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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Cycle Your Way Through Wine Country, but Never Leave Your Front Door
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It had to happen. As a matter of incident, I’m surprised it didn’t come sooner.
Virtual tours may not be everyone’s idea of techo wizardry anymore, but virtually cycling your way through California’s wine country is at least a better way to burn calories than staring at a wall for 50 minutes.
Connect18, a techno-fitness company in San Francisco, has designed a series of six 45-minute cycling videos that allow the cycler to virtually tour wine country without leaving their stationary bike (or treadmill, or elliptical). Each class starts on the road to Connect18 music, then moves to vineyards and wineries, with interviews from owners and winemakers. The program will leave you fitter and faster, and with a working knowledge of cabernet sauvignon, syrah, chardonnay, viognier, pinot noir and zinfindel.
Can’t make it to the Connect18 club in San Fran? Order the DVD box set of six for $29 — it’s available December 15, just in time for Christmas. Go to www.connect18.com for more information.
Who’s in? Would you do this? Or is it the real thing or nothing for you?
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Sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In this week’s Saving Southern Food recipe, contributor Eris Cosby Lancaster of Powder Springs talks about her grandmother, who, among other things, grew her own sweet potatoes for her sweet potato pie. After her grandmother’s death, family members shared a copy of the recipe and continue to make it at Thanksgiving. Another Thanksgiving dessert of similar character, pumpkin pie, is just as traditional for many people. What’s the tradition in your family? Do you prefer one over the other?
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How many calories are in that plate of pasta?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who regularly eats in Italian restaurants that enormous platters of cream- and cheese-smothered, breaded entrees aren’t the healthiest choices available.
In case you had any lingering doubts, though, the Center for Science in the Public Interest runs the numbers for you. (These are the folks who proclaimed fettuccini Alfredo “heart attack on a plate” when they examined Italian food in 1994.) They pulled information from restaurant web sites and sent dishes from Olive Garden to an independent laboratory to come up with their nutritional analysis.
At Romano’s Macaroni Grill, spaghetti and meatballs, a dish that sounds like a safe choice, contains 2,430 calories and close to three days’ worth of saturated fat and sodium. And then there are the usual suspects: fried calamari, tiramisu, pasta in cream sauce.
At Olive Garden, the spaghetti and meatballs also takes a drubbing: 1,260 calories and a day’s worth of bad fats, the equivalent of two Big Macs and a 21-ounce Coke.
Does learning that a favorite dish is loaded with unhealthy stuff change whether you order it? If you’re trying to eat more healthfully and you’re going out for Italian, what do you choose? Or do you go for Italian at all if you’re trying to eat healthfully?
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