You Ask, I Answer: Iron Cookware

Any data out there on the amount of iron transferred into food when cooking with cast iron cook ware?

Does the act of seasoning the cast iron (coating it in oil) prevent or diminish iron's capacity to leach into food during cooking?

-- Nicole Journault
[City Unknown], Canada

One of the most thorough studies on this topic, conducted by Brittin and Nossaman, was published in 1986 in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The conclusion? "Acidity, moisture content, and cooking time of food significantly affected the iron content of food cooked in iron utensils."

It is a well established fact that cooking in cast iron cookware will transfer some iron into your food, especially if the food contains high amounts of vitamin C and moisture and is stirred or turned over frequently.

In terms of figures, cooking half a cup of spaghetti sauce in an iron pot for 15 minutes increases its iron content by approximately 800 percent. Foods low in moisture and vitamin C, however, increase by anywhere from 80 to 150 percent.

Keep in mind that these figures depend on how long you cook these foods for.

The "catch 22" is that iron cookware often imparts a strong metallic taste to foods -- especially those high in vitamin C and moisture cooked for long periods of time!

Three more important points:

1) Coating the cookware in oil prevents iron's leaching capacities.

2) Iron absorption gradually decreases with each passing use.

3) Since iron cookware only increases the iron content of non-heme iron, meats are unaffected.

You Ask, I Answer: Healthier Comfort Foods

As it becomes colder, I tend to crave high-calorie comfort foods like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, creamy soups, and cakes.

Can you suggest some nutritious ways of making them?

-- Sarah S.
Buffalo, NY

Absolutely. The key is to recreate these dishes in healthier, lower-calorie ways.

When it comes to mac and cheese, try whole wheat pasta. The higher fiber content will help you feel fuller faster.

If you find the change too sudden, make your dish half whole wheat pasta and half regular pasta.

When making the cheese sauce, use 1% milk, rather than whole. Also, cut the amount of butter asked for in the recipe by half.

To give the sauce extra thickness, add some cornstarch.

I also suggest using reduced-fat cheddar cheese (I highly recommend the Cabot brand) and then sprinkling some parmesan cheese at the end for extra taste that doesn't add too many calories.

When all is said and done, you will have saved yourself hundreds of calories and quite a bit of saturated fat. Best part? Your tastebuds will be just as pleased.

For homemade mashed potatoes, leave the skins on. Again, this provides a boost of fiber.

Then, replace the butter and milk in the recipe with olive oil (replace the suggested amount of butter with half as much olive oil.)

I have also made some delicious mashed potatoes by substituting whole milk with either 1% milk, plain soy milk, or unsweetened soy milk.

For creamy, lower-calorie soups, I suggest using corn starch or stale French bread as a thickener.

Using stale bread in this context is quite foreign to people in the United States, but very common in many European countries.

This will give soups hearty volume without tacking on saturated fat or an abundance of calories.

Another tip? Try a touch of Silk soy creamer (in its original flavor.)

And so we come to cake.

The best advice I can give you there is never to have an entire cake (or even half of one) sitting in your kitchen counter. It's too easy to cut a tiny slice, followed by another, and another, and another.

When it comes to choices, though, opt for a lower-calorie cake like angel's food cake first.

Top it off with the fresh fruit of your choice and up to 4 tablespoons of Reddi Whip (that adds, at most, 30 calories and 1 gram of sugar) and you have a slice of cake -- with fixins! -- that clocks in at less than 250 calories!

Hope this helps.

FNCE 2008: Flavor Magic

One upcoming product that caught my eye was the Flavor Magic portion control sheets -- dry marinade sheets that are pre-cut to reflect the recommended portion size of fish, chicken or beef.

Rather than weigh foods or eyeball portions, you tear a 4" by 3" sheet, place your protein of choice on it, and let it marinade for approximately 20 minutes (the time it takes for the spices on the sheet to transfer over to the piece of food.)

At that point, you simply rip the sheet off, throw it out, and cook your protein to your liking.

It's quite an inventive tool, as it takes care of portion control and healthy flavoring in one easy step that does not require cleanup.

