12 Foods That Pack On The Pounds

According to a Harvard study conducted over twenty years, these 12 foods have been linked to a significant increase in weight... and combined, contributed to an increase in 17lbs. over 20 years. Sounds not-so-bad, however, the study was performed on 120,877 non-obese people. For each four-year period, food choices contributed to an extra four pounds while exercise cut less than two pounds. 

1 = an increase of less than 1lb. a year

12 = an increase of ~2lbs. a year

1 - butter

2 - fruit juice

3 - fried food

4 - refined grains (white rice)

5 - sweets & desserts

6 - potatoes

7 - trans fats

8 - processed meat (bacon, hot dogs, etc)

9 - unprocessed red meat (beef, steak, hamburger)

10 - sugar sweetened soda

11 - potato chips

12 - french fries

Naturally, I'm upset because french fries (ranked #12 here) are the worst food you can eat and simultaneously one of my favorite foods of all time. I just hope that pairing it with an unnatural amount of ketchup keeps my heart and waistline safe.

Farmers Market Fresh

It's your first week in Berkeley, California and you're surrounded by all the amazing food choices you could possibly imagine, and you're asked to cook dinner -- what do you do? Well, the reason those innumerable food choices exist in such abundance in the East Bay of San Francisco, is the availability of the freshest, hand-picked, organic produce around. So... why not give local restaurants a run for their money? It's easy.

Step 1: Head over to one of the many Farmer's Markets and pick up anything and everything that looks good to you. In my case it was Gourmet Ghetto's Thursday Farmer's Market that took the cake.

Step 2: Think of some fun dish and interesting pairing side-dishes you've never tried, using all of that fresh food you just bought. Tonight I made - (organic) basil mayo chicken sandwiches on (organic) ciabatta - a balsamic vinaigrette beet salad with walnuts and goat cheese - and beet greens, sauteed with garlic and onion.

~ Now eat... and enjoy. 

Note: I got - the onions, bread, basil, lettuce,  and beets (including greens) - from the market!

Step 3: After washing dinner down with Anchor Steam's: Anchor Summer Beer, (and letting some time pass..) go back to your Farmer's Market shopping basket and dish out a simple dessert. In my case, I just so happened to pick up some super sweet peaches and delectable strawberries, so stepping out of culinary complexity, I sliced them up, threw them (literally) together, and forked them out of the bowl... and into my mouth. Better even than a cherry on top, this fruit combo closed up the palatal shop perfectly.