FOOD SAFETY

July 30, 2008 at 4:03 pm (Health and wellness)

Protect Yourself From Food-Borne Illness 

(Part #1)

E. coli bacteria gets the headlines, but the CDC estimates that there are more than 250 food-borne diseases causing as many as 80 million cases of food poisoning each year.

Food-borne illness isn’t a seasonal problem, but many of our favorite summertime foods — and the ways we prepare them — serve up the perfect opportunity for the nearly 80 million cases of food poisoning that occur each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of these cases cause little more than some temporary abdominal cramps, mild diarrhea and/or vomiting, but some food-borne illnesses cause severe diarrhea, liver disease or neurologic complications, resulting in nearly 5,000 deaths each year.

Most cases of food poisoning result from ingesting Norwalk viruses or bacteria such as salmonella, Campylobacter jejuni or E. coli. (There are hundreds of strains of E. coli: Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli causes the most cases of traveler’s diarrhea, and E. coli 0157:H7 was responsible for a rash of deaths in 1993 among children who ate hamburgers at a fast-food chain.)

The classic examples of summertime food poisoning caused by bacteria result from time and temperature abuse — the undercooked burger taken off the barbecue too early, or the potato salad that’s been left in the sun too long. Bacteria aren’t the only problem. Other food-borne illnesses are caused by bacteria and viruses that are passed on unwashed hands.

(Part #2 and conclusion to follow)

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RECIPE

July 30, 2008 at 12:12 pm (Uncategorized)

Upgraded Salsa = Upgraded Dinner

Six new uses for this refreshing Mexican staple


Ann Stratton
 

Specialty salsas can make a boring meal brilliant. Try these surefire combinations.

  • Use a tropical-fruit salsa to top roasted poultry or grilled meaty fish (like salmon and swordfish). Grilled pork, mahimahi, and tuna demand pineapple or mango salsa.
  • Serve roasted-pepper salsa alongside trout, red snapper, seared chicken breasts, or grilled steak.
  • Serve garlic salsa on top of baguette slices for a south western twist on bruschetta.
  • Use fire-roasted tomato salsa as a marinade for steak or on top of baked potatoes, baked goat cheese rounds, or turkey or grilled cheese sandwiches.
  • Mix tomatillo salsa into crab cakes, or drizzle it over avocado and orange slices.
  • Stir corn-and-black-bean salsa into crab or chicken salad or summer soups.
    Tip: For instant guacamole, mix 2 tablespoons of your favorite salsa into 1 mashed avocado.
    •  
    Written by Melissa Clark

    June/July 2004

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    WHAT;S EATING YOU?

    July 29, 2008 at 11:08 pm (Food and drink)

    What’s In That? How Food Affects Your Behavior
     
    behavior, food additives, food color, food dyes, aspartame, MSG, glutamate, monosodium glutamate, caseine, alzheimer’s, parkinson’s disease, sugar, artificial sweeteners, AuxiGroFood additives and poor diet could help explain poor school performance, criminal behavior, alcoholism, and the growing numbers of Alzheimer’s patients.
     
    According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, high sugar content and starchy carbohydrates lead to excessive insulin release, which in turn leads to falling blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia causes the brain to secrete glutamate in levels that can cause agitation, depression, anger, anxiety, panic attacks and an increase in suicide risk.
     
    The glutamate that causes this is identical to the flavor-enhancing monosodium glutamate (MSG) and its chemical cousins, which are found in thousands of food products, further exacerbating the problem.
     
    Repeated hypoglycemic episodes increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s). In children, hypoglycemia often leads to hyperactivity. In both children and adults, it can cause violent and aggressive behavior. In older people, there can be mental confusion.
    An anti-hypoglycemic diet would consist of lean meat and lots of fresh vegetables. Another key is limiting sugars and starches.

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    TEA TIME

    July 29, 2008 at 7:35 pm (Food and drink)

    How Tea Can Keep Your Mind Young
    A four-year study has found that tea slows down brain-cell degeneration, and thereby keeps your mind sharp into old age.

    Catechins, a natural compound in tea, protect brain cells from damaging protein build-up over the years, maintaining your brain’s cognitive capability.

    In addition, the caffeine in tea, unlike that in coffee, contains the natural protein theanine, which counters the normal side effects of caffeine such as raised blood pressure, headaches and tiredness.

    Researchers studied the tea-drinking habits of over 2,500 Chinese aged 55 and older and gave them memory tests.

    While two-thirds of the tea-drinkers maintained their memory test scores two years later, 35 percent of non-tea-drinkers had a decline in their memory test scores, which indicates cognitive decline.

