Healthy Cooking by design

Why is portion control so important?  I suppose it depends on whether you are trying to burn all the calories you take in each day, or have extra ones to store away for later.  Even as I write this, I am enjoying 1/2 cup of oats, cooked, and topped with measured amounts of butter, brown sugar, bannana, etc.  Instead of feeling frustrated at the thought of measuring my breakfast (or approximating it because I’ve made it so many times), I find security and peace of mind knowing that I will burn all the calories I eat today and still be a size 7 tomorrow.

Imagine you bought fertilizer for your lawn, but it did not come with directions for proper application.  You would wander your yard, scatter the amount you thought was right, and hope for the best.  Through trial and error (and watching the results), you would discover what did not work well, but would probably not get the maximum benefit without the directions.  It is the same with food.

Most companies selling food are not only trying to make money, but are unconcerned with your health or the long-term results of eating their food.  I like to think of them as used car salesmen.  I evaluate each company individually to see how much they know about what they are selling, and how accurately they represent that information.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest, has some great lists of the best and worst foods.  Here are just a couple of their examples of restaurants not understanding (or caring) what they are selling, and consumers not understanding (or caring) what they are eating:

• Chili’s Big Mouth Bites with French fries (four mini bacon cheeseburgers with fried onion strings): 2,350 calories, 38 grams saturated fat, 3,940 milligrams sodium.  That’s about two days worth of RDA for most people.
• Olive Garden Tour of Italy, with lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine alfredo: 1,450 calories, 33 grams saturated fat, 3,830 milligrams sodium.  If you’re over 40 or have high blood pressure, that’s more than twice the sodium you should have in an entire day.
• Ruby Tuesday’s “Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta.” It sounds healthy, but its 2,060 calories and 128 grams of fat make it the equivalent of two 12-ounce sirloin steaks, two buttered baked potatoes, and two Caesar salads. (CSPI calls this dish “Angioplasta.”)
• Cheesecake Factory’s “Chris’ Outrageous Chocolate Cake.” This 1,380-calorie menu item is the equivalent of eating two Quarter Pounders plus a large fries—for dessert.
• Starbucks Venti White Chocolate Mocha and Blueberry Scone would provide 1,100 calories—or about as much as one would find in a Burger King bacon double cheeseburger, medium fries, and medium Coke.

Most of us realize that our desires will drive us to an unhealthy place unless control or restraint is applied.  We easily recognize this with the number of hours we (or our children) watch television, the amount of candy we eat in a day, how much money we spend frivolously out of our paychecks, etc.  Most adults don’t really live by “if it feels good, do it”.

Once we decide that we want to use portion control when eating, the question is how.  You could check out Mayo Clinic’s slide show on Portion Control for Weight Loss, Web MD’s article on Portion Control and Weight Loss, or look at The Portion Plate - an actual plate that shows portion guidelines.  You could also search a particular food in Calorie King’s Food Database and they will tell you the appropriate serving size, allow you to select other serving sizes, give you the nutritional information, as well as the amount of exercise needed to burn those calories.

Most of us have never been taught this information and yet it is foundational to good health and maintaining a healthy weight.  Once you get used to seeing and using healthy portion sizes, it is easier to see that both at home and in a restaurant, we serve and eat a lot more food than we need.

Special photo thanks to loleia at stock.xchng.

Now that its bathing suit and shorts weather, we are all noticing a few extra bumps and bulges that we’d like to lose.  And we all want the quickest way to get there.  The long way is to intake less calories and burn more calories - boring and slow.  The short way is the new fad diet pill or berry drink - exciting and quick, but expensive, not long-lasting, and not healthy.  So is there some way to quickly get in shape for summer and do it in a healthy way?

Here are a few tips to cut out calories and creative ways to burn more:

• eliminate empty calories like bread in restaurants, sodas, candy, Starbucks, drive-thru food, etc.
• don’t use artificial sweeteners because they make you crave more calories
• eliminate meat from either lunch or dinner each day and focus on vegetables and whole grains
• eat breakfast every day - eggs or oats are long lasting
• eat apples as snacks between meals (only 70 calories, natural sugar boost, good fiber)
• park farther from the office or store and walk quickly to get there
• walk after dinner each evening, gradually increasing speed and difficulty (hills, stairs, etc.)
• drink water all day (add lemon if you want)
• drink a cup of green tea with lemon and honey each day (I like it mid-afternoon)
• take a multi-vitamin supplement
• do leg lifts or partial sit-ups on the couch during commercial breaks when watching tv
• meet a friend to walk and talk instead of for coffee and sitting to talk
• never skip meals, eat smaller meals with small snacks between all day
• just try to make the healthiest choice each time you eat

There is never a magic answer to a problem that took a long time to create.  Consistently eating healthy food and daily exercise will show results quicker than you think.  Just look for ways to eat balanced smaller meals and find ways to be more active every day.

