Cholesterol might not be the villain we've been told it is

For decades, cholesterol has been considered one of the great evils of the dietary world. It's a major factor in heart disease, we were told, and the higher your levels, the higher your risk. So eat the egg whites but throw out that cholesterol-laden yolk, and don't you dare go near that lobster or shrimp unless you want to turn your arteries into little cement-filled tubes.

But with the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's declaration that cholesterol is "not considered a nutrient of concern for over-consumption," that advice might be thrown in the garbage itself.

The statement worked its way into a December draft report issued by the committee, which provides recommendations for the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans that are issued jointly by the secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and updated every five years.

The final 2015 report hasn't been issued yet — it's expected to be released in a few weeks — but even the advisory committee's preliminary statement might be enough to make even the most health-conscientious Americans throw their hands up in frustration. The last time the guidelines were updated in 2010, they considered consuming less dietary cholesterol a "major goal" for Americans, and advised less than 300 mg per day (an egg has about 186 mg).

So why the turnaround?

Recent (and not-so-recent) medical research. Studies are showing that cholesterol might not be the culprit we've been told it was for the past 40 years. For instance, a national study issued in 2009 by UCLA found that nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalized by a heart attack had cholesterol levels "that would indicate they were not at high risk for a cardiovascular event," and close to half had LDL ("bad" cholesterol) levels classified as "optimal."

One article, published in 2010 in Current Atherosclerosis Reports, noted that recent studies documented the "lack of effect of dietary cholesterol on [cardiovascular heart disease] risk, suggesting that guidelines for dietary cholesterol should be revisited." Another study, published in 2013, "suggests that egg consumption is not associated with the risk of CVD and cardiac mortality in the general population."

Jennifer Haythe, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology, Center for Advanced Cardiac Care at Columbia University Medical Center, said that this research is showing that "maybe cholesterol isn't the bad guy."

Nate E. Lebowitz, M.D., a cardiologist with the Advanced Cardiology Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center Cardiovascular Partners Plus, said cholesterol itself doesn't cause disease — after all, our livers produce about 75 percent of the cholesterol in our bodies, and we need that waxy, fat-like substance because it helps our bodies make vitamin D, hormones and the substances that help digest foods.

What actually creates problems for the heart are the lipoproteins, which are the particles that shuttle cholesterol through the bloodstream, Lebowitz said. For many years, though, there wasn't a good way to break down lipoprotein counts in the doctor's office, and so the cholesterol test was used as a sort of general indicator. This led to the concept of "good" cholesterol (high-density lipoproteins, or HDL) and "bad" cholesterol (low-density lipoproteins, or LDL), and the utterly simplified story that went something like this: LDL particles collect in the arteries, and HDL particles "scrub" them off. So you want more HDL cholesterol because it keeps your arteries clear, and the better your ratio of HDL-to-LDL is, the safer you are.

But, Lebowitz said, the standard cholesterol blood test was "a very poor attempt" to represent what was going on, because there's actually different types of LDL particles — the small, dense kind that worm their way into artery walls and cause plaque buildup, and the larger, less dangerous types that are less likely to do that.

So even though higher LDL numbers aren't particularly good — the more total LDL floating around, the higher the likelihood that some will be the more threatening type — treatment should depend on what type of particle is present, he said.

For instance, two brothers could have the exact same LDL count, Lebowitz said, but depending on the type of LDL particle, one could be at "incredibly high-risk" while the other, not so much — but on the old test, you'd never know which brother had which type. Newer tests are now readily available, however, and they'll break down what types of lipoprotein particles are present, leading to more individualized treatment, he said.

Jeffrey Matican, M.D., chief of cardiology and medical staff president at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, added that overall cholesterol counts are the "least important" of the numbers given to patients, and traditional factors like age, weight, or an individual's history of smoking or diabetes, as well as the type of LDLs present, are better for assessing risk.

"There's a disconnect quite often — someone can have very good LDL cholesterol, but their particle numbers are very high, and they have a lot of small, dense particles ... And I've had people with reasonably high LDL cholesterol, but their lipoprotein particles are very low. And those people you don't really have to treat, because the things that are invading the [artery] walls are the lipoprotein particles — not the cholesterol."

So is it time to change your diet once more?

First, understand that your genes play a much greater role in your cholesterol level than your diet.

"Whether what you're eating actually changes the blood concentration [of cholesterol] seems to be what's called into question here," Haythe said. "It may be more genetically geared."

"I don't think that dietary cholesterol is much of an issue at all," said Lebowitz with the Advanced Cardiology Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center. Genetics, he said, are a better predictor of cholesterol levels than how many eggs one has for breakfast.

So, if you've been avoiding eggs and shrimp like the plague for heart health, then yes, you can relax on that (unless you're diabetic, in which case experts advise to keep avoiding cholesterol). But, like every dietary dictum, this one comes with the caveat that moderation is best, because overindulging in high-cholesterol foods carries its own risks. You may be hypersensitive to dietary cholesterol (which means that what you eat actually does affect the cholesterol levels in your blood), and many high-cholesterol foods like steak, cheese, onion rings, and ice cream, are also loaded with saturated fat — still (as of now) a dietary no-no.

And the real villains — experts say — are simple carbohydrates like sugar, white bread, pasta and corn syrup, which, they note, while low in cholesterol and fat, have led to increases in obesity, diabetes, and blood pressure, and cause inflammation in the arteries.

Matican said that those who eat a low-carbohydrate diet will likely have less to worry about than those who eat a higher-carbohydrate diet.

Dr. Roger Blumenthal, director of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease and co-chairman of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Prevention Guidelines Committee, said that the best advice is the same advice that doctors and nutritionists have been repeating for generations: Eat a well-balanced diet heavy on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in things like fish, nuts and olive oil, while limiting red meat, fried foods and sugary desserts.

"A vegetarian diet is best, but probably not practical for most Americans," Blumenthal said. "But doing things in moderation — that's more practical."

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Are superfoods actually super?

First it was blueberries, spinach and salmon. Then it was wheatgrass, green tea and any kind of nut. Now it's kale, quinoa and pumpkin seeds. Next week — who knows?

If you're confounded by the number of foods that have been named "superfoods" over the years, you're not alone. It seems that every six months, some obscure vegetable or oddly colored drink is pushed as the cure-all for everything that ails us, all the while promising to prevent Alzheimer's, ward off cancer and keep us living well into our eighth or ninth decade.

And it's worked — for the vendors, at least. According to the market research firm Global Industry Analysts, the worldwide market for superfoods, which is fueled primarily by baby boomers with disposable income and a desire to stay healthy and live long, is expected to reach $130 billion in 2015.

But are the foods all they're cracked up to be? Or is it just a ploy to keep us searching the shelves at our supermarkets for the next big thing?

The European Union took a definitive stance in 2007 when it banned use of the term "superfood" on packaging unless the claim could be supported by scientific evidence. The United States has no such ban, however, and while there's general consensus as to what the word refers to — a food that's rich in vitamins, antioxidants or other nutrients — it's still "purely a marketing term," said Dr. Ilya Raskin, a professor at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

"In some cases, what is touted as a superfood may have some advantages over conventional foods — you will not hear that term associated with what we know is bad for you, like fat-loaded junk food," Raskin said. "But I do think it has a misleading ring to it."

Superfoods have been bestowed with "mythological" powers, he said, and although some of these are science-based and quantifiable (blueberries, often placed in the superfood category, have demonstrated benefits for those with such health conditions as metabolic syndrome, but apparently so do strawberries and cranberries), they don't take into account a person's individual needs.

For instance, grapes and watermelon may be packed with nutrients and antioxidants, but they're also high in sugar. That might not be a problem for the average person, but for those with diabetes, it can present a "clear danger," he said.

Green tea is a similar case. Numerous Internet articles claim that the drink can prevent cancer, lower blood pressure and fight off everything from diabetes to tooth decay. But while there is some evidence to support certain claims (such as a 2014 study that found that green tea may benefit cognitive function), other studies have had mixed results, and the Food and Drug Administration won't allow labels to say the drink can reduce risk of heart disease or cancer.

