Food - Name Your Poison

[scheherazade]

I almost never buy juice because of the high sugar content. Fresh or frozen fruit is a much better value and a healthier option in my opinion. Apples are a staple in my house and I often will combine apple with carrot, fresh ginger, water, lemon juice and a bit of honey for a really excellent smoothie. I call it a ginger snapper because I use a pretty big piece of raw ginger root.

[elte]

Another of my pet peeves lies in how juice is labeled.

There are several brands that sell "100% Juice" in a huge array of flavor combinations. 

100% Juice Blend Cranberry Pomegranate Cherry

[Image: getfile.aspx?guid=e468accb-bfbf-43cf-8c48-8c0e457d8c86]

Ocean Spray® 100% Juice Blends have no added sugar and no preservatives. Just one cup (250mL) equals 2 servings of fruit. Studies have shown that eating five to ten servings of fruits and vegetables per day, as part of a healthy diet, can reduce the risk to some types of cancer.

INGREDIENTS:

RECONSTITUTED GRAPE JUICE, RECONSTITUTED APPLE JUICE, RECONSTITUTED CRANBERRY JUICE, RECONSTITUTED PLUM JUICE, RECONSTITUTED POMEGRANATE JUICE, RECONSTITUTED CHERRY JUICE, NATURAL FLAVOURS, FUMARIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), CITRIC ACID

You might assume that the content was a blend of the three named fruit juices but in fact the greater part is grape and apple juice as well as some plum juice, and far lessor amounts of  pomegranate and cherry, two of the three flavors featured in the name. It is 100% juice because it has not been made from concentrates but if you are wanting actual cranberry, pomegranate or cherry juice you will be paying three to five times the price.

While I have selected just one well known brand as an example, they all follow suit.

I make my own fruit cordials (non-alcoholic) at home from cranberry, raspberry or rhubarb and then can the concentrated juice. One part of cordial with two parts of water makes a refreshing beverage and I know the exact proportions of fruit, sugar and water in what I am drinking.

I noticed that in the local supermarkets how the makers want to emphasize the second ingredient in a juice, like cherry, too, yet the juice is mostly apple juice.

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I can revisit why I take just half a Centrum per day.  I think that is more conducive to my balance of nutrients.  My thought on the matter is that slightly malurished people tend to live longest and healthiest.  Finding the right diet and point of nutrition is the tricky thing.

I guess we've been going the other direction with a high potency softgel multivitamin. There's a "with iron" version, too. Directions are to take two softgels daily at the same time, but I divide them up for morning and evening meals. Of course, it would be easy to go half the dosage with one softgel a day, too.  

The 120 count bottle (2 months, one person) is $9.99 in the monthly mail-order catalog.

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Another of my pet peeves lies in how juice is labeled. There are several brands that sell "100% Juice" in a huge array of flavor combinations. 

I tried to switch completely from fruit to juice, but the label contents irritated me, too; and I don't like the absence of pulp. I'm pretty much locked into the regularity of buying apples, frozen mixed fruit, dried plums, and raisins without much deviation from that.

I went back and changed the concept to slightly undernourished rather than slightly malnourished.   I think it has to be very slight, though, like getting all essential nutrients while trying to keep calorie intake low.  I want to do it much better than I presently do it, but instead I still feel that I eat too much, even though I'm not heavy at all.

[Ben the Donkey]

.... May I assume you're all American?

In which case - you have my sympathy.

I think probably Rambutan. Although where i'm headed, I won't be able to get them anymore.

[elte]

I almost never buy juice because of the high sugar content. Fresh or frozen fruit is a much better value and a healthier option in my opinion. Apples are a staple in my house and I often will combine apple with carrot, fresh ginger, water, lemon juice and a bit of honey for a really excellent smoothie.  I call it a ginger snapper because I use a pretty big piece of raw ginger root.

I stopped buying juice much because, similar to what C C said, I want the fiber and other things that come with the whole pieces of fruit, and for the same reason, I want to avoid too much sugar if I can.

I have been putting tumeric on my split peas every day, though, I don't think that is as good as consuming raw ginger root, even though tumeric and ginger are derived from related plant types.

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.... May I assume you're all American?

In which case - you have my sympathy.

I think probably Rambutan. Although where i'm headed, I won't be able to get them anymore.

I was born and have stayed here in the Ohio Valley in the US.

[C C]

I went back and changed the concept to slightly undernourished rather than slightly malnourished.   I think it has to be very slight, though, like getting all essential nutrients while trying to keep calorie intake low.  I want to do it much better than I presently do it, but instead I still feel that I eat too much, even though I'm not heavy at all.

