Taste Test Tuesday: Breyers Double Churn 100 Calorie Vanilla Fudge Swirl Cups

I'm a fan of the whole "double churn" technological advancement because it produces lower fat ice-cream that is wonderfully creamy in texture. Well, just in case you want your double churned ice cream pre-portioned, Breyers now makes 100 Calorie Vanilla Fudge Swirl Cups. It's a 1/2-cup serving of light cream.

Granted the photo on the box shows a whole bunch more "fudge swirls" than I actually had in my tester cup, but it still tasted pretty good and had a wonderful creamy texture. The fat grams are low, 1.5 grams per serving, but the sugar is par for the course with 14 grams of sugars which translates to 56% calories from sugar.

The first 5 ingredients:

• Ice Cream: milk, skim milk, sugar, cream, sugar syrup
• Fudge Swirl: sugar, water, corn syrup, chocolate liquor, cocoa
  

The nutrition information: 1 dessert cup (66 grams) - about 1/2 cup of ice cream

100 calories
3 g protein
20 g carbohydrate (14 g sugars)
1.5 g fat
1 g saturated fat
5 mg cholesterol
3 g fiber
55 mg sodium

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Why We Overeat
• Light and Luscious Ice Cream

Technorati Tags: Taste Test Tuesday, ice cream, double-churned, 100 calories, Breyers, healthy diet

There's No Magic Here Folks!

It's not the diet plan per se, but how well people stick to it that matters...says a new study!

Dial a diet...that's what life is like on a typical day here in America. You can't watch 30 minutes of television without seeing Valerie Bertinelli talking about her love affair with the Jenny Craig program. Every decade there's a new version of the high protein low carb diet. And the Weight Watchers program keeps expanding and reinventing their members' options. Well, a new study was just published from the University of Massachusetts and the Stanford Prevention Research Center that looked at which dieting strategy (Atkins, Ornish or Zone) had the most weight loss success over 12 months in 181 women considered overweight/obese.

The researchers found that no matter which diet plan was assigned to the participants (and no matter what the amount of carbs or proteins), the people who lost the most weight were the ones that adhered to their plan the best. No magical effect was noticed with a certain amount of protein grams or low carbohydrate counts or meals that are "in the zone" No magic here - just people following a particular plan well.

In my opinion that's only half the story - they need to look at who kept the weight off a year or two later. That's really the ONLY way to evaluate diets is to look at lasting weight loss because that's where most diets fail. Americans are really great at weight loss, it's the keeping it off part that we have trouble with.

Any type of temporary diet plan isn't going to work long term. The only way a diet plan can help is if it inspires and helps someone to change their lifestyle long term...if it helps them change their eating habits (choosing mostly healthful foods, cooking more healthfully and not overeating) and become a regular exerciser.

[International Journal of Obesity advance online Feb 12, 2008; doi: 10.1038. Alhassan S et al. "Dietary adherence and weight loss success among overweight women: results from the A to Z weight loss study"]

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Managing Your Diet - Portion Control Tips
• WebMD Video: Simple Tips to Cut Calories

Technorati Tags: weight loss, Atkins, Ornish, Zone, healthy diet

Taste Test Tuesday: Amy's All American Veggie Burger

I often experiment when making my lunch during the workweek. I work at home while my girls are at school, so this is one way that I try new foods and recipes and no one potentially suffers (when it doesn't turn out) but me.

Well, today I pan-fried an Amy's All American Veggie Burger with a little olive oil cooking spray. While I was browning the burger, I was toasting a whole-wheat roll in the toaster oven. Once the toasted bun came out, I spread some sun dried tomato bruschetta (in a jar) I had in the refrigerator.

There seems to be some synergy between soy foods and calcium [ you can check this out in my newest book, Food Synergy (Rodale Publishing)] so I always like to capitalize on this by adding an ounce of reduced fat cheese to my soy-based burgers. Part-skim mozzarella or reduced fat sharp cheddar would work well with this combination of sandwich fillers.

It was VERY tasty...and I loved the texture...or maybe I was extra hungry today? I will definitely make this again; it only took about 5 minutes to put together. And I think this particular veggie burger would work well with a variety of condiments and toppings.

