Idea! -- What Not to Eat

If you are not familiar with the American TV show What Not to Wear (which was based on the British version), you might want to skip this post. Without a thorough steeping in the ins and outs of that show, this post will not make any sense to you. I could take time (and several hundred words) to explain it, but honestly, if I do that, I guarantee the magic of the show will lose something in translation. So if you’ve never seen WNTW, no worries. Just sit tight and wait until I post something else. (If you were hoping to kill some time with one of my super-long posts, take a few seconds and go check out the book Growing Tomorrow, by the author of Gaining Ground, which I reviewed here. Hard to say which one I like more. (Actually, no. It's Gaining Ground.) Frankly, this guy is a friggin’ dynamite writer [and farmer!], and both books are excellent. Growing Tomorrow review coming soon!)

For the rest of you, if you have seen WNTW, I think you’ll agree that I have a million dollar idea here.

Label Madness Monday: Pigs are Not Vegetarians (Also: Nitrates)

We need to talk about animals, everyone. Specifically, we need to talk about animals that we raise for food. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” And in the ancestral health and real food communities, we sometimes take this one step further and say, “You are what you eat, eats.” Most of us use this to convey the idea that we prefer to eat animals that have consumed their own natural, species-appropriate diets. For example, meat and dairy products from grass-fed cows, and, generally speaking, meat, fowl, and seafood that have not been fed rations of genetically modified corn and/or soy. (In the case of seafood, actually, no corn or soy of any kind. ’Cuz, really? Corn and soy? In the marine food web?)

When I say “species-appropriate diets,” I mean this: some animals are herbivores, some are carnivores, and others are omnivores. While herbivores (such cows and sheep) and carnivores (such as felines) can survive—at least for a time—on diets primarily made up of substances that are not plants or animals, respectively, eventually, problems will develop.

Over the last several years, consumers have become more discerning when it comes to how they spend their food dollars. Movies like Food, Inc., and books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma have opened at least a few people’s eyes to the larger issues around sustainable agriculture, humane animal husbandry, and more. Unfortunately, the average consumer still remains in the dark, and food manufacturers delight in taking advantage of this collective food label ignorance, laughing all the way to the bank.

Label Madness Monday: Buttery Spreads, Take 2

It’s that time again, kids. The start of another work week, and a new adventure in food label land. A couple posts back, we looked at a buttery spread whose very name implies it is “Simply Delicious,” even though we made mincemeat out of that claim pretty easily. I left off at the end of that post saying we’d come back and take a look at some even wackier imitation butter spreads, and I’m making good on that today.

First up: Smart Balance “dairy free butter” with omega-3s.

Label Madness Monday: Et tu, BBQ? (Or: How to Eat at a BBQ Joint Without Wrecking Yourself)

I love me some good BBQ!

Set before me some nice sliced brisket or a pile of pulled pork and I’m in hog heaven. (Pun intended.) However, depending on what you order, barbecue joints can be a low-carb/Paleo paradise, or they can be a total blood sugar nightmare.

If you’re watching your carbohydrate intake, you already know to steer clear of the cornbread, baked beans, mac & cheese, and the cheap-o bread they usually stick under whatever meat you order in order to sop up the juices. (Confession: Sometimes I eat this bread, ‘cuz, really, what a waste of yummy meat drippings! I also eat the cornbread sometimes, ‘cuz…well, it’s a bit of a weakness.)

That’s the obvious stuff, though. What about things that are harder to avoid at a BBQ place, like the delicious sauces they use to marinate, baste, and slather your food with before serving it to you? BBQ sauce is a sneaky source of large amounts of sugar. (And by “sugar,” I mean cane sugar, molasses, honey, corn syrup, corn starch, and more.) Let’s take a look at a couple of examples from a popular restaurant chain, Famous Dave’s®. (I am a big fan of this place, and am absolutely not writing this to bash it. I only want to point out the ingredients in the sauces and help us make informed choices, wherever we eat.)

Label Madness Monday: This is Nuts!

Welcome to the latest installment in our ongoing series of food label exposés! (It’s dirty work, but somebody’s gotta do it.)

On the menu today: dry roasted peanuts.

Sounds simple enough, right? Dry. Roasted. Peanuts. To me, this means two things: peanuts, and a heat source. (The “dry roasting” implies, at least to me, that no oil is added. You’ll sometimes see “peanuts and peanut oil” or “peanuts and cottonseed and/or canola and/or peanut oil” in the ingredient list of roasted peanuts that are not “dry” roasted.)

