Here are selected news items from the Tribune blog, The Stew (chicagotribune.com/stew):
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How to eat more healthfully
March is National Nutrition Month. So perhaps it’s time to think about how your family makes healthful food choices.
“Most parents believe they can’t control what their family eats, but in reality, university studies show that somewhere between 70 percent and 75 percent of the food decisions the family makes are controlled by the person who purchases and prepares the food,” according to Dr. Brian Wansink, executive director, USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
Among adults, about three-fourths (73.6 percent) of all evening meals were eaten at home, according to recent analysis by the CNPP.
Wansink suggests how shoppers can make informed decisions while at the grocery store in the third of a series of MyPyramid PodCasts just released. “The PodCast Nutrition Gatekeeper — The Family Hero” provides simple and doable tips shoppers can use while at the store to help their family make healthful food choices.
A few tips: While at the store, buy the foods you want your family to eat; at home, keep fruits and veggies in plain sight; and try whole grains and low-fat milk.
For simple but often overlooked tips, go to mypyramid.gov/podcasts for the latest information.
— Carol Mighton Haddix
La Grange’s Cafe 36 vs. Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay and his TV crew were in town in February, but this time he wasn’t berating wannabe chefs.
The celebrity chef was in west-suburban La Grange for a taping of Fox-TV’s “Kitchen Nightmares” program, wherein chef Ramsay evaluates a restaurant on the skids and provides tips for improvement and, hopefully, survival.
The object of his scrutiny: Cafe 36 (22 Calendar Ct., La Grange; 708-354-5722), a restaurant that has struggled since it was sold by original owner Reinhard Barthel (truth be told, it was struggling before that, hence the sale)
— Phil Vettel
Take the Mediterranean diet quiz
The Mediterranean diet, one heavy in fresh vegetables and fruit, legumes, fish, olive oil and wine (in moderation, of course), has been touted as one of the world’s healthiest cuisines for years.
Now, Consumer Reports reports that the first U.S.-based study of the diet confirms its “life-extending benefits.”
In a study by the National Cancer Institute, the diets of 380,000 men and women between the ages of 50 to 71 were scored on a 9-point scale. Subjects with scores above 6 “were significantly less likely to die over 10 years of follow-up, particularly from heart disease or cancer, compared with those scoring below 4.”
Want to see how your diet compares? Take the quiz on the Consumer Reports Health site, consumerreports.org/health.
If you score below 6, you may want to alter your diet according to the guidelines outlined on the site. (We just barely eked out a 6 and will be adding more fruit and fish to our diet.)
— Joe Gray
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