Tag: eating

Should restaurants be required to list calories and fat grams on their menus?

Sanitation and employee infectious disease requirements should be the only things mandated by law.

Why take business, especially small family owned restaurants on a consistently longer financial ride? All we really do is run small businesses out of business and allow the larger corporations to increase charges and lower food quality.


What do I mean about running small businesses out of business? I am personally familiar with a small restaurant located on the third floor of an old building. The State Legislature passed a law requiring all businesses to be accessible for the handicapped. As the old building had no elevators and the small restaurant could not afford to install one, good-bye business.

I, myself, am disabled. However, there is no glee in watching a business close so my healthy neighbor cannot climb the stairs to enjoy a restaurant.

If you think that the Alfredo sauce in that corporate restaurant does not come out of a package for mixing with water, you might want to think twice. If you ask your food server, they probably will not have a clue.

In a small family owned restaurant, you can pretty well bet your cream, butter and garlic they know what is in the food.

Should we create a new law to go with the many others we have? Let us go with a listing of calories, fat grams, and maybe later a full list of ingredients and amounts of those ingredients.

Maybe a list of the cleaning agents used and with what soaps what employees shower?

Do you think that sounds ridiculous? It is, and so is this constant push for legally mandating what and what not restaurants must or cannot do.

If it is best for his business to include any specific information on their menu, that should be the restaurant owners prerogative. A full list of food temperatures and ingredients, a separate low calorie low fat menu section, or simply daily special’. French fries are fattening. Anyone who does not know this should avoid restaurants.

If a restaurant considers it good business to include a low fat, low calorie section on their menu, that should be up to them.

Sure restaurants should have certain responsibilities. However, those responsibilities should be limited to current civil suits, not new laws demanded by irresponsible peoples.

If my child is allergic to peanut products, it should be my responsibility to notify the food server. I should be the restaurants responsibility that the serve know the food ingredients. If that server allows us to order a hamburger with ‘special sauce’ for the child and that sauce turns out to (oddly) contain peanut butter. That restaurant should be responsible in a civil court for damages.

Why is the restaurant responsible because their coffee happens to be hotter than from the average restaurant? Common sense alone would tell me that any hot coffee would scald me if I spill it upon myself. Good Grief, hot means what it says, hot. We have gone way to far, demanding businesses be responsible for what we ourselves should know.

How many grams of fat are in an ounce of lettuce? How many calories in an average hot fudge sundae? If I care about it, I will become informed myself. Not make the restaurant responsible to inform me.

We have gone too far already in blaming others for what should be our own responsibility.

Mandating that restaurants list calories and fat grams on their menus is simply a lack of accepting personal responsibility.

Binge eating disorders

When most people think of eating disorders, immediately they imagine a starved celebrity, probably suffering from anorexia or bulimia, but few realize that the most common and unspoken eating disorder is, in fact, binge-eating disorder.

Drawing the line

Because it is normal for people to overeat on occasion, some may find it difficult to determine whether or not they have binge-eating disorder. Binge-eating disorder is characterized by regularly eating excessive amounts of food and where a binge lasts anywhere from two hours to an entire day. People who binge-eat may continue to eat, even after feeling like they are full. Binge-eaters may, or may not, be obese or overweight. Typically a binge is followed by guilty feelings and therefore the binge-eater tries to restrict their diet. This restriction on food usually leads the binge-eater to another binge-period.

Symptoms of binge-eating include eating until discomfort, eating fast, frequent dieting without weight loss, eating alone, hoarding food, hiding empty food containers, feeling disgusted over amount eaten and depression. Some experts believe that binge-eaters may have a form of bulimia; only, they do not purge themselves after a binge.

Binge-eating can cause many psychological and physical health effects. Complications can include obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, muscle pain, headaches, depression, anxiety, substance abuse and sleeping problems. People with this disorder typically have a poor self-image and may have struggled in the past with psychological issues or sexual abuse.

Binge-eating is not preventable, but parents can initiate healthy eating habits in children at an early age. Keeping healthy foods in the fridge and building self-esteem are two ways to begin.

