Q&As:

Q. It’s the holidays. I want to have fun and enjoy the festivities! How can I do that without gaining weight?

Food is an important part of holiday festivities. The key is to preserve the tradition and avoid the binge. This is the season to splurge - not on endless trays of fudge and cookies, but rather on the real meaning of the holidays - enjoying the company of others. That means putting food in its place. Mindlessly inhaling a third helping of stuffing won’t satisfy your soul and build memories like holding grandpa’s hand during the Super Bowl or the belly laughs with your sister in the kitchen.

Nurture the spirit of giving by planning parties around loved ones, not around eating. Instead of a sit-down gorge session, appetizer trays the size of the White House Christmas tree, or batches of cookies to feed an army, invite family and friends over at a non-eating time, such as mid-afternoon or late evening. Serve a beverage and a few low-calorie snacks as a compliment, not the focus, of the event. Then, consider any of the following as ways to spend more time with loved ones:

• a cruise through the neighborhood in search of the best holiday decorations,
• a holiday movie, like “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
• sing hymns, such as Maoz Tzur, around the piano.
• caroling, either at a nursing home or through the neighborhood.
• sledding, tobogganing, skating, or cross country skiing.
• a snowball fight, or a snowman or snow fort-building contest.
• a tree-trimming or house decorating party, complete with stringing popcorn and cranberries, armfuls of holly, and mistle toe.
• a wreath-making party with wire hoops, strips of wire, and lots of scotch pine, white pine, fir, cedar bows, holly, rhododendron, berries, pine cones, and fox wood.
• a “get to know you better” party (people bring personal stories, play Charades, do magic tricks)

Q. How can I make my favorite holiday recipes more healthy?

It’s a myth that food has to be dripping in fat to taste good. You can cut fat, sugar, and salt and never even miss them. Better yet, it doesn’t take any more time to prepare low-calorie foods.

Most people know to remove the skin from chicken before cooking, use broth and wine for sauteing instead of oil or broth instead of butter in your stuffing, and to use cornstarch and broth instead of butter and flour for a roux when making creamed sauces. You also might know that you can dilute calories by adding more vegetables and salads to the center stage. But you might not know that you can:

• Use potatoes instead of cream to make a rich and creamy soup.
• Use baby prunes, applesauce, or apple butter in place of all or part of the fat in baked goods, such as breads and muffins.
• Use a fat-separator cup to separate the fat from the liquid in turkey drippings before making gravy.
• Take advantage of the fat-free products on the market: Fat-free half & half, cream cheese, sour cream, whipped cream, evaporated milk.
• Use healthy foods in recipes, such as 8^th Continent Complete soymilk instead of milk for mashed potatoes.
• Cut sugar in recipes by up to one-third without altering the taste. Also, several no-calorie substitutes are available that would make any Sugar Plum Fairy proud, such as Splenda or Nutrasweet.
• Season with flavor-packed ingredients and you won’t even miss the salt, such as roasted red peppers, cilantro, fresh ginger, or salsa. Cut the salt by half in recipes or use salt substitutes.

Just because you cut the fat, sugar, and calories, don’t sabotage yourself by eating twice as much! You still need to watch portions.

Continue reading “Holiday Survival Guide”

Arthritis is NOT a symptom of gluten intolerance. Accepted symptoms include:A possibility of headaches, mouth ulcers, weight gain or weight loss, poor immunity to disease, and skin problems like dermatitis and eczema. The most common and well-known Gluten intolerance symptoms are gastro-intestinal (diarrhoea, flatulence, bloating, etc.). Also associated symptoms are miscarriage and infertility and malabsorption problems like anemia. If you have these symptoms, then you should consult a physician who will probably recommend that you eliminate all gluten from the diet, which means no: Barley, bulgur, most cereals, couscous, graham flour, rye, semolina, spelt, triticale, wheat germ, whole wheat, and any type of wheat. Also, it is likely you might not be able to tolerate bran, grits, hemp, modified food starch, dry roasted nuts (wheat by products often used in the roasting process), and oats.

Splenda is completely safe. 20 years of safety studies lead to it being approved in Canada in 1991 and in the US in 1998. It is used and approved for use in 80 countries. Its safety ratings are so high that FDA does not even require any warnings on the label. It has been approved for safety for pregnant and nursing women, children, and people of all ages.

Sucralose is made by removing 3 hydrogens from the sugar molecule and replacing them with chloride, an element found naturally in table salt, mushrooms, peas, potatoes, etc.. The molecule is extremely stable and does not breakdown. 85% is excreted from the GI tract unchanged. The other 15% is absorbed, but because it is water-soluble, it is not stored and instead is excreted in the urine unchanged within 24 hours. No chloride leaves the molecule from the time you consume it to the time your body excretes it. Also, because it is 600 times sweeter than sugar, the amount you consume is miniscule (most of the power in each packet is maltodextrin and dextrin…the Splenda part is so tiny it hardly makes up any part of the contents).

