Why Breakfast is a MUST

And finally, Healthy Foodie Rule #10

EAT BREAKFAST EVERY DAY

If you don't already follow this important healthy-foodie rule -- what's your excuse?

That is: always start your day with a healthy breakfast. Even a less-than-healthy breakfast (bacon and the like) is better for your weight control and overall health and well being than no breakfast at all.

Here's some advice from the website Real Age about the importance of breakfast and staying slim:

Ever skip breakfast, secretly hoping you'll fit into your jeans better if you do?
It's a natural thought. Less food in your belly means more room in your waistband, right? Think again. New research shows that skirting the ritual of a morning meal can totally sabotage your waistline by setting you up for minimal calorie burn and a bigger appetite throughout the day.

Break Your Fast

In fact, breakfast skippers are twice as likely as breakfast eaters to pile on pounds, according to the study results. It may be because energy-deprived breakfast skippers tend to be less active throughout the day, so they burn fewer calories. On top of that, when people skip breakfast, their blood levels of ghrelin -- a hunger-inducing hormone -- creep higher, upping the odds of downing a supersized meal or high-calorie treat later in the day.

More Breakfast Boons

Here's yet another potential benefit of eating breakfast: a richer, happier life. Yes, really. In the study, people who often skipped their a.m. meal reported bigger drops in vitality, social functioning, and mental and emotional well-being compared with the breakfast eaters. So belly up to the breakfast table each morning. You'll look better and feel better if you do.

Dining out is fun, but perilous.

Healthy Foodie Rule #9: Be Careful at Restaurants

Before You Go

Don’t arrive starving! Eat a little healthy fat -- like about six walnut halves -- before a meal. The healthy fat in walnuts triggers a chain reaction that slows the rate at which your stomach empties, so you’ll feel fuller faster. But the chain reaction takes 30 minutes, so plan for it.

The First 10 Minutes

• Raise a glass. Of water. To your lips. This can fill you up, so you don’t overeat.
• Ask for cut-up veggies instead of bread. Most quality restaurants (including inexpensive ones) provide this option.
• Dip in olive oil. If the restaurant brings you whole-grain bread, dip it in olive oil. People who opt for this over butter eat less bread.
• Request the bottles. Order oil and vinegar on the side. Relying on the kitchen to dress your salad -- even with oil and vinegar -- can deliver as many as 450 extra calories!

The Last 10 Minutes

• Share. Get one dessert for every four or five people, and have just a few bites. If there are just two of you, take half of the dessert home, and freeze it for a special occasion.
• Savor your wine. Ending a meal with a glass of wine lets you avoid the cloying aftertaste of sweets . . . and helps you avoid calorie-bombs, too.
• Go European. Do what many Europeans do: Make salad the last thing you eat.

Healthy Foodie Rule #8: Monitor Your Health

Even if you follow all the best health habits to the letter--and let's face it, who does?-- you can't control every variable. Genetics (family health history) plays a huge part in our fate, and those factors are totally out of our control.

Therefore, be sure to get regular checkups and all recommended screening tests for your age and gender. Pay attention to your body and don't ignore physical or emotional symptoms that you know aren't right.

I have personal experience to attest that even healthy foodies can have life-threatening health challenges well before old age. My father, grandfather and brother all have or had coronary artery disease -- a bad heart.  Those same genes reared their head, so to speak, on my own heart a few years ago and I've had to deal with it ever since.

Suffice it to say that we should never take our good health for granted.

Eat Fat to Lose Fat

It's a tough time of year, weight wise: we've evolved to store calories in winter, and if you're like me -- that's what your body is doing!
So I've been reiterating some of my guiding principles in recent posts. These are health/eating/activity "rules" that might be broken more often than not, but still are great ideas to keep in mind.

(See previous posts for what you've missed)

Healthy Foodie Rule #6: Eat Good Fats

Unless a physician tells you otherwise, there's no reason to avoid all types of fat. The ones from plant sources known as monounsaturated fatty acids (abbreviated as MUFA) should be part of the healthy foodie's diet. The fat in many types of fish is also good for us.

Conversely, we should minimize or avoid "bad" fats, which include those from animal sources--found mostly in meat, poultry and dairy products--as well as the largely man-made stuff known as trans fats that extends shelf life in a range of processed foods.

This posting is about what we should be eating, and less about what to avoid, so I'll make the avoidance part brief. For packaged foods, read labels. If the ingredient list includes the words "partially hydrogenated," put the thing back on the shelf and step away! Avoid fatty cuts of meat--or avoid meat/red meat altogether; remove all skin and visible fat before you eat meat, fish or poultry; choose fat-free or low-fat dairy products.

OK, enough of what not to do. Here are some of the fats we CAN and SHOULD eat. Of course, fat of all kind has more calories by weight than do the other food groups (proteins and carbohydrates), so if weight control is an issue, be careful not to overdo.

AVOCADO not only tastes marvelous, it also is a very healthful food.

NUTS of all kinds are loaded with MUFA and satisfy hunger longer than many other snacks; add nuts to cereal and/or salads for a MUFA boost.

OLIVE OIL as well as CANOLA OIL are great for you. The lauded Mediterranean diet is based on cooking with olive oil -- and eating it on bread (instead of butter or margarine) and salads, among other uses. Olive oil is our go-to oil for dipping and for salad dressings, while I usually cook with canola or peanut oil thanks to their higher smoke point. 

Fatty fish such as salmon also constitutes good fat.

Being healthier in 2014: here's how

Just adhere to these Healthy Foodie Principles, as much as you can.
The ones I've covered so far (details in previous posts, below), are:
1. Eat at home and cook your own food
2. Eat 9 servings of fruits and veggies daily (not as hard as it sounds)
3. Exercise 45-60 minutes (almost) every day
4. No supermarket or fast-food meat (it's really, really bad for us)

Next........

Healthy Foodie Rule #5: MINMIZE LIQUID CALORIES

I try to limit beverages to these (in order of amount consumed):

Water, tea, wine, coffee, cocktails--and a very occasional soda.

Plain water, whether bottled or tap, should be every healthy foodie's main beverage. If you drink alcohol -- as I often do, having wine with dinner -- be sure to drink one glass of water for each glass of wine or other alcoholic beverage.

Tea is my morning caffeine drink of choice -- I make a large pot with loose-leaf black tea every day. Many studies conclude that both tea and coffee can, or even should, be part of a healthful diet, with green tea having the most beneficial substances.

As you probably know, wine and especially red wine has been shown to have health benefits, although consuming more than a drink or two a day of any alcohol should be avoided.

The drinks I actively avoid are those that add nothing but empty calories to my daily tally--or the vitamins in them are overwhelmed by the sugar and/or fat they contain. This means no soda -- I minimize diet sodas to a couple of times a week -- and no fruit juices. Not to mention no milkshakes or obscenely caloric coffee drinks.

It's not that hard to stick to water when you're thirsty and simple coffee or tea when you need a caffeine boost. My strategy is to save as many of the liquid calories as possible for something I can sink my teeth into.