Green Living Online has an interesting article on hand soaps, but what caught my attention was all the negative research regarding triclosan.

 ”But a growing number of scientists and researchers not only think this is unnecessary, but could lead to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and a massive public health issue. Despite most manufacturers claiming it’s a safe ingredient, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has registered it as a pesticide, similar to agent orange and other harmful dioxins and chlorophenol, a class of chemicals suspected of causing cancer in humans.”

 Beyond Pesticides offers a report published in Clinical Infectious Diseases that cites that not only are anti-bacterial handwashes no more effective than common soap and water, they may actually be leading to the rise of antibiotic resistant diseases.

Both articles recommend looking for an all natural alternative as they provide not only a better option for your skin but a less dangerous method of killing germs.

Monday June 9, 1941

The following excerpt is from an article that appeared in Time magazine Highlighting is mine and is not included in the online article.

The Nation’s Food

Nine hundred doctors, dietitians, chemists, industrialists met in Washington last week to tackle an immense problem: the U.S. diet. As a whole the U.S. today is probably better fed than any other nation, but at least 45,000,000 people in the U.S. are undernourished. Another 50,000,000 people drag along on four cylinders, but cut a good five years off their work-life by not eating the right foods. Of the 35,000,000 remaining, quite a few suffer from overeating.

To work out plans to improve this situation was the job of the first National Nutrition Conference. Chairman: Federal Security Administrator Paul Vories McNutt. Fellow laborers: Vice President Henry Agard Wallace, who has an expert’s knowledge of vitamins. Secretary of Agriculture Claude Raymond Wickard, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, Nutritionists Russell Morse Wilder of the Mayo Clinic and Henry Clapp Sherman of Columbia University.

Model Menu. For good health, the Conference urged citizens of all ages to eat the following foods every day: “One pint of milk for an adult and more for a child; a serving of meat . . . one egg or some suitable substitute such as navy beans; two vegetables, one of which should be green or yellow; two fruits, one of which should be rich in vitamin C, found abundantly in citrus fruits and tomatoes; breads, flour and cereal, most or preferably all whole grain or enriched; some butter or oleomargarine with vitamin A added; other foods to satisfy the appetite.” With such a diet, added vitamins are not necessary, except vitamin D (in cod-liver oil) for babies and for older children and adults during winter months. According to most dietitians, a basic diet costs at least 24¢ a day per person. But for the 45,000,000 undernourished. 5¢ a meal is all they can spend.

A necessary vitamin is B—a group of at least half a dozen different chemicals. Most radio listeners, said Vice President Wallace last week, know B as the “oomph vitamin, that puts the sparkle in your eye, the spring in your step, the zip in your soul!” Vitamin B is found abundantly in whole wheat and coarse grains, is appreciably reduced in the milling process, when the rough coat is “scalped”‘ from wheat kernel.

Most of the big flour mills and bakers have recently agreed to put vitamin B1; nicotinic acid and iron back into their flour and bread. But experts last week pointed out that such “enriched bread,” although a step forward, was not the ideal solution of the problem.

Reasons: 1) sufficient productive capacity for riboflavin, which may be a required ingredient of the new flour, will not be ready for almost a year; 2) enriched flour is not as rich in minerals and vitamins as whole grain; 3) to keep up his vitamin BI requirement from this source alone, a person would have to eat almost a whole loaf of enriched bread every day (of the non-enriched white bread, he would have to eat three to four loaves); 4) the amount of vitamins available to put into bread may just now be seriously curtailed by shipments to Britain; 5) natural flour goes a third of a way longer in breadmaking than refined flour.

Coarse brown bread, the delegates agreed, is still the best source of vitamin B1. but relatively few people want it.

The complete article can be viewed here.

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In my search for Mediterranean vegetable recipes, I have come across a few that sound promising.  You will need to know the following two vegetables.

Courgette = Zucchini

Aubergine = Egg Plant

Sounds a lot more appetizing doesn’t it?  No, honey, we are not having Zucchini tonight, it’s Courgette. 

The first one is a Mediterranean Vegetable Salad from Food Network.  This has artichokes, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and olives.  Sounds wonderful.

The next one is sort of a Vegetable Sandwich served on Ciabatta or Foccacia bread.   Once again, it calls for Aubergine and Courgette .

