by OneMoreBite | Apr 23, 2005 | Food Safety
Is Beef Safe to Eat?
A human has been report with Mad Cow Disease yet Holland cries, “Our beef is safe! Our beef is safe!” Is it? Did they figure the person traveled to say the UK and got the bad beef there? Do they really know? No, they do not.
Stop fooling yourself. Our meat supply is horribly tainted. If you like beef. Fine. Eat beef. But starting today buy from meat (beef, chicken, even fish) from your local butcher shop and local fish shop, and you will avoid all this nonsense and be able to enjoy meat in peace once again. Support your local farmers too. We should start going back to being neighborhood consumers and stop thinking by saving a few cents at Walmart that we are doing ourselves or our children any favors.
I know, it can be more expensive but I’m not willing to risk dying for a piece of steak or lousy hamburger at McD’s. Are you?
Your local butcher buys his meat from small local farmers who do not sell to the huge meat processing plants. This is good for you. Look in your phone book or do a search online and find a local butcher in your town. Their beef, chicken, etc. are cleaner, less likely to be full of hormones, and are not coming from sick cows. Local butchers can teach you which cuts to use for what. Go in, ask questions, get to know a local merchant, and maybe make a friend in the process. Plus, supporting your community is good for you and the community.
Mad Cow is not something to fool around with nor is it wise for this country (the US) to randomly test a mere teensy percentage of beef. In Japan they test all cattle. Here we still allow downer cows (cows too ill to stand) into the food supply, and if an animal is obviously ill, it should not be butchered and sold to school lunch programs. Meat processing plants claim they do not, but just visit any meat packing plant and see for yourself.
Report about Human with Mad Cow Disease in Holland
by OneMoreBite | Apr 9, 2005 | Diet Products
The PowerPops site states, “Power-Pops formula (patent pending) uses five natural ingredients to suppress appetite and provide energy. Power-Pops have approximately 32 calories. Now you can eat candy and LOSE WEIGHT too.” Uh, huh.
Farther down they state, ” Power Pops contain 7-9 carbohydrates and 7 grams of sugar each.” I’m not sure how they are doing the math. A gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories and a gram of sugar contains 4 calories, thus having 7 grams of carbs X 4 would equal 28, plus 7 grams of sugar X 4 for another 28 calories or 56 total, but perhaps some of the sugar also counts as carbs? Who knows? I do know that eating these Power-pops four or five times a day is going to add a lot of extra calories for no nutritional value and nothing but sugar and carbs. Neat plan. Not to mention how nifty it is to continuously put something sweet in your mouth. That’ll go a long way toward breaking one of their sugar habit.
The advert continues “keep in mind that Citrimax “eats” this sugar so your body only actually consumes 1/2 of these carbs/sugars.” Whaaa? Since when does anything “eat” sugar calories? Since Neverland, that’s when.
Now Power Pops have added Hoodia, but Hoodia is not effective except in sufficient quantity. A teensy speck added to a candy lollypop isn’t going to be enough to do anything. I’d think there are far better ways than adding 100 calories (or more) to your diet in the false hope it will reduce your appetite.
A better approach? Have a cup of clear broth soup or miso soup before each meal.
by OneMoreBite | Apr 5, 2005 | Diet Products
Those wacky kids at Google are at it again. If you don’t know right away what I mean, check out this new offering:
Visit Google Gulp
What’s this? “Think fruity. Think refreshing,” says Google.
“Think a DNA scanner embedded in the lip of your bottle reading all 3 gigabytes of your base pair genetic data in a fraction of a second, fine-tuning your individual hormonal cocktail in real time using our patented Auto-Drink™ technology, and slamming a truckload of electrolytic neurotransmitter smart-drug stimulants past the blood-brain barrier to achieve maximum optimization of your soon-to-be-grateful cerebral cortex. Plus, it’s low in carbs!”
Who ever has this job has gotta be having a great time, and that’s all I know, so hats off to you Google Guys for making it real, er, in a fake product kind of way.
