MARION NESTLE: "FOODS ARE NOT DRUGS"

I couldn't agree more. Read her blog post titled "Health claims for yogurt? Really?" which ends: "Probiotics are another reason why the FDA needs to set better standards for health claims. If it were up to me, food packages would have no claims on them: none at all. Foods are not drugs."

She then gives another wonderful example of why we should not trust the big food companies:

I mean, come on: cocoa krispies boosts immunity?

Kellogg's is making the claim based on the fact that the cereal is both "fortified" and "enriched" ("enriched" means adding back nutrients that were lost during food processing; "fortified" means adding nutrients to food that weren't originally present) with vitamins made from petroleum.

(Digression: "Petroleum?!" you say. Yes, as outlined in the fascinating book "Twinkie, Deconstructed" several of the vitamins used to enrich flour, such as Niacin (Vitamin B3) are made from petroleum. And, as you'll see from this graph:

Niacin is naturally present in whole wheat flour, and is then stripped out and added back in, in a quantity less than what was there originally. Cocoa krispies are made from rice, not flour, but white rice has the same vitamin problems as white flour when you compare it to natural brown rice. Brown rice, in fact, has a good deal of thiamin (B1) before being processed into white rice. B1 was the first vitamin to be discovered, and its discovery directly resulted from the invention of white rice, and the fact that when white rice first started gaining popularity a new disease emerged, beriberi, which people at first took to be a bacterium or other contagious disease, but was later discovered to be a deficiency of Vitamin B1. Now of course, we just add it back in through the "enrichment" process. And yes, if you're wondering, B1 is also made from petroleum. )


Anyway, here's a larger version of the cocoa krispies box:


And another good example:

RECIPE: PLUM AND PEAR COBBLER

The only thing you need to watch out for in this recipe is if your pears are not ripe. See note below.

Plum and Pear Cobbler

4 cups thinly sliced pitted plums
2 cups thinly sliced pears
3/4 cup granulated sugar (less if plums are sweet)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Combine sliced plums, pears, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Toss together and let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Combine flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture is like meal. In a cup, whisk together heavy cream and eggs. Dough should be fairly thick, but you can add a little more cream if necessary.

Pour fruit mixture into an 11x7 or 9-inch square baking dish.* Spoon batter over fruit.

Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for about 40 to 50 minutes, or until fruit is tender and topping is browned.

*if your pears are under-ripe (i.e. not soft at all) I would put the fruit into the oven for a good 20 minutes without the topping, then remove from the oven, spoon on the topping, and bake the regular amount of time.

RECIPE: GINGER AND PEAR BREAD

This one is super easy and yummy, but because this recipe's first step is creaming the butter, it requires refined sugar. I prefer to use maple syrup or honey as sweeteners: they're more natural and nutritious. The next time I make this recipe I'm going to try the wet/dry method instead so that I can skip the sugar: I'll melt the butter and add it to the wet ingredients (eggs and either maple syrup or honey) and then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

GINGER AND PEAR BREAD

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
2 eggs
2 medium pears, diced*
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, diced

*There's no need to peel the fruit; but if your pears aren't really ripe (if they're hard) you should roast them (whole) in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the skin turns brown, to soften them up.

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter, then add the eggs, beating till smooth.

Add the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat until smooth. Add the diced pear, and then the candied ginger.

Spoon the batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

LOCAL EVENTS: GREENPOINT COMMUNITY FOOD MEETING

We are inviting anyone in Greenpoint and Williamsburg who is interested in food justice, access, sustainability and security to join us. This first meeting will be a chance for people who are working on food issues in the neighborhood and those who would like to be more involved to meet, share experiences, and talk about how we can pool our resources and knowledge to build on the amazing food activism that is already taking place here and to talk about how we can connect with food activists in other Brooklyn neighborhoods.

This is an outcome of the Brooklyn food conference, which has been instrumental in getting these neighborhood meetings organized all over Brooklyn: "After an incredibly successful and exciting Brooklyn Food Conference we are morphing into a grassroots-based Brooklyn Food Coalition. So far 10 Brooklyn neighborhoods (and hopefully many more) are creating local, neighborhood-based groups that are choosing 1 or more projects to work on to improve the food situation in their communities. Each neighborhood will send 2 reps to a Council of Neighborhood Groups so we can share strategies, projects and campaigns across the Borough."

