But is juicing really healthy?  The debate is ongoing and lively, with proponents and opponents arguing the health value of a fresh juice compared to the food itself.  Sugar and fiber content, vitamin and mineral counts, and whether or not juicing can actually cleanse and detox the body are at the center of the dispute, and there really is no way to choose a right and a wrong.

Choose one fruit for every four vegetables to keep the sugar content low

For those who claim there is simply too much sugar in a 16-ounce cup of juice, for example, proponents simply would say to cut back on the amount of fruit that goes in to your drink.  Apples and bananas may add a great, sweet flavor but opponents are correct in pointing out that the sugar content is high.  Lisa Sussman, in her book Cold Press Juice Bible, says the solution for countering this argument is to juice “four servings of leafy or cruciferous vegetables for every one of fruit,” which will help reduce the sugar load.  Using sweet root vegetables in place of fruit will also keep the sugar down (and hence the calorie count too!)

Proponents contend that when a fruit and/or vegetable is in juice form it is easier for the body to absorb.  All the nutrients you consume are used in a more efficient manner and are therefore optimal for your health.  Opponents, though, point out that when these same fruits and vegetables are juiced, the most important part of them is lost: the fiber.  Blenders, rather than cold pressers, can retain the pulp and thus the juice will be more similar to the whole food; but some believe that the heat from spinning blades can cause the juices to oxidize, resulting in a loss of nutrients (and a loss of flavor, too.)  But cold pressers are believed to extract the maximum amount of nectar from the fruits and vegetables, leaving a raw and fresh juice—without the fiber.

Juicing is a great way to incorporate a variety of fruits and vegetables into your diet

Although fiber is lost in the juicing process, it is highly unlikely that a person would be able to get the same amount of vitamins and minerals from eating the same amount of fruits and vegetables as they get from a juice.  The reason behind this is simple:  it is much easier to consume two pounds of fruits and vegetables in liquid form than to sit down and eat it in salad form.  And with juicing, you can add a wider variety of vegetables to your diet.  I wouldn’t, for example, eat a lot of red cabbage in a single sitting, but juiced is a different story.  Besides being able to ingest more, the cabbage adds a sweetness that other vegetables simply don’t do.  It’s a win-win for those interested in a rotating variety of vegetables in their diet.

And as to whether or not juice can work to cleanse and detox the body, well, the science hasn’t really been able to back up the claim that juicing helps to eliminate toxins (in fact, your body does this quite well on its own.)  Some opponents think that the exact opposite is true—that a juicing cleanse may actually prevent the body from optimally doing its job.  You can read more about detox claims here.

To assure a healthy experience, it is important that the amount of bacteria from the fruits and vegetables is minimized.  You can do this by purchasing your fruits and vegetables as soon as possible before juicing them, by washing them thoroughly, and by maintaining clean prep areas and juicing equipment.  Drink your juice immediately (or at least within several hours) after making it, and when you purchase juices from your local grocery store, it is probably best to stick with those that have been pasteurized.

The long and the short of it seems to be that if a person is having a hard time getting in the daily recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, whether they don’t have the time, don’t love to sit down and eat a salad, or don’t have a diverse enough palate to get enough variety, then having a juice one time a day, or even several times a week, will help to ensure enough nutrients are absorbed by the body.  But eating a balanced diet in conjunction with juicing will help to ensure enough protein and fiber are being eaten for optimal health.  As an addition to a regular diet, juicing can be a fun, refreshing way to take in those vegetables!

The post All About that Juice appeared first on Houston's Blog.

Sip bone broth on its own or use it as a base for your favorite soup. Photo Credit: Alpha

Bone broth enthusiasts believe that properly made broth has many benefits.  Packed with protein, vitamins, minerals, collagen, and keratin, the broth appeals to those who wish to improve their health and their skin.  The gelatin in the broth is thought to help to seal up holes in intestines, essentially curing chronic “leaky gut” diseases and symptoms.  It is supposed to protect your joints in the same way a glucosamine supplement would, and the phosphorus, magnesium, and calcium is thought to build healthy bones.  The bone marrow can help to strengthen your immune system.  And then there are those who believe in the beautifying powers of the broth, as it is a rich source of collagen which can make your skin, hair, and nails stronger, healthier, and lustrous.

