Archive for the ‘Hygiene’ Category

Friday Food News Wrap: March 4

Friday, March 4th, 2011

It’s March, which means it’s National Nutrition Month, as sponsored by the American Dietetic Association. Their message for this month is “Eat Right – With Color.” We love this message, especially at a time of year when we are ready to shed the winter blahs and get some real color into our meals. If you need some inspiration, check out the ADA’s resources page for tips, recipes, and more. And for another great take, see this story and recipe for Rainbow Vegetable Stew from PBS Parents’ Kitchen Explorers. (Speaking of rainbows, we’ve thrown in some pictures of these great colors we spotted this week at the Santa Monica farmers’ market.)

Can a nutrition awareness month be effective in the current environment? Fooducate, unfortunately, is skeptical on several fronts.  But they can certainly find agreement with the ADA on this point: “Will insurance companies wake up and start to subsidize dietitian visits? We certainly hope so. Because ultimately, obesity and food disease prevention is much cheaper than ‘cure-ation.’”

Childhood Obesity: What else are people talking about this week? It looks like Slate’s “Time to Trim” forum on reducing childhood obesity is drawing lots of interesting responses, including this one from Jane Black that reforming school lunch alone is not the answer. We were tipped off to this entry by a great little side discussion over at the Lunch Tray, one of our favorite sources for school lunch and nutrition news.

Frozen Foods?: Speaking of school lunches, a report that the Boston Public Schools have been using frozen foods past their expiration date has sparked a debate about the safety of using “old” frozen foods for the kids. Is cheese that has been frozen for two years just as nutritious as fresh cheese?

Get-Well Foods: As the flu season drags on, we have a great resource for what to feed your kids when they are sick. For example, should you starve a fever? No, says Pediatric Safety, calorie-rich fare is the way to go. Check out that advice and more in “The Best Foods for Sick Kids.”

Five-Second Rule: The New York Times reports that what we call the “five-second rule” should really be a “zero-second rule” given the amount of time it takes for food to get contaminated if it falls on the floor. OK, but realistically, we’re still probably going to pick up Cheerios, toast, pretzels, and other “dry” foods that fall on our floor.

Happy Friday to all!

Posted Under: Childhood Obesity, Hygiene, Nutrition | Tags: , , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on March 4th, 2011

Friday Food News Feed: September 3

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Are we really going to talk about chocolate milk and eggs again? Why, yes – You got a problem with that? First things first: We hope you got a chance to catch Jolly Tomato in the Huffington Post this week writing about the chocolate milk debate. We found it interesting that the chocolate milk campaign got turned up just in time for kids to head back to school. Hmmmm…

On the egg recall front, once again we like the Wall Street Journal’s comprehensive egg recall update. Currently one of the farms and its feed supplier are each suggesting the other is the problem. Go figure. For a real condemnation of industrial egg production, see this “Cleaning the Henhouse” op-ed by Nicholas M. Kristof in the New York Times. And in case you’ve been wondering how fresh your eggs are, try this test from Foodimentary: Immerse the egg in a pan of cool salted water. If it sinks; it’s fresh. If it floats; throw it away.

On to more (or maybe less) appealing topics:

Obesity Underestimated: With the launch of National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, scientists say the problem may be even more widespread than was previously thought, according to Medical News Today. Researchers have found that parents tend to underreport their children’s weight, to such extent that reports miss one in five obese children.

Clean Kitchens: USA Today reports on a small study done in L.A. County indicating that one in seven home kitchens would fail the health inspections routinely administered to restaurants. Time to go back to basics: Keeping meat properly refrigerated and then cooking it thoroughly, washing fruits and vegetables, and keeping hands and counters clean.

Organic Strawberries: The LA Times reports on a new study showing that organic strawberries had higher concentrations of antioxidants and vitamin C, survived longer without rotting, and did better on taste tests than their conventional counterparts. It’s worth noting, however, that the organic strawberries were lower in potassium and phosphorus.

School Salad Bars: Whole Foods has been busy raising money to put 300 free salad bars in schools; now they’re ready to open up the application process for schools that want one. See here for more details on how to apply (or contribute) to the project.

Local or Conventional?: In case you didn’t know much about the locavore-versus-industrial-foods debate, the Chicago Tribune has a great primer. Bias revealed: We prefer local.

Food Label Lesson: Last but not least, Fooducate gives us a great food label lesson with a look at Chef Boyardee’s Whole Grain Beefaroni. The “whole grain” version has the same amount of fiber, plus five more additives than the original version. Read those labels carefully, folks.

Happy Friday!

Posted Under: Childhood Obesity, Hygiene, Nutrition | Tags: , , , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on September 3rd, 2010

Friday Food News Feed

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Here at JollyTomato headquarters, we’re reading lots of fascinating food news every week… and we’re still trying to come up with a good name for our weekly news round-up. We’re going to go with Friday Food News “Feed” today and see how it goes.  So without further ado, we give you some of the most interesting food news stories we’ve seen since last Friday:

Food Dyes: As of Tuesday in the European Union, most foods containing artificial food dyes are required to carry a warning label, according to Food Safety News. Will the U.S. be next?

Red, red apple: Under the category of “foods that look like they have dye but do not,” a new breed of apple (developed through cross-pollination and grafting) is red all the way to the core. Supporters say the Redlove apple tastes great and is actually better for you because the red flesh contains flavonoids, which have antioxidant properties. But will kids think it’s cool… or scary?

Child Nutrition Act: We are still waiting for Congress to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act, which sets policy for U.S. child meal programs such as school lunches. If the bill is not reauthorized, it could be the second year in a row the legislation is extended without extra funding. That’s bad news for schools because they’re going to need more money to meet new nutrition standards that call for healthier (and more expensive) foods. The reauthorization process moves at a glacial pace, but when the next big thing happens we’ll let you know.

Kids’ Food Industry: Growing health awareness, time constraints and the demand for functional and convenience foods is driving growth and development of the kids’ food and beverage market, pushing total sales to nearly $90 billion in 2015, according to Global Industry Analysts. That’s a lot of goldfish, folks.

Five-Second Rule: A new study declares the “five-second rule” (the rule that you can eat something you’ve dropped on the floor if you pick it up within five seconds) to be a bunch of baloney. Other studies, however, say it matters what kind of surface it falls on (sidewalk=OK; kitchen floor=bad).

Food System: If you’d like to see a single graphic that depicts our entire global food system, and all of the global interconnections among food, agriculture, water, energy, soil, and humans, click here (via Michael Pollan). Can we get it in poster form?

Worst Kids’ Meals: Sigh. Do you really need to see more of this? It’s kind of like a car accident – you know it’s going to be bad, but curiosity gets the best of you and you have to look. This time Yahoo’s Shine rounds up the 25 worst kids’ meals from national chains. Go ahead – you can look.

Post-McDonald’s Era: Speaking of chain restaurants, some former McDonald’s executives are planning to launch a new “healthful, fast-casual” restaurant chain with an environmentally friendly feel. The menu will feature items like steel-cut oats and pita pockets for breakfast; the decor will include rooftop herb gardens and biodegradable cutlery. Watch for openings in early 2011. Who knows; maybe it’ll be the Next Big Thing.

Friday Food Flop: Yet another reason to look forward to Fridays: Kelly the Kitchen Kop has started a “Friday Food Flop” feature. We’ve had more than a few food flops in our day; we’ll look forward to reading about some other than our own.

Happy Friday to all!

Posted Under: Childhood Obesity, Government Regulations, Hygiene, Nutrition | Tags: , , , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on July 23rd, 2010
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