Okay, here goes.

Label Madness Monday: It's So Simple...

It’s time for another round of food label smackdown, folks!

If you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for the next post in the cancer series, get a bigger seat and scoot back for a bit. I’ve been working on a big project and am falling a little behind on those cancer deep-dives. But fear not; I definitely haven’t forgotten about them and there will be more...eventually. In the meantime, let’s take a look at something as “simple” as the vegetable oil spreads that have been masquerading as butter for the past few decades.

First up: “Deliciously Simple,” by the food chemists who bring you I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® (The company employing these food chemists is Unilever, the same company that brings you all these other non-foods and edible food-like products.

Let’s see just how “simple” this product is:

Label Madness Monday: Why 100-Calorie Packs Piss Me Off

All right, dear readers, be honest with me: am I the only person who thinks these things are totally, completely, and utterly ridiculous?

They’re convenient. I get that. And as long as you have access to just one 100-calorie pack, they take willpower out of the equation. I get that, too.

I’m not saying the concept is ridiculous, just the way it’s executed.

My infuriation over these things is fourfold:

1. They’re wasteful.
2. They’re expen$ive. (No, really, like crazy expensive.)
3. They assume we consumers are too lazy or too stupid to divvy out reasonable portions on our own. (Unfortunately, I think they may be on to something here, but in my heart of hearts, I’d like to give the American public more credit than that, and I’m not the only one.)
4. They’re just plain ridiculous.

Label Madness Monday: Size Matters!

Today’s food label smackdown is a bit of a departure from how we’ve done things in the past. In previous posts in this series, we’ve looked at the ingredients and/or health claims on food packages. Today, however, we don’t even have to go that far. Instead of looking at what is in these foods, we’ll be looking at how much of it there is. Why? Well, you might not be aware of this, but over the last few years, the products in our supermarkets have experienced some serious shrinkage.

Fat Tuesday: "Vegetable Oil" - A Thought Experiment

When you get a look at the pictures in this post, you might think they’re better suited for my Label Madness Monday series. But it’s been a while since I’ve served up anything new in the Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday category, and according to the pageview stats, the posts about fats are pretty popular. So in the spirit of giving you more of what you seem to like reading about (plus more of what I like writing about), I present you with a little thought experiment regarding fats and oils.

  

Here’s the challenge: Name the five fattiest foods you can think of. Really, take the time to think of them. Very fatty foods—at least five of them.

Label Madness Monday

Hey everyone! Another seven days have gone by, and you know what that means: a new food label to look at and start the work week with a laugh—or possibly a cry, depending on how much this stuff either amuses or bothers you. Today’s labels are such egregious examples of wacky marketing that we don’t even have to look at the list of ingredients. The manufacturers have saved us the trouble of going to that extra step by kindly putting all the ridiculousness right out front and center. So here goes.

Take a good look at this milk carton. I mean a really good look. Read all of it.

I just … um … yeah … wow.

Funny title for a blog post, I know. But I just came back from a trip to the supermarket and I’m not quite sure what to say. (I’d say I’m at a loss for words, but if you’ve read any of my other posts, you know that’s never, ever been true.) I go to the supermarket often, but it’s been a while since I took my time, went up and down every aisle, and really surveyed the landscape. Even when I’m on the lookout for funny, shocking, and/or horrifying labels for the Label Madness Monday series, I usually come across plenty just in the normal course of my shopping. So it’s been a long time since I really, really scrutinized things. I knew it was a jungle out there, but it is so much worse than I imagined. I’m saddened. I’m heartbroken. And I’m absolutely furious.

Cereal Confidential (Pt.1)

Whole grain! High fiber! Good source of vitamins & minerals! May help lower cholesterol (as part of an overall healthy diet & lifestyle that includes tons of vegetables and fruits and even tons more exercise)! May help your firstborn get into Harvard (as part of an overall nose-to-the-grindstone lifestyle that includes playing the oboe, being captain of the debate team, acing the S.A.T., and discovering the cure for cancer for the science fair junior year)! May give you superpowers! May help you become the Next Iron Chef!

 

Cereal boxes make an awful lot of interesting claims, don’t they? Whether what’s inside are flakes, puffs, balls, marshmallows, freeze-dried strawberries, or organic, whole-grains that have been pampered, protected, and have never seen a day of work in their lives, there’s far more lurking in those boxes than you might realize.

