Are you feeling opinionated on a range of food topics, notably diets? On the website Opposing Views, you have the opportunity to view experts' arguments for and against low-carb diets, caffeine use, biotech foods, and on becoming a vegetarian. Afterwards, you can post your own comments.
There are so many overbearingly opinionated blogs. What a relief to finally find a site where doctors and scientists debate over hot topics. And, rather than totally ignoring what everyone else has to say, it fosters continued discussion with comments. Also, the site provides news headlines dealing with the various questions.
From all the food-related issues that Opposing Views thoroughly covers, I found the topic on caffeine the most interesting. This is no doubt due to my over sensitivity to caffeinated products. Also, increasingly we hear stories in the news stating that coffee can reduce our risks of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and colon cancer. Just this past January, the media stated that doctors confirmed that while coffee helps fight type two diabetes, caffeine makes it worse. Such a contradictory study gives one an even stronger reason to check out this debate on Opposing Views.
Wow, the confusion when buying water! These days, when you enter a grocery store and look on the shelf, you can view about 10 different flavored waters, each promising to be the perfect antidote to a specific ailment. There's Vitaminwater, Propel Fitness Water, Function Drinks, Sobe Life Water, Snapple Antioxident water, 24c Vitamin enhanced water, and much more.
Yesterday, I read an article from New York magazine about the entrepreneurs that started Function Drinks. And, for a brief moment, I thought that perhaps all these drinks were not bogus. Dr. Alex Hughes, one of the founders of Function Drinks, uses different dietary supplements to concoct beverages that help with a hangover, reduce stress, fight colds, improve memory, and even sustain sexual health. But, at the same time Hughes admits, "At the end of the day, we are not a pharmaceutical company. We're not trying to live up to those standards."
What's with the trend? Personally, when it comes to drinking water, I stick to non-flavored H2O that's not loaded with sugar.
One of my favorite early Saturday Night Liveskits was featured John Belushi as an Olympic athlete. The scene opens with clips of Belushi doing a high jump and running around a track, then cuts to a shot of him at the breakfast table. Clutching a cigarette, Belushi looks into the camera with complete gravitas and tells about his secret to staying fit: "I downed a lot of donuts. Little chocolate donuts. They taste good and they've got the sugar I need to get me going in the morning."
The commercial played off the classic "Wheaties" ads, which featured Bruce Jenner. The prevailing wisdom in those days stated that top-class athletes had to eat extremely healthy foods, like whole grain cereal and skinless, boneless chicken. However, as I recently read about Michael Phelps' daily eating regimen, I was surprised to see that his diet is much closer to John Belushi's than to Richard Simmons. To begin with, the Olympian consumes approximately 12,000 calories a day, roughly six times the RDA for a man his age. Second, it is heavily skewed towards carbohydrates and fats, which most diets eschew. Given Phelps' amazing energy expenditure (in the average week, the guy swims five hours a day, six days a week!
At any rate, Phelps' average daily menu is after the jump...
You may have heard about the recent salmonella outbreak. Or possibly your brain is just generally buzzing about the sorry state of the food safety system here in the United States. I know I've been reading about those topics a lot recently, and I'm quite concerned.
I was happy to learn recently that there is a way to try to help the situation, as there are several members of Congress that are trying to improve the food situation. According to Seasonal Pantry, Representative Diana DeGette has introduced legislation that will improve the traceability of fresh produce. The bill is HR3485 and everyone who cares about food safety should be contacting their representative and asking them to support the bill.
In addition to letting your Congressman know that you want him or her to support HR3485, Seasonal Pantry also has started a petition. If this is something you're interested in, this may be a way for you to walk your talk.
Why are we so disgusted by the simple fact that all the drinking water on earth is recycled wastewater? Unfortunately, the natural recycling process, involving evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, does not deliver enough drinking water to the drier parts of the world. This Sunday, the New York Times Magazine had an article about Orange County's new facility where it's purifying 70 million gallons of recycled water a day.
Many people are skeptical and revolted by the idea that their drinking water is simply purified toilet water. But, if we were to analyze the general water infrastructure in the U.S., we'd realize that sewage enters all our waterways. The majority of us drink tap water that is disinfected at drinking-water plants far less sophisticated than the ones built in Orange County.
The water coming out of the Fountain Valley plant in Orange County is cleaner than many bottled waters, such as Poland Spring. However, to appease peoples' concerns about the water being unnatural and dirty, Fountain Valley puts the water back into nature (ponds, streams, lakes, etc.). Ironically, the water's purity dwindles when it goes back into the wild where it's exposed to bacteria, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural and industrial chemicals.
