This is a guest blog post by Beth Casey Gold, R.D., M.S., and Heather Leonard, R.D., of the University of Vermont Vtrim Online Behavioral Weight Management Program

We don’t like the word “diet.” Diets are about restriction, sacrifice, and typically they aren’t too much fun. Instead, we’re all about lifestyle change through behavior modification. Guess what? It works. We’ve researched this technique for the past 18 years under the leadership of Jean Harvey-Berino, R.D., Ph.D. at the University of Vermont. You can lose and manage weight by simply changing troublesome habits. We’ve seen person after person go through our program and lose 1-2 lbs per week by doing just that.

What You Need to Know

There are strategies you can put into action right now to make your weight loss and management goals doable and your results sustainable. Here are five to get you started:

1. Reduce TV Time. Researchers at the University of Vermont found that watching less TV results in subtle but meaningful changes in overall activity levels (see The Archives of Internal Medicine.) They found that individuals who cut television viewing by 2.5 hours (based on the average of 5 hours per day) burned off an additional 120 calories a day – the equivalent of walking about 8 miles a week. Less TV time is good for kids, too – it significantly reduces the number of calories a child consumes.

2. Step Away From the Couch. The more places you associate with eating, the more likely you are to eat there. Decide on a “Designated Eating Place” (“DEP” for short) and restrict your eating to this location. Limiting eating to just one location in your house or office will help you avoid downing a lot of calories while doing something else, like watching TV or working at your computer.

3. Don’t Clean Your Plate. There’s no rule that says you have to finish what you started. In fact, research shows that people will automatically eat more when served bigger portions, regardless of physical hunger. To curb excess eating, start with a smaller serving by using a smaller plate or bowl. Measure your snacks into snack-sized bags rather than eating straight from the bag.

4. Sneak In Exercise. Three ten-minute walks are just as effective as one thirty-minute walk. One study found that people who took more short exercise bouts actually lost more weight. Create a new routine: instead of meeting a friend for drinks or coffee, ask her to join you for a weekly catch-up walk so you can burn calories over conversation.

5. Crack Open a Cook Book. Research shows that people who eat more meals at home consume fewer calories on average than people who dine out on a regular basis. You can keep meal planning simple by keeping your pantry stocked with healthier items— low-fat soup and a whole grain roll, salad with some diced chicken breast, or a quesadilla with salsa and a portion-controlled amount of cheese can be whipped together in the amount of time it takes to get through the drive-thru.

What to do at the Supermarket

We recommend finding the foods that best fit your individual goals according to taste, ingredients, and smart portion control. Be a smart consumer and make choices based on what matters most to you and what promotes better health habits for you. Don’t just follow the marketing message you see on the package–it may lead you the wrong way.

6. Don’t shop hungry. A grumbling stomach and impulse shopping go hand-in-hand.

7. Stick to your list. Unless you see a great buy on something you use regularly, stick to only “pre-planned” items.

8. Read labels. In one study, subjects who read labels consumed about 30 percent of their calories from fat (the amount recommended for healthy eating) versus 35 percent for those who didn’t read labels.

9. Shop the perimeter. Generally, you’ll find healthy, whole foods (produce, dairy, etc.) along the sides and back of the store. Packaged goods—including tempting snacks are concentrated in center aisles.

Old habits die hard, but mindfulness and vigilance will keep you on the path towards a healthier lifestyle!

You can read more from Beth and Heather at the Vtrim Community Blog

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This is a guest blog post by Chef Rob Endelman.

Cooking, despite what Big Food wants us to believe, does not have to be a time-consuming chore.  I’ll argue that waiting in line at the doctor’s office and pharmacy is the real energy-draining bore.

You do not need much to successfully cook for yourself and your family, save for simple ingredients and basic cooking technique.  I can’t shop for you, but I can help you realize that often just a little sautéing or stirring is all that is needed to produce meals that are far superior to packaged and processed foodstuffs.

I’ve chosen three dishes that illustrate cooking’s simplicity.  Feel free to substitute ingredients, especially in the hearty vegetable soup and pasta sauce.

1. Hearty vegetable soup recipe – A hearty winter meal that further debunks the myth that cooking is difficult and expensive. I made about eight portions and it cost me $9. (Had I not used mostly organic ingredients, it would have totaled $5.) Prep time was 10 minutes and cooking time (mostly unattended) was roughly an hour.

