School Lunch in a Downward Spiral

As if school lunches weren't already looking bleak, Congress is taking it to another level.

"A new Congressional bill that looks likely to pass quickly will slow down reductions in sodium by requiring further study on long-term requirements, block whole grains by haggling over the definition, and help pizza stay on the menu by allowing two tablespoons of tomato paste on pizza to keep counting as a vegetable."

Many are outraged by these possible last minute changes, including Mission: Readiness, a group made up of hundreds of retired military Generals and Admirals who have been raising alarms about the readiness of our armed forces due to current childhood obesity. Amy Dawson Taggart, the director of Mission: Readiness, recently stated in a letter to politicians:

"We are outraged that Congress is seriously considering language that would effectively categorize pizza as a vegetable in the school lunch program. It doesn't take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this a national disgrace.”

"They are making sure that two of the biggest problems in the school lunch program, pizza and french fries, are untouched."

The above quotes and photo were taken from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Blog, "Playing Potato Pizza Politics"

How do you guys feel about school lunches? Do you think pizza and french fries should count as vegetables for our children?

WIAW: I have a new addiction

Finally jumping back on the What I Ate Wednesday bandwagon :)

Breakfast: I actually woke up early enough for the first time ever, and made it to Starbucks. And then it allll went downhill from there! I just went to get a coffee, non-fat vanilla hazelnut latte (my fav!). Then I saw this yummy muffin and of course I had to have it. The cream cheese was a little much for me, but it had pumpkin seeds in it which i absolutely love. And then it happened...I saw the naked smoothie. I've seen so many of you make these yummy smoothies at home and I have yet to take it on. So when I saw this one already made, I figured I'd give it a go. Holy crap, it's my new favorite food/drink/amazingness! I'm seriously addicted now. My favorite part about it, aside from the obvious greatness of all the fruits and veggies, is it has no added sugar and no GMOS! yay! I am now ready to attempt making my own fruit/veggie smoothie at home. (This one at Starbucks was almost $4, yikes!)

Lunch: Matt made me tuna salad, which I haven't had in what seems like a million years. I have no idea why, I actually really like tuna salad, I just never think about it. We made a delicious salad to go with it. I used this asian seasame dressing my friend Alex @ Cucumbers & Cowboy Boots left me when they, sniff sniff, moved to Virgina. Probably my new favorite dressing now. I put some honey roasted almonds I bought forever ago from publix on it too and Matt made crutons with focaccia bread. Supper yummy salad!

Dinner: OOOhhhh boy. I LOVE SUSHI!!!! There is something about this one roll I just can't get enough of. If my stomach was big enough, I would have ordered 10 more of it!! I'm not even sure I know what's in this roll, but I think it's tuna, and it's fried... and has spicy sauce, soooo, all my favorite things. I want some right now! Why are all my favorite foods so expensive! boo. And now I'm going to figure out a way to convince my husband we need sushi for dinner...again. :) Wish me luck!

The Future Of HFCS?

Taken from the Nutrition Business Journal:

On Oct. 22, a federal judge recently ruled that a deceptive marketing suit brought against the Corn Refiners Association has enough merit to move forward. The suit focuses on TV commercials comparing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) with real sugar.

In this brief video, Connor Link, associate editor of Nutrition Business Journal, reviews the interesting twists to the case and explores what this means for the future of HFCS.

Click HERE to see the video.

Whatever, I Do What I Want!

Ohhhh man. I had a married couple come in to see me with their 6 month old. I should have known things were not going anywhere good when the clerk told me that he was being really nasty to his wife out in the lobby. When I asked if the baby was getting any water the dad said, "yeah, glucose water." uhh. In my head I'm all...are you putting glucose tablets in her water?? But instead I said, "What do you mean?" He says, "You know, sugar water." I don't even know where people get this bright idea from! And when I explained to him why NOT to do this, he had the nerve to roll his eyes at me! Then he said, "I have 5 other kids and I'm going to feed this one just like I fed them." I bet they all have a mouth full of rotten teeth too...yea, I didn't say that either...At that point I just said ok and directed everything else I had to say to the mom, who was actually interested. I told her normal stuff...introduce a sippy cup, when to introduce other foods, ext. By the way, dad never even made eye contact with me again, and sat there with his arms crossed the whole time. So, when they went back out to the lobby the clerk up front heard him say, "Everything she said is crap." WHAT! agh! Clearly he knows more than I do about how to feed children, I mean, after all, he has 6 of them and all I have is a nutrition degree and my RD...why would I know anything?

I wanted to go out there and tell him that just having children doesn't mean you know more than I do and it certainly doesn't make you a good parent, and it's blatantly obvious that your not a good husband either...didn't say that either, for obvious reasons.

Don't Eat The Cantaloupe...

I have never like cantaloupe, and boy am I really glad about this right about now!!! Apparently Colorado is trying to kill us with their deadly cantaloupes! Well...their probably not TRYING to kill us, but they are certainly doing a good job at it. Death by Listeria = Super Scary! Check out the link below to the yahoo article on the latest listeria outbreak.

Cantaloupe Outbreak Is Deadliest In a Decade

How Whole Foods "Primes" You to Shop

Read this article on Yahoo this morning and thought it was rather interesting.

How Whole Foods "Primes" You to Shop



Stop Throwing Rocks at Me!

I have a kidney stone. Booooo. A 3mm stone has been stuck in my ureter for a couple weeks now and doesn't seem to want to come out! 3mm's isn't THAT big but unfortunately it's stuck on scar tissue. Bottom line- I'm having a basket extraction surgery today to have it removed. Now you're probably wondering how I'm able to sit here and write a blog post when I have a kidney stone! Well let's back up 14 years... I got my first kidney stone when I was 12 years old. Fun, I know! The doctors wouldn't give me pain meds for hours because they didn't even consider a stone because of my age. They were sure it had to be my appendix. Of course, it was a stone, and several test/hours later they finally figured it out. Anyway, since then I've had probably over 400 stones (hence the scar tissue). Most of them pass, but a couple times I've had to have them removed either by extraction or lithotripsy. So basically I'm just used to it now...which is kinda sad, but what can ya do! The stones I get are calcium oxalate. I'm supposed to be on a low oxalate, 3 L water, no caffeine diet. The low oxalate thing is something the urologist recently told me,so I obviously haven't seen if it has produced any positive results yet.

Have you guys ever had a kidney stone before or have friends or family that have? Are you on any type of special diet and does it work???