We made taco’s the other night and it was so interesting how differently each person “builds” theirs.  I found myself comparing the taco I was building to others around me to see who’s was healthier.  (I can’t help it, this is just how I am…)  I won, of course - and here’s why.  I focus on adding lots healthy ingredients first and use less of higher calorie or higher fat items. This trick works at the salad bar, when determining the proportions of items in a casserole, or even in making a banana split.  (Yes, a healthy banana split is not hard to make.)

On the table, I had set out all of the typical taco toppings along with a mixture of lean ground beef and ground turkey breast browned together with onions and peppers, seasonings and beans.

Here’s how my neighbors taco went - soft taco, lots of meat, lots of cheese, some tomatoes, and a dab of sour cream.  (That is how their next one went too.)

Here’s how my taco went - whole grain soft taco, lots of spinach leaves, lots of tomatoes, some meat, some dots of Daisy light sour cream, and a sprinkle of cheese.  (I normally use romaine leaves with tacos, but spinach was what I had.)

This is the same theory used in a catered buffet line - they start with salads, pastas, and vegetables before you get to the meat, so you will have filled up your plate with cheaper foods and eat less expensive foods.  I just fill up my plate with all the vegetables that are good for me and lower calorie, and that leaves a lot less room (on my plate and in my belly) for the foods that aren’t.

I was chatting with someone after a recent Lunch-N-Learn about healthy foods and she reminded me of a couple of tricks she uses to satisfy cravings in a healthier way.   I thought I’d share her tips and a few others.

• When wanting a late night snack, drink a glass of water because we often mistake thirst for hunger.
• When craving something sweet, brew some flavored coffee.  Often, the warmth and the sweet smell satisfies your craving.
• If craving chocolate, make a mug of hot cocoa using skim milk, cocoa, a little sugar, vanilla and a dash of cinnamon.
• Only stock your house with healthy sweets and snack options.
• Take a multi-vitamin and multi-mineral to make sure your body gets what it needs.

Here are a few other resources that bring an interesting perspective to the cravings discussion. The folks at Family Education have an article titled Healthy Eating: Hunger vs. Cravings to help us better understand our body signals. Nutritional Counselor, Stacey Morgenstern, has an article titled Deconstructing Cravings that even has four things for you to do to answer your craving.

Did you ever consider that your body might be craving a particular nutrient?  The folks at Naturopathyworks have.  They developed a chart with things like “If you crave bread, what your body needs is more nitrogen, and it will be satisfied if you eat more high protein foods like fish, meat, nuts, and beans.

Cravings aren’t good or bad.  They are just your body’s way of telling you what it wants right now.  How you answer it will determine what it becomes tomorrow.

In a restaurant, I have made a habit of asking specifically for what I want.  Can I get that with brown rice?  Will you bring the dressing on the side?  Do you have a whole wheat bun?  Is your nutritional information posted?  I figure if people can ask for double fries or extra chocolate sauce I can ask about something that I am interested in.

This worked beautifully the other night.  A few of us were at the mall when someone suggested we get some ice cream.  So, we ended up at Marble Slab Creamery.  I looked at the selection of ice cream in the freezer and also saw a frozen yogurt machine.  Knowing I would make a better decision if I could see their nutritional information, I got bold and asked.

Sure enough, she handed me a laminated card and I quickly compared the small ice cream at 450 calories (250 of those from fat) with the small frozen yogurt at 100 calories with no fat.  I chose the chocolate frozen yogurt and was happy to enjoy a treat with everyone and not regret one bite.  I normally eat a 100 calorie snack after dinner, so my treat out just replaced my evening snack.

So the next time you’re eating something out, realize that everyone else is asking for substitutions or other toppings and you can too.  I think you’ll be surprised how many healthier options are available, if you just take the time to ask.

