Nutrition and Your Health

Proteins Explained

Protein, contained in virtually every cell in your body, supports the growth and strength of your muscles, ligaments, organs, skin, blood, glands and more. Its importance to a healthy body can be found in the Greek word it comes from, meaning “primary.”

Yet it’s easy to get confused when you hear about “complete proteins” or “incomplete proteins.” What’s what—and how much do you need? Here’s a crash-course in vital protein basics to help you make healthy food choices:

1. Protein is made up of amino acids. Your body needs about 20 amino acids to create protein, yet it can only make 13 of those amino acids itself. The rest, known as essential amino acids, have to come from foods.
2. Foods from animals, such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy, are called “complete proteins” because they contain all the essential amino acids.
3. “Incomplete protein” foods are missing one or more essential amino acids. These include legumes, grains, seeds, nuts, vegetables and fruits. Soybeans are the only vegetable that has complete protein.

If you’re a vegetarian (or just don’t eat much meat), you don’t have to miss out on protein’s power. You can put together two or more incomplete proteins to get the all the essential amino acids found in complete proteins such as beef or chicken. These “complementary proteins” may be eaten together at the same meal or simply consumed during the same day. Try these combinations:

• Pinto beans and rice
• Corn and lima beans
• Hummus (chickpea spread) on wheat bread
• Split pea soup with barley.

For good health, keep protein portions moderate. A 45-year-old needs only five to six ounces of protein per day, depending upon activity level. That’s equivalent to half of a small chicken breast and a half-cup of cooked black beans.

The High-Protein Cookbook: More than 150 healthy and irresistibly good low-carb dishes that can be on the table in thirty minutes or less.

References
U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. “Medical Encyclopedia: Protein in diet.” MedlinePlus. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002467.htm Accessed 2/2/07.
Compact Oxford English Dictionary. “Protein.” http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/protein?view=uk Accessed 2/12/07.
Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. “Vegetarian Diets: Protein.” http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/H/HE-0470/ Accessed 2/2/07.
Cooper, N. “Dried Peas and Beans.” Diabetes Self Management. http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/article.cfm?aid=430 Accessed 2/2/07.
www.mypyramid.gov Accessed 2/7/07.
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© 2007 National Women’s Health Resource Center, Inc. (NWHRC) All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from the NWHRC. 1-877-986-9472 (toll-free). On the Web at: www.healthywomen.org.

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The Healthy Hamburger

Yes, hamburgers CAN become healthy burgers with a little attention to detail.

by Sheila Burcin, MS, RD

A typical hamburger can contribute a significant amount of saturated fat to your diet. Unlike whole cuts, which have trimmable fat, the fat in ground beef can only drip away during cooking.

Ground beef labeled .80% lean. is 20% fat by weight, and that fat contributes 70% of the total calories. On a per-gram basis, fat (9 calories per gram) provides more than twice the calories of carbohydrate and protein (4 calories per gram).

With the cookout season here, try this new lower fat version of the familiar and traditional hamburger.

1. The first step is to visit a supermarket that has a butcher. Choose a very lean cut of round from the meat case and, before the meat is ground, ask that all fat be trimmed.

2. To compensate for the fat that has been removed, mix the beef with tomato juice, chopped onion, and Worcestershire sauce before cooking. This will lessen the chance that the burger will become too dry.

3. Prepare each patty with three ounces of hamburger.

4. Grill, broil, or pan-broil your burger instead of frying.

5. Mushrooms and onions simmered in broth can be added as a garnish -give portabello mushrooms and Vidalia onions a try.

6. Place the burger on a whole grain bun. Add a slice of tomato, a leaf of romaine lettuce, salsa, or other condiments to help you incorporate vegetables and fruits into your diet.

And remember, go easy on the mayonnaise.

The Healthy Hamburger
Nutrition Information

315 calories
7 grams total fat
2 grams saturated fat
72 milligrams cholesterol
415 milligrams sodium

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Top 7 Headache Triggering Foods

June is National Headache Month, specific foods and dietary habits such as fasting, skipping meals or dehydration can trigger headaches in certain people. 

