My Yogurt Adventure

                I did it! I successfully prepared homemade yogurt. (See my post from last wee about my yogurt plan.) Props to my parents for allowing this adventure to happen in their home with their milk. They did not have yogurt to use as a starter, so shout out to YT and family for sharing with me a spoonful of Stonyfield Organic plain yogurt.

                This is what I did:

1. Find a thermometer. I had one, and then discovered that the battery was dead. Replaced the battery.
2. Pour 12oz Pride of the Farm lowfat milk into top of double boiler.
   
3. Heat milk to 180⁰F. Keep checking temperature with thermometer until it is just right.
4. Keep milk on lowest flame to maintain the milk at that temperature for about 5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let set milk pot in ice bath until temperature is 115⁰F. Keep checking temperature with thermometer until it is just right.
   
6. Add a bit of the milk to the spoonful of yogurt that is in a bowl at room temperature.
   
   
7. Transfer warm milk to insulated hot cup.
   
8. Pour the milk-yogurt starter mixture in.
9. Seal cup and put it in hot water bath. The water was about 125⁰F.
   
10. Wrap in towels to keep it insulated. 
    
11. Over the next 3 hours, I checked the temperature of the water bath twice and added more hot water to bring the temperature back up to 125⁰F. After that, I just let it sit undisturbed overnight.
12. After a total of 16 hours, I opened up the incubated milk.
    
13. I secured a thin rag over the top of a container and strained the yogurt through it for about 1 hour. I was left with some whey in the container. 
    

                I would definitely call this a success! The flavor was not too tart as I feared it would be after reading so much ahead of time. It did not taste like any yogurt I had eaten before, but it definitely tasted like yogurt! There was a slightly grainy texture to it, which from my reading may have to do with heating the milk too rapidly or moving the yogurt too much while it incubates. I will try to heat it slower next time and then leave it to peacefully incubate.

                 Anyone else want to try this? 

My Yogurt Plan

I have been reading up on yogurt. That is, making yogurt at home. I enjoy yogurt as part of my breakfast every day, and I was wondering if there was a cheaper way to have yogurt. I saw an advertisement for a yogurt maker, and a whole new world that I never knew existed was opened to me! My first though was to purchase a yogurt maker. Many different companies make them, and they are at a few different price points. Then, as my research progressed, I discovered that yogurt makers do not actually make your yogurt for you. Most of them are merely a warming device. They maintain the yogurt at a constant temperature to promote the growth of the bacteria that have been added to the previously heated milk. My further reading led me to discover that there are other methods of incubating yogurt that do not involve a special device. And besides, where would I store it??

Disclaimer: I have not made yogurt yet. It is on my agenda though. Perhaps it will work. Perhaps it will require some tweaking before I get it right. This is my plan: I will use my second, not yet used, crockpot to incubate my yogurt. I might have to try it a few times until I can get the temperature settings correct. But I am getting ahead of myself. Do you want to know how it is done? Well, I will tell you.

1. Heat 2 quarts milk to 180⁰ F and maintain milk at this temperature for about 5 minutes (I plan to use a thermometer)
2. Cool milk to 110-115⁰ F (again, I’ll need the thermometer)
3. Pour about 1 cup of milk into a bowl that has a few tablespoons of yogurt that contain live active cultures, and gently mix
4. Pour yogurt-milk mixture back into milk
5. Incubate milk at 110-115 ⁰ F for 8-24 hours (I think this might be the hardest part) Once this time is up, the milk should have thickened into yogurt
6. Now put in in the fridge to cool
7. Eat!! (the best part hopefully)

From my extensive reading, there are some issues that can come up. Sometimes, the milk does not thicken into yogurt. This can happen if the yogurt with the bacteria is added before the milk cools to 110-115⁰ F, because the bacteria will be killed from heat at higher temperatures. It can also remain liquidy if the yogurt cools below temperature while incubating, because the bacteria need that warm temperature to multiply. It also seems that homemade yogurt is typically thinner than the store bought varieties, as sometimes companies add thickeners. This can be remedied by straining the yogurt through a cheese cloth or stirring in powdered milk to the milk while heating.

So this is my proposal to myself: Brendel, make some yogurt! It might take some experimenting until I get good yogurt. I will keep you updated. Also, I still owe you my margarine-less sugar cookie recipe…I haven’t forgotten!

If any of you have made yogurt before, please let me know your experiences and any tips you have.

Chanukah Traditions

The Jewish holidays are always a time for cooking and baking yummy foods. One of my favorite Chanukah foods are sugar cookies. You are correct, you can have cookies on any holiday, but on Chanukah they are a special tradition for me.

