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The first decade of the millennium brought both good and bad developments in the food and nutrition space. Mostly, this decade was a wake up call for many families and individuals that they cannot blindly trust government and market powers to provide the healthy food that they deserve.

2001 – Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by investigative reporter Eric Schlosser, is published. People begin to understand that there is a very high price society is paying for cheap food.

2003 – The FDA announces plans to permit food manufacturers to make “qualified health claims”. Industry can now rely on “Some scientific evidence” or “Very limited and preliminary scientific research” to make a health claim. Opponents criticize it as opening the door to ill-founded claims. Advocates believe it will make more information available to the public. We shoppers get more confusing marketing messages than ever.

2003 – the low carb diet craze is launched with the publication of the South Beach Diet. The trend peaked in 2004 and pretty much died off by the end of 2005.

2004 – Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me, a documentary film following the health of its director eating only McDonald’s for an entire month, is released and meets with mixed reactions. Fast food chains duck for cover.

2004 – Passage of the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. Requires labeling of any food that contains one or more of: peanuts, soybeans, cow’s milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, and wheat. People suffering from allergies still confused over statements such as “produced in a factory which also processes peanuts”.

2005 – Blogging goes mainstream, and people find new and useful sources of information on any subject, including food, nutrition, and health.

2006 – Wal-Mart joins the Organic Food bandwagon, signaling the mass acceptance of a once hippy movement.

2006 – Trans-fat is proclaimed the new evil. It’s labeling is required on all packaged foods. As a result, many manufacturers reformulate their products.

2007 – Author, professor, and food lover Michael Pollan publishes The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and continues the theme of Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. The result is a mass yearning for organic, sustainable fare. A follow-up book in 2008, In Defense of Food, argues against the “nutritionism” and suggests a creation of a food culture where  we “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

2008 – COOL (country of origin) Labeling goes into effect. fresh beef, pork, and lamb. After repeated debilitation and stakeholder pressures, the law that was enacted in the 2002 Farm Bill finally went into effect on Oct 1, 2008, and even then with many loopholes.

2008-9 – Front of Pack Nutrition Labeling becomes a food industry pastime, with over 15 different systems competing who will become the dominant player. In late 2009, the FDA decides to start thinking of maybe possibly beginning a process of evaluation which could eventually lead to government regulation in this area. While Guiding Stars and NuVal still survive, Smart Choices is nixed.

2009 – In January, a salmonella outbreak caused by a dirty peanut butter processing plant in Georgia, leads to one of the largest recalls of products in the history of supermarkets. Hundreds of products are recalled after the unnecessary deaths of innocent peanut butter aficionados.

2009 – As the recession takes hold, many  turn to comfort foods. Although home cooked meals are generally healthier and cheaper than restaurant fare, McDonalds’s stock has never done better. Coupon usage increases for the first time since 1992.

Here’s a graph of McDonald’s (red)  vs. Whole Foods Market (blue) stock performance over the course of the decade. How’s your (nutrition) performance changed over the last 10 years?

Note #1 : Apologies for not mentioning any TV shows, of which surely some deserve mention, as we have not watched TV since the late 1990’s. Perhaps a fastidious reader would like to add these in the comments section.

Note #2:  many good ideas for this post appeared in Delish.

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Nutella is hands down one of the tastiest spreads out there. A rich and creamy hazlenut and chocolate spread turns any toast into a culinary rockstar.

Ferrero , Nutella’s manufacturer, is now trying to ride the health wave by positioning itself as a healthy and nutritious start to the day. It invites you to treat yourself to a tasty balanced breakfast with Nutella:

Over 50 Hazelnuts per 13 oz. Jar
Contains No Artificial Colors
Contains No Artificial Preservatives

Here’s what they forget to tell you. Read more…

The consumer watchdog group CSPI published [PDF] a provocative list of 10 healthy foods that have been involved in large scale contamination in the past few years:

1. LEAFY GREENS: 363 outbreaks involving 13,568 reported cases of illness
2. EGGS: 352 outbreaks , 11,163 illness
3. TUNA: 268 outbreaks , 2341 illness
4. OYSTERS: 132 outbreaks , 3409 illness
5. POTATOES: 108 outbreaks , 3659 illness
6. CHEESE: 83 outbreaks , 2761 illness
7. ICE CREAM: 74 outbreaks , 2594 illness
8. TOMATOES: 31 outbreaks , 3292 illness
9. SPROUTS: 31 outbreaks , 2022 illness
10. BERRIES: 25 outbreaks , 3397 illness

