These days you could spray a cardboard box with Vitamin C and claim that it boosts immunity, curbs cardiovascular disease and aids digestion. Isn’t it enough that food manufacturers manipulate our palate with excess sugar, salt, and fat – but now they have the audacity to claim it’s good for our health. There’s no doubt the prominent use of  immunity claims to advertise sugar-laden cereals misleads the parents of young kids. However, I was over the moon when I heard Kellogg has agreed (under duress no doubt) to remove the “Immunity” claims that are plastered all over their sugar-suffused cereals. It’s time to start culling the rest of the culinary crap that goes on in our grocery aisles.

Click here to read the full article published in USA Today.

The need for real school food has never been greater. Today, one in four children are overweight or obese, and one in three will develop diabetes during their lifetime. In the face of this crisis, our schools are financially struggling to feed children anything but overly processed fast food known to endanger health. For many children, school lunch is their only guaranteed meal of the day. Right now, those children are forced to choose between going hungry and being unhealthy. We can do better. 

This July we saw Slow Food’s Time for Lunch Campaign ignite a nation of healthy eaters, and in another step in the right direction, according to the Washington Post, ”The IOM, an independent organization (one of the four National Academies) that advise the federal government on health and nutrition matters, issued a report today outlining its recommendations for improving standards for the national school nutrition program, in which virtually every public school and the vast majority of private schools take part. The report comes a few weeks after the Child Nutrition Act expired on September 30; Congress is due to reauthorize it this session.”

Click here to read the full article in the Washington Post.

Click here to read about Slow Food’s Time for Lunch Campaign to get real food into schools.

The current Nutella ad really gets my nutritional knickers in a knot! I’m totally perplexed as to why anyone would think it’s a good idea to give kids (or adults) chocolate for breakfast – it’s seriously nutty advice. I realize that hazelnuts on their own are nutritious, but in a milk chocolate spread, that’s a seriously belt-busting stretch.

Would you feel comfortable feeding your family ice-cream sprinkled with hazelnuts for a healthy morning meal? Probably not, but it’s the same idea – taking something that’s predominately devoid of nutrition and pairing it with something vaguely nutritious does not a balanced meal make. These days, companies are allowed to tout any manufactured food product as nutritious – fortify a piece of plastic with potassium, and boom, it’s deemed a nutritional snack!

Nutella has 200 Calories, 11 grams of fat and 21 grams of sugar per serving. The serving size is two tablespoons, which I’m sure is a very modest approximation of what most mothers or kids are spreading on their “whole wheat” toast of waffles. 

I think it’s highly irresponsible advertising. There’s most certainly a place for Nutella as a sweet treat, but served for breakfast every morning, that’s just absurd. With childhood obesity and diabetes on the rise, we need to encourage families to eat healthy, nutritious and real food for every meal. It’s unfair to doll out “sugar-coated” advice and mis-information, the country is in crisis, and we need to be educated about how to reform our diet. Spread the word.

The belt-busting American waistline is becoming as much a political as a public health problem. However, the politics of fat are not easily digestible. It’s no secret that we’re eating money – literally – the CDC estimates that obesity now accounts for 9.1% of all medical spending, that’s $147 billion in 2008. 

High-calorie drinks and soda are thought to be the primary offenders in our fight against fat. And although the idea of imposing a soda tax has been sloshing around public and political forums for a while now, most states have put a squash on its implementation. However, NYC health officials have recently launched a super-sized attack on “sugar-stacked” drinks.

The ad – depicting fat globs pouring out of a soda bottle – will run for three months in subway cars. Of course nutritionists are delighted, but it’s no surprise that The American Beverage Association is less than pleased.  According to a statement given to The New York Times’ City Room Blog, Kevin Keane, a spokesperson for the American Beverage Association said, “The ad campaign is over the top and unfortunately is going to undermine meaningful efforts to educate people about how to maintain a healthy weight by balancing calories consumed from all foods and beverages with calories burned through exercise.”

