A growing movement in the restaurant industry dubbed farm-to-table dining is an old idea made new again by today’s mounting concerns about where our food comes from and how it was grown. Chefs interested in only the freshest, flavorful, organic produce are putting in gardens next to their restaurants and serving up home-grown fare on their menus. The result--customers are flocking to their doors and raving about the food.

A couple dining at the restaurant/farm, Blue Water Grill, in Grand Rapids Michigan said, "It's a benefit knowing the food you're eating is grown 20 feet from the kitchen without pesticides or artificial fertilizers."

Growing Benefits

The farm-to-table trend has many benefits for your health and the environment, including:

Locally grown – Chefs have more control over what they can offer on the menu when they grow it themselves—like heirloom vegetables versus commercial-grown plants from GMO seeds. Local also means that the vegetables or fruits are allowed to mature and ripen to their peak rather than picked early to allow for packaging and transport from a farm far away. The end result is the fresher, better tasting produce.

Local produce is also better for the environment. Flying or trucking in produce from across the country or around the world burns fossil fuels—a limited resource, and adds to pollution.

Organic – Food grown organically, in naturally rich soil have a higher nutrient content and better flavor. It also typically yields a stronger, more pest- and disease-resistant plant. And of course, you get all these benefits without pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and other chemical residues.

Flavorful – You can beat the flavor of fresh picked, organic herbs and vegetables. As one chef put it, “A lot of our customers don’t know we grow our own produce, but when they bite into an heirloom tomato that I grew and picked that morning, they’re wowed.”

Greenscapes – in many urban areas, the restaurant gardens are also beautifying neighborhoods by providing green spaces in otherwise barren concrete landscapes.

The garden also makes a nice view from the restaurant's windows and patios. One guest gushed about their favorite restaurant garden, "The scene, the beautiful colors when everything is ripe, and the way the gardens are laid out — the beauty of how they've done it."

Plants also produce oxygen and clean the air which is good for all of us.

Higher Nutrition – Many of the above factors contribute to better nutrition:

• Locally grown often means higher nutritional value as some foods lose nutrient content in transit.
• Organic foods grown in naturally fertile soil using sustainable growing techniques produce higher vitamin and mineral content.

These benefits focus only on produce, but when you consider that some restaurants are also raising or sourcing local organic meats and poultry, the positive impact of farm-to-table dining is even greater.

The shift — both in public interest in locally grown foods and in restaurant owners growing their own — is “in a way, getting back to the right way of doing things,” said chef/restaurateur Magdiale Wolmark of Dragonfly Neo-V.

“The proliferation of processed foods in the past few decades has really been a glitch. It’s not healthy, and it’s not good for the environment. Now, we’re all getting back to a sense of normalcy.”

In Your Backyard

The farm-fresh restaurant trend is fairly wide-spread in urban and rural communities so there’s probably one near you. But if not, why not try a little organic gardening yourself. We have some tips to get started with Grow Your Own Organic Antioxidants.

Sources:

New Hope 360

The Columbus Dispatch

NBCNews Today

Who doesn’t love the original thought behind Valentine’s Day—showing how much you care about the ones you love. But like many other sugar-coated holidays, the deluge of chocolate and other sweets can quickly sabotage your resolutions to eat healthy.

Whether you are giving or receiving heartfelt greetings, here are some tips to have a healthy Valentine’s Day.

1. Chocolate Lovers – Focus on quality over quantity and dark chocolate over milk chocolate. Resist the temptation to buy a giant box of chocolates. Instead select a few pieces of gourmet dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is higher in health promoting antioxidants without as much sugar and butter fat as milk chocolate.

2. Eating Out – If a romantic dinner is in your plans, you can splurge on a meal that is both delicious and healthy. Grilled or baked cold-water fish like salmon, cod and halibut as well as chicken and turkey are the best options. (If you are trying to stick with the American Heart Association’s recommendations for limiting red meat to twice a week, then you can make this one of those occasions.)

Regarding side dishes, choosing steamed or roasted vegetables without gravy or sauces containing butter, cream or cheese are healthy choices. If you’re having a salad, go with a vinaigrette dressing versus a creamy dressing. As for dessert--do the romantic (and healthy) thing--split it.

Among wines, red wines including malbec, petitie sirah and pinot noir typically contain the highest amounts of heart-healthy antioxidants. Otherwise, moderate consumption of alcohol is a good way to express your love of a healthy liver.

