I recall the one time I took the train to get from L.A. to San Diego. It was a very pleasant ride along the Southern California coast line, touching surf break upon surf break. Everywhere I'd see people getting into their black wetsuits by the trunks of their cars and running happy towards the waves. There, they'd join a multitude even on a workday morning, and all of them would bob on the waves, sitting on the board bored until a good wave would come. Then, one of them would jump and catch it, and all the other ones would wait. They couldn't see anything, since they were all behind the wave, so it's not much of a spectator sport, either.
The scene repeated itself along the entire coast. Boards whose nose poked out of the water, black swimsuits with bored-looking guys, only occasionally a wave and someone that would take it. Then, the paradox: most surfers you'd see were very fit, if not downright underweight. Let's face it: they were mostly rail thin. How is it possible that a sport that looks about as physically demanding as watching the football game in the couch produces these skinny worshippers?
What do you know, I started surfing myself. So now I know, since every time I go out, I get my ass kicked again and come out of the water sweating (even though it's a scant 60F). You see, surfing is very demanding when you don't see it. Mostly, it's because you spend a lot of energy moving your board when you are not on it: you have to get the surfboard to the right spot (the lineup), and you have to move left and right to catch the waves right. On top of that, there is the work you do to stay afloat and to turn to the waves.
2010-09-26
2010-08-25
The Green Revolution
I read an article yesterday about how chefs are moving away from big meat/protein portions and into vegetables more and more. The reasoning is very chef-y: big hunks of meat are boring. There really isn't much you can do with meat but marinade it, and no matter what you do, it ends up filling before you want to be filled.
So they serve smaller portions, focus more on the sides, and turn their menus around. Instead of eating a filet mignon on a bed of spinach and mashed potatoes, you would be served farm-fresh spinach leaves making friends with a mash of Yukon potatoes, with an accompaniment of filet mignon.
The cynic notes that this seems just a ploy to make portion sizes smaller and force people to eat more dishes if you can't force them to pay more per dish. After all, the cost of food is negligible in a restaurant, compared to rents, salaries, and accidentals. So making people eat more foods instead of more food is a good way to boost the bill, which means the bottom line.
There is, though, one stand-out feature of this movement: the realization that produce can be very flavorful and much more interesting than the meats. The problem with that notion is that most of us don't remember that fruits and vegetables can have orgasmic taste.
America in particular is suffering from a second generation conflict. People are so far removed from actual produce, most of us have forgotten how it tastes. Instead, we get fed fruits and vegetables that altogether taste bland and boring. The very idea of eating a salad is numbing the palate. Take one of those prefab salad mixes: it nominally contains three kinds of lettuce, shredded carrots and cabbage. Tastes like fluffy paper with crunchy cardboard mixed in.
Now, when I was a child, my grand-aunt grew vegetables in the garden, and my family had fruit orchards. The best foods I remember were from our garden. I'd wait the whole year for the apricot pies in May, the plum pastries in August. In the late spring, we'd get the asparagus. The summer brought the berries - tiny little things, but bursting at the seams with flavor.
A wild strawberry is about the size of a grape. The mutant monsters we are fed these days don't pack the flavor of a wild one in a whole pound box. The apples we'd pick from the tree in October were crunchy, juicy, tart, and sweet. Now, you have to choose one of the four.
On the other hand, the best diet is arguably full of fruits and especially vegetables. It's just that we are used to them being boring, and so we avoid them.
The best salad I have eaten in my whole life was as simple and weird as one can imagine: ripe tomatoes, ripe apricots, lots of whole basil leafs. A little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. End of story. What made it so good was the combination of sweet tomatoes, mellow apricots, bitter basil. Strong, bold flavors, side by side, making every mouthful a new surprise.
I tried that same dish a great many times, and it never works. It always tastes like bitter water. You think adding sugar might help, but it doesn't. There just isn't anything compelling about it. It's like eating cardboard salad.
So, what should you do? First of all, learn to shop. Avoid at all costs supermarket produce. Get used to looking for good sources, and learn to focus on locally grown. That it is local is not important for flavor - but that it is in season, and that there is no reason to pick it before it's ripe is.
Find farmers' markets in your area and shop there. Befriend the farmers and visit them at their farms (where they usually sell at a discount). Make sure what they sell is actually what they grow themselves (very often not the case).
Why should you do that? Isn't it too much work? Well, the benefits are enormous: you will learn to like veggies again, learn what it means to eat real lettuce, real carrots, real peppers. You will start to eat more of them, and leave them raw and unadorned, because anything you do to them will reduce the flavor. You will automatically shift to a healthier diet, and that's really worth it.
If you have kids, you are probably strapped for time, and the added time for produce hunting seems impossible to obtain. Before you give up, though, realize that it's a great investment. Teaching your kids what produce is supposed to taste like, how much better it is than any other source of food, means to give them the keys to healthy eating for a lifetime. It is well worth it.
So they serve smaller portions, focus more on the sides, and turn their menus around. Instead of eating a filet mignon on a bed of spinach and mashed potatoes, you would be served farm-fresh spinach leaves making friends with a mash of Yukon potatoes, with an accompaniment of filet mignon.
The cynic notes that this seems just a ploy to make portion sizes smaller and force people to eat more dishes if you can't force them to pay more per dish. After all, the cost of food is negligible in a restaurant, compared to rents, salaries, and accidentals. So making people eat more foods instead of more food is a good way to boost the bill, which means the bottom line.
There is, though, one stand-out feature of this movement: the realization that produce can be very flavorful and much more interesting than the meats. The problem with that notion is that most of us don't remember that fruits and vegetables can have orgasmic taste.
America in particular is suffering from a second generation conflict. People are so far removed from actual produce, most of us have forgotten how it tastes. Instead, we get fed fruits and vegetables that altogether taste bland and boring. The very idea of eating a salad is numbing the palate. Take one of those prefab salad mixes: it nominally contains three kinds of lettuce, shredded carrots and cabbage. Tastes like fluffy paper with crunchy cardboard mixed in.
Now, when I was a child, my grand-aunt grew vegetables in the garden, and my family had fruit orchards. The best foods I remember were from our garden. I'd wait the whole year for the apricot pies in May, the plum pastries in August. In the late spring, we'd get the asparagus. The summer brought the berries - tiny little things, but bursting at the seams with flavor.
A wild strawberry is about the size of a grape. The mutant monsters we are fed these days don't pack the flavor of a wild one in a whole pound box. The apples we'd pick from the tree in October were crunchy, juicy, tart, and sweet. Now, you have to choose one of the four.
On the other hand, the best diet is arguably full of fruits and especially vegetables. It's just that we are used to them being boring, and so we avoid them.
