I read a post on Melissa’s Sarcomical blog about an article by Neil Kramer who decided to seek immortality by coining his own deli specialty, a.k.a. "The Neilochka."   I wondered, could it be that designing a signature sandwich really is the recipe for fame & fortune?   Well heck, I can do that!

Anyone who’s tried ’em can attest that our Tuna Wraps are awesome — although I was a bit off the mark when I made this for Karen P. last month.   (I was experimenting with chipotle mayo and got a little carried away!)   So here’s the high protein, high fiber, kick-butt wrap that laughs heartily at other, lesser excuses for sammiches:

  2Dolphins Tuna Wrap

   1 pkg Albacore tuna (in the pouch, not canned!)
   2-3 dollops of real mayo
   2 spoonfuls of dill relish
   1 finely chopped celery stick
   Several liberal pinches of finely chopped
       parsley and/or chives (green onion)
   Coupla sprinkles of red pepper flakes
   Splash (or two) of Tabasco sauce

Serve with shredded sharp Cheddar cheese and
shredded Romaine or Green Leaf lettuce on a 10"
Mission Carb Balance Whole Wheat Tortilla.

So, what would be the ingredients of your signature sandwich and what would you call it?
 

Labels: food

Capping off the coverage of March as National Peanut Month, it seemed only fitting to mention Project Peanut Butter, a non-profit organization created by Dr. Mark Manary which has done extensive field trials in Malawi from 2001-2007 on fighting severe malnutrition using Plumpy’nut.

Plumpy’nut, Nutriset’s amazing Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) product, is based on a fortified peanut paste and offers an incredible 95% recovery rate for severely malnourished children.   Project Peanut Butter operates the first local Plumpy’nut production facility in Africa and distributes this therapeutic food to malnourished Malawian children in more than 20 nutritional rehabilitation centers.   Last year, the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition, the World Health Organization, & UNICEF issued a joint statement that recognized Project Peanut Butter’s treatment protocols, in conjunction with Plumpy’nut, as the most effective method by which to treat severely malnourished children globally.

It’s estimated that half of all child deaths worldwide are caused by malnutrition.   In fact, Joe Stirt’s recent Memo to Nick Negroponte notes that only 3% of the world’s 20 million malnourished children have access to ready-to-use food.   While Joe’s post unintentionally connects with one of my main concerns about MIT’s zealous One Laptop Per Child project (that being, do starving children really need a $100 laptop?), I believe his main point is that the cost of providing critically-needed nourishment for 3rd world children is practically trivial.

Yup, just $15 (a tax-deductable donation) allows Project Peanut Butter to offer a Plumpy’nut-based 4-week nutritional recovery protocol to bring a critically-malnourished child back from the brink.

$15 worth of peanut paste to save a child’s life?   Peanut power, indeed!
 

Labels: food

I just realized that no coverage of National Peanut Month could be anywhere near complete without mentioning Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

It’s beyond me how dancing fruit became synonymous with the Buckwheat Boyz’s crazy song about PB&J, but once you’ve seen this silly little video, you’re gonna have that lodged in your brain permanently!

Check out the Peanut Butter Jelly Time video!
 

Labels: food, humor

Keeping the ball rolling on my coverage of National Peanut Month, I thought it might be fun to toss out a few unexpected or downright wacky uses for peanut butter that I’ve come across recently.

If you thought slathering an apple wedge or celery stick with peanut butter for an afternoon snack was living on the edge, well, just hold on for some really far-out ideas:

• Let a tablespoon of peanut butter slowly dissolve in your mouth to cure hiccups!


• Having trouble getting your pet to take some medication?   Most cats & dogs love the taste of peanut butter, so hide the pill in peanut butter and you should have no trouble getting them to swallow it!


• Remove stubborn wax stains on your car’s rubber or non-painted plastic surfaces by applying a little creamy peanut butter to the stain with a soft toothbrush.   Peanut butter’s oils dissolve the wax and it’s just sticky & abrasive enough to lift the stain.


• Likewise, gently rub peanut butter in a circular motion on road tar or tree sap that’s gotten on your car then wash with sudsy water to rinse off any residue.