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    PRODUCE

    July 28, 2008 at 11:39 pm (Food and drink)

    Fruits and Vegetables on a Budget

    Cutting the Cost of Heart-Healthy Produce

    By Debra Manzella, R.N., About.com

    Updated: November 12, 2007

    About.com Health’s Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

    photo by Margan Zajdowicz

    According to a 2007 article in DOC News, a publication of the ADA, increasing your intake of fruits and vegetables lowers your risk of stroke. Eating 3 to 5 cups a day has long been recommended by the USDA’s My Pyramid Program to reduce the risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, and development of type 2 diabetes. The health benefits are well documented, and so you may not need to be sold on why you should eat more produce. But the reality is, getting a variety of fruits and vegetables into your diet can sometimes be expensive.

    It’s a good thing there are ways to add more produce into your diet without breaking the bank:

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    CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE ARTCILE

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    SOME GOOD FOODS FOR CHILDREN

    July 27, 2008 at 8:29 pm (Food and drink)

     Child Nutrition Basics

    By Vincent Iannelli, M.D., About.com

    About.com Health’s Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD

    Although you don’t want to get in the habit of forcing your kids to eat foods they don’t like or make them "clean" their plates, there are lots of healthy foods kids like. Parents often overlook these healthy foods and go straight to what they think are more "kid-friendly foods," such as hot dogs, pizza, french fries, chicken nuggets, juice and soda.

    Your kids would be much better off learning to avoid those types of high-calorie, high-fat foods with foods that are high in fiber, low in fat and have calcium, iron and other vitamins and minerals, including these healthful foods that most kids love:

    Milk

    Photo by Digital Vision/Getty Images

    It often seems like toddlers and preschoolers just can’t get enough milk, but as they get older, many kids start to drink less and less milk. This probably isn’t because they develop a distaste for milk, but rather because so many other drinks, including soda, fruit drinks and too much fruit juice, become available at home.

    Milk is a good source of calcium, vitamin D and protein for kids and should be a part of every child’s diet — unless they have a milk allergy. In fact, depending on their age, most kids should drink between 2 to 4 glasses of milk (low-fat milk if they are at least 2 years old) each day, especially if they aren’t eating or drinking any other high-calcium foods.

    Apples

       Photo by John Cowpland/Getty Images

    Like most fruits, apples are are a great snack food. They are juicy, sweet (although some varieties are tart), have vitamin C, are low in calories (about 90 calories for a medium apple) and have about 5g of fiber for an unpeeled whole apple.

    Unfortunately, apples are one of those healthful foods that can get turned into a "kid-friendly food" and lose a lot of their nutritional benefits.

    Instead of giving their kids an unpeeled whole apple or a cut up whole apple, parents often give kids peeled apples, applesauce or apple juice as alternatives. Peeling the apple makes it lose about half of its fiber, and applesauce is also much lower in fiber than a whole apple and has more sugar and calories.

    Yogurt
     
    Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    Yogurt is a healthful food for kids, especially for kids who don’t drink a lot of milk, as yogurt is a good source of calcium.

    You make think that your kids are doing well with this one, because they already eat yogurt, but if all they eat is a kids’ brand of yogurt with extra sugar and no added probiotics, then they may be missing out on some of the nutritional benefits of yogurt.

    When choosing a yogurt for your kids, look for one with "live active cultures" that is low-fat and without a lot of added sugar. You may also look for one with added probiotics, although not all studies agree that they are helpful.

     
    Breakfast Cereal
     
    Photo by Rebecca Ellis

    No, a bowl full of a sugary cereal is not a healthy breakfast, but many other breakfast cereals can be a healthy part of your child’s diet.

    When choosing a breakfast cereal for your kids, try to look for one you can’t simply eat out of the box like candy. Good choices include whole grain cereal that is calcium fortified and has added fiber. Depending on the rest of your child’s diet, you may also look for a breakfast cereal that provides extra iron and other minerals and vitamins.

    In general, some healthful breakfast cereals that many kids like include Cheerios, Multi Grain Cheerios, Shredded Wheat, Wheaties and Total Raisin Bran. Add a chopped banana or strawberry to the bowl, and your kids will like it even more.

    Eggs

    Photo by Stockbyte/Getty Images

    So eggs are healthy again? For a while, eggs did get a bad wrap as causing high cholesterol, but most nutrition experts now agree that eggs can be a healthy part of your diet.

    Eggs are a good source of protein and contain some iron and many other vitamins and minerals.

    What about cholesterol? Eggs do contain cholesterol, but they do not contain a lot of saturated fat, which is the more important factor in raising a person’s cholesterol level. Still, an egg every other day is fine for most kids.

