Childhood Obesity with Subway's Jared

I was tooting around looking at some healthy blogs this morning and came across the "Super Healthy Kids" blog. What a hoot. The second post I scrolled to was a fun surprise...an interview with Jared from Subway. The Jared. So, in honor of that man's hard work and dedication to be a healthier person and pass it on, here is the interview. Here is my favorite quote by Jared in that interview:

"If you eat out, know you control the menu! Don’t let the menu control you. Ask for things prepared your way, or things that aren’t even on the menu."

Definitely click over to the Super Healthy Kids blog to read the interview. It's short and sweet. Also, Jared has his own blog and has started his own foundation with a mission to eliminate childhood obesity. I love when people turn a negative experience (being 400 lbs) into something great! Thank you Jared!

Peanut Butter Rice Crispie Treats

After looking through a million different sugar-free rice crispie recipes, I decided to venture out on my own and use ingredients I already had in the pantry.

These treats are delicious. They are nice and chewy with a balanced blend of sweet and salt.

Peanut Butter Rice Crispie Treats

1/2 C. peanut butter
1/2 C. brown rice syrup
1/2 C. honey
1/4 C. organic, non-hydrogenated shortening (or butter)
a couple dashes of finely ground sea salt
5-8 C. brown rice sweetened rice crispies (the brand I found is called "Erewhon")

Melt first four ingredients in large pot. Stir until bubbly. Add salt. Take off stove and add as many rice crispies as you want. For chewier consistency, don't add as much. For a little drier treat, add more crispies. I eyeballed it, but used almost an entire, 10oz. box of rice crispies. Press into a greased 9x13 pan. They are tasty right away, but even better the next day after they've set.

These are perfect for your sweet tooth, and easy to cut into small pieces for travel.

Photographs Taken in 2008 During My Sugar-Free Year

Totally unrelated to sugar, these pictures represent some of how I spent my time during 2008. Jeff and I had a lot of time on our hands, having sold our house and quit our jobs in the spring. We spent the rest of the year volunteering and traveling, photographing people, animals and places.


I made friends with a peacock at the "World's Largest Petting Zoo" that we visited during a road trip through the state of Oregon.
I knew nothing about the personality of an Emu until I met this one. It was roaming the grassy fields with its flock when it noticed us stopped in our car with the window down, photographing it. I guess we should have asked him/her permission first. It came right up to the window and stuck its head in the car. I was flattered! It was the most personable bird I have ever met, besides my childhood parakeet, Sunshine.
On a separate trip, we took three weeks to drive from Washington D.C. to the West Coast. On our way, we meandered through beautiful, old-fashioned towns like this one in Red Lodge, Montana.

After visiting friends and exploring amazing towns and little friendly, quaint, farmer's markets in Montana, we decided to visit Glacier National Park. The tiny, steep, dangerous "Road to the Sun" that you drive on was like an amusement park ride. It was so scary and narrow it seemed unreal. On our way back down the road from the summit, we were lucky enough to have a herd of mountain goats cross our path. Believe it or not, this little guy was the baby.

This handsome fella lives just up the street from where I currently reside. His buddies didn't make it into the picture, but they, too, are afraid of visiting the barbershop.

I met these kids in Tecate, Mexico during a week-long house-building trip. I was supposed to be helping build a home, but I was truly enamored with the kids. They would wander around the construction site with bright eyes and huge smiles. I started following them around and taking pictures. They loved the attention and I fell in love with them. Every time I told them to "smile" in Spanish, they would get really excited and start screaming. Once I followed them to their "home," a tin shanty with dirt floors and nothing more than a bed, a table and a dresser. It's amazing how little some people have and yet how happy they are.

Cranium Question

We played Cranium the other night and I got asked this question, "Who is credited with creating the first frozen dessert?"

Eskimos, I wondered immediately?

Here were the multiple choice answers:

a) Emperor Nero
b) Arthur Sorbet
c) Napoleon
d) the Eskimos

Believe it or not, Eskimos is not the correct answer, according to Cranium. Personally, I think they were making igloo pops long before anyone else came close to inventing frozen dessert.

Cranium's answer is Emperor Nero. Nero's dessert was a mixture of fruit pulp, nectar, honey and snow. His Roman slaves retrieved the snow from the mountains.

Silly, I know, but hey this is sugarless dessert history. Gotta know this stuff.

Nutrition-Related Fertility Busters

Imagine my surprise when my husband approaches me at the book store with a book titled, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Getting Pregnant." Whoa, charlie! What's going on?!

"Uhhh..." I said, looking at him to crack a smile or something. I feel my cheeks redden. He is deadpan.

"I was looking in the nutrition and health section and for some reason this book jumped out at me. Have you thought about looking into how nutrition relates to fertility, for, uh, your blog?" he says quickly, noting my looking around.

