Tuned in to nutrition with Radio Nutrition

We are annoyed by the “gluten-free” hysteria. While we don’t dispute that people with true celiac disease absolutely must avoid foods containing the protein gluten, we do dispute the use of the term “gluten-free” to imply that a food is healthy.  Main point: Gluten Free does not equal “healthy”.  Sometimes quite the opposite. Popular Misconceptions Gluten is a toxin Gluten makes you fat Wheat is higher in gluten now than before due to plant breeding GF foods are always healthier for you – health halo Food labels with misleading “GF” tags on foods that ordinarily would never have GF to begin with.  Analogous to “fat-free” labels on juice. Jimmy Kimmel’s hilarious YouTube video featuring ‘gluten-free’ Los Angelenos:  https://youtu.be/AdJFE1sp4Fw Whole Grains Council information on GF whole grains:  http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/gluten-free-whole-grains Sample GF meals that include both from scratch and GF processed foods:  https://celiac.org/live-gluten-free/7-day-gluten-free-meal-plan/ Meals you can make at home with GF ingredients: * Oats* + dried fruit * brown rice + salmon + grilled asparagus * corn tacos with fish, chicken, beans, cheese, etc * Kasha (buckwheat groats) + milk * Quinoa salad with feta cheese * Stir fried tofu and broccoli, garlic, etc * Grilled chicken, sweet potatoes, green beans * Cobb salad * Smoothie WebMD on Celiac & Gluten sensitivity:http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/celiac-disease/features/gluten-intolerance-against-grain Celiac disease basic info:  NIDDK:  http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/digestive-diseases/celiac-disease/Pages/facts.aspx Gluten-free grains * Amaranth * Buckwheat * Corn * Millet * Oats* * Quinoa * Rice * Sorghum * Teff * Wild Rice *Oats are inherently gluten-free, but are frequently contaminated with wheat during growing or processing. Several companies (Bob’s Red Mill, Cream Hill Estates, GF Harvest (formerly Gluten Free Oats), and Avena Foods are currently among those that offer pure, uncontaminated oats. 

Nothings says Holidays like artificially sweetened hot cocoa with fake whipped topping. It’s been going on for weeks already: that nagging “helpful” advice on eating healthy for the holidays.  There are two main messages: * You should feel guilty about enjoying all those special once-a-year holiday meals and treats, because they’re made with high calorie ingredients. * You should try to make everything with fake ingredients, which allegedly makes your food healthier, but in fact just makes it tasteless and highly processed. What’s “safe” to eat?  Dry turkey breast, boiled green beans, water.  As I’ve noted many times before, it’s as if the main stream media is controlled by people with latent eating disorders, who are terrified of real food. Here’s are my 5 Worst Healthy Holiday Food tips: * Use fake whipped topping.  It’s gross and tasteless, but if you’re into quantity instead of quality, you can dump a whole lot of this stuff on your pumpkin pie and not worry about calories. Trouble is, there’s no flavor or texture. * Make fake gravy.  You end up with salty goo, thickened with corn starch and a lot of other additives, flavored with additives, colored with additives.  Basically thickened salt water with additives. * Serve raw vegetables with fake low fat dip.  Inevitably these fake low fat dips and dressings are loaded with salt and sugar, in an attempt to create some flavor, along with thickeners. * Use low fat ingredients in everything, from pumpkin pie to mashed potatoes to gravy and dips.  Fat adds flavor and texture; it enhances the satiety value of foods.  Low fat versions of those foods lack all of those qualities.  But if you value quantity over quality, you can eat more of the fake low fat foods and not worry about calories. * Make desserts with artificial sweeteners.  FAKE.  Also, the chemical properties of artificial sweeteners are not the same as the properties of sugar, so your favorite desserts will never be the same as Grandma used to make. Then there’s the Don’t Eat That list.  Cookies, candy, hot chocolate, cocktails, appetizers, rolls, desserts in general, candied sweet potatoes, stuffing, turkey skin, dark meat turkey, butter, real gravy, real whipped cream. What you really have to ask yourself is this: do you value eating giant portions of fake food over eating small portions of real food? 7 pieces of good advice for holiday eating: * Enjoy real food at the holidays. * Don’t drink too much.  And don’t drinks sugary soft drinks.  At all. * Don’t eat too much.  Take small portions and avoid second helpings. * If you took a serving of something out of sheer politeness, but you don’t care for it, just don’t eat it.  You aren’t obligated to eat anything and everything. * Exercise, everyday if possible. * Don’t leave food sitting out. Put the cookies, candy, pie, leftovers and other tempting foods away out of sight. * Don’t make every holiday activity about food. It also helps to eat very modestly on non-party days, focusing on vegetables and fresh fruit.  Now go forth and enjoy!

