Greetings! Hope you all are having a great week so far. We are getting ready for Thanksgiving, which happens to be my favorite Holiday. I am looking forward to it next week. What are your plans?

Here are 5 nutrition related articles that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Vitamin D deficiency linked to heart disease

Vitamin D deficiency is in the news again! The American Heart Association had its annual conference in Orlando this week where a study presented a link between low levels of vitamin D and increased risk of heart disease and stroke. This study looked at tens of thousands of adults 50 years or older, a majority of whom had lower than healthy levels of vitamin D. Within 2 years, those who had extremely low levels of vitamin D were twice as likely to die or suffer a stroke compared to those who had normal levels. They were also more likely to develop coronary artery disease and heart failure.

The unanswered question is whether a lack of vitamin D increases the risk of heart disease, or it just happens to be a condition of people with such diseases. If it is not a cause, then the risk of such diseases cannot be lowered simply by increasing the vitamin D levels from sun exposure, diet or supplements. Most of these studies have an underlying implication that current recommendations for daily intake of vitamin D be increased to improve public health. I still remain unconvinced that a sweeping policy change is necessary at the moment.

I do agree that it is important to maintain healthy vitamin D levels especially in growing children. The focus should be on balanced nutrition from a variety of food sources, plenty of physical activity – out in the sun if possible, and reduction of sugar, salt and fat (saturated and trans).

Interesting food trends to watch in 2010

Yet another great article from Registered Dietitian Janet Helm on her Nutrition Unplugged blog this week highlights several predictions for food products in 2010. Based on a report from Mintel, the prediction is that next year’s food products will focus on health, wellness, convenience, sustainability and affordability. Sodium reduction, simple ingredient list, locally sourced, eco-friendly, multipurpose, private label, functional packaging, simplified labeling are likely to be the features that will dominate the store shelves next year.

I think that no one should underestimate the Marketing skills of the major food companies. They clearly know how to play the game and they keep a sharp eye on consumer trends. I fully expect them to bundle their products to not only capitalize on these trends, but also make sure they continue to up-sell across various consumer groups. Private labels will grow for sure, but I don’t think they will overwhelm the giants anytime soon.

I think there is a place for packaged foods in lives of busy parents. Just don’t fall for the fluff, read the labels and mix these products with fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables. As a consumer, you have enormous power because the food companies are quite good at listening to you.

Low sodium sea salt promises the gift of health and flavor

Using a mixture of salts from the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, Nutrasalt is a new product which claims to contain 66% less sodium than common table salt while providing a healthy balance of sodium and potassium. The target, of course, is the food industry desperate to claim a lower sodium content in their products without giving up on taste. Claims of heart health, natural, perfect balance of sodium and potassium should be very appealing to the food industry.

The nutritional facts label for Nutrasalt shows that it contains sodium chloride, potassium chloride and natural flavors. It is one of the simplest tricks to lower sodium by replacing it with potassium chloride. I reviewed the latest in salt reduction technologies in Can Salt be Any Saltier? article recently. The problem with potassium chloride is that it gives a bitter after-taste, which needs to masked by flavors or bitterness blockers. I do not know what kind of “natural flavors” this salt contains to maintain the natural salty taste. But I do think that their high volume natural claim is not that credible.

Also, this salt is not iodized. Bottom line – reduce your intake of table salt and processed foods even if they claim to be made from this so called healthy salt.

A new survey of Americans shows strong support for investment in prevention related programs and strategies as part of the new Health Care reform. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Trust for America’s Health sponsored this survey which polled about 1000 registered voters about their opinions on various priorities. 71% favor more funding for prevention programs while only 23% do not support any more extra funding.

Although it sounds good, I don’t think there is enough awareness and support for nutrition and physical activity, especially in schools. Out of all the prevention proposals, it ranked third by a large margin compared to the top 2. There is more emphasis on public health workers and their resources when it comes to prevention.

