Regular Heinz Ketchup:
There are 60 calories per tablespoon; 5 grams of carbs and 4 grams of sugar.   That’s a lot calories and sugar for one measly tablespoon.  The first four foods in the regular ketchup recipe are tomato concentrate, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup.  Yuk.

Reduced-Sugar Ketchup:
There are 25 calories per tablespoon with only 1 gram of carbs and 1 gram of sugar.  The first four foods in this ketchup recipe are tomato concentrate, distilled vinegar, onion powder and sucralose.  Note that sucralose is the last food in the recipe, which means there’s not very much of it.

Sucralose is the least objectionable artificial sweetener and is a much healthier, less risky choice than aspartame or saccharine.  This is because sucralose is very potent, so very little of it is needed.  (When you buy sucralose/Splenda at the grocery store, most of what you see in the bag is a starch-type filler called maltodextrin.)  Of course, no man-made products end up being good for us, but there are no widely documented problems with sucralose.  Maybe because it’s still a relatively new product.   Plus, it’s not like ketchup is a sauce.  Most people use it sparingly, as a condiment.

If you’ve never tried legumes (beans), lentils are an excellent starting place because they have a less dry quality than many other legumes.  These small but tasty beans come in orange-ish, green and brown varieties.  Health Magazine claims lentils are one of the five healthiest foods in the world.  With 30% protein, lentils are the 3rd highest plant source of protein after soybeans and hemp.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup green lentils
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut in 1″ half-rounds
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon picante (hot) paprika (or regular paprika)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 head radicchio, sliced
2 large endives (or 4 small ones), sliced in rounds
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup any sugar-free oil and vinegar dressing

Directions:
Put lentils in a small bowl and cover with water.  Let soak for 10 minutes and then drain.  Cook lentils in boiling salt water for 30 minutes.  Drain.  Rinse under cold water until water is clear, and drain again.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 and prepare butternut squash.  Put oil, cumin, paprika and salt in a large bowl and whisk until well blended.  Add squash and gently toss until the slices are coated with the oil mixture.  Arrange squash on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Roast for 20 minutes.  Turn slices over and roast for another 15 minutes (or until tender).  Cool.

Squash and lentils can be combined and refrigerated in a covered container until ready to use.  To serve combine radicchio, endive, squash, lentils in a large bowl.  Add dressing and toss.  Divide onto serving plates and sprinkle each one with feta cheese.

Servings:
4 large servings or 8 small ones

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As it turns out, I’m very happy with these skillets and highly recommend them. The non-stick surface really and truly doesn’t stick, which is great because it enables you to cook with less fat. The pans cook evenly and beautifully, and it only takes about 30 seconds to thoroughly wash them. As for the cushy orange handles, they’re comfortable, practical and easy to see. I was surprised that the cushy feature makes it a little easier to carry the pan when there’s food in it. My husband isn’t too keen on the orange color, but I actually like it. (But then I’m wild for orange marigolds, too.)

I have a set of pricey Caphalon and Swiss diamond skillets in my pantry, and they’re headed straight for the trash because they aged poorly, and they don’t perform anywhere near as well as these products. I really appreciate Rachel’s commitment to putting out superior products at an affordable price.

Here’s the link to the skillets at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CNQJKK/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title

My biggest objection to Nutella is that the first ingredient is sugar. A first ingredient position is what the product has the most of.   So Nutella is mostly sugar.  Even though the Nutrition Facts label doesn’t differentiate between sugars that are added by the food manufacturer and sugars that occur naturally, it’s still a good idea to check the amount of sugar per serving.  This is located in the “Total Carb” section, and is expressed in grams.   A reasonable rule of thumb for a healthy choice is 3 grams of sugar per serving.  Nutella has 21 grams of sugar per serving, which is way over the top.  A Hershey’s chocolate bar, by comparison, has 24 grams of sugar, and when you buy it you’re not being fooled into thinking it’s something other than candy.

Nutella is also unattractive because it has 200 calories per serving.  Once again, this strongly resembles a Hershey bar which has 210 calories per serving.   Nutella also contains emulsifiers and artificial flavors, which isn’t all that bad, but it adds to the unnatural ingredients that your body has to figure out how to process and handle.

Personally, I would not eat this product simply because of the high sugar content, and it isn’t included in The Sugar-Free Miracle Diet.   For those who haven’t jumped on the sugar-free bandwagon yet, Nutella should be a once-in-a-while choice and  not a daily one — especially for kids.   If you’re a die-hard Nutella fan, at least consider using less of it.

Nutella Ingredients:  sugar, modified palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (from milk), soy lecithin, an emulsifier, vanillin: an artificial flavor.

These are my adorable granddaughters!

Butter:
100 calories per tablespoon: 63% saturated fat; 26% monunsaturated fat; 4% polyunsaturated fat.

Olive Oil:
120 calories per tablespoon: 14% saturated fat; 73% monounsaturated fat: 11% polyunsaturated fat.