Furthermore, there is evidence that the concentrated doses of green tea extract found in some supplements could actually do harm to the liver.

But still, no one will say that drinking a normal amount of green tea is bad for you, and that might be the biggest benefit of the superfood craze: Instead of being bombarded with marketing from companies that are trying to make unhealthy things sound healthy, superfoods actually are healthy — even if it's not in the overblown way advertisers want us to believe.

Janet Brancato, a registered dietitian and community educator at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, pointed out that a little good publicity for things like broccoli or cauliflower isn't necessarily a bad thing. "[It's] a marketing term for healthy food, and I think it's helped to make it more popular and trendy," she said.

But potential problems can arise when consumers either eat too much of one thing (for some, blueberries can cause serious gastrointestinal distress, and too much kale may cause or exacerbate hypothyroidism), or ignore fruits and vegetables that haven't received that label; blueberries are marketed as superfood, even though there's no evidence that they're any more "super" than strawberries, apples or blood oranges.

Susan Kraus, a clinical dietitian with the Hackensack University Medical Center, said that diversity in food selection is more important than focusing on any individual item.

"People will label anything as a superfood … but we need a good 50-plus nutrients a day, so it's not just one food that we want to hone in on," she said.

And Dr. Patricia Murphy, a cardiologist at Westwood Cardiology, said no one food holds a monopoly over heart health, which comes more from eating a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables.

"The benefit [of superfoods] are exaggerated, but it's good for people to think about what they're eating and make healthy choices," she said. "I still think that the advice from [author] Michael Pollan is the best: 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.' "

So will washing down a steady diet of kale and quinoa with gallons of green tea keep us disease-free? No, probably not. Raskin said that for the best results, the old advice is still the best: Talk to a physician or nutritionist about what diet best suits you. And ignore the next round of articles on "must-eat" foods.

"I try to eat healthy according to the recommendations of dietitians and physicians, and maintain a healthy diet emphasizing sufficient servings of fruits and vegetables," he said. "And that kind of basic nutritional advice will trump any specific superfood at any time."

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Buff is the new skinny

Nicole Riordan spent a long time trying to "get skinny." As a longtime runner and avid gym rat, the 43-year-old mother of two wasn't overweight, and her gym routine was built on the traditional building blocks of women's fitness: step workouts, spin classes and "tons of aerobics." Still though, she wasn't where she wanted to be.

Riordan weightlifts at Cannonball Gym in Pompton Lakes

But three years ago, the Bloomingdale resident began taking the circuit class at Cannonball Gym in Pompton Lakes. The class, which mixed weight lifting and strength training with more basic exercises like jumping rope, was not only a new challenge, but introduced her to a new world, one where "thin and skinny" took a

back seat to "fit and strong."

Hundreds of workouts later, she can squat 105 pounds — something she never thought she'd do — and has raised her pushup total from around 10 to well over 50. She's gained weight but dropped two clothing sizes, has more muscle definition than ever, and can even keep up with some of the men in Cannonball's lifting class.

"Women are always trained to weigh less, and you think that number on the scale means so much," she said. "But I liked the definition I was getting, I liked getting stronger, I liked being able to wear a tank top and know that my arms look fit. … It was so much more empowering."

These aren't words you would have heard from a woman in the gym just 10 years ago, said Cannonball's 32-year-old owner/operator, Austin Wall, and it's only in the last five that he's seen women trade the "skinny-at-all-costs" mentality for one built on a little more muscle. He attributes this, in part, to the rise in popularity of women's sports — average women are watching those athletes and beginning to look to their bodies for inspiration instead of rail-thin runway models. Not to mention our culture's obsession with health.

"The goal is health, and women are becoming more comfortable with that," Wall said. "And if that means being a little bit thicker than whatever the old standard was, I think they're happy with that, too."

Cris Dobrosielski, author and owner of Monumental Results Inc. in San Diego and a consultant with the American Council on Exercise, agrees. "You have more women coming out of high school and college with experience in weight training, where 20 years ago it was thought to be manly," he said.

And the trend does seem to be catching on: According to the recently published American College of Sports Medicine's annual fitness trend forecast for 2015, three of the top four exercise trends — body-weight training, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and strength training — involve strength training to increase lean body mass. (The fourth trend: "consulting with experts.")

The health benefits of weight lifting are well-established. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, research has shown that pumping iron can reduce the symptoms of several diseases and chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, obesity, back pain, depression and osteoporosis (the latter of particular concern to women).

"While aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging or swimming, has many excellent health benefits … it does not make your muscles strong. Strength training does," the CDC's website notes. It cites a year-long study of postmenopausal women at Tufts University, which found that a group that did progressive strength training just two days a week had 1-percent gains in hip and spine density, 75-percent increases in strength and a 13-percent increase in dynamic balance. The control group showed losses in all of those categories.

Not everyone is convinced that this "movement" is actually happening, however, and there does seem to be a disconnect between what's going on in the gym and what researchers say women believe about their bodies.

Diana Thomas, professor and director of the Center for Quantitative Obesity Research at Montclair State University, believes that the "strong and healthy" idea is more marketing ploy than movement. Recent research still indicates that women overestimate the size of their bodies and then choose the skinniest possible model as their ideal when asked how they'd like to look, she maintained.

Thomas worries that the actual implication is to be both strong and skinny. If there was a concerted effort to change the ideal of what's attractive in order to promote working out for strength instead of vanity, "that would be wonderful," she said.

"Muscle is good, especially for women," Thomas said. "Having lean body mass keeps them from getting osteoporosis. Instead of looking at appearance goals, we should look at health goals."

Sarah Bateman, a Teaneck therapist specializing in eating disorders, said that although she feels the "fit, toned look" has become "very desirable," pursuing one vision as "the ideal" can be dangerous no matter what that vision may be; being in the weight room for inordinate amounts of time can be as disruptive to one's life as skipping dinners to shed pounds.

"There isn't just one healthy body image, there isn't one healthy body type," she said. "And idealizing any one specific type is dangerous because everyone has different bodies."

Tina Thea, a 47-year-old mother of three from Upper Saddle River, began lifting at Fit Club Strength and Conditioning in Allendale about five years ago as she entered middle age. She quickly got hooked; she felt stronger, and people noticed the improvement. Today, she can do seven pull-ups — when she began, she could do only two — and can use 40-pound dumbbells for bench pressing.

"I really kind of love it," she said. "I couldn't imagine not doing it."

Richie Carney, the 33-year-old owner of Fit Club, said that he sees more women than ever in his training sessions; where once his classes were mostly men, today about half his clientele is female.

"At first, they're nervous [about working out with men], but then they realize it's not a competition and they're not being judged," he said. "It's kind of inspiring, and they feed off each other."

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New therapy relies on electromagnetic pulses to treat depression

A new treatment that relies on sending magnetic pulses into the brain may provide a beacon of hope for those suffering from depression, especially if other types of treatment, including medication, have failed in the past.

Called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), it involves the holding of an electromagnetic coil against the forehead near the area of the brain scientists believe influences mood regulation. Short electromagnetic pulses are then sent through the coil, stimulating nerve cells and increasing activity in parts of the brain that are underactive during depression, said Dr. David Rosenfeld, a senior psychiatrist and co-owner of Neuropsychiatric Associates of Northern NJ in Ridgewood.

Rosenfeld began offering the treatment, which is typically broken into 40-minute sessions five times a week for six weeks, in December 2013. About a half-dozen facilities (including his) offer the treatment in North Jersey.

"It's like an electromagnetic massage of the brain, roughly analogous to a sore back that's being stimulated by a masseuse," Rosenfeld said. He described the pulsing as a series of knocks that sounds "almost like a woodpecker tapping," but added that it's "very gentle."

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) noted that patients may feel discomfort in the spot where the magnet is placed, and mild headaches or brief lightheadedness may follow. Although it's possible that the treatment could produce a seizure, documented occurrences are rare, the agency said.


