I bought the à la card chicago deck of cards at OneofaKind Chicago show this past December. It’s been the best $30 I’ve spent all year and I only regret not having mentioned it here earlier. The à la card chicago is a 52 card deck, each card a $10 coupon valid at the 52 chef-driven, owner-operated restaurants in Chicago. The à la card peeps explain it best:
We’ve basically created a consortium of 52 Chicago restaurants–and not just any restaurants, but the best in the city. The restaurants span 25 different neighborhoods, various cuisines and price points, but they have [...]

I have a new crush. His name is Jamie Oliver. Not only is he cute and British, but he’s also on a mission. That’s pretty sexy. Actually, more like a mission to create a revolution. A Food Revolution.
“I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It’s time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food!”

Jamie is – justifiably – outraged at the current quality of our food in general and [...]

We are so much more “aware” consumers nowadays and we want to know what – exactly what – we are putting in our mouths, on our skin, in our homes. Is it healthy? Is it safe? Is it sustainable? Thanks to the GoodGuide, we can now verify this information on over 70,000 food, toy, personal care and household items.
While still in beta mode, the GoodGuide already “provides the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of the products in your home.” It analyzes and rates food, personal care products, household cleaners and [...]

By BR Thomas, Guest Contributor
Sports Drinks for Hydration and for Taste.
Most sports drinks in the stores are just empty calories, chemical additives, disposable plastic bottles and unnecessary costs. Some of us are drinking bottled water, but that still has the problems of disposable bottles and costs per gallon greater than that of gasoline! We all need to be well hydrated to keep our bodies functioning properly, but what should we drink to achieve that goal?
Sports drinks provide water, sugar, salt and flavor. Sugar and salt in sports drinks are needed only for intense workouts longer than 1 hour to [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Contributing Editor
When I was a kid, my favorite salad dressing was Thousand Island. It was the only dressing that I would put on my salad.  As I grew older, my taste evolved and I also became more health conscious. Every once in a while, however, I crave the taste of my childhood favorite. During a recent visit to Whole Foods, I saw a whole line of yogurt based salad dressings by Bolthouse Farms in the refrigerated section. Including Thousand Island! After putting on my reading glasses to check the tiny print of the nutritional information, I [...]

I ain’t no researcher, but the results of this new study sure sound like something I want to hear: “Study suggest probiotics may affect metabolism” …
TORRANCE, Calif. (Jun. 3) Results of a new study published in the journal Molecular Systems Biology showed probiotics have a tangible effect on metabolism — suggesting that the digestive flora may provide weight loss benefits in addition to helping to maintain digestive health.
Researchers from Imperial College London and Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, fed mice two different strains of probiotics, Lactobacillus paracasei and Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Each strain showed a range of biochemical effects [...]

Well, when you put it that way…
I always wondered why, after a getaway with my good friend Audrey, a few glasses of wine later, the jeans are so much tighter…. Actually, I always knew why, but now that I am faced with such visual evidence, it will be easier to say “No thank you, Dahhhlin’. I’m still sipping on this one”.  Ughhh.
You can find this darned clever Alcohol Experiment Widget on the BBC website, right HERE. Geeez, BBC, thanks a lot.

Via Iconoculture.

I came back to the office yesterday with a couple Dunkin Donuts bags and drink carrier. I was met with raised eyebrows. “What were you doing at Dunkin Donuts?” Anyone who knows me knows that I never, unless under great duress, eat at fast food “restaurants”.
So, why am I having Dunkin Donuts for lunch? I had recently been told about the DDSmart menu (introduced this past August 2008) and wanted to try some of their “smart” offerings. There’s a reason for this madness: I was stranded in the airport the other day with the none too appealing dinner choices of  [...]

I LOVE this new  “Soda Free Summer” campaign launched by BANPAC  (stands for Bay Area Nutritional and Physical Activity Collaborative, which is a regional collaborative of over 80 health-related organizations)  which is urging Bay Area residents to hydrate with good old H2O instead of sugary drinks for the summer. Their website provides lots of free downloaded kits & tools that can easily be shared in a family or classroom setting.

My favorite appalling stats?

The average American eats almost 175 pounds a year – which is almost half a pound of sugar a day!
Teens consume an average of 750 soda cans per [...]

I’m seriously addicted to the Trader Joe’s Fruit Floes and don’t understand that it did not occur to me, until today, to share about them. Actually, it’s only upon watching a Tivo-ed Oprah episode where she shares about her favorite 100 calorie snack (The Skinny Cow Fudge Bars – these are good too!) that I went “duh” and knew that I had to write this blog post.
The addiction officially set in over the past summer, where I could easily go through two or three boxes (4 popsicles to a box) of these – to myself!!! – per week. Sure, there [...]