How about Grilled Mediterranean Vegetables with Couscous?  Couscous was a pleasant surprise for me.  I couldn’t imagine liking something with a name like that and it looked suspiciously like grits.  In truth, while although it has a somewhat mild flavor, it absorbs the flavor of whatever it is cooked with or in.  This recipe has the vegetables cooked separately and then served over couscous.

And last but not least, who could say no to Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Lasagna?  Looks good enough to eat doesn’t it?  One of the things that I love about Mediterranean recipes are that they are all so visually pleasing.  The colors of the tomatoes, squash and basil just pop out at you.

Most of us have taken supplements at one time in our life or another. I have taken them for most of my life. Sometimes they helped, sometimes they hurt and sometimes they did nothing. I used to think that it was just that “I wasn’t taking enough” or that I needed something different. It’s just recently that I have re-discovered that if you take the right supplement, you don’t have to take mega doses of it.

So with all the advertising out there for this vitamin and that vitamin, how do you tell which one is the best? Here are 6 tips to help you choose.

1. Find a company that has been in business for a long time. There may be nothing wrong with a new company but with all the press about steroids and stimulants, lead, etc, it’s better to wait it out and see what happens.
2. Research the company. It’s easy to do on the internet. Just type the company name+FDA in google and read some of the articles that come up. If a company has been cited by the FDA for making false or medical claims or if they have had a product recall, it will come up in the search.
3. Call the company and ask whether they do clinical studies on their own products. There are a few companies that do and those are the companies that will have the best supplements available. Most companies take already existing studies and use them to justify their product. There is no guarantee that the ingredients used in that companies products are as good as the ones in the study or that their processing is the same.
4. While you are on the phone ask if their supplements are made in a pharmaceutical grade plant. Food supplements may or may not be made in a plant where cleanliness and filtration is controlled. Many incidences of cross contamination from the product that was made before in the same plant occur each year.
5. Check the guarantee. Do they guarantee their products 100%? Do they guarantee that the vitamins and minerals that are listed on the label are what you get when you take the first one? Probiotics are a good example of this. If you read the small print, you will find that they often guarantee that there were so many million live lactobacillus or bifidus when manufactured. What you get when you take the actual supplement may be nothing as they are fragile.
6. Are the supplements all natural? Do they contain starch, artificial colors, or other fillers? Do they dissolve in cool water within 15 minutes? The hard coating on many vitamins does not dissolve quickly enough to be used by the body and in some cases, what goes in one end, comes out the other intact.

After having tried many different supplements over the years, I always go back to my company. You can check out my company and see what you think.

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Do you know how hard it can be to get kids to eat vegetables? My focus this week is on finding new and exciting recipes to entice my family to eat more vegetables. Leave me a link to your favorite recipe in comments or just put the entire recipe in or heck just let me know what works with your kids. I’d love to hear from all of you!

A couple that I have found on different blogs sound really good.

Roasted Cauliflower posted by The Inadvertent Gardener is a way that I have never tried.

Got No Milk posts an Upside Down Dinner which just looks like a beautiful dish. This version has chicken in it but I bet I could make it without.

Recipes from the Peapod has a Sweet Potato Puff that looks more like dessert.

Jump in and join the vegetable round up!

I have to take a minute to brag about my first eggs. I have had the chickens for about 6 months. I raised them from day old chicks. The neighbor’s dogs got a few so I have 7 chickens and 1 guinea that survived.

This week I have found my first eggs. I am amazed for several reasons and don’t laugh. For the last month, I have thought that two of my hens were actually roosters. Their combs got bigger and so did their wattles. However, day before yesterday, I checked the hen house and there were 3 eggs. Yesterday there was one egg and today there was three. Or maybe 2 ½ as one of them is tiny. So in order to get 3 eggs in a day, you have to have 3 hens, right?

Well, now I am really confused. Seven chickens with 2 that I know are roosters. Then I have 2 or 3 that I was starting tothink were roosters but now I am doubting my own judgement. Guess they will survive the stew pot for a month or so longer.