Should Fountain Valley care if people view their water recycling process as natural?
By August, I usually find myself exhausted by the constant oppressive summer heat. The sweltering heat drains all the energy out of my body and leaves me walking to work sluggishly. To combat this end-of-summer lethargy, I hydrate myself throughout the day by drinking water.
Drinking water is not the only way you can refuel your body during the summer. Many fruits and vegetables can help you meet 20 percent of your daily fluid needs. Also, doctors have proven that a diet rich in H20-loaded foods can prevent dehydration and foster a feeling of fullness without adding too many extra calories. Below are 8 fruits and vegetables that can help recharge your body:
Monsanto states in their announcement that they want to focus on their core business of seeds and traits. However, it is possible to speculate that this decision may have something to do with the current consumer backlash against bovine growth hormones. Though rBST seems to be more harmful to the cows than to humans, most people are still very concerned about artificial hormones in the milk they drink.
My question is, where is Monsanto going to find a buyer for Posilac? It's already banned in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, most of the EU, and Michigan. With mounting opposition to artificial growth hormones, my prediction is that Monsanto is going to have a hard time getting this product off their hands. What do you think will happen to Posilac?
According to recent reports and contrary to popular belief, French people can, and do, get fat. In fact, the French government is worried enough about the problem that they're considering raising taxes on food that are higher fat, sugar, and salt.
According to this report on MSNBC.com, the French government has been worried about obesity, especially childhood obesity, for a while now. Some campaigns they've tried in the past have been to encourage commuters to take the stairs instead of the escalator and to put prominent warnings on junk food packaging.
With a huge hole in the state health care budget to plug,though, some officials want to put higher taxes on unhealthy foods. The question that remains to be answered is, what constitutes "unhealthy"? Will the new taxes, up to 19.6% from 5.5%, apply only to processed junk food with high fat and sugar contents? Or will Frances traditional high fat cheeses and foie gras be included?
These questions are yet to be decided, but I personally cannot see the French government slapping high taxes on traditional foods for which the country is famous. How will it look when the French can't even afford their own cheese? Not only that, as Elastic Waistband points out, taxes don't dissuade that many people from doing, or eating, exactly what they want. Do you think the French government will put high taxes on its traditional foods?
I don't know if it's all the summer produce that just happens to be filling the markets or if there's been some allignment of the planets, but it's been a banner week for food writing on the Weblogs, Inc. network. Over in the world of finance, Walletpop offered a couple of useful posts, exploring the relative value of in-store brands, and highlighting a free cereal offer from Malt-o-meal. Meanwhile, sustainability site GreenDaily offered some great suggestions for enviromentally-conscious summer cocktails, and an exploration of Pizza Hut's new quasi-organic vegetable pizza.
Over at ParentDish, Bethany Sanders questioned the bona-fides of supposedly healthy kids' snacks and Jennifer Jordan pointed out that (surprise, surprise!) most fast-food kids' meals are unhealthy. Speaking of health, That's Fit explored the benefits of tea, almonds, alcohol, peaches, spices, cherries, and even cake! They also waxed rhapsodic about the values of salsa, salad and beans, and even offered some suggestions for the healthiest kids' cereals!
A new report shouldn't be the least bit surprising, but it is definitely sad.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has published a new study about the reality of kids' menus, which is jam-packed with fatty doom. They've found that 93% of the kid' options exceed the 430 calories (a third of the recommended daily calories for children from 4-8) at 13 big US chains like Taco Bell, KFC, and Burger King. And they're not talking about 10 or 20 calories over.
For example, a "Big Kids" meal with a double cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk at Burger King weighs in at 910 calories -- which is over half the calories a kid should take in for one day. Chilis has one that's over 1,000 calories. It's just a sea of fat to weigh down on the little ones. Also beware of those who refuse to release nutritional information like: Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Outback, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and IHOP.
But if you're looking for something better -- Subway led the pack with its refusal to give soft drinks with kids' meals and only a third of their meals exceed 430 calories.
When I was in high school, I had a love-hate relationship with science classes. Geology was fine, biology was okay, and chemistry...well, chemistry was hell. Mrs. Olech, the troll who taught the class, regularly flunked half her students and had a teaching manner that made Alan Greenspan seem bouncy and exciting.
Ironically, while I flunked chem, I aced my cooking classes. Even at the time, I thought that this was a little weird; after all, what is cooking if not a chemical process? The subtle adjustment of flavors, the cultivation of certain bacteria, the measured combination of leavening chemicals are all, basically, a mix of applied chemistry and biology. However, cooking class captured my imagination and attention in a way that chemistry didn't.
