A periodic report on the weird, the bad and the downright ugly in our food industry.
Today: The "Healthy" Soft Drink!
In the food industry's determined march toward more "functional foods," and in light of the role of villain the soft drink industry is playing in debates over the "obesity crisis," soft drink makers are fighting back after facing the first decline in sales in their long history. Said decline has apparently been caused by the demonization of sugar, fear of aspartame and an increased consumer interest in health.
Now, I have to 'fess up here. I know they're bad for me, but I drink diet soft drinks. Shame on me, but there you go. And I'll probably keep drinking them.
That being said, however, the latest movements by both Coke and Pepsi to release "healthy" soft drinks strikes me as pretty absurd. "Healthy" by whose standards? These will not be marketed as soft drinks--they're the villain, remember?--but as "sparkling beverages," according to this story in The New York Times.
Coke is planning to roll out Diet Coke Plus this spring. Its gimmick is that it's fortified with niacin, vitamins B6 and B12, magnesium and zinc.
In the fall, Pepsi will roll out Tava, which will be "lightly carbonated," caffeine free and offered in "exotic flavors" containing vitamins B3, B6 and E, plus chromium. The flavors are Brazilian Samba, Caribbean Calypso, Mediterranean Muse and Malaysian Satori. Whatever the heck those are.
Sucralose (Splenda) or a combination of sucralose and Ace-K seem to be the artificial sweeteners of choice but I'm still checking on that.
So, what'cha think? If you're going to drink diet soda anyway, will you try the new "enhanced sparkling beverages?"
The Waisted in the Wasteland contest to win a copy of the huge food encyclopedia by George Mateljan, The World's Healthiest Foods, continues.
Click the link above to go to the contest info, or just reply to any Waisted post between now and midnight next Tuesday, March 13, with a veggie recipe containing three or more items to get entered in the contest. On March 14, I'll post a list of all the veggie recipes and we'll have a great database!
LOL--hold on, folks! I didn't mean the recipes submitted to the Veggie Contest had to have only three ingredients--just that they had to have AT LEAST three (just to cull out the veggie, salt and butter recipes)! So don't feel limited! Thanks for everyone who's contributed thus far.
The Waisted in the Wasteland contest to win a copy of the huge food encyclopedia by George Mateljan, The World's Healthiest Foods, continues.
Click the link above to go to the contest info, or just reply to any Waisted post between now and midnight next Tuesday, March 13, with a veggie recipe to get entered in the contest. On March 14, I'll post a list of all the veggie recipes and we'll have a great database!
My pleasure hot spot is bread. Or would it be cheesecake? Or ice cream?
We've all heard that cravings--particularly carb cravings, it seems, for many of us--are an addiction with a powerful psychological component to them.
It may all be in our heads--but it seems to be hardwired, according to a recent study from the University of Michigan.
According to the study, what we want (cheesecake) and what we like (cheesecake) are urges controlled by different brain circuits. When we both want and like something, there's a double-trouble effect that creates brain "pleasure hotspots" that make us want to eat more of the sweet food, and then to enjoy it more when we eat more.
The same circuits apply to people addicted to drugs, sex or gambling.
"We typically want what we like, and like what we want," said researcher Kyle Smith. "But these results suggest that wanting and liking are processed by distinct brain circuits and may not always go hand-in-hand."
So now I'm trying to think of something I like but don't want. A wool coat, maybe. I like them but why would I need one in New Orleans? Something I like in terms of food but i don't want. Well, I like watermelon but don't particularly want any right now.
The problem is when there's something we always like and always want. Watermelon falls in a whole different food category than, say, Blue Bell Banana Pudding Ice Cream or pralines. Want 'em, like 'em, but don't even get me started on them. Once I start, move outta my way.
Which is why sugar addicts need to stay away from the sweet stuff.
Have you heard about this? The center of the battle is in New York, where a recent law was passed requiring fast-food restaurants to post their nutritional information on their menu boards. To make it fair, the law is at first only applicable to fast-fooders who already voluntarily make their nutritional info available--like on their websites.
That has proven too much honesty for Wendy's, Quiznos, and White Castle, who proceeded to take the nutritional info off their websites rather than comply with the law in New York.
Huh. Wonder what they have to hide?
In the meantime, of course, low carbers need only go to the terrific Calorie King website, which, contrary to its low-fattish name, has an amazing restaurant nutritional database. Check out the listings for restaurants, including Burger King, where they list sandwich nutritional info without the bun, or KFC where they give info on the chicken breast minus the breading. It's a huge database that's really helpful when you're counting carbs or calories and eating out.
I now know, for example, that a spicy breast from my own personal favorite, Popeye's, has 290 calories and only 7 grams of carbs when I peel off the breading. Now if I could just resist those evil-on-a-stick biscuits!
Have you heard the buzz about The World's Healthiest Foods, "Essential Guide to the Healthiest Way of Eating," by George Mateljan, published by the nonprofit, non-commercial George Mateljan Foundation? Here's a chance for you to win a copy, valued at $39.95.
