How Food Banks Succeeded and What They Need Now – The New York Times

“The latest relief bill passed by Democrats in Congress, a $1.9 trillion plan from the Biden administration, includes the extension of increased SNAP benefits through September and additional funds for commodity purchases. Stacy Dean, President Biden’s new deputy under secretary of food, nutrition and consumer services at U.S.D.A., said many other parts of the package would also help reduce food insecurity.

“If we provide rental assistance and prevent evictions, if we increase unemployment insurance and make it more available to the poorest households, if we re-up stimulus payments to the poorest households, if we do cash assistance,” she said, “all of those things help stabilize families’ financial circumstances, ideally, so that they do not fall into the crisis that is hunger.”

Carrie Calvert, vice president for government relations at Feeding America, says that while the package addresses immediate needs, more will be required to sustain food banks while the economy recovers. Her network has called for tying the SNAP benefit increase to economic circumstances and for additional funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, a U.S.D.A. program predating the pandemic that buys agricultural products for food banks.”

Frank Bruni | Is the Burger Nearing Extinction? – The New York Times

By Frank Bruni

Opinion Columnist

• March 6, 2021   1404

Credit…Ben Wiseman

“I liked my patties thin and then I liked them thick. There was the Cheddar period, followed by the Roquefort interregnum. Sesame-seed buns gave way to English muffins as ketchup traded places with special sauce or even, God help me, guacamole, which really was overkill.

But no matter its cradle or condiment, the hamburger was with me for the long haul — I was sure of that.

Until now.

A few days ago I tripped across news that McDonald’s was testing a vegetable-based patty, coming soon to a griddle near you. The McPlant burger, they’re calling it — a McOxymoron if ever I’ve heard one. And McDonald’s is late to the game. Burger King has been selling a meatless Impossible Whopper since 2019. Dunkin’ has been serving a Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich for nearly as long.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates has been telling anyone who will sit still long enough to listen about his investment in a “pretty amazing” start-up that uses a protean protein made from an especially hardy fungus for meatless patties, meatless balls and vegan versions of various dairy products. Over the past weeks, he has plugged it on my Times colleague Kara Swisher’s “Sway” podcast and in Rolling Stone.” . . .

How long can you leave turkey broth out before it goes bad? | Charlotte Observer

Finally, I called Ben Chapman, the food safety expert at N.C. State University. He reassured me: The rules I follow are still absolutely correct: Once the stock cooled off, it only had two hours at room temperature before it became toxic stew. It didn’t matter if the lid was on or – as one commenter suggested – if I had strained it and discarded the bones first.The issue, he said, isn’t bacteria. It’s toxins produced by the bacteria. Bacteria are living creatures and like all living creatures, they produce things. Even if you kill them by “boiling them to hell and back,” you can’t remove the toxins their one-celled corpses produce.So why was I not seeing reports on outbreaks associated with tainted turkey broth? It probably happens, Chapman said. But in the foodborne-illness reporting world, an “outbreak” involves multiple people who aren’t related. In other words, if you make yourself and your elderly great-aunt Ethel sick, the world may never know, unless someone dies from it.

Source: How long can you leave turkey broth out before it goes bad? | Charlotte Observer

A Possible Weight Loss Strategy: Skip Breakfast Before Exercise – By Gretchen Reynolds – The New York Times

By Gretchen Reynolds

• May 22, 2019
• • 62

“Skipping breakfast before exercise might reduce how much we eat during the remainder of the day, according to a small but intriguing new study of fit young men.

The study finds that the choice to eat or omit a meal before an early workout could affect our relationship to food for the rest of the day, in complicated and sometimes unexpected ways.

Weight management is, of course, one of the great public — and private — health concerns of our time. But the role of exercise in helping people to maintain, lose or, in some instances, add pounds is problematic. Exercise burns calories, but in many past studies, people who begin a new exercise program do not lose as much weight as would be expected, because they often compensate for the energy used during exercise by eating more later or moving less.

These compensations, usually subtle and unintended, indicate that our brains are receiving internal communiqués detailing how much energy we used during that last workout and, in response, sending biological signals that increase hunger or reduce our urge to move. Our helpful brains do not wish us to sustain an energy deficit and starve.”

Quiz: How Does Your Diet Contribute to Climate Change? – The New York Times

Quiz: How Does Your Diet
Contribute to Climate Change?

See how your food choices compare with those of other Americans.

PICK the meals that are most similar to what you ate yesterday. (Be honest!)

Your Questions About Food and Climate Change Answered – The New York Times

How to shop, cook and eat in a warming world.

By Julia Moskin, Brad Plumer, Rebecca Lieberman and Eden WeingartApril 30, 2019

Does what I eat have an effect on climate change?

Yes. The world’s food system is responsible for about one-quarter of the planet-warming greenhouse gases that humans generate each year. That includes raising and harvesting all the plants, animals and animal products we eat — beef, chicken, fish, milk, lentils, kale, corn and more — as well as processing, packaging and shipping food to markets all over the world. If you eat food, you’re part of this system.

How exactly does food contribute to global warming?

Which foods have the largest impact?

Meat and dairy, particularly from cows, have an outsize impact, with livestock accounting for around 14.5 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases each year. That’s roughly the same amount as the emissions from all the cars, trucks, airplanes and ships combined in the world today.

In general, beef and lamb have the biggest climate footprint per gram of protein, while plant-based foods tend to have the smallest impact. Pork and chicken are somewhere in the middle. A major study published last year in the journal Science calculated the average greenhouse gas emissions associated with different foods.

Holy Cow!

