Dangerous Diet Drinks

I wanted to write this post about diet drinks because there has been so much information in the news lately about them.  I am a former Diet Dr. Pepper fan, I've been off of it for a couple of months and don't even crave it anymore.  Do you notice that once you drink diet drinks you start to crave them?  That's because artificial sweeteners trick your brain into thinking you are eating something sweet, and the cravings begin.  Even though the artificial sweeteners don't have calories, they are still affecting the brain the way sugar does.  

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER DRINK DIET DRINKS (or give them to your children)

All diet sodas, Crystal Light, "light" yogurt, reduced sugar or sugar free products, Roaring Waters Capri Sun, and more.

1.  They increase the risk of diabetes 

-  a study published in the journal "Diabetes Care" in Jan. of 2009 found that people who drink diet soda daily have a 36% greater risk of metabolic syndrome (a group of risk factors that raise the risk of diabetes, stroke, and heart attack).  

- the same study found that daily diet soda drinkers had a 67% increased risk of diabetes!!!  67%!  

2.  There is a link between diet drinks and depression.  In one study individuals who drank diet soda had a 30% greater chance of depression over the period of 10 years.  It can also lead to preterm delivery.

3.  The caramel coloring in sodas is linked with hypertension (high blood pressure).  It isn't the caffeine in sodas that raises blood pressure, it's the additive that gives it that nice brown color.  Check food labels because caramel coloring is added to a lot of other processed foods.  (I even found it in granola bars)

4.  ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS - this is by far the greatest reason why you should not drink diet drinks or give them to your children, or your elderly parents!  Most sodas contain aspartame.  Some of the newer sodas contain aspartame and sucralose (Splenda).  Splenda is also an artificial sweetener that is chemically created and is linked to its own list of dangerous side effects.  But why is aspartame so bad?  It's found in a lot of reduced sugar foods and drinks, so it must be safe, right?

- Aspartame is considered an excitotoxin (it's a new word for me too).  Excitotoxins can get into the brain and literally excite the neurons to death, which leads to cell damage, which leads to brain damage, which can lead to other problems like dementia or Alzheimers.  If you are pregnant, excitotoxins also cross the placental barrier, causing problems in unborn children.

-  One other example of an excitotoxin is glutamate (found in MSG).  Both glutamate and aspartame are supposed to stay away from the brain and only be in our blood streams.  However, the blood-brain barrier that keeps these kinds of molecules out is not always functioning 100%.  Children's blood-brain barriers are still developing, so there are "holes" or places where things can sneak through, and lead to over stimulation (ie: temper tantrums and bad behavior).  It's important to know though that there might not be any outward symptoms to alert you to the damage, you may not find out for years that parts of your brain are affected.  

-  Older people also need to be concerned because as we age, the blood-brain barrier breaks down, especially if you have had a stroke, blunt head trauma, or brain injury.  Some studies have suggested a link between excitotoxins like aspartame and glutamate (MSG) and Alzheimer's.  In a person who is already genetically predisposed to Alzheimers, these chemicals simply speed up the process and possibly increase the damage.  

-  it can be easy to avoid giving aspartame to our children or ourselves, but avoiding MSG is much trickier.  My first blog post lists some of the sneaky names that it hides behind (yeast extract, hydrolyzed protein, natural flavors, and about 37 more).  In general, most processed foods in boxes and bags on the grocery store shelves contain MSG.  If you consume MSG with your breakfast, by the time it's out of your system it's time for lunch.  And then dinner.  You can easily keep a steady stream of glutamate in your body or in your child's body.

How do I eliminate MSG from my diet?

- stop eating processed foods

-  eat more fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables

- make your own broth for soup, taco seasoning, enchilada sauce, etc.

- cook your own rice and refried beans, most packaged rice foods contain msg for flavoring.  I even saw quinoa at the store with msg in it, and most people think of quinoa as a health food.

- avoid deli meats and sausages

- eat plain potato chips, all of the flavored ones contain msg, especially Doritos.

It does take more time.  And it means more cooking from scratch, with whole ingredients.  But it's worth it.

