Vitamin A Vision Soup

Ingredients:

• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1/2 large butternut squash
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 Tbs garlic, minded
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 6 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 Tbs reduced-fat sour cream
• Cilantro to garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Split butternut squash in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds and roast squash, face up for one hour or until tender. Remove skin, cube squash. Reserve half of squash for later use.
2. Cover soup pot bottom with olive oil cooking spray. Sweat onions and garlic over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add carrots and cook for another 5 minutes or until carrots are tender.
3. Add 1/2 of roasted squash (about 3 cups cubed) and chicken or vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Puree with immersion blender.
4. Portion and garnish with a dollop of sour cream and cilantro sprig.

Nutrition Information:

Makes 4 two-cup servings, per serving:

• 114 calories
• 7 g fiber
• 2 g protein
• 547% DV for Vitamin A (8,203 mcg)

These findings are surprising because they indicate that it’s the amount of breads and rolls we eat – and not necessarily the sodium content per serving – that is pushing US salt intake over recommended intake levels.

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend we eat no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. People aged 51 and over, African Americans and those with hypertension, diabetes or chronic disease should limit salt intake even further, to 1,500 mg of sodium per day.

It is estimated that 90% of Americans eat more salt than they should each day and the CDC report finds that just 10 foods are responsible for 44% of the sodium intake in the US. Breads and rolls make up 7% of the salt we eat.

The top ten contributors of salt in our diet are:

• Breads & rolls
• Cold cuts & cured meats
• Pizza
• Poultry
• Soups
• Sandwiches
• Cheese
• Pasta dishes
• Meat dishes
• Snacks

Cutting back on breads and rolls – especially those made from refined wheat flours (i.e. white flour with brown food coloring and a few micronutrients thrown back in) can not only help reduce calories and promote weight loss, but we now know they may also be a vital link in lowering our excessive sodium intake levels too.

Watch out for 100% whole wheat bread though – while it might be better for you from a whole grain and fiber standpoint, sodium can rack up here too. Look for 100% whole wheat breads that are lower in sodium, keeping in mind that salt is an essential component of the bread-baking process.

Full details of the inclusion criteria can be found here, but single ingredient foods that qualify meet these standards:

• Whole fruits and vegetables and 100% juices, or
• Unflavored, low-fat or nonfat fluid milk or yogurt, or
• Protein foods meeting the USDA’s definition of lean, and
• Fats, oils, nuts, seeds and spreads with < 15% calories from saturated fat

Combination foods can include:

• Grain food that is 50% or more whole grain with 3 g fiber or 8 g whole grain, or
• Low-fat or nonfat dairy product, or
• Protein foods meeting the USDA’s definition of lean, or
• Mixed dishes with 2 or more servings of vegetable, fruit, whole grain, lean meat or lowfat dairy, and
• Total fat < 35% calories, no trans fat, <10% calories from saturated fat
• Less than 380 mg sodium
• No more than 25% calories from added sugars

Right now the list of foods with the seal is limited to Walmart’s Great Value and Marketside product lines; but look for more foods clamoring to bear this grocery behemoth’s blessing in the near future.

Enter Granoro brand’s Tagliatelle Verdi. Probably without even trying to, this authentic Italian brand pasta is automatically portion controlled.

Each individual ball is 1 oz or roughly 100 calories, making it easy to measure your pasta carbs and calories without digging around for the food scale. Just drop a ball (or two) into boiling water, cook and enjoy – no wistfully hoping you’re just eating 1 or 2 ounces, with this product you know for sure!

The fiber content isn’t great at 1 gram per 100 calorie serving, but the 11 grams of protein from higher protein semolina flour steps in to help keep you full.

Granoro’s products aren’t the easiest to find in the US; most sites that carry it are based overseas. But check out your local Italian and ethnic grocery stores for Granoro’s line of pasta and olive oils. Surprisingly, I discovered this Italian product at a Middle Eastern grocery store in San Diego.

So here’s to hoping that more domestically-available pasta companies will pick up on the pre-portioned pasta idea…maybe finally turning the tide on the dismal state of other 100 calorie pre-portioned options available here at home.

The layout is similar to other food tracking apps and is relatively simple to use, provided you’re only looking for Kellogg’s products. The product’s database is limited, as understandably Kellogg’s wouldn’t want to acknowledge you eating Fiber One, Kashi or other non-Kellogg’s packaged fiber containing foods.

If you’re looking for a more robust nutrition tracker with a seriously tricked out food database, check out the free or $3.99 pro version of the MyNetDiary app, click for iphone or Android. This app tracks food intake, activity and a whole host of nutrients, including dietary fiber…but it’s for all foods, even those that aren’t Kellogg’s.

In his proposed class-action lawsuit, the plaintiff maintains that he was duped into paying up to $0.10 more per ounce for a bag of the Natural chips.

The lawsuit is unlikely to have legs, as the word “natural” in food manufacturing translates literally to “nothing”. Natural is not a legally definable term, with the exception of meat, which, according to the USDA can only be labeled natural if it contains no artificial ingredients or added color and is only minimally processed.

The real beef behind the corn chips claim is and should be that the ingredients in Frito-Lay’s products are genetically modified. Which is not surprising, considering most corn in the US is genetically modified.

Many Americans are surprised to learn that they regularly consume genetically modified ingredients. If you have eaten a packaged, processed or fast food today – and unless you maintain a 100% organic foods diet -  you have certainly ingested GMOs.

The majority of all soybean, corn and cotton crops planted in the US are now genetically modified. According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, in 2011:

• 94% of US planted soybean is now genetically modified – ending up in your food supply as soybean oil
• 73-75% of US planted cotton is now genetically modified – ending up in your food supply as cottonseed oil
• 65-72% of US planted corn is now genetically modified – ending up in your food supply as high fructose corn syrup, animal feed for beef and corn oil

Theoretically, it is not far-fetched to claim genetically modified organisms are not natural. But with the very marked and rapid takeover of GM crops in the US, GMOs are unfortunately our new normal.

But KIND Healthy Grains puts a new spin on an old favorite. Instead of just doctoring up plain old oatmeal, these hearty clusters feature a variety of whole grains: the Maple Walnut Clusters have added chia and quinoa and Cinnamon Oat and Vanilla Blueberry flavors have flaxseed.

The Oat and Honey Clusters with Toasted Coconut that I sampled – thanks to product sent by KIND – contained a laundry list of hearty grains: brown rice, millet, buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa, with some chicory root further down the ingredient list for additional fiber. The texture was crisp and the flavors pleasing, without being overly sweet.

Even more impressive than the flavor is the nutritional makeup: all that flavor for so little added salt and sugar! A 1/3 cup serving provides:

• 130 calories
• 4 g fat
• 20 mg sodium
• 3 g fiber
• 6 g sugar
• 3 g protein

Healthy Grains come in six flavors and can be eaten as a cereal or as a a finger food snack. These Healthy Grains are a great addition to the high fiber snack world, and the “It’s About Time!” product the granola world has been waiting for!

The article – which doesn’t beat around the bush with its austere title, “A High-Fiber Diet Does Not Protect Against Asymptomatic Diverticulosis” looked at 2,104 individuals and found that a high fiber diet does not necessarily reduce the prevalence of diverticulosis.

Diverticula are the outpoutchings in the wall of the large intestine. While the presence of diverticula – called diverticulosis – doesn’t necessarily mean pain or progression to diverticulitis, about 10-25% of those with diverticulosis will eventually develop diverticulitis, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases.

This particular study, conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, found that, despite previously accepted theories:

• Those with the lowest intakes of fiber were 30% less likely to develop diverticula than were the high fiber eaters
• High rates of constipation were not associated with greater diverticula risk
• A high fat diet and sedentary lifestyle do not increase diverticula risk

The authors go on to conclude that having more bowel movements is actually associated with more diverticulosis.

Without offering a plausible explanation behind the findings, the researchers summarize their findings with a thought provoking recommendation: maybe it’s time the food police reconsider previous dietary hypotheses regarding asymptomatic diverticulosis.

The review article, entitled “Evaluation of the evidence between consumption of refined grains and health outcomes” looked at 135 articles published on the topic from 2000-2010.

The author, Peter G Williams of the University of Wollongong (Australia) found that consuming half of grains from refined grains – provided the refined grains did not have added fat, sugar or sodium – did not increase risk of developing heart disease, diabetes or promoting weight gain.

Although there was no established link between high refined grain consumption and disease development, the author still warns that it’s not a reason to eat less whole grains, saying, “Nonetheless, eating more whole-grain foods remains an important health recommendation…most consumers will need to reduce their current consumption of refined grains to no more than one-third to one-half of all grains in order to meet the targets for whole-grain foods.”

The sticking point is the study looked at refined grains WITHOUT added fat, sugar or sodium. This excludes sugared cereals, fatty fries and salted snacks: the very refined grains that account for so many excess carb calories in the American diet, once again proving the point that when it comes to carbs, you’re safer to say, “If it’s white – walk away!”

• 72% of dietitians surveyed said consumers will want more organic, sustainable, fresh and minimally processed – read: higher fiber – foods in 2012
• 94% of the dietitians said the New Year will bring a push for increased fruits & vegetable consumption
• 69% of RDs in the sample said they will use MyPlate to counsel patients and clients in the Near Year

Making New Year’s resolutions? Here’s how you can bump up your fiber intake while simultaneously shedding some of that Holiday poundage:

• Aim for 3 pieces of fruit per day – use them as between meal snacks
• Analyze your plate – emphasize the role of fruits and vegetables, filling half your plate with colorful produce
• If it’s white: walk away – cut back on calorie laden white carbs and fill yourself up with high fiber alternatives such as legumes and whole grains

To find a dietitian in your area to help maximize your nutrition success in the New Year – check out the American Dietetic Association’s “RD Finder” tool at http://www.eatright.org/programs/rdfinder/.

In addition to providing sweetness in baked goods, sugar also acts as a tenderizer, a moisturizer and provides the nicely browned product we associate with visually appealing baked goods. I was interested to see how Fibrelle – a combination of Splenda, Acesulfame-K and a number of isolated fibers – would stand up to good old fashioned white sugar.

I tested Fibrelle as a 1:1 replacement for granulated white sugar in the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe – a good starting point as the recipe calls for both 3/4 cup white sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar. I replaced the white sugar with Fibrelle, retaining the brown sugar. My yield produced 36 decent-sized cookies, as opposed to Nestle’s 60 mini-cookie output projections.

With Fibrelle in place of the white sugar, the calories were reduced by 40 calories per cookie and the fiber went up from 0 to 2.3 grams of fiber per cookie. As far as taste goes, I tested the raw batter – come on…who doesn’t – and noticed a slightly metallic taste; however, that disappeared in the final product.

I was pleasantly surprised with the texture and sweetness of the finished product. Fibrelle did play some visual and textural tricks on my cookies: the coloring of the cookie was uneven, with alternating and unusual white and brown spots (baked using convection bake setting). And, despite fully cooling the cookies before storing, when stacked, the baked cookies disintegrated into a big cookie blob, losing their individual texture, but still tasting great if you don’t mind how they look.

To rectify these problems, one might consider freezing individual Fibrelle cookie dough balls – which would help the cookie retain its texture, and also help promote portion control. Additionally, making the dough into bars as opposed to cookies, freezing and then cutting would help avoid the disintegration problem.

All in all, Fibrelle was a unique product to experiment with. I can’t say I’ll start using it in place of sugar in baking, and cookies are of course not the place to be getting most of your fiber. But, when compared to Splenda No Calorie Granulated Sweetener, the added fiber component of Fibrelle – which Splenda only offers in their fiber packet form – is a nice addition.

Despite the name “Veggie” – these snacks are nothing more nutritious than your average potato chip:

• They’re not low in fat – 7 grams of fat per 130 calorie serving
• They’re not low in sodium – about 300 mg sodium per serving
• And they certainly aren’t a good source of fiber – 1 gram per serving

So how can something that is ostensibly a “vegetable” be totally devoid of dietary fiber? Well, the problem lies in the fact that these products are pretty far removed from what was once ever considered a vegetable.

The Ingredient List reads like this: Potato flakes, rice flour, potato starch, yellow corn meal…not much vegetable in these vegetable sticks.