While there are many self-help treatment methods and medications available, cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective treatment method. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches people how to substitute unhealthy habits for healthy ones and helps them deal with emotions that trigger the need to binge in the first place.

Coping methods may include yoga, journaling or even exercise like walking. Constantly berating oneself for overeating will not resolve the problem, so the best advice is to move towards a healthy future- – and never look back.

Do you prefer fast food or home cooking?

Do You Prefer Fast Food or Home Cooking

Even though there is a lot to be said about fast food, I would still prefer home cooking in the long run. Fast food is alright, if you lead a life that is so full and busy, that you do not always have time to prepare home cooked foods.

Many families have two working parents these days, and having a home cooked meal is a thing that is only done on a weekend basis, because the parents work until dinner time, and do not have the time, or energy, to come home and fix a full course meal for the family.

As to whether fast food is nutritious or not, is another question that you should ask yourself. With all the ingredients that are added to the food, which make them fast foods, I think a lot of the nutrition is taken out of the food while it is being prepared.

Fast foods have so many preservatives in them that enable them to keep while on the shelves, that I sometimes wonder if they are any good at all. Everything has been covered up with so many spices, and other ingredients, that the taste suffers, and is not even the same as fresh foods anymore.

When you make a meal from fresh meats and vegetables, you put in only the spices you want to enhance the taste of the food; therefore, your food does not loose all the nutrients that are in them. There is nothing to compare with freshly made meals with the finest ingredients that can be bought. The taste is like nothing like you would get in any fast food restaurant.

How many times have you bought something in a can that tastes anything like what it would taste like, if you were to start from scratch? NEVER! I am a stay at home Mom and I make most of my meals from scratch. My family hates it when I buy a meal that only takes a few minutes to prepare, but it is sometimes necessary, if I have been really busy that day.

I bought a tray of lasagna one day for my family; I was really busy around the house and did not have time to prepare a big meal. When I served it to my family, they did not eat too much of it, they said that it tasted like crap. That statement was not there to offend anyone that is only one family’s opinion. There are a lot of people that eat this type of food all the time; therefore, they think it is very good.

There are many families that eat fast food all the time. I wonder if they know what it is to have a meal cooked from scratch. Take a stew, for instance, it’s made from so many different vegetables and beef or chicken broth. To make this stew you have to start early in the day, and let it simmer throughout the day so the ingredients can blend into one another. This is what makes it taste so good.

If you buy a can of stew, it is made in bulk and done so fast that the ingredients do not have the time to blend, therefore, the stew is bland, with hardly any taste at all. I know there are millions of people that prefer the fast foods that are on the market today, but for me, and my family, we prefer the homemade meals that take time to prepare.

Now, speaking of fast food restaurants, these again are foods that are made in large quantities in a short period of time, and I have to wonder just how good for you, they really are. It takes time for the flavor to seep through each ingredient in order for them to taste the taste that I would like to eat.

Fast food in alright in some cases, but, in the long run, home cooked meals is always the best way to go, if you want the quality of food you would like to serve your family. Some people that were raised on fast foods, would probably not like the foods that are created from individual ingredients that are good for them, but that is the way our world is going, everything is in fast forward.

How to Find Restaurants On-the-Go?

So, you’ve landed up in Philadelphia and your taste buds are tempted to relish Thai food and you’ve no clue where to dine? It’s not a problem, if you are carrying a cell phone. The latest technological advancements gets you restaurant reviews on-the-go in your mobile phone.

Let’s look at it from a different perspective. You are travelling on business or for pleasure and you are hungry. Since the place is not familiar, it’s difficult to judge by appearances what choice of food you are likely to get, also the hygiene and restaurant bill matters. Then there’s also the time constraint to reach your destination – that calls for quick service at the restaurant you choose.

Carrying your furry friend (pets) along too? So you need a pet-friendly restaurant. Also looking for some service station or refueling station nearby? With so many specifications in mind, that too in a strange new land – sounds difficult if you can get it all. Thanks to restaurant search engines. They not just spruce up your search on the web but also give you mobile search facilities.

