Balance of Food

'Weight of the Nation' should be serious about why we're obese

"Weight of the Nation" promises to be a chance to use serious television to tell the complex story of obesity in the United States. Based on some early reviews, "Weight of the Nation" focuses more on telling us that we're fat, and not what we can do about it.

Good signs:

-- HBO, where commercial sponsors won't interfere in the message, unlike Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.
-- 4-part series, to show we can't solve this neatly in a 1-hour take.
-- Colbert bump, as Stephen Colbert interviewed Dr. Francis Collins from the documentary.

Bad signs:

-- Limited accessibility. Yes, it's on HBO, but a small slice of people within the cable world get HBO.
-- Fear that they're using fear to state the obvious: we're fat.

Collins presented a good face for what we hope to see in the documentary. He told Colbert about his own personal 30 pounds loss, showing him a prop of 5 lbs. of fat. Collins said this struggle had to be about the individual, family, community, and the food industry. He also noted that we had to stop with the finger waving approach.

The problem in the past is we're told that we're fat, but afraid to tell us why. Knowing why would help us become less fat.

High-fructose corn syrup has been a contributor. But its co-conspirators make up a long list, ranging from multiple sources of sweet to farm policy to reduced recess in schools to depressed wages. Our cynicism about "Weight of the Nation" stems from a society that protects those partially responsible for the mess we have on our hands.

See the trailer, read the bad reviews, and if you have HBO, judge for yourself. If we find out more about the documentary, we'll pass it on through the Twitter feed and here at the blog.

Temptation of the Week: Canadian fat cakes

I've never had a fat cake, Canadian or American. And yet I want one.

The only problem is that fat cakes aren't real.

I'm not in the ideal demo for "iCarly,' but was glad to stumble on the episode where most of the cast tours a plant where Canadian fat cakes are made. Sam (left), one of the lead characters, is obsessed with fat cakes. She has heard that fat cakes in Canada taste better because they are made with "cane fat" while American Fat Cakes are made with "corn fat."

The catch for Sam is that you aren't allowed to bring in Canadian Fat Cakes into the United States. Sam tries to bring them back across the border strapped to her person under a long coat. Unfortunately for Sam, she gets caught smuggling them back.

(Amusingly, this episode originally aired just after Michelle Obama was in an episode of iCarly. From good health to fat cakes, a true Balance of Food.)

You certainly can bring back processed baked goods from Canada into the United States. Long-time readers know of my adventures with Canadian Twinkies. And before glucose-fructose (HFCS) came to Canada, I brought back Canadian versions of soft drinks.

As it turns out, Fat Cakes have been a floating theme through the show. According to this wikia, they are "made with marshmallow and have pink coconut shavings on top and a chocolate cake in the middle with cream filling."

Sounds like more of a take on Sno Balls. They don't sound like much of a temptation, though Jennette McCurdy, the actress who plays Sam, convinces you that they are worth risking the wrath of customs. If Canadian Twinkies were illegal in the United States, I'd be tempted to smuggle them into the States.

We often are tempted by what we can't have, whether that is a certain fast food restaurant or regional favorite. When we travel somewhere, we want to retain that experience long after our trip is over.

I have "smuggled" garlic back from San Francisco on the plane, but within your own country, you can bring such things back without any customs trouble.

When you travel outside the country, you are subject to restrictions on what you can "smuggle" back into your home country. Plants and meat bring up red flags, as tempting as that ham from Spain can be.

If you aren't sure, check with the laws in the country where you live, since that is where you'll be returning. If what you want to bring back fits within those confines, travel and enjoy your food experience, wherever that takes you.

For the Canadian take, check out this story from our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com.

photo credit: iCarly

Distinct Canadian cuisine through the eyes of 'Live with Kelly'

Even though I once moderated a discussion about Canadian food, I don't always have a good answer for what is Canadian food. True, we could talk poutine for days, but the truth about Canadian food depends on where you are in the country.

This issue came up during last week's "Live with Kelly" episodes in Banff, Alberta, Canada. On the last show, the hosts sampled some Rocky Mountain cuisine. Admittedly, the menu was very fancy, since this was from the Fairmont Hotel in Banff Springs and executive chef Martin Luthi.

The first two items contained elk and bison. However squeamish you might be about eating animals you don't know (assuming you eat meat), elk and bison are healthier for you than regular beef. Omega-3s, less fat — all the good stuff. So you don't have to eat your elk tenderloin with black trumpet mushrooms and sunchokes or your braised bison short ribs with barley risotto to get the health benefits of elk and bison. Kelly said she had never had bison before; perhaps she got confused over buffalo vs. bison or maybe she never had buffalo.