For more information go here.

GREENPOINT COMMUNITY FOOD MEETING
Thursday, September 24th 7:00 p.m.
Lutheran Church of the Messiah
129 Russell Street (btw. Nassau and Driggs)
Contact: Maggie Dickinson mdickinson (at) gc.cuny.edu

IN THE NEWS: FROOT LOOPS ARE NOW GOOD FOR YOU?

Have you heard about the Froot Loops controversy? I first started seeing this on blogs a few weeks ago and then the New York Times wrote an article about it on September 4th. There's a new food labeling program called "Smart Choices," backed by major food companies, that claims to be (according to their website) "a single, trusted and reliable front-of-pack nutrition labeling program that U.S. food manufacturers and retailers could voluntarily adopt to help guide consumers in making smarter food and beverage choices."

Food advocates like Marion Nestle have raised the question of how Froot Loops could have possibly been included in this program, since, well, sugar is the first ingredient on the label, and, in fact, makes up 41% of the product. Well, according to the Smart Choices website, having "developed a comprehensive set of qualifying nutrition criteria," they've decided that sugar is one of their declared "nutrients to limit" and have set a "general benchmark" that "added sugar" should be less than 25% of total calories in a product. Okay, sounds a little high to me, but then it turns out that, according to the Froot Loops label, sugar supplies 49% of its calories per serving (a serving of Froot Loops contains 110 calories, in each serving is 12 grams of sugar, and each gram of sugar (I looked it up) has 4.5 calories per gram. That means 54 out of 110 calories is from sugar, or 49%). Seems to me like Froot Loops doesn't even meet Smart Choices' own criteria.

But wait! They've made an exception for cereal!

For cereal, just go ahead and forget about that pesky (and still, honestly, kind of high, don't you think?) 25% thing, a cereal must have 12 grams of sugar or less per serving (serving size undefined, as you'll see below) to qualify. So Froot Loops just gets in.

Also, strangely, Froot Loops used to have 13 grams of sugar. At least, the nutritional information on the Fresh Direct website has a label listing the sugar content as 13 grams, while the Kellogg's website says 12. But they also seem to have adjusted the serving size, too: Kellogg's now says it's 29 grams, not 32. So did they just adjust their serving size to meet the requirements? Isn't that, ahem, cheating?

But anyway, whether 12 grams or 13, that's still a lot of sugar, right? I mean, 41% of your product is sugar and somehow it's a "smart choice"? Does that make sense? Oh, wait, here we go: the Smart Choices program "helps shoppers make smarter [italics mine] food and beverage choices within product categories in every supermarket aisle." In the NY Times article, Eileen T. Kennedy, president of the Smart Choices board, says that Froot Loops was chosen not because it's good for you, but because it's better for you than a doughnut (!): "'You're rushing around, you're trying to think about healthy eating for your kids and you have a choice between a doughnut and a cereal,' Dr. Kennedy said, evoking a hypothetical parent in the supermarket. 'So Froot Loops is a better choice.'" The Times article goes on to say: "The checkmark means the food item is a 'better for you' product."

A "better for you product"? In that case, doesn't everything within a "product category," except for the worst one of the bunch, qualify for this label, since they're all "better for you" than that one?

Let me leave you with some other Smart Choices products (to see everything that has so far "qualified" for the Smart Choices program go here):

Cocoa Puffs
Fresh Direct lists the sugar content as 14 grams (2 grams above the Smart Choices 12 gram maximum), and the General Mills website lists it as 12 grams per serving, but with the serving size now being 3 grams less: 27 grams as opposed to 30 (hmmm...).



Magical Cheese Stuffed Crust Cheese Pizza
Consisting of "Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza Made with REAL Mozzarella Cheese, Corn, Vanilla Pudding with Magical Chocolate Flavor and Color-Changing Sprinkle Packet " Sounds nutritious.

And every flavor of Teddy Grahams (first ingredient? Unbleached Enriched Flour, and I love how they put on the front of the box that it's a good source of calcium because it contains just 10% of your daily recommended value)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

If you missed last week's "Food for All" issue of the Nation, you can go to here to read Michael Pollan's appreciation of Wendell Berry, Alice Waters on school lunch programs, Anna Lappe on university dining halls, John Nichols on the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, and "Ten Things You Can Do to Start a Community Garden," among some other really interesting articles. (Some are complete, others require a log in.) Says Pollan of Berry: "That we are all implicated in farming--that, in Berry's now-famous formulation, 'eating is an agricultural act'--is perhaps his signal contribution to the rethinking of food and farming under way today. All those taking part in that conversation, whether in the White House or at the farmers' market, are deep in his debt." Yep.

