Balance of Food

Celebrating National Nutrition Month with chocolate yogurt, really

March is National Nutrition Month, which means you will hear a lot of good messages about the values of nutrition.

March is a good transition month, with many people realizing that bathing suit season is closer than they think, and with warmer weather, might stop eating like a squirrel saving up for a long winter.

And yesterday was Registered Dietitian Day as well as the start of Lent.

Melissa Dobbins, who has been featured as a guest blogger, recently did a really nice basic breakout of the daily diet in an appearance on Disney/ABC-owned WLS-TV Chicago.

You should watch the video if only to learn about chocolate yogurt. Really.

Melissa is starting a new job, so once she is settled in, we hope to have her back for more dietary advice.

Guest blogger Melissa Dobbins shares wisdom on National Diabetes Month

Making smarter food decisions under holiday pressure

Steven Stamkos shows us that elite hockey players need to eat well

"The key is for these guys to understand is you don't recover without good nutrition. And if you want to be an elite athlete, and perform well every night or to the best of your ability, it comes through recovery and nutrition." — Gary Roberts, former NHL defenseman

Steven Stamkos is one of the best hockey players in the world, even if he lives in a hockey backwater such as Tampa Bay, Florida.

Even though Stamkos has a ton of talent, he is getting help in the off-season from his former teammate Gary Roberts.

Roberts played 1224 games in 21 NHL seasons; he knows something about longevity.

And Roberts' program pushes organic food. On screen in the CBC interview with Elliotte Friedman, the menu reads Yogurt Cup with mixed fruits, chia seeds, almonds, and lemon. The turkey-vegetable pilaf has natural turkey, mixed vegetables, coconut milk, madras masala spice, and brown rice.

Sounds like a tough regimen, and Stamkos admits that perfection isn't there for him.

"It's a lot tougher during the season, I'm not going to lie. You try to do it to the best of your abilities. I think it's unrealistic to do it the same exact way as the summer. I think Gary understands so he won't get too mad."

Oh, and Stamkos leads the NHL this season with 41 goals. Clearly, something good is going on.

This story might remind you of a story we ran last spring (also from CBC's "Inside Hockey") with the Montréal Canadiens' Mike Cammalleri. And Cammalleri had an extraordinary postseason for Montréal.

Cammalleri and Stamkos — along with Gary Roberts — are role models not just for what they do on the ice. But these are elite athletes with talent, and they know eating well will get the most from that great talent on and off the ice.

video courtesy of CBC/picture credit

If you do Fat Tuesday, cut back on Ash Wednesday

Bienvenue au gros mardi. Laissez les bon temps rouler.

For those who don't speak French or Cajun, welcome to Fat Tuesday. Let the good times roll.

Fat Tuesday has actual significance: a party, of sorts, before the solemn Lenten period starting with Ash Wednesday the next day.

Fat Tuesday is a Catholic thing. But like St. Patrick's Day, well, the day has become something else.

Oh, you could have a paczki on Fat Tuesday, regardless of your religion. And you can certainly have a good time eating and drinking.

To truly appreciate Fat Tuesday, though, you should cut back on Ash Wednesday. My Catholic credentials used to be stronger, but you are actually supposed to eat less on Ash Wednesday. Two medium to small sized meals. Sure you'll be hungry, but the hunger is supposed to make you reflect.

And then you can finish the week by going meatless on Friday, the first of 7 Fridays.

You can enjoy Fat Tuesday in all of its glory. But to truly do Fat Tuesday, you also need to do Ash Wednesday. And for extra credit, throw in a Friday.

Is the food/weight reality show craze too much for its own good?

Will the food reform revolution be televised? Should it be?

We have one food/weight reality show coming to an end, and another food/weight reality show trying to figure out its future.

For those Canadian readers and those along the border, tonight is the conclusion of "Village on a Diet" from the CBC. As you may remember, the goal of the 1,384 residents of Taylor, British Columbia was to lose a ton — 2,000 pounds — in 9 weeks. On average, each resident must lose 1.4 pounds over that 9-week period, not an unreasonable goal.

But the small town doesn't have a grocery store, very few restaurants (apparently the pizzeria doesn't offer healthy options), and a high obesity rate.

While I haven't been able to watch the episodes, the media that I have read hasn't focused on much more than yelling at people to move.

We'll find out tonight as to whether Taylor reached its goal. As for the future of the show, the future is up in the air.

There will be a second season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution centering around Los Angeles. How good that TV will look, and how much of it we'll see — this seems up for serious debate.

Unlike the relative secrecy of the Huntington, WV experience, we see countless stories as Oliver tries to do in LA what he did in West Virginia. And none of those stories seem to go well.

They have problems with filming. The changes are too much too soon.

The Los Angeles Unified School District doesn't seem to understand that this is more about the cameras than the revolution. "We're interested in Jamie Oliver the food activist, not Jamie the reality TV star," said Robert Alaniz, district spokesman.

You get the food revolution, you get the cameras.

What is interesting is that Jamie Oliver became a folk hero in his home country of England for changing the lunch program in public schools. Actual real success. But without TV cameras.

The people of Huntington, WV did well enough with the cameras for two reasons: 1) any new reality show usually gets the benefit of the doubt with the non-TV type people, and 2) everyone learns from what happens in that first season.

Los Angeles is clearly overreacting to what Jamie Oliver is doing. But they saw what happened in Huntington. And they saw Oliver being upset over the least little thing, even in Huntington.

