Go Further with Food: Nutrient Density

The first article in our “Go Further with Food” series focused on food waste. Now we turn our attention from throwing out less food to throwing in more nutrient-dense food to further our health. Food has a lot offer. It’s how we sustain life and it’s a big part of how we enjoy life too. But food can also present a conundrum. While it’s critical that we each get enough to eat, eating too much too often can be detrimental to health as well. And even if we consume the right amount of food, we also have to think about getting the right amount and types of nutrients. Striking the right balance between nutritional quality and calorie quantity, a ratio that describes the nutrient density of our diet, isn’t always easy to do. How do we know if something is nutrient-dense? Nutrient density can be a tricky concept to understand. Luckily, the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) has taken care of the definition of “nutrient-dense” for us. And as it turns out, it’s not just about the foods, but how they’re prepared as well. According to the DGA, “All vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seafood, eggs, beans and peas, unsalted nuts and seeds, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, and lean meats and poultry — when prepared with little or no added solid fats, sugars, refined starches, and sodium — are nutrient-dense foods.” How can you increase the nutrient density of your diet? Every food choice presents the opportunity to increase the nutrient density of our diet, but not everything we eat needs to be nutrient-dense. Rather, the goal is for the overall diet to be nutrient-dense. One way to do this is by thinking more critically while grocery shopping, since that’s where many of our eating patterns begin to take […]

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Unscrambling the Science Behind Eggs and Heart Health

Sworn off eggs because you heard they were bad for your heart? Turns out, eggs have a complicated history with heart health. Because cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, and diet plays an important role in the development of CVD, there is a good deal of research interest in examining the relationship between diet and CVD. As such, a new observational study examined the relationship between egg consumption and CVD, delivering a much-needed sunny side to the science. Key Points of the Study Researchers used data from an ongoing observational study of more than half a million adults aged 30 to 79 from 10 different locations in China. They narrowed their focus to people who had not been previously diagnosed with cancer, diabetes or CVD, resulting in a sample size of just over 461,000 people. Participants were asked how often they ate eggs, along with other questions about their diet and health history, and were stratified by level of egg intake. Then the highest and lowest levels of intake were compared: 13 percent of participants reported eating eggs daily (amounting to about ¾ of an egg per day), while 9 percent said they never or rarely consumed eggs (about ⅓ of an egg per day). After nearly nine years of follow-up, 83,977 people had been diagnosed with CVD, 9,985 of whom had died. There were 5,103 “major coronary events,” such as stroke or heart attack. Results showed that daily egg consumption was associated with an 11 percent reduction in risk of developing CVD as compared to those who never or rarely consumed eggs, as well as an 18 percent lower risk of death from CVD. Daily egg consumers also had a 26 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke and a 12 percent reduced risk of ischemic […]

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What’s the Carnivore Diet?

A few weeks ago, I was on Facebook scrolling through my timeline, and a particular post caught my eye. It was a picture of steak with the caption, “Trying the carnivore diet”. A bunch of thoughts ran through my mind: “What about the fiber?”, “No apples or strawberries?” and “This can’t be healthy!” I went to Google to see if this was really a thing; lo and behold, it is, and it comes with a few supposed health claims. But is the carnivore diet really a health savior or just savory? The carnivore diet is a more extreme version of the keto diet, and, like the name suggests, involves eating only animal foods.  You can eat all meat, including beef, poultry, fish, organ meats – such as liver and kidneys – and, if you’re feeling adventurous, entrails and brain. Also, the meat can only be seasoned with a little salt and pepper, no other seasonings are allowed. And while some variations of the carnivore diet allow for full-fat dairy, the most extreme followers omit dairy completely. While this sounds (and is) extreme, proponents of the carnivore diet say that consuming only meat helps with many health ailments, such as fatigue, obesity and digestive health.  The downside of the carnivore diet is that it is only meat, which means an entire macronutrient, carbohydrates, is completely missing from the diet. Carbohydrates are necessary for the body to properly function. They are the food source of the primary  fuel (glucose) utilized by the brain and working muscles and contain nutrients that are nearly non-existent in meats, such as fiber, vitamins C and K, and folic acid. And while emerging research is heating up the conversation on dietary fats, a diet of only meat, especially meat high in saturated fat, may negatively affect cardiovascular […]