Salmon, obesity paradox, brain diet link and processed meat warning Fake Wild Salmon Is your salmon really salmon? Well, it’s probably salmon, but it may not be wild salmon. That’s the finding from a study by conservation organization Oceana, which recently tested salmon samples from restaurants and grocery stores.  Almost half — 43% — of the samples labeled wild Alaska salmon were not wild Alaska salmon.  Instead, most were farmed salmon and many weren’t even from Alaska. There are two interesting details here: * Restaurants were far more likely to be selling fake wild salmon since restaurants aren’t obligated to verify their supply sources.  Grocery stores are required to do that. Still, about 20% of grocery store wild salmon was actually farmed. * Second: this recent study was done in winter, when wild salmon is out of season.  A similar study done in wild salmon season, which is roughly May through September — found much less fraud. Take away message: don’t buy wild salmon out of season.  It’s like buying something labeled “fresh picked peaches” in the middle of February in northern latitudes. They might be peaches, but they definitely weren’t fresh picked.  Like produce, wild salmon is a seasonal food. So are restaurants deliberately trying to pass off cheap farmed salmon as expensive wild salmon to make a buck?  Not necessarily.  The restaurants might not even be aware of the fraud.  There’s no reliable tracking system that can tell you where the salmon originated. How did Oceana do their study?  They used DNA testing.  Unfortunately most restaurants don’t have the time or resources to do DNA testing on every box of salmon that comes into the kitchen.  So your best defense is to order wild salmon in season. Even then, you can’t be sure it isn’t really farmed. Obesity Paradox debunked Sorry obese people, there is no obesity paradox.  The so called obesity paradox claimed that obesity was actually healthy, based on data showing that very thin people had an unusually high death rate.  A new review verifies what I’ve been saying all along about this myth: the data were flawed. This study points out the obvious reason: frail elderly people, smokers,  people with severe diseases like HIV, TB, dementia, cancer or anorexia all tend to be thinner, because they’re in poor health.  When you lump the data from thin sick people into the analysis, it makes excess weight look healthier.  It’s a statistical mistake. This study looked at weight history, not just current weight, in people with heart disease  Why look at weight history?  Because a guy with heart disease might weight 170 lbs on the day you collect data, but he may have lost 100 lbs over the last several months due to his illness.  Previous studies didn’t account for that.   The corrected data showed that normal weight people with heart disease lived longer than obese people. So next time someone claims having a few, or a lot of extra pounds isn’t such a bad thing, you’ll know they’re wrong. Your Brain on a Mediterranean Diet The plant-based Mediterranean diet has plenty of known health benefits, from lower risk for heart disease and cancers to lower body weight.  A new study hints that it a...

A perfect lunch: shrimp and vegetables The WalkTalkNutrition RD team went to lunch at Red Lobster.  Fish is a low calorie, high protein food, which can make a fish restaurant like this sound healthy. Yay!   * The calories are listed on the printed menu, even though calorie posting rules haven’t gone into effect. * Red Lobster has an Interactive Nutrition Menu, which also has helpful allergen info.  You can sort the food items by calories, lowest to highest.  Very helpful! BOO!   * Calories on menu didn’t always match the numbers online. * Also: the calorie totals do not include the sides or condiments.  When you’re talking about butter dip for lobster, that’s a significant amount of additional calories. * A lot of these dishes were very high in sodium despite some choices being very low in calories. * Cheddar Chive Biscuits delivered to the table without request.  160 kcal per biscuit, with 2.5 grams trans fat per biscuit.   Overall, the highest caloric items were those with “alfredo” in the name.  Crab Linguini Alfredo Full Portion had a whopping 2030 kcal, with 135 grams fat, of which 44 g sat fat – equivalent to about 6 tablespoons of butter.  3.5 g trans fat (0 grams is recommended).  Even the half portion alfredo appetizer was over 1000 kcal! The desserts are outrageously high in calories.  Exhibit A: the 1000 kcal cookie.  Honestly, chain restaurants have made such a tradition out of offering excessively high calorie over-sized desserts that we’re going to assume they’re all bad from now on.  Donna says she’ll give a Gold Medal to a restaurant that actually comes up with a small modest lower calorie dessert (NOT one made with fake “lite” ingredients). Our bottom line You can find lower calorie items at Red Lobster, and they do have nice side dish choices such as broccoli and brussels sprouts.  You could have a 500-600 calorie healthy filling meal.  Or you can have a 2500 calorie meal, which would not be hard to do.

