Some people without a Safeway grocery store may be getting access to its wonderful line of organic products called O Organics. Market Watch informs us that Safeway is “striking partnerships to sell its “O Organics” line in Asia and South America” due to a deal with distributing giant Sysco Corp. The line was introduced in 2006 and is sold exclusively in Safeway stores in the U.S. and western Canada. There are now “300 items, including milk, chicken, food entrée and juice products.”

I think the best news from this article is that people are buying more organic food. In 2007, sales were estimated to reach $300 million in 2007, which is up from $164 million in 2006. Overall, “U.S. organic foods sales rose 20.9% to $16.7 billion in 2006, and could reach $20 billion this year, according to the Organic Trade Association.”

Safeway started its organic line to fight competition from Whole Foods Market. The closest Whole Foods to me is about 40 minutes away, so I am personally happy that Safeway is expanding its organic line, since it means more organic options for me!

After hearing about Paul Martin’s through the local blogger grapevine, imagine my excitement when my husband and I were invited to try it out.  First, there was the organic thing, but almost more importantly, it isn’t a chain.  Roseville is all about big box stores and chain restaurants, so we’re always looking for something different.  If an organic/local restaurant like this can make it here, there’s a good chance they can make it anywhere.  (Although it could be a California thing, I guess.)

The idea behind the restaurant is to “Eat organic. Believe in sustainable. Buy local. Love fresh.”  How can you go wrong?  Well, the menu, chef, or service could stink.  Luckily for us, none of those were true.  Instead, the menu, chef, and service were outstanding.  The amount of food we ate was a little ridiculous, but we only have ourselves to blame.

We started with Bloomsdale Spinach Dip, which consists of ”creamy white cheddar sauce and sundried tomatoes.”  It was served with thin, crispy, crostini sprinkled with cheese and I think I could have eaten a pound of it.  The sundried tomatoes were all on one side, but once I found them, I enjoyed them!  We also started with the Castroville Artichoke, which is mesquite grilled, with lemon-tarragon aioli and pesto.  Castroville is a few hours away, and I always appreciate knowing where produce comes from.  I’d never had a grilled artichoke and have now been inspired to learn how to do it myself, since it had such a unique flavor.

Next up (I told you we ate a ton) was the soup.  Oh, the soup.  I had the Butternut Squash Soup with sage pesto and croutons, while my husband had the Clam Chowder with fresh top necks, Neuske’s bacon, and a touch of thyme.  We were huge fans of both soups, since they tasted exactly what you would want them to taste like - the ingredients listed on the menu.  My husband was especially pleased by the chunks of clams.

You would think we would be full by now, but no.  Not yet.  I went for the “Brick” Chicken with mashed potatoes and fresh herb jus.  The chicken was deboned except for the wing bone and butterflied so that it laid flat when baked and placed under a heavy skillet.  It even had crispy skin and, wait for it, wait for it, thin sliced pieces of crispy garlic.  Mmmmm…  My husband had Sole that was pan-fried, with autumn root vegetable hash, and brown butter.  Since it was on his plate for a total of about 4 minutes, I think he liked it.

After unbuttoning the top buttons of our pants (I kid!), we were persuaded to try the Huckleberry and Red Pear Crisp, which was served with homemade vanilla ice cream.  After eating this dessert, we decided that we are officially fans of the huckleberry (we already knew we were ice cream fans, of course).  It wasn’t too sweet, was even a little tart, and was covered in the perfect crispy topping.  Sigh.  If I’d had room, I would have had two of them.

So, overall I was really impressed that this restaurant was complemented by its organic and local spin rather than being taken over by it.  It was all about simple, clean food that was prepeared with style, with an emphasis on fresh, high quality, local and organic ingredients that were clearly selected with great care.

Rachael’s talk show is also a forum for her conservation.  She has prominently featured City Harvest, a NYC food rescue organization.  All the extra ingredients from the show are donated to City Harvest and Rachael has been featured handing out food for the organization.  The November issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray also features Susan Sarandon in a piece about City Harvest.

Rachael’s magazine will let you test how green you are with this quiz.

[Source]

As if people needed another reason to eat strawberries, the study found that they contain compounds that fight cancer, heart disease and arthritis. If you drop a strawberry in a cocktail or any alcoholic drink, these antioxidant properties increase. The same increase occurred with blackberries.

