What's new in the food business? Well, here are a few new products hitting the shelf this month. Let's see how many might work on a controlled carb eating program:
• 180 Red with Goji, from Anheuser-Busch. Yet another energy drink, this one is 180 Red with Goji, described by the beer folks as having a "refreshing, slightly sweet cherry taste balanced with subtle tartness." It's the fourth in the company's nonalcoholic 180 line and contains sugar. So no goji for us. (By the way, goji berries are grown in Tibet and have high antioxidant levels as well as energy-stimulating properties.) Scratch this one.
• Boca Meatless Breakfast Wraps, from Boca Foods; The Boca Burger folks are expanding their breakfast line by adding a soy-based, whole-grain wrap. Comes in two flavors: original and Southwestern, both filled with egg whites, cheese and meatless sausage. Low in sugar but still about 21 net carbs per serving.
• Grate-It-Fresh Parmesan Cheese, from Kraft. Now this is a nice idea--a block of fresh Parmesan cheese with its own grater. Kind of the cheesy version of the pepper grinder blends you can buy these days. Twist and grate. But it won't come cheaply--suggested price is $4.99 for the seven-ounce size.
• Flat Earth Fruit and Veggie Crisps, from Frito-Lay, I've seen these in stores already. They tout that each one-ounce serving contains a half-serving of fruit or vegetables. Flavors are: Farmland Cheddar, Garlic & Herb Field, Tangy Tomato Ranch, Wild Berry Patch, Apple Cinnamon Grove, and Peach Mango Paradise. What they don't tout is that these are basically potato chips with some fruits and veggies added, not to mention quite a bit of sugar, at least for the apple flavor.
• Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowls. What is it with the "bowls," already? This is your standard breakfast in a bowl: sausage and egg; bacon and egg; or pancake and sausage bowls, to be precise. Sausage and bacon bowls sound like a good low-carb option, you think? Nope, both have hash brown potatoes in them so you might as well eat the pancakes.
• Girl Jerky, by Jack Link's. Okay, that's not really the name, but the beef jerky manufacturer is adding "softer textures, bite-sized pieces and sweet and savory flavors" in an attempt to attract the female jerky customer. The company's marketing veep says they are "satisfying new snacks high in protein yet low in carbs, calories and fat." These new Jerky treats come in four flavors--Maple & Brown Sugar Ham Jerky , Prime Rib, Chicken Fajita, and Maple & Brown Sugar Barbecue Pork Tender cuts. They seem to average about 3-6 grams of sugar per serving, much lower than...
• New Magical Cereals from General Mills. I wrote about these a while back--new "lightly sweetened" Disney's Little Einsteins Fruity Stars Cereal, Disney's Princess Fairytale Flakes, and Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Berry Crunch Cereal, finally making their way onto supermarket shelves. Here are the first six ingredients in Little Einsteins Fruity Stars, touted as a "whole grain" healthy cereal: whole grain corn; sugar; corn meal; corn syrup; corn starch; corn bran. Mmmmm....how fruity it is!
So much for new product rollouts for April. Sigh.
How provocative a title is that?
The answers will allegedly be given tonight on PBS when the documentary "Fat: What No One is Telling You"airs. Check the PBS website for your local air time--mine is 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.--of course I'll have to tape the latter one since I must watch American Idol and Lost. Not that I'm a TV junkie or anything : )
Here's how PBS characterizes the show:
With 66 percent of U.S. adults either overweight or obese, our girth is a serious public health issue. Yet many of us still view being overweight as a character flaw, a lack of self-control, or even a moral crime.
But does fat really equal failure? FAT: What No One Is Telling You explores the myriad psychological, physiological and environmental factors that can make it so tough to shed pounds and keep them off. In this documentary, Executive producer Naomi Boak and producer/director Tom Spain, both Emmy Award honorees, share new scientific knowledge about hunger, eating, and human metabolic operation. This film also explains our psychological responses to food, and shows how external pressures (such as oversized restaurant portions and the unending barrage of food advertisement) make fighting fat so difficult, both on the personal and national levels.
