Balance of Food

What's Tempting: Real treats from childhood

Some of our food sensibilities run really deep. Food companies using nostalgia have a much easier time bringing us back. However, the problem lies when we aren't getting what we truly yearn for from way back when.

Little Debbie's is using nostalgia in its latest campaign, with childhood versions reminding adults how they were once children who would enjoy Little Debbie's treats.

In the chocolate cupcakes commercial, the younger version of the woman is there "reminding you how things used to be. How you'd have a Little Debbie whenever you finished cleaning your room or finished a book report."

The woman continues the thought process: "Or finished a garden."

"You've earned it," said the girl.

The tagline is "Your love for Little Debbie is something you never outgrow."

Let's pretend the person in the commercial is your humble narrator. Let's see how the conversation should really go.

Younger Self: "I'm here to remind you how things used to be. How you'd have a Little Debbie whenever you came home from school after the horrible cafeteria lunches or finished piano practice."

Current Self: "Yeah. Back then, I was starving for calories. Eating the treats was just to make up for lost calories at lunchtime. Now, I'm definitely not starving for calories."

Younger Self: Yeah, but food … treats … you know. The connection. Emotions. Eating. You remember.

Current Self: Look where that lifetime emotional eating has me now. Bigger than I want to be. I don't always enjoy the food.

Younger Self: But you would enjoy the Little Debbie treat. Brings back some good childhood memories. If you had my metabolism, you wouldn't even think about it.

Current Self: Okay, you talked me into it. Give me the Little Debbie's from my childhood.

Younger Self: Well, no. You have to buy Little Debbie's in your time. I'm just a visual reminder.

Current Self: Yeah, but the 2015 version has high-fructose corn syrup and doesn't taste nearly as good as what I used to love.

Younger Self: That's way over my head. I'm a kid. I run around and eat whatever I can.

The conversation would revolve around Twinkies and Hostess products since they were relevant in my childhood. Regular readers know of my love for Canadian Twinkies back when they did taste like the snack cakes of my childhood.

• 2012 losses: Dublin Dr. Pepper and authentic Canadian Twinkies

• Death of the Canadian Twinkie: Alive in name only

If you were into Little Debbie's and you miss them, the 2015 version of Little Debbie's isn't a trip back to your childhood. The girl on the box is the same, but what is inside the box isn't the same.

I've wanted a time machine to go back and have the soft drinks of my youth, the Kentucky Fried Chicken (not KFC) where you had to wait for 5-7 minutes for your food to be freshly cooked and that dark brown color of the chicken skin that you can't get now. My parents wanted to go back to the days before Kentucky Fried Chicken of their college years, the actual restaurant Harlan Sanders had in Corbin, KY. They aren't getting their "Kentucky Fried Chicken" and I'm not getting my Kentucky Fried Chicken version either.

We could easily have a debate over whether adults of a certain age should be eating that much extra dessert, even for nostalgia. I would argue that if you could have the childhood version of Twinkies, Little Debbie's, KFC, 7UP, or your childhood favorite, you should have that if only to remind you of what we have today.

When Michelle Obama wanted to reduce the childhood obesity rate, the mark she set was what the obesity rate was in the 1970s. There are numerous factors involved as to why obesity levels have risen, but the junk food of the 1970s was better for you than a lot of the junk food now.

We now live in a society where people take pictures of what they eat. We use the pictures to remind us of what we ate. I would love to go back and take some pictures with our "futuristic" smartphones of the food from my childhood. I would love to go back and have some of that food again.

But I can't. That food doesn't exist and there is no time machine. I do have great memories of eating junk food from my childhood, and I loved not having to think about calories back then.

In the donuts commercial, the little girl has a line at the end: "You're going to pay for that." She means money, but could be applied to calories and high-fructose corn syrup.

Those days are over. You can't go home. Have nostalgia for what once was, but live in the moment, create new food memories, and don't get bullied by food companies with false nostalgia substitutions. Hold out for the real thing, real memories of better tasting junk food gone by in time.

photo credit: Little Debbie's

Eating out in San Francisco can mean contributing to 'employee benefits'

San Francisco is one of my favorite eating cities. During the last trip in December, I ran into an extra charge for "employee benefits."

Zuni's Cafe and Pier 23 Cafe charged 4%. Tartine charged 3%. Many places didn't charge at all. All the examples I saw taxed the subtotal of the bill.

Most of the money is supposed to go to employee health care. In asking random customers and employees, no one had a real sense of where the money was going.

San Francisco is a city willing to set its own standards. This is the city that regulated the nutrition value of a "happy meal" for a toy to be included. So a 4% tax to help improve the lives of employees isn't much of a stretch.

