Mega-Recipe: Ricotta Torte

May is Bone Health Month. (Who decides these things, anyway?) So in honor of that, and in honor of mothers—who as a class definitely need strong bones—this week's recipe is for a calcium-rich cheese torte.

The torte is what I call a Mega-Recipe. What this means is that, in order to get a meaningful amount of a certain nutrient in a serving, I load the recipe up on ingredients high in that nutrient.

In the case of the torte, I went for the obvious sources of calcium: dairy products. But by choosing lower-fat versions of them I could get more calcium (too hard and boring to explain, but true). Then I also added nondairy sources of calcium, including almonds and broccoli. Broccoli has the distinction of being high in calcium and relatively low in vitamin K, which inhibits the body's ability to use the calcium in the vegetable.

Too much nutrition blah-blah, here's the recipe:

Ricotta Torte with Broccoli & Basil
My plan was to come up with a single serving that had significant calcium in it. I used skim milk to cook the rice and chose part-skim ricotta over full-fat. I used 1% cottage cheese, but since cottage cheese is not as good a source of calcium as other dairy products, I chose one of the brands that has added calcium. The other good sources in this torte are the broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes (?!), eggs, almonds, scallions and basil. When it all gets added up, a single serving has just about 500mg of calcium, which is 50% of the DV.

2 cups skim milk
3/4 cup brown-wild rice blend
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted and very finely chopped
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, slivered (2.5 ounces)
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 scallions, chopped
2 cups (packed) finely chopped broccoli (6 ounces)
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 container (15 ounces) part-skim ricotta cheese (1-3/4 cups)
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese (with calcium)
3 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves

1. In a medium saucepan (preferably nonstick), combine the milk, rice blend and 1 teaspoon of the oil. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Cover tightly, reduce to a simmer and cook until tender, 45 to 50 minutes. (Make sure it doesn't foam over.) Transfer to a large bowl and set aside to cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a 9- to 10-inch springform pan. Sprinkle the almonds and Parmesan evenly over the bottom of the springform. In a small heatproof bowl, cover the sun-dried tomatoes with boiling water and let sit to soften while the rice cooks. Drain and coarsely chop.
3. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and scallions, and cook for 30 seconds, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the broccoli, water, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper. Cover and cook until crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Uncover and set aside.
4. In a food processor, combine the ricotta, cottage cheese, whole eggs, egg whites, basil and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Process until smooth. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and pulse just to combine. Stir into the cooled rice mixture.
5. Spoon one-third of the cheese-rice mixture into the springform. Top with the broccoli mixture and spoon the remaining cheese-rice mixture on top, making sure the broccoli is completely covered. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and a knife comes out clean. Cool completely to room temperature before serving.

Makes 6 servings

Beluga lentils

In the past couple of years, as research into the phytochemicals in food has really taken off, it has become clear that the foods with the deepest, darkest colors have more healthful compounds than their pale counterparts.

Enter the beluga lentil--a small, shiny black lentil named for its resemblance to caviar. Recent research at the Agricultural Research Service (the in-house research facility of the USDA) has discovered that beluga lentils' deep hue comes from natural pigments called anthocyanins. Anthocyanins, which are currently being studied for their health potential, are a group of compounds responsible for the reddish-purple color of certain foods, like raspberries, red cabbage and pomegranates.

The specific anthocyanin identified in beluga lentils bears the memorable name of delphinidin-3-O (2-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-alpha-L-arabinopyranoside). Quick, say that three times fast.

Science aside, beluga lentils are just neat to eat. They have all the other established benefits of legumes and are also quick-cooking because of their size. You may be able to find them at a gourmet store, or you can find them online at Indian Harvest (though they sell in bulk amounts) or Purcell Mountain Farms ($3.95 a pound).

Fruit as medicine

In the 1867 book The Market Assistant (see yesterday's post), the author went on a tad about fruit as medicine:

[Fruits] are not only nutritious, but they are also medicinal in their properties. They produce certain beneficial changes in the blood (which medical men term "alterative"), which alters the blood from an unhealthy to its healthy condition; consequently, by the use of ripe fruits, many diseases lurking in the system are either neutralized or removed. Many fruits have the peculiar medicinal property of "cooling" the blood as it is termed, or in other words, rendering it less liable to feverish or inflammable excitement.