Simmer bones for 12-48 hours for delicious broth. Photo Credit: Romi

Although there is still much research that needs to be done to draw definitive conclusions about the benefits of bone broth, there is no doubt of its simplicity and all-natural qualities.  Bone broth is made by simmering animal bones for a very long time, usually 12-48 hours, to extract maximum flavor and goodness.  As the bones and connective tissues break down, vitamins and minerals are released, along with high amounts of protein.  The result is a product that is naturally gluten-and dairy-free, high in protein and nutrients, all-natural, and with no added flavor-enhancers.

At Brodo (Italian for “broth”) in New York City, a patron can order “chicken, gingered beef, or the Hearth broth, made with chicken, turkey and beef, and add-in items like chili oil, fermented beet juice or mushroom tea, for an extra flavor boost,”  according to Today Food.  Just don’t ask for noodles—at Brodo they only serve the broth without the added carbs.  Chefs, restaurants, and retail locations across the United States are capitalizing on the bone broth trend, charging anywhere from $4 for a small cup from a take-out window in New York, to online sales beginning at about $7 per 16-ounce jar, and upwards of $22 for a cup at some swanky restaurants.  Making the broth takes time, but even if your favorite location uses only the finest of organic ingredients, the resulting product is extremely inexpensive to make—profit margins have the potential to be huge!  Here is a simple, yet delicious, recipe for bone broth from Epicurious here.

Have you ever had bone broth?  Do you sip it straight from a cup or use it as a base for your favorite soup?  Either way, we’d love to hear from you.  Let us know your thoughts.

The post Got Bones? Make Broth! appeared first on Houston's Blog.

Craft soda makers, like craft brewers, improve upon the mass-produced product by utilizing high-quality, ingredients using carefully controlled methods.  The outcome is a better-tasting alternative to big brand sodas.  This non-alcoholic relative of craft beer is built on the same values—sustainability, local sourcing, natural and often organic ingredients with a back story.  “People like the local connection, something that they can tie to,” says Steve Cole, a Sales Manager for Atlas Distributing.  It is especially appealing to the young millennial consumers, whose preferences for artisanal foods and beverages continue to lead the way in the restaurant business.

Aside from the fact that craft sodas venture far away from using high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners, using seasonal ingredients is another advantage to crafting soda.  Blood oranges or pomegranate in January, Watermelon in July, or pears in October make great additions, but why stop there?  Kip Barnes, of LA Ale Works, enjoys the culinary aspect of soda making, and states that “soda…is a lot more flavor balancing” than making beer.  It can be flavored with everything from tea to fruit to spices, and are not terribly sweet but rather refreshing and quench the thirst.  Kip started to craft sodas for his friends and relatives that didn’t or couldn’t drink and so couldn’t enjoy his homebrew beer.  Right away he was hooked by the creative options that making soda offered him.

Considering the higher cost of craft soda, how then can restaurants and bars use them to their advantage?  With consumers constantly looking for things that seem like specialties—innovative concoctions you can’t get everywhere—craft sodas resonate among health-conscious consumers as a more natural option to traditional sodas.  They can feed those who are abstaining from alcohol for whatever reason, from pregnancy to breast feeding, from health matters to fitness matters.  And it can also serve as a healthier alternative for children whose parents want a change from the unhealthy versions we have grown accustomed to.  Restaurant owners who base their brand on natural ingredients now have the ability to match their beverages with their mission statements.  According to Maeve Webster, director at food industry market research firm Datassential, “Craft sodas represent a huge opportunity for quick-serve operators right now…You can take a familiar menu item, soda, and offer a heightened experience—yours is fresher, original, more flavorful—and you have something your competitors don’t.”  Bars can also capitalize by integrating craft sodas into their alcohol programs; specialty sodas created in-house are a great base for signature cocktails!