Also, only $34 billion out of the total of about $900 billion are allocated for prevention programs. That is not even 5% of the total! I do not believe that prevention is top of mind among our lawmakers. Public support will need to be much stronger and much broader than this survey data. I think we have a long way to go before we truly embrace the notion that prevention is better than cure!

Food allergy among US children rising

A recent paper in the journal Pediatrics reports that nearly 4 in 100 children under 18 years old reported some kind of food allergy in 2007. This was an increase of 18% over the 10 year period between 1997 – 2007. The researchers, however, are not sure if this increase is real from a clinical point of view or simply a result of better tracking and awareness among parents and healthcare providers.

Although troubling, I am not surprised by the recent results. In my article Good Nutrition is Key to Managing Food Allergy, I presented similar statistics. Some experts believe that poor quality of early childhood nutrition is to blame. Also, it is easy to confuse food intolerance with food allergy and most parents may not know the difference. Good nutrition builds a strong immune system, although it probably cannot help if there is a genetic reason for food allergy.

Whatever the reason, living with food allergy is challenging. I cannot claim to have first hand experience of that. But ify you do, I would love to hear from you.

Enjoy and do let me know what you think. I would love to have you share your best tips in comments below.

Photo source – Paul Davidson on Flickr  everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

Oh no! It is Friday the 13^th! A coincidence maybe, but I just noticed that this is the 3rd Friday the 13th this year. Maybe that is why we are having a nightmarish year so far – there is simply no good news anymore! Hopefully things will change for the better soon.

Here are 5 nutrition related articles that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Toronto conference raises another red flag on vitamin D

If  you want to be heard, scream louder! That seems to have been the strategy of the conference organizers in Toronto who made loud proclamations like “breast cancer risk virtually eradicated by elevated vitamin D levels” and “97% of Canadians are vitamin D deficient and don’t even know it”. I love it when I hear attention grabbing headlines like these! Sounds like the vitamin D enthusiasts are getting desperate because their research so far has not been able to influence policy decisions by health officials.

Interestingly, a non-profit “grassroots” organization called Grassroots Health is leading this fight with their flagship D*Action panel of leading researchers in North America. They recommend 2000 IU of daily vitamin D and blood levels of 100-150 nmol/mL to reduce the risk of all kinds of chronic diseases. Their mission is to promote awareness of the vitamin D problem by educational seminars and encourage people to get their blood levels checked two times a year.

There is no consensus on optimal vitamin D levels, especially for children. Keep in mind that the current recommendation is 400 IU for infants, children and adolescents. Many “experts” believe children need about 10 times the current recommended levels! I am not really convinced of that and I don’t recommend you to fall for this kind of advice without testing and consultation with your pediatrician.

Will you raise your hand for chocolate milk?

The creators of the “Got Milk?” campaign now want you to encourage your children to “raise their hand” for chocolate milk in school. The logic is simple – kids are not drinking enough milk, vitamin D levels are low, chocolate milk is popular so why not let them drink more of it in school? It is not as bad as candy and soda anyway! Check this out:

I am not necessarily against this idea because it seems like a practical solution to a common problem. Some experts have opposed this idea because of extra calories coming from added sugar. Kids are getting enough sugar already so chocolate milk has no place in schools, they say.

What do you think? If you raise your hand for the chocolate milk mustache this time, try to cut those extra calories from somewhere else in your child’s diet.

By the way, I understand why this video would use dietitians to endorse this idea, but what’s up with the actors and models? Does their endorsement carry the same weight? But then, I probably don’t understand Marketing!

Getting the division of responsibility right in feeding toddlers

I was thrilled to read Dr Kathleen Cuneo’s sound advice in response to my guest post on her blog a couple of weeks ago about challenges of feeding toddlers using Ellyn Satter’s division of responsibility idea. 5 challenges that we have faced with our 3 year old twins are – can’t be sure if they are really full, they are not hungry at dinner time, they are distracted by TV, they are too tired and you are just too tired and “give in”.

