Balance of Food

Temptation of the Week: Going nuts in small portions

When I'm talking about BalanceofFood.com in a social situation, and I want to point to an extreme of what I cover, I mention the time I tried deep-fried butter. Their faces get that look of disgust. "How could he eat healthy and still have deep-fried butter?" That's my point. You don't eat it every day.

"Oh, my gosh, you had turducken," is what I expect the reaction would be if I shared that. Yes, I did have turducken recently. This wasn't the first time. But people sometimes get that look as if you ate the whole turkey, whole duck, and whole chicken all in one setting.

With portion control, you can try deep-fried butter once. You can eat turducken once in a great while. Years ago, I even had deep-fried turkey — once.

Eating deep-fried chicken is no big deal. Or pork rinds. Or artificial fat-free ice cream. Or the extremes of the menu at Denny's. Somehow, these seem normal, even in larger quantities.

I had the turducken at a party. About 30-40 people had some, so in terms of portion control, I didn't eat that much. And none of it was deep-fried.

Yes, the butter was dipped in batter and deep-fried. But you have seen the picture: what you saw is what I ate. I offered some to my newly found friends in Toronto; they turned me down.

I was telling a co-worker about cooking steak in butter and then dipping the cooked steak in more butter. She wondered why I wasn't 300 pounds. "Because I don't do it every day. I consider a treat to be a treat," was my reply. She liked that attitude.

If you need an incentive to be good most of the time, allow yourself a crazy treat every so often. I was on vacation during the deep-fried butter experience. The turducken came at a holiday party. I didn't seek those out; I seized the opportunity that was there. I enjoyed the experience. And I have no regrets.

Paula Deen brings nothing to the table on Type 2 diabetes

"I wanted to bring something to the table when I came forward."

After three years of being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, Paula Deen wants to bring something to the table. Still waiting …

Paula Deen was on Jay Leno recently and made a cheeseburger meatloaf (not to be confused with her bacon cheeseburger meatloaf). The other guest was Jonah Hill (nominated this morning for an Oscar), who just lost a bunch of weight. When Deen offered Hill some of the cheeseburger meatloaf, he recoiled and wasn't about to try any of it.

Hill had the look of someone who understood what was going on. Deen doesn't quite get it.

Paula Deen is proving to us that food is a powerful drug.

Television is a powerful drug, too. We tend to think that because Paula Deen is on television, she has all the right answers. She doesn't.

We did say last week that she shouldn't be met with scorn. Paula Deen has proven to be all too human, and even though she has had three years to deal with the diagnosis, she struggles to make significant changes. In that way, she is like a lot of us.

Her new Web site has information and recipes designed to get you to rethink the food process. If you offer that Deen wasn't a role model during his cooking show TV career, she won't be a role model now.

A defeatist attitude to being on meds. Slight changes to diet and a little more exercise. All of this after 3 years with the disease. Deen has brought so little to the table that a paper napkin folded in half could cover it all.

The first recipe on her site is an adapted lasagna dish. Better than cheeseburger meatloaf, but not by much.

Kudos to using no-salt versions of tomatoes and nice to mention whole wheat noodles for the lasgana. The alternative is "reduced-carbohydrate lasgana noodles," which isn't that big of a step.

On the flip side, the recipe has 7 different kinds of cheese, though 5 of the 7 call for fat-free or low-fat versions (parmesan is naturally low in fat and Gruyere is the other one). The cheese content is 6 cups and 3 tablespoons. And we have a ¼ teaspoon of Paula Deen's Seasoned Salt and a ¹⁄₃ teaspoon of salt in the ½ teaspoon of Paula Deen's House Seasoning. In just the seasoning, we have 1,342 mg of sodium; this doesn't count the salt in the cheese.

If this is what Paula Deen is bringing to the table, we'll have what Jonah Hill isn't having.

"I'm here today to let the world know that it is not a death sentence," Deen said in her initial announcement. Type 2 diabetes is not a death sentence. If left untreated or undertreated, the disease can lead to a miserable life and eventually death. However, a big giant however, people with the disease can turn themselves around, eat well, and do better with the disease.

Small changes are a start. Deen recognized that Southern sweet tea was an issue, and cut back. A small change. One idea that Paula Deen should consider is not just adapting what she has done in the past.

On her son's "Not My Mama's Meals" show, Bobby Deen is talking to his mother to get her take on his modifications to her dishes. He baked a small apple pie instead of deep-frying it and used whole wheat flour. Paula Deen said it was good, but noted it would go perfectly with sugar-free ice cream.

