Eat Out Eat Well

food for fun and thought

Keep Your Dog — And All Of Your Pets — Safe On Halloween

By Leave a Comment

Spike

I love my dog, Spike.  That’s him in the picture.  He’s extremely friendly and will happily play with just about anyone – especially if there’s some food involved.  He’s also, as you can see,  all black and small – which makes him very hard to see at night.

Safety Tips for Families With Dogs

Halloween may be a fun for people holiday, but it can be scary and/or dangerous for your dog.  Spike was at the vet’s the other day and I picked up a sheet with the following information – not something we pet owners might necessarily think about.  It is adapted from information supplied as a public service by Bark Busters Home Dog Training (www.BarkBusters.com) and extended to you by an all around dog lover, me.


Bring your dog inside

You don’t want him to be harmed or overwhelmed by little (or big) trick or treaters.  If your dog lives outside bring him in a few times before Halloween so he gets comfortable with being indoors.  Dogs have a natural instinct to protect their families from strangers – and there are plenty of them on Halloween.

Think about restraining your dog or putting him in another room

Keep him away from the “trick or treaters” door.  This is especially true if your dog gets easily frightened, or on the other side of the coin, loves people too much.  Ditto for aggressive dogs.  Putting the dog in another room away from the activity will limit his excitement, aggression, or the possibility of running outside, perhaps unnoticed, and getting lost or hurt.

Reassure your dog

If your dog is acting unsettled or anxious about Halloween high jinks, try to act normally because overly reassuring him or giving him extra attention might inadvertently communicate that there is something to worry about.

Get your dog used to people dressed up in costumes

Your dog may think his family members are strangers once they put on their Halloween garb.  Let him sniff your kids’ costumes before they put them on and keep masks off when your dog is around.

Think twice about putting your dog in a costume

Some dogs enjoy – or at least tolerate – being dressed up.  Many dogs don’t so experiment first to see if he likes being a bumble bee or a pirate.  If he is resistant don’t do it – put a great bandana around his neck and he’ll be a whole lot happier – and probably safer.

Check your dog’s Identification Tags

Make certain that they are secure on his collar and that his collar is securely fastened on his neck.  Enough said.

Dog biscuits are for dogs, candy is not

Many types of candy, especially the kinds with chocolate or xylitol, an artificial sweetener, are toxic to dogs.  They can cause problems that range from a mild upset stomach to vomiting and diarrhea, and even death.  Be sure to keep all candy and wrappers – and glow sticks, too – away from your dog.

Protect your dog from candles and pumpkins

When dogs get excited, agitated, or happy, their tails wag.  Wagging tails and jumping dogs can easily knock over anything in their path – including lit candles or jack o’lanterns with candles in them. Keep these things away from dogs (and children) and think about using a battery powered candle for safety’s sake.

Think twice about taking your dog with you to the Halloween parade or trick or treating

Lots of people in weird (or cute) costumes with glow sticks, flashlights, masks, and other objects that go with costumes can be pretty frightening to a dog.  You don’t want to unintentionally instill a new fear in him or create a wariness that could last long past Halloween.  If you do take your dog with you, keep a firm grip on his leash.  Dogs don’t understand that goblins jumping out at you are not necessarily doing so to hurt you – and they can respond by acting aggressively.  Neither children nor adults in costumes and masks should approach a dog without asking for the owner’s consent.

Happy Halloween.  Give your dog an extra dog biscuit for his Halloween treat.

The Original Jack O’Lantern Wasn’t A Pumpkin

By Leave a Comment

And It Comes With A Great Story

Have you carved and cut your pumpkin and created your own original jack O’Lantern?  Some carved pumpkins, as you can see in these photos taken at Chelsea Market in New York City, are works of art. Abingdon Square Park in Greenwich Village hosts a Halloween Jack O’Lantern contest and the little pocket park is filled with glowing pumpkins with faces of all kinds and a variety of senses of humors.

But … What Was The Original Jack O’Lantern?

The Jack O’Lantern stems from a legend that goes back hundreds of years in Irish history. One version of the story is that a miserable old drunk named Stingy Jack, who liked to play tricks on his family, friends, and even the Devil, tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree and then put crosses around its trunk so the Devil couldn’t get down. Stingy Jack then told the Devil that if he promised not to take his soul when he died he would remove the crosses and let the Devil down.

