Mom Was Right...Most of the Time

The other day I saw an ad that had a large stalk of broccoli with the phrase "Mom Was Right" printed across it. An effective ad for getting the message across that we need to eat green vegetables!  Moms have always told their kids "Eat Your Vegetables" and sure enough, Mom was right  about that. The FDA, the American Cancer Society, and nearly every other health agency urges us to EAT 5 A DAY  - at least 5 servings of colorful vegetables and fruits for good health.  Can I stress that 5 really should be a minimum? And that because a serving is usually 1/2 to 1 cup , it's really not hard to get more than that in one day.

Benefits of eating more veggies are numerous:  they should be the primary source for most of our vitamins and minerals - especially trace ones - rather than relying on vitamin-fortified juices and packaged foods. Vegetables, especially the dark leafy ones are literally "brain food" - that's how important they are to our development. In addition, most vegetables add valuable fiber to our diets - fiber that keeps our digestive tract operating smoothly.

Now let me get on my fast food soapbox for a minute and stress that the limp piece of iceberg lettuce on your fast food burger, hardly counts as one of your servings of vegetables.  Nor do the french fries. In this blog-o-sphere, french fries ( and yes, I love them too) are a "once in while snack" - like carnival food....not be counted on as a nutrient.

Your "five a day" should be real food munched raw, or cooked with a minimum of alteration: steam, bake or microwave - even stir fry - carrots, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, chard, green beans, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and squash to your heart's content. What you get in return is vitality, weight control, and lowered risk for diabetes and several  forms of cancer.

Now the one "mom-ism" I take exception too is "Clean Your Plate".  After all, this blog is focused on healthy weight. Many of us grew up around dinner tables where starchy foods were piled on our plates and we weren't permitted to leave the table until every bit was gone. (OK, I admit, this is also the reason some people think they don't like vegetables: I remember pushing peas around the rim of my plate for what felt like hours!) However, the best rule for finishing your meal in a healthy way is to pay attention to your hunger cues. Eat slowly and notice when you are starting to feel full. If you are full, you are finished..even if there is still food on the plate. That's the healthy weight way to monitor exercise portion control.

Can We Change the Future?

"In the United States, 1 in 3 people will have Type 2 diabetes by 2050 if current trends continue, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "


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West Virginia is already a "leader" in numbers of adults who have the chronic disease, diabetes mellitus, or type 2 diabetes. Characterized by an the body's inability to properly produce insulin and process sugar in the blood, diabetes can be a "silent killer" like hypertension: you may not know you have it if you are not routinely tested, but it will be there doing its damage.  A simple fasting blood test will give you the number of your blood glucose level. Too high on more than one occasion, and your doctor may tell you that you have joined the growing population of people with type 2 diabetes. Why do you want to avoid this happening? To make it very simple, having diabetes makes your risk for other major illnesses like heart disease and stroke go up dramatically.  Unmanaged, diabetes can cause blood vessel damage to occur all through your body, and that can affect your eyes, your nerves, your feet, and your kidneys. Complications of uncontrolled diabetes can include blindness and amputation. So diabetes is a whole-body, systemic disease.

Adding to the sense of urgency is the fact that younger and younger people are developing diabetes. Whereas we used to call it "adult onset diabetes", that description has been changed - type 2 diabetes now can be found in teenagers.

The rise in cases of diabetes parallels the rise in the numbers of people who are overweight or obese. This has to be a concern to us as parents and community members. For most people - including children - the key to avoiding developing diabetes is : maintain a healthy weight by eating well and being active.

Worried? Want to take steps to avoid being part of this epidemic? We can change this prediction, if we each take responsibility for our own health:

• Lose weight if you are overweight.
• Lose weight safely by staying within a range of 400 calories per meal, with two or three 100-calorie snacks
• Limit saturated fats; limit red meat, hamburgers, fried foods
• Avoid refined carbohydrates - eat whole grains instead
• Avoid vending machines and fast food - eat real food
• Choose water instead of soft drinks or fruit juice; drink fat-free milk
• Learn to cook quick nutritious meals at home; pack your lunch and snacks to control your portion sizes and your hunger
• Eat lots of non-starchy vegetables; choose beans as a protein source at least once a week.
• Make sure you get lots of FIBER in your diet.
• Walk, run , bike, swim, take the stairs, zumba, stretch, lift weights - just keep moving - every day! 

Diabetes is an expensive, lifetime disease that requires daily monitoring. Please do your body a favor and click here to learn how to avoid diabetes if you don't have it, and control it if you do. And by all means, talk to your health care provider if you suspect you are at risk for diabetes or need help controlling your blood glucose levels.

Don't Wait 'til the Holidays to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

Most articles that address ''holiday weight gain" refer to the six weeks from Thanksgiving through New Year's, but I believe the holiday season starts right about now - with the fall festivals, football tailgates and Halloween preparations. Late fall is possibly the most food-focused time of the year.

