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12 Popular Foods That Are Complete And Total Frauds

Post author By Scott Bender
Post date May 5, 2019

Cooking using all-natural foods is a wonderful way to know what you’re eating, but it’s also a great way to spend a lot of money. Not everyone has the financial resources or time required to craft a 100 percent farm-to-table menu at home, meaning most of us opt for something a little easier with relative frequency.

But it might be time to rethink our eating options, especially considering that these 12 foods are notorious frauds.
Portions of this article were updated on Oct. 23, 2018.

1. Red Velvet Cake

Everyone loves red velvet cake. What’s not to love? There’s cake, there’s cream cheese, usually there are some sprinkles on top, and it’s delicious. #treatyoself. The thing is, we also love red velvet cake because the taste is comforting and decadent, even though the color indicates something, well, unnatural is probably going on.

Red velvet cake is really just chocolate cake with some food coloring (some people use beet juice for a natural coloring effect). During the Great Depression, a Texas company began selling food coloring and flavoring extracts that were purported to cut down on the costs of cooking. One recipe that Adams Extracts brought to life was the red velvet cake.
The story is mentioned in the 2014 New York Times article titled “Red Velvet Cake: A Classic, Not a Gimmick.” It goes like this:

After Congress passed the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in 1938, shoring up regulations for food coloring, Mr. Adams [the company’s founder] figured he could sell a lot more extracts and dyes, and a red cake would be just the way to do it. Sometime in the 1940s, the company tricked out a mahogany cake [popular at the Waldorf Astoria where Adams and his wife enjoyed it] recipe with food coloring, printed it on cards and began plans to merchandise it alongside bottles of vanilla, red dye and artificial butter flavoring, which was popular when butter was rationed during World War II.

Today, red-velvet themed products from pancakes to candles are available all over, and it’s still a favorite, even if it really is just dyed chocolate cake. Want to make your own? You can find a red velvet cake recipe here.

2. Wasabi

If you go out for some sushi, you know you’re going to mix that fiery hot green wasabi in with some soy sauce (or just smear a dollop of it on top of every single bite of California roll, if you’re a real heat seeker). The catch is, real wasabi is incredibly expensive and the stuff we’re typically served at our local sushi joint isn’t actually wasabi.

The Daily Meal states, “The wasabi you’ve most likely had differs quite a bit from the real thing. Wasabi roots are difficult to grow, and a pound can cost up to $100, so a substitute is often made by combining mustard, horseradish, and food coloring to give it its iconic light green hue.”
The biggest difference is that, as with almost all culinary cost-cutting methods, the flavor of the product is compromised. Real wasabi has more of a pleasurable kick at the end, whereas the cheaper concoction will give you that runny-nose burn. That said, most of us will happily endure a little short-term pain over the alternatives: a long-term loss of money we’d have to spend on the real thing, or sushi without that signature spiciness we know (isn’t real) and love.

If you’re set on trying the real thing, here are a few ways to make your own genuine wasabi-flavored condiments at home.

3. Crab Meat

Hold on tight for this one, because if you don’t already know about this, then what you’re about to read will essentially do what Supersize Me did for the McDonald’s chicken nugget.

In Japanese, those iconic crab sticks (pictured above) are called surimi, which actually means “ground meat”—and they’re essentially the oceanic version of the hot dog.
HuffPost explains, “Surimi is made of different kinds of fish, which are ground together [and pulverized] into a paste. According to SF Gate, manufacturers add starch, artificial flavors, sodium and sometimes MSG.” Then, of course, it is dyed with orange food coloring to give it that authentic, crab-like look.

Unless you’re averse to food colorings, this might not seem like a big issue. And while it’s not as bad for most consumers as eating an actual hot dog, the HuffPost article points out that, “Because starch is often made from wheat, imitation crab meat is not gluten free. True crab meat, on the other hand, is safe for the gluten-averse.”
“On most nutritional counts,” it goes on to note, “this processed seafood pales in comparison to the real thing.”
In our opinion, it’s best not to ingest imitation anything, so try to go for the salmon, tuna, or yellowtail when eating sushi—or opt for vegetarian and vegan options like mushroom rolls and delicious inarizushi. Also, we are not listing a recipe for making your own fake crab meat because doing that at home could be…disastrous.

4. White Chocolate

White chocolate is hit or miss with most people (our favorites, though, include white chocolate Crunch bars and Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme). The funny thing about white chocolate, of course, is the fact that it’s hardly chocolate at all.

As described in this Greatist article, “Real chocolate contains three must-have components: chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, and cocoa solids (often in addition to other ingredients). But the white kind lacks chocolate liquor and cocoa solids—which means it’s also missing flavanols, the antioxidants that give the authentic stuff nutritional benefits.”
So, not only does white chocolate lack much of what makes chocolate chocolate, it is void of the few healthy components that come with chocolate, too. In 2004, the FDA got involved and mandated a law that required white chocolate to have a minimum of at least 20 percent cocoa butter and no more than 55 percent sugar or other sweeteners.

That way companies couldn’t basically put sugar on a stick and call it white chocolate. In case you’re curious, here’s a recipe for making white chocolate—not sure why you’d want to though!

5. Pomegranate Juice

You should probably be a little cautious about anything labeled “juice” or “fruit drink.” It is worth checking the ingredient list since more often than not, you’ll find some oddities in there—along with an insanely high dose of sugar.

That said—we know that pomegranates are incredibly healthy and do amazing things for your heart and cholesterol levels, but the problem with buying the “juice” version is that you might not be getting that healthful beverage you were after. Unfortunately, it’s not just off-brand companies trying to claim their products offer you the benefits of the pomegranate; magnate corporation Coca-Cola was actually sued by Pom Wonderful because they were putting out a drink and calling it “Blueberry-Pomegranate Juice.”
Yet, as discussed in this article from The New York Times, “the blend, sold under Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid brand, is made almost entirely from apple and grape juice. [The juice] is made up of 99.4 percent apple and grape juices, 0.3 percent pomegranate juice, 0.2 percent blueberry juice and 0.1 percent raspberry juice.”

The lesson here is to check your labels, or, to be extra safe, make your own juice. Interested? Learn how to seed and juice a pomegranate here.

6. Breakfast Syrup

Unless you’re putting the tap into a tree and getting the maple syrup yourself, it’s tough to say exactly what you’re eating when you drizzle Aunt Jemima (or any other) syrup over your waffles. Most likely, unless it’s labeled as 100 percent pure, authentic maple syrup, it’s probably a mixture of corn syrup, cane syrup, and a slew of natural and/or artificial ingredients and sweeteners.

Some people take this blasphemy very serious, so much so that there was a law being pushed forward that would make it illegal to sell fake maple syrup. The Huffington Post reported that “legislation would make the sale of fraudulent maple syrup a felony offense with up to a five-year maximum penalty. Currently, it is only a misdemeanor. The MAPLE (Maple Agriculture Protection and Law Enforcement ) Act aims to protect the producers of maple syrup.”
While it’s best to go with a natural fruit topping for your favorite breakfast items, we know that is not going to always happen. The next time you’re at the store, it might be worth spending the extra couple dollars to get something authentic rather than a jug of artificial (and clawing) sweetness.

Since maple syrup is all natural, here is a link to buy your own tap kit. Note that it does not come with a flannel shirt or wool beanie.

7. Bacon Bits

Bacon is one heck of a trendy culinary pick right now. And it’s earned its stripes—it is delicious. You can put bacon on just about anything and it will increase the flavor and texture while boding well for foodie photos. However, you have to be careful when eating it because while some products may be called bacon, there’s a possibility that they’re something else.

Enter bacon bits. Shockingly enough, those little nibs of goodness are actually vegetarian! Greatist explains what they’re made from: “Lacking any animal products, these crispy bites are made of artificially flavored textured soy flour and other ingredients including caramel color, maltodextrin, yeast extract, and flavor enhancers called disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.”

So technically, if you’re vegetarian or even vegan, you could eat these little toppers, but we warn you, it may not be the best idea. If you’re really craving some bacon, you could always buy an actual package, cook it, and then refrigerate the leftovers for use when needed.

8. Supermarket Sourdough

Sourdough bread is a classic baked good that has a long history and a tanginess that’s won it a place in the hearts (and stomachs) of many a carb connoisseur. Unfortunately, if you’re grabbing your sourdough off a grocery store shelf, it might not be sourdough at all.

Matt Bowler, founder of Bowler Organics, explains: “Sourdough bread and pasta set themselves apart from quick-rise products, and even some ‘sourdough’-labeled products because of the presence of lactobacillus, a type of bacteria which naturally produces lactic acid during the fermentation process.”
“Some of the more prevalent ‘sourdough’ products will leverage acid as an ingredient added to the dough rather than allowing the lactobacilli to work their magic.”

Even if you’ve been satisfied with the flavor of your go-to faux sourdough, you’re missing out on some other key benefits of genuine sourdough, according to Bowler.
“Quick-rise breads utilizing commercial yeast products—whose rise-time may be less than two to three hours—essentially cheat the process during which those nutrients and enzymes are unlocked. This results in fewer readily-available nutrients our bodies can use.”
On the contrary, “fermentation with sourdough cultures, which tends to last between six and 36 hours, ensures active microbial colonies are working to break down grains and allow the finished product to be much easier for our bodies to process.”

Plus, all the lactobacillus in real sourdough starters means it’s full of probiotics, right? Not so fast! “Sourdough bread is not a probiotic product due to the high temperatures reached while baking,” says Bowler. “Enzymes are effectively deactivated between temperatures of 120 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit.”
That doesn’t mean sourdough isn’t great for your gut. Here are Bowler’s tips for buying bread that’s the real deal:

Always look at the ingredients label first. Yeast should never be listed as an ingredient for naturally-leavened, true sourdough bread.
No acids should be listed as an ingredient in a genuine loaf of sourdough. Sourdough is very simple and consists of only base two ingredients: water and flour. Salt is added during the process to facilitate fermentation and influence flavor. So, generally speaking, you should look for a basic loaf of sourdough to contain only flour, water, and salt.
Other grains can be added while still allowing the bread to be classified as sourdough.

To find out if the sourdough bread at your grocery store is legit, “check the labeling, and if you have questions or suspicions, don’t be afraid to ask the bakers about the fermentation process,” Bowler says. “Ask how old their sourdough starter, or ‘mother,’ is and if they proof their dough at room temp or in the fridge, or both. A quick-fermented sourdough loaf will typically undergo between two and four hours of bulk fermentation and an additional two to 24-plus hours of during final fermentation. Cold-fermentation is usually performed during the final stage and will dramatically increase the sour flavor of the dough.”
Once you get your hands on a legit loaf, Bowler—who’s been nurturing his first sourdough starter, affectionately named “Josh,” for a year—has the following advice: “When experiencing sourdough products, I really enjoy tasting them plain first. No butter, cheese, honey, et cetera. There is a depth of flavor achieved by simple fermentation which sets legit sourdough apart from all other types of bread.”

