Christine Chiao

Moon Juice

There's a growing number of juice joints in Los Angeles, emphasizing the benefits of drinking to your health -- quite literally. Fresh juices have become so de rigueur these days that it's not uncommon to hear 'juice' used as a casual verb among Angelenos. And whereas we're not likely to ask anyone if they've juiced for our own reasons, we have tried a number of spots around town, curious about the claims of better health.

A juice habit is an expensive one to maintain -- with the majority of the spots charging an average of $6 to $7 per drink. At most of the shops, another underlying similarity is overt mention of the health benefits, from notes on the menu to signages-as-decor. Some health experts view the popularity of juice cleanse programs as a long-lasting solution with wariness. The advice remains to eat rather than drink your fruits and vegetables. Still given the schedule some might have, one benefit juices are a convenient way to pack in a high level of fruit and vegetable consumption -- that experts won't argue against.

We selected four of our favorites for the occasional, quick nutritional supplement and organized them according to alphabetical order.

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Pizza Hut

New Crazy Cheesy Crust pizza

Pizza Hut's executive chef Wiley Bates III has come up with a veritable Frankenpizza, a deformed creation consisting of the company's traditional pan pizza with 16 U-shaped wading pools of melted cheese affixed to the crust (two for each slice). The Crazy Cheesy Crust pizza debuted nationwide yesterday at $12.99 for one topping.

"Consumers always want more cheese," wily chef Bates explained to Yahoo! Finance, without a hint of sheepishness. "The hand-tossed [crust] lends itself to absorbing some of those wonderful flavors, while again maintaining the integrity of the cheese."

Pizza Hut customers "love cheese, and we want to give them not just cheese, but we want to give them the highest quality we can and the most flavor we can," Dominique Vitry, director of menu innovation, added. The crazy cheesy crust contains a blend of five cheeses: Asiago, Romano, Fontina, Provolone and mozzarella. Several combinations of crusts and cheese blends were tested before settling on the final version of bovine-based bliss.

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Ryan Ritchie

Lenny & Larry's vegan cookie

Let's just get this right out of the way: Northridge-based Lenny & Larry's makes the best pre-packaged vegan cookie on the market.

That's a bold statement, but the numbers -- and taste buds -- don't lie. Last year, Inc. Magazine ranked the company at No. 1,314 on its list of fastest-growing private businesses in the country, which is pretty impressive for a 12-person operation from the Valley.

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Violette79 via flickr

Longer family mealtimes lead to healthier kids

A new study published in the journal Economics and Human Biology finds that more time spent at the dinner table leads to less childhood obesity. Researchers studied 200 families and found that children who regularly sat down for meals and spent at least 20 minutes at the table at least 4 times a week were more likely to have healthy weights than those children who didn't.

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ihop.com

The country fried steak and eggs breakfast at IHOP has 1,760 calories

The Center For Science In The Public Interest has named it's "Xtreme Eating 2013" winners, if winner is an accurate word for a business you're publicly shaming for promoting obesity. Each year, the group focuses on the most calorific dishes served in America's chain restaurants, as part of its push to have federal rules for calories on menus. The press release states:

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A. Scattergood

Windrose Farm carrots

Eating lots of fruits and vegetables may help reduce asthma symptoms, according to a recent study. But if you're one of the 25 million Americans with the breathing disorder, the take-away message is not that you should rely solely on dietary improvements.

"One of the dangers here is that people pick up this headline and say, well, I don't need to take my medicine anymore, I can just eat fruits and vegetables," cautions Dr. Marc Riedl, UCLA associate clinical professor of immunology and allergy. "It may help; I'm not saying there's no effect. There probably is, based on this paper, but it's not a substitute for many people who need to take some sort of anti-inflammatory medication for their asthma."

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Via Current TV

From a program on food banks that distribute fresh fruit and vegetables

Around Thanksgiving, more than any other holiday, we think about food. (And not just what we plan to serve alongside the turkey.) We're grateful for food, and we think more consciously about those who don't have enough food, and those who don't have access to good quality food, and are suffering because of it.

It's all the more appropriate, then, that starting yesterday through Nov. 20, Current TV is airing Currently: Feeding the Need, in which programming that focuses on hunger, undernutrition and obesity in this country will be woven into the network's lineup of shows.

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Photo Credit: Ratatouille, Walt Disney Pictures

Cute vermin only exist in the movies

Although the majority of health department closures listed on the next page can be found in areas such as Gardena, San Gabriel Valley and Artesia, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the sketchy foods many of us have or will encounter also appear in Beverly Hills (Benihana) and Santa Monica (Broadway Alehouse), among other areas. Consider it the geographic democracy of rats.

We can find all of these gems thanks to a nifty tool from the Department of Public Health that lists restaurant closures (both temporary and permanent) due to vermin infestations, vermin harborage (apparently there is a difference), serious repeat violations, gross contamination of utensils/equipment, sewage, un-safe food temperature -- the list goes on. As Halloween approaches, this roundup only seems appropriate.

Have horror stories of your own? Write 'em in the comments.

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Hatchett Book Group/Little Brown & Co.

Andrew Weil's New Cookbook

Full disclosure: we didn't expect to do much more than a quick flip through of Andrew Weil's just-released True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure cookbook. Something about those eponymous vitamin packs and the "Spontaneous Happiness" (for a fee) plugs on his website had taken their sales pitch toll over the years.

Even still, Weil manages to remain a celebrity health guru that emanates genuine likability. Unlike many health celebs, we actually believe him when he says he wants to "promote the diner's well being." As Marion Nestle says on the cookbook's back jacket, "Andrew Weil is a rare member of a special class of diet gurus: he appreciates good food."

Thus, the recipes from his latest book are refreshingly light on the health mantra, heavy on approachable, everyday international flavor. Dishes like Moroccan-inspired chicken salad with leftover roast chicken, jicama and cashews in a honey-yogurt dressing, scallops bathed in a speedy kale pesto that the restaurant serves on pasta or atop Tuscan-style tomato bread soup, a quinoa tabbouleh speckled with roasted beets, pomegranates and Marcona almonds. It's one of the best "health" cookbooks we've seen in a good while. Get more, and a recipe for the restaurant's L.A.-inspired umami sauce, after the jump.

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amazon.com

New Quinoa Cookbooks

Like so many pressing culinary issues, sorting through the wealth of new quinoa cookbooks -- the latest cookbook trend, it appears, second to cake balls on a stick -- all comes down to pie crust.

Of the half dozen titles we've seen of late dedicated to the ancient seed with Aztec roots, two in particular summarize the category. On one side of the table, you have books like The Complete Idiot's Guide to Quinoa Cuisine that focus on the high protein, high fiber, diet-friendly health side of the recipe equation. Others, notably Quinoa Cuisine, make a tidy note of quinoa's health benefits in the subtitle and Introduction, then focus on the powerful flavor packed in every little seed.

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