How safe is your food?

Cases of food-borne illnesses and food poisoning can happen anywhere-at home, in a restaurant or at the office during lunch hour.  Here’s how to prepare, store, and serve food to lessen the risks of making yourself and others sick.

1. Wash your hands thoroughly and often for about 20 seconds, especially when you’re handling raw meat (particularly chicken and other poultry), to avoid contaminating other foods, utensils, and other areas of the kitchen with salmonella and other bacteria.
2. Separate raw meat from other foods.  Cross-contamination can transfer harmful bacteria to food that’s otherwise safe to eat.  When shopping, separate raw foods from other items n your grocery cart or basket.  At home, bag the raw meats and place them at the bottom of the freezer or fridge to prevent their juices from dripping onto other items.  Use different chopping boards and knives for raw meat and for other foods.
3. Use a clean plate. Never place cooked food on the same plate where it came from when it was still raw.
4. Throw out old food.  Check expiration dates on food labels.  Regularly check your fridge for items you may have forgotten about or have begun to smell and grow fuzzy.  At the office, encourage everyone to check the stuff they leave in the fridge.  Otherwise, suggest that the office take charge of throwing out-long staying food items on a weekly basis.
5. Thaw properly.  Never thaw meats at room temperature, which lets bacteria grow.  Instead, take frozen items out of the freezer the night before and thaw inside the refrigerator.  Or thaw under running water (never dunk it in a pan of water and leave it to thaw at room temperature).  You can also thaw frozen items in the microwave.
6. Wash utensils and surfaces properly.  Experts recommend washing with hot soapy water to ensure that any bacteria to kitchen equipment and surfaces (including the faucets) die.
7. Keep cold food cold, hot food hot.  Pack lunch in insulated bags then chuck into the fridge as soon as you arrive at work never leave perishables at room temperature (even in an airconditioned environment) for over two hours.  Refrigerator temperature should be at 4 deg. C.  Heat pack lunch in the microwave.
8. Store leftovers properly.  If you’re taking home a doggy bag, make sure you’re heading straight home so you can place your leftovers in the refrigerator immediately.  Just had food delivered?  Store leftovers in shallow containers and cover.  Discard anything that’s been standing at room temperature for at least two hours.  Throw out leftover pizza and other take-out-food that have been in the fridge for three to five days.  While freezing delays spoilage, food will also eventually rot.  Get rid of pizza that’s been in the freezer for over a month (don’t bother tasting it!).  Same with luncheon meats.  Cooked meat and poultry stored in the freezer for about 2 to 6 months should be thrown out as well.
9. Check the resto out.  Inspect the kitchen if you can, when you eat out.  Also take a peek into their washrooms, examine the utensils, and food servers.  If you’re not quite happy with the cleanliness, eat somewhere else.
10. Demand proper cooking.  The food and piping hot when it arrives at your table.  Undercooked foods may not be safe to eat.  Send your meal back, if that’s the case.

The Last-Minute Bikini Emergency Pound-shedding Plan

Still trying to lose the extra five to fit into that bikini?  Be honest: You still haven’t dropped those last few pounds you swore you’d banish from your bod before summer started.  The likely reason? You can’t bear the thought of forsaking your favorite foods…and who can blame you?  Nut fear not- Cosmo’s here to save you from a guilt-induced tailspin with a weight-loss plan that doesn’t require robotlike discipline.  First, ditch the calorie-counting handbooks and pint-size-portion charts that are typical dieting de rigueur.  “When you deprive yourself, you’re likely to lose control over food, which leads to bingeing and weight gain,” says Elizabeth Somer, author of The Origin Diet (Henry Holt, 2001).  Instead, revamp your food’tude, and drop those pesky pounds with these easy-to-stick eating principles.  Then try some of our metabolism boosters to make those last five pounds melt off even faster.

Pound-Melting Principles:

Dieting Doctrine 1

Curb during the week then cave on weekends

Rigidly sticking to no-sweets, no-fat (not to mention no-fun) diet all day, every day is impossible and impractical, says Somer.  Instead, pick two days a week when you’re allowed normally no-no foods.  On weekends, you’re more likely to eat out, go to parties, or munch on fattening bar food.  (But don’t go overboard on a free-for-all bingefest0.  The reason this rule rocks, says Somer, is that you get a fix of “bad food,” so you won’t feel deprived and be tempted to pig out.  Plus you skip the guilt since you’ve already given yourself permission to dodge your diet-temporarily.

Dieting Doctrine 2

Never eat a meal in less than 20 minutes

A hasty-eating habit can wreak havoc on your waistline.  It takes up to 20 minutes after you’ve begun munching for your brain to recognize that you’re full, says Susan Adams, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Assiciation.  So if you’re slamming back food at breakneck speed, it’s likely that you’re taking in more calories than you need to feel satisfied.  Her tips for putting the brakes on your pace:  Rest your fork on your plate or put your sandwich down between each bite, take smaller bites, and chew and swallow them completely before taking another, or use chopsticks-no matter what type of cuisine you’re chowing.