“What’s more,” he says for the bakers out there, “your favorite style of bread can most likely be made with sourdough by substituting commercial yeast with some sourdough starter as an ingredient and modifying the process to account for longer fermentation and rise times.”

9. High Fiber Options

Fiber is an important part of any diet, and according to “High In Fiber: Everything You Need To Know About A High Fiber Diet,” a previous piece by HealthyWay, it’s essential to the health of our gut microbiomes. So rather than reaching for a slice of red velvet cake or even a bottle of real pomegranate juice when we need a little something sweet and tangy, we ought to opt for a high-fiber snack, right?

Registered dietitian Rachel Fine says this isn’t so cut and dry: “When it comes to packaged foods claiming to be high in fiber, it’s important to examine more than just the number on the label.”
She goes on to say that “plant-based, minimally processed foods are going to be your ideal source for naturally occurring intact fibers—such as beans, veggies, whole fruits, and whole grains. These foods offer significantly more nutrition per bite, and there is sufficient research supporting the wide array of health benefits behind intact naturally-occurring fibers.”
“Highly processed foods,” she says, pointing to ice cream treats, high fiber protein bars, and high fiber powders, “contain processed fibers, which are created in a lab from isolated starches. The research behind these fibers remains limited.”

She also stresses that “processed fibers lack additional nutrients and bioactive substances found in naturally occurring high fiber foods.”
Want a high fiber option that doesn’t contain isolated starches that hail from a lab? Rachel urges you to “compare a grain salad to a highly processed packaged food that is not usually high in fiber, e.g., cakes or brownies. Bottom line: If you’re trying to increase the fiber from your diet, do it from whole food sources.
Need some recipes to get you going? Check out the links in this piece on pulses.

10. Bottled Teas

Tea. It just sounds healthy. But odds are, if you’re reaching for sweetened flavored iced teas to quench your thirst, you’re actually sipping on what the FDA calls a sugar-sweetened beverage, or SSB, which in many cases includes sugar as the second ingredient (after water), along with preservatives and other unidentified natural flavors.

According to a resource from the State of Rhode Island Department of health, “the calories in sugar sweetened beverages can contribute to weight gain and provide little to no nutritional value. …Those extra calories can lead to other health risks including obesity, tooth decay, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.”
Not exactly what you had in mind when you decided on tea rather than soda.
Zoe Kissam, herbalist and marketing manager of innovation at Traditional Medicinals—the most popular seller of wellness teas in the U.S.—says, “Quality matters when you are buying tea. While there currently isn’t an FDA standard definition for products labeled as ‘tea,’ our products fall into the dietary supplement and food categories, which are both highly regulated. In addition to our teas being formulated by herbalists, they also use medicinal grade herbs whenever possible, which simply means that our products deliver on their intended health benefits.”

Of course, this isn’t necessarily what you’re getting when you grab a bottle of tea on the run.
Kissam’s advice: “If you are trying to make healthy decisions, it really doesn’t matter if you are purchasing brewed/steeped at home or bottled iced teas. The best thing to do is read the labels so you know what you are getting. There are options for healthy and clean products in most categories—you just have to be conscious about what you are buying.”
Want to ensure you’re consuming the highest-quality iced tea (rather than an SSB)? Kissam says, “We have a range of teas that work really well as iced teas, including Hibiscus, Raspberry Leaf, Green Tea Matcha, Nettle, Stress Ease, and Roasted Dandelion Root.”

Traditional Medicinals even has a recipe for roasted dandelion iced “coffee” that Kissam says is one of her favorites—it’s pictured above.

11. Sugar-Free Snacks

Registered dietician Paige Penick says, “One of the things that drives me nuts is when labels say ‘sugar free’ on the front, because it’s very misleading.”
Working to cut added sugar out of our diets isn’t the problem. Penick says “sugar-free” packaging is deceptive because companies “usually make up for the lack of actual sugar by adding in something artificial, which may or may not give people—to put it nicely—gastrointestinal discomfort. There are more pleasant and healthful ways to address your sugar cravings.”

The Vermont Department of Public Health hosts a simple and informative resource that can help consumers identify different types of sweeteners in their foods. It also points out that:

There are two types of sweeteners found in food and beverages: sugars and sugar substitutes. Sugars provide calories, or energy, for our bodies and increase blood glucose, as well as overall calorie intake. All carbohydrate-containing foods, such as breads, fruits, vegetables, milk, and yogurt, increase blood sugar, even if they do not have added sugars.

Depending on your nutritional needs and goals, some sugar-free snacks might be right for you, but you may also want to explore options that contain no added sweeteners—sugar or otherwise.

12. Oatmeal

Oatmeal can be an extremely satisfying (and quick) breakfast option. And even if you’re a fan of steel cut or overnight oats, let’s be honest, almost everyone has their favorite flavor of single-serve instant oatmeal, too.

Registered dietitian nutritionist Kelsey Peoples says, “Instant oats come in a massive range of flavors now and often have little bits of fruit like raisins, apples, peaches, and dates.” So what’s the controversy?
“You may want to double check the ingredient list, as those little fruit chunks aren’t always what you’d think. One titan of the oatmeal industry has both Peaches and Cream and Strawberry and Cream [flavors] that use dehydrated apples with coloring and fruit flavoring—but no actual pieces of the fruit listed in the title.”

The cream? Well, she says that refers to “a ‘creaming agent’ made up of maltodextrin, plant oils, corn syrup solids, whey, and casein.” Looks like it might be best to add your own fresh or dried fruit and cream to plain instant, steel cut, or rolled oats after all.

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Nosh

The Truth About How Grocery Stores Are Designed To Make You Buy More Stuff

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date October 11, 2018

If you’re like most Americans, you spend a lot of time in your local grocery market.
According to statistics website Statista, the average U.S. consumer goes grocery shopping 1.5 times per week. Those shopping trips are big business: Grocery sales generated over $600 billion in 2015.
To keep you spending, your local grocer employs some nifty marketing tricks. That’s not to say that they’re doing anything shady, exactly.

“[Marketing] used to be all about the product, now it’s all about the customer’s experience,” Georganne Bender, partner at Kizer & Bender. Her firm helps retailers design store layouts, market new products, and improve their sales. “Obviously, there’s a benefit to the retailer, but the purpose of it is to make people feel better when they’re in the store and make it easy for them.”
We spoke with Bender to find out about the methods that grocery stores use to keep shoppers moving—and how some of those techniques can compel people to buy things they don’t really need.

The supermarket starts selling as soon as you walk in the door.

Well, to be fair, the selling starts before you walk in the door, since retailers carefully control things like parking space availability to ensure a positive experience. Once you’re in, however, you’ll be immediately presented with a selection of seasonal items.

“When you go into stores, you’ll see things called merchandise outposts, which are generally tables of merchandise that is somewhere in the aisles of the store,” Bender says, “but because there’s an event or holiday coming up, they bring it out to other areas of the store. It’s called cross-merchandising.”
The merchandise outpost is a type of “speed bump,” and whether or not you buy something, you’ll likely pause for a moment to check out the new items.
“They work the same way speed bumps in parking lots work,” Bender says. “They slow you down. When you walk into a store, you’re thinking about all of the things you have to do for the day, and your list, and you’re getting your kids organized. When you walk in, they want to put something that makes you stop and look.”
If you’re moving more slowly, you’re more prone to making an impulsive purchase or adding a few items to your list.

They put the products they really want you to notice at eye level.

This might not come as a surprise; most parents already know that retailers keep candies and sweet cereals at kids’ eye levels.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Eye level is considered buy level.”
—Georganne Bender[/pullquote]
“When kids walk down the aisle, they see candy and ask Mom for it,” Bender says. Retailers also make sure that adults walk right past the must-see items.
“Eye level is considered buy level,” Bender says. “It’s exactly 5 foot 4 inches, the height of an average woman.”

Name-brand items are typically the more expensive products in grocery stores, and that’s why they want you to buy them. To help persuade you, stores place these items at eye level so you’re less likely to keep searching the shelves once you see them.
Recently, a new trend called “vertical slicing” has started replacing some eye-level positioning. The retailers lay out items across several shelves in vertical “slices,” which keeps the brand in front of customer’s eyes.

“Say there’s a display and it’s got four different kinds of liquid detergent, they’ll put a vertical slice of [each] one. It doesn’t matter which shelf the customer’s looking at, they’re going to see that product.”

They understand that you shop differently if you’re eating healthy.

“We’ve been kind of trained from the time we were little, when we went shopping with our parents, that you grab a shopping cart and you go up and down every aisle,” Bender says.

“But if you’re eating healthier, there’s a good chance that you don’t go up and down every aisle,” she continues. “You just shop the perimeter.”
Store owners know that, so they’ll place must-see items in “end caps,” which cap off each aisle.
“The end caps [near the] meat department might be something that they don’t want you to miss,” Bender says. “They’ll put the things they don’t want you to miss in areas adjacent to the perimeter, sometimes in the perimeter.”

If you’re trying to eat healthy, you might want to avoid those end caps entirely. Good luck—they’re designed to grab your attention.

The milk’s in the back, but probably not for the reason you’d expect.

Retailers typically put milk, eggs, and other essentials toward the back of the store. That’s to get people to walk through the entire store to get those must-have items, right?
[pullquote align=”center”]“I tell the retailers to put the milk in the front of the store for the convenience of the customers, and the retailers, typically, ignore my advice.”
—Burt Flickinger[/pullquote]

Well, not exactly. Milk needs to stay cold (duh), and the freezers and refrigerators are typically in the back. They could build the refrigerators in the front, but they don’t.
Why? NPR’s Planet Money interviewed a few experts to find out, but their results weren’t exactly conclusive.
“I tell the retailers to put the milk in the front of the store for the convenience of the customers, and the retailers, typically, ignore my advice and put the milk in the back of the store where they’ve been putting it for 70 to 80 years,” retail consultant Burt Flickinger told the show.
While grocery store designers carefully plan out every aspect of the shopping experience, they’re creatures of habit just like everyone else. While some might put those necessities in the back as a way of upselling customers, most simply do it because they’ve never considered the alternative.

Many stores have scent machines, and when they don’t, they improvise.

Fragrances can be incredibly compelling to shoppers. Scent marketing services like ScentAir help retailers retain their customers by pumping certain aromas through stores with discreet devices (they offer similar services for casinos and other businesses).

“It’s called aromacology,” Bender says. “When we smell something, it takes us back immediately to the first place we smelled it. So if you walk through the bakery and smell chocolate chip cookies, there’s a really good chance that that’s going to take you back to being a little kid at home with your mom or Grandma making cookies. Scents make us feel good.”
“That’s why, if the store’s not using a machine like a ScentAir machine, they’ll either have flowers right near the front door, or the bakery’s close to the front door. It puts us in a good mood. ”

That music is nice and upbeat for a reason.