2. Pasta sauce recipe – make a quick sauce, in about 10 minutes, to put over whole wheat pasta. The pasta cooks while you prepare the sauce.

3. Hot chocolate recipe – Making your own hot chocolate with quality cocoa powder (I use Green & Black’s) takes about the same amount of time and isn’t that much more expensive than using packaged hot chocolate mixes that contain refined sugars and synthetic ingredients. Plus, the difference in flavor is startling.

Rob Endelman is a chef who, in addition to teaching cooking technique, empowers people with the knowledge to make better choices when it comes to buying and preparing food.  He believes that a lack of awareness about our industrial food supply has contributed to the increase in modern diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.  Through The Delicious Truth and Cook with Class, Chef Rob helps people understand, identify and avoid hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and synthetic additives.

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As if we haven’t got enough things to worry about, 8 years ago Swedish scientists discovered that acrylamide, a synthetic potentially dangerous chemical used for various industrial purposes, also appears in french fries and potato chips. More accurately, it forms in some foods during high-temperature cooking processes, such as frying, roasting, and baking.

What you need to know:

1. Acrylamide is formed in a high heat reaction of sugars and asparagine (an amino acid) that are naturally present in certain foods such as potatoes and breads.

2. Frying, roasting, and cooking form acrylamide, but not boiling, steaming, or microwaving.

3. Acrylamide can also be found in cigarette smoke.

4. The health risks associated with acrylamide are still being investigated by health organizations and the FDA. It has been shown to cause cancer in animals in high doses. Additional evidence talks about damage to reproductive glands.

5. Coffee, potatoes, and grain products are foods that form the highest level of acrylamide, whereas meat and dairy products produce almost none.

6. Acrylamide levels increase the higher the heat level and the longer the food is exposed to the heat source.

7. Frying creates the most acrylamide, roasting less, and baking the lowest of the three.

What to do in the kitchen:

8. Store your potatoes above 46 degrees Fahrenheit. At lower temperatures, fructose content in the potato rises sharply and that results in more acrylamide forming while frying or baking.

9. Soaking raw potato slices in water for 15-30 minutes before frying or roasting helps reduce acrylamide formation during cooking.

10. Fry potatoes rarely (french fires are not exactly a health food you know), and when you do, stop when they become golden, but not brown.

11. When toasting bread, prefer a lightly colored toast to a brown one.

sources of information: FDA, WHO

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Respect.

Not the first word that comes to mind when we think about food. Hunger, guilt, diet, and calories are more common thoughts that pass our collective American mind when we contemplate what goes through our mouth three or more times a day.

But respect for food, meals, and mealtimes is crucially missing from our modern and instant culture. A fast food culture. Fast preparation, fast consumption, always on the go.  Eating has become a quick, and often times guilty pleasure, met almost immediately post consumption with feelings of remorse – from the heartburn 30 minutes after a combo-burger meal, to the needle on the scale in the bathroom the next morning. Not to mention a warning from the doctor during periodic checkups.

Now think about the holiday season that is ending. The festivity, the family get together, the joint breaking of bread at the dining room table. Culinary delights. Laughter. Joy. Togetherness. Yes, you’ve worked hard in the kitchen. But the pleasure of eating real food, perhaps with a good glass of wine or two, and the flow of conversation with real friends is … well … priceless.

Too bad this happens just a handful of times every year. Once upon a time, every evening culminated in a family dinner shared by the entire crew. Not all dinners were fancy, far from it, but they were usually fresh cooked. Parents talked with their children, and with each other. Life lessons were learned, values forged.

We’re not trying to over-romanticize here, and certainly don’t think the world needs to go back to the days where the mothers/wives “slaved away” for hours in the kitchen.

But we’ve come to the other extreme today. For many people, the kitchen is the place you visit to take the frozen food out of the freezer, unwrap it, microwave it and then consume it while watching TV or at playing at the computer. The dining room? That’s a museum. Or an “inverse” museum. Closed all year, open on Christmas Day.

There’s got to be a better balance. And that’s what we’d like to propose for 2010 and the coming decade. Let’s give food a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

If we pay a little more respect to food, we can reclaim the pleasures of dining, of family-time, and even cooking. It’s not such a drag to cook when the entire family is working together. And with all the amenities of the modern kitchen, combined with awesome ingredients one can get from any supermarket, millions of simple recipes are at everyone’s fingertips.

If we respect food, we’ll begin to identify lots of impostors, or as Michal Pollan calls them, food-like substances. The absence of these non-foods from our lives – no longer brought into our pantry and refrigerator, no more wolved down at quick service establishments, no longer associated with us – will surely have a positive impact on our health.