When Jack died he was told by Saint Peter at the pearly gates of Heaven that he was mean and cruel and had led a miserable and worthless life so he couldn’t enter Heaven. He went down to Hell but the Devil kept his promise and wouldn’t take him in.  Jack was scared and with nowhere to go had to wander around in the darkness between Heaven and Hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave without light to see.  To help him light his way the Devil threw him an ember from the flames of Hell. One of Jack’s favorite foods, which he always had when he could steal one, was a turnip.  He put the ember into a hollowed out turnip and from that day on Stingy Jack, without a resting place, roamed the earth lighting his way with his “Jack O’Lantern.”

All Hallows Eve

Halloween, or the Hallow E’en as it is called in Ireland and Scotland, is short for All Hallows Eve, or the night before All Hallows. “Hallow” is a word of Germanic origin that means “holy” in Old English, All Hallows is now called All Saints in modern English, “saint” being a synonym for “hallow” with Old French and ultimately Latin roots.

Samhain was the last day of the Celtic calendar and was a Pagan harvest festival that honored the dead celebrated on October 31st. All Hallows and Samhain became fatefully intertwined in the 9th century when Pope Gregory IV officially assigned the solemnity of All Hallows (previously celebrated in April by Celtic Christians and May by Italian Christians) to November 1st on the universal church calendar to match the custom of the Frankish King of Aquitaine, Louis the Pious, who had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

On All Hallows Eve the Irish made Jack O’Lanterns by hollowing out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets and putting lights in them to keep away both the evil spirits and Stingy Jack.  In the 1800’s when Irish immigrants came to America they discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve, and pumpkins became our Jack O’Lanterns.

Think About Eating Your Pumpkin, Too

Jumping from legend to fact:  pumpkins are Cucurbitaceae, a family of vegetables that includes cucumbers and melons. They are fat free and can be baked, steamed, or canned.

One cup has about 30 calories and is high in vitamin C, potassium, and dietary fiber and has other nutrients like folate, manganese, and omega 3′s.  Pumpkin is filled with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene which gives it a rich orange hue. It is very versatile and can be added to baked goods and blended with many foods. Pumpkin seeds are delicious, too.  They are a good source of iron, copper, and zinc and a quarter cup naturally adds minerals to your healthy diet.  One cautionary note:  pumpkin is low in calories, pumpkin seeds are not.

Animal Crackers: Giraffes And Tigers But Crackers Or Cookies?

By Leave a Comment

The Red (or yellow or blue) Box With The String

Remember that cute little red, yellow or blue box with the string on top and tiny little animals on the front and back?  After you open the box and the heavy waxed paper inside you’re rewarded with crunchy little animal crackers, usually in the shape of animals you find at the circus or the zoo.

How Long Have Animal Crackers Been Around?

In the late 1800s, biscuits called “Animals” were imported from England to the United States and in 1871 Stauffer’s Biscuit Company baked their first batch stateside.

Barnum’s Animals (Crackers), named for P. T. Barnum who ran the circus, the “Greatest Show on Earth,” were first made in New York City in 1902 by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco).   Barnum, an amazing self-promoter, had absolutely nothing to do with the labeling on the box and he never got a cent for it.

The famous string appeared when Nabisco designed the box to look like a circus wagon cage and then attached a string so it could be hung as an ornament from a Christmas tree.  It sold it for 5 cents a box. As we know, the package was such a success that it remains a year round treat – 40 million are made a year — although not at the same price!

Are They Crackers Or Cookies?

The crunchy little animals resemble crackers because they are made with layered dough.  But, because the dough is sweetened they have a cookie taste and consistency.

Over the years, 54 different animals have been represented. The most recent, chosen by consumer vote, is the koala. It beat out the penguin, the walrus and the cobra.  Some other animals are  tigers, cougars, camels, rhinoceros, kangaroos, hippopotami, bison, lions, hyenas, zebras, elephants, sheep, bears, gorillas, monkeys, seals, and giraffes.

Are They Good – Or At Least Okay for You?

The little box with the string contains about two servings.

  • Each serving (about 17 crackers) has 120 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 22 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.
  • The ingredients are:  enriched flour, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, soybean oil, yellow corn flour, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, calcium carbonate, baking soda, salt, soy lecithin, artificial flavor.
  • Although trans fat is not listed in the nutrition facts, the ingredients contain partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil (partially hydrogenated means trans fat).