I cringed as I heard her say the words "sugar-free ice cream." The calorie-reduction in sugar-free ice creams isn't that much, and the impact of sugar alcohols have its own price. A smaller portion of the real thing is a better option for most people, and tastes better, too.

You can have the apple pie with a small amount of ice cream. You can try to have the apple pie without the ice cream. Yes, just apple pie. Or if you want a cool treat, try sorbet.

The truth is when you get shocking health news, your instinct is to panic or think you can't do anything. We're human; these things happen. After a while, you learn that you can make adjustments to better find your balance of food.

Even after three years, Paula Deen is struggling to find her balance of food, and she may never find it. In that sense, Deen is a role model, as many others have similar struggles. The difference is that they aren't on TV and they don't have the pressure of being a role model.

first photo credit

second photo credit

Need more vegetables? Try hiding them in a sandwich

Today is the Chinese New Year; the Year of the Dragon. The choices are all animal-related, a celebration for carnivores.

While 2012 won't be the Year of the Vegetable for most people, I am trying to make that true in my world.

We never seem to have trouble getting ourselves to eat carbohydrates. Protein isn't an issue, even for vegetarians and vegans. Fats are as easy as pie, or cake, or cupcake. And getting fruit into our diets doesn't require much of an effort, even if we need to do better about eating actual fruit instead of juice.

Our problem, mine included, is getting enough vegetables.

Any diet that you are on, or if you are on your own — every healthy approach to food allows for virtually no limits to non-starchy vegetables (i.e., no potatoes, corn, or beans). Getting them into our diets has been the problem.

If the standard American meal is a hamburger, French fries, and soft drink, or a huge plate of mac and cheese, this doesn't leave much room for vegetables. McDonald's became the most successful fast food chain while having a disdain for simple vegetables such as lettuce and tomatoes. If you remember the McDLT (see above), you are definitely old enough to legally drink.

In the fast food mentality, vegetables are onions (though not many), cucumbers (as sodium-laden pickles), iceberg lettuce, and tomatoes that were picked far too early to have much taste. Yes, Wendy's new burger has red onions, an unusual twist, though its lettuce was white on the sandwich I got, not the green one in the picture.

In the days when I ate Subway, you could get lots of vegetables to put on a sandwich, even if the lettuce was whitish with sprinkles of light green, and the tomato slices were sickly. Is it obvious that I don't eat there much anymore?

Getting vegetables into sandwiches is a great way to appeal to our American sensibilities, yet eating slightly better. Though I don't have much experience with banh mi, the idea of Asian slaw on a sandwich sounds better than it might have a few years ago.

When I was researching the Dagwood sandwich, I was pleasantly surprised as to how many vegetables were in the sandwich. If we want good vegetables on a sandwich, we have to work a little harder to do so, especially if we choose to do it ourselves.

Back in the days when I did Subway, in the summertime, I would bring sliced tomatoes to work and put them on a Subway sandwich. Given the domination of the sweet-laden bread and not-so-great cold cuts, the difference wasn't huge, but I could tell the difference. Vegetables, when done well, can be a sandwich really good.

If we don't have to look at the vegetables, if they are hiding between in a bun or two slices of bread, as long as the vegetables get into our system, we're in better shape.

photo credit: McDonald's

Temptation of the Week: Resist the non-existent message that government wants to tell you what to eat

"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"I'm tired of the government trying to tell you what to eat."
-- disgruntled conservative person

Amazing how a person can be tired of something that isn't happening, doesn't exist, and where there are no plans to ever start.

Yet when either Barack or Michelle Obama do something or My Pyramid becomes MyPlate or the FDA or USDA try to make sure animals are decently cared for in food production or try and prevent food safety problems or food-borne illnesses, someone usually grumbles and grouses and says something similar to "I'm tired of the government trying to tell you what to eat."

Trying to ensure a safe food supply is not the government telling you what to eat. Michelle Obama offering advice on eating better is not the government telling you what to eat.

The government does encourage you to eat American grown food through the USDA, and through farm policy and trade restrictions, encourage you to eat lots of GMO soybeans and high-fructose corn syrup. And those policies make it difficult to find alternatives. However, they still aren't telling you what to eat.

