Very Hungry People Skip Veggies for Starches and Protein

Very Hungry People Skip Veggies for Starches and Protein

After going without food for 18 hours, most people would rather reach for French fries or chicken fingers than green beans or carrots, according to a new study from Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab. The study published June 25, 2012 in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, found that 75 percent of participants placed on a 18 hour fast started their next meal with a starch or protein rather than a vegetable, compared with 44 percent of non-fasting participants.

Most of the calories consumed during that meal came from whichever food they ate first – participants consumed about 47 percent more calories from the first food they ate compared other foods.
Even relatively mild food deprivation can alter the foods people choose to eat, potentially leading them to eat starches first and most.
Source: eXtension

Canned Salmon Good for Omega-3s

Canned Salmon Good for Omega-3s

Canned salmon can be a great, economical alternative to fresh salmon. The amount of omega-3s varies widely, but you can be assured that you’ll be getting more heart-healthy omega-3s with canned salmon than with no salmon at all.
In a 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Harvard University researchers determined that eating two grams of omega-3 fatty acids from fish such as salmon each week reduces the risk of dying from heart disease by 36 percent. That is just one reason why health organizations recommend eating fish twice a week.
The amount of omega-3s in a food often isn’t listed on labels, but a person can get a general idea by looking at the polyunsatured fat content, or, if that’s not listed, as the total fat content. Canned salmon with a higher level of polyunsaturated fat, also known as a “good” fat, is likely to have higher levels of the omega-3s: EPA (short for eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).
You can generally count on about 1.0 to1.3 grams of these two types of omega-3s in a three-ounce serving of canned salmon. That’s about half of what you might get in the same amount of fresh salmon fillets, but it’s still a significant amount.
Source: eXtension

Keep or Toss: A Resource for Food Pantries

Keep or Toss:  A Resource for Food Pantries 

If you're involved in donating food or working at a food pantry, this fact sheet will be a helpful tool.

Please click the link for the fact sheet.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByxReHb7wpdDdk02XzVoZXBfczQ

Kids Learn Attitudes About Food in Child Care Settings

Kids Learn Attitudes About Food in Child Care Settings

About three-quarters of U.S. children ages two to six spend large portions of their days in non-parental child care--including more than 240,000 children in Wisconsin. Research shows that many of these children learn food and nutrition attitudes and preferences while in child care.

A recent study of child care programs in Wisconsin and Minnesota conducted by UW-Madison researcher Tara LaRowe found that most child care teachers in the study wanted to learn more effective ways to encourage healthy eating. They also wanted to know about low-cost ways to serve healthy foods, and ways to engage parents in creating a unified approach to nutrition and mealtimes.

“Nutrition is the basis of children’s health, but mealtimes with young children can be difficult–even power struggles—for caregivers who are not well-trained,” says Dave Riley, an expert on child development and early education for Cooperative Extension and a professor at UW-Madison.

Riley and Susan Nitzke, Cooperative Extension nutrition specialist and nutritional sciences Professor Emerita at the UW-Madison, along with co-authors Ann Ramminger and Georgine Jacobs, have written a new book called Rethinking Nutrition: Connecting Science and Practice in Early Childhood Settings published by Redleaf Press in St. Paul.

Half the sentences in each chapter are about the science of nutrition in early childhood, and the other half are about the practices of good child care programs that affect children’s nutrition and development. It is common to find books on one topic or the other, but not on both the science and the practice linked together, he says.

The authors also wanted to address growing concerns about childhood obesity by promoting a healthier diet for young children. Nearly a quarter of U.S. children between the ages two and five are overweight or obese. Becoming overweight as a young child strongly predicts a lifetime of obesity, including increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and other weight-related diseases.

Topics addressed by Nitzke and Riley include:

--What foods are most needed at each stage of childhood, from infancy through preschool.

--How children learn to prefer or dislike particular foods, and how to help them adopt new foods.

--How to avoid added sugars.

--Special needs diets, including food allergies.

--How children learn to share, control their behavior, and even develop some of their pre-literacy skills at the meal table.

--How to develop a nutrition policy for a child care program, and why it is a good idea to do so. (Currently, around a third of child care programs in Wisconsin and Minnesota have a nutrition policy.)

Chapters include many practice tips, suggested children’s books, and a letter to send home to parents on the topic of their child’s nutrition.

“The bottom line is that familiarity is key to children’s adoption of foods,” Nitzke says. “Repeated exposure to a new food--without pressure, coaxing or bribery--is the best way to encourage kids to eat it.”

“Great child care programs do this in lots of ways,” Riley adds. “The kids help grow food in a garden, help cook the food, and read children’s books about new foods. All of these are ways to become familiar with zucchini or spinach, and then learning to love them.”