BTW, notice how their page makes you want this, even though they say it will analyze your brain, and even though it’s basically hopeless you’ll find someone with a cap so you can get one too? That’s my point. Advertising. Watch what you see and read and pay attention. Ads are designed to make you want what they offer so they make big promises and you may just not even notice what the ad really says at all. “Results not typical,” and whatnot. This is an excellent example of pure marketing in action. Even I want some. 😉
by OneMoreBite | Apr 4, 2005 | Book Reviews
I recently read a book by the only man to have survived alone on a raft at sea for more than a month, Editor of Cruising World magazine, Steven Callahan. In Adrift, Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea, Callahan recounted how while slowly starving he dreamt of food
“My body knows what it needs. For hours on end fantasies of sweet ice cream, starchy baked bread, and vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables water the mouth in my mind.”
Reading an account of one man’s survival in the face of sure death was inspiring to say the least.
My husband is currently building a boat designed by Callahan; actually it’s the redesign of Solo, the very boat that capsized when he was set adrift! My husband plans to take off on a singlehanded sailing adventure across the seas. He believes he could survive as Callahan did, while I’m telling myself I’ll die of starvation if I don’t eat in the next half an hour. Just sort of puts things in better perspective, I’d say.
by OneMoreBite | Mar 28, 2005 | Weight Loss Tips
I found myself putting an Easter goody in my cart and as I pushed toward the checkout I read the back, chocolate, coconut, “Hey, I thought. This sounds just like a Mounds Bar,” so sure enough I wandered to that aisle. (This is why it takes me hours to do the grocery shopping). I checked and yes indeed, the ingredients were the same. Here I was ready to shell out premium dollars because they’d taken a regular candy bar and put it in a nice shiny wrapper all dressed up for Sunday school!
I put it back. I look at candy bars all the time but I rarely buy them. Usually all it takes is a glance at the nutritional panel, and when I see the 12 grams of fat I think, “I’d rather have cheesecake,” and put it back.
So, next holiday make sure you aren’t just paying extra for the pretty packaging. If you don’t usually buy candy bars, why are you buying them now in their Halloween or Christmas colors? What is it about the red-white-and-blue packages that we are drawn to (frankly, those are not colors that are generally associated with food anyway). What about the pastel M&M’s? That’s just dumb to me becaues it’s the bright colors that makes me want M&Ms in the first place. Take that away and what have you got? For the record, I could have a million white M&Ms and I doubt I’d ever touch them.
So, next time you’re wandering the holiday aisles, just keep in mind, you are paying more money for the same thing. Wait for it to be really special. Shop speciality stores. This marketing ploy is just not funny anymore.
by OneMoreBite | Mar 28, 2005 | Food Reviews
Burger King has introduced two new sandwiches in what they call their “flavorful and indulgent breakfast sandwiches” selection to meet the growing (pun intended) need of starving Americans; namely, the Enormous Omelet Sandwich and the Western Omelet Croissan’wich. The sandwiches’ names tell the story: Enormous anyone? When a sandwich tells you right up front that it’s enormous you can bet it’ll be a dilly. ?The Enormous Omelet Sandwich is everything people love in a breakfast sandwich, but twice the size and twice as satisfying,? stated Denny Post, the chief concept officer at Burger King Corporation (BKC). Oh, yeah! Have it Your Way, all righty.
According to their way innovative nutritional dropdown, pick your foods so we can’t be blamed approach, they state the Enormous Omelet Sandwich has 730 calories, 47 grams of fat (17 saturated), 9 grams of sugar, 43 grams of carbs and 1860 grams of sodium. Yumbo. I think their numbers are slightly off because they list each ingredient, but give no estimate for the oils, etc. used in the cooking. You know they don’t cook those eggs in water.
They didn’t have nutritional info listed for the Western Omelet Croissan’wich (dumb name if you ask me), but it was just introduced this morning so you couldn’t expect them to update their website in a timely fashion, right? They only knew this new item would be introduced today for what, maybe six months? The advertisers got the memo, why not the web guy?