Though not supported by any kind of serious scientific fact, it turns out these notions were right on the money. What Grandma (and mid 19th-century docs) took on faith has since been borne out by research. In the past 15 years or so, fruits (especially those with deep colors) have been identified as being exceptionally concentrated sources of antioxidants, with effects ranging from memory improvement to tumor suppression.

So, next time you eat some blueberries, just see if your inflammable excitement doesn't abate.

Pork & Mango Salad

Not that it was my intention, but this salad just happens to be overflowing with beta-carotene, the pigment that makes fruits and vegetables orange. Beta-carotene has been identified as a powerful antioxidant compound, but it is also a precursor* to vitamin A, which is good for your eyes, skin and immune system.

There is no recommended intake for beta-carotene itself, but to get the vitamin A your body needs, you should consume 11 grams of beta-carotene daily. A single serving of this salad has over 13 grams!

Pork & Mango Salad
Make this in the morning (before it gets super hot), then at dinner time you won't have to heat up the kitchen. Serve it on a bed of greens if you want, along with toasted slices of whole-grain baguette or sourdough.

1 pound pork tenderloin
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 large red bell peppers, diced
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 mangoes (3/4 pound each), cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Sprinkle the pork with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the black pepper. Place in a roasting pan and roast for 20 to 25 minutes or until cooked through but still juicy. When cool enough to handle, cut into 1/2-inch cubes. (Save the meat juices to add to the dressing.)
2. Meanwhile, in a vegetable steamer, cook the sweet potatoes until firm-tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, lime zest, lime juice, honey, cayenne, the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. (Add the meat juices, too.)
4. Add the pork, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, scallions and mangoes, and toss well. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Makes 4 servings

*Your body converts the beta-carotene to vitamin A. You can also get preformed vitamin A in animal-based foods, such as egg yolks and liver.

To salt or not to salt

Don't get me started on salt. Let's just say that most people eat too much and food manufacturers enable them. The thing with salt is that the more you eat, the more your palate wants. Luckily, that works in reverse, too. If you start cutting back on salt you will discover that you're satisfied by a lot less.

Now to the science. The general wisdom on salt and health is that it can cause problems for your blood pressure, but really only if you are what is considered "salt sensitive." The catch is that salt sensitivity is not easily or obviously measurable, so to play it safe doctors recommend that everyone, especially anyone with risk factors for hypertension, cut back.

A recent study by the University of Kentucky Medical School and a medical college in China illustrates the relationship between salt and hypertension. The researchers reported that high levels of salt in the blood can suppress the activity of an enzyme called nitric oxide synthase (NOS). The significance of this is that NOS is indirectly reponsible for signals to the muscles surrounding blood vessels to relax. An UNrelaxed muscle can constrict the blood vessel and increase blood pressure.

So the lesson here is that if you--or anyone in your family--tends toward high blood pressure, then you should start cutting back on the salt (not just salt added at the table, but the sodium in canned goods). You will find that soon your tastebuds won't notice that you've cut back.

Why, you ask, is there a picture of an ear of corn here? Well, there are a couple of foods that most people are adamant about sprinkling with salt, and corn on the cob is right at the top of the list. So here's my tip (and I've converted a bunch of hard-core salt lovers to this method): Serve the corn with wedges of lime. Smoosh it over the corn before you add any butter...though the corn-lime combination is pretty good without butter, but one battle at a time, right?

Hibiscus tea

Drinking hibiscus tea can lower your blood pressure.

The results of a clinical trial conducted by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service and Celestial Seasonings (who of course stood to gain by good results, but hey, that's how studies get funded) showed that the subjects who drank three cups of hibiscus tea daily lowered their systolic blood pressure by as much as 13 points.

Of course you already know you can find hibiscus tea from Celestial Seasonings, but if you get serious about this you can buy it in bulk from a place called Mountain Rose.