It sounds like a thoughtful, intelligent discussion of a complex issue so many of us are grappling with on a daily basis. I'm usually left disappointed by the shallowness of these shows; we'll see about this one.
It's a slow news day, as they say in the newspaper business, so let's indulge in an old-fashioned LexisNexis search. Today's search term: "sugar free." And here are the top results:
--"GROWING DEMAND FOR SUGAR-FREE PRODUCTS DRIVES GROWTH IN EUROPEAN POLYOLS MARKET." Polyols--including the evil maltitol--are being used in record amounts in the candy, pharmaceutical and oral-care products areas. Sure wish they'd find other alternatives.
--"WRIGLEY TO LAUNCH NEW LINE OF SUGAR-FREE GUM, WILL RAISE PRICES 10 PERCENT." The gum line is called "5"--for the five senses--and is designed "to give chewers a brief, but intense, oral sensation." It will launch in the USA in June in three flavors: Rain, Cobalt and Flare. Okay, "brief but intense" means it'll last about 10 seconds before losing flavor, and then you have to pay more to get more. No mention of what fake sweetener they'll use. Ah, who cares. I don't chew gum anyway.
--"GUJARAT FARMERS GROW SUGAR-FREE POTATOES." Well, now. This is interesting. Asian farmers have figured out a way to grow potatoes greatly reduced in sugar. "Farmers in Gujarat have come to the aid of health-conscious and diabetics, who can savour their favourite potato, without fear of adding to the calorie or increasing sugar levels in blood," according to the Hindustan Times.
--"ENVIGA THIRST-QUENCHING, BUBBLES OVERHWELMING." Apparently, some Spokane, Wash., folks decided to taste-test Coke's new Enviga drink and were underwhelmed. Other observations: "flavor washed out, hard to distinguish, finished with a sugar-free aftertaste." Personally, I've only tried the Green Tea flavor but didn't think it was bad at all. It's been hard to find around here, though.
And, besides, I'm holding out for the sugar-free potatoes.
A new list of world's top dining cities from Travelocity includes my hometown, New Orleans--one darned hard city to diet in, by the way. Here's what they say:
"Many first time visitors head to New Orleans to experience events such as Mardi Gras or JazzFest, but they return time and time again for its food. NOLA's most famous restaurants include Emeril's, Commander's Palace and Antoine's, but local favorites such as Jacques-Imos and Port of Call deserve a spot on the map of culinary treasures as well. Cajun and Creole dishes throughout the city tempt the taste buds, and no visit to Crescent City is complete without indulging in a beignet dusted with powdered sugar and a cup of café au lait laced with chicory at Café Du Monde."
Ah, Jacques-Imo's and Commander's Palace. My two favorite restaurants--the yin and yang of favorites, if you will. Commander's is elegant and refined and I've never had a bad meal there--and it's surprisingly affordable.
Jacques-Imo's is kinda loud and funky and they have a savory appetizer I dare you to not like. It's one of those things that makes your eyes roll back in your head with delight when you take the first bite. What is it? Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake (shown in photo above). Cooked in a nut crust and brimming with sausage and cream and cream cheese--baked slowly in a water bath and then topped with shrimp and a delicious sauce. Best of all? It's LOW CARB. Sigh. For your meal, order the Carpetbagger Steak, a nicely seasoned steak topped with grilled onions and bleu cheese. Can you tell I've eaten a few low-carb meals there? The chef, Jacques Leonardi, also has more recently opened a location in New York City, but I can't vouch for that one.
Port of Call is a hole-in-the-wall joint that looks like a place you should be afraid to go, but it has, bar none, the best burgers in town. Toss away the bun and pile on the grilled mushrooms and you have a feast. Of course you have to avoid the loaded baked potatoes.
Then there's beignets from the Cafe du Monde. Decidedly NOT low carb but they will be staring me in the face this weekend as I head down to the French Quarter for the French Quarter Festival art show. Guess I'd better find the gator on a stick instead.
Interesting piece on "60 Minutes" tonight--a segment on "Dr. Evil," Rick Berman. Berman is a former senior VP at Steak & Ale restaurant chain and executive VP of Pillsbury restaurant group and an attorney. His current schtick is as a lobbyist for big business and big food.