What’s the surprise “vegetable” most associated with weight loss? The WalkTalkNutrition RD team agrees: it’s a good idea to eat more fruits and vegetables.  But are they all created equal?  A recent study suggests not. Researchers surveyed thousands of people over many years about their food choices and weight status.  Fruits most highly associated with weight loss include: * Blueberries * Prunes * Apples/Pears * Strawberries * Raisins & Grapes * Avocados * Grapefruit * Melon * Bananas * Oranges * Peaches, Plums, & Apricots Vegetables associated with weight loss: * Tofu/Soy — Surprise! Tofu is a vegetable. * Cauliflower * Summer squash like zucchini, yellow squash * String beans * Peppers * Broccoli * Brussels Sprouts * Green leafy veggies * Carrots * Beans * Celery * Mixed vegetables * Tomatoes Some vegetables, like potatoes, peas and corn, were associated with weight gain.  But note that the amounts of weight loss and gain over the years was modest.  Berries were linked to a loss of just over 1 lb in 4 years.  Not very remarkable. We talk a bit about the surprising tofu/soy weight loss connection.  Both of us were surprised that tofu was included as a vegetable, since most people think of it as a protein food.  The other catch is that high intake of tofu/soy is likely a marker for a more plant-based diet, which on its own is linked to lower body weight and better health. Top foods associated with weight loss: * Tofu and soy (such as edamame) * Fruit in general * Berries * Apples and pears * Cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli Will you lose weight if you add these to your diet?  The catch is that by adding these to your diet, you eliminate other less healthy/higher calorie foods.  Adding berries to a junky diet isn’t going to do much.  Swapping berries for potato chips or cookies is a better plan.

Vitamin D is in the news again.  Is it ever not in the news these days?  This time it’s an opinion piece written by Dr. Tod Cooperman, MD, who founded ConsumerLab.  His main point: vitamin D has been promoted as a cure-all for everything from osteoporosis to inflammation and heart disease.  And as a result too many people are taking vitamin D supplements, possibly leading to excessive blood levels.  You can get too much of a good thing. To support his argument, Dr. Cooperman references a recent study on post-menopausal women that seemed to show that high dose vitamin D supplementation (50,000 I.U. twice a month, or a daily average of 3300 IU), which raised blood vitamin D to above 30 ng/ml, didn’t significantly increase calcium absorption and didn’t result in any significant improvement in bone mineral density.  OK first thing I noticed about this study design: the women subjects didn’t have osteoporosis.  So I have to ask: if their bone mineral density was already fine, why would we expect it to get even denser? Here’s an even bigger problem with that study, and with the vitamin D/bone density question in general: Bones are complex living tissue.  They are not just lumps of calcium.  Vitamin D may improve calcium absorption, but calcium is just one piece of the bone density puzzle.  Numerous other nutrients are also critical for bone health: * protein * potassium * phosphorus * magnesium * other trace minerals * vitamin K Nowhere in this study does it say the women were evaluated for their status or intake of any of those other key bone nutrients.  So why should be imagine that just focusing on vitamin D and calcium was going to result in meaningful information.  I’m not impressed by this study at all. Nevertheless, Dr. Cooperman has a point about the widespread overuse of vitamin D by people who are not deficient.  As he points out, some labs that test for D set the “normal” blood level range at 20 – 100 ng/ml.  So if an uninformed person sees that their level is say 30 ng/ml, they may conclude that taking more vitamin D and raising that level will be even better.  This is a problem, aggravated by the fact that this one vitamin is being touted as a magical cure-all. Another problem: ConsumerLab has found that many vitamin D supplements contain far more vitamin D than claimed on the label.  And there’s no way for the average shopper to know the difference.  If you only get your vitamin D tested once a year, you might have an acceptable level one year, and an excessive level a year later thanks to excess supplement intake.  Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, meaning excess intake is not flushed out of the body by the kidneys.  Amounts consumed above daily use accumulate in the body.  Excess accumulation can eventually cause toxicity symptoms. Sufficient vitamin D, combined with a healthy intake of all other nutrients in the context of a healthy balanced diet is fine.  Throwing excessive amounts of vitamin D onto an unbalanced diet and unhealthy lifestyle, and expecting it to fix all your problems, is foolish.  Don’t just dose yourself up with vitamin D without being tested. For more information about vitamin D, including it’s many biological functions, I recommend the Linus Pauling Institute’s Micronutrient Information Center.