"Sugar, Salt, Fat - How the Food Giants Hooked Us" Part 2

CHEESE

"Sugar, Salt, Fat - How the Food Giants Hooked Us"  by Michael Moss Part 2

FAT

This past week I got to the second section of Michael Moss's book which focused on FAT.  Most people agree that fat is bad for you and that it can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.  A lot of this section focused on cheese and how Americans on average, eat 33 pounds of cheese per year!  The amount that we eat has more than tripled since the 1970s when cheese was becoming a bigger part of our diet.  

About 40-50 years ago, the dairy industry was producing too much milk.  There was more milk than Americans would drink.  They didn't want to reduce their production, otherwise it would not be profitable.  The government stepped in to subsidize milk and they purchased all of the milk that the dairy farms were unable to sell.  As a result, the government had this huge amount of milk that they needed to store.

Back in the 1970s, people were starting to pay attention to fat levels in milk.  They had 4 choices - whole, 2%, 1%, and skim.  More people were switching to the lower fat milks and as a result, the dairy industry also had a lot of milk fat accumulating that they did not need.  (In reality, whole milk is just 3% fat so if you switch from whole to 2% you are not making much of a change).  They started to store their excess milk and milk fat in these underground storage areas in Kansas.  When the Reagan administration started, the government was spending 1 million dollars per day for storage!  Reagan wanted to balance the budget so he put a stop to the government subsidization of milk.

Now what were they going to do with all of that excess milk and milk fat?  Make a lot of cheese!  Up until this point, cheese was a food that was enjoyed once in awhile, and it was usually eaten on its own before or after a meal, not added to other foods.  Large amounts of cheese started to be produced and most people did not know that cheeses are high in fat - 1 oz. of cheddar cheese contains 6g of saturated fat which is 30% of your daily recommended amount!  And that is in just 1 oz.  I don't know about you, but when I do consume cheese, it's a lot more than that!  Cheddar cheese is 75% fat and more and more convenience products were being invented that contained cheese.  The government also invested in programs to convince Americans that we needed more milk and cheese!  I'm sure most of us can remember the "Got Milk?" campaign that started in 1993 and other campaigns that we were exposed to in elementary school.

A  lot of people eat cheese several times per day, and most of it is not part-skim mozzarella.  High levels of saturated fat in our diets directly leads to high cholesterol.  Want an easy way to lower cholesterol quickly?  Give up animal foods (meat, dairy) and your cholesterol will drop drastically because animal foods are the only dietary source of cholesterol.  Your body makes what it needs and we don't need to take in more cholesterol through our diet.  Plant foods contain 0g of cholesterol.  The last time I had my cholesterol checked it was 111.  

Here are some easy ways to reduce your cheese consumption:

-  Substitute guacamole or salsa for cheese in Mexican dishes.  Avocados are high in fat - but in polyunsaturated fats which are good for you.

-  Make your own pizza and put lots of veggies on top and either skip the cheese or only use a little

-  Try soy or rice cheeses.  The kinds sold by Kroger here are not good, but I have heard that Whole Foods and Trader Joes sell better kinds.

-  If you do eat cheese, choose part-skim mozzarella or Neufchatel cheese (reduced fat cream cheese)

- Substitute avocado slices, onions, peppers, and/or tomatoes on your sandwiches instead of cheese.  My favorite sandwich right now is avocado, tomato, and mustard.  And they will make it for you at Panera if you ask!

- Pay attention to how much cheese is in convenience foods.  Look at the fat content.  If the amount of fat calories is more than 50% of the total calories, skip it.  To find fat calories look at the top of the food label, or multiply the grams of fat by 9.

"Salt, Sugar, and Fat - How the Food Giants Hooked Us"

I recently started reading "Salt, Sugar, Fat - How the Food Giants Hooked Us" by Michael Moss.  I stumbled upon his book after reading an article in the NY Times about how food companies have added so  much junk to their foods, that we can't stop craving it.  And, if they reduce the amount of one ingredient (sugar), they have to increase another ingredient (fat) to make up for the taste difference.  We now think that this is how foods should taste.  The book so far is excellent, it's divided into 3 parts (Salt, Sugar, Fat) and it starts out with a litte

In 1947 a man named Clausi was hired by General Foods and one of his first assignments was to create an instant pudding for Jello.  Up until this point you could only buy the cook-and-serve type of pudding which could take hours to prepare and chill.  It took him years to meet this goal because General Foods only wanted him to use pure ingredients and he wasn't able to make the pudding gel correctly.  Then, a competitor came out with their own patent for instant pudding, and all of the rules went out the window.  General Foods told Clausi that he could use whatever additives he needed - they just wanted an instant pudding that could be ready in 30 minutes.  He added two chemicals to the recipe and it worked!  And Jello instant pudding was added to the growing list of convenience foods sweeping the country.

