Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

For the gin lovers: try switching to a gin gimlet, its just gin and lime juice. I almost never want a gin and tonic anymore.

Skyline is fine, but for Cincinnati chili Camp Washington is the best.

The new hit in my office is buffalo chicken wing dip. Not very gourmet but very tasty. 1 cup each of ranch dressing, shredded cheese, hot sauce, and chicken plus one package of cream cheese. Just add it to the crock pot and serve with tortilla chips.

I've been all over the United States and over the southern half of Europe. Using Naples (Napoli) as the yardstick for authentic pizza (since the Napolitans invented pizza!) I've found that in the United States, the closer you get to New Jersey, the more the pizza resembles the pizza in Naples, Italy. (Though there is good pizza found elsewhere, such as Pizzeria Regina in Boston.) Likewise, in Europe, the closer you get to Napoli, the more the pizza resembles the pizza in New Jersey and New York. Needless t o say, I do not consider any pizza baked in pans at 350 degrees (such as Chicago's deep dish, or Greek-owned pizza places in New England) to be "real" pizza. Good pizza must be baked directly on stone at over 500 degrees. The number of good pizzerias in a location is directly proportionate to the number of Neapolitan ("NapoliTAN") immigrants settling in that area.

mmm chipotle! i get the veggie burrito w/ black beans, tomatoes & roast corn, lettuce, cheese, guac & sour cream. it's probably a lot of calories (who's counting?) but it's not like i eat there all the time, maybe once a month or so for lunch.

wasn't this news several years ago? i eat: burrito bol, rice, black beans, two salsas, guac and extra lettuce. total: 550 calories. the thing about that bol is i FEEL full. it seems like a lot of food. you could get the same caloric intake for a big Starbucks drink or a milkshake at some drive through - and not feel full.

recommended: this blog, where someone details how he lost 60 pounds on his "chipotle diet" -- link

Just as a heads-up, in Canada high-fructose corn syrup is listed as "glucose-fructose" on product labels. So the Coke up here is just as bad as in America!

Research on hormonal factors suggests that fructose actually promotes disease more readily than glucose. Glucose is metabolized in every cell in the body but all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of test animals fed large amounts of fructose develop fatty deposits and cirrhosis, similar to problems that develop in the livers of alcoholics.

Pure fructose contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals and robs the body of its micronutrient treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use. While naturally occurring sugars, as well as sucrose, contain fructose bound to other sugars, high fructose corn syrup contains a good deal of "free" or unbound fructose. Research indicates that this free fructose interferes with the heart’s use of key minerals like magnesium, copper and chromium. Lysl oxidase is a copper-dependent enzyme that participates in the formation of collagen and elastin. Fructose seems to interfere with copper metabolism to such an extent that collagen and elastin cannot form in growing animals--hence the hypertrophy of the heart and liver in young male rat fed high amounts of HFCS. Females did not develop these abnormalities, but they resorbed their litters.

Among other consequences, HFCS has been implicated in elevated blood cholesterol levels and the creation of blood clots. It has been found to inhibit the action of white blood cells so that they are unable to defend the body against harmful foreign invaders.

Fructose reduces the affinity of insulin for its receptor, which is the hallmark of type-2 diabetes. This is the first step for glucose to enter a cell and be metabolized. As a result, the body needs to pump out more insulin to handle the same amount of glucose.

Consumption of fructose causes a significant increase in the concentration of uric acid; after ingestion of glucose, no significant change occurs. An increase in uric acid can be an indicator of heart disease. Furthermore, fructose ingestion in humans results in increases in blood lactic acid, especially in patients with preexisting acidotic conditions such as diabetes, postoperative stress or uremia. Extreme elevations cause metabolic acidosis and can result in death.

Fructose is absorbed primarily in the jejunum before metabolism in the liver. Fructose is converted to fatty acids by the liver at a greater rate than is glucose. When consumed in excess of dietary glucose, the liver cannot convert all of the excess fructose in the system and it may be malabsorbed. The portion that escapes conversion may be thrown out in the urine. Diarrhea can be a consequence. A study of 25 patients with functional bowel disease showed that pronounced gastrointestinal distress may be provoked by malabsorption of small amounts of fructose.

Fructose interacts with oral contraceptives and elevates insulin levels in women on "the pill."

In studies with rats, fructose consistently produces higher kidney calcium concentrations than glucose. Fructose generally induces greater urinary concentrations of phosphorus and magnesium and lowered urinary pH compared with glucose.

In humans, fructose feeding leads to mineral losses, especially higher fecal excretions of iron and magnesium, than did subjects fed sucrose. Iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc balances tended to be more negative during the fructose-feeding period as compared to balances during the sucrose-feeding period.

There is significant evidence that high sucrose diets may alter intracellular metabolism, which in turn facilitates accelerated aging through oxidative damage. Scientists found that the rats given fructose had more undesirable cross-linking changes in the collagen of their skin than in the other groups. These changes are also thought to be markers for aging. The scientists say that it is the fructose molecule in the sucrose, not the glucose, that plays the larger part.

Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way it normally does. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter. Fructose raises serum triglycerides significantly. As a left-handed sugar, fructose digestion is very low. For complete internal conversion of fructose into glucose and acetates, it must rob ATP energy stores from the liver.

Not only does fructose have more damaging effects in the presence of copper deficiency, fructose also inhibits copper metabolism--another example of the sweeteners double-whammy effect. A deficiency in copper leads to bone fragility, anemia, defects of the connective tissue, arteries, and bone, infertility, heart arrhythmias, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, and an inability to control blood sugar levels.

Although these studies were not designed to test the effects of fructose on weight gain, the observation of increased body weight associated with fructose ingestion is of interest. One explanation for this observation could be that fructose ingestion did not increase the production of two hormones, insulin and leptin, that have key roles in the long-term regulation of food intake and energy expenditure.

The magnitude of the deleterious effects of fructose varies depending on such factors as age, sex, baseline glucose, insulin, triglyceride concentrations, the presence of insulin resistance, and the amount of dietary fructose consumed. Some people are more sensitive to fructose. They include hypertensive, hyperinsulinemic, hypertriglyceridemic, non-insulin dependent diabetic people, people with functional bowel disease and postmenopausal women.

Everyone should avoid over-exposure to fructose, but especially those listed above. One or two pieces of fruit per day is fine, but commercial fruit juices and any products containing high fructose corn syrup are more dangerous than sugar and should be removed from the diet.