3. Family Fun – Family night at home playing a board game or going out for a round of putt-putt golf or any activity you enjoy together can be a fun option. If there is an opportunity to exercise as a family, this helps kids mirror their parent’s behavior and include regular physical activity in their lives.

4. Non-Food Gifts – If you have a friend or spouse who is watching their diet, respect their efforts with a gift of flowers, jewelry, handmade gifts or a date night out on the town. Weight management experts say associating food with reward – even celebrations--can reinforce unhealthy emotional eating patterns.

5. Healthy Valentines for Kids – Since children often receive valentine gifts from family and schoolmates, they can accumulate quite a stash of sweets. Parents may need to collect it and be the “keepers of the candy” so it can be rationed in healthy amounts of one or two small pieces per day after a meal—never on an empty stomach.

When giving Valentine’s Day greetings to children, consider non-food items like pencils, stickers and hand-made cards or gifts of healthy snacks like fruit, nuts, trail mix or granola bars.

6. Out of Sight, Out of Mind – Even adults may have to hide the sweets. If you find yourself the recipient of too much chocolate love, you can freeze it or consider donating unopened containers to food pantries or other charitable organizations. Keeping it out of sight or giving it away will help remove the temptation to overindulge.

Sources:

American Heart Association

Rodale

Family Doctor

Let’s face it, many food labels can be misleading. They can lead us to believe that a product contains (or doesn’t contain) something when that’s not really the case, or labels may not tell the whole story. While touting “I’m a good healthy choice” on one count, closer inspection reveals the product fails to deliver on others—like too much added sugar, salt, or saturated fats.

Take the term “whole grain” for example; a study by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) reviewed five different industry and government guidelines for classifying foods as whole grain:

• The Whole Grain Stamp, a packaging symbol for products containing at least 8 g of whole grains per serving. (created by the Whole Grain Council, a non-governmental organization supported by industry dues.)
• Any whole grain as the first listed ingredient. (as defined by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s MyPlate and the Food and Drug Administration’s Consumer Health Information guide)
• Any whole grain as the first ingredient without added sugars in the first three ingredients (also the standard used by USDA’s MyPlate)
• The word “whole” before any grain anywhere in the ingredient list (recommended by USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010)
• The “10:1 ratio,” a ratio of total carbohydrate to fiber of less than 10 to 1, which is approximately the ratio of carbohydrate to fiber in whole wheat flour (recommended by the American Heart Association’s 2020 Goals)

Then the researchers analyzed the nutritional content of 545 grain products (breads, bagels, English muffins, cereals, crackers, cereal bars, granola bars and chips.)

As it turned out, products with the Whole Grain Stamp were higher in fiber and lower in trans fats, but also contained more sugar and calories compared to products that didn’t bear the stamp.

If you had followed any of the three USDA criteria for identifying a healthy grain product, your results would be mixed.

The American Heart Association’s standard based on a 10:1 ratio of carbohydrates to fiber proved to be the best indicator of overall healthfulness. Products meeting this ratio were higher in fiber and lower in trans fats, sugar, and sodium, without higher calories than products that did not meet the ratio.

The Takeaway

This study underscores a few important tips that can help you make healthy food choices:

• Choose whole foods instead of processed foods.
• If purchasing processed foods, choose the one made from whole ingredients without additives (preservatives, dyes, artificial flavors, etc.)
• Scan the “Nutrition Facts” box and ingredients list. Choose a product:
  • without added sugars
  • no trans fats (hydrogenated oils) and little or no fat overall
  • low sodium
  • fewest/no additives

We cover these tips and more in greater detail in our guide, Fooled by Food Labels: 9 Deceptive Claims to Watch Out For.

Source:

Harvard University

With all the focus on calcium, one might think that it is all your body needs to support healthy bones. But as we learn more about the function of bone structures—how bones grow and repair themselves—it becomes clear that there are many nutrients that affect bone formation and strength. A recent study, for example, shows how two proteins in the bone called osteocalcin and osteopontin along with vitamin K play a vital role in maintaining strong bones.

The researchers found that when you slip, trip, or fall, the force of the impact on a bone physically deforms a pair of joined proteins, osteopontin and osteocalcin, and results in the formation of tiny holes in the bone structure. These holes, called dilatational bands, function as a natural defense mechanism, and help to prevent further damage to the surrounding bone.

