There are steps you can take at home to reduce the risk of food poisoning from pet food:
You know this step but if you’re like me…have probably skipped it. Wash your hands or your children’s hands after you touch pet food and pet dishes. I can’t tell you how many times I have reached in the dry cat food bag for a few nibbles, given them to my cat and not thought about it.
Clean pet food bowls and their eating area routinely.
Avoid bathing infants in the kitchen sink and avoid cleaning pet dishes in the bathtub. This cuts down on cross contamination or bacteria from food that may stay in the bathtub or the kitchen sink and end up on the baby.
Have you noticed that food recalls have become much more frequent? Recently you may have heard about dry pet food being linked to salmonella, bacteria common in food poisoning. This particular outbreak affected about 80 people in the eastern US, 11 of whom were put in the hospital. Almost half of those who got sick were ages 2 and younger…yes…you read that right.
The children didn’t get sick from eating the dog and cat food but rather from touching it or the pet food dishes and then putting their hands in their mouths. The bacteria were cross-contaminated or transferred from the food or dish to the hands and to the mouth.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that heating during food processing typically kills salmonella germs and that contamination may have occurred during a later process where food was sprayed with flavor enhancers.
Wash reusable bags regularly…toss them in the washer or hand wash if you prefer.
Designate certain reusable bags for meat only and wash them regularly.
Wash fruit and veggies when you bring them home BEFORE they go in the refrigerator, pantry, or fruit bowl. Remember that salmonella and other bacteria can be on the outside of your cantaloupe or kiwi and will contaminate the fruit when you cut it up.
Keep separate reusable bags for other uses such as snacks, gym clothes, books, and shopping.
Think about this…reusable bags that are never washed are a breeding ground for bacteria. If you put raw meat and veggies in the same bag, cross contamination can occur.
Bacteria from the raw meat can get on the fruit and veggies that then take up residence in your refrigerator, fruit bowl, etc. As bacteria grow in the bags, your risk for potential food poisoning goes up.
Do you need a few sizzling summer meal ideas? Then I have a treat for you today.
Joining me on my podcast this week is award-winning Chef Cliff Pleau. A graduate of the Culinary Institute, he was selected by Euro Disney to open the Disneyland Hotel in Paris and also played an integral role in the food and beverage development of other Disney concepts including Animal Kingdom, Boardwalk, and the Disney Cruiseline.
Now at the helm of the Seasons 52 culinary program, Chef Cliff believes in taking pure ingredients and preparing them in straightforward ways that are intense in flavor.
Want to grill your corn instead? Watch his short how-to video and you’ll be a grill master in no time. For additional cooking videos check out the Seasons 52 Facebook page.
Terrific Tip: One of my favorite tips from Chef Cliff is to keep two basic inexpensive spray bottles full of extra virgin olive oil and canola oil.
Spritz your pans and food with the oil instead of pouring from a bottle. At only one calorie per spritz, I control the amount of fat I use but keep the flavor that spritzing food at the very end imparts.
Try it yourself. You add flavor while you save money on oil and prevent extra calories from depositing in places you don’t want them to be.
I just returned from the Florida Dietetic Association annual meeting where the latest evidence-based nutrition research is presented. I have so much to share with you so today I’ll start with a few items I think you’ll find interesting and helpful.
Grape juice…the original super juice. I’m talking about the dark purple Concord grape juice…yes, like Welch’s.
Benefits:
Heart health: Clinical studies have found that Concord grape juice works in a similar fashion to red wine to promote healthy artery function.Concord grape juice stimulates the production of nitric oxide in cells which promotes the relaxation of arteries and then contributes to a healthier blood pressure.
Beneficial against age-related brain decline: Grape juice contains naturally occurring phytonutrients or plant nutrients called polyphenols which may be beneficial against age-related brain decline. You’ve probably heard of polyphenols in wine and chocolate as well.
Nutrition buzzword: Naturally Nutrient-Rich
What does naturally nutrient-rich mean to you and the way you eat? Think about some of the products that you buy. Much of the time the food label promotes only one item such as low in fat, low calorie, 100-calorie pack, or zero trans fat.
Let’s say your item is a 100-calorie pack of your favorite cookies. Beside the 100 calories, what else does the product provide your body in the way of nutrition? Is it packed with vitamins and minerals, fiber or protein making it naturally nutrient-rich? Or, is the 100 calories you’re about to munch on just that…100 calories and nothing else? Simply empty calories.
So, when you shop, think about the buzzword …naturally nutrient-rich. Reach for whole foods versus processed foods particularly whole grains and intensely colored fruit and veggies.
Liz Applegate PhD, from UC-Davis is concerned that coconut water contains fewer carbs than commercial sports drinks as well as lacks the sodium level.
