Eat, drink and ‘shop small’ at these local Toronto gems - Toronto Star

From dishwashers to restaurateurs, Rafael Bastidas’ and Sergio Calderon’s journey to co-owning one of Toronto’s best new restaurants is what Toronto’s dining scene is all about.

After meeting more than a decade ago working through the city’s hospitality industry—first scrubbing grime off plates in the dishwashing pit, then eventually managing Latin-inspired eateries — Bastidas and Calderon had become sufficiently inspired to make their entrepreneurial dreams reality.

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Eat, drink and ‘shop small’ at these local Toronto gems - Toronto Star
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More than an apple a day: how eating more fruit and veg can keep us healthy - South China Morning Post

As you walk past the fresh produce section of your local market or grocery store, pause for a moment to consider the wondrous health benefits tucked inside the goods on display. This food is medicine.

It’s not only an apple a day that keeps the doctor away. Fruit and vegetables are excellent sources of important vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, folate and potassium.

Most are high in fibre, too, which keeps a body “regular”, leaves us feeling full for longer, and helps manage blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

They contain phytochemicals – powerful compounds that help strengthen the immune system, reduce inflammation, protect cells from damage, and may prevent chronic conditions such as cancer.

Many of us sometimes take the fruit and vegetables available in our local supermarket for granted. But this food is medicine that can keep us healthy and help fight disease. Photo: Shutterstock

To encourage more people to tap into this goodness, produce prescription programmes are cropping up in more places in the world.

These allow doctors to prescribe fruit and vegetables to their patients alongside traditional medications, and offer financial help to low-income patients to purchase fresh local produce.

Adults at risk for heart disease who took part in produce-prescription programmes for an average of six months increased their intake of fruit and vegetables by nearly a cup a day – and lowered their blood pressure, body mass index and blood sugar level. Photo: Shutterstock

A United States study published in August in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, found that adults at risk from heart disease who took part in produce-prescription programmes for an average of six months increased their intake of fruit and vegetables by nearly a cup a day.

Other recent studies add to the evidence that consuming more plant foods can significantly improve our health.

Plant foods have the three macronutrients we need … for optimal health

Michele Wisla, a plant-based culinary health coach in Hong Kong

A study of over half a million Chinese adults published in May in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific journal found that more than two-thirds of diet-related cardiovascular deaths could be linked to low intakes of whole grains, fruit, vegetables and nuts.

A low intake of fruit was the leading dietary risk factor for stroke, followed by a low intake of whole grains and vegetables.

A study published in May in the journal Food & Function showed that phytochemicals improve cholesterol and reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Hong Kong teenagers don’t get enough fruit, vegetables or exercise

Those phytochemicals, or phytonutrients, are particularly abundant in colourful fruit and vegetables – think citrus fruits, berries and dark-green leafy vegetables.

According to Hong Kong plant-based culinary health coach Michele Wisla, increasing our fruit and vegetable intake can do a lot to prevent disease and improve our health.

“ Plant foods have the three macronutrients we need – carbohydrates, protein and fat – in addition to the fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients needed for optimal health,” says Wisla, who is also a licensed instructor for Food for Life by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).

Michele Wisla says to eat a diversity of plant foods for maximum nutrition. Photo: Michele Wisla

“Besides fibre, phytonutrients are an important plant-only compound. They make our food colourful, flavourful and smell good.

“Phytonutrients have a different function from vitamins and minerals – they are the plant’s defence system and act like little warriors in our body. They help prevent disease.”

As fruit and vegetables are low in calories, you can also eat them without restriction, says Dr Anna Herby, a US-based clinical dietitian and nutrition education specialist for PCRM.

At risk: Hong Kong survey finds more than 1 in 10 heading for heart diseases

If you suffer from a chronic disease such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer, increasing your fruit and vegetable intake may help you better manage your condition or even reverse it.

“These foods can displace other foods in your diet that may not be so healthy and can also lead to weight loss since they’re low in calories,” Herby says.

“ Weight loss is then helpful for managing and improving chronic conditions. In some cases, it’s possible to reverse these conditions, but for most people this requires a significant diet change.

Anna Herby says that, as fruit and vegetables are low in calories, you can consume them without restriction. Photo: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

“Increasing your fruit and vegetable intake is a fabulous start, but the next step is to centre your diet around plant-based foods – that is, fruit, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. All of these food groups together can be very powerful for disease reversal.”

