Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 2, 1994 TAG: 9402030014
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Almena Hughes
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A recent report says studies have found that young adults (18-24) prefer corn chips; people 35-54 like microwavable popcorn; those over 55 prefer nuts; while children 6-12 like potato chips, tortilla chips, crunchy cheese snacks and pretzels.
Tastes developed in the United Kingdom tend toward salt and vinegar "crisps," as they call potato chips, while in Germany, paprika-flavored potato sticks are preferred. Plain salted potato chips are predominant in France and Spain, but the Spanish also favor chips with ham or onion flavor. Italians like their chips unsalted and flat, while Denmark brings a new dimension to meat and potatoes with its inhabitants' love of roast chicken- or roast beef-flavored chips.
On this side of the Atlantic, plain chips still prevail, but cheese, chili, honey-mustard and spicy-hot potato chips and seasoned tortilla chips are reported to be rapidly gaining ground.
This information and declaration of February as "National Snack Food Month" by the Snack Food Association and the National Potato Board comes hard on the heels of the traditional Super Bowl Sunday snacking frenzy. The one super-snacking day reportedly generates $80.2 million to buy 31.3 million pounds of munchables for consumption during the big game, compared to a consumption of 15.6 million pounds of snack foods at $40.1 million on an average day.
Now mind you, not all snacks are high-fat, calorie-laden or bad. Supermarket sales of low-fat, "better-for-you" pretzels are reportedly up almost 14 percent from a year ago. And one foods expert is actually encouraging parents to let their kids have snacks. University of North Carolina Medical Center nutritionist Betty Carson explains that snacks provide energy for active, growing kids' caloric needs. To help children develop a healthy attitude toward snacking, Carson says snacks should be treated simply as small amounts of food eaten between sit-down meals rather than used as bribes or rewards. The snacks should also be healthy and include foods such as animal or graham crackers, vanilla wafers, yogurt, unbuttered popcorn, low-fat crackers and cookies, raw fruits and vegetables and fig bars.
Carson's suggestions fall right in line with February as "National Fiber Focus Month," as proclaimed by the makers of Fiber One cereal.
Fiber, of course, is often credited with promoting regularity, lowering cholesterol and decreasing the risks of cancer and heart disease. During February, Fiber One is offering a free "Focus on Fiber" booklet, which includes information about fiber, common foods' fiber contents and tasty high-fiber recipes to help reach the recommended 20-35 grams per day, up from the average 11 grams daily that Americans currently consume. To order, call (800) 828-3292.
Also focusing on fiber, Wheatena toasted wheat cereal through March 31 is offering free fiber "makeovers" for favorite recipes. Wheatena maintains that boosting fiber content in everyday foods is easy. For example: add a tablespoon of uncooked wheat cereal per serving to soups; add 1/4 cup uncooked wheat cereal per cup to rice or chocolate chip cookie recipes; add 1/2 cup uncooked wheat cereal per pound to ground meat. Proceed with your usual recipe.
For a makeover or a free copy of Wheatena's "Fiber Up" brochure, send your recipe or menu plan in need of fiber fixing to Wheatena Fiber Makeovers, Five Giralda Farms, Madison, N.J. 07940.
It wouldn't be surprising if most of the recipes are submitted by women, 85 percent of whom continue to bear primary responsibility for cooking, according to a recent Potato Board survey. Respondents said they'd like to roughly halve the time they spend preparing dinner, paring it from an average 55 minutes down to a preferred 35. And 84 percent of the respondents said they'd rather not cook dinner at all on some days.
Several possibilities are in the works for filling those not-cooking-at-all days: The Monday Night Supper Club vegetarian buffet, which had a trial run through January, has been extended indefinitely. It meets Mondays from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Healing Light Center, 19 Albermarle S.E., 345-3405.
The Roanoke Valley Wine Society debuts for public admission on Feb. 24. Meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month at Corned Beef & Co., 107 Jefferson St., promise sampling of four to six wines and snacks to complement them, plus demonstrations and notes by knowledgeable speakers. The trial run provided a delightful, entertaining, informative and relatively inexpensive evening, well-spent away from the kitchen. The society is open to anyone who enjoys wine and wants to know more about it. Call Beth or Rob Crittenden at 992-3285.
Or go out and sample some Zima, whose recent rather cryptic ads on this newspaper's pages promise it's "Coming Zoon." Curiosity drove me to call the distributor who described Zima as a crystal-clear, lightly carbonated malt drink with a "zurprising" taste. "It's definitely not a beer," said Dave Hutchinson of Valley Distributing. "It's something you have to taste to understand." That will be possible at area restaurants starting Monday.
Shelf Life runs twice a month in the Extra section. If you have an interesting new product, cookbook, contest, gadget or gew gaw, tell us about it. Write to Shelf Life, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010.
by CNB