Couscous Salad with Dates & Almonds

I don't know about the rest of you, but I grew up with date-nut bread spread with cream cheese. It's a flavor combination that rockets me right back to my childhood. But much as I actually like their wonderful, smokey-sweet flavor, I've never bought dates just to have around the house, because they always seemed like little pellets of pure sugar.

Well, here's the good news. Dates are actually very high in antioxidants. In fact, they are high in some of the same compounds that are found in red wine. A group of scientists at the Agricultural Research Service and UC Davis ran antioxidant tests on the 6 types of dates grown in California. The antioxidant winner was the Deglet Noor date, which is the most common type found in supermarkets.

So this inspired me to make a couscous salad with dates--they're from the same part of the world after all. I also went for whole wheat couscous, which I had not noticed before at the market. At first I thought it might be just hype, the way food manufacturers are tacking "whole grain" and "wheat" onto everything in sight. But when I compared the nutrition for regular couscous versus whole wheat, I was pleasantly surprised. The whole wheat version has almost 4 times the fiber.

Couscous Salad with Dates & Almonds
When you cut sticky dried fruit, like dates, you should lightly oil the knife to make cutting easier. For a main course, add 2 cups chopped cooked meat or cubed tofu.

2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon + 1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2/3 cups (10 ounces) whole wheat couscous
1 navel orange
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2/3 cup chopped pitted dates (6 large, 4-1/2 ounces unpitted)
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 cup minced cilantro
1/2 cup minced scallions

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the water and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt to a boil. Stir in the couscous, remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile, grate the orange to get 1 teaspoon of zest and place in a small bowl. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl. Peel and chop the remaining orange half and set aside.
3. To the bowl with the orange juice, whisk in the oil, lemon juice, pepper, cumin and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Drizzle the dressing over the couscous and toss well with a fork.
4. Add the chopped orange, dates, almonds, cilantro and scallions, and toss well. Let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Makes 6 servings

Making food safer, in a cool way

These days, buying food can seem a little like a game of Russian Roulette. (First spinach, now peanut butter! What's next?) And the follow-up TV and newspaper articles on the flaws in our food growing, processing and delivery system should make everyone want to have their own gardens.

Well, on the better-news front, the Agricultural Research Service (a part of the USDA) is hard at work trying to find solutions, at least for fresh food. And they're looking into some really cool ideas.

They are making "edible films" from pureed fruits and vegetables and exploring ways to incorporate bacteria-fighting compounds into them. One of the most promising antibacterials comes from an active compound in the herb oregano, called carvacrol, which has been found to have significant antimicrobial powers.

Minute amounts of carvacrol could be added to an edible film made from spinach, let's say. A small square of this film could then be slipped into a package of fresh spinach where it would release protective vapors to protect the spinach against pathogens (possibly including E. coli). The vapors could even find their way into the crinkles and folds of a spinach leaf.

In addition to oregano, researchers have also found the essential oils in the following herbs/spices to be effective against E. coli: (in order of effectiveness, with oregano leading the list): thyme, cinnamon, bay leaf, clove, lemongrass and allspice.

To read more about it, check out the full article on the ARS site.

Pimpinella?

The name Pimpinella probably conjures up a couple of things for you. Perhaps a fictional 18th-century hero? Or maybe an inner-city entrepreneur? An early Jane Fonda role?

Actually Pimpinella is a botanical genus that includes the anise plant, which produces licorice-flavored seeds used primarily in baking.

A study conducted by scientists at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has shown that anise is more than just a pretty spice. The researchers identified 22 compounds high in something called phenylpropanoids. Although these compounds are found in lots of plants, the chemical structure of those found in Pimpinella plants suggests they have anti-inflammatory potential as well as phytoestrogen properties.

Although anise is not all that common an ingredient in most American kitchens, anyone of Italian heritage has probably had (or even made) waffle cookies called pizzelle. Most recipes for pizzelle call for anise extract or anise oil (a highly concentrated form of the good stuff found in the seeds). Who knew pizzelle was health food?

If you're interested in making your own pizzelle, you need to check out the collection of irons (from $17-$50) at the Fantes Kitchen Wares Shop. They also sell both anise oil ($6 for 2 ounces) and anise extract ($3 for 2 ounces), and they have an old family recipe for pizzelle.