The best salad I have eaten in my whole life was as simple and weird as one can imagine: ripe tomatoes, ripe apricots, lots of whole basil leafs. A little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. End of story. What made it so good was the combination of sweet tomatoes, mellow apricots, bitter basil. Strong, bold flavors, side by side, making every mouthful a new surprise.
I tried that same dish a great many times, and it never works. It always tastes like bitter water. You think adding sugar might help, but it doesn't. There just isn't anything compelling about it. It's like eating cardboard salad.
So, what should you do? First of all, learn to shop. Avoid at all costs supermarket produce. Get used to looking for good sources, and learn to focus on locally grown. That it is local is not important for flavor - but that it is in season, and that there is no reason to pick it before it's ripe is.
Find farmers' markets in your area and shop there. Befriend the farmers and visit them at their farms (where they usually sell at a discount). Make sure what they sell is actually what they grow themselves (very often not the case).
Why should you do that? Isn't it too much work? Well, the benefits are enormous: you will learn to like veggies again, learn what it means to eat real lettuce, real carrots, real peppers. You will start to eat more of them, and leave them raw and unadorned, because anything you do to them will reduce the flavor. You will automatically shift to a healthier diet, and that's really worth it.
If you have kids, you are probably strapped for time, and the added time for produce hunting seems impossible to obtain. Before you give up, though, realize that it's a great investment. Teaching your kids what produce is supposed to taste like, how much better it is than any other source of food, means to give them the keys to healthy eating for a lifetime. It is well worth it.
2010-07-20
An Eating Day at the Beach
Oh, Sun Diego, shall I count how many ways I love thee? Well, it's really just one: I can go to the beach any time of the year. Really, I live and work close to the beach and frequently I'll just head out for lunch, or in the late afternoon.
What if you wan to spend the whole day at the beach, though? What are the challenges of a day in the sun from a dietary perspective?
First, the most important one: sunshine, surf, and all the activity at the beach makes very thirsty. Drinks are very heavy. Nobody wants to shlep around gallons of fluids. Problem.
Advice: never ever waste fluid space on caloric drinks. Your body is going to demand water primarily, and any calories you add to the mix are empty. They get into your body and stay there, just because you are thirsty. So, despite the attractiveness, avoid the six-pack of beer and the sugary sodas at all costs. Stay away as much as you can from fruit juices, too. You want water, water, water.
The next issue is sweating and the loss of electrolytes. You can help that by taking electrolyte-infused water, but you have to be careful there: the ocean contains lots of sodium, and if you go swimming, you are likely to get a good amount of that sodium into your stomach. Most electrolyte drinks, though, are meant for pure sweating from exercise, so they contain replenishing amounts of sodium.
Next on, foods. There is no reason that you should eat unhealthily just because you are burning more calories than usual. You should get to the beach with a good mix of foods that keeps you energized and stimulated, but at the same time isn't weighing you down.
For protein, I find that grilled chicken breast is a really good choice (or turkey breast, or any other grilled lean meat). Pack the single breasts in sealable sandwich bags and eat them by themselves - after all, to wash your hands you just have to walk to the water.
The next layer are fruits and vegetables. I find that crunchy produce like carrots, celery, or apples works best. It's more fun to eat, you get a sense of fullness sooner, and crunchy produce tends to have higher water content. For me, starchy produce is the worst - bananas, boiled potatoes.
Fruit is best when you come out of the water, to get rid of the salty aftertaste. Veggies are a better deal overall, although in some people they may cause indigestion.
Next come complex carbohydrates. I usually have some form of whole wheat with me - maybe whole wheat pita bread or wraps. Pretzels tend to be a good choice, too: crunchy and salty and virtually indestructible. A really bad choice are potato chips: aside from the fat content, they tend to do well at the beach only if you bring them in their sealed bag, which gives you an incentive to eat the whole thing. Avoid.
If your beach is far off any form of vending, make sure you have something to satisfy cravings. I usually bring a small bag of roasted almonds, an energy bar, some trail mix, and a few cookies. If someone says they are feeling peckish, I'll offer my goodies but leave them untouched otherwise. Obviously, avoid everything that easily melts or creates a mess - ice cream or chocolate, but also yogurt coating come to mind.
Also, make sure that everybody that eats anything also drinks. Make sure nobody ever gets into the water on a full stomach.
Enjoy!
What if you wan to spend the whole day at the beach, though? What are the challenges of a day in the sun from a dietary perspective?
First, the most important one: sunshine, surf, and all the activity at the beach makes very thirsty. Drinks are very heavy. Nobody wants to shlep around gallons of fluids. Problem.
Advice: never ever waste fluid space on caloric drinks. Your body is going to demand water primarily, and any calories you add to the mix are empty. They get into your body and stay there, just because you are thirsty. So, despite the attractiveness, avoid the six-pack of beer and the sugary sodas at all costs. Stay away as much as you can from fruit juices, too. You want water, water, water.
The next issue is sweating and the loss of electrolytes. You can help that by taking electrolyte-infused water, but you have to be careful there: the ocean contains lots of sodium, and if you go swimming, you are likely to get a good amount of that sodium into your stomach. Most electrolyte drinks, though, are meant for pure sweating from exercise, so they contain replenishing amounts of sodium.
Next on, foods. There is no reason that you should eat unhealthily just because you are burning more calories than usual. You should get to the beach with a good mix of foods that keeps you energized and stimulated, but at the same time isn't weighing you down.
For protein, I find that grilled chicken breast is a really good choice (or turkey breast, or any other grilled lean meat). Pack the single breasts in sealable sandwich bags and eat them by themselves - after all, to wash your hands you just have to walk to the water.
The next layer are fruits and vegetables. I find that crunchy produce like carrots, celery, or apples works best. It's more fun to eat, you get a sense of fullness sooner, and crunchy produce tends to have higher water content. For me, starchy produce is the worst - bananas, boiled potatoes.
Fruit is best when you come out of the water, to get rid of the salty aftertaste. Veggies are a better deal overall, although in some people they may cause indigestion.
Next come complex carbohydrates. I usually have some form of whole wheat with me - maybe whole wheat pita bread or wraps. Pretzels tend to be a good choice, too: crunchy and salty and virtually indestructible. A really bad choice are potato chips: aside from the fat content, they tend to do well at the beach only if you bring them in their sealed bag, which gives you an incentive to eat the whole thing. Avoid.
If your beach is far off any form of vending, make sure you have something to satisfy cravings. I usually bring a small bag of roasted almonds, an energy bar, some trail mix, and a few cookies. If someone says they are feeling peckish, I'll offer my goodies but leave them untouched otherwise. Obviously, avoid everything that easily melts or creates a mess - ice cream or chocolate, but also yogurt coating come to mind.