Ever find yourself tapping your toe as you make your way down the aisles? Stores select music very carefully to keep you shopping. They pay hefty music licensing fees to organizations like ASCAP, and many also invest in services like SiriusXM Music for Business, which pipes in carefully tailored playlists to keep shoppers in a good mood.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Disco is the sound of money.”
—Georganne Bender[/pullquote]
“They play music because it’s comforting for you to shop with music,” Bender says, “and the type of store [determines] the type of music they play. When Rich [Kizer] and I are designing stores, we always tell them to play upbeat music like disco.”

Yes, you read that right: disco.
“Disco is the sound of money,” she says. “It doesn’t matter how old you are, the beat makes you feel good. You’ll stay longer in the store, and you’ll spend more.”
We’ve never heard disco described as “the sound of money,” but somehow, that sounds about right.
Some major retail chains are trying to change this tactic. For decades, Target hasn’t played background music, possibly because they target mothers with young children who might appreciate the peace and quiet. Recently, the chain started introducing music in some stores in an effort to revive its sales.
“When you go into those stores, it’s too quiet,” Bender says. “If the store isn’t busy and you’re walking around a giant store and there’s no sound at all.”

They don’t redesign the store just to throw you off.

One common myth suggests that grocery stores undergo redesigns just to change their regular customers’ shopping habits. Bender says that while some retailers might occasionally reorganize their products to sell them more effectively, they try to avoid massive changes—and they certainly try to make those changes easy on their customers.

“Our grocery store just did a complete re-lay, and it really messes you up for a while until you learn it again,” she says. “We become accustomed to where things are, and that’s why people become so loyal to their favorite grocery store. They know where everything is.”
Some stores try to make re-designs easier by positioning staff members at the end of each aisle. Bender notes that one store even handed out maps to visitors.

So there you have it: the truth about why grocery stores are the way they are.

Are they designed with profits in mind? Sure. But is it nefarious? Eh, not quite.
“[A lot of people] try to make retailers out to be these bad guys who just want your money,” Bender says. “They’re not. They’re just business people who want their customers to have a comfortable experience.”

Speaking of buying things and customer comfort: There are ways you can hack your shopping experience.

Starting off with a list—extra points if it has built-in visual cues, like a full spread of items that you can mark throughout the week as you run out—is a great way to streamline the process since you can generate the list as you go, and it’ll keep you from making any impulse buys once you’re in the store.
If you want to help save the planet, bring your own eco-friendly shopping bag (or bags, let’s be honest), and if you have a grabby baby in tow, you can help distract them from all those strategically placed, eye-level goodies by plopping them in something like this Brica Go Shop Baby Shopping Cart Cover, which comes equipped with toy loops and a smartphone pouch.
Finally, having a place in your trunk to store cold items for the drive and organize the groceries once you buy them can mean the difference between eggs and cracked eggs, ice cream and just cream—these are important distinctions, especially when your schedule or your budget won’t allow two-a-day grocery trips.

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Nosh Nutrition x Advice

The Rise Of Ramen (And How To Make It Good For You)

Post author By Jennifer Purdie
Post date February 5, 2018

A staple of dorm rooms around the world, ramen noodles remain the go-to food of choice for those living on tight budgets. In fact, ask any college student if they eat prepackaged ramen and they’ll likely skip right to their favorite flavors. Why so popular? You can pick up a week’s worth of meals for a few measly dollars.

On top of their affordability, the noodle bricks are good for those with limited access to kitchens. See, you only need to add one ingredient to ramen: hot water. This makes ramen noodles accessible to those with the most limited of cooking resources.
But as of late, the ramen tide is shifting. Upscale versions of ramen dishes have soared their way into restaurants, ranging from small pop-ups to five-star dining experiences. According to Fast Company, New York and Los Angeles are “saturated with gourmet ramen shops,” and their ramen supplier, Sun Noodle, produces about 90,000 servings of ramen per day.

Chefs at Ippudo, a ramen restaurant in New York (Robert Wright/The New York Times)

This uptick in gourmet ramen consumption is due to restaurant owners following a longstanding Japanese marketing strategy, according to the Fast Company piece: Restaurateurs manufactured a food craze by using the media to their advantage and securing coverage on food blogs.
Now, with ramen noodles consumed by anyone from wallet-conscious students to gourmet diners, enthusiasts of this food should familiarize themselves with its (lack of) nutritional value.

Serving up Sodium

This might surprise you, but a package of ramen noodles’ serving size is only half a block. This means you ingest about 830-850 milligrams of sodium per serving—twice that if you eat the entire package.

According to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, you should consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. “To do the math, by consuming one pack of ramen, you are consuming 72-73 percent of your daily sodium allowance,” says Jennifer Kanikula, a registered dietitian and blogger at The SoFull Traveler.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that your body does need sodium to function properly, but too much of it is bad for your health. Sodium can increase blood pressure and boost your risk for stroke and heart disease.

Even children are not immune to sodium issues. Almost nine out of 10 children eat more sodium than recommended, and one in nine has elevated blood pressure.

Ramen Research

A study published in the Journal of Nutrition shows that eating instant noodles is linked to heart risk, especially in women. Researchers in South Korea (a country with a high consumption rate of instant noodles) used 10,700 participants (54.5 percent women) ranging in age from 19 to 64.
They assessed the people’s diets using a 63-item food-frequency questionnaire and identified two major dietary patterns: a traditional dietary pattern that was rich in rice, fish, vegetables, fruit, and potatoes, and a meat- and fast-food dietary pattern that had less rice intake but was rich in meat, soda, and fast food, including instant noodles.

Researchers found that those who followed the second dietary pattern had a higher prevalence of abdominal obesity. Further, the women who ate instant noodles at least twice a week had higher incidence of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome includes health risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, and high cholesterol—basically anything that can increase your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It did not even matter what type of dietary pattern they followed—sixty eight percent off women who ate ramen twice or more per week had metabolic syndrome.
In a study conducted by Stefani Bardin, a teacher at Parsons School of Design, and Braden Kuo, MD, director of the gastrointestinal motility laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard University, it was found that instant ramen is difficult to digest.

In their study, Bardin and Kuo asked two volunteers to eat different meals: One had a meal of processed food, instant ramen being the main course, and the other ate a meal consisting of handmade noodles. After eating, the participants swallowed tiny camera capsules that recorded the inside of their gastrointestinal tracts. Results showed significant differences in the processes; the instant ramen did not break down into the tiny matter necessary for proper digestion, and the other meal did.
Although this is not positive news, ramen noodle lovers do not need to fret. According to an article published in The New York Times, you can still eat instant noodles, just in moderation. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard University, said in the article, “Once or twice a month is not a problem. But a few times a week really is.”

Instant comfort?

Under duress, people often turn to eating ramen noodles as a way to make themselves feel better. Stressed college women are likely to experience an increased appetite and propensity to consume unhealthy foods, according to a study in Nutrition Research.
It’s not just women who indulge in comfort eating, either—a study in Physiology & Behavior shows that while women are more likely to increase food consumption while stressed, stressed women and men increase their intakes of unhealthy (particularly fatty) foods.

In terms of ramen, it seems men may be more likely to eat it when stressed: Men more often report seeking out “hearty, meal-related comfort foods,” whereas women often prefer “snack-related” comfort foods like chocolate and ice cream.
But research indicates stress eating is a short-lived, and short-sighted, stress solution. While “comfort eaters may experience reduced perceived stress compared to those who do not engage in this behavior,” per research in the journal Appetite, another study shows that combining food with stress “promotes the compulsive nature of overeating.” The mood-improving effects of tasty (as opposed to “unpalatable”) chocolate only last for three minutes, a third study finds.
In a sense, people use food they enjoy as a form of self-medication when they experience bad days. Ramen noodles, for some, is that medication. And when you pair those noodles with healthy trimmings, it can become a wiser choice than a piece of chocolate cake.

How to Make It Healthier

If you limit the amount of noodles to keep the sodium down but beef up the dish with healthy options, you can create a hearty, tasty meal fit for one—or your entire family.

Here are a few options:

Add in protein.

“The best way to up the health factor of ramen dishes is to choose lean protein sources to go with it,” says Emily Braaten, a registered dietitian. She notes that numerous restaurant entrees feature fatty meats. “These kinds of protein make the dishes richer, but also are high in saturated fat.” She says instead, when cooking at home, you can add shredded chicken (or other lean meats) and a soft- or hard-boiled egg.

Ditch the flavor pack and augment the dish with your own savory seasonings.

“Add more flavor with herbs and less sodium,” says registered dietitian nutritionist Rebecca Scritchfield. “Try steeping fresh mint and cilantro in the hot broth and use your own salt plus red pepper flakes for spice instead of [using] the instant sodium packets.”

Mix in your favorite vegetables.

Any veggies you have in your refrigerator or freezer will work, says Scritchfield. “Or leftover roasted veggies can be added to ramen to make it more colorful and more balanced.”

Women should consume 130 grams of carbohydrates per day. Carbohydrate equivalents: One cup of fresh cooked, no-salt-added broccoli and spinach = 11 grams. One cup of frozen spinach = 8 grams. One cup of yellow and white canned corn = 30 grams.

Give soba a try.

Rather than cook with high-sodium ramen noodles, try switching to soba noodles, a healthier alternative.
“Soba is actually made of buckwheat, which contains no wheat or gluten,” says Monica Auslander Moreno, a registered dietitian. “Buckwheat has much more protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals than wheat noodles—13 grams of protein per 100 grams, 10 grams of fiber per 100 grams, and 57 percent of the daily value of magnesium.”

Bonus: soba noodles have a “nuttier taste and are not as bland as the regular wheat noodles.” She does note that you will still consume a lot of starch, but, she emphasizes, it is healthier starch.

Cook Like a Ramen Master

So, you’ve decided you can’t give up your ramen noodles. That is no problem—up your ramen prowess and cook healthier versions of the dish by simply following the sage cooking advice of celebrated chef Tracy Chang, a ramen noodles master. Her award-winning Guchi’s Midnight Ramen dish, available at her restaurant PAGU, won Best Ramen by Boston Magazine.

Here are Chang’s ramen cooking tips:

You can amplify the flavor of the dish by adding in dried shiitake mushrooms. This vegetable has vitamins D, B, and C. It also contains essential minerals like zinc, iron, and potassium.
For protein, dried seafood contains calcium, iron, and omega 3s for skin and hair.
When making your own stock, you should cook the bones at a boil, and then at a simmer. You can choose either a pork or chicken bone, depending on your taste preference. Doing this releases essential minerals from the marrow and bone.
Adding gelatin helps boost the immune system. “Gelatin comes from the skin and fat (for example, chicken backs, chicken feet and pork belly),” she says.

The Final Slurp

Ramen noodles do contain excessive amounts of sodium, and too much of it can lead to significant health issues in the future. However, if you simply limit the noodles and amplify your dish with tasty vegetables, lean proteins, and bone broth, you can satisfy your noodle love while still getting the necessary nutrients to keep you focused and strong.