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Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): From A to Umami

Has there ever been a taste that you enjoyed, but couldn’t quite explain? Perhaps you are noticing what has been coined as the fifth taste, “umami”; a taste attributed to foods containing glutamate, an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of protein. Think about a bowl of hot pasta with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese, a freshly grilled steak with a rich mushroom sauce, or stir-fried seafood and chicken with crisp vegetables in a savory soy sauce. In all of these dishes, there is a common flavor denominator that may be surprising to many: monosodium glutamate, also called MSG. This fact sheet provides everything you need to know about MSG and its umami favor.   Get the Fact Sheet Favorably Reviewed by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners - http://www.aanp.org/   Fast Facts   What is glutamate? Glutamate is an amino acid (the building blocks of proteins) that is naturally abundant in both plant and animal proteins. Hence, protein-rich foods contain sizeable amounts of glutamate as part of the protein. In addition, many foods also contain small amounts of “free” glutamate, usually in the form of sodium glutamate (monosodium glutamate or MSG). This free glutamate gives an umami taste to such foods (e.g., ripe tomatoes and Parmesan cheese).   How is glutamate used by the body? Almost all of the glutamate present in food is used to produce energy by the intestinal cells, never making it past the intestinal lining. The small remaining amount is used by these same cells, along with other amino acids, to make proteins and the antioxidant glutathione, both essential for optimal intestinal function.   How is Monosodium glutamate (MSG) made?  MSG is comprised simply of sodium and glutamate, and is produced by natural fermentation. Natural fermentation is a process that that has been used for centuries to make common foods such as beer, vinegar, and yogurt. MSG is often produced through the fermentation of sugar […]

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A Little Q&A on CRISPR Cows

While the majority of all our food has come from farms for hundreds of years, agricultural practices have changed over time, largely due to advances in farming technology. In more recent years, these developments have included the use of biotechnology techniques such as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). We’ve explained previously that CRISPR is one of the bioengineering methods that can be used to alter the genetic information in the cells of living things—plants, fruits, vegetables, and more. That genetic information is contained in what we know as the fundamental building block of life—DNA. DNA can produce proteins that define what a living organism’s cells do or don’t do. To use an analogy from another type of technology, DNA acts in a way similar to how software controls the operation of a computer. Food science and related-field researchers all over the world have been using CRISPR to perform genetic alterations in cells in order to alter food characteristics in ways that support the reliability of our food system. As mentioned above, CRISPR has been primarily used so far to alter the cells of plants, fruits and veggies. However, we’ve recently learned of the work being done by researcher Alison Van Eenennaam, Ph.D., a professor at the University of California, Davis, who is using CRISPR on a new target: food-producing cows. To learn more about Dr. Eenennaam’s groundbreaking work, we asked her to field a few questions. Q: How is your research team using CRISPR technology? A: Gene editing is a technique that can be used to introduce useful genetic variations into [animal] breeding programs. It involves the use of enzymes that cut DNA at a specific sequence (site-specific nucleases, e.g. CRISPR-Cas9), thereby introducing a break into the DNA at a targeted location. Depending upon how that break is […]

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Test Your Food I.Q. With Our New Food Ingredient Quiz