Also, make sure that everybody that eats anything also drinks. Make sure nobody ever gets into the water on a full stomach.
Enjoy!
2010-07-05
The Revenge of the Bland
American cuisine focuses on the bland. I don't know what it is, but apple pie, turkey, mashed potatoes, hamburgers, steak, casseroles, and what you have tend to be light on the spice, measured in the flavor, balanced. No Poblano peppers, no extravagant ginger, sensuous garlic, taste-explosive mole. American cuisine, at least the fast food version, has conquered the world because it's not offensive to anyone.
The downside: you can't control how much you eat. Popcorn is bland - so bland that you can just stuff it down your mouth until well after feeling sick, because why not? Milk chocolate is bland - and have you tried putting down that bag of M&Ms? French fries are all crunch, salt, carbs, and fat - bland and unstoppable. Let's not even talk about cereals, mac&cheese, or marshmallows.
Things with lots of flavor - good or bad - reach saturation faster. Try eating a pound of dark chocolate M&Ms (really, don't), or a dozen mole tamales. You would have a really hard time. Too much flavor.
So, I thought to myself, why don't you add some flavor to the foods you eat, and see whether you can eat less? Lo and behold, it worked (for me)! Try adding ginger to apple sauce, or wasabi to your French fries, or dark chocolate on your Graham crackers. It works (for me)!
The downside: you can't control how much you eat. Popcorn is bland - so bland that you can just stuff it down your mouth until well after feeling sick, because why not? Milk chocolate is bland - and have you tried putting down that bag of M&Ms? French fries are all crunch, salt, carbs, and fat - bland and unstoppable. Let's not even talk about cereals, mac&cheese, or marshmallows.
Things with lots of flavor - good or bad - reach saturation faster. Try eating a pound of dark chocolate M&Ms (really, don't), or a dozen mole tamales. You would have a really hard time. Too much flavor.
So, I thought to myself, why don't you add some flavor to the foods you eat, and see whether you can eat less? Lo and behold, it worked (for me)! Try adding ginger to apple sauce, or wasabi to your French fries, or dark chocolate on your Graham crackers. It works (for me)!
2010-06-21
Healthy Living - Savvy Supermarket Buys
One of the things I like doing when visiting a new country or culture: go to the nearest supermarket and see what people buy for food. You learn the most amazing things when you do that. For instance:
Italian supermarkets are full of pasta ingredients. There is typically one full aisle for the pasta itself, then another aisle for tomato products, an aisle full of olive oils. The meats and produce are out of this world, even in your typical grocery store, and they seem never to sell generic produce, only seasonal types.
German supermarkets are full of sweets, breads, and desserts. You'd think the only thing Germans eat are carbohydrates - and empty ones at that. Around every major holiday, then, the desserts and candy double, overtaking pretty much the whole place. Around Christmas time, then, you'd think the whole nation has entered a rat race for the most sugar eaten.
French supermarkets are strangely full of all foods we typically associate with France. Rows of cheeses, myriads of wines, savoir vivre everywhere.
When you come to America, then, you get a very odd picture of what people eat. There are rows and rows of cereals, and rows and rows of frozen goods. The produce section is made up entirely of generic, out-of-season fruits and vegetables, and unhealthy snacks and sodas are everywhere.
One day, I decided to go to the nearest, generic supermarket and walk the aisles. The purpose: to record the percentage of healthy foods I could find. My criteria: staples of a balanced diet; things to which there is no healthier equivalent; things that won't harm you much.
Summary: not even 10% of the supermarket had healthy food in store. Unless you know what you are buying, you'll end up with stuff you don't want to eat.
I had no patience to write down the physical layout of the store, so I went to an online grocery store, instead. The major one I know is the one offered by Safeway, at safeway.com. Now, please understand: this is neither an endorsement of the store nor criticism. I simply went there because their aisles were available for anyone to see. Also, the store posts nutritional information on pretty much everything they sell, so it's up to you to make informed choices.
But here are the aisles, as presented in the online store:
Beer, Wine, and Spirits
The occasional glass of red wine is supposed to be good for you. I am sure some good can come out of very moderate amounts of beer (considering yeasts produce tons of vitamins). All in all, though, I don't quite feel like recommending you spend a lot of time in this section.
Beverages
The subsections here start with Coffee and Tea, which I suppose is passable. We then have Water, which is great (aside from the controversy about bottled water) and Juices, which are rather so-so. I wouldn't fully endorse 100% fruit juices, because I think eating the fruit is better than drinking the juice. And the "nectars" made of water, sugar, and some fruit are just plain to be avoided.
Sodas, sports drinks, and seltzers round up this section. Avoid, avoid, avoid. (I do hear that Gatorade has finally decided to offer low and zero calorie options, though. Thankfully: sports drinks of all brands had become a horrible fat maker thanks to copious amounts of sugars.)
Bakery
Well, let's walk through carb central, shall we? Much of the baked goods section appeals to the sugar centers in the brain, no matter how much bread can be really healthy. At least, here you can make good choices. You can also make really bad choices, though. Really, really bad choices. Like that bear claw that is waving at you. Or that fluffy white bread right next to the whole wheat choice.
The bakery section, in my experience, is where price reductions are used in the most disheartening way. While in the soda aisle, diet and regular sodas are put on sale at the same time, in the bakery section it always seem to be the least nutritionally useful items that are discounted. You know, the bread that mysteriously has more sugars on the nutritional label than anything else.
I wish supermarkets used differential pricing (where you get a steep discount on one item so that you'll get into the door) with more consideration for health. Of course, they know what they are doing, and that people that are health-conscious tend to respond less to price incentives. It still hurts to see the whole wheat bread costing twice as much as the "refined" version thanks to some coupon.
Breakfast and Cereal
Don't get me started. The whole aisle is a monument to bad food, with the few exceptions buried in a vast ocean of things you should avoid, especially in the early morning.
What I don't like? Too much sugar, pretty much throughout the aisle. Carbohydrates without fibers. Artificial colorings and flavorings. Ridiculously small serving sizes, so that you end up eating three or four servings in one go. And a perfectly engineered combination of sensations that make cereals and the other members of the group just too hard to resist.
You can eat cereals as part of a healthy diet. But cereals are dangerous. The really good ones are dangerously yummy as snacks, and as such they are devastatingly worse (nutritionally) than other snacks. Even relatively healthy cereals have that problem: I love Kashi GoLean! Crunch, for instance, but I can easily eat through a whole box while watching a movie (that's about 1,500 calories!).