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Nosh Nutrition x Advice

Snack Scheming: Popular Snack Foods With Terrible Secrets

Post author By Gretchen Bossio
Post date February 4, 2018

“I always had an extreme sweet tooth,” confesses Kari Hamilton, a mom of four who has transformed her eating habits from the inside out. “I would bake a ridiculous amount of cookies and eat a dozen.”
Difficult pregnancies due to hyperemesis gravidarum spurred Hamilton to restructure her diet with the help of a wise nutritionist, and she eliminated inflammatory foods altogether. Since turning her diet around, Hamilton happily says, “I feel sustained and energized because my body is getting the fuel it needs to take care of my husband and four kids.” What a concept—trading treats for energy!
It’s easy to invite popular snack foods and treats into our daily food selection, and it takes a daunting amount of commitment to seek out healthier, more natural options. These snack foods are undeniably enticing—they’re delicious! But it isn’t just the taste that keeps us coming back for more. In fact, there is quite the scheme propelling popular snack foods into—and keeping them in—our daily lives.

Most popular snack foods come from large brands with giant advertising budgets. Their goal is to get their product into the hands and hearts of consumers. Teams of marketing experts lead this cause and, with their ample funds, have catapulted many not-so-healthy foods into society’s diet. Their task has science on its side—these snacks draw us in from first bite, addicting us with sugar and carbs that provide short-term highs.
Jeanette Kimszal, a registered dietitian nutritionist shares exactly how this happens: “[Popular snacks] are engineered with just the right sweet and salty tastes to trigger pleasure areas in the brain. Liking these sensations, the brain wants to experience them over and over, so you become hooked on these foods.”

Although addicting might sound like a strong word, it’s definitely accurate. The New York Times described the situation in a 2014 article: “In animal studies, animals experience sugar like a drug and can become sugar-addicted. One study has shown that if given the choice, rats will choose sugar over [coke] in lab settings because the reward is greater; the ‘high’ is more pleasurable.” So there you have it, the proof is in, dare I say, the sugar-filled pudding.
Has your brain been taught to reach for these addictive foods? Is one in particular coming to mind?

Below you’ll find a line up of popular snack foods that are hiding terrible secrets, whether that’s sugar content, chemical-coated bags, or “vanishing caloric density.” Brace yourself—you might be a bit alarmed by what we’ve uncovered. But the good news is, if you’re willing to break your addiction, we’ve rounded up some amazing and healthy alternatives that your body will learn to love.

Plain is best.

Greek yogurt is all the rage. And rightly so: It’s so tasty, it’s practically dessert! But this “health food,” depending on the type, is full of sugar. “Flavored Greek yogurts have 12–15 grams of sugar per small portion,” says Paul Salter, a registered dietitian and former nutrition editor of bodybuilding.com.

Salter proposes a much better alternative than the pre-sweetened yogurts filling grocery store shelves: “Plain, low-fat Greek yogurt plus properly portioned additives of your choosing to enhance the taste, such as dark cocoa powder, oats, honey, fresh fruit, cinnamon.”
Honestly, a “yogurt bar” of sorts with all those natural additions sounds like a smorgasbord I can get on board with.

Don’t drench your veggies with this.

Choosing veggies as a snack or side dish is fabulous, but there is one way to spoil those good intentions: salad dressing, especially low-fat, low-calorie ones. According to Salter, they’re “loaded with sugars and trans fats to compensate for the reduction in fat.”

“Embrace the healthy fats found in oil-based dressings!” says Salter. “These fats support a healthy heart, possess anti-inflammatory properties, and may support optimal cognitive functioning; you may also look into lower-calorie Greek yogurt-based dressings.”
Again with that Greek yogurt. Best get that on my shopping list!

Get your crunch on!

Nacho Cheese, Cool Ranch, Spicy Sweet Chili: Do those varieties ring a bell? I’m sure they do, because Doritos have become a cultural icon and a snack that many of us love.
Kimszal has some sad news about these chips though. Not only does the Nacho Cheese flavor boast 140 calories per ounce (that’s just 11 chips!), they also list maltodextrin as the third ingredient. What’s maltodextrin, you ask?

“Maltodextrin is corn sugar,” Kimszal says. “As we know, sugar is very addicting, so you cannot just eat one chip. This is also true of any other chips with sugar.” So learn those hidden sugar words and watch out! For reference, Kimszal notes that sugar “is known as everything from maltodextrin to dextrose, corn syrup, and fruit juice concentrate.”
“The consumers are defenseless and have no idea there could be three types of sugar in one product. For example, [some kinds of] Ritz crackers have three types of sugar—sugar, maltodextrin, and high fructose corn syrup—but to the untrained eye, it only looks like one.”

Are there any healthier choices for the chip lover to embrace? First, Kimszal encourages us to wean ourselves off sugar slowly. Then, find better options to fill both the crunch and the sugar rush. For crunch, try nuts, seeds, and higher fiber crackers (three or four grams per serving) with no additives.
“If you are craving sugar,” she continues, “have a piece of fruit instead so you are getting fiber. Berries, pomegranates, apples, and oranges can be a good alternative to get natural sugar.”

For granola, it’s best to DIY.

Who doesn’t love granola? I, for one, am quite the fan of a bowl for breakfast and in bar form as a snack on the go, but Salter warns that some granola is “heavily processed and loaded with sugar.”

Although convenient, it’s best to do it yourself when it comes to granola. Buy your own ingredients and mix your heart out! Salter encourages making your own granola with a “focus on oats and portion control.” Here, we provide a recipe for low(er) sugar granola bars.

Pop away from this kind of popcorn.

Popcorn itself isn’t bad, but the microwave kind is holding on to a terrible secret. Well, maybe not so much of a secret, now that the FDA has exposed that perfluorinated grease-proofing agent, which often coat the bags, can have toxic effects on humans.

Luckily, there is an easy alternative to microwaving popcorn—the homemade, plain variety! This recipe from Baked Bree shows how quick and easy it is to make popcorn on your stovetop; or you can always purchase an air popper. Kimszal makes plain popcorn a real treat by tossing it with natural additives like “garlic or onion powder, cinnamon, or your own raw honey for a little sweetness and flavor.”

Orange and Addicting

Have you heard of the Cheeto effect? Food scientist Steven Witherly, PhD, believes these cheese puffs are one of the most addicting junk food options out there due to their “vanishing caloric density.”
He went into this in detail in a New York Times interview, saying, “If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there’s no calories in it … You can just keep eating it forever.”

Avoid mindless, empty calories by intentionally choosing the foods you want to enjoy. Portion them out, and be satisfied with a realistic snack.

The deception is in the name.

When you think fruit snacks, you think fruit, of course! And while fruit is healthy, fruit snacks are most definitely not. Many varieties have a touch of fruit, but Salter says they often have an “overstated vitamin/mineral content [and are] high in sugar.”

Don’t be fooled: Gummy fruit snacks are a dessert, and a sugary one at that. Rather than making them a favorite, turn to the real deal. Real fruit has true vitamins, minerals, and natural sugar your body can grow to love—and even crave!

Beware of these breakfast options.

“Most breakfast cereals,” Kimszal says, “even the ‘healthy’ ones, have a lot of chemical preservatives and are enriched with synthetic vitamins. They are not truly whole grains.”

Rather, she encourages steel cut oats or a chia bowl. She shares a quick, easy recipe for chia bowls: “Take one cup chia seeds and add one cup water, a fourth cup pumpkin seeds, and a little bit of unprocessed cacao and coconut flakes. Mix well and serve.”

Should you completely cut these popular snack foods from your diet?

Probably. But any step in the right direction is a good idea. Aiming for balance in your diet is a realistic goal. In a 2016 HealthyWay article, fitness instructor Shaun T recommended that you treat, not cheat. He did this by following the “85/15 rule.”

Shaun T leading the “Insanity: Max 30” workout (via The Dysfunctional Parrot)

“I eat 85 percent foods that are healthy and 15 percent foods that are fun,” the fitness instructor of Insanity and Hip Hop Abs fame wrote. “Start by getting out a piece of paper and drawing a line straight down the middle. On the left hand side write down all the healthy foods that you like. On the right hand side write down some of the fun foods that you love. Make sure you are eating more from the left than you are the right, and don’t beat yourself up when you choose food from the fun category.”
Hallelujah and happy day. You don’t have to give up your precious chips or favorite sweet treat! Instead, you just need to temper their role in your life—an occasional snack versus a daily essential.

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Nosh Nutrition x Advice

Why Some Foods Taste Better The Next Day (And Other Leftovers Facts)

Post author By Mary Sauer
Post date January 30, 2018

If you ever find yourself in my kitchen in the middle of the week, there are a few things you are almost always guaranteed to find. There’d be Tupperware scattered across the floor, the work of my busy toddler. Toast crumbs would be littered embarrassingly from one end of the kitchen to the next, a product of a full life with three young kids. My refrigerator would be full, with a pretty even toss-up of uncooked foods for the rest of the week and forgotten leftovers, packed up in guilt after a weeknight dinner but never touched again.
Leftovers are funny. Some foods I look forward to reheating and eating again since they only seem to get better with time. Others get shoved in the back of the fridge, where I can hardly look at them in their sad state of mush and mediocre flavors. I’m not typically a picky eater, so I feel guilty that so much gets ignored until it’s time to toss.

Having leftovers that reheat well is bliss.

— Destiny Yvette Reyna (@d_yvettereyna) January 13, 2018

Still, there seems to be a definite pattern to leftovers as to what tastes good and what is unbearable on day two. As it turns out, this isn’t just my personal preference. The real reason some leftovers taste so good, and why some taste just plain bad, is all about the chemistry of the flavors.

The Real Reason Some Leftovers Taste So Good

Everyone has their preferences, but there is actually a science to which foods taste better with time. Asking around, I hear a lot of the same opinions. Soups usually taste great on day two, red sauce only gets better with time, and chilis and stews are favorite foods to pack up to be reheated at work the next day.

“Soups and chilis work the best the second day,” says Dustin Green, senior executive chef from the Weber Grill Restaurant in Chicago. “The flavors tend to blend. Once they relax and they have time to cool down, the flavors tend to mesh a little bit better.”
And when it comes to soups, chilis, and similar foods, it isn’t just the flavors that change—the consistency transforms as well. Taking these foods from hot to cool and then allowing them to sit in the fridge overnight thickens these foods, according to Green.

The science of the flavor changes has a lot to do with the fats that are in foods, which are called lipids, says Devin Peterson, PhD, professor and director of the Flavor Research and Education Center at Ohio State University. The lipid molecules in the food are always changing. Typically, time gives foods a less desirable flavor, but in some cases, the effect is much different.
[pullquote align=”center”]… the lipids continue to break down the molecules we perceive, and that’s part of the new flavor we experience the next day.[/pullquote]
“When you heat them, those lipids form things you smell, and that’s a large part of where the flavors are coming from,” he explains. “That reaction is faster when you do it at cooking temperatures, say in a stew, but it still happens at room temperature and even in the fridge.”

