Eat Out Eat Well

Food for Fun and Thought

Were You Told To Eat Your Fruit And Veggies?

By Leave a Comment

Do you remember being told, “Eat your fruit and vegetables?”  I certainly was told that – and I said the same thing to my kids.

I’ve been watching members of my own family – who cover almost a century in age range – happily eat their fruit and vegetables.  Over the past few days I’ve watched a 16 month old gobble up his banana and eat half an avocado giving greater preference to them rather than to his French toast or chicken and pasta.  A three year old went for the blueberries and strawberries decorating her “happy face pancakes” before touching anything else and loves to put blackberries on the tips of her fingers and eat them one by one.

At the other end of the age spectrum, my 95 year old Aunt and 92 year old Mother, raised on a farm, rely on their fruit and vegetables as the mainstays of their diets. My Aunt wanted me to take a banana home to the 16 month old and my Mom routinely brings fruit when she visits her sister.

No one is vegetarian – everyone just naturally prefers a plant-based diet. They do couple their fruit and veggies with meat, fish, dairy, grains, and a whole lot of nuts — and they do have occasional desserts.  What they eat is a Mediterranean style diet – but they wouldn’t describe it as such. It’s just what goes on the table and what they eat and enjoy.  For my Mom and her sister, two out of 13 children, that’s a lot of fruit and veggie nutrients over close to a century’s worth of time.

Why Eating Fruit And Veggies Is A Good Idea

  • They may reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases; help control blood pressure and prevent heart disease and stroke; help to avoid diverticulitis; and guard against two common causes of vision loss, cataracts and macular degeneration.
  • They have a mellowing effect on blood sugar levels that can help keep your appetite in check.
  • They provide essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and other substances that are important for good health.
  • Most of them are filling and are naturally low in fat and calories.
  • They taste good and look great on your plate.

How Much Produce Should You Eat?

Not counting potatoes—which should be considered more of a starch than a vegetable—the average American eats just three servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Dietary guidelines call for 5 to 13 servings of fruit and vegetables a day (2½ to 6½ cups), depending on your caloric intake. A person who needs 2,000 calories a day would need 9 servings, or 4½ cups a day (remember, potatoes don’t count). Aim for a variety of types and colors to give your body the mix of nutrients it needs. The more colorful, the greater the rainbow, the better the nutrition for your body.

Love The Rainbow

Red fruit and vegetables get their color from the pigments lycopene and anthocyanin. Lycopene, found in produce like tomatoes, watermelon, and pink grapefruit, may help reduce the risk of certain cancers, especially prostate cancer.

Anthocyanins, found in strawberries, raspberries, red grapes, and other fruits and vegetables, are powerful antioxidants that protect cells from damage and help with heart health.

Orange and yellow fruit and vegetables get their color from natural plant pigments called carotenoids. Beta-carotene, found in sweet potatoes, pumpkins and carrots, is converted to vitamin A which helps maintain healthy eyes and mucous membranes. Carotenoid-rich foods can also help reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer and can improve immune system function.

Chlorophyll, a natural plant pigment, gives green fruit and vegetables their color. Some greens — like spinach, dark leafy greens, green peppers, peas, cucumbers, and celery — contain lutein which works with zeaxanthin– found in corn, red peppers, oranges, grapes and egg yolks — to help keep your eyes healthy and reduce the risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

Indoles in broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and other cruciferous veggies help protect against some types of cancer. Leafy greens, spinach, and broccoli are great sources of folate, a B vitamin that helps reduce risk of birth defects.

Blue and purple fruit and vegetables get their color from natural plant pigments called anthocyanins, like those found in  blueberries and grapes.  They are powerful antioxidants that protect cells from damage and may help reduce risk of cancer, stroke, and heart disease. Blueberry consumption has also been linked with improved memory function and healthy aging.

White fruit and vegetables, colored by pigments called anthoxanthins, contain allicin — which might help lower cholesterol and blood pressure and possibly help reduce the risk of stomach cancer and heart disease.

A Cup Is A Cup Except . . .