I won't even comment on those items that are just plain bad for you, no matter what: toaster pastries and breakfast bars. Meant to give you a head start by shaving off minutes in the morning, they come loaded with sugars and artificial everythings, while the only time they save you is quality time.
Canned Goods and Soups
Ah, strangely here is one aisle that is full to the brim with healthy options. Canned meat and fish have in part very high protein contents (easy on the fish, because of mercury risks). Canned vegetables have outstandingly good nutritional values (if not the same taste as fresh or frozen varieties). Even the soups can be quite nutritious, now that all major brands have light and reduced sodium varieties.
Surely, you'll be surprised to hear me wax lyrical about the section that is traditionally considered unhealthy. Fact is, though, that we have made a lot of progress in canning and conserving, and much of newer products are actually surprisingly good for you. Make sure you avoid the canned fruit with sugar (they add tons in certain brands), stay away from preserves in oil (like tuna or certain vegetables), and make sure the can is not loaded with sodium!
Cookies, Snacks, and Candy
From a surprisingly good aisle to an unsurprisingly bad aisle. You can pretty much skip it entirely for nutritional value, and if you shop in there, just make sure you don't buy any family packs or even what they consider average sizes these days.
Any diet should allow for the occasional pleasure food, like a cookie or a bag of M&M's, otherwise it's pretty grim. You should avoid what you crave only if you are unable to limit yourself - in which case you should really talk with a Chocolatics Anonymous group near you.
What even the best-intentioned and best-behaved dieter should avoid, though, are large sources of empty calories. I have a practical rule in my shopping: never buy anything that has more than 10 servings in it, or 1000 calories. A typical bar or chocolate, for instance, clocks in at about 500-600 calories. A go. A typical bag of M&M's (the pounder) is over 1,500. A no-go. Let's not even talk about the giant bag of chips that can easily add 3,500 calories. That's an unhappy dieter in the morning waiting to happen!
Dairy, Eggs, and Cheese
A dangerous aisle with some really good options. First, the news: there are very healthy items in this category if you seek them out; most of the items in this category, tough, are seriously loaded with everything that's bad for you.
Let's start with dairy... Milk, yogurt, cream... I hear a lot of people complain about the low-fat and fat free variants, but you have to learn to love them. Fortunately, experience tells me you just get used to the difference. At first, fat free milk tastes watery and thin, but once you are used to it, regular milk tasted greasy and gross. The trick? Mixins.
When you get milk, start with your preferred fatty variant and buy some of the lower-fat version. Add some of the lower-fat version into your regular. Continue doing so and increase the amount of lower-fat. Continue until you reach the fat-free version and the regular fat version tastes disgusting. Takes a few months, saves you tons of calories.
The same is true for cheese (although the reduced fat versions tend to be reduced taste - just a matter of finding the right brands) and especially for eggs: use as much egg substitute as possible in cooking. My personal favorite: the egg substitute with mixed in veggies and flavoring. You cheat on the prep time for scrambled eggs and omelet, and you get the better nutritional values, by far.
Deli
How do you spell, mixed blessing? Another aisle that has a few very healthy items in an ocean of unhealthy choices. To make it short: avoid everything here except for the sliced deli meats. The poultry, in particular, can only be faulted for excess sodium, but is otherwise quite healthy.
The salads, slaws, prefab meats... I'd really skip them. They usually cost a ton more than the ingredients bought separately, and you save incredibly little time.
Frozen Food
Ah, my favorite aisle. Single male = constant TV dinner. Sad reality, but if it wasn't for those, I'd probably survive on lunch meats, cans of tuna, and potato chips. OK, throw in a few baby carrots and protein bars for good measure. And the occasional restaurant visit for a date. (But that last one is a nutritional pitfall of its own.)
The reality is that the frozen food section has the best and the worst choices for food rolled all in one area. As such, it's like a microcosm of the supermarket experience as a whole, only behind glass and colder than the rest.
Good choices: frozen vegetables and fruit - typically much, much tastier than their brethren in the produce section, since they ripen longer. That usually also means that they have more nutrients, not less as frequently thought. In that section, just make sure you don't get any "enhancers," like creamy sauces, butter, salt, sugar etc. Go for the straight-up fruits and vegetables, as evidenced by the Ingredients.
TV dinners are another good choice - if you look. Typically, they are a bad value - if you count the calories per dollar spent, you can't get a worse deal. But of course we care less about calories per dollar than about health, and lots of TV dinners are designed around the health-conscious shopper. Besides, TV dinners make portion control easy, which always comes in handy when calorie counting.
There are oodles of different brands, and each brand has a different focus. Personally, I like Healthy Choice (the ones in the green package) best, while I tend to avoid Lean Cuisine, but it's all a matter of personal preference. Store brands (like Safeway's Eating Right) can be relative bargains.
Ice Cream is a guilty pleasure that comes in varying degrees of guilt. Lately, they came up with reducing fat in ice cream by slow-churning, a process that reduces the calories but leaves the taste largely intact. Many brands have reduced fat, reduced sugar options (most notably Breyer's) and you really must stick to them. Always check the sugar content - especially sorbets and frozen yogurts, otherwise branded as health-conscious because they had less fat, can be loaded with sugars.
I was very disappointed with small portions - like 100 calorie mini-cones. They tend to be so tiny, they fit in the palm of your hand and leave you completely dissatisfied. It's like eating a brownie bite and declaring it a dessert. Huh?
Personal favorite? Skinny cow. They really try hard to give you a product that is relatively healthy, and delicious. When I run out of their chocolate fudge ice cream cones, my freezer starts crying.
Frozen Meats are a great way of shopping for healthy foods that don't go to waste. Make sure there are no additives!
Breakfast items really really are no good. They are not terrible, but if you have to serve waffles, pancakes, or French toast, just realize it should be rare enough that you wouldn't mind making them from scratch.
Produce
I hate the produce section in my supermarket. That's why I left if for last (note: that's a lie, it's just the last one alphabetically). It promises health and it delivers nothing. Bland-tasting vegetables, out-of-season fruit. Lettuces that taste like crispified water. Apples and onions that are indistinguishable if you pinch your nose when you bite. Bananas that taste like flour paste.
The modern produce section is an abomination, and possibly the original reason for the gourmet organic movement. If you have access to a real farmers market or, even better, to real farms - you know how glorious real fruits and vegetables taste!
I grew up with real tomatoes, potatoes, berries, apples, pears. I know real asparagus, artichokes. I went to Hawaii and had real mango, papaya, even bananas. If you eat the real thing, you won't even recognize the supermarket version.
