THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS (FOOD GIFTS)

The perfect gift for many is a food gift. Think about it... food gifts are eventually consumed and hopefully enjoyed at some point and won't collect dust sitting on a shelf somewhere or take up space in that forgotten corner in a closet. And the way I see it, you can never have too many festive food gifts during the holiday season. You can bring them to parties as hostess gifts or give them to friends or neighbors that stop by unexpectedly. When you don't quite know what to give to kind coworkers or talented teachers, give the gift of food. Everyone's got to eat!

To give you some choices, 12 to be exact, of possible food gifts, I've put together the 12 days of Christmas food gifts. I'll be posting one a day, starting tomorrow, until I've shared them all. But know these are not your typical Christmas food gifts folks-there will be no fruitcake to joke about! No tacky tins of stale popcorn parked under the tree. No obligatory bottles of wine will be given as host or hostess gifts.

Some of these food gifts you can order online and send, and some you will need to assemble at home and deliver in person. Don't worry if some of these food gifts don't strike your fancy, they are merely suggestions! My primary aim was to create an assortment of options for anyone who likes to give or receive food gifts over the holiday season.

• 1st Day of Christmas: A tin of pomegranate tea


• 2nd Day of Christmas: 2 Bottles Clinging


• 3rd Day of Christmas: 3 Grinders Grinding


• 4th Day of Christmas: 4 Whole Wheat Cake Mixes


• 5th Day of Christmas: 5 Chocolate Bars


• 6th Day of Christmas: 6 Faux Frying Essentials


• 7th Day of Christmas: 7 Festive Food Bars


• 8th Day of Christmas: 8 Easy Cinnamon Rolls


• 9th Day of Christmas: 9 ozs. of Nuts


• 10th Day of Christmas: 10 Facts About Flaxseed


• 11th Day of Christmas: 11 Cups of Coffee


• 12th Day of Christmas: 12 Pieces of Fudge


• 13th Day of Christmas: 13 Food Gifts NOT to Give

Please feel free to share your favorite food gift ideas, too.

~~Elaine

Related Topics: How to Shake Holiday Gift Anxiety, Video: Good and Bad Holiday Food

Technorati Tags: 12daysofchristmas, holidays, giftideas, foodgifts

Dieter (and Diabetic) Guide to Buying Chocolate

You have to be looking for it but when you do, you realize the sugar-free chocolate market has exploded! Clearly while I was minding my own business this past year, chewing on chocolate covered almonds, various companies have come out with sugar-free options. What I found was certain drug stores and supermarkets had certain brands of sugar free chocolate. So if you are looking for a specific brand, keep going to different stores, you might just find it.

My introduction to sugar-free chocolate occurred when I was conducting a taste test of sugar-free chocolate for an article I was writing for WebMD. What I found out was that the sugar replacement du jour for sugar-free chocolates is maltitol (a sugar alcohol). Almost all of the companies are using it to make their sugar free chocolate.

This group of sugar replacers (which includes sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, and isomalt, in addition to maltitol) is particularly helpful to people with diabetes because only a portion of it is digested and absorbed. And the part that is absorbed through the intestinal tract is absorbed slowly, so there is little rise in blood sugar and little need for insulin.

Sound too good to be true? There's a downside to sugar free chocolate that everyone should know about.

Downside #1: Intestinal Discomfort Could Be In Your Future

Warning labels are there on these sugar-free chocolate packages for good reason. In fine print on pretty much all of the packages of the sugar-free chocolate, it reads "Excessive consumption may cause a laxative effect." This warning is there because when some people enjoy a certain amount of sugar-free chocolate that contains maltitol (or another sugar alcohol), there could be some resulting intestinal discomfort and a mild laxative effect. This is thanks to the part of the sugar alcohol that isn't digested or absorbed. It goes through the intestinal tract and starts to ferment and attract water into the intestinal tract. A certain, individualized amount of discomfort, ranging from gas to diarrhea can result, depending on the amount consumed and each person's intestinal tract. I call this a little extra motivation to eat these chocolates in moderation!

The American Dietetic Association advises that more than 50 grams of sorbitol or 20 grams of mannitol per day can cause diarrhea. You can see the amount of sugar alcohol in a serving of each sugar-free chocolate product by reading the nutrition information label. The label will tell you how many grams of maltitol, for example, is in each serving. For the Dove Mint Creme product, for example, it's 17 grams of "sugar alcohols" per 5 pieces or 40 grams of chocolate. Each serving on the package should be a pretty reasonable amount of chocolate, an amount you probably don't want to go beyond calorie-wise.