Made with Organic Vegetables & Grains

The first 10 ingredients are wholesome enough:

• organic onions
• organic mushrooms
• filtered water
• wheat gluten
• textured soy protein concentrate
• organic bulgur wheat
• organic celery
• organic carrots
• organic walnuts
• organic oats

1 burger = 120 calories, 10 grams protein, 3 grams fat, 0 gram saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 15 g carbohydrate, 3 grams fiber, 390 mg sodium

Vitamins and Minerals = 15% vitamin A, 6% vitamin C, 4% calcium, 10% iron

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Veggie Burger Study
• The Joy of Soy
• Top 10 Food Synergy Super Foods

Technorati Tags: Taste Test Tuesday, soy burger, Amys veggie burger, food synergy, healthy diet

Taste Test Tuesday: Cabot 50% Reduced Fat Sharp White Cheddar

I'm a cheese lover, I admit it! I love all things cheese. I mostly use reduced fat cheeses in my cooking and light recipes because there are quite a few really nice products out there. If they didn't taste great I wouldn't be using them.

Well, I found another great light cheese today. It's perhaps the only light white cheddar I've ever seen and it's from the Cabot brand in Vermont. Cut fresh from the package, it has a nice texture and taste. I was making light potato skins with dinner tonight, so this is the cheese I sprinkled on top and the skins were loved by everyone at the table.

Your biggest challenge with this cheese is going to be finding it, just because it doesn't seem to be a brand that's in a lot of big grocery chains. It made it all the way to my supermarket on the West coast though, so there's hope!

1 ounce of the cheese contains:(compare to regular cheddar)

70 calories (111 calories)
4.5 grams fat (9 grams)
3 grams saturated fat (6 grams)
15 mg cholesterol (30 mg)
8 grams protein (7 grams)
170 mg sodium

Wow! Just by using this cheese instead of regular white cheddar cheese, there's a SAVINGS of 40 calories and 4.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, and 15 mg of cholesterol per ounce.

This cheese handles the cheese grater, it melts well, and it even slices well for cheese and cracker plates - giving new meaning to the phrase, "cutting the cheese."

Related Topics:

• Got Good-Tasting (and Lower-Fat) Dairy Products?
• Healthier Homemade Macaroni and Cheese Recipes

Technorati Tags: Taste Test Tuesday, lower-fat cheese, Cabot cheddar, healthy diet

Future Chefs Want to Go Green and Global

A little heads up from the next generation of "Emerils" or "Giadas"?

The next generation of culinary professionals plans to go "green" and "global" according to a new survey from the International Culinary Schools at the Art Institutes. They surveyed their students across North America and found culinary students want to serve dishes that are more globally diverse and conduct business in a more environmentally sensitive manner.

And which ethnic cuisine reigns supreme with this group of culinary students? More than 40 percent of the student participants said they believe Spanish and South American cuisines have the most potential influence on future menus, while more than half said they are most interested in including Italian (68 percent) and French (53 percent) in their professional repertoire. I love all three types but I've got to say I'm with the 68% that answered Italian.

Where did the Asian cuisine go? Not too far, don't worry! Of the 80% of students who said they would consider specializing in a fusion cuisine, the top fusion choices were Japanese and French (17 percent) and Thai and Mexican (16 percent).

I'm a nutrition writer so when I hear that people want to cook "green", I immediately think they are going to cooking with more green vegetables...but in this case these students said environmental responsibility will play some role in their culinary careers and more than half said environmentalism is "very important." Three out of four are also interested in including locally supplied ingredients and more than half want to include organic foods (55 percent) in their ventures. Can't argue with that and it gives me hope for the next generation of Emerils and Giadas.

Speaking of celebrity chefs...According to the survey results, the culinary students admire their chef educators over celebrity chefs by a three-to-one margin.

Related Topics:

• Should We Fear Our Food?
• Farmer's Market Finds

Technorati Tags: cooking, chefs, environment, organic food, international cuisine

Taste Test Tuesday: Rice-A-Roni Whole Grain Blends

Some people like making rice or noodles from a box. That's just the way it is. Whenever my husband has dinner duty (not often) he always ends up using one of those boxes!

I try not to complain or let him see the apprehension in my eyes. Tonight he was actually rather proud of his rice dish claiming that it was whole grain. So afterwards, when he was safely on the other end of the house, I checked out the box of Rice-A-Roni Whole Grain Blends Roasted Garlic Italiano.