I'm always struggling to find new and interesting ways to prepare veggies. It's after working all day, I'm tired and don't want to spend a whole lot of time cooking. But steamed with butter gets old, and raw with dressing gets older.
So, for the next week, post a reply with your favorite quick-and-easy veggie recipe. Any veggie, any style. The only requirements are that it contain at least three ingredients (no steamed veggie with butter--even I can do that!), not be too labor-intensive and not contain ingredients that are too exotic.
Everyone who posts a recipe will be put in the running for the book. I'll draw the names on Tuesday, March 13, and will post the winner on the site here along with my e-mail address. We'll work by private e-mail to get your address so I can send you the book.
So start posting, and pass along the link to your cooking pals!
The book, by the way, is very carb-friendly. Mateljan rates 100 foods on the basis of nutrient density and gives them a score. The most nutrient-dense food, with the highest score, is spinach. Strawberries are high on the list. What you won't find are sugars or processed foods.
Each of the 100 foods gets its own chapter with history, health properties, how to pick out the best in the store, how to prepare it. It's a huge volume and a great resource!
So I'm out on Saturday, running errands, and stop for lunch at Dot's Diner, a self-consciously cute little restaurant that is diner-like enough that lots of guys in flannel shirts go there for big breakfasts served all day long.
I was more in the grilled chicken mood but as I perused the menu, almost unconsciously ticking off the items with a practiced low-carb eye--sugar, white bread, sugar, potatoes, sugar, sugar, sugar--what, lo and behold, to my wondering eyes should appear but "The Atkins Breakfast."
Yep, there it was in black and white.
Of course, it reinforces everything the general populace imagines Atkins to be. A three-egg omelette with multiple cheeses, with three sides: bacon, ham and sausage. Oink oink oink.
Wish they could have thrown some spinach in the omelette, and some fresh fruit on the side, but maybe that's asking too much. For now, I was happy to see Atkins on the menu--but I still got the chicken.
I'm almost finished reading Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I'm feelin' it--the dilemma, that is. (Yes, I realize I'm about a year behind the rest of the planet in reading this.)
The "Omnivore's Dilemma," for Pollan, is that since we have learned to alter the natural cycles of food and food production--through chemistry, through technology, and through transportation--we are in a constant dither about what's really good for us, what we really should be eating. In the absence of a historic national cuisine, Americans are left to the whims of the latest scientific study, the latest products, the latest trends, in order to figure out what to eat.
Instead of simplifying our diets, the modern world has made eating very, very complicated.
So last week, I decided to try and eat local, at least within reason for someone living in an urban area who works full-time and tries to maintain two blogs : )
There's quite a flap between Pollan and Whole Foods. First, Pollan chastises Whole Foods for talking the talk but not walking the walk. Whole Foods chief John Mackey has issued numerous responses in his own blog, admitting that Whole Foods could do a better job of buying local but stands by Whole Foods' practice of buying organic and then using fossil fuels to ship it to the USA or buying organic from large, industrialized organic producers in the USA and shipping it to the stores.
So just buying at Whole Foods wouldn't help me buy local. Thus, off I went to the farmer's market.
What can I buy at the farmer's market in late February? Much to my surprise, there were early strawberries. I love strawberries. So I picked up a couple of pints, which I could eat with some cream from a local dairy. They also had milk and butter, which I passed on but might try later. There was a peanut grower, but I can't digest peanuts--believe me, you don't want the details. I got some cabbage and some broccoli and some spinach that I was assured were grown without pesticides. There was a big selection of grass-fed beef and some wild catfish.
There was also the lady selling killer homemade pies--peach and apple and pecan--but I gave her wide berth, sadly.
That was about it for my shopping this week. It's pricey, but probably no moreso than Whole Foods. Of course the prices at Whole Foods is what has kept me out of there for the most part, except to buy pimiento cheese--the best in the world.
Will all this be healthier? Will it help the environment? Should I limit what I eat to what I can find grown locally? I guess it's the omnivore's dilemma.
In the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack gets his hands on some magic beans that grow a stalk capable of taking him to the land of Giants.
Now, giant people may have a bean that can help bring us--or our weight--back to earth. Or at least if the food industry responds to this news about black soybeans the way I think they will.
Antioxidant properties of dark chocolate have brought us questionable chocolate cereal and even chocolate-dipped Altoids. Omega-3s are being pumped into pasta.
Now, with the study that shows black soya prevented test rats from gaining weight and increasing their "bad cholesterol"--if you buy into the whole cholesterol hoo-ha--I'm waiting to see which food manufacturer is first out of the gate with black-soy dingdongs or ho-hos.
Better yet, go to your favorite local or online store and buy some plain old black soybeans, and stew 'em up with some nice andouille (or lean ham). Low carbs, high fiber...and now some other good stuff too!