Dr Phillips also noted that similar effects occur when other fruits and vegetables are prepared in a certain way: “For example, cooking tomatoes or stir frying pepper facilitates availability of the lycopene and beta-carotene they contain.”

Photo from morgueFile.

The ban is part of an initiative “to respond to consumer demand for food that’s been raised in ways that consider the health of the animals and the Earth.” As part of this larger goal, Puck’s restaurants will:

[S]top buying eggs from caged chickens and meat from animals raised in crates — including the veal for his signature Wiener Schnitzel, served in all 14 of Puck’s fine-dining restaurants. Seafood will come from certified sustainable fisheries. More organic and local produce is also part of the plan.

This initiative is being carried out throughout Puck’s empire, which includes his large food company, his 82 casual cafes and his packaged foods.

Photo from wolfgangpuck.com]

The meat was contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, which can cause the rare but potentially fatal listeriosis. Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. The disease can also causes miscarriages and stillbirths. Infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are especially susceptible to the disease. Luckily, no such illness has been reported.

Any questions about the recall can be directed to this hotline: 1-800-871-7117.

The loophole in the rules is that “[l]ive birds, eggs and carcasses cannot be moved from infected sites, but processed meat in storage is exempt from the isolation rules.” Here are the preliminary results of the investigation:

Among the possibilities being examined by Defra is the suggestion that exported poultry products may have originally come from Hungary and been stored in a refrigeration unit in the same meat processing building that the infected turkeys were taken to in order to be gassed, before being returned to the Continent. Dr Bognar told Channel 4: “I can say that, from the protection zone from the UK, six trucks arrived from the last week to Hungary.”

Tests were done on the poultry and results should be issues soon. There’s no word on whether or not this loophole will be closed any time soon.

[Photo from Wikipedia]

Overall, America’s incontrovertible obesity epidemic was blamed primarily on an increase in refined carbohydrates and sugars, an increase in portion sizes, a decrease in physical activity, an increase in sedentary behavior and a decrease in sleep. During a panel session featuring the Scientific Advisory Committee, a representative of McDonald’s asked which nutrition issues will be tackled after trans fats are eliminated from American diets. (Ironically, McDonald’s promised in 2002 to reduce trans fats and still has not done so.)

In response to this question, Dr. Willett noted that there are no current problems that rise to the level of the trans fat problem because nothing else so unhealthy is consumed in such high quantities. Despite this qualifier, here are the issues offered by the Committee in response to the question:

1. Reduction of Refined Starches/Sugar and Increase in Whole Grains.

Dr. Willett stated that while American consumption of refined starches and sugars is currently too high, it does not have to be reduced to zero, as with the trans fat problem. The main target in this category is soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages. Beverages make up about 25 percent of the calories in the American diet and about half of that amount comes from sweetened beverages with no nutrients. Soda consumption is directly related to obesity and the risk of Type 2 Diabetes. The most popular sweetener for soda is high fructose corn syrup, but Dr. Willett stated that for metabolism, there is no difference between sugar and high fructose corn syrup. The main difference between the two is simply that high fructose corn syrup is less expensive.

Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health stated that people are eating more refined, fiber deficient carbohydrates than our parents or grandparents. The consumption of fiber deficient carbs has been linked to a heightened rate of obesity, but Americans are consuming only one serving of whole grains per day.

2. Sodium.

Dr. Willett argued that decreasing sodium has a great potential to reduce mortality rates in the United States. He noted that three-quarters of all sodium comes from processed foods and restaurant meals. Unfortunately, this means that sodium intake is generally outside the control of the consumer. Too much sodium causes an increase in the risk for high blood pressure and heart disease.

Dr. Willett anticipated the objection of the food service industry that salt improves the flavor of food by displaying a chart listing the amount of sodium across certain brands of products. For example, Morgan’s Caesar dressing has 170 mg and Wishbone Just 2 Good has 300 mg of sodium, while Ken’s Caesar Lite has a whopping 600 mg. Similarly, Ragu’s Light spaghetti sauce has 360 mg of sodium while Ragu’s Traditional Old World sauce has 756 mg. These statistics show that some companies are finding that they can drop the amount of sodium and still retain flavor.