Lard:
115 calories per tablespoon: 39% saturated fat; 45% monounsaturated fat: 11% polyunsaturated fat.

Spreads:  I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
50 calories per tablespoon; 20% saturated fat: 30% monounsaturated fat; 50% polyunsaturated fat

Like most spread products,  I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter is made with vegetable oil.  This recipe features a blend of soybean oil and canola oil.  The appeal of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter  is that it has 1/2 the calories of butter and a lot less saturated fat.  Through the magic of legislation, the food manufacturer can legally claim the food is trans fat free, but when you look at the ingredients list you’ll see words like “partially hydrognated” and “hydrogenated.”  This is the big clue that the product has trans fats.

All scientists everywhere universally agree that man-made trans fats are a real killer in the diet. No exceptions.  The hydrogenation process hardens the oils into a spread, and these hard molecules are unrecognized and harmful to your body. It wouldn’t be so bad if you ate these foods once in a while, but spreads are something you eat day in and day out. I read a quote once that jokingly referred to spreads as “one molecule away from plastic.” Think about it. In the name of 50 less calories, do you really want to put plastic in your body?  This recipe also contains artificial flavors and other additives.    

Spread products without trans fats do exist, but you have to find them.  Ignore whatever it says on the front of the package, and go straight to the ingredients list.  Safe/tasty choices tend to have higher caloric values (around 80 to 100 calories per tablespoon).  These include Smart Balance Omega Plus, Olivio Spreadable Butter with Canola & Olive Oil and Earth Balance Margarine Natural Buttery Spread Lactose Free. 

From a sugar-free perspective, it makes no difference whether you use butter, oil, lard or immitation oil spreads.  That said, my personal vote is for butter and olive oil.

This deviled egg recipe is a portable, tasty and satisfying afternoon snack.

Ingredients
6 extra large eggs
1/4 cup (3 tablespoons) mayo
2 scallions, white parts very finely chopped
3-4 dashes hot pepper sauce like Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Paprika for garnish

Directions
Put eggs in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15 minutes.   Rinse eggs in cold water and peel.  Allow to cool in refrig for 15 minutes or more.   Cut eggs in half and remove yolk.  Put yolks and remaining ingredients in a bowl.   Mash with a fork until well blended and texture is the way you like it   Fill the whites with the egg mixture and sprinkle the top with paprika.

An article entitled “The Toxic Truth About Sugar” was published by the scientists in Nature, a journal.  The article draws attention to the unhappy fact that consumption of sugar (and all caloric sweeteners including HFCS) has triped worldwide over the past 50 years and contributes to 35 million deaths each year.  The biggest problem to be corrected is the false but popular belief that caloric sweeteners are relatively harmless because they’re just empty calories.   Of course, sugar has no fat, which also makes it seem harmless.  We’ve all been relentlessly brainwashed to believe that fat is the culprit in our diet, when it’s been sugar all along.  People simply don’t understand that sugar is toxic and addictive.  For one thing, excess sugar consumption mimics the effects of drinking too much alcohol, which of course, is made from distilling sugar!  Also, as mentioned above, caloric sweeteners have a dramatic impact on metabolism, your body can’t handle the chronic overload.   They raise blood pressure, disrupt mineral absorption,  alter hormonal processing, and overload  liver function.   How bad is that! 

The scientists recommend making sugar consumption slightly less convenient by imposing a licensing requirement to sell sweetened drinks and snacks in schools and in the workplace.   This would control access in the same way that access is controlled to alcohol and cigarettes.  In other words, it makes products loaded with concentrated doses of caloric sweeteners slightly more expensive and restricted.  We’ll have to see what the food manufacturers. lobbyists and libertarians have to say about that!  It won’t be pretty. 

The bottom line is that this is really good news.  This research is a tiny but hopeful chink in the low-fat, low-calorie message that has led us down a very long and wrong path for the past 50 years.   Hooray for the Sugar-Free Miracle Diet Sytem that’s been extending this message a full 5 years ahead of the power curve!  Listen up out-of-control eaters and sugar addicts!   It’s absolutely essemtial to get caloric sweeteners (and foods that quickly convert to sugar)  out of the diet!   Eating sugar is like giving an alcoholic a drink.   For get all the psycho talk, and do something practical with the way you eat.

Ms. Deen bakes with sugar on the Food Network. We would seem to be natural enemies; the sugar lady with a signature recipe for Key Lime Pie vs. the anti-sugar lady who had to stop baking her mother’s recipe for Christmas coffee cake. If you’d ever tasted that coffee cake, you’d understand and forgive if I might be a little snotty about other people’s enjoyment of sugar. Truthfully, sometimes I’m exactly that person.

Ms. Deen even before her announcement had always hedged her bets telling her audience to practice moderation. I wonder if moderation can be taught by people who don’t look like they walk it like they talk it. I have never expected total abstinence and a life without a little chocolate or Key Lime Pie in it makes you extremely boring. So does this make her the food TV equivalent of a professional football player willing to spend the rest of her life in extreme pain in return for fifteen years of gridiron glory as an example for the rest of us? She doesn’t score touchdowns or do funny endzone dances, so I don’t think her fans will give her the same free pass for the apparent stupidity of wrecking your body for other people’s entertainment.