If you want to eat vegetables: eat vegetables. If you’re looking for a salty, fatty potato starch stick – eat them as God intended: as French Fries!

I first read about Peeled Snacks in an Inc. Magazine article blurb entitled “The Small Joys of Family Business”. The next day, I saw them at a Starbuck’s in Hoboken, NJ; and later that same day, there they were at Whole Foods in Manhattan.

As a dietitian with a focus – and a blog – on dietary fiber,  I can say it is a rare to find a laudable iteration of fruit – and in particular – one that retains all of the benefits of fresh fruit; but Peeled Snacks has certainly done it.

I sampled the “Apple-2-the-core” dried apple slices. Ingredients: organic apples. Not bad. Add in the fact that an individual serving has 110 calories and 3 grams of dietary fiber, with no added sugar or fat, and you have pretty much the only nutritional duplicate of an actual apple, which technically, these are…

Now, these snacks are certainly pricier than an actual apple (maybe not in New York though?) – but they are a close substitute. No chemical preservative aftertaste and not overly chewy, these are a great go-to alternative to fresh fruit that will keep you full for less fat and calories than your typical dried fruit snack.

Peeled Snacks offer organic, all natural, gluten-free GMO-free dried fruit and nut snacks that come in 7 fruit and 3 fruit mix flavors.

Interesting fact from the Peeled Snacks FAQ page: most of the Peeled Snacks are not technically raw foods because they are heated to 125 degrees F, slightly above the 118 degrees F requirement to be considered a raw food…a small price to pay – I’d say – for hard to come by packaged fruit goodness.

Previously, added plant sterols in our food supply were limited to margarines, butter spreads and salad dressings – a useful way to get the health producing properties for sure, but often with the costly addition of added fat grams and calories.

Now, a line of packaged snack foods from Corazonas offers a more enticing way to get your plant sterols. Corazonas makes plant sterol containing potato chips, tortilla chips and oatmeal squares.

I sampled the Black Bean and Cheese tortilla chips – compliments of samples provided by Corazonas. The chips were tangy and tasty, with the 140 calories and 7 grams of fat you would expect from a one ounce (14 chip) tortilla chip serving. What sets these chips apart however, are the 3 grams of dietary fiber (from whole grain corn flour and acacia gum) and 0.4 g of plant sterols per serving.

Regarding plant sterol package labeling, the FDA allows for the health claim, “Foods containing at least 0.65 gram per of vegetable oil sterol esters, eaten twice a day with meals for a daily total intake of least 1.3 grams, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.”

While these chips and similar products certainly don’t take the place of other heart-healthy components of a well-balanced diet, they do represent a unique approach to adding more plant sterols in your diet. If you’re going to eat chips, they might as well be doing something for you!

And, as Corazonas puts it – loud and proud on the front of their packages – plant sterols certainly are, “Proven to help lower cholesterol”. Check out Corazonas’ online store finder to learn where you can buy these snacks in your area, or purchase directly from their online store.

Quorn claims that its product is mushroom, or fungi, derived. Quorn’s website states that the product’s mycoprotein, “comes from Fusarium venenatum, which was originally discovered growing in a field in Buckinghamshire, England.”

The principal ingredient in all Quorn products is mycoprotein (“myco” is Greek for “fungi”). The mycoprotein comes from Fusarium venenatum, which was originally discovered growing in a field in Buckinghamshire, England. The product touts its low-fat and high-protein benefits.

In the US, the Center for Science in the Public Interest – a Washington, D.C.-based nutrition think tank and pressure group has led the charge opposing the product. CSPI says Quorn is a vat-grown fungus that promotes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and other allergenic responses.

CSPI logged its first complaint against Quorn in 2002. CSPI maintains the Quorn adverse event reporting website www.quorncomplaints.com. Recently, CSPI has been back in the news with another letter to the FDA, urging it to revoke Quorn’s Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status in the US.

Quorn’s products do contain some fiber – usually about 2-3 grams per serving, in its items meat-alternative like Naked Chik’n Cutlet and Classic Quorn Burgers. But it’s not the fiber – rather the protein – that has been shown to be allergenic in some individuals.

Will Quorn get its GRAS status revoked? Despite the historically high profile nature of CSPI’s previous media pushes (see: CSPI sues Denny’s on behalf of customer who didn’t know the food was laden with salt), it probably won’t affect that many Americans. In most US markets, Quorn can only be had for a pretty penny at Whole Foods.

However, Quorn trivia buffs in the UK might recall the British McDonald’s vegetarian Quorn Burger that was available for a limited time at the outlet from 2003-2005.

While the importance of early detection of cardiovascular disease – the number one killer of Americans – cannot be understated, these recommendations do not come without controversy. Some raise concern that the majority of the experts on the expert panel are closely aligned with drug companies, who of course stand to benefit with an increasing pool of people needing their products.

This is not the first time a body has recommended early cholesterol screening, although it is by far the earliest age at which screening has been proposed. Previously, in 2007, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended “Screening for Lipid Disorders” commence at age 20.

What does this mean from a dietary standpoint? It is well-established that a diet high in fiber – and in particular, soluble fiber – helps to lower blood cholesterol levels and associated cardiovascular disease risk. Soluble fiber is found in most fiber-containing foods, and in particular, oat bran, nuts, beans, seeds, barley, peas and certain fruits and vegetables.

Bottom line? Increasing your fiber from naturally-occurring sources – no matter your age – can only help your health!

It’s happening again: you’re just trying to watch a football game, and the commercial comes on. You know the one, for Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “Famous Bowls” – now in Cheesy Bacon Bowl flavor and brought to you by the bothersome “We put bacon on it” guy.

Even if you know nothing about nutrition, this can’t be good for you: mashed potatoes layered with gravy and fried chicken, smothered in cheese, ladled with bacon – and then for good measure, sprinkled with corn. Corn?

It would be nice to know exactly how bad this is for you – but due to KFC’s cherry-picking items they decide to post nutrition info about – this information is not readily available.

The one bowl which KFC does divulge its disturbing stats for is the “KFC Famous Bowls® – Mashed Potato with Gravy”, clocking in at 680 calories (41% of which are from fat), 31 grams of fat and 2130 mg of sodium (aka 93% of your daily sodium allotment).

As every cloud does have a silver lining, in this case it would be fiber: the KFC Mashed Potato with Gravy Bowl does have 6 grams of fiber, making it far and away the highest fiber option on the KFC menu. Due in part, of course, to the fact that it’s the only thing there with any vegetables in it. (That aren’t of the deep fried potato variety that is.)

To learn more about pretending that fast food is good for you, visit KFC’s parent company Yum Brand’s “Keep it Balanced” website, where you can learn all about incorporating fried chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, A&W and WingStreet into your balanced lifestyle.

But how do you incorporate the Mediterranean principles into your Western lifestyle? A new book has set out to help you do just that: The Mediterranean Diet for Dummies Cookbook by Registered Dietitians Wendy Jo Peterson and Meri Rafetto has just been published – and it’s a one stop shop for all of your Mediterranean diet needs!

Filled with tons of helpful tidbits on incorporating more plants and healthy fats, this book has it all: from the latest evidence-based knowledge about the health benefits, to useful recipes and cooking tips.

Here’s a delicious recipe from the book, incorporating the high fiber fava bean (10 grams of fiber per cup!):

Fava Beans in Tomato Sauce
by Wendy Jo Peterson, MS, RD, CSSD

• Sautee one cup chop onion and garlic in a skillet
• Add one 14.5 oz can of rinsed and drained fava beans and one 14.5 oz can no added salt stewed tomatoes
• Add 2 Tbs fresh chopped parsley
• Simmer for 5 minutes or until tomato liquid evaporates
• Sprinkle with feta cheese & enjoy!

To learn more about the Mediterranean Diet, check out the Cheat Sheet created by the authors and click here.

Drought has effectively diminished the pecan harvest from the biggest US pecan-picking producing states: Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Production may be diminishing, but prices are on the rise. According to Jeff Worn, vice president of South Georgia Pecan Co – annual producers of 40-50 million pounds pecans out of Valdosta, GA – retail prices of pecans rose from $7 in 2008, to $9 in 2010 and are anticipated to round out at $11 per pound this year.

It’s not just the US that suffers when pecan prices rise. China now purchases about 20% of the US pecan production. Pecans are particularly valued during the two-week Chinese New Year festival in January-February.

On top of being economically valuable right now, pecans also pack quite a nutritional profile: one ounce of pecans (about 15 pieces) contains 200 calories, 3 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber. Like all plant based oils, they are also a good source of vitamin E.

But watch your portion sizes – those 15 pieces do yield 20 grams of fat. Look for unsalted varieties and consider adding pecans to your salads and casseroles, or just incorporating as a satiating – but expensive – snack.

At the heart of the complaint was that these snack products, who often advertise “35% of daily fiber needs per bar” should have to disclose that the fiber is derived from inulin, as opposed to naturally occurring dietary sources of fiber.

The judge concluded that fiber food manufacturers are protected under federal law from not having to disclose that the fiber contained in their products comes from inulin and are not required to differentiate between functional and intact fibers.

While it doesn’t appear that inulin is indeed harmful – although it may cause GI disruption when consumed in high amounts – it does remain to be seen whether the health benefits of inulin and other functional fibers mirror those of naturally occurring, or intact fibers.

Great fake movie trailer and associated content from Fiber One: “Cheech and Chong’s Magic Brownie Adventure”.

These two loveable washed up stoners are back at it in the brilliant take, acknowledging, “Now that you’re getting older, you need a new kind of magic in your brownie.”

Complete with a trip to Burning Pole and an homage to Magic Hippies, here’s a fresh look at fiber from some old fiends.

Check out more of the trailer and accompanying extras at www.magicbrownieadventure.com.

The IOM recommended that the FDA retain the original side or back of package labeling in its current “Nutrition Facts Panel” format – but that the FOP labeling in the future include a 0-3 star or checkpoint system based on the food’s calories, saturated fat, trans fat, added sugars and sodium content. Unfortunately, no fiber.

Will it work? Non-industry FOP guidelines are certainly a good idea, especially given the free reign with which manufacturers have had to utterly confuse consumers using their own company and organization specific check marks and labeling systems.

The implementation of FOP rules however, will continue to involve a messy showdown between industry and government. The problem at stake, as noted Food Politics guru Marion Nestle astutely points out, “FOP guidelines are a tool for selling, not buying.”

At the most basic level, consumers need info about what’s in their food – but determining who dictates that info and how it is delivered is a much more complicated matter.

The USDA – the government agency that runs the National School Lunch Program – recently proposed limiting “starchy vegetables” to no more than one cup per week. The intent is to increase the variety of and exposure to other vegetables in kids’ lunch, and based on the reality that many potato products are highly processed, fried in fat or contain too much salt.

So, why all of a sudden the push to limit the potato? Not surprisingly, one USDA study found that 75% of the vegetables in kids’ school lunches are of the starchy variety. But will taking away french fries and tater tots dramatically increase broccoli and spinach intake?

One group that thinks not is the National Potato Council, whose advocacy website on this very topic, www.potatoesinschools.com points out that potatoes are high in vitamin C, potassium, and when baked, grilled or broiled, can be a very nutritious addition to a well-balanced school lunch.

It does look like potatoes have gotten a bit of a reprieve, as this week the Senate moved to block the USDA’s proposal to adopt the 1 cup starchy vegetable limit beginning in 2012. The Senate amendment seeks to prevent, “any maximum limits on the serving of vegetables in school meal programs.” The House responded and criticized the Senate’s stance.

At this point, it does appear that the jury is still out on whether potatoes will continue to pervade school lunch trays of the future…

While the nutritional profile is a no-brainer, finding innovative ways to incorporate more kale into your diet proves sometimes problematic. Sure, you can always sauteé it – a la spinach – or make your own kale chips, a la this previous post. But as for commercial kale options – well, suffice it to say, the options were pretty limited.

That was, until Rhythym Superfoods Kale Chips hit the stores. These Kale Chips are incredible – light, airy, flavorful – and without the boatload of sodium most packaged vegetable snacks need to make them actually taste good.

I sampled the Zesty Nacho flavor (thanks to the generosity and the samples sent from Rhythym Superfoods). And they’re not kidding when they say “zesty”!