However, if the force of the impact is too great—or if the bone is lacking osteopontin, osteocalcin, or both—the bone will crack and fracture.  This is where vitamin K comes into play. Osteocalin must be in its active, carboxylated form to get absorbed into bone, and the protein is carboxylated by vitamin K.

Therefore, it’s important that your diet contain adequate amounts of protein--to supply the amino acids necessary for your body to create bone proteins—as well as vitamin K.

You may be surprised to learn that protein makes up roughly 50% of bone volume and about one-third of its mass. Unfortunately, there is a commonly held myth that we need less protein as we age. However research indicates the opposite may be true—not only to maintain bone strength but muscle strength too.

Good sources of protein include meat, poultry and seafood as well as vegetarian sources such as beans, nuts and seeds. Whey protein isolate is a concentrated source of all amino acids necessary for bones as well as muscles, skin and other tissues.

Leafy green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and kale are the best dietary source of vitamin K. As a result of this and other studies, advanced bone health supplements also contain vitamin K.

Sources:

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

With all the concern about childhood obesity there’s some good news to report in survey data that indicates children and adolescents are drinking less soda. But what they are drinking (or not drinking) instead of soda may be cause for concern.

The new data describes trends in what kids have been drinking in the last decade. First the good news:

• The percentage of kids age 6-12 who drink soda fell from 55% to 45%
• For teens 13-17 years old, the percentage of soda drinkers dropped from 67% to 53%

Because most soda contains little or no nutritional value, drinking less will help cut calories from sugar and reduce the amount of acidic drinks that can damage teeth.

Juice: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Trends in juice consumption are not as clear-cut. Until recently, the consumption of 100% fruit juice was rising steadily among all age groups. Now the trend is reversing in teenagers who are turning to other beverages like sports drinks, energy drinks, coffee and tea.

Young children and toddlers are still chugging juice but many pediatricians believe they may be drinking too much juice. The American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for fruit juice are:

• 0-6 months: no juice
• 6 months-1 year: 1-3 oz
• 1-6 years: 4-6 oz
• 6-18 years: 8-12 oz

The concern with juice is the high amount of sugar—including naturally occurring sugars. Too much sugar is associated with many health problems including obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Fruit juice is often missing some of the nutrients and fiber that whole fruit contains.  For this reason, many health experts recommend whole fruit over juice to gain all of the potential benefits of fruit.

Got Milk?

On the down side, the survey data shows a steady decline in milk consumption. For example:

• Among children age 6-12 only 73% drink milk, down from 90%
• For teenagers the numbers are much worse. The number of milk-drinking teenagers dropped from just over 75% down to 57%.
• Also sliding is the amount of milk that kids are drinking when they do choose milk. (between 4 and 5 ounces less per day)

In drinking less milk kids are missing out on many important nutrients necessary for growth and health maintenance like calcium, vitamin D and potassium. These nutrients are needed for healthy bones and muscles and a strong immune system.

Drinking less milk would not be a problem if what kids drank instead of milk provided these nutrients, but that’s not the case.

Functional Beverages

Another growing trend in the drink category is the popularity of a new class of drinks called “functional beverages.” Popular with kids and adults, these drinks are often marketed as healthy alternatives to soda, but are they really better? Find out which drinks make the grade and which ones miss the mark with our review, Functional Drinks Exposed.

Sources:

Food Navigator

American Academy of Pediatrics

There’s no doubt that Americans love hot dogs. During peak hot dog season, Memorial Day to Labor Day, we typically consume 7 billion hot dogs or 818 hot dogs every second.

But hot dogs have a bad reputation, (not without merit) for being unhealthy. While it’s true that many hot dogs are made with low quality meat, fillers and chemicals including nitrates, there are a growing number of healthier options.

Today there are hot dogs made from premium cuts of beef, alternative meats like turkey and chicken, as well as organic and vegan options. How you dress your hot dog can also improve the nutritional value of this American classic.

What to Look For

Scan the Ingredients List and Nutrition Facts. Ideally a hot dog should be made of premium cuts of meat and/or poultry. Watch out for meat/poultry ingredients described as “mechanically separated” or “variety meats” which are terms for lower quality meat trimmings.

Choose organic hot dogs if you can find them. They are made from organically raised animals, not treated with antibiotics or hormones. Plus they skip the nitrites and nitrates.

