The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Offers the Following Food Safety Tips for the Holiday.

• Wash hands with warm water and soap for 20 seconds before and after handling any food. Wash food-contact surfaces (cutting boards, dishes, utensils, counter tops) with hot, soapy water after preparing each food item. Rinse fruits and vegetables thoroughly under cool running water and use a produce brush to remove surface dirt.
• Do not rinse raw meat and poultry before cooking in order to avoid spreading bacteria to areas around the sink and counter tops.
• When shopping in the store, storing food in the refrigerator at home, or preparing meals, keep foods that won’t be cooked separate from raw eggs, meat, poultry or seafood—and from kitchen utensils used for those products.
• Consider using one cutting board only for foods that will be cooked (such as raw meat, poultry, and seafood) and another one for those that will not (such as raw fruits and vegetables).
• Do not put cooked meat or other food that is ready to eat on an unwashed plate that has held any raw eggs, meat, poultry, seafood, or their juices.

• Use a food thermometer to make sure meat, poultry, and fish are cooked to a safe internal temperature. To check a turkey for safety, insert a food thermometer into the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. The turkey is safe when the temperature reaches 165°F. If the turkey is stuffed, the temperature of the stuffing should be 165°F.

• Bring sauces, soups, and gravies to a rolling boil when reheating.
• Cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm. When making your own eggnog or other recipe calling for raw eggs, use pasteurized shell eggs, liquid or frozen pasteurized egg products, or powdered egg whites.
• Don’t eat uncooked cookie dough, which may contain raw eggs.
• Refrigerate leftovers and takeout foods—and any type of food that should be refrigerated, including pie—within two hours.
• Set your refrigerator at or below 40°F and the freezer at 0°F. Check both periodically with an appliance thermometer.
• Thaw frozen food safely in the refrigerator, under cold running water, or in the microwave—never at room temperature. Cook food thawed in cold water or in the microwave immediately.
• Allow enough time to properly thaw food. For example, a 20-pound turkey needs four to five days to thaw completely in the refrigerator.
• Don’t taste food that looks or smells questionable. When in doubt, throw it out.
• Leftovers should be used within three to four days, unless frozen.

 Keep Your Family Safe From Food Poisoning…Check your steps at FoodSafety.gov

The 100 calorie packs available in most major food markets can be a handy way to maintain snack portion control between meals for kids and adults.

The challenge… read the nutrition label and see what the salt, fat, and carbohydrate intake is in this low calorie snack. It may be 100 calories, but it is not necessarily a healthy snack.

The site, fruits & veggies, more matters, at www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/healthy-weight-management,  issued a 100 calorie list of foods that make for healthy and low calorie snacking. Here are their suggestions:

 100 Calorie Snacks

Tortilla Chips  – 3/4 c

Strawberries –  2 cups

Sliced Peppers –  2 cups

Pretzels –  1 ounce

Muffin  – 1 ounce (1 mini)

Lettuce, shredded -20 cups

Ice Cream (not premium) 3/8 cup

Fresh Blueberries  – 1 1/4 cup

Donut 3/8 –  whole

Cucumbers, sliced  – 7 cups

Chocolate Chip Cookies – 2-2inch cookies

Cherry Tomatoes –  4 cups

Cheese P-Nut Butter Snack Cracker  – 3

Cantaloupe Cubes – 2 cups

Canned Peaches (in juice) – 1 1/2 cup

Bagel –  1/4 of 5 oz. bagel

Baby Carrots – 2 cups

Apple Slices –  2 cups

American Cheese (thin slices) -2 slices

100% Vegetable Juice -2 cups (16 fluid ounces)

100% Orange Juice – 7 fluid oz.

Happy Snacking on 100 Calories!

Here is a study that gives us all something to think about, especially as we are trying to help our young children develop healthy eating habits.

MONDAY, April 8 (HealthDay News) — Small children who are given large plates and then allowed to serve themselves take more food and consume more calories, new research finds.

The study used 41 first-graders in a Philadelphia elementary school to test whether adult research on dishware size and food intake also holds true for children.

“We found that children served themselves about 90 more calories when they used the large plate at lunch [compared to a small plate],” said Katherine DiSantis, assistant professor of community and global public health at Arcadia University in Glenside, Penn.

