Health & Safety

I think we all need to hear this.

While both diets may seem similar, there's one thing that sets them apart.

There's one ingredient you need to watch out for.

But please, don't be a lunch zombie.

This time of year, hearts are abundant in every way, shape, and form. There are the classic heart-shaped candies, of course, but also cookies, cupcakes, and pizzas. Even breakfast gets in on the action with heart-shaped eggs and bacon! (See all the heart-shaped things here.) But it’s rare we actually stop to think about our real heart — and I’m not talking about in the emotional sense.

When we usually think of “health” in terms of food, we think of nutrition – what we can eat that won’t make us tired of gain weight, what vitamins a certain vegetable has, etc. There is, however, another essential “health” involved in your kitchen that needs a little more attention. From why you shouldn’t wash your chicken, to why bagged lettuce is kind of a bummer, these 10 important lessons highlight health and safety in your kitchen.

The first bite of a spicy curry or extra-hot salsa never seems so bad. Neither does the second. But as we keep eating, that heat slowly builds and builds. It ends up being the last bite that just about does us in! Ever wonder why that is?The chemical responsible for the heat in chili peppers is called capsaicin. It activates pain receptors in our mouths, tricks our bodies into thinking that we’re hotter than we are, and even increases our metabolism.

You might have heard the scientific buzz surrounding the connection between a healthy gut and overall health, with studies showing that a person’s microbiome — the collective name for all the microbes that inhabit an individual’s body — can have an impact on conditions like obesity, diabetes and asthma, and may even have a profound effect on our mental well-being. So how do you cultivate a healthy and happy microbiome? It starts with vegetables.

What: To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. Read the series → Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four Love really good popcorn, but don’t want to take the time to make it the old-fashioned way? Use sprouted corn kernels in place of conventional popping corn, and you can achieve popcorn perfection with the convenience of your microwave. Here’s how to do it. The keys to great popcorn are the multiple mini-explosions created when heat turns the moisture in each kernel into steam.

Confusion over food labeling has been estimated to account for about 20% of consumer food waste.

The only reason you think of certain foods as “breakfast foods” is because that’s how they’ve been marketed to you, explains Amanda Mull in The Atlantic today.

Nonstick cooking sprays like Pam and Mazola are convenient to use and boast fat-free cooking. But these products have also always seemed to us like one of those strange slightly-mystical products akin to Bac-Os bacon bits or pre-grated Parmesan cheese in a can. Just what the heck is nonstick cooking spray?!From what we can tell, most nonstick cooking sprays are simply an oil (usually canola) thinned out with water.

Unless you do a lot of gluten-free baking, you might not have come across xanthan gum — at least not in a recipe. Flip over a jar of salad dressing or a carton of ice cream to read the ingredients, and you’ll likely find xanthan gum listed there, too!So, is this a safe ingredient for a gluten-free diet — or an industrial additive to be avoided?Xanthan gum is produced from a certain strain of bacteria (Xanthomonas campestris, according to Wikipedia) reacting with carbohydrates.

We hate cough drops almost as much as we hate coughing. The ones we buy in the store either taste like candy or some kind of poison, and the throat-soothing affect of either is always a little dubious. But here are some cough drops we think we can get on board with: the homemade kind!This tutorial comes by way of the Instructables website, and simply combines super-concentrated tea with a dose of sugar.

We’ve been fascinated by a post David Lebovitz recently wrote describing a strange bitter taste every time he ate or drank. The culprit? Some pine nuts he’d eaten days earlier, of all things! Has this ever happened to you?We’d never heard of this before, but apparently it’s a fairly widespread phenomenon referred to as “pine mouth.” Eat the wrong batch of pine nuts and you’ll taste a phantom bitter or soapy off-flavor in all your foods and beverages.

Check out what I found tucked into the ingredient list on a box of granola bars. Is this just high fructose corn syrup in disguise?Here’s the problem: not much is known about high maltose corn syrup. While high fructose corn syrup has been tested and researched and scrutinized, this maltose version seems to have slipped under the radar.Maltose is a sugar just like fructose, but it’s made of two joined glucose molecules.