As soon as she let her diagnosis of Type-2 diabetes into our collective headspace, the media wolf pack circled for the kill. Some reports went right at the “southern comfort food” on Ms. Deen’s show enjoying with straight up vicious glee the irony that a chef promoting a diet rich in butter and sugar would suddenly contract diabetes, an apparent poetic justice. Fellow celebrity chef/travel host Anthony Bourdain weighed in calling her “the most dangerous woman in America.” Well, maybe she could be if a person actually ate her dishes at the rate at which Ms. Deen presents them on her show.

News shows found pictures of Ms. Deen posed with stacks of butter and suddenly scrutinized every meal. Oooooooooooh! She had a cheeseburger and fries! I’m not going to defend that plate as healthy, but no one eats perfectly. I still occasionally bust out the real whipped cream for the once a year pumpkin pie. I pay for it a few days later and go back to my normal regimen. I suppose this sort of thing could be what Ms. Deen meant by moderation, striking a balance between her Key Lime Pie and living long enough to enjoy the experience.

It wasn’t just the media having fun with apparent hypocrisy, but the announcement also included an agreement with a drug company to sell their top shelf diabetes drug. The jackals closed in all over again because we hate corporations and the very thought that a celebrity would sell out on a medical condition for money. At least, we know her maintenance care will be essentially free.

The coverage did also need more balance concerning the health advice for diabetes patients as butter’s being bad for people is under debate. Some (like the Atkins Diet and me) say naturally occurring dairy fat with limited lactose so eat responsibly because there are no substitutes, except that comes from a chemistry lab. Others (American Diabetes Association) say No Never. Even so that stack of butter sticks made for a great photo with which to smack around a celebrity. I suppose it’s now time for all of us to be distracted by the next dress to walk down the runway.

Nancy Appleton PhD is a world expert on health problems due to over consumption of caloric sweeteners. She’s the author of Lick the Sugar Habit, Suicide by Sugar, Killer Colas and others. For more information about Dr. Appleton or to get on her mailing list, visit her website: http://www.nancyappleton.com

Click here  for a direct link to purchase any of Appleton’s books.

It’s best to use fresh herbs for this recipe, but if you don’t have them, then substitute dried herbs using one-third (or 1 teaspoon) of the recommended amount.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1 tablespoon fresh chives
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1/2 cup non-fat cottage cheese
4 ounces low-fat cream cheese (at room temperature)
Freshley ground black pepper

Directions:
Remove stems from herbs and put them in a food processor. Pulse until chopped. Add the cheeses and grind some fresh pepper on top of the mixture. Process until smooth, about 30-45 seconds. Spread can be served immediately or covered and refrigerated. Allow to come back to room temperature before serving. Eat with fresh veggies of your choice.

Yield: 1 cup
Serving size: 1 teaspoon (about 7 calories)

This is a good afternoon snack and a great appetitizer to bring to a friend’s house. It tastes good and it fills you up.

That said, the government’s National Toxicology Program has a concern about the effect of BPA on fetuses, children and pregnant women. Some studies suggest that BPA might impact brain development, cause hyperactivity in kids and increase the risk of breast cancer (as well as other health problems). I wonder, personally, if BPA could explain the explosion in the incidences of autism that we’re seeing in our country.

BPA has already been removed from most baby bottles, sippy cups and pacifiers, but it’s still present in cans (incuding, of all things, baby formula cans) and in other plastic containers, bottles and toys. The problem with BPA is that it leaches into the food or the drink, which means that BPA is being regularly ingested and stored in the body. Plastic with BPA is especially dangerous when heated because this inceases the likelihood of leaching. BPA mimics the effect of estrogen, a hormone, and it disrupts and interferes with normal homonal functions.

The January/February 2012 Nutrition Action Letter summarized a study where researchers fed 12 ounces of canned soup (Progresso) to one group and 12 ounces of fresh soup to another group. All-in-all, 75 people had soup for lunch every day for five days. The results. Several hours after lunch, the people who ate the canned soup had BPA levels in their urine that were 12 times higher than the people who had fresh soup. Researchers don’t really know how much BPA is harmful, but small amounts have been show to cause breast cancer in animals.

The safest bet is to stop feeding infants formula that comes in a can, and to consider cutting way, way back on the amount of soup or canned foods you give your kids for lunch everyday. In general, look for bottles and cans that are clearly marked BPA-free. Eden Organic, for example, uses BPA-free cans for most of their products. Avoid polycarbonate (PC) bottles that have a #7 or #3 recycling code. Note that acidic foods like tomatoes, can’t be packaged in BPA-free cans, but there are brands that use cartons, like Pomi. For heating, always Use glass or ceramic products. Never use any kind of plastic or plastic wrap in a microwave.