Posts filed under 'Food'
As you stroll up and down the isles at the supermarket filling your grocery cart, you are armed with everything you need to make sure you choose your items wisely. Making good, healthy choices is the very reason you carefully put together your shopping list the night before. Now, you know that most of the snack food items are taboo and should be off limits, but maybe you could take a walk down junk food lane on the off chance you might find something acceptable to munch on later. When you see the words “low fat” or “fat-free”, your brain automatically gives you the go-ahead because these foods can’t make you gain weight, right? But, is that really all there is to it, or is there more here than meets the eye?
According to studies, Americans eat around 49,000 extra calories every year which translates into a grand total of 14 extra pounds of body fat per year. This is why an estimated 65% of Americans are considered overweight. In essence, Americans are slowly getting fatter, and it is largely from the consumption of “fat-free” foods.
The problem is, while “fat-free” foods contain no actual fat, many of them do contain high amounts of sugar. It is all this sugar that has been added to these products that allows them to be called “fat-free”. Consuming high amounts of sugar will cause you to gain weight because sugar makes your blood sugar levels rise rapidly, causing a large insulin response. Insulin, particularly in high amounts, will transport much of this sugar right to your fat cells for storage. With this in mind, is there anything you can do to prevent yourself from being lured into the labeling web of deceit?
Here are some things that will help clear up the blurriness of labeling reading so you can have a more clear view of what’s really in there. To start with, always read everything on the label. Do not just look at the fat content then only skim down at the rest. Look at the sugar content and compare it to the overall carbohydrate content to see how much of the carbohydrates are actually sugar. Always compare the calories from fat to the total calories. Fat should not be higher than 30% of the total calories at the absolute most.
Look at the protein content and try to make sure there is at least a decent amount of it in the item. Protein rich foods like granola make good, healthy snacks. Also important is to look for the fiber content of certain foods. When you buy breakfast cereal for example, make sure it has at least 5 grams of dietary fiber per serving. Also try to buy whole grain items like whole wheat bread and whole wheat pasta as these also provide decent amounts of fiber.
Aside from reading the labels, you should also read the list of ingredients. Here is where you get to see what is actually in each item. When buying any flour items such as bread or pasta, avoid anything with the words enriched, bleached, or white flour in the ingredients. The more enriched a product is, the less nutritious it is. White flour has a very high sugar content and therefore is not the best choice. Look for items with whole wheat flour instead.
One thing that gets hidden in the list of ingredients that you really need to be aware of is the trans fats. These trans fats are cleverly disguised with the words “hydrogenated vegetable oil”. These are oils that the manufacturer adds hydrogen to in order to transform them from their liquid form to a solid form. These fats are more dangerous by far than saturated fats and you know how bad saturated fats are. If you see the key word “hydrogenated” anywhere in the ingredients, put it down, back away slowly, then turn, run, and don’t look back!
Always remember to read everything on both the nutrition label and the list of ingredients before buying an item. Never let yourself be fooled into thinking an item won’t make you gain weight by the words “fat-free” so boldly displayed on the front of the package. It is this kind of deception that has been the cause of unwanted weight gain throughout the nation. Remember, the FDA requires all food manufactures to disclose everything in their products to you, but it is ultimately up to you to read far enough to find it all. The next time you go food shopping, take these tips with you and ensure yourself that you are making the right choices for you and your family.
March 9th, 2006
Healthy choices are finding their way onto the fast-food menu. With a little detective work, you can find nutritionally improved fare at the traditional chains (see “Stuck at a Fast-Food Joint …,” page 18). Better yet, several small companies that hope to go national are capitalizing on the growing demand for fresh, natural meals to go.
Pan-seared tuna, soy, turkey, ostrich, and juicy lean-beef burgers are on the menu at Manhattan’s three Better Burger locations. Most of the ingredients, including the homemade condiments and air-baked fries, are organic, and the meat is hormone- and additive-free. At the four Maine-based O’Naturals restaurants, the brainchild of the CEO of Stonyfield Farm, you’ll find wild salmon and free-range beef and poultry, flatbread sandwiches, Asian stir-fries, and an assortment of soups and salads.
Evos, which has three restaurants in Florida’s Tampa and St. Petersburg areas, proudly posts the nutritional information for all its food, and touts “guilt-free” burgers (10 grams of fat) and Airfries (5 g). Soups are made with fresh vegetable stock, and a multivitamin supplement can be added to fruit smoothies.
Another Florida native, Healthy Bites Grill, with locations in Boca Eaton and Ft. Lauderdale, features fast-food service, complete with a drive-through window and speedy counter ordering, but peddles such vegetarian-friendly items as roasted-corn salsa, portobello Philly “steak” sandwiches, hummus with pita chips, and a brown rice and vegetable platter.