Herby recommends eating three or more servings of fruit a day. A serving size is one medium-size piece of fruit, half a cup of cooked fruit or a quarter-cup of dried fruit.

There is no need to limit fruit in your diet, even if you have diabetes, she says. People who eat the most fruit have lower rates of diabetes than people who eat the least.

‘Fitter than ever’: she feels benefits of a whole food, plant-based diet

Be sure to consume five or more servings of vegetables per day. A serving size is one cup of raw vegetables or half a cup of cooked vegetables.

Besides eating these recommended amounts or more, diversity is important.

Wisla encourages her clients to aim for 30 different plants a week, and to go beyond fruit and vegetables by also eating beans, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

Eating plentiful and varied plant-based foods is recommended for optimum health, according to Wisla, and the more colourful the produce, the better. Photo: Shutterstock

“Diversity beats eating just a couple of plants exclusively. Each plant comes with its own portfolio of vitamins, minerals, fibre and phytonutrients.”

The more colourful the produce the better, Herby says.

“The colour from fruit and vegetables comes from their antioxidants and phytonutrients, and this is actually what the plants use to protect themselves from harsh conditions.

5 ordinary foods with extraordinary health benefits, from beets to broccoli

“They can protect us too, by neutralising cancer cells and helping our bodies to thrive. ‘Eating the rainbow’ means getting lots of variety in your diet, branching out to try new produce whenever you can.”

When it comes to vegetables, the best way to eat them is the way that you enjoy them the most. However, Herby suggests learning to love them without creamy sauces or cheese on top, and cooking them without oil or butter.

Steaming or quickly stir-frying is ideal for vegetables like kale, leafy greens or broccoli, since they can lose their nutrients in water when boiled. Boiling or baking is perfect for vegetables like potatoes and beets. And many vegetables are perfect raw, like carrots, celery and bell peppers.

Some plants have different benefits depending on whether they’re eaten raw or cooked. Tomatoes are a great example of this. Photo: Shutterstock

“I advise eating a mix of raw and cooked vegetables, as some plants have different nutrients more available depending on if they’re raw or cooked,” Wisla says.

“Tomatoes are a great example. In their raw form they contain more vitamin C, but when cooked they have more lycopene, an antioxidant which may improve heart health, lower our risk of certain cancers and even protect our skin from the sun.”

Better heart health – for you and your family

Hong Kong teenagers don’t get enough fruit, vegetables or exercise

At risk: Hong Kong survey finds more than 1 in 10 heading for heart diseases

‘Fitter than ever’: she feels benefits of a whole food, plant-based diet

The many health benefits of a plant-based diet, according to 5 new studies

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More than an apple a day: how eating more fruit and veg can keep us healthy - South China Morning Post
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What kind of seafood is morally ethical to eat? - Phys.org

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Do you like cod, shrimp, salmon, crab or pollock (also known as fish sticks)? Of course you do. Do you shop at Walmart, Costco, Kroger or Albertsons for fish? Who doesn't? Do you eat at one of the more than 400,000 restaurants supplied by food distributor Sysco? Almost certainly.

If so, you've likely been served or sold seafood caught by Indonesian forced-labor victims on Chinese vessels or processed in China by Uyghurs, a cultural, racial and religious minority that faces systematic repression. Some 79% of the seafood sold in the United States is imported, according to the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. China alone supplies nearly 10% of American seafood imports.

Chinese-owned and -flagged ships are the largest distant-water fishing fleet in the world. This fleet includes an estimated 6,500 ships, and they fish in every ocean. To put this fleet in context, neither Japan nor the U.S. has more than 1,000 such ships.

Some of these distant-water vessels remain at sea for as long as two years, transferring their catches to other ships to be brought to port. The living and working conditions for the workers trapped on board are often dreadful, with inadequate medical treatment, poor nutrition and relentless, dangerous work day and night.

A well-managed and abundant ocean could feed a billion people a healthful seafood meal every day, forever. Over-fishing, especially by big industrial fleets, is destroying that abundance—collapsing a wild food resource essential to the health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people along coastlines around the world.

A four-year investigation of industrial distant-water fishing by the Outlaw Ocean Project, published this week in the Los Angeles Times, uncovered evidence of human rights abuses and violent and deadly conditions. These conditions, tolerated in an industry that gets food to American tables, demands immediate action.

There are several policy changes that would alter the practices of the world's fishing fleets and affect the abundance of our oceans.

