Can Cauliflower Compete With Candy?
Tuesday, June 17th, 2003“Our kids seem to really like the fruit and vege- table snacks,” said Muscatine High School principal Dennis Heiman. Can this be true? Can teenagers like normal, healthy food such as carrots, star fruit, broccoli, plums, cauliflower for snacks instead of junk food? A $6 million program is going to find out. 1
Since fruit and vegetable snacks were intro- duced at this Iowa high school, sales of candy and soda have dropped 25%. Heiman said “I see a world of difference.”
Why all the big funding? This answer is it is all part of the fight against the obesity epidemic. Teens in the last 10 years increased from 11% obese to 15% obese. Smaller children and adults have be- come more overweight, too.
Health officials recommend five servings a day of fruit and vegetables (seven to nine for adults). A 1996 National Cancer Institute study found that French fries made up nearly a quarter of all vegeta- bles consumed by children and adolescents aged 2 to 18. French fries shouldn’t count. Kids need their eyes opened. “Some kids have never had a tanger- ine before,” said Heiman.
I think these healthful snacks are fantastic, of course. Now lets get the rest of the junk food out of our schools. When you offer a child a fresh straw- berry, you shouldn’t have to apologize that it doesn’t taste like a candy bar.
Be Thin To Win I don’t mean an unhealthy thinness that comes from deprivation or starvation, I mean being lean. I mean eating the right amount of healthy food to keep you slim. What you win is longevity. Mice or monkeys given 50% less food lived 50% longer! Obviously these animals, when al- lowed to eat instinctively, are eating more than what is advisable for a longer life. Are humans doing the same?
An NIA study of 700 healthy men over 25 years who ate as they wished found those who were slim lived longer than those who were overweight. For some genetically lucky people slimness runs in the family; for the rest of us permanent restriction of food intake, and lots of exercise, is required. 2,3
Anti-antibiotic I admit I’m prejudiced against antibiotics. I think too many people use them as a first line of defense instead of a last line. In April 2002 a woman with painfully infected foot sores finally had to have doctors amputate one of her toes. Doctors then discovered why she had not responded to the numerous antibiotics they had given her. The bacterium, staphylococcus aureus, was a strain that was totally resistant to our most powerful antibiotics. (Fortunately three drugs were found that were effective, and the woman got well.) To combat resistance, health officials want peo- ple to do without antibiotics when infections are not life-threatening. 4
This means stop using that fancy anti-bacterial soap! We sell homemade plain soap, so I may be biased, but in my defense, a one-year study shows plain soap just as effective as antimicrobial or anti- bacterial soaps. 5
Plain & Pure Products Ever since we encapsulated our first product we have specialized in Plain & Pure Products. The bottles and labels are plain, and less expensive. The contents are plain—typically a single ingredient— and thus as pure as we can make them. We offer some products in bulk, so you don’t even eat the capsule. I had one highly allergic customer tell me our vitamins were the only ones she could tolerate. We listen to you. Call us with suggestions. Thanks.
1 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22311-2003Feb17
2 JAMA 288:1342, 2002
3 Science 297:811, 2002
4http://www.freep.com/news/health/nstaph12_20021112.htm
5http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/10/24/antibacterial.soap.reut/ index.html