It turns out, however, that the children had a case of eyes-bigger-than-stomach. “They ate approximately half of every additional calorie they served themselves,” DiSantis said.

The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was published online April 8 in the journal Pediatrics and will be in the May print issue of the journal.

Obesity in children is a growing problem in the United States. About 17 percent of children aged 2 to 19 are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“In adults, the size of the dinner plate is known to affect how much they put on it and how much they eat,” DiSantis said. Other research has found that kids eat more food when they are served larger portions. But it was not known, DiSantis said, “Whether the use of larger, adult-sized plates would make kids take and eat more food if they served themselves.”

The researchers invited the 41 first graders from two different classrooms at a private elementary school to eat lunch, using a small child’s plate first and then an adult-sized one. The children had their choice of an entree and side dishes (pasta with meat sauce, chicken nuggets, mixed vegetables and applesauce). They all got fixed portions of milk and bread with each meal.

The researchers weighed the portions before and after the children ate and calculated their caloric intake.

“The two factors — plate size and being allowed to take their own food — seemed to work together, DiSantis said. “Overall, the adult-sized dishware by itself did not promote eating more.”

The child’s body-mass index (a measure of body fat based on height and weight) didn’t seem to predict who would take more food, the researchers found.

It was the child’s liking for the food that predicted what they would serve themselves. Those who liked the entree helped themselves to about 104 calories more at the meal.

DiSantis said, “Children look to their environment for some direction when put in the position of making decisions about how much food to serve themselves.”

“In the study, the differences in calories were not large,” she acknowledged. “But if this went on on a daily basis, it could contribute to the child’s overall energy intake and their weight status,” she said. “Using smaller plates might give children guidance on portion sizes, she added.

A nutrition expert who reviewed the study downplayed the role of plate size, while not dismissing it entirely.

“In the end, it’s the portion that’s served rather than the plate size — and whether or not the child likes the food — that influences how much they eat and how much they serve themselves,” said Marjorie Freeman, associate professor of nutrition, food science and packaging at San Jose State University in California. In her own research, she has found that as portion size increases, so does the amount you eat.

Freeman suggested that parents follow the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommendations, which suggest filling half the plate with fruits and vegetables.

Parents also can choose plate sizes for serving their children based on what will be on the plate. “For foods you want them to eat a lot of, such as fruits and vegetables, I’d put it on larger plates,” she said.

The fried chicken nuggets, she added, could be served on a small plate.

The study authors noted that the kids in the experiment served themselves more fruit on their large plates, but not more vegetables.

More information

To learn more about how to eat healthy foods, visit ChooseMyPlate.gov.

In a press release issued yesterday, HealthDay News reported that a leading consumer advocacy group, along with nutrition experts and health agencies from a number of U.S. cities, are calling for lowering the amount of sugars added to soft drinks.

The press release reads as follows:

Led by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the group  sent a petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to determine safe levels of high-fructose corn syrup and other sugars in sodas and assorted soft drinks.

Currently, the average 20-ounce bottle of soda contains about 16 teaspoons of sugars made from high-fructose corn syrup, the CSPI said. The American Heart Association currently recommends that men consume no more than 9 teaspoons of added sugars daily, and women no more than 6 teaspoons’ worth.

Some 14 million Americans of all ages now get more than one-third of their calories from added sugars, the petition stated.

“The consumption of such high amounts of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup [in sodas] are causing serious health problems, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, among others,” said CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson.

There’s been a great deal of scientific evidence gathered over the past decade to support that link to health problems, he said, and “we’re contending that much of the evidence centers around beverages.” The CSPI believes most sugary sodas could be safely replaced by those made with low-calorie sweeteners.

The group said its petition has the support of public health departments in Baltimore; Boston; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and other cities, as well as leading academics at Harvard and Yale universities and other institutions around the country.

According to Jacobson, the FDA is legally bound to examine the health effects of the amount of sugars being consumed and take corrective action.

The center is first asking the FDA to determine the safe level of sugar in drinks. Also, it wants the FDA to issue targets for the sugar content of other sugary foods and urge industry to voluntarily reduce sugar levels in those foods, Jacobson said.