The flavor is intense – but not in the unsettling sticky cheesy salty nacho flavoring way you are used to. By blending all organic vegetables, organic cashews, apple cider vinegar, lemon, organic spices and a touch of sea salt, these Kale Chips knock it out of the park! (Just make sure not to eat the desiccant packet in the package that keeps the kale crispy.)

In addition to carrying the USDA organic seal, Rhythym Superfoods’ line of packaged vegetable snacks are also raw, vegan, gluten-free, cholesterol-free, and GMO-free (as are all organic foods). A one-ounce serving of Zesty Nacho flavor has 106 calories, 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein and less than 200 mg sodium. To learn more about Rhythm Superfoods, visit their website at: www.rhythmsuperfoods.com.

While it’s been the unofficial dietitian party line for years, the USDA’s MyPlate teaching tool – available at www.choosemyplate.gov – is now on board with the recommendation: “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.”

To promote the move to more veggies and fruit, the USDA is offering a MyPlate: Fruits & Veggies Video Challenge. Upload a short video that shows how you are incorporating more fruits & vegetables without breaking the bank, with a chance to win some cash prizes.

More info about the challenge can be found here: http://fruitsandveggies.challenge.gov/.

Avoiding the center aisles is a time-tested approach to healthier grocery shopping; but, you might want to take a detour down your freezer aisle to check out Garden Lites Souffles.

While most frozen foods are laden with salt, fat and excessive calories, Garden Lites are a whole different cookie. Actually, they’re frozen vegetable-based souffles. Gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free…basically, they’re vegetable dishes with awesome seasonings and an impressively tasty turnout!

Garden Lites Souffles come in 6 varieties:

• Roasted Vegetable Souffle
• Cauliflower Souffle
• Zucchini Souffle
• Spinach Souffle
• Butternut Squash Souffle
• Broccoli Souffle

With under 500 mg sodium per serving, you can’t find a healthier frozen entree. Not to mention that each dish is under 200 calories, has at least 8 grams of protein and at least 3 grams of fiber. The fiber doesn’t come from any fake fiber sources either – just good, old-fashioned vegetables.

You can find Garden Lites at Costco, Whole Foods and a number of regional retailers. To find out where you can get your frozen fiber souffle on, check out the Garden Lites “Find Us” feature here.

And like all pita chips – they each have their “white bread” and “wheat-ish looking bread” varieties.

Although these products might look similar from their packaging – the nutrition facts label tells a slightly different story.

The Stacy’s are “multigrain” – meaning the primary ingredient is white flour. Athena’s on the other hand pack a whole grain punch, with whole wheat flour as the lead-in ingredient and a full 3 grams of fiber per serving, not to mention an impressive 100 mg sodium per serving less than Stacy’s:

Stacy’s Multigrain Pita Chips

• Serving size: 9 chips
• Calories: 140
• Sodium: 270 mg
• Fiber: 2 g
• First ingredient: Enriched wheat flour

Athena’s Whole Wheat Pita Chips

• Serving size: 11 chips
• Calories: 120
• Sodium: 170 mg
• Fiber: 3 g
• First ingredient: Whole wheat flour

Pita chips often get an undeserved health halo – and it’s important to remember, they’re chips: so like all packaged snack foods, they’re ok in moderation.

And with “50% more free” in current packaging, if you’re looking for the best bang for your buck – nutritionally and financially – stick to Athena’s!

Are you doing all you can to achieve balanced nutrition & a healthy diet?

• 50% responded yes – up from just under 50% responding yes since 2002

Where do you get most of your nutrition information?

• 67% listed television as the preferred source, with magazines and the internet tied for second

What foods have you increased your consumption of?

• Respondents said they are eating more vegetables (49%), whole grains (48%), fish (46%) and chicken (44%)

What foods have you cut back on?

• Beef (39%), pork (35%), dairy products (22%)

What are the foods you hear “a lot” about?

Percentage of Respondents who Have Heard "A Lot" About Certain Foods

While the results were largely anticipated – it is still interesting to acknowledge that despite (all 754) respondents’ relatively positive opinion of their own diet, two-thirds of the country is still overweight or obese.

The FDA dietitian points out that for kids, fiber:

• Helps their digestive system
• Prevents against chronic disease when they’re older
• Needs are 14-31 grams of fiber per day

Recommended sources of fiber to incorporate in a child’s diet to help meet these needs include:

• Beans
• Peas
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Whole grain bread, cereal, pasta

To learn more about the FDA’s nutrition education efforts for children and teens, visit the Spot the Block campaign at http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/KidsTeens/ucm115810.htm.

Dr. Walter Willett and his Harvard colleagues have long been known for eschewing what they maintain are contradictory agendas of the USDA: agriculture & nutrition policy. How can the same government agency that tells and pays farmers what to grow and not grow also make impartial and sound nutrition recommendations?

Harvard’s beef with MyPlate includes:

• MyPlate does not differentiate between whole grains and refined grains
• MyPlate does not differentiate between high fat and low-fat animal vs. plant-based protein sources
• Potatoes are lumped with vegetables – even though most Americans eat potatoes in the french fried form
• Dairy is recommended at every meal – despite the fact that the majority of African American and Asian populations experience lactose intolerance
• There is no mention of limiting sugary drinks
• MyPlate does not mention the importance of physical activity

The new Healthy Eating Plate has a few simple, distinctive differences from MyPlate:

• Drink water
• Identify healthy oils
• Eat leaner proteins
• More whole grains

So, much like Harvard’s Healthy Eating Pyramid was a dramatically more effective version of the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid, so too is the Healthy Eating Plate a more reasonable approach to plate-based meal-planning.

Apparently even the ever-overburdened FDA was paying attention – and now they’re fighting back. In two letters sent to the producers of The Dr. Oz Show, the FDA strongly reprimanded the sensationalist doctor for inciting unnecessary concerns about the safety of apple juice.

The issue at hand? Oz measured total arsenic – which doesn’t delineate between the harmless organic types of arsenic and the types of inorganic arsenic which are toxic. By failing to differentiate between inorganic vs. organic arsenic in his testing, the FDA maintains that, “These results cannot be used to determine whether there is an unsafe amount of arsenic in the juice tested by the Dr. Oz Show.”

So is apple juice really harmful? According to the FDA’s Q&A page about Apple Juice & Arsenic, don’t worry, drink up. But, according to most sage nutrition advice – why not just opt for the whole apple?

A cup of apple juice has 110 calories, 24 grams of sugar and less than 1 gram of fiber. Eating a whole medium-sized apple nets only 80 calories, less than 20 grams of sugar and an impressive 4.5 grams of fiber – proving once again, that it’s better to eat your fruit, not drink it!

• French fry serving is down to 1.1 ounces from 2.4 ounces for a total of 100 french fry calories
• Apple dippers drop from 3.1 to 1.2 ounces and now contain no added sugars or dipping sauces
• 20% reduction in calories per Happy Meal, equating to about 600 calories per meal

There’s no net boost in fiber in these revised meals. According to McDonald’s own nutrition information publications, even the original 3.1 ounce size of apple slices was so small it contained “0″ grams of dietary fiber! If you actually eat a whole, medium-sized apple with skin, you would get 4.4 grams of dietary fiber.

Why the push to improve processed kiddie food?

• According to the McDonald’s website, these changes help align McDonald’s more closely with the Council of Better Business Bureau’s Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative guidelines.
• The downsized Happy Meal moves come on the heels of laws recently passed in San Francisco and San Mateo counties in California that would limit the sale of kids’ foods that don’t meet certain nutritional standards.
• The Center for Science in the Public Interest also recently sued McDonald’s on behalf of a parent claiming the toys in Happy  Meals are used to seduce children.

The happier Happy Meals are certainly a move in the right direction. Now let’s get to work on what the parents are ordering!

These chips – which are similar in taste to but way cheaper than Food Should Taste Good Brand’s Multigrain Tortilla Chips – are crispy, delicious and true to their name: seriously seedy.

A one-ounce (9 chip) serving has 140 calories, 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of dietary fiber and, surprisingly – for a chip – only 130 mg of sodium.

The ingredients include:

• Brown Rice Flour
• Vegetable Oil
• Corn Masa
• Brown Rice
• Brown Flax Seeds
• Golden Flax Seed
• Sesame Seeds
• Rice Starch
• Cane Sugar
• Oat Fiber
• Sea Salts
• Chia Seeds

As far as packaged, processed snack foods go – these are, like all of them, a “sometimes” food. But if you have to pick your battles, these chips are worth fighting for!

In this particular study, Chinese researchers looked at 712,000 participants in 10 separate prospective cohort studies – of which 6,800 subjects were diagnosed with breast cancer.

The researchers found that for every extra 10 grams of fiber a person ate, they experienced a 7% reduction in breast cancer risk.

Current guidelines are that healthy adults should aim to eat around 30 grams of fiber per day. The average American consumes approximately half of that.

Increasing intake of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and legumes such as dried peas and beans and lentils not only helps stave off the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, but it may also be protective against breast cancer.

WhoNu? Cookies are the brainchild of some packaged food folks who want to take the confusion out of eating well. You like cookies. Cookies aren’t good for you. Let’s make a cookie that we pretend is good for you.

Infantile spelling of the product name aside, the uninspired mechanisms by which these cookies claim to be “nutritious” are plastered about the loud orange packaging:

OK, let’s break this down:

• As much fiber as a bowl of oatmeal!

Yeah but that fiber isn’t from whole grains or any other naturally occurring source of fiber, it’s from an isolated, functional fiber – the type that we’re not even sure conveys health benefits. (Read more about fake fibers here.)

• As much calcium and vitamin D as an 8 oz glass of milk!

Never mind that there’s no data indicating supplemental calcium is any more well-absorbed than naturally occurring sources, aren’t there some other redeeming qualities to milk: protein, phosphorus, vitamin A, etc?

• As much Vitamin C as a cup of blueberries!

Big deal, all fruits and vegetables are good sources of vitamin C. Eat them to get your needs.

• As much iron as a cup of spinach!

There’s not really that much iron in a cup of raw spinach, which is what it looks like they’re comparing in the picture. A cup of cooked spinach or an animal flesh food that’s actually high in heme iron – the more easily absorbed type of iron? Now we’re talking.

• As much Vitamin E as two cups of carrot juice!

Because vitamin E is widespread in vegetable oils – and we all eat too much oil – there’s no concern about Americans not meeting vitamin E needs.

• As much Vitamin B12 as a cup of cottage cheese and fruit!

A well-balanced diet has plenty of vitamin B12 – and if you get too much of it, it’s a water-soluble vitamin, so you just pee out the excess. Great selling point.

• As much vitamin A as an 8 oz glass of tomato juice!

Drink a cup of milk for vitamin A – not a one cup serving of tomato juice that has more than half of your daily sodium allotment.

Wait, so these cookies really aren’t that good for you? Well, if you have been offended and/or duped by the nutritious claims of the WhoNu? cookie product, consider contacting this forward-thinking law firm, who appear to be soliciting like-minded individuals for a class action lawsuit: Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz P.C. Attorneys at Law.

No doubt, eating right isn’t always easy. But you don’t have to be stupid about it either. And thinking you can eat a cookie instead of a well-balanced diet full of whole grains, lean protein and fresh fruits and vegetables? Sounds stupid. Who knew?

But what about eating at home? Can you do it right on a budget? Not according to researchers at the University of Washington.

In an article published this week in the journal Health Affairs, the authors conclude that if you aim to increase your intake and meet 2010 Dietary Guidelines intake recommendations for potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D and calcium – it’s going to cost you more.

The most expensive consumption jump comes with potassium – adding an additional $1.04 per day – and $380 per year – to the average consumer’s food costs. For a family of four, that’s over $1,500 per year. For potassium.

What’s the catch? Well, the study was conducted in the affluent King County in Washington state. There are cheaper places in the country to shop – and certainly more affordable types of potassium and fiber-rich fruits and vegetables than others.

But the bottom line is, adhering to government nutrition guidelines may be financially impractical for some.

On average, an extra serving of potatoes per day when compared to the baseline study population’s intake equated to a 1.69 pound weight gain over four years.

