Rethinking the Plan on Microwaveable Frozen Foods

It's a great concept - you buy packages of frozen food to cater to your every foodie whim any time of the day or night; when you find yourself hankering after some central American cuisine at 3 AM, you pick out Mayan Harvest Bake or whatever from your well-stocked freezer and microwave it for a few minutes, and there you go. Are frozen foods that simple a deal though? You already know about how frozen foods can be risky if your stash happens to suffer through a power cut. But is there more that you need to know about?

Here's the latest word on frozen foods - it can be kind of tricky following manufacturers’ instructions (given that we all have different models of microwave); if you don't do a good job, the results will really make you fall ill. We’ve been seeing reports of illnesses (salmonella and the like) from poorly microwaved frozen foods for quite a few years now. It got so bad at one point that about three years ago, the government issued health warnings for frozen foods. As far as researchers are concerned, people should forget about microwaves altogether for anything other than reheating food.

Why are microwaves unsuitable? Of course, there is the problem that people have different kinds of microwave and manufacturers kind of make it difficult for people to really understand how intensely they are nuking their frozen foods. But more importantly, microwaves, by their very nature, are unable to heat anything evenly. Everyone knows about how you can place something in a microwave and find cold spots, warm spots and hot spots after what seems like a thorough session in the microwave.

Most food safety experts will tell you that using a microwave to cook meat that is raw is never a good idea. Microwaves don't really do this very well. The problem is, that people don't really adequately understand that frozen food is completely raw food a lot of time. Since freezing happens to be a kind of processing, people somehow seem to assume that there's been a good bit of cooking already done. And that's not really true in many cases - people just pick up their packages of frozen food and they stick them in the microwave like all they need to do is to heat it up a bit. What they are dealing with is raw animal products - and these carry all kinds of dangerous diseases. Everyone's aware of how pork and other kinds of meat need to be cooked very thoroughly to get rid of all the parasites. And yet, somehow impressed with technology or something, they just cook frozen meat unevenly and inadequately, and don't realize what they're doing.

The message therefore is clear. You need to put a lot of research into how to cook frozen foods. It doesn't matter what you get frozen - if it has any animal products at all, the microwave isn't a good idea.

America's Changing over to a Healthy Vegetarian Diet. What about Taste?

Vegetarians have for long enough tried to show the typical omnivore how following a healthy vegetarian diet, you really don't need to give up anything in taste. A veggie burger, they would say, could have just the same taste and texture of your cheeseburger and still manage to not end up killing an animal. But as fans of your traditional beef patty have seen time and time again, there's always something seriously missing in all of these attempts. If you ate it, it was because it helped your conscience - this non-juicy, sadly soggy, non-aromatic thing that was supposed to be good for the planet.

But all of that is more or less in the past today. For a variety of reasons, the notion that a healthy vegetarian diet makes you live longer and keeps disease away has been making inroads into the collective consciousness. Experiments have been made and new kinds of substitute recipes discovered to actually tempt meat-eaters away from their beefy burgers. Expert chefs and experimenting enthusiasts have come together and tried to take vegetarian ingredients and turn them into something that even the most rigidly intolerant meat eater wouldn't disapprove of. Restaurant owners around the country are beginning to take notice of how the American appetite is beginning to turn away from meat and towards a healthy vegetarian diet. When the tide truly turns, they want to be in a position where they can take advantage of it.

The chain of the vegetarian burger restaurants in Los Angeles called Umami, for instance, offers an Earth burger that contains no meat. It just makes do with ingredients like edamame, mushrooms, truffle aioli and ricotta. And yet, it offers an experience to the taste buds that is little different from the kind of dementingly delicious flavor that a traditional burger is capable of. LA, actually, seems to be a kind of center of a movement towards the burgers that can make for a healthy vegetarian diet. At Cru's, also in LA, they make traditional recipes like South American sliders; but they make them with ingredients like sprouts, beans and spices. They're deep-fried, soft and spiced up and absolutely delicious. And it's beginning to happen all over the country now. People don't look at you like you're some kind of New Age nut if you offer a veggie burger on your menu. It's beginning to go mainstream - demand has risen 25%.

With all these new burger chains opening up, and with everyday people giving themselves over to a healthy vegetarian diet, what are the emperors of the burger market - McDonald's and Burger King - doing about it? In vegetarian countries around the world like India, they certainly do offer quite a bit of variety in their vegetarian burger menu. In America though, only Burger King has anything vegetarian on the menu. And it's just one item. If you want to really explore the whole veggie burger scene better, try the book The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Newman.

Is Chocolate Milk Good or Bad for You?

People who love chocolate (and who doesn’t?) most likely love chocolate milk, because it’s just like regular old milk, but chocolatier. Who says getting your daily calcium portion doesn’t have to taste good as you wash it down? With chocolate milk, you seemingly get the best of both worlds: healthy and delicious. Unfortunately, there’s another dimension you have to factor in when you consume chocolate milk—sugar. Sure, you might be increasing your calcium intake and building stronger bones, hence avoiding osteoporosis, but you’re also increasing your sugar intake, which increases the chance of developing diabetes. So while chocolate milk is healthy in one way, it’s unhealthy in another, making it overall a potentially unhealthy choice of beverage if consumed excessively.

But before completely writing off chocolate milk as an unhealthy option, keep in mind that like many other foods, consuming chocolate milk is fine as long as it isn’t too frequent. Moderation, not elimination, is the key. Chocolate milk can still be part of a balanced diet as long as you limit your portions and eat other healthy foods that give you the nutrients your body needs. In additional to moderating chocolate milk intake, you can also make your own chocolate milk at home. Instead of buying chocolate milk brands that come loaded with sugar, you can purchase cocoa mix and stir it into your milk yourself. This way, you can enhance your milk with that chocolatey taste you love while keeping track of how much chocolate you’re adding to your beverage. Buying cocoa mix and milk separately can also be a cheaper alternative to purchasing chocolate milk by bulk. Cocoa mix also has a considerable shelf life and will last you a long time. Just make sure that you keep it sealed and stored in a relatively cool area—your handy kitchen cabinet should do the trick just fine.

In conclusion, calcium is an important part of a healthy diet, and chocolate milk is one good way to build up your calcium levels as long as you drink it occasionally and not too much. Think of chocolate milk as a sort of healthier chocolate bar that can have a place in your daily caloric intake as long as it doesn’t contribute too often. There’s nothing wrong with indulging every now and then, but an indulgence is exactly that—an occasional pleasure, but not a frequent occurrence (hopefully). Chocolate milk should be enjoyed guilt free, but also with prudence as well as pleasure.