The Waterton Lake rainbow trout is a regional dish; served by Luthi with swiss chard, mussels, and shrimps. Fish is obviously a healthier source of protein than traditional beef, except for potential mercury. The chef also brought up salmon with mussels and clams with a broth poured over it to produce a bouillabaisse. Luthi pointed out that the dish was very low in fat, probably less than 350 calories.

Alberta is known for its beef. The sample dish was beef tenderloin carpaccio with aioli and arugula. During the phone trivia game, Thursday's contestant — David Torres of Fairhaven, MA — had heard of Calgary and Alberta but not Lake Louise. Yet, Torres did know Alberta beef: "not the best looking, but it is the best tasting steak." They didn't even ask him about the beef, but that is what he associated with Alberta.

Dessert was a lovely poached pear with maple mousse. Ripa's co-host, Ben Mulroney, an actual Canadian, said, "nothing says Canada like maple, huh." Agreed.

Ripa, after trying the dessert, chose to dip the dessert in the cheese fondue with truffle. She enjoyed it, even if that freaked out the chef.

The vast majority of Albertans do not eat this way. However, they and other Canadians do incorporate the elk, buffalo, trout, and other creatures along with tastes such as maple to produce a distinct Canadian cuisine. But they also eat poutine and donuts from Tim Horton's and lots of foods that look the same as those on American plates. Well, they do put ketchup on their Kraft Dinner (macaroni & cheese) and vinegar (or mayo) on their fries.

So you see, there are a few differences between eating Canadian and eating American.

Special thanks to the coverage of "Live with Kelly" from CanadianCrossing.com.

photo credit: WABC-TV, New York

Jayma Mays proclaims love for poutine on 'Live with Kelly' in Canada

"I am in love with poutine" -- Jayma Mays

When Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa were in Prince Edward Island in 2010, they raved about the fresh seafood, potatoes, and Cows ice cream (extra butterfat). But they never mentioned poutine.

And even though Ripa is in Banff, Alberta, Canada this week, the last thing you would have expected from a non-Canadian guest was proclaimed love for poutine.

But there was Jayma Mays, star of "Glee," extolling the virtues of the Canadian delicacy. "It's heaven in a bowl," she exclaimed.

Ripa started out the transition by noting that her producer said Mays had fallen in love with Canadian French fries.

Shortly after Mays shared her love for poutine, someone brought out a large bowl of poutine. Ripa, co-host Chris Harrison, and Mays ate from a large bowl of poutine.

"That is incredible," Ripa said after she tried it.

We have written quite a bit about poutine. If you eat well most of the time, you can indulge in such treats if that is how you want to spent your "food currency." Mays is a tiny young woman, so you can imagine that while she loves poutine, she doesn't have it all the time. And she is in great shape.

Yes, celebrities can spend more time getting in shape than the average person. But Mays shows you that it can be done.

Ironically, Ripa and Harrison didn't discuss poutine with Caroline Rhea, a guest later in yesterday's episode. Rhea is from Montréal, home of poutine.

Now, the two main Regis Philbin co-hosts have tried poutine on television. Kathie Lee Gifford had lobster poutine in Montréal on the "Today" show in 2011.

I recently tried the house poutine as a poutine shop in Chicago, devoted mostly to poutine. The poutine was rather good, but way too costly at $10. Poutine is a food for the masses, not for those who pay $10 for a snack. The poutine with fois gras was less than that at Au Pied de Cochon in Montréal when I had it there in 2009.

Poutine is making its way slowly into the United States, and Jayma Mays love for poutine will help speed up the process.

CanadianCrossing.com is carrying summaries all this week of the episodes of Live with Kelly in Banff.

photo credit: WABC-TV/New York

Dr. Sanjay Gupta protects high-fructose corn syrup in misleading '60 Minutes' segment

 

"Dr. Lustig says they (sugar and high-fructose corn syrup) are both toxic because they both contain fructose." -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta on "60 Minutes."

Yesterday was April Fool's Day, but statements such as that resonated throughout Gupta's "60 Minutes" segment on whether "sugar" was toxic.

Technically, the statement is true because sucrose is an equal mix of glucose and fructose, and standard high-fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose, 42% glucose. By Dr. Robert Lustig's logic, fruit is toxic.

"Since the 1970s, sugar consumption has gone down nearly 40%, but high-fructose corn syrup has more than made up the difference," Dr. Gupta notes.

Given where our health figures were in the 1970s, you might think a radical switch in major sweeteners isn't just a coincidence. If sugar — real sugar — not HFCS, is so toxic, wouldn't we have discovered this a long time ago? Or is it the impact of 30 years of high-fructose corn syrup on our food supply. Unfortunately, Gupta doesn't want to know the answer to that question.