Downside #2: Sugar-Free doesn't mean Saturated-Fat Free or Calorie-Free

There are basically two things that make chocolate the food of the Gods that we appreciate so much, one is the sweet ingredient (in the case of sugar-free chocolate it's maltitol), and the other is cocoa butter. Cocoa butter happens to be rich in saturated fat so that's why you'll notice for many of these products this particular number can get rather high on the Nutrition Facts label. Five pieces of Russell Stover Sugar Free Chocolate Candy Miniatures (a 40 gram serving) add up to 190 calories, 14 grams of fat and 9 grams of saturated fat, 2 grams of fiber, and 0 grams sugar (20 grams sugar alcohol).

To Top Tasters

There were a few brands that most of my tasters really liked and would buy again (myself included). So...to save you some trouble, here are the top tasting sugar-free chocolates:

* Galler Belgian Royal, made in Belgium (available at Whole Foods Markets)
Taste comments: Taste and texture is great! This brand fooled me into thinking it was regular chocolate. I would definitely buy this chocolate again and again. It has that smooth and creamy Swiss chocolate taste and texture.
How much did it cost? About $5.99 for a 100-gram bar

* Dove Sugar-Free Rich Dark Chocolates with Chocolate Crème (also comes in Raspberry Crème option)
Taste comments: nice smooth texture and rich dark chocolate taste>
How much did it cost? $3.29 for a 96-gram bag

* Yamate Chocolatier Sugar Free Milk (available at Whole Foods Markets)
Taste comments: nice creamy texture and rich chocolate flavor.
How much did it cost? $3.39 for an 85-gram bar

* Weight Watchers Pecan Crowns (contains some sugar)
Taste comments: Caramel texture is good—thick and chewy. Very satisfying to the bite. Tastes like a regular, delicious turtle candy.
How much did it cost? $2.99 for an 85-gram bag

* Nestle Turtles Sugar Free
Taste comments: Okay caramel flavor. Texture is off, too runny, melts away too soon. Slightly off flavor but otherwise tastes pretty good.
How much did it cost? $1.99 for a 92-gram bag

Are There Calorie Savings?

The good news is YES there are calorie savings. The bad news is it isn't a really impressive amount. The 40-gram serving of Dove sugar-free chocolate will cost you 190 calories while the same amount of regular milk chocolate totals around 210 calories. If this is a daily calorie savings of 20 calories, then the weekly savings could potentially be 140 calories and the monthly savings, 560. When we put it that way, it sounds pretty good doesn't it?

The Bottom Line

There are definitely some brands of sugar-free chocolate that seem to be doing a great job and that many people would probably buy again. The intestinal effects of larger amounts of the sugar replacer used in sugar free chocolate, maltitol, is extra motivation to stick to the serving size (or less) listed on the package. The calorie savings are small but they can add up for someone who really likes to have a little bit of chocolate every day. But the person these new products would benefit the most is someone with diabetes who would like to enjoy a little bite of chocolate without worry of it raising their blood sugar levels. And for this benefit, many of these sugar-free chocolates are worth their weight in gold. For some of us who don't have diabetes or who have perhaps Irritable Bowel Syndrome... small satisfying bites of regular chocolate might be in order.

Now, if you don't mind,I believe it's time for me to enjoy some chocolate.

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Sugar-Free Chocolate Pudding Recipe, Chocolate Recipes to Diet(t) For

Technorati Tags: chocolate, sugarfreechocolate, diabetes, diet, weightloss

Taste Test Tuesday: LightFull Satiety Smoothies

This is a smoothie you want to love, what with the first 5 ingredients being water, strawberry puree, nonfat plain yogurt, erythritol, sugar (for the strawberries and cream flavor)... And water, nonfat plain yogurt, erythritol ("a natural sweetener" they say on the label), crystallized cane juice, coffee concentrate (for the cafe latte flavor).

Each 11 ounces container = 90 calories with 5 or 6 grams of fiber (depending on the flavor), 200 milligrams calcium, 6 grams protein, .5 grams fat, 10 grams sugars.
Where is the fiber coming from? From the looks of the ingredient label, it's coming from the fruit puree (in the peaches & cream and strawberries & cream flavors) plus added pectin and gums (which tend to be soluble fiber).

They suggest drinking this between meals and waiting 30 minutes after drinking it to feel its maximum satiety effect. Where is this great "satiety" coming from? The 5 to 6 grams of fiber certainly isn't hurting, along with a dose of protein (6 grams).

The Cafe Latte and Chocolate Fudge flavors also contain some green tea extract (3 cups worth they say) and all the flavors contain some stevia leaf powder.