Well, the FDA approved many of them and they are in all kinds of foods, so they must be healthy, right? I hate to question authority and the norm, but…

Let’s look at this ingredient that many people ingest regularly if not multiple times a day that research and experience indicates causes a variety of health problems.  Now, if you currently use artificial sweeteners, just take a deep breath and consider allowing some information to help you change your mind (and your health). I am lumping all artificial sweeteners together, although different ones have different side effects and some newer ones do not have much data available about potential side effects.  I personally avoid them all and use small amounts of natural sweeteners like raw honey, turbinado sugar (raw cane), molasses, brown sugar, and even white sugar.

Here are a few commonly reported side effects of regular use of artificial sweeteners which gradually disappear when their use is discontinued:

• headache or migraine
• increase in appetite and cravings for sweets
• slow, steady weight gain and lowered metabolism
• lack of sex drive, decrease in quantity and quality of sperm
• moodiness and depression
• increased instance of cancer
• fatigue and tiredness
• same symptoms as Fibromyalgia and Graves disease
• aching joints
• ringing in the ears
• increase in blood pressure
• loss of hair
• lack of mental clarity and memory recall

There really are too many side effects to name.  As of 1995, the FDA had received well over 10,000 aspartame related complaints, more than all other complaints combined.  And it is estimated that only 1 out of 100 people having symptoms actually file an official complaint about a food product.

In short, not only are artificial sweeteners not delivering what people want (all the sweet with none of the bad consequences) they are giving people a lot of things nobody wants.  There is evidence suggesting that damage from artificial sweeteners is cumulative.  So the longer you have used them, the more pronounced symptoms you are likely to have.  In fact, one of the terms used by doctors is “aspartame poisoning”.

There is a great resource about artificial sweeteners at 321 Recipes that has hundreds of articles from doctors and nutritionists.  You can also do a google search for “side effects of artificial sweeteners” and have thousands of websites to examine.  I hope you will consider kicking the sweetener habit and then letting me know the health improvements you experience.

Special thanks for the photo to ruthdeb on Flickr.

Many people choose a salad bar in a restaurant for a healthy meal.  Here are a few tips to make sure you enjoy all the nutritional benefits of a salad and avoid the high calorie pitfalls of restaurant eating:

Choose a green lettuce base (the greener the better), like romaine or spinach instead of iceberg.

Then go put your dressing on because the lettuce is the part of a salad that needs flavor and moisture.  Choose a low fat dressing and slowly drizzle to add what you need and no more.  (Remember that regular ranch dressing is 146 calories for 2 T, and low fat ranch is only 66 calories for 2 T.)

Pile on fresh vegetables (low in calories and high in nutrition) like broccoli, carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts, radishes, beets, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Add 1-2 Tablespoons of things (higher in calories and high in nutrition) like garbanzo beans, soybeans, green peas, eggs, sunflower seeds, almonds, black olives, and marinated 3 bean salad.

Have 1 Tablespoon of things (higher in fat or lower in nutrition) like cheese, ham, carrot raisin salad, and pasta salads.

Consider skipping things (even higher in fat and lower in nutrition) like bacon bits, croutons, packaged crackers, and rolls.

Finally, for “dessert” go get a plate of fruit staying as close to the natural fruit as possible and avoiding heavy syrups and whipped creams.

Top it all off by drinking water or unsweetened iced tea and you have a low calorie, highly nutritious meal.

Now, I must give praise where praise is due.  My husband is actually the one who discovered the trick to add the dressing straight on lettuce.  We had been to a salad bar when he realized that the bland, dry lettuce is the part he doesn’t like about a salad.  And that if he put dressing directly on the lettuce, he would solve the flavor problem and not be using extra dressing to coat things that already had a good flavor.  Way to think outside the box honey!

Special thanks for the photo to cgrabig on flickr.

I get asked that question all the time.  I try to be very cautious when answering questions like, “Is (fill-in-the-blank) healthy?”  Because everyone from doctors and nutritionists to your average home cook has a different view of what is healthy.  And with so much research available, it is hard to process it all and form an opinion.  So I will tell you what I think and why, and you can decide what you believe.

I use butter.  There, I’ve said it.  Now, let me tell you some of the good things about butter and why I use it.

• Distinct flavor.  On top of oatmeal, to saute asparagus or mushrooms, or on a baked potato, butter is the only flavor that works for me.  And honestly, those are about the only times I use it.
• It is natural.  I think our bodies process natural foods far better than foods born in laboratories.

Now, here are some things to be aware of about butter.  I won’t say they are bad things about it, just things to be aware of.

