Is chocolate milk the perfect halloween treat?

Happy Halloween! In the spirit of the holiday I want to tell you about  this ad I saw the other day while on a website:

First let me say that I'm pleased this ad calls chocolate milk a "treat." I did some investigating and found out this is part of a larger campaign by the "Got Milk?" campaign. The full version of the ad can be found here.

Halloween is not the healthiest of holidays to begin with, but something about this ad did not sit quite right with me. To be sure chocolate milk provides far more nutrition than a chocolate bar. But I certainly wouldn't call chocolate milk a health drink. Its a treat -- so at least in that respect the ad got it right.

The reason I reacted to this ad has more to do with recent campaigns by dairy groups (such as the California Milk Processors Board- creators of the got milk ad campaign- and the National Dairy Council) to promote chocolate milk as a healthy choice.  

Chocolate milk is a bit of a controversy in the nutrition world (To say the least). The dairy groups are fighting hard to promote chocolate milk as a "health" drink. They say that kids won't drink regular milk so they need chocolate milk to get in the recommended amount of calcium and vitamin D. And they are working to make sure flavored milks stay in the school lunch program. Others -- the most prominent being Jaime Oliver with his campaign in Los Angeles-- are pushing back saying that chocolate and other flavored milks have as much sugar as some sodas, and should not be promoted as a health drink.

With 24g of sugar in 8oz, chocolate milk is not light on the sugar. However, milk naturally contains sugar (in the form of lactose), and as such even plain milk has 12g of sugar. But those extra 12g of sugar in the chocolate version-- not necessary. And in the face of a childhood obesity epidemic, the extra calories (from the extra sugar) are hard to justify. 

What makes me sad in this whole debate is that there is some truth to the claims of the dairy groups. Of course children are not going to drink plain milk when they can have the sweet chocolate milk.  But if plain milk is the only option at home and at school kids won't be burdened with that difficult decision.

Chocolate milk is a special treat. One that my Dad and I used to sneak from time to time when we went to the grocery store when I was little -- don't tell mom! But we never had it at home, and it certainly wasn't something to drink everyday with lunch.

So getting back to this ad, I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the 'spectrum of healthy' chocolate milk has more to offer than skittles and caramel apple pops. But this is just another example of the push for chocolate milk, and that I don't agree with.

Boerenkool, my long lost love!

Greetings from beautiful Amsterdam, which at the moment is grey and drizzly, but the fall colors and floating down leaves make up for that.

A carpet of yellow leaves on my walk today

Its been a busy week, full of exciting adventures with wonderful visitors. We had the pleasure of welcoming my cousin K in Brussels and Amsterdam for the week.

 
And last night our fantastic friends from Norway were in Amsterdam (it was so lovely to see you!) I have lots to share from this fun and rejuvenating week (dear social life, oh how I've missed you!), but unfortunately all this fun has me on a tight schedule to get work done. So I'll have to recount our tales next week.

But I just had to stop by today and tell you about the most exciting development. If you've been following along, you know that I've been lamenting the serious lack of dark leafy green vegetables here. I've been pining away for chard and kale to the extent that V is probably so terribly sick of hearing me complain about it.

Little did I know, the kale jackpot was just under my nose.

In an effort to break of out a vegetable rut (broccoli, again?), I was scouring the refrigerated section of prepared vegetables, a section I normally skip right over, to see what I could find. Well, I should have looked in this section early because there, in an unassuming bag, was kale.

My internal bias was looking for the large fibrous leaves of kale, so for months this bag of green-goodness passed me by. It is chopped up kale for use in a stamppot (which wikipedia tells me is a traditional Dutch dish of potatoes mashed with other vegetables). This finely chopped kale will be perfect for kale salad, steamed kale and in soups.
 
My favorite kale salad is fresh and citrusy, and and a serious 'rut breaker' in the vegetable department. I served it at a holiday party last year, and even people who said they normally dislike kale were digging in for seconds. And you just can't beat the nutritional profile of raw kale. Make this salad, seriously! Now that I have kale in hand, I just have to hunt down some blood oranges...its a never ending adventure over here :)

And lucky me, this kale was on sale and buy one get one free. Now that's a supermarket special I can get behind.

The Great Potato Debate

Before jumping into this topic, let me ask you these questions: 

How do most American children eat potatoes? (as french fries)

Do french fries count as a vegetable? (No.)