Over the years, he has tried to issue counter-messages to the media hoo-ha over pesticides in food (they aren't that bad, he says), mercury in fish (same), and he was tied to ethics violations involving former Speaker of the House (and upcoming presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich.
Lovely guy, eh?
But the part of the segment that was particularly interesting concerned his viewpoints on the obesity epidemic. Oops--scratch that. There is no "epidemic," he says, and the fact that there are a lot of fat people doesn't mean we should label fat as a disease. "Of course there are morbidly obese people you see on the street whose backsides obviously belong in a separate zip code," he said. But, he said, he can't believe we're labeling something as a disease "that can be 'cured' by taking a walk and keeping your mouth shut."
Well, shut my mouth.
Ya know, I'm actually a big proponent of taking responsibility for our actions. Nobody caused my weight problem but me, all by myself. But I'm also not willing to nod my head in agreement with someone who issues an inane statement like "take a walk and shut your mouth." Obviously, the man knows nothing about metabolism, genetics, coping issues, or how blasted hard it is to lose weight for some people.
Of course, I do believe he's quite fat-headed. Maybe if he'd just take a walk and shut his mouth, he'd be cured.
So here's a good idea. Start a website with a database of healthy restaurants, searchable by zip code. Set parameters on your database to determine what is healthy. Visitors to the site can type in their zip or the zip of the city they're visiting, hit the search button and get healthy dining options.
Sounds great, right?
That's what the folks at Healthy Dining Finder are doing, in conjunction with the National Restaurant Association. The site touts an "expert staff of registered dietitians and master's-level health professional consultants."
Problem is, there's a problem. Well, a couple of them.
Here are the criteria for a restaurant entree to be recommended: 1) must include either lean protein, fruit, or 100% whole grain; 2) must be 750 calories (for entire meal) or less; 3) must contain 25g of fat (of course) or less, with a max. of 8g of saturated fat. There are similar parameters for appetizers. No deep-fried items are included.
Okay, so I plug in my zip code to see what New Orleans dining options they offer. I'm expecting a long list because this city is rife with fantabulous restaurants where it's possible to get a great healthy meal.
My results?
Only 7 restaurants were recommended: Domino's Pizza; Burger King; Chevy's Fresh Mex; Chili's; Arby's; Hooters; and PF Chang.
Uh. Well. I'm speechless.
I suspect they're only listing restaurants that list nutritional info on their websites and would hope they'd expand their listings eventually. There is a link to recommend a restaurant.
In the meantime, though, why tout these restaurants? Why roll out this website "service" before you have enough of a database to make it useful? Have these restaurants paid to be included and, if so, doesn't that weaken the whole premise of the site? And what can I eat at, say, Domino's that fits the criteria? A couple of slices of pizza that contains a piece of mushroom would qualify, technically.
And Hooters. HOOTERS? I live in one of the finest gastronomic cities in the world and I'm going to have my healthy meal at HOOTERS? Visitors to New Orleans are going to be steered away from Antoine's and Commander's Palace and be directed to HOOTERS?
Nice try, but this isn't a resource I'll be using.
So just how much money is there in the world of artificial sweeteners? Try $1.5 billion a year.
And that's enough for Merisant, the makers of the aspartame-based sweetener Equal, to square off in court next week against McNeil Nutritionals, makers of sucralose-based Splenda.
The folks at Merisant are naturally concerned--fake sugar is big business. And since Splenda came on the scene back in 1999, Equal sales have fallen like a stone. Once in more than 6,000 consumer products and top of the artificial sweetener heap, Equal has tanked. Splenda now makes up 62 percent of the market in the US.
The thing Merisant has hung its legal hat on is McNeil's claim than Splenda is "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar." There is a big battle now over syntax and implied meaning in language, which a dorky editor-type like myself would salivate over even if products I consume weren't involved.