If you’re like the 50 percent of Americans who look at the ingredient list before you buy, then you know how difficult it can be to know what the ingredients in our food products do and why food additives are there in first place. Food additives and ingredients sometimes have mystifying names. At times, they can be overwhelming and hard to pronounce. Other times, we can be mystified by the roles they play in the foods and beverages we consume. So, a little extra knowledge can go a long way toward making you an empowered consumer. To get a small “taste” of what you know, we’ve come up with the Test Your Food I.Q. Ingredient Quiz for you to test your knowledge and learn more about food ingredients. Whether your score is high or leaves room to learn more, this quiz will guide you to resources where you can get more information about the foods we eat. Before you take the plunge and test your Food I.Q., here are a few facts you’ll already want to know. They may come in handy as you test your knowledge about food ingredients. Now that you’ve had a chance to review what you already knew or to learn something new, it’s time to take the plunge and test your food ingredient I.Q. Each time you take the quiz you will receive a score. Get them all correct, and you’re on your way to becoming a consumer expert. Be sure to share the quiz with friends, family, and co-workers. Most importantly, share your knowledge about food ingredients with others. Enjoy the quiz and have fun with its resources. And be sure to post your results on social media, too! +++ Food Ingredient Quiz

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What is the Pegan Diet?

The pegan diet is a mash-up of two popular styles of eating: vegan and paleo. With the vegan diet’s strict adherence to animal-free eating and paleo’s reputation for being meat-centric, it might seem like these two eating styles are opposites. And yet, the pegan diet attempts to blend the best of both worlds. How does it work, and is it sustainable? Let’s take a look. More About the Pegan Diet The pegan diet borrows its plant-based philosophy from the vegan diet and its love of meat from the caveman-inspired paleo diet. If you need a refresher, the paleo diet attempts to model what those living 2.6 million years ago in the Paleolithic era ate: vegetables, fruits, fish, meat and nuts. It excludes dairy, grains, legumes, sugar, oils, salt, alcohol and coffee. Veganism, on the other hand, allows only the consumption of plant-based foods and prohibits the eating of animal-based foods. The main principle of the pegan diet is its emphasis on whole foods and its limitation of processed foods. Specifically, the pegan diet encourages its followers to make 75 percent of their diet plant-based, with the remaining 25 percent of foods coming from animal sources. Anything Else I Should Know? Yes. While the pegan diet’s emphasis on plant foods is a good one, it also includes other strict parameters that aren’t proven to benefit health. For example, gluten is not allowed on this diet—and not because of legitimate health conditions like celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. Instead, gluten is restricted for a few less-scientific reasons. For starters, milling technology hadn’t yet been invented in the Paleolithic era, so grains weren’t part of caveman diets. It’s also shunned for other reasons which are unproven in the published nutrition literature. Gluten-free grains, however—like quinoa, brown rice, oats, and amaranth—are allowed, but recommended […]

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What You Should Know About Approved Food Additives

Download the Food Additives Fact Sheet here What are food additives? A food additive is an ingredient added to a food to perform a specific function. Additives include substances that are added directly to foods and beverages (known as direct food additives), as well as those that become a part of food in trace amounts due to processing, packaging, shipping or storage (known as indirect food additives). In the U.S., food additives are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are listed in the ingredient list on a product’s label. The Functions of Food Additives Why are food additives used? Food additives provide a specific function in a wide variety of foods—in particular, in maintaining or improving their safety, freshness, taste, texture, appearance or nutritional value. Below are some more specific reasons for why food additives are used: To maintain or improve safety and freshness Food additives known as preservatives slow product spoilage caused by mold, air, bacteria, fungi or yeast. In addition to maintaining the quality of the food, they help control contamination that can cause foodborne illness, including life-threatening botulism. One group of preservatives—antioxidants—prevents fats, oils and the foods containing them from becoming rancid or developing an off flavor. They also prevent cut fresh fruits such as apple slices from turning brown when exposed to air. To improve or maintain nutritional value Vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber are added to many foods to make up for cases in which those nutrients are lacking in a person’s diet or in which they are lost in food processing, or to otherwise enhance the nutritional quality of a food. Such fortification and enrichment have helped prevent and reduce malnutrition in the U.S. and many other countries worldwide. All products containing added nutrients must be appropriately labeled. To improve […]

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