The WalkTalkNutrition RDs talk pizza.  We love pizza. Who doesn’t?  But we prefer healthier ways to prepare it.  Too often, it’s a calorie bomb of inexpensive high fat ingredients like cheese and pepperoni.  Our preference: thin wood-oven baked pizza in the European style, with vegetables and small amounts of quality toppings rather than gobs of cheap high fat toppings. Fun facts from Pizza.com Regular thin crust is preferred by 61% of the population in America, 14% prefer deep-dish, and 11% prefer extra thin crust 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings while 38% prefer vegetables Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetables on their pizza 36 percent of all orders include pepperoni 13% of Americans eat pizza daily From Food Surveys Research Group Dietary Data Brief February 2014: * Pizza is recognized as a high consumption food and a contributor of nutrients of public significance in the American diet, including total fat, calcium and sodium. * Depending on the age group, pizza ranks as one of the top three leading contributors of sodium to the American diet * The mean sodium intake obtained from pizza was 1136 mg for children and 1599 mg for adults. * Average caloric intake from pizza: * Kids/teens 538 kcal * Adults 744 kcal * Avg kcal per slice (across all styles) =  220-370 kcal (⅛ medium pie) How Bad Can It Get? We found this extremely high calorie/high sodium personal pan pizza, courtesy of Eat This Not That, which labeled it “Worst pizza in America”: Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Individual Pizza 2300+ calories 164 grams fat almost 5000 mg sodium all in one individual sized pizza

Using light rail leads to weight loss? That’s improbable! So-called active commuting used to be the only commuting.  You wanted to go somewhere, you walked or perhaps rode a horse.  Then cars came along and took over our commuting.  The layout of the built environment was designed with only car transportation in mind.  People were expected to live in far flung suburbs and drive absolutely everywhere: work, school, grocery store, post office, library, movies, church, etc.  Those destinations were surrounded by giant parking lots.  Walking and biking were afterthoughts, if they were thought of at all.  No wonder obesity became the norm. A new study from Britain found that when people switched to active commuting, they lost weight.  Most significantly, they lost weight without deliberately dieting.  No surprise, the longer the active commute, the more weight lost.  People who switched from an active commute to driving gained weight. How does a light rail system fit in with active commuting?  A study from North Carolina looked at the effect of a light rail system on obesity and physical activity in one neighborhood.  People who used the light rail system lost on average 6-1/2 lbs during the study period compared to non-users.  Why did this happen?  The light rail riders walked to and from the station, 1.2 miles per day on average.  So without changing into special exercise clothes and scheduling a visit to a gym or taking a lunchtime jog, they added physical activity to their day every day. I think the Big Picture message is this: physical activity should not be perceived as a separate part of your day. It should be built into your day.  When exercise is a separate activity, it’s easy to let it slide if the rest of your schedule gets crowded.  And it’s easy for non-exercisers to make excuses: “Oh I can’t afford a gym membership”, or “I just don’t have time after work to jog” or “It’s too cold/hot/dark to go for a walk after work.”  Active transportation eliminates those types of excuses. The other interesting thing about active commuting is that people in these studies lost weight without dieting. They didn’t change food behavior one way or the other.  They simply became more active.  The negative feelings of deprivation that go along with calorie restriction weren’t there. The catch: realistically few people can take advantage of active commuting right now.  If you live far from your work or school, and there is no light rail or other reliable public transportation, you may be stuck in a car.  The good news: young adults and the companies that employ them are deliberately locating in denser urban environments so people can walk or bike easily to work or any other destination.  If the wave of the future is more city-type living, that may help combat the obesity epidemic and all its associated health problems.