Do kids- typically- eat french fries in moderation? (not usually)

If given the choice between french fries and spinach, which will a kid choose? (french fries)

Should potatoes count as a vegetable? (In my opinion, no)

Well, the humble potato is the subject of a debate going on in Washington as of late. The Obama administration was trying to set regulations that would limit the amount of potatoes served to our kids in the national school lunch program to one cup per week.

One cup per week. That's not too strict of a limitation. But it is a limitation. So why all this fuss about potatoes?

Well its that in the school lunch program potatoes, and their derivatives (tater tots, french fries), count as a vegetable. 

Let me be clear. There is nothing wrong with potatoes. I love them, and eat them frequently as my carbohydrate since I'm not able to eat wheat. But did you notice the subtle difference there? I said I eat them as a carbohydrate, not as a vegetable. 

The number one component of a potato is starch, aka. white-fluffy, digested-extremely-quickly carbohydrate. Sure potatoes are also a source of some vitamins and minerals, but are certainly not a nutritional powerhouse like kale or spinach. They are a carbohydrate, and should be treated just like rice or pasta when planning a meal.

A highly quoted figure in this debate came from Senator Susan Collins from Maine saying that one potato has as much vitamin C as an entire head of iceberg lettuce.

Photo: wikimedia commons@Liftarn

There are a couple of things wrong with this comparison. Primarily it is at fault for putting potatoes in the vegetable category. Lettuce (of any sort) and potatoes are not in the same food group, and not comparable as meal components. One is a vegetable  and one is a carbohydrate. Both food groups should be on your plate. Secondly, we should not be so much worried about the potatoes (although if fried they should certainly not be an every day occurrence), but about the lack of nutritionally packed vegetables in school lunches.

Which presents a conundrum to this potato debate that I haven't quite thought through yet. No kid is going to choose kale over tater tots. So if we want to get kids to eat more vegetables, do we indeed have to get rid of the more attractive option, the potatoes?

Photo: wikimedia commons @Shirimasen

Regardless, as a first step, potatoes should be considered a starch in the school lunch program (and at home), not a vegetable. Getting that classification right would mean that because of the way some schools organize their school lunch, kids would have to take a vegetable in addition to the potatoes (ie. because they have have to chose one item from each group).

Unfortunately it looks like this whole debate, which has focused on the potato but is in reality is a jumping off point to discuss the larger important issue of vegetables in school lunch, is off the table. According to last weeks New York Times article on the subject:

"The Senate on Tuesday moved to block the proposal by adopting an amendment to the 2012 spending bill for the Agriculture Department. The amendment, approved by unanimous consent, prohibits the department from setting “any maximum limits on the serving of vegetables in school meal programs.” 

While I agree that setting a maximum on vegetable servings would be silly, potatoes should not be in the same category as kale and salad. End of discussion.

A beautiful Amsterdam fall Sunday {and the marathon!}

This past weekend I got to cheer V on in an 8k race that was done in conjunction with the Amsterdam marathon. V did awesome- and further convinced me that I need to train to have any hope of keeping up with him- and it was really fun to root him on. I also got to watch the marathon kick off and finish in the Olympic stadium of Amsterdam.

Watching V have a great time doing the race, and seeing all of those amazing people taking on the marathon, inspired me and got me thinking about my next race. I did a half-marathon a year ago (a year! time is flying!), and now that grad school madness is over, I'm ready for more. So in order to keep me honest, I am announcing it here that I will do another race next year. Who's in?

 

Paris half marathon is in March, the Brussels 20k is in May. Also would be wonderful to do Amsterdam, as its so incredibly flat, but its not until October next year (obviously). Really, who's in?

There's V, in the middle, just about to finish. You did great!

Of course it didn't hurt that it was a gorgeous, crisp fall day. I suppose if it had been raining I wouldn't have been as tempted, but lets forget about that possibility.

We spent the rest of the brilliant Sunday cruising around the city on our bikes, taking in the delightful weather. Our destination was this gem of a restaurant:

On the noordermarkt square, the restaurant had views of this church, the aptly named noorderkerk.

 The beautiful weather made Amsterdam even more picturesque than normal.

And I got to enjoy it all from my bike. Its a good lifestyle here in Amsterdam. Biking everywhere, along beautiful canals, spending a Sunday popping in and out of restaurants and shops.