Coconut water is a good source of the needed nutrient potassium but when you sweat, you lose sodium and after a strenuous workout of an hour or more, coconut water is not going to provide the needed carbs and sodium to replenish adequately.
Bottom line…if you enjoy the flavor of coconut water, it’s fine to drink. But rethink your drink when it comes to sports nutrition and recovery after a hard workout.
Ok, I admit it. I love ice cream. Do you? What better way to cool down in the summer than with an ice cold creamy frozen treat.
This week on the podcast Margit Ragland, Health Director at Family Circle magazine, and I talk about five ice cream treats that don’t have to be off limits even when you’re on a diet. Their favorites include:
Or spend an afternoon in the kitchen with your kids and make cookies such as oatmeal raisin. Then put light ice cream or frozen yogurt between two for your personal version of an ice cream sandwich.
Turn your kitchen into an ice cream parlor. A couple of Sundays ago, a girlfriend and her two young girls came over. We decided to turn the kitchen into an ice cream parlor. We took light vanilla bean ice cream and sliced it into small pieces on a cutting board. Next we had a selection of blueberries, strawberries, chopped walnuts and mini chocolate chips to choose from. The girls mixed them into the cut up ice cream.
Then we scooped the mixture into ice cream cones and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Do you think these were a hit? The kids had a blast choosing the items that they wanted to mix in and we loved saving a lot of money by making the cones at home. Give this a try…you’ll be the most popular Mom or Dad on the block.
Be sure and try this month’s recipe for Frozen Tiramisufrom the Family Circle kitchens. By using coffee flavored frozen yogurt, instant coffee and chocolate sauce, per serving stats come in under 200 calories and five grams of fat per serving.
According to the American Heart Association the average teen consumes about 34 teaspoons of sugar…or about 500 calories…in a typical day. It’s so easy to reach for snacks loaded with sugar and fat and empty when it comes to nutrition. With just a little planning, you can feed them well and feel good about it.
On the podcast this week, Margit Ragland, Health Director at Family Circle magazine joins me to share simple strategies for your kids’ snacks.
Try these simple strategies from Family Circle’s July issue:
Offer smart snacks. Choose options that override cravings for sweets such as peanut butter or almond butter and whole grain crackers or whole wheat bread. Try fun, prepacked freeze-dried fruit, trail mix or squeezable applesauce.
Focus on fruit. Fruit contains natural sugar or fructose plus a load of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Summer is peak season for a lot of fresh fruit. Serve it with frozen yogurt or make parfaits with granola, fruit such as blueberries and your favorite yogurt. I like to use Greek yogurt and make parfaits for snacks and breakfast.
Rethink drinks. Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages are major culprits in over-the-top sugar consumption. Try mixing juice with sparkling water or seltzer, unsweetened tea, or try the lower-sugar fruit-juice-blend products. Don’t forget milk.
The Nutrition Facts label is very confusing when it comes to figuring out sugar intake. I hope that changes with the label update. For now, your simple strategy is to do the math so you know the amount of sugar in a product.
Determine calories from sugar: grams of sugar in a serving x 4 (4 calories/gram) = sugar calories
Teaspoons of sugar: grams of sugar per serving divided by 4 = teaspoons of sugar per serving
Remember that currently the Nutrition Facts label doesn’t separate out naturally occurring sugars such as fructose or lactose from the added sugars. You must go one step further and look at the ingredient label to see what sugars have been added.
In your body, sucrose which is sugar, molasses, honey, raw sugar, high fructose corn syrup or maple syrup are all sugars or sweeteners and the body doesn’t differentiate between them regardless of what the Internet scares tell you.
Each month Margit shares a recipe from the Family Circle kitchens and this month it’s a Berrylicious Shake. It’s quick and includes fresh blueberries which are in season now.
With the trend towards locally grown, eco-friendly, natural food, raw milk is touted as being more healthful, better tasting and nutritious than pasteurized milk…but is it? Proponents of raw milk say it’s safe to drink…but should you drink it and give it to your family
Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized. It’s milk from any hoofed animal including cows, sheep or goats.Because of the potential for raw milk to contain a wide variety of bacteria including such suspects as:
Salmonella
E. coli
Listeria
M. tuberculosis
Campylobacter
Brucella
Public health officials for decades have expressed concern over drinking raw milk. Symptoms of illness range from:
vomiting
diarrhea
abdominal pain
fever, headache and body aches
However, people with weakened immune systems from HIV or autoimmune diseases or infants, young children, pregnant women and the elderly are especially sensitive and illness from raw milk can be very serious and result in death.
Dr. Schmidt delves into these questions that you have asked?
First, I have to ask this same question that I asked Joe Wright, the dairy farmer who was our guest last week. Do you drink raw milk or pasteurized milk and why?
Proponents of raw milk say it is more nutritious with additional enzymes and healthy bacteria that are destroyed by pasteurization. Is one milk more nutritious than the other?