The statements that the chloride in Splenda is harmful are internet rumors with no sound scientific backing. If you have any other questions about this sugar substitute, go to www.Splendatruth.com Hope that helps clarify the issue.

Q: I need some good advice/suggestions on late night eating. I do awesome during the day. But lately, at night, I binge then hate myself the next morning!!
- Kari in Salt Lake City

A: Typically, people who eat too much at night are the ones who also skip breakfast. While people who eat a modest breakfast (ie., whole grain cereal, nonfat milk or soymilk, and a piece of fruit) and then eat regularly throughout the day are the least prone to late-night eating and weight gain. If this applies to you, start eating breakfast and bring healthy foods with you to snack and eat throughout the day. Have a modest dinner (i.e., 3 ounces meat, chicken or fish; two vegetables such as steamed carrots and a salad, and a grain such as brown rice or french bread. After dinner, turn off the lights in the kitchen and make a pact with yourself that you won’t go back in there. It might take 2 to 3 weeks to reset your appetite clock, but soon you’ll find the late-night cravings subside, as long as you don’t reward them by returning to the nightly munch session. - Elizabeth Somer

If your child flunks a test, botches a project, forgets her backpack, or can’t lose weight, the reason could be what she ate or didn’t eat for breakfast. One out of every four of our children skip breakfast daily and the numbers are increasing each year. One in every two of us eats breakfast only on occasion. We skip breakfast because we want to lose weight, aren’t hungry, or because we complain that we don’t have enough time.

Your child might feel fine at first, full of energy and raring to go for the first few hours after he wakes up. That counterfeit burst of energy comes from a mind and body revved from a good night’s sleep. However, your child will pay for the neglect later. In fact, by afternoon, even if children eat relatively good lunches in an effort to boost lagging energy levels, they never regain the energy they would have had if they’d taken five minutes to eat breakfast.

Children (and adults, too!) who eat breakfast think more clearly, remember more, are more creative, react quicker, make fewer mistakes, and have more energy than their breakfast-skipping friends. They are better nourished, healthier, less likely to battle depression or feel overwhelmed by stress and they consume less fat and more fiber than do breakfast skippers. Children who eat nutritious breakfasts also get more vitamins and minerals. For example, while up to 80% or more of girls don’t consume enough calcium, those that eat breakfast are the ones most likely to meet their daily quota for this bone-building mineral.

Continue reading “Our Kids, Their Breakfasts”

Q: I eat three moderate meals a day and don’t nibble between meals. Why do I have so much trouble with my weight?
- Elise in Kansas City

A: In an effort to stem the tide, we often resort to the very eating habits that aggravate weight gain, such as limiting our food intake to two or three meals each day. Instead the research shows that we might be better off eating more often, not less. Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health report that women between the ages of 35 and 69 who divided their food intakes into several little meals and snacks throughout the day were leaner with less body fat than were women who ate the same calories, but packed them into two or three big meals. The benefits of dividing your intake into several small meals and snacks each day extend beyond your waistline. Nibbling lowers blood cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and insulin levels, and improves insulin sensitivity. The trickle down effect on health is a lowered risk of diabetes, heart disease (the number one health concern for postmenopausal women), and possibly even cancers of the colon and breast. Finally, eating breakfast and eating at consistent times each day also curbs hunger and prevents overeating later in the day. For example, researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee found that women who ate breakfast had an easier time controlling cravings and consumed less fat throughout the day compared to breakfast skippers. -Elizabeth Somer

Why do we crave chocolate? Chocolate is the number one most craved food and womenare the ones most likely to crave it. And rightfully so. As I mention in my book, Food & Mood, many of our cravings for foods are triggered by a stew of appetite-control chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. Low and behold, chocolate tickles just about every brain chemical there is. For example, the sugar in chocolate affects two neurotransmitters - serotonin and the endorphins. According to research from Johns Hopkins University, the very taste of sugar on the tongue - such as the sugar in chocolate - releases endorphins in the brain.

These brain chemicals produce a euphoric feeling, making the chocolate experience immediately pleasurable. The sugar in chocolate also might raise brain levels of serotonin a neurotransmitter that also boosts mood. It is no surprise that most people don’t start craving chocolate until mid-afternoon. That’s when a brain chemical called galanin is at its all-time high. Galanin turns on the desire for fatty foods. Women are most likely to turn to the sweet-and-creamy foods with chocolate being the number one choice followed by ice cream, cookies, cakes, pies, and other desserts. Men are more likely to go for the protein-fat foods like steak, gravies, hamburgers, or meatloaf. Then of course the cocoa butter in chocolate is what gives this “moment of ecstasy” that “melt in your mouth” texture that is irresistible.

Continue reading “For Love and Chocolate”