A cup is a household measuring cup for most fresh or cooked vegetables and fruits. Two exceptions to that rule: for lettuce and other raw leafy greens, you need to eat 2 cups to get the equivalent of 1 cup of vegetables and for dried fruit, you only need to eat ½ cup to get the equivalent of 1 cup of fruit.

 

Key Words For “Maybe Yes, Maybe No” Menu Choices

By 1 Comment

Menus, both restaurant and take-out, are filled with descriptive and sometimes mouth-watering words.  They’re meant to:

  • entice you to order certain items by making them sound scrumptious, or to
  • make you think that a food, sauce, or dressing is lower in calories or an awesome health food.

Maybe Yes, Maybe No Adjectives

This is a list of words frequently used on menus to describe foods that can be considered “yellow light foods.” They are the foods you  should cautiously choose because they may or may not be healthy choices.

  • Amandine/Almondine
  • Baked
  • Basted
  • Light/Lite
  • Marinated
  • Panini
  • Reduced
  • Sauteed
  • Stewed
  • Stir-Fry
  • Vegetarian
  • Vinaigrette

 Why They’re Yellow Light Foods:

Amandine/Almondine:  Means food that is garnished with almonds. The caution: the ingredients (often green beans, fish, asparagus, potatoes) are usually cooked with butter and seasonings and sprinkled with whole or flaked toasted almonds. The butter makes them taste good and allows the nuts to stick to the main ingredient — but both add significant calories.

Baked:  Food that is cooked by using dry heat.  The caution light applies to the main ingredients. What is being baked – is it baked fish or a baked cookie?

Basted: Means that either the juices of the cooking meat, melted fat, or other liquids such as marinades – are poured over meat during the cooking process to keep it moist.  The caution is in determining what the basting liquid is:  fat or the juice of the meat?

Light or lite:  If 50% or more of the calories in a food come  from fat, the fat must be reduced by at least 50% per serving to be called light. If less than 50% of the calories come from fat, the fat must be reduced by at least 50% or the calories reduced by at least 1/3 per serving for the food to be called light. The caution:  food manufacturers determine these percentages through laboratory analysis – but how does your local diner determine what is “light or lite” even if there is a “light or lite” claim on their menu?

Marinated:  Means to soak or steep meat, fowl, fish, or vegetables in a liquid mixture — which is usually vinegar or wine and oil combined with various spices and herbs.  The caution:  how much oil or even sweetener is in the marinade that has permeated the meat, fowl, fish, or vegetables?

Panini:  A pressed and toasted sandwich.  The caution:  What are the sandwich ingredients — for instance are they heavy on vegetables or on salami — and how much oil is used on the grill? If the sandwich comes out nice and crunchy and crispy you can bet it was pressed on a grill loaded with grease.

Reduced:  To be called reduced in calories, a food must contain at least 25% fewer calories per serving than the reference food (the version of the food that is not lower in calories).  For meals and main dishes there must be at least 25% fewer calories per 100 grams of food.  The caution:  the “reference food” (the regular, not low in calories version) may be a very high calorie food to begin with – meaning that 25% less of very high calories is still a lot calories.  And who’s measuring in the kitchen of your local restaurant? Don’t be duped.

Sauteed:  Means food that is fried quickly in a little oil.  The caution is the same as with stir-fry (see below); the amount of oil and the temperature of the oil.

Stewed:  To cook by slowly boiling or simmering.  The caution:  what is the stewing liquid — is it tomato based or is there a lot of fat?

Stir-Fry:  Means to cook small pieces of vegetables, grains, or meat by quickly frying and stirring them in a small amount of oil over high heat (frequently in a wok).  The caution is the amount and temperature of the oil.  Oil at a lower temperature will lead to a longer cooking time and the ingredients absorbing more oil.

Vegetarian:  Refers to a dish made without meat, fish, or fowl.  The caution is that many vegetarian dishes are prepared with a lot of breading, cheese, and fat.

