Eat Out Eat Well

weight management strategies

We Eat A Ton Of Food

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You’ll be amazed at how much food we eat!

According to the US Department of Agriculture, a typical American really does eat around a ton — actually 1,996 pounds of food every year.

How much – and of what?

Our food tonnage breaks down to about:

  • 630 pounds of milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream
  • 31 pounds of cheese
  • 185 pounds of chicken, turkey, pork, and beef per person
  • 197 pounds of wheat and other grains
  • 273 pounds per person of fruit (a lot of water weight)
  • 415 pounds of vegetables (the most popular choices are corn and potatoes)
  • 141 pounds of sweeteners
  • 85 pounds of fats and oil

Why We Choose And Eat Certain Foods

According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, why we choose to by certain foods is influenced by:

  • your income
  • the cost of the food
  • your ethnicity and gender
  • environmental factors:  availability of fast food, food advertising, and food pricing
  • individual factors:  how the food tastes, how convenient it is to buy and prepare, and how healthy you think the food is.

Often equally as important in our food decision making process is what’s in front of our noses.  Food satisfies a physiological need – we need it for to fuel our bodies.  But – as most of us know — a lot of us eat when we’re not hungry – with little regard for nutrition – because if we see it we eat it.  Food is nurturing; it’s social; it’s emotional; it tastes good; and it’s often a great way to procrastinate or to keep those around you happy.

Two things are certain:  Food and eating involve (often complex, often subliminal) decision-making -– and even if you don’t overindulge, when you add it all up — we eat a whole lot of pounds of food in a year.

Eggs: Incredible And Entirely Edible

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Do you love eggs, but are afraid to eat them? If you do, is it only ghostly looking egg whites that are allowed to make an appearance on your plate?

Is It The Cholesterol In Eggs That’s Freaking You Out?

We all have cholesterol in our bodies. It’s used to form cell membranes, some hormones, and for other functions.

You get cholesterol in two ways. Your body — mainly your liver — usually makes about 1,000 milligrams a day. You also get it from eating foods that contain cholesterol. Animal foods — especially egg yolks, meat, poultry, shellfish, and whole and reduced fat dairy products — contain it. Plant foods don’t.

Your body can usually make all the cholesterol it needs so it’s not necessary to eat it. Still, the average American man consumes about 337 milligrams of cholesterol daily; the average woman, 217 milligrams. The American Heart Association recommends limiting your average daily cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams; less than 200 milligrams if you have heart disease.

Eggs Used To Be Cholesterol No-Nos

We used to be told not to eat eggs, certainly not the yolks, because of what they would do to our cholesterol levels. Egg yolks do contain a lot of cholesterol and may have a weak effect on blood cholesterol levels, but they also contain nutrients like protein, vitamins B12 and D, riboflavin, and folate that might help to lower the risk for heart disease.

There is solid research that shows that for most people the  cholesterol in food has a much smaller effect on the total cholesterol and harmful LDL cholesterol in the blood than the mix of fats in the diet does.

Recent research shows that eating moderate numbers of eggs — up to one a day—doesn’t increase the risk of heart disease risk in healthy people and can be part of a healthy diet. It’s recommended that people with diabetes and heart disease limit eggs to no more than three yolks a week.

Can You Eat Eggs Every Day?

The research isn’t suggesting three-egg omelettes as daily fare —  especially if they’re loaded with cheese, bacon, and sausage. Your body handles scrambled eggs, salsa, and a whole wheat English muffin a lot differently than scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage or bacon, home fries, and white toast with butter. You might consider choosing eggs with high omega-3 content from free range organically raised chickens and steering clear of adding saturated fat (most notably, butter) when they’re cooked. If you have a three egg omelette one day, skip eggs for the next day or so.

Egg Nutrition

1 large egg:  71 calories, 5g total fat (2g saturated), 211mg cholesterol, 70mg sodium, 0g carbohydrate, 6g protein

1 (large) egg yolk:  54 calories, 5g total fat (2g saturated), 210mg cholesterol, 8mg sodium, 1g carbohydrate, 3g protein

1 (large) egg white:  16 calories, 0g fat, 0g cholesterol, 55mg sodium, 0g carbohydrate, 4g protein

Are You Gearing Up For A Holiday Food Fest?

