Healthy Eating

Rather than post a big long comment to Elizabeth at the end of my last post about the parameters of my food plan, I thought I'd just outline it in a new post. This is my own personal plan so you can modify it however you want.

First, I'm not eating refined sugar. This means if sugar, corn syrup, and/or high fructose corn syrup is listed in the first five ingredients of something, I won't eat it. The first five ingredient guideline is the same as diabetics use.

Second, I'm letting myself eat unrefined sugar (Sugar in the Raw/turbinado sugar), honey, and molasses. Stonyfield Farms yogurt is sweetened with natural milled sugar, which is so much yummier than Nutrasweet, which Dannon and Yoplait use to sweeten their sugar free options. Also keep an eye out for fruit juice-sweetened products because that's good too.

Third, fruit is fabulous. A regular-sized apple or orange, half a banana, and different amounts of different juices (have to check the bottle/carton) equal about 60 calories, which is one serving of fruit. Be sure if you're drinking juice that you check the ingredients. Many many juices are NOT fruit juice. They're often water, high fructose corn syrup, and, like, 10% juice. USDA recommends 3-4 servings of fruit per day (http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/Insights/Insight20.PDF)

Frozen fruits and veggies are fine. I've been reading a lot lately about how freezing really doesn't take away a lot of nutrients. One of my favorite recipes from the Dr. Phil plan is a fruit smoothie, which is made with frozen berries:

Fruit Smoothie
1 Cup milk
3/4 - 1 Cup frozen berries (I love blackberries, and blueberries are getting a lot of hype lately for being a good source of antioxidants. Both types of berries are thought to have anti-cancer properties)
1/3 T. sliced almonds
(I put a smidgen of vanilla extract in too, which adds a nice flavor)

Blend and drink

Condiments: Polaner All Fruit and Smuckers Simply Fruit are completely fruit juice-sweetened jellies and jams. Smuckers also makes an all-natural peanut butter in chunky and smooth. Be sure to refrigerate the peanut butter after you open it. Unlike Jif and Skippy with lots of preservatives, it won't keep in the pantry.

Check the ingredients of salad dressings - most of them have sugar or corn syrup as the third ingredient. I let myself slide a little on my personal favorite brand, Kraft Light Done Right, because corn syrup is occasionally the 4th ingredient. You can usually find low-sugar dressings in any store, but especially at stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

I believe Trader Joe's has a low sugar ketchup option, but I figure you can let ketchup slide, since I'm assuming you won't be chugging it. :) Corn syrup is usually the third ingredient in ketchups, I believe.

In addition to cutting out sugar, I generally try as much as I can to eat only whole grains. White flour goes into your system very similarly to refined sugar. Whole wheat bread, oatmeal, whole wheat crackers, etc. Kashi waffles are yummy even without butter and syrup! They also have a little soy in them, which is an especially good protein source for women.

Vegetables are great. A serving of veggies is only 25 calories. Check any nutrition site for what equals a serving. For instance, about 12 baby carrots, 2 cups of lettuce, or 1/2 cup of broccoli equal a serving.

Bear in mind, corn and potatoes are NOT veggies, they are carbohydrates. A serving of potato is a small potato and equals about 80 calories. I often eat a small sweet potato rather than a regular potato, because sweet potatoes have all sorts of good stuff in them that regular potatoes don't like vitamins C and B6, manganese, and a bit of potassium

Be aware of good fats versus bad fats. Good fats include olive oil, avocadoes (hooray!), and many types of nuts.

I fudge things a bit occasionally because I know if I don't like it, I won't eat it. So while brown rice is the healthiest, I think it tastes blechy, so I make jasmine rice (fab when made in lemon and herb chicken broth). Chicken breasts obviously have lower fat, but I prefer dark meat so I get skinless, boneless chicken thighs and trim ALL the fat off. I also eat salmon and tuna. (Let's hear it for Costco!)

OK, sorry for the boring post, but I just thought I'd lay it all out there for anyone who might be interested. :) Apparently I know a lot more about this stuff than I ever realized.