Some of the most common foods, beverages and additives associated with headaches include:

1. Aged Cheese — Cheeses may be a trigger in a some patients with migraines.

For people who take monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) medications, avoidance of all foods containing tyramine —including aged cheeses, red wine, alcoholic beverages and some processed meats — is essential.

Tyramine is found naturally in some foods. It is formed from the breakdown of protein as foods age. Generally, the longer a high-protein food ages the greater the tyramine content.

Types of cheeses high in tyramine:

Blue cheeses

Gorgonzola

Mozzarella

Muenster

Parmesan

Swiss

Processed cheese

Brie

English stilton

Cheddar

Feta

2. Alcohol— Blood flow to your brain increases when you drink alcohol. Some scientists blame the headache on impurities in alcohol or by-products produced as your body metabolizes alcohol. Red wine (see above), beer, whiskey, Scotch and champagne are the most commonly identified headache triggers.

3. Nitrates– Nitrates and nitrites are typically preservatives found in:

Hot dogs

Sausage

Ham

Bacon

Lunch meats and deli-style meats

Pepperoni

Other cured or processed meats

Or Some heart medicines

These substances dilate blood vessels, causing headaches in some people.

4. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a food additive/flavor enhancer that may trigger headaches. MSG is one of the active ingredients in soy sauce, meat tenderizer, Asian foods and a variety of packaged foods. Be aware of labeling such as “hydrolyzed fat “ or “hydrolyzied protein” or “all natural preservatives” since these are terms used synonymously with MSG.

Most symptoms begin within 20 to 25 minutes after consuming MSG. They include:

• Pressure in the chest
• Tightening and pressure in the face
• Burning sensation in the chest, neck, or shoulders
• Facial flushing
• Dizziness
• Headache pain across the front or sides of the head
• Abdominal discomfort

5. Cold foods — This condition is caused by eating cold ice cream quickly or gulping ice drinks. It’s more likely to occur if you are over-heated from exercise or hot temperatures. Pain, which is felt in the forehead, peaks 25 to 60 seconds and lasts from several seconds to one or two minutes. About one-third of people experience “head rushes,” and more than 90 percent of migraine sufferers report a sensitivity to ice cream.

6. Caffeine – found in chocolate and cocoa; beverages such as coffee, tea and colas; also found in certain medications.

7. Artificial Sweeteners–

Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are linked to headaches in some people.

Adapted from The Cleveland Clinic

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Omega-3’s in Fish and Your Health

Although the link between seafood consumption and improved health has been known for decades, research sheds light on the many health benefits of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish.

Considered essential nutrients because the body does not make them, omega-3 fatty acids are fundamental molecules in the structure and activity of cell membranes, especially in the brain and retina of the eye.

The following summarizes some important research findings that show the omega-3 fatty acids in fish play a major health role at every stage of life, from healthy infant development through the prevention and management of certain diseases and chronic conditions that may appear later on.

1. Benefits for the Developing Infant

When it comes to the developing fetus, extensive research shows that one of the essential omega-3 fatty acids in fish - DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) - is a critical component for building brain tissue, for nerve growth, and for the retina. In fact, research finds that when babies are developing during the last third of pregnancy, the brain and nervous system rapidly accumulate DHA. Before birth, babies get the DHA they need from their mother. After birth they obtain it mainly from breast milk.

However, a study by researchers at Harvard Medical School now finds that the importance of DHA to the developing brain is significant during the second trimester of pregnancy. According to a research article - Maternal Fish Consumption, Hair Mercury, and Infant Cognition in a U.S. Cohort - published in the October 2005 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, the study of 135 mothers and their infants reported that the greater a woman’s fish intake during the second trimester, the better her 6-month-old performed on a standard test of mental development.

Overall, babies’ scores on the test climbed by 4 points for each weekly serving of fish their mothers had during the second trimester, after findings were adjusted for maternal hair mercury and other confounding factors. Examining the impact of mercury, the study found that elevated maternal mercury levels were associated with deficits in infant cognition, but in spite of that, greater fish consumption was associated with better cognition. These results suggest that higher consumption of fish low in mercury is beneficial for infant cognition.