• Create a cheap & simple outdoor bird feeder by spreading peanut butter into the nooks & crannies of a pine cone, then coating with birdseed.


• To get chewing gum out of hair, clothing, or carpet, scrape up what you can, rub with an ice cube to stiffen, then rub a small glob of creamy peanut butter into the gum and wipe up the whole mess with a clean cloth.


• Make Chocolate & Peanut Butter Playdough for your kids to play with!


• You can even shave with creamy peanut butter!   Reportedly, former senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona once did this while on a camping trip.

Labels: food

Continuing with the celebration of Nat’l Peanut Month, I thought I’d offer up some interesting peanut info.   If any of this helps settle a bar bet, well, ya owe me a brew...

Historically Nuts

The peanut is a South American legume with an ancient history.   Peanut shells have been found in archaeological digs that date back to 2500 BC but it’s likely that they were being consumed even before then.   Interestingly, none of the 4 main varieties of peanut (Peruvian, Spanish, Valencia, & Virginia) prevalent in the U.S. came here directly.   Instead, the peanut took the slow boat, migrating either through Africa or the Orient to North America as a result of Spanish and/or Portuguese traders.

Historically, the largest grower of peanuts in the world had been India, but China began dominating production in the 1990s.   By 2000, China was yielding almost 40% of the world crop, and India almost 25%, with the U.S. in 3rd place with only 6% of worldwide peanut production.

Peanut Trivia

• About 2/3rds of the worldwide peanut crop is processed for oil and peanut oil accounts for 8% of the worlds edible oil production.


• There are about 1,218 peanuts in a 28-ounce jar of peanut butter.


• An average of 2,860 pounds of peanuts are harvested from each acre of peanut plants and an acre of peanuts will make 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches.


• Roasted peanuts were first sold at a P.T. Barnum circus in the late-1800s.


• The term "peanut gallery" was popularized in the late 19th century because those in the cheapest, uppermost seats in a theater could throw peanuts at people in the more expensive seats below.


• Alabama, Florida, New Mexico, & South Carolina all contribute, but the predominant peanut-growers in the U.S. are Georgia & Texas.


• The official state crop of Georgia is the peanut and that state produces almost ½ of the total U.S. peanut crop.


• About ½ of all of the peanuts grown in the U.S. for food use ends up in a jar of peanut butter.


• On average, Americans each eat 3 lbs of peanut butter per year.   That’s about 700 million pounds, or enough to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon!


• Peanut butter’s high protein content draws moisture from your mouth.   That’s why it sticks to the roof of your mouth.


• On May 15, 1963, U.S. astronaut Gordon "Gordo" Cooper ate bite-sized peanut butter sandwiches during the last Mercury space flight mission.

 

Labels: food

National Peanut Month is upon us!   What began as National Peanut Week in 1941, expanded to a month-long celebration in 1974.   And it’s probably no coincidence that March is also National Nutrition Month because the lowly peanut is quite the nutritional powerhouse!

While peanuts aren’t actually nuts — they’re legumes, related to peas, lentils, chickpeas & other beans — they’re loaded with healthful goodness, with almost 8 grams of protein per serving and feature lots of dietary fiber, vitamin E, niacin, folate, & manganese.   They’re also a good source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and two high-powered antioxidants: p-Coumaric acid & resveratrol, the highly-touted component found in red grapes & wine.   In fact, peanuts pack in more antioxidants than either apples or carrots!

And you can easily get your fill of those healthful morsels by indulging often in what Lindsey Knerl calls The Poor Man’s Protein or what chef & writer Florence Fabricant refers to as "The pâté of childhood."
Yup, good ol’ peanut butter!

So, grab up a PBJ and lift a cheer for National Peanut Month!
 

Labels: food, health

As you may have noted from our past Blogtipping posts, the concept behind this series is simple:   On the 1st Monday of each month, we link to three unsuspecting blogs with three compliments & one helpful comment or idea for each author.   Although most months these "tipped" blogs are grouped by topic or theme, my picks for November are a random mix of blogs that have nothing in common - except that they’re each well worth checking out:

AppScout by the folks at PC Magazine is a relatively new weblog that offers up new websites & applications.   Mark B. intro’d me to this blog and I keep going back because of:

1. Tons of sites & web-based apps to suit nearly any need!
2. Frequently-updated content means there’s always something interesting.
3. Subscribe via RSS to keep up with the latest posts.