As she promised, Dr Cuneo followed up with a couple of posts on her blog, which I strongly recommend you to read if you are facing a similar challenge. In her post Are They Really Full? she advises parents to acknowledge their fears and do a realistic assessment of how much their children are eating on average. Probably about what they need because they are naturally programmed to regulate their food intake. So keep your fears in check and use division of responsibility consistently.

Just like getting a workout buddy can keep you on track to burn those extra calories in the gym each week, a community-level program to fight childhood obesity is more likely to work based on recent experience in Europe. Together Let’s Prevent Childhood Obesity is a proven program in France (it goes by the name EPODE), which aims to build healthier habits over a lifetime by using all key stakeholders at the local level. First started in 2003, EPODE now extends to 1.8 million people across 167 French cities, 20 in Spain and 8 in Belgium. Greece and Australia are expected to follow soon. The results, measured by BMI of children have shown reduction in the percentage of overweight and obese children.

Why does it work so well? I think the key is making it a community level issue and not an individual issue. Also encouraging healthy habits, moderation and not stigmatizing certain foods. Mindful eating, peer pressure and involvement of key opinion leaders such as dietitians, chefs and school administrators seem to create a supportive environment for the individual.

Should we wait for our policy makers to wake up and act? Why not get a Mom’s group together and develop a simple action plan to address this problem in your community? What do you think?

Changing the way we eat in 2010 and beyond

Registered Dietitian Janet Helm provides a great preview of what we might expect in the 2010 revision of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Looks like the experts are considering the following recommendations – fight obesity, promote nutrient-rich foods, focus on nutrients of concern (vitamin D etc.), emphasize plant-based foods, highlight diversity of vegetables and cut the salt. How the exact guidelines will turn out, no one knows but we can probably expect more emphasis on these points. I think it is quite timely and a clear recognition of a link between what we put in our bodies and our present healthcare challenges.

There is no shortage of advice and guidelines and yet we are facing a public health crisis. I think the gap is in implementation and accountability.

Enjoy and do let me know what you think. I would love to have you share your best tips in comments below.

Photo source – everystockphoto

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

Hello everyone! Can’t believe summer is almost over and it is back-to-school time. Hopefully you are all set with your back to school shopping and preparations. Good luck and be safe in the first week of crazy school traffic!

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another Five for Fridays! Here are 5 interesting nutrition stories of the week that caught my eye. Enjoy and drop a comment to let me know what’s on your mind.

Overloaded with information Canadians find barriers to healthful eating

The 9th Annual National Report Card on Health Care from the Canadian Medical Association has some interesting insights into barriers to healthful eating. Over 90% of the respondents to a survey believed that healthy eating can greatly reduce the health problems associated with aging. But nearly 3 in 4 thought that healthy food products cost too much. About half thought there is an information overload when it comes to healthy eating. Quite a few believed that it is hard to find time to eat healthy and it takes too long to prepare healthy food. Nearly 1 in 4 did not know how to prepare healthy foods.

I think that a lot of these barriers are psychological. It does not really take that long to prepare simple recipes if you know what you are doing. In fact, people spend far too much time watching TV and cooking shows than actually cooking their own food! And if you cut down on meat and processed foods, you can actually reduce your grocery bills even though fresh produce costs a lot these days. I will not go so far as calling these “barriers” as excuses, but I think people need to do a little soul-searching. With determination and a little practice, I believe it is possible to eat healthy. What do you think?

Growing employee morale in a vegetable garden

It is a tough economy, benefits and perks are disappearing, people are insecure and morale is down. Now a few small companies have come out a way to provide an outlet to their employees in company-sponsored vegetable gardens. In exchange for their time in the garden, employees can get a share of vegetables which reduces their food bills while giving them a sense of accomplishment. I think it is an interesting idea but runs the risk of fizzling out if they can’t get a critical mass of people who are passionate about it. Also, they need to integrate it with other health and wellness programs. They should even consider starting clubs and communities of interested employees and encourage them to share tips, recipes and other health related information. And if the weather permits, get out of the conference room and have an outdoor meeting in the garden!

