healthy eating

How Juicy, Delicious Watermelon Can Help You Lose Weight

August 1, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 7 Comments

Here’s the reason: food that has a high water content — like cucumbers, soup (especially broth-based soup), and, you guessed it, watermelon — make you feel full and, they’re usually relatively low calorie foods.

How great is it that something as nutritious and calorie friendly as watermelon is such a treat? Juicy watermelon has certainly finished off lots of camp meals and family picnics and dare I mention the college special: watermelon infused with vodka? And, how pretty are those intricate carved watermelon baskets filled with watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew balls? Very labor intensive. My mother was good at that.

I just came back from a trip to Greece where just about every lunch and dinner ended with a beautiful platter of red, ripe watermelon. Totally satisfying, thirst quenching, and an important component of the Mediterranean diet.

A Melon With History

The first recorded watermelon harvest was in Egypt, nearly 5,000 years ago. Now you can find more than 1,200 varieties grown in 96 countries. Watermelon — 92% water and 6% sugar — is a cousin of cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash and is the most consumed melon in the US, followed by cantaloupe and honeydew.

Some Watermelon Trivia

Watermelon, with its water content, is a volume food. It fills you up and quenches your thirst and is great for weight control.

One wedge (about 1/16 of a melon, 286 g) has 86 calories, no fat, 22g carbs, 1g fiber, and 2g protein.

10 watermelon balls (122g) have 37 calories, 0 fat, 9g carbs, 0g fiber, and 1g protein

1 cup of diced watermelon (152g) has 46 calories, 0g fat, 11g carbs, 1g fiber, and 1g protein

Two cups of red flesh watermelon chunks supplies 25% of daily vitamin A, 30% of daily vitamin C, B6 (6%) of B6; 8% potassium, 4% phosphorus, 8% magnesium, beta carotene, and lycopene.

Watermelon’s inner rind is edible and has a bunch of hidden nutrients. The outer rind, also edible, is sometimes used as a stir-fried or stewed vegetable or as a pickled condiment.

Look for a watermelon that’s firm, symmetrical, and bruise, cut, or dent free. It should be heavy for its size and its underside should have a creamy yellow spot from where it sat on the ground while it ripened in the sun.

Whole melons will keep for 7 to 10 days at room temperature but lose flavor and texture if they’re stored too long. They’ll keep for three to four days in the fridge after they’re cut.

Unusual Watermelon Salads

I recently had a salad made with arugula, yellow watermelon chunks, grilled red watermelon slices, pistachios, grated ricotta salata, and balsamic dressing. It was awesome.

Here’s another salad I frequently make. I’m not too precise with my measurements and it still tastes fantastic:

Mediterranean Watermelon Salad (adapted from watermelon.org)

Ingredients:

6 cups torn mixed salad greens

3 cups cubed seeded watermelon

1/2 cup sliced red onion

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/2 cup watermelon vinaigrette

Freshly ground black pepper

Mint sprigs

Watermelon Vinaigrette:

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup pureed watermelon (puree chunks in a food processor)

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions:

Make the vinaigrette by whisking all of the ingredients together. Store it in the refrigerator and shake well before using. Makes about 1/2 cup.

In a large bowl, mix all of the salad ingredients except the vinaigrette, pepper, and mint. Just before serving, toss the salad mixture with the vinaigrette. Garnish with pepper and mint sprigs.

Makes 6 servings. About 75 calories per serving.

What About The Groceries In Your Hot Car?

July 25, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 5 Comments

It’s hot outside. When you open your car door after it’s been sitting in the parking lot you’re hit with a blast of heat that seems hotter than an oven .

The Temperature Rises Quickly Inside A Car

The temperature rises quickly inside a closed car — even when it’s only moderately warm outside.

A study found that at 9AM when the outside temperature was 82 degrees, the temperature inside a closed car was 109 degrees. At 1:30PM, when the outside temperature rose to 112 degrees, the temperature inside a closed car reached 124 degrees.

Cracking the windows helped, but only a very little bit. With four windows cracked, at 10AM, when the temperature was 88 degrees outside, inside the car it was 103 degrees. At 2PM, when the outside temperature rose to 110 degrees, the internal temperature rose to 123 degrees. Certainly not safe conditions for living creatures, especially kids and dogs both of whom are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.

What About The Food You Just Bought?

Extreme heat is certainly not a safe environment for fresh and prepared food, either. Pity the poor groceries you just bought. They’re sitting in extremely hot temperatures in the back of your car. Staples and boxed food may be fine, but meat, dairy, cut food like fresh fruit, and prepared foods — not a good situation. Why?

When you give bacteria the conditions they like: warmth, moisture, and nutrients, they’ll grow. A single bacterium that divides every half hour can result in 17 million offspring in 12 hours.