Potato chip eaters weighed an average 1.28 pounds more than the less heavy users of potatoes. If potato eating tended to be in the french fried form, that was correlated with a 3.35 pound weight gain.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and analyzed previous studies of over 120,000 men and women who were not obese when the study started and who were also generally healthy.

Not surprisingly, eating more high fiber foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains and nuts was correlated with slight weight loss over the four year study period. Yogurt intake – despite being fiber free in its natural form – also tracked with weight loss.

Gone is the amorphous stick figure climbing the ambiguously colored bands of supposed food groups. In his (her?) place…a new plate:

What was MyPyramid is now MyPlate. At www.choosemyplate.gov, the USDA dishes out a few simplified messages:

• Balance calories by enjoying your food, eating less & avoiding oversized portions
• Eat more of the good stuff: make half your plate fruits & vegetables, half your grains whole & switch to fat-free or 1% milk
• Eat less of the bad stuff: cut back on sodium & drink water instead of sugary drinks

What was wrong with the pyramid? Well – for one, it didn’t work.

Remember the first Food Guide Pyramid? This one:

In 1992 when the original Food Guide Pyramid premiered, only 6 states had obesity rates of 15-20%:

For 8 years, as Americans got fatter, the Food Guide triangle floundered. Most Americans could tell you what the pyramid was, they just had no idea what to do with it.

By the time the USDA got wind of this – in 2005 – we were down from 49 to only 3 remaining states with obesity rates under 20% (Colorado, Vermont and Connecticut):

At this point – when Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia were trailblazing uncharted obesity territory in the 30%+ range – the USDA gave us the long-awaited and much-anticipated MyPyramid:

A few more years went by and criticisms of MyPyramid mounted:

• “It’s Elitist!” (you need internet access to explore its depth)
• “It’s Misleading!” (why is the fruit stripe red, the universal color for STOP?)
• “It’s Confusing!” (what do narrower bands at the top of a picture without any foods really mean?)

The Pyramids continued to fail the people, and by 2009 – the last year for which there is CDC data available –  there was only one state left that had just 20% of its populace claiming obesity (congratulations Colorado):

Now, with 49 states touting obesity rates of over 20%, and 9 of those – all in the South – with rates topping 30%, enter…The Plate:

The design is simple and the message is clear: clean up your plate…before the obesity maps get any more colorful!

Oz was busy hyping the benefits of konjac fiber – which is unfortunate, since as a physician, he should be recommending dietary sources of fiber which have well established positive effects on health, as opposed to supplemental pills, which remain questionable, costly and essentially a waste of time and money…

Regardless, caught up in the passionate throes of dietary fiber discussions, Whoopi let one loose, disgusting not just her co-hosts, audience members and Oz – but at the same time, finally securing her place as the most insufferable of The View’s caddy cackle of hostesses.

To actually learn something about a food-based source of konjac fiber – check out this previous post on shirataki noodles and glucomannan.

And, if you must see Whoopi in action, you can first thank Perez Hilton for hosting it, and then click here to watch.

And what does this have to do with fiber? The connection is potassium. Sure, everyone knows that a diet low in sodium helps reduce blood pressure – but did you also know that increasing potassium in your diet might be just as important as lowering salt for lowering blood pressure?

And where exactly do you find potassium in the diet? Potassium is widespread in fruits and vegetables – those high fiber foods that are also naturally, and conveniently, low in sodium.

The kicker is you have to get the potassium from foods – not supplements. People with pre-existing or underlying heart conditions can be negatively impacted by taking supplemental or very high doses of potassium, such as those found in dietary supplements or salt-free salts like NuSalt and LiteSalt. Those products can disrupt heart rhythm and cause other health problems in at risk persons.

Confused? If you’re looking to lower salt intake and season food without high doses of potassium, try any of the Mrs. Dash products – they’re safe, salt-free seasoning blends – perfect for perking up all of those fruits and vegetables you’ll be eating this month!

Check out the Produce Marketing Association new searchable database, “I Know Produce” – available at: http://legacy.pma.com/producedb/.

The site contains a rich compilation of:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Herbs
• Nuts

You can quickly access information about different varieties, species and learn about their storage & handling, seasonal availability, how to cook or use tips and of course, the produce product’s nutrition information.

In addition to providing the basic nutrition facts panel information – the Nutrition tab also includes “Nutritional Content Descriptors” – things like “high in vitamin C” or “saturated fat free” (which almost all fruits and vegetables are anyway!)

As Kelly Brownell from Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity never gets tired of pointing out, “Each year kids see more than 10,000 food ads on TV alone, almost all for items like soft drinks, fast foods and sugared cereals.” So…wasn’t it about time someone started marketing fruits and vegetables with an updated tool like this?

Thanks PMA – great information, good design, you guys got it all. Dietitians and nutrition professionals applaud you. You’ve done for doing for fruits and vegetables what crappy food creators usually kill you on!

The company maintains that the product will meet the following guidelines per serving:

• Less than 120 calories
• At least 3 grams dietary fiber
• 4 grams or more of fiber
• 7 types of probiotics
• Provide 20% DV for vitamin D and 10% DV for vitamin A
• Have live active cultures (20 billion after manufacturing)
• Less than 2 grams saturated fat

No information yet about the ingredient list – but rest assured that 3 grams of fiber will be from an isolated, functional source. Frozen yogurt – like all dairy and most desserts – lacks dietary fiber. The manufacturers will likely add a third party fiber source – something such as inulin – that old standby that gives Skinny Cow ice cream products their 3 grams of fiber per serving.

The probiotics will likely be this product’s primary selling point. Problem with probiotics is – there is no generally agreed upon consensus regarding how much or which types of probiotics are beneficial.

So it’s unlikely that this souped up sugary product will yield any significant health benefits beyond empty calories…but it doesn’t mean the marketers won’t try to convince you otherwise!

A new study presented this month at the Experimental Biology conference in Washington, DC demonstrated that pistachios might be even lower in fat and calories than previously thought.

In the experiment – conducted by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service – 16 healthy adults were fed pistachios as part of a controlled diet. The amount of energy they excreted during the study timeframe was calculated, and showed that the calories absorbed from a 1-oz (30 gram) serving was actually 5.9% less than previous calculations believed.

What does this mean? It indicates that fat from nuts – and in turn, the calories from that fat in those nuts – may not be so well absorbed in the GI tract, yielding a reduced caloric load.

It also means that you are probably going to see more of a push by the pistachio people to include nuts as part of a well-balanced diet for weight loss and weight management.

To learn more about pistachios, check out the Western Pistachio Association’s website at www.thegreennut.org.

Cassava is grown primarily in three regions:

• West Africa & Congo basin
• South America
• South and Southeast Asia

The root of bitter cassava is poisonous when consumed raw. Cooking destroys the poisonous hydrocyanic glucosides (HCN) in all parts of the plant.

Globally, the root is used for both human consumption and cattle feed. If prepared properly, the leaves can be eaten as well.

From a nutritional standpoint -  like most staple foods – cassava is a poor source of protein, but rich in calories from starch, and has a decent amount of B vitamins. One cup of raw cassava has just under 4 grams of dietary fiber.

While largely unknown to Western populations in developed countries, cassava production tops 160 million tons per year. There are a number of international bodies promoting the use of cassava, including the World Food Programme. Check out their Global Cassava Development strategy by clicking here.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Indonesia is getting on the cassava train as well, attempting to reposition a nation’s dependence on that other, slightly more popular staple grain: rice.

Bulgur wheat (finely ground) is perhaps the easiest whole grain to make – the ratio is 1:1 – pour equal parts boiling water over bulgur, cover and let stand for 45 minutes. Fluff with a fork if you’re feeling feisty.

Once you have some cooked bulgur on hand, try this quick and easy bulgur salad:

• 1 cup cooked bulgur
• 1/4 cup chopped artichoke hearts
• 1/4 cup chopped, canned roasted red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 Tbs lime juice
• Salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together, chill and serve.

Fact: Makes four 1/2 cup servings.

Opinion: Tastes even better on day 2!

According to the CDC, kale was brought to the US in the 1600s by English settlers. It can grow in rather cold temperatures and is a great source of vitamins A and C. Two cups of raw kale – which cooks down to about 1/2 cooked kale – has 3 grams of fiber for just about 50 calories.

What do you do with kale? Use it as you would spinach, or try this quick and easy recipe for kale chips, compliments of cookbook author Marie Simmons:

Kale Chips

• Preheat oven to 400. Rinse kale thoroughly, pat dry and devein by slicing leaves off of the fibrous stem. Discard stems.
• Chop kale and toss with a tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
• Spray broiler pan with nonstick spray and bake kale for 10-15 minutes – or until crispy.
• Enjoy your flaky kale chips that literally melt in your mouth!

If you naturally love veggies, one meatless day a week isn’t a big deal. But what about the burger lovers? What do they do?

While meat monsters have historically scoffed at the idea of a Veggie Burger – they might reconsider when it comes to Morningstar Farms Burgers.

Most burgers are meat and therefore contain no fiber. But since these burgers combine a tasteful blend of vegetables and grains, you get a bit more bang for you buck, including, in one Veggie Burger pattie:

• 150 calories
• 5 grams of fat (only 1 gram is saturated)
• 4 grams of fiber
• 18 grams of protein
• 10 grams of carbohydrate

While they are a tad high in salt at 650 mg/pattie, it’s impressive that each burger only needs 2 grams of added sugar for such a great-tasting product.

In addition to their pleasurable taste, the ingredient list in the Morningstar Veggie Burger is also impressive. The first ingredient – indicating it makes the greatest contribution by weight – is “Vegetables”, as in mushrooms, water chestnuts, carrots, onions, green and red bell peppers and olives. The fiber comes from the same vegetables, but also from wheat gluten, rolled oats and brown rice.

If you’re looking for a hearty alternative to ground beef this Monday, give these Morningstar Burgers a whirl. For meatless burgers, they’re about as good as it gets!

What exactly is the cultural implication of such a change? Well, considering that potatoes (undeservedly) get a bum rap when it comes to nutrition – and that Mr. Potato Head was the star of the US Potato Board’s “Healthy Mr. Potato Head” Nutrition Campaign from 2004-2007 – maybe it’s a PR move to improve your perception of potatoes?

According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, 64% of US potato consumption is in the form of processed potatoes…which is code for french fries and potato chips. While potatoes – in their unfried and moderately portioned versions – do have nutritional benefits, most of us don’t need the added calories, fat and salt from the most commonly consumed potato products.

So, whether or not Mr. Potato Head’s slim-down is a marketing gimmick, or a sign of our fat-obsessed times – his recent weight loss isn’t likely to cause severe medical problems…which is more than can be said for his colleague, Mattel’s Barbie, who at her projected actual height of over 7 feet, would – according to one Finnish study – lack the 17-22% body fat required for menstruation!

In a study of 1,006 adults conducted in November 2010, Kellogg’s found that of those surveyed:

• 20% mistakenly believed that meats and seafoods are a good source of fiber
• 17% thought dairy contains fiber
• 10% believed that water has fiber
• 15% thought that fiber is important only for promoting bowel regularity
• 72% surveyed expected whole grain foods to be good sources of fiber, when they aren’t necessarily are

The general population’s knowledge deficit about fiber isn’t surprising: Americans get less than half the amount of fiber they need each day.

Simple studies pointing out fundamental fiber knowledge gaps are good PR tools for cereal companies; a nearly similar study covered recently in this blog was conducted by General Mills with almost equivalent results.

While ready-to-eat breakfast cereals can be a good source of whole grain and dietary fiber, it is important to look for those that don’t contain added, functional fibers but that do have a minimal amount of added sugars. See this recent post for a list of recommended breakfast cereals that are high in fiber, low in sugar and iron-fortified.

Iron is a mineral, and an important micronutrient that is needed to make hemoglobin – the oxygen-carrying part of red blood cells.

Worldwide, iron deficiency is the most common micronutrient deficiency. Childhood growth impairment and learning capacity deficits can occur in iron deficient children.

Maternal iron stores that are transferred from mother to fetus at the end of pregnancy generally last for the first six months of life. After that, it is important that children receive iron fortified weaning foods and other dietary sources of iron.