The group is not trying to scare us away from these foods, it is simply pointing out a fact that the FDA must do a better job of enforcing safety regulations on growers, shippers, and manufacturers. The FDA should be given the tools by law:

the United States Senate should follow the House and pass legislation that reforms our fossilized food safety laws

What you need to know:

Food Safety is something we take for granted when everything is OK. But a rushed trip to the emergency room, fevers, cramps, bloody stools, or worse remind us how fragile we are vs tiny contaminants that find their way into our food. And the grave responsibility of the entire supply chain in providing us safe food.

While we believe that most companies try to maintain high standards of safety, there is always room for improvement. Unfortunately, many times the pressure to cut costs is at odds with additional safety measures.

Just this past January the great peanut butter recall exposed how easy it is for one bad apple (or in this case peanut) to infiltrate hundreds of food items.

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For over 40 years, Pop-Tarts have been a part of American breakfast tradition. A thin pastry surrounding a sweetened jelly, wrapped in space age foil to preserve freshness. No need to refrigerate. Ready to eat or quickly heated in a toaster. A marvel of food ingenuity.

America has handsomely rewarded Kellogg’s, the manufacturer, for its ingenuity (even though Kellogg’s got the idea from Quaker). By 2006, Kellogg’s was selling over $400 Million worth of Pop-Tart products a year. To this day, Pop-Tarts account for 80% of the “toaster-pastry” segment.

Great, right?

Well, we beg to differ. We believe that Pop-Tarts are an unfortunate tradition that needs to be stopped. Immediately.

Here’s why…

What you need to know:

Let’s begin with the Pop-Tarts packaging. It  is deceiving at best – the image of fresh real blueberries surrounding a pastry rich in blueberry filling does not match the reality of less than 2% blueberry content in the product. And to add to the disgrace there’s a large font “made with real fruit” on the front panel.
A look at the nutrition label does not add joy to our life.
A single pastry is 200 calories, 150 of which are from carbohydrates. The 17 grams of sugar are equivalent to over 4 teaspoons worth. A pop tart is one third sugar by weight. There is less than 1 gram of fiber, and despite the labeling saying Trans Fat are 0, there is a certain amount present due to the use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

A serving size is defined as one pastry, but since they are packed 2 per foil, people can just as easily double the amount of calories.

The ingredient list is as long as the backup on highway 101 on Monday morning:

Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Soybean And Palm Oil (With Tbhq For Freshness), Sugar, Cracker Meal, Contains Two Percent Or Less Of Wheat Starch, Salt, Dried Blueberries, Dried Grapes, Dried Apples, Cornstarch, Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Corn Cereal, Citric Acid, Gelatin, Modified Wheat Starch, Soy Lecithin, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean And/Or Cottonseed Oil?, Modified Corn Starch, Xanthan Gum, Caramel Color, Red #40, Vitamin A Palmitate, Tricalcium Phosphate, Color Added, Niacinamide, Reduced Iron, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Blue #2, Blue #1, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Turmeric Color, Folic Acid.

Here’s a brief explanation of what’s inside – (note all the variations of sugar in here)

Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour…) – All flour is enriched in the US, by law. Don’t be fooled by “Wheat Flour” either, as most flour is from Wheat. If the ingredient list does not state “100% whole wheat flour”, you are missing out on the fiber your body needs.
Corn Syrup – a syrup made from cornstarch. Used as a sweetener due to its high glucose content. Prevents crystallization and can help increase shelf life in baked goods.
High Fructose Corn Syrup – corn syrup where some of the glucose has been converted to fructose.
Dextrose – a term for glucose. glucose and fructose together make sucrose, which is commonly known as table sugar.
Soybean And Palm Oil – Canola oil would have been a healthier alternative because of its high unsaturated fat content.
TBHQ (E319) – tert-Butylhydroquinone – a preservative for oils. May be carcinogenic in high doses.
Sugar – well, the product is still not sweet enough is it?
Wheat Starch – A powdery substance obtained from wheat kernels. Used as a thickener for sauces, gravies, and puddings.
Dried Blueberries, Dried Grapes, Dried Apples – there’s less than 2% of each in the product. Yet on the product image you see much much more than 2% blueberry.
Cornstarch – a powdery substance used as a thickener.
Citric Acid – a natural preservative that is used in beverages to add an acidic, sour taste. Although it is naturally found in citrus fruit (oranges, lemons), industry has a found a cheaper way to manufacture it. This is through a fermentation process in which a mold called Aspergillus Niger is used to ferment a carbohydrate such as molasses. sounds grosser than it really is.
Gelatin  (E441) – a translucent, colorless, brittle, nearly tasteless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals’ skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent.
Modified Wheat Starch – same as the wheat starch above but modified not to loose its thickening properties when heated.
Soy Lecithin (E322) – an oily substance derived from soybeans. Used as an emulsifier and to keep the dough from sticking
Partially Hydrogenated Soybean And/Or Cottonseed Oil – this is the source of trans-fat, folks.
Modified Corn Starch – a common additive used as a thickener. Corn starches are modified so they won’t lose their thickening properties when heated.
Xanthan Gum (E415) – a common emulsifier and thickener made from reaction between glucose and Xanthomonas campestris bacteria.
Caramel Color (E150) – a natural food coloring.
Red #40 (Allura Red / E129) – an artificial food coloring that is being phased out in Europe due to concerns about it causing child hyperactivity.
Tricalcium Phosphate (E341) – used as a raising agent.
Color Added – on top of the artificial colors stated by name we get this mystery color.
Niacinamide – This is vitamin B3.
Natural And Artificial Flavors – with all the crap in this product, no wonder it needs to be enhanced by some proprietary and secret formulas.
Blue #2 – artificial color
Blue #1 (Brilliant Blue FCF / E133) – a synthetic dye derived from coal tar! Was previously banned in Europe but now is allowed. May cause hyperactivity in children.
Turmeric Color – a yellow/orange powder from the turmeric spice.

Conclusion: this product should not exist in Obese America 2009. The light fortification with various vitamins and minerals cannot compensate for the sugar overdose, lack of fiber, and overwhelming use of additives, preservatives, and artificial food coloring.

Pop-tarts are no-starts. They are a terrible product to start your kids’ day.

What to do at the supermarket:

Stay away from Pop-tarts. In the time it takes to heat them, you can spread peanut butter on a slice of whole wheat bread and top it with sliced bananas and a teaspoonful of honey.

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A survey conducted recently by IBM (yes, IBM) shows that less than 1 in 5 consumers trust food companies to provide them with safe food. 1000 people were surveyed. Additional stats:

60% of consumers are concerned about the safety of food they purchase.

63% are knowledgeable about the content of the food they buy.

46% named peanut butter as a recalled product. 15% remembered spinach as a recalled product.

63%  purposefully changed their grocery shopping behavior in the past two years because they wanted better value for their money.

45% have changed shopping behavior to access fresher foods and better quality foods.

What you need to know:

If you’re wondering what IBM has to do with food, they’ve prepares an answer here:

With innovative digital technology and powerful solutions, IBM is making sure food is traced properly as it passes though an increasingly complex global supply chain. IBM is also making that food heartier through biological research.

Will the recent spate of recalls, along with the rising obesity epidemic, and a new administration bent on change have a substantial effect on improving America’s diet?

Advances in information technology are helping information become available cheaply and easily. Manufacturers know exactly where they source every single ingredient. They should pass the information on to consumers.

With a bit of effort, they can create databases accessible to consumers online. Each of the ingredients of a specific product from a specific batch would then be traceable to it farm / laboratory origins.

What to do at the supermarket:

There’s not much consumers can do right now except demand more information from their grocer and from their favorite brands. If enough consumers will demand transparency, the information will start to appear.

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photo credit: Mr. T in DC

1. Extolling veggies – they are naturally low in calories, but high in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.

2. According the USDA, we’re supposed to get 5 servings of vegetables a day. That’s about 2 and a half cups worth.

3. Unfortunately, less than one third of Americans meet their daily vegetable requirement.

4. If you buy smart, you can meet your daily requirement for less than $2.50 a day.

5. Vegetables start losing their nutrients the moment they are picked, albeit slowly. Once in contact with water or heat, the process is greatly accelerated.