"But as sugar and high-fructose corn syrup became cheaper to refine and produce, we started gorging on them." Uh, Dr. Gupta, sugar isn't as cheap as high-fructose corn syrup because of politics that makes HFCS cheaper and sugar more expensive.

Fortunately, we get to hear from Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at UC/Davis. Stanhope is doing a 5-year study "which has already shown strong evidence linking excessive high-fructose corn syrup consumption to an increase in risk factors for heart disease and stroke."

"We found that the subjects who consumed high-fructose corn syrup had increased blood levels of LDL cholesterol and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Stanhope. She pointed out that the changes occur within 2 weeks.

Gupta slips into "60 Minutes" mode at the end where the reporter confronts the person who has done the wrong and grill them on what they've done. Gupta remains consistent to his cluelessness about high-fructose corn syrup and interviews a guy from the sugarcane industry.

What?

We quote again from Dr. Gupta's own words: "Since the 1970s, sugar consumption has gone down nearly 40%, but high-fructose corn syrup has more than made up the difference."

Of course, Gupta can't interview the high-fructose corn syrup people because they need to be protected. Mike Wallace wouldn't have done it this way.

Jim Simon, who is on the board of the Sugar Association, draws Gupta's ire.

"You must have looked at some of these studies. What do you say about that?" -- Gupta

"Science is not completely clear here." -- Simon

"But some of these studies exist." -- Gupta

Some of these studies exist, so others don't exist? And the studies that Gupta cites in the story aren't complete or well-known. And Lustig isn't the most credible guest. Of course, sugar from sugarcane isn't nearly as prevalent in American food as high-fructose corn syrup, even with changes in the marketplace.

Gupta did the story for "60 Minutes" because he is a doctor, but as we've seen, he is more concerned about protecting the status quo than in pursuing the truth. Those consumers who rely on "60 Minutes" and health news are probably more confused than they were before the segment aired.

The segment asks "Is Sugar Toxic?" We don't get the answer to that question. The better question to ask? "Is High-fructose Corn Syrup Toxic?" That is a question for "60 Minutes," as long as Dr. Gupta isn't asking the questions.

Eat as if you always have witnesses

Ew. Seriously? So gross.
Ew. Seriously? That is so gross.
Ew. Seriously? Dude, that is so totally gross.

You likely have seen the GEICO ad. Guy is trying to lose weight, but as he notes, "weight loss programs can be expensive." So he hires three popular middle-school girls to observe what he eats and react accordingly.

Too often, when we go a little nuts, we don't invite people to be witnesses. We go through this alone.

The guy in the commercial is easily tempted, but gets the clear message that he shouldn't be eating what he picks.

Because in real life, it would be creepy to have three 13-year-old girls follow you around day and night to see what you're eating, perhaps you might want to ask yourself, "Do I want someone to watch me eat this?" If not, you could put it back or not order it. Or if you do, maybe have just a little.

Otherwise, that would be totally gross. Seriously.

'Drop 5 lbs. with Good Housekeeping' bad title, but some good nuggets of info

Given the crap that Paula Deen has taken for her calorie-excessive TV programs, you would think that a Cooking Channel show devoted to making smarter choices would be in a prime-time setting.

Saturday mornings at 11 am Eastern on the Cooking Channel isn't prime-time but it's where you would find "Drop 5 lbs. with Good Housekeeping." The title is long, awful, with a short-sighted diet mentality, and a tie-in with a magazine whose median age is probably 52.

The format is quick hits of different types of way to lead a better life, whether that be healthier recipes, exercise tips, or helpful hints, such as portion control. The rhythm of the show reminds you of "Everyday Food" on PBS, although the "Drop" hosts are far less condescending.

Both shows try to do this in the ADD mentality of magazines with quick tips and then running away to the next page, er, segment. A bit harsh, but if you're used to the pace of music videos, you'll do just fine.

Unlike most weight-loss programs, food and nutrition are predominant. The fitness expert is the only noticeable personality on the program, but that is mostly because she is tall, quite short-haired and very top-heavy.

In the first episode, we got a recipe for grilled chicken with a sauce featuring apples, onion, and mango chutney sauce. The fettuccine alfredo alternative was more of a different creamy pasta dish. Trying to fake people out is one of those deceptive magazine tricks. This dish featured 1% milk with corn starch for the "cream" and used mushrooms, onions, ham, and frozen peas. The dish was more of a cross between mac and cheese and a stew, nothing like fettuccine alfredo.

In the second episode, we get a bunch of calorie-saving tips, but they were so basic and obvious that they were truly a "duh" moment. Switch from regular soda to diet soda. Gee, why didn't we think of that?

We get a revision of guacamole in the third episode that reduces the amount of avocado by adding cannellini beans. Our host points out that while avocado has good fats, "but that doesn't mean it's calorie-free." Why ever said avocados were calorie-free? What an odd thing to say.

