Category Archives: Healthy Eating

I can’t make bread.  I mean, I can make it.  Theoretically what I pop out of the bread machine or the oven is “bread” under a loose definition of the word, but it isn’t something that I’d feed my family regularly.  I love my family, and I’m kind of against torturing them with lousy food.

You may think I’m exaggerating my bread un-talent, but I can swear to you right now that just this morning I gave the chickens the remnants of one of my failed bread attempts as a treat.  Six hours later, the bread still sits, unpecked, untouched.  They’d rather eat bugs and grass in the yard than eat my bread.

Much like my family.

Last week I lamented my lack of bread skills in my post on five things that are easy to make from scratch, and a reader commented that the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day would solve my problems.  That wasn’t the first time I heard that recommendation, but unlike all of the other times I heard it, this time I decided to listen.

God bless Amazon.  A few clicks later and I had a copy on my Kindle.  I read the salient chapters in no time (it isn’t a dense read by any means) and soon I was mixing up my first batch of dough.

Back to the book, the “five minutes a day” part is only partly accurate.  The premise is that the dough is made in a large batch at the start of the week, and each day you can tear off a hunk, form it, bake it, and have fresh daily bread.  (They don’t count the initial dough creation or the baking time in their “five minutes,” obviously, but that’s fair).  This bread dough is much wetter than any dough I’ve worked with before, and apparently that gives it a longer “shelf life” in the fridge.  However, my skepticism was still flaring – I would think it would take a lot more than just wetter dough to make my monstrosities into a decent bread loaf.

My first batch of dough wasn’t inspiring a lot of confidence either.  While it did something that most of my dough doesn’t manage to do – it rose – it still looked wet and sticky and, frankly, weird.  Trying to form my first loaf didn’t help my fears subside either.  The instructions told me to cut off a grapefruit-sized chunk.  Well, that’s easier said than done when your grapefruit is a sticky, formless mass.  It wasn’t pretty, but I got it onto the pan for baking.

I may have used too much flour.

Nevertheless, I soldiered on.  I preheated the oven, waited the allotted time, and baked the bread.  And then, something happened.

It actually looked pretty good.  For a first try, that is.

That night, dinner was potato soup which of course just begged for a nice, crusty bread.  This recipe fit the bill perfectly.  The crust was a nice and chewy while the inside was soft and light.

And something amazing happened.

My family ate it.  Almost all of it!  We had just two small bits left for a treat for the chickens in the morning.

The book has instructions for all kinds of fancy-sounding breads that I’ve never heard of, all based on the same basic dough recipe.  I made a baguette the following day.  The dough was much more obedient this time, and the bread turned out pretty great.

I can imagine making baguettes in the morning to take to work for lunch.  I can envision having homemade bread to go with dinner without waiting the three hours that my bread machine requires.

This bread school dropout is back on probation.  Thanks to the reader and others who recommended this book!

School lunch reform has been needed for a long time, and new rules are finally coming into effect this fall.  Under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, some significant changes to school lunch have been made and are taking effect for the first time this year.  One of the many (and certainly most controversial) changes brought by this Act is the calorie restrictions:   650 calories for elementary-schoolers, 700 for middle-schoolers and 850 for high-schoolers.

That seems reasonable, right?  In a country facing an obesity epidemic, monitoring kids’ caloric intake sounds like a step in the right direction.

The problem, though, is that one size just doesn’t fit all when it comes to calories.

Even the most health-conscious among us harbor a lot of misperceptions about how many calories we need on a daily basis – calorie counting is a complicated business.  Caloric intake isn’t a flat number.  Prove it to yourself:  take a visit to the Mayo Clinic calorie counter.  The calorie counter takes a number of factors into account to determine the appropriate caloric intake for an individual.  Age, gender, weight, height and activity level are all considered.  And the differences are significant!  For me, a 36 year old woman, 150 pounds 5’9″ tall, my caloric needs for the day range from 1750 on a sedentary day to 2450 on a very active day.  That’s a 700 calorie swing.  

This is having some real effects on high school kids whose schools have already adopted the new guidelines.  Students who lead active lives – farm kids with morning chores, football players with before and after school practice – have a much higher need for calories than their sedentary peers, yet they are treated the same under the guidelines.  And the result is predictable:  hungry kids are going to eat.  Instead of making up those needed calories with an extra helping of school-prepared food, they binge on convenience snacks that they cart along with them.  Instead of an extra sandwich they’re grabbing a Snickers.

And these complaints aren’t just speculation by some blogger who hasn’t eaten a school lunch in a years.  There are some very real students making very legitimate complaints.  Unsurprisingly, some have taken to social networking sites to voice their disfavor and as this Youtube video shows, they are getting some attention.

Supporters of the reforms argue that not all students are athletes, and the average student doesn’t need more than 850 calories at lunch.  While that’s debatable (gym class, anyone?  And I know I burned more calories at some marching band practices than I do running now), don’t we want a school environment that fits the needs of more than just the average?