Your bill is very explicit as to the charge. If you miss this, you aren't looking at your receipt. Or the signs on the menu. Or the signs at the counter.

Chances are if you are in San Francisco, you are the kind of person who is willing to contribute this money. However, you could be on a business trip and be freaked out by this charge.

 

So is this tax a big deal or the cost of a decent society? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

What's Tempting: Fairlife as a milk alternative

Milk. It does a body good. But can it do a body better?

Fairlife has taken milk, added more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff, and presented a product that is still milk but gives you more of what milk provides.

More protein: 13 g vs. 8 g (all comparisons for 8 oz. serving). More calcium: 370 mg vs. 276 mg. Half the sugar and no lactose.

More price too, but that isn't a surprise.

You do have to get over the stigma of drinking milk made by Coca-Cola. That does sound disturbing.

Fairlife offers some key advantages, so much so that we couldn't help but try the product. We tested the milk against a milk product comparable in terms of price: organic milk. We sampled whole milk versions of both for a fair comparison.

In my world, there are two major reasons to use milk: by itself and in cereal.

Fairlife by itself does have an aftertaste. My palate can tell the difference between Fairlife and organic milk. In a taste test straight up, organic milk would win 10 times out of 10. The taste difference isn't that significant but there is a difference.

We tried both milk products in cereal: 1 cup Grape-Nuts with 8 oz. of milk. The difference was similar but a lot less noticeable. Though we didn't try Fairlife in a smoothie, we can't imagine we would notice a difference.

With the extra protein and calcium, the better comparison might be Fairlife to regular yogurt or Greek yogurt. The yogurt, especially the Greek version, offers significant bacterial advantages over milk, even Fairlife. A cup of Fairlife would be a lot easier to consume to get 13 g of protein versus a cup of regular or Greek yogurt.

Fairlife offers 6 g of sugar in a serving vs. 12 g of sugar in milk. The company says the filtering process reduces the sugars. Since Fairlife has no lactose, and lactose is milk sugar, why are there 6 g of sugar?

Lactase enzyme has been added. This would account for the 6 g of sugar while not having lactose. Those who are lactose intolerant could handle this product because lactase is not lactose (one letter difference).

The 2% chocolate version goes from 24 g of sugar to 12 g of sugar. Fairlife makes up for the "lack of sweetness" by adding artificial sweeteners sucralose and acesulfame potassium.

Though I detected an aftertaste in the regular version, that is not the same aftertaste that you get from the artificial sweeteners.

If you are buying regular mainstream milk, the cost factor for Fairlife, regular yogurt, Greek yogurt, and organic milk may limit your purchase of any of these products. Soy milk and almond milk — different beasts entirely — also would be cost prohibitive. You'll have to drink more milk to make up the difference.

A gallon of regular mainstream milk = 128 oz. = 16 cups of milk = 128 g of protein. Cost approx. $3.10. A 52 oz. container of Fairlife cost me $4.29: 52 oz. of Fairlife milk = 6½ cups of milk = 84½ g of protein. Yes, Fairlife has more protein per serving but not more protein per container.

You can get more calcium by drinking more regular milk as well.

So who is the audience for Fairlife?

Those that can afford an upgraded milk, those who appreciate a decent tasting lactose-free milk, and those who only drink milk every so often. Fairlife's saving grace is that it's very shelf-stable. Whatever you might think about what longer shelf life means for a food product, American consumers eat that up, literally.

The Fairlife vs. organic milk battle came at a good time. I've been using almond milk as an occasional source of "milk" but bemoaning the loss of protein. Am also not thrilled with the amount of water needed to get us the almond milk, especially with droughts in California.

Soy milk offers the protein of regular milk but you have to ensure you are getting GMO-free soy milk. A shelf-stable version of milk with more protein that is actually milk is tempting as a supplement to other variations of milk.

The ultimate answer to which form and variety of milk that you choose comes down to how you use milk. Fairlife will never replace mainstream milk in a lot of households because regular milk is cheaper and often used as a loss leader at convenience and grocery stores.

Fairlife won't replace almond milk and soy milk for those who don't want to consume an animal product. Fairlife won't taste as good as organic milk nor offer the advantages of organic milk.

But Fairlife isn't the creepy evil Frankenstein image some are portraying. Fairlife is for occasional use where a burst of real milk satisfies a need over a long period of time.

video credit: Colbert Report/Comedy Central
picture credit: Fairlife

What's Tempting: Ugly fruits and vegetables

When looking for a sweetheart, looks are going to matter. When looking for fruits and vegetables, ugly is in.

