I am proud to award my Golden Whisk to Kaiser Permanente’s Thrive campaign. When I first saw the broccoli commercial on my TV screen, I was quite taken back. At last the President Bush broccoli sabotage was being erased. I was proud to see broccoli taking the lead in this unprecedented oratory.

Is it possible smart eating could become fashionable? Yes, of course it will, as soon as elephants fly.

I am angry at those narrow minded individuals who balk whenever current consumer research groups point to new evidence about the dangers of daily ingested food products. Consumer groups (the Food Police) are the butt of bad jokes by insensitive persons who lack diet discipline and prefer going through life avoiding responsibility, but I would hate to think of the consequences if trans-fats had never been brought to our attention.

Today, anything and anybody who makes you aware of how important health is to your well-being is a friend. We should regard the information as a priceless tool which, used properly, can save your body and your cash, and make you a better human being. Those who dispense new life saving tips aren’t winning awards or getting hits on the Internet. Yet, a minor voice like mine applauds these efforts.

I respect any medical organization that reminds people of how simple care adds to our longer and healthier life. It’s good to know that somewhere there are knowledgeable staff and caring doctors when needed. Can we see more billboards with blue berries, and high school vending machines that sell fruit and bottled water? Could we see more medical professionals declaring similar sage words flashed upon our TV screens?

KAISER THRIVE CREED
We stand for broccoli. For Pilates. And dental floss. We believe in the treadmill and its siblings Stairmaster, and elliptical. In SPF30 we trust. We stand for seatbelts and stopping HIV. And we believe fruit makes a wonderful dessert. We have faith in optimism. In laughter as medicine as well as penicillin. And we pledge allegiance to one nation, indivisible with resistance and cardio for all.

We believe in physical therapy, psychotherapy, even music as therapy. All hail cold turkey, the gum, and the patch. We’re anti-addiction. Pro-antioxidant. And have never met a vegetable we didn’t like. We believe there is art to medicine as well as science. And we believe health isn’t an industry, it’s a cause. We are Kaiser Permanente and we stand for health. May you live long and thrive.! For more information visit www.kaiserpermanente.org/thrive

My convection oven has been a faithful kitchen helper since 1982 when I first began my job as an oven demonstrator–they were even light enough to carry with me on cooking jobs. Towards the latter 80’s I stopped seeing small electronic versions.

However, when Farberware stopped making them, Delonghi picked up the slack. Many brands popped up but Delonghi seemed to maintain their place as the leader, and each one seemed to have better features than the previous one. When choosing one for yourself, look reliability and how long the company has made the model–totally unknown brands often pop out of nowhere.

I choose a Delonghi convection oven in 1998 that sit on my cabinet adjacent to the full sized stove. It heats quickly, it shuts down upon completion, it is a snap to wipe out and it uses only 1500 watts of electricity. I use my full size oven to store large pots and frying pans. Some new models come with pull out bottoms that make your job even easier. Some of the models will also have rotisseries.

My convection oven will hold a 14 pizza pan or 2 9-inch pies. While some of my older cookie sheets were just an inch too big, I quickly solved the problem with those inexpensive foil pans. Another benefit of these foil pans is cookies don’t stick to them.

Custard and rice pudding seems to bake faster in a convection oven. The grandkids like Grandma’s Potato Bombers. Once you’ve tasted these, fast food French fries will taste like shoestring grease pencils.

Grandma’s Potato Bombers: Scrub Russet potatoes and cut them into wedges. Spray with oil and cover with zesty seasonings. Bake at 425 for about 45 min or until roasted to golden brown.

Should you spill something on the bottom of the oven, like juicy apple pie or milk from scalloped potatoes, not to worry. Simply heat some water to almost boiling in your tea kettle, and lay down a small towel over the bottom. Cover the towel with hot water and allow it to set for about 30 minutes. It should wipe right up. To avoid this problem in the future, use a tin foil oven liner.

Prices vary, and often you might find them on sale at your local Macys. Or see them at nearby Fry’s Electronics once you have seen them and know what they look like, you may also be able to buy one online for much less. Just go to your search engine and type in Convection Ovens and you will find a list of many choices and their descriptions.

Of course, if you’re getting a complete new kitchen you are undoubtedly planning on getting a built-in oven. Remember big ovens are like big cars, they can really suck up the fuel. I have used my convection oven for 20 years and there’s no going to a big black box ever again. You will want use it more often, simply because it’s faster and cleaner.

I have this collection of lists and like most vain writers. I hate to waste them So in the future I shall refer to these writings as:

LISTS NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME PUBLISHING

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED

1. Why socks like the human species are seldom mated for life
2. If anyone has been arrested for blatantly ripping labels
   from pillows and mattresses.
3. Why supermarkets invariably relocate everything once you have
   memorized where they are at.
4. Do blind people really use ATMs
5. Why would anyone go on a talk show only to prove they are brain
   dead, morally bankrupt and essence of vulgarity!
6. Are chocolates really a substitute for sex or merely easier to obtain and guaranteed to satisfy.
7. Why long distance phone companies have the gall to assume that we even want to talk to our distant relatives
8. Why do Television Networks time their commercials to air simultaneously thus destroying any possibility of channel surfing?
9. Have you ever noticed those miracle wrinkle creams are only shown models under 30 and aging ever second?
10. How is it possible after only 20 minutes of grocery shopping you find yourself with a serious case of parking lot Alzheimer’s?

