From Today's Wall Street Journal

[channlluv]

I think a lot of it is poor education on what constitutes a serving, too.

This article makes me wonder if the "all natural" chicken I buy at the alleged health food store is really pumped with salt water. Hmmmmm.... I asked the butcher once if it was anti-biotic free and all that and he said yes, they get it from Foster Farms. It's not labeled Foster Farms, though. I wonder.

And is farm-raised salmon healthy for you? There's a little sign on the meat cooler that says the fish are fed color-enhancing substances simulating their natural diet in order to make the meat pink. That was enough to turn me off, but I can't afford the wild salmon. Alas.

Roxy

[OakLeaf]

I think a lot of it is poor education on what constitutes a serving, too. And is farm-raised salmon healthy for you?

Ixnay on farmed salmon. The Monterey Bay Aquarium's seafood factsheet is highly regarded.

Don't you have a farmer's market or local butcher where you can get chicken?

I disagree about "poor education" on serving size though. People shouldn't have to go to school to learn what the food companies mean by a serving. Granted that serving sizes have increased by 30 to even 50% in recent years, but when the companies define a "serving" as 1/4 or 1/5 of what an ordinary person would put on their plate, that's not right either.

Then there's the other extreme. On the rare occasion when I open a can of soup or nuke a frozen dinner, I expect it to be a whole meal, as a couple of bowls of homemade soup or a plate of food would be. But it's 200 or at most 300 calories. What's up with that?

[Karma007]

It's the foods you shouldn't that advertise themselves as healthy. I'm starting a Carrots Are Your Friend fund...

[Eden]

You really to watch the hydrogenated oil thing too - they are thinking up all sorts of fancy names to hide it these days - calling it interesterfied, fractionated or modified

[Tuckervill]

Good book that I read entirely while sitting in Barnes & Noble this weekend:

http://www.amazon.com/9-Inch-Diet-Ex.../dp/157687320X

Plates have gotten bigger. For every inch average size plate has grown, American butts have grown 1.5 inches!

Karen

[Susan Otcenas]

You really to watch the hydrogenated oil thing too - they are thinking up all sorts of fancy names to hide it these days - calling it interesterfied, fractionated or modified

Also High Fructose Corn Syrup. I pretty much won't buy anything that has HFCS in it. You'd be amazed at what is sneaks into, too. I've become a very avid label reader.

[cylegoddess]

I go thru a bag of carrots every two days. Yum!