Have a happy, tasty, and healthy new year.

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Thanksgiving is only a few days away, and there have been countless online discussions and recommendations on what to eat, how to eat, and how to stay healthy. We can’t help but weigh in with our list as well.

1. No Guilt. Folks, holidays are no time to start a diet or feel bad about poor eating habits. It’s all about family, tradition, and having a good time together. That said, a few simple adjustments, barely noticeable, but highly effective, can help you lower your stress levels this holiday.

2. Prepare a home cooked meal. It may be rich and full of calories, but at least it’s low on preservatives, additives, colorings, and other artificial stuff your body does not need. Prepare the meal together with your spouse and children, and get the added benefit of quality time together, before all the guests arrive.

3. Serve on small plates. Countless studies have shown that when plates are smaller, less food is placed on them, and less is eaten. Resist the urge to show off the entire China set, and use just the appetizer plates and soup bowls.

4. Color your table. The turkey, stuffing, gravy, and potatoes are all shades of beige-brown. Thank goodness for the cranberry sauce. But what about some hearty salads as sides too? Corn on the cob, Broccoli, beans, carrots and peas, beets, leafy greens, as well as peppers, eggplants, and so many other veggies can be an integral and healthy part of the meal.

5. Hors d’oeuvres. Make them small. Tiny. Bite size. What great French Chefs call amuse bouche. This is important because  people consume 300 calories BEFORE the meal begins, just snacking.

6. Drink water. And fine wine. But not soft drinks, juices, and other useless calories.

7. Wait before dessert. Take 20-30 minutes after finishing off the main course to let your body feel full. You’ll then be happy with a small portion.

8. Plan the days after. You’ve got a long weekend, 3 full days, ahead of you. Some of us will exercise by sprinting during Black Friday’s big sales at the shopping malls. But for the rest, how about planning some physical activity outdoors. Hike, jog, walk around the neighborhood. And have plenty of fruit and vegetables stocked up for preparing and eating together with leftovers from the holiday meal.

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Image via Wikipedia

Over the weekend, USA Today published a great piece about the cost of healthy eating. The bottom line is that for most people eating healthfully means paying more, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

The article comes at a time when more Americans are stretched for dollars, stressed out from the recession, and resorting more and more to comfort foods that are not always nutritious. As luck (?) would have it the cheapest most comforting foods are the ones that are the worst for our waistlines.

It’s a hard fact: Eating healthier can cost more. When you’re hungry, you go for what’s most filling, meaning calorie-dense foods with lots of added fat and sugar.

Dr. Adam Drewnowski, who directs the University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition has been researching the nutrition profiles of various foods for several years. He created algorithms to calculate the nutrient density of foods by examining each product’s nutrients to encourage (protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals) and nutrients to limit (saturated fats, sodium, added sugars). Running the calculations on database of thousands of foods showed unequivocally that nutrient dense foods tend to be more expensive.

However, there is hope.

Knowing how to eat well is based on “knowledge, money and time,” Drewnowski says. “If you’re trying to save money, you need to invest your knowledge and time into learning how to cook and finding the right foods.”

Here is a simple example – French fries are not a healthy choice, but the potato they come from is. Instead of getting fries at McDonald’s (saves time), why not bake potatoes (invest time in learning and cooking).

What you need to know:

Convenience is the key word here.

The entire fast food industry was born so that Americans could get food more conveniently an save time. TV Dinners were a great convenience to moms who joined the work force in the 1950’s and 60’s and no longer had time to cook at home. The tradition of convenience continues today with deli counters at the supermarket, precut salads, and ready made pasts sauces, soups, and whatnot.

These conveniences cost money. And if they are labeled as healthy conveniences, they’ll cost even more.

Granted, we need this convenience because we barely have enough hours in a day to survive, let alone spend them in the kitchen cooking.

But if we look at statistics, Americans are spending 2-4 hours a day in front of a screen, whether TV, Computer, or video game.

What if we took just 10% of that time and spent it on acquiring basic food preparation skills and employing them in our kitchen?

A trick that works for busy parents is to set aside a block of 3-5 hours on the weekend to cook for the entire upcoming week. Thank goodness for large freezers.