Do you find the sound of a tablemate chewing with his mouth open slightly annoying or does it trigger outright anger?Those diagnosed with a newly recognized condition called misophonia are driven to panic and rage by certain small sounds like chewing, slurping and gulping.Misophonia sufferers find these sounds more than just mildly annoying.

What food are most dangerous? Your mind might turn first to living creatures equipped with claws or pinchers. But actually, the foods that seem to give the most people a hard time aren’t alive. They are the foods that are slippery or hard to hold. I’ll tell you my most-feared food if you tell me yours! A few years ago Oprah made a big deal about bagels. Does anyone remember that? She cut herself holding one and afterwards she started giving away bagel slicers like mad.

Eat better, feel better, right? Unfortunately it’s not always that easy, which is why we received no shortage of questions about healthy eating and specialized diets this year. Looking for satisfying low-carb meals, ideas for eating more vegetables, healthy recipes for picky eaters, or advice for eating on the road with food allergies? You aren’t alone! Here are the 15 most helpful health-related questions our readers answered in 2013.

You probably know the rule of thumb when it comes to storing meat in the refrigerator: keep it as low as possible, so if any leakage occurs, it doesn’t drip on shelves below. But after I did a more thorough food safety audit of my fridge (remember that time the health inspector visited my kitchen?) I decided to also take one extra precaution when storing fish and meat in the fridge. I now have a clear plastic bin in the refrigerator dedicated solely to meat.

Are you as confused as I am when it comes to food expiration dates? There are so many ways that things are labeled and dated, even mystery codes that you need a key to crack! Here’s what all the various terms mean so that you can make informed decisions when purchasing or deciding if something is worth keeping or throwing away. One of the main reasons why food expiration labeling is so confusing is that, with the exception of infant formula, product dating is not regulated.

I don’t usually plan when I’m going to snack. Instead I reach for something to nibble on the moment my stomach starts grumbling. And as for what I reach for, it’s usually whatever is the most convenient and requires the least amount of work in the moment. Smarter snacking comes down to this: prep, packaging, and storage. Here are five helpful tips to make those things, and smarter snacking, a little bit easier.

Thanks to non-dairy geniuses, we already know that puréed nuts are a great substitute in recipes that call for creamy cheese sauces. But if you’re craving something less runny, a little firmer, and more ricotta-esque, then here’s a new trick. Add steamed cauliflower to that nut blend. While creamed nuts provide a velvety base, the steamed cauliflower give the mixture thickness, body, and a bumpy, ricotta-like texture.

Even for someone who’s a fan of vegetables, I find that trying to eat enough feels more like a chore than it should. More often than not, I end up sticking with the same old green salad or roasted vegetable routine every day at lunch and dinner, which can get pretty boring. So I reached out to a few food bloggers and writers who spend their days eating mostly vegetables for some tips on how to not only eat more vegetables, but also make it even more enjoyable to do so.

I’m planning on attending graduate school this fall, so I’ve been trying to save $1,500 a month in hopes of taking out as little in student loans as possible. After crunching some numbers, I realized that, aside from housing and utilities, the majority of my money went to groceries (I’m Hungarian, and I have a deep love for meat, especially artisanal salami from my local Eastern European butcher). I decided to limit myself to $200 per month on groceries.

Truth be told, when it comes to meal planning, I’ve long taken the old-school pen-and-paper approach. In part because I’m a list maker at heart who loves a good notebook and colored pens, and also because I believed it to be the simplest approach. But turns out I might have really been missing something along the way. Until now I’ve been resistant to move to a meal planning app (of which there are so many!), for no other reason than I’m a creature of habit.

It’s a universal fact that Mondays are tough. We’re not going to say they’re the worst because you can master them, but it’s a safe assumption that the first day of the work week causes you some stress. Maybe a lot of stress. And maybe you start worrying about Mondays on Sunday, so then your Sundays start to become stressful too. Well, we’re here to help you ward off those Sunday scaries with a few kitchen coping mechanisms.

Just remember what you learned in kindergarten: Never judge a book by its cover.

