Do you ever dine out and feel absolutely sick later?
Could it be that you’re eating a slice of cheesecake with 59 grams of saturated fat, a shake with more than 2,000 calories, fries with 930 calories, or a pasta dish with more than 1,500 calories? Uh, most of us only need 2,000 calories for the entire day!
If you’re feasting on dishes from any of the Xtreme Eating Awards recipients, then those crazy numbers should be in your head.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has honored Cheesecake Factory, Denny’s, Applebee’s, IHOP, Cold Stone Creamery, Morton’s Steakhouse, and Great Steak with their eight Xtreme Eating Awards for 2011.
The Cheesecake Factory received two of those awards: One for Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake, which contains 1,540 calories per slice, and another for The Farmhouse Cheeseburger, which has 1,530 calories.
Read a full list of the honorees and their unhealthy dishes at CSPI.
What’s the cure for all this craziness?
When restaurants are finally made to list their calorie counts on menus, I think some of the more fatty options will fall out of favor. If you do choose to eat out, you can try looking up nutrition info on the restaurant website, but a recent study by Tufts University has shown that 19 percent of dishes studied had 100 or more excess calories not reported on restaurant websites! Major chains like Olive Garden were found guilty on that one.
The one thing you can do for yourself is to eat at home. By the time you drive to a restaurant, order, wait for food, wait for check, then drive home, you could have cooked yourself a great meal.
In addition, when you cook at home, it’s much easier for you to choose organic or locally grown ingredients. Plus, you’ll save money! Continue reading »
At a Kroger grocery store today my cashier asked me, “What’s the difference between organic and regular?”
I explained that organic fruits and vegetables are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides. I also told her that some foods like lettuce and strawberries retain more pesticide residue than certain foods like pineapples or watermelon. (Organic meat and dairy are topics for another day.) I also talked a bit about the effects of pesticides on wildlife and how pesticides end up in water.
Then my cashier said that a lot of people are buying organic and she wants to try it too. I found her statement rather awesome considering I wasn’t at a fancy health food store like Whole Foods.
So, in case you’re also wondering why you should choose organic, here are some good reasons:
In studies, pesticide exposure has been linked to birth defects, prostate cancer, childhood cancer, neurological damage and even possibly the early onset of Parkinson’s disease. (source: NRDC)
Organic is also better for the earth. Research indicates that if 434 million acres of cropland in the United States were switched to organic growing practices, the carbon dioxide savings would be like eliminating 217 million cars. (source: The Rodale Institute, OTA)
Buying organic supports farmers who use eco-friendly growing practices.
When you buy certified organic food, it’s been inspected by third-party independent groups. Certified organic growers adhere to strict guidelines for hygienic and safe food production. Despite rumors, no reputable studies have shown that conventionally grown food is safer than organically grown food. (source: OTA)
Pesticides may contaminate groundwater, which is used for drinking water by around 50 percent of the population of the U.S. (source: USGS)
Pesticides can harm or kill wildlife when creatures consume contaminated food or water, breathe pesticides, or absorb pesticides through their skin. (source: NDSU)
If you can’t buy everything organic, at least buy organic when it comes to foods that are on the 2011 Dirty Dozen list for containing the most pesticides:
Apples
Celery
Strawberries
Peaches
Spinach
Nectarines (imported)
Grapes (imported)
Sweet bell peppers
potatoes
Blueberries (domestic)
Lettuce
Kale/collard greens
Foods on EWG’s Clean 15 list have the lowest amounts of pesticides:
I may not have gone on about it recently, but trust me, I’m as big of a dessert freak as ever. Not only do I love the challenge of baking complicated new desserts from scratch, I also love to eat them!
Luckily, I’ve tried the strategy of typically only baking for gatherings and leaving the leftovers with someone else. Of course, I have my weak moments when I bake a batch of brownies that my husband Michael and I devour in almost a single night.
Carrots ‘N’ Cake by blogger Tina Haupert allows readers a long glimpse into the struggles, motivations and ultimate successes of one sweets-loving woman who is very determined to live the healthy life of her dreams.