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Gotta have the jelly beans, the green bean casserole, the lamb and the ham, the brisket, two servings of matzoh ball soup, carrot cake for dessert, the entire chocolate bunny (ears first), three cadbury eggs, and whatever else your particular holiday, culture, and family traditions dictate.

Really???

Ask yourself why.  Is your groaning table and your habit of scarfing down handfuls of jelly beans and three chocolate eggs at a time really because of tradition – or are you using the holidays as an easy excuse to surround yourself with the food you love and want to eat in abundance?

There is nothing wrong with tradition and wanting to share your memories and love through food. But . . .

Are Holidays A Reason And An Excuse To (Over)Eat?

The big question to ask yourself is:  am I really sharing/holding to tradition and memories of the season – or am I using the holidays as an excuse to make and eat a whole lot of food that I really would prefer not to eat – or eat in such quantity?

Most people who know me also know that I’m a pretty good baker. I make really good Christmas cookies – for a lot of events, not just Christmas.  I baked them for a party for my son’s July wedding (not a Christmas tree in sight) and as I brought them out there was a chorus of “Christmas cookies” from his friends who have eaten them many times before.  Didn’t matter that it was July.  The recipe was the same, they tasted the same, and they came from my kitchen.

What’s my point?  I love baking these cookies, and I love sharing them.  There are a whole host of emotions wrapped around these cookies.

I also know that I love eating them.  Have I ever used an occasion as an excuse to bake them – even though things would have been fine without the cookies?  You bet I have.

Why?  I love the thought of those cookies.  I used to make them with my Mother when I was little and my sons made them with me.  I also love to eat them – especially the dough (I’m really not endorsing that – It’s a bad habit and the dough does have raw egg in it).

The bottom line is that I end up eating hundreds of calories – delicious calories, but not healthy or necessary ones.  And, even though I’m sharing what I consider to be “a little bit of love from my kitchen,” I still, very frequently, consciously use the holiday or the event as an excuse.

Try These Strategies For Dealing With Holiday Food

I’m certainly not advocating giving up baking cookies or hot cross buns or making matzah brei or roast lamb — whatever your specialty or tradition is.  What I am suggesting is that you ask yourself the reason for doing so.  Recognize and be mindful of your reasons.

Some strategies:

  • If you do make your specialty – plan for it.  When you eat it, enjoy it with everyone else – not in a constant stream of solo tasting and little snatches from the fridge or cupboard.
  • Even if you make it, keep your amazing food out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind.  Far away, too.  Usually if we have to work to get food it may take some of the desire out of it.  So store the food in the basement or someplace out of the kitchen.
  • Leftovers?  Send them home with your family and friends.  I’ve fed lots of college dorms and offices with my leftovers.  Freeze them and store them in the back of the freezer where you can’t see them (although I can attest that frozen butter cookies are great – my sons once ate a whole container of them out of my downstairs freezer without my knowing about it.  I had to bake another batch before Christmas dinner.)

Traditions are important and food is nurturing.  Traditions, family, and holidays can also be stressful.  Cook away if that’s your pleasure. Just ask yourself if you are using holidays, traditions, guests, and family as excuses or justifications to (over)eat. 

Do You Still Eat More Even When Your Stomach Is Full And Your Pants Are Tight?

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Have you ever had a day when it seems like all you do is eat and eat and eat some more?  You eat everything – a bagel for breakfast, a donut for a midmorning snack, and at lunch with  friends or coworkers and before you know it the breadbasket is empty.  You might follow it up by some coffee and a snack in the afternoon.  Maybe it’s a workday and you amble down to the hall to the vending machine or the snack room only to find that it’s someone’s birthday so there’s that delicious birthday cake sitting in the middle of the table.  A little nibble of some cheese around six.  Uh oh.  Dinner plans that night – how can you eat even more?

There Always Seems To Be Room

You get to the restaurant.  It’s gotten a great review and you’re with good company, too.  How can you not go for it?  The food is supposed to be phenomenal.  You’re not hungry, but you eat and eat.  Appetizer, bread, salad, entrée. Stuffed and double stuffed.  Then it’s time for dessert and it sounds so appealing. The chocolate lava cake or the key lime pie is what this restaurant is known for. You really feel like you can’t stuff in another morsel, but guess what – you order one of the spectacular choices and eat it – every last fork full including the crumbs.

Why Do You Continue To Eat?

The signal to stop eating is usually not because your stomach is full (except in some extreme cases).  According to Brian Wansink, PhD, author of the book, Mindless Eating,  a combination of things like how much you taste, chew, swallow, how much you think about the food you are eating, and how long you’ve been eating all come into play.