Last month on a business trip, we got plenty of food for breakfast and lunch. The fruits all looked good. I took a red apple. Beautiful, shiny, the kind of red apple that a child gives to the teacher in a heartwarming commercial.

When I bit into the apple, the apple tasted like it was grown … from very far away.

Looks can be deceiving.

The apple is a prime example of fruits and vegetables that have to look a certain way for consumers to want to buy that produce. So grocery stores are under pressure to display only that fruit and vegetables, rejecting perfectly good produce based purely on looks.

We've seen several recent stories about organizations giving new life to less than physically ideal produce. In a society where some aren't getting enough produce, due to access or money or both, the match fits like a jigsaw puzzle.

While we extoll the virtures of farmers markets, the vendors often fall into the same trap. To be fair, their excellent-looking produce tastes better than the handsome fruit and vegetables in mainstream grocery stores. Farmers will bring their more homely fruit and vegetables with them in boxes alongside the tables with the better-looking stuff. Ask nicely and chances are you will get a bounty for cheaper than the going rate for the more handsome produce.

Canning tomatoes involves the insides of the tomatoes, specifically removing the outside skin as part of the process. The tomatoes that you can truly can be horrific looking as long as they taste good.

Regular readers will recall that we compared salad greens to levels of dating partners. While you might have been amused and/or offended by that analogy, this debate is very similar.

What's Tempting: Getting comfortable with salad greens

We buy food based on color and prettiness. Fruits and vegetables really are the "girl next door." You want quality and value even if they aren't the kind of beautiful that end up on runways and fashion magazine covers.

Heirloom varieties are not pretty. Not pretty at all. Boy they deliver a great taste.

Mainstream grocery stores don't sell heirloom produce or purple potatoes. Not that people don't want them, but they're so different from traditional norms.

You certainly don't want ugly fruit that doesn't taste good, but ugly is fine if the taste is good.

We also have to adjust our expectations for out-of-season fruit. You can find quality apples out of season but they won't be shiny red like the kind you imagine Snow White got from the evil Queen.

If you are still reluctant, if looks are that important to you, start out slow. Put ugly fruit into a smoothie. Take ugly vegetables and pulse them into a soup. Those overripe bananas that are really getting ugly: put them in the freezer to make banana bread. Once you realize the beauty of ugly, you can move on to improve situations where looks are more visible.

Loving fruits and vegetables means taking them for their good points and bad points. If loving fruits and vegetables is difficult for you or you find yourself on the sidelines far too often, open yourself up. Embrace beauty even if it isn't obvious. You just might find that fruits and vegetables are more attractive when you get to know the goodness and taste they bring into the relationship of the diet.

Seal burger controversy validates need for sensitivity to local eating customs

Don Cherry and Ron MacLean, hosts of "Coach's Corner" on the CBC in Canada, had an on-air discussion over MacLean having eaten a seal burger while working in St. John's Newfoundland.

That isn't a delicacy in most places in the States, but in that part of Canada, seal meat is fairly normal.

Cherry referred to MacLean as a "savage" and "barbarian" for eating the seal burger.

Eating seal meat is part of the Inuit culture, and so Cherry's remarks were extra insensitive. This is not the first time Cherry has been in trouble over insensitive remarks.

This story is also a reminder that the "when in Rome" rule definitely applies.

I hope to get to St. John's in Newfoundland and Labrador this summer for the first time. I was try and find a seal burger or even some moose pot pie.

For more on this story, click here to read the account from our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com.

Nightly Show takes on obesity

"America's obesity rate creeps up to 27.7%. On the plus side, now it's higher than our math scores."

We were very worried about coverage of food/nutrition/obesity after the end of the Colbert Report run. The show that took the Colbert Report timeslot — The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore — gave us its take on the obesity issue.

Wilmore had two focuses in the episode: rising obesity rates and that Europe's highest court ruled that sometimes obesity can be a disability.

To watch the entire episode, click here.

Obesity numbers aside, the timing is linked to one of our unofficial eating holiday: Super Bowl Sunday. Wilmore joked about his 7-layer corn tortilla double dipped bacon deep fried sour cream stuffed crust panini.

Wilmore did point out that Americans on Super Bowl Sunday ate 1.25 billion chicken wings and 11.2 million lbs. of potato chips. Chances are if you are watching the game, even for the commercials, you are eating more than usual on a Sunday night.

The show's format has an opening monologue followed by a panel discussion and then a "keep it 100" segment where the panelists are asked to be honest over a tough question.

Wilmore gave us a bit of history: back in the day when fat was a good thing, the poor couldn't keep up because they literally didn't have enough food. Now that thin is a good thing, the poor can't afford trainers and to have large grocery stores in their neighborhood.