The constant changing influences the flavor. In some foods, it isn’t a great result, while it creates a more enjoyable flavor profile in others, according to Peterson. Another factor to consider is that iron causes lipid oxidation in foods. Lipid oxidation is a chemical reaction, and it changes various characteristics of foods. When a food product is high in iron, like turkey, lipid oxidation speeds up and this can influence the flavor, according to Peterson.
“By heating it, you kind of allow things to mix more effectively,” he says. “That’s a big reason why, even when you cook a turkey and you eat out of the oven, when you put it in the fridge and eat it the next day, the lipids continue to break down the molecules we perceive, and that’s part of the new flavor we experience the next day.”

Lastly, there is another chemical reaction that happens in foods, according to Berkeley Wellness. In some cases, the protein in the food breaks down further, releasing amino acids. Some amino acids enhance the savory taste in foods, while others create new flavors through their interactions with sugar in the foods.

The Reason Some Leftovers Taste So Bad

Some leftovers are better thrown in the trash than reheated the next. Asking various friends and family, there are a lot of different opinions, but I also hear a lot of the same answers. Anything with pasta in it is better consumed right away, rice takes a lot of tender, loving care to bring it back to life on day two, and fried chicken is just awful after a night in the fridge.

Negative changes to food take place for a variety of reasons, including the result of the processes mentioned above, which simply have a difference result in different foods.
Additionally, there is the issue of temperature and moisture, according to Thomas Bowman, director of product development at Hampton Creek, who offered fried chicken as an example of food that tastes amazing on day one but awful after sitting in the fridge overnight.
“What has happened here? This is something that happens to all leftovers, but some foods deal with it a little better than others,” he explains. “It’s called equilibrium relative humidity, or ERH, for short. This is where moisture equals out to be more level with the environment around it.”

This is what causes the once-crispy outside of chicken to go soggy overnight, and the juicy meat inside to get tough, according to Bowman. An added component is how fat and collagen change with temperature changes.
“Animal fats in general take on a waxy texture when cold, and collagen congeals into a savory, rubbery jello,” he says.

Why Foods Taste Better—or Worse—Cold

Most foods that are meant to be eaten warm only taste good that way. There’s a reason for this, and it isn’t about personal preference. Temperature and flavor go hand in hand, according to Peterson.

“The temperature of your food will affect how much flavor reaches your receptors,” he explains. “When it’s colder, you could look at it as the molecules being less active and going to be less received in your mouth.”
When you heat that same food up, the flavor changes. Specifically, when you heat food up, more of the flavor ends up in the air around the food, and when you eat it, you receive the flavor to a higher degree. In some cases, like eating cold pizza, this is an enjoyable change, but the majority of leftovers will taste better after a couple minutes in the microwave.

Getting the Most From Your Leftovers

In our family, there are differing opinions on when leftovers should be eaten. My husband, who generally isn’t that into to reheated foods, prefers to toss leftovers after a day or two. If it’s food that keeps well, I tend to keep reheating and eating until they’re a week old. As it turns out, the time to throw out leftovers tends to fall somewhere between the two. Green suggests no more than four days. Bowman, however, is willing to give certain foods until day seven but says it really is dependent on the food.

“The length of time you keep your leftovers around also depends a lot on equilibrium relative humidity,” he says, admitting that calculating the spoilage rates of specific foods is a lot of work, suggesting that home chefs simply pay close attention to how their food changes over time. And all foods should be pitched once they hit day seven.
“It’s not a perfect science. There are some things that will last longer than and other shorter depending on moisture, preservative acids, and the temperature inside the fridge. Use your best judgement and repurpose those leftovers!”

How you store leftovers matters, too. Specifically, the quicker you can cool down your food, the better. Foods need to spend as little time between 125 and 70 degrees, which is a window where growth of microorganisms happens most quickly, according to the Food Safety Extension of The University of Minnesota. Within four hours, hot food needs to drop below 41 degrees, and Green offers a tip for making that happen.

“If I was doing it at home, the best way is an ice wand, so I could put that into the batch of what I’m making and put that in the refrigerator,” he says. “Depending on how thick something is, if I need to cool it down, I may need to separate it into smaller batches.”

It’s not all about science.

It’s fascinating to learn that there is a scientific explanation for why some foods taste so good on day two or three, but it isn’t all about science. It may seem obvious, but preference still plays a huge role in taste. It’s the reason I can’t help but indulge in off-brand iced oatmeal cookies, which are objectively not that great but remind me of the endless childhood afternoons I spent snacking at the kitchen table with my three siblings. When it comes to what type of food people prefer and how they prefer it cooked, it is heavily influenced by their past experiences.

“I think in the end, preference is largely related to a context,” says Peterson. “So if I’ve grown up a certain way and I’m used to preparing my foods a certain way, that’s usually a part of my preference views. And so a lot of what we like is based on our prior exposure.”

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Nosh Nutrition x Advice

"Dead Meat Bacteria" And Why Certain Processed Foods Might Fuel Inflammation

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date January 30, 2018

When your work is featured in a major documentary, you’d figure you’d at least get a phone call.

Dr. Clett Erridge was somewhat surprised to learn that his research was featured in What The Health, Netflix’s ultra-popular documentary on the dangers of eating meat. We know Erridge was surprised because, well, we were the ones who told him—nobody from the film had ever reached out.
In 2011, Erridge, an honorary research fellow in cardiovascular diseases at the University of Leicester, authored a scientific paper called “The capacity of foodstuffs to induce innate immune activation of human monocytes in vitro is dependent on food content of stimulants of Toll-like receptors 2 and 4.” Not the snappiest title, but he wasn’t writing for Esquire, either.

Published in the British Journal of Nutrition, the paper made the case that certain microbes present in certain foods—primarily meats and processed foods—could stimulate the human immune system, causing inflammation that could eventually increase a person’s chances of atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries) and other diseases. It was impressive research, but it didn’t exactly capture the public’s attention.
It did, however, grab the eye of Michael Greger, MD, an adamantly vegan doctor who runs the website NutritionFacts.org. Greger posted a video drawing, in part, on Erridge’s research. The video was titled “Dead Meat Bacteria Endotoxemia.” Greger contacted Erridge to tell him about the video, but only after he’d produced it and posted it online. Erridge wasn’t too concerned; he was happy that someone was talking about the research.

Greger’s website is apparently where those at What The Health found out about Erridge’s work. They posted Greger’s video, and Erridge’s article, on their website’s fact-check page, giving a much more dramatic introduction:
Within minutes of eating dead meat bacteria toxins, the body gets a burst of inflammation, stiffening or paralyzing the arteries.
(For this story, we also reached out to A.U.M. Films & Media, the distributor for What The Health, to put us in touch with the filmmakers. While A.U.M. initially agreed to provide a statement, they changed their minds once we’d forwarded a few questions, noting that it “seems quite difficult for us to be able to participate in [the] piece at this time.”)

But while What The Health made some exaggerated claims, the documentary might also have glossed over some extraordinarily important research. Erridge’s study is complex, but if replicated, it could help scientists limit cases of diabetes, atherosclerosis, and even obesity—without changing the way we eat.

The documentary’s “dead meat bacteria” descriptor isn’t quite accurate.

While “dead meat bacteria” might be an excellent band name, it’s not much of a scientific descriptor. The toxins in question aren’t just on meat—and their “paralyzing” effect on arteries is significantly overstated, too.
“There are some elements of truth in [What The Health’s claim] from a scientific perspective,” Erridge notes. “They’re right that bacteria produce these molecules, which our bodies see as foreign, and that when they’re ingested in a particular way, we can absorb them and trigger inflammation. But it’s very, very mild inflammation, and it doesn’t immediately paralyze your arteries.”
In other words, at normal levels, those toxins won’t end a person’s life immediately (though Erridge did note that they might have that effect “if you injected somebody with huge quantities,” which he wouldn’t recommend).

Exaggerated claims by filmmakers aside, Erridge’s research is still new and somewhat controversial among scientists. The prevailing opinion in the field has been that saturated fats or low-density lipoprotein cholesterols are what cause that “paralyzing” inflammation. For a time, Erridge believed those hypotheses, but his research led him to what What The Health would term “dead meat bacteria”—he calls them bugs.
They aren’t literal bugs, but rather several strains of bacteria present on the surface of many foods. Those bacteria create pathogen-associated molecular patterns, or PAMPs, which may be the culprit behind the dangerous inflammation.

That discovery basically occurred by accident.

Erridge was considering whether the microbes already in our guts create the inflammation when he received what he thought was an incredibly stupid question.
“As I was doing that work and developing new tools to look at the gut microbiota, a reviewer of one of my papers asked me, ‘How do you know these microbes weren’t coming from the food?’ And I thought at the time, ‘that was one of the stupidest questions ever.’”

“But I thought, ‘I have to address this at some point, so I’ll just do a couple of experiments to show that it’s complete rubbish, and then I can move on.'”
As he quickly learned, there are no stupid questions in science.
“I did these experiments, which I thought were going to be complete duds. And it turns out that a lot of processed foods are full of just massive quantities of these molecules, which I did not expect at all.”

Erridge thinks that those molecules might trigger an immune response in humans, and after he performed a few experiments, he published the unsnappilly-titled 2011 paper, which he now describes as “speculative.”

Here’s why this research has the potential to change the world.

We’re simplifying here, but Erridge essentially made the case that certain microbes on the surface of our foods release the PAMPs. The PAMPS then cause inflammation—our bodies see the molecules, which look like germs, and respond accordingly. In heavily processed foods, those microbes often grow into larger colonies, and in turn, PAMP levels rise.
[pullquote align=”center”]We designed a diet that was very low in these PAMPs … [and] to our surprise, a whole bunch of markers went down …[/pullquote]
With finely cut foods, PAMP levels rise rapidly by the day, even when the foods are refrigerated. Ground beef and sausage seem to be particularly susceptible to this effect, and common cooking methods don’t rid the meats of the PAMP molecules.

However, the effect isn’t restricted to meat. The “bugs” seem to love chopped onions, in particular, so foods like jarred pasta sauces might create more of a dietary threat. Sadly, chocolate is another high-PAMP food, since chocolate processing requires fermenting the cocoa beans for several weeks.
Fresh foods seem to have very low PAMP levels, but finely chopped foods have much higher levels of the molecules. Unprocessed meats—steaks, for instance—don’t seem to pose as much of a problem, since the bacteria doesn’t permeate the meat (though Erridge notes that steaks can be unhealthy for other reasons). Also, no two meats will have the exact same bacterial species, so as Erridge says, “it’s possible to find a perfectly good sausage.”

Erridge’s work didn’t stop in 2011. He later designed a new experiment to test the hypothesis in vivo (in actual living organisms), comparing the health markers of 11 human volunteers before and after they participated in a special diet.
“We designed a diet that was very low in these PAMPs, and we tested the food to make sure that it was low in PAMPs,” Erridge says. “And to our surprise, a whole bunch of markers went down [for] cardiovascular risk and risk of insulin resistance. We saw the leukocyte count go down, not so far that it would cause infection or anything, but certainly bring some [people down to] the low-risk category for a bunch of diseases.”

That’s not all: The low-PAMP diet seemed to help people lose weight.

