on the table

COLUMN: One thing going for English food: Smaller portions

LONDON  Once again, I’m leaving Europe lighter than when I came.

After eating out every meal for more than two weeks, the clothes still fit. One possible explanation hasn’t escaped my notice. Despite its reputation for bad cuisine, English food has at least one thing going for it: There’s less of it.

The amount of food served at meals is small by American standards.

That observation has emerged as a theme whether the meal is at a personal home, pub, chain or other restaurant. I’ve eaten Indian, Asian, Italian and British meals, including party food and conference fare.

I’ve gone away full every time but never stuffed. Here are what I think are some of the reasons:

COLUMN: Think of yourself as a food revolutionary

LONDON -- Maybe you should think of yourself as a revolutionary.

That’s how Jamie Oliver and Chris Bianco see themselves.

You probably know Jamie Oliver, the British celebrity chef and healthy food crusader. Bianco is an award-winning pizza chef and Oliver’s American business partner. They have created Union Jacks, a restaurant serving foods that live up to their vision of healthy eating: whole foods made with locally sourced, seasonal ingredients.

They see good food as a movement pitted against an entrenched system whose food industry members stand to lose if people make wholesale changes in the way they eat. 

COLUMN: New report lays out obesity challenge

It’s going to take a national lifestyle extreme makeover to reverse our obesity epidemic.

That’s according to a report published last week by the Institute of Medicine, a unit of the National Academy of Sciences that provides objective, evidence-based health advice for the nation. The report evaluated more than 800 recommendations for weight control and came up with a set of solutions that, taken together, were most likely to be effective.

The strategies center on goals for helping people integrate physical activity into their daily lives, making healthy foods and drinks more available, changing marketing messages about food and activity, making schools health-supporting environments and helping employers and health professionals help people more effectively.

COLUMN: New mad cow questions

This shouldn’t be news: Our food-safety system needs fixing.

The latest evidence can be found around the discovery of another case of mad cow. It was the fourth such mad cow discovered in the U.S.

Mad cow, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is a disease thought to be caused by misfolding proteins that have the effect of eating holes in victims’ brains.

The primary method for the spread of mad cow is thought to be from eating BSE-tainted meat. Hence the government’s ban on using certain parts of cattle carcasses in cow feed – and the importance of keeping BSE out of the food system.

The infected California cow was described as having an “atypical” form of BSE thought to arise spontaneously, rather than from consuming tainted feed.

So, what does it mean that another BSE-infected cow has been found?

COLUMN: How to cut sugar in desserts

For an incurable sweet tooth, one way to reduce the sugar load is to become your own dessert chef. You can cut the sugar by exercising more control over the ingredients in foods you fix yourself.

Cutting back on sugar has multiple benefits. You’ll eat fewer calories and make more room for foods that, unlike sweets, contribute important nutrients.

You can also reduce your risk of tooth decay, lower your blood triglyceride level, and better manage blood sugar if you’ve got diabetes.

Getting started is easy, but some recipes require more thought than others. It doesn’t always work to simply slash the sugar. 

COLUMN: Don't go for the hype on chia seeds

Ever consider eating your Chia Pet?

A new dietary magic bullet comes close to it – chia seeds.

Yes, I’m talking about the seeds of the plant that covered the hit novelty of the early ’80s.

Chia seeds come from Salvia hispanica, a plant from southern and central Mexico and Guatemala. The seeds resemble poppy seeds in size and color and were used as a food by the Aztecs.

Whole chia seeds are rich in protein, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, manganese and dietary fiber. They can be added to pudding, rice dishes, cooked vegetables and beverages or ground and used in baked goods such as muffins, cookies, bread and pancakes.  

Chia seeds are being touted now for their health benefits, but there’s little research to back up the hype. For example, claims that chia seeds can help you lose weight are overstated. 

A reply to Everley letter in N&O

My column of April 4 on fracking generated a response from Steve Everley of Energy in Depth, a Washington, D.C. oil and gas industry-backed interest group.

In his letter, Everley takes issue with the report from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources that said there’s little data on how hydraulic fracturing affects drinking water supplies.

Everley states: “In 1995 and again in 2004, the U.S. EPA concluded that hydraulic fracturing does not pose a risk to drinking water.”

That is clearly not true.

The 1995 event to which Mr. Everley appears to refer was testimony given by EPA Administrator Carol Browner in a suit over how fracking should be regulated. She testified that there was "no evidence that hydraulic fracturing resulted in any drinking water contamination.”

That is far different than claiming that fracking does not pose a risk. It simply means that at that point in 1995 – 17 years ago – no evidence had been found.

The 2004 study Mr. Everley refers to has been criticized by one of its own authors, a former Bush administration EPA official.

The 2004 study was one in which EPA looked at whether fracking in coalbeds was causing contamination of water supplies. I’ll leave aside the question of how applicable any studies of coal-producing regions may translate to the geology of North Carolina and just point out this: Benjamin Grumbles, one of the EPA officials who supervised production of the study, said:

"EPA, however never intended for the report to be interpreted as a perpetual clean bill of health for fracking or to justify a broad statutory exemption from any future regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.”

Additionally, an EPA whistleblower charged that the conclusions of the 2004 study were unsupported and that some members of the study’s peer review panel had conflicts of interest.

The EPA now is conducting a large-scale study examining whether fracking contaminates water supplies. We would be wise to put a hold on the movement to allow fracking in North Carolina until we have clear evidence that it can be done safely.

Our water is more important than natural gas.

 

COLUMN: Fill up on strawberries

Strawberries are ready!

Yes, farm stands are selling them and fields are open to pick your own. Buy them early and often.

You can fill up on without guilt. They’re high in water content and dietary fiber, so they’re bulky. You’ll get full before you need to worry about counting the calories.

They’re good for you, too. 

COLUMN: Go with the old grain of quinoa

Going global includes your diet. If you eat, it’s hard to miss a South American staple showing up on salad bars and in bags on the grocery store shelves all across the U.S.

It’s quinoa, and it’s a new old grain.

Pronounced KEEN-wah, it’s a native of the Andes region including Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia and Peru where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. There it’s used much the same way as we use cereal grains, though rather than a grass quinoa is technically the fruit of a plant.

Tiny grains of quinoa are flat and range in color from yellow or white to dark brown. They fluff up like rice when they’re cooked. 

COLUMN: In fracking debate, water needs strongest protections

When it comes to your diet, what’s more basic and important than clean water? It’s the one ingredient every one of us consumes and couldn’t live without.

That’s why you should take threats to the water supply so seriously.

The North Carolina legislature is about to consider whether to allow drilling for natural gas using a technology called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for short. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has issued a detailed report concluding that hydraulic fracturing is safe to conduct – assuming a hefty list of precautions is put into place first.

That’s the rub. Will our water be vigorously protected?