The panel talked about food deserts and paying for obesity through healthcare. Wilmore also noted that blacks have the highest obesity rate at 47%, and that childhood obesity doubled in children and tripled in adults in the last 30 years.

The disability angle? The European Court of Justice standard of obesity being a disability goes to whether it "hinders the full and effective participation of the person concerned in professional life on an equal basis with other workers."

Businesses have to accommodate workers accordingly. World Health Organizations figures have 20% of European men and 23% of European women are obese, lower than the United States but higher than you would expect.

The panel was Morgan Spurlock, Marianne Kirby, a fat acceptance advocate, and 2 comedians: Lavell Crawford, a large black man, and Shannon DeVido, a disabled woman.

Problems get discussed on the program, but solutions aren't always funny. Still, a great chance to bring obesity to a serious TV discussion. When was the last time a cable news channel spent 30 minutes on food, nutrition, and obesity?

With the Colbert Report, the comedy would have been better but the show wouldn't have spent the whole episode on just one topic. Colbert would have focused on food and food marketing; Wilmore went to the after effects of eating that food.

The Nightly Show being the latest spinoff from The Daily Show -- which has plenty of food coverage itself.

The commercial right out of the first break of the show: KFC popcorn nuggets "made from the world's best chicken." That doesn't help those who are struggling with obesity. The idea that KFC is made from the world's best chicken can't be literal.

photo credit: Twitter @therotund

Super Bowl XLIX food ad review

 

"It's time to take back control"

The most impressive food ad in Super Bowl XLIX might have been one where you were encouraged to manage your food.

Weight Watchers showed off food in a more beautiful fashion than any of the other food ads on the night.Super Bowl ads are designed to make you feel good, not show off food.

Whether you believe in the actual Weight Watchers program, the message is a good one. You have to eat, but you have to be in control. Great to deliver that in front of the Super Bowl audience.

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Guacamole comes from avocados. The Mexico avocados people ran a wonderful spot with a draft of icons for different countries. Australia drafts the kangaroo and Mexico gets avocados.

Former NFL players and current commentators Doug Flutie and Jerry Rice call the draft action in the commercial.

"Rich volcanic soil," said Flutie. "Perfect weather," said Rice. "Makes avocados from Mexico the ideal year-round snack."

Shows off the product well. Clever premise and writing. And avocados are good for you.

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Snickers took its celebrity campaign to new heights with Danny Trejo as Marcia Brady and Steve Buscemi as Jan Brady in a Brady Bunch takeoff.

Clever, especially building off its usual campaign. The candy bar has been able to market itself to being beyond a candy bar, difficult in that product category. You'd be better off eating a handful of peanuts but Snickers makes it more tempting to add chocolate, caramel, and nougat.

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McDonald's "Pay with Lovin'" sounds good, but has a long list of rules and rituals. There is also the potential unpleasantness of being told to call your mom and she's passed on.

You also have very little chance of being picked. And the doorway you enter the restaurant makes a big difference, though you don't know which doorway is the magic doorway of the moment.

The payoff, especially since dinner isn't covered, won't be that high.

Each restaurant gives away 100 prizes over the next 2 weeks. However, 35 of them are given away today (February 2), 20 on February 3, and 10 on February 7. 35 winners will be scattered through February 4-6, 8-14.

You have to go between 6 am and 6 pm. On February 8, there will be 0 prizes after 3 pm. In the final week, there is only 1 winner in each of the dayparts (except for the late afternoon on February 8): 6a-11a, 11a-3p, 3p-6p.

So go today or tomorrow and assume you will pay for your meal with money and without a sign of love. For the full and very complicated rules, click here.

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Coca-Cola had a really nice anti-bullying ad. We saw samples of Internet bullying. We saw a kid who gets a Facebook message that initially reads "No one likes U" then changes to "There's no one like U." #makeithappy

There is nothing about the product, but the message is worth saying.

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Doritos gave us a creepy guy who was saving the airline seat next to him for a pretty woman. The punchline is that she has a baby.

Cute enough by Doritos standards but pretty weak, especially in the big time of Super Bowl XLIX.

This ad was still more interesting than the "pigs who fly" ad that ran in the 2nd half. The kid works really hard to come up with a way for the pig to fly. A rocket strapped to the pig's back was much simpler than what was implied. Not a great ad.

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Skittles is barely food, but the candy had an ad that dealt with arm wrestling to decide who would get a yellow Skittles.

If you are going to arm wrestle, do so for a red or blue Skittles.

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video credit: Weight Watchers; Avocados from Mexico; McDonald's