'No radiation'

"There's no radiation, and you're not taking any substance into the body, so you're not causing systemic side affects," Rosenfeld said.

It may be natural to compare TMS to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) — once known as "electroshock" — but the doctor said that ECT actually administers a current that induces a seizure in the patient. Using the metaphor of rain in a garden, Rosenfeld said, TMS is like a light rainstorm; ECT is a full-on hurricane.

"It's lots of stimulation, but it's everywhere and it overwhelms the system," he said. "It's somewhat traumatic."

Dr. Ye-Ming Sun, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Newark-based Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, administers both treatments and said that TMS, which focuses only on increasing activity in the left prefrontal cortex, is, in fact, less harsh than ECT. Psychiatrists can perform the procedure themselves, he said, and anesthesia is not needed.

"The patients drive themselves here, they're fully awake during the treatment, and when they leave, they drive away themselves," he said.

He has treated about 40 patients over the past three years and has never seen side effects greater than a mild headache. Because of TMS' narrow focus, it does not affect the part of the brain that has to do with memory, he said.

Rosenfeld currently has 25 patients who have undergone a total of about 750 treatments over the last year, and he feels TMS to be "pretty darn safe." About half of those patients, he said, get a "significant benefit" from it.


'It isn't for everybody'

"For some patients it's really wonderful," he said. "There are some who failed to respond to medicine, and they have done very nicely. It's not a panacea — it isn't for everybody. But we're getting 50 percent of those people to feel better in a meaningful way, and those are people who have not done well with other treatments."

Sun, however, has found that by adjusting the parameters of the treatment (such as the duration) for each individual, TMS can be effective for up to 80 percent of his patients.

"The efficacy is much higher than what's reported in [scientific] literature," he said.

The practice was developed in 1985 and approved by the Federal Drug Administration in 2008 for treatment of major depression in patients who hadn't responded to at least one antidepressant medication.

Dr. David G. Brock, medical director for Pennsylvania-based Neuronetics, a major producer of the TMS device, said that many insurance companies — as well as the majority of Medicare carriers — now cover the treatment, meaning that about 150 million Americans are eligible. That's good news, because a treatment cycle can cost around $10,000.

He estimated that 20,000 individual cases have already been treated as TMS has moved more into the mainstream after years of being viewed as an experimental therapy.

"It's increasing by leaps and bounds — it's clearly established technology … and it works," he said.

Rosenfeld said that there's "good evidence" that patients reap the benefits from TMS for nearly a year afterwards, although Brock said that because of depression's chronic nature, many need some sort of additional therapy, be it medication or additional "booster" sessions after.

In the future, Brock said, TMS could also be used to treat anxiety disorders, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and symptoms of Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.

"The sky is the limit," he said.

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Apple is still the flavor of the fall

Pumpkin spice may be the favorite flavor of autumn, but apples, the old standby, remain the true herald of the changing season. And although thousands of varieties are grown the world over — nearly 7,500 in total — classics like the Red Delicious and Granny Smith remain as popular as ever in New Jersey.

Which is "best," though? That depends on your personal preference and how you intend to use it.

Celery root and apple puree from Saddle River Inn

Jessica Marotta, 31, pastry chef for Local Seasonal Kitchen in Ramsey, uses apples throughout the winter, and although she personally prefers the sour, tart flavor of the Granny Smith, she uses several varieties when cooking. One of Marotta's favorite concoctions is apple cider caramel, which she makes using caramel combined with puréed apples and apple cider (in place of heavy cream.)

"It's a little lighter, but the flavor comes through," she said. "It tastes like liquefied caramel apples, and it's really good over vanilla ice cream."

Over the last few years, Marotta has found a new favorite branch of the fruit's extensive family tree: the Honey Crisp. "They're not overwhelmingly sweet, and they've got this really nice floral flavor," she said. "And they're super crunchy … I can't get over them."

Jason DeGise, whose family has owned Demarest Farms Orchard in Hillsdale since 1886, is a Honey Crisp fan too, noting that their "sweet flavor with a little hint of tartness" has led to an explosion in their popularity. "It's a giant," he said.

DeGise, along with co-owner James Spollen, grew 18 varieties over 14 acres this year, and thousands of visitors paid the $5 admission to wander his fields and pick their own bag of Galas or Wine Fats (another popular brand often used in cooking). He often sees multiple generations of the same family return year after year.

"It seems to be a tradition that just stays in families," he said.

There's an added benefit to picking your own, DeGise said: When you pull the fruit off the tree yourself, you know you're getting this year's crop. That's not the case when purchasing apples in supermarkets, where transporters and grocers have found that apples can be kept for up to a year if they're put in a temperature-controlled environment free of oxygen. That apple you grab in the "fresh produce" aisle, he said, may have been picked eight months ago.

Michael Sinatra, spokesman for Whole Foods' northeastern region, said that the apples' ongoing popularity is rooted in its tremendous culinary versatility.

"As you walk around the store, you see that they go well with so many recipes: pastries, sauces, jellies, etc.," he said.

Most of Whole Foods' stock comes from the Hudson Valley, and he noted that the Honey Crisps and SweeTangos (similar to Honey Crisps with pinkish coloration) are the popular varieties at the moment. Newcomers like Zestar (a cross between a Honey Crisp and a Golden) and Kiki (similar in taste to the well-known Fuji) will be making an appearance in late October and November.

"A grocery store should be very indicative of seasonal change, the produce department specifically, and these just sort of scream 'fall,' " Sinatra said.

One big benefit of the apple inundation, said Nicole Dvorak, registered dietitian with Hackensack University Medical Center, is that the fruit is widely respected as a health food, what with their low calorie count (95 for a medium), high fiber content, and complete lack of sodium or fat.

Do yourself a favor and eat the skin, Dvorak said, because that's where the vitamin C and fiber are. "You should eat the entire fruit, and eating them fresh is probably going to be the best option versus baking them in a pie," she said.

Tell that to chef Steven Christianson, and he'll probably ignore you.

"I make apple crisps or strudels over the whole winter," said Christianson, who worked at the Four Seasons in Manhattan, Café Panache in Ramsey (where he was a partner), and owned Citrus Grille in Airmont, N.Y., before opening St. Eve's restaurant in Ho-Ho-Kus in 2011. "How can you go wrong with an apple tart and some ice cream?"

Most of Christianson's apples come from orchards in New York State, and when searching for the perfect one, he looks for firm ones without any bruising. He often uses combinations of Honey Crisps and Granny Smiths, and said the sweetness of the former perfectly complements the tartness of the latter.

"They're so flexible, and I can do so much with them," he said, adding that this fall he is trying his hand at homemade apple cider. It's not complicated, he said: Juice a few kinds of apples; add autumnal spices like cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon; and cook for an hour before straining it. He's never done it before, but the first batch will be served this year.

Jamie Knott, 34, the chef and owner of the Saddle River Inn, cooks with Honey Crisps, too calling this year's yield "amazing." He roasts them and features them on a dish with a celery-root apple purée and pan-seared scallops topped with an apple cider reduction. He also plans to pair them with the first cuts of Iowa venison, which are set to arrive next week.

When buying apples, Knott looks for firmness, but acknowledged that you can't ultimately tell an apple's quality until you eat it. "Apples fool everybody," he said.

DeGise focuses on firmness and color — stay away from the "spongy, dehydrated ones" and head for the deepest red — while Marotta seeks apples that still have the stems attached. Why? Because that denotes a fresh apple, Marotta said; as the fruit ages, the stem is likely to dry out and fall off.

And don't worry about how shiny they are, said DeGise, because that's just a wax sprayed on post-picking meant to boost marketing appeal.

"When they're fresh, they're obviously not shiny," he said.

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The changing tastes of Jersey corn

The Jersey tomato always snatches the spotlight, but it's not the only produce the Garden State is famous for: Our sweet corn, grown by the acre and sold at countless roadside stands, has quietly carved out its own reputation for unforgettable flavor.

