Fourthmeal redux: Triglyceride stacking

Good journalists always follow stories as new information surfaces come up, and good bloggers should be good journalists. Thus, this little nugget from The New York Times regarding the Taco Bell invention, "Fourthmeal."

Last week I wrote that Fourthmeal appears to be creeping into our popular lexicon, but that most young people still associate the term (if not the practice) with Taco Bell. Chalk one up for marketers.

But the argument has been made by Taco Bell executives and their hired marketing guns that Taco Bell wasn't necessarily promoting an extra meal, but that it was promoting a good place to eat if a person's final meal came late in the evening.

So some researchers decided to ask this key question:

If a person eats a normal amount of food, but just happens to eat some of it late in the evening (early in the morning), what difference does it make in that person's health?

The answer: Eating immediately before bed appears to be a bad idea.

According to Dr. Louis J. Aronne in this health feature from The New York Times, it has to do with triglyceride levels, metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. In layperson's terms, if you eat before bedtime, the calories you consume will likely be stored as fat.

As with many medical conundra, though, there are others who argue total caloric intake is all that matters.

"It's a simple rule - it's calories in and calories out," Steven Aldana, a researcher at Brigham Young University, told the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger last year. "But if you are having four full meals during the day, you are going be storing excess calories in the form of fat. It's just the law of physics. If your calorie content is too high, that's going to contribute to excessive weight, which is not something we need a whole lot more of in the United States."

Study supports supersized Spurlock

Do you remember a movie from a few years back called "Supersize Me"?

In it, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock -- by most measures a fit, lean man in his early 30s at the time -- subjected himself to an all-McDonald's diet for one month. During that month, if any McDonald's employee asked Spurlock if he wanted to "supersize" the meal, he would have to assent.

Spurlock, 32, stood 6-feet-2 and weighed 185 pounds when he began the experiment in February 2003. After his month-long grease orgy, he weighed 210 pounds and experienced a decreased libido and liver dysfunction. He wasn't able to get back to his healthy weight until the summer of 2004, when the film was released.

Of course, McDonald's fired back that Spurlock's experiment was unreasonable, that no one in his/her right mind would choose such an unhealthy diet. To their credit, the corporate burger peddlers responded by limiting supersized options and by providing more healthy menus choices.

But it turns out that fatty fast foods likely do cause liver damage, even if they're not consumed in the same quantities as Spurlock ate them.

Swedish researchers, led by an MD at the University Hospital at Linkoping, have released a report of their study in which they asked healthy medical students to adopt a modified Spurlock diet for four weeks:

• They ate two fast-food meals per day during that time
• They gained 5 to 15 percent of their body weight (Spurlock put on 14 percent)
• They adopted the same sedentary approach to (non)-exercise

Eleven of the 18 fast-food eaters developed signs of liver damage, as measured by increased levels of a particular enzyme.

A group of subjects who maintained healthy eating and exercise habits showed no signs of liver damage.




"Supersize Me"

Make that "The Freshman Fifty": Taco Bell wins

It has been about two years now since Taco Bell marketers gave a name to that late-night college habit of binging on bad food: Fourthmeal.

Taco Bell even created an interactive Web site -- modeled on Second Life simulation games -- in order to make it even more real (surreal) for its clients. In it, a self-confessed "corporate shill" explains that young adults need "fuel" if "you're going to burn the midnight oil."

OK.

College students have been eating unhealthy foods at unholy hours for most of the past 60 years. But this is the first time any corporate peddler has tried to name it and attach it to interactive technology in an attempt to get college student money headed in their specific direction.

So has the strategy worked? Has the term "Fourthmeal" made it into the 16-25 lexicon?

Well, it made the Urban Dictionary, and the first reference to it doesn't mention the Taco Bell connection. That's effective (sneaky, disgusting, brilliant: you pick the adjective) marketing. The second entry supposes a connection with Taco Bell.

Several myspace profiles and other social-networking personal pages are registered to people with names that either are "Fourthmeal" or contain the coined name. Now, whether those all have been cleverly placed by Taco Bell ad folks (my guess: probably many of them) or whether most are people who really are silly enough to adopt a marketing strategy as an online persona (sadly, there are) requires more time to research than I have.

One columnist from the student newspaper at Wright State University in Ohio two weeks ago used "Fourthmeal" in a column as a general reference.

Finally, a simple Google blog search indicates that while the habit of eating at Taco Bell late at night may now have a formal name, the marketing strategy has yet to sink into the popular consciousness as a generic term.

In the end, I guess that means Taco Bell has won: "Fourthmeal" elicits visions of their food, not anybody else's.

And nutritionists weep.

