Month 1: Packaged and Processed Food
Month 2: Indian Food
Month 3: Low Glycemic Load
The main goal of eating a low glycemic diet is to keep blood sugar levels constant, but it can also help with weight loss and reducing the risk of disease. It is based on eating foods with a lower glycemic index. These foods will be digested more slowly than other foods, preventing spikes in blood sugar levels.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/glycemic-index-diet/MY00770
“Dieters are encouraged to choose carbohydrate foods with a low glycemic index, which tend to be (but are not necessarily) healthier, nutrient-rich, less refined, and higher in fiber -- like whole fruits, vegetables, and beans.
“The GI value of a food is determined by feeding 10 or more healthy people a portion of the food containing 50 grams of digestible (available) carbohydrate and then measuring the effect on their blood glucose levels over the next two hours. For each person, the area under their two-hour blood glucose response (glucose AUC) for this food is then measured. On another occasion, the same 10 people consume an equal-carbohydrate portion of glucose sugar (the reference food) and their two-hour blood glucose response is also measured. A GI value for the test food is then calculated for each person by dividing their glucose AUC for the test food by their glucose AUC for the reference food. The final GI value for the test food is the average GI value for the 10 people.”
http://www.glycemicindex.com/testing_research.php
Month 4: Holiday Foods from Around the World
Upon Googling said name of this month’s theme, I came upon the website of a travel expert named Peter Greenberg that has a page entitled “Winter Holiday Food from Around the World.” Wow, how perfect is that, huh? (And his name sure fits in perfectly ;D.) Here’s the link: http://www.petergreenberg.com/2008/12/01/winter-holiday-food-around-the-world/
And a summary: All around the world, people have holidays during the winter time, and these are usually accompanied by special dishes and visits from family and friends.
Reducing trans fats with good fats can reduce your heart attack risk to 53%. (http://www.rd.com/health/4-most-harmful-ingredients-in-packaged-foods/)
Potato chips contain acrylamide, which is estimated to cause several thousand cancers per year in Americans.
Food packaging can account for 10% to 50% of the price of food.
Philadelphia brand cream cheese is one of the oldest American packaged foods; it went on sale in its protective wrapper in 1885. (http://www.foodreference.com/html/fpackagedfood.html)
Paper that the Chinese made from mulberry bark in the first or second century B.C. may have been the first material used to wrap food in.
First commercial cardboard box was made in England in 1817.
Cartons were invented by accident.
Kellogg was the first to use cereal cartons.
In 1809, General Napoleon Bonaparte offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could preserve food for his army. Nicholas Appert, a Parisian chef and confectioner, found that food sealed in tin containers and sterilized by boiling could be preserved for long periods.
20 recycled aluminium cans can be made with the energy it takes to manufacture one brand new one. (http://www.thesite.org/healthandwellbeing/fitnessanddiet/food/foodpackaging)Study finds a healthier diet and a return to traditional farming can help reduce energy consumption in US food system by 50 percent… An estimated 19 percent of total energy used in the USA is taken up in the production and supply of food. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080723094838.htm)
A vegetarian diet equivalent to the 3,747 keal (calories?) per day of an average American diet requires 33% less fossil energy. (http://www.springerlink.com/content/k487435204442t48/)
Month 2: Indian Food
It is proper etiquette to eat only with the right hand.
The Aryan peoples brought leafy vegetables, lentils, cumin, coriander, and milk products such as yogurt and ghee to India. The Greeks brought saffron, the Chinese brought tea, and the Portuguese and British brought red chili, potato and cauliflower.
The Mughals, Muslim peoples from Persia who ruled Indian for a time, saw food as an art. Mughal dishes are cooked with as many as twenty-five spices, as well as rose water, cashews, raisins and almonds. Their impact is especially prominent in the food that is prepared for holidays.
Indian cooking is even tempered for the weather: hot spices are used when it is hot to help the body sweat and cool down, while in colder weather, spices like cloves, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cardamom, and nutmeg help the body warm up.
Dishes are usually cooked starting out at a high temperature. Then, once the spices are added, they simmer on low heat for a while. This way of cooking comes from the fact that Indian families used to use cow dung to fuel their fires, which starting burning at a high temperature, then continued at lower heat. (Food in India - Indian Food, Indian Cuisine - traditional, popular, dishes, recipe, diet, history, common, meals, rice, people, favorite, customs, fruits, country, bread, vegetables, bread, drink, typical, eating http://www.foodbycountry.com/Germany-to-Japan/India.html#ixzz1dSdcokd1)
Month 3: Low Glycemic Load
The main goal of eating a low glycemic diet is to keep blood sugar levels constant, but it can also help with weight loss and reducing the risk of disease. It is based on eating foods with a lower glycemic index. These foods will be digested more slowly than other foods, preventing spikes in blood sugar levels.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/glycemic-index-diet/MY00770
“Dieters are encouraged to choose carbohydrate foods with a low glycemic index, which tend to be (but are not necessarily) healthier, nutrient-rich, less refined, and higher in fiber -- like whole fruits, vegetables, and beans.