I liked the Cafe Latte and the Chocolate Fudge all right, but my favorite flavors were Peaches & Cream and Strawberries & Cream! They seemed to have less of that "yogurt" flavor and that's probably because yogurt was the 3rd ingredient with peach or strawberry puree being the 2nd ingredient.

I suggest you freeze the smoothie pouches and stick one in your lunch bag in the morning. It will keep your lunch cold and will have a pleasant slush texture right around lunchtime!

Where can you find them? Whole Foods Market, Wegmans, Safeway, Vons, Dominick's, Randalls, Hannaford and Shaw's stores. They are also available for purchase online at both Amazon and LightFull.

~~Elaine

Related Topics: The New Face of Smoothies, Feed Your Head: Craving Quenchers

Technorati Tags: smoothies, supplements, lightfull

Another Reason to Reach for Flax

Granted one of my favorite books I've written is all about adding ground flaxseed to your day (THE FLAX COOKBOOK), but truly more and more research continues to come out positioning ground flaxseed as one of those extra special health promoting foods that has been put on the planet.

When I wrote my flaxseed book several years ago, some people thought that I was "jumping the gun"...that I should wait until there was more evidence. But I thought there was enough information to say, "Hey, check this seed out, It's got some amazing things going for it and it's easy to add it to your daily diet." I was writing a book/cookbook on the nutrition and health attributes of ground flaxseed along with 100 tips of buying, storing, using ground flaxseed, along with close to 100 fun recipes for ground flaxseed.

I could tell reading the research several years ago that flaxseed had some synergy within--which means the components within flaxseed seem to work together for maximum health benefit. Well, now there is some evidence that flaxseed may have synergy with another food--soy!

*****Help Fight Breast Cancer With Flaxseed & Soybeans*****

There is current controversy regarding the use of soy by breast cancer patients but the combination of soy and flaxseed may be more beneficial than soy alone in controlling human breast cancer growth in postmenopausal women with low estrogen levels. Soy has been suggested as having an unfavorable tumor-promoting effect in late-stage breast cancer and flaxseed was even shown to weaken this effect, according to a recent study with mice. And after another rodent study testing the breakdown products from the lignans in flaxseed in combination with the primary isoflavone (a phytoestrogen) in soy (called genistein), flaxseed researcher, Lilian Thompson PhD, from the University of Toronto, concluded that combining soy and flaxseed may be more protective against breast cancer, particularly in postmenopausal women with low estrogen levels. In this case, the two are better than one!

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Easy Add-Ins to Boost Nutrition, Confetti Rice Pilaf With Toasted Flaxseed Recipe

Technorati Tags: flaxseed, groundflaxseed, soy, breastcancer

Pie Toppings?

Now for pie toppings! You didn't think I was going to stop at pie crust and pie filling, did you?

When it comes to topping pie we are basically looking at more pie crust, whipped cream, meringue, crumb topping, whipped topping (i.e. Cool Whip), and then of course there is the pie al la mode option (with ice cream). All of these toppings will cost calories and some are high in sugar and some are high in fat. You can switch to a lighter topping option like fat free or light whipped topping or light ice cream, or a lighter crumb topping. Or you can use half as much of the real thing, which is your best option if your topping is whipping cream.

Just so you know what all your light topping options are:

* If the recipe calls for whipped topping or whipping cream, you can use light whipped topping or fat free whipped topping (like Cool Whip Light or Cool Whip Fat Free).

* If the recipe calls for whipped cream and that truly is the best topping for that pie, just add a dollop per slice instead of a big spoonful.

* If the recipe calls for meringue (egg white and sugar), you can cover the pie with a nice blanket of meringue; you don't have to make the topping a mountain of meringue.

* Instead of a top crust, you can top your fruit pie with a higher fiber, lower fat crumb topping (see recipe below).

* If ice cream takes the cake for your pie, just choose one of those great tasting light vanilla ice creams on the market (with around 4 grams of fat per 1/2 cup serving) and use a cookie dough size scoop (about 1/4 cup of ice cream when rounded).

This completes our pie trilogy -- We've covered pie crust, filling and now the
topping. Let the Pie season begin!

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Recipe: Sweet Potato Praline Pie, Recipe: Apple Pie Crisp

Technorati Tags: pies, baking, pietoppings, holidays, holidaybaking

It's All About the Filling

The first pumpkin pie of the holiday season is sitting in my refrigerator!

Sure, pumpkin pie doesn't have the sweetness of a fruit pie or the richness of a chocolate cream pie going for it, but the pumpkin and the spice and the custard texture...it works!

I've written about piecrust before, because frankly, that's where a lot of the calories and saturated fat are coming from with many a pie slice. But let's chat about the filling for a moment shall we?