The sheets are available in a variety of flavors -- each providing only four calories and one gram of sugar, and ranging in sodium content from 120 to 160 milligrams (a mere 5 percent of the recommended daily maximum value).

This is precisely the creativity that is desperately needed in the nutrition field.

For more information, please visit the Flavor Magic website (NOTE: You may begin ordering the product via the company's website on November 17.)

I truly wish these innovators the best of luck and hope their product catches on.

You Ask, I Answer: Oxalates

I know that spinach is not considered a good source of iron because it contains oxalates, which bind iron during digestion so your small intestine cannot absorb it.

I have heard, though, that cooking spinach will decrease the amount of oxalates.

Is this rumor true?

-- Christine (last name unknown)
Via the blog

The rumor is true, but irrelevant.

Yes, boiling reduces oxalate levels in food. However, this reduction is minimal, and it also leeches out vital water-soluble nutrients.

By the way, oxalates also bind the calcium in spinach, so if you're looking to get that mineral from a green vegetable, broccoli is a smarter bet.

Another Kashi Knockout

Kashi continues to crank out tasty and convenient whole grain products.

Their latest outing is savory 100% whole grain rice pilaf side dishes available in three flavors -- original, Moroccan spice, and fiery fiesta.

Each packet contains two servings, each offering 7 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein.

While the original flavor is sodium-free, the other two varieties contain 400 milligrams of sodium per serving (due to the presence of additional flavorings.)

In all fairness, that amount is roughly 40% lower than that of average ready-to-eat pilaf products.

Additionally, in the context of a meal otherwise low in sodium (i.e.: tuna or salmon steak, grilled tofu, sauteéd shrimp, grilled chicken breast) this is not a huge concern.

I appreciate the existence of an original flavor that lets customers exercise their culinary creativity. I highly recommend adding chopped nuts and raisins or chickpeas, red peppers, and cilantro.

The best part? The only cooking required is adding 2 tablespoons of water, mixing, and microwaving for 90 seconds.

You Ask, I Answer: Book Recommendations

Is there a current diet/cookbook you can recommend for health and weight loss?

-- Greg (last name withheld)
(City withheld), IA

I don’t like the term “diet book,” so let’s make this a list of cookbooks and "health books", shall we?

Books that teach actual nutrition principles and lifelong healthy eating patterns are more useful than the latest diet fad telling you to clear your cupboards of anything with sugar and spend the first two weeks on “phase/wave” one, where you basically spend 14 days craving all the foods you are now FORBIDDEN to even have a single bite of.

Anyhow, What To Eat by Marion Nestle is a great book for anyone looking to delve deeper into the food industry and how marketing and advertisement play a huge role in what we are eating.

Don't be confused by the title -- this book does not tell you what to eat to lose weight. However, it helps you separate marketing hype from reality, a very useful skill to have when navigating the extensive supermarket aisles.

Lisa Young’s The Portion Teller is a fascinating read. Not only does it highlight the increasing “portion distortion” epidemic that has increased caloric intake over the past few decades, it also communicates a pleasant message. If you’re looking to lose weight, don’t think so much about WHAT you’re eating, but how much of it!

I have mentioned Buff Dad on this website before (click here to read my interview with author Mike Levinson). I appreciate its "no nonsense" approach rooted in nutrition science as well as its particular tailoring to men (too many weight loss books specifically target a female demographic).

Linda Arpino, MA, RD, CDN, released a wonderful book titled Eat Fit, Be Fit: Health and Weight Management Solutions (pictured right.) It explains nutrition concepts simply yet thoroughly, and provides over 250 healthy -- and very tasty -- recipes.

I also think Eat This, Not That by the Men's Health team is a great guide to have handy when it comes to eating fast food. It can help you replace a 1,200 calorie lunch with one containing 500 fewer calories!

Crush Now, Cook Later

It is no surprise that garlic contains a wide variety of beneficial enzymes and compounds.

Did you know, though, that you are cheating yourself out of these if you throw freshly chopped garlic into a stir fry?