Does raw milk contain antimicrobial components making pasteurization unnecessary? What effect does pasteurization have on milk?
Dr. Schmidt, advocates of raw milk point to some studies where children drinking raw milk have less allergies, asthma and eczema. Where does the scientific community come out on this debate on drinking raw milk and giving it to children?
What about cheese made from raw milk? Is it safe? I see dairies selling it at farmers’ markets.
Do you think raw milk will become legal in Florida and other states?
What’s your opinion on raw milk? Post your comment on my blog and I’ll share some of them on an upcoming podcast.
Shaking salt from your diet is constantly in the news. But, I don’t want to lose the flavor of my food, do you? Did you know that approximately seventy five percent of the sodium in the American diet comes from the various sodium products added during processing? Incredible isn’t it? So get your label sleuth glasses on… it’s time to read the fine print! Reading labels is key to finding all the hidden sodium. There are a lot of us checking out food labels according to a 2009 survey by Mintel. Over 25% of people responding are always watching salt in their diet.
Check out the sodium level in some of these notorious sodium offenders as the level really does vary company to company:
Sauces and salad dressings: consider making your own from a flavored balsamic vinegar and good olive oil
Frozen and canned veggies
Frozen entrees
Fast foods
Deli meats plus ham, hot dogs, sausage and bacon
Soup
Bouillon cubes
Because salt adds flavor to food, you might be wondering whether you’re going to miss all that added sodium. You’ll like this answer. Your taste buds will adapt after about 6-8 weeks of gradually cutting back on the amount of sodium that you consume.
More tips to shake the sodium but not the flavor in your diet:
It’s all about fresh…start with fresh ingredients when at all possible. Bonus! When you eat more fruit and veggies, the additional potassium has a positive or lowering effect on blood pressure.
Rethink your seasonings…pepper is great but try a wide variety of fresh and dried herbs/spices and delightful seasoning blends without added sodium. Use more lemon, lime and other citrus for flavor along with a variety of vinegars. Grow fresh herbs in pots to use in your dishes too.
Rinse tuna, canned beans and canned veggies to lower the sodium content. Add your fresh herbs and spices to kick up the flavor.
What’s your favorite trick to shake the salt? Email me and I’ll share some of your tips in my podcast.
The buzzwords ‘inflammation’ and ‘anti-inflammation diet’ continue to garner a lot of attention in the nutrition world so it’s time to give you an update on the latest information that may affect your health. Inflammation can be good or bad. It’s good if it’s acute or short term such as when cut yourself. Your immune system kicks in sending white blood cells along with other substances to jump start the healing process. Inflammation is not so good when it becomes chronic or longer term inflammation in your body. This invisible type of inflammation gets all the attention because it’s been implicated in the etiology or cause of many common diseases from heart disease and auto immune illness like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis to some cancers, diabetes, and even stroke.
Here’s what scientists think is happening in the body with this low-grade chronic inflammation. This on-going inflammation damages your blood vessels thus increasing your risk for heart problems. In the case of cancer, inflammation could damage your genes or increase the development of blood vessels that let cancer cells spread and grow. In your body, inflammation raises the level of what’s called C-reactive protein or CRP for short. The liver produces this CRP during periods of inflammation so if the body has chronic inflammation going on, the CRP level will be elevated. Now doctors can measure this level of general inflammation in the body with a blood test called the hs-CRP which stands for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.
What can you do about inflammation in the body? Does what you eat potentially make inflammation worse in your body or can it help fight inflammation? Is there an ‘anti-inflammation diet’? Yes there is. It’s called the Mediterranean Diet. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at the effect of a Mediterranean diet on inflammation in the body, particularly in people with metabolic syndrome.
Think of metabolic syndrome as a group or cluster of medical issues that includes excess weight around your belly, elevated total cholesterol and LDL levels, high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels. In fact, metabolic syndrome affects about 25% of our population. Why do I mention metabolic syndrome? Because it’s a syndrome that is tied to a pro-inflammatory state in your body…in other words…this chronic inflammation we’ve been talking about.
This study and others have found that a Mediterranean diet which includes healthy oils, nuts, fish and lots of fruits, veggies and grains decreased the level of CRP in the blood and reduced the level of inflammation in the body. Following a Mediterranean diet often results in weight loss which lowers markers of inflammation in the body…a very good thing.
1. Switch your type of fat: as much as possible use healthy oils such as olive, peanut and canola. These are rich in monounsaturated fats, the more heart healthy type of fat. Cut out as much trans fat and saturated fat as you can. These unhealthy fats not only raise the lousy cholesterol level (LDL) but also promote inflammation. Remember trans fat is the same as partially hydrogenated fat on a food label and saturated fat includes fatty meats, bacon, sausage, butter, full fat dairy, etc….opt for the low fat and lean meat versions.