Vertical mobile search applications have made the search for a restaurant guide smarter. Boorah, a restaurant search engine also provides a mobile restaurant review guide in partnership with 4INFO, a leading provider of SMS/ text messaging services. This guide provides a smarter way to find great restaurants throughout the San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York metro areas. BooRah extends its restaurant reviews and ratings via its Syndicated Reviews Platform to the mobile phone.

Consumers can achieve their ideal dining experience while on the go with easy text-based searches for the best-reviewed local restaurants from any cell phone. The service offers users a quick and easy way to find the best nearby restaurants. This provides restaurant owners a new way to promote their business.

Users who desire the most useful information no matter where they are can get so at their finger tips. The evolving mobile search provider gives highly relevant restaurant reviews and rating information right to the consumer’s cell phone. This service actually transforms millions of online restaurant reviews from across the Web into short, concise summaries and in-depth ratings.

Users need to just text their zip code and keywords to receive reviews on the restaurants in the area they are traveling. Test a message like “Mexican BooRah 94306“, and that will pull a list of all BooRah listed Mexican cuisine restaurants that are in 94306 zip code. Alternately users can also type in “romantic BooRah Palo Alto, CA” and that will present a list of the more romantic places in Palo Alto. Such lists are generated by BooRah’s Natural Language Processing powered Personalized Search algorithms and are delivered by 4INFO messaging platform.

Some local restaurant review sites also provide mobile search service, but they pile up nearly 150 reviews on the users mobile browser. On the other hand, BooRah sends reviews in an easy to read cell phone text message format after doing all the word crunching. Because user reviews are one the best ways to judge a restaurant, as “wisdom of crowd” matters and technology makes you get these reviews on-the-go.

Eating Disorders Cause and Symptoms

Eating disorders afflict millions of people, thousands of which will die from them yearly. There is good news though, eating disorders can be beaten. This causes dramatic weight fluctuation, interferes with normal daily life, and damages vital body functions. An eating disorder is a compulsion to eat, or avoid eating, that negatively affects one’s physical and mental health. They affect an estimated 5-7% of females in the United States during their lifetimes. Eating disorders are very complex, and despite scientific research to understand them, the biological, behavioral and social underpinnings of these illnesses remain elusive. Eating disorders are serious behavior problems.

An eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25. An eating disorders involve self-critical, negative thoughts and feelings about body weight and food, and eating habits that disrupts normal body function, and daily life activities. It’s common for kids – particularly teens – to be concerned about how they look and to feel self-conscious about their weight. Although eating disorders primarily affect women and girls, boys and men are also vulnerable. One in four preadolescent cases of anorexia occurs in boys, and binge-eating disorder affects females and males about equally. They include Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa and Binge-eating. Eating disorders can cause heart and kidney problems and even death.

Causes of Eating Disorders
Environmental
Psychological
Biological
Academic pressures
Genetic factors
Trauma
Symptoms of Eating Disorders
significant weight loss
regularly buys laxatives
preference to eat in isolation
depression
becomes very thin
physical health complications
swollen glands in the neck and below the jaw
Diagnosis for Eating Disorders
Trying to help a child who doesn’t think he or she needs help can be hard. Remember that it’s not your job to diagnose your child – only a doctor can do that.

Treatment for Eating Disorders
Treatment can include medical supervision, nutritional counseling, and therapy. The professionals try to address a child’s perception about his or her body size, shape, eating, and foods. There are a variety of treatment options available: individual therapy, group therapy, nutritional support, psychiatric care, outpatient, inpatient, residential and we can help you locate these resources. Fluoxetine and other antidepressants may reduce binge-eating episodes and help alleviate depression in some patients. Low mood may be difficult to spot in an uncommunicative teenager, and lack of interest in physical activity is not something most parents worry about in their teenage daughters.

Prevention for Eating Disorders
Parents and other family members are important in helping a person see that his or her normal body shape is perfectly fine and that being excessively thin can be dangerous.
To make sure that your child knows that you love him or her for who she is and what she does, not how she looks.
By reducing or eliminating behaviors or thoughts that lead to disordered eating, and preventing relapse.
Maintaining a regular diary of eating, thoughts and feelings can be helpful.