Brown Rice has Nutritional Edge Over White

Brown Rice has Nutritional Edge Over White

Madison, Wis.--Rice is enjoyed as part of traditional cuisines around the world and is a staple food in many Asian countries. White rice is chosen more often than brown rice, but that’s a choice that would benefit from change, says Susan Nitzke, Cooperative Extension nutrition specialist and Professor Emerita at the UW-Madison.
A recent study from Harvard University showed that people who eat white rice five or more times a week are more likely to develop diabetes than individuals who eat rice less often. The same study showed that eating brown rice does not contribute to diabetes risk and may actually reduce a person’s risk of developing diabetes. The Harvard’s findings were verified by a 2012 analysis of data from other population-based nutrition studies.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating at least half of your grain foods in the form of whole grains rather than refined grains such as white bread and white rice. According to Nitzke, brown rice has many nutritional advantages including higher levels of dietary fiber, magnesium, vitamin E and lignans, which are called “phytonutrients” because of their antioxidant and other health-promoting functions.
Brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice. If you’re in a hurry, pre-cooked or “instant” brown rice is an economical and convenient form of whole-grain brown rice.
A number of tips for cooking and storing brown rice are available from the University of Nebraska’s “Cook it Quick” newsletter available online at http://food.unl.edu/web/fnh/cooking-brown-rice

There's Plenty of Room for Improvement When Americans Eat Away

There’s Plenty of Room for Improvement When Americans Eat Away from Home

The 2005-08 National Health and Nutrition Examination survey (NHANES) reveals some important trends:
• Compared to data from 30 years ago, American adults and children over age 2 are consuming almost 200 more calories per day. The average calorie intake of Americans was 2,067 in 2005-08, compared to 1,875 in 19977-78. Although 200 calories may not seem like much (e.g. three cookies), this amount on a daily basis over time could be a very important contributor to the current obesity epidemic in the U.S.
• In 2005-08, adults consumer 69 percent of their calories at home and children ages 2-19 consumed 67 percent at home. Fast food places are the biggest source of food eaten away from home (264 calories), followed by restaurants with table service (209 calories).
• Foods consumed at home tend to be more nutritious than foods away from home. Foods eaten away from home have more total fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol per 1,000 calories and less calcium, fiver and iron than foods eaten at home.
• When they eat at home, Americans eat more fruit, dairy, and whole grains, but less vegetables (partly because tomato sauce and potatoes are so prevalent in meals eaten away from home).

Source: Lin B-H, Morrison RM. Food and Nutrient Intake Data: Taking a Look at the Nutritional Quality of Foods Eaten at Home and Away from Home. Amber Waves. Volume 10. June 2012

Smart Nutrition Starts Here

Smart Nutrition Starts Here

Nutrition.gov is an internet gateway to reliable information on nutrition, healthy eating, and physical activity from across the Federal Government.  The Nutrition.gov   web site is designed to help you answer your nutrition and food-related questions, and can point you to databases, recipes, interactive tools, factsheets, information on Federal Government nutrition programs and more.

• Find the nutrient content of foods on "What's in Foods" page.
• Confused about how to lose weight and keep it off?  Visit the "Weight Management" section.
• Learn to be a smart meal planner, shopper, and cook.  Visit the "Shopping, Cooking & Meal Planning" page for tips on using food labels, planning and cooking delicious meals, and shopping within your budget.
• Sign up to receive the latest food and nutrition news in your e-mail box with Nutrition.gov's RSS News Feed.

Canning Fruits Workshop

Canning Fruits Workshop

On July 18, 2012 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., I will teach a class on canning fruits. We will start with the basics by canning peaches. We will then can chocolate raspberry sundae topper and blueberry pie filling. You can contact the Brown County UW-Extension Office at (920) 391-4651 to sign up for the class. Payment is $7.00, at the door, which includes a copy of the UW-Extension publication on canning fruits. This class will be held at the Brown County UW-Extension Office, 1150 Bellevue Street, Green Bay.

Take-Out and Delivered Foods

Take-Out and Delivered Foods

In today’s busy world, take-out and delivered foods are experiencing runaway popularity. No matter what the occasion, more and more people are relying on others to prepare their foods.

To keep hot foods hot, keep them at 140 degrees F or above.   Cold foods must be kept at 40 degrees F or below.  Bacteria grow rapidly between 40 and 140 degrees F.  Discard all perishable foods such as meat, poultry, eggs and casseroles, left at room temperature longer than two hours, one hour in temperatures above 90 degrees F.

Once food is cooked it should be held hot at an internal temperature of 140 degrees F or above.  Just keeping food warm (between 40 and 140 degrees F) is not safe.  Use a food thermometer to monitor the internal temperature of the food.  A preheated oven, chafing dishes, preheated warming trays, or slow cookers may be used.  If you plan to eat at a later time, take-out or delivered food should be divided into smaller portions or pieces, placed in shallow containers, and refrigerated.

Keep cold foods cold on the buffet table or at a picnic by nesting serving dishes of food in bowls of ice.  Use small platters and replace them with fresh refrigerated platters of food often, rather than adding fresh food to a serving dish already on the table.

Refrigerate or freeze leftovers in shallow containers.  Wrap or cover food.  In refrigerated storage at 40 degrees F or below, cooked meat or poultry can be stored three to four days, pizza three to four days, and egg/tuna/macaroni salads for three to five days.