masvida

By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom Across the nation nearly everyone I speak with has a strong reaction to last week’s plan led by New York City’s mayor to ban sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces (a typical “medium”). This includes both bottled and fountain drinks containing more than 25 calories in an eight-ounce serving. The ban would not affect 100% juices or drinks containing 50% or more of milk or a milk substitute (like milkshakes). Anyone wanting to purchase a 32-ounce drink can purchase two 16-ounce drinks. And that’s the source of the problem. Should the government intervene in a private area like food choice? Freedom of choice, with value is the question here. People have joked about what’s next: smaller slices of pizza, a thinner burger, smaller cookies? While it seems unlikely that this policy will become a law, from both the regulatory and legal points of view, this attention-grabbing concept is causing a lot of controversy. Going “retro” on drink sizes makes a lot of sense, and it...

By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that most of us are consuming nearly twice the recommended amount of sodium in our daily diet. While the daily sodium recommendation for healthy people is 2300 mg, nearly 90% of Americans (including toddlers and children) struggle to stay under that number. And for those at risk, the recommended intake is even lower: 1500 mg daily.  For most people, the term “cutting back on salt” is interpreted as a major drop in flavor. That doesn’t need to be the case. In fact, only about 10% of the sodium we eat daily comes from the salt shaker! The use of spices and sodium-free herb blends can wake up natural flavors in foods. Nearly 80% of our daily sodium is “hidden” in processed foods – bagged, boxed, and canned – and in restaurant meals. Here’s where the taste test fails: Foods don’t have to taste very salty to be loaded with sodium. So stick with label-reading. And look...