Okay, so that's it? A new topic related to nutrition? I can breathe now.

I sat down with a pile of books to look at and started by looking through this one. I know we're all adults, here, but I couldn't help but feel embarrassed by the book topic. I made sure the book cover was firmly pressed against my lap.

I flipped through and immediately found a lot of great information. I dug through my bag for my little black notepad. I would have to take notes. I already had a "to buy" pile of books that was falling off the arm of my chair, so I would have to take some notes from this book instead of buying it.

If you or your partner are interested in getting pregnant, and wonder what nutritional factors are related to being successful or not in this endeavor, read on. Personally, I have not given this topic much thought, but once I learned that refined sugars may have something to do with fertility, I couldn't help but be interested. I know too many people who are having fertility issues.

I hope the following helps inspire you to eat healthier and do more research of your own:

"Simple sugars and refined starches deteriorate health and create the following negative effects:

• Hormone imbalance. That energy 'rush' from a candy bar or glazed doughnut lasts all of 15 minutes to half an hour. It comes from a sharp rise in your blood sugar levels, but that 'high' soon switches direction and plummets downward, leaving you drained and exhausted....You are in a state of emergency because your adrenal glands are secreting extra cortisol--the so-called flight or fight hormone--in an attempt to replenish your system's sugar levels because sugar is essential fuel for every body system. Over time, too much cortisol stimulated by chronic low blood sugar levels weakens your adrenal glands to the point where they produce lower levels of sex hormones. This can lead to hormone imbalance that impacts fertility.

• B vitamin deficiency. Manufacturing excess cortisol eventually uses up nutrients needed for proper hormone balance and fertility. These include the B vitamins, especially B6 and magnesium. Vitamin B deficiency may make you vulnerable to some harmful affects of stress, another fertility buster.

• Overly high insulin levels. In order to get all this sugar out of the blood and into cells, where it's converted into energy, the pancreas has to keep secreting insulin. Excess insulin secretion eventually causes insulin resistance, which is known to be associated with infertility.

• Compromised immune response. Some research shows that just a single teaspoon of sugar can reduce immunity for up to four hours.

Your best bet is to avoid sugar.... altogether. Satisfy your sweet tooth with plenty of fruits. For example, treat yourself to a fruit smoothie by blending fresh fruit and ice cubes. Maple syrup in small amounts is okay, especially in cooking. Stevia, a South American plant with even more concentrated sweetening power than sugar, does not affect your blood sugar levels."


Source: "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Getting Pregnant," by Raymond Chang, M.D. & Elena Oumano, PhD., pgs. 167-169

Other resources for additional information/medical advice on fertility:
American Board of Holistic Medicine
National Infertility Association
National Institutes of Health
NCCAM

Food Pyramid Facts: Part Three

The following is the rest of the story about how the USDA Food Pyramid came about. I do not refer to this pyramid, however, for my own dietary guidelines. Instead, I use Harvard's Food Pyramid.

I think it's important to stop and consider where our dietary guidelines have evolved from. When you are going through school at a young age, you learn the basics, but from then on out, you must rely upon your common sense, your intuition and your body to tell you what to eat. I mention this because it seems particularly difficult to use common sense when we are bombarded with sexy advertisements and attractive marketing in grocery stores.

In an effort to celebrate that new pyramid, here is a last look at the history of the USDA Food Pyramid:

1. ...."We left off with the 'Food Wheel,' which was created in 1984 in cooperation between the USDA and the American National Red Cross.
2. The USDA developed the Food Guide Pyramid with some explicit goals in mind. Since the Department of Agriculture spends about 60% of its budget on food assistance, it felt the obligation to teach proper diet and its relationship to good health to those at risk. The Dietary Guidelines were the guiding premise for the new visual. But the promotion of overall health and well-being was a prime concern. If the new guide was to be consistent with the Dietary Guidelines it would have to establish the principles of a diet for healthy Americans over two years of age that might improve and maintain overall health. The guide had to be understood by a wide range of audiences, especially children and low-income, low-literacy adults.
3. To be useful to consumers, foods were grouped in ways that were familiar, either from other food guides or from common knowledge. For instance, though tomatoes are technically a fruit, most people call them a vegetable; so they were kept on the vegetable list. It's worth noting that food groups in the Food Guide Pyramid were arranged with foods of similar nutrient content. The foods in the milk group are meant to provide calcium primarily while the foods in the meat group are primarily supplying protein. (This grouping differs from other plans, like the Diabetic Food Exchanges, where some cheeses count as protein, or some starchy vegetables count as a bread exchange.)
4. The USDA did not want to prohibit the selection of any particular food; they wanted the guide to accommodate all types of foods. It is what many dietitians espouse as the "no 'good' foods or 'bad' foods" concept. The USDA reasoned that any guide that rigidly forbids certain foods is not likely to be followed, so it's better to let consumers decide for themselves which foods they prefer as sources of fat and added sugars, instead of rigorously forbidding them.
   
