From the monthly archives:

April 2011

Is Red, White and Blue the New Green?

by Janet on April 24, 2011

american flag and chipsWe love our American food.  Increasingly, we’re looking for foods produced or made in America, and we’re OK if it costs more. Nearly all Americans — 94% to be precise — say they would rather buy food produced in the U.S. than less expensive versions made in China, even if U.S. products cost twice as much, according to a Gallup Poll survey.

Country of origin is becoming more important to us — related to food safety issues and pride.  In fact, when it comes to food — red, white and blue may be the new green.  That’s the tagline of a campaign from the folks promoting the Made in USA brand certification program.

brand_berries2

Food companies are increasingly leveraging this love of Americana, including the people behind the products – the farmers, the fishermen, the producers.  Lay’s has been touting locally made potato chips and showcasing the farmers in 27 states across the country who grow the potatoes.

fritox-large

Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert says we’ll see more “produced or made in America” signage as supermarkets start to promote foods from the U.S. — like Gulf shrimp instead of shrimp from China.  In fact, Lempert predicts that Big Easy seafood will be big in 2011 as we rally to support New Orleans and Gulf seafood.

timmy-cheramie-mWild American Shrimp has introduced a great campaign featuring shrimpers from the Gulf and South Atlantic. The message:  you’ve been tricked.  The campaign says 85% of the shrimp we buy is imported:  ”Your shrimp was raised in a pond then shipped overseas, you had no idea.” Their TV commercial tagline is “the shrimp you thought you were eating.”  The group has also introduced a certification program for shrimp caught in American waters.

Alaska has seen its seafood grow in popularity.  Research shows that 82% of consumers who see the Alaska Seafood logo would be more likely to buy it.alaska seafood

cherry salad full

Restaurants are getting in on the state-branded trend too. Increasingly you’ll see menu items touting USA ingredients from a specific state or region.

I noticed that this week on vacation in Florida when I ordered a salad for lunch.  The menu featured Michigan Cherry Chicken Salad with Pecans.

It’s a growing trend in restaurants, so expect to see this even more often.  A survey of chefs conducted by the National Restaurant Association indicates that locally sourced meats and seafood and locally grown produce are the top two menu trends for 2011.  The #10 trend on the list:  farm-branded ingredients.

Mintel Menu Insights identified the most popular state-branded menu items:

1.Texas
2. New York-style
3. Southwest
4. Southern-style
5. California
6. New England
7. Cajun-style
8. Boston-style
9. Santa Fe
10. Americana

What state-branded foods have you noticed lately?

(photo credit above:  NikonGirl24 on flickr)

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A New View Of Calories

by Janet on April 5, 2011

5569368944_a943bbeb34A calorie is a calorie, right?  Not so fast.

That  age-old adage may no longer be true.  Increasingly scientists are realizing that not all calories are created equal.   For instance, calories from an apple may not be equivalent to calories from a Twinkie (and yes, even the new chocolate Twinkies).

Read more in my column in the April issue of Cooking Light magazine:  How Calories Really Count.

How Calories Really Count

Last summer, Mark Haub, Ph.D, an associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State University, made headlines when he lost 27 pounds after two months of living on Twinkies, Ho-Hos, Little Debbies, and other convenience-store snack cakes.

Haub’s experiment reinforced the calories-in/calories-out equation: If you drastically cut back—as Haub did, from 2,600 to 1,800 calories per day—you will lose weight, no matter how nutrient-deprived your diet may otherwise be. Anyone who knows what calories are—units of energy—knows this to be so.

But lost in the brouhaha surrounding the so-called Twinkie Diet was a more interesting trend: a revision of the idea that all calories are equal. New studies hint that the body may burn calories from whole foods better than it does calories from processed foods like Twinkies. Essentially, it appears the body can “burn” a bit hotter on whole foods and use healthier fuel at the same time. That’s great news for people who want to follow the new Dietary Guidelines, because it addresses two big problems with the American diet: calorie overload and nutrient inadequacy.

While Dr. Haub was carefully counting his Twinkie calories, scientists from Pomona College in California were preparing to publish a small study with interesting implications for anyone who wants to maintain a healthy weight and eat good food.

The researchers fed people two meals with the exact same number of calories; the only difference was how much the food was processed. Group A was treated to sandwiches made with real cheese on whole-grain bread; Group B made do with processed cheese on fiber-stripped white bread. The results, published in Food & Nutrition Research, found that the processed meal decreased the rate of diet-induced thermogenesis—the number of calories you burn when eating and digesting—by nearly 50% compared to the meal made with whole foods.

The calories burned from a single sandwich may be small, but this rise in metabolism caused by whole foods (known as the thermic effect) might account for about 10% of a typical person’s daily calorie expenditure. Although more research is needed, early indicators show that whole foods may offer a real metabolic advantage for calorie counters. Whole foods aren’t just better for you because they’re more nutritious, but they also may be, essentially, lower-calorie.

Weight Watchers, recognizing the differences in how our bodies react to calories—and nudging dieters to eat more whole foods—revamped its points system late last year to make fresh fruits and most vegetables “free.” Eat all you want, the WW plan says. In general, foods higher in fiber and protein were assigned fewer points, and processed foods were given more.

All this comes at a time when calories are back in the nutrition spotlight. The fat-phobia and obsessive carb-counting eras are waning. Governments are talking about “soda taxes” to combat the health costs of consuming too many “empty” calories. Calorie labeling is showing up—voluntarily and by law—on more restaurant menus, and calorie counts are more prominent on some food labels.