Enter breakfast cereals…Since most kids don’t eat large quantities of iron-containing foods like meat, poultry and fish – ready-to-eat, iron-fortified cereals fill the iron-intake gap. For kids under 4, eating just 3/4 cup of Cheerios provides 50% of their day’s iron needs.

But a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicates that the cognitive benefits of supplemental iron might not be as strong as once thought. The study found that after an 8-year follow up, there was no significant differences in IQ between the group of infants and children who received supplemental iron (or zinc, placebo or iron-zinc combo) vs. those who did not.

The implication is that perhaps…more like, probably…the relationship between malnutrition and cognitive development involves more than just one or two minerals.

So is iron still important? Absolutely. Another recent study conducted in Nepal – where iron deficiency is prevalent – found that pregnant women who took iron and folic acid supplements had children that did better on IQ and fine motor skill tests than kids from moms who didn’t supplement during pregnancy.

What’s the bottom line?

Adequate iron intake is important for optimal cognitive development in children. Just how important….no one’s really sure. But it certainly remains the case that iron-fortified cereals are a great way to help kids meet their daily iron needs.

Here’s a short list of this dietitian’s recommendations of iron-fortified cereals good for kids:

• Cheerios – the yellow box – not the higher sugar Honey Nuts!
• Post Raisin Bran
• Original or Honey Kix – both are relatively low in sugar
• Quaker Life
• Total cereals
• Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats – the sugar is higher but the iron is there!

A research study published in the most recent online edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine found that the men and women who ate the most fiber were 22% less likely to die in the following nine years than were those who ate the least fiber.

For the study, researchers collected data from 388,122 men and women who were part of the National Institutes of Health – AARP Diet and Health Study. The participants had to answer a questionnaire about their diet and they were then followed for nine years.

The authors concluded that their study, “shows that dietary fiber may reduce the risk of premature death from all causes, especially from cardiovascular disease and infection and respiratory diseases.”

These findings come on the heels of the recent release of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The new guidelines recommend consuming 14 grams of dietary fiber per 1000 calories per day – working out to about 25-28 grams of daily fiber for your typical healthy adult.

Additional findings of the NIH study include:

• Cardiovascular disease risk was cut by 24 percent in men and 34 percent in women who ate the most fiber
• Respiratory disease risk was cut by 56 percent in men and 59 percent in women who ate the most fiber
• An inverse relationship between dietary fiber intake and cancer death was observed in men but not women
• Dietary fiber from grains – but not from other sources – was significantly inversely related to total and cause-specific death in both men and women.

Here at home, Post Cereals now offers a very similar product, Post Wheat ‘n Bran Shredded Wheat. If you don’t like a lot of salt or sugar in your cereal, you’ll love this product.

It’s an unadulterated whole wheat loving dietitian’s dream. Why? Because the ingredient list consist of:

• Whole Grain Wheat
• Wheat Bran

That’s it. 200 calories and 8 grams of fiber per 1 1/4 cup serving. No added sugar. No added salt. And more impressively – no added functional fibers.

Tastes just like Wetabix…just doesn’t cost as much.

While the taste might be a little bland for some palates – it’s nothing a topping of fresh fruit can’t take care of.

So, if you’re looking for a great whole wheat cereal with no doctoring needed, then meet your new breakfast!

Let’s answer that question with another question: what is white rice?

White rice is what you get when you remove the husk, bran and germ from whole grain – or brown rice. When you lose the bran – you lose the fiber. When you lose the germ – you lose B vitamins and some fat. All that remains is the endosperm, making white rice essentially, nutritionally naked starch.

Consumers like white rice because it’s light and fluffy. Food manufacturers like it because without the fat it is less likely to go rancid and has a longer shelf life than whole grain rice does.

So what exactly is whole grain white rice? With the Uncle Ben’s product, it’s parboiled white rice (reduces cooking time) with rice bran, germ and B vitamins added back in – along with a good dose of inulin (in the form of chicory root) to bulk up the fiber.

How does it compare nutritionally to brown rice and white rice?

• Uncle Ben’s Whole Grain White Rice: 1/4 cup dry rice has 170 calories and 4 grams of dietary fiber
• Brown rice: 1/4 cup dry has 180 calories and 2 grams of dietary fiber
• White rice: 1/4 cup dry has 180 calories and 1 gram of dietary fiber

It may look like Uncle Ben’s Whole Grain White Rice is the hands down winner when it comes to fiber. And while it technically does have twice as much fiber as brown rice as it advertises – keep in mind that all of that fiber is from inulin, a resistant starch whose health benefits are suspect.

If you hate the texture of brown rice, then this is a decent alternative. If you like white rice, eat it – and find your whole grains elsewhere. But if you’re looking for the most nutritionally sound rice – stick with the brown rice. It’s cheaper, it doesn’t need enriching and its fiber is naturally occurring.

Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said they think they eat enough whole grains in their diet – despite the fact that the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee says that 95% of Americans don’t get enough whole grains.

• Only 16% correctly identified that terms like “enriched flour”, “100% wheat” and “multigrain” do not necessarily mean that a product contains whole grain
• 17% incorrectly said that whole grains are always organic
• 28% didn’t understand the difference between whole grain and enriched grain products

These findings come on the heels of another interesting study from Consumer Reports that said 90% of those surveyed identified as having a “somewhat”, “very” or “extremely” healthy diet – despite the fact that 2/3 of our country is overweight or obese!

What’s the take away message here? It’s ok to congratulate yourself if you’re working towards 30 grams of fiber from whole grains per day – but don’t give yourself too much credit if you’re not!

Weight Watchers is jumping on the fruit bandwagon too. As part of its reformulated PointsPlus program – the biggest WW overhaul since the points program was introduced 13 years ago – fruits (and many vegetables too) now have a point value of zero.

President David Kirchhoff insists that the reformulation of points is to encompass new research about obesity and weight loss – which is a good angle and likely holds merit – but they also hope to recapture lapsed WW fans who may need to rejoin the fold, and pony up the dough, to learn the new points system.

Whatever the reasoning, pushing fruits and vegetables and encouraging their almost limitless intake is a good idea. Of course someone eating 3,000 calories of fruit a day could gain weight, but let’s be honest: it’s not the fruit that’s making you fat!

For starters – if you are healthy, there’s nothing wrong with gluten. Gluten is merely the protein found in wheat, rye and barley. For people that have celiac disease – and anywhere from 1 in 100 to 1 in 133 people in the US do – gluten is essentially poison to your gut. In celiac disease, gluten destroys the cells of your intestine, resulting in a wide array of nutritional disorders and gastrointestinal symptoms.

For the rest of us – there’s nothing wrong with gluten. It’s true that cutting out gluten by reducing the amount of refined grains and bread products in your diet can help you lose weight – but gluten is not inherently evil for the majority of the population.

You are hearing more about celiac disease not because more people are “getting it”, but rather because testing for and confirmation of diagnosis of celiac disease has improved dramatically over the past few years. People that used to have nebulous diagnoses such as “irritable bowel syndrome” are revisiting the possibility that they may have celiac or gluten intolerance.

If 1% of the population can’t tolerate gluten, that’s a huge emerging specialty market for restaurants and food manufacturers. Just this week, Subway announced they are trialing a gluten free bun in two Texas markets. PF Chang’s is already well known for their innovative gluten-free offerings.

If you do have celiac disease or sensitivity to gluten – then gluten free foods can be a godsend. There is a silver lining though: many gluten free products tend to be baked goods that are high in calories and fat, foods you don’t need that much of to begin with. Just because a product is gluten-free, does not a healthfood make!

If you are looking to learn more about celiac disease, here’s a compendium of some gluten-free blogs. For one of the best gluten free books, check out Shelley Case’s book The Gluten Free Diet.

• Only one starchy vegetable per week – limiting the “french fries are a vegetable” out
• Ban most trans fats
• Establish a first-ever calorie limit for school meals
• Make all milk nonfat or 1% and all flavored milks be nonfat
• Gradual increase of required whole grains with eventual goal of most grains being whole
• Incorporate a grain and a protein into the school breakfast program, instead of just one or the other as it is now

If you want to get a sneak peak at how the USDA envisions their new menu will contrast to the previous guidelines in a theoretic elementary school – check out this chart: http://www.usda.gov/documents/cnr-chart.pdf

These nutrition improvement announcements come on the heels of President Obama’s December 2010 signing of the “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act“, a child nutrition bill that increases reimbursement to participating schools for the provision of healthier foods.

So what does an “increase” mean? In this case, the bump in reimbursement to schools providing free lunches to qualifying students is exactly an extra 6 cents per meal. SIX CENTS. And for some clarity: the 2010-2011 reimbursement rate for schools providing free lunches to qualifying kids is already a measly $2.72 per meal. You try making a nutritious, fresh, appealing meal for kids with high fat, high calorie USDA commodity food and $2.72 in reimbursement!

So how much good will these proposed changes do? To put it simply: while setting lofty school lunch standards may make for good politics – six cents doesn’t realistically amount to massive change.

While the concept of oatmeal is commendable, leave it to McDonald’s to louse it up. Wherein a typical 1 cup cooked oatmeal serving made with water would have just 150 calories (and maybe an extra 50 calories with some berries), McDonald’s bumps it up to 290 calories (and 60 grams of carbohydrate!) by adding sugary dried fruit, brown sugar and then mixing it with light cream.

Even the “oatmeal” component of the breakfast (which should consist of “rolled oats”) has the following:

• Modified foodstarch
• Maltodextrin
• Barley malt extract
• Caramel color
• Natural maple flavor (but no maple syrup…)

The serving size is larger than it needs be – a 12 oz cup of cooked oatmeal – that, even with all the additives, still tastes kind of bland and watery. The whole thing emanates an odd citrus flavor – likely from the ascorbic acid (vitamin C) preservative used to prevent the packaged apples – the same packaged apples used in their Apple Dippers – from turning brown.

If you’re looking for someone else to make you oatmeal in the morning, a better tasting option is Starbucks Perfect Oatmeal. While Starbucks’ version does have some added ingredients, it comes a lot closer to tasting like it’s worth $3.00.

And lastly, while McDonald’s in the US pretends to get healthier – check out today’s Wall Street Journal article about what McDonald’s is doing in Japan. The McDonald’s executives there have no qualms about beefing up – and bragging about – their already-bulging burgers that now feature tortilla chips, fried hash browns and chili toppers!

Those in the know know…that in the world of nutrition, the word “Natural” means nothing. “Natural” is not a legally enforceable term and carries no nutrition standards with it. You can pretty much produce the most fabricated, chemically-laced food product in the world and throw “natural” in its title without ever worrying about regulatory or FDA repercussions.

Calling your junk food “natural” is becoming a food manufacturing trend – as Food Politics author and NYU Nutrition Professor Marion Nestle recently blogged about on her Food Politics blog.

But back to Wendy’s – how do the new fries stack up against the old ones? From a nutritional standpoint, they’re the same as any french fried product. A small serving of Wendy’s natural cut fries has 3 grams of fiber; not bad until you consider it costs you 320 calories and 15 grams of fat for those measly 3 fiber grams. Comparatively, McDonald’s small fries have 230 calories and 11 grams of fat for the same 3 grams of fiber.

If you like fries – go for it. But don’t believe that “natural-cut” fries are any better for you. And if you have to have potatoes – stick to the real deal: a small baked potato has 130 calories, 0 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber, a savings of about 100 calories and 11-15 grams of fat when compared to a small fast food fries.

For more potato persuasion, check out this previous post on National Potato Day.

While traditional panko is essentially repackaged white bread and not an appreciable source of fiber, there is one great whole wheat panko product out there, made by Ian’s Natural Foods.  Ian’s Whole Wheat Panko performs and tastes just as great as the original product – but with a little boost for your daily fiber intake:

• Ian’s Original Panko breadcrumbs made from white bread with white flour has 0.5 grams of fiber per 1/4 cup serving
• Ian’s Whole Wheat Panko breadcrumbs made from unbleached whole wheat flour has 2 grams of fiber per 1/4 cup serving

Nationally, Ian’s Whole Wheat Panko breadcrumbs are available at Whole Foods, or you can use the company’s store finder and search by your zip code for local providers.

King Arthur’s white whole wheat flour (made from hard white spring wheat) is one of the few whole wheat flours that can be substituted 1-for-1 for all-purpose white flour in most baked goods recipes, without compromising taste.

