Trend Watch

Sweet and Salty

Food cravings are interesting. According to Marcia Pelchat, a sensory psychologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia who studies food cravings, 90 to 100 percent of women aged 18-35 report having them. For the most part our cravings fall into two categories; sweet or salty.

Why choose between sweet and salty when you can have both? Ironic that I wrote a few weeks ago about the fact that most studies find that most Canadians consume far more salt in their daily diet than recommended, but everything in moderation, I say. One hot trend I'm seeing this holiday season is the mix of sweet and salty in our treats.

I noticed it first with this piece of bliss...

Aaaah, Starbucks Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate, your name is as long as my love for you. Thank goodness you are limited edition because if you stayed on the menu into the new year my new year's resolutions would involve a lot more cardio. It's a hot chocolate for grownups, with the tasty addition of salt around the rim. Consider it a winterized margarita.

Then someone popped one of these into my mouth...

PC Dark Chocolate Covered Caramels with Sea Salts satisfy all my cravings and weigh in at just 80 calories each. They're an amazing mix of milky caramel enrobed in dark chocolate and sprinkled with coarse salt. Please pass me another.

In this season of diametric extremes (the simple joy of the holidays combined with the complex stress of them), mix a couple of diametric flavours to satisfy all of your cravings and try some salty with your sweet.

Have a (Healthy) Heart

Eating healthier has been a long-time trend for Canadians, but lowering sodium is particularly important for we moms. Women are at risk for heart disease and heart attacks, just like men. In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death among women over 65, and North American women are 4 to 6 times more likely to die of heart disease than of breast cancer.

Limiting dietary sodium intake helps in the prevention of high blood pressure, which in turn substantially decreases the risk of developing heart disease or stroke, so it only makes sense that we all try to decrease our salt intake.

The United Kingdom Food Standards Agency has recently set a goal of decreasing the average person's daily salt intake to 6g (about one teaspoon) and a number of industry retailers and manufacturers are working hard to help with this endeavour.

Soup is one of those great comfort foods at this time of year; easy to put on a lunch menu, and handy to pop in a lunch bag when you're on-the-go. Recently I found out that Campbell's Soup is now serving the equivalent of 30 million fewer teaspoons of salt in their soups than just five years ago.

Check out new Healthy Request microwaveable bowls containing 25 per cent less sodium than Campbell's Ready to Enjoy soups.

I tested them out in my own lunch last week and particularly enjoyed the Hearty Spiced Lentil. These soups are served up in handy ready-to-go microwaveable and recyclable bowls and are ready to eat in less than two minutes. They're easy on the wallet, too, costing just under $3 each.

So, with the cooler weather coming in, be kind to yourself and to your heart.

Let's Do Lunch

You've got the back-to-school haircuts taken care of, the first day of school outfits are laid out, and now you've got a couple of days left to plan for the dreaded packed lunch.

Between nut allergies banning peanuts from schools, e-coli conerns having us think twice about the fruit we're eating, and listeriosis turning us all off of coldcuts, I can't help you with what goes into those lunch boxes, but let me give you some ideas for what to pack it in!

The hottest trend in lunch boxes this year is reduce and reuse. At my sons' school, kids are asked to bring a litter-free lunch. Other schools are instituting "boomerang lunches", where anything not consumed goes back home. This means that the eco-friendly lunchbox is everywhere.

There's no need to beak the bank, but if you're interested in the Rolls-Royce of lunch boxes this season, take a look at the Laptop Lunch Kit.

It's functional, reusable and fun, and this lunch kit lets you pack a homemade, low-waste meals for your kids using a very cool setup that includes a thermal, zippered bag, a large snap-shut tray, five microwave safe food containers and a sport bottle. The whole kit and kaboodle runs just under $40 (including a recipe book with great school lunch ideas) and can be ordered online at Indigo.

LLBean's lunch box is a steal coming in under $15.

I love this one because of the great selection of fun colours and designs to choose from; your kid can personalize his or her look. The lunch box is sturdy enough to protect your fruit from bruising and cookies from crumbling. To keep everything cool, there's an internal mesh pocked sized to hold a cold pack (not included). It's large enough to accommodate even your hungry tween's lunch, but small enough to squeeze into a messenger bag.

The Lunch & Go Series by Aladdin is right in the middle price-wise.

It's about $20 and has a sleek and futuristic look. Following the eco-friendly trend, it is reusable. This one does come with its own removable icepack, snaptight latches which make it leak-resistant, and a crushproof design. This product made by Aladdin is available at hardware stores, Walmart and Kmart across the country.

Whichever lunch box you choose, be sure to label it well and wash it often. Bon appetit!