6. Wash vegetables just before serving.

7. Eating raw vegetables retains more nutrients than heating them. And if you’ve ever tasted fresh corn, minutes after harvest, you know it’s not as weird as it sounds to eat uncooked.

8. Choose veggies from all color ranges, as each color represents a different set of nutrients.

9. chopping vegetables into larger pieces helps maintain nutrients better than finely chopping because less surface area comes in contact with air or water that leech out the nutrients.

10. Steaming, microwaving, and a pressure cooker are the best cooking methods to retain nutrients.

11. Keeping the vegetable peels on is recommended where possible because the peel and area just below contain large amounts of nutrients such as fiber.

12. If preparing veggies in boiling water (for example corn on the cob), nutrients leech into the water. Don’t lose them by discarding this water, use it to prepare a soup or broth.

13. Remember ADEK – Vitamins that are fat soluble (Vitamin A, D, E, K). A tablespoon of olive or canola oil on a freshly prepared garden salad actually improves the bio-availability of these vitamins.

14. Vegetables can be served as a snack – carrot sticks, celery sticks filled with peanut butter, cherry tomatoes, etc,..

What to do at the supermarket:

If you’re on a tight budget – buy veggies in season, they’ll be much cheaper than imports from the other side of the planet. Check the frozen section at the supermarket – many times you’ll find cheap vegetables as well. Their nutritional value is often close or equal to that of their fresh equivalent.

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It’s a free country where everyone can pursue their dream, but please, can’t Congress help moms and dads by banning aging stars from milking their fame by selling our kids crap to ingest? why do parents have to be the bad cop and tell junior they’re not getting this “snack”.

From a press release earlier this week:

Hogan Energy tm – Extreme Energy Granules, a first of its kind fast melting granule that you pour directly into your mouth for fast absorption and rapid onset of energy. Hogan Energy tm provides hours of unmatched energy without the side effects or chemicals found in high sugar/caffeinated beverages. Compared to Red Bull tm, Amped tm, 5 Hour Energy tm, Rock Startm and the ever growing energy beverage market, Hogan Energy tm provides a revolutionary new nutrient delivery system with better energy at HALF the cost. The Citrus Rush flavor provides satiety in this low calorie, nutrient packed, Energy powerhouse.

What you need to know:

We wonder what the revolutionary new nutrient delivery system might be. Unfortunately, no information is provided in the press release or on Mr. Hogan’s website.

Energy drinks, energy snacks, and other inventions are not going to help your kids. They are a concoction of caffeine, High fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, and water. Except for these pellets, that don’t contain the only righteous ingredient, water.

What to do at the supermarket:

How about these energy products – bananas, blueberries, peanut butter on whole wheat bread, dark chocolate, and a cup of skim milk?

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The pistachio salmonella recall of March could have been avoided had Setton, the California based processor, taken proper corrective action.

Recap: On the heels of the peanut butter recalls of January, March became pistachio recall month with about 2 million pounds of pistachios that Setton distributed having to be returned/destroyed. The pistachios were suspected of salmonella infection after testing by Kraft foods, a Setton customer, tested a shipment.

Turns out that Setton, according to the FDA, knew about salmonella contamination as early as October 2008, a full 6 months before the recalls even began. So why did they continue shipping?

What you need to know:

What does Setton do? They receive “fresh” pistachios from growers in California. These pistachios may sometimes be contaminated with harmful bacteria such as salmonella.  Setton processes the pistachios as follows: roast, package, and ship. Salmonella should be zapped by the roasting process. Ideally, no worries. However, if the unroasted pistachios come in contact with the roasted pistachios for some reason, the problems begin.

What did Setton do when it discovered its roasted pistachios were tainted? They re-roasted them and then shipped. That did not help. Did Setton try to figure out why the roasted nuts were tainted in the first place? Was there some sort of cross contamination that the plant mangers were unaware of?

Most likely Setton tried to rectify problems that may have caused the contamination. However, at some point the cost of fixing these problems became prohibitive.

This is where some owners/managers start cutting corners. If the risk seems tiny, why spend a million dollars renovating a production line?

Unfortunately, judgment can get cloudy in the face of profit and loss pressures. That’s why strong regulation and harsh punishments are needed. If a food factory owner holds the power of life and death in her hands, she must fear not only the business bottom line, but also the personal consequences of her decisions.