With a piecrust, the ingredient in question is the fatty ingredient like shortening or butter. With a pie filling we've got two things to look out for; sugar AND fatty ingredients. Many pie filling recipes call for a cup of sugar and that's 16 tablespoons of sugar divided by 8 servings = about 100 calories from sugar per serving with 25 grams of carbohydrate (just for the sugar in a serving of the filling). You can cut the calories from sugar in half by either using half as much sugar called for (in a fruit pie filling this usually works out just fine) or by substituting half of the sugar with Splenda. Some people are going to be more fine with this than others.

Then there's butter. One sweet potato pie recipe I looked at called for a cube (1/2 cup) of butter. That's a tablespoon of butter per serving or about 100 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of which are saturated fat) per serving. You can usually trim this back to 2 tablespoons and add in a few tablespoons of orange juice or rum or even maple syrup (especially if you've cut the sugar in half). Some fruit pie fillings don't call for butter in the filling but it calls for dotting the top of the filling with several tablespoons of butter. This is, in a word-unnecessary. Don't dot and save yourself the extra fuss and calories.

Creamy or custard pie filling usually call for the obligatory evaporated milk, not to be confused with sweetened condensed milk which also pops up in many pie filling recipes. You can always use evaporated skimmed milk in the recipes that call for evaporated milk and you can always use fat free sweetened condensed milk in the recipes that call for sweetened condensed. Cream cheese is another creamy pie filling ingredient that can be replaced with a fat free variety but I find the color and texture of fat free cream cheese rather unappetizing, so you may want to go for the low fat or light cream cheese options. If a pie filling calls for an 8-ounce package of cream cheese, it will shave off about 37 calories, 5.5 grams of fat (3 grams of which are saturated) per serving (when 8 servings per pie) if you use light cream cheese instead.

Stay tuned for... Pie Toppings! You didn't think I was going to stop at filling, did you?

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Stuff the Turkey, Not Yourself, Thanksgiving: Last Minute Recipe Tips

Technorati Tags: pie, piefilling, pumpkinpie, baking, holidaybaking, holidays

Boost Nutrient Absorption With Good Fat

Eating a little "good fat" along with your vegetables appears to help your body absorb their protective phytochemicals, like lycopene from tomatoes and lutein from dark-green vegetables. A recent study conducted by scientists at Ohio State University in Columbus measured how well phytochemicals were absorbed after people ate a lettuce, carrot, and spinach salad with or without 2 1/2 tablespoons of avocado. The avocado-eating group absorbed 8.3 times more alpha-carotene and 13.6 times more beta-carotene (both of which help protect against cancer and heart disease), and 4.3 times more lutein (which helps with eye health) than those who did not eat avocados.

Another study found similar results when they tested absorption of several key carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, and lycopene) in 7 adults after eating salads with fat free dressing or dressing containing 6 or 28 grams of canola oil. The amount of carotenoids in the plasma increased with the reduced fat dressing (from the fat free dressing) and increased even more after the higher canola oil salad dressing. Canola oil is composed of mainly monounsaturated fat (like avocados), 8 grams per tablespoon, with about a third polyunsaturated fat, 4 grams per tablespoon, some of which are plant omega-3s.

[Am J Clin Nutr August 2004 Vol. 80 No. 2, 396-403 Brown M.J., et al.,
"Carotenoid bioavailablility is higher from salads with full-fat than with
fat-reduced salad dressings as measured with electrochemical detection."]

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Food Synergy: Nutrients That Work Better Together, Food-aceuticals: Eat and Drink to Your Health

Technorati Tags: vegetables, goodfats, canolaoil, nutrients

Holiday Tea is Here!

What will they think of next?

Last year I went bonkers over the holiday tea flavors that the tea company, Bigelow, came out with. I still have tea packets with last year's signature scent: Egg Nog. That's right, I would have never thought to put those two flavors together either (egg nog and tea), but there it is.

Who knew that they changed their flavors every holiday season because this year's flavor du jour seems to be pumpkin spice tea!

I took a leap of faith and bought two boxes. Clearly they were trying to answer the question, if autumn were a tea, what would it taste like? Turns out it tastes great, but then I love autumn.

Note to all food gift givers: these individually wrapped festive looking tea
bags work great as filler in goodie bags, gift baskets, little or just as fillers in mugs or cups that you are giving as gifts.