But doesn't something seem different about that corn nowadays? It was always sweet, yes, but this sweet? And didn't you have to cook it right away, or else the ears would turn into rows of cardboard-dry kernels that gummed up your mouth and ruined your meal?

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That might have been true once, but it isn't anymore. Why? New hybrids of the grain that are not only made to last, but also satisfy the most demanding sweet tooth.

On average, the sweetest corn today is about one-third more sugary than the sweetest corn of three decades ago, said Jack Rabin, associate director of farm programs at Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.

Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on one's personal preference, Rabin said, although he hasn't heard any complaints thus far.

Corn has become a big crop in New Jersey — according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 48 million pounds (about $14 million worth) were grown over 6,000 acres in 2013. That's twice the acreage devoted to the vaunted tomato.

"We produce a lot of corn, and we use a lot of land to produce it," said Lynne Richmond, public information officer for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

But the reality is that 300 years ago, those perfect ears of yellow-and-white sugary goodness didn't even exist, Rabin said. The sugar that lends the grain its sweetness would immediately turn to starch, and the corn that grew in the Americas tasted terrible.

It wasn't until the 19th century that someone — we don't know who — discovered that the plant had undergone a random gene mutation that enabled it to maintain its sweetness just a little longer. Rabin said it's believed that Native Americans saved those seeds, and colonists began growing the crop. With the arrival of hybrids, like Rabin's personal favorite, Silver Queen, during the Great Depression, availability increased greatly, and scientists gave it the nickname "Su" to denote its sugar content and describe the "wonderfully sweet taste" that created the formidable reputation.

The one drawback? It was a culinary time bomb.

"Even though it had this beautiful texture, it didn't hold for more than one day," Rabin said. "It was only good if you picked it that morning and you boiled it that night."


Boon for farmers

Thus, sugar-enhanced versions ("Se") like Frosty or Whiteout were developed in the 1980s so the kernels would keep their flavor for two or maybe three days, and super-sweet varieties ("Sh2") like Munition could hold even longer (although they didn't have the best reputation for tenderness, Rabin said). Others, like the synergistic ("Sy") and augmented ("Aug"), were combinations of both that sought to create the perfect ear. There's no difference in size or color, and Rabin said, "I think they taste just as wonderful as our memories of yesteryear."

These developments are a boon for farmers like Jason DeGise, who co-owns Demarest Farms Orchard in Hillsdale with James Spollen. The farm has been in DeGise's family since 1886, and they planted 30 acres' worth of corn in April. DeGise said that although an extra day or two's worth of flavor might not sound like a lot, in the fresh produce world, it's an eternity.

"Twenty years ago, the old-fashioned white or yellow corn would be picked when it was ready, but a day later it turned to starch. Now, you can pick it on Monday and it tastes just as good on Wednesday," he said.

Customers haven't noticed the change, he said, and many simply expect the product to always be good. But before the se and sh2 varieties hit the market, sinking your teeth into an earful of gummy kernels was much more commonplace.


Shorter maturation

"If you had the corn from years ago, I don't know if you'd like to eat that now," said Todd Keuhm, owner of Farm's View in Wayne, who also noted the improved flavor retention that genetic improvements have bestowed.

On top of that, Rabin said, the new varieties have a shorter maturation period, meaning they arrive on the market about two weeks earlier than they used to.

"That two weeks is the difference in making your money for the whole year," he said. "And if one farmer has sweet corn on July 4, and one has it on July 20 … well, who do you think is going to the bank afterwards?"

But if you don't get it straight from the farmer's hands, what exactly are you getting? And how fresh is it?

Rabin said the answer depends on how much local grocery store managers care about their produce. Some stores have deals with local farmers that lead to morning deliveries of fresh-picked produce, but others are happy with ears grown in Florida, shrink-wrapped, and shipped to New Jersey. This often happens in May or June, he said, just before the local farmers have begun their harvest.

"I don't care how many good genes are put in it, with that amount of time, some of that sugary texture is going to convert to a grainy starch," he said. "You might as well buy frozen corn in the bag until the season [in New Jersey] starts."

Chef Kevin Portscher, 30, has owned the Village Green restaurant in Ridgewood for the past three years, and said the freshly-picked South Jersey crop is "far superior" to what's found in supermarket bins.

Portscher is a bit of a mad scientist when it comes to corn, and has incorporated it into all sorts of dishes — his corn gelato was a big hit this summer. The grain's longer shelf life helped him avoid spending money on fresh shipments that sit around for a day, only to be thrown out if no one orders them.

"It helps keep food costs down," he said. "And it allows for a nice, sweet flavor [in a dish] without having to add processed sugars to it."

Adam Weiss, the 37-year-old chef of Ridgewood's Due, said that he's noticed the increasing sweetness over the years, but that's not a bad thing in his line of work.

"You use its natural sweetness in an additive sort of way — to counteract the saltiness of something," he said. "And it's a great accent."

When the sweetness isn't there, or the quality is lacking, the dish must be changed accordingly.

"That's when you have to add more salt or sugar, because if the quality is lower, you have to force the flavors out by other means, even if that's grilling or boiling," he said.

However, chef Christine Nunn, who said she will be opening the Ridgewood restaurant Picnic on the Square in two weeks, believes the opposite: We have lost something with the new breeds, which taste nothing like the corn she grew up eating during summers in Maine.

"It just doesn't taste like corn," she said. "It tastes like candy corn to me, and you can see that by how many people are racing to put it in desserts, like crème brûlée."

She has found a way to cook it that she likes — sautéing it for a minute with butter, herbs and a little salt to balance out the sugar — but finds that eating it on the cob can be a bit much.

Vincent Barce-lona, 50, corporate chef for Supreme Oil Company/ Admiration Foods in Englewood, had a slightly different take, and said that although the consistently sweet corn has made his life easier — there are fewer "bad batches" nowadays — he's against the seed modifications that have taken place to get it that way.

"Part of what makes our job interesting and creative is that we cook from the land," he said. "The challenge of cooking is what I signed up for, and we shouldn't be looking to make things easier, or look for the quick fix."

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Cow milk vs. nut milk - who wins?

Humans have been drinking cow's milk for thousands of years, but lately, more and more Americans are edging towards a new competitor: nut milks.

Made by soaking and sometimes blending almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, or pistachios in water, they're not dairy products, but are similar enough that they've already put a dent in the cow's milk market — especially almond milk, which, according to the market research firm IRI, has become the nation's most popular non-dairy alternative with 2014 sales grossing nearly $700 million to date.

Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, per capita consumption of cow's milk has dropped by about 25 percent since 1975. This is partly because of the prevalence of other bottled drinks like soda or iced tea, but some is also due to the nut-milk juggernaut.

Initially, the move appears to make sense for consumers, especially the waistline-conscious. One cup of unsweetened almond milk has about 30 calories and 2.5 grams of fat, none of which is saturated. A cup of 2 percent dairy milk, by comparison, has about 120 calories and 5 grams of fat, 3 of which is saturated.

It's also an attractive alternative for the lactose intolerant, who may be searching for a way to continue imbibing their recommended daily intake of calcium (to maintain bone health) and vitamin D (to support the immune system). Although nut milks have neither naturally, they're fortified during processing to about the same levels as dairy.

"It's the same benefits that we get from drinking skim milk," said Peggy Policastro, nutrition specialist at Rutgers University. "But you really have to make sure that the nut milk is fortified. Natural milk is very high in calcium and vitamin D, and if you exclude that, your diet will be deficient."

Seems like a wonder drink, doesn't it? Not to everyone.

Andrea Anfuso-Sisto, a registered dietitian at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, said that although nut milk is a good alternative source for calcium and vitamin D, it is much lower in protein: traditional milk has about 8 grams per cup, but most nut milks, including almond and cashew, have 1 gram or less.

That could be a necessary tradeoff for the lactose intolerant, she said, but for those without some sort of milk allergy, dairy is probably better, especially for young kids who need the protein during growth spurts. They often have milk at breakfast alongside a cereal that has plenty of carbohydrates, but little else.