We even caught a sight of the half-marathon, which didn't start until 1:30. Seriously, who's in for next year? :)

After a gorgeous and fun morning and afternoon we finished the day on an outdoor terrace that has been tempting me for weeks.

Anytime the weather cooperates people crowd this large terrace, on the Amstel river, to enjoy drinks and food. It was a perfect ending to a great day.

Coming back to today, I'm hiding out from the on-and-off thundershowers (with hail!), and fighting some kind of a cold, but did sneak out this morning for a swim. Its been ages since I swam laps, and boy did it feel good. Getting into the pool always feels like a homecoming for me. Even the smell of the chlorine that lingers on my skin is comforting.

Along with getting back into running, its time to add swimming back into the mix. The pool is only 5 minutes away, and is indoors, so no excuses. Like my running goal, I'm putting this out there so you can help keep me honest. We all need our motivation :)

Until next time, be well!

Baking in a foreign country: a lesson in flexiblity and my real food philosophy

The past week has been full of crisp, sunny fall days. I was drinking them in, and its a good thing I was as today its back to grey, rainy and cold. But those lovely fall days last week had me reminiscing about beautiful days in Vermont, and craving classic fall food: seasonal fruit, warm, and spiced were the prerequisites.

 So you'll imagine my surprise and delight when I popped into my tiny neighborhood corner store and found bags of fresh cranberries in their cooler. They were from Canada, very far from a local product, and were showing the wrinkles of age, but in that sentimental mood I couldn't have been happier to see those withering cranberries.

I decided to make a cranberry cake (this recipe, from the infallible Ina Garten, but adapted to be gluten free), scented with orange and cinnamon and sweetened with some apples.

If that doesn't look like fall, I don't know what will. And it smelled heavenly. But before I got to this point, I had to brave the Belgian supermarket, and try to find the ingredients I needed for my American recipe.

After figuring out that 1 stick of butter is 113g (so I would know how much butter to buy), I looked up a few key terms. This, I've discovered, is essential. I have to look up the French or Dutch word (depending on country) for the ingredient I want. If I skip this step I end up spending 5 hours searching the shelves for a product I can't recognize called a name I don't know.

This recipe calls for sour cream. In this case the literal translation doesn't work. Good luck finding aigre creme in a french grocery store. But creme fraiche epaisse, which is very similar, you can find without a problem. Thanks to the wonder of the Internet I can find these things out before going to the store.

I also needed light brown sugar. Fast forward to me standing in the sugar aisle, squeezing the not see through packages of sugar to feel if it was the right texture. Is this one too granulated? Is it as soft as brown sugar? I ended up deciding this one felt like the right texture, and the pictures looked promising, so I gave it a go.

 Turns out I got lucky, as it was just what I needed:

This little victory was so appreciated, and was also a wonderful lesson in flexibility. Apart from opening packages of sugar in the store, which would probably be highly frowned upon, I had to guess. If I hadn't guessed right, oh well. It would likely have worked just the same. It sounds incredibly minute to write it out here, but such are the small victories and little lessons of living in a foreign country.

I saw this delicious cake as my minor triumph, a sign of settling in and learning to forge my way here.

This is also a good time to share my philosophy on real food. This cake is not 'diet' food (and don't even get me started on the word diet. A diet implies its something you do for a short amount of time. Eating healthy is a lifestyle, not a 6-week crash diet).  But it is loaded with fruit and real ingredients. No scary preservatives, fake sugars, or fillers here. If I'm going to eat a special treat, I want it to be a small amount of the real deal. The key words here are small amount and real. This cake lasted multiple days between V and myself.

The other day my lovely friend B (also a Dietitian) reminded me of the quote about moderation attributed to Oscar Wilde: "Everything in moderation, including moderation." She had a brilliant insight about this quote. Think about what they were "moderating" in the time of Oscar Wilde. It was not McDonalds and soda.

We've gotten into trouble by manufacturing our foods to be incredibly loaded with sugar and fat (ahem, fast food I'm talking to you), and making an everyday occurrence of foods that should be enjoyed as an occasional special treat, if at all (ahem, fast food, I'm talking to you).

Yet again, I'll turn to the word-smith Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." I'll translate. Eat real foods, and eat everything except vegetables in moderation. Really, its as simple as that.

