
Furthemore, Stevia was only tested on one animal and usually, it should be 2.
Other reports found ill effects to the rats' reproductive systems: male rats fed high doses of the stevia exract for 22 months had lower sperm production and femal hamsters had fewer and smaller babies. However, a Cargill-sponsored study found no evidence of reproductive problems through 2 generations of rats fed very large doses of the stevia extract.
Evidently, more research is waranted but, according to a senior nutritionist at CSPI, there was probably a lot of pressure put on the FDA to approve the new sweetener.

The Stevia products are being marketed as natural because they come from a plant. To underline their natural claims, the stevia products are packaged in green. However, be aware that stevia is also being blended with other sweeteners: the makers of Splenda just introduced Sun Crystals, a mix of sugar and stevia. Stevia is also being added to some soft drinks containing aspartame.

Japanese manufacturers have been using stevia since the 70s but they don't consume nearly as much soda as North Americans.

Bottom Line:
According to the CSPI, the occasional use of a stevia product to sweeten your tea or coffee is probably safe (although taste is another matter as it has been said that there is a bitter aftertaste). However, until more reserach is done, there's no way to tell whether larger amounts will increase the risk of cancer (If Coke and Pepsi add stevia to their diet drinks, millions of people will be exposed to large amounts...) .
The general recommendation when it comes to sweeteners is to limit your intake to 2-3 sweetener-sweetened products a day.
For more general information on sweeteners, click here.

Sweet Dreams

This is such a cute story and very imaginative and well done... with a great moral: vegetables provide a more solid foundation than sugar. Ok. I may be extrapolating... just watch and enjoy!
Happy Friday!


"Sweet Dreams" from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Source: Kirstenlepore.com

Soda tax

For some reason, this topic is very controversial. Let's look at both sides.

New York City's health commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden and Kelly D. Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University argue for taxing sugared beverages in this week's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

40 states have small taxes on sugared beverages but in the past year, Maine and New York, and other states, have proposed larger taxes.

These are the authors' main points for this tax:

- Research indicates that sugared beverages (soda sweetened with sugar or corn syrup, carbonated and uncarbonated drinks, energy drinks) are associated with increased weight and risk of obesity, poor nutrition, increased risk of diabetes. As a result, sugar-sweetened beverages may be the single largest driver of the obesity epidemic.

- Sugared beverages account for 10 to 15% of the calories consumed by children and teenagers. For each extra can or glass of sugared drink consumed a day, a child has a 60% increased risk of becoming obese.

- For every 10% increase in price, it is estimated that consumption would decrease by 7.8%. An industry trade publication reported that as prices of soft drinks increased by 6.8%, sales dropped by 7.8%, and as Coca-Cola prices increased by 12%, sales dropped by 14.6%.

- If 1/4 of the calories consumed from sugared beverages are replaced by other foods, the decrease in consumption would lead to an estimated reduction of 8000 calories per person per year which would result in a weight loss of just over 2lbs a year for the average person, reducing the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease substantially.

- The cost of unhealthy eating is an estimated $79 billion annually for overweight and obesity alone.

- A penny per ounce excise tax on soft drinks would raise an estimated $1.2 billion in New York State alone. - Americans consume 250 to 300 calories more daily than they did decades ago, nearly half of which are a direct result of sugared beverages.

Opponents of the tax contend that:

- Taxing food is not like taxing alcohol or tobacco since people need to eat to survive.

- It is unfair to single out one food to tax and taxing one food will not solve the complicated obesity epidemic. Dr. David Jenkins of the U of Toronto (who holds the Canada Research chair in metabolism and nutrition) suggests that a better idea would be to use rewards, such as making gym memberships and exercise programs tax-deductible.

- Susan Neely, president and CEO of the American Beverage Association, contends that taxing sweetened drinks would have no effect on reducing obesity but would only financially harm families because of higher grocery costs.

- The "Nanny State" argument: It shouldn't be government's role to determine or influence people's diets.

What do you think?

Blame the food dyes on your kids' hyperactivity this Halloween

Happy Halloween!

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) released the following statement, just in time for Halloween:

"British candy has all the sugar of American candy, and it’s certainly not health food, but as Halloween approaches, it's a shame that American kids trick-or-treat for candy dyed with discredited chemicals while British families have many of the same foods, minus the dyes."

That’s because earlier this year the UK’s equivalent to the American’s FDA, the UK’s Food Standards Agency, asked food companies to voluntarily recall artificial colours in food by 2009. Moreover, the European Parliament approved a warning on packages containing food dyes: “May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”.

Why?

Although synthetic food dyes have been suspected of affecting children’s behaviour since the 70s, two recent British studies found a direct link between food dyes (with the common preservative sodium benzoate) and impaired attention and hyperactivity in children.

According to the FDA, Americans consume 5 times as much food dye as they did 30 years ago. Attention Deficit Disorder is also a growing concern for many parents. However, the FDA and Health Canada maintain that there isn’t sufficient evidence to ban the use of food dyes. As a result, The CSPI has submitted a petition to the FDA requesting they ban eight artificial food colours: Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 3, Red 40, Orange B and Yellow 6 (tartrazine). They’re also requesting that the FDA include warnings on packages containing these food dyes.

In the UK, Fanta orange soda gets its colour from pumpkin and carrot extract, while in the States, it gets its colour from Red 40 and Yellow 6. McDonald’s strawberry sundaes are coloured with Red 40 in North America but with real strawberries in the U.K. Starburst Chews and Skittles, both Mars products, also contain synthetic food dyes in the U.S. but not in the U.K.

Hope I didn’t put a downer on your Halloween. Enjoy your Halloween candy... in moderation, of course!

Remember that October 31^st is not just about candy, it’s National Unicef Day. On Oct 31^st 1949, five goodhearted kids went door-to-door in Philadelphia to collect money for other kids in post war Europe. They raised $17 and donated it to Unicef. ‘Trick-or-Treat for Unicef’ was launched and in 1966, US President Lyndon Johnson pronounced October 31^st National Unicef Day, stating: “Mrs. Johnson and I hope that our fellow citizens this year will once again join in bringing the opportunity for a better life to more of the world's children."