What’s so ridiculous surprising about cereal? Read on.

Shopping Supermarket Savvy -- Part 3

Welcome to part 3 of Shopping Supermarket Savvy, a series designed to help you navigate grocery stores in ways that will help you save money while buying real foods, avoiding overt processed junk, and outsmarting processed junk marketed as health food. In part 1, I talked about the strategy of “shopping the perimeter” – sticking mostly to the outer aisles because that’s where the whole foods are concentrated – meats (including poultry and seafood), dairy, and produce.  Part 2 introduced the earth-shattering concept of reading price stickers. An obvious thing to do, maybe, but it’s less obvious what to look for on those stickers. (Hint: it’s the unit cost, and not always the price for an individual item.)

What’s another simple way to save money at the store? Again, it’s a pretty obvious one, but maybe one you haven’t been employing much. (Picking up on a theme here? If you’re thinking this is “not rocket science,” you may be on to something!)

Shopping Supermarket Savvy – Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of Shopping Supermarket Savvy. In part 1 of this series, I addressed one of the most often-repeated tips for buying nutrient-dense foods at the supermarket:  shopping the perimeter. Hopefully, I did a good enough job that you understand that sticking to the outer aisles is a smart strategy, but there are also plenty of good things hiding in the middle and there’s nothing wrong with going in search of them, as long as you don’t get distracted by all the colorful packages designed to do exactly that—distract you from the real foods you went into the store to buy.

In this installment, I’ll talk about a very simple method for saving money at the store. With food prices going up like crazy lately, we’d all like our dollars to stretch a little further. Until they learn to do Pilates, however, we’re going to have to do it for them. What is this simple method? If you thought I was going to say “use coupons,” you’re wrong. Coupons are great. Some stores will even double coupons, letting you save twice as much. But you know what? Real food doesn’t have coupons. Don’t believe me? Check your Sunday paper, with its 3-inch-thick stack of ads and coupon inserts. What are those coupons for? Sugary cereal, candy, frozen vegetables with “cheez” sauce, cake mix and frosting, frozen “entrees,” processed foods like fat- and sugar-free yogurt, microwaveable potato skins, and French toast. And what are the rest of the coupons are for? Antacids, aspirin, ibuprofen, cold medicine, and chewable calcium supplements. Coincidence? I’ll let you be the judge. The point is, fresh, whole foods—like chicken, broccoli, beef roasts, and asparagus—don’t have coupons. They might go on sale at the store, yes, but you won’t find “manufacturers” offering discounts in your paper.

(What are the remaining few coupons for in the behemoth weekend papers? Hearing aids, collectible plates, and ugly, mail-order old lady pants with elastic waistbands that come in exactly three colors: Pepto pink, sky blue, and vomit beige. Do these people not watch What Not to Wear?)

But anyway, on to how to actually get the most for your buck. This tip is huge. It’s so big, I’m not sure this blog can even contain it. Ready?  

Read price stickers.

Yep, that’s it.

I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “but I already do that! Amy, you’ve said it yourself: this isn’t rocket science! Tell me something I don’t know.”

Well, you’re reading the price stickers, but you might be looking at the wrong place. See, supermarket price stickers usually have two prices – one for the item itself (like one container of yogurt, one jar of nuts, one can of tuna), and one for the unit cost – the price per pound, quart, ounce, etc. And by paying more attention to the unit cost, you can do two things that are both fun:  saving money and sticking it to the man. (If you’re anything like me, the latter is even more fun than the former, right?)

Take a look at these. (Click on photos for a larger view).

$8.36 a pound? EEK!

$10.83/pound? Dost mine eyes deceive me?! This is utterly unconscionable. 

Now, I know none of you are buying this junk. The pictures are just to illustrate the point. (What? Granola bars with fiber and antioxidants are junk? Um, yes. Big time. More on that in a future post.) Anyway, the price for a box of this slop is $3.29. Not too bad, right? But take a look at that unit cost -- $8.36 per pound…and even better, $10.83 per pound! Are you kidding me? (Anyone watch the Suze Orman Show? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?)  