When a product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, the FDA requires that the content be listed in the package’s Nutrition Facts box as “0g”. When a label shows 0 grams trans fat per serving and lists a “partially hydrogenated” vegetable oil (such as soybean or cottonseed, among others) in the ingredients, the product may contain up to 0.49 grams of trans fat per serving.

Other companies do make organic and/or whole grain animal crackers and should you be concerned about ingredients these would make a better choice.  Unfortunately, they do not come in the classic box with the string which, at least for my sons, was part of the allure.

Oh, What One Meal Can Do To Your Arteries!

By Leave a Comment

Macaroni and Cheese

This Might Make You Think Twice

Wow!  A meal that is high in saturated fat can affect your arteries within hours!

An article on “Xtreme Eating” in The Nutrition Action Newsletter alarmingly gave stats on some of the highest-calorie restaurant dishes in the US, meals they called “nutritional trainwrecks.”

Picking up on that, ABC News did an experiment on what one of these types of meals would do to someone’s arteries.

What They Ate

A young reporter and her producer had their blood vessels tested before and after eating some of the food mentioned in Nutrition Action’s article.

For lunch they each had the deep-fried macaroni and cheese appetizer from The Cheesecake Factory, followed by a bacon cheeseburger wrapped in a quesadilla from Applebee’s, followed by Uno Chicago Grill’s giant cookie smothered in ice cream..

All  told:  6190 calories and 187 grams of saturated fat, more than 3 times the daily calories and 10 times the saturated fat recommended by the government.

What Happened After The Calorie And Fat Overload

In the lab two hours after their monster meals, repeat testing was done.  The results showed that the producer’s blood had turned into cloudy, yellowish, pus–like fluid – “you could literally see the fat that was now flooding the system,” according to one of the doctors.  The reporter’s arteries had narrowed so much that the ultrasound showed that her heart was pounding and working much, much harder to pump blood through her arteries.

Some Words To The Wise

Bottom Line: According to the lab Director at the University of Maryland Medical Center where the testing was done, each and every meal affects your arteries.

Pritikin Longevity Center’s nutritionist Dr. Jay Kenney says, “Just as each cigarette you smoke damages your lungs, so does each high–fat meal damage the inside “skin,” or endothelium, of your arteries. And while the crippling effects [lung cancer or cardiovascular disease] from each cigarette or fatty meal may not be apparent for many years, the daily assaults to our lungs and blood vessels can be measured – and last for several hours – every time we light up or eat a fatty meal.”

Rx: Apples And Some Broccoli

By Leave a Comment

A sample prescription

A Prescription For Veggies?

Yea for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the docs at three medical centers who are writing prescriptions for produce for families with weight problems.

Families with low incomes get coupons for produce that they can redeem at local farmers’ markets. The value of a coupon is $1 per person per day. It seems like a small amount, but with the coupons a family of four can get $120 of fresh produce  a month.

What’s The Rationale?

This objective is to get kids to increase their fruit and veggies by one serving a day.  It is also seen as a opportunity to introduce the children, who have a limited range of exposure, to real food.  The coupon is somewhat symbolic – the $1 coupon competes with the 99 cent fast food meals so familiar to these kids.

Obesity Has Tripled

According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the last 30 years.   Sedentary lifestyles and limited access to fresh, healthy food are seen as reasons for this rapid increase. Along with handing out the coupons, the doctors will follow the families receiving the coupons to determine how their eating patterns are affected.  They will also monitor health parameters like weight and body mass index (BMI).

The hope is, too, that the families become invested in good nutritional practices by hanging out with both the farmers and the consumers at the farmers’ market – and that they then develop a preference for shopping at these types of markets rather than fast food restaurants, supermarkets, big box and convenience stores.

Will It Help Farmers’ Markets, Too?

It may also help the farmers’ markets compete with the fast food vendors who entice kids and families with cheap calories and cheap meals.

The number of farmers’ markets has dramatically increased: from 1,755 in 1994 to more than 5,200.  Although US farmers’ markets generate over $1 billion in annual sales, they are low on the totem pole compared to the fast food industry which brought in over $22.79 billion in 2008.

Healthy Eating Patterns And Lifestyles

As the mayor of Boston said, “When I go to work in the morning, I see kids standing at the bus stop eating chips and drinking a soda.  I hope this will help them change their eating habits and lead to a healthier lifestyle.”