For example, the World Trade Organization should stop allowing countries to subsidize the over-fishing of our oceans. These harmful subsidies promote over-fishing by enabling fleets to fish longer, harder and farther than would otherwise be economically feasible. The United States should deny countries access to the American market unless imported seafood is accompanied with documentation to demonstrate that it was sourced entirely free of forced labor.

Another important change would be for the United States to extend mandatory disclosure of country-of-origin labeling for seafood beyond grocery stores to restaurants, small markets and cafeterias. All countries whose vessels fish on the high seas or in foreign waters should be required to publish data on which vessels are authorized to fish what, where and when, and tracking of these vessels should be made publicly available.

While changes in international regulations can be more difficult, improvements in U.S. seafood rules could be adopted more swiftly. For instance, President Biden could mandate that all seafood sold in the U.S. be subject to boat-to-plate traceability, ensuring that it is safe, legally caught, responsibly sourced and properly labeled.

In the meantime, American consumers will have to be more selective about the seafood they purchase. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch guide can help steer buyers to environmentally sustainable options, such as those that are well managed and caught or farmed responsibly.

The best choices tend to be locally caught or farmed U.S. fish and shellfish. Making informed decisions about the seafood you're buying may seem like a small step, but even this can make a big difference.

2023 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Citation: What kind of seafood is morally ethical to eat? (2023, November 24) retrieved 25 November 2023 from https://ift.tt/YcW46Cf

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

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Where to Eat Near Rockefeller Center - The New York Times

From sit-down meals to sandwiches and pizza, this is the best food in and under the plaza.

As a local, I ought to hate anything in New York that draws a crowd. In theory, this includes the tree at Rockefeller Center. Once the tree’s lights are switched on — this year, that first happens Wednesday night, just before 10 p.m. — the plaza becomes an unholy gridlocked mob of sightseers, shoppers and commuters. It stays that way until Christmas.

I don’t hate the tree, though. I love the tree.

The secret to surviving in crowded spaces is to know where you are going. This gives you a huge advantage over those around you, most of whom are helplessly drifting in the tide, like jellyfish.

Many restaurants have opened at Rockefeller Center over the past year or so. Some are more steady on their skates than others.Karsten Moran for The New York Times

So you don’t become one of them, it helps to know where you can get closest to the tree without being knocked over (in the small, sunken areas just above the rink on either side). I’d also recommend studying up on the fresh crop of places to eat that Rockefeller Center’s landlord brought in recently. The two most successful restaurants, the Italian cafe Lodi and the idiosyncratic French brasserie Le Rock, are both above ground, to the right and left of the rink. Directly below them are the impressive Korean restaurant Naro and the pasta-centric Italian restaurant Jupiter. All are worth considering for a full, sit-down meal.

In other ways, the new lineup hasn’t turned out to be quite as impressive as I had hoped a year ago. The bakery at Lodi, which made exquisite Italian pastries and breads, was recently dismantled to make room for more tables — a real loss. Down in the concourse, too many of the casual, inexpensive places are peddling Sad Desk Lunches. Few spots stay open for dinner, and there’s an annoying, easily fixed shortage of seating.

Nevertheless, you can still have a satisfying quick lunch or snack below Rockefeller Center.

Detroit-style squares are the specialty of Ace’s Pizza.Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Pizza from Detroit, capocollo from Italy, bagels from Montreal

If you wanted only one recommendation, I would tell you to eat at Ace’s Pizza. A standing-room-only pizzeria with retro wood paneling, Ace’s is a prime example of the slice shop revival, a movement that is re-examining and reworking everyday American street-corner pizza styles. Ace’s specialty is pizza à la mode de Detroit, a Sicilian variant with a protective layer of crisp cheese around the edges. Ace’s crusts are airy and tender inside, like an old-fashioned Pullman loaf. The same dough is used for the excellent garlic-cheese bread.

The Italian sandwich virtuoso Alidoro is another buried treasure — not just buried underground but hard to find. Look around the back of Naro, and persevere. Alidoro’s sandwich methods are simple but effective: fresh bread, imported cold cuts, local mozzarella, crisp arugula and lettuce, and a sense of restraint. The Alidoro, filled with prosciutto, peppers and mushroom spread, has a cult of its own.

Alidoro’s Italian sandwiches are marked by fresh bread and a sense of restraint.Courtesy of Alidoro

There are always lines at Black Seed Bagels. The wait is longer if you want your bagels toasted. It’s worth it, I think. The toaster gives the exterior a darker, crunchier finish that is closer to that of the wood-fired Montreal bagels they are modeled on.