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Antioxidants in Tea, Tearooms Offer Healthy Buzz

Technorati Tags: tea, bigelowtea, pumpkinspicetea, pumpkinspice, fall, autum

Broccoli & Tomatoes: A Match Made in Heaven

Pairing these two powerhouse foods could be a match not only made in Italy, but in health heaven. Ever since I read about the following study by Dr. Erdman, I've been thinking of ways to get tomatoes when I eat broccoli and visa versa. Here's the study info:

In a recent study led by Dr. Erdman (John W. Erdman, Ph.D., Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana) published in the December 2004 issue of Journal of Nutrition, prostate tumors grew much less in rats that were fed tomato and broccoli powder than in rats who ate diets containing broccoli or tomato powder alone, or diets that contained cancer-fighting substances that had been isolated from tomatoes or broccoli.

In an earlier study, Erdman found that rats fed isolated lycopene (a natural
substance from tomatoes suggested to have prostate cancer fighting abilities) didn't have significant protection from prostate cancer but that rats fed freeze-dried tomato powder (it's easier to feed and contains the full range of nutrients in tomatoes) had much greater prostate cancer survival. Now for broccoli, broccoli is known to contain substances called glucosinolates that break down into compounds that help enzymes flush carcinogens from the body. But just like with lycopene, reseasrch has shown that glucosinolates work better when they are eaten with the other natural substances found in broccoli.

The take-home message: A lycopene supplement may not hurt, but the whole tomato will probably help more. Even better, a tomato eaten with broccoli may help the most. "Separately, these two foods appear to have enormous cancer-fighting potential," says Dr. Erdman. "Together, they bring out the best in each other, and maximize the cancer-fighting effect."

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Top Cancer Fighting Foods, Crunchy Veggies Fight Cancer

Technorati Tags: functionalfoods, tomatoes, broccoli, prostatecancer, cancer, prevention, diet

Taste Test Tuesday: Viactiv Calcium Soft Chews

Get your daily calcium and satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time!

That's the first thing I thought when I tried Viactiv Calcium soft chews. They come in several flavors but I tried the Milk Chocolate (which is reminiscent of tootsie rolls) and the Caramel flavors. My favorite way to enjoy them is to put one Milk Chocolate chew and one Caramel chew in my mouth at the same time for more of a chocolate & caramel candy bar flavor. Hey, don't laugh, it works for me.

What these soft chews have going for it is 500 milligrams of calcium plus 100 IU vitamin D plus 40 micrograms vitamin K per chew. This computes to 50% of the Daily Value for calcium, 25% of the Daily Value for vitamin D and 50% of the Daily Value for vitamin K. The vitamin D is added because it is associated with boosting calcium's absorption and vitamin D and K are important to bone health in their own right as well. Vitamin D has a whole bunch of health promoting actions in the body but in terms of calcium, it helps calcium out at least 2 ways:
* it stimulates absorption of calcium from the GI tract
* it stimulates the kidneys to hold onto the calcium circulating and not excrete it.

Keep in mind the calcium in the chews (calcium carbonate) is better absorbed when you chew the chews close to the time you eat a meal. They also suggest people spread the chews out during different times of the day (if you are going to have more than one chew each day), which kind of goes against my whole chocolate & caramel trick. But honestly, I only think of taking them once a day, so it works best for me to take them together.

My Personal Tip:
Keep the Viactiv container front and center on your kitchen counter! It serves as a visual reminder to take your daily calcium.

Each chew also contains 20 calories and .5 grams of fat and 3 grams of
sugar, which is why I said it could help satisfy your sweet tooth!

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Top 10 Calcium Rich Foods, Vitamins: Test Your Supplement Savvy

Technorati Tags: viactiv, calcium, calciumchews, vitamins, bonehealth

One Pump or Two (Or Three or Four)?

I knew Starbucks had a sugar-free vanilla syrup because I've ordered it before, but I was curious if they had any other sugar free syrup flavors in the stable. Apparently they also have a sugar-free Hazelnut syrup. When I first reported that each pump of sugar-free syrup saves you 20 calories, I was reasonably impressed. But then I learned that a Grande drink typically calls for four pumps! Wow! That's 80 calories just for saying four words, "sugar-free vanilla syrup please."

In case you are curious or concerned about which alternative sweetener is used in the sugar free syrups, it's sucraclose (also known as Splenda).

Do they have any plans to introduce other sugar-free syrups? According to the Starbucks press department the answer is not at this time.

Crazy about the Caramel Macchiato? Well, it is made with vanilla syrup and caramel drizzle so you can order it with sugar free syrup instead! Nothing I can do about the caramel drizzle however!

~~Elaine

Related Topics: The Buzz on Coffee, Sugar-Free Chocolate Mousse Recipe

Technorati Tags: starbucks, coffee, sugarfreesyrup, caramelmacchiato, hazelnut