Erridge’s team wasn’t expecting that. They hadn’t set out to create a weight loss diet.
“This was surprising, because we’d been asking the people to eat just as much food as they wanted to the whole way through [the study], and they weren’t complaining of being hungry,” Erridge says. “They’re eating just as much as they wanted, but they still lost weight.”

If Erridge’s research is correct, it could explain why diets like the Mediterranean diet seem so heart-healthy: They forbid processed foods, so they’re naturally lower in PAMPs.
But Erridge also noted that dietary studies are notoriously difficult, since researchers have trouble accounting for all the factors that inevitably affect the results. He was careful to note that, while he’s confident in his research, he welcomes criticism of his methods.
If he’s right, his work could change the way we eat. By ridding foods of PAMPs, we might be able to eliminate the moderate inflammation we get from eating certain foods. That could lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity worldwide, and it wouldn’t require any large-scale dietary changes.

We’ve got a ways to go before that’s a reality, but it’s exciting work.

Erridge’s research needs to be replicated, and he’s currently working on additional research that might provide more insight. Nothing is concrete yet, so stating the “dead meat bacteria toxins” cause a “burst” of “paralyzing” inflammation is pretty dramatic. Scientists prefer to use more measured terms when describing their work, since hypotheses are subject to continual reevaluation and change.

That’s really one of the key takeaways here: These studies might save millions of lives, but they also might fizzle out with the next round of research. While Erridge is a respected authority in his field, he doesn’t pretend to have all of the answers, and he seemed genuinely delighted at the idea that he might be proven wrong.
That’s really how innovations like these start: You’ve got to be willing to ask stupid questions, and you’ve got to be willing to change course when you don’t get the results you’re expecting.

Oh, and you might discover that chocolate is secretly evil. That revelation didn’t go over so well with Erridge’s team—or with the doctor himself.
“I do still eat chocolate,” Erridge admits. “[My diet] probably hasn’t changed as much as it should.”

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Favorite Finds Nosh

13 Things The Grocery Store Cashier Wants You To Know

Post author By Brooke Geller
Post date January 30, 2018

Being a cashier at a grocery store may be considered a fairly mundane job, but it’s surprisingly stressful—and not just during rush hour. In fact, customers’ behavior can make a lot of difference when it comes to getting through that shift.
If you’ve never worked as a cashier, you might be surprised to learn that some of your shopping habits aren’t ideal, or perhaps parts of your weekly grocery run routine are making things more difficult for yourself than they need to be.
These insider tips can not only make a cashier’s day better, but they can help make your entire shopping experience much smoother.

1. Practice common checkout courtesy.

First of all, a counter is not the same as a conveyor belt. See how that flat surface isn’t moving, or attached to any kind of machinery? It’s basically just a table. No, those groceries aren’t going to magically move themselves toward the register without the power of technology. Yes, please physically bring them to the cashier.
Now it’s time to unload your basket. That’s right: you, not the cashier. It’s an awkward height, and lifting 15 pound hams out of baskets with one arm all day isn’t great for your spine.

There is, however, one exception: If you have many of the same item in your cart, you only need to put one of them on the conveyor belt to be scanned. There’s really no need to unload 32 individual packets of frozen corn.
Make sure you use the divider, too. That’s how the cashier can distinguish your groceries from the person in front or behind you. Do you want to be paying for that random customer’s olive oil? Didn’t think so.
Brandon has worked in a Canadian grocery store for nine years in many different roles, including as a cashier. He warns against putting anything that’s not groceries on the conveyor belt, including money, coupons, and cards.

“This can be a big no because some tills might have enough clearance between the conveyor belt and till that allows these things to fall in between,” he says. “And even though most tills will have a trap to catch anything that might slip through, there is no guarantee the trap catches it.”

2. The cashier isn’t trying to steal your card details.

You know those little electronic point of sale machines that you use to pay with your card? They don’t all work the same. While some of them simply need the customer to swipe their card and enter their pin, others require the cashier to take your card, swipe it, enter the total, and then hand the machine back to you for your pin.

Some people tend to panic when it comes to handing someone else their card. Rest assured that the cashier doesn’t have the desire, time, or capability to memorize every single one of your card details for their own gain. They’re much too busy trying to get you and in and out so they can serve the next customer.

3. Understand how to read labels.

You can save a lot of money if you look at the price per weight of each item to see which one is really cheaper. On the other hand, there’s no point overreacting to a $50 per pound price label on that imported cheese when you’re actually just buying a couple of ounces.
Paige has worked as a cashier for three years, two of which have been in a grocery store. She knows all too well the importance of reading those labels.

“There is such a thing as an item limit, a brand, a weight limit, all that—the sign will tell you, so will the grocery store ad,” she says. “Very few people actually read the weights and just grab whatever the sign is near. Often, that means [everything from] grabbing the wrong size to getting the incorrect brand. Just because a sign says ‘Brand A shredded mozzarella eight ounces’ doesn’t mean you can get ‘Brand A 16 ounces mozzarella,’ ‘Brand B eight ounces,’ or ‘Brand A block mozzarella.'”

4. Do you really need that bag?

There’s nothing worse than the feeling of second-hand environmental guilt that washes over you when a customer asks you to double-bag or even individually bag every single item. You don’t need a plastic bag for that one apple. In fact, you probably don’t need a plastic bag at all. Why not bring your own reusable bag from home?

“If you have reusable bags, make sure you hand them to the cashier at the beginning of the transaction,” Brandon says. “Otherwise, we may have already begun to bag your groceries in plastic bags, which are wasteful and bad for the environment.”
And in case you do need to accept a plastic bag, trust the cashier with how many you need. No one knows better than them that a single plastic bag isn’t going to hold the weight of all those cans.

5. Cashiers are human beings.

This shouldn’t be something that people need to be reminded about, but sadly, some customers do take their frustration out on the people behind the counter.
“Your cashier could be a mother, a father, a university student, or a high school student getting their first job,” says Paige. “We don’t really have much say in how the products are priced or what policies the store follows, so getting mad at us won’t do you any good.”
[pullquote align=”center”]If we bag something incorrectly, please be polite and ask if we can change something.[/pullquote]
Jordan, who’s worked in grocery stores since 2013, has seen some unfortunate breakdowns from coworkers.
“I’ve seen too many of my friends and coworkers cry over some nasty person who yelled at them over something minuscule as a coupon,” he says. “The job is way harder than it looks.”
He says the key is simply being polite.
“If we bag something incorrectly, please be polite and ask if we can change something,” he says. “I’ve been way more accommodating to customers who say, ‘Could you please put the bananas in a separate bag?’ than I have to others who say, ‘I don’t want bananas with my bread! You’re gonna bruise them!’ and angrily snatch the bag from my hands.”

6. They actually do want to hear about your day.

Small talk isn’t always fake! Long shifts can get boring, and it’s nice to interact with people when you’ve been staring at a register for hours on end.

Me: Hi. How are you today?

Customer walks by in silence.
Me: Good talk. #retailproblems
— Dear Customer (@SWilliamBrown33) March 19, 2015

In fact, Paige says that if you go the extra mile, you might even strike up a beneficial friendship.
“Want to make days better for cashiers? Become a regular,” she says. “Let them learn your name, and learn theirs. As we get to know them, they get to know us. And when we know someone, we’re far more willing to do something for a regular we’d never do for a John or Jane Doe.”
“Short a dollar or two? Sure, I’ll cover you, you’re in here a lot, so I know you’ll pay me back. Need a sale ad four days before it’s out ’cause you’re going out of town? If we have them, sure. Just be warned: Once you’re a well known regular, we’re allowed to tease you!”

7. You’re not the only one in line.

You might be in a rush, but so are other people. You don’t deserve priority service over other customers. Don’t push in line.

8. If you change your mind about an item while in line, just hand it to the cashier.

“For some reason, people get apologetic or embarrassed about this,” says Brandon. “They should not be, especially when the alternative is putting the item in question in a random part of the store.”
You’d be surprised where these items turn up.
“I can’t tell you how many times I have found spoiled meat and milk on the shelf because someone was too lazy to walk three steps and put the item back in its cooler,” says Paige. “Not only is it gross, it’s outright unsanitary.

“It’s exactly why we had an infestation of fruit flies. Someone hid a package of meat that had a hole in it instead of giving it to someone, and it festered. We couldn’t find where it was, either, till someone followed the flies—it was actually on top of the freezers!”
If you can’t manage that social interaction, then at the very least, return frozen items to the freezer and cold items to the refrigerated section.

#DearCustomer: If you see an item you want, DO NOT hide it behind another item elsewhere in the store or face it backwards in the hopes that someone will overlook it. Buy it then, or ask to put it on hold.

— RetailMusings (@MusingsInRetail) November 28, 2017

“If you don’t know, just ask,” says Jordan. “If you don’t want to buy that pint of ice cream, don’t put it in the vending machine fridge. We both know it doesn’t belong there. Don’t know where to put your basket? Ask, and we’ll take it away for you. We’re not only here for our paychecks. We’re here to help!”

9. Hand coupons to the cashier at the right time.

“Some items might have coupons stuck to them or wrapped around them,” says Brandon. “If you notice these, take them off and hand them directly to the cashier when you are cashing out, either at the end of the transaction or when they are ringing the item in question through.”

10. Double-check your receipt and change.

“Always give a quick glance at your receipt after the transaction,” says Brandon. “Again, cashiers may go into auto-pilot and not realize they double-scanned a product and overcharged you. We are human, and we make mistakes. Luckily, these can be fixed by customer service most of the time.”

11. The back of the store is not a magic portal.

Thought the “backroom” was a place full of infinite possibilities and that item you can’t find in stock? Sorry, but that’s not even close to reality.

“It’s gray, boring, industrial, and usually cramped,” says Paige. “There’s pallets of goods, boxes of this, crates of that. But that doesn’t mean that the back is a magical place where there’s always another one of the item you want.”

12. If you’re wowed by a certain cashier’s great service, make sure to let their manager know.

“If you like someone, tell their manager how great they are,” says Jordan. “My company tends to give out coupons to associates who are recognized by customers.”

Not to mention it will put them in good standing with their employer and possibly help them get that raise or promotion!

13. A shopping cart is not a trash can, and neither are you.

Empty water bottles, half-eaten sandwiches, and any other form of trash has no place in a shopping cart. If you have rubbish, hold onto it until you can find a bin. Chances are the cashier has one under the counter.

On that note, take care of yourself before coming into the store. It’s not exactly courteous to interact with people when you haven’t changed your clothes or brushed your teeth in a fortnight.
“Take a hecking shower!” says Paige. “I just got one guy today I could smell from 10 feet away.”
No one wants to be the person who pushes in line or leaves frozen peas in the candy bar aisle. But you definitely don’t want to be the customer known for their odor.