"Most cereals aren't a good source of protein, so it's good to balance that out," she said. "So you're missing the calories [with nut milk], but it's at the cost of the protein."

Furthermore, she said, many types of nut milk are sweetened to soften the drink's inherently raw taste, so blindly grabbing for Almond Breeze in a grocer's refrigerated case could mean buying "vanilla" instead of "unsweetened vanilla" (and the half-gallon containers do look similar). The taste difference is marked, but so is the nutritional: no sugar in the unsweetened, 13 grams in the sweetened.

Other nut milks are similar — sweetened cashew milk has 5 grams of sugar, and Pacific's brand of hazelnut milk has 14 — and all of it is added sugar that's not found naturally in the drink. This type of sugar has been linked to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Cow's milk, Anfuso-Sisto said, may have 11 grams itself, but that's natural sugar, similar to the fructose in an apple.

"If you're talking about the recommendations for added sugar each day, females get about 100 calories (6 teaspoons) and males get about 150 (9 teaspoons). Things like pieces of fruit or glasses of milk don't count — but the sweetened almond milk would," she said.

Policastro agreed, and said that consumers must be aware of what they're buying.

"It's similar to chocolate milk; you're still getting the vitamin D, but you're getting a lot of sugar," she said.

But she didn't share Anfuso-Sisto's concern about the lack of protein, and said that Americans regularly get "more than enough" in their regular diet. In her opinion, the best kind of milk is the kind that people will actually drink.

"Drink whichever you like better. Just don't leave a milk out of your diet, because that's where you're getting your calcium," she said.

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Not all processed food is bad for you

We've heard it time and again from health professionals: Processed food will be the death of us, so avoid it.

But what exactly are we supposed to avoid? Indeed, what is processed food?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's definition of the term is so broad — any food of any kind that's been canned, cooked, frozen, dehydrated or milled — that the only products that don't count are "raw agricultural commodities," such as an apple picked off a tree's branch or a carrot pulled straight from the ground.

So what's that mean? That the bag of vegetables in your freezer actually is processed, even if it has no other ingredient aside from the vegetables themselves. It's the same with those steaks you're saving, and with the grapes or tomatoes that you sun-dried on the deck.

But honestly, is that really what the authorities on diet are talking about?

Not really.

"If there's anything that experts misspeak about when it comes to food, it's this [processed food]," said Diana Thomas, director for the Center for Quantitative Obesity Research at Montclair State University. "There is no solid definition; it seems to scoot around all over the place. And people get confused."

With good reason.

For instance, she said, apples are simmered in hot water to make Mott's natural applesauce, and ascorbic acid (a natural preservative) is added to keep it fresh. That's processed. Contrast that with a bag of Doritos, though, which contains 26 different ingredients including vegetable oil, sugar, monosodium glutamate (MSG), maltodextrin (a food thickener/artificial sweetener), and preservatives like citric acid. That's also processed, but it's at a different level from the cooked apples.

Although the FDA has a voluminous page on its website dedicated to listing the additives commonly found on ingredient lists — some, like sodium, are familiar, while others, like the half-dozen texturizers that "improve mouth feel," may be foreign — it doesn't provide a way of measuring how processed a food might be.

Thomas personally gauges how much processing might have occurred by considering the amount of "interference" that occurs between a food's natural state and the final product. Baby food made of crushed bananas or apples might lie on the lower end of the spectrum, she said, while a Twinkie is going to be more "complex" — that is to say, containing about three dozen chemicals that give it color, enhance its taste, and give it a longer shelf life.

Kit Yam, Ph.D., graduate program director at the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University, said that although there are many negative connotations associated with processed foods, the decision to begin preserving our sustenance wasn't a choice for humans — it was born of necessity, especially in a society where most members don't want to be farmers.

"We live in cities, and food needs to be processed so it's preserved and it can be shipped," he said. "Without processed food, you don't have modernization."

Susan Kraus, a clinical dietitian at Hackensack University Medical Center, said the need for packaged fare began some time around the 1960s, when the pace of life began to quicken and we needed meals we could grab and go.

"There was a market for things that were very convenient," she said.

Some merits

But "convenient" doesn't necessarily mean "bad," and few would argue that roasted nuts, steel-cut oatmeal and low-fat milk — all of which are processed — are bad for you.

Even fairly heavily processed foods like packaged bread can be a good choice, said Andrea Anfuso-Sisto, a registered dietitian with Valley Hospital in Ridgewood; some are fortified with iron, and whole-grain varieties still contain the vitamin- and fiber-laden outer layers of the bran.

"I read somewhere that someone said, 'Don't buy things with ingredients you can't pronounce,'" she said. "Well, there are a lot of vitamins that people can't pronounce."

Anfuso-Sisto said that when eating for health, reading the label so as to avoid products high in added sugar (which has been linked to diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease) or sodium (linked to high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease) is more important than religiously avoiding processed foods in favor of "natural," "organic" or "vegetarian" fare. Some of these, such as veggie burgers, are traditionally seen as the more nutritionally "safe" option, but in reality they're loaded with artificial coloring, flavor enhancers, and sodium. Others, such as organic cookies, still contain sugar, which often hides behind other names like "high fructose corn syrup," "glucose," and "dextrose."

No one is particularly clear on why the phrase has taken on a life of its own. Kraus blames health experts who appear on television and make broad statements that further confuse the public, while Thomas believes it's an example of how information on the Internet can be manipulated to support a certain point of view, even if it involves only selecting certain studies that help prove a point.

"It's people in public health that want to do right, but twist the evidence and misinform the public," she said. "And it's so easy to put that information out, and if someone says, 'Processed foods are bad, you shouldn't have them,' that can get propagated quickly."

How do we cut through that fog of misinformation?

Thomas said that reading science-based blogs, such as conscienhealth .org, as well as the studies themselves, have helped her move past the sensationalism — along with a healthy dose of cynicism about what's being reported as "fact."

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Dr. Patrick Roth pens book 'The End of Back Pain'

His new book may be titled "The End of Back Pain," but Dr. Patrick Roth, chairman of neurosurgery at Hackensack University Medical Center, said that his prescription has much more to do with managing it.

"Poll the people at any place in the world, at any time," he said, "and the percentages will be the same: 20 percent will have back pain at that moment, 40 percent have had it in the last year, and 80 percent have had it over the course of a lifetime. And that's not going to change."

So why buy his book?

Because even if you can't eliminate that dreadful discomfort that can make walking, standing, sitting and lying down difficult, you can manage it effectively — as long as you're willing to give his method a shot, Roth said.

"There's a big difference between treating a disease and building health," he said. "This is about building health. People come to me and say, 'Take away my pain.' But there's a better way."

That "better way" relies on about a dozen exercises that, when done in a progressively more difficult workout, should reduce the frequency, duration, and intensity of the participant's back pain.

Roth's program requires a kettlebell (a piece of equipment that looks like a cannonball with a handle) and a Swiss ball, and can be done as easily in a living room as in a gym, he said.

"What's beautiful about a kettlebell is the convenience. They take up no room, and you can literally put it in a closet."

All of the exercises, from the cat stretch and back twist to the kettlebell squat and Turkish get-up, aim to strengthen each part of a person's core, including the smaller muscles of the back that are often neglected in traditional routines, Roth said.

"Everyone will do sit-ups, but they won't work the back muscles. And that's the key. It's the muscles that you don't see that are the most important part of mitigating back pain."

It has worked for him. With two herniated disks and a stress fracture in his L5 vertebrae, thanks to his high school football days, he practices what he preaches. "I went through it. I lived it. My whole life has been back pain," he said.

Roth's ideas might not be for everyone: His advice to work out even when in pain will turn some off, and his opinion that back surgery is "terribly overdone" because it's profitable for the surgeons will likely raise hackles. But he argues that most patients who get surgery don't need it, and could, with a little work, take control of the pain themselves.