“Do I have to eat brown rice?”  A friend asked me that recently.  She’s trying to eat healthy. But she hates brown rice. My answer: “No!” I know, I’ll probably be disbarred from the nutrition profession for failing to support the tyranny of brown rice.  The constant drumbeat of “Eat Whole Grains” is the official mantra of health professionals.  We’re supposed to eat nothing but whole wheat bread, whole grain pasta and brown rice.  The ChooseMyPlate graphic of grain foods puts saintly brown rice at the top of the list, while white rice is banished to the absolute bottom of the list.  Deliberate?  Or a really sneaky use of alphabetical grouping to promote an agenda: “brown” starts with “b” while “white” starts with “w”.  Never mind that they’re both rice, which starts with “r”. Every official health organization dutifully advises us to eat whole grains and brown rice: the USDA, the Dietary Guidelines, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Heart Association and countless others.  Why?  Food intake studies link consumption of whole grain foods to lower risks for various chronic diseases.  But people who eat more whole grain foods tend to make other healthy choices, such as more vegetables or fruit, healthy fats, less added sugar.  So is it just the whole grains, or is it the whole diet? ** Despite the whole grain PR bandwagon, surveys show that barely 3% of children and 8% of adults eat the requisite dose recommended amount of whole grains, about 3 oz per day, or at least half of all grain-based foods eaten.  Main sources were cereals, bread, oatmeal and popcorn.  Popcorn?!  Yes technically a whole grain.  If it’s loaded with salt or butter, the whole grain benefits may be cancelled. Getting back to brown rice.  Ask anyone from an Asian country if they eat brown rice instead of white rice and the response is likely a yucky face.  

The RD team discusses antioxidants. Free radical molecules are by-products of day-to-day metabolism.  They’re highly reactive, and can damage other molecules.  Too much damage can increase risk for lots of diseases.  Antioxidants to the rescue! Here the official definition from The Free Dictionary: An agent that inhibits oxidation; any of numerous chemical substances including certain natural body products and nutrients that can neutralize the oxidant effect of free radicals and other substances. Antioxidants categories: * Terpenes: lycopene is one of the most potent antioxidants, and is especially high in concentrated, cooked tomato products such as sauce and paste. Beta carotene is common in orange fruits and veggies. Limonoids are common in citrus fruits. * Phenols: there are hundreds of types of phenols, such as blue or blue-red plant pigments (blueberries).  Catechins are in green tea, black tea, cacao, coffee, and peaches.  Ellagic acid is found in berries, walnuts and pecans.  Resveratrol is in red wine, red grape skins, and peanuts.  Isoflavones are in legumes, especially soy. * Thiols: commin in cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale.  Allium is found in onion, garlic, shallots, leeks, chives. * Lignans: flax seed is the richest source.  They’re also found in oatmeal, buckwheat, wheat bran, rye meal and barley.  Lignans are an mportant source of phytoestrogens associated with a lower risk of breast cancer. * certain vitamins (C, E) and minerals (selenium, zinc). Within the first 4 categories, there are hundreds of varieties of molecules with antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are unique to plant foods.  Berries are antioxidant stand-outs, but lots of research has focused on other foods like chocolate, tea and wine.  The table below, adapted from this source, gives antioxidant content in millimoles per servings of the food.   As we discuss, comparing foods based on a normal serving is a far better measure of antioxidant content than comparing based on 100 grams of food.  For example 100 grams of cinnamon may have lot of antioxidants, but no one is going to eat that much cinnamon. What could be wrong with antioxidants?  Use of the word for food marketing purposes, especially when used to sell sugary beverages, processed foods or supplements that may only contain 1 antioxidant. While there is no official recommended antioxidant intake, it’s easy to ensure you’re eating plenty of them and plenty of variety: eat a plant based diet, with lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds.  Antioxidants aren’t found in animal-based foods.        