Tags 50037446, Commerce, fuel, hemingway, social

Nosh

Psychology, Made To Order: How Restaurants Trick Customers

Post author By Michael Taylor
Post date January 29, 2018

Eating out is an essential part of the American dining experience. There seems to be an eating establishment suited for every situation. If we’re in a rush, we make a dash to the local fast food joint. If we’re celebrating a special occasion, we like to dress up and enjoy a night out at a swanky, upscale restaurant.
But did you ever stop to think about why we’re drawn to eat at certain restaurants? And why we choose the food items that we do? Is it really what we naturally crave, or are there behind-the-scenes machinations influencing our decisions?
The truth is, there’s a deliberate strategy in nearly every aesthetic decision that comes with designing a successful restaurant. From the color schemes to the music to the menu, there are elements designed to elicit a psychological response from the customer.

So if you’ve ever wondered what tricks restaurateurs employ to earn your business, you’re about to find out. The answers may surprise you.

Musical Meal-odies

Lest you think the music you hear in your favorite eatery is a random choice, or just something that the staff wants to hear, think again. The choice of music in restaurant is picked meticulously to achieve the desired effect—to make you spend more money.
According to a study by the University of Leicester, playing classical music in an restaurant encourages customers to pay more because it makes them feel more sophisticated and affluent.

The tempo of the music you hear is also a factor in how you dine. There’s a reason slower, more relaxed music, like classical or jazz, plays so prominently in higher-priced eating establishments: The slower the music, the more inclined you are to relax and take your time finishing your meal. This means you’re also likely to spend more on food and drinks.
https://twitter.com/AlexPelayre/status/956710686293245952
Fast food joints have a different approach—the music is always upbeat and faster paced. This inspires the customer to order faster and eat quicker to encourage them to hurry up and leave to make room for the next person in line. Rosalin Anderson, chief branding officer for Just Salad, says picking the right music for your establishment is essential, and in their case, required some tweaking.
“When we started the business over 10 years ago, our ordering process was a little more hectic during the lunch rush and to offset this, we incorporated reggae music in all our stores, as it helped the customers to relax and stay in a more generous mood.”

Color Scheming

From the color of the logo to the wallpaper on the bathroom walls, a color scheme is another effective psychological method restaurants use to influence their customers.
The Cornell University study “Turning the Tables: The Psychology of Design for High Volume Restaurants” bears this out, noting that the color chosen for dining establishments “not only affects people’s perceptions and attitudes but can actually elicit a biological response.”
Yellow is an irritating color that can make people feel uncomfortable. Red, on the other hand, is a positive color and has been proven to stimulate our metabolism (and our appetite).

Now think about how many fast food places use red and yellow together: McDonald’s, Burger King, In-N-Out Burger, Pizza Hut, and Wendy’s are just a few prominent examples. Red makes customers hungry while yellow encourages them to leave quickly—that’s an effective strategy.

Upscale restaurants use a different tactic, which is why they utilize blues and greens so often. Both are relaxing to the eye, which works in the same capacity as slower music—it keeps you there longer, and you spend more money.

A Light Meal and Sound Nutrition

Another integral aspect of the dining experience is choice of lighting, which makes sense: You want to be able to see your food (and you want it to look appealing). But you also want to look attractive while you’re eating as well.
In an interview with The Independent, Tom Strother, co-founder and creative director of interior design firm Fabled Studio, said, “From a psychological point of view, one of the key aspects to a restaurant’s design is the lighting. It has to be soft and flattering to make guests feel comfortable so that they are confident and relaxed.”

Fast food doesn’t operate the same way, as we’ve already covered, and by using cheap overhead fluorescent lighting (which is always unflattering), it encourages people to leave. But this also comes at a steep price—our health.
According to a 2012 study by Cornell University, harsh lighting can actually encourage us to overeat, and by modifying a fast food restaurant to adopt softer lighting (and using relaxing music), test subjects consumed 175 less calories than they did eating in harsher lighting. So while fluorescent lighting is de rigueur for the industry now, this could change in the future.

Acoustics are also important. It’s not just what type of music you hear while you eat, but volume and sound distribution matter as well.
“One of our store locations has light pendants that are made out of thin rubber. This helps to catch loud sounds and diffuse it,” Anderson says. “This is a design element that the average guest might not know about regarding restaurant acoustics. It creates a more relaxed environment when it’s quieter in the store.”

Bad acoustics can make a restaurant go from a 9 to a 3 real quick. Can't hear myself think

— Debbie Talia Misan (@DebbieMisan) August 12, 2017

Paula Stanbridge-Faircloth, marketing manager for The Contract Chair, says that acoustics also play a part in the chairs they design for eateries: “Most restaurant chairs that we sell are a combination of wood and upholstery. … Fully upholstered chairs will tend to muffle echoes, particularly important if your restaurant has wooden floors and if you’re going for a cozier, more intimate environment.”

Menu Venue

Anderson says an effective menu is all about simplicity: “We stick to a graphic design hierarchy to help guests navigate the menu in an easy and quick way. We design the menu so it’s not complicated, and the information that they want to see, such as calories and pricing, is very visible.”
Pictures are also worth a thousand words—menus that show photos of entrees can increase sales by 40 percent. Likewise, food items that are bolded, highlighted, or framed in a box draw attention to the eye and drive up sales.

And the more descriptive the menu, the more effective. A study entitled “Descriptive Menu Labels’ Effect on Sales” showed that menus with more verbose descriptions increased food sales, and customers chose descriptive items 27 percent more than barebones descriptions of food items.
Limited menus are another tactic many restaurants use as it takes the pressure off of guests to choose while also encouraging them to place their order faster.

Price Price Baby

Perhaps the most important aspect of menu design is pricing. The way restaurants list their prices on their menu is designed to have a persuasive effect.

One of the most effective strategies is simply leaving the dollar sign off. A 2009 study on menu design showed that guests spent far more money when prices were listed without dollar signs than those that did (or that spelled out the pricing versus numerically displaying them).
Even the smallest of tweaks in pricing yield good dividends. Menu items that price their items ending in 0.95 versus 0.99 are more pleasing to the eye and give the diner the feeling they’re getting a deal (even if they’re only saving four cents).

A Family Meal

Nostalgia is always a draw in marketing. If you can make someone feel emotionally invested in the dining experience, it’s always a win. And any restaurant with a family theme has an edge on the competition. It’s not just the eateries that declare themselves “family friendly,” but those that use a person’s name to enforce the connection.

When customers eat at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Mimi’s Cafe, or even Wendy’s (named after late founder Dave Thomas’s daughter), it invokes a familial draw, making diners feel like part of the family.
We’re betting no matter where you live, there’s an individual mom and pop restaurant not far away, and if it includes “aunt,” “uncle,” “mom,” or any other moniker based on a relative, it probably stays busy.

Check, please.

When it comes to the best restaurant experience, it’s all about seeing the bigger picture. According to Kevin Gregory, creative director at AllDay Industry, a restaurant consulting firm, the best way “to capitalize on the benefits of designing the space to capture that profit margin is to focus on the experience you want to create and bring in the project partners that can help bring your vision to life.”

So the next time you’re enjoying your favorite meal in your favorite restaurant, take a look around. See if you can point to all the ways your experience has been crafted by industry experts. It may add a whole new level of intrigue to eating out.

Discovering you’ve been psychological manipulated by the restaurant industry may make you feel a bit uneasy, but perhaps the end result isn’t so nefarious. It’s all about a symbiotic relationship that fulfills both parties: You enjoy your meal in a pleasant environment, and the places you frequent keep their overhead.

Tags 50037781, fuel, hemingway, social

Favorite Finds Nosh

Bread Ties Are Color Coded (And More Grocery Store Secrets)

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date January 29, 2018

You might not realize it, but you probably spend quite a bit of time shopping for food.
In the United States, consumers make an average of 1.5 trips to the grocery store every week. For most of those people, it’s a pretty simple process: Grab your cart, walk down the aisles, check out, and ride your grocery cart back to your car while quietly saying “Whee!” under your breath. What could be easier?
However, there’s actually quite a bit going on behind the scenes. We spoke with a former grocery store worker and researched some of the closely guarded (and not so closely guarded) secrets of the supermarket.
For instance, we had no idea that…

1. Bread ties are color coded.

Those little twist ties (or tabs, depending on the brand) tell grocery store restockers when a particular loaf was made.
Here’s the code that’s been floating around the internet for the past few years:

Monday = Blue
Tuesday = Green
Thursday = Red
Friday = White
Saturday = Yellow

How is anyone supposed to remember that? Well, astute readers will notice that the colors go in alphabetical order. Keep that in mind, and you’ll never get an old loaf of bread again.

Then again, you probably don’t have to worry in the first place. As Snopes reports, grocery stores cycle out old loaves every day, so you don’t really need to memorize any color codes unless you’re looking to get the absolute freshest breads possible. Even if you do take the time to commit that list to memory, you might be disappointed, as there’s no industry-wide standard—some bread manufacturers use completely different methods to note freshness. The best way to find the real code is to ask the brands themselves.

2. Customers make all sorts of annoying mistakes when checking out.

First of all, the good news: Nobody’s judging your purchases. Well, not really.
“We’d see some older customers trying to hide embarrassing items—fungal treatments, things like that—under other items,” says one former supermarket worker, who worked primarily as a bagger and stocker for four years (he asked to remain anonymous to avoid disparaging his former employer).

“We don’t care what you’re buying. Everyone buys embarrassing stuff,” he says. “However, we do care when you’re holding up the line.”
In many stores, managers time transactions, and cashiers with long transaction times might face unpleasant repercussions. You can help by doing some quick organization and by having your money ready when the cashier asks for it.

People are still writing checks at the grocery store in the year 2018. My God, madam. There’s a 9-cart line behind you. The emotional carnage is enormous:

— Ryan Burns (@FtblSickness) January 29, 2018

“Towards the end of my time as a bagger, I started to hate [bank] checks,” says our source. “We’re trained to move on to the next customer as quickly as possible. What’s frustrating is that some customers want to take their time. In a perfect world, that’d be completely acceptable, but management software has sort of changed that.”

Try to keep similar items together to help the cashier and bagger move as quickly as possible. If you have coupons, let them know right away.
Oh, and make sure that your fruits and vegetables have visible code stickers, because…

3. Those produce codes aren’t random, and they sometimes contain some useful info.

They’re called Produce Lookup Codes, and they’re the bane of every grocery store worker’s existence. The little stickers come off easily, and cashiers need them in order to accurately price your fruits and vegetables.

“I learned codes for gala apples, russet potatoes, and a few other items, but that was it,” our source says. “There’s too many of them, and our selection changed constantly. It was annoying when customers got impatient when we had to look up the codes, like they expected us to have them all memorized.”
“I wanted to say, ‘Lady, there’s hundreds of these things. Don’t get mad at me because you didn’t pick out a starfruit with a sticker on it.'”
PLU codes are typically four or five digits long, and generally speaking, a five-digit code starting with the number nine means that the product was organically farmed. PLU codes in the range of 3000-4999 are reserved for “conventionally grown” produce.

With that said, the codes change regularly, so don’t depend on that little sticker if you’re looking to buy organic. Instead, research the farm or ask someone in your grocer’s produce department.

