New Year Challenges

A new year sometimes means a new diet. let's face it, After a season of feasting and excess maybe it's time to pare down the diet. There's a new sugar challenge out there where people cut out products that contain any type of sweetener  from honey to refined sugar. The theory can also be applied to cutting salt and fat.

The sugar challenge was the topic of an opinion piece in yesterday's New York Sunday Times. David Leonhardt, a Pulitzer prize winner and Times columnist penned  "A Month Without Sugar" after he did the challenge himself. It's not just giving up soda and doughnuts. Almost every food, he writes, save for pita bread and Triscuits have some kind of sugar in them.Our salad dressings, our breads, even our fruit juices and granola bars are loaded with unhealthy sugars. Going sugarless means enjoying more fresh veggies and scratch meals.it also means appreciating fruits and enjoying their natural sweet flavor, heightened by the lack of the processed stuff. Home chefs have to be diligent. Eschewing sugar means carefully reading ingredients and switching one brand for one that's healthier. Mr.Leonhardt  has found it to be helpful in a variety of ways, He lost his taste for sugar and all that goes with it as well as developing a keen appreciation of any kind of fruit's natural sweetness. It was hard at first but itsoonn became acceptable and then a part of his life.

Can salt and fat be given up for a month? It is possible. People have done such for both, Devin Ellsworth wrote about his seven day  foray on his vegan blog Plantiful. It's actually more healthful because a salty diet brings  about headaches, fatigue and headaches.it's also a crucial component in retaining water and bloating. Those disappear when the sodium intake goes down. He felt lighter and more clear-headed. Going saltless is good but there is a caveat. It's almost impossible to eat out. Mr. Ellsworth went to Chipotle, perfect for satisfying his vegetarian diet , however imperfect for finding salt free foods. The only fast food item that has almost trace amount of salt is a plain baked potato from Wendy's It only has twenty-five milligrams of salt and has to be eaten plain. The extras' such as sour cream and chives add on fifty milligrams. Fat is about the easiest to give up.If anything it's eating more fruits and vegetables and giving up dairy and sweets.Carbs can also be cut out too and more lean protein can be added in to for satiety.

Challenges can be a good thing, Doing ones that bring about a better life is definitely worth it. See if can be done , week at first, then a month  without sugar, salt and fat.

Frog Eye Pudding And Turkey.

The one holiday that unites all Americans is Thanksgiving. No matter what your religion is or your nationality you will sit down tomorrow, like your neighbors coworkers, friends and even enemies and be thankful for all you have and all you have to eat. Surprisingly though the thoughts and main dish are the same. It seems sides and desserts vary from state to state , surprisingly and perhaps not surprisingly so.

Kevin Quealy and David Leonhardt tallied up what America eats in an article in today's Food Section in the New York Times. This is an offshoot of an article written last week that highlighted certain dishes from each of our fifty states and Puerto Rico,It deals with the most searched recipes by state.Of course , the most popular is turkey but the researchers looked at searches for other dishes by state and how often they were researched. It proved an interesting glimpse into America's culinary window. For example Californians tend to look up persimmon bread recipes more times than another group.It's probably made for dessert, resembling apricot or cherry breads.Some dishes beggar belief. There is a Snickers salad , popular in Minnesota and Nebraska.It is what the name suggests, chopped up Snickers bars mixed with chopped apples and whipped cream. Variations include subbing in
 bananas and/or pineapple for the apples and sometimes there's a pudding thrown in.Some other states such as Idaho and Nevada make frog eye pudding, yet another I can't believe this is an actual dessert. It is a wild mix of Acini  de Pepe pasta mixed with pineapple , marshmallow and coconut with a decoration of orange slices.

A few reflect the ethnic make up of the state. New Yorkers and New Jerseyians go mad for stuffed artichokes, a must have in an Italian household.The heavily Hispanic  Florida features coquito, the tasty rum and coconut holiday drink along with their own pumpkin dessert  flan di Calabaza. Connecticut 's favorite dishes reflect their aura of WASPiness and almost a cliché., with popovers creamed onions and butternut squash casserole.You would think Alaska then would have caribou casserole or Eskimo           ice cream, a mix of seal oil, whale blubber and berries but they're actually pretty traditional.Most people there want a Waldorf salad or cranberry relish. Hawaii too has a pretty usual palate save for jook or congee, a soupy rice porridge usually eaten for breakfast. However it is made into a comfort food with the addition of turkey, straying from its' Asian roots.

Some dishes may vary from state to state. It's  still considered Thanksgiving as long as you have turkey or tofurkey, family and gratefulness .In the end that's all that matters.