Food marketing to children

Sorry for my extended absence last week. It was a crazy work week, and this week looks to be about the same. But I did want to stop by with some updates and an action request.

As I said with regards to school lunch, if an adult wants to eat unhealthy food, well that's their decision to make (although as a society we are going to pay for it later...but that's topic for another post). In a similar vein, if a food company wants to market their products to free-living adults, well that's their business prerogative. But marketing food directly to kids, who often are not yet old enough to recognize that the cartoon ad selling a sugary cereal is trying to sell them something, is inherently deceptive.

It might be a different story if food companies were trying to get kids to eat apples and bananas with their advertising . But three-quarters of the products marketed to kids are convenience/junk food or fast food (source) which are sugar-laden "food-like substances" (as Mr. Pollan would say).

Photo by theimpulsivebuy/Flickr CC. Source.

And for those who say that its ultimately up to the parents to decide what foods to buy and feed their kids, let me just say this. The food industry spends approximately $2 billion per year marketing food to kids (source). They wouldn't be investing that kind of money if it didn't work. (And it does work- read here).

The issue of food marketing to kids has garnered more and more attention in the last few years (finally!), and as we speak (or I guess I should say, as I type), there is a fight going on in Washington to get the government to enact what would be voluntary food marketing to kids guidelines. Again these guidelines would be voluntary for the food companies to follow. And yet...food companies are lobbying the government to stop these voluntary guidelines.

Watch this video from Prevention Institute for a far more eloquent and compelling explanation of food marketing to kids, and why we need to do something about it.



You can tell the President and First Lady (among others) to stand up for kids and finalize the food marketing guidelines here. Please do. Now. The hearing on these guidelines happened in the house last week. So now is the time to let our government know you want to protect children from food marketing. All you have to do is fill in a form and hit send.

We've hit the big time

I'm really excited with the attention public health nutrition has been getting lately. This spot on the Cooking Channel with Morgan Spurlok (of Super Size Me fame) is great!




I love his story about the kids in Long Island! He's speaking about the Center for Science in the Public Interest's upcoming Food Day. There are food day events happening all around the US, so go to foodday.org and check out how you can get involved.

Food day's goals are:

• Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods
• Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness
• Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
• Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms
• Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
• Support fair conditions for food and farm workers 

Events like Food Day, media like this commercial, and the visibility that Michelle Obama has given to the issue of childhood obesity, make me hopeful that if we keep getting this type of attention, and doing something with it, we really can turn things around. 

School Lunch Matters

I completely missed it. Its school lunch week in the US, and I was oblivious. Guess that's what living halfway across the world will do to you. (Thanks to Alejandra @ Mouthfuls & Morsels for posting about school lunch week, and keeping me in the loop!)

School lunch is one of the public health nutrition subjects I feel most passionate about. As an adult if you want to eat poorly, it is your prerogative (although I highly recommend against it). But to feed children nutritionally devoid food at school, who often have no alternative, in the midst of a staggering childhood obesity epidemic, is a real shame. Not only do they miss out nutritionally, but its really hard to focus on math at 2pm when you are coming down off a processed-food sugar high. School lunch should be a time of nourishment and replenishment during the crammed school day. School lunch should also continue the educational mission of schools and teach good nutrition by example.

From the What's Cooking Uncle Sam exhibit

Now that being said, there are some truly amazing schools and school districts who are trying really hard to provide healthy food for their students. I make a point of saying it is hard work, because it is. And schools struggling to get books in the classroom are certainly not going to have the financial or human capital to devote to revamping their school lunch program. And even if a school does start putting kale on the menu, will the majority of it just be thrown in the trash?

Photo: Whats for School Lunch?

So how did we get here? How is it that such a well intentioned program, providing food to students, has become so contentious? Here's a nice video (created by Nourish Life)by one of my favorites, Michael Pollan, explaining his take on the larger forces at play here, and whats going on to change school lunch.



For more 'food for thought' on this subject, check out one of my favorite blogs that highlights school lunches from around the world: Whats for School Lunch?And there is a nice article on National School Lunch week on the LA Times blog.

Want to change the school lunch program in your community? Talk to your school and school district. Talk to other community members. Talk to your local government officials. Talk to your congress person. And convince these people that school lunch matters. That the future of our nation is in our children, and that they deserve a good lunch. Everyone deserves a good lunch, most of all our children.