Bourdain needs a break

OK, I gave him Greece, but Anthony Bourdain's uninspired prose and worn-out mien during last night's trek through Jamaica lead me to one conclusion: Tony's fourth season of "No Reservations" was overbooked.

Two months and seven episodes into the Travel Channel's most interesting show, and it's clear Bourdain's network is desperate to push its most noted personality beyond the point where he's able to remain a personality.

In Greece, Tony looked disinterested. In Jamaica, Tony looked flat-out tired. Dare I say a little old, too? Yep.

The show's lineup was a little too predictable: Tony goes to market; Tony eats local fave street food; Tony eats fish on the beach; Tony interviews local artist; Tony laments not being able to get stoned on camera; Tony stays up too late and drinks too much.

Been there, seen it, a few dozen times.

Further, Bourdain's scripts seem to have little of the insight that generally make him so engaging. He seems a little too enamored of his own word-smithing; thus, he doesn't let his subjects (whom we presume to be interesting) talk for themselves often enough.

Granted, Greece and Jamaica are just two of his episodes this year (Singapore, Berlin, Vacouver, New Orleans and London/Edinburgh were the other five), and the rest have been slightly better.

I'm sure Bourdain is just as clever, insightful and engaging as ever. In order to stay fresh, though, I just wish he'd take a vacation every once in a while.

No Schweddy Balls: Rossetto Risotto Rocks

Lynn Rossetto Kasper's radio show, "The Splendid Table," may be most famous for a parody of it courtesy Saturday Night Live and Alec Baldwin.

You most likely remember a fake NPR show called "The Delicious Dish," starring Margaret Jo McCullen and Teri Rialto, played by Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon. Their guest, Pete Schweddy (Baldwin), presented his special Schweddy Balls during a holiday segment.

The whole thing was an eighth-grade hoot full of penis and testicle jokes, but it remains one of the funniest skits ever on SNL.

That aside, if you haven't ever listened to Kasper's show (2 p.m. on Sundays in Northern Colorado on KUNC, 91.5), you're missing out on some fun stuff. She trots out a host of regular guests, most notably the Sterns, Jane and Michael, authors of something called "Road Food," for which they also have a Web site.

Jane and Michael sound like a parody of Darien, Connecticut, snobs who traipse around the country (the South, it seems, almost too often) and give us rousing report of these things called "Biscuits and Gravy," and "Fried Chicken."

Jane: Oh, my goodness, Lynn. You wouldn't believe these wonderfully flaky, perfectly round little morsels they're serving up at this roadside place. They called them "biscuits," and they pair it with a piece of salty meat, called "Ham." It's to die for, really.

Lynn: Ooh, how quaint.

Michael: Then they serve it with the most wonderful tea, complete with a cup of sugar. It's called "Sweet Tea." Can you believe it? Heaven.

Also, it seems Lynn stalls her callers sometimes while one of her aides is busy Googling a particular culinary conundrum, but her advice usually rings true.

The show aside (and it's always good for a tip and a laugh), Lynn also offers an e-mail service from her site in which she offers up reasonably simple to prepare, but complex-tasting mid-week meals. I take her advice at least once a month it seems, and she's rarely made a bad suggestion.

Today's suggestion: "Farmwoman's Risotto" or Risotto alla Contadina.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Like any risotto recipe, you need to prepare all the ingredients ahead of time so you're precisely timing their addition to the pot. And you need to stir constantly, never leaving the stove. But it pays off in incredible flavor.

Also, I left some of the herbs in the pot (instead of adding sprigs only and removing them before serving), I substituted speck (smoked prosciutto) for the pancetta, and I used a good Pecorino Romano sheep's cheese instead of the cow's cheeses she suggested.

The result is a chunky veggie-laden (hence, "Farmwoman's" Risotto) risotto that went perfectly with a little leftover emu meatloaf covered in tomato sauce, arugula/blue cheese salad sprinkled with balsamic-honey-mustard vinaigrette, and a couple of glasses of Three-Buck-Chuck Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc dregs left over from last week.

Thanks, Holly.

Buen Provecho.

Starbucks for a buck? Why not here?

I've always been annoyed at restaurants that don't show their entire menus, be it in print or on a billboard behind the counter.

Starbucks, for instance, doesn't put its "short" drink on the menu, even though at eight ounces, it's a much more reasonably sized coffee drink for most people.

And if you like espresso drinks, the less water and/or milk, the stronger the coffee flavor. Of course, if you go to Starbucks for a milkshake with a hint of coffee, you pass up the "tall" and "grande" in favor of the "venti."

