Tag: healthy eating
Eight Terrible Eating Habits You Need To Quit Now

Eight Terrible Eating Habits You Need To Quit Now

By Deven Hopp, Byrdie (TNS)

Over time, food has become less about fueling your body and more about convenience. Blame technology (our ancestors certainly didn’t catch up with Twitter during dinner) or the snack food companies (for manufacturing such deliciously addictive treats), or whatever else you think of, but the truth remains the same: Many of us take an unhealthy approach to mealtime. And the worst part is you might not even be aware of the bad eating habits.

Eating “diet” foods
We’re all guilty of choosing our meals based on convenience, but any food that announces its low-calorie, low-fat, low-whatever-ness in the title should be avoided. Why? For one, they’re usually just not satisfying. Think about it: When was the last time you felt truly satiated after eating a pre-packaged frozen dinner? You probably end up reaching for a snack shortly after. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, our bodies burn about 50 percent more calories metabolizing whole foods than they do processed foods.

Not listening to your stomach
If you, like many American children, grew up being constantly reminded of the “clean plate club,” then you’re likely familiar with this bad habit. Just because food is in front of you, doesn’t mean you have to finish every last bite. Unfortunately lots of us tend to listen to external cues (“Is my plate clean?”) versus internal ones (“Am I still hungry?”) when eating, even when the food isn’t that good. Instead, check in with yourself throughout your meals to rate your hunger level. Stop yourself when you’re full, not because your food is gone.

Making meat the star
While there’s nothing wrong with meat, making it the focus of your meals isn’t exactly a virtuous practice either. Meat is packed with plenty of essential vitamins and minerals, but it’s also higher in total calories and fat than other nutrient-rich foods like vegetables. Try thinking of meat as a side dish instead _ at any given meal, eat twice as much produce as you do meat.

Eating directly out of the box
Paying attention to portion size is one of the most important healthy-eating habits. If you’re snacking right out of the package, you’re bound to eat more than one serving. When you portion out your food before you start eating, you’re much more aware of what you consume. Look at the serving size of packaged foods and eat all of your snacks and meals off of real dishware (and preferably at the kitchen table).

Not setting your silverware down between bites
Chowing down too fast is a surefire way to pack on the pounds. You have to give your brain and your stomach time to catch up to your mouth. And your brain doesn’t start to recognize the signal that you’re full until about 20 minutes in to your meal, so you can see how wolfing down your meal in less than 15 minutes can lead to over-eating. Instead, practice mindful eating. Set your fork down after each bite and take a sip of water before you pick it up again. Or try counting your chews _ 15 to 20 for each bite will slow you down plenty.

Being fat-phobic
If you’re still living in fear of fats, it’s time to change that. Healthy fats (like avocado, olive oil, coconut oil and nuts) are an important part of any diet. Not only do they enhance the flavor of dishes, but they delay stomach emptying, keeping you full longer. Plant-based fats also up appetite-suppressing hormones and have been shown to boost metabolism. Don’t be afraid to drizzle olive oil on your salad or snack on a serving of walnuts.

Eating at your desk
This probably comes as no surprise, but distracted eating leads to over-eating. People who multitask during mealtime underestimate how much they eat by 30 to 50 percent _ they also rate their level of fullness as less than those who focus solely on their food while dining. And (no surprise here) the multitasking eaters end up consuming more calories later on in the day.

Keeping junk food in sight
Let’s face it: We, as humans, are weak _ especially in the face high-sugar, high-fat foods, which have proven addictive qualities, not unlike cocaine and heroin. As such, one of the worst eating habits you can engage in is testing your ability to resist temptation. In one study, office-workers with candy in clear dishes on their desks ate a whopping 71 percent more of the sweet stuff compared to the group that had candy in opaque dishes. That’s not say you need to purge your life of anything sweet, but do remember “out of sight, out of mind.” Keep healthy foods front and center in your fridge and stash the cookies in the back of your pantry _ bonus points if you store them in a non-descript canister.

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(c)2015, Clique Media Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

Photo: Kane via Flickr

Eating Well: Limit Processed Foods With Simple Swaps

Eating Well: Limit Processed Foods With Simple Swaps

By Lisa D’Agrosa, M.S., R.D., EatingWell.com

You’ve probably heard that you should limit processed foods in your diet, but might be wondering exactly what those foods are — and how to cut back on them. Many packaged foods are full of ingredients you can’t pronounce and are loaded with sodium, sugar and unhealthy saturated fat, so it’s worth trying to avoid them when possible.

Here are some simple swaps you can make to cut back on unhealthy processed foods. And, because not everything that comes in a box or plastic tub is bad for you, learn which packaged foods can actually be part of a healthy diet:

At breakfast: Trade cereal for oatmeal.

Many cereals on the market are packed with sugar and/or missing out on fiber. Sure, you can pick a healthier breakfast cereal (and there are plenty of healthy choices), but oatmeal is a whole food with only one ingredient — oats. If you stick to plain oats — not the type that come in flavored packets — you’ll get 150 calories and 4 grams of fiber per ½-cup serving.

Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which can help lower your cholesterol, prevent your blood sugar from spiking and keep you feeling full. Add some fruit for natural sweetness and even more fiber, milk or Greek yogurt for calcium and protein and a dash of cinnamon or vanilla for extra flavor–and you have a satisfying and wholesome breakfast.

At lunch: Trade salad croutons for nuts.

A salad can be a very healthy lunch, but watch out for the toppings. Croutons add a nice crunch, but they also add sodium, fat and calories without a lot of extra nutrition. Instead of those processed cubes of toasted bread, add some nuts to the top of your salad. They’re full of heart-healthy fats, and also add some protein and fiber.

