--Salad Dressings. I noticed on my most recent trip that the club is now carrying twin pack bottles of Hidden Valley Light (40-50% lower fat and calories than the regular brand). Lately though, I've become much critical in reading salad dressing ingredient labels in general (beyond calories); in part, this was stimulated by the fact one of the Rodale websites pointed out a certain guacamole dip I was buying from a supermarket contained more vegetable oils than guacamole. Avocados are an amazingly nutritious fruit (eaten in moderation) and a superb source of monounsaturated fats. Things like soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup automatically set off yellow flags to me. Anyway, I took a pass, although I'm pleased to see lower-calorie versions available.
My personal preference is extra virgin olive oil for salads or cooking (olive oil is almost 75% monounsaturated). A second oil to consider (in a salad dressing, not for cooking) is flaxseed oil, which contains the highest percentage of an Omega-3 fatty acid, ALA. (ALA is a precursor to DHA/EPA, e.g., in fish oil, although we only able to convert a small percentage.) If I have to settle for another oil for salad dressings, the most reasonable alternative is canola oil, which is a runner-up in the monounsaturated and ALA categories. Litehouse (not carried by Sam's Club) has a jalapeño ranch (made with canola oil) that I like. [On a side note, beware of products which give you a multiple choice of vegetable oils like soybean or canola. I'm always going to assume the worst case scenario.]
The other thing I try to look for in salad dressings is how the product is sweetened. I mentioned in my Favorite Things post that I have purchased Walden Farms (which is sweetened with sucralose). Kraft used to offer "Carb Well" products and also used sucralose in its salad dressings (but they also used soybean oil, which is over 50% n-6 PUFA).
--Veggie Dips. I will often purchase the three-lb. bag of fresh broccoli florets; when I eat the broccoli raw and allow myself a dip, there are a couple of relevant items I have purchased from the deli/ prepared foods section of the store. First, my stores sell Yucatan guacamole (the vendor advertises its products as 95% avocado). Most lower-carbers like myself consider avocado as a preferred fruit, with low net carbohydrates and "good" fat (i.e., monounsaturated). Second, it also carries a ready-made branded spinach dip (at about 70 calories for 2 tablespoons).
--Jerky. I never cared much for the taste of jerky when I was a kid. There are a couple of things that made me reconsider: (1) it is portable and doesn't require refrigeration, and (2) you can get jerky for a number of meats or fish which can be hard to obtain in fresh or frozen form in many supermarkets, e.g., venison, ostrich, buffalo or salmon. Sam's Club offers some economical values on varieties of Jack Link's. (I have separately purchased Ostrim, a blend of ostrich and beef.) A 1-to-1.5 ounce high-protein, low-fat stick at under 100 calories is one way I cope with occasional between-meal dieter munchies.
--New Fad: Water Bottles. I recently purchased a reusable Clear2Go water bottle from Clear2O (not stocked by Sam's Club); this comes with a replaceable water filter attached to the lid. A principal concern is not having plastic that leaches into your drinking water and in particular is BPA-free (BPA is thought to be related to insulin resistance). The Clear2Go bottle is made of LDPE #4 (which is one of the non-leaching plastics). Of course, you can always fill a water bottle from a filtered water cooler or dispenser, but with this unit, you can refill your water bottle from any public source away from home. In any event, I was shopping for replacement filters for my Brita UltraMax and noticed most of the water filter container packages (e.g., Brita and Pur) seem to come bundled with free water bottles. Anything which that facilitates dieter exercise and good quality drinking water is a good thing.
The Angus Burger Wars
As a small investor, I have been interested in how McDonald's (and its competitors, such as Burger King) would finally address the premium burger segment, which is a mainstay in casual dining chains like Fuddruckers, Chili's, and others. Well, it seems as if they've decided on a particular cattle breed, a bigger burger (from a quarter to a third of a pound), more upscale fixings (e.g., types of cheese) and a bakery-style bun; it comes with a premium price tag and steep increases of calories (starting at over 640), fat, and sodium. [Heaven forbid instead of increasing portion size (I think a quarter-pound is enough), they should think of something like marinating burgers or seasonings beyond salt and pepper or offering customers a choice of low-fat cheeses, condiments or a whole-grain bun!]
Hats off to Denny's for going beyond the typical fast food executive excuse ("our customers don't want to buy healthier food") for its innovative "Better for You" menu options, including things like smaller portions of calorie/fat-intensive foods (What a concept! Portion control! In a restaurant!), reduced-sodium food preparation, and vegetable sticks and fruit slices for kids.