While craft soda brewers are quick to point out their adversity to high fructose corn syrup and other synthetic ingredients, there is still a hurdle they must overcome if the trend is to grab hold and carry over into the future:  there is still sugar in the sodas, and sugar equals calories.  With the continuing rise of obesity across the nation, it is a factor that could potentially hold back the industry.  For now, it seems to be somewhat offset by consumers who are opting for craft soda over other calorie-laden beverages such as beer, wine, or cocktails, and by young parents who want healthier options for their children.  Whether the fad hangs on in the future remains to be seen, but at the moment craft soda seems to hold a lot of promise.

I, for one, am looking forward to some new flavor options to try, from simple and enticing to wacky and fascinating.  Have you had craft soda?  What flavors have you tried, or do you want to try?  Do you think the craze will remain in the future?

The post The Art of Craft Soda appeared first on Houston's Blog.

Drinking coffee can make you feel happier, and drinking about four cups or more of coffee per day led to about a 10% reduction in depression rates.  Researchers believe it is because of the antioxidants present in the beverage.  But truly, just smelling coffee has the ability to reduce stress levels caused by sleep deprivation, and that alone is enough to make me happier!

Athletes can improve performance by drinking coffee because it increases epinephrine levels in the blood to ready our bodies for intense physical exertion.  The jolt that you receive from the caffeine is especially helpful in endurance sports like distance running and cycling.  But even non-athletes who are looking to shed a few pounds can benefit:  the caffeine and nutrients found in coffee breaks down the fat cells in your body and releases them into your blood, making them available to burn as fuel.  Studies have found that caffeine can boost the metabolic rate by as much as ten percent in individuals who consume moderate amounts of coffee daily.  Physical performance and fat-burning qualities aside, just improving energy levels because of its stimulant effect is enough to make that daily cup of coffee so worthwhile.

And coffee appears to offer protection to the liver.  Liver-damaging diseases and conditions, such as hepatitis or chronic alcohol abuse, damage the organ by causing scar tissue to form (cirrhosis) and thus make it difficult for the liver to properly function.  While there is no way to undo the damage caused by cirrhosis, researchers found that people who drink at least four cups of coffee per day may lower the risk of cirrhosis, therefore keeping the liver healthier for longer.

The jolt of caffeine that you get from your daily cup (or cups) of coffee allows your brain to work in a more efficient and smarter way, too, which help to improve your energy levels and make you smarter.  When the caffeine travels to your brain it blocks inhibitory neurotransmitters, which in turn allows an increase in norepinephrine and dopamine, leading to enhanced firing of neurons.  It is this stimulant effect that boosts your energy, your mood, and other aspects of brain function.

The caffeine and nutrients in moderate amounts of coffee can also work to keep your brain healthy.  Although not a cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, or Parkinson’s, reasonable consumption of coffee can work to lower the risk of contracting the diseases, or at the very least, delaying their onset.

So what, then, is a “moderate” intake of caffeine?  For simplicity’s sake, moderate can be defined as about 300 mg per day, or roughly 3-4 cups of ground roasted coffee.  If coffee is not your only source of caffeine, you should gauge your intake accordingly.  Tea and cola contain about 300 mg in 5-6 servings, and the average chocolate bar contains about 35 mg of caffeine.  But caffeine affects every person differently so you should drink it within your own comfort level.  It takes about 6-10 hours for the effects of caffeine to wear off so if you have trouble sleeping at night you should adjust your intake to reflect the time it takes you to metabolize the caffeine.  Similarly, if your coffee causes you to be irritable, nervous, or anxious you should probably decrease consumption.

So there are many health benefits associated with drinking coffee, and there is evidence that consumption can improve your overall mental and physical health.  But while it has been determined that coffee drinking is not as bad for your health as once thought, and in fact could even be good for you, there has not been any study that has determined that the benefits outweigh the risks.  By all means enjoy your daily cup of coffee, but please interpret the benefits with caution.