Do yourself two favors: go to a farmers market, especially if you have young children. If you get them used to supermarket apples, broccoli, and iceberg lettuce, they will never learn to like veggies. Buy less, but better, and you'll give them a lifelong love of salads and veggie side dishes.
The other favor you should do to yourself and your family: go to your supermarket manager and complain. Tell her or him that you'd love to buy their produce because of convenience, but that you won't accept the stuff they are selling you. Tell them that it's not enough to have a mini-heirloom-tomato and organic apples section to make you change your habits - that they have to rethink completely how and where they source produce, because if you can only buy 10% of your it with them, then you'll just buy everything somewhere else.
They'll push back, saying that they sell what their customers want to buy, which is "cheap." Doesn't matter. The more people go and talk with them, telling them they'd rather spend 10% or 20% more to get produce they actually like eating, the more they'll understand what's going on.
Italian supermarkets are full of pasta ingredients. There is typically one full aisle for the pasta itself, then another aisle for tomato products, an aisle full of olive oils. The meats and produce are out of this world, even in your typical grocery store, and they seem never to sell generic produce, only seasonal types.
German supermarkets are full of sweets, breads, and desserts. You'd think the only thing Germans eat are carbohydrates - and empty ones at that. Around every major holiday, then, the desserts and candy double, overtaking pretty much the whole place. Around Christmas time, then, you'd think the whole nation has entered a rat race for the most sugar eaten.
French supermarkets are strangely full of all foods we typically associate with France. Rows of cheeses, myriads of wines, savoir vivre everywhere.
When you come to America, then, you get a very odd picture of what people eat. There are rows and rows of cereals, and rows and rows of frozen goods. The produce section is made up entirely of generic, out-of-season fruits and vegetables, and unhealthy snacks and sodas are everywhere.
One day, I decided to go to the nearest, generic supermarket and walk the aisles. The purpose: to record the percentage of healthy foods I could find. My criteria: staples of a balanced diet; things to which there is no healthier equivalent; things that won't harm you much.
Summary: not even 10% of the supermarket had healthy food in store. Unless you know what you are buying, you'll end up with stuff you don't want to eat.
I had no patience to write down the physical layout of the store, so I went to an online grocery store, instead. The major one I know is the one offered by Safeway, at safeway.com. Now, please understand: this is neither an endorsement of the store nor criticism. I simply went there because their aisles were available for anyone to see. Also, the store posts nutritional information on pretty much everything they sell, so it's up to you to make informed choices.
But here are the aisles, as presented in the online store:
Beer, Wine, and Spirits
The occasional glass of red wine is supposed to be good for you. I am sure some good can come out of very moderate amounts of beer (considering yeasts produce tons of vitamins). All in all, though, I don't quite feel like recommending you spend a lot of time in this section.
Beverages
The subsections here start with Coffee and Tea, which I suppose is passable. We then have Water, which is great (aside from the controversy about bottled water) and Juices, which are rather so-so. I wouldn't fully endorse 100% fruit juices, because I think eating the fruit is better than drinking the juice. And the "nectars" made of water, sugar, and some fruit are just plain to be avoided.
Sodas, sports drinks, and seltzers round up this section. Avoid, avoid, avoid. (I do hear that Gatorade has finally decided to offer low and zero calorie options, though. Thankfully: sports drinks of all brands had become a horrible fat maker thanks to copious amounts of sugars.)
Bakery
Well, let's walk through carb central, shall we? Much of the baked goods section appeals to the sugar centers in the brain, no matter how much bread can be really healthy. At least, here you can make good choices. You can also make really bad choices, though. Really, really bad choices. Like that bear claw that is waving at you. Or that fluffy white bread right next to the whole wheat choice.
The bakery section, in my experience, is where price reductions are used in the most disheartening way. While in the soda aisle, diet and regular sodas are put on sale at the same time, in the bakery section it always seem to be the least nutritionally useful items that are discounted. You know, the bread that mysteriously has more sugars on the nutritional label than anything else.
I wish supermarkets used differential pricing (where you get a steep discount on one item so that you'll get into the door) with more consideration for health. Of course, they know what they are doing, and that people that are health-conscious tend to respond less to price incentives. It still hurts to see the whole wheat bread costing twice as much as the "refined" version thanks to some coupon.
Breakfast and Cereal
Don't get me started. The whole aisle is a monument to bad food, with the few exceptions buried in a vast ocean of things you should avoid, especially in the early morning.
What I don't like? Too much sugar, pretty much throughout the aisle. Carbohydrates without fibers. Artificial colorings and flavorings. Ridiculously small serving sizes, so that you end up eating three or four servings in one go. And a perfectly engineered combination of sensations that make cereals and the other members of the group just too hard to resist.
You can eat cereals as part of a healthy diet. But cereals are dangerous. The really good ones are dangerously yummy as snacks, and as such they are devastatingly worse (nutritionally) than other snacks. Even relatively healthy cereals have that problem: I love Kashi GoLean! Crunch, for instance, but I can easily eat through a whole box while watching a movie (that's about 1,500 calories!).
I won't even comment on those items that are just plain bad for you, no matter what: toaster pastries and breakfast bars. Meant to give you a head start by shaving off minutes in the morning, they come loaded with sugars and artificial everythings, while the only time they save you is quality time.
Canned Goods and Soups
Ah, strangely here is one aisle that is full to the brim with healthy options. Canned meat and fish have in part very high protein contents (easy on the fish, because of mercury risks). Canned vegetables have outstandingly good nutritional values (if not the same taste as fresh or frozen varieties). Even the soups can be quite nutritious, now that all major brands have light and reduced sodium varieties.
Surely, you'll be surprised to hear me wax lyrical about the section that is traditionally considered unhealthy. Fact is, though, that we have made a lot of progress in canning and conserving, and much of newer products are actually surprisingly good for you. Make sure you avoid the canned fruit with sugar (they add tons in certain brands), stay away from preserves in oil (like tuna or certain vegetables), and make sure the can is not loaded with sodium!
Cookies, Snacks, and Candy
From a surprisingly good aisle to an unsurprisingly bad aisle. You can pretty much skip it entirely for nutritional value, and if you shop in there, just make sure you don't buy any family packs or even what they consider average sizes these days.
Any diet should allow for the occasional pleasure food, like a cookie or a bag of M&M's, otherwise it's pretty grim. You should avoid what you crave only if you are unable to limit yourself - in which case you should really talk with a Chocolatics Anonymous group near you.
What even the best-intentioned and best-behaved dieter should avoid, though, are large sources of empty calories. I have a practical rule in my shopping: never buy anything that has more than 10 servings in it, or 1000 calories. A typical bar or chocolate, for instance, clocks in at about 500-600 calories. A go. A typical bag of M&M's (the pounder) is over 1,500. A no-go. Let's not even talk about the giant bag of chips that can easily add 3,500 calories. That's an unhappy dieter in the morning waiting to happen!
