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The first thing I noticed is that the turkey versions come in a few different flavors. A little red flag went up when I saw this because I wondered if they were trying to “enhance” the flavor of the turkey version by adding something. In the beef version all we need is the smoked meat goodness but for the turkey one I was forced to choose something with added honey and brown sugar or jalapeno.

Turns out my red flag was right. The first thing I noticed was the color, it seemed a little to light for a smoked meat product and the texture just didn’t have that snap that I have come to expect from hickory farms. For me there was no comparison between the turkey summer sausage and the traditional beef stick. Overall the turkey version was edible, it was just a completely different product and not something I’ll be including in future Superbowl menus.

The one thing you can’t ignore about the two though is the comparison in fat. Looking at 2oz of both products the regular beef stick has 190 calories with 150 of them from fat including 9 grams of Sat Fat and 1 gram of Trans Fat. The turkey version, however, has a more modest 90 calories with 30 of it from Fat including 1 gram of Sat Fat and no Trans Fat. Those numbers do show a huge difference but honestly I would just skip the turkey stick and eat more chili, salsa and guacamole all of which are tasty and if prepared right good for you.

This study compared a bunch (the merck one is lovastatin listed in the chart as Mevacor, Altocor and Altoprev) and found that it didn’t rank very high compared to some of the newer statin drugs.    I’m not sure we will get to a point where cholesterol drugs will be sold over the counter, but I’ll continue to monitor this and give an update if there is one.

Into the bullet went:

1/4 of a red onion

3 tbls balsamic

1 teaspoon oregano

1-2 chipoltes (canned with a little of the sauce)

juice of half a lime

1/4 cup water

salt and pepper to taste

Bullet until dressing like.     Add olive or vegetable oil until you get to the consistency you want (stirring as you go) and shake to combine.  Obviously a blender or food processor will work just fine, but you can’t say “abracadabra” as it blends.   Well, you can say that but you’ll just sound stupid.

Corowise is a product made by Cargill Health Food Technologies and is a concentrated form of plant sterols which they can put into either a pill form or into other food.    Going to the Corowise website it appears that you’ll soon be able to get your twice daily plant sterols in everything from cheese to granola bars and this is a good thing for consumers.   The reason?    Competition.   When I only really had the option of taking Active shots I might have been willing to pay the premium price. But, when I also see I can get it in orange juice, maybe I become less likely to pay so much.   Now, thanks to Corowise branching out I can get it in store brand Kroger milk, Nature Valley granola bars, Orowheat bread, dark chocolate muffins, Rice milk, cheese and of course vitamins.

The key when looking at these products is to read how much is included in each serving to make sure you are taking enough of it to make a difference.   But, you can easily mix and match throughout the day or week so you don’t get stuck drinking 8oz glasses of OJ everyday for the rest of your life.   I’m going to try and include as many of these as I can over the next month and we’ll see if it makes a difference in my cholesterol.

Pollan was writing about the overabundance of food additives and he used bread as an example.  I didn’t buy the book or write anything down, but basically he had an ingredient comparison of Sara Lee Soft and Smooth 100% Whole Wheat Bread to a Wheat Bread your Grandmother would make.   My Grandmother knew dinner was done when the smoke alarm went off; so I’m going to pretend by finding a normal Wheat Bread recipe available at Cooks.com. 

The fictitious Grandmothers ingredients are:

yeast, water, honey, olive oil, eggs, whole wheat flour and salt.

And now our friend Sara Lee’s version care of Safeway.com

First KFC’s Crispy Twister which came in at 550 calories (250 of it from fat) with 6 grams of Sat Fat

Next was Chick-fil-A Classic Sandwich with 410 calories (150 from fat) with 3.5 grams of Sat Fat

And finally Popeye’s Tame Chicken Deluxe Sandwich with a petite 728 calories (351 from fat) with 9 grams of Sat Fat.

I actually thought the three sandwiches would come in pretty close to each other so I was shocked to find how much more the Popeye’s version was. So much so that I looked at a couple of different sources to make sure these numbers were right. It just goes to show that doing a little research up front can save a lot of calories and fat grams on the back side. Armed with my new info I hit up the local Chick-fil-A to try the classic sandwich and see if I liked it as much as KFC’s. Sorry Colonel, I liked it better. The wheat bun seemed fresher and the patty itself seemed to have a lot more juice than the KFC version.

Now I know that the grilled versions most of these restaurants offer are much better choices, and honestly I do pick those most of the time. But when I’m in the mood for a little fried chicken goodness on a bun looks like I’m heading to Chick-fil-A.

For the salad:

1 can artichoke hearts in water chopped

6 sun-dried tomatoes sliced

1 sliced English cucumber

1 box pasta spirals

1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives

freshly grated Parmesan cheese

cook pasta, cool and add all ingredients except the cheese.

Dressing:

1 cup low sodium V-8

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 minced garlic cloves

1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves

salt and pepper

Put the above in a food processor, blender or magic bullet and spin until dressing like. Add salt, pepper, and oil if needed to get to the right consistency. Pour over pasta and add cheese. The great thing about this is you can add whatever you want to this. Broccoli, Pine Nuts and Mushrooms are great additions.