Vinaigrette: A common salad dressing made with olive or other oils and combined with vinegar and/or lemon juice (plus seasonings and herbs).  The caution is in the proportion of oil to the acidic vinegar or lemon juice.  Sometimes it might be as great as 4:1 oil to acid and sometimes it might be 1:1, or half oil and half acid.  A fifty-fifty mix will be lower in calories than a mix that is 75% oil.

Do you have any “yellow-light foods” to add to this list?

For more menu key words and menu hacks be sure to sign up for my newsletter, “Eat Out, Eat Well.”  Just enter your email address in the box on this page — and don’t forget to confirm when you’re prompted by email.

The Ice Cream Sandwich and The Pushcart Peddler

By 1 Comment

Oh, those frozen confections of a layer of ice cream sandwiched between two biscuits, cookies, or slices of cake. Hurray for the ice cream sandwich which ranks right up there as one of the best selling ice cream “novelties” in the US.

At the beginning of the 20th century, New York City’s elite bought their scoops of ice cream in fancy confectioners’ shops – often shaped as fruit and vegetables to be served at high end parties.

The rest of the population bought their ice cream from street peddlers who scooped ice cream into “penny licks,” glasses the customer licked clean, and then returned to the vendor who washed them by swirling the glass in a bucket of water.

There was another street vendor option called the “hokey pokey,” a small slice cut of ice cream wrapped in paper that was cut from an eighteen inch long brick composed of layers of three flavors of ice cream. Each slice cost one or two pennies — children could buy half a slice for half the price.

The Invention Of The Ice Cream Sandwich

Until an enterprising pushcart peddler on the Lower East Side of New York City came up with a genius idea in the summer of 1900.

That’s when the ice cream sandwich that we have come to know and love was probably invented as a handheld and cheap treat.

In July 1900 The New York Tribune published a piece about the peddler: “The ice cream sandwich man, who sells quarter-inch layers of alleged ice cream between tiny slabs of water wafers, did a big business during the hot spell and his field of operation was within the district inhabited by the Nordic enclaves, and his pushcart was elaborately decorated with signs in runic characters. He made the sandwiches quickly in a tin mold, and was kept so busy that he could not make change, but insisted on receiving the actual price for each ice cream sandwich — 1 cent.”

The Ice Cream Sandwich As An Equalizer

Initially, ice cream sandwiches seemed to serve as equalizers.

An article in the New York Sun (August 19, 1900) stated that down on Wall Street “the brokers themselves got to buying ice cream sandwiches and eating them in a democratic fashion side by side on the sidewalk with the messengers and the office boys.”

But, ice cream sandwiches were quickly made their way indoors, got dressed up, and were served on plates with knives and forks for upscale clientele. But on the streets of Manhattan, the cold treats were still selling like hot potatoes – the peddlers were so busy they couldn’t eve take time to make change. It was pay with a penny or no ice cream sandwich.  Who said exact change only became necessary for bus fares and parking meters?

Some Facts and Some Trivia

  • Nationally, we eat, on average, 48 ice cream sandwiches per second
  • If all the ice cream sandwiches made in a year were placed end to end, they would circle Earth 3 1/2 times
  • 30-44 year olds buy the most ice cream sandwiches
  • People on the eastern seaboard eat almost 50% of all ice cream sandwiches
  • The ice cream sandwich is such an American institution that it is sold at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
  • A regular Good Humor vanilla ice cream sandwich (56g) has 140 calories, 3g fat, 26g carbs, 2g protein
  • National Ice Cream Sandwich Day is August 2nd.

 

 

What Do You Eat On A Road Trip?

By 2 Comments

Have you noticed that a lot of renovated gas stations now have mini-marts or convenience stores with clean(er) bathrooms and coffee that comes regular or decaf but also dark velvet, hazelnut, and vanilla?

Are Gas Stations The New Convenience Stores?

Convenience stores sell about 80& of the gasoline purchased in the United States each year.

Many gas stations now view gas as a loss leader – a sale they’re willing to take a loss on or only make a very small profit.  They want to lure people into their mini-mart or full-fledged convenience store to shop.