While it's good to cut bad fats, getting good fats, such as avocado, is also good. Fats aren't bad in moderation, but in the mindset of this program, calories are what counts. You can be too obsessive about calories.

The first episode taught about portion control and the best ways to eat well in restaurants (research restaurant you're going to; don't dive into food right away, don't skip meals).

This is a show you can watch to get 1-2 decent tips per show, and wade through the rest. Kind of like reading Good Housekeeping, except you can fast-forward through the ads.

Temptation of the Week: Resisting temptation to gorge on Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday is the relatively new eating holiday in the timespan from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day. For a while there, we weren't sure if we would have a Super Bowl with the impending NFL strike. Unlike the NBA, the NFL played a full schedule this year, and the Super Bowl will be on time. During the uncertainty, I made a mental note to not go crazy food-wise for Super Bowl Sunday.

Whether you count Halloween, the late-fall to mid-winter stretch has a lot of eating holidays. Throw in a January birthday, and you have a lot of potential eating hazards.

I am pretty much required to watch the game since my day job is running an ad in the game. However, my plan is to have a regular dinner on the night of Super Bowl Sunday.

No bag of chips. No multi-layer dip. No pizza. No delivery. No multi-beer tab. Just a simple Sunday night dinner.

I might have kept the tradition if the NFL hadn't struggled with how to split gazillions of dollars. After all, we don't think to have special menus for the World Series, NBA finals, or even the Stanley Cup. The Super Bowl is one February night, so why not? It's too close to my birthday and Valentine's Day, two anxiety and pressure days in themselves.

Having "eating holidays" can be a way to have some fun while doing well most of the time. However, winter is the worst time since you are already tempted to eat more to stay warm. Certain holidays bring a propensity toward junk food, especially Super Bowl Sunday. At least on Thanksgiving, you get a healthy balance of carbohydrates, protein, fruit, and vegetables, even if the amount is unbalanced.

To prove we are fun, you can eat your regular dinner in front of the TV while watching the game. West Coast viewers can treat it as a late-afternoon snack or they can wait until halftime to start dinner. Just make it a normal Sunday night meal … with the biggest football game of the year.

Juicing is January fad but many ways to get vegetables year-round

"Drink all your juice. It's good for you."

January brings snow, my birthday, resolutions, and juice solutions. Detox, cleanses, using the holiday juicer gift, vowing to consume more vegetables: juice seems to be the answer for everyone and everything.

Why go through the mess of chewing your food and sitting down and enjoying what you are eating … and eating itself?

As we noted in the Nutrition Swaps column of our should-be-award-winning Temptation of the Week series, making radical steps is nice and all, but sometimes difficult to overcome. The idea of kale juice may not excite you, but for some, drinking kale sounds better than eating kale.

Hiding the taste of broccoli and cauliflower with some carrot and watermelon sounds ideal. All those questions of texture goes out the window when you can drink yourself to better nutrition.

If you have a juicer, and you find you really have a hard time eating vegetables, the solution is better than vitamins and certainly better than nothing at all.

Eating vegetables allows you to get the fiber from the food, an important element in keeping full, which in turn reduces the temptation of eating more food.

We have talked about the need to sweetened or add some other flavor to make our vegetables palatable. Well, unless you are drinking kale juice straight, you are adding sugar to your vegetables. Carrots are one of the sweetest non-starchy vegetables, and adding fruit juice, especially apples and grapes, adds sweetness to the mix.

Fruit juice is a much better source of sugar than what you otherwise might use to sweeten your veggies.

If you watch those juicer infomercials, they make drinking fruit and vegetable juice to be this easy and satisfying effort. They look happy when drinking the juice, but the major guts of the vegetables are still in the juicer. In other words, they aren't getting that much benefit.

So how can you ingest vegetables in liquid form without resorting to buying an expensive juicer?

Even if you do drink some of your vegetables, you are better off balancing that out with eating some vegetables. Save the hard-core vegetables for liquid form and eat the vegetables you like.

The same truth goes for fruit as vegetables in that you lose precious fiber by drinking fruit instead of eating fruit. But if you are that excited about juicing, chances are you are a mild to serious smoothie addict. Cut up spinach, cauliflower, or kale into small pieces and throw them in your blender with the other smoothie ingredients. Experiment by throwing in only a little in the first batch to see what kind of taste impact you get in your smoothie.

Since you won't be using all that kale in the blender, save some for sauteing and serve with lemon juice. Make a deal with yourself: throw some kale in a smoothie AND saute some kale. You might love one and hate the other, tolerate both, or tolerate one and throw up the other. At least you'll know afterward, and if you get the kale one of those ways, you will be better off than when you started.

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.

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