A South Street Seaport Restaurant is the ideal place to pamper your taste buds

A true food lover would not let go of any opportunity to explore a new eating joint. Once he discovers a place that pampers his taste buds in the perfect way, he is hooked for life. A South Street Seaport restaurant would the ideal destination for any gourmet. The restaurants artistically arrange the ambience to perfectly compliment the mouth watering dishes. The polite and efficient staffs go a long way to ensure that a meal is thoroughly enjoyed by the patrons and their guests and they carry home a pleasant memory of the whole eating out experience. The pampering of all senses by a restaurant can be a major factor in guaranteeing repeat visits by the diner.

A South Street Seaport restaurant that combines wining with dining is a sure winner among all food lovers. When the menu offers the option of drinks on demand it adds to the whole experience of eating out at your favorite place. The décor speaks a lot about the place and your tastes if you a regular at such a restaurant. Inviting guests and business colleagues over for a meal at your favorite South Street Seaport restaurant that flaunts an artistic interior could speak volumes about your taste too. The ambience, the lighting and the overall atmosphere at the place all add up to the experience and contribute towards making the meal a memorable one.

Each South Street Seaport restaurant will guard some secret recipes that will be the specialty of that place. Whether you are visiting the place for the first time or are a regular, it is the expected duty of the staff to guide you with your choice of food. It helps to have a waiter who is well acquainted with the menu and offers expert advice on the food that you could consider ordering for that particular meal. If you happen to visit such a restaurant for the first time with a date or with someone who needs to be impressed, such expert advice can come in handy. Most patrons prefer beef and a wide range of beef preparations can be easily found on the menu of a South Street Seaport restaurant.

The importance of word of mouth advertising is never underestimated by any South Street Seaport restaurant. Hence the restaurant staff will not leave any stone unturned while serving a customer. A satisfied customer can give free publicity and add to the reputation of the restaurant by recommending it to his friends and acquaintances. Also choosing a particular restaurant for a party can be good for the business not only in the short run but the long run as well. A person who has been to a South Street Seaport restaurant as a guest at a party and had a really good time, enjoying the food, ambience, service and company of friends will be more than willing to patronize the restaurant in the future.

So next time you are planning an evening out with your spouse or friends make sure you have the reference of a really good South Street Seaport restaurant that will contribute significantly to your enjoyable dining experience.

How to know when your food quality has actually expired

Laws, health, hygiene, Best Before, Use Before….Store this Product….Oh how my head aches! What happened to going into your local butcher, buying a joint, even some bacon and storing it in the Larder?

Politicians, Food experts all seem to forget that ‘some of us’ lived in the days when refridgeration was not the normal household appliance. All we had was a cool larder and used our SENSE OF SMELL. How many back in the 1950’s died of food poisoning? Even the 60’s….I will tell you not many.

We made cheese by hanging sour milk in old stockings (tights) outside the backdoor to extract the whey, stored vegetables in a cool dark place and our meat….was either hung or left for anything up to a month to ‘mature’ Were we sick? No! Eggs did not have a date stamped on every shell….we used the old method of if they floated don’t use. It is only today where there are so many ‘convenience’ foods, prepacked with additives that range from A – Z that sickness occurs. Hens treated for Salmonella, cattle imunised, crops sprayed and now even genetically modified thus lowering our own imune system that we have problems.

BEST BEFORE….means just that. Usually used on foods that last longer, such as frozen, dried or canned foods. It should be safe to eat food after the ‘best before’ date, but the food will no longer be at its best. After this date, the food might begin to lose its flavour and texture.

USE BY….You shouldn’t use any food or drink after the end of the ‘use by’ date shown on the label. Even if it looks and smells fine, using it after this date could put your health at risk and cause food poisoning.

You will usually find a ‘use by’ date on food that goes off quickly, such as milk, soft cheese, ready-prepared salads and smoked fish.

It’s also important to follow any storage instructions given on food labels, otherwise the food might not last until the ‘use by’ date. Usually food with a ‘use by’ date needs to be kept in the fridge.

