Healthcheck, eh?
Wednesday night, CBC Canada ran a great news piece on the Healthcheck program run by the Heart and Stroke Foundation. You’ve probably seen the program’s television ads or the Healthcheck logo around Canadian grocery stores – it’s a little red checkmark that appears on thousands of products, indicating a “good choice” for your health.
A good choice, as determined by dietitians working for Heart and Stroke, is an interesting one by my standards. To obtain the mark of approval, a food has to meet a set of nutrient criteria that align with Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating and Health Canada’s Heart Health Claim, based on total fat, saturated fat, fibre, sodium, calcium, and micronutrient content. Because products only have to align with some of the requirements, though, the label ends up on foods like frozen French fries, filled with saturated fat and sodium.
Heart and Stroke emphasizes that companies are not involved with setting the criteria, but companies still pay top dollar to wear the Healthcheck sign of approval. This disturbed me most about the program, which appears to be one run in interest of consumer health and ability to make good choices. Because it’s based on ability to pay, plenty of smaller-scale companies producing healthy products don’t have the resources to afford the status symbol. The average consumer believes that the marked product is a healthier choice, but that’s only among products from huge companies who control the market. (It makes sense – think of how many brand-name cereal products, owned by some of Canada’s largest producers, have the symbol).
What does this kind of program mean for whole, unprocessed foods? My apples and milk and bags of spinach don’t wear red checkmarks. Maybe I am blowing this out of proportion – consumers must realize that fresh produce is among their best choices – but watching the CBC feature convinced me otherwise. Diane, the mom highlighted in the video would choose these products because “it’s pretty simple, right? You’ve got the heart and the check … so it’s pretty fast to see and something that I don’t have to think twice [about].” She was thrilled that her son loved these ‘healthy foods’: frozen mac and cheese, Mickey-mouse shaped burger patties, and little snack cakes that were 1/3 sugar.
In the grocery store yesterday, I made a more concerted effort than usual to check out these products and see what kinds of ‘healthy things’ I should be putting in my cart. Let’s just say, I was blown away. Some Healthchecked items I found included: Hop & Go Chocolate Chunks cereal bars, McCain frozen French fries, and ‘lower-sugar’ breakfast cereals targeted to children, filled instead with artificial sweeteners – not to mention 100-or-so frozen dinners. I’d love to know what Healthchecked products you find on your grocer’s shelves.
If you have 30 minutes sometime this weekend to kick back with a tea, I suggest checking out either the video or its related press release from an upcoming issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. What do you think? Does this program indeed point to healthier processed choices – or are they steering shoppers away from better groceries and better health altogether?
Roasted brussels sprouts
I tend to wax poetic about vegetables, much to the laughter of my family and friends. I can’t help it – vegetables excite me. Most of the time people understand well enough: it’s easy to get excited over a ripe summer tomato, or a silky roasted squash, or some snappy green beans.
Then there are Brussels sprouts.
Many people shudder and recoil – ‘but they stink!’ my little sister tells me emphatically. What is it about these knobby, bulbous little things that scare people so? Perhaps the ill preparation of Thanksgiving dinners past, where they sat, sad and overcooked, playing second fiddle to the sweet potato casserole? Or maybe it’s the scary out-of-season specimens that sit untouched in the grocery store, the size of children’s fists and tasting of murky water. Such misrepresentation.
Boy, do I ever love Brussels sprouts. Part of the brassica family, they first were recorded in Europe in the late 1500s. The humble little orb is one of the few vegetables that endures through the cold winter months, gracing our plates with green in the cold of December, when lettuce is hydroponic and spinach is imported from far away. They taste of health – both sweet and savoury, full of fibre, vitamins C and D and folate.
When buying them, look for sprouts no larger than a small walnut, which are sweeter and younger, and remove any yellowed or bruised leaves (I usually just pluck off the first layer). They are pretty hardy, so can be stored in the crisper for a week or so before they turn.
My favourite preparation renders delicious, slightly nutty sprouts. Any unpleasant smell is due to overcooking the sprouts, which releases sulphur compounds, so I shy away from boiling. Instead, I slice the trimmed, clean sprouts in half, toss with sea salt, coarse black pepper, and enough olive oil to coat. I grate over a little fresh nutmeg (not too much, but it does something magical to them!) and roast on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about 12 minutes at 350 degrees F, tossing halfway. The finished sprouts should be crisped golden at the edges, tender in the middle, and smell toasty and savoury. They’re great right out of the oven, at room temperature, or straight from the fridge for lunch the next day.
Tell me, do you love ‘em or hate ‘em? How do you prepare your little cabbages? If you aren’t a fan, please roast some up fresh from the market for me … and say they aren’t heavenly.
Starbucks and skinny culture
If you haven’t heard it in queue at your local Starbucks yet, skinny is the word. Responding to increased customer demand for nonfat, sugar-free, no-whip versions of their drinks, this new label is set to become the hippest lingo in Barista-speak.