I'll be back later in the week with a report on my local community's school lunch program, which is apparently setting quite the example in Belgium. It will take me approximately 12 years to translate the article from French, but when I do, I'll be back here to tell you about it.  

ps. I am officially a nutrition nerd. I wrote this post while watching 'fast food nation.' ha. 

Beautiful Paris!

This weekend I took a get-away to Paris, my third visit to that spectacular city. It never gets old.I could have stayed for three weeks.

It was a grey, cold, rainy fall weekend, and yet it was still perfect. The leaves were turning color and falling in the wind; the kind of weekend that lets you know winter is knocking on the door.

Even with a grey backdrop, Paris does not disappoint. My travel companion for the weekend was the lovely K, my cousin who is studying abroad in France this semester. We enjoyed a somewhat off the beaten path Paris trip, as both of us been-there-done-that with most of the Paris tourist sights.
Instead of set our focus on shopping, relaxing in cafes, seeing some less well known museums, and wandering through the beautiful streets stopping at the sights if we came across them. It was the perfect Paris weekend (although we could have done without the rain on Sunday, as it put a damper on our plans to visit Père Lachaise Cemetery).

I took the high-speed train from Brussels, which makes for a quick trip (just under an hour and half) with the countryside of Belgium and France zooming by the window.

We stayed at a petit hotel in the 8th, right near St. Augustin.

It was a great location, extremely close to the Madeleine, and all the major right bank sights.

On our first day in Paris we ate lunch at a brasserie, and found our way to the most important sight of our trip: Galeries Lafayette. Their food hall is not to be missed.

 

Among all the beautiful food products for sale at Galeries Lafayette was a 5kg bottle of Nutella. 5kg! Thats more than 10 pounds of nutella. For a serious nutella lover to be sure.

The stunning rotunda in the main shopping area of the Galeries Lafayette is worth the trip to the store in and of itself. The scarves that were on sale were a welcome bonus. 

Other highlights from the trip include a visit to the Musée Marmottan in the 16th, which features a large Monet exhibit. The walk there had us passing through a beautiful neighborhood park, with fall leaves littering the lawn. It was a chilly but gorgeous fall walk.

We also visited and had lunch at the Musee du Vin, a museum about, you guessed it, wine. It focused on the history of wine making in France, and was set in stone caves. An interesting hidden sight of Paris.

We are lucky we were able to find this place, as the lunch was delicious, probably the best of the weekend, but it was hidden away in a tiny corner of city, only accessible by this "street" aka. stair case:

Being in Paris, we indulged and ordered a glass of champagne to start our meal, a perfect accompaniment to the dark and cool caves.

Lunch was a Filet de bar with mashed potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and a passion fruit sauce. I was dubious about that sauce when I saw it on the menu, but it ended up being delicious.

On our last day in Paris, we decided to go out in style (and hide out from the rain) with breakfast at Laduree on the Champs Elysee. It also happens to be one of the very few places open on Sundays in Paris.

I didn't snap any photos of the breakfast, as I was too busy stuffing my face (and going completely off my usual diet). Perhaps it was the fact that until Sunday I hadn't had a croissant in years, but Laduree's almond croissant was quite nearly perfect. Crispy on the bottom, light and flaky pastry, filled with an almond hazelnut mix. I was in heaven. (And my stomach must have agreed, as it didn't protest the diet deviation).

I also somehow came home with a box of Laduree macarons...how did that happen? :)

It was the perfect Paris weekend, and just the girls-trip that I have been in need of. Thanks to K for being a great travel buddy!

Until we meet again, Paris. Cheers!

Nutrition 101: Processed foods

I was browsing the nutrition news last week (some people read the business section, I peruse the interwebs for nutrition news with my morning coffee) and this headline from the Washington Post had my knee jerk reaction going full-force: "Processed foods . . . can be good for you?" 

Before I clicked to read the article, I groaned and thought "another article telling me that baked chips are a health food?" And this thought made me realize this would be a great topic for the blog: the spectrum of "healthy."

As I've said before "healthy" is not always black and white. Plain vegetables and fruit without anything added: without a doubt healthy. But what about a smoothie that is made with all "healthy" ingredients, including a lot of fruit and fruit juice, but clocks in at 800 calories and an astounding amount of sugar, albeit natural sugar from the fruit. Is that still considered healthy?

