Aspartame: Marketed under the names NutraSweet and Equal, aspartame is an artificial sweetener that was discovered in 1965. It was first authorized to enter the U.S. market in 1974. Numerous allegations have been made against aspartame, none of which has been conclusively proven.
Bundling: The practice of joining related products together for the purpose of selling them as a single unit.
Calorie: In the 1890s, chemist Wilbur O. Atwater broke analyzed the nutritional components of food (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) and measured the caloric value of each of the groups. In the early 1900s, Russell Chittenden, a chemist at Yale University, took Atwater’s idea of assessing food in terms of calories—the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Centigrade—and applied it not only to energy taken in but to energy burned in exercise. Calorie-counting was born. Lulu Hunt Peters’s topic, Diet and Health, with Key to the Calories (1917), advocated calorie-counting as a method of weight reduction. It introduced the so-called scientific principle that calorie control equated weight control. Those who were unable to control their weight were judged to have no self-discipline and obesity became a sign of moral weakness.
Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are one of the major dietary components. Their primary function is to provide energy for the body. The most important carbohydrates include simple sugars, starches, glycogens, and fiber. Complex carbohydrates are ultimately broken down into simple sugars that the body can easily metabolize.
Chains : Multiple restaurants owned by the same company or franchisers.
Cholesterol (blood): The body manufactures cholesterol in the form of dietary cholesterol. High levels of blood cholesterol increase risk of heart disease; cholesterol travels in the blood in little packages of fat and protein called lipoproteins. Cholesterol in high-density lipoproteins (HDL), is the so-called good cholesterol; cholesterol in low-density lipoproteins (LDL) is bad because it is headed for your artery walls.
Cholesterol (dietary): A crystalline substance found in animal tissues. The body normally synthesized it in the liver. Its level in the bloodstream can be influenced by heredity and through the consumption of certain foods. Cholesterol can cause atherosclerotic plaque and heart disease.
Co-branding: The displaying of more than one brand name on a product; the marketing of co-branded products or services. A co-branding arrangement with potential benefits to be gained for both sides.
Electrolytes: Sodium and potassium salts that are lost due to exercise and other causes. Sports drinks with electrolytes are used to replenish the body’s water and electrolyte levels after dehydration caused by exercise, diaphoresis, diarrhea, vomiting, or starvation. Giving pure water to such a person is not the best way to restore fluid levels because it dilutes the salts inside the body’s cells and interferes with their chemical functions.
Encroachment: The awarding of a new franchise or the opening of a company store too close to an existing franchise.
Extruded: The process wherein hot foods are forced through an extruder and they puff up when they hit cool air.
Fat (Dietary): There are five major types of dietaryfats: saturated, unsaturated, polyun-saturated, monounsaturated, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Saturated fats are saturated with hydrogen atoms. In the United States, they are mainly found in dairy products, meat, poultry, and vegetable shortenings made with coconut oil, palm oil, and/or palm kernel oil. Saturated fats can raise blood cholesterol levels, whereas unsaturated fats do not. Polyunsaturated fat molecules are missing hydrogen atoms. Sources of polyunsaturated fats corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil as well as some fish oils, margarines, mayonnaise, almonds, and pecans. Monounsaturated fats are dietary fats with one double-bonded carbon in the molecule; they are commonly found in poultry, shortening, meat, dairy products, and olive and canola oils. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are harder and more stable than other oils. Companies mix them with hydrogen, which increases the amount of saturated fat and creates trans fat, which raises blood cholesterol.
Fondant: A sweet, creamy sugar paste used in making candies and icings. It is composed of gelatin, confectioner’s sugar, and water. It is a very smooth and malleable icing that dries hard. Bonbons are candies that frequently have fondant fillings.
Franchise: The authorization granted to an individual or group by a company to sell its products or services in a particular area.
Junk food: Foods high in calories, fat, caffeine, sugar, and/or salt, with little nutritional value.
Maltose : A disaccharide composed of two glucose residues. It is used as a nutrient and sweetener, particularly in China, where historically it has been extracted from sorghum grass.
Nougat : A chewy or hard confection made from sugar or honey, nuts such as almonds, walnuts, or pistachio, and occasionally fruit. Flavorings are added to produce nougats with different tastes. Nougats are used in the manufacture of many confections, including 3 Musketeers candy bars.
Obesity: A chronic condition characterized by excessive body fat. There are several different methods of determining obesity. A man is considered obese when his weight is 20 percent or more above the maximum recommended weight for his height (25 percent for women). Another method is the Body Mass Index (BMI) method. This calculation is weight (kg) / height (meters) X height (meters).
QSR: Quick Service Restaurant is the term used by many as an alternative to the term fast food, which now has pejorative connotations.
Saccharin: An artificial sweetener invented by a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in 1879. This became the foundation for the megacorporation Monsanto. The long-term safety of saccharin was challenged in 1977, and the FDA placed a moratorium on its use until more studies were conducted. The ban was lifted in 1991, but by that time virtually all diet soda production had shifted to using aspartame.
Sugar: Common table sugar is sucrose, which is a disaccharide made up of one molecule each of two other common monosaccharides: fructose and glucose. All three are simple carbohydrates, easily absorbed and converted by the body into energy. Sucrose is the most adaptable for culinary purposes and it has been used for hundreds of years as a preservative and sweetener. It is also used as an aid to the fermentation of beer and wine, and because it encourages yeast growth it has been used in baking. It is present in all green plants but exists in sufficient quantities to be viable for commercial extraction only in sugarcane and sugar beets. Sugar has no nutritional value (no minerals, vitamins, protein, or fiber) other than providing calories.
Tie-in: An association between two publicity campaigns in the form of a theme common to both, or an advertisement that appears in two different media.