Two weeks ago, Starbucks announced it would be offering $1 short coffees -- with free refills -- at a few of its Seattle stores. The chain didn't say how many of its 300 Seattle stores would carry the offer, though. A "tall" 12-ounce cup usually costs about $1.60 here in Fort Collins, while a short costs $1.35 in most spots (though you won't know until you ask).

Business analysts have astutely surmised that this 35-cent cut and re-fill trial is Starbucks' answer to all the "premium" coffeess now being sold at non-premium sites like McDonald's, Wendy's and Subway.

It's hard to say whether it will work, but if you're drinking Starbucks anywhere but Seattle, ask your local barista why they don't advertise the "short" (not enough profit margin in selling eight ounces of coffee), if you can have one for $1 (please), and if they provide a re-fill for free (you'll be getting a "grande" at half-price that way).

Why should Seattle-ites get all the buzz?

Frasca-licious

I've read and heard so much about the Boulder restaurant Frasca over the past three years, it seems as if I've eaten there a dozen times or more (though all I've done is made unfilled reservations):

• A local hog farmer has talked about how his home-grown pork is used in their recipes;
• Local cheesemakers and mushroom growers have told me that the restaurant also uses their product;
• And Denver Post food writer Tucker Shaw has devoted several stories, columns and reviews to the Friulian restaurant (Shaw, in fact, bestowed a rare four-star rating on Frasca when it opened in 2005).

Frioul is an archipelago in the Mediterranean off Marseilles in southern France. The region shares some of its food traditions with northern Italy.

And that's where we come in with today's review of food sections, an interesting read in which Shaw interviews the co-owners of Frasca.

Included are seven recipes in the print version of the Post (five online) that appear to be elegantly simple, provided you're able to procure the right kinds of cheeses: Grilled Coloroado Beef Short Ribs with Radicchio di Treviso, Barbecued Chicken with Rosemary Roasted Potatoes and Red Pepper Jelly, Frasca's Tomato and Meatballs, Pickled Shallot and Pesto Vinaigrette, Frico Caldo, Malted Milk Chocolate Gelato, and Cocoa-Almond Biscotti.

Featuring a combination of veal, lamb, bacon, and ricotta and Montasio cheese, the meatballs appear to be especially savory.

Frasca owners make wine recommendations for each dish, too.

So for those of you who probably won't drive to Boulder and spend the money to dine at Frasca, here's a chance to stretch your own culinary skills and at least try a little Friulano cuisine, as interpreted by chefs who have earned national acclaim.

If you've read this far, I'll invite you over for dinner, and I'll prepare at least a couple of these dishes for you. Just bring the wine.

You want whole grains? Here's where to go

I love a good Subway sandwich, for many reasons: the store is close to where I work (in the same building), with just a little work you can order a reasonably healthy meal (they have apples and water bottles now), and the staff at my local shop is friendly and efficient beyond any reasonable expectation.

Yet, as Lesley Stahl told us on "60 Minutes" late last year, you can go very, very wrong at Subway if you don't know how to order a healthy meal. There's still plenty of cheese, mayonnaise, sugary dressings and sodas, potato chips and other artery cloggers nestled beneath the sneeze guard, piled on the chip racks and available at the drink dispenser.

By and large, Americans are savvy enough to know which of those foods are generally healthy, which are to be eaten in moderation, and which should be avoided altogether. Americans know, too, that they should be eating more whole grains.

Still, while waiting in line, I often hear customers order their sandwiches on "whole wheat" bread, which Subway does not offer. They have a wheat bread, but it's not whole grain. I've heard this order in several different stores in two different states, and I've yet to hear any of the "Sandwich Artists" correct the customer.

Here's the skinny: a six-inch wheat roll at Subway provides four grams of fiber in 200 calories. A same-sized honey oat roll offers five grams, presumably because of the few sprinkles of oats on the bread. The trade-off is the 250 calories.

So why doesn't Subway offer whole grain rolls, what with the entire country seemingly on a quest to improve the national bowel movement?

It's a calculated business decision based on Subway's belief that Americans may talk a good game, but they really don't want to eat healthier foods. Their executive chef admitted that a couple of years ago to sfgate.com.

"People say they want things, and then they don't really want them," Chris Martone said, noting taste tests that Subway has done with whole grain rolls.

So where does one go to find whole grains? After all, adult women need at least 12 grams per day, while men need 17 grams, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Whole Grains Council provides lists of restaurants and other food services around the country. In Fort Collins, you'll find Great Harvest, Panera, Whole Foods, Olive Garden, Noodles and Co., and even McDonald's, who offers a chicken sandwich an a bun with eight grams of fiber. Other restaurants on the list can be found as close as Loveland and all the way to Denver and Boulder.