Most stations don’t want to — or can’t — cut gas prices and there isn’t much they can do to jack up demand. In general, people are driving less gas stations need something to woo their competitors’ customers – so they use food.

Some station owners say they make more on a cup of coffee than on gas.  They advertise their convenience marts and other services – a gas station near my house has a dry cleaner drop-off — and work to build a base of customers who, although they could get gas anywhere, choose to buy it where they know there’s an open pump and clean bathrooms.

Road Trip Food Stops

If you’re planning a road trip you’ll most likely stop for a snack or a meal along the way.  With the proliferation of service stations or rest stops with incorporated mini-marts you probably don’t even need to leave the major roads to find a place to eat.  But, can you get something decent to eat?

Walk into most of the rest stop mini-marts and you’re assaulted by an array of vending machines, candy racks, franks on rotating grills and pre-wrapped sandwiches, donuts, coffee, and every bottled drink under the sun. You’re a captive consumer and after driving for some time you’re probably want something to:

  • Keep you energized and awake
  • Help with the boredom
  • Reward you for endless hours of driving (especially if you have complaining or fighting kids with you)
  • Perhaps bring back memories of summer road trip food you had when you were a kid (as a parent I can admit that you often give in and buy all kinds of stuff for your kids because they’re driving you crazy)

The Trap And The Danger

An endless stream of high carb, high fat, high calorie, and processed food is just begging you to plunk down your money so you can immediately indulge (watch how many people start eating the food they’ve bought before they even pay) or to take with you (in case there’s a famine around the next turn).

The real danger – aside from the damage to your waistline – is that high-carb processed foods spike then crash your blood sugar —making you really tired and cranky.

  • Drowsy drivers are most definitely not safe drivers.
  • Cranky drivers make life miserable for everyone in the car – not a great tone to set if you’re going on vacation.

Candy

Candy is an impulse purchase in convenience stores — 49% of shoppers say that their candy purchases were unplanned. Candy sales are steady,  generating a high margin (typically 35-40%). People will always want to treat themselves and candy is an affordable luxury.

Candy sold in convenience stores accounts for approximately 15% of all candy sold at the retail level. Chocolate bars are the winner followed by gum; bagged, repacked peg candy; candy rolls; mints and drops; non-chocolate bars; and novelties/seasonal candy.

Check out the placement of candy the next time you’re in a mini-mart or convenience store.  It’s positioned to grab your attention. It’s vividly colored wrappers reach out to you from high-traffic areas of the store: the checkout area, in the aisle that leads to the check out, and near or on the way to the cold cases holding the drinks.

Coffee

According to the National Coffee Association, more than three out of four adult Americans say that they drink coffee either daily or regularly and convenience stores are one of their preferred destinations with people stopping to buy coffee more than they fill up their cars.

Industry data show that about 95% of all convenience stores sell coffee — about 78% of hot beverage sales. The second best seller is specialty coffee and cappuccino – about 13% of hot beverages.

Unlike candy, coffee isn’t an impulse purchase.  Nearly 96% of customers intend to buy a cup of coffee before they walk in. The average visit is about two minutes so it makes putting other impulse-buy merchandise — like candy, baked goods, and chips — near the coffee bar as a way for the store to get you to spend more money. Some retailers find that people who typically purchase coffee will also buy bottled water; a grab-and-go breakfast item; or a packaged snack like an energy, protein, or granola bar.

Some Ideas About What To Buy And What To Eat

Before you go into the mini-mart at least have your own mental list of some good, better, and best choices of food to buy.  The danger is that the candy, chips, fries, and donuts call your name the minute you walk in the door.  If you know that you’re going to head straight for the nuts, or popcorn, or even a pre-wrapped sandwich, that’s great, as long as the giant chocolate chip cookie and the bargain 32 ounce soda for 99 cents doesn’t grab you first. Try to decide what you’re going to buy (hopefully, a good choice) before you go in – and then stick to your decision.