You would think telling citizenry what to eat would be more like a school lunch menu in a George Orwell book:

-- Salisbury steak (1 piece)
-- Mashed potatoes with 2 pats of butter
-- Green beans
-- Fruit cup
-- Chocolate chip brownie
-- Milk (chocolate or strawberry)

This would be the government telling you that "you must eat this" if somehow the government could enforce this and require you to eat it without outside options. As long as you live near a 7-11, you will have other options.

Those in the conservative spectrum could argue that the grumblers aren't being literal, and liberal hippie freaks are overreacting to what they are saying. When someone says "the government is telling me what to eat," how are we supposed to take that?

Let's try looking at their take from their vantage point. They feel like the government is stepping in unnecessarily to take control of a situation best handled by the free market. We've had that free market setup for about 30 years; all the health numbers from obesity to Type 2 diabetes over the last 30 years has proven to be a fail for that policy.

If the right argues that government has no responsibility, then those people should answer to why corporations and farm policy don't address those issues. They have responsibilities. Yes, they should make a profit (this isn't a George Orwell book), but with that function comes responsibilities.

"I'm tired of corporations selling us short, trying to cram in as much sodium and high-fructose corn syrup as they can into our food supply."

Not as succinct as "government trying to tell me what to eat." Then again, the truth isn't as "marketable" as political rhetoric.

(Editor's note: One year from today, we will either have a new president or Barack Obama will be sworn in for his second term.)

Georgia childhood obesity campaign should be more positive for everyone

An adult such as Paula Deen getting Type 2 diabetes is tragic enough, but people usually factor in that adults have more control over the factors that led to the disease. The often quoted figure that 1 in 3 children born in 2000 will be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes is sadder when you consider that children don't have as much control over their risk factors

Even if fat children don't get Type 2 diabetes, they are still stigimized in ways that make it more difficult to eat better and get healthier.

Even if you weren't a fat kid growing up, you felt sorry for the fat kids. The taunting, teasing, and abuse. Children get teased all the time, but it never seem as bad as the abuse of the fat kids.

Being a fat kid these days is easier and tougher at the same time. Easier because the Internet can give you hope and allow you to be a kid who isn't judged on size, and you are not alone these days. Tougher because kids can take pictures of you with cellphone cameras and post pictures on that same Internet.

The kids in the PSA campaign in Georgia (home state of Paula Deen) to get kids to lose weight get the added stigma of being identified in videos and pictures as "the fat kid."

One young girl is concerned because she has hypertension. Another girl doesn't want to go to school because kids make fun of her.

We are anxious for the future generation, wanting them to be in better shape. Even as we list the numerous reasons for why our children are fatter than ever before — school lunches, video games, parental lack of knowledge, fast food advertising, lack of recess, too many organized sports — as a society, we tend to blame people who are fat, especially children.

The ad campaign notes that 75% of parents of overweight kids ignore the problem. In one of the videos, a young boy asks his mother why he is fat. One look at her gives you a good idea. 

The campaign identifies children that are fat, and leads you to a Web site with more details. The Web site has some pretty good tips. Though, the tips are fairly mild, as in "your child is a little overweight and here are some good points." The kids in the campaign are not just a little overweight.

You likely have seen kids who weigh more than these children, but the kids that was selected are in a normal range of fat.

Identifying the problem is easy, once you get parents to recognize that a problem needs to be identified. The hard part is instituting change. These fat kids in the campaign made an extreme sacrifice. They have to go back to their lives and be the fat kids in real life, too. They have the added stigma of being a fat kid in videos and still pictures on how not to be.

Getting kids to eat better and get more exercise is a worthy goal, regardless of what weight your kids might be. The goal of the campaign is to stop childhood obesity. The goal should have been for all kids to be more involved in their health.

The girl in the video wonders what hypertension is; we would be better off if she learned that word while doing a report on health than hearing it from a doctor.

Paula Deen's reported Type 2 diabetes diagnosis should be met with concern, not scorn

 

Update: Obviously, Deen made it official this morning. Turns out Deen has been diagnosed for 3 years. Wow! After three years, you should be making a lot of progress, though not everyone does. Also, the rumors are true that she is endorsing a diabetes medication. Her Web site is Diabetes in a New Light.

Depending on where and when you read this, Paula Deen may have admitted by now that she has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Deen appeared on the "Today" show to talk to Al Roker. The blogosphere has certainly known about the speculation for some time. The reaction to Paula Deen possibly having Type 2 diabetes was a little more joyful than one would expect.

As much as I follow the food scene, especially the TV food people, I know very little about Paula Deen. I know she loves butter and cooks high-fat Southern dishes on television. But I don't watch her shows and never gave much thought to her, pro or con.

