FitSugar

Good News For Oreo and Velveeta Lovers: Kraft Cutting Sodium

FitSugar — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:30:30 PDT

All you Oreo, Velveeta, Philadelphia cream cheese, and Oscar Mayer bologna lovers out there will be pleased to know that Kraft, the maker of all those foods, plans to cut sodium levels in its North American brands by about 10 percent. The reduction will take place over the next two years, which isn't exactly soon, but at least a change is in the air. It's the latest company trying to address health concerns since high blood pressure and other conditions associated with a high sodium diet are so prevalent now. Kraft's president of health and wellness said, "A growing number of consumers are concerned about their sodium intake and we want to help them translate their intentions into actions."

I know many of these products might not be on your weekly grocery list, but tell me, will the decrease in sodium make you think about buying them?

Processed Food Wars: Popular Brands vs. Health Food

FitSugar — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:00:08 PST

I grew up with processed mainstream foods like most kids. Kraft Mac & Cheese, Ellios Pizza, and Ore-Ida Tater Tots were some of my faves. Since processed foods like those aren't the most nutritious, natural foods companies decided to make healthier versions. Are they really better for us? I've already compared cereals and found the natural versions contained less sugar and sodium. So let's see how other foods compare.

Food	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)	Carbs (g)	Fiber (g)	Sugars (g)	Protein (g)
Triscuits (6 crackers)	120	4.5	180	19	3	0	3
Kashi Heart to Heart Original (7 crackers)	120	3.5	85	22	4	0	3

I compared some other foods so to see the stats

Food	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)	Carbs (g)	Fiber (g)	Sugars (g)	Protein (g)
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (1 cup)	410	3.5	580	48	1	6	9
Annie's Shells & Aged Cheddar (1 cup)	280	4	530	46	2	5	10

Food	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)	Carbs (g)	Fiber (g)	Sugars (g)	Protein (g)
DiGiorno Four Cheese Thin Crust Pizza (1/5 pizza, 130 g)	310	13	660	32	3	5	18
Amy's Kitchen Cheese Pizza (1/3 pizza, 123 g)	290	12	590	33	2	4	12

Food	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)	Carbs (g)	Fiber (g)	Sugars (g)	Protein (g)
Ore Ida Golden Fries (84 g)	130	3.5	310	21	2	less than 1	2
Alexia Yukon Gold Julienne Fries (85 g)	130	3.5	180	22	2	0	2

Food	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)	Carbs (g)	Fiber (g)	Sugars (g)	Protein (g)
Oreos (2 cookies)	107	4.6	126.7	16.7	.6	9.3	1.3
Newman's Own Organic Newman-O's (2 cookies)	130	4.5	85	20	1	10	2

As you can see, the healthier versions of these processed foods are generally better for you when it comes to calories and sodium. I didn't list the ingredients, but the healthier versions contain less junk, which also makes them worth the splurge.

Deconstructing the Twinkie

FitSugar — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 03:00:00 PDT

Happy Birthday to the Twinkie, which turns 77 this year. I'll admit that growing up, I was a huge fan of this cream-filled spongy yellow cake, but I know now that it's made with a whole bunch of junk.

Steve Ettlinger saw the list of 39 ingredients and didn't think much of it until his daughter asked, "Daddy, what's Polysorbate 60?" So he set out to discover the answer and also figure out what all the other strangely named ingredients were, such as calcium sulfate and cellulose gum. On his journey, he found out some surprising news about the ingredients in tons of other processed foods, where they come from, how they're made, and why they're used. Ettlinger learned the number of ingredients in Twinkies that are more closely related to rocks and petroleum than to any major food groups! Gross. If you're curious to find out more details about the Twinkie and the weird ingredients in the foods you eat, he shares his findings in the book, Twinkie, Deconstructed ($19).

To see a video about Steve and what's in a Twinkie

Do You Avoid Processed Foods?

FitSugar — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:00:00 PST

Salt is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of processed foods because so many of them contain high levels of sodium. This is one of the many reasons that I try to limit the amount of processed foods in my diet. And including more natural food just takes a little planning ahead - it doesn't get much simpler than throwing a banana or apple in your bag for an afternoon snack. What's your attitude toward processed foods?