In the weeks leading up to my first round of Whole30, I spent hours scouring Pinterest, blogs, and what felt like every corner of the internet searching for delicious-sounding compliant recipes to fill my upcoming meal plan. While I felt productive about planning ahead and lining up recipes, it was also extremely time-consuming. And to be honest, while I came away with a long list of recipe ideas, I felt just okay about them; they didn’t necessarily get me excited.

When I’m in a bad mood, I do one of two things: I either clean obsessively (I’m talking triple-vacuuming the rugs and dusting behind the appliances) or I get in the kitchen and make something (often while sipping a glass of wine). I’m going to chalk up the first to my German upbringing and I wouldn’t impose that on anyone, but I think the act of cooking is one of the most therapeutic things you can do. It can brighten your day — and your life! Here’s how.

For the past 20 days the United States federal government has been shut down. That means that Congress can’t come to an agreement with the president on how the U.S. Treasury should dispense funds for government projects and agencies — in this case, President Trump would like money to build a border wall, and he hasn’t accepted his Democratic opponents’ compromise of $1.6 billion to fund border security.

U.S. News recently tried out 41 popular diets and decided that the "best" diet for 2019 is actually the Mediterranean diet.

There are a few things that I can guarantee (with absolute certainty) will happen in the early days of this new year. I will not be able to successfully write 2019 on the first try — until at least April. I will continue to tell everyone I know that “I am going to get a gym membership when the crowds die down.” I am going to resolve to eat better and save that money. To help me get a jump-start on that third one (for real this time!

Let’s break the myth once and for all that eating healthfully (in whatever way that looks like for you!) is automatically super pricey and will blow through your weekly food budget in a matter of days. Sure, it can, but it absolutely doesn’t have to. In my own kitchen, I’ve made it a priority to fill my meal plan with foods that help my family eat in a way that feels healthy to us and makes us feel good — all while keeping our spending totally in check.

There are many parenting paradigms that really needed to be examined with fresh eyes and approached in a totally different way. Case in point? Our obsession with getting kids to eat more fruits and vegetables. It can be tempting to approach the end of some seasons — the holidays, lax summer seasons, or even vacation — with an inclination to get our families, especially young kids, to eat better.

When it comes to home cooking, few people have imparted more wisdom to the masses than the late Julia Child. She taught us to relax and have fun in the kitchen, extolled the endless virtues of butter, and shopped local way before it was cool. Child also famously washed raw chicken before cooking it, explaining that it was probably safer because it would get rid of germs. As well-meaning as this seems, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Around the holiday season, people who like to siphon that fun, carefree feeling from the spate of year-end celebrations go into overdrive. People rail against Starbucks holiday cups and over-the-top Christmas light displays. The latest controversy – care of the CDC — concerns one of America’s favorite pastimes: eating raw cookie dough. But unfortunately, this one seems pretty valid.

Here is an incomplete list of foods that you probably try to eat in moderation (to varying degrees of success): doughnuts, Hersheys Kisses, celery sticks, and tofu, probably. French fries are not one of those foods. You can’t simply order a side of fries, eat one or two, and feel satisfied; to do so would take an act of willpower beyond your wildest dreams.

Learn when to bake vs. when to toss.

Toddler parents know this one thing to be true: A hungry toddler is a cranky toddler. And while we’re often in a rush to feed our littlest eaters before they melt down, we also want to make sure they are regularly trying new foods and getting balanced nutrition, too. Need fresh ideas? We got you. Some of my fellow editors (all parents!) and I brainstormed a massive list of our favorite easy and wholesome toddler food ideas — and below, you’ll find all of them.

As a vegetarian, I eat beans — and lots of them. At least once a week, and usually far more often, I’ll find myself at the sink rinsing off canned kidney beans in a colander to rid them of the liquid glop from the can, or standing over a pot of dried chickpeas, giving it an occasional stir.

One of the easiest ways to eat a healthful diet is to consume more fruits and vegetables. That sounds fine on the surface, but how do you actually do it? Making salads for lunch every day is an easy way to start, but that can get boring fast. Luckily, there are lots of tricks to squeezing a few more wholesome fruits and vegetables into breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and even incorporating them into snacks and desserts. Let me show you how.