Here's what I do know. Anyone who has suffered from Type 2 diabetes knows they wouldn't wish the disease on their worst enemy. Full disclosure: I know of what I speak, though my numbers have been excellent since then.

Getting the diagnosis throws your world in a rainbow of directions. Being a public figure who deals with food getting the diagnosis? Can't even imagine.

If the speculation is true, Deen has had the diagnosis for at least 9 months, and she reportedly has made changes to her diet. If so, good for her.

That sentiment is not universally shared. Sentiments of "I told you so" and "I knew this would happen to her" flow across the Internet sky.

Ouch!

The sad truth is that Type 2 diabetes does hit people who are thinner than Deen, eat better than Deen, and are younger than Deen. And some people are heavier than her, eat worse than her, and are older than her and don't get Type 2 diabetes.

"Serves her right," is the ardent cry.

In the bizarro world that is the U.S. health care system, if you have a fasting blood sugar of 800, you are "healthy" as long as you are not diagnosed. If your fasting blood sugar is 180 (normal fasting blood sugar is between 70-110) and you are diagnosed, you are branded with a scarlet D for diabetic. At least with the scarlet A, you supposedly had sex.

Since few very people come forward about the diagnosis, having role models would help newcomers to Type 2 diabetes to show them that you can get better, you can improve your life. Whether Paula Deen wants to be one of those role models remains to be seen.

Changing one's life after a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis requires strength, determination, and support. Since Deen isn't getting much help from the modern food community, she can look to the past for a similar scenario.

Graham Kerr was on our TV sets as the Galloping Gourmet who didn't do as much galloping as he should as he suffered a heart attack. The heart attack changed his life and his TV career, coming back years ago with lighter recipes.

Kerr got a lot more sympathy for his heart attack than Deen has for Type 2 diabetes. We think we know heart attacks: family history, diet, stress, hypertension, weight. What do we know about Type 2 diabetes? People eat badly, people don't move around well enough, people get Type 2 diabetes.

Bobby Deen, Paula's son, is hosting a show on Cooking Channel ("Not My Mama's Meals") that foreshadows what may be a new direction for his mother. Changing Southern cooking is an arduous task. I also know from experience: I have a lot of Southern relatives with a history of all the bad stuff.

Having Type 2 diabetes is a stigma, a way to look down at you for your behavior. So what if you eat the way you do because of emotional eating or a reaction to anorexia or mindless eating? Get more exercise, eat less and healthier and you'll be fine.

That advice is true, regardless of whether you have Type 2 diabetes. This is the fastest growing disease over the last decade or so, and our sympathy levels are still near zero. Even children who suffer from the disease are left to wonder if hiding the diagnosis is the better strategy.

Whatever we think about the disease and those who suffer from it, they need to be told that they can do certain things to reduce the impact of the disease. Portion control, be smarter about carbs, lose 10% of your body weight, move, move, and move. They should also take their medication, as needed. Kicking someone when they're down? How about holding out a hand to say, "Hey, we can help."

Paula Deen may not have many friends in the food community with the news that she reportedly has Type 2 diabetes. At BalanceofFood.com, she has a friend in us because she needs help. We don't care how many butter recipes she has served up on TV. She needs help, love, and support. For the moment, her TV career be damned; Deen needs to see the way to get better is out there; Paula Deen needs to find her own Balance of Food.

Temptation of the Week: Nutrition swaps

Swapping has an image of couples from the 1970s with lots of polyester, bowls full of keys, and lava lamps. A different kind of swapping — a bit more wholesome — involves substituting ingredients where you get a more nutritious option without sacrificing too much in return.

Nutritional swaps are seen as "good for you," but for them to work, they need to be as invisible as they can to get you to try them seamlessly.

A classic casual swap is using natural applesauce instead of oil in a recipe, or sauteing vegetables with extra virgin olive oil instead of butter.

The newer versions are healthier, but still provide you with comparable quality, consistency, and taste.

Some people can handle more significant swaps, and you should definitely do as much as you can up to your comfort level, and maybe 5% beyond.

Dawn Jackson Blatner came out with a list of 12 nutrition swaps for 2012 (clever). Full disclosure: I know Blatner. Then again, I won't praise all of her selections.