Whole Grains for Busy People

We all know that we're supposed to get more grains in our diets. And thankfully, the food industry has been responding lately by providing whole-grain versions of their standard products. But when it comes to cooking whole grains at home, most of us get a little shy.

I'm guessing there are multiple reasons for this, starting with just plain ol' not liking the taste of whole grains. Some grains can definitely have a very earnest, crunchy-granola, almost-barnyardy flavor. But next on the list of reasons not to cook whole grains is the time it takes to cook them...not to mention the long soaking occasionally involved.

Well, Lorna Sass, who has written a bunch of cookbooks (including one called Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way), decided that the time factor should not be the reason to not cook with grains. She has put together Whole Grains for Busy People, a collection of recipes that use quick-cooking grains that are almost all available in supermarkets, with one or two in health-food stores (though many supermarkets now have pretty good health-food aisles).

I already love whole grains, so it was hard for me to pick recipes from the book that might win over someone who feels a little iffy about them, but see what you think of these:

• Soft Chicken Tacos with Smoked Paprika Sour Cream
• Spirals with Beef Ragu
• Coconut Chicken Curry with Thai Black Rice
• Goat Cheese and Corn Enchiladas
• Dilled Barley and Chicken Salad
• Wild Rice with Mushrooms, Potatoes, and Squash
• Banana Coconut Cream Pie

Starbucks oatmeal

Starbucks is getting all serious about nutrition. They've hired a nutritionist who has been given free rein to make the company responsible for the nutrition of the food they sell. They have completely eliminated some of the gargantuan calorie monsters they used to sell, and others have been slimmed down. And starting this fall, they will introduce a line of whole-grain baked goods as well as--and this is my favorite--oatmeal.

The oatmeal is served with a choice of toppings, including dried fruits, brown sugar and nuts. But staying true to the good-nutrition mission, the toppings are portioned in sensible amounts: The brown sugar is 50 calories and the fruit and nuts are 100 calories each. The oatmeal will sell for $2.45 with a choice of 2 toppings.

Get your fruit on

In a study conducted by the Fruit Laboratory at the USDA Agricultural Research Service, it was discovered that ethanol (also known as drinking alcohol) helps protect fruit from decay by enhancing antioxidant capacity. Somehow the ethanol increases the fruit's natural ability to neutralize the rogue oxygen molecules (free radicals) that contribute to spoiling.

The study was intended to find a useful tool for the fruit industry, of course, but there would seem to be a potential benefit to anyone consuming the fruit, too. Strawberries and blackberries (the fruits used in the study) naturally contain high levels of antioxidant compounds that are good for your health. So if you were to mix the berries with a little alcohol, you would have a super fruit. So bring on the strawberry daiquiris!

P.S. If you're looking for a cool blender to make your super-healthy daiquiri, check out the Liquid Blu™ blender from Hamilton Beach. It has a blue light that glows through its clear base (psychedelic!) and has a unique Wave~Action design that prevents the dreaded blender airlock. The blender retails for around $65.

Honey for your health

I read a little science news item the other day about the antioxidant content of honey. Apparently, some honeys have greater antioxidant properties than others. (Just to remind you, antioxidants are compounds that work to counteract the effects of free-radicals, oxygen molecules that are responsible for all sorts of damage to our bodies.)

According to a group of Spanish scientists, who studied 36 local honeys, the antioxidant content depends on what the bees have eaten. Certain bees collect nectar from flowers and others collect something called honeydew. The honeydew honeys are the ones with more antioxidants. I got all excited at the thought of honeydew honeys (sounds delicious, doesn't it?). Except here's what honeydew actually means: a fluid exuded by plants in response to a visit by a plant-sucking insect. Euuuuwww. Well, let's not think about it.

Anyway, I'm not sure how this translates into useful information for the consumer, but the study appeared in a trade journal for the food science industry. So you can be sure that as soon as they can figure out how to slap a "high-antioxidant" label on honey, they will.

