Carole Carson

Feed Your Nose to Shrink Your Stomach

Too often, the problem with eating right is that it is not as satisfying as eating wrong. Part of this may stem from our training from birth to enjoy overly salty, sweet, and fatty foods. For example, who doesn’t love a chocolate chip cookie? And who can stop at one? The combination of the three flavors (salt, sugar and fat) is “hyper-palatable” according to Dr. David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.

Besides the preference for this unhealthy trio of tastes, another piece of the puzzle involves how eating triggers specific mechanics that translate into feelings of satisfaction, hunger, appetite and pleasure. Although it seems counterintuitive, the way to trigger a sensation of satisfaction is through the nose, not the stomach. In one research study of 1,436 subjects, non-caloric aromatic crystals were added to food to stimulate satisfaction. The results were astounding: the average weight loss was 30 pounds.

With this information in mind, cut back on the deadly trio (salt, sugar and unhealthy fats) and add flavors and aromas (think spices) to your recipes. Smell your food before and during your meals. You’ll be giving your body the nutrition it needs along with the satisfaction it craves. When you do, you’ll find that your pleasure in food—not your iron discipline—will eventually shrink your waistline.

Photo courtesy of Zsuzsanna Kilian

 

Making Calories Count: Recipe for Sugo alla Puttanesca

My neighbor Richard Scammell is a wonderful cook. Cooking is Richard's hobby, but when it comes to food preparation, Richard is a highly skilled and well-educated professional. (He's even traveled to Europe to take cooking classes.)

Richard and I share a love of creative, healthful cooking. When I asked him for ideas that I could share with readers, he sent this simple recipe for Sugo alla Puttanesca, which is informally referred to as Harlot Sauce. Street walkers in Rome originated this sauce many years ago, probably because it was an easy and quick sauce to make. 

Although the sauce can be served over whole-grain spaghetti, it can also be served with shrimp or meatballs or over your favorite steamed vegetables. Richard points out that the sauce is not served with cheese but simply as is.

Sugo alla Puttanesca (Harlot Sauce)

Serves 6 to 8

1-1/2 pounds ripe, fresh tomatoes, or 2 cans (28 ounces) chopped canned tomatoes
Coarse salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound pitted kalamata olives (about 1 cup), quartered
6 anchovy fillets packed in oil, drained, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup capers
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and black pepper

If using fresh tomatoes, blanch them in boiling, salted water until the skins split. Remove with a slotted spoon. Remove the skins and chop the tomatoes. Pass the fresh or canned tomatoes through a food mill, using the disk with the smallest holes, or run through food processor.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until lightly golden, about 10 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, olives, anchovies, capers, tomato paste and red pepper flakes. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and black papper.

Buon appétito!

P.S. Do you have a recipe to share? 

Photo courtesy of Christophe Libert

Source: www.sxc.hu

 

How to Apologize to Myself

At some point in our lives, most of us develop and internalize rules of conduct. For instance, I remember deciding that I wouldn’t fight with my younger sister anymore.

Perhaps I should admit that this particular rule emerged on a day when we were fighting on the floor of our shared bedroom over the question of who would use the comb and bathroom first. She nearly succeeded in beating me up. Although I won the battle, I decided I would never fight with her again.

Perhaps self-interest triggered the origin of this high-minded rule. Nonetheless, I never hit my sister again, and if my memory serves me correctly, she never hit me again either.

Now fast-forward sixty years. Today I have rules about what and how much I should eat (no more than 1,500 healthy calories a day) and how much I should exercise (a minimum of 60 minutes unless I am sick). What do I do when I break these rules and feel guilty?  To get back on track, I practice the three Rs.

I read about the three R approach to apologizing in the September/October 2007 issue of Positive Thinking. In the article “The Art of the Apology,” author Alina Larson suggested using the three Rs when we need to make amends to others.

Aha, I thought to myself. Why not adopt her approach when I violate my own standards, when I need to apologize to myself?

Here they are:

Regret: I express my regret aloud. I don’t pretend that my behavior was acceptable. I don’t rationalize my behavior or treat it lightly. I apologize to myself by expressing genuine remorse.