Swap 1: Breadcrumbs To Seeds
Swap 2: Brown Rice to Cauliflower Rice
Swap 3: Spaghetti Noodles To Zucchini Ribbons
Swap 4: Romaine To Kale
Swap 5: Chicken To Beans
Swap 6: Lasagna Noodles To Eggplant Slices
Swap 7: Pretzels To Nuts
Swap 8: Whole Grain Bread To Sprouted Whole Grain Bread
Swap 9: Whipped Topping To 2 Percent Greek Yogurt
Swap 10: Oil To Nut/Seed Butter (For Salad Dressing)
Swap 11: High-Fiber Cold Cereal To Oatmeal
Swap 12: Butter To Avocado

Swaps 2, 3, and 6 fall into the "let's take out pasta and put in vegetables and pretend it's pasta." Dietitians swear by this, Blatner included, and the idea is confusing. People do need some carbohydrates, and lots of vegetables. They're not the same, and pretending that they are defeats the purpose of swapping. Mixing cauliflower into brown rice is a great way to get the fiber from the vegetable without it making an impact. Same with zucchini in your spaghetti; just make it whole grain. The eggplant as lasagna is a better idea, only because you are dealing in layers of flavors: easier to hide a layer of eggplant.

Swaps 4, 8, and 11 take things that most Americans aren't doing in their diet, and going an extra step or two beyond. If you aren't at romaine, whole grain bread, and high fiber cold cereal, you have a lot of company. Get there and you are better off than most people, and you should be proud of where you are.

Swaps 1, 7, 9, and 12 are very reasonable and subtle enough to work. In cooking tuna, you already want to use sesame seeds. The "bread" in breadcrumbs isn't significant, and you can add flavor in a good way going the seeds route. Pretzels are a good sub for potato chips, but nuts give you a crunch with much better health. If you are at potato chips level, move up to pretzels. Then when you're ready, go nuts for nuts. Greek yogurt is a great sub for sour cream and other dairy products. Blatner notes that you aren't saving calories (at 2% fat), but getting better nutrition. Though sight is one of the 5 senses, if you close your eyes and eat a cookie and can't tell the difference, the cookie is okay with me. If nothing else, save it for Christmas time.

Swap 5 is well beyond a swap. Going from meat to beans is a swap in chili, but in most dishes, swap is a radical understatement. The more beans you can eat, the better off you will be, no matter how you do it. Swap 10 only works if you are making a specific dressing. If swap 10 feels foreign, use less oil and more vinegar. The experts use a 3:1 ratio; tweaking it a bit makes no negative impact while reducing fat and calories.

Blatner is a dietitian (and my friend) and her job is to challenge you to eat better. You might be brave enough to try some of her more extensive changes. Just don't be scared by them if you aren't ready for them. Nutritional swaps don't have to be radical to be effective. They just have to work.

'Forks Over Knives' named worst 2011 film by 'Ebert' co-host

If you remember this exchange from last summer on "Forks Over Knives," you won't be surprised to hear that Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com and "Ebert at the Movies" named "Forks Over Knives" the worst movie of 2011.

In his year-end look, Vishnevetsky rehashed much of he has said, his cruel yet funny references to a brochure and a PowerPoint presentation. One new nugget was when he noted that "the balance of this film has nothing to do with its subject matter."

That was the problem in the movie, and I make that note, realizing that I have seen this film. (As you may recall, I had some doubts last summer as to whether I had seen the movie, mostly because it made very little impression on me.)

So many movies have done such a better job of conveying the message. And the message of "Forks Over Knives" gets lost in its heavy-handed approach. Catch this exchange with Vishnevetsky and his "Ebert" co-host, Christy Lemire of The Associated Press:

Lemire: "Forks Over Knives" was so bad -- I went out and ate a cheeseburger afterward. That's how ineffective it was. I was so hungry for a cheeseburger the whole time. It was all I could think about."

Vishnevetsky: And yet it became a modest hit.

Lemire: Did it really? People went and saw "Forks Over Knives."

Vishnevetsky: Many, many people.

Lemire: I'm very confused about this.

The words on a blog don't convey the sarcasm and emotion of the last two sentences. These aren't people who hate the concept of the movie. They might be sympathetic to the cause. But they are professional movie reviewers who see the world in terms of film. You can groan at the idea of Lemire wanting a cheeseburger while watching "Forks Over Knives," but I could relate to that thought. And so could people watching the movie who hadn't already converted to the ideas in the film.

Food quality is about the finished product, even if you start with farm fresh produce

McDonald's is reminding us in its new ad campaign that their French fries are made from potatoes, grown by a farmer. Oooooooooooh!