How "whole grain" is it really? The first 5 ingredients are:

Parboiled long grain brown rice
Orzo (a noodle made with wheat flour)
Autolyzed yeast extract
Natural flavors
Salt

Okay, so technically the first ingredient is a whole grain - brown rice. So let's get down to the numbers. How much fiber does it have? Three grams per 1 cup serving or 1.5 grams for a half-cup serving. This isn't really exciting but it's better than a product with zero grams. Each serving (about 1 cup prepared) contains 760 milligrams of sodium, which is pretty high for a side dish. One box is supposed to make two; 1-cup servings but the box fed my family of four comfortably with 1/2-cup servings per person (380 milligrams sodium for this serving size).

How did it taste? Pretty darn good, but it was a bit salty for my tastes (but admittedly I cook pretty low sodium).

Here's the nutrition information if you prepare the rice as the package instructs (adding 1 tablespoon olive oil): Per 1 cup (prepared)

270 calories
9 g total fat
1.5 g saturated fat
0 mg cholesterol
41 g carbohydrate
6 g protein
3 g fiber
760 mg sodium

Related Topics:

• Tips for Reaping the Benefits of Whole Grains
• Beware of the Salt Shockers

Technorati Tags: Taste Test Tuesday, Rice-A-Roni, whole grain, healthy diet

Chocolate Cravers Unite - It's A Brain Thing!

Photo Credit: Stu Spivack

New research from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, revealed that several parts of the brain (orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, ventral striatum) were more likely to respond to the sight and flavor of chocolate in people who habitually crave chocolate (hello, that's me!) compared to non-chocolate-cravers (who are these people?). In my life I've come across a couple of women who admit that they just don't crave chocolate ever. It was like I had just met a celebrity...I would say, "Wow, really? You don't crave chocolate? That's amazing!"

I knew there had to be a perfectly logical explanation as to why some people just don't crave chocolate like I do. Now this new research sheds some light on it. All brains are not created equal.

One word of advice to fellow chocolate cravers. If you want to have your daily chocolate dose and want to try to get some of those valuable antioxidant flavanols found in cocoa and dark chocolate plus some nutrient-rich nuts, you do have options:

• Hershey's Dark Chocolate Nuggets with Almonds (just enjoy a couple of these)


• M&M Dark Chocolate Peanuts (just enjoy an ounce of these)

[This research study by E.T. Rolls, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom is currently submitted for publication, but was discussed in a recent article in Obesity Reviews 2007 8 Suppl. 1, pages 67-72, Rolls E.T. "Understanding the mechanisms of food intake and obesity."]

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Dark Chocolate - Heart-Healthy Benefits
• Chocolate Lovers: You Can't Help It!

Technorati Tags: chocolate, craving, healthy diet

Taste Test Tuesday: Lean Pockets with Whole Grain

As many of you know, I'm not a big fan of frozen processed type foods. But, I do try to keep an open mind when tasting some of these products. This latest addition to the Lean Pockets line of frozen snacks caught my eye because there are now a few flavor options "made with whole grain!"

I quickly turned the box over to check the grams of fat because "made with whole grain" could potentially translate into a measly 1 gram of fiber. I was pleasantly surprised to see 5 grams of fiber per lean pocket. Where is the fiber coming from? It looks like you can thank the following ingredients for most of the fiber:

• Whole barley flour


• Whole-wheat flour


• Green peppers

I tried the Supreme Pizza flavor and I happen to know that each pocket contains about 9 sausage mini meatballs (because I cut the pocket in half and picked them out). Don't laugh...I'm not a big fan of mystery sausage.

The box gives you two sets of cooking directions; one for the microwave and one for the toaster oven. Here's the thing though, the microwave won't give you a nice crispy, toasty lean pocket, but the toaster oven is going to take around 20-25 minutes if you bake the pocket straight from the freezer. So...the happy medium is to microwave the frozen pocket for about 1 quick minute (or 1 minute and 30 seconds), then pop it into the toaster oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. Much better, right?

Each pocket is still fairly high in sodium (600 milligrams) but your standard grilled cheese sandwich contains around 550 milligrams of sodium. Here's the labeling info:

1 pocket =

210 calories
20 g protein
21 g carbohydrate
7 g fat
2.5 g
saturated fat
0 g trans fat
25 mg cholesterol
5 g fiber
600 mg
sodium
15% Daily Value for calcium

Related Topics:

• 4 Warning Signs Your Diet May Lack Fiber
• Tips for Reaping the Benefits of Whole Grains

Technorati Tags: Taste Test Tuesday, Lean Pockets, whole grain, healthy diet