When I was thinking of the theme for this newsletter and came up with “Just Chew It!” all I could hear in my head was Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” but with “Chew It” substituted. Corny, I know, but easy to remember. And, kind of funny.

Chewing actually is important for our digestion. Chewing food thoroughly helps get the food ready for digestion by breaking it into smaller pieces and mixing it with saliva and some digestive enzymes. Chewed food travels down the esophagus easily. Chewing also takes time which means you slow down and, hopefully, pay a bit more attention to what is actually in your mouth.

Food companies and restaurants actually don’t want you to chew. Because, chewing takes time and slows you down. If chewing slows you down, it means you may eat less. Which, in turn, means they may make less money. Or, if you still order the same amount of food, means you may end up eating more because you over-eat easier when you don’t have to chew. Want to know how they do this? They, um, have the food pre-chewed for you. EEEEWWWWWW!!!!! Did that get your attention?

Its true! A lot of major food chains and food companies process their foods in ways that, basically, make them pre-chewed. This means that they break down in your mouth very fast so you only have to chew a couple of times before you can swallow. Think about it. How much do you have to chew to get a carrot ready to swallow? Quite a bit. How much do you have to chew to get that chicken finger ready to swallow? Typically, only a couple of times. The foods you get at many restaurants are processed so you can “wolf it down fast” says an interviewee in David Kessler’s book The End of Overeating. He goes on to say that “By eliminating the need to chew, modern food processing techniques allow us to eat faster. ‘When you’re eating these things, you’ve had 500, 600, 800, 900 calories before you know it.’ said the consultant.” Pretty eye opening. . . .

Next time you are eating at your favorite restaurant, look at the menu and think about choosing foods you’ll have to chew rather than just swallow. And, when your food arrives, pay attention to you chewing. Do you have to chew the food well (10+ times) or does only a couple of times do before you can swallow it? Picking foods you have to chew can lead to enjoying your food more as well as, possibly, reducing your waistline.

Seafood can be one of the best protein choices you can make.  They are typically low in fat, and those that are higher in fat such as salmon and tuna are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids which have been shown to help reduce serum triglyceride levels, potentially reduce the risk of heart disease, and help with chronic dry eye.  There is a huge variety of fish available, and the choices can be overwhelming.  How seafood are raised and caught is causing environmental concerns because these methods may damage the habitat the fish rely on to survive.  There are also concerns about heavy metal and other types of contamination in seafood.  If seafood is such a great food but there are all these concerns, how do you know which ones to choose?

I heard about a great tool recently to help choose fish – Fish Phone by the Blue Ocean Institute.  You have a couple of ways to use it.  The first is by text from your cell phone.  Text “FISH” and the type of fish to 30644 and you will get a text message(s) back with information about the fish and whether or not they recommend choosing/consuming it (regular text message rates apply).  When I texted “FISH TUNA” I got two messages that said, “Pole or troll caught (GREEN) very few environmental concerns; purse seine or longline caught (YELLOW) some env concerns, HEALTH ADVISORY; high mercury; bluefin tuna (RED) significant env problems, HEALTH ADVISORY; high mercury.”  What does all this mean?  Well, if I were eating out or buying tuna at the store, I’d ask how the tuna was caught.  If it were bluefin, I wouldn’t eat it.  If it were purse seine or longline caught, I would probably go ahead and have it as long as I’m only eating it once or twice a month.  You can also go to the Blue Ocean Institute’s web site and look up fish there.  They also have guides you can download and wallet sized guides you can order.  Are you a sushi fan?  Here’s a link to their sushi guide.

Another great resource for determining fish to buy and consume is Seafood Watch by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  On their web site, they have education information as well as seafood recommendations.  You can also load up their iPhone application (if you have an iPhone) so you always have their information handy.  They also have pocket guides (if you don’t have an iPhone) to keep with you to assist your seafood selection.

Finally, the Environmental Defense Fund has a seafood selector.  And, they have a great chart showing, based on health risks (such as PCBs or mercury) how many servings should be eaten per month for women, men, younger kids and older kids.

Now, next time your choosing seafood, you can choose one that is both good for you, and good for the environment.

Enjoy!

Last blog post I talked about ways to get food locally through farmer’s markets and pick your own.  There is another way to be a Localtarian – to patronize restaurants that use local and seasonal ingredients.  There are some great restaurants in Houston that use local and seasonal restaurants – like t’afia by Monica Pope.  Epicurious has a nice article on the Top 10 Farm-to-Table Restaurants in the US that shows that this type of restaurants are not just “nuts and berries” but have chefs who are incredibly creative at using local ingredients.  Some chefs even grow their own ingredients.

