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How safe is imported fish?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

Q. Is imported frozen fish from countries like India and Vietnam safe? I avoid buying any food imported from China but I bought frozen Swai Basa Fish (farmed) from Vietnam and frozen Squid (caught wild) from India. They tasted really good and they were cheap, but I’m wondering if we can trust those imports or they may be full of some toxic stuff.

A.  Theoretically, the safety of fish being sold in U.S. markets is monitored by federal agencies such as the FDA, whose job it is to be sure that the fish sold for human consumption in the U.S is “safe, wholesome, and not misbranded or deceptively packaged.”  (Institute of Medicine on Seafood Safety)

But as we’ve seen lately, the ability of the FDA to effectively police the food supply and enforce its regulations is in serious doubt. Just a few years ago, for example, there was a scandal in which salmon being sold for a premium as “wild-caught” in both wholesale and retail markets turned out to be cheap farmed salmon. ( Story from New York Times)

To make things even more challenging, fishing and farming practices are changing rapidly around the globe as demand for seafood increases.  New restrictions and best practices are being implemented. But loopholes and work-arounds are also constantly being discovered and exploited. It’s a moving target!

The best resource I’ve found to keep up with these issues is Seafood Watch. These guys are working hard to stay on top of all of these issues and to provide up-to-date resources for consumers trying to make safe and responsible choices.

I scanned Seafood Watch’s reports on both the fish you mentioned.  In terms of toxins or contaminants, I didn’t see too much to worry about with the wild-caught squid, but these comments on farmed swai basa got my attention:

“Commercial aquaculture for finfish in Viet Nam continues to use relatively low technology and many operations continue to use homemade feeds…[with] little or no management of aquaculture operations…”

The safety of these fish as food obviously depends primarily on the water they’re raised in and the food they are fed. They might be perfectly fine, but it doesn’t look as if anyone is paying too much attention.

From a sustainability perspective, which is more about the long-term health of the oceans than the safety of the food, both wild-caught squid and farmed swai basa are considered “good alternatives” but not “best choices.”

How healthy is 100% fruit juice, really?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

Q. What should I look for when buying fruit juice? For example the “100% pure and natural orange juice” says it contains 0% Vitamin C. How is that possible? Another one provides 100% Vitamin C but from the list of ingredients we see that Vitamin C is actually added.

A. The USDA considers a half cup of fruit juice equivalent to a serving of fruit but I have my doubts.  Processed fruit juice–even 100% juice–is a distant second to fresh whole fruit in terms of its nutritional value.

For one thing, fruit juice is a very concentrated source of sugar and calories. All the fiber, which slows the absorption of the sugars in whole fruit, has been removed.

Secondly, many (most?) of the naturally-occurring nutrients are lost during processing, pasteurization, and storage.  As you found, manufacturers may compensate for this by adding nutrients back to the juice after the fact.  You could get the same benefit from taking a vitamin C capsule.

Nutritionally, I’d rank processed fruit juice only slightly higher than soda and other sweetened beverages.

If you choose to drink fruit juice, consume it in moderation. Freshly-prepared juice (made from whole fruit with a juicer and consumed immediately) preserves more of the antioxidants. But for the full nutritional benefits of fruit, I think you’d be far better off consuming whole fresh fruit–and drinking water!

Michelle’s Tofu Salad with Nutritional Yeast

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

 

If a recipe calls for tofu, it’s important to note whether regular or “silken” tofu is called for. They are not interchangeable. Silken tofu is softer and more fragile. It’s used in miso soup, and it’s often used to impart a creamy texture in dairy-free recipes for salad dressings, puddings, pies, and other desserts. Regular tofu has a slightly coarser texture and holds its shape better. You’ll find it used in stir-fries and grilled and baked dishes.

Michelle’s Tofu Salad with Nutritional Yeast

I used to think of this as a mock egg salad until I realized that I like it much better than regular egg salad!  It’s great on crackers or as a sandwich or wrap filling.