Not to be out done, I heard on the news just this evening that Hardies offers a hamburger that clocks in at over 1400 calories and 110 grams of fat! Holy heart attack, Batman! That is just plain ridiculous. You might as well just lay in the street cause you’re as good as dead if you eat that very often. “Want fries with that?” “Why, I think I do, and one of them apple pies too, if you please.” And people wonder why they’re gaining weight. Sheesh. I tried to find info on it, but was unsuccessful finding a website for Hardies. That seems odd. It’s also odd that I ran into tons of posts about how much people do not like that chain. So sad to hear. We don’t have them around these parts, and I could be misspelling the name, so sorry to them, if that’s the case.
According to Burger King, people were clamoring for a decent sized breakfast sandwich after voicing their displeasure at the skimpy offerings. Apparently the public is none too pleased with BK’s attempts to offer healthier choices and worst of all, smaller portions. “Not in my backyard,” or in this case, “Not in my fast food joint!” seems to be the common cry. We want it for the other guy, but not for me.
There is no way fast food places are going to scale back their menus. That’s just not what the buying public wants. Remember when they tried salad bars? Didn’t work.
I totally love the lame idea of cut up fruit and a mini bowl of yogurt. Like I’m going to a restaurant for that? The cut fruit in the grocery is too expensive, so how much do they charge for that, and how hungry would you be a half hour later? I’ll bet it’s one of the first to go.
by OneMoreBite | Mar 22, 2005 | Diet Products
Big surprise here but experts are weighing in on the new “lowered sugared” versions of pre-sweetened cereals and their findings shouldn’t surprise anyone. You can’t take sugar and a splash of flour, and switch it around and make much difference. It’s still sugar, and a splash of flour.
Although the new cereals do have less sugar, the calories, carbohydrates, fat, fiber and other nutrients are almost identical to the full-sugar cereals. There is no benefit to the consumer at all, but who thought there would be?
Lower fat products usually have more sugar. Lower carb products have artificial sweeteners (debate rages on their safety), and now the “Low Sugar” versions are really just a disguised marketing ploy. They’ll probably cost more too, so watch out!
Give your kids some oatmeal once in awhile. I loved it when I was a kid, brown sugar on top and all! Far healthier than Sugar Pops (oh, right they changed their name awhile ago), or Sugar Smacks (oh, wait! They changed the name of that cereal too!). Where is the graveyard for all the old cereals who featured “sugar” in their names? That sounds like another research project … how many cereals have changed their names to appear more healthy when in fact, they are the same garbage disguised as good food as always?
That’s why I argue that eating cake for breakfast is no different than eating a bowl of sugared cereal. So go ahead. If you want something sweet. Hold off in the evening, and have that dessert the next morning. It works for me
by OneMoreBite | Mar 22, 2005 | Food Reviews
They say, “only original and unpublished rice recipes” well, duh, you’re not going to just go copy straight out of your Betty Crocker cookbook, but what really is an “original recipe?” How many different ways can you put the same ingredients together? Let’s see, take rice, add milk, sugar, vanilla, you’ve got rice pudding. Is that original? No. The originality comes in how the recipe is titled, how the ingredients are listed, etc., and if you add some little twist, say a sprinkle of cinnamon, that couldn’t hurt either.
My husband makes the most awesome Salmon Rice Couquettes which is a mix of rice, salmon, onions, celery (I don’t know, he makes it), then patted into shape (he made a metal cookie cutter for this), and dredged in sesame seeds for an outer coating, then lightly fried in some sesame oil. Oh, these are so good it’s not even funny.
Then he makes the most delicious sauces and you just put a bit on the top, all fancy looking. We eat these with steamed greens and it’s just so good. It’s like having my very own gourmet chef!