“The third thing is to educate consumers to choose healthier foods and beverages,” he said.

The FDA classifies high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose and other sugars as “generally recognized as safe,” Jacobson said.

“What we’re asking the FDA to do is to modify those regulations and set some limits in beverages,” he said.

In the 1980s, the FDA twice committed to looking at limiting the level of sugars in foods if new scientific evidence found sugar levels were harmful to the public, or if sugar consumption rose, Jacobson said.

“We are reminding the FDA of that and saying you have an obligation to revisit this and protect the public’s health,” he said.

It will take years before any action is taken, but that gives industry time to adjust to using less sugar in drinks, Jacobson said.

Jacobson said economic issues shouldn’t be part of the FDA’s consideration. “There are winners and losers for any kind of a regulation. The sugar industry and the corn industry [which supplies ingredients for high-fructose corn syrup] would be losers, but the soft drink industry might be winners,” he said.

The makers of no-calorie sweeteners “would probably make out like bandits,” Jacobson said.

The CSPI hopes new sweeteners — such as rebiana, made from the stevia plant — will replace high-calorie sugar, making drinks healthier.

Although some people are concerned that these sweeteners may be harmful, Jacobson said they are still a better option than sugar.

“The FDA considers all these sweeteners perfectly safe,” Jacobson said. “We think the certain harm that’s coming from the 16 teaspoons of sugar in a 20-ounce bottle of soda greatly outweighs the speculative risk from artificial sweeteners,” he added.

“We have an obesity epidemic on our hands, with two-thirds of Americans obese or overweight, and that should take precedence over smaller concerns,” Jacobson said.

One industry representative took issue with the new petition.

“As we continue to debate the root causes of our nation’s obesity issue, we need to rely on science and facts, not look for quick fixes that draw focus away from developing real solutions to a complex problem,” said J. Patrick Mohan, the interim president of the Corn Refiners Association, which represents high-fructose corn syrup manufacturers.

And the American Beverage Association, which represents soft drink makers, said its industry is already making changes.

“Today about 45 percent of all non-alcoholic beverages purchased have zero calories and the overall average number of calories per beverage serving is down 23 percent since 1998,” the ABA said in a statement issued Wednesday. And according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Americans are consuming 37 percent fewer calories from sugars in soft drinks and other sweetened beverages than in 2000,” the group added.

“Everyone has a role to play in reducing obesity levels — a fact completely ignored in this petition,” the ABA said. “This is why the beverage industry has worked to increase options and information for consumers.”

Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, said he joined the CSPI effort and is “proud to have signed the petition.”

“The evidence that an excess of added dietary sugars, in any of its many guises, is a major contributor to the prevailing public health ills of our time is now essentially incontrovertible,” he said. “It stands to reason that lowering those levels will help in efforts to reduce the levels of obesity, diabetes and other chronic disease.”

Soda and other sugary drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the U.S. diet, with Americans, on average, consuming between 18 and 23 teaspoons — about 300 to 400 calories — of added sugars each day, according to the petition.

Many teens and young adults consume even more sugar than the average. Some get at least 25 percent of their calories from added sugars, according to the 2007-2008 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The CSPI petition notes that cities around the country have taken note of the problem and have acted. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is capping restaurant soda serving sizes at 16 ounces — a move that has met with considerable resistance from some who believe it tramples individuals’ rights.

Note: A judge blocked the enforcing of the NYC law, that was to go into effect earlier this week, just a day before it was to become law.

The United States Department of Agriculture,USDA has an extensive site for parents of preschool and elementary school age children featuring comprehensive nutrition plans, daily meal and snack plans for parents to reference and games that children can play that stress good eating habits. Go to:

http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/consumers/ages-stages/preschool-elementary-kids

Got a picky eater? The USDA has extensive information that can help parents get the picky eater to eat food necessary for good nutrition at

http://wicworks.nal.usda.gov/children/picky-eaters

Another great USDA site to visit for a personalized nutrition and physical activity plan, the  ability to track your foods and physical activities to see how they stack up and to get tips and support to help you make healthier choices and plan ahead is:

https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/default.aspx