Dairy, Eggs, and Cheese
A dangerous aisle with some really good options. First, the news: there are very healthy items in this category if you seek them out; most of the items in this category, tough, are seriously loaded with everything that's bad for you.
Let's start with dairy... Milk, yogurt, cream... I hear a lot of people complain about the low-fat and fat free variants, but you have to learn to love them. Fortunately, experience tells me you just get used to the difference. At first, fat free milk tastes watery and thin, but once you are used to it, regular milk tasted greasy and gross. The trick? Mixins.
When you get milk, start with your preferred fatty variant and buy some of the lower-fat version. Add some of the lower-fat version into your regular. Continue doing so and increase the amount of lower-fat. Continue until you reach the fat-free version and the regular fat version tastes disgusting. Takes a few months, saves you tons of calories.
The same is true for cheese (although the reduced fat versions tend to be reduced taste - just a matter of finding the right brands) and especially for eggs: use as much egg substitute as possible in cooking. My personal favorite: the egg substitute with mixed in veggies and flavoring. You cheat on the prep time for scrambled eggs and omelet, and you get the better nutritional values, by far.
Deli
How do you spell, mixed blessing? Another aisle that has a few very healthy items in an ocean of unhealthy choices. To make it short: avoid everything here except for the sliced deli meats. The poultry, in particular, can only be faulted for excess sodium, but is otherwise quite healthy.
The salads, slaws, prefab meats... I'd really skip them. They usually cost a ton more than the ingredients bought separately, and you save incredibly little time.
Frozen Food
Ah, my favorite aisle. Single male = constant TV dinner. Sad reality, but if it wasn't for those, I'd probably survive on lunch meats, cans of tuna, and potato chips. OK, throw in a few baby carrots and protein bars for good measure. And the occasional restaurant visit for a date. (But that last one is a nutritional pitfall of its own.)
The reality is that the frozen food section has the best and the worst choices for food rolled all in one area. As such, it's like a microcosm of the supermarket experience as a whole, only behind glass and colder than the rest.
Good choices: frozen vegetables and fruit - typically much, much tastier than their brethren in the produce section, since they ripen longer. That usually also means that they have more nutrients, not less as frequently thought. In that section, just make sure you don't get any "enhancers," like creamy sauces, butter, salt, sugar etc. Go for the straight-up fruits and vegetables, as evidenced by the Ingredients.
TV dinners are another good choice - if you look. Typically, they are a bad value - if you count the calories per dollar spent, you can't get a worse deal. But of course we care less about calories per dollar than about health, and lots of TV dinners are designed around the health-conscious shopper. Besides, TV dinners make portion control easy, which always comes in handy when calorie counting.
There are oodles of different brands, and each brand has a different focus. Personally, I like Healthy Choice (the ones in the green package) best, while I tend to avoid Lean Cuisine, but it's all a matter of personal preference. Store brands (like Safeway's Eating Right) can be relative bargains.
Ice Cream is a guilty pleasure that comes in varying degrees of guilt. Lately, they came up with reducing fat in ice cream by slow-churning, a process that reduces the calories but leaves the taste largely intact. Many brands have reduced fat, reduced sugar options (most notably Breyer's) and you really must stick to them. Always check the sugar content - especially sorbets and frozen yogurts, otherwise branded as health-conscious because they had less fat, can be loaded with sugars.
I was very disappointed with small portions - like 100 calorie mini-cones. They tend to be so tiny, they fit in the palm of your hand and leave you completely dissatisfied. It's like eating a brownie bite and declaring it a dessert. Huh?
Personal favorite? Skinny cow. They really try hard to give you a product that is relatively healthy, and delicious. When I run out of their chocolate fudge ice cream cones, my freezer starts crying.
Frozen Meats are a great way of shopping for healthy foods that don't go to waste. Make sure there are no additives!
Breakfast items really really are no good. They are not terrible, but if you have to serve waffles, pancakes, or French toast, just realize it should be rare enough that you wouldn't mind making them from scratch.
Produce
I hate the produce section in my supermarket. That's why I left if for last (note: that's a lie, it's just the last one alphabetically). It promises health and it delivers nothing. Bland-tasting vegetables, out-of-season fruit. Lettuces that taste like crispified water. Apples and onions that are indistinguishable if you pinch your nose when you bite. Bananas that taste like flour paste.
The modern produce section is an abomination, and possibly the original reason for the gourmet organic movement. If you have access to a real farmers market or, even better, to real farms - you know how glorious real fruits and vegetables taste!
I grew up with real tomatoes, potatoes, berries, apples, pears. I know real asparagus, artichokes. I went to Hawaii and had real mango, papaya, even bananas. If you eat the real thing, you won't even recognize the supermarket version.
Do yourself two favors: go to a farmers market, especially if you have young children. If you get them used to supermarket apples, broccoli, and iceberg lettuce, they will never learn to like veggies. Buy less, but better, and you'll give them a lifelong love of salads and veggie side dishes.
The other favor you should do to yourself and your family: go to your supermarket manager and complain. Tell her or him that you'd love to buy their produce because of convenience, but that you won't accept the stuff they are selling you. Tell them that it's not enough to have a mini-heirloom-tomato and organic apples section to make you change your habits - that they have to rethink completely how and where they source produce, because if you can only buy 10% of your it with them, then you'll just buy everything somewhere else.
They'll push back, saying that they sell what their customers want to buy, which is "cheap." Doesn't matter. The more people go and talk with them, telling them they'd rather spend 10% or 20% more to get produce they actually like eating, the more they'll understand what's going on.
2010-05-24
Heart Rate and Calories Burnt - How Do They Relate?
You've heard me chat about calorie counting, and you've heard that I use a heart rate monitor to figure out how many calories I burn on my workouts. You've heard my surprise at finding out that "starvation mode" is measurable in the heart rate - reducing caloric output during the day, forcing lower calorie consumption and the usual "plateau" effect in many starvation diets.
But why is there such a strong correlation between the heart rate and the calories consumed? I mean, sure: if your heart beats faster, it must mean that more energy is spent. But why is that the only variable that matters? Why doesn't body temperature figure into this equation? Why not the air temperature, or the types of food you eat, or the kind of exercise?
On the other hand, why do you have to specify sex, age, and body weight when you set up your HRM? Why do you tell your Stairmaster or elliptical the same thing? How does the machine know what that means?