Carrots ‘N’ Cake is not a Mayo Clinicsort of dieting book. In other words, Haupert’s book isn’t an information-packed textbook that makes you feel a bit like you’re in school, but rather it’s like reading a personal journal/blog with just over 50 interesting recipes mixed in. Continue reading »
Chicken cooked on skewers is fun to eat, and preparing it like this is a good way to limit the amount of protein on my plate. These are delicious and super quick.
Ingredients
2 chicken cutlets
1/4 preserved lemon (store-bought), flesh discarded, peel finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed through a press
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
Soak 8 (6-inch) bamboo skewers in water for 30 minutes.
Place the cutlets between sheets of waxed paper on a cutting board, and pound with a rolling pin or meat mallet until 1/4 inch thick. Cut the pieces into 1-inch strips. Continue reading »
When’s the last time you heard a late night comedian make fun of a fat man?
Making fun of a woman for her weight isn’t funny. When a comedian I like makes a Kirstie Alley fat joke, I lose a bit more respect for that comedian. It’s sad. It’s too easy, and it needs to stop.
On Wednesday, George Lopez compared Kirstie Alley to a pig, saying that she did a nice job on “Dancing with the Stars,” with “her little hooves tapping away.” He also continued with some BS about her going to market, eating roast beef and going all the way home, followed by some Geico footage of a squealing pig.
Lopez: Does it make you feel better to put other people down? What you did is called bullying. It’s distasteful and wrong. And a Twitter apology just doesn’t cut it.
In case you haven’t checked the ingredients lately, Girl Scout cookies contain palm oil.
That’s not great for several reasons. Palm oil has more saturated fat than alternatives like canola and olive oil, both of which are more earth-friendly oils. And palm oil plantations are taking away crucial habitat for endangered animals like orangutans, pygmy elephants and Sumatran tigers. Also, the palm oil industry has been associated with gross human rights and labor violations.
If there’s an alternative that’s better for you and better for the environment, why continue to use palm oil?
Grist reports that Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, two Michigan Girl Scout members, are protesting the use of palm oil in cookies by refusing to sell them. Word is that Girl Scout USA CEO Kathy Clonginer isn’t very receptive to the idea of abandoning the use of palm oil.
Meanwhile, Britain’s sister organization to the Girl Scouts (the Girl Guides) have done away with palm oil in their cookies. The result? A 60 to 70 percent reduction in saturated fat!
Please email the Girl Scouts USA to let their leaders know that you’re interested in switching to a more healthy oil.
UPDATE 3/17/11: Find out more about Kellogg’s response to these Girl Scouts at Grist.
Could it be? Organic milk really is better for you (and not just more expensive). So, it seems that what’s good for the planet is also good for your body and waistline.
According to new research from the UK’s Newcastle University, organic milk from the supermarket has higher levels of nutritionally beneficial fatty acids than conventional milk. Organic milk was of better quality, regardless of weather conditions or the time of year.
Study leader Gillian Butler says that if you choose organic milk, you can reduce saturated fats by 30 to 50% while still getting the same level of beneficial fatty acids. Of course, this study was done with UK milk, but it stands to reason that the same results could be replicated in the U.S.
Do you choose organic milk?
Image credit: Newcastle University (Gillian Butler at Newcastle University’s Nafferton Farm, Northumberland, with some of the farm’s cows.)
You’ll soon have some assurance that the receipt you’re handing is free of the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA).
Back in July, I told you about how BPA has been found in nearly 40 percent of cash register receipts from major US businesses like Walmart and even Whole Foods.
Appleton, the only producer of BPA-free thermal receipt paper in the U.S., is adding red fibers to their register receipts. Appleton stopped using BPA in 2006, and now they’re helping you to know if you’ve gotten your hands on one of their receipts.
By the end of November, 75 percent of the Appleton thermal receipt paper shipped out will have the red fibers. And Appleton expects that all of their thermal receipt paper will have the red fibers in 2011.
In addition to being more healthy, the BPA-free receipt paper is also recyclable. The embedded red fibers are made of rayon, a fiber that is even more biodegradable than cotton.
If you spot red on your receipt, please check back to let us know where you found it.
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