3. Eradicate Obesity with the Quality of Food, not the Quantity.

Dr. Willett argues that stop the obesity epidemic, Americans need to worry about the quality of the foods they consume, not the quantity. Many popular diets are low fat or low carb. These diets fail to acknowledge that some fats are good fats (unsaturated fat from vegetables oils) and some fats are bad fats (saturated fat from animal fats). They also fail to acknowledge that some carbs are good carbs (whole grains) and some carbs are bad carbs (refined starches). Based upon the failure of these types of diets in the long run (despite their short term success), the Committee argued that only a system emphasizing quality over quantity can have a long lasting effect on the American obesity epidemic. Apparently, the old adage is true: “everything in moderation.” Well, except trans fats.

Conclusions

Dr. Willett asserted that these are not issues that have to be addressed one at a time. Even if we eradicate trans fats, obesity could still be a problem due to a diet high in sugar or sodium. The dialogue itself among the nutritionists and the food industry representatives at the Worlds of Healthy Flavors Event is certainly a step in the right direction.

If you could add issues to be addressed by the food industry after trans fats, what issues would you add? I’ll let you know if they were discussed during the event in the comments.

But why should the American food industry eliminate them entirely? How are they different from saturated fat or refined starches and sugar, which are also unhealthy? When I attended the Worlds of Healthy Flavors retreat, hosted by the Culinary Institute of American and the Harvard School of Public Health, the Chairman of the the School of Health’s Department of Nutrition and co-author of Eat, Drink & Weigh Less, Dr. Walter Willett, characterized trans fats as “metabolic poison.” Dr. Willett, who is also the Chair of the WOHF Scientific Advisory Committee, provided 10 reasons why trans fats should be entirely eliminated from American menus:

1.  There is no safe amount of consumption of trans fats. Trans fats are also part of the general category of partially hydrogenated fats that “should be avoided whenever possible.”

2.  If Americans replaced partially hydrogenated fat with natural, unhydrogenated vegetables oils, the change would result in prevention of “approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests that trans fats are responsible for 100,000 premature deaths annually.”

3.  While saturated fats are bad for you, trans fats are even worse. Both types of bad fats raise the level of bad cholesterol (LDL) and increase risk of heart disease. Trans fats also lower the level of good cholesterol (HDL), which is “the protective form of cholesterol.”

4.  Science has shown that trans fats “reduce the flexibility of arteries which has been related to higher risk of heart disease.”

5.  Trans fats “fire inflammation, which plays key roles in the development of heart disease, diabetes and probably other leading causes of death and disability.”

6.  Trans fats increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes and “have been correlated with increased body weight more strongly than any other dietary factors (even when total dietary calories are controlled).”

7.  Trans fats are linked to age-related neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and have been linked to infertility.

8.  Government regulations are increasingly banning, restricting or limiting trans fats. American nutrition researchers are “strongly lobbying the federal government to remove partially hydrogenated oils - and the trans fats they contain - from the official FDA list of “generally regarded as safe” (GRAS) foods.

9.  Consumers are learning about trans fats and their detrimental effects. If the food industry removes trans fats now, it “will be better prepared for the likely increase in restrictions on these fats” and can improve customer loyalty and the corporate image.

10.  Worries associated with eliminating trans fats are generally about technical performance of a substitute, adequate supply and affordability. However, “American agriculture and foodservice suppliers are now energetically responding with a variety of healthier menu solutions to trans fats” that are reducing or obviating such concerns.

Are there any others that you think should be added to Dr. Willett’s list?

Photo courtesy of the Culinary Institute of America.

• Olive oil has replaced butter as the thing people put on bread in restaurants.
• Salsa surpassed ketchup as the number one condiment used in America.
• Instead of opening French restaurants, as was previously the trend, people are now opening restaurants with cuisine from all around the world, such as Mediterranean.
• McDonald’s now sells more dollar volume of chicken than it does beef and the chicken is served on a roll that is at least partially whole grain.
• People complain about the price of gas, but they spend more per ounce on water.
• The key buzzwords have changed from “gourmet” to “fresh” and “authentic.”
• Food service on college campuses has evolved from typical mystery meat cafeterias to one of the most demanding segments of the food industry. That demand is driven by students who might not request healthier meals, but they are certainly paying more attention to food.
• Organic foods have moved from being a food for hippies to being the choice of soccer moms and dads. Now, organic food is even a key part of Walmart’s strategy.

However, Erickson tempered these comments by acknowledging that until the business of providing healthy food can be a sustainable one, corporations will not undertake the necessary change. Do you think there are any other signals of change that Erickson can add to his list?