The next reason I am amazed is that the eggs taste SO much better than store bought. I knew there would be some difference but I didn’t know it would be so startling. I fried two with just a little vegetable oil. Normally I like my eggs fried in sausage or bacon drippings to add flavor. These were so good that they didn’t even need salt and pepper.

From what I have read, eggs from free range chickens are lower in cholesterol and saturated fat. This is the breakdown from the US Department of Agriculture:

• ¨ 1/3 less cholesterol
• ¨ 1/4 less saturated fat
• ¨ 2/3 more vitamin A
• ¨ 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• ¨ 3 times more vitamin E
• ¨ 7 times more beta carotene.

So next time you see a sign along the side of the road that says FRESH EGGS, stop in and buy a couple dozen. Chances are that you will pay less and they will be better for you.

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In a recent post, I talked about the health benefits of eating a Mediterranean diet. Since then I have been thinking of different easy ways to start including some of the basic concepts in my meal planning. It basically means a shift in the way we think about our diets. If you have another way to improve your diet, please leave a comment.

1. Larger Portions: Now, isn’t that a change? If we plan larger portions of vegetables and fruits, we can reduce the amount of protein and fatty foods that we are eating. The challenge is to make the vegetables appealing and tasty enough that our families will want to eat more of them.
2. Use Olive oil instead of corn oil for sautéing or frying foods. It gives a better taste to most foods and is low in saturated fats and high in Omega 3s.
3. Use Canola oil for baking. Canola oil is also low in unsaturated fats and adds little if any flavoring to baked goods.
4. Bake more fresh bread. The heart of Mediterranean eating is bread. Dig that bread maker out and start making a loaf or two of whole grain bread a week. You can use either olive oil or canola oil instead of butter or margarine to bake it.
5. Use less butter and margarine. My family loves to use dipping sauces made with olive oil instead of butter. Take a little olive oil in the bottom of a plate and add a few herbs and garlic. We like basil, oregano and garlic for a dipping pesto.
6. Eat more fresh vegetables. This is a challenge during the winter when fresh vegetables are at a premium. Try experimenting with some of the winter vegetables such as winter squash, rutabagas, turnips, cabbage, broccoli, etc.
7. Keep a tray of Antipasto handy for between meal or before meal snacking. While a traditional antipasto tray would include meat, try choosing items like olives, mozzarella cheese, provolone cheese, marinated vegetables, cherry tomatoes, toasted Italian bread.
8. Make fresh fruit a dessert. Everyone will be so full from all the vegetables and antipasto that a heavy dessert is not needed and you can sneak in an extra fruit serving by creating simple fruit desserts. Strawberries with a swirl of chocolate syrup, pears with a yogurt dressing, peaches with vanilla yogurt or walk on the wild side and just offer fresh sliced fruit with a small piece of angel food cake.
9. Switch to whole grain breads and pastas. There are now whole grain pastas available at every grocery store. The texture is a little different than the white no nutrition variety but after a initial adjustment period, you will find that the extra flavor makes up for it.
10. Eat Hummus – This is another thing that is now readily available at most grocery stores. Our favorite is a red pepper hummus that goes well on breads, crackers, etc. We use it as an alternative to dips for chips and spreads for crackers. I recently served it at a party and got more compliments on it than any of the more traditional dips.
11. Breakfast: Try fruit and cheese for breakfast. It’s a great way to start the day offering both protein and fruit servings. If you add a piece of whole wheat bread with a little hummus, you have covered almost all your bases.

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I picked this recipe because I have never eaten turnips. I see them all the time at the grocery store but have never tried them. If I am going to start eating 8-9 servings of vegetables a day, I need to incorporate some variety so I will be testing out some new ones. The author suggests that smaller turnips are sweeter than larger ones. This is from The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook.

Gratin of Purple Topped Turnips

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, plus a little to oil the dish.

2 ½ pounds purple topped turnips, scrubbed and sliced not more than ¾ inches thick.

Salt to taste

¼ cup finely chopped shallot

½ garlic clove, finely chopped

1 cup meat or chicken stock

¼ cup minced flat leaf parsley

2 tablespoons fiely grated Parmigiano cheese

Freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly oil an oval gratin dish. Prepare turnips while you bring a large pan of lightly salted water to a rolling boil. Drop the turnip slices in and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes, until just tender. Drain and arrange the slices in the gratin dish.