If you are a small business owner, would you consider this idea? And if you are an employee, how about showing some initiative and proposing to your employer?

Yeast producer bets on vitamin D deficiency with a new innovation

A Canadian yeast supplier is betting on news about vitamin D deficiency by introducing a type of baker’s yeast marketed as Eagle VitaD^TM which also delivers vitamin D to baked products. Get ready to see claims like excellent source of vitamin D on baked foods like breads in your supermarket! I am all for new product innovation, but this idea does not solve the root cause of vitamin D deficiency in the first place. The fact that our kids are getting poor nutrition and do not participate in outdoor physical activity cannot be solved by eating vitamin D fortified baked foods. Also, keep in mind that these food products may be rich in sugar and saturated fat. They do plan to offer the new product without raising prices to bakers, but there is no guarantee that the price of bread claiming to be an excellent source of vitamin D will not go up! In my opinion, not worth paying more for this innovation.

Food trends in 2009

Although we are past the half year mark in 2009, I think these food trends reviewed by Dietitian Janet Helm are likely to stay popular next year as well. A lot of them are driven by the tough economy. Comfort foods, cooking from scratch, wasting less and buying local. There is also a growing interest in healthy and nutritious options – desserts with low sugar, super-foods, on-the-go ready nutrition and beauty foods. Interestingly enough, there is still enormous potential for processed foods, although the prediction is for miniaturized, customized and home-delivered products. These trends reflect the growing niches in food marketing to satisfy consumer demands while keeping a close eye on cost. Processed food is not going to disappear for sure!

Kohlrabi: funny name for a nutritious turnip

Cathy from Life Less Sweet wrote  a post this week introducing kohlrabi, a vegetable from the cabbage family. It is quite popular in Asian countries. Nutritionally rich in fiber and vitamin C, you can cook it in many different ways including Cathy’s recipe for roasted vegetables. It should also go well in a spicy curry sauce. And I wonder if you could even try blending it in a vegetable juice. I will need to check it out, maybe we can find it in our local Whole Foods.

Enjoy your weekend! And let me know what you think.

Photo source -netjer-lelahell on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

Greetings! This week, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) held its annual meeting and food expo in Anaheim California. IFT is a nonprofit scientific society with 22,000 members working in food science, food technology, and related professions in industry, academia, and government. In short, this is the event of the food industry where you can learn about the latest trends, products, technologies and policy directions. I did not go, but I gleaned together a few interesting items from the news media. If you are interested in more, check out Food navigator-usa or the IFT09 Live website.

Top trends – functional foods, naturally sourced, flavor and color innovation

Consumer lifestyle and attitudes are changing, and the food industry is paying attention. Many more new products marketed as functional foods, which promise nutrition-on-the-go, will soon show up on the supermarket shelves. Whether it is functional flax with omega-3 or  “rejuvenating” beverages with antioxidants and other exotic ingredients, there is a clear trend to package nutrition in a box (or a bottle) by mixing up a bunch of ingredients and market it with wonderful claims! Even meat is being positioned as functional food…go figure!

Naturally sourced is very much an oxymoron in my opinion. The idea surely is to give a sense of “naturalness” to food processed by a totally unnatural process. Nevertheless, this is a trend and you will see more claims about naturally sourced ingredients – sweeteners, beta-carotene, omega-3 acids, whey protein concentrates, stevia extract, dried veggies etc.

Flavor and color innovation is also big – the logic seems to be that if you cannot fool the mind (due to regulations about nutritional facts and ingredients) just fool the tongue by adding flavors to hide the true identity of food. I must admit that the science of flavors is very challenging and the research may actually lead to a better understanding of the food-brain connection someday. For now, the research is offering the food industry a great way to continue launching new products – cha ching!