Data from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

In July 2004, researchers with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) published a research article in the Journal of Epidemiology based on assessing the fish intake of more than 7,400 mothers in the United Kingdom and found that those who ate fish regularly during pregnancy had children with better language and communication skills by the age of 18 months. Using standard tests of language, comprehension, motor and social skills to assess childhood development at 15 and 18 months, the study found a subtle but consistent link between eating fish during pregnancy and a child’s early cognitive development, even after adjusting for factors such as the age and education of the mother, whether she breastfed, and the quality of the home environment. Moreover, the study revealed that the amount of fish associated with these cognitive benefits was one to three servings a week, which is consistent with the advice of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that pregnant women should eat up to 12 ounces a week of fish low in mercury.

Study findings from the Childhood Asthma Prevention Study in Australia also reported that the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids was linked to a reduction in asthma symptoms in children.

Published in the October 2004 issue of the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology and conducted by researchers at the University of Sydney, the study examined 616 children at high risk for developing asthma and found that those children whose diets were high in omega-3 fatty acids were much less likely to develop a cough, one of the major triggers for asthma attacks. Moreover, the study concluded that increasing the proportion of omega-3 fatty acids in the diet significantly reduced airway inflammation in children as young as age 3. Other research has found omega-3 fatty acids to be beneficial in other lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis.

3. Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Women’s Health

Because the omega-3 fatty acids in fish enhance the ability of brain-receptors to comprehend mood-related signals from the brain, some researchers have observed that the likelihood of having depressive symptoms is significantly higher among infrequent fish consumers than among habitual fish eaters. This includes postpartum depression, where a 1998 study published in the Lancet, found that women in 23 countries whose breast milk was rich in omega-3 fatty acids because they had consumed fatty fish were less likely to suffer from this condition. Researchers noted that there was an inverse relationship between the consumption of fatty fish and the occurrence of postpartum depression. That means that women eating fatty fish were less likely to develop post partum depression.

Lower Risk of Breast Cancer

At a time when more than 40,000 American women die each year from breast cancer, the "Singapore Chinese Health Study" published in the May 2004 issue of the British Journal of Cancer found that postmenopausal women who ate more fish had a 26 percent lower risk of developing the disease. Conducted by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and the National University of Singapore, the study examined the eating habits of 35,298 women aged 45 to 74 years over a five-year period and found that those who consumed an average of one and a half to 3 ounces of fish and shellfish daily were 30 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than women who ate less than one ounce of fish a day. Based on these observations, the study authors suggested that eating approximately 40 grams of seafood a day - about 10 ounces of fish a week - could reduce breast cancer risk by 25 percent. As a comparison, the average American consumes less than 5 ounces of seafood per week according to National Marine Fisheries data.

4. Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke

The cardiovascular benefits of omega-3 fatty acids have been documented in many prospective studies and randomized clinical trials. For example, the findings of a small clinical trial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that patients who were given fish oil concentrate for two years had lower triglyceride levels and minimal artery blockage when compared to those receiving a placebo. Moreover, in a 1998 issue of Diabetes Care, a meta-analysis of studies on diabetes and fish oils found a 30 percent reduction in patient triglyceride levels, particularly among subjects with Type I diabetes who are at greatly increased risk of heart disease than people without the disease.

Along with these smaller studies, there have been a number of large trials reporting that omega-3 fatty acids in fish provide a protective mechanism of reducing the risk of irregular heartbeats. One major study called the GISSI-Prevenzione secondary prevention trial is particularly noteworthy. Reported in 2002 in the journal Circulation, this study of 11,323 subjects who survived their first heart attack demonstrated that even a small amount (about one gram a day) of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish was effective in cutting the chance of cardiac death by 45 percent-nearly half.

Preventing Stroke

Although less is known about the relationship between the omega-3 fatty acids in fish and the prevention of stroke, findings from the Nurses Health Study, which were published in the January 23, 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that women who ate fish more than once per month had a lower risk of stroke when compared with those who ate fish less than once a month. Moreover, women who ate fish two or more times per week had a significantly reduced risk of thrombotic infarction, the type of stroke most common in the U.S. Fish consumption is also linked to lower risk of stroke in men according to a major epidemiological study.