Ingredients

1 package extra-firm regular (not silken) tofu

1 medium carrot, grated

3 tablespoons reduced fat mayonnaise

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (or more to taste)

Garlic salt, to taste

Instructions

  1. Wrap tofu in several thicknesses of paper towels and squeeze to remove excess moisture.
  2. Mash tofu with fork in medium bowl.
  3. Add rest of ingredients and combine. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Makes 4 servings. Per serving: 164 calories, 9 g fat, 8 g carbohydrate, 4g fiber, 14 g protein.

Originally published at QuickandDirtyTips.com

BPA: Which foods are safe?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

Q. I’ve heard that BPA can be in the lining of many canned foods and in the lids of jarred food. I am planning to get pregnant in the next couple of months so I’m trying to avoid BPA. Should I avoid all jarred and canned food? How can I find out which foods are bpa free and safe to eat?

A. The FDA sent out a confusing mixed message this week. On the one hand, the FDA officials admit they have concerns over the safety of BPA in food products such as canned goods and baby formula.

The agency says it supports “reasonable steps to reduce human exposure to BPA” and advises consumers not to fill containers made with BPA with hot liquids. On the other hand, the FDA has decided that BPA can remain in use while further study is conducted and tells parents to continue to use infant formula and baby foods because the benefit of “stable nutrition” outweighs the risk of BPA exposure.

Consumer watchdogs charge that the FDA is soft-pedaling the danger to consumers because they are not yet prepared to upset the plastics and food manufacturing industry by banning BPA.  My own review of the evidence makes me uncomfortable with the FDA’s laissez-faire stance–especially for pregnant women and small children who are probably at greatest risk from BPA exposure.

I’m also unconvinced by the industry’s reassurance that the level of consumer exposure is well below the government’s safety standards. Current research by independent scientists suggests that the safe exposure level may be as much as 20,000 times lower than these outdated standards permit.

Consumers who are unconvinced by the FDA’s reassurances have limited options for safer canned foods. One manufacturer (Eden Foods) offers some BPA-free canned goods and more BPA-free brands may emerge in response to consumer demand. Short of that, those wishing to avoid BPA should avoid all canned goods.    Fresh and frozen foods are good alternatives.

Tips on avoiding BPA exposure from foods and containers.

Interview with Technical Policy Director of Consumer Union

 

Why we overeat

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

This article is also available as a podcast. Click to listen

One of the main arguments for a low-carb diet is that reducing carbohydrates theoretically reduces your appetite. You’re not as hungry and therefore you eat less and you lose weight. But that assumes that we only eat when we’re hungry and that we stop when we’re full.

Most Eating Is Not About Hunger

In fact, there’s a growing body of evidence showing that that environmental cues may have a much bigger impact on how much we eat than physiological hunger—factors such as how much food is on the table or in the package, how much the people around us are eating, and even how big our plates are have a huge effect on how much we eat.

Does the Size of Your Dinner Plate Matter?

For example, researchers have observed that the average size of a dinner plate in the 1950s was 9 inches across. By the 80’s it had grown to 11 inches and today the average dinner plate is a whopping 13 inches.  The increase in obesity rates parallels the increase in dinner plate size almost exactly. Coincidence? Some people don’t think so.

A popular new diet book, called The 9-Inch Diet, by Alex Bogusky, starts by having you replace your over-sized dinner plate with 9-inch plates. Bogusky claimed that shaving three inches off his dinner plate helped him whittle three inches off of his waist.

We Eat With Our Eyes, Not Our Stomachs

So, can weight loss really be as simple as that? No rigid eating plans? No forbidden foods or special recipes? Well, environmental cues are extremely powerful. That old joke about someone’s eyes being bigger than their stomachs turns out to be truer than you might have thought.

A now-famous experiment involving trick soup bowls proved that your stomach doesn’t tell you when you’re full; your eyes do. Researcher Brian Wansink describes the soup bowl experiment in his book Mindless Eating. The subjects were asked to eat a bowl of soup and then to rate how full they felt. But some of the bowls were secretly refilled from the bottom as diners ate the soup The people with the bottomless soup bowl ate 73% more soup but rated their level of satisfaction exactly the same as the others—after all, they’d only had a single bowl of soup!

We Decide How Much to Eat Based on Visual Cues

It seems that we decide how much to eat based not on how hungry we are or how filling the food is, but according to visual cues, which can be misleading.