The food you just bought might spoil because bacteria present in the food have multiplied like rabbits while it sits in your car in hot, conditions ideal for food spoilage. Perishable food can stay safely unrefrigerated only for two hours if the air temperature is under 90 degrees – and only for one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees or higher.

What Can You Do To Protect Yourself And Your Family?

Be aware of the type of food you are buying. If you have perishable items, take steps to protect yourself and your family:

Think about your route and how many errands you have to do. Think about stopping at the cleaners or for coffee before grocery shopping — not afterward while your groceries are baking in the car.

Make wise market choices. When it’s hot outside, take your perishable items straight home. If you know you can’t go straight home take steps to keep your purchases cool – or buy food that doesn’t need refrigeration.

To be on the safe side, think about keeping a cooler, cold packs, or insulated bags in your car for perishable items. Make sure the cooler hasn’t turned into a portable oven because it’s been sitting in the car for so long.

Buy a bag of ice if you need to for keeping cold stuff cold and frozen stuff frozen on the way home. Or, bring some frozen gel packs with you.

Keep in mind that in the winter your car might be colder than your refrigerator. Then there’s no problem stopping for coffee on the way home!

Do You Want To Eat Delicious Food That’s Amazingly Healthy – and Manage Your Weight, Too?

July 18, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Eat Like A Greek . . .

or like others who live in Mediterranean countries. I was born and raised in New York City and grew up eating a Mediterranean-type diet at home. My father is Greek and I went to Greek day school so this type of eating pattern was what I knew. It was our way of life — not a studied, intentional choice. We ate lots of olive oil, fish, vegetables, and cheese — the mainstay was feta in brine from the barrel in the Greek grocer’s across the street from the Greek church. Olives came that way too, straight from the barrel, straight from Greece. And, we spent a lot of time eating with family – and friends of the family.

But, living in NYC and hanging out with my neighborhood friends, that healthy diet became infused with “staples” of the standard American diet. That infusion came in the form of food like bagels, butter for the bagels, burgers, English muffins, the occasional coca cola, egg creams, cheese Danish, movie theater candy, and Velveeta (for grilled cheese made with soft white bread). In NYC there was always the attraction of pizza (sold by the slice) and Good Humor trucks for that after dinner summer treat. All in all, not too bad — in large part because, at that time, there wasn’t a fast food shop on every corner and eating between meals wasn’t a common (or acceptable) practice.

I just returned from a family trip to Greece and after eating food straight from the farm and fished from the sea, I’m convinced (and this is backed up by many research studies) that the diet I grew up on – the Mediterranean diet — is an extremely healthy dietary pattern and a very healthy way of life.

The Mediterranean Diet Is A Way Of Life

Dietary data from the Mediterranean region show that people who follow a Mediterranean dietary pattern have the lowest recorded rates of chronic diseases and the highest adult life expectancy. The health benefits are backed up by more than 50 years of epidemiological and experimental research.

The Mediterranean dietary pattern is not the type of restrictive program that we usually think of when we think “diet.” It’s a way of life – even the Greek word for diet, diaita, means way of life.

Traditional Mediterranean meals, the kind eaten for thousands of years by people who live in the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, are filled with fruit, vegetables, beans and legumes; bread, pasta, rice, semolina and other grains; nuts and seeds; copious amounts of extra virgin olive oil; lesser amounts of fish, poultry, eggs, and even smaller amounts of lean red meat; cheese and yogurt; and moderate amounts of wine, usually red.

The “Mediterranean diet” (very similar to the Dash diet for high blood pressure) doesn’t have a strict list of allowed/not allowed foods. It’s a dietary pattern of lots of plant foods; small amounts of fish, dairy, and animal protein; and very few saturated fats. Physical activity is a given as is leisurely dining with friends and family in pleasant surroundings with everyone taking pleasure in their meals. Even with plenty of healthy fats and some alcohol, weight problems are not common.

Why Is The Mediterranean Lifestyle A Good Choice?

The Mediterranean lifestyle – including foods, activities, meals with friends and family, and wine in moderation with meals — has been studied and called one of the healthiest in the world. It is also a dietary pattern filled with delicious and flavor-filled food and meals. The health benefits are not from diet alone but from the whole package.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a recent analysis of more than 1.5 million healthy adults showed that people who follow a Mediterranean diet have a reduced risk of overall and cardiovascular mortality, a reduced incidence of cancer and cancer mortality, and a reduced incidence of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

Studies published in the medical journal BMJ and The New England Journal of Medicine showed that healthy people who follow a Mediterranean diet had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and that a restricted calorie Mediterranean diet can be more effective for weight loss than a low fat diet.