While laws have been passed to help the consumer know exactly what he is eating, nutritional labels remain cloaked in confusion. It’s likely that most people who take the time to decipher the nutritional information for the food they eat would be shocked at learning the degree of fat, salt, and sugar which is being foisted upon us by the food industry.

While writing this article, I retrieved from the recycling bin the box that contained the quiche I ate for dinner. Note figure D, showing the nutrition facts. I consumed 490 calories and I was still hungry. I had just sent 16 grams of saturated fat to my arteries and ate 30% of the recommended salt consumption for the entire day.

Next, snacking light: hours at the computer often requires one to have some nourishment in order to make it to dinner. On this occaision, I had a 3 ounce “fun size” bag of chips. Never consuming more than these paltry 3 ounces, I thought this was a fairly reasonable snack. One day I finally read the label (refer to figure C) and discover that 1 ounce (or 15 chips) contain 10 grams of fat and 160 calories! Of course, I never ate just a single ounce, intending always to knock off the entire bag. With the help of a calculator, I was able to figure that in doing so, I end up consuming 480 calories and 30 gram of fat – just 3 grams less than that quiche I ate for dinner yesterday.

Now let’s that look to another choice for that mid-day treat. Say I choose instead a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup (figure B). I am now consuming only 230 calories, and my fat is only 13 grams (17 less than my bag of chips). The sugar is 20 grams and that is about 8 less than your average soda Acceptable choices are out there but they require detective work and a perhaps a nod from your cardiologist.

Lastly, figure A shows the label from a instant Macaroni & Cheese meal, a commonly chosen snack or lunch choice for millions of office workers or kids left on their own. A little water and microwaving and you have an instant reservation at your hypertension specialist having consumed 1390 grams of salt and 14 grams of the worst fat (palm oil and hydrogenated soy oil). What protein you do get comes in the form of hydrolyzed soy. Macaroni & Cheese is available in every dollar store for 50 cents but few ever read over the ingredients on the box.

Learn to love the labels……… they just could save your life!

NEXT WEEK: All about the dark side of chocolates

A good digital timer is worth its weight in gold for keeping track of what’s on the stove or in the oven. Take it with you around the house and its persistent beep will get you back to the kitchen pronto! An alarm is also very good to have when you’re on the phone and you need to get to get off the line.

The documentary “SUPER SIZE ME” chronicles a David challenging an American Goliath: McDonald’s. The Giant may still breathing his usual destructive flames of phony food promises, but at least Morgan Spurlock, the film-maker playing our David, has opened doors of new nutritional awareness.

Spurlock’s idea to create this unusual film came about after a particularly filling Thanksgiving dinner, when he caught a news segment about 2 girls suing McDonald’s. These teenagers were blaming McDonalds for their weight condition directly on McDonalds. Spurlock began to doubt the corporation’s claims that their products alone could not explain the poor health of the girls. What would happen, Spurlock thought, if he ate only Mac Donald for 30 days, and further, ordered every meal “super-sized” whenever he was prompted? How would this affect a man of healthy weight without any known medical problems?

Although his girlfriend and family were less than thrilled with the idea of Morgan deliberately destroying his prime health for the film, he remained undeterred. After undergoing a number of tests to measure his current health, he began the experiment.

Each trip to McDonald’s included the super size deal and was followed with a giant soda. How any human person could eat that much bad food continuously for 30 days was truly more than anybody should to do for science. 15 days into Spurlock’s filming, his doctors where concerned that maybe he should stop – not simply because he was experiencing weight gain, but because his blood pressure and cholesterol were now at very dangerous levels. Our remarkable guinea pig emerges from his ordeal with some serious medical problems.

His efforts won Best Documentary from the Int’l Press Academy and also won Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America. The edited DVD version is now distributed to schools throughout the US. I also understand Kaiser Permanente have encouraged its employees to view the film and offers free copies to take home for family viewing.

Of course, there is negative criticism from the fast food restaurant industry and columnists who paint Spurlock as a “Nutrition Cop” performing an unrequested service. Still, the visual evidence is difficult to dispute. Watch the film and decide for yourself!

While it probably won’t be listed in your freezer’s operating instructions, if you keep your freezer completely full it will use very little energy. You do this by filling it with jugs of water . Freeze them upright then place them on their side to take up less space. Using clean jugs allows you to have emergency ice anytime.

Any subject related to the categories of this web site is welcome. Your submission may be edited and those deemed inappropriate to the theme will be returned with an explanation. With so much content and so little opportunity to be heard on this crowded super highway of Internet. I want you to know I care about how you feel about issues such as these:

• Schools giving out “fat” report cards
• Confusion on nutritional labels
• Hollywood’s lack of good food models
• How frozen dinners never look like what’s on the box.
• Are excessive junk food commercials annoying you.
• School cafeterias ran by fast food companies

Join me this ongoing web of controversy and intelligent feedback!
Thank you
Sincerely Helen Sue Dell