Meanwhile, cook the shallot and garlic in the olive oil in a saucepan over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender but not brown—about 10 minutes. Add the stock and parsley and, when the stock is boiling, pour it over the turnip slices in the gratin dish. Sprinkle with the cheese and a little pepper. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the turnip slices are very tender. Remove the foil, baste the slices with a little of the pan juices and bake for 5 minutes more, just to glaze the top of the turnips. Serve immediately Serves 6.

Nutritional Data, per portion

• Calories 109
• Protein 3 g
• Fat 5 g
• Carbohydrate 14g
• Sodium 168 mg
• Cholesterol 2 mg
• Saturated Fat 1 g
• Monounsaturated fat 4g

Reuters reports that a study of people eating the Mediterranean Diet may live longer. So what’s so great about the Mediterranean Diet? The best thing may be that it is not a diet at all. It’s a way of life for most people in the Mediterranean countries. For economic reasons, the majority of their meals revolve around fish, whole grain pastas and fresh vegetables and fruit with some poultry and meat thrown in once in awhile. You add some olives and olive oil and you have a diet that is high in Omega 3 oils that are recommended for heart health as well as being high in most of the vitamins and minerals.

As you can see from the Mediterranean diet pyramid below, the bulk of your food would come from whole grain breads, pastas, beans, couscous with the next level up being fruits and vegetables. When was the last time you ate 9 servings of vegetables in a day? The Greeks routinely eat 8-9 servings of vegetables daily and may only eat red meat once or twice a month.

The Pyramid is based on the people of Crete’s diet. These people live longer than most other populations and are 21% less likely to die of heart disease. They also have 30% less chance of getting cancer.

The components of a Mediterranean diet are:

• Large quantity of fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains,
• Olive oil is the primary source of fat,
• Eggs, milk, fish and chicken are eaten in low to moderate amounts
• Very little red meat
• A glass of Red wine a day is Ok.

It really is a simple lifestyle but to those of us who plan meals, planning a diet that contains 8-9 servings of vegetables and fruits a day can be a challenge. Over the next several weeks, I will be adding a recipe a week from the Mediterranean Diet Cook Book by Nancy Harmon Jenkins and looking for some easy ways to incorporate Mediterranean style eating into the American way of life.

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According to a recent AP report, 25% of the 52 nutritional supplements tested by Informed Choice were contaminated by steroids and 11% contained stimulants. 

 ”The presence of steroids and stimulants in supplement products is still very much an issue,” the conclusion of the report read. “It is clear that not all supplement manufacturers follow good manufacturing practices and the necessary controls are not always implemented to ensure the safety of athletes and the general public who use the supplement products.”

 

Is it surprising?  Not really when there has been study after study where supplements don’t contain what they advertise. 

 In April 2007, MSNBC reported that Arthritis supplements tested by Consumer Labs were found not to contain the amount of Chrondoitin listed on the package.  Some actually contained NO Chrondoitin even though the package claimed that it was of the highest quality. 

“Of the 20 joint supplements marketed to people and their pets that were selected by ConsumerLab.com and tested by independent laboratories, 40 percent failed to contain what their labels promised.”

In another recent test, a well known store brand of vitamins were found to contain lead while others were found not to contain the vitamins listed on the bottle.  According to the article posted at MSNBC

“Most worrisome, according to ConsumerLab.com president Dr. Tod Cooperman, is that one product, The Vitamin Shoppe Multivitamins Especially for Women, was contaminated with lead.

I was definitely shocked by the amount of lead in [this] woman’s product,” he said. “We’ve never seen that much lead in a multivitamin before.”

Other products contained more or less of a particular vitamin than listed on the label. And some did not dissolve in the correct amount of time, meaning they could potentially pass through the body without being fully absorbed. “

So what’s a person to do?  There are several recommendations:

• ¨      Purchase supplements from a company that does clinical testing on it’s products.  There are a few out there who do.
• ¨      Purchase from a well known company
• ¨      Stay away from supplements that promise the moon or unknown companies.
• ¨      Make sure that the products are 100% guaranteed.

 
Amidst all this bad news there is good news and I will be posting more about that in the next few days. 

Stay Healthy!