The average greenhouse gas impact (in kilograms of CO₂) of getting 50 grams of protein from:

Beef

17.7

 

Lamb

9.9

Farmed shrimp

9.1

Cheese

5.4

Pork

3.8

Farmed fish

3.0

Poultry

2.9

Eggs

2.1

Milk

1.6

Tofu

1.0

Beans

0.4

Nuts

0.1

Source: Poore and Nemecek, Science

Vegan Food List: 11 Foods That Healthy Vegans Eat

11 Foods Healthy Vegans Eat

Vegans avoid eating animal foods for environmental, ethical or health reasons.

Unfortunately, following a diet based exclusively on plants may put some people at a higher risk of nutrient deficiencies.

This is especially true when vegan diets are not well planned.

For vegans who want to stay healthy, consuming a nutrient-rich diet with whole and fortified foods is very important.

Here are 11 foods and food groups that should be part of a healthy vegan diet.

1. Legumes

In an effort to exclude all forms of animal exploitation and cruelty, vegans avoid traditional sources of protein and iron such as meat, poultry, fish and eggs.

Therefore, it’s important to replace these animal products with protein- and iron-rich plant alternatives, such as legumes.

Beans, lentils and peas are great options that contain 10–20 grams of protein per cooked cup.

They’re also excellent sources of fiber, slowly digested carbs, iron, folate, manganese, zinc, antioxidants and other health-promoting plant compounds (1, 2, 3, 4).

However, legumes also contain a good amount of antinutrients, which can reduce the absorption of minerals.

For instance, iron absorption from plants is estimated to be 50% lower than that from animal sources. Similarly, vegetarian diets seem to reduce zinc absorption by about 35% compared to those containing meat (5, 6).

It’s advantageous to sprout, ferment or cook legumes well because these processes can decrease the levels of antinutrients (7).

To increase your absorption of iron and zinc from legumes, you may also want to avoid consuming them at the same time as calcium-rich foods. Calcium can hinder their absorption if you consume it at the same time (8). In contrast, eating legumes in combination with vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables can further increase your absorption of iron (9).

BOTTOM LINE:Beans, lentils and peas are nutrient-rich plant alternatives to animal-derived foods. Sprouting, fermenting and proper cooking can increase nutrient absorption.

 

Source: Vegan Food List: 11 Foods That Healthy Vegans Eat

Can Coffee Rev Up Your Workout? It May Depend on Your Genes – The New York Times

Whether athletes can enhance their performance with caffeine may depend on their genes.

According to a new study of the genetics of caffeine metabolism, athletes with a particular variant of one gene show notable improvements in their endurance performance after swallowing caffeine.

But those with a different variant of that gene may perform worse if they first have caffeine, raising questions about who should be using the drug to bump up performance and about the broader interplay of nutrition, genetics and exercise.

For many of us, caffeine, usually in the form of coffee, is as necessary to the morning as sunrise.

But different people respond differently to the effects of caffeine. Some become jittery and later have difficulty sleeping. Others can drink the same amount of coffee and report increased alertness but no jitters or sleep disruptions.

The same range of reactions occurs in athletes. In multiple past studies, most people will work out longer, faster or more strenuously after they swallow a moderate dose of caffeine, but a few perform no better or even worse.

via Can Coffee Rev Up Your Workout? It May Depend on Your Genes – The New York Times

Big Sugar Versus Your Body – by David Leonhardt – NYT

The sugar industry and its various offshoots, like the soda industry, have spent years trying to trick you.

Big Sugar has paid researchers to conduct misleading — if not false — studies about the health effects of added sweeteners. It has come up with a dizzying array of euphemistic names for those sweeteners. And it has managed to get sugars into a remarkable three-quarters of all packaged foods in American supermarkets.

Most of us, as a result, eat a lot of sugar. We are surrounded by it, and it’s delicious. Unfortunately, sugar also encourages overeating and causes health problems. As confusing as the research on diet can often seem, it consistently points to the harms of sugar, including obesity, diabetes and other diseases.

Virtually the only way to eat a healthy amount of sugar is to make a conscious effort. You can think of it as a political act: resisting the sugar industry’s attempts to profit off your body. Or you can simply think of it as taking care of yourself.

via Big Sugar Versus Your Body – The New York Times

How Much Protein Do We Need? – The New York Times

“Q. It seems that many people who are not elite athletes are now hyper-focused on protein consumption. How much protein does the average adult need to consume daily?

A. The recommended intake for a healthy adult is 46 grams of protein a day for women and 56 grams for men. And while protein malnutrition is a problem for millions of people around the globe, for the average adult in developed countries, we are eating far more protein than we actually need.

Most American adults eat about 100 grams of protein per day, or roughly twice the recommended amount. Even on a vegan diet people can easily get 60 to 80 grams of protein throughout the day from foods like beans, legumes, nuts, broccoli and whole grains.”

Comments are pretty critical, such as:

Pat Boice

Idaho Falls, ID July 28, 2017

The author says “Even on a vegan diet people can easily get 60 to 80 grams of protein throughout the day from foods like beans, legumes, nuts, broccoli and whole grains.” I would like to see a menu where this claim is possible! It would seem that one would have to consume a very large amount of food in order to accomplish eating 60 to 80 grams of protein on a vegan diet, much less a vegetarian diet! 1 cup of cooked beans gives 15 gms of protein, 1 cup of cooked broccoli gives 3 gms….. I don’t eat much meat, so on a vegetarian diet (not vegan) I have to work on it to keep my calorie intake low enough to not gain weight, and try to get around 30 gms. of protein!

• 103 Recommend