Produce News for January 2, 2012

DIET (MONDAY, JANUARY 2): Our diet has gotten us into trouble. We are starting a new year, 2012, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about how we are going to start our diet in the new year, 2012. And you know 220 million people in the world today have diabetes. Many of them are going to die at a very young age, because of that disease. Here in the United States, 22 million people have diabetes and there are probably a few million more that don't know that they have it. Very, very dangerous. So what can we do about it? It all started really with our diet. I want to introduce you to a very special plate. I want you to think about this plate at every meal. Take a look at this plate. Half of everything that you eat after, everything you eat on your plate ‑‑ breakfast, lunch, and dinner ‑‑ should be non‑ starchy vegetables ‑‑ you should have a quarter of starchy vegetables or some other starch, like rice and then, of course, you should have a quarter of a lean protein, but half if you just do that one thing you're going to have a much better 2012.

CELERY (TUESDAY, JANUARY 3): Hey, you did know that this was national diet week, of course, the first full week of January. How many of us go on a diet? We have had our holidays, and we have had our fill of sweets, and cookies, and all of those good things. And now, we figure we better start eating better, smarter. Well you know eating smarter is something that you can do all year long. It just doesn't have to be part of the first week of January. So, one of the first things that we do at our house when we get the celery home, we will slice our celery, and we will slice it into nice, thick sticks. And then will we will add ‑‑ put it into some water. And that is all we do, put it into water. You can use Tupperware, and put a lid on, but we store our celery in water like this, because it keeps it so juicy and icy cold. Now, why celery for a diet food? Well, you may not have known this about celery. Celery when you eat celery, it literally takes more calories to burn celery up, then it gives you. Yes, it is the original diet food.

WATER CORE APPLES (WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4): Ooh, ooh, ooh, just a little bit there, let me check this one out. Hi, how you guys doing today? Checking my apples for – nothing there. Checking my apples for a little water core. This time of year, we start seeing a little discoloration around the core of the apple. I found it in one. And sometimes it gets really pronounced, none, none there. But you can see just around this core, just a little bit of discoloration. That is called water core. And sometimes when you buy apples, especially this time of year and you cut into those apples, and it is all brown and discolored in there, kind of like a translucent brown, not a decay brown. So ‑‑ and ‑‑ you ‑‑ what is that? So you take them all back to the store. Please. You don't have to take them back to the store. In fact, growers, and when they found water core apples, that's the one they eat. You know why? Because those are going to be the sweetest apples.

GREEN APPLES (THURSDAY, JANUARY 5): Sir Isaac Newton, born this week, 1643. Of course, he discovered gravity. How? Yes, he was underneath an apple tree. Apples began falling. So we're still talking apples this week. There is something about apples that you need to know. We eat green apples. And I mean green as apposed to ripe. If you had a ripe apple, you would not want it. You would not eat it, because it would be so pithy. Because once an apple ripens, all of the cell structure inside that apple literally begins to fall apart. That's what makes it "ripe". So, the birds will eat it and pass along the seeds elsewhere. So, we actually don't eat ripe apples, we actually eat green apples. There're not fully ripened. That's why the apples we eat they taste so good, and so juicy, and crisp.

SHRIVLED APPLES (FRIDAY, JANUARY6 ): Okay. So, I have mine over here. I know every once in a while you go to your apple bin, and you find some shriveled apples. You know the outside of them literally begins to shrivel. You can just put your thumbs ‑‑ just look at them. They just beginning to shrivel up. And I know many of you will just take those apples, and those are the apples that go out in the garbage. No, please, never in a million years do I want you to take those shrivel apples ever again. Here's what I want you to do. Some of the best bakers in the world when they order apples, they order the shriveled apples. Here is why. When an apple is shriveled it has just lost about three percent of its moisture content. And because it's done when you put this in a pie, or an apple sauce, or any baked apple, good guarantee it is going to be the best apple pie or the best apple tart you've ever eaten in your life. So, joy for those shriveled apples. I'm Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.