How do I feel about the skinny move? When I first heard, I was very torn over this big change Starbucks has implemented for “our health”. I think it’s fantastic to get more folks drinking skim milk, versus whole or 2 percent. At the same time, my reservations outweigh this small benefit. First, the consumer Starbucks is targeting already believes she makes ‘health-conscious’ decisions when she orders her mouthful-of-a-drink, they’re just streamlining the process. Second, what happens when a girl like me, who would otherwise order a ‘tall nonfat 2-pump caramel latte’ for a treat succumbs to the easier-on-the-tongue ‘skinny caramel latte’ and in doing so inadverdently becomes an artificial sweetener consumer?
The press release states: “Just in time for the New Year, Starbucks helps customers keep their resolutions without sacrificing flavor with the introduction of the ‘Skinny’ platform, a nonfat Latte made with sugar-free syrup … The Skinny Latte will be featured on menu boards starting in January 2008 and available at participating Starbucks as a core beverage offering in North America, so customers can enjoy this lower calorie, sweet tasting espresso beverage all year long.” (emphasis added)
This leads to my third reservation about the Skinny platform: it perpetrates a ‘more is better’ approach to eating and drinking. I would guess that the same consumer who chooses the skinny option may also upgrade her order from a Tall to Grande, or Grande to Venti beverage. The rationale: since her beverage is lower-calorie, she can consume more for the same ‘nutritional price’. To me, the smaller size (and really, at 12oz, is a Tall really all that small?) provides plenty of hot deliciousness, healthy protein and calcium, and keeps the pocketbook from becoming too skinny.
Fourth, let’s unpack the subconscious tale behind this new Skinny moniker. Starbucks is sending a message to an already-weight-obsessed demographic – your drink is skinny, and you should be, too! You might counter that I am blowing a drink name out of proportion, but it’s not a healthy latte, or a nourishing latte, or a better choice latte. Skinny is a claim that a company doesn’t have to explain, or qualify. While healthy conjures a particular meaning in one’s mind, skinny is ambiguously appealing.
Fifth, and finally, by marketing these drinks as a food for the health-conscious, an occasional treat becomes a daily necessity. From where I stand, no one should be making a sweet, dessert-like breakfast a staple item on the walk to school or commute to the office – whether it’s made with aspartame or sugar and a mountain of whipping cream. These beverages are best enjoyed sitting in the cafe, coat off, from a real mug, conversing with friends or people-watching or reading a book. When a sweet treat is rare indulgence, I am inclined to do the anti-skinny; top off my dessert with a blob of delicious full-fat real whipping cream – and lick my spoon, to boot!
Stocking a pantry: how-to
Everyone needs a well-stocked pantry.
Easier said than done, Martha. This sentence, followed by a laundry list of essential items that “everyone needs” to make delicious, healthy meals from day-to-day, is daunting. A well-stocked pantry, which requires 50 or so key items, is costly and time-consuming to acquire – and most of its benefits are not reaped immediately. If like me, you travel by foot or public transit, carrying home half of the local supermarket on your shoulders is a bit impractical. Even more, once stocked, items have to be replenished as they’re used. It’s a never-ending saga, this well-stocked pantry. So we avoid it.
The problem with a well-stocked pantry is not knowing where to start. Martha forgot to mention, but she didn’t achieve her gleaming rows of preserves and spices and condiments overnight. Nor did she drop $300 in one shopping trip on canned tuna, and jarred anchovies, 6 kinds of mustard and 13 bean varieties, plus tinned tomatoes – whole, diced, pureed, in paste. She did it in increments.
Having helped many friends figure out how to stock a pantry and use it to make menu staples, I figured a guide might be useful. Below I provide a step-by-step process to acquire (and maintain) a well-stocked pantry. In spite of my moans and protestations as I lug cans of beans home from the grocer, I really believe it’s one of the best tools for cooking at home more often and enjoying the process. Add lemons, chickpeas, stock, and some chili flakes to fresh spinach and you have a beautiful soup. Olives and capers turn market tomatoes into a bubbling putanesca sauce. I really can’t exalt the virtues of a well-stocked pantry enough. It’s a must.
The list and instructions below were created based on pantry staples that real cooks use. It’s costly and inefficient space-wise to use an item once and dump it a year later, when it’s rancid. Cooking well doesn’t require a wall of special vinegars, really. (But if you have a penchant for fancy vinegar, I forgive you.)
Stocking a Pantry: How-to
1. Print the list: Print out the below list and take inventory of your current stores. The numbers in brackets next to some items indicates what I keep on hand cooking for one or two, but can be modified to any size family, and around your space constraints. Other items I generally only store in ones, or keep an extra in the cupboard if I find it on sale. When you’re done taking stock, you should have a good idea of what’s in (or not in) your cupboards. Now is also a good time to throw out that mango-hot pepper chutney that’s been sitting in the fridge for two years.