An analysis of 50 studies linked the Mediterranean diet to lower odds of getting metabolic syndrome, a group of factors (high blood pressure, high blood sugar, unhealthy cholesterol levels, and abdominal fat) that increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

All of the fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, seeds, fish, olive oil, and some alcohol in the Mediterranean eating pattern provide an astounding number of micronutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals which, in combination with the Mediterranean lifestyle, produce health benefits that can’t be obtained from supplements.

Keys To The Mediterranean Way Of Eating and Living

Fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains:  The majority of food is from plant sources: fruit, vegetables, potatoes, breads and grains, rice, pasta, beans, nuts, and seeds. Greeks eat little red meat but average nine servings a day of fruit and vegetables – which may explain why the Mediterranean diet is associated with lower levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. The majority of food should be a variety of minimally processed, locally grown (if possible), seasonal fruit and veggies (7 to 10 servings a day). Focus on whole-grain bread and cereal, rice, and pasta. Bread is important but is eaten plain or dipped in olive oil. The majority of grains are whole grains like wheat, oats, rice, rye, barley, and corn, best eaten in whole, minimally-processed forms.

Nuts:  Nuts are part of a Mediterranean lifestyle. They are high in fat — around 80% of their calories come from fat — but most of it isn’t saturated. Because nuts are high in calories, try not to eat more than a handful a day.

2500 year old olive tree in Nea Epidaurus, Greece

Healthy fats:  Olive oil, a monounsaturated fat that can help reduce LDL cholesterol levels, is the principal fat. “Extra-virgin” is the least processed and contains the highest levels of antioxidant protective plant compounds. Use olive or canola oil for cooking, too. The Mediterranean diet doesn’t focus on limiting fats, but on making smart choices. It does discourage eating saturated and trans fats (hydrogenated oils), which contribute to heart disease. Total fat should range from less than 25% to over 35% of calories with no more than 7 to 8% saturated fat.

Wine:  According to some research studies, alcohol, in moderation, is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. The Mediterranean diet includes a moderate amount of wine, usually red — no more than 5 ounces daily for women (or men over 65), and no more than 10 ounces daily for men under 65 (unless there are reasons not to drink). If you don’t drink alcohol, you don’t have to start. Purple grape juice might have some similar benefits (although it is high in sugar).

Dessert and Sweets:  Eat sweets in small portions. Fresh fruit is the usual daily dessert and the typical way to end a meal. Desserts and sweets with a significant amount of sweetener, usually honey, should be eaten only a few times a week.

Herbs And Spices:  Herbs and spices add flavor and aroma and reduce the need for salt and/or fat. They also contain a broad range of health-promoting antioxidants. They’re used liberally and contribute to the dishes that differentiate the various Mediterranean cuisines.

Fish and Poultry: Have moderate amounts of fish and poultry once or twice a week (fish is favored over poultry). Healthy choices include cold-water fish: fresh or water-packed tuna, salmon, trout, mackerel and herring. Eat your fish grilled or sautéed, not fried, in a small amount of olive oil.

Meat:  Eat lean red meat only a few times a month – no more than once a week for animals with four legs. Substitute fish and poultry for red meat. Poultry is a good source of lean protein without the high levels of saturated fat found in some cuts of red meat. Keep meat portions small (about the size of a deck of cards) and avoid sausage, bacon, and other high-fat meats. With ground meat, choose 90 percent lean/10 percent fat.

Low fat dairy: Eat cheese and yogurt daily, but in low to moderate amounts. The calcium in cheese and yogurt is important for bone and heart health. Limit high fat dairy products like whole or 2% milk and full fat yogurt, cheese, and ice cream. Switch to non-fat, skim, and 1% products when possible.

Eggs:  A good source of high-quality protein, eat up to seven eggs a week – this number includes those used in baking and cooking.

Regular Physical Activity:  Daily physical activity is important for overall good health. This includes strenuous exercise like running and aerobic activity as well as slower-paced activities like walking, housework, yard work, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Seaside tables in Gythio, Greece

Meals with Family and Friends: A key component of the Mediterranean lifestyle is sharing and enjoying meals with family and friends of all ages. Don’t rush through meals but sit and enjoy both the food and the company.

Make It your Own

There’s no single Mediterranean diet. Countries and regions customize the basic diet by taking advantage of locally available food and the cultural preferences of that geographic region.

The Mediterranean diet is a prescription for good health. Aside from all of the other health benefits, there might be a weight advantage because being physically active and eating a nutritious diet of mostly filling and satisfying whole foods can help with weight management.

The Mediterranean diet is a healthy, enjoyable lifestyle and dietary plan that is easy to follow, flexible, and best of all, good for you. It doesn’t matter where you live. Locally sourced foods are best, but if your only choice is to buy more plant-based foods and fish in the supermarket, that’s still a step in the right direction. Try making small changes – each change is incremental and starts to add up. Just don’t forget to eat delicious fresh food, move around, eat leisurely, and share your eating experience with friends and family.

