In The Star’s Health section today, Sally Squires writes that TV ads for food aimed at kids makes them fat. No offence to Sally Squires, but… d’uh! Turns out kids between the ages of 8 and 12 watch more than 51 hours of TV ads annually (that’s an hour a week!), and half of those ads are for food - mostly candy, snack food, cereal and fast food. And yeah, the ads themselves aren’t literally making the kids fat, but if they nag their parents to buy the stuff in the ads, that will certainly contribute to the overall problem.

Maybe if those kids had a more colourful diet - Nancy White interviews “nutrition guru” Sam Gracie about how a variety of colours on the plate can mean better health.

The Vice Squad looks at Chris & Tal’s Better Ground - a half beef, half soy mixture used in place of 100% ground beef. This is a good start product for anyone wanting to wean themselves off meat slowly and easily.

Susan Sampson cooks up some tea-scented sugar-free applesauce, but like so much “sugar-free” stuff, it uses artificial sweetener instead. Wouldn’t it be easier to just start with a sweet apple and omit the sweetener all together?

And Megan Oglivie examines the Big Healthy Soup Diet in Diet Decoder, and gets sick of making and eating soup “souper” fast.

There’s an old saying “It never rains, but it pours”. After weeks of no Healthy Fridays posts, I’ve got more stuff here today than I know what to do with. I’m also cheating a bit as I really want to look at the “Active Nutrition” insert that came in the Toronto Star yesterday, an eight-page section devoted to various health related stories.

Included are:

• the top ten foods to help fight disease and promote good nutrition
• a review of the raw diet
• the nutrition programme at Contact Alternative School
• the longevity of fad diets and fad foods (oat bran anyone?)
• yoga and related diets
• different types of vegetarians
• health and weightloss advice online
• the importance of weight-bearing exercise and building muscle mass
• finding the diet books that are right for you
• the potential pitfalls of sourcing an all-organic diet
• more info about the Canada Food Guide with an interesting sidebar on why the Guide really doesn’t work for people of different ethnic backgrounds
• the Food Guide as seen from an athlete’s point of view (well chef to the athletes)
• and a survery of shoppers and whether their groceries pass the “healthy” test

Continue reading Healthy Fridays - Friday, March 9th »

We’re still talking about the new Canada Food Guide, it’s like the monster in those B-movies that refuses to die. In the health section of the Toronto Star, Jane Van Der Dort sizes up her average daily diet to see how she compares to the recommendations fo the guide. Turns out, according ot the guide, she eats too much. Author Michael Pollan says, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Makes sense. But Jane’s diet, while she does get twice the recommended amount of fruits and veggies, is too heavy on the protein. She manages to stay slim, probably through a lot of exercise.

For those who are on a diet, Susan Sampson offers an indulgence; a Weight Watchers recipe for Foie Gras with Caramel-Glazed Onions & Carrots.

Elsewhere, Megan Ogilvie reviews the Good Mood Diet. Based on combining complex carbs with protein, it claims to alleviate mood swings and depression caused by simple sugars in the bloodstream.

“Eating less refined carbohydrates and more complex carbohydrates, and pairing them with other foods will even out blood sugars and cause fewer insulin surges.”

And the Vice Squad looks at making prepared frozen cabbage rolls part of a healthy meal.

It seems Swiss Chalet wants customers to have healthier choices. In conjunction with the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Health Check programme, the chicken restaurant has modified many of their menu items to be heart-smart. Too bad they taste nasty or boring. As Toronto Star health reporter Suzanne Carere says,

Seriously, who eats a dry baked potato?

It became clear that nothing had been reformulated from the old menu. Swiss Chalet simply grouped together the items that were approved, forming an “insta-menu.”

It all seemed a little gimmicky to me.

Carere goes on to show how other fast food restaurants could also meet the health check criteria simply by omitting salad dressings, butter and cheese. She points out that recipe re-formulation is really the key, so customers have options that are both healthy and flavourful.

Carere also reviews Trident Splash (sugar-free), Apple with Raspberry gum, and wonders if the sweeteners replacing the sugar are actually a better option.

Cadbury Adams is winning the race with its new Trident Splash, which contains maltitol, maltitol syrup, sorbitol, acesulfame-K, Aspartame and Sucralose. Check it yourself. Six artificial sweeteners in one piece of gum. Is that really necessary?

Yes, it is, according to a quote by Jesse Kiefer, vice-president, Gum Centre of Excellence. The liquid centre makes it “even more critical that we find the ideal blend of sweeteners to bring out the best of both flavours.”

Well, if the guy from the Gum Centre of Excellence says so, it must be true. Because he wouldn’t have any kind of vested interest or anything, would he?