Eat Out Eat Well

How Good Is Your Sugar Vocabulary?

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Sugar:  Sweet and Sneaky

Sugar is very sneaky. It appears in all kinds of forms and masquerades under many different names. For example, have you ever read one of those jam labels that says, “All Fruit” or “Spreadable Fruit” on the front? Turn the jar over and read ingredients.  Most likely you’ll find juice concentrates (often as the first ingredient) and maltodextrin — both forms of sugar.

Sugar Vocabulary

According to Environmental Nutrition foods with all of the following names are sugars (these are common sources, there are other sugars not listed):

Dextrose
Corn syrup
High fructose corn syrup
Maltodextrin
Fruit juice concentrates
Malt syrup
Molasses
Invert sugar
Honey
Sorghum
Agave
 Maple syrup
Cane sugar

Be Aware of Disguised and Hidden (and not so hidden) Sugar

SocialDieter Tip: Read food and ingredient labels and look for the names listed above. By choosing fresh foods and produce you are eliminating any added sugar. Of course reducing or eliminating sugar-sweetened drinks – including agave and honey – will decrease sugar content. The same holds true for processed foods like crackers, sweetened cereals, and condiments, sauces, and dressings with added sugar, like ketchup, barbecue sauce, and certain salad dressings. Of course, sweetened beverages, baked goods, jams, ice cream, and candy  are sugar sources as are many fruit sweetened yogurts and canned fruit. You might like to try sweetening cereals and yogurt with fresh fruit, especially sweet fruits like mashed banana or sweet berries, instead of sugar.

When do you toss the leftover Pad Thai (or lasagna) that’s in the fridge?

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You Are Hungry!

You’re standing in front of your open refrigerator. A container here and a container there. Move them around. Wow. A Tupperware all the way in the back. Wonder what’s in it.

Take a peek. Container #1: the leftover take-out Pad Thai from five days ago. Container #2: the rest of your lasagna you brought home last night from a huge restaurant portion. Some of Mom’s really delicious stuffing from last weekend. That’s in the Tupperware.

Big question: Will you end up writhing in pain and spending the next day in the bathroom if you eat any of it?

How Long Can Food Stay Out?

According to the FDA, when you buy hot, cooked food, you should eat it right away and avoid letting it sit out at room temperature. If the food is cold, eat it within two hours of preparing it, store it in the fridge, or freeze it.

Buzz, Buzz: The Food Is Here

When food is delivered, you want to prevent any lurking potentially nasty and harmful bacteria from multiplying, so eat the food within two hours after it arrives. If you aren’t going to eat it within two hours keep it hot in an oven set at or above 200° F (93° C). Side dishes, like that delicious stuffing in the Tupperware, also have to be kept hot in the oven. Cover the food to keep it moist while you’re keeping it warm. Don’t guess at the temperature of the food. Use a food thermometer to check that the food is kept at an internal temperature of 140° F (60° C).

The Danger Zone

The FDA defines the “danger zone” as the range of temperatures at which bacteria can grow. It is usually between 40° and 140° F (4° and 60° C). To keep food safe, it’s important to keep it below or above the “danger zone.”

The 2 Hour Rule

There is a 2 Hour Rule: Throw away any perishable food (the kind that can spoil or become contaminated by bacteria if left unrefrigerated) that has bee left out at room temperature for more than two hours. When the environmental temperature is above 90° F (32° C), throw out the food after one hour.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Nutrition Action Healthletter, expands on the Rules For Leftovers with what they call:

2 hours – 2 inches – 4 days

Think:

2 hours from oven to refrigerator: any leftovers should be

refrigerated or frozen within 2 hours of cooking or they should be thrown away.

2 Inches thick to cool it quick: food should be stored in containers at a shallow depth of about 2 inches or less, to speed the chilling time.

4 days in the refrigerator or freeze it: use refrigerated leftovers within 4 days with the exception of stuffing and gravy which should be used within 2 days. Reheat Solid leftovers should be reheated to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Whatever you don’t finish, throw out.

Do you still want that Pad Thai? Maybe some lasagna?

Your Sandwich Wonderizer

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How many calories are in your sandwich?  What’s its nutritional value?

Here’s a chance to have some fun and learn about what you chow down.

Wonder Bread, America’s first sliced bread (1925), and the inspiration for the phrase the  “best thing since sliced bread,” is close to ninety years old.

Build Your Own Sandwich

Wonder Bread’s website (complete with the same red, yellow, and blue balloons as on the package  (except they float on the website) has a Wonder-izer Sandwich Builder option that allows you to build your own sandwich.  You can add just about anything (not socks or dog food, but edible human stuff).  You choose your preferred type of bread, meat, cheese, condiments, fruit, and veggies.  You can even add coleslaw, chips, fig bars, pecans, and even candy corn or chocolate chips (and more).