• Tip: I’d like to see more free downloadable apps featured.

Future Designs by Tuvie is a new blog launched back in July ’07 that I like because of:

1. Features innovative and often very-futuristic product concepts & designs.
2. Very clear product photos make it easy to see the eye-popping gadgets & design ideas.
3. RSS feed option lets you easily keep up with the frequently-updated content.

• Tip: The site’s design fits the topic nicely except that the logo graphic seems oddly very un-futuristic.

Mark’s Daily Apple from Mark Sisson serves up daily health & fitness insights with a side of irreverence.   Mark’s tough but positive view encourages people to discuss, learn, & rethink assumptions.   There’s plenty to like on his blog:

1. Full-content feeds & newsletter subscription options make it easy to keep up-to-date any way you’d like.
2. Practical & relevant tips to get more out of life.
3. Newly-formed discussion forums allow you to share questions & insights with others.

• Tip: I can’t think of anything to add - this is a great blog that needs to be a part of your regular read list.

Now it’s your turn!   Have a favorite blog site you’d like to share?
 

Labels: Blogtipping, food, software

Seems that corn, in one form or another, is a dominant subject in much of the news these days.   Between the very justified villainization of high-fructose corn syrup that’s infiltrating nearly every otherwise healthful food product to the demand for corn-based biofuel causing a rise in the cost of meats to stories about how corn crops are edging out other crops, corn is making headlines.

With that in mind, several themes that revolve around this common topic - corn - have been swirling around in my brain lately...

Are We Children of the Corn?

I’ve just begun reading Michael Pollan’s
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals in which he traces, step by step, the journey our food takes from the soil to the plate.   I’m not far into the book and already it’s some very thought-provoking stuff.   Pollan contends that we are indeed what we eat — and what we eat remakes the world.   And what we eat, by and large, is corn:

Corn is what feeds the steer that becomes the steak.   Corn feeds the chicken and the pig, the turkey and the lamb, the catfish and the tilapia and, increasingly, even the salmon, a carnivore by nature that the fish farmers are reengineering to tolerate corn.   The eggs are made of corn.   The milk and cheese and yogurt, which once came from dairy cows that grazed on grass, now typically come from Holsteins that spend their working lives indoors tethered to machines, eating corn.

Pollan goes to to make the corn connection to a vast array of many of the other foods we purchase & consume - 1 in every 4 items for sale in the average American supermarket contains corn.   A staggering number of even the non-consumable items in your local stores are derivatives of Zea mays, the giant tropical grass we know as corn.   In fact, the Ontario Corn Producers Association insists that there are A Zillion Uses for Corn!   Given how most of the corn grown in this country is processed into unrecognizable bits & pieces, you may never look at a cornfield - or the food in your shopping cart - the same way again...

The Bitter Taste of Corn Sweeteners

In 2006 alone, more than 700 million bushels of corn were refined into corn sweeteners - primarily High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).   Read the labels on beverages & foods and you’ll find HFCS has insidiously wormed its way into all kinds of foods you might never suspect - lunch meats, whole-wheat breads, crackers, salad dressings, soups, cheese, milk, yogurt, vitamins, and even medicines.   Perhaps worse yet, many of the foods laced with this nasty stuff are promoted as being suitable for a healthy lifestyle or weight loss!

Despite the considerable processing required to create HFCS, it’s considerably cheaper, easier to transport, and much sweeter than sugar.   In part, this is because our government artificially fixes sugar prices while heavily subsidizing corn.   But the net result is that this translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers, so there’ a tremendous economics incentive for them to use corn-based sweeteners.   Since HFCS comes from corn, products that feature it can be billed as "natural" foods but this couldn’t be further from the truth.   In fact, the process of breaking down cornstarch into syrup requires 3 different enzymes - the first of which, alpha-amylase, is industrially produced by a bacterium.