4. On a related note, be sure to bag your meats.

Most grocery stores provide disposable bags near their meat, poultry, and seafood sections, but if your store doesn’t offer them, consider bringing your own bags from home. Meat juices can seep out of the packaging and into your shopping cart, contaminating items and causing a mess.

Even if you’ve never noticed liquids seeping out of those packages, your local grocery store’s staff certainly has.
“We had to constantly wipe down the conveyor belt because [customers’] steaks would leave fluid all over them,” our source says. “I’m as eco-friendly as the next guy, but use those little bags. We’ll appreciate the effort.”

If you decide not to buy a meat product, give it to the cashier. They’ll happily put it back for you. However, some customers aren’t so considerate. If you find something perishable in the middle of the store, don’t try to put it back.
“You might think you’re doing a good deed,” our source explains, “but unless you know exactly how long that item has been sitting there, let us handle it. It’s a food safety issue.”

5. Know the store’s busiest hours.

Nobody loves waiting for half an hour to pay for a peach. Grocery store workers hate overloaded checkout lines, too, but they can’t really do anything when customers start pouring in.

grocery shopping late at night > grocery shopping during the day

— laurieee (@___laurieee) January 14, 2018

“One of my biggest pet peeves was when a customer would tell us to ‘just open another checkout line,'” our source says. “Believe me, we would if we could. At peak times, we’re going to be busy, and we can’t simply call in more people every time there’s a rush.”
There is, of course, something that you can do: Shop during non-peak hours. While traffic varies by location, most stores see big jumps in traffic on weekends. Sundays can be especially brutal.
“Holidays and big sporting events were the worst,” our source says. “Don’t go shopping on Superbowl Sunday, especially if your town’s team is in the big game. If you are shopping at a busy store, please try to be patient, and certainly don’t take out your frustrations on the workers.”

To avoid the crowd, try shopping early (before 8:00 a.m.) or late (after 8:00 p.m.) on a weekday. If you’re particularly averse to crowds, you can also ask the staff to tell you the best times of the week for a quick, painless shopping trip.

6. Likewise, if you love seafood, make friends with the people in the department.

Every store’s policy is different, but most stores receive deliveries on a particular day of the week. Ask someone who works in the seafood department when those deliveries come in, and you’ll know when to arrive to get the freshest possible fish.

By the way, “fresh” is a relative term. Food often arrives frozen, and some farmed or frozen fish might not be explicitly labeled as such. If you’re familiar with the workers in the seafood department, you can find better deals on better-tasting products. Some stores will even season and fry your fish for you, which can be awesome if you’re in a rush.
We’d recommend sticking with local fish species, if possible; according to organizations like the One Fish Foundation, that’s the best way to make a tasty, eco-friendly purchase.

7. The store is set up to make you buy more than you need.

As we mentioned earlier, the grocery industry is big business. It’s also insanely competitive, and stores need to sell as many products as possible to stay profitable.

The most eye-opening thing I learned was that I’d been wasting so much money by not planning my trips more effectively.

To that end, they engage in some clever tricks to get their customers fill up their carts. Stores might keep their shoppers in a good mood by putting bakeries and florists near their entrances (the memorable smells make for a better shopping experience). If that fails, they’ll simply pipe in the scents with a professional aroma machine. They play specially curated playlists to keep shoppers happy, and every inch of your local store’s layout is carefully planned to keep you buying.
Don’t be surprised if you end up at the checkout counter with more than you need—and don’t be surprised when most of that food ends up in your trash can. According to a study from the National Resource Defense Council, the average American wastes about 33 pounds of food per month.

Store workers notice when shoppers have poor spending habits, but of course, they can’t tell their customers to put back the extra bag of chips.
“The most eye-opening thing I learned was that I’d been wasting so much money by not planning my trips more effectively,” our source says. “These days, I’m more careful. I don’t really clip coupons or anything, but I make sure to eat a good meal before I go to the store. I make a list and watch for specials, and I avoid impulse purchases.”
“It’s easy to waste money, but it’s also pretty easy to stay within your budget.”

Tags 50038241, fuel, hemingway, social

Nosh

4 Skinny Cocktails For New Year's

Post author By Brooke Lark
Post date December 27, 2017

The countdown to the New Year is here! Call up the friends, gather together with your favorite people, and prepare to pop the bubbly. Or better yet, prepare to start the New Year off right with these four low-cal cocktails, which incorporate less sugar and more natural ingredients than the classics.
From simple twists on mimosas to a beautiful star-kissed vodka sparkler, you can cut calories and still enjoy sipping pretty drinks with these four fun ideas. We’ve added a little bit of luck to some, a lot of kombucha to another, and a list of everything you need to know to be your own bartender this year.
And if your New Year’s goals include no drinking, cheers to you! We’ve included a quick list of easy swaps you can make to any of these drinks, turning them from cocktails to mocktails in less than a minute.

Raise your champagne flutes! Shine those rocks glasses! These easy drinks are the perfect the New Year’s party accessory. Added bonus: They’re low-cal enough that you can enjoy them throughout January should cutting calories be one of your goals. Calorie counting aside, the thing we love best about these sippers is how splendidly tasty they are. If you already like New York Sours, you’re going to love our New Year’s Sour. And the Pom Mimosa may just become your new favorite way to sip fruit juice.

NEW YEAR’S KOMBUCHA SOUR

138 calories

If you’ve ever had a New York Sour, this cocktail will taste familiar. A classic NY Sour starts with a whiskey and sweet and sour base, then it’s spiked with a red wine float up top, creating a beautiful two-toned drink that is surprisingly sippable.
Here, we’re nixed the sugary, hi-cal sweet and sour mix and swapped it for lemon kombucha. This alone cuts the calories nearly in half (just 60 calories for eight ounces of kombucha vs. 114 calories for an equal amount of sweet and sour). Instead of whiskey, we opted for a naturally sweet bourbon to offset the sour. Then we topped it off with half an ounce of wine. Though any red wine will do, a red blend is our go-to pick. It lends a natural sweetness, which pairs nicely with the sour kombucha.

Though the drink is typically served over ice and without garnish, we opted to use all chilled ingredients and a festive sprig of rosemary to finish off the glass. However, it looks just as lovely over the rocks.
The flavors here are sophisticated and satisfying: a little sour, a little caramel, and the mellow kiss of wine.

New Year’s Kombucha Sour

Makes one serving

½ cup lemon kombucha, chilled
1½ oz bourbon, chilled
½ oz red blend wine
Rosemary or thyme garnish (optional)

In a rocks glass, combine kombucha and bourbon (add ice, if desired).
Gently pour wine over the back of a spoon so the wine floats atop the drink. If desired, garnish with rosemary or fresh thyme.

POM MIMOSA

116 calories

Orange juice and champagne: What could be better than a simple mimosa? Well…we’re about to one-up the classic with this ruby pomegranate mimosa made with almond champagne.
If you’ve never tried almond champagne, you’re not alone! It can be hidden among the bottles of regular champagne, but it is well worth hunting out. Slightly sweet with a touch of amaretto flavor, this drink is a great way to elevate the flavor of your mimosa without needing lots of special liqueurs.

In this version, we’ve paired almond champagne with pure pomegranate juice. Available in the refrigerated juice section of most grocery stores, this lightly sweet juice makes for a beautiful drink, with a mellow fruit flavor that pairs nicely with champagne. A little goes a long way here.
You’ll need just three tablespoons of juice for one drink. It it usually purchased in 12 or 16 ounce containers, so you can make five or six cocktails with every bottle of pom juice.

Perhaps pomegranate juice isn’t your favorite? No worries! Just about any fruit juice will do here. Look for fresh-pressed or cold-pressed juice for the best flavor. A fruit-and-vegetable juice blend also makes a surprisingly delicious mimosa twist. If you can find an apple-beet-carrot combo or pineapple-pepper-lemon juice, swap it in! You might be surprised at just how versatile mimosas can be.

Pom Mimosa

Makes one serving

3 Tbsp. pomegranate juice, chilled
½ cup almond champagne, chilled
Sugared rosemary for garnish (optional)

Pour pomegranate juice and champagne into a champagne flute. If desired, garnish with sugared rosemary.

PINK CHAMPAGNE FLOAT

151 calories
If you’re a fan of “church punch,” this one’s for you. Pretty, pink, and bubbly, this simple champagne cocktail starts with a scoop of sorbet, then adds a pour of pink champagne over the top, creating a fizzy cocktail that is mildly sweet and perfectly celebratory.
Perhaps one of the best things about this cocktail is all of the variations to which it lends itself. Use pink champagne, regular champagne, or an almond champagne. Pair with any variety of sorbet or gelato, depending on the desired color. Match your cocktails to your party colors by switching up the sorbet. We used a light pink strawberry sorbet to match the blush pink of rosé. Raspberry sorbet will give your cocktail a bright punch of color. Vanilla blueberry gelato gives the slightest tint of lavender—it also pairs beautifully with almond champagne.

Create a table full of rainbow cocktails by letting guests choose between lime, orange or mango, lemon and raspberry sorbets.

Pink Champagne Float

Makes one serving

3 Tbsp. strawberry or raspberry sorbet
½ cup pink champagne
Colored sparkling sugar (optional)

Place a 3 Tbsp. scoop of sorbet in a coupe champagne glass. Pour champagne in glass. If desired, rim glass with colored sparkling sugar before filling.

LUCKY STAR SPARKLER

114 calories (221 with fortune cookie)
Give your guests a lucky start to their New Year with this fun sparkler. Naturally lower-cal vodka soda is spiked with little fruit stars we made by slicing seasonal persimmons and cutting them out with a mini star-shaped cookie cutter. Mangos, starfruit, or dragonfruit would all look equally adorable.
Once the fruit is cut into shapes, this cocktail is fairly straightforward. Fill a glass with ice and fruity stars, then top with vodka and sparkling water. Though any mineral water will do, sparkling water with passion fruit makes a fun flavor pairing here. Lime, lemon, or mandarin sparkling water also tastes great.

For garnish, we love the look of a fortune cookie tucked on the rim of a mojito or champagne glass. You can purchases boxes of individually wrapped fortune cookies in the Asian section of most grocery stores. Or buy them online and get them shipped straight to your front door—just make sure they’re set to arrive before the day of your party!

Lucky Star Sparkler

Makes one serving

½ persimmon or mango
ice
1½ oz vodka
1 cup sparkling water
1 fortune cookie for garnish (optional)

Slice persimmon. With a mini star cookie cutter, cut slices into star shapes. Place in a rocks glass with ice. Add vodka, and top off with sparkling water. Garnish with a fortune cookie if desired.

Make it a mocktail.

As with most cocktail recipes, you can swap out the champagne in any of these recipes for white grape juice, replace the vodka with sparkling water, or omit bourbon and add pure apple juice instead.

Wherever you are this year, whatever you decide to sip, we hope these cocktails help you celebrate while still keeping your healthy goals. Cheers!
Note: all calories were calculated with the SayMmmm app, which can be found here.

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