In contrast, higher GI foods "trigger a rise in blood sugar, followed by a cascade of hormonal changes, which tend to make you hungry again sooner because they are metabolized quicker than low-GI foods," explains David Ludwig, MD, PhD, author ofEnding the Food Fight.”
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/glycemic-index-diet“The GI value of a food is determined by feeding 10 or more healthy people a portion of the food containing 50 grams of digestible (available) carbohydrate and then measuring the effect on their blood glucose levels over the next two hours. For each person, the area under their two-hour blood glucose response (glucose AUC) for this food is then measured. On another occasion, the same 10 people consume an equal-carbohydrate portion of glucose sugar (the reference food) and their two-hour blood glucose response is also measured. A GI value for the test food is then calculated for each person by dividing their glucose AUC for the test food by their glucose AUC for the reference food. The final GI value for the test food is the average GI value for the 10 people.”
http://www.glycemicindex.com/testing_research.php
Month 4: Holiday Foods from Around the World
Upon Googling said name of this month’s theme, I came upon the website of a travel expert named Peter Greenberg that has a page entitled “Winter Holiday Food from Around the World.” Wow, how perfect is that, huh? (And his name sure fits in perfectly ;D.) Here’s the link: http://www.petergreenberg.com/2008/12/01/winter-holiday-food-around-the-world/
And a summary: All around the world, people have holidays during the winter time, and these are usually accompanied by special dishes and visits from family and friends.
The Mongolian holiday Tsagaan Sar is celebrated during the first new moon of the year, and the traditional food is something called buuz, which are mutton dumplings. They also make other special foods, and people make rounds to their neighbors houses. At each house, they have to try every dish!
Diwali (from India) is a festival of lights celebrating the triumph of good over evil. People usually exchange mithai, a sweet made from semolina, wheat flour, chickpea flour, carrots or pumpkin, cardamom, and nutmeg, and molded into colorful shapes.
In Japan, Christmas is called Kentucki Furaido Kurisamasu, which literally means, “Kentucky Fried Christmas.” It is more like Valentine’s Day there - people buy cakes with whipped cream and strawberries and eat KFC for dinner, for which reservations must be made weeks in advance!
In Finland, people eat rice porridge for Christmas breakfast. In one of the bowls an almond is hidden, and whoever has the almond in their bowl has to do something silly. People also visit cemeteries. After people attend Mass on Christmas Eve, they often spend time in the sauna. “Studies show that there are more saunas in Finland than there are cars.” (Oh my...)
Month 5: Chinese Food Month
If you were to eat at a restaurant in China, you would not receive one, too-huge dish for yourself. Instead, the whole table orders several different dishes, which are placed on a large spinning disk in the middle of the table. (This makes it easy to get to the food that you want, without the awkwardness of reaching far across the table and potentially revealing the stink of your armpits to whoever is sitting next to you.) Each person has their own plate to put as much food on as they want, and their own little bowl, which could either be used for rice or for soup. Fruit is the typical dessert.
Along with an American-style continental breakfast at hotels, there is something we call “congee,” which is really just rice cooked with a lot of water. It can be thick or thin, plain or made with vegetables or meat, and usually people dip fermented vegetables or tofu into it with chopsticks and eat it. This is a filling, warming, and cleansing breakfast.
Different kinds of foods are eaten in different parts of China.
There is a type of dessert called mantou (which literally translates to “barbarian heads” - there’s a story to go along with that one). We started calling them “clouds” due to their light and fluffy texture. These are similar to biscuits in a why, but chewy instead of crumbly. They are often eaten with a vanilla-y sauce, and they are delicioso!
Chinese people don’t eat cheese - they consider it to be disgusting, because it comes from a cow and it’s like mold. However, they do eat it on pizza.
There are NO fortune cookies in China!
Month 5: Chinese Food Month
If you were to eat at a restaurant in China, you would not receive one, too-huge dish for yourself. Instead, the whole table orders several different dishes, which are placed on a large spinning disk in the middle of the table. (This makes it easy to get to the food that you want, without the awkwardness of reaching far across the table and potentially revealing the stink of your armpits to whoever is sitting next to you.) Each person has their own plate to put as much food on as they want, and their own little bowl, which could either be used for rice or for soup. Fruit is the typical dessert.
Along with an American-style continental breakfast at hotels, there is something we call “congee,” which is really just rice cooked with a lot of water. It can be thick or thin, plain or made with vegetables or meat, and usually people dip fermented vegetables or tofu into it with chopsticks and eat it. This is a filling, warming, and cleansing breakfast.
Different kinds of foods are eaten in different parts of China.
There is a type of dessert called mantou (which literally translates to “barbarian heads” - there’s a story to go along with that one). We started calling them “clouds” due to their light and fluffy texture. These are similar to biscuits in a why, but chewy instead of crumbly. They are often eaten with a vanilla-y sauce, and they are delicioso!
Chinese people don’t eat cheese - they consider it to be disgusting, because it comes from a cow and it’s like mold. However, they do eat it on pizza.
There are NO fortune cookies in China!