Planting pumpkins for their seeds

If you're a gardener who lives in the temperate zones, you're probably making plans for what to put in your garden this year. So here's an idea: How about planting kakai pumpkins? They weigh between 5 and 8 pounds each and have dark green stripes. But here's the cool part: Inside are large, hull-less, dark-green (almost black) seeds, which are delicious roasted.

*Health bonus: The kakai is related to the pumpkin used to make Austrian pumpkin seed oil, which has been found in a number of European studies to be extremely good for prostate health.

Each plant will produce 2 to 3 pumpkins in 100 days. The plants are described as "semi-bush, short-vine," which I take to mean that they take up less room than a standard pumpkin plant. You can get a packet of 30 seeds for $3.35 from Johnny's Selected Seeds. Or, if you have an empty field available, you can buy 25 pounds (55,000 seeds) for $1,300.

Teenage girls and magnesium

In a study at Yale med school, scientists discovered that teenage girls with a higher magnesium intake have better bone mineral density. They determined this by studying 44 teenage girls (ages 14 to 18) who took either a magnesium supplement or a placebo for a year. At the end of the study, the supplement group had greater bone mineral content than the placebo group. The study authors are quick to caution that this does not mean young girls should start taking magnesium supplements. But the study does point out that magnesium is critical to optimum bone health in growing young women.

We think that a good thing to do for your kids, especially if you have any teenage daughters, is get more magnesium into their diets. The RDA for magnesium for girls in the 14-18 year range is 360 mg.

Here are some foods that will provide at least 30% of that in a single serving:

• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup cooked spinach
• 1 cup cooked wild rice
• 1 cup cooked white or black beans
• 4 ounces tofu
• 5 ounces cooked halibut

[P.S. 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate has 50% of the magnesium a teenager needs. Shhhh.]

King Arthur Whole Grain Baking

The Vermont-based King Arthur Flour Company is America's oldest flour company--it was founded in Boston in 1790—and has always been a good source of fine baking ingredients and equipment, largely through The Baker's Catalogue, their online/mail-order business. Among the 1,000 items that King Arthur sells are their own home-grown baking books, including their most recent effort called King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking (The Countryman Press, $35).

I was really impressed with the attitude of the folks that developed the more than 400 recipes for this book, because I share their sentiments exactly about whole grain baking. Here's what they say in the intro to the book:

"This book is about flavor. It's not a lecture on why you ought to eat more whole grains, because you know that already. We set out to make whole grains taste great...We were determined not to accept any recipe with a comment something like, 'Tastes good for whole grain.'"

The book is filled with traditional baked goods that you would never expect to have whole grains in them: pound cake, eclairs, puff pastry, sticky buns. This is really what it's all about, learning how to improve the health profile of the foods you eat without turning them into drudgy health food.

Of course "good-for-you" foods can be a tough sell to kids, and the authors have addressed that: "If [your kids] try our brownies, cookies, cupcakes, breads and muffins, they'll never know (unless you tell them) about the whole grains in the recipe....We're not advocating hiding whole grains; however, many of us are parents and we know how hard it can be to get picky eaters to eat what's good for them."

Though clearly the recipes in the book have had a nice health makeover, the bonus is that they also sound delicious. Here are some that have tempted me: Chocolate Caramel Bread Pudding, Cheese Coins, Maple-Walnut Oat Bread, Pull-Apart Cranberry-Pecan Buns, Fudge Pudding Cake and Blueberry Cream Pie.

Do you know what a bombilla is?

Well, since you asked, a bombilla is a metal straw, sometimes of gold or silver, that is used in South America to drink yerba mate. Mate is a tea brewed from the leaves of an evergreen tree (as opposed to the tea plant) and is traditionally sipped out of a carved gourd. The decorated gourds and bombillas are really quite beautiful. Take a look at the collection at Patagonia Gifts.

One reason that yerba mate has its own drinking paraphernalia and is treated with such affection and reverence is that it is astonishingly high in caffeine. One website noted that pre-Columbian Indians liked the tea because it provided "an increased resistance to fatigue" and it had "thirst and hunger mitigation powers." A fancy way of saying that it is astonishingly high in caffeine.