Studies have linked a number of health issues with the use of HFCS.   Some suggest that HFCS may alter intracellular metabolism, which in turn facilitates accelerated aging through oxidative damage.   There’s also connections with HFCS contributing to obesity & diabetes.   So why are these health risks tolerated and the use of HFCS continuing to escalate?   Consumer apathy.   There are simply too few people thinking about the ingredients or nutritional value of the foods they ingest.   We’ve got to let our dollars do the talking - if enough consumers stop buying foods made with corn sweeteners, the producers will have little choice but to abandon the use of HFCS.

Biofuel Causing Corn Shortages?

Not enough that we use innumerable amounts of corn to fuel our bodies, we’ve now been snookered into using it to fuel our cars too.   But the use of corn-based biofuel seems to be coming at the expense of corn as a food crop.

I recently read about a surprising situation in David Bollier’s article on the Mexican corn crisis and although it isn’t quite the same, I couldn’t help but draw a comparison to the Irish Potato Famine of 1845.

Like Ireland’s potato, corn is a food that defines Mexico.   There’s evidence that corn was domesticated in central Mexico more than 7000 years ago and as early as 1500 BC, corn was a primary staple food for most South American and much of the North American cultures.   Corn, in the form of tortillas, is a critical mainstay of their diet & culture but tortilla prices have tripled or quadrupled in some parts of Mexico since last summer.   Why?   Biofuel.

Now it’s true that yellow corn earmarked (rimshot!) for fuel production is not the same variety used for food, but with the increased demand for biofuels, the corn destined for ethanol is fetching a significantly higher price.   So farmers in Mexico are enticed to grow that crop instead of corn for human and/or livestock consumption and instead import cheaper, food-grade white corn from us to offset.   Farmers here in the U.S. are failling prey to similar economic pressures.   Sounds simple, no?   It gets worse...

Not much more than a year ago, Mexico was exporting more than 137,000 tons of its annual corn crop.   Yet at the same time, Mexico is facing a corn shortage and is set to import more than 800,000 tons of corn for its people from the U.S. & other countries.   The price of tortillas has risen so dramatically that Mexicans have taken to mass protests in the streets.

Now it gets really interesting — statistically, the U.S. grew 42% of the world’s total corn crop last year but ethanol production is projected to consume half of our annual corn harvest by 2008.   So, the demand for biofuels is about to chew up 20% of the world’s corn harvest.

Despite the fact that there are other, potentially far more efficient non-food crop sources that can produce ethanol, the push for corn-based biofuel continues.   And this is accompanied by a score of problems:   it requires vast amounts of energy (including fossil fuel) & water to produce, it does nothing to encourage us to reduce our use of fossil fuel, it burns less efficiently than straight gasoline, & overall doesn’t have a net effect of reducing global-warming-causing pollution.   And since corn is heavily subsidized by the government, as the demand for corn-based ethanol to run our cars increases, so too do our taxes — those government subsidies have to come from somewhere, right?

Although I haven’t seen anything documenting this, it’s a safe bet that corn-based biofuel benefits "Big Oil" significantly.   It’s probably also a safe bet that those companies are already snapping up the farms that grow corn.   Once again, seems like a win-win scenario for "Big Oil."

Anybody else find this whole thing frustrating and/or "cornfusing?"
 

Labels: environment, food, opinion

Pepperidge Farm Goldfish-brand crackers, a National Leadership Sponsor of City Year, has announced a new "starfish" design Goldfish cracker, as part of the "Making a Difference for Kids" campaign.

The starfish is a symbol of hope in City Year’s effort to make the world a better place by reminding us that each of us has the power to make a difference:

The Starfish Story

A young girl was walking along a beach that was covered with thousands of starfish left dying in the sun by the receding tide.   Seeking to help, she picked up a starfish and tossed it back into the ocean.

A man, amused by her action, said to her, "Little girl, there are too many starfish.   You will never make a difference."   Discouraged, she began to walk away.   Suddenly, she turned around, picked up another starfish, and tossed it as far as she could back into the sea.   Turning to the man, she smiled and said, "I made a difference to that one!"

The man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had said and done.   Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing the starfish back into the sea.   Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.

— Inspired by an adaptation of Loren Eisley’s "The Star Thrower."

