Southwest Recipe Nutrition Breakdown

I went ahead and did the nutrient analysis for the Touch of Southwest Salad recipe from Friday's 7/27 post. The recipe makes about 10 full to overflowing 1-cup servings. Here is the nutrition breakdown for one serving of the Touch of Southwest Salad (and by the way, I am not crazy about the recipe name. I welcome any new suggestions):

Nutrition Facts for one serving:

• -220 Calories
• -12 grams Fat (this is due to the avocado, and why I use rice vinegar only for dressing - helps keep the fat calories down. But do keep in mind avocado fat is the "heart healthy" fat)
• 8 grams Monounsaturated Fat
• 2 grams Polyunsaturated Fat
• 2 grams Saturated Fat (not too bad..)
• 0 Cholesterol (remember, cholesterol only comes from animal foods, not any plant foods. So saying this recipe is cholesterol-free is a little redundant, but important to mention)
• 6.5 grams Protein
• 28 grams Carbohydrate
• 5.5 grams Fiber (darn good)
• 41 milligrams Calcium (beans in general can be a significant source)
• 3 milligrams Iron (good source)
• 42 milligrams Magnesium (10% of the Daily Value)
• 822 milligrams Potassium (17% of your daily needs - pretty good!)

This recipe is also a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, and niacin. Enjoy your nutrient packed delicious dish!

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Recipe of the Week: Touch of Southwest Salad

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Shaq: Lose Your Militant Trainer

Have you been watching Shaquille O'Neal's ABC show "Shaq's Next Big Challenge"? It's pretty interesting, not because they are or aren't taking the right tactics to help 6 overweight children lose weight. The show really seems to me like a nationally televised social study in what not to do when dealing with kids who need to make changes in their lives.

I do think Shaq's heart is in the right place, but the people he has hired to help these tweens have no clue how to think like a kid (although Shaq seems to). Or how to design a program that is sustainable after they leave the children's lives. Case in point, the gentleman charged with getting them in shape, Tarik Tyler, is nothing less than militant. He knows only one way to motivate and that has nothing to do with fun. He has the kids on treadmills, doing drills.. everything a kid probably wouldn't do on their own, but has to in this instance because Mr. Tyler is cracking the whip. The kids of course hate it and complain a lot.

Shaq finally does intervene and asks Mr. Tyler to have more "fun" with the kids. No duh! These kids, or any kids, mostly like will not continue their strict exercise program once Mr. Tyler is no longer there to crack that whip. I just don't see this kind of regimen being sustainable once Shaq and his crew are gone from their lives. I have no doubt they will lose the weight, it's a television show after all. If they didn't, that wouldn't make good TV.

But weight loss in itself is not the hard part. The hard part is keeping the pounds off. That is why we have to engage kids in activities that are doable and enjoyable to them when it comes to exercise. They can play team sports, go bike riding, play tag, dance (the Dance Dance Revolution video game is a great example), hula hoop, jump rope, jump on a trampoline, hippity hop or pogo stick, engage in good old fashioned 'play'. There are so many possibilities. Yelling them to go faster on the treadmill is not.

In the show Shaq gets them to play dodgeball and soccer which they end up loving; Because those activities are FUN! I say to Shaq, get rid of Tarik Tyler. If you are really serious about helping these kids, show them how much fun they can have just moving their bodies playing games and sports and dancing etc. Is that so hard?

Please share with me activities you've done with your kids that they liked and got them movin at the same time. The more ideas the better!

Have a fruit and veggie filled day!

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Recipe of the Week: Summer Colors

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The Last of the Newsbites 7-14 volume 3: Sucrose vs. HFCS, Walk to School

Phew! This is the last installment of foodie news for the week!

Sugar (sucrose) no better at controlling appetite or energy intake than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - HFCS has been blamed for the rising obesity epidemic, but the true culprit is over consumption of calories, no matter where it comes from. Researchers report drinking a soda sweetened with sugar isn't any better for you than a soda sweetened with sucrose (table sugar to you and me). This shouldn't come as a surprise because both sucrose and HFCS contain a similar ratio of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose; about 50% glucose and 50% fructose. (Incidentally, honey has about the same profile and contains more calories per tablespoon than either sucrose or HFCS). (For more on this study go to American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).

