Happy Halloween!

While hosting my annual pumpkin carving party the other night, one of the guests inquired about the nutritional value of the delicious toasted pumpkin seeds that I was serving. I made an educated guess that they're high in fiber (when you eat them whole with the white part still on, not the green pepitas that you can buy at a grocery store) and protein, but wasn't exactly sure about the nutritional breakdown.

Delicious toasted pumpkin seeds!

Questions like that are a great reason to do some research! Turns out that I was definitely right about the protein; a quarter cup of seeds has almost 8.5 grams of protein, which is 17% of your daily value (approximately). However, I wouldn't necessarily recommend eating a quarter cup of pumpkin seeds on a daily basis (first of all, that would be a lot of pumpkins to carve, even for those of us who love to carve pumpkins) because they are pretty high in fat. That quarter cup contains 25% of your daily fat allotment (again, approximately) which is a mix of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated, with most of the polyunsaturated comprised of omega-6 (rather than omega-3s which you may have heard are super duper good for you). BUT! It's not all bad news. In addition to being little protein power houses and a decent source of dietary fiber, pumpkin seeds contain healthy doses of magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and vitamin K. So as with all tasty treats this holiday season, enjoy them, just do it in moderation.

Kat's Protein Powerhouse Pumpkin Seeds
At least 3 pumpkins
Olive oil
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Carve several pumpkins. This works best if you have a party! Or a family.
2. Separate the "guts" from the seeds. Discard guts. Rinse seeds in a colander.
3. Spread seeds on a cookie sheet and place in the oven for around 10 minutes to dry off a bit from the rinsing.
4. Remove from oven and douse in olive oil. Sprinkle with salt.
5. Return to oven. Cooking time will vary depending on how wet they are and how crowded the seeds are on the pan, so check them every 5 or 10 minutes and remove them when they're slightly brown and look dry (see photo above). Enjoy!

Source of nutritional info: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=117

Today is FOOD DAY!

But you knew that already, right? Maybe not. Well, it appears that 2011 marks the inaugural national Food Day, which is sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Here is the blurb from the website:

Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. We will work with people around the country to create thousands of events in homes, schools, churches, farmers markets, city halls, and state capitals.

Healthy affordable food produced in a sustainable humane way?? Sign me up! Visit the website, www.foodday.org, to find out what Food Day events are happening in your community. Not the organized get-together type? Celebrate on your own by making sure that all of your meals today are made from "real" food. It'll taste better, be better for the environment, and make you feel better in the long run. Happy Food Day 2011!

Has Vegan Gone Mainstream?

I'll be honest, it's getting harder and harder to pick topics to write about - not for lack of topics, but because I am constantly being bombarded with new information and studies; in school, in my inbox, and in the mainstream news. Every day I see at least a couple of things that I think to myself "I should blog about that!" but then something else takes my attention away and much as I try to make a mental note to come back to it, sometimes that doesn't happen.

I think it's best to just sit back and absorb all of the information and then let topics align themselves into a posting.... sort of like today when I realized that I'd been immersed in information about veganism.

Being vegan is like, totally hip now.

Last week I finally got a chance to watch the documentary Forks Over Knives which details how a vegetable-focused diet can prevent (and improve) many chronic diseases. The next night I went to an upscale vegan restaurant in Somerville, True Bistro and at my roommate's suggestion tried the delicious cornmeal-crusted oyster mushrooms with horseradish and dill aoli. Today I spent time researching whether or not children can benefit from a vegetarian diet for a lab report (they can).

Yet, when I read on CNN.com just now that veganism is "officially mainstream" I had to stop and think. To me, a health conscious, active, nutrition student, a vegan diet is something that I'm extremely familiar with (though I don't follow it myself). But is it really possible that cutting out meat and dairy products has become mainstream? Would you be able to find a single restaurant in say, Alabama, that would be happy, willing, and able to provide a nutritious vegan meal? I'm doubtful, but hopefully nonetheless.

What do you think? Will we see the day when a vegan has not one, but several options on the menus of restaurants across the globe?

Denmark's New Fat Tax

You may have heard the news that Denmark recently imposed a "fat tax" where they will be taxing foods which contain more than 2.3% saturated fat. That means a tax on every single food item that contains saturated fat, including meat and butter and milk. According to one article, the money raised will fund obesity-fighting measures. (For two British viewpoints check out this Guardian article and this Telegraph article.)

When I first heard about this, my initial thought was 'why Denmark?' Danish people tend to be pretty healthy in general. When I was there this summer I was talking about nutrition with our friend who is a doctor. I mentioned that the US had the 5-a-day campaign for fruits and vegetables - and she mentioned Denmark's 6-a-day suggestion. Cities around the US are just now starting to have bike sharing programs and hyping the importance of sharing the road with bikes. In Denmark you're hard pressed to find a street that doesn't have a bike lane and most towns have at least one enormous bike parking area complete with free air pumps for your tires. According to Telegraph article, less than 10% of Danes are obese. According to the CDC, 33.8% of American adults and 17% of American children are obese.

While there are likely a slew of political reasons why Denmark of all countries has decided to impose this tax, it feels a little bit like they're taking one for the team (the team in this case being all other countries that have an obesity issue). Other European countries are definitely taking note, and perhaps America should as well. I'm often frustrated by the fact that there doesn't seem to be one logical place to start solving this problem in the states (especially since a lot of unhealthy foods are subsidized by the government and backed by lobbyists). However, I think that taxing saturated fat would at least a more logical place to start than taxing soda as has been suggested by various people and publications. At least putting a tax on something like saturated fat indicates to the public that they should be consuming less of that specific nutrient. Picking a specific product like soda could send the message that as long as you're not drinking soda, you're being healthy. With processed foods full of chemical additives lining grocery store shelves, soda is just one of many products that people would be healthier living without.