Reading a recent profile of Alton Brown, I realize that the problem lay with Mrs. Olech and her ilk. The simple fact is that science can be a lot of fun, if it is applied in a way that is relevant and exciting. I was surprised to learn that, like me, Brown found his science classes "boring beyond words." Even now, as he has built his own store of scientific knowledge, he admits to having discarded academic journals and scholarly papers because of their inability to engage his interest.
Over the past few years, as wine has undergone repeated studies, it has started to seem like the modern-day fountain of youth. According to its various supporters, it can fight off streptococcus bacteria, reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, and flush one's system with antioxidants. Still, all of these pale beside wine's greatest claim to fame: the so-called French paradox.
For years, scientists have wondered how the French, who have one of the most saturated-fat rich diets in the world, manage to have such a low incidence of heart disease. While they haven't been able to scientifically determine the mechanism at work, anecdotal evidence has suggested that France's impressive wine consumption might have something to do with the paradox. Recently, scientists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem have confirmed the link and have even determined part of its mechanism.
According to the researchers, when the body digests meat, particularly turkey and red meat, it produces two toxic chemicals, malondialdehyde and hydroperoxide. These compounds can cause cancer, inflammation, and heart disease. However, red wine contains polyphenols, a particular kind of antioxidant, that neutralizes the toxins and prevents their absorbtion into the bloodstream.
It makes sense that NYC would follow LA's desire to ban fast-food. Just this past March, a report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene revealed that in just two years obesity and diagnosed diabetes increased by 17 percent while the rest of the nation experienced just a six percent increase. An article from New York magazine reports that, according to the Sun, NYC Councilman Eric Gioia wants to impose a one-year ban on new fast-food restaurants. Considering the gravity of this health crisis, this desired measure hardly seems as puritanical as New York magazine describes.
The BBC explains that local policians in LA want to implement laws that would ban fast-food businesses from opening up in South LA where 32 percent of adults are overweight. In cities with high rates of obesity, these measures seem crucial. Personally, I think these bans would encourage businesses to offer affordable healthy food. At the same time, it would bring back the traditional ways of enjoying and cooking food.
When we learn about nutrition, we tend to focus on calories and vitamins. We're taught about which foods may prevent cancer and help our immune system. We normally concentrate on the physical effects of food on our body. It turns out however that foods have many more properties. According to a recent article from The Economist, foods also affect our cognition. They can enhance our mental health. Not only can certain foods improve our memory, but they can also prevent many of the negative effects of aging and even increase our lifespan.
Dr Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery and physiological science at the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted research on the way antioxidants and vitamins work with synapses in the brain. Based on his study, below are certain foods that can lead to a healthy brain:
Ah, the many ways to keep your teeth healthy: Brushing, flossing, and eating gummy bears. That's right. According to an article from this past Sunday's New York Post, a new study from researchers at the University of Washington reveals that the natural sweetener xylitol, which is used in Gummi Bears, may create healthy teeth.
Their suggested prescription? Eat four gummy bears three times a day for six weeks. This will result in a low count of streptococcus mutans, a contributor to tooth decay. But, do not forget to make sure that they are made with xylitol which is also used in chewing gum (Orbit chewing gum and Trident gum). Interestingly, in China, Japan, and South Korea there's a brand of gum named "Xylitol" which contains the magic ingredient that keeps your teeth healthy.
Just when I thought I'd take a break from eating junk food. Gee, are there any other candies that can prevent tooth decay?
Are you feeling opinionated on a range of food topics, notably diets? On the website Opposing Views, you have the opportunity to view experts' arguments for and against low-carb diets, caffeine use, biotech foods, and on becoming a vegetarian. Afterwards, you can post your own comments.
Wow, the confusion when buying water! These days, when you enter a grocery store and look on the shelf, you can view about 10 different .jpg)
One of my favorite early Saturday Night Live 
You may have heard about the recent salmonella outbreak. Or possibly your brain is just generally buzzing about the sorry state of the food safety system here in the United States. I know I've been reading about those topics a lot recently, and I'm quite concerned.
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I don't know if it's all the summer produce that just happens to be filling the markets or if there's been some allignment of the planets, but it's been a banner week for food writing on the Weblogs, Inc. network. Over in the world of finance, Walletpop offered a couple of useful posts, exploring the relative value of 
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When I was in high school, I had a love-hate relationship with science classes. Geology was fine, biology was okay, and chemistry...well, chemistry was hell. Mrs. Olech, the troll who taught the class, regularly flunked half her students and had a teaching manner that made Alan Greenspan seem bouncy and exciting. .jpg)
Over the past few years, as wine has undergone repeated studies, it has started to seem like the modern-day 
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