Kids aren't walking or biking to school - I don't think we need to see a study to find this out.. just observe all the cars dropping off and picking up kids at the beginning and end of the school day. It's crazy. In a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, only half of children who live within a mile of their school walk or ride a bike to get there. The rest are driven or take a bus. Kids are really missing a built in opportunity to increase their daily physical activity. A mile to school and a mile back is about 30 minutes (depending on how fast you walk.. the littler kids will take longer) of the 60 minutes of physical activity recommended a day for children. Interestingly enough, parents with college educations were more likely to drive their kids to school than parents with just a high school education. (The study is not on their website yet, so check back in a few days).

So why aren't kids walking to school more? The argument I hear most is 'safety'. Parents are worried their kids will get hit by a car or accosted by a stranger. Absolutely valid reasons. But let's work to make our communities more walkable and safer rather than deciding they will never be safe. And have kids walk to school in groups, there is safety in numbers. What other ideas do you have to make our neighborhoods safer for kids to walk to school? I'd like to hear more.

How did I do with the 'headlines'?

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More Newsbites 7-14 volume 2 - Fat Tax, Obese Kids Suffer

Here is your next installment of the week's foodie news:

British researchers urge the government to impose a tax on high fat foods - They claim such a tax will prevent 3000 cardiovascular deaths a year. Their findings are modeled after the resultant decreased consumption of cigarettes due to a Value Added Tax (VAT) in that country. Of course the food industry doesn't like this idea, but would you expect them too? Interestingly enough, did you know the Brits have already added a 17.5 cent tax to some sweets, ice cream, savory snacks and most drinks? But, it doesn't look like the British government will act on the fat tax recommendation. They put the cabash on the proposal claiming a fat tax would be unworkable. Shucks... (published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health).

Quality of life for obese kids similar to kids with cancer - The intense stigmatization obese children suffer is too blame. This according to a review of childhood obesity stigmatization studies conducted over the last 40 years. And it's not just from other kids teasing or rejecting them at school. Parents, teachers and the media are also to blame. Parents often perpetuate the problem and teachers don't necessarily come to the defense of an overweight child when he is being bullied by his classmates. The authors conclude that weight discrimination is as a great a problem as race discrimination and more emphasis must be placed on protecting these children in addition to implementing more pediatric weight management programs around the country. I couldn't agree more. Stigmatizing the overweight only makes the problem worse.

Let's be careful what we say about other people's bodies and encourage our children to be more sensitive too. (For more on this study go to the July issue of the Psychological Bulletin)

Wait, there's more.....

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Newsbites 7-14 volume 1 - Burger King Trans-fat Free, Teens and Asthma

There has been a lot of foodie news this past week that I couldn't resist writing about. But then I ended up with this reeeeaaaaaallly long post that I wouldn't even want to read through. So i decided to break it up into 3 posts to give your eyes a little break in between. I also thought I'd try my hand at some 'headlines'. Let me know what you think. Here is the first batch:

Burger King finally gets rid of trans fats -The fast food giant announced they have successfully tested a new trans-fat free oil with consumers. In taste tests BK found consumers reported they either thought products cooked in the new oil tasted the same or better than when prepared with trans-fat oil. I tell ya, in the near future trans-fat may be obsolete. But don't forget, trans-fat free does not mean fat-free! All fats and oils contain the same number of calories per tablespoon, 120 calories. Those French fries will be just as greasy with the new trans free oil than the old trans-full oil.

Teens + poor eating habits = asthma. If you've got teens you may want to curb their BK visits, and the like, to help prevent lung problems such as asthma. According to a study released this week from the Harvard School of Public Health, teens who ate the least amount of fruit (vitamin C), nuts and unsaturated oils (vitamin E) and fish (omega-3 fatty acids) were most likely to suffer from either asthma, wheezing, coughing and poor lung function. Need I say more?
(I don't think the study has been published yet so no link to it. But click here to read more in an online article about the research on MSNBC's website.)