A study conducted by Claudio Galmarini and colleagues in Argentina and the United States (published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry last year) looked into alliinase, an enzyme in garlic that "catalyzes the formation of allicin, which then breaks down to form a variety of healthful organosulfur compounds."

Allicin, by the way, has been linked to decreased rates of both stomach and colon cancer.

Here's the catch -- heat renders alliinase useless.

That doesn't, however, necessarily mean raw garlic is the only way to capture all the health benefits.

Galmarini and his team found that "allowing crushed garlic to stand for 10 minutes before cooking may further enhance formation of [allicin] before heat inactivates alliinase."

Five Must-Have Foods

The latest video on the Small Bites YouTube Channel singles out five must-have foods.

Having these in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer will make healthy eating simple, quick, and convenient.

This is not an end-all-be-all "five healthiest foods on the planet" or "five superfoods that reverse aging" list, but rather just one of many practical ways in which nutrition can have a place in your kitchen.

Numbers Game: Answer

Researchers at England’s Institute of Food Research concluded that our bodies absorb 500 times more betacarotene from cooked carrots than raw carrots.

(NOTE: “Cooked” mainly refers to steaming, which retains more nutrients than boiling).

Although certain cooking processes -- mainly boiling and frying -- can deplete some nutrients, quicker methods which do not place food directly in contact with water, like steaming, increase many nutrients' absorbability.

Phytonutrients like lutein and lycopene, for instance, are more absorbable in cooked, rather than raw, vegetables.

It is believed this is due to cell walls -- which contain many of these compounds -- breaking down when exposed to high temperatures.

Don't get me wrong. Raw vegetables are still nutritious and should be part of a healthy diet.

However, the raw food's movement claim that cooked vegetables are "nutritionally inferior" is completely misguided.

Numbers Game: Friendly Fire

Researchers at England’s Institute of Food Research concluded that our bodies absorb ____________ times more betacarotene from cooked carrots than raw carrots.

(NOTE: “Cooked” mainly refers to steaming, which retains more nutrients than boiling).

a) 85%
b) 500%
c) 275%
d) 100%

Leave your guess in the "comments" section and come back on Monday for the answer.

You Ask, I Answer: Calorie Posting

Andy, I love to cook. I think I am speaking for most chefs and those that love to cook, we are not specifically thinking of calories when we create a dish!

Therefore, I must HEARTILY DISAGREE on your stance on the Food Network and other places that don't offer calorie counts.

I don't want, nor need, the government to step in and force laws on poor, creative chefs who are cooking dishes from their cultures and hearts. Where is people's sense of self-responsibility?

I'm not an idiot. There are plenty of recipes that I've looked up on the Food Network site that I KNOW are going to be fattening.

I don't like the thought of government going so far as to overstep their boundaries in the guise of "protecting Americans from themselves!" You are going up a slippery slope indeed. Where does it all end? People have to be responsible for their own health and what they put in their mouths.

BTW, it's the FOOD Network, not the HEALTH Network.

Paula Deen is a Southern cook, Ina Garten is not tiny and neither is Guy! I don't watch any of them for low fat recipes, I have my Weight Watchers cook book for that.

I love watching Paula Deen and all the butter she puts in her recipes. I might use that recipe for a special occasion AS IS butter and all, I might try to make it lower in fat or I might just enjoy watching her make something so decadant!

Please, don't take the joy out of cooking with this idea of forcing calorie counts on everyone! Let common sense prevail!

-- Laura Lafata
Miami Beach, FL

It appears that the main point behind my video was misinterpreted.

I am not asking for any interference. I am not telling anyone at the Food Network to decrease butter in recipes butter or replace heavy cream with skim milk.

Similarly, I am not asking Paula Deen or Barefoot Contessa to "do their part" for health and wellness by offering lower-fat recipes.

All I am saying is, “cook whatever and however you want, but inform people of caloric content.”

I do not want heart disease warnings alongside recipes, nor do I want television chefs to follow guidelines like “include at least one whole grain in every dish."

Each chef is master of their culinary domain, and they should exercise complete freedom in their kitchen.