Responsibility: I take responsibility for the choices I made and reaffirm my commitment to stick with my healthier lifestyle. If, for example, I’ve overeaten, I don’t blame the circumstances or any influences around me. I don’t blame the restaurant for serving irresistibly delicious food, the celebratory occasion, my bad mood or my sister.

Remedy: I come up with a different way to deal with whatever triggered the train wreck in my fitness program. If I overate because I allowed myself to get too hungry, then the remedy is to be more vigilant in monitoring my feelings of hunger.

To err is human. Knowing that, I can be certain that I’ll make mistakes again (and again and again) despite my good intentions. That’s why I need to know how to have an intimate conversation with myself—a way to apologize, take action and move on.

Trivia Question: To Lose Weight, Should You Eat a Big Breakfast?

Folk wisdom suggests that to manage our weight, we should eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch and a pauper for dinner.

One study by Tel Aviv University researchers seems to confirm this advice. Two groups of participants were given the same daily caloric allowance. Men were allowed 1,600 calories, and women were allowed 1,400 calories. One group ate a large breakfast (600 calories), while the second group ate calories spread evenly among meals. When the participants were weighed at the end of 32 weeks, how much more did the big-breakfast eaters lose on average when compared to their peers?

1. 10 pounds
2. 20 pounds
3. 30 pounds 
4. 40 pounds

 

The answer is number 4. The scale told the tale. The big-breakfast group lost a whopping 40 pounds more on average than those who spread their calories evenly throughout the day. Participants who ate the big breakfasts reported feeling more satisfied and more in control of their eating than those who ate smaller breakfasts. In explaining the remarkable results, researchers concluded that starting the day with a hearty meal reduces cravings and overeating later in the day.

Weight Loss Requires Mastery of Portion Control

If you're eating wholesome food but unable to lose weight, you may be overestimating the calories you are burning or underestimating the amount of food you are eating. You wouldn't be alone since both are common mistakes .

At one end of the spectrum is the difficulty of measuring the calories expended. For example, exercise machines can overestimate calories burned during exercise by as much as 31 percent. We can also overestimate the level of difficulty of our workout. Or maybe we are math challenged and can't follow the algebraic formulas involving our height, weight and BMI, to arrive at an accurate answer about expended calories.

At the other end of the spectrum are mistakes we make in calculating the calories we consume. For instance, one survey showed that when eating out, customers significantly underestimated the levels of calories, fat and saturated fat in less-healthful restaurant items. "Actual fat and saturated fat levels were twice consumers’ estimates and calories approached 2 times more than what consumers expected."

Are individuals any better at estimating calories in the portions they eat when eating healthful items? No. Researchers found that when people think they are eating healthy, they eat more. As a result, they consume twice as many calories as they believe they did.

We also confuse portions with servings. For instance, if I eat a large bowl of cereal for breakfast, I may be unaware that I've eaten two servings of cereal. When you add the common problem of overeating through snacking or unintentional eating (such as sampling food while cooking), you can see how many snakes are in the Medusa head of portion control.

Here are five helpful strategies to help your stay in control of the amount of food you eat:

1. Educate yourself. Go to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Portion Distortion website to see how portions have expanded in 20 years. A picture is worth a thousand words.
2. Whether eating out or at home, choose healthy, filling foods. Adopt a simple, inviolable rule: No second helpings. 
3. Savor your meals without distraction and eat from a small plate. Chew each bite 35 to 40 times.
4. Drink healthy beverages. For example, drink water instead of sugared juice or have a sugar-free tea in place of a cola.
5. To address cravings between meals, eat satisfying fruit such as apples, grapefruit and oranges. (You'll find more helpful tips here.)

Developing mastery of portion control, like learning to ride a bike, requires patience and persistence. If you fall down while learning this skill (and you will fall from time to time), pick yourself up and begin anew. As author, inventor, politician and diplomat Benjamin Franklin said, "Energy and persistence conquer all things."

Photo courtesy of E. Anka

Location: www.sxc.hu

 

Create Your Own Salad Dressing: Save Calories and Dollars

If weight loss is your goal in 2012, you'll probably find yourself eating more fresh salads. Besides being nutritious, salads help us feel fuller without being dense in calories.