Labels: charity, food

How disappointing — just when Dede & I got thoroughly hooked on Subway tuna wraps, the powers that be foolishly opted to get rid of their chewy, whole-grain, low-carb wraps!   Yup, according to Jimmy Moore over at The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog, a Subway representative has confirmed that the "Carb Conscious Wraps" have been discontinued earlier this month and replaced with a white flour tortilla wrap at all North American Subway franchises.

What a travesty!   The "Carb Conscious Wraps" had only 5 net carbs yet featured 8 grams of fiber & a whopping 14 grams of protein!   The crummy replacement wraps have over 20 net carbs but less than 1 gram of fiber — and no flavor!   Ack!

What will we do now?   Are we without recourse?   Well, maybe not.   For starters, when visiting your local Subway franchise restaurant, tell the owner you want the old-style Atkins-friendly, low-carb, goodness back!   You can also fill in the Subway Customer Service Form to send a signal, loud & clear, that we all want the "Carb Conscious Wraps" back!   So get with it, people!   Let’s make this happen!

Update:  David Turner, owner of the MCH Subway franchise we frequent, added that Subway made this change without franchisee input.   He recommends calling Subway at (800) 888-4848 and telling them that you prefer the original "Carb Conscious Wraps."

Update #2:  Subway must be listening.   Only days after Dede & I sent website feedback and emails, the MCH franchise brought back the chewy, whole-grain, low-carb wraps that we love!   Power to the people!
 

Labels: food, health

Despite a recent setback, it’s worth mentioning (again) that March is National Peanut Month.

While peanuts are very common today, ancient Peruvians held them in such high esteem that they buried pots of peanuts with their mummified dead to nourish them during their long journey to the hereafter.

Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the fruit of the peanut is a woody, indehiscent legume. However you categorize them, peanuts are a nutritional knockout, having pound for pound more protein, minerals, & vitamins than some cuts of beef. They provide protection against cardiovascular disease due to high levels of monounsaturated fats and powerful antioxidants Resveratrol & p-Coumaric acid.

Peanut butter is the leading use of peanuts in the U.S. but the incredibly versatile peanut also has a wide variety of non-food uses too. Peanut oil and its derivatives are used in paint, varnish, lubricating oil, leather dressing, furniture polish, insecticide, nitroglycerin, soap, & cosmetics. Peanut shells and other parts of the plant are often used in the manufacture of plastic, wallboard, abrasives, adhesives, textiles, paper, soil fertilizer, & animal feed.

So grab up a fistfull of peanuts and enjoy!
 

Labels: food

Thanks to one of the blogs we read, we’ve just discovered that we own 3 jars of recalled Peter Pan peanut butter. It seems that they may be contaminated with salmonella. Peter Pan & Great Value are the only brands being recalled and the affected jars begin with the product code "2111" stamped on top of the lid.

With all the other junk that hits my email box, I’m not sure why this kind of news never gets to me! You can read more about the recall at the FDA website.
 

Labels: food

And now a nugget of nutrition news from Mom: Besides being wasteful, there's another really good reason to not trim the crusts off of your kids' bread — according to a news item over on Ben Sullivan's Science Blog, German researchers have discovered that the crust is a rich source of antioxidants and may provide a much stronger health benefit than the rest of the bread.

A recent study has identified an antioxidant called pronyl-lysine that's 8 times more abundant in the bread's crust. Interestly, this compound is not present in the original flour. It is created during the complex chemical reaction of the protein-bound amino acid L-lysine and starch as well as reducing sugars in the presence of heat — or something we amateurs call "baking." What's more, darker breads not only tend to have more dietary fiber but also higher amounts of this cancer-fighting antioxidant goodness too!

Labels: food

We caught an episode of Queer Eye a couple of weeks ago where a nutritionist met the "straight guy" & Ted at a grocery store to help them learn how to shop for more healthful food. Nothing particularly new about that. And they started shopping in the produce section. Nothing new about that either. But then she dropped a line that was simplicity at it finest...

Always shop the perimeter of the grocery store first.

Nothing earthshattering there, but still, as I was doing some shopping this morning, I was recalled and was impressed with that simple notion. The perimeter of the grocery store is where you find fresh veggies & fruit, bins of raw nuts, the bakery, seafood counter, meat market, dairy cabinets, etc. In other words, it's where you find the freshest, least-processed, healthiest foods. Genius!