Source

Another Reason to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup: Mercury

FitSugar — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:00:00 PST

The Corn Refiners Association has been hard at work trying to change our perceptions about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), but they may have a new public relations battle on their hands. Two new US reports found mercury in both commercial samples of HFCS and products that listed high fructose corn syrup as the first or second ingredient.

Almost half the commercial samples of the corn sweetener tested positive for mercury, and almost a third of the tested food and beverage products contained detectable levels of the heavy metal as well. The products include beverages and foods manufactured by Quaker, Hershey's, Kraft, and Smucker's. The highest levels of mercury were detected in dairy beverages like chocolate milk, dressings, and condiments (BBQ sauce), followed by snacks and desserts, including cereal bars.

To see how mercury ended up in this corn-derived sweetener,

Mercury is a toxic heavy metal that can lead to organ and heart damage, as well as impair the immune and nervous systems. While high mercury levels have been associated with eating too much of certain kinds of fish, like in Jeremy Piven's case, finding mercury in HFCS is a bit startling for the average consumer. The mercury found in HFCS is a byproduct of the caustic soda used, among other applications, to separate the starch from the corn kernel. While many processing plants that manufacture this industrial soda have altered their methods to eliminate the use of mercury, four plants in the US still employ the old mercury-based technology.

If you already avoid HFCS, this is no time to stop. Keep reading labels and be sure to visit the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy to read their very detailed report on this matter.

Source

Would You Eat This Cheeseburger?

YumSugar — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:43:18 PST

The other day, a delicious photo of a cheeseburger circled around the internet. Only the weird thing is, it was a Cheeseburger in a Can ($5.80). Something tells me it won't look so tasty once you open up the can. So tell me, would you try this canned cheeseburger?

5 Things About Salt

FitSugar — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:30:00 PST

Since the FDA is considering regulating sodium in processed foods, I have been hearing more and more about the reasons why. Here are five things to ponder about the sodium content in your diet.

Seventy-five percent of the salt we consume comes from processed food and food from restaurants, not from the salt shaker.
Your tongue cannot adequately discern how much salt is in your food. If the salt is on the surface of the food, like a potato chip, it will taste salty. However, when the sodium of a serving of frozen mac-n-cheese is 500 mg chances are your tongue will not register that this portion of food contains 25 percent of your RDI (recommended daily intake) of sodium. You really need to read the nutritional label on processed foods to know.
Processed foods in the US generally contain more sodium than the same product in the UK. McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets is a great example – in the US they contain more than twice as much sodium as the United Kingdom version. Breakfast cereal is not exempt either – Kellogg’s Special K (advertised as "super healthy") has 58 percent more sodium per serving in the US version than the UK cereal.

There are two more reasons so

Not only does sodium content of specific products vary widely country to country, within the same type of product, like different types of canned tuna and corn chips, the sodium content can be drastically different. Once again I remind you to read the label.
Sodium is added to processed food to prevent it from spoiling. The salt draws moisture out of food so bacteria can't grow. It also helps to thicken soup and reduce dryness in crackers and pretzels.

Source

Processed Food: News Roundup

FitSugar — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:00:00 PDT

The health food nut's arch enemy has been in the news a lot lately. Yep, I am talking about processed food. In this day and age, with our busy lives, it is hard to live without some processed foods. Here are three news stories that might just sway us to make a little more time when it comes to food and nutrition.

A microwave popcorn enthusiast was diagnosed recently with "popcorn lung" - a rare life threatening disease with the medical name broncheolitis obliterans. The diagnosing doctor believes the onset was caused by inhaling fumes of the extra buttery flavored microwave popcorn that contains the chemical diacetyl, which has been linked previously to the disease. The man ate two, and sometimes three, bags of the popcorn daily!
Just a caution, especially if you are looking to sleep, citrus flavor sodas can have more caffeine than colas. The consumer groups involved in a recent study are not anti caffeine; they just think caffeine content should be listed in the packaging.
This really comes as no surprise, but a new British study found food additives may make children more hyper active. The culprit here is artificial food coloring and preservatives. Although the study was not conclusive and is being questioned by some experts, the U.K. Food Standards Agency, which funded the study, has already revised its advice to parents about what to feed their children.