Incorporating salads into your diet will be easier (and less boring) if you add variety and interest by topping them with a variety of dressings. Here are four distinct salad dressings that will make your taste buds sing:

Raspberry Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup raspberry vinegar
3 teaspoons sugar or sugar substitute
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Salt

Whisk the oil, vinegar, sugar, scallions, mustard and pepper together until the sugar is dissolved. Season with salt to taste. Refrigerate and use when chilled. For salad recipes with salmon, go here.

Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing

1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup, drained sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar or sugar substitute
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Salt

Whisk the oil, vinegar, tomatoes, garlic, mustard, sugar and pepper together until the sugar is dissolved. Season with salt to taste. For another version of this dressing that includes pine nuts and basil, go here.

Basic Apple Cider Vinaigrette

1 cups olive oil
3/4 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar or sugar substitute
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Salt

Whisk the oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard and pepper together until the sugar is dissolved. Season with salt to taste. Refrigerate. Serve over salad when chilled. For a garlic-flavored version of this recipe, go here.

Buttermilk Dressing

1 cup buttermilk
2 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise or light mayonnaise
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/8 teaspoon horseradish
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
Salt

Whisk the buttermilk, mayonnaise, vinegar, horseradish, mustard and pepper together. Season with salt to taste. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate. Use within three days. For a version of this dressing with feta cheese, go here. For a vegan version of the feta cheese recipe, replace the feta cheese with an equivalent amount of crumbled tofu. Use this dressing for a new twist on coleslaw.

Why pay three or four dollars for a bottle of commercial salad dressing when you can make your own at half the cost? Here's to a financially and physically fit new you in the New Year.

Bon appétit!

P.S. Do you have any salad dressing recipes to share?

Attitude Renewal: A Survival Skill

What is your most prized possession? Although a positive attitude is one of my most priceless assets, I have not always guarded and protected it. At times I've taken better care of my teeth than my outlook.

Every so often, a personal event will undermine my positive nature. I'm saddened that a family member has died. Or I quarrel with my spouse. Or I learn that a good friend who's returned from Iraq is suffering from trauma and needs to be hospitalized. In those moments, my positive outlook gets squashed like a bug on a windshield.

In addition to shock waves from personal news, sometimes my outlook is diminished because I'm hard on myself. A bit of a perfectionist, I'm driven to accomplish as much as I can each day-- to produce not just quantity but also quality work. When I fail to meet these standards, I am harshly critical of myself, and my attitude droops.

Lastly, I'm influenced by the negative drift in the news floating around me. I see a news report about people who were shot and killed at a salon, and I am sad for the families of those innocent victims. I am also discouraged by the reports of lost jobs, famine and wars in countries whose names I can barely pronounce.

Of course, I know of no way to insulate myself from these events nor would I want to. In a very real sense, they are a part of living. But whether the attack on my positive outlook is a personal shock wave, an inner criticism or negative news, I have to choose how to respond.

Of necessity, I've developed a strategy for attitude renewal. Each morning, I decide to have a great day full of satisfying moments. To make sure I enjoy a great day, I begin by creating a Greatful List. The question is simple: what am I grateful for today? I am amazed at how my outlook lifts once I start itemizing everything that I appreciate in my life.

I also monitor my outlook throughout the day. Attitude renewal can occur at any time or place. It's up to me to notice when repairs are needed. Sometimes all it takes is a little humor. I also find that accomplishing some small task lifts my spirits. Other times I talk out my feelings with my husband. I also resort to prayer. Exercising each day is also essential; without exercise, my outlook deteriorates.

My attitude is revealed in the words I choose, how I look and how I walk. No wonder outlook determines outcome. To succeed in achieving a well-lived life, I must guard this priceless possession. How are you protecting yours?

Photo courtesy of Nicole Jenkins

Location: www.sxc.hu

Fat or Fit? What's Your Relationship with Food?

If losing weight is one of your resolutions in 2012, then an examination of your relationship with food is in order. Your timing is great! The recent start of the New Year gives us the opportunity to dissolve old habits and reinvent ourselves. 

Take this quiz to see if your relationship with food is fat or fit. Give yourself five points for every sentence that describes you or your eating habits. (No one will see your score, so you have permission to be completely honest.) Which of the following apply to you?