Incredibly, the faster most people eat, the more they eat. Eating quickly doesn’t give your brain the chance to get the message that you’re not hungry any more.  Research shows that it takes up to 20 minutes for your body and brain to both get the message — the satiation signal — and realize that you’re full.  Think how much more you can eat in that time span of 20 minutes – a burger, fries, pie, pizza, ice cream – even though your stomach is really full but your brain may not yet have gotten the message.

Twenty Minutes Or Less 

Research has shown that Americans start and finish their meals — and clear the table — in less than 20 minutes.  A study published in the journal Appetite found that people eating lunch by themselves in a fast food restaurant finish in 11 minutes. It takes  13 minutes to finish in a workplace cafeteria and 28 minutes at a moderately priced restaurant.  Eating with three other people takes about twice as long – which can still end up being a really short chunk of time.

Some Strategies

  • Slow down when you eat.  Give your brain a chance to catch up.  How many times have you devoured what you’ve made or bought for lunch in almost no time flat — and then, almost immediately, decided that you’re still hungry?  Twenty minutes to half an hour after you’ve ended up eating a whole bunch more — even though your stomach is probably full —  your belly feels like it’s going to explode and you can’t, in good conscience — unbutton any more buttons on your pants.  You realize that you should have stopped before the seconds.
  • Eat more slowly, chew more thoroughly, pace your whole eating pattern to a slower beat.  Give your brain a chance to synch its signals with the messages generated by putting food in your stomach.
  • Try getting up from the table and doing something else – and promise yourself if you’re still hungry in 20 minutes you can have more.  If you’re in a restaurant, it’s the perfect time to excuse yourself and go to the rest room or claim that you have to make a call.

In most cases, after the 20 or so minutes, your belly and brain are both happy and in synch and you won’t want more to eat. What you save:  excess calories and an uncomfortably expanding stomach.

 

 

Calories: Hate Them Or Love Them, But What Are They?

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What’s A Calorie?

Technically, a (small) calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) at one atmosphere of pressure.  (Aren’t you happy you now know that?)  Food or dietary Calories are actually kilocalories (1,000 calories = 1 kilocalorie and raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius).  It gets kind of confusing because food labels and diet plans often use the words “calorie” and “Calorie” interchangeably.  Calorie with a capital C means kilocalories (sometimes you see kcal for kilocalories on the nutrition label).  Those are the kind that are used in reference to food, but they’re often improperly written with a lower case “c.”

What’s The Point Of Measuring Calories?

We get the energy we need to survive from food — which powers us like gasoline does for a car.  Food is made up of different nutritional components, or building blocks, each with a different amount of energy. The components,  called macronutrients, are carbohydrates, protein, and fat.  A gram of carbohydrate contains 4 Calories, a gram of protein has 4 Calories, and a gram of fat has 9 Calories. (FYI, alcohol has 7 Calories per gram.)  So if you know how much fat, protein, and carbs  are in a food, you can figure out how many Calories, or how much energy, is in it.

How Many Calories Are In A Pound?

There are 3500 Calories in a pound.  If you take in 3,500 Calories beyond what your body needs for energy, your body stores it as a pound of fat – its way of saving energy for the next theoretical famine waiting in the wings. Your body needs a certain number of Calories to sustain itself  – for the energy necessary for metabolism and physical activity.  If your body uses  up 3,500 calories more than you take in and use, you lose a pound.

Energy In And Energy Out

To keep in your body in balance and not lose or gain any weight, the magic formula is: energy in = energy out. If you take in (eat) the same number of calories that you burn (through activity and physiological processes) you maintain your weight.  If you eat more than you burn you gain weight, if you eat less than you burn, you lose weight.

Does The Type Of Calorie Make Any Difference?

The short answer is NO.  When Calories are used as an energy source, it doesn’t matter whether they come from carbs, protein, fat, or alcohol.  When you eat them they are converted to energy. If they’re in excess of what your body needs for energy, the extra calories are stored as fat.

If you understand your body’s energy needs,  you can figure out what kind of food you need to eat. How many calories your body needs is mostly determined by your height, age, weight, and gender (the main components of your basal metabolic rate) and your level of activity. Any physical activity burns calories.  The average person (155 pounds) burns about 100 to 105 calories for every 2000 steps s/he takes.