At this time in  history, women were starting to enter the workforce and needed more convenient foods to prepare for their families.  They used to spend hours in the kitchen cooking foods from scratch, and now they needed things they could just open and heat.  During this time home economics teachers were still teaching students how to grocery shop on a budget and cook healthy food from scratch.  Their instruction was going against what the food companies were trying to sell with their convenience products that weren't so healthy.  Betty Dickson was a well-known home ec teacher at the time who had won an award for her teaching, so the convenience world invented their own figure - Betty Crocker.  And the world of boxed cake mixes began.

From this point on the major food companies realized that to make a profit, foods needed to taste good.  In order for that to happen, they needed a lot of sugar, salt, and/or fat.  Cereal was invented and some contained as much as 50% sugar!  Soft drinks grew in popularity and sweetened fruit beverages became a daily treat for kids.  One beverage - Capri Sun - has some flavors that contain more sugar than soda (Wild Cherry).  They also label their pouches with "natural fruit drink" and "all natural ingredients" because of the presence of fruit concentrate (a stripped version of juice that is mostly sugar, devoid of the fiber, flavors, and aromas of real fruit).  One grandmother sued Capri Sun when she realized that its ingredients were virtually identical to soda and not "all natural".  Eighteen days later Kraft decided to change the labeling to "no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives".  Some foods are also labeled with "reduced sugar", because when they switched from real sugar to high fructose corn syrup, less syrup is required to achieve the same sweet taste.  Thus, the amount of sweetener was reduced.  

This book does get me all fired up!  I know that food companies want to make a profit and that is their main concern, but I can't help feeling tricked by some of their schemes.  And the more sugary cereal, fruit drinks, soda, and oreos I eat, the more I want.  There is definitely an addictive component to sugar in that it acts similar to some drugs in how it affects the brain.  

Black Bean Burgers (Easy and cheap)

Easiest Black Bean Burger Recipe

From :  "Everything Vegan Cookbook"

It's finally warm outside, and that always makes me want hamburgers or something on the grill!  This is the best recipe I have found for veggie burgers, we do buy the frozen ones occasionally, but they are tough and flavorless compared to this black bean burger.  Plus, they often have egg whites in them.   I really, really wish my kids would try beans, but for now they will not, so they had a separate dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

1 15-oz can black beans, drained *

3 T. minced onion

1 t. salt

1 1/2 t. garlic powder

2 t. parsley

I t. chili powder

2/3 cup flour (I use whole wheat)

Oil for pan frying

Directions:

1.  Process the black beans in a blender or food processor until halfway mashed, or mash with a fork.

2.  Add minced onions, salt, garlic powder, parsley, and chili powder and mash to combine.

3.  Add flour, a bit at a time, again mashing together to combine.  You may need a little bit more or less than 2/3 cup.  Beans should stick together completely.

4.  Form into patties and pan fry in a bit of oil for 2-3 minutes on each side.  Patties will appear to be done on the outside while still a bit mushy on the inside, so fry them a few minutes longer than you think they need.

Makes 4-6 burgers, depending on size

*I try to buy organic black beans if they are on sale (usually $1/can).  Almost all cans have BPA in their lining, Kroger did state in 2011 that they were switching to BPA free cans, but I haven't heard anything else about it.  At the natural food stores they probably sell Eden's beans which are BPA free but a lot more expensive.

Tofu Nuggets and Sweet Potato Fries

There is one tofu recipe that we have almost weekly, mostly because the kids like it.  It's very easy and low-fat because the tofu is baked and not fried.  You can buy tofu at WalMart near the carrots and at Kroger in the front "healthy" section with soy milk.  Make sure you buy organic tofu (it's usually the same price) so it doesn't contain any GMOs.  