Deep fry a stick of butter for all I care, just let people know how many calories there are in it.

Laura, it appears you are a health conscious person. Therefore, I have no doubt you are good at spotting high-calorie dishes and knowing what constitutes a "splurge."

Not everyone has that knowledge, though.

I can’t tell you how many times, when giving a nutrition workshop, I have had people ask me what the word “calories” on a food label means.

There I was talking about the benefits of whole grains and someone asks me what number they should pay more attention to -- calories or protein. Eek!

I have taught several workshops on making smarter choices at fast food restaurants.

Whenever I do one of these, I ask attendants to guess the number of calories in a large Big Mac meal.

The average response is says 800 calories -- 640 fewer calories than the correct answer!

It is very easy for people who are informed about nutrition to think the rest of the world is.

Guess what? As th above examples show, many people are completely in the dark -- even those who think they aren't!

This is why, as a future dietitian, I find the posting of calories to be helpful. A lot of people I have spoken to were surprised to find out that a low-fat muffin at Starbucks contains a mere 40 calories less than a full-fat one, for instance.

Posting calorie information does not take away personal choice. It simply allows consumers to make more informed decisions.

On another note, it saddens me that many chefs scoff at the idea of “healthy cooking” or making meatless dishes.

Many of this country's most famous chefs erroneously think there is no such thing as "vegan cuisine," and that asking for a sauce on the side ranks up there with double homicide.

I have shared many highly nutritious delicious recipes on this blog that even the unhealthiest of eaters have loved. It's the least I can do to dispel the myth that healthy eating consists of steamed carrots sprayed with PAM.

I do not expect Paula Deen to start counting calories, but why not provide that information for people looking to lose weight who would never even consider that one of her “individual” chicken pot pies packs in almost a day’s worth of calories?

Armed with this information, viewers can make a variety of choices -- have the recipe "as is," save the potpies for special occassions (rather than twice a week), make smaller potpies (thereby reducing calories), or find creative ways to cut down on calories by toying around with ingredients.

Healthy eating is obviously an uphill climb for many; why not give them a little boost?

Show Me The Calories!

Inspired by the recent New York City ruling requiring all fast food chains to post calorie information, I thought of other companies and places that should abide by a similar law.

Alas, I made my way to The Food Network website and noticed that caloric information is not available for any of their recipes.

I decided to conduct a little experiment.

Armed with a handy dandy calculator, I selected three random recipes, looked up caloric information for each ingredient, and added numbers. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Check out the latest Small Bites YouTube video for the results!

I am not asking for The Food Network to breathe down their chefs' necks and demand healthier recipes. This is a free country and people should do as they please.

I realize that many chefs do not have degrees in nutrition and many of them hold the ridiculous belief that nutrition and taste are mutually exclusive.

I digress. All I am asking for is basic information to help viewers make appropriate choices.

Quick and Healthy Recipe: Vegan Chili

I created this recipe (featured in the October 2007 issue of Oxygen magazine) two years ago when I decided I wanted to use my chickpeas and kidney beans for more than just salads.

I have often been disappointed by vegetarian chili at restaurants.

It's either too salty, gloopy, or a slightly superior alternative to refried beans.

This recipe is not only easy and nutritious, it is also chock full of taste.

I've had serious meat-eaters tell me this vegan chili surpasses many of the beef ones they've eaten!

Preparation Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS:
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
8 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup red or white onion, finely chopped
1 cup red pepper, cut into small chunks
1 cup green pepper, cut into small chunks
1 cup low-sodium chickpeas
1 cup low-sodium kidney beans
1 cup low-sodium black beans
Regular or sodium-free chili powder (to taste)
Paprika (to taste)
1/2 cup frozen sweet corn kernels
1.5 cans Del Monte petite-cut diced tomatoes with zesty jalapeño peppers
1/2 cup crumbled soy beef (optional; I recommend Boca or Morningstar Farms, both available in the frozen foods section of supermarkets)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat olive oil in a medium-sized pot. When hot, add garlic and onions. Simmer for a few minutes. Stir frequently.
2. Add peppers and beans. Stir, add spices, and raise heat to high (this helps absorb the spices more efficiently). Stir frequently
3. Lower heat to medium-high. Add diced tomatoes, corn, and soy beef (if using).
4. Stir well and cook at high heat for 5 minutes.