K.A. also has a traditional 100% organic whole wheat flour, one that most bakers will agree should only be substituted for up to one-half the amount of all-purpose flour used in baked goods recipes.

Check out King Arthur’s whole line of unique whole grain flours – here’s a sampling of what they have to offer:

• Sustagrain Barley Flour has 120 calories per 1/3 cup and 9 grams dietary fiber
• Organic Whole Spelt Flour has 100 calories per 1/3 cup and 3 grams dietary fiber
• Whole Wheat Pastry Flour has 100 calories per 1/3 cup and 3 grams dietary fiber
• Pumpernickel Flour has 100 calories per 1/4 cup and 4 grams dietary fiber
• Rye Flour has 110 calories per 1/3 cup and 4 grams dietary fiber
• Organic Steel Cut Oats have 170 calories per 1/4 cup and 4 grams dietary fiber
• Gluten Free Brown Rice Flour has 110 calories per 1/4 cup and 1 gram dietary fiber

If you’re not sure what to do with some of these flours – the King Arthur website has a great cache of recipes using their products available here.

But what Quaker isn’t actively advertising are all of the not-so-natural fiber enhancing ingredients that have to be included in order to shove 3 grams of fiber into a 110 calorie serving while trying not to make it taste like cardboard.

Here’s a closer look at some of the Multigrain Fiber Crisp ingredients:

• Sugar (the second ingredient, never a good sign in a supposedly healthy snack food)
• Maltodextrin (a starch derivative)
• Polydextrose (an added soluble fiber)
• Oligofructose (FOS, an artificial sweetener)
• Soy lecithin (emulsifier)
• Tocopherols (stabilizer)
• Sucralose (what you know as Splenda®)
• Acesulfame Potassium (another artificial sweetener …that’s 3 now!)
• Citric acid (a preservative)

You can get Fiber Crisps in two flavors:  Blackberry Pomegranate and Wild Blueberry. But you know what’s funny – on both ingredient lists, there’s no trace of blackberries, pomegranates or anything that was ever once a wild blueberry!

You want oatmeal? Then stick to oatmeal. A 1/2 cup serving has 150 calories, 4 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein. More importantly, the ingredient list has one thing on it: Oats.

The research is based on data from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, “the world’s largest ongoing telephone health survey system.” The BRFSS interviews 350,000 Americans each year and the researchers compared responses within and among communities of differing rates of unemployment.

Results indicate that since December 2007, the national unemployment rate went from 5% to 10% while in that same period, the frequency of fruit and vegetable intake declined between 10% and 20%.

So, if unemployment has got you down – don’t let the economy take your diet down with it!

In 2005, the DGA’s big news was that the USDA ditched their original 1992 food guide pyramid – this one:

…in exchange for MyPyramid – the heavily criticized nebulous rendering of how Americans should eat:

As of this writing, the 2005 DGAs remain the current guidelines until the 2010 version is published. And while the already-released 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans report has been met with less fanfare, there will be some important developments:

• The report is now entirely evidence based, using a “question-and-answer” format based on the USDA’s Evidence Library
• It includes a strong focus on at risk populations including pregnant women and infants and children
• Two new chapters on “Total Diet” and “Translation/Implementation” are included
• The report addresses – for the first time ever – an unhealthy (i.e. fat) American public

In the 2010 Dietary Guidelines report, fiber is referred to as a “shortfall nutrient” (along with vitamin D, calcium and potassium). Chapter 5 of the report (which you can download here) covers Carbohydrates and in turn, dietary fiber. A summary of the chapter’s mention of fiber includes:

• Get your fiber from foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes instead of isolated, added fibers
• Solid food sources of fiber tend to be more satiating than most liquid fiber sources
• Dietary fiber from whole foods protects against cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes and is essential for optimal GI health
• Moderate body of evidence shows whole grain intake protects against heart disease
• Limited evidence shows whole grain consumption is associated with lower type 2 diabetes risk
• Moderate evidence shows that whole grains and grain fiber is associated with lower body weight

All in all, there are no major breakthroughs in this report with regards to dietary fiber. And, as depicted in the graphic below, across almost every age and gender group, dietary fiber intakes do not – not surprisingly – meet recommended levels:

From: J Am Diet Assoc. 2010 Nov;110(11):1638-45. Van Horn, L. Development of the 2010 US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report: perspectives from a registered dietitian.

Blue Ginger Multi-Grain Brown Rice Chips come in Black Sesame and Sea Salt or Sour Cream and Scallion flavors. For the black sesame and sea salt variety, each 33 chip serving has 110 calories and 3 grams of fiber.

The product contains no functional or isolated fiber products and all of the fiber comes from these naturally-occurring ingredients:

• Brown rice flour
• Whole corn meal
• Whole oat flour
• Black sesame seeds

The chips are crunchy, salty and satisfying as far as snack foods go. If you like Indian food, you’ll recognize that the rice flour lends a flavor not unlike that of papadam.

Blue Ginger Brown Rice Chips are available at Costco, Sam’s Club and online from Ming’s website.

If you’re a healthy adult – and particularly if you’re one of the 2 in 3 American adults who is overweight or obese – eat your fruit, don’t drink it!

Why is fruit better than juice? Here’s why:

• There are fewer calories per serving of fruit than fruit juice
• There is more fiber per serving in fruit than fruit juice
• Fruit is cheaper per serving than fruit juice

One orange has 70 calories and 3 grams of fiber. If you were to make fresh-squeezed orange juice, you would likely take 3 of those oranges, triple the calories to over 200 per glass and leave all of that good pulpy fiber for the garbage can.

That’s not that great for you, but keep in mind that no one makes fresh squeezed orange juice anymore: everyone wants overpriced 16 ounce colorful plastic bottles of sugar-water and fruit juice concentrate to make them feel healthier instead of lazier when they skip real breakfast.

Let’s take a look at 3 popular brands of fruit juice pushers and see where and how they fall flat:

Naked Juice

• Reduced Calorie Smoothies: 100 calories in 8 ounces (200 per bottle) but 0 grams fiber
• Pure Juices: 100 calories in 8 ounces (200 per bottle) but 0 grams fiber
• Probiotic 100% Juice Smoothie: 180 calories in 10 ounces and fiber information not listed so it doesn’t exist
• Antioxidant 100% Juice: 160 calories in 8 ounces (320 per bottle) but 0 grams fiber

Jamba Juice

• Fruit Smoothies: 4 grams of fiber for about 200-250 calorie sixteen ounce serving sizes (not bad but 3-4 times more calories than 1 serving of fruit would give you for the same amount of fiber)
• Fresh Squeezed Juice: 0-1 gram of fiber for 170-calorie 12oz or 220-calorie orange juice; 0 grams fiber in carrot juice
• Light Smoothie: 4 grams fiber for 150-calorie 15-oz Berry Fulfilling flavor – if you have to buy a commercial juice product, this would be it – but they add Splenda for sweetness without calories

Odwalla

• Smoothie Blends: 140 calories for 8 ounces (280 per bottle) but 0 grams fiber
• Odwalla Superfood: 130 calories for 8 ounces (260 per bottle) but 0 grams fiber
• Haiti Hope (100% profits to Haiti is nice, but only 25% juice isn’t…) 100 calories per 8 oz, 200 per bottle, 0 fiber

Your average piece of fruit has 4-5 grams of fiber per serving (which is also 1/2 cup cut fruit). If you aim to get 3 servings of real fruit per day, you can knock off about half of your daily fiber needs (50% of the 30 grams recommendation). And if you still insist on over-paying for fruit, stick to pre-cut fruit cups.

Keep in mind: juice is good for little kids (in moderation), teenage boys who can’t keep weight on and little old ladies who can’t meet their calorie needs from food alone. For the rest of us – eating your fruit – not drinking it is the most healthful way to go. If you need more disincentive to drink smoothies, check out this previous post on McDonald’s Real Fruit Smoothies.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, researchers in Hong Kong found that primary school children who don’t like eating fruits and vegetables are 13 times more likely to develop functional constipation (meaning the bowel is healthy but it just doesn’t work well…usually as a result of a poor diet and inactivity) than kids who do eat fruits and vegetables regularly.

The study analyzed 383 subjects aged 8-10 enrolled in a Hong Kong school. Some other findings include:

• Kids who drank only 200-400 ml of fluid per day (about 1-1.5 cups) were 8 times more likely to have constipation problems that those who drank 600-800 ml (2-4 cups) and 14 times more likely than kids who drank more than 4 cups per day
• Girls were more likely to have functional constipation than boys
• Nine-year-olds were more likely to report problems (13.3%) than eight-year-olds (10%) and ten-year-olds (5.2%)

So…if you want to set yourself up for a lifetime of good gut motility – get started on fruits and vegetables early in life!

The study was designed and conducted by researchers from the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Scotland and included over 200 healthy, middle-aged subjects.

Following a 4-week introductory period on a refined diet, subjects were randomized to a 12-week diet consisting of either:

• Refined diet (control group)
• Wheat containing diet
• Wheat + oats diet

At the study’s conclusion, the researchers determined that the whole grain consumption groups (wheat or wheat + oats) experienced a 5-6 mm Hg drop in systolic blood pressure. According to study director Dr. Frank Thies, this is about the amount you would expect to see on conventional hypertension medication regimens. The study is registered here at clinicaltrials.gov.

But – this question actually can be answered! The source: USDA’s SR23 – Reports by Single Nutrients. These reports allow you to search foods with certain nutrients either alphabetically or by nutrient content. If you download the pdf of “Total dietary fiber” sorted by nutrient content, you might learn that the “highest fiber food” is….BARLEY!

The list is extensive (24 pages of fiber!) – but the highest fiber foods go like this:

• 1 cup Barley, pearled, raw = 31.2 grams fiber
• 1 cup Bulgur, dry = 25.6 grams fiber
• 1 cup Beans, navy, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt = 19.1 grams fiber
• 1 cup Beans, baked, canned, with franks = 17.9 grams fiber
• 1 cup Peas, split, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt = 16.3 grams fiber

The first vegetable to get a mention are Artichokes, 1 cup = 14.4 grams fiber. The first fruit is dates, 1 cup = 14.2 grams fiber. The list goes on and on – but if you’re into fiber, it makes for good reading!

Pellagra skin lesions

Soaking corn in basic solutions – such as limewater (calcium hydroxide lime that is – not the fruit) releases the B vitamin niacin that is otherwise bound in non-treated corn products.

This process – called nixtamalization – explains why Aztec and Mayan populations who treated their corn with limewater to prepare masa and tortillas did not suffer from pellagra (the niacin deficiency disease) whereas their straight corn-eating counterparts did.

Pellagra is a nasty vitamin deficiency disease that is characterized by the “4 D’s”:

• Diarrhea
• Dermatitis
• Dementia
• Death

At first glance, hominy looks like a low-fiber starch bomb; however, hominy is surprisingly low in calories for the amount of fiber it yields: 4 grams in a one-cup 115-calorie serving.

If you want to ease yourself into eating hominy, try this outstanding posole recipe, submitted by Gringo Chef Extraordinaire Kelly O’Connor:

Gringo Posole

• 1 pork shoulder
• 3 14-oz cans hominy
• 4 6-oz cans salsa verde
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• Radishes, cilantro and lime to garnish

Instructions:

• Brown pork shoulder in pan and put in slow cooker or pressure cooker until it’s done and shreds easily
• Cook onions and garlic in pork pan
• Add green salsa and cook for a few minutes
• Add chicken broth, shred pork and add to soup
• Drain hominy and add to soup
• Simmer
• Serve with shredded lettuce, radishes, cilantro and lime

The study – conducted by researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University interviewed 2,834 men and women aged 32-83. The participants were subjected to measurements of their visceral fat. Visceral fat – also called belly fat, or the type of fat you find in apple-shaped people – appears to be more unhealthy than having fat located in other areas of your body such as those that have a pear-shaped body type. Visceral fat can more readily leech into the bloodstream and is metabolized in a way that negatively alters blood lipid levels.

The key to this study is that high whole grain intake doesn’t matter if it is accompanied by equally high refined grain intake. In the study, those who ate more than four servings of refined grains in a day did not show lower levels of visceral fat levels – despite their whole grain intake.