Let's start with the most important part. Your heart pumps blood through your body for many reasons: it moves nutrients around, cleans up waste, pushes the immune system throughout. Imagine it like it's the only gas station in town, and the blood vessels are the highways. UPS trucks, passenger cars, motorcycles, minivans: they all drive on the highway, but they need to stop at the gas station once in a while.
Now the heart is smart (or at least the thing that controls it): whenever more of something is required, but the concentration in the blood can't be changed, the heart pumps faster. In most cases, the concentration can change; this is the case with most hormones, for instance, that are released into the blood at their own rate with very quick variations.
The one thing whose concentration can't exceed a maximum is oxygen. Your red blood cells transport oxygen in the molecule called hemoglobin. Each hemoglobin molecule holds exactly one unit of oxygen bound, and if you need more oxygen, you have to bring more red blood cells to the destination. The only way to do that is to increase the flow of blood, which means the heart must pump faster.
Now the main reason that the body needs oxygen is to burn "stuff" with it. The bond between oxygen molecules is very strong, and if you break it up and tie the oxygen to something else, the extra bond energy is released to the body. The body uses this extra energy to cause other chemical reactions that are used to make you contract muscles, think, fall in love, and the like.
The thing is, oxygen is not only one ingredient of energy for the body; it's pretty much the only one. When your body decides to burn carbohydrates or fats, it uses oxygen. When your body decides to build proteins and bones, it need energy to connect the long chains of aminoacids or to bind the calcium carbonates, and that energy is bought with oxygen. Sugar won't make you build muscle, but without additional energy, the body is unable to take the protein you eat and make it into abs and biceps.
Now you see the logic: everything depends on how much oxygen you burn. The more oxygen you use, the more calories you burn - you could easily think of oxygen as the real nutrient, only that we get that for free and don't have a good way to track oxygen consumption. At the same time, the more oxygen you need, the more your heart needs to pump, because you have only this many red blood cells, which means only this many oxygen molecules in your blood at any given time.
So what happens when it's cold around you? You need to burn more, but how does that have anything to do with oxygen? Well, your body needs to keep a constant temperature. To do so, it needs to burn calories, just like an electric furnace eats up current (and quite rapidly so). The only way for the body to burn calories is to consume oxygen, so it's the same cycle again.
Ok, that's all great, but why does the elliptical want to know your age, weight, and sex? Well, you see, the first point comes up here again: the heart needs to pump blood for a variety of reasons other than exercise. When it does so, it creates a foundation level of activity that can't go away no matter how still you are. To that you have to add the amount of energy the body needs to keep constant temperature. Add to that the amount of energy the body needs to build, replace, and repair new cells. That adds up to quite a lot, and it depends quite a lot on your (you guessed it) age, sex, and weight.
Surely, there are other factors that are more important than the three mentioned. For instance, muscle burns a lot more calories than fat tissue, while bones really don't burn much. If you knew how much of your body is made of muscle, how much of fat, and how much of bone and other inert "stuff," you'd get a much better idea. But while everybody knows their age, sex, and approximate weight, not a lot of people know their body composition. So we use equivalence tables that are not quite 100% accurate, but good enough for the casual user. For instance, women have in average higher body fat percentages than men, which translates to lower calorie consumption at equal weight. Older people don't need as much energy to build tissue, so they use less energy.
In the end, the logic works pretty well. The age, weight, and sex questions tell the machine where your burn rates go. That means the machine can tell how many extra calories you burn if you go, say, from 90 bpm to 120 bpm. For instance, I burn about 10 calories per minute at a heart rate of 140. That's of course about 600 calories an hour.
Notice that those machines that don't monitor your heart rate still tell you a number of calories burned. They assume you are the average person, however that average person is defined for that machine. Different machine assume different average people, as you can easily tell when you actually use a heart rate monitor and check how many calories you burned per calorie declared by the machine.
When you do so, you'll notice something odd: virtually all machines show more calories burned than you actually did according to your expensive HRM. That's because the machines want to be sold, and the machine that makes it seems easier to burn a lot of calories is the one that gets chosen the most. You see that in those informercials that promise you will be able to burn twice the calories with a particular product than with all other exercise forms.
So, the machine that says you burn 2 calories when you really burned 1 makes it seem really easy to burn calories, and people will flock to it. Of course, the machine isn't really cheating: it's just assuming you are a person that burns really fast, which means it will assume you are a really young and heavy man, say an NCAA line backer.
Trying out a bunch of machines, I ended up with a declared to burned calorie ratio of between 1.5 and 1.2 - that is, for every calorie I actually burned, the machines told me I had burned somewhere between 1.5 and 1.2 calories. Remember that when you work out without an HRM!
But why is there such a strong correlation between the heart rate and the calories consumed? I mean, sure: if your heart beats faster, it must mean that more energy is spent. But why is that the only variable that matters? Why doesn't body temperature figure into this equation? Why not the air temperature, or the types of food you eat, or the kind of exercise?
On the other hand, why do you have to specify sex, age, and body weight when you set up your HRM? Why do you tell your Stairmaster or elliptical the same thing? How does the machine know what that means?
Let's start with the most important part. Your heart pumps blood through your body for many reasons: it moves nutrients around, cleans up waste, pushes the immune system throughout. Imagine it like it's the only gas station in town, and the blood vessels are the highways. UPS trucks, passenger cars, motorcycles, minivans: they all drive on the highway, but they need to stop at the gas station once in a while.
Now the heart is smart (or at least the thing that controls it): whenever more of something is required, but the concentration in the blood can't be changed, the heart pumps faster. In most cases, the concentration can change; this is the case with most hormones, for instance, that are released into the blood at their own rate with very quick variations.
The one thing whose concentration can't exceed a maximum is oxygen. Your red blood cells transport oxygen in the molecule called hemoglobin. Each hemoglobin molecule holds exactly one unit of oxygen bound, and if you need more oxygen, you have to bring more red blood cells to the destination. The only way to do that is to increase the flow of blood, which means the heart must pump faster.
Now the main reason that the body needs oxygen is to burn "stuff" with it. The bond between oxygen molecules is very strong, and if you break it up and tie the oxygen to something else, the extra bond energy is released to the body. The body uses this extra energy to cause other chemical reactions that are used to make you contract muscles, think, fall in love, and the like.
The thing is, oxygen is not only one ingredient of energy for the body; it's pretty much the only one. When your body decides to burn carbohydrates or fats, it uses oxygen. When your body decides to build proteins and bones, it need energy to connect the long chains of aminoacids or to bind the calcium carbonates, and that energy is bought with oxygen. Sugar won't make you build muscle, but without additional energy, the body is unable to take the protein you eat and make it into abs and biceps.
