Menu Labeling (Restaurant Nutrition)

++Restaurants will soon be required to post nutrition data on their menu items, and so will vending machines.  Several cities and a few states have already passed menu labeling laws, in hopes that a more informed public will become a healthier (and less obese) public.  The idea behind having the federal government regulate the menu labeling is that the uniformity will make it easier for consumers when comparing different vendors, and more efficient for the vendors to implement.  So, the federal law will preempt local mandates.

This is a result of the national health care act passed in March, 2010.  Proposed guidelines were recently published, and final ones are expected by the end of this year.  Although implementation may be as much as a year away, little is expected to change between now and then.  An outline of the guidelines is below.  You can get more detailed information from The Federal Register, referencing HR 3590, Section 4205.

• The law applies to restaurant/food chains with more than 20 locations and to vending machine companies with more than 20 machines.This does not mean one franchise owner in a chain  having more than 20 stores, but 20 for the whole chain. 
• The menu boards (including any in a drive-through), printed menus, and food tags have to include calorie amounts for any standardized foods, except condiments, that are available for at least 60 days/year. 
• Other information must be available in writing upon request, giving amounts of fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, protein, sodium, and fiber. 
• There is a standardized format for presenting this information.
• So far, it is unclear how grouped items will be presented.  For example, many menu boards just say something like "large soda," although different flavors have slightly differing calorie counts. 
• Keep in mind that "standardized" menu items means that if you request a change in preparation, this law will not apply to that modification.

It will be interesting to see how this works when it is implemented, and whether enough people will take advantage of it to made a dent in our "obesity epidemic."   I can easily imagine that people who are eating out for celebratory reasons will not be counting calories.  I hope that people who eat out routinely will take advantage of this information.   Will you?

Cute Vermin (a squirrelly tale)

  Who says animals are "dumb beasts"?  The squirrels in my neighborhood are neither silent nor stupid.  I find some of their antics entertaining.  And sometimes, they reflect just how I feel - like when I'm working in the yard on a hot day and look up into the oak tree to spot a squirrel watching me, with its body draped over a limb as if to catch any cooling breeze.  Our neighborhood has dogs that bark at anything.  Of course, sometimes they are teased beyond endurance - like when a squirrel prances around just beyond the reach of a leash, chittering and waving his tail. 
  These acrobats know where the food is, too; in the bird-feeder, of course.  And, they've figured out that when the kitchen light goes on upon a winter morning, I'm near the food supply.  I used to have a bird-feeder that attached to the outside window sill.  Squirrels have been known to knock on that window to let me know when it was out of sunflower seeds!  Always about 30 seconds after I turn on the kitchen light - they had to be watching for me.  Now, a feeder is near the porch and the squirrels sometimes are on the steps in the mornings, looking expectantly at the door.  They aren't alone, either.  I've seen bird and rabbit footprints in fresh snow there. 
     hardly Dumb Beasts!

Floods (food safety)

++ Here in the Missouri River watershed, we've seen a lot more water lately than we ever wanted.  To get information on keeping your water supply and food safe, contact your state Cooperative Extension or the links below. 

Flood Resources can be found at: UNL Extension - Flood Resources, EDEN (Extension Disaster Education Network), Flooding Resources First Steps to Flood Recovery (Purdue Extension), Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages - Floods/Flash Floods (Red Cross), Hearing Impaired: Flood Cleanup Information (Texas Department of Public Safety), and Mold - EDEN Topic Page
The Iowa Dept. of Public Health also has fact sheets at www.idph.state.ia.us/EmergencyResponse/Flooding.aspx

My Plate (new "pyramid")

++This is the new icon for the USA's food guidance system.  It replaces My Pyramid, which came out a few years ago.  The rationale is that you would fill your plate at each meal (or your average for a whole day) with foods from each group in the proportions suggested by the segments on the plate and in the drinking glass.
  The relative amount of food in each group (and the color of the segment representing it) is the same as in My Pyramid.  The reason for the change is that this is easier to visualize and use.  The triangle shape of the pyramids (My Pyramid and its predecessors) isn't like anything in most people's kitchens, so it was hard for many people to transfer the image to what they were doing in real life.  My Pyramid also did not label the segments.
  When My Plate was released a few days ago, a new web site was also launched, choosemyplate.gov.  Now, if you go to mypyramid.gov, you are likely to get an error message saying Page not found.  The pages linked to it are still in the process of being updated, but in the new web site, you can find links to most of the pages that were in the old one. For example, on the right side of the page, you can click on Personal Food Plan and it will still send you to a page where you can fill in your age, weight, gender, and whether or not you are pretty active, and then it will lead you to a page that spells out how much food you should eat in a day from each group, based on an estimated calorie requirement.  
  Both the old guidance system and this new one were published in hopes that it would help people with weight control without sacrificing nutrition.  Unfortunately, you can cheat. Cooking methods and add-ons can make a big impact on calories without much impact on nutrients.  For a common example, consider the calories in a plain baked potato.  Now, consider what happens if you fry the potato, or mash it with butter and milk, or add gravy, butter, sour cream, etc.  You may have added a tiny bit of nutrition with the milk, but, of course, you've added a lot of "empty" calories with the other changes you made to that simple potato. 
     Bottom line:    Let My Plate work for you.