Here are some examples of what constitutes a whole grain serving:

• One slice of 100% whole wheat bread
• 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal
• 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice

To learn more about whole grains vs. refined grains – check out the MyPyramid.gov page on the Grains Group.

Wondering what you can use canned pumpkin for besides pumpkin pie? Try this great sugar-free pumpkin mousse recipe:

• 3 cups skim milk
• 1 large package sugar-free vanilla pudding (8 servings/package)
• 1 15-oz. canned pumpkin
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tub Cool Whip

Instructions:

• Pour cold milk slowly over pudding and whisk until smooth
• Stir in canned pumpkin & add pumpkin pie spice mix
• Fold in cool whip
• Refrigerate & serve

Servings: 8. Per serving: 90 calories, 2.5 grams fat, 1.5 grams fiber, 3 grams protein, 200 mg calcium

The seeded spelt snack flat is an outstanding, crisp and delicious USDA organic product made from spelt flour, sunflower seeds, whole grain spelt flour, sesame seeds and flaxseeds. Each 55 calorie cracker has 2 grams of fiber and only 85 mg sodium.

You can order their product on Amazon and the products come in eight different flavors, including pumpkin cheddar and cherry semolina. If you’re looking for more ways to incorporate whole grains into your diet – consider Doctor Kracker as a healthy alternative to your high fat, high salt, low fiber refined wheat cracker.

• Americans eat less whole grains than the 3 servings per day the 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommend:
  • 0.63 servings per day for adults aged 19-50 and
  • 0.77 servings per day for adults aged 51+
• …But, for those who ate the most servings of whole grains, the quality of their diet was:
  • Better when it came to overall calories, fiber and polyunsaturated fatty acids and t
  • They ate less of the bad stuff (added sugars, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and cholesterol and most vitamins and minerals)

The study is based on a “new definition” of whole grain that calculates whole grain intake without added bran and pearled barley.

One problem in assessing whole grain intake is the problem that scientists can’t even agree on what a whole grain is. Some groups say a whole grain is a food that contains 51% or more whole-grain ingredient(s) by weight per reference amount customarily consumed; whereas other groups propose that whole grains should be those with 25% or more whole grain or bran content by weight.

The USDA’s (new) Pyramid Servings Database measures whole grain foods – but provides information with and without added bran and pearled barley, which alter measurements depending upon your definition of a whole grain. To complicate matters, assessment instruments used to determine whole grain measurements also differ from study group to study group.

Regardless – the study points out what all nutrition professionals would recommend: a diet rich in whole grains is inherently more healthy than one in refined grains; and, most Americans could stand to eat more whole grains.

September is “Fruits & Vegetables – More Matters Month.” Too bad Americans’ fruit and vegetable intake doesn’t seem to care.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control says that not one US state met the Healthy People 2010 Objectives for fruit and vegetable consumption in 2000-2009. The 2010 Objectives aim for increasing to:

• 75% the proportion of Americans aged 2+ who eat two or more servings of fruit and increasing to
• 50% the proportion of Americans aged 2+ who eat three or more servings of vegetables a day

You can check out what percentage of your state ate 2+ servings of fruit or 3+ servings of vegetables per day by looking at the CDC report tables listed here.

While it is no secret that PomWonderful has been self-funding the “$34 million in medical research” supporting pomegranate health benefits – apparently they crossed the line with a number of unsubstantiated health claims in publications like Parade, Fitness, Prevention and the New York Times, – namely that PomWonderful:

• Causes a 30% decrease in arterial plaque formation
• Slowed PSA doubling time by 350% in subjects with advanced prostate cancer
• …and most shockingly – is 40% as effective as Viagra!

PomWonderful claims have traditionally circled around the fruit’s “antioxidant” properties. But not surprisingly, all fruits and many vegetables contain antioxidants. Antioxidants neutralize reactive oxygen molecules and prevent cell damage – so they’re good for you; but not so good you need to spend $4 on a bulbous bottle of unnecessarily refrigerated pomegranate juice.

Beta carotene (a vitamin A precursor), vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium are antioxidants that are widespread in fruits and vegetables – although the extend to which antioxidants play a role in human disease prevention is not entirely understood. If you’re fortunate to find pomegranate in its original form – the seeds are an excellent source of dietary fiber. One half cup has 3.5 grams of fiber in only 75 calories.

But really – there’s nothing magical about the pomegranate – except that the founder, Lynda Resnick, inherited a piece of property that had pomegranates growing on it and she wisely parlayed it into a multi-million dollar empire. She also acquired Fiji Water in 2004 – so, overly-priced commodity items packaged in fancy bottles is kind of her forte!

Kudos to the FTC for jumping in where the FDA falls flat. The PomWonderful complaint comes on the heels of an earlier FTC investigation on Kellogg’s “Immunity” claims plastered across their kids’ cereals like Rice Krispies and Frosted Mini Wheats.

To read the FTC’s PomWonderful complaint – click here. PomWonderful’s response (“Stop Persecuting Pomegranates”) is here.

In their new report Fiber Food Ingredients in the US: Soluble-, Insoluble- and Digestive-Resistant Types market research firm Packaged Fact predicts that novel fibers – which maintained a 5% market share in 2004 – will make up 39% by 2014.

In the US, the soluble fiber market is expected to experience the most growth. According to Nutra ingredients-usa.com‘s review of the same report:

• The fiber market in the US was worth $193 million in 2004
• $176 million (91%) of that was from insoluble fiber and $16.6 million (9%) was from soluble
• The report authors predict growth in the US to surpass $470 million by 2011 (a 240% increase in just 7 years)
• The soluble fiber portion of the market is expected to increase significantly compared to insoluble fiber

Other industry watch-dogs predict continued growth and interest in fiber, with an increase in novel fibers expected to lead the way. Novel fibers include soluble fibers like inulin, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), galactooligosaccharides (GOS), soluble corn fiber and other resistant fibers like resistant maltodextrin – all of which are increasingly being added to processed foods, and some of which lead to unpleasant GI side effects, as covered in a previous post.

While the rise in interest in dietary fiber is promising, the focus on added fibers in processed and packaged foods at the expense of ignoring naturally-occurring sources leaves room for concern.

Prunes.

Is it the fiber?

Surprisingly, no.

Prunes – which are now euphemistically called “dried plums” – have some fiber, about 8 grams per 1 cup of pitted plums; but their famous “laxation effect” comes from sorbitol, a naturally occurring sugar alcohol which you find also added to sugar-free candy, sugar-free chocolate and other sugar-free foods that can yield some nasty GI side effects.

Sorbitol absorbs water and makes foods heavier as they transit through your gut fighting and reversing constipation; the fiber in prunes helps – but it’s the sorbitol doing most of the work.

If you’re interested in prunes and sorbitol, nationally syndicated nutrition columnist Ed Blonz just did a great article on the topic – you can check it out here. If you’re not familiar with Blonz, don’t be put off by his website – he is no graphic designer – but he is most certainly a very well-respected authority in nutrition science with a great knack for answering complicated nutrition questions in a straightforward and evidence-based manner!

The California Dried Plum Board has more information about the relationship between prunes and digestive health on their website www.tummywise.com.

Baby carrot manufacturers are responding to a dip in sales and hope to re-brand their product as an “extreme” snacking alternative. Two seconds on their site – www.babycarrots.com – and you’ll be extremely annoyed with the theme “song”…but, the idea is to re-program the way you think about baby carrots.

Sure, it’s hard to make carrots cool, but the baby carrot folks have a lot going for them. The fact that their industry even exists is based on a stroke of pure genius by California farmer Mike Yurosek: take unusable and unsellable nubs of bigger carrots and grind them down to finger-size “baby” carrots. You eliminate the most annoying part of eating carrots – the peeling – and you get to mark the price up because of the convenience you’re affording your customers!

According to the USDA Nutrient Database, each medium-sized baby carrot has 0.3 grams of fiber – so every three baby carrots is about 1 gram of fiber and you would need 15 baby carrots to get a 5 gram serving – or roughly, 1/6 of your daily fiber needs.

Two-thirds of the baby carrots sold in the US are grown in Bakersfield, CA. And, The World Carrot Museum (that’s right) has some more history on the baby carrot, available here.

Today’s email newsletter topic is “The Truth About Fiber” where the authors pose nine “True or False” statements about fiber. The nine mini-articles give answers that are based on information and data largely supported by the general nutrition community.

There is however, one rather controversial topic where the Eat This Not That! authors take a unique approach to answering a much asked question – and one covered in a previous blog post: “How much fiber do you need per day?”

The Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) Committee of the Institute of Medicine says males aged 50 and younger need 38 grams of dietary fiber per day (that’s the highest of any age/gender group). But the Men’s Health authors say that the 38 gram recommendation is bunk because it’s based on three studies where the participants didn’t even average as much as 38 grams per day. “In fact, people saw maximum benefits with a daily gram intake averaging from the high 20s to the low 30s.”

It’s important to point out that the DRI recommendation for fiber is what’s called an “Adequate Intake” level, or AI recommendation. An AI is used when there’s not enough data to set a “Recommended Dietary Allowance” level. RDAs are pretty solid and they are set when scientists are pretty certain that the amount of a nutrient they are recommending meets the needs of 98% of  people in that particular age and gender group. So, when there’s not enough data for an RDA, they settle on AI, which is indicative of a lack of consensus, or really, a scientific shot in the dark.

Confusing? Yes. Bottom line: the average American eats only 14 grams of dietary fiber per day (Anderson et al., 2005). Regardless of whether you need fiber in the 20s, 30s or 38 grams per day – as a population, we’re not eating enough. And despite the ubiquity of dietary fiber in our highly processed and packaged food environment, whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes remain the most simple sources of dietary fiber for all populations – no matter how much you need per day.

Burger King’s press release touts the revised bun has “eight grams of whole grains”, but no info on how many grams of fiber this equates to or how it compares to the original. The bun no doubt remains your typical highly-refined white bread product with some whole grains thrown in for good measure.

Their online nutrition information tracker (pictured above) does not include dietary fiber and as of this posting, the  company’s web-based nutrition information does not reflect the new changes.

While Burger King can be commended for focusing on increasing the number of choices under 650 calories available in their BK Positives Steps program, they’re not breaking any ground with fast food fiber content.

Both flavors – Strawberry Banana and Wild Berry – have fruit puree as their first ingredient, followed up by sugar in 2nd place, low fat yogurt (which also has added sugar) and ice.

A large (22 oz) Wild Berry Smoothie has 320 calories, 4 grams of fiber and 69 grams of added sugar. If you’re not sure what 69 grams of added sugar looks like, it’s slightly more than a 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Compare that to a McDonald’s small Chocolate Triple Thick Shake which only has 63 grams of added sugar!

McDonald’s Real Fruit Smoothies are basically fat free milkshakes. They’re lower in calories than the shakes, but they are by no means a health food! There are 2-4 grams of fiber in a smoothie – but for 210-330 calories, it’s hardly worth sucking that down just for the fiber. Your average piece of fresh fruit has 4 grams of fiber for less than 100 calories.

McDonald’s does sell Apple Dippers – which even after the smoothie introduction – remains their only “Real Fruit” offering.

According to the United States Potato Board the average American consumes 125 pounds of potatoes per year. Potatoes often get a bad nutritional rap: in their original form they’re fine – but most Americans like their potatoes fried in oil and salted to the max. The majority of US potatoes are turned into frozen french fries:

• 34% of American potatoes are consumed as frozen french fries
• 27% as Fresh potatoes
• 13% as potato chips

Not surprisingly Idaho is the top potato producing state, followed by Washington, Wisconsin, Colorado and North Dakota.

If you like potatoes, keep them baked or boiled and away from the salt and fat. Potatoes are a rather nutrient rich carbohydrate choice, but the calories can creep up if portion sizes do.

On this National Potato Day, expand your potato horizons by trying this easy, nutritious and delicious Roasted Sweet Potato recipe from Cooking Light Magazine.

This week though, Kellogg’s has announced that it is reformulating some of its cereals with added fiber. The FDA says that in order to call your product a “good source of dietary fiber”, it has to have 2.5 – 4.9 grams per serving. (A “high fiber” food has 5 or more.) The newly revised Special K cereals have 3 grams of fiber.