Does "made from sugar" imply that Splenda is actually sugar in some altered form? Merisant says so, and that sucralose is manufactured in a lab, not a cane field. McNeil simply says it says what it says (got that?)--that sucrose is involved early in the manufacturing process but anything resembling sucrose evaporates and is gone early on. Plus, Morisant contends, Splenda doesn't necessarily even begin with cane sugar--McNeil has filed dozens of patents on ways to manufacture sucralose. One of those ways involves sugar, but others are based on things like raffinose, a sugar cousin found in onions and broccoli, or other things completely unrelated to sugar.
As personally interesting as I find this case, I don't buy Merisant's implied contention that McNeil/Splenda has cornered the market because they've fooled consumers into thinking they're eating a more "natural" product than aspartame/Equal.
I think it boils down to taste--Splenda tastes better to me--and safety concerns over aspartame. As long as we had no readily available options, we ate Equal. Once another option became available, we switched. Simple as that.
How safe is Splenda? Well, I'm old enough to remember the cancer scare over saccharin, which kind of turned out to be an unsustainable charge, and the sweetener bogeyman is currently wailing on aspartame. I have no doubts sucralose will have its day in the questionable-health-value spotlight.
Meanwhile, I have switched to Splenda for most of my artificial sweetener needs, though I still prefer plain old aspartame-riddled Diet Coke to the citrus-tasting Splenda version, and I use saccharin-based Sweet & Low in my iced tea.
So whatever they all cause, I'll get it.
"We are the world;
We'll feed your children;
They'll be obese and die an early death;
So let's start eating..."
Sorry, but this story making the rounds caught my eye. For so long, Japan has been held up to Americans as having a "desirable" diet--based heavily on rice and vegetables with small amounts of meat.
Now, apparently, Japanese teens and households with two working parents are going the fast food route--namely, American fast food like McDonald's, KFC and Taco Bell.
The result is predictable: a fast-rising number of overweight and morbidly obese people of all ages. Morbid obesity, as recently as 10 years ago, was virtually unheard-of in Japan--unless, of course, you were a Sumo wrestler.
The guy quoted in the story above has an interesting take on the whole thing, though. I tend to look at the immediate and not at the trend--that we're a fast food nation, but not why. His take on it is that as the nuclear family has changed with both parents working outside the home and kids on a fast track of activities, then it's a natural result that quick, processed foods are taking a bigger role in the diet.
It's going to take a sea change in the way we look at "fast food" to change this tidal wave.
Sheesh. I'm gone 10 days and there has been a revolution at the Sav-a-Center (subsidiary of A&P)! I head in there yesterday to buy nice, carb-free stuff to get me back on track and there are no more plastic bags. Yep, at least one corner of New Orleans--never, ever, ever one to be ahead of any trend in the world--has gone back to paper grocery bags. Who do they think they are? San Francisco?
Anyway, if you hear of more murders than usual in New Orleans anytime soon--although, the murder rate's already so high, how would you know--it's the Sav-a-Center checkout clerks, killing their store managers. I've never seen such unhappy employees in any store, which is saying a lot here, where surly service is the norm. They were practically wrestling to get the bags open and filled.
For me, it's all good. Not only is it environmentally sound, but it's more exercise. I can carry a ton of those plastic bags--in fact, had developed quite the system of looping them all up the length of my arm so as to make the fewest trips possible from the car up the stairs into my house. How lazy is that? No more. It took eight trips up the steps carrying paper bags. So I can consider it exercise, right?
We'll see if I still think it's a good thing in August when it's 100 degrees with 100% humidity.
I'm home. Does this photo tell you anything about my trip?
I wish I could report that I was a pillar of dietary and nutritional virtue while I was gone. Well, okay, I wish I could report that and not be lying.
But, fact is, I was a complete and utter cow. (Get it? Cow? Utter/udder?)
Shortly after my last post, I went off to a prearranged dinner with an author, which began with the chef sending out his choice of a fine split pea soup topped with creme fraiche, in what looked like a double shotglass, followed by a fine pasta with gorgonzola and cream, and...well, you get the picture.
So, I was gone 10 days and this morning, I bit the bullet and hit the scales. Eek! I gained 10.2 pounds in 10 days.
So it's back in the pasture for this old cow.