Conclusions in 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Based in part on this body of evidence, the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that Americans aged two and over get two eight-ounce servings a week of foods rich in the omega-3 fatty acids EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). In making this recommendation, the 13-member 2005 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee whose scientific review formed the basis for updating the government’s nutrition advice, concluded that higher levels of EPA and DHA are associated with the reduced risk of both sudden death and death from coronary heart disease in adults. Specifically, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee estimates that there could be a 30 percent reduction in coronary deaths if people increased their intake of omega-3 fatty acids.

5. Improved Eye Function

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of loss of vision in older persons in developed countries. Although the exact causes of AMD are still unknown, many researchers believe that certain nutrients, such as the omega-3 fatty acids in fish, help lower the risk for AMD or slow down its progression. Towards this end, the August 2001 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology reported findings that consumption of omega-3 fatty acids had a protective effect against advanced macular degeneration. The Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) confirmed this finding in 2003. In this case-control study of 4,513 participants aged 60 to 80 years at enrollment, total fish consumption of more than two servings per week was associated with a decreased risk for AMD compared with no fish in the diet.

6. Improved Brain Function

Growing scientific evidence now suggests that the omega-3 fatty acids found in seafood improve brain function in middle aged people and may actually lower the risk of mental impairment as people age. The latest research comes from researchers with Utrecht and Maastricht Universities in the Netherlands and was published in the journal Neurology in 2004. Tracking more than 1,600 Dutch men and women aged 45 to 70 over a six-year period, the researchers found that those who ate fish regularly scored higher on a battery of tests for memory, psychomotor speed, cognitive flexibility, and overall cognition. Moreover, the study concluded that the specific factors contributing to better brain function were fatty fish and the consumption of two essential omega-3 fatty acids found in canned tuna, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).

Slowing the Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease

Reported in the September 2, 2005 issue of the journal Neuron, neuroscientists at UCLA showed for the first time, in animals with Alzheimer’s disease, that a diet high in DHA helps protect the brain against the memory loss and cell damage caused by the condition, which now affects an estimated 4.5 million Americans. In the study, the researchers bred mice with genetic mutations that cause the brain lesions linked to advanced Alzheimer’s disease. When the mice aged and showed brain lesions but displayed no major loss of brain-cell activity, the scientists then fed one group a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids and the other a diet depleted of these fatty acids. After five months, the researchers compared each set of mice to a control group without the disease and found extensive synaptic damage in the brain cells of the Alzheimer’s mice that ate the DHA-depleted diet, but not in those consuming DHA.

At a time when an estimated 2.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with epilepsy, new research from the Emory University School of Medicine finds that people with a common type of seizure (refractory complex partial seizures) often have significantly lower amounts of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) in their blood. Because this form of epilepsy is often resistant to drug treatment, the researchers suggest that an important way to control these seizures may be as simple as consuming more foods rich in DHA. These preliminary findings suggest another area of brain function that might be linked to omega-3 fatty acids that warrants additional investigation.

Therapeutic Effect on Depression

A growing body of research finds a connection between the intake of omega-3 fatty acids and a lower prevalence of depression. This is because the brain and central nervous system contain high levels of DHA and EPA to keep the pattern of thoughts, reactions, and reflexes running smoothly and efficiently. Although the precise mechanisms by which these omega-3 fatty acids regulate mood are unknown, a number of studies on omega-3 fatty acids and mood have reported positive outcomes. In a 2002 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers showed that 2 grams of EPA could improve the symptoms of treatment-resistant depression. The researchers found that the EPA (versus placebo), when added to an ineffective antidepressant for one month, significantly improved depressive symptoms. A larger study published in Archives of General Psychiatry in 2002 confirmed these findings using a daily dose of 1 gram of EPA, and noted significant improvements in depressive symptoms, sleep, anxiety, lassitude, libido, and thoughts of suicide.