Photo: cyclonebill @ flickr, used under a common commons license

When I actually read the article in the Washington Post, I discovered that it had some good points. "Processed food" has gotten a bad rap in recent years, and usually for good reason. But just as we have a hard time defining healthy, how do we define what is processed? And, as the article points out, a lot of foods that are truly healthy are technically processed. Eat oatmeal in the morning? Well, most people eat rolled oats which have been steamed and pressed into that shape you see. Certainly a type of processing, and yet plain rolled oats are very healthy for you.

So while I say that the basic rules for good nutrition are "eat your vegetables, eat a variety of foods, and avoid processed foods," I'm not telling you to not eat rolled oats. There is a difference between processed "to the point that there is no trace of real food left" foods (think pop tarts, Cheetos, Twinkies) and natural foods that have been processed (rolled oats, canned tomatoes, dried pasta). 

Quaker Oats ad, 1905.

So is there a magic test to tell the difference? Once again I think it comes down to vegetables and fruit. Canned tomatoes are processed, but if you buy the kind that are just tomatoes (no sugar added, etc), they are just a fruit (yes, a fruit, I'm being technically correct).  I call these products "lightly processed." The twinkie, by contrast, is "highly processed."

Image by Larry D. Moore, used under a Creative Commons ShareAlike License

Beyond that, you have to read the ingredients label. Don't go by whats on the front of the package. Anything on the front is a marketing tool, and any claims made on the front of a package should be viewed with skepticism. Turn the box over and read the ingredients. 

Here's how I read the ingredients label (these ideas are not new, nor are they my own. Read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food or Mark Bittman's Food Matters):

1. Do you know what all the ingredients are? And I mean really know, something like "carrot" or "apple." If don't know all of the ingredients, back away from the shelf.

2. Is one of the first two or three ingredients sugar? It could also be called high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrates, glucose, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, and molasses. 

The ingredient list goes by weight, and the first ingredient listed is the largest by weight in the product. A product that is mostly sugar? Put it back. 

(if you are buying actual sugar to use in a home-made baked good, by all means proceed...my thoughts on real products used consciously and in moderation will be for another post)

No sugar here :)

3. Are there more than 5 ingredients on the label? I like the 5 ingredient rule. Less than 5 ingredients, and it is probably a "less processed" food...but be careful here. If its 5 ingredients you can't understand, or breaks the sugar rule, put it back. Perfect example: Marshmallow Fluff (Marshmallow Fluff contains Corn Syrup, Sugar Syrup, Dried Egg Whites and Vanillin.) Its less than 5 ingredients, and I know what they all are, but it breaks the sugar rule.

Photo: wikimedia commons @ Jot Powers

4. Does it contain partially-hydrogenated fat? No exceptions here. This ingredient = trans fat, which is terrible for your heart. If its in there, put the product back.

If it passes all four rules, you are probably good to go. Of course there are other things to look out for (salt/sodium being a main one), which I will discuss at a later date.

When in doubt you can also ask yourself: how many steps away is this from the raw ingredient? By this I mean, is it an apple, apple sauce, apple juice, or apple flavoring? The closer you are the raw ingredient, the raw apple in this example, the better off you are. Another way to think about this: was the ingredient around 80-100 years ago? Food processing was far simpler 100 years ago. (see Quaker Oats ad above from 1905)

So back to the 800 calorie smoothie: is it healthy? Well that depends. If its were truly made from whole products like fruit and milk I doubt the calorie count would be that high. Most likely this 800 calorie smoothie has some frozen yogurt in it (read: although less fat than ice cream still has lots of sugar and calories), perhaps some soy protein powder (know all the ingredients in there? didn't think so), and is probably made with lots of juice (a couple of steps away from the whole ingredient). So while its certainly not on par with a Twinkie, I wouldn't suggest making an 800-calorie smoothie made with processed foods an every day occurrence.

Tricky, isn't it. Know how to make it more simple? Most of the time eat food that you've cooked yourself at home, made from mostly raw/lightly processed ingredients. You are then in control of what and how much goes in your food.


Or even better? We need to change our food environment and food prices to make the healthy choice the easy choice. By that I mean: get rid of twinkies, and make fruits and vegetables less expensive. How? Well, that's a topic for another post.

I'll be taking a long weekend off, so I'll be back to blogging on Monday. Have a great, and healthy, weekend everyone!