So what’s the right answer?  As with so many other things, education is probably a good start.  We let high school kids get behind the wheel of a car – armed with the right information about nutrition, I think they’re qualified to decide whether they’re hungry for an extra breadstick at lunch.

More reading:

What’s for school lunch?  Innovative blog featuring school lunches from around the world.

Fed Up With Lunch (the blog)  The pioneering project of a once-anonymous school lunch worker documenting the deficiencies in school lunches.

Fed Up With Lunch (the book) The book by the above blogger.  Well worth the read – I learned much.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Jamie Oliver’s quest to change what’s wrong with school lunches is inspiring, disheartening, and utterly educational.  This should be required reading/viewing for everyone.

I’m not shy about saying that Crazy dumbsaint of the mind is one of my favorite blogs. The blog covers all kinds of topics, but what got my attention were the posts about feeding a family on a food stamp budget.  Her posts hit home:  my childhood memories include dandelion green salads, foraging for hickory nuts and wild asparagus and trips to the food pantry.  So when she posted SNAP: A Food Stamp Budget Challenge, I knew I had to do it.

She is challenging her readers to try feeding their family on the budget allotted by the state for food stamps.   In my case, I’d have to feed my family of three on about $86 per week.  I have no question that I can do it, but Crazy dumbsaint wants us to show our work:  she wants to hear about our menu plans, our recipes.  She wants to see what we buy, where we bought it and what we paid for it.

Challenge accepted.

I’m gearing up to run this challenge for a full week, from this coming Sunday to the following Sunday.  I am in the process of making my meal plans now, and I’ll complete my shopping on Saturday.

I’m setting parameters for myself:

Coconut water is absolutely everywhere these days.  What used to be a rare find at a health food store is now just another staple at the big groceries, and with good reason:  people have started to notice the benefits of drinking coconut water.

Five reasons you should love coconut water.

1.  Natural hydration.   Instead of turning to Gatorade or tap water after a good workout or even a hot day, coconut water can help you hydrate efficiently, naturally.  Moreover, dehydration is a big fear for those of us big or small who have battled the stomach flu.  When your stomach settles, sipping coconut water can effectively help you stay hydrated.

2.  Coconut water is naturally fat free and low calorie.  An excellent alternative to soda, coconut water can be a great pick-me-up without the empty calories and artificial sweeteners and dyes.

3.  Coconut water is rich in Potassium.  Potassium helps balance fluid and mineral levels, and aids in muscle contraction (which is pretty important, considering that your heart is a muscle).  Packing the equivalent of two bananas worth of Potassium, coconut water is a good source of Potassium, particularly for those among us who don’t get the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables in our diets.

4.  Coconut water blends well with other flavors.  I often find myself getting stuck in a rut with a certain food or drink – I’ll find

Some popular brands of coconut water

something I love and keep drinking it day after day until eventually I cannot stand the taste of it anymore.  Because coconut water has a naturally “tropical” flavor, it blends well with other tropical fruit flavors, like mango and pineapple.  Variety is a good thing.

5. Coconut water is uniquely thirst quenching.  Yes, I realize that sounds like an advertisement, but I find it to be very true.  As a runner, I find that sometimes plain water doesn’t seem to be sufficient to rehydrate after a long run.  While Gatorate or Rocktane are my go-to, if I have coconut water available I find it to be just as satisfying, and far more natural.

And one reason to be skeptical

The benefits of coconut water are constantly being overstated.  One website claims that coconut water is identical to human blood plasma, such that drinking it provides the same benefits of a blood transfusion.  (And it goes on to claim that “many” lives in third world countries have been saved thanks to a coconut I.V.).  Other websites have touted its ability to fight diabetes, reverse age spots, wrinkles, and fight cholera.   (And as Nutrition Diva points out, deaths from cholera are pretty rare among those who can afford a drink that costs $2 – $3 per serving).  Without any citations to studies supporting those conclusions, one can safely assume that they are overstatements, at best.

The bottom line seems to be that coconut water does have some benefits, and if you like the unusual flavor and don’t mind the $2 – $3 per serving price tag, enjoy it!  There are definitely some great reasons to drink coconut water.  But if the flavor or the high prices causes you to choke a little, you aren’t missing a miracle cure by passing on the coconut water.

We had a wonderful weekend camping in the Wisconsin Dells.  Our days were filled with lots of sunshine, plenty of activity, and a ton of junk food – something we don’t normally do.  Between the cookies, campfire s’mores, chips, and other “junk” snacks, we ate terribly over the course of three days.  And by Sunday we noticed a big change in our toddler:  our usually sweet boy was angry.  He’d talk back to us, yelling, alternately ignoring us and screaming.  This wasn’t at all like our toddler.

We really have a problem with certain forms of nudity in this country, don’t we?

Our good sensibilities are offended by the sight of the uncovered human body.  Why?  What’s to be ashamed of?