NUTRITION INFORMATION (without crumbled soy beef):

450 calories
2g saturated fat
420 mg sodium
10g fiber
14g protein

NUTRITION INFORMATION (with crumbled soy beef):

530 calories
2g saturated fat
630 mg sodium
12g fiber
24g protein

Say What?: Oh, Kevin

It's been a while since I've written about our friend Kevin Trudeau.

Earlier today I leafed through his bestseller Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About and came across a truly eyebrow-raising sentence I had previously missed but had to share here.

In his chapter titled "Reading Food Labels", Trudeau briefly discusses the nutritional impact of home cooked meals versus prepackaged food.

Rather than discuss, say, higher sodium and fat amounts in ready-to-eat or frozen meals, Trudeau judges these two on how much love they offer.

Cooked food, he claims, allows you to put love into your food, whereas major food companies sell products "where no love has been added."

Okay, I guess I can kind of follow his train of thought.

I can see how someone might feel emotionally "better" eating something they conconcted in their kitchen, being familiar with the ingredients and "enjoying the fruits of their labor," so to speak.

It was the next sentence that I had to reread three times to make sure my eyes weren't playing a belated April Fool's joke on me:

"The energy a person adds to food by preparing it himself actually causes the electrons in the food to spin in different directions, causing a much healthier product for the body."

Maybe Trudeau got bored and decided to play Mad Libs while writing his book?

That's the only explanation I have for such far-fetched, faux-scientific ("insert the world electron to make it sound intelligent") ridiculousness.

In The News: Here A Tasting, There A Tasting

Foodies and dietitians don't generally see eye to eye.

Foodies crave rich ingredients, orgasmic flavors, and lovely textures (even if they are achieved by triple deep frying).

Dietitians love food -- a good dietitian makes healthy eating flavorful, delicious, and not taste like cardboard -- but also seek out a certain nutrition balance (a sauce on the side, opting for broccoli instead of white rice to accompany a dish, etc.)

On that note, today's New York Times examines the impact of the foodie lifestyle -- particularly restaurant reviewers -- on health.

Take the case of eGullten.com founder Jason Perlow, who after years of sampling delicacies left and right without giving much thought to anything except how good they tasted, tipped the scales at 400 pounds and developed Type 2 diabetes.

Sure, an extreme situation, but it's still , pardon the pun, food for thought. And, he isn't necessary alone:

"“Most of us who are in this profession are here as an excuse to eat,” said Mimi Sheraton, the food writer and former New York Times restaurant critic who has chronicled her own battle with weight loss. Still, she said, “I’ve never seen such an outward, in-your-face celebration of eating fat.”

This is very much a "chicken or the egg" situation.

Chefs -- especially five-star celebrity ones -- continue to make fatty dishes without taken nutrition into consideration because, truth be told, they don't need to.

A restaurant reviewer could care less that an entree packs in 1,600 calories and two days' worth of saturated fat, or that the scrumptious new hot dessert in town has as much sugar as three cans of soda.

As far as a chef is concerned, if food coming out of the kitchen is well-reviewed, the job is well done.

This is why I personally don't find classical French cuisine that amazing. How hard can it be to make a delicious meal when butter, flour, and sugar are poured on liberally?
The new standard of top-notch cuisine should take nutrition into account.

This paradigm of "delicious vs. healthy" is antiquated, inaccurate, and due for a change!
Let's have dietitians infiltrate the restaurant scene.

Not to count calories or ask for a tomato-based sauce in place of a cream one, but to challenge talented chefs and say, "alright, that curry pad thai was to die for, but let's see you concoct something just as delicious that's higher in fiber, lower in fat, and has more vegetables."

The celebrity chefs sure seem to have the ego. So... come on and wow me.

