honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, January 2, 2002

Taste
Healthier lifestyle should not be all-or-nothing

Healthy recipes offer tasty eating options

By Kaui Philpotts
Advertiser Staff Writer

Illustration by Martha Hernandez • The Honolulu Advertiser


Other Taste stories:
Ugly vegetable adds sweet, pleasing crunch
Bubble teas a fun food to play with
There's lots more to white wine than chardonnay
Easy, extraordinary french toast
Tea an ingredient in 'Eat Tea' recipes
'Ulupalakua Thing 2002' features Maui-made goods
Former addict on a culinary crusade

"If you don't take care of your body, then where will you live?"

Linda Giles loves that line. As the general manager of Weight Watchers in Hawai'i, Giles knows from experience how difficult losing and maintaining a healthy weight can be. After an 80-pound weight loss, she has just celebrated her ninth holiday season at her goal weight.

For the rest of us, who probably put on a few pounds during the annual eating season, it's time to lighten up, cleanse and introduce (or re-introduce) some of the habits that Giles practices in order not to gain weight.

"Weight loss has to do with lifestyle," she said. "Ironically, it's when you're most frustrated that you eat. It can be a vicious cycle. You have no time to be active, so you don't exercise. Then you feel bad, so you eat."

With the numbers of hefty Americans growing every year (one in four are considered overweight, and half of these are considered obese, a medical term indicating a condition that has health consequences), it seems that poor eating habits and inactivity are an increasingly common lifestyle.

Giles said Weight Watchers' enrollment spikes each year right after the holidays and at the end of summer. "It's when people want to get back to a routine. Routine has everything to do with it (maintaining ideal weight)," she said.

The trouble for most people is that when they do try to establish a new, more healthful routine, they adopt an all-or-nothing attitude. "The first time they fail, they throw the towel in," she said. "Things change constantly in life. That weight didn't happen overnight. So don't give up!"

She suggests that those trying to lose weight keep reevaluating their lifestyle and patterns, seeing where they can make changes. Start with some changes that are easy for you: If frozen yogurt tastes just as good to you as ice cream, have that instead. If you can readily do without butter on your bread, cut out the butter. Look over your foodways and begin paring back, bit by bit.

Alan Titchenal, sports nutritionist and University of Hawai'i instructor agrees. "The changes don't happen overnight. They take time," he said. He urges people to ignore flashy promises of quick, dramatic weight loss and set a more reasonable goal of one to two pounds a week. (The holiday season is a couple of months long; expect to take at least that period to pare off the pounds you acquired between Halloween and New Year's.)

"Even that can be deceiving," he says. "It's better to look at your weight loss over a month's time. We are finding that the weight is not as important as the body composition. You can be exercising and building muscle which means the weight loss will not show up on the scale. Your clothes will fit better, even though you haven't lost any weight."

The thinking today is that it is better to increase your physical activity and eat to improve your health rather than worrying and obsessing about weight. If you become more active, and focus on eating things that promote good health, your weight will stabilize.

Here are some ideas for putting this philosophy into practice:

Cook slim

• Steam, bake, poach, broil or grill instead of frying. When you do sauté, use cooking spray (you can put a good quality olive oil in one of the pump-spray gadgets now available if you don't like commercial sprays) or use just small amount of unsaturated fat. If your pan gets too dry, use broth or water to prevent food from sticking and drying out.

• Trim fat from meats, don't eat the skin of chicken or other poultry, avoid sausages and pates.

• Don't condemn yourself to flavorless food. Use fresh or dried herbs, grated lemon or orange peel, balsamic vinegar, ginger, horseradish, soy and Worcestershire sauces to give dishes a kick. Salsas and mustards also give taste without loads of calories.

• Switch to low-fat, nonfat and skim dairy products. Use them in soups, sauces and all your recipes. Substitute plain nonfat yogurt for sour cream, evaporated skim milk for heavy cream and low-fat cheeses on casseroles and pizza. If you haven't tried low-fat foods in a while, give them another chance; today's formulations of such foods as nonfat sourcream and reduced fat cream cheese are superior to the older versions.

• Fruit juices such as apple can replace oil in salad dressings.

• Replace rich sauces with a mixture of low-fat milk and cornstarch flavored with herbs and spices, herbed bread crumbs or vegetable purees. A butterless beurre blanc can be made by reducing chicken broth and white wine with very finely minced onion or shallot, with salt and white pepper to taste; good with fish or poached chicken.

Make a plan

Eating well should be a pleasurable activity, but it takes shopping and planning. Get used to making a list and having foods on hand for when you are too tired or busy to cook. It's when there's nothing in the house, when we're tired or overly hungry, that we tend to "grab" whatever is easiest and to eat too much.

Take a look at your average eating day. You may be eating too seldom, not too often. A common pattern for those with unhealthy eating habits is to skip breakfast, grab an inadequate and unhealthy lunch or mid-morning snack and then arrive at dinner ravenous and ready to overindulge. The wiser approach is to eat several small meals a day, starting with a healthful breakfast. (If you just can't eat first thing in the morning, take breakfast to work with you and eat it during a mid-morning break.)

Surveys have shown that most people have a repertoire of 10 or so dishes that they tend to cook over and over. If this is true for you, look at your familiar standbys and try to recreate the recipes low-fat and low-calorie ingredients.

Eat a variety of foods. This ensures that you are getting most of the nutrients you need to stay healthy. When you assemble your plate, make sure the foods are colorful. A colorful selection usually indicates different vitamins and minerals are present.

Take advantage of farmer's and Chinatown markets, where you can find fruits and vegetables that are fresh and in season. Then to back up the fresh items, stock your freezer with frozen vegetables and fruits. They are perfect to use when you have not been able to get to the store and need to enhance take-out, or put together a quick meal.

While it's not necessary to become a vegetarian, limit your intake of animal products. All foods from animal sources contain cholesterol, and while we can take in up to 300 milligrams, it's a good idea to get used to substituting legumes such as beans, dried peas and lentils as another source of protein. This is another area where ethnic markets can be helpful; there are, for example, a much wider variety of lentils than most Americans realize and these are available in such shops.

Protect yourself

Eating whole, health foods provides elements, including antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, folic acid and calcium, that research indicates can reduce the risk of disease. Here are some suggestions:

• Increase the fiber in your diet. This not only helps keep the system regular, but may also reduce the risk of colon cancer. You get dietary fiber from fruits, whole grain breads, vegetables and legumes.

• Antioxidants work by helping to prevent cell damage caused by toxic molecules called "free radicals." These free radicals are thought to have a part in causing cancer and cardiovascular disease. In particular, vitamins C and E, as well as cartenoids (beta-carotene is one) are recommended. Foods high in vitamin C are green and red bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, tomatoes, oranges, strawberries and other citrus fruit.

Vitamin E-rich foods are vegetable oils, wheat germ and nuts. Cartenoids are present in deep yellow, red and green vegetables and fruits, carrots, papayas, mangoes, apricots, sweet potatoes and watermelon.

Note that the fresher the produce, the more the nutritive value. Choose fresh over processed, whole over juiced whenever possible (unless you're making the juice yourself).

• Calcium is necessary in our diets to build and keep strong bones and teeth. While milk and dairy products are the most common source, but you can also get calcium from legumes, leafy green vegetables and calcium-fortified foods.

• Omega-3 fatty acids are helpful in providing protection from cardiovascular disease. They are found mainly in fatty, cold-water fish such as salmon, mackerel and herring. However, they can also be found in soybeans, nuts and flax seed.