Source

How Not to Destroy Your Marriage

The Good Men Project — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:30:42 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Today, Mark Tyrrell offers eight relationship tools to make your marriage work.

"All marriages are happy. It's the living together afterward that causes all the trouble." - Raymond Hull

So how do you make your marriage work? Or do you just blindly hope it'll take care of itself?

Think of a hot, successful date with someone you’re attracted to. You have fun, great conversation and more sexual chemistry than a warehouse full of pheromones. You don’t have to “work at” the date because it’s self sustaining. It runs as smoothly as the gliding hand of a classical guitar maestro and you can’t wait for another rendition.

Teenage Dating in a Twilight-Hunger Games World

But marriage, or any long term relationship; well that’s a whole other caboodle.

If we’re not careful, marriage can deteriorate into little more than a torturous assault course; littered with routine boredoms, frustrations and resentments. Couple all that with external pressures and sometimes marriage feels not worth the effort. But there are major benefits to being hitched or committed, other than just a beneficial tax regime.

Healthy marriage; healthy people.

Being happily married bestows heaps of health benefits. You might be forgiven for thinking that if you’re married you don’t live longer it just seems like it but, no, a good marriage really can help you clock up more years (1) and married people are happier (2) even though they don’t always look it from the outside.

But when marriage doesn’t work it can feel being manacled to a maniac, marooned with a misogynist or nailed to a nag. And I don’t care what the studies say, that’s not healthy. You may hear couples say stuff like: “We are making our marriage work!” but how do we do this?

Making it work.

We pay lip service to “working on the marriage” but what is the work we need to do? Marriage vows such as “to love and to cherish” and “forsaking all others, for better or for worse” don’t really tell us how to make it work, although they give us a clue.

Fortunately a ton of research has been done on what to do and not do to make your marriage, or any intimate relationship work. Follow the guidelines here to become “good at marriage."

Tip one: Be romantic but keep it real.

We are all (force?) fed romance in movies and novels. The handsome man gets the beautiful woman. But what I wonder is what happens after our romantic couple ride off into the sunset together? What do they do exactly? Bicker? Moan at one another? Start to ignore each other?

After all that romance, our beautiful couple is bound to have massive expectations of their life together. But when rose tinted expectations clash with day to reality, watch out!

Romance is vital in any relationship. Always seeing the best in your partner helps to keep things intimate and love should be expressed. But if you have been raised on Mills and Boon Romance novels or feel-good movies, then your own romantic expectations can work against the sustainability of your long term relationship.

When day to day life fails to live up to the giddy, heady lust-filled days of the pre-settled down romance people can become angry, even blame one another: “This wasn’t what I signed up for." They find it hard to take the rough with the smooth because they never really figured there would be any rough.

Expectations not diluted with at least a dash of realism can be a royal road to relationship ruin. Your partner may be an angel, but they have feet of clay. You must learn to love those feet or at least accept them a bit!

Get the rest after the jump!

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Makes You Stupid, Omega-3s Make You Smart

Leta Shy — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:56:36 PDT

As if you needed another reminder to stop eating processed foods: a new study has found that foods high in high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) can make you stupid. But there's good news, too: eating foods high in omega-3s can help combat loss of brain function.

The study looked at different groups of rats that had been trained on a maze. After a few days on the maze, some of the rats were fed an HFCS-sweetened solution as their drinking water for six weeks, with some also receiving a diet high in omega-3s. After the diet, the rats were tested on how well they could recall the maze. The researchers found that the rats who ate the omega-3 diet were faster at completing the maze than the other rats, whether or not they were also given HFCS. Not only that, but the rats given the HFCS and not omega-3s were the slowest at completing the maze, and their brains showed a decline in activity and memory function.

This latest lab study is yet more evidence that processed foods can mess with our minds (other studies, for example, have linked fast food to depression) and that a diet high in omega-3s can help protect your brain from aging and mental decline. Ready to swap that fast-food burger for a mind-sharpening meal instead? Here's a list of vegan sources of omega-3s and five staples of the omega-3-rich Mediterranean diet.