• I has 102 calories per tablespoon which is 18% of your total recommended fat for the day.  It contains 36% of your recommended saturated fat as well as 10% of your recommended cholesterol for the day.  What that says to me is “use it sparingly.”  I would never use more than a tablespoon on something I’m eating, and will gladly use less if it gives me the flavor I’m wanting.  And I will thoroughly enjoy every bite.  (To put it in perspective, 2 cubes of cheddar cheese from a snack tray have the identical fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol of butter with 36 more calories.)

Consequences follow our choices and I don’t believe we can short circuit that process of cause and effect.  Can we engineer some buttery tasting spread in a laboratory that has all of the good qualities of butter with none of the bad?  I don’t think so.  Because when we ingest chemicals, that causes a different set of consequences.

So when people ask me if butter is healthy, I usually ask, “How much butter?”  While one tablespoon is a fine addition to a meal, three or four is definitely not.  As always, I believe a healthy diet is one with great variety and wise moderation.  So for certain foods I unashamedly say, “Please pass me the butter.”

Special thanks for the photo to booleansplit on Flickr.

Having sweets and rich foods around the house at the holidays can make it difficult to not overeat - or just constantly eat.  It helps me to remember that a goal is a mark to aim for and it is normal to regularly evaluate progress and adjust behavior to better meet it.  So, if you are evaluating and want to make an adjustment to get back on track, here are a few suggestions.

• When shopping after Christmas, park far away and briskly walk to and from the store.
• Start each day asking God to give you wisdom and help with all your choices.
• Daily look at your goals (make them specific and written) and plan strategies to meet them.
• Choose to not graze.  Get a plate and sit down at the table each time you eat.
• Only make 1/2 or 1/4 of a recipe treat you love leaving less in the house to be tempting.
• Lyn at Escape From Obesity had a strategy to not just count calories for the day, but to have a calorie budget for the day, week, and month.  That way, if she went over budget one day, she could adjust the next couple of days and still stay on track for the month.  Brilliant accountability!

One of my favorite encouragements is “take a step”.  You don’t have to climb the whole mountain today, you just have to take one step.  Your step could be to make some specific goals, or to write them down and keep them in front of you.  A good step is evaluating your progress toward a goal; another is adjusting your behavior to better accomplish it tomorrow.  Each step you take is just one little good choice but very much worth bragging about.  Because lots of little steps eventually add up to climbing the mountain.

I’m dedicating this post to the person in Iowa who needs these tips. I was pondering how to say yes to holiday parties without saying yes to thousands of extra calories to reckon with later.  There really are lots of strategies and there is at least one that will work for you.  Here are some of my favorites:

• Eat a small nutritious meal before you go the the party so you will not be very hungry.  Go for the purpose of enjoying a dessert that you get to choose (as if you had a coupon for one free dessert).
• View the party food as dinner and make a balanced meal out of what you put on your plate.  Start by choosing vegetables and fruits if available (but go very easy on any sauces), add a serving of something with meat, and end with a dessert.  Voila - one nice plate of dinner you didn’t have to cook.
• Decide ahead of time what you want to eat - i.e., one dessert and one drink.  Then take your time looking at all your options before choosing which dessert and which drink.
• Eat slowly while visiting.  View the talking as the most important thing (the reason you came), and a bite or sip as something you do only at a break in the conversation (something that is an interruption to the reason you came).
• Decide which items you will allow yourself in large quantities.  For example - unlimited water and cut up veggies (just a drizzle of ranch on your plate to touch the veggies to).  Start with water and veggies, enjoy a couple of other items, and then go back for more water and veggies.
• If it is potluck, bring something nutritious you can enjoy guilt-free .  It is likely there are other people attending who would appreciate it as well.
• Look on Calorie King to find the calories of some likely snacks at the party and what amount of exercise they require to burn.  For example 235 for a piece of chocolate cake with chocolate icing and 192 for a 16 oz coke.  That total of 427 calories requires 2 hours of walking to burn off.  On the other hand, you could eat 4 plates of mixed veggies and not even have half that amount of calories.

I think setting a goal and meeting an expectation are important keys.  If I decide ahead of time generally what I want to eat and drink at a party and then meet that expectation, I can stop at that point and feel satisfied.  If my only expectation is that there will be a lot of food that will taste good, I have no trigger signaling me to stop eating.  If my only goal is to go and eat free food that tastes good, I can do that all night.  But I will regret that choice (or lack of goal setting) at some future point.

So the next time you RSVP for a party and decide which outfit you’ll wear and if you’ll need a jacket, also decide which strategy you’ll use to help you be happy and healthy long after the holiday.