An added bonus: along the perimeter of the market is also where you usually will find an inexpensive, freshly-cut bundle of flowers to take home to your sweetie...

Labels: food, shopping

Did you catch the funky new "Feasting on Asphalt" mini-series on the Food Network recently? If not, you're in luck — all 4 episodes are being re-aired back-to-back this Saturday, August 19th.

Foodie Alton Brown and a camera crew hop on motorcycles and set out across the country to discover how and where we eat when we’re on the road. Highlighted by archival photos & film, the series also serves as a history lesson as Alton journies down back roads exploring every aspect of eating on the go, from foraging for grub, to camp cooking, to the evolution of "road food" icons — the diners, cafes, and truck stops that once flourished beside America’s highways. And along the way, he often reflects on how changes in eating on the road have influenced today's culture.

Click here to see Wikipedia's page on the show and for a link of a cool pushpin map of the series' route.

Labels: food, tv

Sometimes you stumble innocently across something that strikes a chord with you so deeply that you'e just gotta share it. I geuss that's what this whole "blogging" thing is about, huh? Well, this morning, I staggered, bleary-eyed and not yet fully awake, across The Sneeze, a website that bills itself as "Half zine, Half blog. Half not good with fractions." Well, I'm about 127.5% sure that this site is hilarious.

(Supreme bonus points for anyone who caught that obscure reference to Ted, the software developer who had no concept of mathematics from Survivor: Thailand.)

Do ya remember how when you were a kid you'd sometimes laugh so hard that milk would come out your nose? If you've been aching to relive that childhood memory, you have only but to peruse the insanely funny rantings (and occasional ravings) in the Steve, Don't Eat It section where a fellow (presumably named "Steve") reviews funky and disgusting food products that no rational person would consider eating. For example:

"First off, I would like to say to Dolores, I am sorry. I don't know what it is I did to you, but you have gotten me back and we're even."

How do I find these things? Don't ask. Just enjoy!

Labels: food, humor

I've blogged a number of times about this in the past and there's just no end in sight to the Schlosser love-fest over here. "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser is definitely one of my favorite books and just earlier this week, I blogged about the newly-released trailer for the upcoming movie based upon the book.

Just this morning there was a post at ParentHacks about Schlosser's new book, "Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food" that was just released this month. Continuing on the theme of his earlier works, this is aimed at educating kids on the fast food & soda industries, the realities of meat production, junk food additives, and the poor treatment of fast food restaurant employees. His goal is to provide kids an inside look at the history of the fast food industry, and enough information to start making wiser food choices.

The arrival of this new book sharply struck a nerve with the fast food industry. More than a dozen trade groups representing producers of beef, potatoes, dairy, and snacks, along with restaurant groups, are fighting back with websites, PR campaigns, and coordinated attacks unleashed on Schlosser earlier this month. Lobbyists even protested at some of his book signings spouting baseless and absurd claims about the author such as:

"[Schlosser is] tricking young people [...] to lead them away from capitalism into his failed socialist ideology."

Oh, I'm just loving this — rather than silence the ruckus, the fast food industry's overt attacks are more likely to concentrate attention on their bad practises. And while the fast food flacks refuted Morgan Spurlock's great documentary "Super Size Me" as sensationalistic, Schlosser's books are based on hard data rather than observations, so they're not nearly so easily dismissed.

By the way, I also came across an interesting interview with Eric Schlosser over at Powells.com in which the author revealed that he's working on another investigative book — this time focusing on the federal prison system.

Labels: food

Continuing our promotion of National Peanut Month, we just happened to spot this huge Texas Peanut Producers Board banner on the side of the Birdsong Shelling Facility between Wellman & Brownfield on the way to Lubbock yesterday:


 

Labels: food

Given that March is National Peanut Month, I can think of no better tribute to the lovable legume than to tell you about Plumpy'nut, a remarkable product I originally read about at bookofjoe.com. Plumpy’nut, which comes in a silvery foil package the size of two grasping baby-size hands, is 500 calories of fortified peanut butter with a consistency similar to mashed potatoes.