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Fresh off the recent candy expo in Chicago, we bring you a taste test and nutrition review of one of the better tasting products out there. Dove has been better known for its ice cream bars, but recently moved into the chocolate space.

Our testers loved the texture and rich flavor of this product saying  The peanut butter chocolates were delicious and very creamy. They didn’t quite look the same as the picture on the package, but then which food products do ?

Unfortunately, the taste comes at a nutritional price.

A packet contains around 30 pieces. A recommended serving size is 5 pieces (but show us the person who’ll stop there…)

Each serving will cost you 220 calories. Of those, 130 are from fat. That’s 14 grams of fat of which 8 grams are saturated. Those are 22% and 40% of your daily recommended maximum values, respectively. The label says 0 trans fat (we’ll see about that) and there are 8 grams of sugar (3.5 teaspoons).

The ingredient list includes the usual suspects (milk chocolate and peanuts) but also partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil and or partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Whenever you see a partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list, it means that the product DOES CONTAIN TRANS FAT.

How can this be if the nutrition panel says 0 trans fat?

Simple. There is an annoying loophole in the labeling regulations set by the FDA that lets you round off to zero anything smaller than 0.5 grams per serving. Manufacturers can then set the serving size to be just under the 0.5 grams threshold value. But as we mentioned earlier, 5 pieces of chocolate seems too little for a serving, so imaging you are sharing a bag with a friend. You’ll be consuming 3 times the servings, and possibly consuming a fair amount of this very unhealthy fat, without you even being aware!

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Unilever, one of the largest food conglomerates in the world, has recently announced it is adopting a holistic approach to sodium reduction in its global food portfolio.

The European based corporation is the owner of famous US brands such as Colman’s (mustard), Hellmann’s / Best Foods (mayonnaise), Knorr (sauces, stock cubes, ready-meals, meal kits, ready-soups, frozen foods), Lipton, Mazola, Ragú (pasta sauces), Skippy  (peanut butter), Slim Fast (diet products), and Wish-Bone (salad dressing). Unilever is also the world’s largest ice cream manufacturer, owning Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Good Humor, and Klondike in the states.

What you need to know:

Salt is composed of sodium and chloride. 1000 mg of salt contain 400mg of sodium. Our bodies need salt but over consumption leads to high blood pressure, hypertension, and other nasty diseases. And boy do we over consume.

Around 75% of the sodium we use is from processed foods. And since most of the food we eat nowadays is processed,  there is no escape.

The modern consumer, pressed for time and looking for convenience, is ingesting almost twice the recommended allowance of sodium per day (2400mg of sodium  is the recommended value).

If manufacturers of processed foods substantially reduce the amount of sodium in their products, it will have an immediate effect on most of the Western world.

Problem is that food tastes better when salty. And since companies don’t want to lose market share by selling unbecoming foods, we have been drowned in salt for decades. No company would like to take the first risky step of sodium reduction, right?

Wrong, Unilever has stepped up.

Though some may say Unilever is taking a foolhardy approach that will hurt its revenues, this is actually a smart move.

Unilever is taking preemptive measures before EU food authorities mandate it. The UK’s Food Standards Authority has already notified manufacturers that by next year (2010) guidelines will be in effect for several food categories. And stricter regulation may follow suite in coming years.

Basically, Unilever is doing something it would have had to do in any case. But by creating a media buzz around it, they gain credibility as a responsible food purveyor and a leader in nutrition.

As an aside, Unilever is also very active in promoting front of package food labeling called “Choices” in Europe. A similar plan, dubbed “Smart Choices”  has been introduced in the US. The idea is to enable consumers to know in a quick glance if a certain food passes a certain nutrition benchmark.

What to do at the supermarket:

The best way to drastically reduce sodium consumption is simply by preparing food at home. If you don’t have time, and do buy canned soups or frozen dinners, opt for the low sodium options. You can always sprinkle a bit more salt on top at home if it is not salty enough for you.

Soup mixes such as Knorr’s can be brutal in terms of sodium content, so watch out. Also, look for salt in strange places like cookies, cereals, and breads. You’d be surprised.

Products with more than 600-800 mg of sodium per serving are to be avoided as much as possible.

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