Health Food

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

When we diet, most of us eat more fruits and vegetables, many choose an established weight loss program, and one in four of us gets some help from a smartphone app. Those are some of the results from a recent ConsumerReports.org survey of 3,201 subscribers who shared their experiences about becoming more healthy. With a few days left until you begin your new year's resolutions to lose weight, get in shape and feel good in 2012, perhaps some of these enlightening tidbits will help steer you in the right direction.

Californians have a reputation for being health-food junkies, but the truth is an estimated 2 million California teens drink at least one sugary drink a day, and more than 1.6 million eat fast food at least twice a week, according to new research. Those who live or go to school in neighborhoods where fast-food restaurants and convenience stores outnumber supermarkets tend to partake in these foods more often, according to the report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. UCLA scientists calculated the ratio of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to grocery stores and produce vendors near teens' homes and schools.

Gripping plastic bags filled with milk, eggs and a two-liter bottle of orange soda, Itzel Hernandez made her way down Pasadena's Orange Grove Avenue one recent evening, keeping a brisk pace and wearing a gray hoodie to keep away the fall chill. Hernandez, 18, said she expected her trip home from Latino Market to take 25 minutes. The convenience store is the closest market to Hernandez's home. "Supermarkets aren't that far if you have a car, but I don't, so I have to walk," Hernandez said.

Here's some news you've been waiting for: Chocolate is a health food! Well, maybe not. But it can be part of a healthy diet. It's true – 70% of dieticians said you can eat 100 calories worth of chocolate each day "while maintaining a balanced lifestyle." Nearly as many agreed that you could eat that much chocolate daily and still lose weight. OK, so that survey was not scientific, and the results don't necessarily reflect the opinions of dieticians as a whole.

Our preoccupation with health food is nothing new. Consider, for example, the May 2, 1926, issue of the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, in which recipes for fresh fruit and vegetable dishes lined the "Care of the Body" page. One recipe for a date and coconut dessert appeared at the bottom. It was provided by Mrs. Bert Merrill, described as "an expert in the preparation of foodstuffs." Indeed, this was a time when women took a leading role in advocating nutrition research. According to Rima D.

Fire caused more than $162,000 damage to a health food store in Simi Valley early Tuesday, officials said. The blaze, at Ye Olde Mill Natural Foods Store in the 6600 block of Santa Susana Pass Road, started shortly after 1 a.m., a Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman said. It took nearly 30 firefighters half an hour to contain the blaze because a back draft, in which flames are fueled by wind blowing through the building, made the fire difficult to fight.

Health foods contain more pesticide residues than any other foods tested by the Ministry of Agriculture, the ministry said Friday. In a sampling of food available in health food stores and supermarkets, the Ministry of Agriculture found that 60% of nuts, beans, seeds and legumes contained traces of pesticides. About half, or 51%, of the dried and semi-dried fruit contained pesticide traces, it said.

Cooked sprouts pose no health risk. Cooking is the time-honored method of killing food-borne pathogens. However, the rise of the health food movement of the 1960s and '70s brought a vogue for raw alfalfa and clover sprouts. By 1996, state and federal officials had identified these health food staples as the source of a series of high-profile food poisonings. Sprouts originating from Californian alfalfa seed caused more than 500 confirmed cases of salmonella.

A Los Angeles health food bakery was accused Thursday of preparing its products under unsanitary conditions by allowing insects into flour bins and rats among sealed flour sacks. City Atty. James K. Hahn filed 121 counts alleging violations of the state health and safety code against the Food for Life Baking Co., 3580 Pasadena Ave. Also named in the complaint were the company's owners, Robert James Torres, 40, and Charles O.

Coffee king Starbucks Corp. is gunning for the health food industry. The Seattle company announced Thursday the $30-million, all-cash acquisition of San Bernardino-based Evolution Fresh Inc., a natural fruit and vegetable juice maker created by Jimmy Rosenberg, who also founded the Naked Juice brand. With Starbucks coffee shops as ubiquitous as hamburger joints, the company is looking to target a new market by opening a chain of stores next year centered on "wholesome" beverages and food.

Not long ago, almost nobody outside of a bakery ever gave a second thought to gluten, the protein in wheat and similar grains that makes bread dough firm, elastic and, well, doughy. But lately gluten's reputation has taken a sinister turn. Doctors warn that about 1 out of 100 people has celiac disease, a dangerous condition in which the body's immune system attacks gluten proteins. For them, anything made with wheat flour can cause joint pain, gastrointestinal distress, anemia and even an early death.

It's a reform effort years in the making in the nation's second-largest school system. Only this one is being carried out around a group of tables at the district's massive kitchen, where the executive chef is serving his latest creations to several dozen teenagers. On a recent day, student food critics from East Los Angeles sit in judgment, circling thumbs-up or thumbs-down and writing comments on the new menu choices. Hummus with whole-wheat pita, a farmers market salad and vegetable tamales?

Consider this the latest installment in the "no good deed goes unpunished" chronicles. Our story began last spring, when fashion designer Ron Finley admitted to himself that, while he's always enjoyed gardening, he didn't really know what the hay he was doing. "I'd just stick something in the ground and see what happened. " So Finley, who lives on Exposition Boulevard just west of the Crenshaw area, took a UC Cooperative Extension gardening class at the Natural History Museum.

Fast food without the grease, salt … or guilt? That's what the entrepreneurs behind Lyfe Kitchen, a proposed fast-food chain slated to open later this summer, are promising customers. "It's going to be great-tasting, satiating, familiar foods," said the company's chief communications officer, Mike Donahue, "with no [genetically modified foods], no additives, nothing processed and everything under 600 calories. " There will be no butter, cream, high fructose corn syrup or fried food, and very little salt, he said, and as many ingredients as possible from local suppliers.

Californians have a reputation for being health-food junkies, but the truth is an estimated 2 million California teens drink at least one sugary drink a day, and more than 1.6 million eat fast food at least twice a week, according to new research. Those who live or go to school in neighborhoods where fast-food restaurants and convenience stores outnumber supermarkets tend to partake in these foods more often, according to the report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. UCLA scientists calculated the ratio of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to grocery stores and produce vendors near teens' homes and schools.

Without traditional advertising and without a public relations department, Health Valley Foods has become a major player in a 1990s concern: the manufacture of health foods. Founder George Mateljan (rhymes with Italian) personally tastes each new product that spews forth from his Irwindale factory and spends much of his time testing new ways to cut down fat and cholesterol and still keep the foods--which range from packaged meals to fast-food snacks--tasting good.

In a bid to fight childhood obesity and change eating habits on the local level, First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to announce a healthful food financing initiative Wednesday that aims to draw grocery stores into so-called food desert areas in California. The $200-million program, dubbed the California FreshWorks Fund, is a joint effort by the California Endowment and a team of grocery industry groups, healthcare organizations and leading Wall Street banks. Modeled after similar funds launched in New York City and Pennsylvania, the idea for the California fund was hatched about 18 months ago by the California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation.

Los Angeles school district officials were wary of a celebrity chef's reality television show precisely because they wanted to avoid the conflict and drama they know the genre can bring. The district said no, yet the conflict and drama still came. Jamie Oliver, the British chef, focused the second season of his ABC television show, "Food Revolution," on Los Angeles public schools. In Tuesday night's premiere, Oliver was a defiant rabble-rouser challenging the superintendent and school board who were stonewalling his mission to bring in healthy food and combat rampant obesity.