You Ask, I Answer: Cooking Chicken

Sometimes I take plain chicken tenders (boneless, skinless, etc) or plain ground turkey and nuke it [in the microwave] until its cooked through.

Every time, however, there is white residue that is gunky and all around the protein I just cooked.

What is it? Fat?

-- Samantha Jark
Via the blog

It's actually denatured (coagulated) protein.

When undergoing extreme heat, proteins are basically molecularly disassembled.

They then bond together and, in turn, you get white clumps on the surface of your food.

This does not mean the protein is of any lower quality; it is a natural food chemistry process.

If it wasn't for protein denaturation, chicken would always conserve its raw texture, no matter how long you cooked it for!

You Ask, I Answer: Healthy Cooking/Dinner

I really don’t have too much time to cook. I just grab a quick protein and vegetable to go, oatmeal for breakfast.

I am having trouble with dinner. I had peanut butter sandwiches two days straight!

Any suggestions?

-- Marta (last name withheld)
Miami, FL

One common obstacle to healthy eating for many people is including it into a busy schedule with long work hours and/or many social activities.

After a 12-hour workday, the last thing most people want to do when they get home is break out the pots and pans and play chef for the night.

There are two scenarios worth discussing here.

If we are talking about situations where you get home extremely tired and hungry and the mere thought of even boiling water seems like a grating chore, let's turn to frozen dinners.

They should not be your daily dinner companion, but I do think busy people should have two or three in their freezer. It could very well make the difference between having a relatively healthy dinner or greasy Chinese takeout.

Of course, not any frozen dinner will do.

I recommend most the Kashi line. The Lemon Rosemary Chicken flavor, for example, contains 330 calories, a mere 1.5 grams of saturated fat, no trans fats, a respectable 5 grams of fiber, and just 1 gram of sugar.

The Southwest Chicken and Lime Cilantro Shrimp flavors offer 80 less calories and an extra gram of fiber!

The Sweet & Sour Chicken contains too much added sugar (25 grams, or 2 tablespoons' worth) for me to fully recommend.

Overall, you want to seek out frozen meals that contain:

No more than 400 calories

Four or less grams of saturated fat

No more than 650 milligrams of sodium

At least 5 grams of fiber

Of course, it's also very feasible to make very quick, healthy, delicious dinners. The key is to have your pantry and refrigerator "five-minute meal ready."

For example, always have small whole wheat tortilla wraps in the fridge.

You can then throw in a cup of sauteed canned black beans and frozen corn, half an avocado, and a tablespoon of two or salsa for a healthy, delicilous burrito in a flash. Protein, plenty of fiber, and healthy fats in just minutes!

It's also wise to cook large amounts of healthy side dishes (i.e.: brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat cous cous) on the weekend to keep in the fridge for situations like these. They can accompany anything from grilled chicken breasts to a soy patty.

Although serious foodies will want to send me hate mail for the following suggestion, I am all about buying precut vegetables. If you're pressed for time and can afford the extra cost, grab baby carrots, cubed butternut squash, broccoli florets, and pepper strips.

If you are busy (or simply lack knife skills) you are more likely to snack on pineapple or watermelon at night if it is already cut up for you.

Besides, as anyone who lives in a walking-centric city will agree, who wants to carry a whole watermelon from the supermarket to their apartment?

Convenience is no longer a valid excuse for ringing up Domino's. You are welcome to give them a call every so often, but realize that in this day and age, eating healthy can be attained by even the busiest of people.

You Ask, I Answer: Raw Chicken Food Labels

When you buy a package of uncooked chicken breasts, it has the calorie amount for four ounces of chicken. Is this cooked or uncooked chicken?

-- Suzanna (via the blog)

The nutrition information listed on raw chicken breasts is for the uncooked product.

This is where consumers have to do some extra math.

Even though you are buying a four ounce chicken breast, you are eating less -- approximately two and a half or three ounces -- due to water lost during the cooking process.

This isn't so much the United States Department of Agriculture being misleading as much as it is them being unable to guess how people will be cooking their raw chicken.

Not only does the final weight of a chicken breast vary on cooking times and methods, so does the caloric content.