Sadly the contest states six ingredients or less and preparation time under 30 minutes, and these take about 35 minutes so dang it! We so would have won that contest. It’s so good even the kids love it, and you know how kids are. My son thought I was trying to poison him when he asked for apple juice and I handed him a glass of unfiltered juice from a local farm. “What’s this?” he said. “Apple juice,” I replied. “What’s all this crap in it,” he disgustedly remarked. “It’s just not filtered,” it’s better for you, blah, blah, blah. He just made a face like I’m a freak. That’s what I get for waiting on His Majesty hand and foot.
by OneMoreBite | Mar 21, 2005 | Food Reviews
Here’s a Big Burger
You thought you liked burgers? Check this offering from the Seabrook Tavern in Topeka, Kansas:
For the “rest of the story” check out The Seabrook Tavern.
Not to be outdone, here’s another entry:
I like the looks of this thing, yes I do.
Here’s Foodmarket.com’s story about Denny’s Beer Barrel and their 11 pound burger
by OneMoreBite | Mar 18, 2005 | Drugs & Herbs
Does Hoodia Work for Weight Loss?
The next big wave to hit diet shores are Hoodia Diet Pills. Hoodia is an herb that grows in Nepal and has been used for centuries by the bush people for something to chew on long journeys. It would help them continue without hunger, which is why it’s suddenly the miracle weight loss product. Remember, the native use is to help with hunger, not weight loss. Bush people don’t need to lose weight.
So, keeping a keen eye on the hunger aspect, remember, fraud is rampant in the weight loss industry. Put on your “scam detection radar glasses” before you believe the hype. The main claims that are unlikely to be true include 1) You can lose weight without changing what you eat (if this were true you wouldn’t need to lose weight in the first place), and 2) You don’t need to exercise (it helps enormously to become more active, so why not promote it?).
That said, I will try herbal products and when I first read about Hoodia and the native uses, it seemed pretty impressive. Since then I’ve tried some capsules of powder I got online, and recently bought some hard pills at a local store. I liked the powdered caps better, so that’s what I’ll buy in the future.
I got an amazingly good result with the Hoodia Diet Pills, but it quickly was obvious this is not some miracle weight loss drug. It doesn’t make me feel any different so you could take it and forget it, unlike some products that make you feel jittery, but what’s most surprising is what happens when you’re not paying any attention.
Hoodia Made me Forget to Eat Breakfast!
As an example, I normally eat breakfast every morning. I’m hungry when I wake up, and breakfast is my favorite, so I don’t need to think about it, I just eat it. One morning I took the Hoodia when I first got up, and then went about my usual business on the computer and getting ready. Before I knew it, I was grabbing my jacket and starting to walk out the door when I realized I’d forgotten to eat breakfast!
Since I still didn’t feel hungry I figured I’d just eat something once I got to the office. Since I usually get hungry again around 10 AM, it was quite surprising to notice I didn’t feel really hungry at all until closer to 11 AM.
Now, before you get all excited and think you can get Hoodia and then never be hungry again, that’s probably not what’ll happen. I’ve tried it at other times of day without the same result. It may be more related to whether you’re involved in an activity (i.e. you’re attention is focused on something besides eating), and whether you’re reasonably well fed to begin with.
If you don’t eat quality food very often, you’ll tend to be hungrier, despite eating a whole bag of chips. Your body needs nutrients and it’ll keep pestering you until you give it something real to eat.
At this point, I like Hoodia Diet Pills and will probably be buying them again. Remember, Hoodia isn’t going to take away your appetite to the extent you’ll never be hungry but they can certainly help when you have “inappropriate hungers” such as in the evening after you’ve already eaten a big dinner, or other troublesome snacking times. Whenever is your roughest time, that’s when I’d give Hoodia a test run.
Key to Weight Loss with Hoodia Diet Pills
The key to getting a good weight loss result with Hoodia or any other appetite suppressant type product is learning to pay attention to your body’s hunger signals. In other words, if you ignore hunger now (eating way past satisfied into the uncomfortably full zone, or eating when you’re not hungry at all in anticipation of future hungers for instance), then paying attention to your hunger needs to be addressed either first, or at the least simultaneously while trying Hoodia.
