Fast food choices can be healthy
By Nanci Hellmich
USA Today
How can you lose weight and eat at fast-food restaurants? Is having breakfast important for weight loss? How can you reshape your body?
Those are some of the diet questions answered here by nutrition experts.
A sampling:
Q. We are starting to exercise — racquetball, walking, weights — but have no time to eat healthily. Fast food is our middle name. Any suggestions on what we should do?
A. Believe it or not, most fast-food restaurants have healthy choices available. You just have to make the right choices. Some advice: Get diet soda instead of regular soda. Don't supersize. Avoid the fries. Eat half of the bun. Choose a salad instead of a sandwich some of the time.
— Louis Aronne, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital
Q. Is eating breakfast good for weight loss?
A. If you don't eat breakfast, your body thinks lunch is your breakfast, dinner is lunch, and so you look for dinner before bed. I think breakfast is very important, but some people find that breakfast increases their appetite.
If that happens, switch to a high-fiber cereal, an egg-white omelet, cottage cheese or a protein drink. That should cut your appetite later in the day.
— Aronne
Q. I would like to lose a couple of pounds, but do not like fussing in the kitchen or making complicated food decisions. Is there a diet out there that uses products that I would normally find in my own kitchen?
A. I don't know what's in your kitchen, but here are a few hints: Load up on canned beans (black beans with seasonings turn into great black bean soup, and you can use other beans for a quick chili), pasta sauce (add to cooked pasta and top with cheese), oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit, bags of salad greens, a loaf of whole-wheat bread and lean deli meats for quick sandwiches. Throw in some prepared produce such as carrots and cut-up fruit, some prepared grilled chicken, and you have the makings of some quick, easy and tasty meals.
— Edith Howard Hogan, resource dietitian for the American Dietetic Association
Q. Is it true that you're doomed to whatever body type you're born with?
A. You can reshape your body with an exercise plan, but you also need to make sure that you are a healthy weight. Just step on a bathroom scale and compare your weight to a chart.
Your genetic makeup also plays a role, since it determines your body size and shape. People come in all sizes and shapes, and the most important thing is being healthy, which is achieved by regular exercise and food choices that provide the nutrients you need at the appropriate calorie level to maintain a healthy weight.
— Hogan
Q. I need to lose 100 pounds, and I have a daughter who is a diabetic. She also could stand to lose about 20 pounds. She's 9 years old. Any suggestions?
A. First, visit your physician to have a basic physical examination for you and your daughter. A diabetic should consult with an endocrinologist before changing nutrition or physical activity patterns. Increase the amount of vegetables you eat each day and reduce fast-food restaurant visits to only one day per week.
Concerning exercise: Start by doing something you both enjoy, two times a week for 15 to 20 minutes. Then each week, increase by about five minutes. After a few weeks, add another day. Do this until you are doing some type of physical activity for about 30 to 50 minutes, five to six days a week. It will take about three months.
— Melinda Sothern, director of the Prevention of Childhood Obesity Laboratory at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.