So it's certainly not too early to investigate the truth about holiday weight gain and make plans to avoid it!

For a long time, health professionals and people themselves thought that the average amount of weight gained by people during the holidays was between five and ten pounds. The good news is that recent studies have found this to be untrue. The National Institutes of Health followed a diverse group of 200 Americans, their diets and weights, and found that although nearly everyone did gain weight during the holiday period, the average weight gain was around one pound, not five or ten. 

The bad news is that most people did not lose that pound during the next year. Or the next. Or the extra pound they gained the next year, and so on.  Further bad news is that people who were already overweight have been found to gain more than the one pound during the holidays. They gain about five, and like the other group, do not usually lose that holiday weight gain. So holiday goodies and over-indulgence can definitely have an effect on our country's obesity problem.

Yet it is possible to enjoy holiday foods and not gain weight! In fact, it is possible to conitune on a weight loss program during the holidays without feeling deprived.

We'll touch on several strategies in the upcoming weeks as we approach the new year, but probably the most important thing to do is begin now to plan for the kind of holiday season you want! We do that now anyway as we make lists : lists of gifts, people to send cards to, a cleaning and decorationg schedule, and so .... this year add YOUR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT GOALS to your other lists.

Remembering that adding 3500 extra calories to your diet over several days can lead to a one pound weight gain in a week, figure out how to budget in the special foods you want to enjoy without making them "extra" calories. This may mean that you skip the mashed potato casserole in order to have the pumpkin pie.  It may mean that your daily walking time becomes 30 minutes instead of 15; or that you add jogging or a step aerobics class to burn even more calories. As always, watch portion sizes! Having a bite or two of a rich dish and really enjoying it can satisfy your sweet or savory tooth as much as a full portion would. It's good to remember that just because the food is there, you don't have to eat it.

What's my personal best trick? I know what my favorite holiday foods are. I plan in advance to enjoy certain foods while giving up fattening "side dishes" that I usually eat just becasue they are "there." I also know what special dishes and desserts I really like, but aren't "holiday essentials" for the rest of my family. And I know that if I make it, I will be the one who will likely overindulge in excess calories until that goodie is gone. So I just don't make those recipes anymore. The old "out of sight, out of mind" ( and mouth) trick. For someone else, it may be deciding not to keep a candy dish stocked all season if you know you are likely to "just have one" everytime you walk past it.  It takes some thought and honesty with yourself to plan ahead to avoid the holiday bulge; but because the alternative is pounds you aren't likely to lose, it's worth it!

Don't Be Afraid to Go Nuts!

Does the idea of snacking on a baggie full of celery stalks for your afternoon snack leave you feeling more than slightly uninterested?

Getting through the stretch of time between light lunch and healthy dinner can be the downfall of anyone's weight loss program. Unless you plan in advance for a snack that you will like and that will satisfy you, you'll probably toss the celery and head for the vending machine.

That's where nuts - a food that combines protein, fiber and healthy fat into one small package- can come to your rescue.

A handful, depending on the size of the hand, can be the ideal snack portion: a quarter cup. You can keep roasted, unsalted mixed nuts on hand or choose any variation of nuts. Almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, pecans, and macadamias make great snack choices - alone or in combination. One of my favorites is the new Planter's Heart Healthy mix:

Canned nut mixes are convenient and tasty, but you can save yourself money, salt, and often calories and fat grams by buying plain unsalted walnuts, almonds, pecans, and even peanuts in bags in the grocery store produce or baking sections.

An average serving of nuts  (1/4 cup roasted almonds, for example) contains: 6.7 grams carbohydrate, 4 grams fiber, 205 calories, 9.5 grams protein, 18 grams fat, 1.4 grams saturated fat. And that's the one thing we have to pay attention to: serving size: a palm-full is not very much, so eat them slowly. The fat and fiber will fill you up faster than you think, but still remember you are just having a snack, not  a meal!

WebMD includes other low-calorie, celery-free snacks in their List of Top Ten Low-Carb Snacks.

 

An added benefit to making a small quantity of nuts part of your daily food intake can be improved cholesterol levels, making nuts a key to a heart-healthy diet, according to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study revealed that people they followed who consumed 2.4 ounces of nuts per day had better cholesterol levels than people who consumed the same amount of saturated fat, but no nuts. Read more here to learn about these heart-friendly benefits!

Eat This, Not That!

A diet only works when you have control over what, where, and when you are eating, and we don't always have that control. Because it's a fact of life that most of us don't prepare every meal from scratch - at home- with fresh, natural ingredients- we need all the help we can get in making the best choices when eating out or buying packaged foods at the grocery store.

Having access to nutritional labels is one of the ways we've talked about to compare the calories, carbohydrate and fat content of meals that are pre-packaged or sold to us at chain restaurants. But I want to share with you a great little book that is just packed with this information - in other words, the authors have already done the research for you!