Four award-winning technologies

I am a techie, so I found these award winning technologies quite interesting. Now more than ever, I am convinced that innovation is driven by market demand, and that if consumers demand that food be food and not processed ingesitble stuff packaged in a box, the industry will find a way to deliver. But I digress – here are the 4 worthy of our attention:

1. EnWave has developed a new dehydration technology nutraRev, which uses a combination of vacuum and microwave to dry fruits, veggies, meats and seafood. The advantage compared to the traditional freeze drying technology is that it fast, cheap and consumes much less energy. They claim improved retention of color and flavor. The first use of this technology is for drying blueberries which they say are “puffy” after drying and look very much like fresh blueberries!
2. A high pressure sterilization technology from the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST) is making it possible for our soldiers to enjoy shelf-stable mashed potatoes while on duty out there! Because of high pressure, it is possible to use low temperatures during sterilization, which does not compromise the taste and texture of food.
3. Ecolab Inc. has developed an sterilization additive for plastic bottles,which sterilizes these bottles at lower temperatures than hydrogen peroxide, thereby reducing energy. These bottles can be used for beverages to make them shelf-stable without the use of refrigeration or preservatives.
4. NOVATION starches from the National Starch company also received an award.  These starches can be used to manufacture products such as salad dressings with texture attributes and process tolerance that were only possible with modified food starches. NOVATION starches, which include certified organic versions, are derived from waxy maize, tapioca, potato and other sources.

Free samples of future foods tell where industry is headed

Want to know where the food industry is headed in the near future? Just take a look at some of the free samples that were on display at the expo – the full list is posted on the IFT09 Live website:

• Healthier brownie for kids – fortified with omega-3 (who cares about sugar?)
• Omega-3 in OJ
• Beauty foods – whey protein based ingredient claiming to support skin health for drinks like OJ and other foods
• Nutricosmetic licorice – custom nutrient pre-mixes for skin care, ice-cream for boosting immunity, tonic for cognitive function
• Fiber in baked goods – beta-glucan concentrate with dietary fiber

Seems like there is virtually no limit to  combining a few nutrients with otherwise not-so-healthy foods and marketing them with glorious claims. I hope the consumers do not fall for this game for too long.

High oleic acid soybean claims the high ground

I wrote about these genetically modified soybeans from DuPont in a recent Five for Fridays – they are designed to have a high concentration of oleic acid, which does not require hydrogenation. Hydrogenation improves the stability of the soybean oil, but it also results in trans fats. Now the everybody in the soybean oil industry is jumping on the bandwagon because soybean oil is big business. This type of high oleic acid soybean oil will reach 1.6 billion pounds by 2013!

Other new soybean oil products on the horizon include high stearic, mid oleic/low saturate, and increased omega-3 fatty acid content. High stearic oil delivers a creamy texture, which is a plus for bakery products that require “hard stock” fats.

Who thought there will soon be an end to fried foods?

Fortified foods – could this be a solution to the world’s malnutrition problem?

Fortitech, Inc., a company specializing in custom nutrient pre-mixes for all kinds of food products thinks so. They have launched a World Initiative for Nutrition (WIN) through which they plan to distribute these formulations of vitamins, minerals and amino acids for use by local food processors in various countries. In partnership with NGO’s (non-governmental organizations), UN and Governmental agencies, they plan to provide fortified foods that are consistent with local cuisine and tastes. One of their focus groups is pregnant women and infants and young children at risk of malnutrition in low-income countries. I think this is a good initiative because malnutrition remains a major problem in many countries in the world. Whether this will be done for profit is not clear from their publicity material. Still, I hope it will allow the world’s children to grow up healthy and realize their full potential.

Enjoy your weekend! And let me know what you think.

Photo source – tanakawho on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com