There will be no changes to the original Special K product, so that product will go on letting you down shortly after breakfast! For some better breakfast ideas, check out these previous posts on oatmeal, breakfast sandwiches and high fiber muffins.

I – along with most registered dietitians – am confused as to how Sun Chips obtained their “health halo”. Sure, they have 30% less fat than regular potato chips, but that alone does not a health food make!

Sun Chips have the same basic recipe as all chips: starch fried in fat. Granted, Sun Chips went to the effort to include whole wheat and whole oat flour as the starch they’re frying (along with corn).

When it comes to fiber, Sun Chips traditionally had 2 grams of fiber for the 18 grams of whole grain they advertise (per 1 oz serving – you try stopping at 1 oz, about 16 chips). You can see the 2 grams of fiber reviewed in a 2009 blog review by another dietitian.

Now, in 2010, I noticed that Sun Chips are mysteriously touting 3 grams of fiber, for that same 18 grams of whole grain and 1 oz serving. Understanding how this happened probably requires an advanced degree in Food Manufacturer Sorcery – but more likely, it has to do with decreasing white flour and increasing whole grain flours (but still frying it all up in sunflower oil).

While Sun Chips aren’t the worst of the worst when it comes to nutritional profile for chips (Frito Lay’s Fritos are) – keep in mind that Sun Chips are a SOMETIMES food. An occasional one-ounce serving of Sun Chips with 140 calories, 6 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber isn’t going to kill you. But don’t think they’re going to be the basis of a healthy whole-grain based diet.

You should be looking for minimally processed, naturally occurring whole grains to fill the base of your diet. For a list of whole grain ideas, check out this previous post with its list of whole grains and not whole grains.

An August 1, 2010 Chicago Tribune article covered bread sales in the past year, citing a Nielsen Co. report that for the 52 weeks ending July 10, wheat bread sales increased 0.6% to $2.6 billion as white bread sales declined 7% to $2.5 billion. White bread still leads in volume of loaves sold – but because whole grain and whole wheat breads cost more per loaf, their total sales came out on top.

The primary impetus for the boost in sales appears to be increasing consumer knowledge about the benefits and sources of whole grains. But there is obviously a lot more educating to be done…

This story’s victim is Kendra Frost, a first-time single mom with her own small business who says, “I like the whole grain, but I usually try and go with the least expensive whole grain…I look for the thick pieces that you can see the grains on the top of the bread.”

Kendra – darling, you have fallen for the oldest trick in the book! Manufacturers LOVE to take (cheap) white bread, dye it brown & sprinkle it with grainy-looking stuff to make you THINK it’s whole grain. It might have a speck of whole grain in the recipe, but the likelihood of that bread being 100% whole grain or 100% whole wheat is nil!

The proof is in the Nutrition Facts panel and the Ingredients List. If your bread doesn’t say at least 3 grams of dietary fiber per slice and if the first ingredient isn’t Whole Wheat or Whole Grain Flour – put it back on the shelf!

But congratulations to all of you out there who HAVE your learned your lesson and who are making highly refined grain processors think twice about littering our aisles with  worthless white bread!

First of all – don’t be fooled by any omega-3 product that touts the benefits of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). Food manufacturers want you to confuse ALA with the two healthier types of omega-3 fatty acids: EPA & DHA. EPA & DHA are found in fatty fish like salmon and trout and fish oil capsules and have demonstrated positive effects on brain and neurological development.

The American Heart Association recommends an average of 400-500 mg EPA + DHA per day for people without heart disease and 1,000 mg for people with heart disease. Eating 2-3 servings of fish per week averages out to somewhere between 500-1,000 mg EPA + DHA per day; people who don’t eat fish should consider getting their EPA + DHA from fish oil capsules.

ALA is the type of omega-3 found in flax, soy, and canola; it’s a shorter-chain fatty acid that no doubt has health benefits, but not nearly the beneficial effects of EPA & DHA. Our bodies convert very little ALA to EPA and no ALA to DHA. So the bottom line is, most people stand to benefit from increasing the amount of EPA + DHA in their diets but don’t have to worry about increasing ALA which is found in adequate amounts in most people’s diets.

There’s no nutritional information on this new bread on Subway’s website, but the posters at Subway say a 230 calorie 6″ serving has 4 grams of fiber and 500 mg of ALA, with no mention of EPA + DHA (the only type of omega-3 fatty acids you probably should be consuming more of). The highest fiber traditional sandwich bread at Subway is a 6″ Honey-Oat bread has 280 calories and 5 grams of fiber. There are no 100% whole wheat options in 6″ size; but, for a lot less calories, the Subway breakfast sandwiches on English Muffins have 5 grams of fiber.

And, despite some of Subway’s nutritional shortcomings, they do have a sweet custom gift card you can design on their website with your own photo. To check it out: click here .

What’s a drupe? It’s a fruit that has a fibrous outer cover, fleshy middle and one pit or stone – also called stone fruit. Drupes include peaches, plums, and at this time of year – the ubiquitous cherry.

The June 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association features an article entitled “Gastrointestinal Tolerance of Chicory Inulin Products.” In it, researchers from the University of  Minnesota (and Cargill, Inc.) set out to determine at what dose does added inulin fibers in food cause unwanted gastrointestinal disturbances.

With the introduction of their FiberPlus Antioxidants bars, Kellogg’s is going head to head with General Mills’ popular FiberOne bars. Previous Kellogg’s bar offerings didn’t have much in the way of nutrition: the Special K Cereal Bars had less than 1 gram of fiber and just 1 gram of protein for 9 grams of sugar – basically a breakfast cookie, that with only 90 calories and no fiber or protein, left you feeling pretty hungry, pretty quickly.

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day – but until recently, it had been pretty hard to get a good-tasting, moderate-calorie, high-fiber option on the go. Two ubiquitous outlets – Subway and Starbucks – now have high-fiber breakfast offerings that nutritionally outperform almost everything else in their market.

• Reduced fat turkey bacon sandwich: 340 calories, 10 g fat, 22 g protein and 3 g fiber
• Spinach, roasted tomato, feta & egg white wrap: 280 calories, 10 g fat, 18 g protein and 6 g fiber

• Organic Unbleached Wheat Flour
• Organic Brown Rice Syrup
• Organic Sunflower Oil
• Salt
• Yeast
• Soda

Have you ever heard people (maybe you?) complain that eating breakfast actually leaves you feeling more hungry later in the morning? This happens when the foods you choose for breakfast are too low in fiber. Eating a cereal like Special K or Rice Krispies – which are high in carbohydrate but have very little or no fiber – fills you up quickly but empties your stomach quickly, resulting in “rebound hunger”.

• 1/2 or 1 ripe, mashed banana (a great way to get rid of bananas that are going rotten, provides 1-3 grams extra fiber)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh fruit such as nectarines, apricots or even apples (2-3 grams extra fiber)
• 1/4 cup raisins (2 grams extra fiber)
• 1/2 cup blueberries (2 grams extra fiber)

Most Americans know lima beans as the green – usually Fordhook – frozen variety found in our grocery stores. But the Greeks…they know lima beans!

• 1 lb dried lima beans (butter beans work well too – soak either overnight)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes with juice (Rotelle works as well)
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 5-6 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3-5 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 Tbs tomato juice (V-8 is fine)
• 2 Tbs fresh dill, chopped
• Extra hot water to cover the beans by about 1 inch

1. Soak the beans overnight
2. Preheat oven to 400°F
3. Mix beans with all ingredients except additional water
4. Place mixture in large, flat baking or casserole dish
5. Cover with enough hot water to rise 1 inch above bean
6. Cook for 2-2 1/2 hours or until beans are done

A study published in this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine indicates that substituting brown rice for white rice can help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

If you’re like me, you like a high-carb, nutritionally void snack every once in awhile. Enter Stacy’s Pita Chips. Somehow, pita chips have gotten a not-altogether-deserved “health halo” in the consumer’s eye. They’re usually only slightly healthier than regular chips, due mostly to the fact that they’re baked (with some fat added) instead of fried. They are generally low in fiber and high in salt – your standard carb-y snack food. Not bad, but not great.

Muffins can be a health-conscious person’s downfall. Portion sizes have ballooned over the years, and it’s not unusual to see a commercial muffin contain over 400 calories. And because you should include some fiber at each meal, a good breakfast means you need a good dose of fiber.

• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon baking poweder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not thaw)

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

A study published in the May 25, 2010 issue of Circulation finds that people with diabetes who eat more whole grains are less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than are people with diabetes who have low whole grain intakes.

• Fiber
• Bran
• Germ

• Eat 100% whole grains that naturally contain bran
• Avoid refined, processed and “enriched” flours that remove bran during processing
• Choose whole grain cereals, bran flakes, oat bran, All-bran

• Stone ground whole wheat flour
• Hulled sesame seed
• Toasted wheat germ
• Oat bran, and
• Flaxseed

If you live on the East Coast or the Southeast of the US, there’s a good chance you have access to Herr’s Snack Foods. If you do, you’ll want to check out Herr’s Whole Grain Pretzel Sticks. These are far and away the best tasting whole grain pretzels out there – they’re crunchy and salty with a hint of rye and sesame. And the best part is: they’re made from actual whole grains, not the fake, added isolated fibers you see in so many other, new “high-fiber” foods.

• Whole grain wheat flour (the first ingredient)
• Flax seed
• Rye flour
• Barley flour
• Oat flour
• Poppy seeds
• Sesame seeds
• Caraway seeds
• Buckwheat flour, and
• Flax flour

It’s pretty hard to find a good tasting high-fiber cracker. You would think “wheat” or “stone-ground wheat” crackers would naturally be good sources of fiber – but, like most packaged and processed foods, they’re made from enriched and refined white flour, and often have at most 1 gram of fiber per serving. Here’s what’s traditionally been wrong with some of the cracker offerings out there:

• Nabisco’s Wheatsworth crackers (of “stone ground wheat” fame) have 1 gram of fiber and lots of white flour
• Kashi TLC Crackers have less than 1 gram of fiber and low-fiber unbleached wheat flour as their first ingredient – disappointing from a brand that usually puts out some impressive high-fiber foods
• Kellogg’s All Bran crackers have five grams of fiber – but they also all have a weird cinnamon taste to all of the flavors, probably needed to mask the taste of added isolated fiber ingredients needed to get to 5 grams of fiber per serving
• Wasa’s Whole Grain crackers are pretty good, light in calories for 2 grams of naturally-occurring fiber; but your friends make fun of you when you serve kind-of-cardboard crackers at cocktail parties

• Whole grain wheat flour (the first ingredient – a good sign)
• Oat fiber
• Golden flax seed
• Whole grain barley flakes
• Cracked whole wheat, and
• Whole grain rolled oats

Wheaties Fuel is a newly formulated breakfast cereal recipe from Wheaties, “co-created with a team of today’s elite champions including Peyton Manning, Albert Pujols, Kevin Garnett…designed for the active individual.” While the attempt at reformulating an old classic is noble – it’s probably unnecessary.

• Corn bran
• Maltodextrin
• Wheat bran

Celery gets a bad rap – for a lot of bad reasons. Maybe you’ve read that celery is a “negative calorie” food – as in you burn more calories chewing a stalk of celery than you actually get from the celery itself. Another constant comment, “oh celery…that’s a waste: just water and nothing else good for you.” So what’s the deal – and how does celery really stack up from a nutrition standpoint?

• High water content helps with hydration
• Naturally low in salt
• Good source of vitamins A & C
• Cholesterol and fat free
• Low calorie means you can munch freely

• Stir-fry celery
• Top salads with celery
• Add to salsa, soups or coleslaw

Chia seeds have been in the news lately as a nutritious additive to foods. Although they’ve been part of indigenous Central American diets for millennia, popularity in the US skyrocketed with the 2009 publication of the book Born to Run. Author Christopher McDougall writes about the Tarahumara people of Mexico who are known for their extreme running talents and a diet heavy on the chia seed. From there to shout outs on the Huffington Post and Livestrong.com – and even the American Dietetic Association getting on board – 2009-2010 has been good business for chia seed people.

• Lower triglycerides
• Lower blood pressure
• Lower cholesterol