"Moderate" Drinking and Heart Health

A study in the March 29 issue of Circulation (a journal of the American Heart Association) reports that moderate drinking may have heart health benefits for young people. There are, however, a number of things that are important to understand about this study:

1. Moderate drinking is defined as a drink or two per day, but the researchers reportedly observed protective effects with 2 or 3 "standard" drinks...more than moderate drinking
2. The average age of men in this study was 50 and the average age for women was 54. I mean absolutely no disrespect, but the media headlines regarding this study suggesting health benefits for "young people" are a bit misleading
3. The researchers comment that younger people are at the lowest risk for heart disease, but have much higher incidence of other alcohol-related health risks such as traffic accidents and cancer

Bottom line is that I don't recommend drinking alcohol for the purpose of health benefits - work out and eat a nutrient-rich diet to protect your heart!

Time to Celebrate

Yay Adam!! so happy for you:-)

Some occasions call for extra indulging and this was one of those weeks. Adam got word yesterday that his promotion at work is official, so we went out to dinner at Graham Elliot to celebrate. We got a bottle of one of our favorite reds to mark the occasion - the Seghesio Zinfandel. Wine Spectator gave the 2007 Zinfandel a 93 and added it to their "Smart Buys" list. I love this Zin for its raspberry and spice flavors. It has a medium finish and pairs well with a variety of foods.

Michel Muser, the wine sommelier at Graham Elliot, suggested his favorites dishes and ones that would pair well with our wine. My meal included:

• Parmesan Garlic Popcorn (served instead of a bread basket - LOVE it!)
• Deconstructed Caesar Salad
• Hushpuppy-style Sweetbreads
• Alaskan Halibut (pic below)
• Pineapple w/ Mango Sorbet & Angel Food (pic below)

Graham Elliot is another great spot to add to your Chicago restaurant list - two enthusiastic thumbs up from us!

Melon-y Bubbles

We took a friend out to dinner to celebrate her 30^th birthday at Province last night. If you live in the Chicago-land area or are visiting, you should definitely plan to eat there. Actually, after last night’s meal, I think Province might be my all-time favorite restaurant in Chicago (maybe even of anywhere…!) It was THAT GOOD!

I went in to the meal planning on having just one indulgence, but ended up with at least two…maybe three. The first was a glass of bubbly to start the meal. I had a glass of the Marquis de la Tour Brut. The bubbles were fine (small) and the fizz was strong. The aroma and taste reminded me of sweet melon. The winemaker’s notes from Wine.com are much more thorough regarding bouquet and palate.

The menu has a great selection of small/medium plates to choose from, so my meal included the Green Bean Salad with Cow’s Milk Cheese and the Ahi Tuna Taco. Adam and I shared the Spanish Calasparra Rice and then the three of us split the Chocolate 3 Ways. O.k., so yeah…maybe more like three or four (or five) indulgences. And, that's o.k. every now and then!

Green Bean Salad with Cow's Milk Cheese (Marquis de la Tour Brut in the background!)

Chocolate 3 Ways (absolutely delicious!)

Another Reason to Heart Chocolate

Eating a small amount of chocolate every day may help lower blood pressure and reduce risk for heart disease. German researchers studied more than 19,000 people for 10 years and found that those who ate the most chocolate - around 7.5 grams per day - were 39 percent less likely to have a heart attack than people who at the least chocolate.

So, what does 7.5 grams of chocolate look like? Well, one Ghirardelli square is about 10 grams (53 Calories) and one mini Hershey's Bar is about 9 grams (40 Calories). The important thing to remember is that if you are going to add chocolate to your daily diet, you need to eat it instead of another snack and/or add a little more physical activity to your day. For comparison, to burn 50 calories you'd need to walk at a moderate pace (3 miles/hour) for 12 minutes.

Read more from Yahoo! News and HealthDay News. Full study available from the European Heart Journal.

Yogier Than Thou

There was an interesting article in the Dining and Wine section of yesterday’s NYT – “When Chocolate and Chakras Collide”. Chocolate? Yes, please! Chakras? I’ll give yoga another try if it involves chocolate!

Come to find out, there’s a group of yogis out there that “taste, smell and digest in a heightened state of awareness”. They do this by consuming food immediately (i.e. whilst on sweaty yoga mats…yum) after finishing their workout. Sounds like the new definition of instant gratification to me!

What really struck me about this article was the bit about the "culture of judgment in the yoga community" relating to food and what should/should not be eaten. My kudos go out to instructor, David Romanelli for opening the world of yoga to people who might otherwise never give it a whirl. In the article, he says, “The world is a better place if people do yoga. And if they come because chocolate or wine is involved, I’m fine with it.” I’m fine with it too, Dave!

I’ve only tried yoga a few times and it hasn’t hooked me yet, but perhaps I’ll give it another go (if novice yogis are allowed) during the Yoga for Foodies event in Chicago on March 8th which will feature chef Randy Zweiban of Province. Who’s with me?

Photo: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

What Would it Take?

I attended a training workshop recently where we discussed the importance of learning about what motivates colleagues in order to help everyone achieve their goals. Then, I read this post on TPP's Well blog and it got me thinking that, in the same way that each person's motivation come from a different source, the incentives linked with corporate wellness programs are not one-size-fits-all.

We are all motivated by different things. If your employer offered monetary incentives to lose weight, would you take them up on the offer? Would it make you feel more accountable or would you feel that the program was intrusive? I've been thinking about corporate wellness programs a lot lately and I'm still noodling over which aspects of a corporate wellness program would motivate me most. This is what I do know:

• 66% of Americans are overweight or obese
• The average American will spend more than 93,000 hours of their life working
• Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that employees who received monetary incentives for losing weight lost significantly more weight than counterparts who did not get monetary incentives (though some of the weight did return when the incentives dried up)

Budgetarians and Scrimpavores

From what I can tell, the jury is still out on how the recession is impacting the nutrition habits of Americans. On the one hand, people are choosing to eat at home more often and they are making more meals from scratch. But, on the other hand, fast food chains are one of the few industries reporting a profit.

For the most part, I've always been a budget shopper and I'm a little (read: very) OCD about our budget. I love clipping and using coupons, so I suppose I've always been a budgetarian, but more recently, I've also been having fun being a scrimpavore. Yes....I did say having fun!

A couple weeks ago, A-dub (the new name I've given my husband whose initials are AWB) and I spent a small fortune at Costco. Not because prices are high - we just had a long list! So, the next weekend I declared that we would not grocery shop because I knew we could get by on the food in our fridge and pantry. Aside from the fact that we ate carrots every night (prepared different ways each time), we made it the entire week without spending a cent at the grocery store.

Last night I made banana bread* from some bananas that I had put in the freezer when they became more brown than yellow. I couldn't bare to throw them away knowing that homemade banana bread was just a few on-hand ingredients away.

If you are considering eliminating food shopping, I highly recommend it! It is fun to get creative and to be resourceful. At this time last year would I have thrown the bananas in the trash? Sad to say, I probably would have...what about you?

*I made two changes to the recipe linked above. 1 - I used real eggs instead of egg substitute. 2 - I used 1% milk instead of coconut milk. It was tasty, but I bet the coconut milk would have added a little sweetness - I just didn't have any on hand!