What’s so amazing about Plumpy’nut is that this simple, innocent-sounding beige paste is saving lives!

According to info found on the worldchanging website, Plumpy’nut overcomes most of the obstacles other aid food products have encountered since it doesn’t require preparation and is therefore not dependant upon a clean water source. The World Health Organization formally recognized the incredible utility of this therapeutic food product for famine relief in third-world countries. Plumpy’nut has been used in several regions of Africa and during recent tsunami relief efforts. A 4-week supply (costing only about $20) can literally bring a malnourished child back from the brink of death.

Nutriset, the commendable developer of Plumpy’nut, is a French company whose products are only available to aid organizations & relief agencies. The company is 100% dedicated to specific food products for humanitarian relief and all profits go to further research & development.
 

Labels: food

March is National Peanut Month, a time to celebrate one of America's favorite foods! National Peanut Month had its beginnings as National Peanut Week in 1941, then expanded to a month-long celebration in 1974.

Coincidentally, March is also National Nutrition Month, making this an ideal time to recognize the nutritional value of peanuts. Peanuts are a cholesterol-free source of protein, magnesium, vitamin E, and an array of other heart-friendly nutrients. What's more, peanuts rival the antioxidant content of many vegetables & fruits. And they're a good source of folate, which reduces the risk of certain birth defects in the brain & spinal cord.

For even more scoop on this lovable legume, including recipes, allergy facts, and nutritional info, you can visit the website of the National Peanut Board, a research and advocacy committee that works on behalf of the 25,000 USA peanut farmers, or Planter's NutNutrition.com site.

Labels: food

As mentioned before, I'm all about breakfast. As a kid, I was raised on hot cereals (especially oatmeal) for the morning meal and that's carried over into adulthood too. For the longest time I was something of a purist, only making oatmeal from scratch with the 5-minute "old fashioned" variety because I considered instant oatmeal to be just a mushy, over-sugared, nutritionally-devoid poor substitute for the 'real' thing. Well, no more...

The Quaker Oat Company (sadly, a subsidiary of the PepsiCo empire) recently introduced a new quick-to-prepare oatmeal that's specifically tailored for people like me who are focused on high protein, high fiber, & low sugar diets — and, hey, that's a pretty smart way to go for just about anyone. Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal offers 7g of protein, 6g of fiber, & a scant 1g of sugar. Prepare with skim milk instead of water and you'll kickstart your day with nearly 15g of protein!

Labels: food

I'm all about breakfast. Always have been. I'd geuss that I have my mom to thank for that, since she knew the value of starting the day off with something healthy (she was into healthy food way before it was fashionable) and almost always made time to whip up a hot breakfast for us when we were kids. Thanks mom!

It seems that Eddy Chavey, a.k.a. "Mr. Breakfast" agrees that mom was really onto something. He arrives at a suprising theory after some creative analysis of statistics on prison inmates:

"A study of 281 death row inmates executed since 1986 revealed that only 7.5% chose breakfast as their final meal. Of all women executed since 1970, none chose breakfast. By deduction, we realize that as a society, breakfast lovers are 93% less likely to commit serious crimes."

Thus breakfast may even be more vital to your physical and mental well-being than previously imagined. In fact, he suggests that breakfast may actually serve as a crime deterrent. He goes on to theorize that, among the several factors that cause breakfast-lovers less prone to fatal crimes, people who wake up early enough to have breakfast tend to lead more organized lives which results in more organized mindset and that it is the appreciation of the meal itself that's indicative of an appreciation for life.

In another article, he theorizes that simply adding breakfast (or improving your breakfast meal choices) can alleviate mild depression.

Mr. Breakfast - a graduate of the Los Angeles New School of Cooking, writer, and television food authority - is on a commendable mission: (1) To instill the importance of eating breakfast; (2) to show how multi-faceted and fantastic the most important meal of the day can be and (3) to help provide breakfast to those in need through the promotion of school breakfast programs and food charities.

The Mr. Breakfast.com website features more info on this all-too-important first meal of the day than you can shake a yogurt smoothie at, so grab a piping hot bowl of oatmeal and go check it out!

Labels: food