Another experiment by Wansink’s group shows that you’ll eat more from a large container, even if you don’t like the food! They replaced the popcorn at a movie theater with stale, 2-week old popcorn.  People complained about how terrible the popcorn was. Nonetheless, people who were given a large bucket ate about 35% more popcorn than those who were given a smaller container.

Apparently, the only ones who can be trusted to eat according to their actual physical appetites are babies and small children. Research by Barbara Rolls suggests that three-year-olds are not influenced by serving size; they eat according to their appetite. By the time they are five, however, they’ll eat more if they are served more.

You Can Overeat Without Being Overweight

Just because you’re not overweight doesn’t mean you’re not over-eating.

If supersized portions seduce you into over-eating unhealthy foods, you may cut back on more nutritious foods to compensate. You may be maintaining your weight, but at the expense of good nutrition.

So, this week, I’d like to experiment with the behavioral side of your diet. Unlike the metabolic diet concepts we discussed last week, which focused almost entirely on which foods you can eat, we’re going to focus instead on changing the environmental cues and behavioral patterns that lead to over-eating.

How to Trick Yourself Into Eating Less

So this week, you can eat whatever you like (as long as you promise to eat your vegetables, of course). Plus, I want you to follow the following rules.

  1. Use smaller dishes: Use smaller plates, bowls, and glasses. If your dinner plates are bigger than 9 inches across, use the sandwich plates instead.
  2. Don’t use serving bowls: No serving bowls or containers on the table.  Put your food on the plate and then go to a separate area to eat it.  If you are still hungry when your plate is empty, wait at least 15 minutes before serving yourself seconds.
  3. Prepare only what you need: When cooking, try to prepare only as much as is needed. Overcooking leads to overeating. That doesn’t mean you can’t cook enough for two meals. But when you’re done cooking, package up the second meal and put it away before serving yourself from the remainder.
  4. Don’t eat while distracted: Do nothing else while eating. Being distracted by television, the computer, or reading material can lead you to eat far more than you otherwise would. If you’re watching a movie or surfing the web and you decide to have a snack, pause the movie or shut down the computer until you’re done eating.
  5. Hide tempting food: Keep tempting but unhealthy foods out of sight.  When we see food we like, it actually makes us feel hungry.  The obvious corollary to this is to keep healthy foods readily available. In other words, line all the vegetables up at the front of the fridge. Bury the fudge in the back of the drawer.  And remember: chewing gum can help you avoid snacking.

Obviously, these rules all by themselves don’t ensure a balanced diet. But right now, we’re just experimenting with the environmental aspects of hunger and eating.

It might be best to minimize your time in restaurants this week, just for the sake of the experiment. You have very little control over portion sizes and other environmental cues in restaurants. At the very least, I suggest you avoid buffets, all-you-can-eat anything, and any restaurants that describe menu items with words like “jumbo” or “belly-buster.”

Questions to Ask Yourself

During your experiment with these behavioral strategies, here are some things to ask yourself:

  1. Do you feel more or less hungry than you usually do?
  2. Do you find yourself eating more or less at meals?
  3. Do you find yourself eating more or less often?
  4. Do you find it difficult or inconvenient to stick to the rules?
  5. Do you notice any differences in your energy levels or mood?
  6. Could you imagine continuing the experiment for more than a week?
  7. How would you rate the overall quality and balance of your diet? Better or worse than usual?

 

Originally published at QuickandDirtyTips.com

Lard vs shortening?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

Q. I am attempting to cook this recipe I found on the internet. It calls for 1/4 cup of lard OR vegetable shortening. I am health-conscious and I was wondering which option is healthier?

A.   If the vegetable shortening contains hydrogenated or inter-esterified oils, I’d say go with the lard–unless you’re a vegan, of course.

Lard has a bad reputation that I’m not sure it deserves. Like most animal fats, lard contains a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats.  In fact, it contains more monounsaturated fats (13mg per ounce) than saturated fats (11g per ounce).   It also provides 280mg of omega-3 fatty acids per ounce.