Are you a coffee drinker?  Do you experience any of the beneficial effects mentioned previously?  Or do you drink coffee simply for the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you brew the perfect cup?

The post Some Health Benefits to Drinking Coffee appeared first on Houston's Blog.

This change has had strong effects on the foodservice industry, as operators are burdened with the task of keeping up with the wants and needs of their consumers in order to maintain their business and thus put money in their banks and keep their restaurants operational.  Below are just a few of the things operations need to keep in mind when exploring different options within the industry.

Healthier Foods Equal Changes in Equipment

As society demands healthier food that tastes better, gone are the days of fryers and steam lines, especially in hospitals and schools.  This is good news for students and hospital-stayers as, following this equipment out the door are the mushy foods we usually associate with our school days.  Be prepared to see heated shelves in the kitchens, and with them, roasted and grilled foods that are much more appealing to the consumer.  Also expect to find more intense flavors as kitchens are utilizing more marinating equipment or smokers as a means to add flavor without taking away from the value of the food.

Locally Grown and Raised

Fresh vs frozen.  Local vs imported.  Whole vs processed.  More and more often, consumers are insisting on fresh, whole, local foods and this demand requires changes to how food is handled in the back-of-the-house.  Larger cooler spaces but less freezer space for storing the onslaught of fresh produce while cutting back on the need to store frozen commodities.  Labor costs may change as operators need to wash and trim produce before cutting and chopping, since locally grown food will generally come as-cut from the farm.  Chefs will need to be creative and flexible when designing their menus, accommodating what is in season or a food item that may not be considered “mainstream,” such as root vegetables.

Catering to the Diners’ Desires

If you’ve been following Technomic’s trends for 2015, you already know that consumers, especially younger consumers, “desire to have what they want when they want it.”  While this movement is manageable in the fast-food and fast-casual industry (add this, please, or take away that please), formal and casual dining has had to conform to a more focused menu if the operation opts for locally sourced foods.  This is contradictory to the trending attitudes towards variety and flexibility, but what seems to be happening is that restaurants are specializing in their culinary selections and diners can choose their restaurant based on the type of culinary experience they are looking for on any given day.  Going to eat at an establishment with few menu items, knowing that the food will be authentic and fresh, is trumping the larger-menu operations whose huge variety causes one to wonder about the origin and freshness of the dish they order.

Educational Marketing

The increase of allergies in children and adults has changed the way food is approached, prepared, and processed.  Responsibly operating a restaurant requires that chefs separate allergen ingredients and ensure the proper equipment is used to manage their dietary needs.  For example, for someone with a life-threatening nut allergy, it is imperative that different pans, utensils, grills, or other kitchen implements are used in preparing food for this particular guest, as any residue of nuts could cause a reaction.

Additionally, there has been a shift in food preparation that relates to food origins—and how to avoid the less-than-stellar practices of some of the larger animal farming companies, where overcrowding  affects the quality of animals, and the subsequent slaughter of such ill animals is at issue.  FDA menu labeling requirements that mandate restaurants show the calorie counts of their menu items have done wonders to educate consumers about their calorie intake.  Further requirements about the food—such as where the beef you are about to eat comes from, and whether or not the cows were grass fed—can also help to educate the consumer and give them reason to trust your operation and therefore want to return.

What’s Next?

Operators will need to remain vigilant in their research into customer trends and how these trends will affect their establishment, and if so, how should they adapt in order to accommodate them?  Technomic sees “more focused and local menus in the future…[and] a decline in the traditional chain segment that doesn’t adapt to the consumer evolution.”  Because while there is still a segment of the dining industry that eats fast, fried, and processed food, and wants them for cheap, these numbers will continue to dwindle over time as more and more customers are seeking out the healthier alternatives.

How will your restaurant manage these changes, if they haven’t already begun the process of change?  And how will you continue to adapt to the ever-changing foodservice industry?

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