-Kevin B.

RECIPE: SPAGHETTI SQUASH WITH JALAPENO CREAM

Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash (about 3 lbs.)
2 cups milk
2 to 3 jalapenos, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
2 tablespoons butter, plus more for pans
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded cheese

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut squash in half lengthwise and use a spoon to remove seeds and surrounding fiber. Put squash, cut side down, on a lightly buttered baking sheet and bake until tender when flesh is pierced with a fork, 30 to 40 minutes. Squash should be tender when pierced with a fork. Let sit until cool.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm milk and jalapenos until bubbles form along the edge of the pan. Remove mixture from heat and let sit 15 minutes. Strain and discard jalapenos.

When squash is cool enough to handle, use a large spoon to scrape the strands out of the skin and into a large bowl.

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, melt 2 tbsp. butter. Whisk in flour and salt and cook, whisking, about 3 minutes. Slowly pour in jalapeno-infused milk while whisking. Reduce heat to medium and continue whisking until mixture thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Pour mixture over squash and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to a buttered 2-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bake until bubbling and brown on top, about 30 minutes.

Yield
Serves 8

IN THE NEWS: FDA TO STUDY FOOD LABEL USE

The FDA has announced that they will be undertaking a study to find out why younger people are not using food labels as much as they used to:

Analyses of repeated survey data show a sharp decline in label use between 1994 and 2002. Much of the decline in label use occurred among young consumers, i.e., those younger than 35 years old. In 1994, approximately 13% of U.S. consumers reported "never" using the food label the first time they purchase a product, with no significant differences between various age groups. In 2002, the proportion of consumers reporting "never" using the food label the first time they purchase a product had increased to 19%, a significant increase over the 1994 percentage. In comparison, the proportion of consumers younger than 35 years old who reported "never" using the food label the first time they purchase a product had increased from 13% in 1994 to nearly 30% in 2002.

The proposal goes on to enumerate its goals and purpose:

The study goals are to: (1) identify attitudes and beliefs among consumers
toward health, diet and label usage; (2) determine relationships between those
attitudes and beliefs, as well as demographics, with food label use and non-use;
and (3) evaluate the relative importance of these attitudes between consumers of
various age groups to determine whether barriers to label use differ between
younger consumers and older consumers. The information collected from the study
is necessary to inform the agency's efforts to improve consumer understanding
and use of the food label.

I found it to be very interesting that 30% of consumers under 35 "never" read the food label, as opposed to 13% in 1994, and I'm curious to see the results of their survey. Maybe today's younger consumers feel that the nutritional information on the front of the box is enough. Certainly there are more nutritional claims on the fronts of boxes than there were back in 1994.

2009:


1984:

RECIPE: BEEF AND VEGETABLE COBBLER

This one is easy and delicious - a hearty meal as the days become cooler. Feel free to experiment with the vegetables depending on what's in your share. Zucchini, green beans or corn would go well here, even kale or Swiss chard, chopped up, would work. And if you want to sprinkle a little cheddar cheese over the top before it goes in the oven, I'm not going to stop you.

BEEF AND VEGETABLE COBBLER

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 large tomato, diced
1 medium eggplant, cubed
1 bell pepper, diced
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
2 tbsps honey
3 tbsps butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook ground beef in large heavy pot, breaking up into small pieces, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minute. Add spices, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add tomato, eggplant and bell pepper and briskly simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced, 10 to 15 minutes.

While beef simmers, whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together milk, egg, honey and the melted butter in a small bowl, then stir into cornmeal mixture until just combined.

Spoon cooked beef and vegetables into a casserole dish and top with corn bread batter. Bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of corn bread comes out clean, 15 to 25 minutes.

Serve warm.

RECIPE: 3 CHEESE STUFFED PEPPERS

I love cheese.

3 CHEESE STUFFED PEPPERS

4 bell peppers
1/2 lb ground beef
1 cup sliced mushrooms, crumbled
1/4 cup each grated Parmesan, shredded Mozzarella, and Feta
2 tbs Italian bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the peppers, cut off the tops and remove the seeds. In a bowl, mix the other ingredients and divide between the peppers. Stuff the peppers, lay in a glass or ceramic baking dish and place the tops back on the peppers. Cook for 45 min.