If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, see if you can find a shortening that combines coconut or palm-kernel oil with unhydrogenated vegetable oil.  Both coconut and palm-kernel oil contain saturated fats, which allow them to stay solid at room temperature. In baked goods, that is often key to getting the right texture.

But straight coconut or palm kernel oil might not produce the best results. Unlike lard, coconut and palm kernel oil are almost 100% saturated fat. At room temperature, they are the consistency of candle wax! To produce something similar to shortening, manufacturers blend them with liquid (unsaturated) oil.

See also: On lard, pie crusts, and whether all saturated fats are the same

Local produce hard to find in winter?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

I’m a big fan of the local food idea.  Eating food grown close to where you live saves a ton of gas, spares the environment, supports local growers, and puts fresher, more nutritious food on your table. If you live in Southern California or the southeastern U.S., the growing season is more or less year-round. But what about the rest of us?

Where I live in Maryland, for example, not much grows in the winter. So how do we get our five-a-day without resorting to fruits and vegetables that have been trucked in from California or flown all the way from South America? Growing your own sprouts (or “micro-greens”) can provide you with fresh, crisp greens throughout the winter. And what could be more local than your own kitchen windowsill?

sprouting lidsAll you need to grow your own sprouts is a couple of quart-sized jars, some cheesecloth or sprouting lids like the ones pictured here, along with a supply of seeds and beans for sprouting. You can find everything you need at your local health-food store or online.  In three to five days, you’ll be harvesting your own fresh vegetables.  I usually have two jars going: One with smaller “salad” sprouts like alfalfa, clover, radish, or broccoli sprouts and another with larger sprouts like lentils, sunflower seeds, mung beans or other legumes.

The salad sprouts are rich in vitamins C, A, and K and a host of other nutrients. Broccoli sprouts also contain potent cancer-fighting chemicals.  You can use salad sprouts in place of lettuce in sandwiches or wraps. We also love piling an inch or two of mixed salad sprouts on a slice of lightly buttered whole wheat bread.

The larger sprouts from beans and other legumes are particularly high in protein, fiber, folic acid and other B vitamins. Their heartier texture makes them good in soups, stir-fries, and omelets.  If you are a baker, knead a half cup of sprouted sunflower seeds or wheat berries into whole-grain bread dough just before shaping your loaf.  Or try some of these great, healthy recipes from Epicurious.com:

Black_cod_on_sunflower_sprouts_1 Miso-Glazed Black Cod on Sprouted Sunflower Seeds (pictured)

Spinach and Sprout Salad

Marinated Halibut on Radish Sprout and Fennel Salad

Bias in Research Not Always What You’d Expect

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

I know that many of you are suspicious of nutrition research. Many are convinced that the dairy, egg, beef, corn, or [fill in the blank] industries have bought off the researchers, journals, government, and the media in an effort to cover up the truth about their products–suppressing negative research and fixing studies to produce findings favorable to their products. There are certainly times when research is misconducted, misinterpreted, and/or misreported. That’s why all research (and reporting!) needs to be viewed with a critical eye–and all potential interests need to be disclosed.

Related content: Can we trust industry funded research?

The White Hat Bias

But biases don’t always run in favor of commercial interests.  Researchers writing in the International Journal of Obesity have documented what they’re calling a “white-hat bias,” which influences researchers to reach conclusions that support their preconceived notions about nutritional “bad guys.”

As evidence, they present two widely-cited studies on the link between sweetened beverage consumption and obesity. Both studies found that the link between the two was statistically insignificant. Yet these studies are regularly misrepresented by the press and cited by other researchers as evidence that sweetened beverages are positively linked to obesity.

They also show that studies which do find a link between sweetened beverages and obesity are much more likely to be accepted for publication than studies that fail to find a link–a so-called publication bias.  In other words, scientists have become so convinced that soda is a “bad guy” in the war on obesity that they overlook or misinterpret evidence to the contrary.

I’m not saying that sweetened beverages aren’t a problem. But ignoring evidence that doesn’t conform to what we’ve decided is “true” isn’t going to improve our understanding. And for those who believe that all nutritional research has been bought and paid for by Big Industry, it’s worth noting that an entrenched “thought bias” can be just as influential (and just as counter-productive) as commercial interests.