5. The food guide also had to account for needs that vary according to age, sex, and activity level. It was a tough challenge to create a guide that would allow varying individual nutritional needs to be met by different amounts of foods from the same groups or the same menus. That's why there are ranges in the number of servings from each food group. As an individual, you can determine how much of the various foods to eat based on your own age, activity level, and so forth.
6. Once the basic goals were established, the actual development of the new food guide began, much of it based on research that took about three years to generate and document."

Here is an excerpt from an article that helps to summarize:

"The Dairy Council is lobbying for an increase in the daily recommendations for dairy products while the American Millers’ Association and the U.S. Potato Board are defending their economic interests against the low-carbohydrate craze. Similarly, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Chocolate Manufacturer’s Association, the Snack Food Association, the California Walnut Board, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, and many more are busily twisting arms and applying pressure for their members‘ financial advantage.

Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. met with USDA officials to propose an alternative “Atkins Lifestyle” pyramid. The Atkins web site urges dieters to contact the USDA telling it to reduce the recommended carbs in the new Dietary Guidelines. This, in spite of inadequate scientific research on the long-term health consequences of low carbohydrate consumption. Again, it’s self-interest and ideology ahead of science and the best interests of the American public.

....Perhaps the USDA should simply adopt the Harvard pyramid and leave politics to the politicians. Doing so would contribute to the health and longevity of the American public."

Though a little out of date, this book and this article have some important information for us.

References:
-The Pyramid Cookbook, by Pat Baird

-http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/IntheNews/Etc/1093629527.html

-Zamiska, Nicholas. Food-pyramid frenzy: Lobbyists fight to defend sugar, potatoes and bread in recommended U.S. diet. Wall Street Journal (Marketplace section), July 29, 2004, B1; Willett, Walter C., with the assistance of others. Eat, Drink, and be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Food Pyramid Facts: Part Two

Did you know that for over a hundred years the USDA has given Americans advice about what to eat?

1. "The USDA issued the first tables of food composition and dietary standards for the United States' population in 1894. They represented what was believed to be the average protein and calorie needs of man. Specifications were not given for vitamins and minerals, since these needs were unknown.
   
2. A few years later W.O. Atwater, a pioneer nutrition investigator with the USDA, expressed concern in a Farmers Bulletin about obesity and the "evils of overeating." He emphasized the same themes of variety, balance and moderation that are important to us today.
3. The first Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) from the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) listed specific recommendations for calories and nine essential nutrients--protein, iron, calcium, vitamins A and D, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C)--at a time when this country was at the brink of war and coping with rationing.
4. In 1946, the USDA illustrated its food guide with a segmented circle that identified the basic seven food groups.
5. In the years following the war, the "Basic Seven" was revised and a new publication was issued: the National Food Guide. Later, in 1956, yet another new food guide, describing the "Basic Four"--was released as a booklet called Food for Fitness--A Daily Food Guide.
6. When the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs issued the Dietary Goals for the United States in 1977, a new direction was taken. This time the committee set quantitative goals for intakes of protein, carbohydrates, fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, sugars, and sodium. There were some basic disagreements, however, regarding the usual food patterns in the country. The 1977 guidelines, therefore, were not adopted by the USDA as a foundation for new food plans and food guides. In 1979, the USDA published The Hassle-Free Guide to a Better Diet in a colorful booklet called Food. The focal point of the guide was the addition of a fifth food group--fat, sugars, and alcohol--and the need to control the intake of these foods, which contribute mostly calories but few other nutrients. The guide also gave distinctive attention to calories and dietary fiber.
7. Though there was strong interest in health and nutrition in the late 1970's, The Hassle-Free Guide went unnoticed by a good many people. In 1980, the first edition of Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans was issued by the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). These guidelines were meant for healthy Americans, not for individuals with medical problems or who required special diets.
   
8. In 1984, the USDA, in cooperation with the American National Red Cross, developed the "Food Wheel" as part of a consumer nutrition education course. The Food Wheel emphasized the importance of eating different amounts of food from each of the food groups. Later, in 1988, when participants in focus groups were asked to comment on the Food Wheel, they perceived it as unimaginative and old-fashioned or as providing information they already knew. Even many professionals were still under the impression that the USDA was still using the "Basic Four." Many of them didn't feel that the Food Wheel clearly addressed nutritional concerns like the intake of too much food or the connections between diet and health. A new graphic to illustrate those messages was definitely in order."

To Be Continued....

-source: The Pyramid Cookbook, by Pat Baird
(This book was published in 1993, one year after the USDA released the "Food Guide Pyramid". The book is dated, but contains important historical information about how/when food guides came about.)