This calorie consciousness is a good and a bad thing. Most Americans do need to cut back on calories. Balancing energy in and energy out (which brings in the whole question of exercise) is critical to solving the obesity crisis. But calorie counting per se is tedious and not the real answer, unless you want to go on a Twinkie diet. The better approach is the whole foods approach, because Americans also need to increase intake of a long list of nutrients, including fiber, potassium, calcium, and vitamin D, which are associated with whole foods. Eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains delivers those nutrients in a form that may also hold a calorie-burning advantage.    [photo credit:  gregg_koenig on flickr]

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Deliciously Healthy Family Meals

by Janet on April 5, 2011

cover

I’ve got to hand it to the folks at NHLBI again — that’s the National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a division of the government’s Department of Health and Human Services.  I previously wrote about their first Keep the Beat cookbook, which I thought was fantastic.  Now they’ve done it again – but this time the focus is on families. The new “Deliciously Healthy Family Meals” is a terrific cookbook that is chock-full of kid-friendly recipes to help busy parents get healthy meals on the table.

I’m a firm believer that the best way to get people to eat healthier is to get them comfortable in the kitchen.  It’s not enough to tell people what they need to do to raise healthy kids — what to eat, what to avoid.  That doesn’t work.  Families need to know what to cook.  They need help putting healthy meals together.  That’s why a cookbook like this may be the best nutrition education approach of all.

I love how the book provides tips for involving children in meal prep, and there are good lessons on cooking techniques throughout the book.  Each recipe features complete nutrition information. Like the first book, the recipes were developed by father-of-two David Kamen, a chef/instructor at the Culinary Institute of America.   The book was developed in partnership with the NIH’s We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition) program — a national education program to help children stay at a healthy weight.

Best of all, you can get the cookbook for free.  Go to the Healthy Eating website and find a link to the digital cookbook that you can download.  Here’s a sampling of the entree recipes:

Huli_ChickenHawaiian Huli Huli Chicken

12 ounces (about 2 large breasts) boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes (24 cubes)
1 cup fresh pineapple, diced (24 pieces), or canned pineapple chunks in juice
8 6-inch skewers

Sauce:
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons lite soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons orange juice
1 teaspoon garlic, mined (about 1 clove)
1 teaspoon ginger, minced

Preheat a broiler or grill on medium-high heat.  Thread three chicken cubes and three pineapple chunks alternately on each skewer. Combine ingredients for sauce and mix well; separate into two bowls and set one aside for later.  Grill skewers for 3-5 minutes on each side.  Brush or spoon sauce (from the bowl that wasn’t set aside) onto chicken and pineapple about every other minute.  Discard the sauce when done with this step.  To prevent chicken from drying out, finish cooking skewers in a 350 F over immediately after grilling (to a minimum internal temperature of 165 F).  Using a clean brush or spoon, coat with sauce from the set-aside bowl before serving.

calories: 156, fat 2 g (1 g sat), carbs 16 g, protein 18 g, sodium 320 mg, fiber 0 g

Buttons and Bows PastaButtons_and_Bows

2 cups (8 ounces) dry whole-wheat bowtie pasta (farfalle)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic, minced (about 1 clove)
1 bag (16 ounces) frozen peas and carrots
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, rinsed, dried and chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 medium lemon, rinsed, for 1 teaspoon zest (use a grater to take a thin layer of skin off the lemon)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a 4-quart saucepan, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil over high heat.  Add pasta, and cook according to package directions.  Drain.  Meanwhile, heat olive oil and garlic over medium heat in a large saute pan.  Cook until soft, but not browned.  Add peas and carrots.  Cook gently until the vegetables are heated through.  In a bowl, combine chicken broth and cornstarch.  Mix well.  Add to pan with vegetables, and bring to a boil.  simmer gently for 1 minute.  Add parsley, pasta, lemon, zest and pepper.  Toss gently, and cook until the pasta is hot.  Serve 2 cups of pasta and vegetables per portion.

calories: 329, fat 6 g (1 g sat), carbs 59 g, protein 13 g, sodium 127 mg, fiber 9 g

Asian-Style Chicken Wraps

Sauce:
1 small jalapeno chili pepper, rinsed and split lengthwise – remove seeds and white membrane, and mince (about 1 tablespoon); for less spice, use green bell pepper
1 tablespoon garlic, minced (about 2-3 cloves)
3 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
1/2 tablespoon waterasian_chicken_wrap
1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice (or about 2 limes)

Chicken:
1 tablespoon peanut oil or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced (about 2-3 cloves)
12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon lite soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil (optional)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (optional)

Wrap:
1 small head red leaf lettuce, rinsed, dried and separated into single leaves large enough to create wrap
8 fresh basil leaves, whole, rinsed and dried
2 cups bok choy or Asian cabbage, rinsed and shredded

To prepare the sauce, add all ingredients to a saucepan, and bring to a boil over high heat.  Remove form heat, and let sit in hot saucepan for 3-5 minutes. Chill in refrigerator for about 15 minutes, or until cold. Prepare the chicken by heating oil in a large wok or saute pan. Add ginger and garlic, and stir fry briefly until cooked, but not browned, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Add chicken, and continue to stir fry for 5-8 minutes.  Add soy sauce, sesame oil (optional) and sesame seeds (optional), and return to a boil.  Remove from the heat, and cover with lid to hold warm in a hot saute pan. Assemble each wrap:  Place one red lettuce leaf on a plate, then add 1/2 cup chicken stir-fry, 1 basil leaf, and 1/4 cup shredded cabbage and fold together.  Serve two wraps with 1/4 cup sauce.

calories: 242, fat 10 g (2 g sat), carbs 17 g, protein 21 g, sodium 393 mg, fiber 3 g

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