Typically, the one time of the year I use margarine in baking is for making sugar cookies for Chanukah. I love making Chanukah-themed cookie shapes and glazing them with a simple powdered sugar-based glaze. I always had difficulty finding the perfect proportions of oil, flour, sugar, and other ingredients to make dough that has a good consistency for making shapes with cookie cutters without using margarine. Until this year.

This Sunday I wanted to make sugar cookies. I had forgotten to purchase margarine at the supermarket last week, and I had no intention to take the cold trip out again. So, as any determined person will do, I asked my sister-in-law if she had a margarine-less sugar cookie recipe. And in fact she did! The recipe did require some tweaking. I used less oil than it called for, and added some extra flour and sugar. Once they were baked, I realized I should have used less baking powder, because sugar cookies are not supposed to grow or get a little bubbly like these did.

I wish I could share the recipe with you…and the other people who have already asked for it. But, sadly, I did not measure my ingredients! I plan to remake the cookies, but this time measure the oil, flour, and sugar that I use. On the agenda in a coming week is to give you the margarine-less sugar cookie recipe. 

Before Glaze

After Glaze!!

How Much Coffee Can I Drink?

                The media have so much to say about coffee these days. Is it safe? Maybe it is even healthy? In general, the only question about coffee’s safety comes from its caffeine content. It is considered safe for most adults to have 400mg of caffeine per day. People with heart conditions or other medical conditions may have a lower safe limit. Supplements that contain caffeine can pose a risk to some—with high enough intake of those, there is risk of caffeine toxicity.      In the day to day life of a coffee drinker, it will take about 4 cups of coffee to reach the recommended daily limit.

                Research has actually shown a link between coffee intake and decreased risk of some disease such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease. Additionally, research has not been able to confirm a link between coffee intake and increased risk for diseases. Still, there is not enough evidence to encourage non-drinkers to start drinking.

                What is the bottom line? I would say that coffee is okay in moderation. Just watch out for what comes with it…sugar, creamer, whole milk, and the flavor syrups. Once those are added, coffee goes from being an okay option to a high-calorie, high-sugar choice. 

Grocery List: Some of the Cheapest and Most Nutritious Foods

• Beans (dry beans have no sodium while canned beans do)
• lentils
• chickpeas (dry chickpeas have no sodium while canned beans do)
• oatmeal (the large canisters are cheaper and do not have added sugar, unlike some of the individual oatmeal packets)
• popcorn kernels (air popping is a no-fat added method to prepare)
• milk
• yogurt (the store brand will be cheaper, plain yogurt will not have sugar added)
• cottage cheese (the store brand will be cheaper)
• eggs
• peanuts or natural peanut butter (choose the peanut butter that only has peanuts and salt as the ingredients)
• canned tuna fish
• cabbage
• potatoes
• sweet potatoes
• summer squash (green or yellow zucchini)
• winter squash
• beets
• onions
• tomatoes
• apples
• bananas
• in-season fruit
• frozen berries, strawberries, etc
• lettuce
• carrots
• canned tomatoes
• frozen mixed vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, kale, etc (the ones with sauce will have added fat and sodium; the plain ones are just that—plain vegetables)
• brown rice
• while wheat pasta
• water

In the comments section, let me know which foods you have found to be inexpensive. 

Tips for Healthy Holiday Eating

                Happy post-Thanksgiving! Many people struggle with healthy eating on holidays. Often, they decide that it’s a holiday and they will just enjoy it. That usually means eating many foods in larger quantities. As a dietitian, I wonder what to advise my patients on this topic. Should I just say, “it’s a holiday, it does not happen often, just enjoy?” Or, should I encourage my patients to continue to make healthy choices every day?

                Somehow, a holiday is not just one day. The holiday has become holiday season, and the holiday treats are eaten for weeks in advance of the actual special day. It ends up becoming a challenge during the entire month… But in truth, it is the same challenge the whole year. We are always inundated with treats, snacks, and yummy food. It is hard to stay away from tempting food when it is right in front of us.

                Here are some strategies on making healthy choices all year round...but especially when the holidays are here.

• Don’t buy it! If it’s not in your house, you won’t eat it
• Stock up on healthy foods
• Check out restaurant menus before you dine, and see if you can find some healthier choices; some places post their nutrition facts online
• Split your restaurant meal with someone
• Share your plate of dessert
• Plan ahead and choose the treats that you’d like to eat rather than tasting some of everything
• Start your day with a healthy breakfast; saving your calories for a big meal usually does not work
• Choose water, flavored water, and flavored seltzer rather than soda
• Don’t stop your healthy routines such as exercise
• Bring a healthy dish to a potluck

In the comments below, please share your healthy eating strategies for the holiday season.

Is breakfast really that important?

