Friday, April 4, 2008

Spoon on the floor

I am in the decidedly odd position of making sure there is no food in the kitchen. Hannah, with her impossibly blue eyes, has emerged as more than a little aggressive when it comes to her next meal. She shares her catches (three birds in one day is gluttony, and I’m sorry, but I couldn’t let her eat the Easter rat), but she seems to think that means she can help herself to ours. A towel draped over thawing meat is not enough; a lid perched on a pot can be knocked off. Water glasses are pushed off tabletops with alarming regularity. And you’d better not leave your cornflakes unattended for even a minute.

And so it was that this morning I found a lone plastic lid on the table after last night’s spaghetti, no cheese container in sight. Living with men, I decided that they must have finished it and thrown out the container but not the lid (it’s the same gene that causes them to place an empty milk carton back in the fridge). I sighed and chucked the lid.

Then I went around to the living room and looked back: there on the floor was the empty container and its spoon. Sprinkled about this general area was the fine crumble of a tangy aged sheep milk Romano. Sherlock Holmes was not needed to solve the mystery.

So, to the men in my life, I owe you an apology. For my cat, obviously of exquisite taste, we need to have a little chat. Once you finish your catnap, of course.

Monday, March 31, 2008

I’m not making this up, really

The folks from Coca Cola have a new product for us: Diet Coke Plus, now fortified with vitamins! What’s next, mineral-enriched Cheetos? High fiber vodka?

With over 119 million servings of Diet Coke consumed daily, they say they’re doing their part to support us in our active lifestyle, and have gone so far as to launch a campaign with an RN telling us that proper hydration is important when exercising: to make every drop count, we should drink this product.

I note they are keeping silent on the mounting evidence that artificial sweeteners (this product is sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame potassium) mess with metabolism and lead to overeating and obesity, which in turn contribute to adult onset diabetes.

So did they really turn Diet Coke into a multivitamin? No, they’ve concentrated on only a few nutrients, adding niacin, B6, B12, zinc and magnesium. The label says that a can of this green-tea flavored antioxidant brew provides 25% of the RDA for the B vitamins.

Now, I’m betting that the folks in Atlanta are hoping that their marketing focus on the wholesome goodness of vitamins will lead women (clearly their target demographic) to drink more. Aside from the fact that soda is not good for you and adding vitamins doesn’t change that, there is a very real concern then, that some might go overboard and overdose on vitamins. Let’s look at niacin: if a can provides 25% of the RDA, 4 cans would give someone16 mg or 100%, and if she eats a serving of chicken (19 mg) or an energy bar (25 mg) in addition, she’s getting even more. Niacin overdose, starting at a mere 35 mg, is associated with minor reactions like facial flushing and itching (treated with aspirin), and indigestion. Increase the dosage and we start seeing serious matters like liver damage, cardiac arrhythmias and rising blood sugar levels. And here’s the real kicker: pregnant women who think they’re doing the right thing by drinking their vitamins in Diet Coke may actually be increasing their risk of birth defects from the excess niacin, not to mention the risks associated with artificial sweetener use during pregnancy.

Darling Husband sometimes sighs when he notes that I’ve bought yet another mismatched drinking glass. But he and I both know that the cash outlay is less than a couple of cans of soda, and the drink I put in it—tap water—is far better for me. And us.