Funded by an unrestricted educational grant from the U.S. Tuna Foundation.

Reprinted with permission from the NWHRC. 1-877-986-9472 (toll-free). On the Web at: www.healthywomen.org.

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The Vegan Way: Helpful for Some Health Concerns

The basic philosophy of a vegan diet is simple: stick to plant-based foods entirely. Vegans not only don’t eat meat, fish or poultry, but they also don’t eat any foods that come from animals, such as eggs, milk, yogurt and cheese. (Lacto-vegetarians include dairy products in their diet and lacto-ovo vegetarians eat eggs and dairy.)

Even though it appears to be highly restrictive, when planned carefully, a vegan diet can meet all the daily requirements for protein, iron, calcium and other important nutrients for adults and children. Infants in vegan families where mothers aren’t breastfeeding should receive iron-fortified soy formula.

If you’re not a vegetarian, you can help improve your health by adopting some of the basics of a vegan diet. By reducing meat consumption and using fewer full-fat dairy products, you can dramatically cut saturated fat from your diet and help lower your cholesterol. Boosting consumption of plant-based foods will increase your levels of antioxidants, fiber, folate and other beneficial compounds.

These changes may give you some of the advantages of a totally plant-based diet—a lower body mass, better heart health, lower blood pressure and less risk of type 2 diabetes as well as some cancers.

Where will you find the nutrients you normally get from meat or dairy foods? Nuts, dried beans or soy products are good protein sources. Leafy green vegetables and tofu provide calcium. Iron is found in sweet potatoes, raisins, peanuts and broccoli.

Vegans can have troubles caused by low levels of vitamin B-12 (due to not eating any meat or dairy products). This may cause anemia, depression, dementia or nervous system problems. The B-12 in multivitamins is not sufficient to counteract this, so check with your health care provider about taking additional B-12 supplementation.

References

The Cleveland Clinic. "Nutrition During Pregnancy for Vegetarians." www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/1600/1674.asp?index=4724 Accessed June 20, 2007.

American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada. "Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: Vegetarian Diets." Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 64(2): 62-81, 2003.

Nemours Foundation. "Death Highlights Importance of Proper Nutrition for Babies Raised as Vegetarians." http://kidshealth.org/research/vegan_baby.html Accessed June 20, 2007.

Fontana L, Klein S, Holloszy JO. "Long-term, Low-protein, Low-calorie Diet and Endurance Exercise Modulate Metabolic Factors Associated With Cancer Risk." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 84(6): 1456-1462, 2006.

© 2007 National Women’s Health Resource Center, Inc. (NWHRC) All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from the NWHRC. 1-877-986-9472 (toll-free). On the Web at: www.healthywomen.org.

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Healthy Summer Eating Hints

Smart Summer Snacks
Summer is here and that means the kids are home from school. Instead of grazing all day, encourage your kids to stay on a meal schedule. Help them plan smart snacks, such as:

• Raw vegetables with low-fat dip
• Fresh fruit
• Homemade popsicles made from 100-percent fruit juice
• Italian ice
• Pudding made with low-fat milk.

As with other food choices, snack with variety, balance and moderation in mind. Smart snacking can make between-meal eating a valuable part of a healthful eating style for the whole family.

 
Tips for Safe Outdoor Eating
With warmer temperatures and more outdoor gatherings summer is a time of increased risk of food poisoning. Before you pack your picnic basket this weekend, remember these simple food safety tips.

• Keep hot food hot and keep cold food cold
• Pack food in a well–insulated cooler with plenty of ice or icepacks to keep temperature below 40 degrees F
• Keep raw foods separate from already prepared foods
• Transport the cooler in the back seat of your air-conditioned car instead of in your hot trunk and keep your cooler closed tight
• Bring moist towelettes or soap and water to clean your hands and surfaces often
• Don’t leave food outside in hot weather (90 degrees F or above) for more than one hour.

Summer Heat Challenges Fluid Intake
Staying well-hydrated is essential to maintaining adequate blood volume, energy levels and body functions. Most people should consume at least eight to twelve cups per day. However, the exact amount depends on your activity level. If you’re working or playing outside, your hydration needs are higher. In addition, if you have more muscle than fat, you also need more liquid. And of course, with hot, humid days the need goes up. One quick estimation of dehydration
is to check the color of your urine, it should be pale to colorless.