Packing my daughter’s lunch is certainly a chore, and sometimes a straight-up struggle. Trying to keep that lunch bag filled with nutritious foods that she will actually eat — especially for a girl who doesn’t want to eat the same thing every day — is a continuing challenge. Then beyond that, I worry about food safety.

Packing 180 school lunch boxes every year can get old, fast. The easier the better, am I right? If you’re looking to fill kids’ lunch boxes with more nutritious and filling foods, you’ve landed in just the right place. These lunch boxes are geared towards elementary and middle school kiddos who eat pretty independently but still need plenty of protein to fuel their school days. The best part? Most of these ideas would satisfy hungry adults, too.

The grocery store deli counter has long been a safe haven for easy packed lunches. Pick up a pound of turkey and some sliced cheddar, and you’re halfway to a week of easy sandwiches for the family. By Thursday or Friday, however, the lunch meat often begins to look a little suspicious, and you’re left wondering if those last slices are safe to eat. The sell-by or use-by date isn’t always the best indicator, so instead here are three surefire signs to look for.

Make-ahead Whole30 meals that are anything but boring.

We know most kids seem to love sugary foods. What we often don’t know is how to decide how much sugar is too much, whether we should use sugar as a reward, or when we should let our kids indulge in the sugar-laced treats we say are off-limits. Parenting is not an exact science; there’s usually no firm right or wrong answer for child-rearing questions when it comes to food. And sometimes choosing what’s best for your family is a matter of shopping around for ideas.

I’m pretty sure kids have hated vegetables since the beginning of time. One of these days anthropologists will unearth new cave paintings depicting families eating dinner together, and there, between the fire and the spear, will be a pictograph of a kid refusing to try his spinach. That’s the kid mine descended from, at least. I really try not to hate the moms who say, “Oh, vegetables? I just stick anything I can into Sally’s sandwich, and she eats it.

Here’s how “mom life” is supposed to work: You get home from long days of (fill in the blank: work, school, play, travel, life), open the fridge, and find an abundance of fruits and vegetables for a perfect nutritious meal. (You’re doing such a good job of planning ahead these days!) The kids play quietly while things come together in about 30 minutes, and someone else takes over the dishes while you have a few minutes to relax before the bedtime routine begins.

In what has to be the most iconic scene in Meet the Parents, an eager Ben Stiller tells his girlfriend’s parents about the time that he milked a cat so that the smallest kitten in a litter could eat. “You can milk anything with nipples,” he explained. “I have nipples, Greg,” a stone-faced Robert DeNiro responded. “Could you milk me?

The next time your Paleo-eating friend tells the waitstaff that your table doesn’t need a bread basket, this is your opportunity to go full-on “WELL, ACTUALLY…” A team of archaeology and archaeobotany researchers just discovered a charred, pita-like flatbread at a research site in northeastern Jordan, and this is one history-changing collection of grains, tubers and gluten.

Sometimes it feels like I spend a solid quarter of my life reading nutrition labels. I know I have to read those labels to know what’s in my food, but reading all the labels — for everything — means a trip to the grocery store takes at least twice as long as it would if it didn’t involve standing around the aisles googling “xylitol” while the ice cream melts.

Reach for a few cloves of garlic or an onion as you’re prepping dinner and you may be greeted by a little green sprout that’s shot through it. It tends to look a bit like an intruder, and you probably want to know if it’s safe to eat. Before you toss that garlic or onion in the trash, know the facts. Here’s the truth about those sprouts. Those little sprouts grow as the allium ages.

There are a few key signs that signal it's spoiled.

Adding all of these to my meal plan ASAP!

When you’re on the road with the family, the last thing you want is a car filled with hungry kids. The familiar cajoles of road trip games and playful conversation can quickly turn sour if the children in the backseat go unfed. But what are you going to feed them? If you packed enough snacks to keep the kids satisfied, it’s no big deal. When they start squirming or asking for a bite, you can just pass them whatever you have on hand.

While I am generally not a fan of my kids snacking, there are times — like right when they get home from school — when they just want a little something. Immediately. And they don’t care that I’m actively cooking dinner that will be ready in five minutes. So while I’d rather they not snack, I’m also a realist. As long as I can guide them toward something healthy, I know they can feed their growing bellies.