Having covered the world of marketing, I recognize that when an advertiser points out something that should be obvious, like Taco Bell telling us it starts with "100 percent USDA-inspected beef" or Domino's telling us they use real tomatoes, they are distracting you from other problems.

What consumers know and fancy fast food marketing people don't know is that food quality isn't about what you start with, the finished product is what counts.

I've been a little obsessed with making my own French fries, especially over the holidays. I know the steps I take. Put oil in pan and heat up. Cut up actual potato. If I have more time, soak fries to get rid of the extra starch. When oil reaches ideal temperature, cook until golden brown. Pat cooked fries with paper towels. Serve hot.

My potatoes came from a farmer, usually a local farmer. Their fries come from Simplot, and they get their potatoes from farmers. Then, as Eric Schlosser puts it, they "wash, sort, peel, slice, blanch, blow-dry, fry, and flash-freeze potatoes." Gee, I leave my skins on, and I usually don't wash them.

My fries don't contain sodium acid pyrophosphate, dimethylpolysiloxane, and tertiary butylhydroquinone. Guess which fries have those ingredients?

The local French market has a Belgian place that serves amazing pomme frites. When you bite into them, you taste potato. When you look inside the other half of the fry, you can see potato. With the McDonald's fries, I don't taste potato.

Long-time readers know I derided McDonald's for not switching fast enough to oil without trans fats. When the chain finally made the move, I discovered that the fries in the new oil had no taste. Sure, we are dunking them in high-fructose corn syrup laden ketchup and tons of salt, so why should we care?

I got a chance to eat McDonald's fries recently for free (the NHL hockey team won the game I attended). I smuggled the liquid sugar ketchup and asked for no-salt fries. Minus salt and ketchup, the fries should still have some semblance to potatoes. Amazingly, I tried the fries by themselves, and found absolutely no taste and no sense that they ever were potatoes in a previous life. I wouldn't mistake the old McD's fries for anything I made myself, but by comparison, the old McD's fries tasted potato-like.

Food companies are very proud of where their food starts, but are pretty secretive about the other 90% of the process. The vegetarians and Indians who ate the McDonald's French fries wish they knew about the beef tallow. We didn't get a light shined on the Taco Bell taco filling until the lawsuit came up.

True truth in advertising would show up what happens to those potatoes after they leave the farm before becoming the "best fries on the planet." We could even make a film strip that Troy McClure would have been honored to narrate. We know potatoes have eyes, but if they could only talk.

Temptation of the Week: Positive resolutions

Happy 2012! Ready for another year of temptations? Well, if you have broken most or all of your resolutions by now, don't worry too much about that. After all, if they are gone by January 6, then they weren't meant to be.

Good news! You can take a plan of action where the resolutions aren't so ominous, and they can actually be fun.

Resolutions always struck me as a Lenten sacrifice, something you grudgingly do because the calendar calls for this. The Chinese New Year and the Jewish New Year come at different times on the calendar, so the January 1 date is arbitrary. "Plowed through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. Now I have to be good." Ewwwww. With that approach, no wonder that most resolutions fail.

Instead of associating sacrifice for resolutions, resolve in 2012 to associate positive actions with resolutions.

-- Try a different vegetable every week.
-- Schedule a cooking class.
-- Walk 2 miles at a time where you don't want to move.
-- Cook fish in a steamer.
-- Reacquaint yourself with a long-lost kitchen tool.
-- Learn to cook a sauce.
-- Make a cole slaw different from the one you usually make.
-- Freeze a summertime fruit for fall and winter consumption.
-- Buy one thing at a farmers market that you've never had.
-- Pick a day of the work week to bring your homemade lunch.
-- Try a new ethnicity restaurant that you've never had before.

To show how good a sport I am, check out last week's look at my baking abilities. Don't be afraid to mess up a bit. As long as you can eat your messes, all will be good.

While positive resolutions are scarier and more challenging to contemplate, they are more likely to be kept. Imagine keeping a few resolutions in 2012.

Giving up things sounds like the easy way to go. "I'll go without chocolate" sounds great, but won't mean much if you celebrate the birthdays of Elvis Presley and David Bowie (January 8) with a candy bar.

If you are that unsure about positive resolutions, make 10 positive resolutions and make a goal to accomplish 6 of them. Even if you just barely make your goal, you will have done 6 new things in food in 2012. Those 6 things will likely be more than what you accomplish from a negative standpoint.