Eat This, Not That is written by David Zinczenko with the editor-in-chief of Men's Health Magazine.  It's not a traditional "read-only" diet book; it's really a guidebook to take along to grocery stores and restaurants as a tool to help you make the absolute healthiest choices you can when you are in a place where you can't control the ingredients of your meal.

Different sections highlight common, brand-name foods and meals with the EAT THIS recommendations on one page and the NOT THAT options on the facing page. It's fascinating, entertaining and educational!

By following the recommendations in the book, you can save hundreds of calories and dozens of fat grams at every meal - without doing the math yourself!  For example, I found out why Chick-Fil-A is actually the healthiest fast food place to get a grilled chicken sandwich; that Triscuit reduced-fat crackers are a better choice than Wheat Thins even though both list "whole wheat" as the main ingredient, and how to save 540 calories at Thanksgiving dinner (have mashed potatoes instead of sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole instead of stuffing, and pumpkin pie instead of pecan pie).

Eat This,Not That has been such a success that there is also a version just for the supermarket shopping and one devoted to kids' meals!  I found my copy at Wal-Mart, but I have seen it in Krogers, Sam's Club, Amazon.com and stand-alone bookstores too - highly recommended!



Lighter in 100 Days?

The 100 days of Summer 2010 have come to an end - which means it's been 100 days since I started making blog posts about ways to change your eating plans in order to lose weight and live lighter.

I've heard from many of you who have let me know that you have indeed lost weight and become more active. That is real encouragement! I am really proud of you who have altered your buying, cooking and fast food habits - it is not easy! And I have not run out of topics and ideas to help you on your Lighten Up journey.

So - you may have already noticed - we have changed the title of the blog from "Lighten Up in 100 Days" ,which was designed to complement our 100 Miles in 100 Days activity program, to "Lighten Up DHS" and from now on the blog will be updated every Wednesday.

If you are a new reader, you can scan through the archived posts to find some helpful guidance; if you are a regular reader or would like to be, you might like to know that you can sign up as a "follower" with your yahoo or gmail email address - and receive the blogpost notice in your in-box each week.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned! Next week's post is titled:
Eat This, Not That!

Is Your Salad Sabotaging You?

Maybe it's not your salad that is sabotaging your careful weight management plan, but what you are putting on your salad as "dressing"!

If you are building a salad of lettuce and greens only, your plate or bowlful will only account for about 50 - 70 calories. Leafy greens are mostly water. Aside for the vitamins we get - especially from the dark leafy greens like spinach - a plateful of salad greens keeps us busy chewing and eating for quite awhile -- without a high calorie gain. That's one of our goals ( remember the blog on "Volumetrics"?) in eating to lose.

Once we have our base of greens, what we add to it begins to make a difference, but as long as we add lots of colorful vegetables - green peppers, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, mushrooms- we are still adding vitamins, minerals and fiber, rather than a lot of calories.

When we get to the top of the salad, however, we can sometimes add enough calories to equal what we would have had if we had gone to McDonald's and ordered a Big Mac.

How can that be?

Well, a basic garden salad of about 2 cups of vegetables alone and one ounce of a "lite" dressing has about 145 calories.

If we start with the same basic salad and add fattening toppings often found on the salad bar, here's what happens:

Adding 1/2 cup cheddar cheese adds 100 more calories and 10 grams of fat
Adding 1/4 cup bacon bits adds 100 calories and 5 grams of fat
Adding 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds adds 100 calories and 9 grams of fat
Adding  a handful of croutons adds 100 calories and 4 grams of fat.

But the worst offender is what has practically become a separate food group unto itself, the salad dressing - and  specifically Ranch Dressing. Why? Because it is by far the most popular salad dressing on the market. America just loves it. In fact, it isn't even limit to dressing salads anymore. Many of us use it as a dip for chicken and french fries and maybe worst of all, we use it as a lure to get our kids to eat vegetables. Our grocery stores even package it right into the veggie trays they sell.

Now the first basic salad I described had 1 ounce - about 2 tablespoons - of "lite" ranch dressing on it - for an additional 70 calories.

But most people don't like "lite" Ranch, so they choose full-fat ranch which weighs in at 70 calories per tablespoon - making the serving size 140 calories...and 14 grams of fat.

And most people use 4 - 8 tablespoons of ranch dressing on their 50 calorie salad, which means the dressing alone adds from 280 to 560 calories.

Now you can see how the "fully-dressed" salad can be as deadly to your diet as a Big Mac and fries.

What to do?

Best bet is to find a fat-free, low-calorie salad dressing that you like and stick to the recommended 2 tablespoons. Opt for lots of veggies and very little or no added high-calorie toppings. But what if you absolutely, positively have to have the original, full-fat ranch dressing? Two tips: get the small serving in a cup on the side and dip your greens into it...you will see you need far less than you think.  A second option that I use myself is: put a very small amount ( about 1 tablespoon - on your basic salad and top (thin) with vinegar....you will be surprised how good your salad will taste and how much healthier you will be!