Snack Attack

Snacks are big business. Food producers love to create products that they think will attract us to eating more snacks.  After all, the more we eat, the more money they make. Unfortunately the snack items main stream food producers are thinking about tend to be either sugary, salty, fatty, or some combination of the three.  They're not nutrient dense, real food options.
 
Some of the newest options coming to market are snacks which are marketed as “thin” or “bite-sized” (like Kellogg's new Pop Tart Bites). These terms are used specifically to fool you into thinking that the snack isn't really that bad because how much is in a thin cracker or a bite-sized pastry. It's not the individual item, it's the portion that you serve yourself. Look for more snack packs and bite-sized items to be crowding the shelves at your grocery store.
 
To be clear, I'm not opposed to snacking. I am, however, very opposed to eating energy-dense, high-caloric processed foods which then leave you less-than-hungry for a real meal and which provide very little nutritional value.  If you're looking for a few snack ideas that are both delicious and nourishing, consider these:
 

• 1 medium apple w/ 1 Tbsp almond butter
• 1 cup of celery sticks with 1 Tbsp almond butter
• 3 ounces of tuna on romaine lettuce leaves.  Add chopped celery, spring onion, and a splash of lemon juice
• 2 cups of raw chopped veggies w/ 1/4 cup of hummus or white bean dip
• 1/4 cup of soaked raw nuts
• 1 cup of cooked lentils w/ 1 diced tomato, 1 rib of celery diced, 1 spring onion diced, 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, and 2 Tbsp of balsamic vinaigrette
• 12 spears of asparagus (cooked or raw) plus one hard boiled egg
• 2 slices of sliced turkey w/ 1/4 cup grapes
• Epic bars – These meat bars are a real protein bar, not a glorified candy bar
• 1 slice of thinly sliced meat w/ a slice of cucumber in the middle wrapped in nori (2 of these)
• jicama wrapped vegetables plus a hard boiled egg – my grocery store sells the most amazing jicama wraps or you can make your own

 
If you're going to snack, snack healthy.


Be mindful, eat well, be well,

Now here's what you really need to know...

Food News You Can Use

There's a lot of attention in the news to how plastics are clogging the environment and our marine life is paying a very steep price. Consumers are talking about how to make changes and reducing plastic consumption. As always, food producers are paying attention. While edible packaging seems to have stalled a bit for the moment, marine safe and biodegradeable plastics are gaining a lot of momentum. From beer can rings that are edible for marine mammals to fully compostable packaging, these producers are hoping consumers are paying attention. I applaud their efforts to lessen the amount of material that goes into the waste stream, but if they start advertising their eco-friendliness on the package don't let it distract you from reading the label.

In the I'm-not-really-sure-about-that category:        French's, the mustard people, came up with an ice cream. Yup. In celebration of National Mustard Day (which was last Saturday if you needed to know) they developed a small production run of the specialty flavor and shared it in California and New York. I'm wondering if anyone tasted it and what they thought. But in case you really wanted to try it for yourself, they're sharing the recipe.  Obviously, I suggest you don't use the artificial colors their recipe is calling for.
 
For those who have pretty much had enough of protein shakes and smoothie bowls, there's a new protein option coming to town. No Bake Protein Bar Mixes. Put together by a company called Creation Nation, these bars are intended to make it easy for you to make your own protein bars and add extra ingredients to personalize it. The ingredients appear to be good quality, clean label items. This may be a reasonable solution for those who want protein bars, or balls, and don't want to do most of the chopping and assembling of ingredients. If you do decide to go this route remember that your added ingredients need to be calculated into the nutrition panel  information.
 
Cannabis infused anything continues to be big business. The latest item which recently debuted at National Expo West was a cannabis infused water. The general consensus appears to be that as regulatory issues change all across the country more and more companies are poised to add cannabis to their product to take advantage of the consumer buzz around it. I'm not opposed to cannabis, but I do have concerns about the amount that people may potentially wind up consuming and the fact that no one is addressing bio-individual impact. Some consumers may not do well with this ingredient and I have, as yet, to see anyone talking about that.

On Mira's Mind...

Where I am, what I’m doing, or what’s on my mind:

• It's time for the USDA to re-evaluate the Dietary Guidelines. According to the CPSI it looks like they are not using the full range of dietary studies and instead are relying specifically on USDA only studies. It's important that we look at all sources of information to make sure that the new guidelines are as comprehensive as possible. Sign the petition to request the USDA use the full range of evidence when making the guideline for the next five year.
• The US government has decided to allow Sulfoxaflor back into use as a pesticide. Known to be toxic to bees it had been previously banned. Sign the petition to let the government know that this harmful chemical needs to remain on the banned list. This is especially important in light of the fact that the USDA has just shut down a the annual counting of honey bee colonies. We need our bees.
• I had a really fun interview on the Eric and Gord; What If We're Right? podcast. We covered a lot of ground about real food and learning new things about food manipulation.
• August 12, The Woodlands, TX - I'll be the speaker at the next North Houston Functional Medicine Meetup talking about the Generational Impact Of Ingredients. If you're in the area please join us.
• I recently received a message from someone who had just learned about titanium dioxide. This harmful ingredient appears quite a bit in our food, personal care items, and pharmaceuticals. Read the blog to learn more.
• Stay connected all year as we learn more about health, wellness, nutrition, and lifestyle.