"You have to try it," he said. "People don't feel confident that they can do it on their own, but they can."

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Why do we still eat so poorly?

Drive down most highways in North Jersey, and you’re guaranteed to come across one of two things: a curbside fast food restaurant trying to lure motorists into its drive-thru with promises of salt-, sugar-, and fat-laden goodness, or a big metal sign advertising that such a place lies just off the next exit.

Their food is awful for us — we all know this — but many of us pull in anyway.

Take a lunch made up of an offering from McDonald’s dollar menu, such as the McDouble. That burger has 380 calories, 17 grams of fat, 34 grams of carbohydrates, and 840 milligrams of sodium. Add a "medium" order of fries for another 340 calories, 16 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbohydrates, and 190 milligrams of sodium, and a large Coke at 280 calories and 76 grams of carbohydrates, and you’ve got a meal packing a whopping 1,000 calories, 33 grams of fat (10.5 grams of which is saturated), 154 grams of carbohydrates, and 1,030 milligrams of sodium. That’s 58 percent of the recommended daily fat intake, 51 percent of carbs, 43 percent of sodium and about half of our recommended daily intake of calories, all in one heart-clogging, gut-busting meal.

And what’s the reward? Feelings of guilt and a waistline that never shrinks: According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 percent of American adults now qualify as overweight, and of those, 35 percent are considered obese.

So why do we keep eating this way?

The problem, said Dr. Diego Coira, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC), begins with one of the medical field’s favorite culprits: stress. When we’re under physical or emotional stress — not uncommon for our fast-paced lives — the body releases cortisol, a hormone that causes our appetite to increase (even if we ate a short time ago) and causes "stress eating." And the combination of salt, sugar, and fat that’s found in many of the worst foods is, unfortunately, psychologically and physically comforting, even if it’s unhealthy.

"They’re called ‘comfort foods’ because they help when you’re stressed — they calm you down, the brain releases endorphins and dopamine after you eat them, and you’re good," Coira said

And there’s more: Many of us don’t even know how much we’re consuming. Menus in most restaurants don’t have calorie or carbohydrate counts, and over time, those counts have risen as portion sizes have increased. The size of a bagel, for example, has doubled from 3 inches in diameter to 6 over the past 20 years, said Katie Day, clinical dietitian at HUMC at Pascack Valley, adding 200 calories to the breakfast meal.

Burgers are bigger, fries are more numerous, and we don’t feel like we’re getting a good "bang for our buck" unless we’re inundated with victuals. That line of thinking has allowed meals’ caloric values to wander into the realm of the ridiculous.

One example is the Cheesecake Factory’s "Brulee French Toast," which was recently awarded an "Xtreme Eating" award by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Served at brunch and topped with powdered sugar and maple-butter syrup, it packs a heart-attack-inducing 2,780 calories, 93 grams of saturated fat, 2,230 milligrams of sodium, and 24 teaspoons of sugar. To burn that off, you’d have to run 21 miles.


Dealing with temptation

Even a regular steak dinner, said Chesney Blue, a registered dietitian for the Green Hill Senior Living community in West Orange, is probably twice as large as it should be: Instead of the 3 to 4 ounces that’s recommended, most restaurants give patrons at least 6 or 8.

So what can we do?

"If you know you’re going on a long trip, take stuff with you: granola bars, unsalted nuts, baby carrots, cheese cubes, etc.," Day advised. "That way, if you’re tempted, you at least have something there."

If stopping is an absolute necessity, order grilled or baked food over fried things, include a salad, and drink water instead of soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages that are typically standard fare.

At restaurants, practice portion control to avoid overeating, which two-thirds of Americans admit to doing.

"Your hand is a very good tool — if the amount of meat doesn’t fit in the palm of your hand, it may be too much for you," said Blue.

Day also suggested sharing an entrée, or having the waiter wrap up half of the plate before it’s even brought to the table.

Coira, however, said that going to dinner with friends may actually help us eat less: Not only does that sort of socialization alleviate stress, it forces us to do more talking than chewing. This slower pace means that our brain, which doesn’t register us as "full" until 20 minutes after we begin eating, has more time to figure out that the body doesn’t really need that rich, sugar-laden dessert.

But no matter how large the portion is, Coira said the most helpful thing we can do for ourselves is focus on the actual act of eating.

"Be mindful," he said.

"Smell the food, look at the colors, taste it, and take your time. That’s when you experience pleasure with a meal."

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So, should you avoid eating carbs?

Yes, a new study has found that a low-carbohydrate diet helped participants drop weight faster over 12 months than a low-fat one, but let's not toss the rye bread and start frying up the eggs just yet.

Look past the headlines that the study, led by Tulane University's Dr. Lydia Bazzano and published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, has generated, and you will find that the message is not, in fact, about the importance of really cutting back on carbohydrates — it's yet another heads up to be more careful about what we're eating.

The study found that a group following a low-carb diet lost more weight — an average of 7.7 pounds worth — and their levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol had increased "significantly more" than a group following a low-fat diet over a year's time. Their triglycerides also fell sharply, and their Framingham scores, which predict how likely a patient is to have a heart attack within 10 years, also dropped.

Many see the results as an endorsement of an Atkins-like high-protein, high-fat diet, but Sharon R. Akabas, Ph.D., director of the M.S. in nutrition program at the Institute of Human Nutrition for Columbia University, said that we may be missing the point.

"The message that may be lost in translation is that eating unprocessed foods is very important," she said.

America has made a "big mistake" in making fat out to be villainous, she said, and the foods we developed in the wake of the "low-fat" craze may be low in fat but high in sugar and really low in nutrients. So while there's nothing inherently wrong with using a low-fat diet to keep your weight down, it's difficult to do without eventually eating processed foods. The reason? We've got to get our calories somehow. Low-carb diets, on the other hand, may not be as difficult to maintain; dieters may eat more fat, but if it's healthy fat – from nuts and olive oil, for example – that's OK.

"The higher-fat diet seems to allow us to select less processed foods, and that allows people to manage their weight better," Akabas said. "That ultimately affects their health in a positive way." In other words, she noted, this study reinforces what scores of previous studies have found: "People should reduce their simple sugars and processed foods while moving to a more plant-based diet."

The study took a group of 148 obese people and divided them into two groups: one that followed a traditional low-fat diet that restricted them to getting no more than 30 percent of their daily energy intake from fat, and another that followed a low-carbohydrate approach and limited participants to no more than 40 grams a day (an average diet allows for around 300 grams). The subjects ranged from 22 to 75 years old, had a body mass index of between 30 and 45 (doctors prefer it to be between 18 and 25), and had no reported history of cardiovascular problems. The diets included no specific calorie goal, and both groups were asked not to change their physical activity levels.

Cardiologist Benita Burke, M.D., medical director of Valley Medical Group's Heart Care for Women, said that the study had flaws, such as a limited scope, short timeline and a reliance on participants reporting what they ate. And while triglycerides and other inflammation markers fell among the low-carb eaters, blood pressure readings didn't, and levels of LDL cholesterol — (the "bad" cholesterol) — didn't change with either group. Larger studies with final tallies of how many patients later suffered heart attacks or strokes are necessary before a final judgment is made, she said.

The one benefit, Burke said, was the insinuation that sugar is a no-no. "It's a good thing to say, 'Keep people away from the bagels and the muffins,' because we have to stay away from them. We know it turns into sugar, and we're already on sugar overload," she said.

"It all comes back to these processed foods and these sugars … everything we eat that's 'white' should be out."

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Getting over the 30-year hump

A little over two weeks ago, I turned 30. It was shocking.

Not the number, of course. It’s fairly low compared to the average life expectancy, and from what I can gather most people hit it at one time or another. But there is still something disconcerting in knowing that your 20s have officially ended, and that time is passing (pretty quickly at that).

Suddenly, you’re not "young" anymore in the eyes of the world, no matter what the people who are 50 or 75 tell you. It’s time for your story to get moving, because you’re not "fresh out of college" or "figuring things out." College was years ago. Things have been figured. You’re on your way, for better or worse.

