Nutrition Know How

Salmonella is a word that cooks do not want to hear.  With the recent outbreak, eggs could get a bad name.  Interesting enough—the sale of eggs have actually risen since the outbreak.   That’s OK!  Eggs are the perfect source of protein, and should be a healthy part of everyone’s diet.   As far as safety goes, only 1 in 20,000 eggs might contain Salmonella.  They say that equals the chances of you getting it once every 85 years!  Still—you should handle them safely.

We have been inundated with calls about safe eggs—“Are mine safe?” “If they do have salmonella, will cooking them make them safe?”  All good questions!  There is an FDA website  that you can check for food recalls, past and present, if you are looking for any food item that may be recalled at any given time.  You can always find great information from the Incredible Egg  website.    To answer the question of safety—eggs may contain Salmonella and look, smell and taste fine.  You should always treat every egg as if it was contaminated—and your eggs should be safe to consume.

• Never use cracked or dirty eggs.
• Always check the use by date—they are good three weeks after that date.
• Keep eggs stored at 41⁰ F or less—so the back of your fridge is the best place to store them.
• Cook eggs hard (145⁰ F) when preparing them.  Runny or undercooked eggs are not considered safe to eat.
• People with lowered immunities should never eat undercooked food products.

Many callers tell me that their parents stored their eggs on the back porch and never worried about Salmonella.   This may be true—but Salmonella is a relatively new bacterium that has entered the reproductive tracts of chickens in the past 15 or so years.  So, it wasn’t a problem back then.  Handling eggs and poultry safely is the only way to be sure.  On a side note, it is now recommended that you do not wash your poultry before cooking it.  The potential to spray bacteria around your kitchen is great if you wash it in the sink.  It is recommended that you cook all your poultry to 180⁰, and then there will be no worry about Salmonella or Campylobacteriosis.

It’s official, I am a soccer mom.  My 4 year old son just played in his first soccer game.  It is too early to tell if he will be the next David Beckham but he did look pretty cute in his uniform.

He wasn’t the only thing that caught my eye during the game.  I also noticed many of the preschool-aged players drinking down sports drinks.  My son has had Gatorade before but only occasionally when it is made available by dad or grandma.  Sports drinks are not bad but they may not be what our youngest athletes need.  Sports drinks are basically sugar water with a dash of salt and potassium (which are electrolytes).  Electrolytes help retain water and slow the rate of becoming dehydrated.  Food and milk contain far more electrolytes than sports drinks.  The sugar content in sports drink is almost the same as pop, which makes cavities a concern.  As shown in the picture a 20 ounce Gatorade has 9 teaspoons of sugar and regular can of pop has 10-12 teaspoons of sugar. 

Nutrition experts agree that sports drinks are designed to be used for athletes who exercise continuously for more than 90 minutes or have heavy sweat losses.  For our children water is a better and less expensive choice to drink during and after exercise.  Also, after exercise a well balanced snack or meal would be more nutrient rich choice than a sports drink. 

As a soccer mom I have also been assigned the task of bringing team snacks for after the game.  Here are some nutritious after game snacks ideas: 

Milk - It is actually a great beverage to drink after practices and games.  It is a great source of protein, carbohydrates, and potassium (an electrolyte).   
Trail Mix – including cereal, popcorn, dried fruit, and peanuts
Fresh fruit – Such as melons, apple wedges, orange slices, bananas.  Cleaned, cut, and put into separate cups or baggies.
Go-Gurt – yogurt in tubes
String cheese and whole grain crackers
Peanut butter and crackers – First make sure no children have peanut allergies.

“Do you know where your milk comes from?” Reads a brochure I picked up after I toured Prairieland Dairy in Firth, Nebraska, with a group of my coworkers. To be honest, I haven’t really thought about it other than, from a cow. Ultimately, I trust the system that brings the milk I buy to the grocery store. The tour of the operating dairy farm, helped me understand more about the process. Most of the milk that we buy in the grocery store comes from a combination of farms, and so ultimately, you don’t know exactly which farms your milk comes from. You should know that most of the milk sold in grocery stores is local, by this I mean that it travels less than 100 miles from farm to table. 