 
Stay well-hydrated by drinking water, juices, and eating lots of fruits and vegetables.

 
Safe Camp Lunches Make Kids Happy Campers
Help your children have a great camp experience with a safe and healthy brown bag lunch. Carrying a lunch in the summer requires extra focus on food safety. If your child’s lunch will sit out from the time he or she arrives at camp until lunchtime, pack all protein foods with an ice pack to keep the temperature below 40 ° F. If you can’t
use ice packs, choose protein foods that don’t need refrigeration, like peanut butter or other nut butters or individual cans of meat, fish or turkey.

Guidelines for Summer Barbecue Buffs
This summer, keep your feast safe and fun with these guidelines.

 
• Wash your hands (for about 20 seconds) before, during and after handling food. Pack hand sanitizer for times when soap and water aren’t handy.
• Scrub the grill with hot, soapy water before each use.
• When marinating, always use a separate brush for raw and cooked meats, or wash in hot, soapy water between uses.
• Always use a meat thermometer to make sure meats are cooked to a safe internal temperature.
• Remove from the cooler only the amount of raw meat, fish or poultry that will fit on the grill at one time
• Cook your favorite foods to the right temperature by using a meat thermometer; hamburger to at least 160 degrees F and chicken breasts to 170 degrees F

SOURCE: AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCITAION

Provided courtesy of www.wellnessproposals.com

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More Evidence of Cocoa’s Health Benefits

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Bagged Salads Are They Safe?

Yes, it’s convenient to buy pre-washed, ready-to-eat vegetables. Yes, we all do it. But you risk getting food poisoning, says one expert.

The recent problem with pre-washed, bagged spinach making people sick from a germ called E. coli brings the problem to light. These types of salads are a game of chance, cautions Michigan State University Professor, Thomas Whittam, a microbial expert. “When a contaminated plant gets mixed in with hundreds of other plants and packaged together, and when it takes very few bacteria to get sick, that really increases the risks,” he said.

The germs live in the intestines of healthy cattle. It can make contact with produce from fertilizer, or in contaminated water on a farm. The germs stick to plants. Washing removes 99.99% of the germs, but a few do not wash off. Best bet: Buy individual bunches or heads of greens to reduce your chance of getting ill.

“Microorganisms are literally everywhere, including on and inside of us and most of the food that we eat. Fortunately, most do not make us ill. . . . Bacteria are found in the soil in which the food is grown, in the water that it is irrigated with, on the hands of those that harvest and handle it, pests that eat or live on it, containers that hold food during transit to processing, almost
everywhere through processing,” says Sam Beattie, PhD, a food safety extension specialist and assistant professor of food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University.

Professor Beattie says it’s almost impossible to ensure that there will not be any nasty disease-causing “bugs” on any raw agricultural product, such as spinach and other packaged greens. Lettuce, for example, cannot be cooked to kill the germs, and chemicals cannot be used to
kill them either.

So what is a consumer to do? Dr. Beattie offers the following guidelines:

•Buy from reputable stores that have adequate cooling for prepackaged greens. Cooling keeps fresh produce fresh and bacteria from multiplying.
•Look for code dates on the bag. Buy the freshest you can find.
•Look for obvious signs of deterioration in the product – brown leaves, wilted leaves, overly moist or wet, water accumulation in the bag, swollen bags.
•Once purchased, keep the cut produce cold in your refrigerator. Use immediately.
•Iowa State experts do not recommend chemical sanitizer for use on produce at home

Food processing simply can’t eliminate bacteria in fresh foods. “Bacteria are tough to kill,” Dr. Beattie said. “During the growing and processing of pre-cut fruits or bagged leafy vegetables, there are several steps that are designed to reduce or eliminate many of the bacteria, but the processing steps must be mild enough to avoid destruction of the produce.”