An important investment is teaching your kids to prepare foods. It can start with washing vegetables and drying them (preschool), continue with cutting (4th grade and up), and work on up to sautéing (junior high). Heck, by the time the kids are in highschool, not only are they helping you cook, they’re probably slimmer and healthier than their couch potato peers.  Not to mention the quality time spent together creating dishes.

Now let’s look at what ingredients you should to buy…

What to do at the supermarket:

As a rule, the less processed a food, the cheaper it is. Which means you should buy more fruits and veggies (even frozen or canned), bulk grains such as rice, and lean unprepared meats. Basic unsweetened dairy products such as yogurts are cheaper than the fruit flavored sugar laden kind. Adding a teaspoon of honey or a few chopped strawberries and spoonful of sugar is still going to be cheaper, not to mention healthier.

Most of what you’ll need is the in the perimeter of the store.

Here are some more suggestions in Fooducate’s Top Ten Tips for Nutritious Shopping in a Recession.

Good luck and bon apetit.

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You’re in your thirties, forties and fifties.

You’re trying to eat better than you once did.

You’ve gained a few pounds since highschool, and maybe even have a medical condition. You’re not eating all the stuff you used to, whether it’s a refined taste you have acquired over the years, or limits you’ve imposed on yourself due to health considerations.

You’d like your children to eat healthfully as well. But that’s where problems  arise.

You’re not alone. If you are a parents to children under the age of 3, you still  have a chance to succeed because you control almost of every facet of their day, including meals. But it’s all downhill the minute kids go to preschool, kindergarten, grade school and onwards.

Here are a few reasons why it’s an uphill battle:

1. The law of the lowest common denominator. If your child has an apple for snacktime at school, but another kid is munching on twizzlers, what snack will both of them want tomorrow?

2. Childhood heroes sell (out). Movie tie ins are a very lucrative business for Hollywood. Entire licensing departments exist at all the major studios whose task is to sell the rights to use images in conjunction with sales of junk food. In just one example for this summer, Burger King is promoting Star Trek, Transformers, and G.I. Joe.

3. Convenience. The kids have to eat at school. You need to prepare their lunch every day. Or do you? What about some pocket change for little Johnny to get something at the school cafeteria? Or better yet, at the fast food diner conveniently located 2 blocks away from school.

4. Junk Food tastes good. It’s hard to argue with kids, whose taste buds are more responsive to sweet than complex tastes.

5. More convenience. You had a long day in the office, and the last thing you want to do is spend an hour cooking dinner in the sweltering kitchen when you get home. How simple, and cheap, it is to pick up a ready meal at one of the many drive-in windows spread around town.

6. The law of diminishing moderation. You don’t want your child to be totally clueless, plus the grandparents will have a fit if they can’t bring little Sally a chocolate treat when they come over this afternoon. What starts out as our good willed intentions to let kids enjoy a sweet snack once in a while, becomes once a day, and then once every few hours. Before you know it, things get out of control, and the majority of the snacks consumed by your kids are of the wrong kind.

What you need to do:

There is hope. But it requires strong willed parents who can help their children feel good about their food choices, and not feel like social outcasts.

It’s important to start your kids off right from the minute they’re weaned off milk/formula. Set rules that are reasonable (one chocolate snack a day) and stand by them. Show your kids how to prepare meals. Take them to a community garden. Teach them to read nutrition labels. Have them read about the risks of obesity and other diet related health problems. Eat together.

Talk with other parents at school. Talk with the teachers and school administration about improving the nutrition of school food.

If enough parents band together, perhaps law number one above will not be relevant anymore.

What do studios need to do: stop selling out childhood heroes to the highest paying burger!

What Junk Food Execs need to do: stop pushing crap at American kids. Think about your own children and multiply by 100 million!

And the government: Please, make them stop! You know they won’t do it on their own.

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Baby food is big business, with over half a billion dollars in sales last year. For the companies manufacturing jars of mashed bananas and carrots, this is quite a profitable pursuit.

But why do parents, who could just as easily prepare these simple “dishes”, spend hundreds of dollars a year on jars of baby food?

The answers are varied, and include convenience, lack of food preparation knowledge, and great marketing by Gerber, Beech Nut, and a few smaller players.

A few moms that decided to go the homemade route shared their story:

Jaime Hollock, 32, mother of Micah, 13 months, has been making homemade baby food for her son ever since he started eating solids at 5½ months old.

Before Micah was born, Jaime decided she wanted to make her own food, so she bought two books to educate herself on the subject, giving her confidence.

