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Holiday food safety tips Nov 13th 2012, 06:00 With Mayo Clinic nutritionists Jennifer Nelson, M.S., R.D. and Katherine Zeratsky, R.D. read biography Latest entries Holiday food safety tips Nov. 13, 2012 Sleep and energy balance Nov. 7, 2012 Pumpkins are good for more than carving Oct. 24, 2012 A healthy diet is a smart investment Oct. 10, 2012 What will it take to reverse the obesity epidemic? Oct. 3, 2012 Connect with others who've been there. Share stories. Learn. Join Mayo Clinic's online community. Free E-newsletter Subscribe to Housecall Our weekly general interest e-newsletter keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics. Sign up now View the Mayo Diabetes Diet Book Nutrition-wise blog Nov. 13, 2012 Holiday food safety tips By Jennifer Nelson, M.S., R.D. and Katherine Zeratsky, R.D. The holiday season is a time when we're often called on to make and take food to a variety of events. Now's the perfect time to brush up on food safety tips to ensure that your celebrations don't go awry. The first thing to keep in mind is that some people are at greater risk of serious illness or even death from foodborne illness. Those at higher risk are infants, young children, pregnant women and their unborn babies, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems, such as those who've had a transplant or who have HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes or kidney disease. Here some tips to keep your feasts safe: Wash your hands and cooking utensils (including cutting boards) to ensure you aren't spreading bacteria around. Keep raw meat and poultry separate from other foods (cooked or raw). Use separate cutting boards or platters. Wash raw fruit and veggies before serving. Use a food thermometer. Cook turkey and other poultry to an internal temperature of 165 F (145 F for other roasts, steaks of chops). Take the temperature at the innermost part of the bird's thigh and wing — and the thickest part of the breast. Stuffing should also be 165 F. Boil gravies, sauces and soups. If serving buffet style, keep hot foods hot (140 F or warmer) by using chafing dishes, slow cookers and warming trays. Keep cold foods cold (40 F or cooler) by nesting in bowls of ice. Here are some safety tips if you're going to be transporting food: Ensure that hot foods reach a safe final cooking temperature before you transport them. Don't transport partially cooked foods. Hot foods should be removed from the stove/oven just before leaving home. Transfer food to a thermal container or slow cooker, wrap in heavy towels for extra insulation and place in a thermal tote or insulated bag. Before serving, bring food up to the safe temperature (165 F). Bring gravies, soups and other hot sauces to a boil. Ensure that cold foods remain cold. Chill the food thoroughly. Consider using bags or blocks of ice to pack around the food and chill the thermal container you will transport it in. When you arrive serve immediately — or refrigerate until serving. And finally, here's how to safely handle leftovers: Refrigerate all leftovers in shallow containers within 2 hours of serving (1 hour if the air temperature is above 90 F). Properly stored leftovers can be kept for 3 to 4 days. But if in doubt, throw them out. Be sure to reheat leftovers to 165 F before serving. Leave the leftovers with your host. By the time you reach home, the food likely will be the in the danger zone — between 40 F and 140 F — when bacteria can quickly multiple. Send this to your guests. Here's to your safe and healthy holiday feast. -Jennifer blog index References Foodborne illness: What consumers need to know. U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Foodborne_Illness_What_Consumers_Need_to_Know/index.asp. Accessed Nov. 5, 2012. Holiday food safety tips. U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/events/holidays/check_steps.pdf. Accessed Nov. 5, 2012. Safe food handling: 7 food safety steps for successful community meals. U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/7_Steps_Community_Meals/index.asp. Accessed Nov. 5, 2012. Caregiver label doesn't define you, but helps recognize what you do Nov 13th 2012, 06:00 Alzheimer's blog Nov. 13, 2012 By Angela Lunde Alzheimer's Caregiving Subscribe to our Alzheimer's Caregiving e-newsletter to stay up to date on Alzheimer's topics. Sign up now Last week I reconnected with a lovely couple I met a while back, Nick and Marie. It's apparent they've been in a caring relationship with one another for many, many years. Yet, when their doctor recently addressed Marie as caregiver (Nick is living with early stage Alzheimer's), Marie was a bit rattled, stating, "I'm a wife." So I wondered, when does the label caregiver replace wife? If your husband or wife receives a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, do you (the spouse) leave the doctor's office with a new label, title and role? When do spouses label themselves as caregiver? To a great degree we rely on labels to define ourselves. Labels connect us to our identity and self-worth: I'm a wife, I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a daughter, I'm an artist, I'm a manager, I'm a vegetarian. Often these labels don't necessarily reflect who we are as much as what we do, what our social status is, or how we function in life. In a society that puts so much emphasis on the desire to be something, each of us grapples with figuring out exactly who we are in relation to our world. Importantly, the language or words we use to describe ourselves largely influences the way we think. And the way we think drives our emotions, our expectations and our behaviors. In the case of Marie, instead of "being" a caregiver, she chooses to see herself as a wife in a caring or supportive role. Perhaps then caregiving or caregiver is a verb and not a definition — one that describes your relationship to other people, not who you are nor your relationship with yourself. The ability to see ourselves beyond our jobs, roles, labels and titles and as the real, genuine substance of who we are is defined as the authentic self. It's who you are at your absolute core, not defined by anything external. Authentic self is all of the things that are uniquely yours and need expression. For those in a caregiving role, faced with never-ending tasks, a sense of true self is often diluted and quite possibly something that gets lost early on. The path to authentic self may be somewhere between who you are and the one you are caring for. Maybe it's the "golden mean" (Aristotle anyone?) between the extremes of selfish and selfless — the balance that rises out of compassion and loving care, and ends well before neglecting your own needs. It's an inner sense that you matter, that you deserve to be healthy and whole just as much as the person you're caring for. I think many of you would agree that you don't want caregiving to define who you are. However, identifying yourself in a caregiving role as Marie does is a good for you. By identifying yourself in a caregiving role or as a caregiver you begin to pay attention to information, resources and services that can help you. Most importantly, you become part of a large group of a people with common issues, needs and concerns. You begin to build recognition not of who you are, but of what you do. When we name and label a role that we have, we validate our experiences and can nurture our feelings. We say to the world: Here I am, acknowledge me, hear me, support me, I matter. Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.--Dr. Seuss blog index

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