HOME | ABOUT MyTriState | REPORT ERROR | PRIVACY POLICY
Food.MyTriState.us
Welcome to our blog on Food, Nutrition, Recipes and Cooking with a focus on vegetarian and vegan food.
Link between Vegetarian diet and avoiding Alzheimer's disease
BBC had an interesting article on Alzheimer's disease and its low frequency in Ballabgarh, a farming village in northern India. The locals "are very physically active and most eat a low-fat, vegetarian diet. Obesity is virtually unheard of." The percentage of UK and American citizens with dementia is much higher, possibly because the villagers of Ballabgarh have very low Cholesterol levels due to their vegetarian diet. All that exercising from the farming probably helps, too. On the other hand, head to the BBC's site at the link above, and you'll note that the older gentlemen in the photo are all smoking hookah. Hells yeah.
Vegan Snacks
In our never ending quest for Vegan snacks, some snacks of old have resurrected back into our lives, vegan style.
Vegan Doritos
These are truly a wonder. Yes, the Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos are totally vegan. They taste GREAT! The Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos will leave you speechless! Go out and grab a purple bag of Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos right now. Go!
Vegan Skittles and Skittles Crazy Cores
Skittles are now vegan. We first heard that the new Crazy Core Skittles are vegan, but apparently, all Skittles made after a certain date are now vegan, you just have to check the packaging's list of ingredients. They taste the same, as far as memory serves, so well done! Too bad we don't like Skittles that much... they get stuck in your teeth so easily, it's really annoying.
Small got big at some point
A Wendy's small soda is 16 ounces. A can of soda is 12 ounces... uhm... following us here? When did this happen? 16 ounces is a lot of soda and when you bring in the word 'small,' one usually associates it with something that is, you know, small. So getting a small amount of soda on the go is apparently a thing of the past since you can't find a vending machine with cans of soda around any more. We know soda doesn't cost much for the manufactures or vendors, but, from a health prospective, we really don't need 16 ounces to be a the standard for a small size of soda.
Chipotle and Qdoba
Can someone please tell us what the difference is between Chipotle and Qdoba? These fancy fast food restruants, bridging the gap between Chilis and Taco Bell, seem to sell nearly identical products for nearly identical prices. They even wrap their burritos in the same way! Are they owned by the same company but don't want the Justice Department to hit them with some sort of bizarre anti trust suit on cornering the mediocre burrito market? We don't get it. We haven't done a blind taste test yet, but we're betting no one can tell the difference. These two restaurants make Burger King and McDonalds look like total strangers. Whats the difference between Chipotle and Qdoba?!? Pretty sure they carry different lines of soda.
The GM Diet
We read about the GM Diet in the Op-Ed section of the NY Times, so we looked it up - its easy to find, just search 'gm diet' in any search engine. General Motors says the origin of the diet is a myth and that it didn't come from GM. The diet itself is pretty wild, but Roger Cohen (of the NY Times) says it worked for him, and it apparently didn't kill him. He has a buddy who apparently does it a few times a year and he's still amongst the living, so the diet is probably safe. They want you to eat fruit only on the first day (bananas are banned, however), day 2 is 1 baked potato and then only vegetables, day 3 is a mix of fruits and vegetables only, day 4 is bananas and milk, day 5 is beef and 6, yes 6 tomatoes, day 6 is beef and vegetables and day 7 is brown rice, fruit juices and vegetables. Not sure how you should substitute the beef is you are vegetarian... anyway, Roger Cohen apparently did this at DISNEY WORLD! We'd love to know where he found a baked potato...
[July 2009]
Pepsi Throwback
The good folks at Pepsi-Cola have won us over with Pepsi Throwback. Now, we're not saying soda is good for you, because it's not, but there is something very satisfying about Pepsi Throwback. It might have something to do with the marketing. If you've seen the commercial, you heard some funk and saw some colors, but didn't get any explanation on what the product was as opposed to their standard Pepsi-Cola offering. Well, compare the labels - Pepsi Throwback is made with old fashioned sugar as opposed to our most hated of all syrups, high fructose corn syrup. We think you'll find that any soda that uses sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup goes down smoother and doesn't get caught in your throat and has a thinner consistency. In any case, cheers to Pepsi for serving us sugar water that doesn't support subsided corn!
PETA ranked Ballparks for Vegetarian Friendly Options
We won't reproduce the list (check it out here), but for 2008, Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies, was the winner - and that's not far, especially if you can score some Mets tickets. But check out this menu:
mock-chicken sandwiches
"crab-free crab cakes"
Philly faux-steak sandwiches
veggie dogs
flame-grilled Gardenburgers
hoagies with roasted veggies
tomato-basil soup
various salads
"The Poppy" sandwiches (roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes)
peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Whew! That's a world champion lineup! The Yankees nor Mets didn't make the top ten, but they both got honorable mention. No idea if this will translate over to their new parks, but here's what they got:
Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets:
veggie dogs, veggie chili, fresh fruit cups, wraps, salads
Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees:
grilled portobello marinated with balsamic vinaigrette, salad, sliced fresh fruit plate, grilled asparagus platter, pasta station with marinara, Oriental station with vegetable stir-fry, potatoes
note: this probably doesn't mean the french fries aren't vegetarian, but one never knows!
Prince Fielder goes vegetarian
Prince Fielder is now a vegetarian - welcome, sir! Check out Yahoo!'s blog here.
We're curious to see how a change in diet will effect the big slugging first baseman - we don't think it'll matter at all, but if he doesn't hit 50 home runs this season, we know what everyone it going to point to: steroids. We meant his new diet. Damn congress...
Just how bad is soda for you?
We all know soda is bad for you, but it's pretty shocking when you see it in black and white here.
If you've read through the details, you're probably pretty grossed out right about now - we're sorry about that! We think it's important to stop for a moment every once and while and take stock of what you're putting in your body, so we're not sorry we posted it! The next time you sit down for a meal, take a look around the table and ask yourself exactly what's in this stuff - we bet you don't like the answer.
Is interdietary dating taboo for you?
The NY Times has an article posted (here) which details different people's dietary practices (omnivores, vegetarians, vegans) and how they effect their dating life. We did a quick, informal survey amongst a small group and found that omnivores, vegetarians and vegans aren't that keen on dating outside their groups. We can understand omnivores getting board with the other food style and veggies and vegans being grossed out - but, the article referenced Anthony Bourdain's book, "Kitchen Confidential", in which he refers to vegans as a splinter cell of vegetarians and compares vegans to Hezbollah... OK, lets settle down there, Tony. We assure you, no group, no matter how odd you may find them, wants to be compared to a terrorist organization. We assume it's supposed to be ironic; vegans are nearly always animal rights activists or proponents, so to compare them to a group that is, shall we say, morally compromise when it comes to killing, is a bit going a bit too far... or at least we think so.
Hummus rocks
Check out this blog we found, Humus101.com.
Apparently, hummus is better for you than we thought. It even has, as this blog reports, some traits in common with Prozac. Crazy! We like Tribe a lot, but only Sabra makes the Supremely Spicy variety.