So this is happy hour

A few of the shops that stay open later are worth knowing about. The Tipsy Baker has worthwhile viennoiseries in the morning, including a fine cinnamon kouign-amann. At night, when it becomes a candlelit wine bar, it’s one of the few spots in the concourse where you can stay a while, or might want to. The concourse location of Blue Ribbon Sushi does a steady trade in ready-made sushi boxes and poke bowls. They’re all right, but during happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m., freshly wrapped hand rolls at the sushi counter are just $8. There’s a two-for-one special on cans of beer and sake, too.

At 21 Greenpoint, a branch of a Brooklyn hangout known for its cheeseburgers, happy hour brings half a dozen oysters with a glass of wine for $21. And if the holiday crowds have you down and you’re looking for immediate relief, $12 buys you a shot and a beer.

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Mice eating less of specific amino acid — overrepresented in diet of obese people — live longer, healthier - University of Wisconsin-Madison

There’s a popular saying in some circles that “a calorie is a calorie,” but science shows that it may not be true. In fact, it may be possible to eat more of some kinds of calories while also improving your health.

“We like to say a calorie is not just a calorie,” says Dudley Lamming, a professor and metabolism researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “Different components of your diet have value and impact beyond their function as a calorie, and we’ve been digging in on one component that many people may be eating too much of.”

Lamming is the lead author of a new study in mice, published recently in the journal Cell Metabolism, showing that cutting down the amount of a single amino acid called isoleucine can, among other benefits, extend their lifespan, make them leaner and less frail as they age and reduce cancer and prostate problems, all while the mice ate more calories.

Amino acids are the molecular building blocks of proteins, and Lamming and his colleagues are interested in their connection to healthy aging.

In earlier research, data from UW–Madison’s Survey of the Health of Wisconsin showed the scientists that Wisconsinites with higher body mass index measurements (higher is more overweight or obese) tend to consume more isoleucine, an essential amino acid everyone needs to eat. Isoleucine is plentiful in foods including eggs, dairy, soy protein and many kinds of meat.

To better understand its health effects, Lamming and collaborators from across disciplines at UW–Madison fed genetically diverse mice either a balanced control diet, a version of the balanced diet that was low in a group of about 20 amino acids, or a diet formulated to cut out two-thirds of the diet’s isoleucine. The mice, which began the study at about 6 months of age (equivalent to a 30-year-old person) got to eat as much as they wanted.

“Very quickly, we saw the mice on the reduced isoleucine diet lose adiposity — their bodies got leaner, they lost fat,” says Lamming, while the bodies of the mice on the low-amino-acid diet also got leaner to start, but eventually regained weight and fat.

Mice on the low-isoleucine diet lived longer — on average 33% longer for males and 7% longer for females. And, based on 26 measures of health, including assessments ranging from muscle strength and endurance to tail use and even hair loss, the low-isoleucine mice were in much better shape during their extended lives.

“Previous research has shown lifespan increase with low-calorie and low-protein or low-amino-acid diets starting in very young mice,” says Lamming, whose work is supported by the National Institutes of Health. “We started with mice that were already getting older. It’s interesting and encouraging to think a dietary change could still make such a big difference in lifespan and what we call ‘healthspan,’ even when it started closer to mid-life.”

The mice on the low-isoleucine diets chowed down, eating significantly more calories than their study counterparts — probably to try to make up for getting less isoleucine, according to Lamming. But they also burned far more calories, losing and then maintaining leaner body weights simply through adjustments in metabolism, not by getting more exercise.

At the same time, Lamming says, they maintained steadier blood sugar levels and male mice experienced less age-related prostate enlargement. And while cancer is the leading cause of death for the diverse strain of mice in the study, the low-isoleucine males were less likely to develop a tumor.

Dietary amino acids are linked to a gene called mTOR that appears to be a lever on the aging process in mice and other animals as well as to a hormone that manages the body’s response to cold and has been considered a potential diabetes drug candidate for human patients. But the mechanism behind the stark benefits of low-isoleucine intake is not well understood. Lamming thinks the new study’s results may help future research pick apart causes.

“That we see less benefit for female mice than male mice is something we may be able to use to get to that mechanism,” he says.

While the results are promising, humans do need isoleucine to live. And winnowing a significant amount of isoleucine out of a diet that hasn’t been preformulated by a mouse chow company is not an easy task.