Other than a meat or vegan protein source, you should see spices like garlic and paprika and no fillers or chemicals on the ingredients list.

A healthier hot dog will have less than 150 calories and 14 grams of fat (with no more that 6 grams of saturated fat) and no more than 450 milligrams of sodium per serving.

Cured vs. Uncured

We couldn’t talk about hot dogs without touching on the subject of preservatives used in curing. Traditionally, sodium nitrite/nitrate is added to cure products like hot dogs, bacon and ham to prevent spoilage. It also gives cured meats a pink color and distinctive flavor.

Unfortunately studies have linked high consumption of processed meats containing nitrates to cancer. When cooked, especially at high temperatures such as boiling or grilling, nitrites can combine with amines in meat to form nitrosamines which are considered carcinogens.

You can reduce the formation of nitrosamines, by cooking meat at 350 degrees or less. Antioxidants like Vitamin C and E also reduce the formation of nitrosamines and are often added to cured products.

Still, some argue that cured meats contain relatively low nitrite levels. According to the American Meat Institute, nearly 93% of the nitrites that we ingest on a daily basis are derived from vegetables and water. Less than 5% come from cured meats.

An alternative to sodium nitrate are natural nitrates, derived from vegetables, typically celery powder. The FDA requires that naturally cured products are labeled “uncured” as only meats with synthetic sodium nitrite are considered “cured.”

Dressing Your Dog

What you put on or under your hot dog can also make or break a healthy meal.

• A refined white bun delivers a shot of simple carbohydrates and no fiber. Opt instead for a more nutritious whole wheat bun and avoid the insulin spike.
• Go light on the ketchup, mustard and relish. A tablespoon of each can add about 500 mg of added sodium. You can reduce your sodium intake by half by using two tablespoons of sauerkraut instead.
• Top your dog with fresh tomato, onions, peppers, avocado or lettuce. They are naturally lower in sodium and provide vitamin C, lycopene and fiber. Avocado adds heart healthy fat.
• Skip the cheese and save about 90 calories, 4 grams of saturated fat and over 500 grams of sodium.

Have a healthy, happy and safe 4th of July!

Sources:

National Hot Dog & Sausage Council

American Meat Institute

Eating Well

There’s more good news for coffee lovers in the health department. A new study says moderate coffee consumption—regular or decaf--can lower your risk of dying by as much as 16%. But before you reach for another cup of joe, know that these results are limited by factors such as age, health and lifestyle. Also, coffee didn’t reduce the risk of death from one big health concern.

Study Specifics

This study followed 400,000 men and women age 50 – 71 enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study between 1995 and 1996. Each participant provided details about their coffee consumption, ranging from zero to a maximum category of six cups a day or more.

None of the participants had a history of cancer, stroke or heart disease when the study started. Then the health of each was tracked through 2008 or until death.

At first, the results indicated that coffee might increase the risk of death. Among those that didn’t drink coffee 13% of men and 10% percent of women died between 1995 and 2008, compared to 19% of men and 15% of women who drank six or more cups a day.

But when the researchers excluded coffee drinkers that also smoked, abused alcohol and ate lots of red meat, they found a completely different picture. Now men who drank two to more than six cups of coffee a day were about 10% less likely to die during the study than non-drinkers. For women, there was up to a 16% reduced risk of death in coffee drinkers compared to non-drinkers.

The protective effect appeared greater among those who drank more than one cup a day, but little difference was seen between two cups a day and six cups a day.

What a Way to Go

The results showed a lower overall risk of dying for specific health concerns: cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness, stroke, diabetes, infections, and injuries and accidents.

Coffee drinking was not linked to a reduction in cancer fatalities among women, and had only a marginal protective impact on cancer deaths among men.

Not for Everyone

Study authors recommend talking to your doctor before upping coffee consumption because your personal health history might affect the advice you receive.

Also, pediatricians generally advise against caffeinated coffee for children and recommend limiting coffee in adolescents.  Like many stimulants, coffee can disrupt sleep patterns and become addictive.

Questions Remain

This new study seems to confirm what previous research has suggested: that coffee drinking in moderation is not bad for healthy adults.

But how coffee delivered the apparent benefits in this study remains a mystery. Besides caffeine, coffee contains antioxidants, phytochemicals and thousands of compounds that may hold the answer to that million dollar question.

Sources:

Reuters Health

Health Finder

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