1. Most of my friends and family members are overweight.
2. Most of my social activities revolve around eating.
3. I prefer buffet restaurants or ones that serve ample portions.
4. "Going out" is a euphemism for eating and drinking more than I should.
5. Eating helps me relax and soothes me when I hit a bumpy road in life.
6. I have some health problems that are exacerbated by being overweight.
7. I often feel guilty about what and how much I eat.
8. My self-esteem suffers because of my weight and body image.
9. Because I am self-conscious of my body shape, I am reluctant to be intimate with my partner.
10. I avoid social activities that involve exercise (like walking with a friend) because I tire easily from carrying extra weight.

If you scored zero on this quiz, congratulations. You've developed a healthy relationship with food that will serve you well. If your score is greater than zero, then use your score to cut through denial and commit to a new and healthier relationship with food.

Change begins when we recognize dysfunctional behavior that no longer suits us. Without a doubt, making needed changes in any area of our life—but especially in what and how much we eat— involves self-control. But change doesn't have to involve hardship or severe dieting. Instead, making better daily food choices represents an affirmation of the importance we place on our health and well-being—one that meets our future as well as our present needs.

In this spirit, you can resolve that 2012 will mark the beginning of a new and healthful relationship with food.

Photo courtesy of Sakura

Source: Flickr

Making Calories Count: Recipe for Spaghetti all'Arrabbiata

My neighbor Richard Scammell is a wonderful cook. Cooking is Richard's hobby, but when it comes to food preparation, Richard is a highly skilled and well-educated professional. (He's even traveled to Europe to take cooking classes.)

Richard and I share a love of creative, healthful cooking. When I asked him for ideas that I could share with readers, he sent this simple recipe for Spaghetti all’Arrabbiata, or Angry Spaghetti. Although the sauce can be served over whole-grain spaghetti, it can also be served with shrimp or meatballs. Richard also points out that the sauce is not served with cheese but simply as is.

Spaghetti all’Arrabbiata

Serves 6 to 8

1-1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped, or 2 cans (28 ounces) chopped tomatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound whole-wheat spaghetti

Place the tomatoes and oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Taste for salt and pepper.

Pass the mixture through a food mill, using the disk with the smallest holes, into a second saucepan. If you don't have a food mill, use a food processer to blend the ingredients. Return the sauce to medium heat, add the pepper flakes and simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve over pasta, shrimp, meatballs or your favorite steamed vegetables.

Buon appéPtito!

P.S. Do you have a recipe to share?

Photo courtesy of Safari11

Source: www.sxc.hu

Mindset Makeover on Dietary Fat—MUFAS AND PUFAS

Over the past decade, nutritional advice on how much and what kind of fat to eat to keep our weight in check has shifted much like the colors and shapes in a revolving kaleidoscope.

Ten years ago, most of us thought that eating fat would make us fat. Based on this belief, consumers sought to eliminate all fat from their food. In response to the demand, food manufacturers rushed to fill grocery stores with hundreds of reduced or fat-free products, from fat-free ice cream to reduced fat Oreo cookies.

Today, our understanding of the role fats play in maintaining a healthy weight is more nuanced. Minimizing the consumption of trans fats (an inexpensive ingredient in processed food that is easy to use and lengthens shelf life) and saturated fats (found mostly in food mostly from animals but also a few plants) is still considered sound advice. Both are believed to increase the risk of heart disease by reducing the good cholesterol in our bodies and raising the bad cholesterol.
 
But while trans fats and saturated fats are being ostracized, the surprising benefits of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAS) are making headlines. MUFAS are found in certain oils, nuts and seeds, avocados and dark chocolate. PUFAS are found in some vegetables and nuts, and fish and shellfish. For example, a recent study suggests that eating certain unsaturated fats helped participants with prediabetes reduce their risk of developing full-blown type 2 diabetes by almost 60 percent. MUFAS are also cited as "potential superheros for controlling blood sugar, reducing insulin resistance, fighting belly fat . . . strongly associated with prediabetes and diabetes." For optimum benefits for heart health, researchers advise us to combine MUFAS and PUFAS.

The takeaway advice is this: For optimum nutrition, eat mostly fruits and vegetables, lean meat, some fish and healthy whole grains. Include small amounts of oils (especially olive oil), nuts and seeds and avocados--and an occasional piece of dark chocolate.