“We can’t just switch everyone to a low-isoleucine diet,” Lamming says. “But narrowing these benefits down to a single amino acid gets us closer to understanding the biological processes and maybe potential interventions for humans, like an isoleucine-blocking drug.”

The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin showed that people vary in isoleucine intake, with leaner participants tending to eat a diet lower in isoleucine. Other data from Lamming’s lab suggest that overweight and obese Americans may be eating significantly more isoleucine than they need.

“It could be that by choosing healthier foods and healthier eating in general, we might be able to lower isoleucine enough to make a difference,” Lamming says.

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This research was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AG056771, AG062328, AG081482, AG084156, DK125859, F31AG066311, R01AG062328-03S1, F31AG081115, F31AG082504, T32AG000213, F32AG077916, RF1AG056771-06S1, K01AG059899, R01DK133479, P30DK020579, K12HD101368, R01AA029124, P30 CA014520, P50DE026787, U54DK104310, R01DK131175 and P30CA014520) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (I01-BX004031).

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Mice eating less of specific amino acid — overrepresented in diet of obese people — live longer, healthier - University of Wisconsin-Madison
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This is the first meal the Israeli hostages will eat once freed - New York Post

The Israeli Health Ministry issued local hospitals with guidelines for feeding patients suffering from malnutrition as they prepare to admit 50 hostages released by Hamas in the cease-fire deal, according to reports.

Official guidelines address “treating refeeding syndrome in returning captives,” according to Israeli news outlet Ynet, referring to a condition that can be fatal to people who have not eaten properly for extended periods of time and are suddenly introduced to a normal diet.

“Prolonged malnutrition may lead to significant nutritional deficiencies that can adversely affect health and even pose a life-threatening risk,” the guide explained, and broke down the recommended diets based on age group.

Children between one and three years old should be given water, a sweet biscuit, unsweetened applesauce, tea sweetened with a teaspoon of sugar, the guide said.

Adolescents and adults are to be given water, a hot drink sweetened with a tablespoon of sugar, three sweet biscuits, and unsweetened applesauce.

Up to 50 hostages are expected to be released by Hamas Friday afternoon as part of the cease-fire agreement.

Debbie Hill/UPI/Shutterstock

Refeeding syndrome is caused by a sudden shift in fluid, electrolyte, and metabolic intake, according to the National Institutes of Health. Patients who have not been given proper sustenance for a period of ten days are susceptible.

It is unclear what condition the 240 hostages taken by Hamas during their bloody October 7 surprise attack are in.

During their 54 days of captivity, it is believed most have been held prisoner in the elaborate network of tunnels burrowed deep beneath Gaza.

Israel and Hamas agreed to terms for a four-day cease-fire which is expected to begin at 7 a.m. local time (12 a.m. ET). In return for the release of the hostages, Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners and send trucks of fuel and humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

It remains unclear the condition the hostages, who have been in captivity for over 50 days, will be in when they are freed.

AP

The first hostages are due to be handed over at 4 p.m. Friday. Children will be sent to the Schneider Children’s Medical Center, according to Ynet, and adults will be sent to Wolfson, Ichilov, Soroka, and Sheba hospitals.

Families of the hostages requested specific guidance about refeeding syndrome to be sent out to hospitals, Professor Hagai Levin, the head of a medical team assigned to the families of hostages, said.

“[It’s] necessary to maintain a calm approach and not rush to fix everything at once but rather gradually over time and in a proper manner,” Levin said.

“In terms of physical activity, one should act according to the same principles, as well as regarding mental health. In broader aspects, such as dental care, for example, conditions can’t always be addressed adequately in hospitals,” he added.

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This is the first meal the Israeli hostages will eat once freed - New York Post
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Rating Video Game Birds I Would (And Wouldn't) Eat For Thanksgiving Dinner - Game Informer

Ah, Thanksgiving. It's a time of year for gratitude, togetherness, repeatedly attempting to explain my job to older relatives, and most importantly, a time when a lot of people come together to eat one really big bird. But here's the thing. Why do we always eat the same kind of bird? I mean, turkey is fine and all, but why not branch out a bit? Why not chicken, or quail, or pheasant?

And that got me thinking – why limit my daydreaming to real-life birds when there's so much delicious-looking poultry in video games? Sure, not every video game bird would be tasty, but it's worth assessing in case I ever get Jumanji-ed into a game one day.

Here's my rating of video game birds based on how good they'd be for Thanksgiving dinner.

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Rating Video Game Birds I Would (And Wouldn't) Eat For Thanksgiving Dinner - Game Informer
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