Of course, I don’t want to come off as one who puts a lot of emphasis on age — I don’t — and I’ve read about or met so many older but still in-shape, hungry individuals that it’s hard for me to get down about a flip of the calendar. That number is a mile-marker on the highway, not the accident that blocks three lanes, and it isn’t a limitation any more than one wills it to be.

But I would be lying if I said that starting a new decade wasn’t the spark for a little unwanted introspection. All the classic questions arose: Did I take the right course? Should I have done things differently? Am I truly happy with where I am? Should I have sold everything at 22 and moved to the desert like the adventurers in "National Geographic," writing and waiting for my shot at the fame and fortune that comes with ... adventures?

It’s human nature to wonder these things, I suppose, but it doesn’t make the answers come more easily. And it doesn’t help that I began taking notice of other people’s ages and comparing where I am to where they are. Yeah. Don’t do that.

"That guy is 32? And he writes for the (insert massive, well-known publication here)? But I’m better than him! I wonder what college he went to. He probably knew somebody. Yeah. I hate that guy."

We’re a jealous lot, we writers.

Eventually, though, I settle my noisy mind and recall once more that this whole thing is a marathon, not a sprint. I’m pretty happy with where I’m heading and that over the last couple years, I’ve managed to pick up a lot of hobbies, like boxing, backpacking, and photography, that I’ve always liked but never thought I’d actually do.

I’ll find others in the future, I think, maybe astronomy or horticulture — anything to help me pursue my personal definition of The Good Life, which I’ve boiled down to a three-word phrase: "Don’t be boring."

It might not be much. But it’s mine. And the one benefit of getting older is that slow realization that what others think or do doesn’t matter much.

Unless you’re a writer who’s better than me.

In that case, I probably hate you.

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Broken your New Year's resolution already? You're hardly alone

We all know the drill: another January, another broken resolution.

This will be the year, we tell ourselves at the start, that we're going to quit smoking, eat healthier, get back into yoga, start weightlifting, and lose that stubborn ring of fat around our midsections.

Although it starts off with the best of intentions, the fervor often ends as abruptly as it began, and just a few weeks into February, the gym floors empty out as the "resolutioners" retire to the couch once more.

That's what happened to 47-year-old Wayne resident Karen Esa – except she didn't quite make it that far. She decided in the last week of December that she wanted to drop a few pounds and tone up before a February vacation. Her new diet and exercise routine would

be in place for New Year's, and she had no doubt that after two months, she'd reach her goal

"I was really 100 percent serious about this," she said. "I believed it."

Two days later, she was done.

"I never lost a pound," she said with a guilty laugh.

What is it about the turning of the calendar that makes us want to make such massive changes? And more important, how come they don't ever seem to stick?

The answer to why we do it, said River Edge-based author and psychotherapist Jay P. Granat, is a bit complicated, but stems from the fact that New Year's is often viewed as the opening of a new chapter in one's life. (Granat's website: stayinthezone.com.)

After all, another year has passed and, he said, we reflect on our mortality, and "think, 'I'm getting on in the years, maybe I better make some shifts,' " he said.

No wonder those resolutions are often health-related; losing weight and quitting smoking tend to top the resolution list.

Unfortunately, many of us don't keep their Jan. 1 resolutions, especially the one to lose weight, Granat said; about 95 percent of people will fail. And it's that four-to-six week mark where they quit most often.

But even if you're stuck in that February rut, Granat said, all is not lost. Getting back on the wagon, even after falling off, shows resiliency, which is crucial for making progress over the long haul.

"Many resolutions are not sprints; they're marathons," he said. "You might turn an ankle or stumble, but you keep going … it's a journey."

Gary Imhoff, the director of marketing and membership at the Ridgewood YMCA, agreed, and said that his organization ran a "Resolution Revolution" program that offered a free week at the gym, and helped members keep track of their progress, sending out notes of encouragement.

"We try to maintain the momentum, and that's been really successful for a lot of people," he said.

A number of those who signed up for the program are still working out, he said; there hasn't been a marked February dropoff. Some of this might be due to the advice the YMCA gives to new members: make your goals attainable, and don't overdo it.

"A lot of people set their standards too high, and those are the ones who tend to drop out," he said. "But even if they're doing the minimal amount of exercise, it's certainly better than not doing anything."

After all, as Granat said, there's still 46 weeks left in the year to make good on that resolution. And those like Esa remain determined as ever to lose that weight.

"I'm going to start going to the gym again," she said. "I want that. I really do."

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Barber shops are still making the cut

BY STEVE JANOSKI

STAFF WRITER

NORTH JERSEY — To some, the very idea of a "corner barbershop" might seem like an anachronistic throwback to the 1950s, a reminder of a bygone golden age that was once here but has now vanished into mythical Americana alongside the shoemaker or the local hardware store.

At one time, though, they were renowned as a prominent staple of every town, a place where a man could let his guard down and converse with other men about work or politics, complain about his woman or his car, and, quite simply, be a man. All the while, of course, catching a haircut or a fresh shave with a straight razor.

Often, in the eyes of the regulars, they became more than just a place to get a haircut.

Over the years, however, barbershops have disappeared from the public eye. They’ve been replaced, it seems, by crude chains of cheap unisex haircutting establishments that draw in wandering souls who don’t know where else to go but always walk out a weed-whacked mess.

Quietly, however, real barbershops have not only persevered, but taken off, and many barbers are finding that men are itching for a place to go where they can once again sit back, have some good conversation, share some inappropriate jokes, and take a break from the daily grind.

Sho’Tyme Barber Shop

Just over the bridge leading onto Main Street in Butler sits the brightly painted plate glass façade of the Sho’Tyme Barber Shop, which is proving every day that there is indeed a warm middle-ground for both old-school men looking for a traditional cut and new-school kids looking for the flashiest buzzer work.

One step through the door and Sho’Tyme’s colors daze the eyes — mustard tile floors contrast sharply with blue and white walls, while black and white chairs for waiting customers are lined up in alternating chessboard fashion.

The shop’s owner, 32-year-old Lenny Then, is lean with long black hair and a thin goatee. He says that he created Sho’Tyme for that very purpose, and every day when he opens the door and the line starts forming, he looks over and knows he’s on the right track.

"I’ll have somebody in the chair that’s got gray hair, he’s retired, and then right after him I’ll have a kid that just came from high school," he says. "It’s kind neat just having all types of age groups…. Here, everyone just meets at one door."

Then, who lives in Butler, has owned the shop for eight years, and although his youth is evident, so is his knowledge of not only the barber business, but also whom he’s looking to attract.

"We’re young, but I don’t run it like we’re in the ’hood, cause we’re not in the ’hood," he says. "I like the kids, and the middle age, and the older guys to feel comfortable."

"You see my signs on the walls?" he asks, pointing to several old-school signs painted into the décor. "Those are for the old guys, let ’em know, ‘We didn’t forget about you.’"

Then has been on this track for a long time. As a child, his aunts owned salons, and he first picked up the clippers on his own in the sixth grade, using an upside-down spackle bucket as his first barber’s chair and his younger brother as his first client.

"He was my guinea pig," Then says with a laugh.

Around 12, he realized he had an eye for the trade, and in college, he used it to make money on the side before finally deciding to go to cosmetology school — an ironic state requirement for barbers that Then says is contributing directly to the lack of barbershops.

"All these barbers in the city — and I can show you thousands — none of them have licenses, because no one is going to go to cosmetology school like I did to learn women’s hair, just to do men’s hair," he says.

After graduating, Then worked for other barbers to learn the trade first-hand before opening his own place. He takes pride in his skill with both buzzers and scissors. Nowadays, he says, proficiency with both tools is a rarity.

"It’s a lost craft," he says.

But maybe the most important piece of what he does has nothing to do with his hands.

"Conversation is 100 percent, most important," he says. "This is where a man comes and unwinds, he speaks his mind. He tells you how his day went, he tells you something new that he learned."