If you claim you can’t afford meat at $4-$8 a pound but your kitchen cupboards are chock full of these boxes, it might be time for a good look at your priorities. Even when not on sale, chicken breasts are usually only around $3.99/pound. Maybe meats at those prices aren’t grassfed, organic, or blessed by fairies riding unicorns, but they’re still real food, and much better than this garbage merely masquerading as health food. (Then again, who can blame it? It is almost Halloween. But I prefer costumes on little kids and not on my food labels, thankyouverymuch.)

Don’t believe me that it’s junk? It is. (Click on the photo for a larger view.) 

Holy frikkin'*BLEEP!* (Sorry, this is a PG-rated blog...for now.)

The way to use the unit cost to your advantage is to purchase strategically. How’s that work? STAND BACK:  I’M ABOUT TO DO MATH! 

If it’s an item you’ll use before it goes bad, you might as well get the larger size. (Larger sizes are usually less expensive per “unit.”) For example, the 8oz container of sour cream is $1.59 and the 24oz is $3.59. Yikes. That’s a big difference. But if you go through a good amount of sour cream, you’re better off buying the 24oz. Yes, you’ll spend more money upfront, but the 8oz container is $3.18/pound while the 24oz is $2.39/pound. Maybe a 79-cent difference doesn’t sound like much, but think about how much food you buy in a week, a month, or year. Those little differences can add up over time.

I'm no Einstein, but I'm pretty sure $2.39/pound is a better deal than $3.18/pound.

Same thing for the ricotta cheese: The 15oz is $3.83/pound and the 32oz is $2.70/pound – over a dollar difference! So if you would finish the larger size before it spoils, you get more for your money buying it instead of the smaller one.

There’s lots more to this, but that’s a very simple tip that you can employ at your next trip to the store. Don’t shop at supermarkets anymore? Even if you stick to farmer’s markets, co-ops and other alternatives to the mega-chains, you can probably get a discount for larger purchases. Most farmers will give you a price break for buying in bulk. If there’s no sign saying so, don’t be afraid to ask. They want to sell their meat and produce. First, that’s how they make a living. Second, the more they sell, the less they have to pack up and transport back to the farm. Don’t underestimate the amount of labor involved in boxing up hundreds of pounds of apples, potatoes, tomatoes, or frozen beef and pork.

Coming up in part 3:  more tips on buying in bulk and why things don’t go bad nearly as quickly as we fear they will. (And hopefully part 3 will appear with a lot less lag time than part 2 did, eh? What can I say...it's October, and it's hard to sit inside and write blog posts when the leaves are stunning, the air smells smoky and crisp, and the weather's AMAZING. It's all good, though -- stress relief and getting outdoors is good for health!!)

Disclaimer:  Amy Berger is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition. 

Shopping Supermarket Savvy - Part 1

Do you feel overwhelmed at the supermarket? Are you struggling to buy $75 worth of groceries on a $50 budget? Do you feel like you need a dictionary and a calculator to make sense of the complicated health claims and even more complicated ingredient labels on foods, and to get the most for your money?

Welcome to the club*.

Grocery store managers and marketing specialists know all the tricks. They design their store layouts and individual displays with one thing in mind: to get you to buy things. Lots of them. More than you need, more than you intended to buy, and maybe even items you hadn’t planned on buying at all. They place sugary breakfast cereals with colorful logos and eye-catching cartoon characters at kids’ eye level for exactly that reason: to catch their eyes. (And, in turn, to induce them to bug you to buy them. “Mommymommymommy! Can I have this? Huh?Huh?Huh?CanI?!”)

In their defense, these things are often decided way above the level of the managers of the local stores. Mega-sized companies pay premiums to have their products placed at strategic locations. These marketing experts could give the honor guard at Arlington a run for their money where military precision is concerned. (Just kidding. I was in the military, and the honor guard is serious business. Especially at Arlington.)

Seriously though, supermarkets are laid out with the utmost attention to detail. People make whole careers out of figuring out how to get consumers (you and me) to buy what big companies want us to buy. Heck, they have entire corporate departments dedicated to selling us things we don’t even need. (Don’t believe me? That’s all right. Read this and this and I’d love to chat about it sometime.)

And there’s the rub:  supermarkets are designed with profit in mind. They want to make money. But you want to buy nutritious food and not break the bank in the process. Up against the professionals, it’s easy to feel like you don’t stand a chance. But take heart. There are ways of getting in and out without feeling like a victim, or feeling like they’ve gotten one over on you. I’ll share a basic one today, and will address more concrete tips in future posts for navigating the grocery store intelligently and economically. (Yes, it can be done!)