                Maybe it is. Is it the most important meal of the day? I’d say not. I think that any time we eat is important in some sense. There is research that shows that people who eat breakfast weigh less. That is not to say that breakfast will make you lose weight—perhaps eating breakfast is a behavior that people who weigh less tend to do. It is also not clear that breakfast “jumpstarts” your metabolism, as many believe. It does take energy to digest your food, but a lot less energy than is actually in the food. I have not found any studies that show that people who eat breakfast have faster metabolisms. I definitely encourage my patients to eat breakfast. The main reason is that it gives us energy to start the day. And you can eat such yummy foods for breakfast…such as oatmeal.

                On that note, here are my favorite ways to eat oatmeal. Please post additional oatmeal suggestions in the comments below!

• ½ cup oats + 1 cup water, cook on stove top. Pour into bowl. Add 1 Tbsp natural peanut butter (that is peanut butter that has only peanuts OR peanuts and salt as the ingredients.) Stir the peanut butter in.
• ½ cup oats + 1 cup water, cook on stove top. Pour oatmeal into bowl. Add to pot ¼ cup of applesauce; when warmed, pour over oats. Add ¼ cup cottage cheese.
• ½ cup oats + 1 cup water, cook on stove top. Pour into bowl. Add ½ cup yogurt. (Greek yogurt will provide more protein and regular yogurt will provide more calcium)
• Put ½ cup oats, 1 cup soy milk, ¼ cup water, and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon into a container. Leave in refrigerator overnight. (You can also use regular milk. I happen to not prefer the flavor of regular milk.) This is best eaten on the NYC subway, especially on the uptown A train.
• Other options are to combine a few of the toppings listed in the different recipes here onto one bowl of oatmeal. It will probably also taste delish!

Healthy Potatoes?

                Somehow, potatoes have gotten a bad rap. In the United States, potatoes are the most commonly consumed vegetables[1]. Yes, potatoes are technically a vegetable, although from a macronutrient standpoint, they are a carbohydrate food, with 15gm of carbohydrates in ½ cup. They are high in vitamin C and potassium, like many other vegetables. Sweet potatoes have an added bonus of vitamin A. 

Are potatoes healthy? They definitely can be part of a healthy diet for most people. We all need carbohydrates, and potatoes are definitely an option there. Just keep an eye out for the portion size…and how they are prepared.

Nutrient Content of Various Potato Dishes[2]

	Calories	Carbohydrate (g)	Fat (g)	Fiber (g)
Small white potato, with skin (138g)	134	37	0	4
Small sweet potato, no skin (138g)	105	24	0	3
½ cup mashed potatoes, made with oil (115g)	121	15	6	2
Medium size fast food serving  French fries (117g)	378	50	18	5

                Now you can ask, “which are better: white potatoes or sweet potatoes?” You will notice some nutrient differences. Overall, I would say to just have a variety of carbohydrate foods. Maybe today’s dinner will have sweet potatoes, tomorrow’s dinner will have white potatoes, the next night winter squash, and another night a whole grain pita. Yes there are some nutrient differences, but they are minute in the scheme of an entire diet. Choose a carbohydrate, and more often than not, choose the carbohydrate that has fiber and less added oil or fat.

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[1] State of the plate: 2015 study on America’s consumption of fruits & vegetables. Produce for Better Health Foundation. Accessed November 8, 2017. <https://www.pbhfoundation.org/pdfs/about/res/pbh_res/State_of_the_Plate_2015_WEB_Bookmarked.pdf>

[2] USDA Food Composition Databases. United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Accessed November 8, 2017. < https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list>

Raw Honey...Is it Better?

                One of my readers asked me a very interesting question: “Is raw honey better than processed honey?” My answer is “No.” Okay, that is the end of this blog.

                Just kidding! I’ll give you a bit more information. Most people would say honey is raw if it was not heated or processed in another way. There are claims that raw honey is better because it has some pollen that is removed when honey is heated and filtered. While it is true that heating and filtering the honey will reduce the pollen content in it, a study that was presented as an abstract at a conference showed that this did not change the nutrient content of the honey[1]. That is to say, the micronutrient and antioxidant content was the same before and after it was heated and filtered. Regarding the benefits of pollen, I had difficulty finding any studies that showed definite health benefits of bee pollen.

                The reason why I almost did not want to give this explanation is because I do not like to focus on the insignificant differences between two items. Somehow, the media picks up on these “nutrition” issues and focuses on them. Then, we as consumers are led to believe that we need to start being concerned about differences between types of honey.

What if there was a difference between the two honeys? Do you think you are eating enough of it for the difference between the little amounts of micronutrients to actually affect your health? If you have concerns about whether or not you are getting enough vitamins, minerals, or antioxidants, the answer is to eat more fruits and vegetables, not to choose a honey that might have a drop more micronutrients than the other one! And quite frankly, honey is another type of sugar, so honey should not be eaten in large quantities anyway.