Baguettes, cheese, croissants, coffee and wine France is known for food, and after a recent trip I came away with some new insights on what that is all about.  There are certainly some aspects of French cuisine and dining that are different from what we are used to.  Here, in no particular order, are some tips on foods and beverages for people unfamiliar with the food and dining customs of France. Iced beverages — not Most restaurants and cafés are happy to provide a carafe of water, even if you only order an espresso.  It will be tap water.  It may or may not be chilled.  The wait person may or may not pour water into your glasses.  There will not be ice.  Even if you order pricey bottled mineral water, which will likely be chilled, you won’t get ice. It’s just not a thing in France the way it is in the US. Also: forget about iced tea and iced coffee. Soft drinks are expensive A small can of Coca Cola or some other familiar soft drink may cost as much as a glass of wine.  And there are no super-sized portions. You get a can, that’s it. I didn’t see any diet drinks, although probably someone has them.  They will be expensive.  What’s a dieter to do?  Drink plain water or bottled mineral water. Breakfast Many cafés and hotels serve petit déjeuner, which is breakfast. The loose standard definition is * hot beverage of choice, such as espresso or tea of café au lait * croissant and/or hunk of baguette * butter * OJ, which may occasionally be fresh squeezed Hotels may have buffet breakfasts, which may or may not be included in the room charge.  Ask about that when checking in, if you’re unsure. If you don’t want to buy the hotel breakfast, find a café nearby and have something simple. They don’t do coffee like we do Yes France has this reputation for great coffee. But in fact, coffee drinking there is a very different experience from ours.  No one brews up a big pot of coffee to pour into cups. Each cup is made to order.  There are no flavored coffee creamers or whipped cream or super sized portions.  Coffee typically means espresso, unless you specify café au lait or some other variation.  Café longue is more like a cup of black coffee.  In all cases, the portions are small. When you sit down at a table at a cafe, ordering an espresso is sort of like arranging to rent the table for a short while.  If you just needed an espresso, you can certainly drink that in about 15 seconds.  You sit because you need a break, or you want a place for conversation, or you just want to people watch and absorb the local atmosphere. Truthfully, in my opinion, the coffee isn’t always that great. I can find more flavorful and interesting espresso in my hometown. Gluten is everywhere (Yay!) Bread is served with most meals. Sometimes it’s great quality, occasionally mediocre, but it’s always there.  Croissants are also everywhere, as are many other delicious-looking pastries and desserts.  Crepes are everywhere, frequently as street food, eaten as a snack.  Despite all the gluten, people are not obese and keeling over from dreaded diseases or suffering from so-called grain brain.  People with real celiac disease can get by with skipping the bread and pastries. They do pizza differently Lots of restaurants specialize in pizza.  The pizzas come in one size, usually intended as one person’s meal, although the sizes will vary from one restaurant to another. They will usually be thin crust, with cheese at a minimum.  You usually won’t get to choose from a long list of toppings.  Truthfully, I found the sizes too big for me to eat alone, so we usually shared a pizza and a salad plate, which worked out fine. Restaurants The phrase “service continue” posted in front of a restaurant indicates that food is served al...

Interview with Molly Morgan RD, CDN, CSSD Registered dietitian Molly Morgan’s latest book — Drink Your Way to Gut Health — isn’t your typical smoothie recipe book.  You’ll find detailed information about the probiotic ingredients used in those recipes, including recipes for making probiotics like kefir and kombucha yourself. Morgan wants readers to explore probiotics beyond familiar yogurt.  The smoothie recipes use a wide variety of probiotic ingredients, as well as fruits, juices and other ingredients to promote gut health.  While people dealing with a digestive problem might be attracted by the title of the book, Morgan believes people should pay attention to gut health everyday, since it’s connected to so many other health issues. Drink Your Way to Gut Health is a really useful book, even if you don’t attempt to make your own kombucha or kefir.  You can always buy those key probiotic ingredients, which are widely available in major grocery stores and speciality food shops.   The wide variety of recipes encourage readers to stretch their smoothie repertoire beyond yogurt and fruit.  Gut health is not something to think about just when you have a problem.  It’s something to promote every day. The recipes in this book can help you do that.

