Food Insight

Your Nutrition and Food Safety Resource

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What are Legumes?

Legumes are the edible fruits, pods, or seeds of plants from the pea family Leguminosae. Sounds fancy, but you’ll probably find them in every grocery store, a burrito, or hidden in the back of your kitchen pantry. The Leguminosae family includes beans, peas, and lentils.

You may have heard in recent news that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) filed a notice delaying (again) a long-awaited menu labeling rule that was to be implemented on May 5, 2017. Under the rule, restaurants and retail food establishments that offer restaurant-type food with 20 or more locations would be required to provide calorie and other nutrition information on standard menu items.

Did you know food allergies affect approximately 15 million Americans? If you’re one of the many individuals or parents of children with food allergies, you are not alone. If you’re newly diagnosed or know someone who has just been diagnosed, it is important to know and learn the basics about food allergens early and quickly. May 14 is Food Allergy Awareness Week, but it kicks off an educational opportunity for the next 360 days. Help us increase awareness about food allergies this week and every week of the year. Learn a fact from our new graphic and share it along the way.

Have you ever walked into a smoothie shop and wondered what is that green grass-looking plant sitting on top of the counter with the fruits and protein powders? Well, turns out, it is wheatgrass, and if you are like me, before writing this blog, I had no idea if it had any health benefits. Turns out, it does! Let’s take a look:

Wheatgrass is considered a food, and it grows from the seed of the wheat plant Triticum Aestivum. It is available in the form of juice, powder, and tablets, and it can be added to soups, yogurts, juices, or taken as a regular dietary supplement.

Recently, we’ve seen a number of stories about food recalls, from potential Salmonella in potato chips to golf ball pieces in hash browns. Whether you hear about them from your favorite news channel or see them as the latest trending topic on Twitter, food recalls are a frequent issue that affects us all.

While training for my first marathon, I had heard the term “hitting the wall” in long distance running, but of course, I thought that it would never happen to me. Well, it turned out, that was far from the truth. Even with my nutrition knowledge, I underestimated the importance of nutrition when preparing for a long distance race, especially a marathon!

From Vitamin A to Zinc, there are so many vitamins and minerals in foods that are important to our health. It can be hard to keep track of what vitamin is beneficial for which body function and most importantly, where to find these important nutrients in food. These fact sheets provide all the info you need to know about vitamins and minerals in food. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list but it’s a good start towards making sure you are eating the right foods to get the nutrients you need.

If you’re looking for a blog about the religious figure of evil, you’ve come to the wrong place. This blog is about seitan (pronounced “say-tan”), the vegetarian and vegan-friendly meat-alternative. But Seitan isn't just for those avoiding meat, it is a worthwhile source of nutrients in your diet. Let’s take a closer look at seitan and what magical forces (or just basic nutrition) it provides.

The IFIC Foundation, along with more than 170 other organizations, has partnered with the March for Science movement. The March, scheduled for April 22, 2017, is the first step in a global movement to defend the vital role science plays in our health, safety, economies, and governments. It is a broad, nonpartisan, and diverse coalition of organizations and individuals who stand up for science, advocating for a variety of science-based topics including science education and accessible science.