2 student response to each 2 students

you are expected to reply to a minimum of 2 or more other student posts. Please understand, you will be expected to provide detail to both the initial and the follow up posts. When responding to other students, add to the discussion. No points will be given for comments such as "Good Job" or "That is interesting."  You must add information to the subject matter that can be commented on and adds to the overall discussion. 

Lorenzo Bettencourt

Chapter 8

Flavor: How Much Do We Really Understand?

This article explores the concept of flavor and just how radical it really is regarding different components and the ever-changing consumer market. Taste is first described as a result of chemical reactions occurring in the mouth and how the basic 4 tastes (sour, bitter, sweet, and salty) have been expanded to include umami (sensation from flavor enhancers) and should probably be expanded more. These tastes also lay the basis for aroma volatiles, different smells we get from food, that are obviously just as important in the overall eating process. Sensory perception is also an important component that influences our like for foods, including things such as texture and hearing. Biting into chocolate for example is very important to the overall flavor response. The article really focuses on the concept of flavor release, and how as a result of taking in food, chewing, and release of saliva, the release of flavor is not instant. Depending on the types of food, this delayed response can be imperative in whether consumers will like certain products, such as in those with less fat. Due to all these factors, it's important that more research is done on these perceptions as more and more people become willing to try exotic new products.  

Chapter 9

Healthy Dinner Recipes

This site provides many different recipes for easy, quick, and healthy meals for dinner. A lot of the examples unsurprisingly focus on lean meats such as chicken and fish such as salmon as opposed to beef or pork. This is due to the fact that the former types of meat are much lighter and healthier. There's also plenty of options with vegetables including a salmon recipe with onions and bay radishes. Potatoes are also in a lot of recipes but are prepared in healthier ways such as being baked or using sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. These recipes all provide excellent sources of protein, carbs, and healthy fats through various different products and by being easy and quick to prepare, encourage those visiting the site that eating healthy does not have to be complicated or mundane. 

Chapter 10

Recipe Makeovers

One of the meals on this site that were changed were cheesy chicken enchiladas. This recipe could easily become pretty unhealthy so I wanted to see just how it could become a healthy option. The recipe was of course changed in a number of ways. Half the amount of cheese was used and a reduced fat Mexican blend was used. The casserole itself was also topped with 1/4 the original amount of cheese and a reduced cheddar was used, dropping 97 calories from the dish. Instead of 2 cups of full fat sour cream, a combination of 1 2/3 cup low fat yogurt and 1/3 cup butter was used, eliminating 29 calories and 4 grams of fat. A reduced fat and reduced sodium version of chicken soup was also used to get rid of 1.5 grams of fat and 102 mg of sodium. Finally, tortillas were brushed with canola oil instead of fried. 

Beverly May Rebultan

The Flavor Pyramid

The food that we eat everyday can affect our health and risks of certain diseases, we can make choices about what we eat and our lifestyle. For us to be healthy, we may need to change some of our habits, start with small lifestyle changes that you may keep and can lead to better health. Flavor is something that we consider with our eating habits. The ultimate goal of the food pyramid is to provide a system to have a better understanding on every aspect of flavor, including how to develop different and satisfy flavors, encourage exploration in flavors and experience new taste. It begins with emotions, which makes the base of the pyramid ,which begins in childhood, we experienced that food can either taste pleasant or disgusting. The next layer is visual appearance, food presentation  is important in the success of presenting a dish as its taste and flavor .It stimulates are taste buds depending on the color like vegetable that are red, green and yellow. Next is Aroma, which plays an important part on stimulating our appetite. The Aroma level is critical to defining flavor, for example ,if you have a cold or flu, odors can't reach sensory cells in the nose that are stimulated by smell which result to lose of enjoyment of flavor, foods tends to taste nothing or have a little flavor. Next is texture, is also important in determining the quality of food and influence our food intake although texture odors do not have flavor, it tells us the freshness of the food. Sensation is the next layer, a taste receptor in our tongue is a type of receptor which facilitates the sensation of taste that cause different reactions that include burn, bite, astringency, pungency, cooling, numbing, fullness and tingle. The final building block is our basic taste, that includes sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami(savory), these work together with aroma and other sensory information that helps shape the overall flavor. When preparing food consider the dish that will be presented ,appearance plays a part on someone's appetite, add some color that can stimulate the taste buds. When preparing food, try to limit the amounts of fat, use oil instead of solid fats ,that can protect against heart disease by rasing the good( HDL) cholesterol.

www,healthlink.bc.ca , medium.com ,nature.com

 

Eating well: Healthy dinner recipes

I choose the Zucchini noodles with avocado pesto and shrimp ,I find it as a very interesting recipe that I would like to try. Replacing a regular pasta that is high in carbohydrates to spiralized zucchini that has a lot of health benefits. Zucchini benefits for weight loss, low carb and high in fiber, that can fill you up and avoid excess eating, improves hearth health, zucchini is a prominent part of the DASH diet, low in cholesterol, sodium and fat, rich in folate ,rich in lutein and zeaxanthin(antioxidants), which exhibit powerful anti aging properties, a good source of vitamin A that is shown to improve eye health. It can help control diabetes ,the dietary fiber can delay glucose absorption and helps patients with type II diabetes. It also has anti inflammatory properties to contribute to asthma treatment. Zucchini which is high in potassium is one of the preferred foods to combat hypertension. The recipe has also shrimp that has a variety of health benefits, a rich source of protein ,high in several vitamins and minerals due to its content of omega 3 fatty acids. And in this recipe seasoning are used to add flavor that has health benefits too like antioxidant ,lower cholesterol levels, improve blood sugar control. Avocados are also used that are rich in vitamins and minerals. This recipe would be a great addition to your family dinner recipes.  

 

Balanced Menus

Lazydog Menu:

I choose Chicken Lettuce wrap as an appetizer with 580 calories,32 g of total fat, 7g of saturated fat, 0g of trans fat and 940mg of sodium. For my entrée I choose Sesame crustes Ahi Tuna with 530 calories, 18 g total fat, 8g saturated fat,0g trans fat and 2180mg of sodium, for my side dish I choose pickled cucumber salad, 30 calories, .5g total fat,0 gsaturated fat,0g trans fat and 170 mg sodium .And for my dessert I choose fresh fruit 90 calories,0g total fat,0g saturated fat,0 g trans fat and 0mg sodium. The total calories of my menu is 1,230 cal which in the textbook the recommended intake is 800 kcalories, 15 mg for saturated fat,recommended is 10g,i got 50.5 g total fat, 0 trans fat and 3,290 mg of sodium,the recommended is 800 mg or less. Looking at the menu it seems to be a balanced meal but the sodium intake in restaurant is high.