7 Tips For Living Longer And Not Getting Sick

July 10, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 1 Comment

Accomplish at least six of the following seven heart-health lifestyle factors and, on average, over 14.5 years (the length of time of the study’s follow-up) you’ll be 51% less likely to die of all causes and 76% less likely to die of cardiovascular causes – as compared to people meeting only one or none of the factors.

The 7 Factors:

Don’t smoke
Be physically active
Have normal blood pressure
Have normal blood glucose
Have normal total cholesterol levels
Don’t be overweight or obese (have a BMI of less than 25)
Eat a healthy diet

This Is A Case Where More Is Better

The more factors you meet, the better the result. The benefits went beyond cardiovascular disease. According to the researchers, meeting a greater number of the health goals appeared to be associated with a lower risk for all cancer mortality.

The study, published in JAMA and presented at a specialty meeting of the American Heart Association, analyzed data on 44,959 US adults who completed national health and nutrition surveys.

What Eating A Healthy Diet Means

Eating a healthy diet was scored based on 5 American Heart Association recommendations. They consist of:

Eating 4.5 cups or more of fruit and vegetables daily
Having 2 or more 3.5 oz. servings of fish each week
Having 3 or more servings (1 oz equivalent) of fiber rich whole grains each day
Having less than 1500 milligrams of sodium daily
Having no more than 36 oz. of sugar sweetened beverages in a week

Meeting three or more of these recommendations counted as meeting the healthy diet factor.

The Benefits Are Cumulative

The conclusion of the study was: “Meeting a greater number of cardiovascular health metrics was associated with a lower risk of total and CVD mortality, but the prevalence of meeting all 7 cardiovascular health metrics was low in the study population.”

But, the benefits are cumulative. Try changing just one factor at a time – which could make a big difference. Think about starting with whatever factor is easiest for you to accomplish – do it – and then move on to the next one.

How Many Calories Will You Be Drinking this Summer?

June 19, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Lazy, Hazy Days Of Summer

It’s summer. It’s hot. You’re thirsty. You want some shade and something cool – or maybe ice cold – to drink.

Just remember – a lot of those cool, refreshing drinks come with a hefty dose of calories.

Check Out The Calories

You might be surprised at the caloric content of a drink you have been having for years. There is a wide variation in the number of calories even in the same category of drinks. Do a little research and learn your best choice and then make that your drink of choice. You often can be satisfied with, for instance, a bottle of beer that has around 100 calories rather than another brand that has around 300.

Of course, there’s always water, plain or flavored (beware the vitamin enhanced kinds with added sugar)!

Non-Alcoholic Drinks

Water and Sports Drinks

Gatorade: 12 oz, 80 calories

Propel: 24 oz, 30 calories

SoBe Lifewater: 20 oz, 90 calories

Glaceau Smart Water: 33.8 oz, 0 calories

Vitamin Water: 20 oz, 125 calories

Vitamin Water 10: 20 oz, 25 calories

Iced Coffee and Tea Drinks

Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Bean Coolatta: 16 oz, 430 calories

Dunkin’ Donuts Sweet Tea: 16 oz, 120 calories

Starbuck’s Coffee Frappuccino: 16 0z (grande), 240 calories

Starbuck’s Coffee Frappuccino, light: 16 oz grande), 110 calories

Tazo Unsweetened Shaken Iced Passion Tea: 0 calories

Iced Brewed Coffee with classic syrup: 12 oz (tall), 60 calories

Soda

Coke Classic: one 20 oz bottle, 233 calories

Diet coke: one 20 oz bottle, 0 calories

Mountain Dew: one 20 oz bottle, 290 calories

Alcoholic Drinks

Beer

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale: one 12 oz bottle, 330 calories

Samuel Adams Brown Ale: 160 calories

Amstel Light: 95 calories

Wine

Red Wine: 5 oz, 129 calories

White Wine: 5 oz, 120 calories

Sangria: 8 oz, 176 calories

Alcoholic Drinks

Mojito: 7 oz, 172 calories

Frozen Magarita: 4 oz, 180 calories (the average margarita glass holds 12 oz, 540 calories)

Mimosa: 137 calories

Gin and Tonic: 175 calories

The Single Biggest Source Of American Calories

According to CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest), carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet. We tend to forget about the calories in sugared sports drinks and in sweetened ice teas, juices, and alcoholic beverages. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram — compared to protein and carbs which have 4 calories per gram and fat which has 9 calories per gram. Couple the alcohol with sweetened juices, syrups, and, in some cases, soda, and you could be drinking a significant portion of your suggested daily calorie allowance. There are low and lower calorie choices in each category of cold drinks. Choose wisely, sip slowly, limit the repeats and/or alternate with water, seltzer, diet soda, or iced tea or coffee.