If you like Hy-Vee's Chinese Express, you're not alone.

The Chinese Express, the company's fastest-growing and most popular dining service, has
been named to the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants/Chains in the United States. It is the fifth year in a row the company has been honored.

The store was lauded in two categories of the Chinese Restaurant News annual awards: overall excellence and healthful menu. Overall excellence is determined by high scores in cuisine, decor, atmosphere, service and cleanliness.

Restaurants are evaluated in part by a mystery diner who makes anonymous visits and evaluations of each nominee. Customer votes and reviews play a part in the final results.

Customers who are focused on good nutrition especially like entrees with stir-fried meat and more vegetables, the news release states. Beijing chicken is one such dish that is flavorful, and yet more healthful, even though breaded and deep-fried foods remain among the favorites.

Hy-Vee prepares its dishes with zero trans fat frying oil and without MSG. Also, the company will soon complete a transition to cooking exclusively with low sodium soy sauce.

Company Vice President Greg Frampton said one of the reasons Hy-Vee's Chinese food service is successful is because the company has more than 400 highly trained Chinese chefs.

"We really are proud to be recognized," said Denny Hartogh, director of the Locust Street Hy-Vee store in Dubuque. "We take our Chinese department very seriously in all our stores. We do have a very good following in both stores."

 

Those who keep scores on these things will be happy to know that free-range eggs rule. They are far better nutritionally than previously thought.

Mother Earth News has been testing these eggs, and the latest round shows free-range eggs are kicking the commercial industry's butt. They have shown that eggs from hens raised on pasture as compared to official USDA data for factory-farm eggs, contain:

* 1/3 less cholesterol.

* 1/4 less saturated fat.

* 2/3 more vitamin A.

* Two times more omega-3 fatty acids.

* Three times more vitamin E.

* Seven times more beta carotene.

* Three to six times more vitamin D.

The last item, vitamin D, is huge. Most people don't get enough. And that's serious stuff because research is discovering vitamin D deficiency is not only responsible for weak bones, but that it also can lead to a host of other health problems from diabetes and cancer to heart disease and multiple sclerosis.

We can get vitamin D from two sources -- the sun, when sunlight strikes our skin, and from our diet. However, vitamin D is found in few foods; eggs is one of them.

According to the USDA, supermarket eggs contain an average of 34 International Units per 100 grams of vitamin D. But tests on eggs from pastured farms in Texas, Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania found those eggs contained three to six times more vitamin D than typical supermarket eggs.

What that boils down to is that just two scrambled eggs from pastured hens might give you anywhere from 63 to 126 percent of the recommended daily intake of 200 IU of vitamin D.