If you do want to know exactly where you milk comes from, you can buy from a local dairy farmer at your community’s farmers market (avoid raw or unpasteurized milk  products as they can contain dangerous bacteria, which are responsible for many food-borne illnesses). Some dairy farms, such as Prairieland Dairy, do put their own label on the milk they produce. At Prairieland, a portion of their milk is sold under their name, ensuring that it is coming from only their farm. Currently, Prairieland Dairy is only available in the Lincoln area grocery stores, but they have plans to expand to the Omaha market this October.

Dan Rice, the owner, farmer and general manager, answered all our questions (and there were many! What else do you expect from a bunch of dietitians and foodees?).  Dan gave honest, matter-of-fact answers, which we all appreciated. He walked us through the farm, showing us that happy cows don’t only come from California.

We learned about everything from antibiotic use to how a newborn calf gets colostrum from its mother, all while walking around in cute blue booties! Dan talked openly about how they do occassionally use antibiotics, but only when a cow is sick, just like we do as humans. A cow is isolated from the group and their milk is dumped until the antibiotics are out of their system. All milk is tested for antibiotics at the farm and then again at the processing facility to ensure that none of it gets to you, the consumer.

When we hear the word organic we often think local and sustainable, which is often true, but here in Nebraska, there are very few organic dairy farms. Consequently, if you’re buying organic milk from a Nebraska grocer it is very unlikely that any of it is actually local.  Prairieland Dairy is not certified as organic, but they make every effort to be sustainable and transparent.

Our group truly enjoyed the visit to this local dairy farm. We appreciated the opportunity to see where the cows are raised and how they are milked. It affirmed our trust in the farmers that are bringing milk to our tables.

As a dietitian and mom, friends will often ask me how to get their preschool-aged child to eat fruits and vegetables.  The question always brings back memories of being a kid and sitting at the dinner table long after everyone was done with a plate of peas in front of me.  My parents wouldn’t let me leave the dinner table until I ate my vegetables.  I’m sure it was exhausting for my parents to struggle with me.  All I can remember is becoming even more determined not to eat my vegetables.

The good news is that the techniques of yesteryear aren’t particularly effective.  But what techniques are effective? 

That’s the question a study published in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association sought to answer.  The researchers asked 889 health professionals and registered dietitians from six different countries to share their opinion on the effectiveness of specific parenting practices in promoting fruit and vegetable intake.  The overall finding is a relief for many parents.  Instead of trying to control your child, focus on controlling the environment in which your child eats.

How do you control the environment?  Here are five specific things you can do that the experts deemed as the MOST effective at increasing fruit and vegetable intake in preschool-aged children:

1.  Eat together as a family.

2.  Include some form of fruit or vegetable in most meals.

3.  Show your child that you enjoy eating fruit and vegetables.

4.  Use fruit or vegetables for your child’s snacks.

5.  Buy fruit or vegetables instead of cookies, chips and candy.    

 You’ll probably need to think through specific ways you can make each of the above work for your family.  One of my friends can’t make family dinners work, so they always eat breakfast together before going to school and work.  For me, including fruits and vegetables in most meals is a lot easier if I prepare enough ahead of time for several meals.  I also keep canned fruit on hand for times when I don’t have time to cut up fresh fruit.

Curious about the five parenting practices the experts deemed the LEAST effective at increasing fruit and vegetable intake? 

1.  Physically struggle with your child to get them to eat fruit or vegetables.

2.  Yell at your child for not eating their fruit and vegetable.

3.  Make your child feel guilty when they don’t eat fruits and vegetables.

4.  Reward your child with sweets if they eat their fruits and vegetable.

5.  Beg your child to eat fruit and vegetables. 

I get drained just reading those practices.  Focusing on the environment sounds a lot easier for us parents and a lot more pleasant for our kids.