Selecting a Serving Size

Last week I pointed out some of the misleading information manufacturers are putting on food labels.  There was also some information about breakfast cereals.  Today I’ve got an article that neatly combines the two, and discusses the portion sizes that are used on food labels.

If you’ve ever measured out a “suggested serving” of breakfast cereal (3/4 cup) or fought for your share of a pint of Ben & Jerry’s (4 servings) you know that these portions are can seem unrealistic.  Many of our drinks and snack foods are packaged for individual consumption with more than one “official” serving inside.

The USDA is considering making changes to food labels, and increasing the serving size is one of the thinks that’s been proposed.  What do you think…will this give people a truer picture of the calories they’re consuming, or just a license to eat more?  Read the article and share your thoughts.

Jock on the Box

Looking for something to get you off to a good start in the mornings?  Wheaties has introduced a new breakfast cereal, FUEL, that claims to be ”by champions” and “for champions”.  It definitely has some celebrity firepower endorsing it…Peyton Manning, Albert Pujols, Kevin Garnett, Bryan Clay…those are some big guns.

The athletes worked with Dr. John Ivy, a performance nutrition expert, as part of a “co-creation team”.  Ivy, a fellow and former Ambassador for the American College of Sports Medicine,  has served or is currently serving on numerous editorial boards, including the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.  He has published over 150 peer-reviewed research and review articles, as well as two books on sports nutrition, Nutrient Timing and The Performance Zone.

FUEL’s marketing is directed primarily at young males who are active ”due to participation in athletics, work related activities or leisure time physical pursuits”.  It promises long-lasting energy from its whole grains.  One serving provides 100% of your B-vitamin needs (to ensure energy is delivered to your muscles).  The cereal is fortified with extra fiber which it claims will effectively curb hunger while it limits the feeling of fullness.   The cereal is dense and packs a substantial number of calories into a small serving.

What they fail to tell you is where all of those extra calories come from.  While a serving of regular Wheaties only contains 100 calories and 4 grams of sugar, Wheaties FUEL weighs in with 14 grams of sugar and 210 calories.  So just where does all that extra sugar come from….raisins?  Dry fruit?  No, FUEL gets its sweetness the old-fashioned way….added sugar!

In my blog yesterday I discussed how food manufacturers take advantage of food labeling laws and use multiple sources of sugar so that they appear lower on the ingredients list.  FUEL is a perfect example of this practice.  It has the same sugar content as a serving of Chips Ahoy cookies, and it’s possible that there is more added sugar in the cereal than anything else.   But because it derives its sugary goodness from a quartet of different sweeteners (sugar. honey, brown sugar syrup, & corn syrup),  whole wheat and rice flour are the first things we see listed in the ingredients.  

Interestingly enough, one of the “punching bags” of bad nutrition, Fruit Loops, doesn’t make any effort to hide from its sugar content.  “Sugar” is the only sweetener listed, and it’s listed right at the top as the main ingredient.  It does fight back a little, boldly heralding itself as “a good source of fiber” (it has 3 grams, FUEL has 5), but is that really enough to make up for all that awful sugar?  Fruit loops packs 12 grams of sugar into every serving! 

Hmmm, just curious, did you go back and look at how much sugar there is in FUEL?  That’s right, 14 grams.  I wonder if Peyton and his pals realize they’re pushing a cereal loaded with more added sweeteners than Fruit Loops or Cap’n Crunch!!!

Yet as I peruse the internet the majority of  articles I have seen describe FUEL as a “healthy” choice for breakfast that is “lightly sweetened”.   Several commented that is has a taste “that even kids will enjoy”.  Gee, I wonder why?  I guess the inclusion of a little fiber and a few vitamins really is all it takes to fool most of the people out there.

 Breakfast cereals are convenient and highly palatable.  But that palatability almost always comes at a cost, usually in the form of added sugar, fat, and/or salt.  The per capita  consumption of added sugar (refined sugar, corn syrup, etc.) hovers around 150 lbs. per person in this country.  If you think that’s good for your health, by all means FUEL up.

Now That’s a FUN Run!

Are you a Survivor fan?  CrossFit enthusiast?  Just looking for something wild, crazy, and out of the ordinary?  Here’s something that  you might enjoy then, it’s called Warrior Dash. 