Teens, have a fruit, nut and fish filled day (don't go overboard on the nuts- be mindful of calories)!

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Recipe of the Week: Cabbage Salad (Better Than It Sounds)

• Use the bagged pre-shredded cabbage and carrots
• Try any store bought Chinese chicken salad dressing, check for sesame oil in the ingredients - that's what really gives flavor

Nutrition Information per serving:

Calories 130

Fat 7 gm

Saturated fat 1 gm

Cholesterol 0 mg
Fiber 4 gm

Sodium 190 mg

Have a fruit and veggie filled day!
(photo courtesy of .Florian)

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More on Vitamin D

Vitamin D stories are just spilling out all over the place. I received some great feedback from a reader after I posted Boning Up on D that I intended to respond individually. But given that vitamin D has gotten some more press this week I decided it worth another post cause this issue is just getting bigger and bigger.


The reader relayed a real-life experience that spot on tackles the skin cancer versus low levels of vitamin D argument. This reader endured both skin cancer, pre-osteoporosis (osteopenia) and low blood levels of vitamin D! Talk about a bad day. I thank her/him for sharing this story and am so sorry s/he had to go through such a rough patch. But it does highlight the need to address appropriately, adequate sun exposure to help boost our vitamin D levels, keeping in mind the real risk of getting too much sun. This reader recommends anyone living in northern climates to get a blood test to find out your vitamin D status and not be quite so obsessive about avoiding the sun. I have to concur.


Our kids are at special risk because they are in the process of building bone. We want to keep ours, and make sure our kids are indeed laying down adequate bone mass. New research out this week shows kids living in the northeastern United States indeed appear to be at real risk of bone diseases, like rickets, due to inadequate blood levels of vitamin D. Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia measured kids blood concentration from this part of the country and found over half of them had inadequate vitamin D levels. So we must take this seriously. Yes use sunscreen, but do allow your child to have some sun exposure. As I had said before in my previous post, vitamin D researchers are suggesting we get some sun but stop just short of our skin changing color.


And lastly I have to toot my horn for a sec. I was interviewed yesterday for a Newsweek story on bone health, particularly emphasizing the need for vitamin D. The story should run in about two weeks so look for it if you get Newsweek.


Don't forget you can get some D from your diet by drinking fortified milk, soy milk and rice milk, fatty fish like salmon, shrimp, and eggs. Check the nutrition facts label to find out if a food is fortified. And of course you could also take a supplement.

Have a vitamin D filled day!

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Recipe of the Week: Bell Pepper Chopped Salad

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Grill It Safe this Holiday

1. Keep it clean. Always start with a clean grill for safer as well as better cooking overall.


2. Then wash your hands thoroughly before handling any food! (I didn't really need to put that in there, cuz you knew that already, right?).


3. Don't cross contaminate. Prep meat, pork, poultry or fish on a separate cutting board than vegetables. Always clean your cutting board with hot soapy water after each use.


4. Don't reuse any marinade. After the marinated food goes on the grill and you want to baste it some more, use a fresh batch of marinade (it's the cross contamination thing again). Just throw the used stuff out right away to avoid any temptations.


5. When your food is cooked and ready to come off the grill, place it on a clean unused platter. Never put it back on the same dish it sat in when the food was raw.


6. Remember the two hour rule. The rule of thumb with meat, pork, poultry or fish, raw or cooked, is no more than two hours out of the refrigerator. If it's over 90 degrees outside, be safe and keep it to an hour.


7. Remember the meat thermometer to ensure you cook out any harmful bacteria (also helps you avoid overcooking). Beef steaks should reach at least 145 degrees (that'd be about medium rare), ground beef and pork to 160 degrees and chicken breast to 170 degrees.

For more food safety tips, grilling or otherwise, go to http://www.homefoodsafety.org/.

Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July!

(photo courtesy of D'Arcy Norman)

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4th of July Where the Grilling is Easy

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