What do I think of Keane’s statement – it’s filled with as much rubbish as a can of soda. I’m not sure if he’s aware of the several studies that show sugary beverages to be associated with a bevy of bad health outcomes – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, just to name a few. I agree the ad is shocking, but something needs to stop us from sucking down sodas – all the while, sucking up the billions of dollars it costs to treat diet-related diseases.

Ironically people are better informed about nutrition than ever, as a result of label laws and education campaigns, not to mention the $50 million we spend on dieting every year. Then why are we getting so fat, so fast? Herein lies the obesity paradox.

It’s obvious traditional tactics aren’t working, so if it’s shock tactics we need to get our nation healthier and eating a better diet, then I say, “Shock the shit out of us” – we obviously need it.

Another edibly-charged opinion piece from Michael Pollan for the  New York Times, on the various issues he has with the “holier than thou” Whole Foods Market. Pollan writes, “As you point out several times in your letter, Whole Foods’ freedom of action is constrained by the desires of its consumers, who want asparagus in January, fresh berries all year long, convenience foods, etc…. Any retailer can treat the consumer as a dumb beast that wants what we wants when we wants it — appealing to the narrowest conception of our self-interest.

Such an approach to the consumer has done much to create the debased industrial food chain we now have — the “pile it high and sell it cheap” philosophy that ramifies up and down the food chain, degrading the land, emiserating the animals, and making us fat and sick.”

Click here to read the full article from the NYT.

Feeling exhausted, stressed, or like life’s giving you lemons? Well, eat melons. Scientists suggest eating melons might help to moderate our manic lives. According to a recent study, melons contain an enzyme called superoxidase dismutase (SOD) that exhibits antioxidant properties, which prevents the tissue damage that contributes to stress and fatigue. Sounds like it might be time to let a little melon rock your morning breakie bowl.

According to the Science Daily, the pilot clinical study, published in Nutrition Journal, consisted of 70 healthy volunteers aged 30-55, who admitted to feeling stressed and fatigued.

Half the volunteers took a dietary supplement based on the melon juice concentrate (10 mg Extramel corresponding to 140 IU SOD per capsule) while the other half took a placebo once daily for four weeks. Stress and fatigue were measured using four observational psychometric scales: FARD, PSS-14, SF-12, and Epworth scale.

Although the 35 volunteers who received placebo (dummy capsules with no active compounds) did report a reduction in stress and fatigue, this effect only lasted for the first seven days of the study.

However, the 35 subjects that munched on melon capsules reported a stronger positive effect, which lasted significantly longer. Taking the enzyme appeared to boost concentration, cut feelings of weariness and irritability, and improve problems with sleeping.

Scientist theorize that the enzyme SOD might help to reduce damage caused by oxidative stress – an internal metabolic reaction – by mopping up pesky free radicals that can cause brain drain and tissue damage.

Although the study was randomized and double-blinded, a group of 70 volunteers is still considered to be very small. Researchers suggest that the results might have been more pronounced if there were more subjects, and their levels of stress and fatigue were more extreme – sign me up for the next study, I think I might fit that criteria.

 Most men aren’t sculling diet shakes and counting calories in an effort to look more “Kate” than “heavy-weight.” In fact, scientific studies suggest that skinny guys have less sexual partners than their brawny counterparts. 

According to the fairer sex, all men are not created equal – with most women preferring to bed and wed a more toned version of our male compadres. Who was it that said we were less superficial than men? Ahh yes, it must have been a woman, probably after a bitter break-up.

If evolutionary theory is predicated on the notion of “survival of the fittest,” why then haven’t all the skinny guys been bred out? It might be because there’s a physiological cost associated with being “beffie” (which is measured by total fat-free mass, or arm and leg muscle mass).

According to a new study published in Evolution and Human Behavior, the downside of being stocky – and subsequently more highly sexed – is a poor immune system and an increased appetite… a tradeoff I’m sure most men would be willing to make for a little more pump and grind in the gym and the bedroom.

This is the first study of its kind to investigate the pros and cons of all that brawn. The lead author of the paper, William Lassek, analyzed data from a single population of more than 5000 men, aged 18 to 49.