Personally I exclude Cheese from the above. Soft Cheese…well comon sense has to come into play as it has more than likely been treated. But with hard cheeses…cut off the mould and enjoy.

EAT WITHIN DATES…Due to additives some food labels also give instructions such as ‘eat within a week of opening’ and it’s important to follow these instructions. But remember, if the ‘use by’ date is tomorrow, then you must use the food by the end of tomorrow, even if the label says ‘eat within a week of opening’ and you have only opened the food today.

FREEZING….This is a good way of preservation but pre-frozen foods should NEVER be re-frozen unless cooked first.

HOW LONG IN THE FREEZER? My daughter asked this question some time back when she came to dinner with her boyfriend. In truth I almost choked on my food. The Ham joint I had cooked was fresh from the Butchers about a year back. Properly wrapped and sealed had stood the test of time.

In theory, food could be safe to eat after years in the freezer, as long as it has stayed frozen during that time. But it may not be very nice to eat, because the taste and texture of food changes if it is frozen for too long.

Basically it is a case of using your own common sense. If you must buy prepack or readily prepared foods use them in the time indicated. If you shop and buy fresh you have a longer ‘shelf life’ when stored properly.

Problems with treating those less obviously affected by eating disorders

Eating disorders affect a large amount of people. In American society and all over the world. When you say “eating disorder” you most likely think of anorexia or bulimia. Both are very serious disorders, but the most common eating disorders are commonly overlooked ones: compulsive over-eating and binge eating disorder. Both involve the excessive consumption of food, and are often used interchangeably.

For many people, realizing you have a problem is a large step. Deciding to seek help is another one. But many people with “lesser” eating disorders are usually denied the help they need. Many people fail to realize that ALL eating disorders are dangerous. Eating disorder sufferers are refused help because they aren’t emaciated and starved or near death. People are told they aren’t “sick enough” and are turned away. Some sufferers in the early stages of anorexia are told to “just eat”. Some bulimics are told to “just stop”. People with compulsive over-eating and binge eating disorder are told to stop being so greedy. Those with ED-NOS or eating disorder not otherwise specified are told they are not sick at all and just looking for attention. Everyone who bears the weight of an eating disorder on their backs is suffering from a mental illness. A mental illness with physical symptoms. No matter how small or insignificant their physical symptoms seem, all of the eating disordered community deserve an equal chance at treatment and recovery. An eating disorder treated early is better than one left to destroy one’s body beyond repair until it is too late.

It is a wonderful thing when someone with an eating disorder chooses recovery. It is a shame when they are denied what they desperately need because they do not exactly fit criteria or arent so sick to the point of death. Everyone with an eating disorder is at risk for physical and emotional damage, even during the early stages of an eating disorder. We must learn to realize that eating disorders are serious no matter what type or what stage the disorder is. Just looking at someone’s weight will not tell you what an eating disorder is doing to a person, or how much it affects them. Please do not let the eating disordered be denied the help they need any longer. Do not refuse them treatment and recovery until it is too late. Everyone deserves a chance to live happy.

Chinese foods

One of the modern contribution of China is Chinese foods. The Peking Duck, the Beef in Black Bean sauce, the lobster with ginger, and host of other great Chinese food. Chinese foods and food products have become suspect as of late. We have seen the reports of seafood with high levels of antibiotics and hormones. We have read about the pet food with toxic and industrial ingredients. We have seen a TV report about a street food vendor who made pork dumplings with cardboard instead of pork. That TV report turned out to be a hoax. Maybe. You never know with state run media.

I love Chinese food and teas. Like many North Americans, I’ve become a little suspicious about Chinese food. Too many stories have come out about toothpastes with industrial and toxic ingredients. The Chinese exports have also included toys for children with high level of lead in the paint. Lead is something that has become a regulated substance in all products in the west.

Some people are can have a reaction to monosodium glutamate (MGS) ranging from headaches to chest pains. MGS is used extensively in Chinese foods. MGS is also extensively used in commercial cans of soup, noodles soups, granola bars and numerous food products. If you have concerns about having a reaction to MGS, consult with your doctor.