You may wonder, maybe there are health benefits of pollen—there are some studies that seem to seem to indicate some sort of link. Well, perhaps there might some health benefits that have not yet been clarified by research, but I do know some nutrition changes that are actually supported by a lot of high quality literature—eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking less soda, and eating less red meat. Perhaps these may be areas of nutrition change that can be more impactful on our health than eating raw honey.

                This is a theme in how I practice nutrition: We need to be looking at our overall diet to determine its quality. Am I eating vegetables a few times per day? Am I choosing whole grains and other foods with fiber? Am I choosing beverages that do not contain sugar? Am I eating food that tastes good and is good for my health? Let’s focus on the main stuff before moving on the “extra credit” of nutrition.

                Check out this link for my blog about the basics of good nutrition.

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[1] Beals K, Ropa D. Effects of processing on the pollen and nutrient content of honey. The FACEB Journal. April 2013. vol. 27 no. 1 Supplement 859.7.

What is the Point of Pasteurizing?

                The goal of pasteurizing is to reduce the amount of bacteria in food and make diseases caused by those bacteria less likely. There are a few types of pasteurization, and the main differences between them are the temperature and the length of time needed to complete the process. The higher the temperature, the shorter the time needed for the food to be at that temperature to kill sufficient bacteria. Pasteurization also extends the shelf-life of foods because there is less bacteria to grow and cause the food to spoil.

One of the most common foods that are pasteurized is milk. Unpasteurized milk, more commonly called raw milk, has recently been in the headlines. While some promote supposed health benefits of raw milk, the medical community warns people not to drink it due to the risk of contracting diseases from bacteria in it. While there are some vitamins that can be degraded by heat and pasteurization, these are not the vitamins that are found in large quantities in milk to begin with.

As an aside, there are some vitamins in fruits and vegetables that are degraded from heat, and therefore are found in fewer quantities in cooked fruits and vegetables. Don’t worry though! There are still plenty vitamins and minerals in produce. Go ahead, eat fruits and vegetables raw, cooked, grilled, steamed, or however you like them. As long as you are having a variety of fruits and vegetables, it is quite unlikely you will develop a deficiency by cooking your produce.

Let me know if you have questions about specific foods that are pasteurized. 

Snacks

                What is a healthy snack? What is a snack anyway?  Any food can be a snack. Strictly speaking, a snack is something we eat between meals. Remember, though, that we don’t necessarily need to be eating between meals. Sometimes we eat between meals out of habit. For example, every day I eat a cheese stick at 10am, so today I will also eat a cheese stick at 10am. I may or may not even be hungry. From a nutrition standpoint, the goal of a snack is provide necessary energy and nutrients between meals. Snacks can also prevent us from getting too hungry before the next meal. This is important, because when we are too hungry, it becomes very hard to make good decisions of what to eat and how much to eat at the next meal.  A general guideline is that most people need to eat every 3-4 hours or so. If your meals are 4 hours apart, a snack between them is likely not necessary. It is generally a good idea to have a snack if you would be going 6-8 hours between meals.

                Now I can move on to what a healthy snack is. (As a disclaimer, this may not apply to you if you have a medical condition that changes your nutrition requirements.) In general, a healthy snack will have protein or fiber in it. That is important because both of those nutrients help us stay full. Usually a snack is fairly low in calories so it does not become a meal by itself.  

                Below you will find a list of suggested ideas for snacks. Notice that they all contain different amounts of nutrients and calories.

	Calories	Carbs (g)	Fiber (g)	Protein (g)	Fat (g)
1 hardboiled  egg	70	0	0	7	4
¼ cup peanuts	207	6	3	9	18
½ cup almonds	207	8	5	8	18
½ can tuna fish with ½ Tbsp mayo on 2 rice cakes	195	80	3	18	7
1 Tbsp nut butter on 1 slice whole grain bread	177	18	3	8	9
6oz low fat plain Greek yogurt	125	7	0	17	3
6oz low fat plain Greek yogurt with 4 strawberries	140	11	1	17	3
1 low fat cheese stick	50	1	0	7	3
1 cup 1% milk	102	12	0	8	2
½ cup low fat cottage cheese	81	3	0	14	1
1 cup carrot strips	50	11	3	1	0
1 cup pepper sticks	18	4	2	1	0
1 Tbsp hummus with 1 cup carrot sticks	75	13	4	2	1
10 cherry tomatoes	31	7	2	2	0
¼ packed cup raisins	123	33	2	1	0
1 cup grapes	62	16	1	1	0
1 medium apple	95	25	4	0	0
1 medium banana	105	27	3	1	0
1 medium orange	62	15	3	1	0
2 cups air popped popcorn	62	12	2	2	1

                In the comments section below, let me know which snacks you are interested in learning the nutrition information for.