Grilling does not add extra calories, but sauteeing chicken breast in a tablespoon of olive oil adds an additional 120.

You Ask, I Answer: Deceptively Delicious

Did you catch Jessica Seinfeld on Oprah talking about her new book? What do you think?

-- Denise Wyler
(location withheld)

I did not watch the episode where Jessica Seinfeld (yes, Jerry's wife) pitched her new book, Deceptively Delicious, in which she shares her recipes for many classic unhealthy foods (i.e.: especially kid favorites like mac and cheese, brownies) with a "healthy twist".

Said twist? Adding pureed vegetables. Oh, woopee... start throwing confetti, everybody!

I managed to see a few nauseauting clips in which Oprah made it seem like Jessica was a culinary goddess for "coming up" with this concept.

For some odd reason, many celebrities are bowing down to Jessica Seinfeld for doing nothing more than adding a handful of beets to chocolate cake.

Kelly Ripa referred to Jessica as a "genius." Well, considering the source that doesn't mean much of anything.

Interestingly, there is a serious plagiarism scandal surrounding this book, which you can read about here if you are interested.

I don't really see what the big hoopla is. For instance, Jessica's carrot-spinach brownie recipe includes a mere cup of pureed vegetables for a batch of 12 brownies.

In other words, a child would need to eat SIX of these brownies to get a mere half cup (just one serving!) of vegetables.

In the process, they would be getting a boatload of sugar and no other nutrients to speak of. I'm supposed to be wowed by this? Well, I'm not.

I'm actually pretty ticked off that, apparently, all you need is a well-known last name to get a multimillion dollar, multi-book deal.

What credentials, exactly, does Mrs. Seinfeld have to start doling out ANY nutrition advice? None.

Funny how this "hide pureed veggies in brownies" idea is found in books released before Deceptively Delicious, yet was completely ignored by the mass media until Mrs. Seinfeld came along.

The blueberry oatmeal bars are described as "full of spinach".

Really? The recipe -- which yields 12 bars -- only calls for a half cup of pureed spinach. Your little one will need to eat all 12 bars to get just one serving of vegetables.

Marion Nestle recently commented about this same subject on her blog -- I completely agree with every word.

This book sends out the completely wrong message on nutritious eating for children. Why should we be sneaking healthy food into kids' meals? Is a carrot really THAT terrible? Give me a break.

I was also very disappointed to find out that well-known dietitian Joy Bauer approved all these recipes.

Shame On You: Blind Item

For those of you unfamiliar with the term 'blind item', it is what gossip columnists publish when they have a piece of gossip so hot -- and damaging -- that they don't dare publish it with first and last name to avoid possible lawsuits.

For instance, New York City's infamous Page Six gossip column recently printed the following:

WHICH reality star turned rocker recently had major work done after a minor weight loss? Following in the footsteps of her plastic surgery-addict mother, the young starlet got her tummy tightened and her breasts lifted.

Believe it or not, I now have a blind item of my own, courtesy of a business and kitchen insider who knows firsthand of some terrible sneakiness taking place behind the scenes.

WHICH popular "healthy" food delivery business -- linked to a popular diet -- is pulling the wool over some of its New York City customers? Even though your meal is supposed to be "heart healthy" and low in calories, many of the chefs who work for the outsourced company that makes the meals are known to add more butter, cream, and salt to any "healthy" dish that doesn't taste good to them!

I was absolutely flabbergasted to find this out. People are putting their trust in a company to deliver healthy, tasty food, and they are instead getting highly caloric, fattening meals.

In all fairness, the popular diet company does not seem to be aware that this is going on. Negligent? Absolutely. If I was an executive member of this company, I would have someone from my staff supervising the chefs making these meals.

To be absolutely sure of what you are eating, your best bet is to make it yourself at home. Or, at the very least, understand that when you eat out, even if it sounds mega healthy, you run the risk of consuming more calories than you would at home, or added ingredients you would never think of putting onto your dinner plate!

PS: I know for a fact this has been happening in New York City. This service is national, though, so I don't know if this is a national or regional problem. I'll see what I find out.