Now you see the logic: everything depends on how much oxygen you burn. The more oxygen you use, the more calories you burn - you could easily think of oxygen as the real nutrient, only that we get that for free and don't have a good way to track oxygen consumption. At the same time, the more oxygen you need, the more your heart needs to pump, because you have only this many red blood cells, which means only this many oxygen molecules in your blood at any given time.
So what happens when it's cold around you? You need to burn more, but how does that have anything to do with oxygen? Well, your body needs to keep a constant temperature. To do so, it needs to burn calories, just like an electric furnace eats up current (and quite rapidly so). The only way for the body to burn calories is to consume oxygen, so it's the same cycle again.
Ok, that's all great, but why does the elliptical want to know your age, weight, and sex? Well, you see, the first point comes up here again: the heart needs to pump blood for a variety of reasons other than exercise. When it does so, it creates a foundation level of activity that can't go away no matter how still you are. To that you have to add the amount of energy the body needs to keep constant temperature. Add to that the amount of energy the body needs to build, replace, and repair new cells. That adds up to quite a lot, and it depends quite a lot on your (you guessed it) age, sex, and weight.
Surely, there are other factors that are more important than the three mentioned. For instance, muscle burns a lot more calories than fat tissue, while bones really don't burn much. If you knew how much of your body is made of muscle, how much of fat, and how much of bone and other inert "stuff," you'd get a much better idea. But while everybody knows their age, sex, and approximate weight, not a lot of people know their body composition. So we use equivalence tables that are not quite 100% accurate, but good enough for the casual user. For instance, women have in average higher body fat percentages than men, which translates to lower calorie consumption at equal weight. Older people don't need as much energy to build tissue, so they use less energy.
In the end, the logic works pretty well. The age, weight, and sex questions tell the machine where your burn rates go. That means the machine can tell how many extra calories you burn if you go, say, from 90 bpm to 120 bpm. For instance, I burn about 10 calories per minute at a heart rate of 140. That's of course about 600 calories an hour.
Notice that those machines that don't monitor your heart rate still tell you a number of calories burned. They assume you are the average person, however that average person is defined for that machine. Different machine assume different average people, as you can easily tell when you actually use a heart rate monitor and check how many calories you burned per calorie declared by the machine.
When you do so, you'll notice something odd: virtually all machines show more calories burned than you actually did according to your expensive HRM. That's because the machines want to be sold, and the machine that makes it seems easier to burn a lot of calories is the one that gets chosen the most. You see that in those informercials that promise you will be able to burn twice the calories with a particular product than with all other exercise forms.
So, the machine that says you burn 2 calories when you really burned 1 makes it seem really easy to burn calories, and people will flock to it. Of course, the machine isn't really cheating: it's just assuming you are a person that burns really fast, which means it will assume you are a really young and heavy man, say an NCAA line backer.
Trying out a bunch of machines, I ended up with a declared to burned calorie ratio of between 1.5 and 1.2 - that is, for every calorie I actually burned, the machines told me I had burned somewhere between 1.5 and 1.2 calories. Remember that when you work out without an HRM!
2010-04-17
Healthy Yummy Breakfast Recipe
I am realizing now that I've been concocting this recipe for years, improving the ingredients over time, and I finally have something I absurdly like and that is actually pretty good for me - and I have never shared. Here's the deal - it's so good that I sometimes fancy it up and serve it as a dessert for dinner guests (hint at the end).
It all starts with what I like for breakfast: something crunchy, sweet, plentiful, but not weighing down; something with good balance of nutrients, with lots of proteins, healthy carbohydrates, fiber, and a good amount of water; and of course something that can be made quickly and without fuss. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
Greek yogurt has very little sugar, which is really important, since pretty much all the other types come loaded. If you look at the labels, you will notice that some of the yogurts have three or four times the , amount of sugar that they have of protein - not healthy at all. On the other hand, Greek yogurt tends to be quite hard - which is why I add the whipped topping, which adds a trivial amount of calories (and a hint of vanilla).
The berries are full of nutrients - anti-oxidants mainly, that make you feel good about them even if they weren't so darn good by themselves. Additionally, some berries have really great amounts of fiber, which adds to the goodness. The downside: sugars, masked by acidity.
The cereal adds he crunch and the fiber. Because of that, I use cereals that have lots of crunch and fiber, and not a lot of sugar. For the crunch, you can't beat Kashi GoLean! Crunch (in any of the different varieties). I wish it had less sugar. Trader Joe's (which has killer ingredients for this breakfast in general, except for the topping) has a really good reduced sugar cereal with plenty fiber.
The recipe above, depending on the exact ingredients you use, should range somewhere between 300 and 350 calories. For that, you get a big bowl of yum that is full of proteins, fiber, anti-oxidants, and low in fat and sugars. Or you could always choose two toaster waffles with no topping, or 2/3 of a Starbucks scone. Takes more time to get these two than to do the Healthy Yummy Breakfast. Think about it!
It all starts with what I like for breakfast: something crunchy, sweet, plentiful, but not weighing down; something with good balance of nutrients, with lots of proteins, healthy carbohydrates, fiber, and a good amount of water; and of course something that can be made quickly and without fuss. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup mixed berries (thawed if frozen)
- 1/2 cup cereal of your choice
- 2 tbsp fat-free whipped topping
- Stevia powder to taste
- Stir yogurt, topping, and Stevia until blended
- Add cereal and berries and fold as desired
- Done
Greek yogurt has very little sugar, which is really important, since pretty much all the other types come loaded. If you look at the labels, you will notice that some of the yogurts have three or four times the , amount of sugar that they have of protein - not healthy at all. On the other hand, Greek yogurt tends to be quite hard - which is why I add the whipped topping, which adds a trivial amount of calories (and a hint of vanilla).
The berries are full of nutrients - anti-oxidants mainly, that make you feel good about them even if they weren't so darn good by themselves. Additionally, some berries have really great amounts of fiber, which adds to the goodness. The downside: sugars, masked by acidity.
The cereal adds he crunch and the fiber. Because of that, I use cereals that have lots of crunch and fiber, and not a lot of sugar. For the crunch, you can't beat Kashi GoLean! Crunch (in any of the different varieties). I wish it had less sugar. Trader Joe's (which has killer ingredients for this breakfast in general, except for the topping) has a really good reduced sugar cereal with plenty fiber.
The recipe above, depending on the exact ingredients you use, should range somewhere between 300 and 350 calories. For that, you get a big bowl of yum that is full of proteins, fiber, anti-oxidants, and low in fat and sugars. Or you could always choose two toaster waffles with no topping, or 2/3 of a Starbucks scone. Takes more time to get these two than to do the Healthy Yummy Breakfast. Think about it!
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