Two glasses of wine a day improves quality of life for middle-aged

A study finds that those who drink in moderation - no more than 14 drinks a week and no more than three a day for women and four a day for men - have better overall scores than those who abstain completely.
The quality of life was measured using the Health Utilities index, which looks at factors including dexterity, emotion, cognition and mobility.
Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine studied 5,404 Canadians at age 50, and continued to observe them over a follow up period.
Most showed a stable alcohol consumption pattern and 'persistant moderate drinkers' were identified.
They found that these regular moderate drinkers scored highest in each of the health indices.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/9352383/Two-glasses-of-wine-a-day-improves-quality-of-life-for-middle-aged.html

The Kitchen Thinker: Sandwiches

The best thing since sliced bread? It's got to be a home-made tomato sandwich, says Bee Wilson. 

They may not look it, but cucumber sandwiches are a demanding food. As I type this I bear the wounds of a vicious encounter with a Japanese mandolin. I was practising slicing cucumbers for a 'tea and sandwich' event at the Abergavenny Food Festival. In my eagerness to get them paper-thin, I didn't notice I had sliced off a bit of two fingers, and ended up in A&E.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8066694/The-Kitchen-Thinker-Sandwiches.html

Read more about sandwiches:

 Bee Wilson. Sandwich: a Global History. Reaktion, £9.99

Fruit and Vegetable Skulls by Dimitri Tsykalov

Russian artist Dimitri Tsykalov created a wonderful series of skull sculptures out of fruits and vegetables between 2005 and 2008. He has much more food-themed sculpture work on his site.

http://laughingsquid.com/fruit-and-vegetable-skulls-by-dimitri-tsykalov/

Does Healthy Food Cost More Than Junk Food?

Does following a healthy diet mean dishing out more dough? Not necessarily. A new study published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that healthy food isn’t any more expensive than junk food.

The Studies
With more than one-third of U.S. adults being overweight and a push from the Obama administration to fight rising obesity levels, this new study sheds light on budgetary concerns when it comes to healthy eating.

Previous studies were highly criticized for comparing the cost of food per calorie. These studies found that pastries and chips and cheaper than fruit and veggies. The newest study conducted by the Agricultural Department compared cost of foods by weight or portion size which reveals that grains, veggies, fruit and dairy foods are less costly than most meats or foods high in added sugar, salt, or artery-clogging saturated fat. The study found that carrots, banana, lettuce and pinto beans were all cheaper per portion than soda, ice cream, ground beef or French fries.

http://blog.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/2012/06/21/does-healthy-food-cost-more-than-junk-food/

Father’s Day Gift: My Top Five Grill Tips

In honor of Father’s Day and all that our fathers have taught us, I want to pay it forward with five of my favorite tips for the dads who love to man the backyard grill.  But the tips certainly aren’t confined to fathers. These tips are handy no matter your gender or stage in life.

http://live.gourmet.com/2012/06/fathers-day-gift-my-top-five-grill-tips/

Top ten tips for healthy Mexican cooking

Thomasina Miers, co-founder and executive chef of award-winning Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca, shares her top tips for keeping your Mexican dishes authentic and healthy...

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/blog/678-thomasina-miers/

Girl banned from taking photos of school meals for hit blog

Martha Payne, 9, forced to abandon popular NeverSeconds blog, after council refused to let her post any more pictures

A nine-year-old Scottish girl who attracted two million readers to a blog documenting her school lunches, consisting of unappealing and unhealthy dishes served up to pupils, has been forced to end the project after the council banned her from taking pictures of the food in school.

Martha Payne, from Argyll, started the blog at the end of April, initially as a writing project with her father. With the permission of teachers she photographed lunches as they arrived on their white plastic trays and gave the contents – generally meagre, often fried – marks out of 10 on a "Food-o-meter" scale for how healthy they were and whether or not she found any stray hairs.

In little over a week the blog, NeverSeconds, was being posted on social networking sites and had received 100,000 visitors. Martha got a tweet of congratulation from the chef-turned-campaigner Jamie Oliver.

Soon afterwards, pupils at the school were informed they could have as much salad and fruit as they wanted with their lunch. Martha began encouraging readers to donate to a charity, Mary's Meals, assisting with school food in east Africa, and they contributed £2,000. The worldwide readership meant she was sent photos from schools around the world, which she published alongside her own. It was apparent that overseas pupils were being offered far healthier dishes.