Dieting Doctrine3

When you eat something bad, eat something good with it

Chances are there are fantasy foods that you simply can’t resist (French fries, double-chocolate-chip cookies, and cheesecake come to mind) - so don’t!  But when you do indulge in forbidden fare, be sure to pair it with good-for-you food, says Somer.  The addition of a healthy morsel will help you fill up before you OD on the devilish eats.  Got a weakness for pizza with extra cheese?  Snag one slice, but add a salad.  You’ll be less likely to reach for round two.

Dieting Doctrine 4

Eat pasta only THREE times per week-max

This Italian carb is cheap, delish, and such a snap to make, it’s no wonder it’s a staple of so many people’s diets.  But noshing on noodles nonstop can add unwanted pounds.  The solution?  Set goal:  Only allow yourself to give in to your pasta pangs three times a week.  According to Mindy Hermann, a nutritional consultant in New York, if you cave more often than that, you’re likely to overload on nutritionally punch.  Make your platter of penne or your bowlful of bow-ties more flavorful and healthy by combining it with a variety of veggies and a tasty source of protein, like low-fat cheese, chicken, or beans.

Dieting Doctrine 5

Always leave a little food on your plate

It’s time to ditch your mom’s dinnertime “Clean your plate” dictate.  Even though the portion sizes we get in restaurants or serve ourselves are often twice as large as they should be, says Hermann, many of us have a hard time letting any food go to waste.  But by getting over the guilt and leaving a few bites behind at every meal, you’ll learn to become more conscious of your calorie intake.  And you may find that the amount you’d ever realized.

Diet Deception: The Zone Diet

The Premise: 

A high protein, low carbohydrate diet which limits your caloric intake and follows the ratio of 40/30/30 for carbohydrates, protein, and fat respectively. Created by Barry Sears, author of Enter the Zone, this diet makes ‘zonies’ experience rapid weight loss mostly attributed to three factors: 

1. Protein has a higher satiating effect than carbohydrates, so you feel less hungry in a high protein diet.
2. High protein suppresses the following day’s protein intake more than carbohydrates.
3. Digesting protein requires more energy than digesting carbs which increases your caloric expenditure.

High protein diets are simply those that require the person to have an intake of more than 30 percent in protein. The diet relies on the fact that insulin secretion is stimulated by carbohydrate consumption. Low carbs keep insulin in a range that allows the body to burn excess fat.

The Provisions:

Lean meats like chicken, turkey, lean steaks and just sidings of vegetables and fruits.

The Promise: 

Rapid weight loss, improved athletic performance (this is a new one!) and a lower risk of developing heart disease and cancer.

The Proof:

Randy, 30, a computer programmer said “I tried it and I lost 15 pounds, but had serious problems with my skin and bowel movement so I went off it. Regarding athletic performance, I swim a lot but I don’t think it really improved it.”

The Prognosis:

Rapid weight loss is inevitable in a low carbohydrate, high protein diet. While it contends that excessive complex carbohydrates causes obesity by increasing insulin output and fat storage, you’ll find that none of the references quoted in the book to back up these claims have ever been published.

The author vehemently advises against a vegetarian diet, completely ignoring that fact that vegetarians are far less likely to develop heart disease and cancer and are leaner than meat-eaters. Clinical studies alone in the last half century clearly show how a high protein, high fat diet can lead to higher risks for heart disease, stroke, adult onset diabetes, several types of cancer and stroke.

With regards to the 40/30/30 ratio, studies show that the average diet in most Western countries, is already an approximation of this ratio. The U.S. in particular has 60 percent of its population falling under the obese category, not to mention a steady increase over the last couple of years of incidence of heart disease and cancer. These fatal numbers are but a reflection of the same diet ratio the book encourages everyone to follow.

Like most low carb diets, the weight loss is mainly attributed to dehydration. By limiting carbohydrates (where 3 grams of water are stored in every gram of carbohydrate), zonies think that they’re actually losing a pound of fat a day. It’s also below the healthy recommended caloric intake for adults (2,200 to 2,500 calories a day) at only 1,700 calories. This causes unhealthy depletion of body mass with minimal fat loss. The weight loss is quickly regained once the body can no longer sustain the diet.

As for improvement in athletic performance, athletes would be well advised to stay away from the Zone. The recommendations for both carbohydrates and caloric intakes are insufficient to meet the energy requirements of everyday training.

The Pros’ Position:

“There are a lot of false statements made in the book. The fact that carbohydrates cause heart disease and cancer has no basis at all. Furthermore, there are so many health problems proven to be directly linked to the consumption of high levels of protein- heart conditions, stroke, cancer and even calcium loss and osteoporosis. The short term benefit of rapid weight loss isn’t worth the inevitable long term health risks.” says Ana Cruz, an L.A. nutritionist and dietician who once worked for the Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Sanirose Orbeta, a nutrinionist adds, “Like the other new diets in the market, the nutrient ratio in The Zone diet doesn’t follow the healthy eating index, which should have 55 to 60 percent carbohydrates, 15 to 20 percent protein and 20 to 25 percent fat.”