TV brings exposure to a worthwhile cause, but TV sometimes puts pressure on situations. As good as TV can be, we'd be more impressed with results.

Taylor, BC may lose some weight, but how much more weight would they lose if there was less in-your-face camera action and more sensible advice.

Los Angeles might be more willing to make changes in its lunch program if the intensity camera action weren't an issue.

Yes, TV motivates people to do things they otherwise wouldn't. But the audience of TV shows aren't the people of Taylor, BC, Huntington, and Los Angeles. The audience is us, the TV viewer, so we learn how to do things better.

Millions still waiting for 'Obamacare' to reach them

No podcast this week, so that we can bring you an in-depth take on the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as "Obamacare."

Turns out the reason for the delay for most Americans isn't what we have been told.

Having ready access to quality health care is vital to improving one's health. Guidance from trained medical professionals is a tremendously important resource.

But most Americans have to wait until 2013 or 2014, and still aren't clear what they are getting from the bill.

Eating better is a good start. Exercising more never is bad. But getting the obesity problem reasonably under control requires a lot of things and people to go in the proper direction. If people can't get quality health care, the problems will get worse.

For a more detailed look, we invite you to read the latest from our sister blog, DemocracySoup. And the podcasts will be back next week.

Americans much more obese than Canadians, according to a new study

Americans like to think they are #1 in numerous categories. The consensus is that Americans are the most obese, and given that the Americans beat out Canada in a recent CDC study, the U.S. can take the gold ... plated chocolates.

In the CDC study, 34% of Americans are considered obese vs. 24% of Canadians.

Let's be honest: Canada was the only country that had the potential to defeat the U.S. on the obesity front. Most of Canada gets really cold and you end up eating a lot of fattening food to keep warm.

This was the first time that the CDC compared the United States to a different country.

Among children, the numbers were closer. U.S. has a childhood obesity rate of 15.5%; Canada has 12%, the difference being within the margin of error.

Oh, and I definitely reported this story on my sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com.

(Full disclosure: I went to college with Mike Stobbe, the AP writer who wrote the story on the CDC study. Stobbe covers the health beat, so linking to his story makes a lot of sense, objectively.)

Christie, Huckabee stand up for Michelle Obama, but repeat Sarah Palin's lies in the process

The idea of reducing childhood obesity shouldn't be caught up in politics. But it is.

That being said, there are at least two major Republican players who stood up in favor of Michelle Obama's efforts.

"I think it's a really good goal to encourage kids to eat better ... I don't want the government deciding what you can eat and what you can't eat. I still think that's your choice. But I think Mrs. Obama being out there encouraging people in a positive way to eat well and to exercise and to be healthy, I don't have a problem with that." — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie

"What Michelle Obama is proposing is not that the government tells you that you can't eat dessert. What Michelle Obama has proposed is that we recognize that we have a serious obesity crisis, which we do." — former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee

Stopping there is tempting. The two Republicans said nice things about the First Lady's program (though Huckabee still is confused about her husband). We could leave it at that.

Unfortunately, we have to go on because of one thing they both said. Both Christie and Huckabee repeated the lie — the Sarah Palin lie — that Michelle Obama wants to control what we eat, including dessert.

Why repeat the lie? Why not completely denounce the lie as a lie?

Because they don't want to say that Sarah Palin has lied about what Michelle Obama said.

The other interesting element to Christie and Huckabee is that Christie is, uh, well, larger than his doctor thinks he should be — okay, overweight — and Huckabee used to be a lot larger than he is now, even if he looks like he has gained some of that back.

Christie and Huckabee have a sensitivity to the obesity issue. And they should share that with the public and their fellow Republicans.

But they need to do more. They need to say that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann and Rush Limbaugh are telling fibs about the First Lady.

You certainly have the right to disagree with whatever Michelle Obama has said and will continue to say on the subject. Republicans have the right to do so, and should in a democracy (even if Mrs. Obama isn't an elected official). But the refusal to work with the facts and respond to statements that Michelle Obama has actually said — this deters us away from a sincere effort to try and change the patterns that threaten to have 1 in 3 children born in 2000 to someday be a Type 2 diabetic.

Oatmeal is healthy if you don't do it the McD's way

When I ate oatmeal as a child, I had to put a bunch of sugar in it. Couldn't stand the thought of eating it plain.

This was the quick cook oats boiled in water version. Never knowingly ate a bowl of instant oatmeal.

Now, my sweet tooth has been trained to eat oatmeal with cinnamon and a few raisins — and like it.

Mark Bittman put well into words what we all were likely thinking about McDonald's attempt at oatmeal. Not that we were surprised.

When McDonald's brought us salads, the walnuts were covered in sugar. Really.

The way you prepare and cook French fries isn't the way McDonald's does it. That is a compliment to you; an insult to McDonald's.

McDonald's will do French fries until they die. But trying to do healthier food without that food being all that healthy, well, this is pointless.

Why try?

Oh, McDonald's cashes in, as does the other major fast food restaurants, and figure trying — as lame as those tries are — will be enough.

Let's make a deal with McDonald's: make your healthy food healthy. Use care and quality in your unhealthy food. If you can do this, we'll eat some of your healthy food and unhealthy food.

As Bittman points out, "even without the brown sugar it (the oatmeal) has more calories than a McDonald's hamburger." Might as well wait until 10:30 am and order that hamburger. At least you won't be fooling yourself into thinking you are eating something healthy.