With just a little bit of knowledge of how to read food labels and what you need you can make the right choices with the money that you have to work with.

Even the restaurants and the fast food chains are starting to offer more nutritious choices, likes salads. Subway is one that has really jumped on the bandwagon. You know the one with Jared standing there saying this deep fat fried sandwich contains 45 plus grams of fat I wonder how they got all that fat in there to begin with and compare it to the subway sandwich.

I saw an interview where they were talking with the producer of Sesame Street and they were talking about the cookie monster and how it was presented in a way to get kids to eat more junk food and more cookies. Now they have repositioned that whole program to where they are starting to teach kids more about nutrition. I am hoping that one of the things that are happening is that there is awareness about nutrition and this obesity epidemic. Some people are just succumbing to obesity and the things that come with it like cancer and heart disease and diabetes. It’s good to see some positive changes taking place.

Why is that we sometimes crave certain foods? Can it be that your body is sending you a message?

You know that in some developing cultures there is a craving that some people have and I believe it is called Pica. It is where a person will have a craving to eat a particular food item and it doesn’t always have to be a food item, it can be dirt or something that isn’t a food at all. The theory is that people will have a craving for certain things that will provide a nutrient that is lacking.

In our culture I don’t think it is metabolic for food cravings. You know if you are used to consuming sugary sweets and that is all you eat, your metabolism adapts and guides you to the foods you are used to consuming.

An example of that would be someone who has gone on a vegetarian diet and eliminate meat from their diet temporarily. Then they start to reintroduce meat and their stomach is upset. Their stomach is not used to digesting that kind of food. They have adapted to digesting just non-meat items. There are food digestive adaptations to the kinds of food that you eat. One would have to believe that those are the kinds of foods that you get used to.

Do we become hungry because our stomach is empty or is it because of something else?

That is a tricky question. There are people who have studied this and can boil it right down to all kinds of enzymes and mechanisms that kick into play that stimulate appetite or depress appetite. Individual metabolism is so significant individually that I am sure that you can feel that on a general basis.

You know one thing that I can say is when I go exercise and I get back and sit down I need to replenish my water intake. The next thing that I find is that if I find a combination of fruits to eat it will suppress my hunger because fruits are primarily water and sugar and carbohydrates. But the digestive process is pretty rapid when it comes to breaking down sugars into glucose and the glucose is stored in your body. So digestion of fruits in particular is pretty rapid. I can consume a lot of fresh fruits and it doesn’t satisfy my hunger.
I will still have hunger pains because the digestion is completed so rapidly as opposed to protein, which takes longer. It almost seems like exercise can suppress appetite but I think you have to balance that whole idea with how much exercise you are doing and how many calories your body needs to replace and what kinds of food you are going to consume when you are done.

It is complex and is another whole area to think about why people are gaining weight, whether it is emotional or whether it is the amount of exercise they have done. You know that everybody that is out there studying this whole thing and trying to help people lose weight, each one of these communities have their own theories and their own recommendations. They all study it in a different way – some try to understand the psychology and some try to understand the nutritional aspects of it. You know, if it was well understood we probably wouldn’t be having the problems we are having today.

Handwashing, the most important step for food safety.
Food safety for the ‘Average Joe’-Article Two

In 2002, a Food Standards agency conducted a survey of 1,000 food workers. Of these 39%…390 of those surveyed…did not wash their hands after using the toilet. 53% didn’t wash their hands before preparing food. Broken down even further, it has been determined (based on this as well as other surveys) that half of all men and a quarter of all women make a regular practice of not washing their hands after visiting restroom facilities.

Some of the reasons people give for not washing their hands properly or at all are 1) Lack of time/too busy (54%) 2) Forgetting/having to remember (18%) and 3) Distractions with other/competing tasks.

Handwashing is the simplest–yet the most neglected–disease prevention practice. Germs can survive for up to three hours on hands. Thorough handwashing with hot, soapy water prevents bacteria from transferring from hands to foods. Some of the most hazardous foodborne illnesses can be passed through improper handwashing. E.coli 0157:H7, the deadly foodborne disease that killed a number of people in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s, is one that can be passed from person to person by improper or neglected handwashing.

Hands must be properly washed after tasks like using the restroom and before preparing food. It is interesting to note that Washington State’s Food Code mandates that food workers wash their hands in the restroom after using the facilities and then again inside the kitchen before preparing food. One handwashing is for “show”, because the food worker will re-contaminate his/her hands after touching doorknobs and such because they were handled by people who had not washed. The second handwashing is the real handwashing required for food safety.

It is important that hands be washed properly to prevent illness. The “rinse and go” method that is all too common nowadays is as ineffective for preventing foodborne bacteria as not washing at all.

How To Wash Your Hands Properly

o Use soap and warm, running water.

o Make sure to wet hands before applying the soap

o Apply a liberal amount of soap to hands

o Rub your hands vigorously for 20 seconds (two rounds of “Happy Birthday”)

o Wash all surfaces, including:

o backs of hands

o wrists

o between fingers

o tips of fingers

o under fingernails

o Rinse your hands well

o Dry your hands with a paper towel.

Many people think that a nail brush is necessary for handwashing, and will keep one near the sink for that reason. The problem is that the nail brush becomes moist and stays that way. Moisture is a fertile breeding ground for bacteria. Unless your nail brush is kept in a sanitizer solution, do not keep a nail brush at the sink. It is possible to wash under the fingernails without using a nail brush.

Microbial or antibacterial soaps are not necessary for proper handwashing.
From the New York Times:

Studies show that more than 70 percent of liquid hand soaps sold are now labeled antibacterial, and Americans seem increasingly willing to pay a premium for them. But the truth is that most consumers may not always be getting what they think they are. Over the years, studies have repeatedly shown that antibacterial soaps are no better than plain old soap and water.

One study, published in The Journal of Community Health in 2003, followed adults in 238 households in New York City for nearly a year.

Month after month, the researchers found no difference in the number of microbes that turned up on the hands of people who used either antibacterial soap or regular soap. At least four other large studies have had similar findings.

In fact, the only question now may be whether using antibacterial soaps can cause more harm than good by creating strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration convened experts to discuss, among other things, whether antibacterial products should be more tightly regulated because of the potential risks they pose.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Studies show that antibacterial soap is no more effective than regular soap.

Due to the recent popularity of waterless hand sanitizers, the misconception abounds that this solution can replace handwashing. While it is good to keep the solution on hand for situations where hands cannot be washed, such as when you are not at home and are not near handwashing facilities, it does not replace proper handwashing, nor is it approved as a substitution by any Environmental Health Agency in America. The Food and Drug Administration, in regards to regulations concerning proper procedures for food services, recommends that hand sanitizers not be used in place of soap and water but only as an adjunct.

Barbara Almanza, an associate professor at Purdue University who teaches safe sanitation practices to workers, recommends that to properly sanitize the hands, soap and water should be used. A hand sanitizer can not and should not take the place of proper cleansing procedures with soap and water.

The very best defense against foodborne illness being passed from person to person or to a loved one who you are cooking for is proper handwashing.

The doctrine that requires lower courts to adhere to existing case law in their decisions is known as:

A> administrative law
B> procedural law
C> stare decisis
D> equitable estoppel