He considers the entire food supply safe, and reports that pre-packaged foods are as safe as most other fresh foods. But it is important to look at how much handling of the fresh food occurs.

Source: Consumer Health News

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8 Simple Steps to the New Green Diet

From The Children’s Health Environmental Coalition

How to Shop for the Earth, Cook for Your Health and Bring Pleasure Back to Your Kitchen

The following guidelines can help you make healthier, greener food choices for your family’s diet.

1. Eat a variety of foods.
Eating a wide variety of foods is the best way to meet all your nutritional requirements, but the proliferating "variety" in supermarkets does not reflect biological diversity. Three species — rice, corn and wheat — supply nearly 60 percent of the calories and protein people derive from plants. And, of 200 crops eaten by humans, only 30 account for 90 percent of the world’s calorie intake.

2. Buy locally produced food.
The average mouthful of food travels 1,400 miles from the farm to our plates. Food from local farms is fresher and closer to ripeness, has used less energy for transport and is less likely to have been treated with postharvest pesticides. Buying local products also supports regional farmers and preserves farmland. If you get your fruits and vegetables at a farmers’ market or from a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, you can ask the farmer whether the food has been genetically engineered or treated with pesticides.

3. Buy produce in season.
Out-of-season produce is costly because transport uses so much energy. It’s also more likely to have been imported, often from a country with less stringent pesticide regulations than the U.S. Instead, in winter, prepare seasonal crops like potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, beets and parsnips. Put away or freeze spring and summer produce, such as berries or snap peas, from local producers. All these foods retain their nutritional content in storage; using them cuts energy costs.

4. Buy organically produced food.
Organic certification guarantees that the product has been grown, handled and processed without synthetic pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, artificial ingredients, preservatives or irradiation. Foods that are labeled "100 percent certified organic" cannot contain genetically engineered ingredients. Organic certification also means the farmer is promoting biological diversity by rotating crops, conserving and renewing the soil, and protecting water sources.

5. Eat fresh, whole foods with adequate starch and fiber.
Whole foods — fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes (beans), nuts and seeds — are the healthiest we can eat. The National Cancer Institute recommends we each "strive for five" servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day to protect against cancer, heart disease and common digestive ailments. Also, most fresh produce, legumes and whole grains, with the exception of corn and soy, are still genetically natural.

6. Eat fewer and smaller portions of animal products.

Meat and dairy products are major sources of fat in the U.S. diet, and contribute to higher risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Animal products, including farmed fish, may contain hormones, antibiotics and organochlorine chemicals, such as dioxin, DDT and other pesticides, which concentrate in animal fat. Fish caught in contaminated waters may contain high levels of PCBs or mercury.

Cattle, chickens, pigs and sheep consume more than 70 percent of the grains produced in the United States. So it’s likely that the meat, eggs and dairy products you buy were raised on bioengineered feed — primarily soy, corn or cottonseed meal. Modern meat production also consumes water, energy and land. Animal waste produces air and water pollution. And red meat production creates about 3.5 times more greenhouse gases than that of grains.

When you do buy meat, poultry or dairy, choose organic, which means it has been raised on organic feed.

7. Choose minimally processed and packaged foods.
A typical highly processed "food product" may contain little natural food and be high in fat, salt or sugar. It’s likely to contain genetically engineered soy- and corn-based additives, such as corn syrup and soy lecithin, which are present in 60 percent of all processed foods.

8. Prepare your own meals at home.
Cooking from scratch can involve a little more labor and time, but you can be sure you’ll save money and resources, because you’re not paying someone else to prepare, package, transport and advertise your meals. Home cooking is healthier and more nutritious because you start with fresh ingredients. And it can be its own reward, providing a truly creative outlet and rejuvenating the family meal.

Parts of these 8 Steps are adapted from: Joan Dye Gussow, professor emeritus of nutrition and education, Columbia University Teachers College, and Katherine L. Clancy, director of the Wallace Center for Agriculture & Environmental Policy, "Dietary Guidelines for Sustainability," Journal of Nutrition Education,Vol.18, No.1, 1986.

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Our Children and The Basic Right to Not be Hungry (Bloggers Unite)

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