Foods and food products from China are pervasive and cheap. Chinese foods (Chinese cuisine) is also exotic and delicious. It has added greatly to the enjoyment of food and cooking. Chinese food is also becoming something of a concern.

Health Canada and the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have both been negligent in allowing foods from China to come in and fail their respective safety standards. The two countries have announced that they will be more vigilant and may even ban some foods and food products from China. Both countries however are loath to loose business with China, which is lucrative for all concerned.

As a consumer, you however can have a great influence. As your grocer where the foods come from. If they can’t give you a straight answer, pass on the product. Even if you will eventually buy the product, the retailers will begin to be more vigilant and informed.

Personally boycott some food products. Sea foods from China are highly suspect at this time for instance. Some people have even gone so far as to test foods and food products according to the standards set by FDA or Health Canada. You are a very important, even essential part of the market as the consumer. If you ask questions and make a point of passing up a product that you would normally like to buy, then that make a very loud statement.

We can make the foods we love safer for ourselves.

Binge Eating – Information on Binge Eating

Almost everyone overeats on occasion, having seconds or thirds of a holiday meal or devouring an entire bag of chips while watching a scary movie. Sometimes, though, overeating becomes a regular occurrence, shrouded in shame and secrecy. It’s called binge-eating disorder, a serious eating disorder in which you frequently consume unusually large amounts of food.

Men and Women living with Binge Eating Disorder suffer a combination of symptoms similar to those of Compulsive Overeaters and Bulimia. The sufferer periodically goes on large binges, consuming an unusually large quantity of food in a short period of time (less than 2 hours) uncontrollably, eating until they are uncomfortably full. The weight of each individual is usually characterized as above average or overweight, and sufferers tend to have a more difficult time losing weight and maintaining average healthy weights. Unlike with Bulimia, they do not purge following a Binge episode.

A binge eating episode typically lasts around two hours, but some people binge on and off all day long. Binge eaters often eat even when they’re not hungry and continue eating long after they’re full. They may also gorge themselves as fast as they can while barely registering what they’re eating or tasting.

Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eating which consists of episodes of uncontrollable overeating. It is sometimes as a symptom of binge eating disorder. During such binges, a person rapidly consumes an excessive amount of food. Most people who have eating binges try to hide this behaviour from others, and often feel ashamed or depressed about their overeating. Eating binges can be followed by so-called compensatory behaviour, acts by which the person tries to compensate for the effects of overeating. Examples of such acts are purging (induced vomiting or laxative abuse), fasting, and heavy exercising.

The causes of binge eating disorder are still unknown. Up to half of all people with binge eating disorder have a history of depression. Whether depression is a cause or effect of binge eating disorder is unclear. It may be unrelated. Many people report that anger, sadness, boredom, anxiety or other negative emotions can trigger a binge episode. Impulsive behavior and certain other psychological problems may be more common in people with binge eating disorder.

We cannot diagnose or treat eating disorders by e-mail, but we can send you information and assist you in finding resources. Information provided by the Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center is not a substitute for medical treatment or psychological care. It is vital that you talk with your physician and a qualified mental health professional regarding eating disorder symptoms and treatment.

Binge eating also occurs in another eating disorder called bulimia nervosa. Persons with bulimia nervosa, however, usually purge, fast, or do strenuous exercise after they binge eat. Purging means vomiting or using a lot of diuretics (water pills) or laxatives to keep from gaining weight. Fasting is not eating for at least 24 hours. Strenuous exercise, in this case, means exercising for more than an hour just to keep from gaining weight after binge eating. Purging, fasting, and overexercising are dangerous ways to try to control your weight.

Both binge eating and bulimia involve eating excessive amounts of food, feeling out of control while eating, and feeling guilty or ashamed afterward. But bulimia nervosa (sometimes called binge-purge syndrome) is different from binge eating disorder because people with bulimia vomit or use laxatives to try to keep themselves from gaining weight after eating. They may also try to burn off the extra calories by exercising compulsively as a way of making up for overeating. People with binge eating disorder do not have these “purge” characteristics.