I mentally revisit this issue on a number of levels.  As a parenting blogger, it often comes up in the context of nursing in public.  In case you have been living under a rock, some people are offended when a woman breastfeeds her child in a public place.  Rather than using their God-given neck muscles to turn their heads and look away from the offending sight, they instead flex their outrage muscle and complain, ask the mother to leave, or otherwise attempt to make the mother feel like she is doing something she shouldn’t.  Fortunately, a lot of people have a problem with this approach and are making an effort to “normalize” breastfeeding so that no one has to clutch their pearls when they see a woman feeding her child.

But this post isn’t about that.

This post is about a sign I found at my gym today:

This wasn’t posted by the co-ed pool, by the whirlpool, in the workout area, or by the weights.  It is posted in the women’s locker room.  The place where women remove their clothing to shower and change clothes.  The one place in the building where you would expect to find women in various states of undress.

I’m actually angry about this.  No, I’m pissed off.

At first, I was angered by the message that this sign sends.  To all of those women that I see at the gym – from the dedicated hardbodies to the women with less than perfect figures but with incredible dedication – what does this sign say?  That your body is inadequate?  That it offended someone enough that they caused this sign to be hung?   That even though you are among other women – women who have all the same parts you do – yours are offensive to someone, so cover that shit up?  It has to be one of those things, doesn’t it?

Then, I started to wonder:  what did cause this sign to be put up?  I admit, I’m a little bit of a locker room nudist.  After my shower, I get only partially dressed: underwear, pants, and bra, and then I do my hair and makeup before I put my shirt on.  That buys me a few extra minutes of cooldown time after my shower.  So am I, and women who do as I do, the inspiration for this sign?  Is my bare midriff upsetting someone enough to inspire them to make this sign?  I got fully dressed immediately after my shower today upon seeing this sign, just in case.

Finally, it made me question: why do we even have to have this discussion?  The locker room is a place designed for women to change clothing – and be naked in the process – so why on earth would anyone post this sign?  What is with this expectation that we should harbor a certain amount of shame about our bodies?  What’s the adequate amount of shame for this purpose?

Readers:  Am I off base here, or does that sign hit a nerve with you?  What are your thoughts?

Burger King has recently announced a pilot home delivery program which will put a Whopper in your hand for a small delivery charge.

I don’t like it.

Early naysayers have painted the image of the Discovery Channel-special-worthy morbidly obese calling in their orders for twenty Whoppers from the comfort of their recliners, but I am less troubled by that image.   Burger King isn’t marketing this new convenience towards those unable or unwilling to leave the comfort of their Lay-Z-Boy.  They are marketing their delivery service towards busy families.

There it is:  busy families.  Families with active kids with busy schedules, families with working parents, families with too much to do and too little time to do it.  At last count, that’s most of us.   But we deserve better food than that, don’t we?  A single Whopper loaded with only the basics boasts this nutritional breakdown:

510 Calories

9 g Saturated Fat

65 mg Cholesterol

11 g Sugar

22 g Fat

0.5 g Trans Fat

840 mg Sodium

Make it a value meal, or a double (or triple) Whopper, or even add some more common condiments, and you’re looking at something far more troubling.  Delivered right to your door, for your busy family.

For a busy family, the dinner table may be one of the few places to connect, to discuss the day, to be and act like a real family.  Sure, that can be done when everyone is eating their meal from a paper bag, but it isn’t the same.  Fast food is meant to be ingested quickly, not savored.  Everyone strap on your feedbag, no time for talking.  Let’s eat and head off to soccer practice/book club/whatever it is while still chewing a last fistful of french fries.

I know this is sounding awfully high-and-mighty, and I’m sure plenty of people will argue that an occasional delivered fast food dinner isn’t going to shake the foundation of a family, nor is it going to cause a new wave of hyper-obesity in this country.  I would agree.   But if history is any sort of a teacher, I think we’ve all learned that our nation is generally pretty poor at doing things in moderation.  We are a nation of excess – excess in our wants, in our eating, our drinking, in our desires.  Our senses of portion control are so completely off-kilter that we don’t recognize that our single meal from most popular chain restaurants really consists of three full servings of food and a day or more of  calories.  And Burger King’s new delivery service just offers another convenience packed with more than we bargained for.

I certainly don’t fault Burger King for this:  the corporation obviously saw a need  and is attempting to fill it.  And it isn’t

as though Burger King is the only option out there for someone who wants a ridiculously convenient and less than healthy meal:  Chinese and pizza places have been delivering for years.  There are countless frozen out-of-the-box dinners with abysmal nutritional values that offer convenience to rival this service.  I am, however, disappointed that we as a culture have created a need for this type of convenience food.  I’m disappointed that we don’t value family time around the dinner table and the connections and closeness that come naturally with a shared meal.  I’m disappointed that in this day and age, more people aren’t reading the nutritional content of this type of food in absolute horror.  I’m disappointed that people continue to patronize fast food establishments even though there are wonderful resources in book and film describing the horrible process that brings what we eat from the farm to our table.

I’m disappointed that there’s a market for this at all.

If this service fails in the test market area, perhaps it is a sign that  we’ll have turned a tide in our fast food convenience culture.