[Jog] fwd: [Prc-obesity-network-cwh] Joy of Cooking or Obesity?

[Jennifer L YOUNG]

FYI - I found this quite interesting.
Jennifer
 
Compliments of ...
 
*********************************************
   Center for Family and Community Health
           School of Public Health
      University of California, Berkeley
           http://cfch.berkeley.edu 
  A CDC Center for Chronic Disease Prevention
        and Health Promotion Research
*********************************************
 

Joy of Cooking' or 'Joy of Obesity'?
 
In the classic cookbook, published since 1931, changes in ingredients 
and serving sizes have led to a 63% increase in calories per serving 
in 17 of the recipes, a study shows.
 
Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times, February 17, 2009
 
Restaurants get a bad rap for serving gargantuan portions of food and 
contributing to Americans' expanding waistlines. But what if 
something in your home were equally guilty? Something as innocent as 
. . . "Joy of Cooking"?
 
The classic cookbook, first published in 1931, has done some 
girth-expanding of its own, a study has found.
 
Published as a letter Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the 
report examined 18 classic recipes found in seven editions of the 
book from 1936 to 2006. It found that calorie counts for 14 of the 
recipes have ballooned by an average of 928 calories, or 44%, per 
recipe. And serving sizes have grown as well.
 
Take beef stroganoff: In the 1997 edition, the recipe called for 
three tablespoons of sour cream. The 2006 edition calls for one cup.
 
Then there's waffles: In 1997, the basic recipe made 12 six-inch 
waffles; in 2006, the same ingredients made about six waffles.
 
Overall, the scientists found, changes in ingredients and serving 
sizes led to a 63% increase in calories per serving in 17 of the 
recipes between 1936 and 2006.
 
"When we talk about obesity, people like to plant the source of the 
issue on away-from-home dining," said Brian Wansink, the study's 
co-author and director of Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab. 
"But that raised the thought in my mind: Is that really the source of 
things?. . . . What has happened in what we've been doing in our own 
homes over the years?"
 
Wansink and co-author Collin Payne, assistant professor of marketing 
at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, said they wanted to 
quantify how home cooking had changed, but knew that doing it 
anecdotally wasn't scientific. So they turned to cookbooks, settling 
on "Joy of Cooking" because of its history and the fact that it had 
enough recipes carried through all editions.
 
In addition to beef stroganoff and waffles, recipes chosen for 
analysis included macaroni and cheese, goulash, Spanish rice, 
brownies, sugar cookies and apple pie.
 
Wansink said similar calorie increases were found in other enduring 
recipe books such as the "Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book."
 
The study found that some of the added calories in the dishes came 
from a substitution of ingredients -- extra meat instead of 
vegetables, for example. Back in the day, meat was expensive, so less 
of it was used, he said.
 
In other recipes, Wansink said, sauces were added, or more butter or 
sugar, or extras such as nuts and raisins. "They're now there for a 
little more excitement," he said.
 
Cultural shifts may have also had an effect on recipe ingredients and 
portion sizes, Wansink added. Families have gotten smaller, so a dish 
that once was consumed by eight people is now consumed by four.
 
And because sizes of dinner plates have grown over the years, a 
standard 2-ounce portion of pasta can now look diminutive.
 
Jeannie Gazzaniga-Moloo, a Roseville, Calif.-based registered 
dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Assn., said she 
was surprised by the findings.
 
"I would have expected that with the increasing awareness of 
nutrition, the calories would have been lower or stayed the same," she said.
 
Beth Wareham, editor of the 2006 edition, is not losing sleep over the study.
 
"It's such a tiny number of recipes. It's really a non-event," she said.
 
She said that the book has become more healthful overall, booting out 
many processed foods in favor of fresh ingredients. The 2006 edition 
has a chapter on nutrition written by Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of 
the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health.
 
In putting together the latest edition, writers and recipe-testers 
used their common sense in terms of ingredients and serving sizes, 
Wareham said -- and they figured readers have some common sense of their own.
 
"We give Americans credit," she added, "for knowing that eating a 
brownie is not as good as eating a plate of whole grains and vegetables."
 
Average caloric content in "Joy of Cooking" by publication year.  See 
link for graph:
 
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-joy17-2009feb17,0,7687368.story 
 
 
Jennifer Young, MPH, RD
Nutrition and Physical Activity Coordinator
Office of Family Health
Public Health Division, DHS
800 NE Oregon St., Ste. 825
Portland, OR 97232
telephone: (971) 673-0245
fax: (971) 673-0240
jennifer.l.young at state.or.us    
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