Prior research indicates that rock-hard abs and tight triceps are associated with increased levels of the hormone testosterone – think of all that grunting emanating from the free weights section of the gym. However, while testosterone promotes secondary muscle growth, it also suppresses the immune system.

Compared to “skinnies,” muscular men also tended to produce fewer infection-fighting white blood cells, and less of an important immune molecule called C-reactive protein, which helps destroy pathogens.

The not so surprising results of the study – the men who resemble He-Man lost their virginity at a younger age, compared to their skinny Shera-like counterparts.

It makes sense that the bulkier you are, the more food you need to sustain your size. Interestingly, in the study’s more muscley subjects, muscle mass did a better job of predicting caloric intake than body mass index (BMI), age, or activity levels. In a modern society – with a deli on every corner – there’s not much down side to having a hefty appetite (of course, there are still parts of the world where food is not readily accessible). 

For those struggling to gain access to enough food, such as populations in developing countries, or our knuckle dragging ancient predecessors, it seems hunky men are more likely to go to bed hungry. But at least they’ve got a better chance it won’t be alone. 

I wonder if the “skinnies” would argue that the health benefits outweigh the lonely nights, or if the “beefies” would say that getting girls trumps any of the physiological costs? What do you think?

Wicked advertising schemes, a wicked ex-boyfriend, a wicked hangover – they always seem to be the impetus behind an ice-cream meltdown or a burger binge. But it seems we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves – once again.  In fact, new research suggests it could be our brain that’s draining our dieting efforts. 

According to the Science Daily – “findings from a new UT Southwestern Medical Center study suggest that fat from certain foods we eat makes its way to the brain. Once there, the fat molecules cause the brain to send messages to the body’s cells, warning them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin, hormones involved in weight regulation.

“Normally, our body is primed to say when we’ve had enough, but that doesn’t always happen when we’re eating something good,” said Dr. Deborah Clegg, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern and senior author of the rodent study appearing in the September issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

“What we’ve shown in this study is that someone’s entire brain chemistry can change in a very short period of time. Our findings suggest that when you eat something high in fat, your brain gets ‘hit’ with the fatty acids, and you become resistant to insulin and leptin,” Dr. Clegg said. “Since you’re not being told by the brain to stop eating, you overeat.”

Dr. Clegg said that in the animals, the effect lasts about three days, potentially explaining why many people who splurge on Friday or Saturday say they’re hungrier than normal on Monday.”

Click here to read the full article in the Science Daily.

Did you know Muranaka Farm recently recalled its parsley, and Premier Organics recalled over 800 cases of Tahini last week – both because of potential Salmonella contamination? No, me neither.

Just the process of picking out peanut butter has been known to drive me nuts. Try finding PB that’s natural, organic, low fat, low sodium – all the while still hoping the price is peanuts (locally grown, of course). Sometimes I long for the days of ignorant bliss when a kangaroo bouncing off the label was all I needed to stash a jar of Skippy in my pouch. Unfortunately, I now find myself worrying about additives, preservatives and pathogens invading my food products.

It’s bad enough I’ve had to learn a veritable lexicon of nutrition labels, I certainly don’t have time to scour the newswires in search of the latest food recalls. And, I definitely don’t have the patience (or good enough health insurance) to deal with a Salmonella outbreak in my tiny NY apartment. So how do I stay safe, and sane at the same time?

If you’d like to ensure you’re not unwittingly consuming contaminated food, stay up to date on the nation’s latest food recalls at FoodSafety.org – your one stop shop for food safety issues. There are also great tips on safe meat and dairy storage, fruit and veggie storage, and how to pack a safe school lunch. (Although the site recommends not re-use packaging, if you are sensible and thorough with your washing techniques there’s no need to be scared of cross-contamination). 

You can also sign up for their weekly newsletter, and get information on potential food-bourn outbreaks delivered to your inbox (virus-free).

In case you missed Michael Pollan’s article in the New York Times last week… “No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained, as a study released last month says, by our being fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet…”

Click here to read the full story.