    Vegetables

    Photo by Joe Gough

    Of course, vegetables are going to be on the list of the best foods for kids, but that doesn’t mean tricking your kids into eating them or trying to force your kids to eat brussels sprouts, broccoli and spinach.

    There are plenty of vegetables that kids do like, such as cooked carrots, corn, peas and baked potatoes. Cooked carrots can be an especially healthful choice as they are high in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium.

    Remember to introduce your kids to a variety of vegetables at an early age, offer lots of choices, set a good example by eating vegetables as a family and continue to offer very small servings of vegetables, even when your kids don’t eat them. If you keep offering them, they eventually eat them.

    Oatmeal

    Photo by Marcy Maloy/Getty Images

    As much as infants enjoy oatmeal cereal, it is a little surprising that they grow up on white bread and other refined grains and don’t often eat oatmeal and more whole grains.

    You can combat that trend by serving your kids oatmeal, which many kids love, and more oatmeal foods and snacks (oatmeal cookies, oatmeal bars, etc.).

    Oatmeal is a high fiber food that is good for your kids, just like most other whole grain foods.

    Sunflower Seeds

    Photo by Juan Monino

    Although eating sunflower seeds may seem like a bad habit of kids on little league baseball teams, they are actually a healthful food that all kids can enjoy — as long as they don’t throw the shells on the floor and are old enough so that the seeds aren’t a choking hazard.

    Sunflower seeds are high in fiber and are a good source of iron. They also have a lot of vitamin E, magnesium, phosphorous, zinc and folic acid.

    Although high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, those are the "good" fats. Sunflower seeds are low in saturated or "bad" fats.

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    MAN-MADE HUNGER

    July 26, 2008 at 2:06 pm (News and politics)

    How the Government is Causing the Global Food Crisis

    Thirty countries have already experienced food riots this year. Tens of millions of people are being pushed into abject poverty and starvation. And to a large degree, this crisis is man-made — the result of misguided energy and farm policies.

    Perhaps the most wrongheaded policies are the tangle of subsidies, mandates and tariffs that encourage the production of biofuels from crops in the United States and the European Union. According to the World Bank, almost all of the growth in global corn production from 2004 to 2007 was devoted to American ethanol production. This increased corn and animal feed prices, and prompted farmers to switch from other crops to corn.

    Long-standing farm subsidies in the industrialized world have also contributed, ruining farmers in poor countries and depressing agricultural investment.

    But the industrialized nations are not the only culprit. At least 30 developing countries have imposed restrictions or bans on the export of foodstuffs, taking more food from global markets, reducing farmers’ profits, and discouraging them from investing in more production.

    So far there is no sign that world leaders are ready to do what is needed. The United States and Europe have refused to curtail their bio-fuel subsidies or their lavish farm subsidies. They are also falling far short of their aid commitments to the developing world.

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    Drink Up

    July 24, 2008 at 11:37 pm (Health and wellness)

    Green Tea Protects Against Heart Disease
    A few cups of green tea each day may help prevent heart disease, Greek researchers found. Green tea improves both blood flow and the ability of arteries to relax.

    When volunteers were given green tea, they experienced almost immediate benefits.

    Other studies have shown that black tea also has benefits for cardiovascular health. However, green tea might be even better because it had higher quantities of beneficial compounds called flavonoids, some of which are lost in the oxidation process that black tea undergoes.

    Flavonoids are also found in cocoa, tomatoes and grapes.

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    YOUR BRAIN ON TOFU

    July 24, 2008 at 11:19 pm (Health and wellness)

    Why Tofu Wrecks Your Brain

    Eating high levels of some soy products, such as tofu, could raise the risk of memory loss.

    A study that examined more than 700 elderly Indonesians found that high tofu consumption (at least once a day) was associated with worse memory, particularly among those over age 68.

    Soy contains phytoestrogens, which may heighten the risk of dementia.

    However, tempeh, a fermented soy product made from the whole soy bean, has been associated with better memory. This could be related to the fact that it contains high levels of the vitamin folate, which is known to reduce dementia risk.

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    GO ORGANIC

    July 23, 2008 at 12:20 am (Health and wellness)

    Save Money Going Organic

    With soaring food prices, how you can spend less to feed your family? Organic produce is healthier, but it can also be expensive.

    That’s why we created our Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. It tells you which produce has the lowest pesticide concentration (so conventional’s okay), and which fruits and veggies have higher amounts of pesticides (go organic).

    Get the guide today and save money.

    Source:   http://www.ewg.org/

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