The Thin Roll Wars
I've mentioned in past posts my fondness for Arnold's Multigrain Sandwich Thins (100 calories). (Speaking of burgers, I like to get my George Foreman grill up and running, fry a low-fat burger and add a fat-free slice of cheese, a layer of baby spinach leaves, picante sauce, mustard, onions and some sliced jalapeño peppers. A quarter-pound burger fits the thin roll quite nicely.) Pepperidge Farm has come out with a competitive product, Deli Flats, which come in 3 flavors (100% whole wheat, 7-grain, and oatmeal). They also market a brand of very thin bread slices (about 45 calories) Let's hope the trend catches on (less is more). Of course, if you want to do away with bread altogether, you could try a trick every lower-carb dieter knows--substitute large lettuce leaves for bread...
Hats off to Denny's for going beyond the typical fast food executive excuse ("our customers don't want to buy healthier food") for its innovative "Better for You" menu options, including things like smaller portions of calorie/fat-intensive foods (What a concept! Portion control! In a restaurant!), reduced-sodium food preparation, and vegetable sticks and fruit slices for kids.
The Thin Roll Wars
I've mentioned in past posts my fondness for Arnold's Multigrain Sandwich Thins (100 calories). (Speaking of burgers, I like to get my George Foreman grill up and running, fry a low-fat burger and add a fat-free slice of cheese, a layer of baby spinach leaves, picante sauce, mustard, onions and some sliced jalapeño peppers. A quarter-pound burger fits the thin roll quite nicely.) Pepperidge Farm has come out with a competitive product, Deli Flats, which come in 3 flavors (100% whole wheat, 7-grain, and oatmeal). They also market a brand of very thin bread slices (about 45 calories) Let's hope the trend catches on (less is more). Of course, if you want to do away with bread altogether, you could try a trick every lower-carb dieter knows--substitute large lettuce leaves for bread...
Nutrition Action Looks at Nuts
If you read my last post, you know that I am a skeptic on the Lipid Hypothesis (the CSPI is in the tank for it). You would think the facts that some ethnic groups (e.g., Eskimos) have existed on diets high in saturated fats without significant coronary heart disease, that some studies show much of clogging arterial plaque consists of polyunsaturated fats, and that saturated fat is necessary for number of purposes (including calcium absorption, a preferred nutrient for vital organs, cell stability, and an improved immune system), and that mother's milk largely consists of fat, most of it saturated, would lead some people to pause before replacing saturated fat in one's diet with polyunsaturated Omega-6 fats (i.e., most vegetable oils and shortening, used in many packaged and deep fried foods), unbalanced without enough Omega-3 fats in one's body (particularly DHA/EPA, found in oily fish).
Generally, I frown with overly simplistic dietary heuristics and prefer nutritional diversity. One of the differences I had with lower-carb contacts was their choice of vegetables based strictly on carbohydrate grams, even though vegetables vary in vitamins and minerals.
Generally, I frown with overly simplistic dietary heuristics and prefer nutritional diversity. One of the differences I had with lower-carb contacts was their choice of vegetables based strictly on carbohydrate grams, even though vegetables vary in vitamins and minerals.
Nuts and seeds vary in vitamins, minerals, fats, etc. The October 2009 3-page feature article ("Going Nuts") gives short-shrift to the discussion of minerals (nothing beyond a gratuitous reference to magnesium and copper in the second paragraph) I don't have an issue with their criticisms of excessive salt, sugar, etc., and I don't mind their raising the issues of calories and saturated fats. The question, in my view, is more about limiting one's portions--NOT the number of saturated fat grams in a single serving.
CSPI systematically eliminates macadamia nuts (one of my favorites, a superb source of monounsaturated fat, highest in B vitamins), Brazil nuts (best source of selenium), and cashews (highest in zinc) from "best bite" consideration, solely based on the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat (re: Lipid Hypothesis).
A couple of other critical notes: David's Sunflower Seeds receive an honorable mention. I had stopped eating David's Sunflower Seeds a while back after I noticed, with considerable dismay, the third ingredient listed on the ingredient panel: partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Even most laymen know once you see "partially hydrogenated", you think "trans fat"; be aware of nutrition labels that read "0 grams of trans fat" because that's an artifact of label reporting requirements (e.g., less than half a gram of trans fats) and serving size. This article didn't say a single word about process-generated trans fats, even though they are worse than any other type of fat.
Finally, if I was going to pick a favorite nut, it's easy--almonds, hands down (best source of calcium and fiber, high in protein, vitamin E and monounsatured oil). CSPI got on my bad side by refusing to rate Emerald Almonds Cocoa Roast (there are additional health benefits for dark chocolate), a best buy or honorable mention, primarily because the producers use a small amount of acesulfame potassium (an FDA-approved artificial sweetener) in conjunction with sucralose. [This product is one of my favorite things.] CSPI has a known ax to grind against this sweetener, based on cancer-related concerns, which the FDA and other organizations reject.