2. Eat more whole grains and other high fiber foods such as beans, peas, lentils, oatmeal, etc. Consume fewer sweeteners such as sugar and corn syrup and other refined carbs including chips, cookies, pastries, and sweets. Why? They can make your blood sugar level spike which has also been tied to inflammation.
3. Consume more fish: especially fatty fish which contain omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats are found in fish such as salmon and tuna.
4. Add nuts and avocados to the diet: these are good sources of the healthy fat, monounsaturated which appear to be anti-inflammatory.
5. Increase the number of fruits and vegetables that you eat each day. The antioxidants they contain such as vitamins A, C and E along with all the naturally occurring healthy compounds called phytonutrients seem to ramp down the inflammation process in the body.
Give the Mediterranean way of eating a try. The synergistic effect of these foods eaten together over time can have beneficial effects for your health.
It’s the third week of January. Have you thrown your New Year’s resolutions in the trash yet? Many people have by now. That’s one of the reasons I’m not a fan of diets. I like small and simple changes that don’t overwhelm you. Life can be overwhelming enough. Weight is the big focus at the beginning of the year but weight is just part of the picture. I want you to think about your overall health. Do you know your total cholesterol number and whether the good and evil cholesterol levels (HDL and LDL) are where they need to be? What’s your blood pressure? When was the last time you had it checked? I’m talking outside of your doctor’s office. After all, white coat hypertension can push blood pressure up abnormally. White coat hypertension is the stress you feel when the doc comes in the room to see you and you can’t remember all you wanted to discuss.
Are you shaking your head and saying to me, “I have no clue?” Your energy level and day to day health are affected by more than weight. So take some time for you…just like an oil change for your car, everyone needs preventive maintenance. If you don’t take the time for you, it’s not going to happen, right? You’re worth it…ok? You can find helpful information about all things heart related….your heart, cholesterol, blood pressure and related questions at hearthub.org part of the American Heart Association.
I bet if I ask you what food has a negative effect on your heart and health, you could easily tell me……pastries and goodies made with trans fat, double stacked cheeseburgers, sausage. But what about food that is beneficial to your heart and health? This week on my podcast, Margit Ragland, Health Director at Family Circle joins me to discuss must-have foods that benefit the heart. I don’t like to focus on what not to do but rather the steps you can take to make a difference in your health starting today. A few of the foods we take a look at include:
Red bell peppers, grapefruit, strawberries, mixed salad greens, kale, spinach, broccoli
Asparagus, orange juice
Guacamole
Salsa
Pudding, nonfat milk and low-fat yogurt
Canned or pouch tuna and salmon
Be sure andcheck out our Cyber Weight Loss Club. Share your story and photos and we’ll enter you in a drawing at the end of January to win a copy of the book by TV’s The Biggest Loser, Ali Vincent called Believe It, Be It.
Family Circle shares an easy way to get your heart healthy fish with a recipe for Teriyaki Salmon with glazed broccoli salad. Pick up the February issue of Family Circle for a full list and discussion of the heart healthy foods we talk about plus others that will surprise you.
Are you excited about the New Year? 2010 is just two days away. I always look forward to the New Year which brings a fresh approach and a new look at areas in life that may have gone a little stale…know what I mean? If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’m not about gimmicks, miracle diet pills and products or diets that don’t work. I’m all about real life and how to make tweaks in your life so you feel better, have more energy and enjoy every day…not to mention eat good food. So how’s this for a ‘diet?’ All food is allowed….nothing is prohibited. Otherwise the denial, deprivation and overeating cycle sets in. You deny yourself something you really want to eat and then begin to feel deprived. Finally you can’t stand it any longer so you overeat on the food you denied yourself to begin with and the vicious cycle starts. You don’t win…ever.
In the January 2010 issue of Family Circle magazine, there’s a nice article on smart eating. This week’s podcast welcomes my regular guest, Margit Ragland, senior editor at Family Circle to chat on smart eating tips. Get your New Year’s health on and try these four tips this January.
1. Leave two bites at every meal (about 100 calories total per day). Cutting just 100 calories every day in 2010 results in a ten pound weight loss. Not bad. How would you like to weigh 10 pounds less at the end of next year and accomplish this by slightly cutting your portions?
2. Cook at home one more night each week. Most home cooked meals tend to be lower in fat and calories plus smaller in portion than what you typically get eating out.
3. Turn off the kitchen lights at 8 p.m. Cut out mindless eating at night.
4. Serve your meals on eight inch salad plates. Compared to a standard dinner plate size of 10 inches (or more), the smaller size looks like more food and you have less room to load up.
To start the New Year off right, we have a new spin on eggplant parmesan. Be sure and try the Panko-Crusted Eggplant Parmesan recipe posted at the WDBO.com Nutrition & Health Center.
There are steps you can take at home to reduce the risk of food poisoning from pet food:
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