Some Choices To Think About

  • Go for the nuts. Some stations have fruit (oranges and bananas come in their own wrapper and don’t have to be washed) and almost all have dried fruit — balance the sugar with the fat and protein in the nuts.
  • Sometimes you can find individual bowls of Cheerios or whole grain cereals. Grab a little container of non-fat/low-fat milk or a container of yogurt.
  • Popcorn is a great choice and some stations stock fat-free soy crisps, and Kashi products.
  • Protein bars can be good, better, and best. Check the labels for higher protein and lower sugar.  Some can be the equivalent of a candy bar.
  • If you’re really hungry choose a sandwich or burrito over donuts, cookies, and pastry.
  • Beef jerky or beef sticks are good high protein snacks. So are hard boiled eggs – just make sure they’re refrigerated and haven’t been sitting around for a couple of days!
  • Crackers with cheese or peanut butter and trail mix help round out the list.  If you must go with crunchy stuff stick with pretzels.  If it absolutely must be chips, look for baked varieties.  Remember that the salty stuff will make you thirsty so stock up on water.

 

 

What’s A Chocolate Buzz?

By 2 Comments

I was in a restaurant the other night and the server brought a bunch of those individually wrapped dark chocolates along with the bill.  There were six of us at the table so there was a small pile of the foil wrapped goodies on the table.

I watched an almost four year old girl  (who has an incredible sweet tooth – especially for chocolate) wrap her little fist around as many as she could fit into her vice like grip – until her Father took notice and parsed out one — much to her dismay, or should I say, extreme annoyance.

Caffeine And Chocolate

Here are a couple of facts about chocolate and caffeine that most people don’t know:

Chocolate contains caffeine – not enough to give you a big time boost, but, depending on the type of chocolate, enough to register — especially if you’re a little kid stuffing in a couple of squares or a bunch of mini chocolate bars.

It would take about 14 regularly sized (1.5 oz) bars of milk chocolate to give you the same amount of caffeine that you’d get from an 8 oz cup of java. Along with that little caffeine buzz you’d also be shoving in about 3,000 calories and more than 300 grams of sugar.  If you’re looking for caffeine, coffee seems like a better bet at about two calories in an 8 oz cup of black coffee.

Dark chocolate, the kind now frequently found in those “after dinner along with the check foil wrapped squares,” has more caffeine content than milk chocolate. But, it would still take four regularly sized bars to get the same amount that you’d find in one cup of black coffee.

Something To Think About

The next time you find yourself reaching for those foil wrapped chocolate squares after dinner (or the ones placed on your pillow in some hotels) think a cautionary caffeine note if you want a restful sleep.

It’s also worth it to remember that getting kids (and some adults) to sleep on Halloween might have a whole lot to do with not just the sugar but also the amount of caffeine in the chocolate candy in trick or treat bags.

Caffeine In Chocolate

  • Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar, 1bar/1.55 oz:  9 mg caffeine
  • Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Bar, 1 bar/1.45 oz:  20 mg caffeine
  • Hershey’s Kisses, 9 pieces:  9 mg caffeine
  • Hershey’s Special Dark Kisses, 9 pieces:  20 mg caffeine
  • Scharffen Berger Milk 41% Cacao, ½ bar:  17 mg caffeine
  • Scharffen Berger Extra Dark 82% Cacao, ½ bar:  42 mg caffeine
  • Dagoba Milk Chocolate 37% Cacao, ½ bar:  9 mg caffeine
  • Dagoba Dark Chocolate 73% Cacao, ½ bar:  36 mg caffeine

Caffeine In Coffee:

  • Coffee, generic brewed, 8 oz: 133 mg caffeine (range: 102-200; 16 oz, 266 mg caffeine)
  • Dunkin’ Donuts regular coffee, 16 oz:  206 mg caffeine
  • Starbucks Brewed Coffee (Grande), 16 oz:  320 mg caffeine
  • Coffee, generic instant, 8 oz:  93 mg caffeine (range 27-173)
  • Espresso, generic, 1 oz:  40 mg caffeine (range 30-90)
  • Starbucks Espresso, solo, 1 oz:  75 mg caffeine
  • Coffee, generic decaffeinated, 8 oz:  5 mg caffeine (range 3-12)