“I learned this is no different than me cooking for myself”

read the entire article

What you need to know:

If you’re buying baby food to feed junior at home, you’re throwing money away. Especially in the early months of solids, there’s nothing easier than steaming or boiling carrots, zucchini, etc… and pureeing them. You can then store the puree in the freezer for an entire week, using an ice tray to create individual portions that will be used daily.

Chicken? not a problem. boil some water and throw a few drumsticks in a for 45 minutes. When prepared, separate the meat from the bones, and puree.

Fruit? The easiest . Just peel and puree. Bananas are the easiest – just use a fork to create a delicious mushy mass.

By following these first steps you’ll be providing your baby the freshest and tastiest food, without any additional ingredients. (To the manufacturers’ credit, they have removed most of the additives and sugar from baby food in the past few years).

What to do at the supermarket:

Save yourself money and splurge on supermarket baby food for those days where you’ll be on the road or out of the house for a long time.

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photo credit: Mr. T in DC

1. Extolling veggies – they are naturally low in calories, but high in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.

2. According the USDA, we’re supposed to get 5 servings of vegetables a day. That’s about 2 and a half cups worth.

3. Unfortunately, less than one third of Americans meet their daily vegetable requirement.

4. If you buy smart, you can meet your daily requirement for less than $2.50 a day.

5. Vegetables start losing their nutrients the moment they are picked, albeit slowly. Once in contact with water or heat, the process is greatly accelerated.

6. Wash vegetables just before serving.

7. Eating raw vegetables retains more nutrients than heating them. And if you’ve ever tasted fresh corn, minutes after harvest, you know it’s not as weird as it sounds to eat uncooked.

8. Choose veggies from all color ranges, as each color represents a different set of nutrients.

9. chopping vegetables into larger pieces helps maintain nutrients better than finely chopping because less surface area comes in contact with air or water that leech out the nutrients.

10. Steaming, microwaving, and a pressure cooker are the best cooking methods to retain nutrients.

11. Keeping the vegetable peels on is recommended where possible because the peel and area just below contain large amounts of nutrients such as fiber.

12. If preparing veggies in boiling water (for example corn on the cob), nutrients leech into the water. Don’t lose them by discarding this water, use it to prepare a soup or broth.

13. Remember ADEK – Vitamins that are fat soluble (Vitamin A, D, E, K). A tablespoon of olive or canola oil on a freshly prepared garden salad actually improves the bio-availability of these vitamins.

14. Vegetables can be served as a snack – carrot sticks, celery sticks filled with peanut butter, cherry tomatoes, etc,..

What to do at the supermarket:

If you’re on a tight budget – buy veggies in season, they’ll be much cheaper than imports from the other side of the planet. Check the frozen section at the supermarket – many times you’ll find cheap vegetables as well. Their nutritional value is often close or equal to that of their fresh equivalent.

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An interesting read in the Los Angeles Times tries to help consumers make an informed nutritional decision when baking cookies:

Butter and margarine have a similar overall fat content — and therefore a lot of calories, says Katherine Zeratsky, a registered dietitian with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. But the composition of the fats in butter and margarine differs significantly.

“You have to pick the lesser of two evils,” Zeratsky says. “In butter, it’s the saturated fat content, and in margarine, it’s trans fat.”

Read the full article…

What you need to know:

Margarine is a relatively recent invention (less than 200 years) and is considered the cheaper cousin to butter. Some groups can’t use butter at all. Vegans need to make do with oils and margarine. Jews observant of kosher dietary laws prepare many non-milk (parve) dishes to accompany or follow meat meals. But for most of us, the dilemma is real.

From a caloric standpoint, butter and margarine are equal. Several decades ago, margarine got a big boost from the medical community because it was deemed healthier than butter – no cholesterol, and much less saturated fat. However, the discovery of trans fat and its far more sinister effect on people’s health has put the two products back on equal footing.

Neither are good in large amounts, and if you need to choose, products made with butter usually taste better. When working with a recipe, many times canola oil can be used  together with the butter, replacing up to 50% of the butter without changing the flavor or texture.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you do choose margarine, go for the soft tub kind, which has not undergone massive hydrogenation, and therefore contains very low amounts of transfat. A zero transfat claim may be misleading, because manufacturers can claim zero as long as there is less than 0.5 gram of transfat per serving. But a serving may be just a tablespoon, whereas a recipe calls for an entire cup full of butter or margarine.

Whatever you choose to cook with, remember that portion control and limiting caloric intake is a sure way to stay healthier.

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