Health Halos.  Those innocent-sounding claims on food labels, designed to give the product a shiny nutritious image.  The claims aren’t false so much as misleading. There are 3 categories of Health Halos: * specific foods * specific ingredients * entire corporations Entire corporations?  Consider Subway.  The healthy/low fat subs are heavily promoted, so the whole restaurant has a Health Halo, despite the fact that plenty of the subs (the majority) are not low calorie. Health Halo food examples: * muffins: as Kathy notes, they’re basically like cake. * granola: high calorie and high fat * salads, especially entree salads at restaurants: frequently loaded with inexpensive filler ingredients like croutons or inexpensive cheese or low quality vegetables * yogurt: Kathy is especially annoyed by dessert yogurts, with toppings like sugary granola * oatmeal: plain is fine, but sweetened instant oatmeal not so much * sweet potato fries: key word — “fries”. Health Halo ingredients or words: * Gluten-free: this does NOT define anything related to health * non-GMO: frequently used for foods that never were GMO to begin with. Creates a false image of a healthier product. * Organic: increasingly used as an excuse for junk food.  Organic Jelly Bellies? * “Wheat” bread — all bread is wheat bread.  It does not mean whole wheat.  Don’t be fooled. * Protein: a sprinkling of protein powder is a great way to sell sugary breakfast cereals or energy bars. From Kathy’s point of view, any food touted a high protein should have more protein than carbs, so check the label. * Another thing that drives us crazy: using fruit and vegetables to sell junk food.  Examples: the tiny amount of fruit added to fruit roll ups, so the label can say “contains real fruit!”.  Or vegetable powder added to chips, which are marketed as being equal to a serving of vegetables.  The explosion of veggie chip brands suggests that that ploy is working.  “Veggie” is a health halo word, but people really would rather eat chips.  Put the two together and you’ve got a winner from a sales point of view.  Not so much from a health perspective.

It’s Mediterranean Diet month, so we check out a Mediterranean style restaurant Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill is a small, but growing, chain of restaurants dishing up nothing but Mediterranean style food: felafel, gyros, hummus, pita, plenty of vegetables and salads and baklava.  And except for the baklava, everything on the menu seems to include plenty of vegetables.  There’s meat, in modest portions, but non-meat eaters will find plenty to like. The plant-based meals are filling, but not necessarily high calorie.  There’s an online nutrition fact sheet that lists calories, other nutrients and ingredient and allergen information.  Calories on the menu board are less helpful, since they’re given in ranges, that depend on what items you pick for your gyro or salad plate. One of the highest calorie menu choices: 6 falafel on laffa bread with tahini sauce at 810 calories, without any sides or drinks.  A side of seasoned chips adds 510 calories.  A pomegranate lemonade adds 460 calories of sugar.  And as Kathy points out, many of the menu items, such as soups and falafel, are high sodium.  Donna thought the falafel were too greasy, which could be related to cooking time in the deep fryer. With the increasing popularity of the Mediterranean Diet, more restaurants are focused on that style of food.  In general, similar Mediterranean menu items will have similar calories, and similar health benefits.  Beware of high calorie side dishes, sugary soft drinks and desserts. We both enjoyed our meal, and would definitely go back again.  If you’re interested in trying some traditional Mediterranean foods, a restaurant like this is a great solution.

Interview with Sara Baer-Sinnott, President of Oldways Preservation Trust May is Mediterranean Diet month, a time to learn more about a traditional diet that’s linked to many important health benefits.  Oldways Preservation Trust has been promoting the benefits of a Mediterranean diet since 1990, and recently published two books that focus on Mediterranean eating: the Oldways 4-week Mediterranean Diet Menu Plan and The Oldways 4-Week Vegetarian and Vegan Diet Menu Plan. I spoke with Sara Baer-Sinnott, President of Oldways, about the Mediterranean diet in general, and how these two books can help consumers transition to healthier plant-based diets.  Our discussion ranged from the evolution of the Mediterranean Diet pyramid over the past 20 years, to the 8 Simple Steps listed in the book that help readers focus on important food choices. The Vegetarian/Vegan Diet looks a lot like a Mediterranean diet, by default.  Most of the pyramid is plant foods, with room at the very top for dairy foods that would be eaten by vegetarians.  Because fish and meat are not included, high protein plant foods, such as nuts and legumes, are emphasized more so than with the traditional Mediterranean Diet. Recipes are a key part of any diet plan, but for some people, cooking is an obstacle to diet success.  They may lack the skills or the time to spend in the kitchen.  While both the Mediterranean and Vegetarian diet books have plenty of recipes, Sara Baer-Sinnott notes that the menus include many easy-to-prepare foods that minimize cooking. Both the Mediterranean and Vegetarian diet books are organized in a simple, attractive  and consumer-friendly format, to make the transition to a more plant-based diet easy and delicious.  Even people who might be intimated by the idea of eating less meat will find that the recipes are easy to follow.  Whether your diet goal is to eat less meat or go entirely meatless, one of these books will help you achieve that goal.  The books are available on the Oldways website, along with grocery lists and refrigerator magnets and prescription-like tear sheet pads.  You can also find food pyramids for other ethnic diets, such as Asian or Latin American, more recipes and information about health benefits of traditional diets.