Martha blogged anonymously under the name Veg, and as publicity for the blog picked up she was featured and named in a series of newspapers, as well as other food blogs. That, it seems, was the final straw for the local council, Argyll and Bute, which runs her primary school.

On Thursday, came a post from Martha from titled simply "Goodbye": "This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my headteacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today.

"I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I'll miss seeing the dinners you send me too. I don't think I will be able to finish raising enough money for a kitchen for Mary's Meals either."

Martha's father, Dave, added a note of explanation, saying: "Martha's school have been brilliant and supportive from the beginning and I'd like to thank them all. I contacted Argyll and Bute council when Martha told me what happened at school today and they told me it was their decision to ban Martha's photography."

As the reader count on the blog ticked up at a faster speed than ever, the council faced a predictable storm of protest on Twitter and other social networking sites. The council had no immediate response to the decision, although last month it said its school meals were "fully compliant with nationally agreed nutritional standards".


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/15/girl-photos-school-meals-blog

In Paris, Ghosts of Bistros Past

First night on our Paris vacation, we eat at Au Passage in the 11th arrondissement. It’s a bistrot à vin, a modern wine bar with small plates, which looks like some old tabac (tobacco store)—consciously retro, in other words (our waiter’s a cute guy in a T-shirt). We demolish a hunk of coarse-grained lamb and fig pâté and a pretty arrangement of raw fish (tuna, with thin slices of rhubarb and radish), and drink a cool Gamay. It’s nice, but clearly this is not the meal we came to Paris hoping to find—me, my husband, and our friend Michelle. It's too fussy, too composed, and, honestly, just too California. “I want Amélie food,” Michelle says, whining, still hungry. Strangely, I know what she means: French dishes both nostalgic and charming, served in some mirrored, wood-paneled bistro right out of Brassaï, the Hungarian-born photographer who documented the seedy glamour of Paris's streets and bistros starting in the 1920s.

http://www.chow.com/food-news/117155/in-paris-ghosts-of-the-classic-bistro/

Poland for foodies

There’s more to Polish cuisine than vodka and dumplings. In this excerpt from the brand-new Lonely Planet Poland travel guide, we give you the low-down on Poland’s most tempting street food, the best regional specialities, food you can forage for yourself, and some dishes you might not dare to try…



http://www.lonelyplanet.com/poland/travel-tips-and-articles/77092

Oishikunai oder zehn Dinge, die Sie über Sushi nicht wissen wollten

Für mein neues Buch “Rotes Gold” habe ich mich eingehend mit Sushi befasst. Dabei sind mir auch ein paar unerfreuliche Dinge bezüglich der Qualität von Sushi aufgefallen, die ich hier zusammengestellt habe. Alle sind oishikunai – das ist Japanisch und heißt “nicht lecker”.

http://www.netzfundbuero.de/2012/03/02/oishikunai-oder-zehn-dinge-die-sie-uber-sushi-nicht-wissen-wollten/

Zum Heulen, dieser Wasabi

Giftgrün und höllisch scharf: Was wäre Sushi ohne Wasabi? Doch in Wahrheit besteht das, was uns Deutschen in Tuben und auf Tellern als Wasabi untergejubelt wird, zumeist lediglich aus billigem Senfpulver und grünem Farbstoff.

Was macht der Mann da bloß? Als ich den Kellner um ein wenig Wasabi zu meinem Sushi gebeten habe, schwebte mir ein Klecks dieser giftgrünen Paste vor. Aber nun steht er mit einer seltsam aussehenden Reibe vor meinem Tisch und zerraspelt eine schwärzliche Knolle.

"Was ist das?", fragte ich.

"Frisch geriebener Wasabi", erwidert der Kellner.

Ich probiere. Die Raspeln schmecken völlig anders als jenes Wasabi, das ich aus anderen Sushi-Restaurants kenne. Ihre Schärfe ist subtiler, wird von einem süßlichen Unterton und dem Geruch ätherischer Öle begleitet. Und froschgrün ist sie auch nicht, eher mintfarben.

"Schmeckt ganz anders als der Wasabi, den es sonst immer gibt", sage ich.

Der Ober antwortet nicht, sondern lächelt nur. Vermutlich erscheint ihm die Wahrheit zu unhöflich, um sie auszusprechen. Sie lautet nämlich, dass ich jahrelang gar keinen Wasabi gegessen habe.

Sondern Chemiepampe.

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/service/wasabi-paste-aus-der-tube-besteht-aus-senfpulver-und-gruener-farbe-a-833852.html#ref=rss