2. Become a flyer reader: Rest assured, I do not want to make a coupon-clipper of you if you already aren’t, or think you should spend hours each week comparison shopping, which is very time-consuming.
Flyers, however, are key to stocking a pantry relatively cheaply. To begin, find the flyer dates for 2 to 3 grocery stores you shop at most often – almost every chain offers an electronic version of their weekly online. For example, I read flyers from a budget grocery, a middle-range store closer to my apartment, and a fancy grocer where I splurge on the occasional pantry treat. Get in the habit of checking the flyers against your pantry list … the key is not stocking the whole pantry all at once, but in pieces.
To illustrate, let’s pretend that this week, Grocer A has lentils on sale for $0.59 per can – a steal; Grocer B has a clearance on good baking chocolate; and Grocer C happens to advertise cheap lemons, organic eggs, and capers. Buy these things now – if you need 4 cans of lentils, buy 4 – repeat this principle for each item. Pretty soon, you won’t have to purchase as many staples at once, because your pantry will be partially stocked already (unless you happen to consume lentils every day, in which case you should modify your pantry list to reflect this usage).
Shopping this way, I have started and maintained a pantry for a few dollars a week – and wish I had kept track of the money I saved in sales along the way! When I think of the chickpeas I go through, saving $0.40 a can adds up big time! All for a little planning.
3. Decide where to splurge: I love salt. I love tea. Correspondingly, I spend a bit more on these items, when necessary. The same flyer sleuthing applies here, too, though. For instance, I just found my favourite $15 tea for an amazing 75% off in a post-Christmas blow-out and bought 3 tins. Find what you love – be it amazing fair-trade coffee, or weird mustards – and spend a little extra, because eating well around what you love is so worth it.
4. Make the list work for you: I use tons of canned tomatoes in the winter, not so much in the summer. The good thing is, tomatoes keep for a long time in cans. Likewise, you might eat more kidney beans for my black beans, or hate capers. No sense stocking a pantry you aren’t going to use! If other items not listed are must-haves in your home, add them (and please suggest them to me in the comments)! This is a start, but by no means an exhaustive list to a well-stocked pantry.
5. Where to store it all: Once you’re on your way to stocking a pantry, where to keep it all can be a daunting task in itself. For apartment dwellers without actual pantries (like me!) it works well to designate one large cupboard for all the dry and canned goods – this is plenty space. If your kitchen lacks the storage, converting part of a hall closet to a pantry area also works well. Basements are also a great area to set up shelves, if you’re lucky enough to have one that isn’t damp or susceptible to water damage. That being said, if you never venture down to your basement, keeping a pantry there isn’t conducive to using it, so plan accordingly. You want to avoid areas near bathrooms, or bedroom closets, where foods can take on the smell of cleaning supplies or laundry detergent.
4. Keep two copies: I keep one pantry list taped to an inside cupboard, and one in my purse. I reconcile the two (like a bank statement) after each grocery shop. It takes seconds, and makes for major peace of mind.
Most importantly, look at the well-stocked pantry as an exciting part of cooking delicious, healthy made-from-scratch food in a more economical way. This is reward enough!
spices & seasonings:
whole peppercorns
cardamom
star anise
nutmeg
cinnamon
allspice
cloves
oregano
chili flakes
paprika
herbes de Provence
bay leaves
100% pure vanilla extract
dry goods:
tea
coffee
salt – kosher, fleur de sel, sea
all-purpose unbleached flour
whole wheat flour
brown sugar
cane sugar
baking soda
baking powder
unprocessed cocoa
brown rice
white rice
basmati rice
jasmine rice
risotto
split peas
quinoa
barley
beluga lentils
oatmeal
steel-cut oats
nuts (sliced almonds, pecans, pine nuts, etc.)
dry pasta – such as spaghetti, vermicelli, penne, angel hair, rigatoni (4)
canned/jarred:
cannellini beans (2)
navy beans (2)
kidney beans (2)
chickpeas (3)
black beans (3)
tomatoes – diced are sweeter than whole (5)
tomato paste (2)
tuna (4)
water-packed artichokes
kalamata olives
capers
good stock, either vegetable- or meat-based (2)
real Modena balsamic vinegar
red wine vinegar white wine vinegar
soy sauce
real maple syrup
vegetable oil
olive oil (for cooking)
extra-virgin olive oil (for garnish)
sesame oil
honey
Tabasco sauce
fridge:
lemons (2)
limes (2)
plain Greek-style yogurt
milk
eggs
roasted red peppers
tahini paste
natural peanut butter (100% peanuts)
hunk of good-quality dry cheese (Parmesan Asiago Romano etc.)
butter
grainy mustard
dijon mustard
jarred anchovies
jarred hot peppers
pantry vegetables:
ginger
garlic
red potatoes
white potatoes
sweet potatoes
onions
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