At Sho’Tyme, however, there is an "anything goes" philosophy. Then warns that "once you step into a barbershop, all the gloves are off."

"It’s like the movie ‘Barbershop,’" he said, alluding to the 2002 film about a shop on the South Side of Chicago. "If you can’t be straight-up real in a barbershop, where else can you be real?"

When a woman comes in, Then laughs to himself as he watches the men’s attitudes slip back into the conservative realm.

"Everyone zips that mouth and gives that look like, ‘Guys, we gotta’ fall back right now,’" he says. "It’s the funniest thing."

Some girls, especially the ones who grew up with brothers, will announce that it’s all right, they understand about the conversation and where it goes. Soon, things will relax again.

Sometimes, he ends up playing the role of de facto psychologist for guys who might not speak about their troubles anywhere else. Steering them in the right direction when they ask for his advice is one thing they don’t teach you in school, he says.

"You gotta’ really sit there and analyze them and really put your heart and soul into that man’s life, and if you steer them the right way, they’re gonna’ be grateful not just because of the haircut," he says.

"I care about each and every person that comes in here."

Tom's Barber Shop

Norman Greenbaum’s "Spirit in the Sky" plays in the background as a man sits in the leather seat of Tom’s Barber Shop in Pompton Lakes on a Friday morning.

Photos of New York Yankee legends mingle on the walls with Marine Corps memorabilia, old newspaper articles, and a cork-board laced with pictures of clients and their children.

"Nobody does a flat-top like Tom," the man says as he gets up, a smile on his face.

The man pays in a cash before owner Tom Fiorilla, a large 67-year-old man with black hair and an infectious grin, turns and starts giving the history of every piece that hangs from the walls.

One picture is particularly special and has a prominent place in the middle of the shop: a black-and-white photo from 1937 showing his father in the Fiorilla family’s original shop in Hawthorne.

It was from his father that Fiorilla learned the trade — a prospect that he had no say in because his father knew that in good times or bad, people still need their hair cut.

"(My father) said, ‘I survived the Depression making good money, and you’ll never starve, no matter how bad the economy is, you’ll always make a living,’" says Fiorilla. "And he was right, especially the past three or four years. He was very right."

Fiorilla got his barber’s license in 1961. Like Then, he shakes his head at the idea that barbers must attend cosmetology school. In the past, barber school or a simple apprenticeship was enough.

"The best place to learn barbering is in a barber shop, not in a classroom, not working on mannequins, but actually being in a barber shop," he says. "That’s how I learned."

Fiorilla has taken many of his father’s lessons to heart over the years and maintains many of the same policies: work the hours that people can come in (including mornings and evenings), always go to work no matter the weather, and never, ever treat your customers like a number.

Take an interest in their lives and treat them well, he says, and they’ll remember it.

"Interest is the key word," he says. "They’re not just a customer. Take an interest in the individual, in their families and their life. If you treat customers just like a number, forget about it."

That attitude has paid off. He’s had three shops in 50 years: one in Hawthorne, one in Wanaque, and now, his place in Pompton Lakes, and his customers have loyally followed him each time.

That’s why Fiorilla does things like go to nursing homes or people’s houses if they’re down on their luck or can’t make it in. Sometimes, he travels to funeral parlors to give long-time customers their final cut.

He gets invited to his clients’ weddings, their bat mitzvahs, their gatherings, and he’s cut four generations of hair for some families.

They consider him their extended family, and that, to Fiorilla, is everything.

"I love what I do. I love seeing people and old friends and families and listening to their stories," he says. "This is more than barbering."

Jimmy the Barber

His real name is Jimmy Thurstans, but in West Milford, you’ll find him by just looking for the man called "Jimmy the Barber."

He’s been at the same spot on Marshall Hill Road for 21 years and in business since 1966. Like the others, barbering appears to just be in his blood.

Thurstans, 63, says that his English grandparents had owned a wig-making and hairdressing shop in the Old Country before coming to America.

He decided to follow that road himself at the age of 17 after an ill-fated "rock and roll road trip" where he and a friend decided to seek their fame and fortune out on the road.

Unfortunately, they only got as far as about Washington, D.C., before they were arrested as "fugitives" who ran away from home.

"That turned in to a whole ‘What do you want to do with your life?’ discussion," he says. "So I said, ‘I’ll go to barber school.’"

Years later, it turned out to be a pretty good choice. His place caters to everyone, from senior citizens to "young dudes" and average guys from across the economic spectrum.

The difference between his place and the more generic unisex salons is the "no frills" that leaves out the selling of products in favor of a haircut, a shave, and a loyal customer base. Thurstans says that 95 percent of his customers are regulars.

Lately he’s seen a resurgence in the number of barber shops, which he attributes to women cutting back on their own services because of the downed economy.

Haircutters are trying to capture the men’s crowd, he says, who spend less but are more regular in their habits.

No matter what they do or who opens around him, though, his place keeps rolling and has turned into a something of a landmark in the town.

"I always hear people say that I should be the mayor because I know everybody," he says with a laugh. "That’s where you get an average haircutter who can be more successful that a very good haircutter. It’s based on personality."

Not that Thurstans is an average haircutter, of course. His 45 years of experience speak for themselves.

In his place, he strives to keep a light atmosphere that’s filled with jokes and fun, and no appointments are needed, ever. In fact, Thurstans laughs at the very idea of them.

"Nobody does appointments…. It doesn’t work here. An appointment is calling to say, ‘I’ll be there in 15 minutes,’" he says.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

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Crushing the last smokes

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

BY STEVE JANOSKI

Since I was 16, everyone and their mother has informed me about the evils of smoking.

Women (and it was always women) would come up to me outside pizza places while I was enjoying an after-meal cigarette, and impart their knowledge on me of the human body and its propensity to die.

"Oh honey, you know that causes cancer!" they said.

I'd roll my eyes.

"Does it? Oh wow. Thanks. You've saved a life right here lady. I'm forever in your gratitude," I said as I'd stub it out and walk away.

Yea, a little harsh, but I don't offer advice to strangers who seem to be minding their own business, and I never liked those that feel its their job to do that for me.

But it's been a decade of smoking for me now, and even a hard-headed fool like me knows that the older I get, the more the damage stacks up.

That, along with my turning 26 this year, has convinced me that I'm apparently in this for the long haul, and I should start walking away from the things that are gradually killing me.

So the day before my birthday, I took my last drag of a Marlboro light, crushed the remainders, and started the dark, arduous journey to freedom.

When people tell you the first three days are the worst, they're not kidding.

A friend of mine, who was watching me chew gum and jitter with a scowl on my face while at a barbecue, asked me how I was doing with it.

"Well…let's just say that right now, I'd cut the head off a baby seal with a spoon and beat an orphan with it to get another smoke," I said, shaking my head.

He laughed. Kind of.

It's a difficult thing to take something that you did 20 times a day, every day, for 10 years, and just stop — a non-smoker asked me what it was like, and I said it was like being told that you can't use your left arm ever again.

After three days though, and some tribulations that came in the form of massive cravings while drinking beer, it started to dissipate.

Two weeks later, I've become used to not stopping for a cigarette when walking into or out of a building or bar.

I like waking up in the morning not coughing so hard my stomach wrenches, or being able to go a couple extra rounds on the heavy bag without gasping for breath.

My tongue has returned to the pink color that I assume it was supposed to be, and I can actually taste things that I've been eating and drinking for years like coffee and wheat bread (which I've now realized that I don't actually like that much).

I won't dramatize it by saying lies about how I've got a new lease on life… but I do feel better, and I'm almost convinced that it was worth it.

I miss smoking insanely; it was a nice crutch, and a good way to be able to disappear from awkward situations or other places I didn't want to be in, if only for a few minutes.

By quitting, however, I'm truly hoping that I dodged the one place that I really didn't want to be — and that was in some doctor's office in a few decades, and having him tell me that I have lung cancer.

And that's worth whatever I've got to deal with in the meantime.



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