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Holy Redeemer French Students Excel in National Contest

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<p>It seems that Andrew, my son-in-law, is contemplating changing his religion. He and Kate bought a remarkably sophisticated outdoor grill and he may be converting to &#8220;Barbecueism.&#8221; He&#8217;ll try to grill, ALMOST, anything. OK, not Cheerios and so far, not ice cream, but most everything else!</p><p>As barbecue season gets underway, the smell of food cooking outdoors might be making your mouth water in anticipation, but it&#8217;s important to keep in mind that what you put on your table this spring and summer can affect your cardiovascular health.</p><p>A study released last month by Harvard University&#8217;s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Purdue University indicates you can lower your risk of heart disease by eating plant-based proteins instead of red meat.</p><p>While this seems like news to no one, the study is the first meta-analysis that compares the health effects of ingesting red meat to those of eating other foods. A meta-analysis uses data from multiple independent studies to identify a common effect across isolated threads of research.</p><p>Previous research focused solely on the risk factors associated with a diet high in red meat has been inconsistent because it&#8217;s failed to consider the nature of a comparison diet. If a diet high in red meat was compared to a diet high in deep-fried foods, the results may not be conclusive, but substituting red meat with chicken, fish, carbohydrates or plant proteins has yielded more clear conclusions &#8212; namely, plant protein sources like legumes, soy and nuts resulted in lower levels of total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, commonly dubbed &#8220;bad&#8221; cholesterol.</p><p>The benefits of plant-based diets have been widely recognized and adopted by the culinary industry, with vegetarian and vegan restaurants popping up in every city in the U.S. and all over the world. But the trend has caught national news attention recently in the wake of a major chain offering a plant-based version of its most famous hamburger.</p><p>Geisinger Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Sarah Dayton said the healthcare system is in tune with both the research surrounding plant-based diets and the buzz its been generating in the news.</p><p>&#8220;I think we&#8217;re always looking to improve our menu for a variety of reasons, including more options into people&#8217;s diets,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Geisinger Medical Center in Danville offers a vegan burger daily, and every Friday serves a Halal meal that satisfies Islamic dietary law and features chickpea curry over basmati rice and an empanada with green sauce.</p><p>Food service is even meeting in the middle for some patients and offering a meatloaf that is partially meat-based but also incorporates mushrooms and lentils.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard zero complaints about those ingredients being added to our current recipe,&#8221; Dayton said.</p><p>Contemporary wisdom that accompanies new studies about the benefits of plant-based protein lauds both healthy vegetarian and Mediterranean-style diets.</p><p>&#8220;I think we&#8217;re very Mediterranean diet-focused, because it&#8217;s all about what you can have and not what you can&#8217;t have,&#8221; Dayton said.</p><p>The Mediterranean diet is heavy in fruits and vegetables and recommends fish be your source of protein twice a week or more. Grains should be whole grains, and other meats &#8212; two servings or fewer per week &#8212; should only occasionally be red meat or processed meat. Olive oil should be the fat used for saut&#233;ing or dressing salads, and beans should account for two or more servings per week. In addition, nuts should take the place of a salty snack.</p><p>Wine is an accepted part of the diet, but only one drink a day for women and one to two for men. Lifestyle choices account for 40 percent of premature cardiovascular disease, and the Mediterranean diet, when combined with appropriate medications, can yield better results than if either of those interventions were used alone. And as far as those plant-based burgers that seem to be everywhere these days, consumers should be careful to look at nutritional values before they eat. Sometimes veggie burgers have higher calorie counts than other burgers. Most nutritional information is online these days, and a complete nutritional analysis is often available, so people should take advantage of those resources and consider nutrition before they make a decision.</p><p>I&#8217;ll let you know if Andy crosses the ice cream boundary. I might need to call Children&#8217;s Services if he does.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Alfred Casale</p><p>To Your Health</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>.Dr. Alfred Casale, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is associate chief medical officer for Geisinger and chair of the Geisinger Heart Institute. Readers may write to him via ae@www.timesleader.com. For a free heart risk assessment, visit geisinger.org/heartrisk.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

The beef with burgers