Nutritionist Nikki Goldbeck is keeping her eye on Salad Creations of America. The restaurant offers only fresh salads, an idea its founders are confident will take them national from their current three locations in Orlando and Boca Eaton.
“This is not a flash in the pan,” says Goldbeck, co-author of Healthy Highways: The Traveler’s Guide to Healthy Eating, and co-founder of healthyhighways.com. “When I see these places in the malls and along the turnpike next to McDonald’s, I know the trend is here to stay and will only grow.”
COPYRIGHT 2005 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
March 4th, 2006
Eating peanuts on a regular basis has long been known to help prevent cardiovascular disease–but a new study reveals that this may not be entirely due to the high fatty acid content of the nuts.
A small US study found that peanuts lower triglycerides–an emerging risk factor for heart disease–and improve total diet quality by increasing a number of nutrients associated with the prevention of cardiovascular disease. These heart-healthy nutrients include magnesium, folate, vitamin E, copper, arginine and fiber.
Peanut consumption also led to favorable changes in the fat profile of participant’s diets: Subjects showed a decrease in saturated fat and an increase in unsaturated fat as a portion of calories.
The research examined the effects of 500 calories of peanuts per day. The Purdue University findings–which were published in the April 2003 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition–are consistent with several previous clinical and epidemiological studies, such as the Nurses Health Study, which found that people who consume about 1 ounce of peanuts, nuts and peanut butter per day improve blood lipid levels and decrease their risk of cardiovascular disease.
COPYRIGHT 2003 PRIMEDIA Intertec, a PRIMEDIA Company. All Rights Reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
February 28th, 2006
Obesity is a major health concern because of its effect on many chronic diseases. Strategies recommended for weight control have generally recommended the implementation of low fat dietary patterns, which facilitate energy restriction and cardiovascular disease risk reduction. However, there has also been an interest in the role of a high dietary ratio of protein to carbohydrate in enhancing weight loss and disease risk management.
Some studies have shown that a high ratio of protein to carbohydrate have positive effects on disease risk, including body composition, blood lipids, and glucose homeostasis, and that those benefits may be mediated somewhat by the effect of protein on satiety and by a lower glycemic load because of a lower carbohydrate intake. However, foods and dietary patterns high in protein may vary in saturated fat and concerns have been raised regarding the effect of high-protein (HP) diets on serum lipids and CVD risk. Therefore, a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition studied the effects of reduced caloric intake, associated with higher dietary protein from low saturated fat sources compared with a high-carbohydrate (HC) diet, on weight loss, body composition, CVD risk, nutritional status and markers of bone turnover in overweight and obese women.
One hundred women between the age of 20 years and 65 years of age and with a BMI between 27 and 40 were included in this study. The women were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 isocaloric dietary interventions for 12 weeks: 1) a high-protein, low saturated fat dietary pattern [HP group: 34% of calories from protein, 20% from fat (less than 10% from saturated fat)] and 2) a high-carbohydrate, low saturated fat dietary pattern [HC group: 17% of calories from protein, 20% from fat (less than 10% from saturated fat)]. Subjects were weighed every 14 days and DXA was performed at weeks 0 and 12. Fasting blood samples were collected at weeks 0, 4, 8, and 12 to test for lipids, insulin, and plasma glucose. Collection of total 24-hour urine output occurred at weeks 0 and 12.
Weight loss was 7.3 kg with both diets. Subjects with high serum triacylglycerol (greater than 1.5 mmol/L) lost more fat mass with the HP than with the HC diet. Triacylglycerol concentrations also decreased more with the HP than with the HC diet. Fasting LDL (by 6%) and HDL-cholesterol, glucose (by 4%), insulin, free fatty acid and C-reactive protein concentrations decreased with weight loss but there was no significant difference between the two diets. Serum vitamin B-12 increased 9% with the HP diet and decreased 13% with the HC diet. Folate and vitamin B-6 increased with both diets and homocysteine did not change significantly. Bone turnover markers increased 8% to 12% and calcium excretion decreased, while creatinine clearance decreased.
An energy-restricted diet high in protein from lean red meat and low fat dairy products seems to provide a weight loss advantage in subjects with elevated triacylglycerol levels, a marker of the metabolic syndrome. In addition, concerns that diets high in meat protein may have harmful effects on renal function and bone turnover were not substantiated by this study. Since this may be the first study to suggest a phenotype x diet interaction with respect to the magnitude of weight loss to different diet interventions, further confirmation is required in hypertriglyceridemic women.
By Many Noakes, Jennifer B. Keogh, Paul R. Foster, and Peter M. Clifton
COPYRIGHT 2005 Frost & Sullivan
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
February 27th, 2006
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