Another way to clean up your salad is to make your own healthy, homemade salad dressing. Bottled salad dressings can have lots of added sugar, sodium and ingredients you can’t pronounce; instead, try making your own. To make a super-healthy salad into a filling meal, add a source of lean protein, such as chicken or fish, and a serving of whole grains, like quinoa or brown rice.

At dinner: Trade canned soup for homemade soup.

Canned soups often have long ingredient lists and are full of things you wouldn’t add to a homemade pot of soup. Plus, they’re notoriously high in sodium. While opening up a can is easier than starting from scratch, you can still have a healthy, homemade soup on the table in 30 minutes.

If you don’t have enough time to prep soup for dinner some nights, cook up a big batch of soup when you have time and freeze it in individual portions — ready to be reheated for a healthy dinner in a flash. You can cut back on other processed foods by cooking them at home too. Think homemade pizza instead of a frozen box, and stir-fries instead of takeout.

You can use fresh, healthy ingredients and will know exactly what you’re eating because cooking lets you control what you’re actually having for dinner. Cooking at home can be just as convenient as using packaged foods — and a lot healthier.

Processed foods to keep in your diet:

Not everything that comes out of a package is unhealthy. Many foods that are served in plastic bags, boxes or cans — like dried beans, bagged salad greens, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables (without added sauces, salt or sugar) — are minimally processed and healthy. Plain, low-fat yogurt, natural peanut butter, and canned wild salmon should make it into your grocery cart, too.

When you’re shopping, look for foods with short ingredient lists with names you recognize and can pronounce before purchasing an item to be sure it doesn’t fall in the unhealthy processed-foods category.

EatingWell is a magazine and website devoted to healthy eating as a way of life. Online at www.eatingwell.com.

Photo: Nathan Cooke via Flickr

Are You A Willpower Wimp? Then Change Your Environment To Lose Weight

Are You A Willpower Wimp? Then Change Your Environment To Lose Weight

By Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times

Need to lose weight? Instead of changing yourself, you might consider changing your environment.

Making changes — big and small — to the world around you is much easier than mustering the willpower to refrain from eating high-calorie foods, says Brian Wansink, who has for years studied our eating habits, currently as director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University.

And those changes can mean that your diet is more healthful without working so hard.

Wansink dismisses the popular idea that mindful eating is the way to eat what we need without overeating junk food. “For 90 percent of us, the solution to mindless eating is not mindful eating — our lives are just too crazy and our willpower’s too wimpy,” he writes in his new book, “Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life.”

The book includes ways restaurants, schools, and other institutions can offer more healthful food, and provides scorecards for readers to figure out whether their homes and workplaces, the restaurants and supermarkets they patronize and their kids’ school meals, are designed for slim.

Restaurants and food companies are likely to change if they can make more money, Wansink noted in a telephone interview. “If a bunch of consumers say, ‘Is there something you can come up with that’s not French fries or a boring salad? I would eat here more often,'” then companies are likely to listen, he said.

They’re in the profits business, not in business to make people fat, he said. It’s a lesson Wansink and his students stumbled upon when they realized that the bigger the package of food, the more people ate of it, and that consumers would pay more for smaller packets that would help them control how much they ate.

“Eventually, Nabisco/Kraft gave my theory a run and launched the 100-calorie snack pack,” Wansink writes. It’s the sort of change that helps people eat less with no effort.

“Most of our lives have made us fat by design,” Wansink said. So it’s time, he said, to make ourselves thin the same way. Here are some of his findings and suggestions; pick those that work for you, he says.

— If you come home through your kitchen door, you’ll weigh more than your neighbor who goes home through another room. Solution? Kind of obvious.

— Wansink and his researchers spent a lot of time watching and cataloging the behavior of people who ate at buffet restaurants. The slim diners scouted out the entire spread before taking any food and then cherry-picked their favorites. Heavy diners went straight for the plates and started piling on from the start of the line. And thin diners sat far from the buffet facing away from it. You can guess what the others did.

— If your plate is the same color as your food, you’re likely to serve yourself 18 percent more food. You can either buy new dishes, or color-code your meals if you want to eat less. But here’s a hint: White plates and lots of pasta, potatoes, and rice? Maybe not. Smaller plates are better, too.

— Clear the counters! The average woman who had potato chips on her counter weighed 8 pounds more than a neighbor who did not, Wansink writes. Big deal, it’s chips, you say? Get this: Woman with a box of breakfast cereal visible anywhere in the kitchen weighed 21 pounds more than that neighbor who kept it in the cupboard, Wansink writes.

— If you are really serious, move your pantry food to a closet elsewhere in the house and that closet’s stuff into the kitchen closet. Or put up shelves in a faraway room to hold the food. That, Wansink writes, will decrease “browsing” for snacks and make you think before the food gets to your mouth.

— Buying in bulk saves money, right? But Wansink writes that one study showed people ate half the chips, cookies, ramen noodles. and the like in the first week — regardless of how much they bought. What to do? Buy only healthful foods in bulk. Or repackage the items once you get home and store some far from the kitchen, he writes.

— Pay attention to the menu. On average, Wansink writes, a dish described as “buttery” has 102 more calories than a similar one not described that way. Crispy? Adds 131 calories, he writes.

— To lessen cravings while in the supermarket, chew gum, Wansink says. When he and colleagues gave shoppers gum at the start of a shopping trip, they bought 7 percent less junk food than their empty-mouthed fellow shoppers.

Photo via WikiCommons

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