In dire need of a breakfast sandwich? Dunkin Donuts is, without a doubt, one of the most popular chains in America for coffee and breakfast. But take your kids in there with you and you’re setting yourself up for all kinds of requests for Dunkin’s sprinkle-coated, fun-shaped treats. According to Katrina Trisko, MS, RDN, CDN, a New York City-based registered dietitian, it is possible to find a healthy option at this chain.

Remember a few years ago, when your Paleo-eating, Crossfit-obsessed friends invited you over for cauliflower crust pizza? And as you forced a smile through one damp, flavorless mouthful after another, you thought this will never catch on. Um, yeah, it seems to have actually caught on. Trader Joe’s and Costco both sell their own cauli-crusts, California Pizza Kitchen has made it a permanent menu addition, and even my fave local pizza joint offers it as a semi-regular special.

When you think of milk alternatives, almond milk is usually one of the first to come to mind. But the alternative “mylk” category seems to be growing and shifting every day, and that means you’ve got options — lots of them. This is great news for anyone who has nut allergies, or is concerned about the potential environmental problems associated with growing water-hogging nut trees.

Avoiding certain cheeses is a key part of pregnancy. That said, there's some misinformation out there.

For practically as long as I was engaged, people were telling me that I needed to be sure to eat on my wedding day. “There’s going to be so much going on and you’re going to be totally overwhelmed as soon as things are underway,” they said. “Stock up on snacks for the morning. And be sure you have someone bringing you something to eat during the wedding itself, because you’re going to forget.

If you want a good night’s rest, you know to avoid the big three: caffeine, sugar, and booze. That means no late-night cup of coffee, decadent dessert, or nightcap. And, while hotels may leave a square of chocolate on the pillow, eating it before bed will also interfere with your sleep (chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is full of caffeine). But what about more unlikely foods that may disrupt your rest?

There are a couple of options depending on how many hours you've got until dinner.

“Drink more water” is a goal that many of us set, whether we’re looking for better health, clearer skin, or more restful sleep. Now imagine chasing a 3-year-old around the house with a water bottle, begging them to do just that, and you can imagine how “drink more water” can sound more like a wish than an attainable goal. Earlier this year I discovered a little trick for getting my kids, 3 and 6, to drink more water without fussing, begging, or yelling.

I am not typically prone to impulse buys, like not at all — unless I’m in Whole Foods. For some reason, that store’s displays have a way of convincing me that yes, I should be making turmeric tea and yeah, I probably do need to sprinkle powdered collagen on everything I eat, and, wait, why don’t I have a fridge filled with alkaline water?

I have issues with food. And to a degree, I think it’s impossible to avoid some issues with food, whether that means not stopping when full, feeling guilty about overindulging, or emotionally eating or restricting. What I hope is possible is not passing down my personal issues to my kids. Feeding kids is already tricky enough. Add to that the idea that you could maybe hurt them psychologically and it’s enough to make a mom like me lose sight of logic all together.

At this point, it seems like almost every fast food restaurant has some kind of dollar menu — and we’re not mad about that. But when you’re shouting into a drive-thru speaker, how do you know when (and if) you are really getting the most nutritional bang for your buck?

I probably sound like everyone else when I say pizza is one of my favorite foods. Really, though, I can’t get enough of it — my husband and I make it at home every single week, get in serious debates over styles and toppings, and even centered our welcome dinner at our wedding around a truck slinging out fresh pies.

Before you serve sunny-side-up eggs to the whole family this weekend, read this.

Borrowing habits from our hunter-gatherer ancestors, the Paleo diet focuses on a simpler way of eating. It favors whole, nutrient-rich foods, and nixes “new world” foods like processed foods, dairy, grains, and sugar. The restrictions are many, so naturally it would seem like chocolate is certainly not on this diet’s list of approved foods. And yet the internet, cookbooks, and shelves of Whole Foods are filled with chocolate desserts that claim to be Paleo-friendly.

You sip it, cook with it, and turn it into soup. Here's what the experts have to say on whether it's good for you or not.