Anyway, this is just my long-winded way of getting to a book that has been recently published by Elvira de Mejia, assistant professor of food science at the University of Illinois. The book, which is called Chemistry and Flavor of Hispanic Foods (probably not a bestseller title), investigates the nutraceutical value of the Hispanic diet, from Mexican beans to Margaritas. One of the book's main focuses is on mate, which de Mejia says "has the highest antioxidant capacity of the ethnic teas we have studied in my lab. There is evidence that three to four cups of this tea per day could have a protective effect against chronic diseases."

It will be interesting to see if yerba mate gives white, green and black teas a run for their money in the healthy drink market, though frankly 3 to 4 cups of mate would have me bouncing off the walls.

Here's a Hint: Just drink water

In October (2006), on the op-ed page of the New York Times, one of my favorite mystery/suspense authors, Harlan Coben, was on a rant about what he calls the "American Snack Tyranny." The rant was focused on what soccer parents [are required to] bring to games. He wrote "Do our kids need yet another...juice box with enough sugar to coat a Honda Odyssey? Can't they just finish playing and have some water?"

This point of view is echoed in the trademarked mantra of Hint, Inc., a San Francisco-based company that produces bottled water with just a "hint" of flavor and no sugar. (Oh, yeah, the mantra: Drink Water, Not Sugar™.)

Hint was founded by Kara Goldin, a mother of four who noticed that while there were a lot of bottled waters on the market promising to make you smarter or boost your energy or calm your nerves, there was really nothing that replaced all the thirst-quenching juice and soda that her family was drinking. An entrepreneur at heart (and a former AOL exec), Kara decided to fill this obvious gap in the market. This is how Hint waters were born.

When I got a number of their flavors to taste (there are 13 of them), I was skeptical. But they actually deliver on their promise. The Raspberry-Lime really tasted--and by tasted I mean smelled--like both raspberry and lime. I saved the Cucumber sample until last, because I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it. To my surprise, it was oddly refreshing and very true to the essence of cucumberness (so to speak).

Hint, which retails for about $1.69 for 16 ounces, is sold in specialty markets and some grocery stores. You can get a case of 24 bottles for $44 on the Hint website or 12 packs at Amazonfor $22.

Salt and obesity

It's the oldest trick in the book. Put out a bowl of complimentary peanuts or pretzels at the bar and people will order more drinks. It's simple logic: Make ’em thirsty and they'll buy more to slake their thirst.

This is the phenomenon behind the salt-soda-obesity connection. In a recent study, researchers in Finland have concluded that people who eat a lot of salt also drink a lot of high-calorie drinks (sugary sodas, mostly), which contributes in a major way to obesity.

The researchers have connected a lot of dots, of course, but if you look at the salt sales in this country, there has been a nearly 90% increase since the mid-'80s. And of course we all know about the obesity epidemic.

In poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the Harris Poll, concern over salt intake has finally sunk to fifth place, behind fat (still the top concern), calories, sugar and nutritional value. Parents are no longer checking food labels for salt levels. But maybe they should be. (Of course, if you ask me, they shouldn't even be buying those sugary drinks that are part of this salt-soda-obesity triangle.)

So other than a general recommendation to stop buying salty snacks and definitely stop buying soda, I would also suggest that you start looking at the salt levels of food again. Don't go crazy. Just keep an eye on what your kids (and the rest of your family) are eating.

Purple carrots?

Did you know that carrots weren’t always orange? Back in the day (wa-a-a-y back, in Roman times and well before), carrots were purple. It wasn’t until the 16th century, when Dutch growers bred carrots in honor of the House of Orange, that the carrot got its familiar color.

Flash forward to this century, and we find that there is a push to breed carrots (and lots of other vegetables, too) in anything other than their familiar color. There are red carrots and yellow carrots and white carrots and, making their comeback, purple carrots. Purple carrots called Maroons were developed a couple of years ago at the Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center at Texas A&M. The Maroon carrots not only have the health benefits that come from their purple pigment (anthocyanins), but they were also bred to be extra high in beta-carotene.

Maroon carrots are available in some markets, but if you can’t find them locally, you can order them from a specialty produce company called Melissa's. Their mail order department (800-588-0151) can take your order or tell you what stores in your area carry maroons.