RECIPE: SPICY GREEN BEAN AND CUCUMBER SALAD

This one looks super easy, light and refreshing!

SPICY GREEN BEAN AND CUCUMBER SALAD

2 cups chopped cooked green beans
1 cup finely chopped peeled cucumber
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
2 teaspoons chopped fresh green chilies or 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled.

RECIPE: EGGPLANT LASAGNA

I don't eat pasta. Okay, on occasion I will, but generally I try to avoid it. Why? White flour. It's not real food. I know I'm probably in the minority on this. Everyone I know adores pasta but me. I just can't get over the fact that all of the nutrients (30 or more) are stripped from the flour during processing and then only 5 are added back (iron, niacin, thiamin, riboflavin and folic acid).
Anyway, here's a delicious and nutritious vegetarian pasta-less eggplant lasagna.

EGGPLANT LASAGNA

1 large eggplant
2 cups tomato sauce
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Peel the eggplant and trim the ends. Slice lengthwise into 1/4 inch thick slices to resemble lasagna noodles. Set on a tray and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 15 minutes to sweat out some of the liquid. Turn slices over and repeat salting and sweating. Brush off excess salt.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of a 9x7 inch casserole dish. Cover with a layer of eggplant slices. Sprinkle with a little of the shredded mozzarella, then top with another thin layer of sauce, and another layer of eggplant slices. Spread the ricotta cheese only on top of this layer of eggplant, and cover with more eggplant. Spoon on more sauce, then crumble feta cheese over the sauce, followed by half of the remaining mozzarella cheese. Top with a final layer of eggplant, remaining sauce, and the rest of the shredded cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, if cheese does not brown, turn on the broiler for about 5 minutes at the end.

FOOD MATTERS: SOME GREAT FOOD DOCS ON DVD

Can't wait until the new "Food, Inc." makes it to DVD? Try some of these to tide you over:

"The Future of Food" (trailer)
The Future of Food offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade and examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.

"The Real Dirt on Farmer John" (trailer)
The Real Dirt on Farmer John is a personal documentary about John Peterson, a farmer, artist, and eccentric/innovative thinker cast in rural Illinois. Filmmaker Taggart Siegel has documented John's struggle to redefine his family farm for over twenty years, witnessing the colorful drama of John's life. With the death of his father during the late 60's John turns his traditional family farm into an experiment of art and culture, making it a haven for hippies, radicals and artists. The Real Dirt on Farmer John charts the end of this idealistic era as the farm debt crisis of the 1980s brings about the tragic collapse of the farm. As the intricate weave of rural America unravels, vicious local rumors turn John into a scapegoat, condemning him as a Satan-worshipping drug-dealer. Threatened with murder, his home burned to the ground, John defies all odds to transform his land into a revolutionary farming community. At the film's close, the Peterson family farm is one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the United States. Out of the ruins of single-crop agriculture, John creates an extended farm village where people and art can thrive alongside agriculture.

"King Corn" (trailer)
King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naivete, college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America.

With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

A graceful and frequently humorous film that captures the idiosyncrasies of its characters and never hectors (Salon), King Corn shows how and why whenever you eat a hamburger or drink a soda, you re really consuming ... corn.

"Our Daily Bread" (excerpt)
Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming. To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting in the places where food is produced: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism. People, animals, crops and machines play a supporting role in the logistics of this system which provides our society s standard of living. Our Daily Bread is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn't always easy to digest and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.

"We Feed the World" (trailer)
What does world hunger have to do with us? In a word: EVERYTHING. We Feed the World is an award-winning, visually stunning, globe-trotting expose of our modern agricultural system. From struggling fishermen and long-distance truckers, to agronomists and multi-national corporate executives, We Feed the World presents a sobering portrait of the people who define the contemporary food industry, where the constant pursuit of profit takes precedence over the health of the workers, the hungry, and the environment.

IN THE NEWS: THE WHITE HOUSE GARDEN

Some fun facts about the White House garden:

Size: 1100 square feet

Total cost for seeds and mulch: $200

Pounds of produce as of July: over 200

A new video released by the White House tells the story, with some great time lapse of the garden from March through July: