Healthy 2012, Tip #6: Fat can be good for you!

Healthy Foodie Principle #6: EAT GOOD FATS

Unless a physician tells you otherwise, there's no reason to avoid all types of fat in your meals and snacks. 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 essential for your health and well-being.

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 oil thanks to its higher smoke point. (It works better for stir-frying or sauteeing, I find).

Fats are satisfying to the palate and help to make you feel less deprived, if you're trying to lose weight. So don't go fat-free as you combat any fat on your body that you'd like to shrink. 

Healthy New Year, Tip #5: Be careful about what you DRINK

Healthy Foodie Rule #5: Minimize Liquid Calories

As tasty as many drinks can be, they generally are low in nutrition, have next to no fiber and therefore do not really satisfy our bodies. All too often, drinks are "empty calories." Of course, the worst offender is the high-fructose-sweetened soft drink/soda, but I think that fruit juices are also not worth the calories. (Eat the fruit instead.)

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

Water, tea, wine, coffee and cocktails.

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 most nights -- be sure to drink one glass of water for each glass of wine or other alcoholic beverage.

Tea has been my morning caffeine drink of choice -- I make a large pot with loose-leaf black tea most days, and of late I've enjoyed home brewed coffee as well. Many studies conclude that both tea and coffee can be part of a healthful diet, with green tea having the most beneficial antioxidants. The research on coffee has been very positive in recent months and  years; for me, the only reason to limit it is that I'm very sensitive to caffeine after about 10 AM. 

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 try to minimize diet sodas to an occasional indulgence -- 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. Save those calories for something you can sink your teeth into!

"Food Cures:" how food relates to specific health concerns -- new book by Joy Bauer

I recently received a copy of Joy Bauer’s Food Cures (Eat right to get healthier, look younger and add years to your life) from its publisher, Rodale Press. It's very interesting, well researched and engagingly written, enough that I can heartily recommend this book for the healthy foodie.

On the back cover and first pages are testimonials from food-oriented celebs such as TV chef Bobby Flay, Meredith Viera and South Beach Diet author Arthur Agatson, among others – as well as an impressive list of medical professionals. Joy Bauer has is a nutritionist who writes regularly for Women’s Day magazine and appears as a nutrition expert on the Today Show.

I like the author's organization the material, with the book divided into sections such as Losing Weight, Looking Great, and Feeling Good, and further subdivided into chapters that address virtually any type of health concern a reader might have. So if, for instance, you suffer from insomnia, PMS or arthritis – among many others – you can flip right to the chapter that will help you figure out the best foods for your particular areas of interest.  Other chapters cover vision, memory, headaches, depression, cancer, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, along with chapters on keeping your skin, hair and teeth healthy.

I consider myself a fairly well-read health consumer, and yet I learned quite a lot from Joy’s book.  Each chapter begins with the “basics” of the topic, and the author has condensed up-to-date research results in very approachable, readable prose. (Information sources are saved until the end of the book so as not to clutter the chapters.)  Next she writes about the relationship between food and that chapter’s focus; then a step-by-step plan for incorporating the right foods into your lifestyle.  Each chapter concludes with a few recipes (3-5 per chapter), giving the reader a total of perhaps 70 healthy recipes throughout the book. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but they seem well written, clear and easy to follow.

Go here to learn more about Joy Bauer, this book, and her other work.

Healthier 2012: Tip #4 --Choose your meats carefully

Healthy Foodie Tip #4: NO SUPERMARKET OR FAST-FOOD MEAT

If you have watched "Food, Inc." or "Fresh," or read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma -- among other sources -- you know that our nation's industrial food system is terribly unhealthful and environmentally irresponsible. One of the worst offenders is how we raise, slaughter, distribute and consume meat -- not just beef and pork, but also poultry and seafood. (Read about CAFO -- concentrated animal feeding operation -- and you'll see what I mean.)

Unless you're vegetarian, it's almost impossible to opt out completely from the industrial meat system. For instance, when eating out you're highly likely to be served meat, poultry or fish that was inhumanely raised, fed ingredients that the animals don't naturally consume, handled in ways that promote dangerous food-borne illnesses and/or farmed (in the case of much seafood). It's daunting, when you think about it.

My response has been twofold. One, I absolutely never eat fast-food meat of any kind, including stuff I used to order occasionally such as an Arby's roast beef sandwich or a grilled chicken sandwich at one of the fast-food joints that seem to be your only choice sometimes. Frankly, this has not been hard since I have never been a fan of fast food.

Second, I try not to buy meat or poultry at supermarkets, and I'm also very careful about where I buy fish. When possible, I buy meat and poultry from local farmers who raise their animals naturally and handle their products with extreme care, or when that's not an option I'll look for organic meat from stores such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.

It's very hard to be 100% pure even in these halfway measures, but it's a step in the right direction. 

For a Healthier New Year, Do This! (Tips, part 3)

Healthy Foodie Rule #3: EXERCISE 45-60 MINUTES A DAY.
Yes, that's a high standard, and it's not always possible. But if you count every type of physical exertion, from walking to stretching to crunches on your bedroom floor, over the course of a day you can usually reach this minimum level of exercise.

Most exercise specialists agree that if you can't do 30-45 minutes of cardio in one time period, it's okay to spread shorter bursts throughout the day. Take a 20-30 minute walk in the morning and another on your lunch break or after work -- whatever works best in your schedule. We bought a treadmill about a year ago and put it in our basement, where we also installed a television with cable hookup, so watching the Today Show before breakfast helps me to get through 30 minutes of cardio. It's been great in the cold, dark months when outdoor exercise is impractical. 

But cardio exercise isn't the whole story. You also need to incorporate strength training and stretching. Pilates counts as strength training, and yoga gets the stretching in, making both of those practices quite beneficial.

A big change in my fitness routine has been that in October, I signed on to work with a trainer. She's helping me with strength, endurance, mobility and improving my posture. If you can't fit that into your life, then figure out some other way to do weight-bearing exercise at least a couple times a week.  

I find that my health and happiness -- including managing stress -- depends on keeping up this exercise regimen. Exercise is vital. And remember, the more you exercise -- the more you can eat!

Tips for a Healthy, Happy, More Physically Fit New Year, Part 2

Healthy Foodie Tip #2 (Eat Nine Servings of Fruits and Veggies a Day) may sound off the wall, but if you can do this, your waistline is bound to shrink.

If that seems impossible, keep in mind that nutritionists' agreed-upon serving sizes are pretty small.

One serving =

1/2 cup cooked vegetables 
1/2 cup whole berries, sliced strawberries or fruit salad

1 small apple (a large apple cut into slices would be 2 servings) 
1/2 large banana, or one whole small banana 
1 cup salad greens

1 cup raw vegetables, such as carrots, bell peppers or sliced cucumbers

Healthy foodies should eat nine (or more) servings of vegetables and fruit each day for several reasons. They are the best sources of vitamins, antioxidants and other beneficial nutrients, as well as excellent sources of dietary fiber. They fill up your tummy and keep you from eating empty calories full of fat and sugar.

My best advice for achieving this daily goal is to have fruit and/or veggies with every meal and most snacks.

For instance, I always have fruit with breakfast, no matter what time of year it is. Right now I'm eating half a red grapefruit most mornings along with oatmeal or cold cereal heaped with berries. Another fruit-filled breakfast is berries and bananas (in summer, you can expand to include cut up peaches and other treats) topped with vanilla yogurt, a handful of nuts and a couple spoonfuls of granola, for crunch. I find it easy to get two or even three fruit servings at breakfast.

Salad (with fruit on it as well as raw veggies) or vegetable soup make up lunch whenever possible. And half our dinner plates are filled with cooked vegetables every night...unless we're eating out, which is a horse of a different color, naturally. (It's very hard to eat enough vegetables when dining out, alas.) I figure at least four servings total from lunch and dinner, more if lunch is a large salad.

That still might not be quite enough fruits and veggies, so I always have cut-up veggies for a mid-morning snack and/or with my lunch, about two servings' worth, and fruit snacks at least once a day. Apples from the fall crop are still quite good, and we live on the wonderful clementines now at their peak. 

You can do it!

Tips for a healthier, happier and more physically fit new year

As we launch 2012, here are ten "Healthy Foodie Rules" for living the good life.

Austerity and sacrifice, let alone starving oneself in the name of slimming down, are off the table -- it's counterproductive and dooms us to long-term failure.
Instead, I try to follow these principles. Here's the list, with elaboration on #1 below. Over the next week or so, I'll elaborate on the others.

1. Cook your food
2. Eat nine servings of fruits and veggies per day
3. Exercise (in a variety of forms) 45-60 minutes per day
4. Avoid supermarket and fast-food meats
5. Minimize liquid calories
6. Eat good fats
7. Snack smart
8. Monitor your health
9. Take it easy at restaurants
10. Eat breakfast every day

#1 Cook your food:

This is a simple one, really: we should eat most of our meals at home, and prepare them ourselves.

I'm all for using kitchen shortcuts, such as buying pre-peeled and cut veggies, but in general your meals will be healthiest when made yourself, from scratch.

Otherwise, you really don't know what's going in your mouth.

I heard food author Michael Pollan say it's OK to eat as much "junk food" as you want--as long as you cook it yourself. He was talking about French fries, which used to be a very occasional treat for most people, if only because deep-frying potatoes makes a huge mess in the kitchen and most people don't want to hassle with that very often. Now you can drive through a fast-food joint and get a piping hot, salty hit of crispy potatoes any time of day or night, any day of the week. Insanely, French fries are by far the most widely consumed "vegetable" in the U.S.

But if you only ate them when you made them yourself, how often would French fries be on the menu? If you do want to make your own "fries," try doing them in the oven. Better yet, make them with sweet potatoes rather than white ones. 

Take-away point: eat most of your meals at home, and bring a lunch from home with you to work. You'll be healthier and slimmer as a result.