I vaguely remember from years ago a pop-news lifestyle segment about a man either approaching a century in age or already beyond that, who had switched some decades before to eating little more than a single meal a day of milk and toast. (Actually it was probably something a little more than that or perhaps entirely different, but "milk / toast" is all my memory coughs-up when I try to recover those particular details.)

[Bowser]

Eggs, bacon and toast in the morning. Rarely lunch. Dinner can be anything from pizza, hamburgers, chicken, or frozen lasagna. My wife keeps a good assortment of fruit in the kitchen.

[Magical Realist]

White flesh peaches are a seasonal favorite of mind. So juicy you have to eat it with a napkin.

[scheherazade]

.... May I assume you're all American?

In which case - you have my sympathy.

I think probably Rambutan. Although where i'm headed, I won't be able to get them anymore.

I am Canadian, more specifically a resident of the Yukon, a northern territory that shares a border with Alaska. Never have I tried a Rambutan, though as they are somewhat similar to Lychee fruit, they might not agree with me. Our produce department does carry many exotic fruit depending on the season and I shall investigate whether Rambutan ever comes our way as our manager is able to order from independent suppliers by reason that we are a franchise store.

http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-a-Rambutan

[elte]

White flesh peaches are a seasonal favorite of mind. So juicy you have to eat it with a napkin.

The white peaches they get here during the summer are yummy.

[scheherazade]

I went back and changed the concept to slightly undernourished rather than slightly malnourished.   I think it has to be very slight, though, like getting all essential nutrients while trying to keep calorie intake low.  I want to do it much better than I presently do it, but instead I still feel that I eat too much, even though I'm not heavy at all.

I vaguely remember from years ago a pop-news lifestyle segment about a man either approaching a century in age or already beyond that, who had switched some decades before to eating little more than a single meal a day of milk and toast. (Actually it was probably something a little more than that or perhaps entirely different, but "milk / toast" is all my memory coughs-up when I try to recover those particular details.)

I also recall the studies on calorie restriction (CR) which utilized rats and mice and then extrapolated the theory to humans and was popular for quite a while.

Caloric restriction increases metabolic stability. An organism's metabolic stability, he argues, is determined by its evolutionary history, so researchers can predict what the metabolic stability of a species will be if its history is known — and hence predict just how much CR might extend its life.

Mice and rats, for example, are "opportunistic species," says Demetrius. They experience periods of relative food abundance punctuated by prolonged periods of scarcity, and therefore undergo episodes of rapid, exponential population growth followed by periods of decline. Such species are characterized by early sexual maturity, a narrow reproductive span, and large litter size, all traits reflecting a survival strategy for coping with feast-or-famine circumstances. Humans, on the other hand, are what Demetrius calls an "equilibrium species." "Evolution has tended to modify our life history so that we mature late sexually, have fewer offspring, and spread our reproductive activity over a long period," he explains. Experiments have shown that human cells are much more resistant to the effects of stressors than the cells of rodents are: they are inherently more stable, more able to resist random perturbations of cellular homeostasis.

http://harvardmagazine.com/2004/11/a-new...gevit.html

That theory has pretty much been displaced in favor of being active and mindful of a healthy lifestyle with genetics, personality and social inclusion now recognized as being of influence also. The science of longevity is quite fascinating and continues to evolve.

In The Longevity Project, one of the largest studies if its kind that spanned eight decades, Stanford researchers Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin found that conscientiousness beat out all other personality type when it comes to life expectancy. “The qualities of a prudent, persistant, well-organized person, like a scientist-professor — somewhat obsessive and not at all carefree” are the qualities that help lead to a long life. “Many of us assume that more relaxed people live longer, but it’s not necessarily the case.” Why? Conscientious behavior influences other behaviors. Conscientious people tend to make healthier choices, including who they marry, where they work, and the likelihood they’ll smoke, drive too fast, or follow doctors’ orders.

http://time.com/81573/how-to-live-longer/

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Eggs, bacon and toast in the morning.  Rarely lunch.  Dinner can be anything from pizza, hamburgers, chicken, or frozen lasagna.  My wife keeps a good assortment of fruit in the kitchen.

Breakfast has long been recognized as the most important meal of the day for maintaining energy levels and a constant body weight. Fruit is a healthy snack for most people though some have to be cognizant of the glycemic index of some fruits as well as the glycemic load. A good article and chart at the following link.

 http://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-a..._100_foods

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White flesh peaches are a seasonal favorite of mind. So juicy you have to eat it with a napkin.

The last really tasty peach I had was on a trip to BC to pick up a horse trailer in 1997. Seriously. They were from a roadside stand and picked at the peak of perfection.
In order to travel two or three days up the highway and have several days to a week of shelf life, most soft fruits have to be picked quite short of ripe.

We actually fly certain varieties of cherries up to our store from BC and sell them at cost to our customers. Such interventions maintain our reputation for having the best produce
not only in town but in the territory.