It’s basically a 5k run with a dozen obstacles thrown in to make it interesting.   They’ll have you scrambling over hay bales, slithering through muddy swamps, and leaping over fire, followed by music and beer at the post-race party. 

There’s a race scheduled for our area next fall, so you have plenty of time to train and to get your costume in order!

California Leads the Nation in Organic Farming

Any guesses as to what percentage of U.S. farmland is certified as organic?  According to this Wall Street Journal article there are now 4.1 million acres devoted to the practice.   This generates $3.16 billion in sales, and California accounts for over 1/3 of this production.

While this may sound like a lot, it’s really only a drop in the bucket.  There are 922 million acres of farmland in the nation, so organics account for considerably less than 1% of this total.  We Californians may have a better selection of organic products than most, but there’s still a long ways to go.

Can I Wear It to Spin Class?

Check out this collection of cool cycling jerseys.  I may have to start riding just so I can wear one!

How Sweet It is?

Ever look at a list of ingredients and wonder why they use so many different types of sweetener?  It’s just one of the tricks food manufacturers use to take advantage of loopholes in our food labeling laws.

Often it has very little to do with flavor…plain old table sugar would work just as well as corn syrup or fructose.  But because each ingredient on a food label is listed in order of the amount used, using multiple sources allows food manufacturers to disguise how much added sugar products contain.

The primary ingredient in a product might be added sugar.  But by dividing it up and using multiple sweeteners, instead of seeing “sugar” first on the list of ingredients, it might be third…followed by brown sugar in 5th, corn syrup in 6th, fructose in 8th, etc.

Another loophole they exploit is to break down components of a product separately.  On a Nutri-Grain bar you will see “More Whole Grains” emblazoned on the packaging, and indeed, whole grain rolled oats are listed first in the ingredient list.  But upon further review you will see that the “crust” and the “filling” have been broken down separately.  While there’s plenty of added sugar in the crust (HF corn syrup, sugar, and honey) the  filling is almost entirely made up of sugars (HF corn syrup, corn syrup, blueberry concentrate, and sugar).

This adds up to 12 grams of sugar per bar, which is slightly higher than a serving of Chips Ahoy cookies (3 cookies=11 grams of sugar).  And while this isn’t a huge amount of sugar compared to many other products, it does show how easily a lot of added sugar can make it into your diet.

The Hi-Tech Way to Weigh

Check out this WiFi bathroom scale, capable of measuring your weight, fat mass, and BMI and sending the results directly to your computer.  You can store the results online, transfer them  to an Excel spreadsheet, or use a special app to track them on your iPhone.  It even looks like you can choose to share the data via e-mail or Twitter.

Dumbbells Make You Smarter

We already knew that weight training was great for building bone density and halting muscle loss.  But new research suggests that it also improves brain function.  What’s really interesting is that it seems other forms of physical activity do not to have the same effect on the brain.

In a study conducted in British Columbia, 155 women between the ages of 65 and 75 were divided into three groups.  One group exercised once per week with dumbbells and weight machines, a second group did this weightlifting routine twice per week, and a control group did a balance and toning workout twice per week.

After 12 months the women were given tests that measured executive cognitive function (the ability to make decisions, resolve conflicts, and focus on subjects without being distracted).  The control group, despite their twice weekly workouts, experienced a slight decline, 0.5%, while both weightlifting groups showed a significant improvement.  The group working out once per week  increased their scores by 10.9%, while the twice-per-week lifters showed a 12.6% improvement.

Evidently lifting those weights builds more than just muscle and bone, it also leads to better brain health.  Make sure your exercise routine includes some strength training, and that you’re pumping  iron at least once per week.

So Simple, Even a Caveman Can Brew It

Sticking with the theme this week (Paleo Diet, Caveman Workouts), I thought I would provide a link to this article.  In it an archeologist has an interesting theory as to why early man turned to agriculture.  What do wheat, rice, corn, barley, and millet have in common?  They can all be fermented and turned into alcoholic beverages!

Big Problems with Small Plates

Small plates of Mediterranean inspired foods, what else could you ask for?  Well here’s an amusing little tirade against tapas.