health – Beyond The Kitchen Sink

Celery Inside Celery For Celery Infinity

Hutzler Snack Attack Celery and Dip to Go Serve Set

You are what you eat. So of course, it’s important to know what you put into your body. One way to do that is to look at the package. The list of ingredients are a telling sign of what’s to come. But what of food that has no ingredient list? Shouldn’t our one-ingredient meals get the same treatment?

The Hutzler Snack Attack Celery and Dip to Go Serve Set says yes. It might look more like a mysterious green bullet than a heart of celery, but once you know, you know what’s inside. Not only does the amusing celery container transport celery to and fro, but the design also includes a self-contained dip container.

Hutzler Snack Attack Celery and Dip to Go Serve Set with dip

They say it takes more calories to consume celery than it gives back resulting in so-called negative calories. Of course, that doesn’t include whatever mysterious fatty dip that the dip container has in store. But hey, designing a dip container in the “shape” of dip is probably kind of hard to do.

And here’s something that’s fun to say: Also available in Carrot.
Hutzler Snack Attack Carrot and Dip to-Go

Hey California: Vote Yes On 37?

Yes.

This proposition would require food manufacturers to label genetically modified foods.
That’s it. This is only about labeling food.

Here’s why I am voting yes on Proposition 37.

1. I don’t know enough about GMO foods. You don’t either.
2. You are what you eat.
3. Imagine purchasing food without a list of ingredients. This is a turning point, folks.
4. Again, all this proposition does is make it so food is properly labeled. Honestly, this should have happened long ago.

Direct from the Official Voter Information Guide:

A YES vote on this measure means: Genetically engineered foods sold in California would have to be specifically labeled as being genetically engineered.

It’s really that simple. Yes on 37.

CARightToKnow.org

UPDATE 11/7/12: Well, it looks like Big Food won this round by scaring everybody into thinking this would lead to higher food prices. Prop 37 was defeated 53% to 47%.

Too bad. If this line of reasoning made sense we would never see the words “New look — Same great taste!” slapped across package design. Labeling products simply would not have been an expensive undertaking.

However, GMO foods are not going away anytime soon. It’s a pretty good bet this consumer rights issue isn’t going away anytime soon either. Stay tuned.

GMO Fish?

Without getting into the benefits and drawbacks of genetically modified food, I think it’s safe to say that most of use want to know what we are getting into when we eat. Or more precisely, what is getting into us.

Below is a petition written by Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Gary Hirshberg, Chairman of Stonyfield Farm.

The FDA is on the brink of approving genetically engineered salmon for human consumption. This would be the first genetically engineered animal on supermarket shelves in the United States. The salmon is engineered to produce growth hormones year-round that cause the fish to grow at twice the normal rate. The government already requires labels to tell us if fish is wild-caught or farm-raised â€“ don’t we also have a right to know if our salmon is genetically engineered? Without labels, we’ll never know.

More than forty countries, including Russia and China, already require labels on genetically engineered foods. As Americans, we firmly believe that we deserve the same right to know what we are eating.

That’s why we hope you’ll join us and over half a million other Americans in telling the FDA to require labels on genetically engineered foods.

Eric Schlosser is the author of Fast Food Nation and a producer of the documentary Food, Inc. Gary Hirshberg is the Chairman of Stonyfield Farm and an advocate for sustainable food.

Read it and sign it here.

“Drinkify” To Your Heath With Tropicana Tropolis

PepsiCo's Tropicana Tropolis is set to 'snackify' beverages and 'drinkify' snacks.

Well news of this sort is sure to inspire ridicule. At the very least, in how it is presented. PepsiCo announced that they want to “snackify” drinks and “drinkify” food. Yes, they used those words. From the CEO of PepsiCo:

“We see the emerging opportunity to ‘snackify’ beverages and ‘drinkify’ snacks as the next frontier in food and beverage convenience.”

And the result? Tropicana Tropolis, a new “portable kids snack” that will be available in three fruit blends starting at the end of this month. Named CherryWorld, GrapeWorld and AppleWorld, the fruit squeezers are designed to appeal to kids while an “online universe will allow them to discover the fun in fruit through interactive games.”

Hang Those Bananas

Kamenstein Banana Hanger with Slicer

Bananas turn brown when stored in the refrigerator, so off to the counter they go. Far from being banishment though, the countertop provides not only a convenient place to store them, but you get to show off how health conscious you are. (Assuming of course you change out the bunch every now and then.)

The Kamenstein Banana Hanger with Slicer gives you a way to store bruise-free bananas on the counter, and makes for an attractive presentation while at it. Additionally, the inclusion of a banana slicer leaves little excuse for not getting your daily dose of potassium.

Make Your Own Nutrition Facts

Perfect Portions Digital Scale + Nutrition Facts Display

The serving size we see on everyday food products is ~~rarely~~ never an actual serving size. Five crackers is hardly a serving size. (Maybe if stacked high and layered with peanut butter.) Of course, the reason food companies do this is to make it seem like we are eating less calories, but we all know they’re not fooling anybody. When it comes to actually trying to keep track of what we are consuming, those familiar little Nutrition Facts labels are of little help.