Grape Juice: high in Vitamin C. Sort of.

Commercials! A fine time to turn off the sound, take a pee break, or grab a drink. Sometimes, though, you just can’t help but catch one by accident.

Welch’s is advertising that their grape juice is high in vitamin C. This really kinda ticks me off. Is it true? Oh, sort of. Welch’s grape juice is, basically, just sugar. It’s highly refined, and has no detectable nutritional content except for a moderate amount of an added preservative: ascorbic acid, otherwise known as vitamin C.

It’s a special low in advertising when you have to advertise the preservative chemical as the chief virtue of your drink.

Chicken lickin’

I’ve been lusting for chicken, off and on, for the past week. I guess I’ll have to wander by the Safeway. If they’re running a sale, the prices are reasonable, although the quality is rather unreliable. The Ranch Market is a good fallback option, although their prices are likely to be a bit higher. Safeway tends to run the chicken as a loss-leader, to draw people in. Heck, it’s one of the few reasons I go there, any more, so it works, to that extent.

I’m thinking a whole roast. Lots of meat, with a carcass left for making some excellent broth. It’s often no more expensive to get it cooked than to get a raw chicken. You miss out on the liver and bits, of course, and it’s not exactly difficult to cook, but that’s a fair trade.

A fool for the New York Times

A recent blathering article from the New York Times, citing a University of Washington study, claims that eating “junk food” gets you an average of $1.76 per 1,000 calories, whereas “low-energy but nutritious foods” cost $18.16 per 1,000 calories.

My rebuttal? Two words. Bull Shit.

Oh, well, now… of course I’m going to follow up on that. Honestly, though, what appalling gibberish. Who’s paying these “scientists”? Follow the money.

Weird scenes inside the gold mine: the allergy riff

Seen some truly weird scenes, tonight, talking about allergies that they say don’t exist. Neurotic symptoms, pure hypochondria. Yeeeaaahhhh… and the problem is, there are real allergies. People can fake any dumb thing, and they do, but allergies aren’t funny.

Word to the wise, kids: don’t you ever test it out for yourself. Hitting an allergic person with something that they’re allergic to will kill them. Fairly quickly, but not very, and it will be messy and painful.

Distinctly eggcentric

Eggs! You can’t beat them!

<pause, shifty look>

Well, ok, you can beat them. It’s easier to do that before you cook them, if cooking them is part of the plan.

Scrambled, over-easy, sunny-side-up, poached, softboiled, hardboiled, coddled, deviled, pickled, made into omelets or quiche, added to beer or made into eggnog. You’d think people had a history of living on eggs, if you were paying any attention. You weren’t, though, were you? For shame!

Adventures in Food: Naked Superfood

In today’s episode of Adventures in Food, we find a curious drink with a charming name: Naked. That’s got to be a ball for the marketing department. Two balls, very likely. The ads just write themselves. “Who doesn’t want to get Naked?”

Naked comes in a variety of flavors, each of which has a different mix of vitamins. As the label sums it up, “Blue Machine(R) All natural Superfood 100% juice smoothie with added vitamins & fiber.” That’s quite a mixed message. Apparently, the drink is all natural except for the added chemicals, and 100% juice if you don’t count the parts that aren’t juice. I suppose those parts are the reason they name this “all natural” drink, “Machine”.

The Cheap Diet, Day 3

Coming along neatly under the budget of $3.00/day, at $2.68 for 1,426 calories. Away we go…

Vitamin E: are you kidding me?

My cheap diet plan has been quite short of vitamin E, so I thought I’d do a little research on the subject. Fascinating stuff, really. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the boys who set the nutrition standards are jerking us around. It doesn’t appear remotely practical to get anywhere near the recommended allowance of vitamin E in a diet.

Soybean oil is alleged to be a fairly good source of vitamin E, with about a day’s supply in 100 grams. Let’s see, that’s a bit over seven tablespoons, for some 850 calories. Mmmm, grease! Or, hey, why not peanuts? Ten ounces will get you a full day’s supply of vitamin E, at a mere 1,700 calories!

The Cheap Diet, Day 2

Still coming in handily under the budget and, still a bit shy of calories. It’s not as if I couldn’t stand to lose a few pounds, though, so I’m not looking to adjust that part. If I were, I suppose I’d try cutting back on the liquids, which may be filling me up.

$2.58 for 1,461 calories. Details follow.

The Cheap Diet, Day 1

…well into Day 2, actually, but I’m running a day behind. Off to a good start, with a total of $2.17 for 1,291 calories, for the first day. I’m going to have to dig up an html cheat-sheet so I can put together charts for this but, for now, just the summary.

You may be thinking that the calorie count is too low for a daily diet. I’ll grant you that but, I just wasn’t that hungry. It would be easy enough to extend the quantities without going over the target price. Rice, bread, barley, or pasta would be perfect for that.