This is not an endorsement of Wonder Bread. It is a recommendation for some sandwich fun and for a learning experience about the caloric and nutritional content of sandwiches.

When I was a kid Wonder Bread was the be all and end all.  Supermarket bread choices were not quite as extensive as they are now.  Wonder bread was the kind of soft squishy white bread that you balled up in your fist to make a dough ball.  I also remember lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that you could really squish in the middle.

On the Wonder Bread site, there are more than 20 types of Wonder Bread choices now – including several varieties of light, whole grain, and whole wheat, along with the nutritional information for each.  It is described as “still the soft, delicious and nutritious bread your family has always loved.”

A Fun Learning Tool

The Wonder-izer is fun, with great graphics.  As you add each item to your sandwich the top slice of bread pops up to add the colorful layer of food of your choice (grapes and chocolate chips are even options).  However, aside from fun, it’s a great learning tool to give you an idea of just how many calories and nutrients are in that sandwich that you order from the corner deli or make in your own kitchen.  You can certainly use the information and apply it to many “sandwich situations.”  It’s also a great – and fun — learning tool for kids.  Check it out.  Wonder-izer Sandwich Builder.

Yes to Green Vegetables, No to Green Spuds

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What are those green things?

In the midst of a cooking blitz you decide to make real mashed potatoes rather than using the pre-made kind.  You’re peeling away and there they are – those little green things visible in the potato skin.  What to do:  chuck the whole potato, pretend they’re not there, or cut them out?  If you choose the third option, cut them out, you have grabbed the brass ring.  Those green spots indicate natural toxic compounds,  glycoalkaloids (GA), natural plant built-ins to guard against disease and insects.

Are they friendly or not?

Although spuds always contain GAs, eating large amounts of them can trigger abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches, confusion, and hallucinations, all symptoms of toxicity.  GAs aren’t destroyed by cooking but because the green spots lie just below the potato skin you can cut away any green making the potato safe to eat.  Chips and fries that are peeled before cooking are usually low on the GA meter.

Beware:  fried potato skins can be bad news, one report found up to seven times the safe limit  of GAs in restaurant fried potato skins.

SocialDieter Tip:

Cut the green out of spuds before cooking; if there’s a lot of green, toss the potato; be extra careful of potato skins regardless of the method of preparation. (Environmental Nutrition, 8/08, p. 7)

Did the Fat Calories in Cooking Spray Really Take a Hike?

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Are All Cooking Sprays Created Equal?

I’m staring at five different kinds of cooking spray:  Butter flavor, Olive Oil, Canola Oil, Baking, and Professional for high heat cooking.    All say they are for non-stick cooking or baking.  Some say they are for fat-free cooking and baking.

The nutrition facts for all five say that the serving size is about 1/3 of a second, the equivalent of 0.25 grams.  The ingredient labels all list an oil (canola, olive, soybean, or vegetable) as their first ingredient. All have an emulsifier, usually soy lecithin, and a propellant.  Some have other flavorings and the baking spray has wheat flour.

Nutrition stats for cooking sprays:

Listed calorie count for a serving (a 1/3 second spray): 0

Total Fat:  0

Time for a Reality Check

Okay.  So how can something with oil as the main listed ingredient have zero calories and zero fat?  In the US, any product that has less than 5 grams of fat per serving lists the fat content rounded to the nearest 0.5 g. If the product contains less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving, the listed fat content is rounded to 0 grams. If a product contains 0.45 grams of fat per serving and the package has 10 servings, the label would show 0 grams of fat even though the entire package actually contains a total of 4.5 grams of fat.

All of the cooking sprays that I checked call a 1/3 second spray a serving size – that’s the equivalent of .25 grams of fat.  Because the serving size, as created by the manufacturers, is under half a gram, the nutrition facts can be listed as 0 grams of fat and 0 calories.  Feel duped?

0.25 grams of fat is the equivalent of 2.25 calories (fat has 9 calories per gram), not a huge number.  However, how many of you use cooking spray for 1/3 of a second?  Can you even coat a small frying pan with a 1/3 second spray?

How Many Calories?

Most of us spritz for at least three to six times as long – many of us for probably longer.  A one second spray has about 7 calories, 2 seconds has about 14 and and 1.5 grams of fat.  Again, not huge numbers, but 2 seconds is still awfully short.  My guess is that a lot of sprays are a bit longer.

SocialDieter Tip:

Remember that nonstick cooking spray is not calorie free. Be careful of drenching your pans and skillets.  As you’re spritzing, count the seconds.  If the length and number of your spritzes crank up the calorie count, either cut back on the spray or consider using a small amount of oil on a paper towel to coat your pan. Using one teaspoon of olive oil adds 4.5 grams of fat and 40 calories and you will be avoiding the additives and propellant in the cooking spray.