Tofu Nuggets

1 16.oz package extra firm organic tofu

cooking spray

salt

pepper

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Drain your tofu.  You can also press it to get out more of the water, this will make the nuggets chewier and not as soft.  Place the tofu on a paper towel on a plate, put another plate on top of the tofu, and place a canned food on top.  Let it sit that way for an hour, then squeeze the tofu over the sink with  more paper towels to get the water out.  You can also microwave the tofu with a paper towel on top for 1 minute, that does help some and its a faster method.

2.  Cut the tofu into small squares or rectangles.  You can make them any size, the smaller they are the faster they will cook.  The thinner they are, the faster they will cook.

3.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.  Place the tofu squares in a single layer on the pan.  Spray the tofu with cooking spray, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4.  Bake the tofu for 20-25 min. for each side.  Sometimes, the tofu is done earlier than that, and other times, it takes longer.  Plus, you can play around with the baking time to see which consistency your family likes best.

That's it!  It's full of soy protein, and tofu also contains calcium, which can be hard to get in a vegan diet.  I've read tons of studies about soy, and there are several saying soy is wonderful and lowers the risk of cancer, and others say it can cause more problems.  For me personally, eating soy lowers my hormone levels in my blood which makes my depression better.  More on soy later!  

*I often double the tofu recipe and halve the fries recipe for my family of 5.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2 large sweet potatoes, sliced into fries (I leave the skin on)

2 T. olive oil (I usually use less to lower the fat content)

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/2 t. paprika

1/2 t. brown sugar

1/2 t. chili powder (I use less b/c my kids don't like them spicy)

1/4 t. sea salt

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2.  Spread sweet potatoes on a large baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, tossing gently to coat.

3.  In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients.  Sprinkle over potatoes, coating evenly and tossing as needed.

4.  Bake in over for 15-25 min. on each side, the smaller and thinner the fries, the faster they will cook.  

Food Dyes/Kraft

By now you have probably heard of the petition that has been created to persuade Kraft to remove food dyes from their mac and cheese.  Two women, Vani Hari (www.foodbabe.com) and Lisa Leake (100daysofrealfood.com) have obtained at least 275,000 signatures on the petition for Kraft to stop using yellow dye #5 and #6 in their mac and cheese.  In Europe, these petroleum-based dyes are not used by Kraft, instead they use natural things like beta carotene to give the pasta the same color.  If foods do contain these food dyes in Europe they must contain a warning label that says they may cause hyperactivity and excitability in children.  After multiple taste tests it has been shown that both kinds of mac and cheese taste exactly the same!  So why doesn't Kraft want to remove these harmful food dyes?

The last few months Vani and Lisa have been attempting to contact Kraft to speak with them about their concerns and for months, Kraft has ignored their multiple attempts.  The breakthrough came yesterday when Kraft finally allowed Vani to enter their headquarters in Chicago and speak with them!  Initially, Kraft has repeatedly released statements that they have over 40 different mac and cheese products, and 13 of them do not contain yellow dyes.  However, the ones that do contain the food dyes are the ones targeted to children with cartoon characters on the box.  Also, some of the products without food dyes are in their organic products which are more expensive and harder to find.  And if they can do this in Europe, why not in the US?

The results of their meeting with Kraft are still being released, but according to this radio interview http://wgnradio.com/2013/04/02/food-fight-blogger-at-war-with-mac-cheese/ they do not have future plans to remove the dyes.  And after being asked repeatedly as to why European products do not contain the dyes and US foods do, they continued to say, "I don't know".  

It's not too late to sign the petition!  Go here:

http://www.change.org/petitions/kraft-stop-using-dangerous-food-dyes-in-our-mac-cheese

And it's not just about mac and cheese, a lot of the people who signed the petition do not eat Kraft mac and cheese and do not plan to anytime soon.  But, this petition is a start.  There are so many dangerous chemicals added to American foods that are illegal in other countries and they are impacting our health.  Vani and Lisa received hundreds of letters from parents stating how these food dyes have affected their children and once they were removed from their diet, their symptoms vanished.  

For a list of 13 chemicals allowed in US foods that are banned in other countries, visit http://www.shape.com/blogs/shape-your-life/13-banned-foods-still-allowed-us.  And if you are interested in eating REAL food, check out www.100daysofrealfood.com.