We recently got back from a trip to Coeur d’Alane, Idaho and Spokane, Washington.  Luckily, a friend’s father lives in the area and provided some recommendations for restaurants that use local ingredients and grow their own.  These were some of the best meals we have had in a long time.  Two of our favorites were Mizuna and Sante.  It is always a lot of fun to try local restaurants and those that use local ingredients.  Want to find restaurants that cook local in your area? Just google “local ingredients” +restaurants.

Another option is to patronize restaurants that use organic ingredients and minimize their footprint.  An example in the Houston area is Ruggles Green.  Ruggles Green is a Certified Organic Restaurant – the first in Houston.  Want to find an organic restaurant in your area?  Search at the Green Restaurant Association and at organic restaurants at Local Harvest.

Next time you head out to dinner, take a minute and see if there is a local and/or organic restaurant in your area.  And, let me know what you discover.

Determining portion size, particularly when eating out, is a challenge. As tempted as I am sometimes to carry my scale and meauring cups and spoons with me, I don’t. Here is a good article on determining portion sizes: http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/01/14/eatingout.html

When there is food on our plates or in our bowls, we tend to think that is the amount we need to eat.  And, if there are things served along with it, we often think we need to eat that, too.  When we’re at a restaurant and the food arrives, we think that portion on the plate is the appropriate portion for us to eat.  Maybe this comes from when we were small and a parent would fix our plate for us.

At most restaurants, the food that arrives in front of us is more than a single portion.  For example, at PeiWei the Honey Seared Chicken is 420 calories per serving.  However, there are two servings on that plate that is brought to your table.  And, that doesn’t include the rice that is also on the plate (which is 170 calories per serving if it is brown rice with two servings per portion on the plate).  If you eat all of the Honey Seared Chicken and all of the brown rice, you’ll have eaten 1120 calories.  So, one way to eat fewer calories is to eat half of most of the portions you are served when eating out.  How about splitting with someone next time you go out?  Or, get a to go container and put half in it before you start eating.  That means you get two meals out of one order.

Another example is the new oatmeal at Starbucks.  When you order it, you get the oatmeal (made with water) and three packets – brown sugar, nuts and dried fruit.  However, just because you get those packets does not mean that you have to add them to your oatmeal.  If we look at the calorie content, the oatmeal is 140 calories, the brown sugar is 50 calories, the nut medley is 100 calories, and the dried fruit is 100 calories.  If you add all three packets, you’ve added more calories than the original food – the oatmeal.  Rather than getting 140 calories, you’re getting 390 calories.  Still, not a bad choice.  But, it is important to think about how adding those packets change the calories you are eating.  Yeah, it is only 100 calories or so if you don’t add the nuts or fruit, but all those “little” 100 calorie packets can add up.

So, next time you’re food arrives, or you sit down to eat, ask yourself “is this really how much I want to eat?”  If the answer is “no” then get the extra off your plate.  If there are add-ons to the food, ask if you really want it and the calories that go along with it.

Despite what a major fast-food chain’s commercials say, hunger is not an emergency.  Hunger can be caused by many things – our body asking for energy, stress, sadness, boredom, seeing or smelling food, etc.  Hunger, luckily for most of us, is rarely an emergency.  What does this mean you’re asking?  It means that just because you’re hungry doesn’t mean you have to eat.

Is this a novel concept?  It was to me until I was working through the Beck Diet Solution.  One day you skip lunch.  “OH NO!” I thought.  “I’m going to be STARVING!”  Well, yes – and no.  What she has you do is rate on a scale some items of discomfort with 0 being no discomfort and 10 being extreme discomfort.  For me, 1 was a mild headache, 5 was bad headache, 10 was a migraine where I can’t do anything but sleep.  Then, at each hour on the day you skip lunch, you rate  your discomfort level – not your hunger level.  This helps define hunger in a different way.  Almost, I found, to put it at arms length.

I found out that realistically, I was only mildly uncomfortable when I had a slight headache for a short period of time.  It really wasn’t a bad day or too difficult at all.  Looking at hunger from the frame of discomfort was eye opening for me.  My body is telling me it is hungry (which is almost all the time it seems), but it really isn’t harming me.

Now, there are times when eating is a necessity.  Just like most of you, those blood sugar drops come along.  However, the key is to know the difference between “I’m hungry but can wait” and “MUST HAVE FOOD NOW!”

This was one of the most valuable lessons from the book.  I’ve learned that its OK to be hungry; I don’t have to eat every time I feel or think I am hungry.  Honestly, it is freeing.  I don’t have to have food with me all the time “just in case” I get hungry.  I know I can make it until I can get something to eat.

On a side note, I’m heading to the annual American Dietetic Association conference in Chicago this weekend.  I’ll be keeping my eyes out for new and exciting things to bring you in the coming weeks!

In one of my graduate school classes – Individual Determinants of Obesity – we were talking about the prevalence of obesity and the food environment. The discussion came around to the question of “do food companies want people to be fat?” Well, lets think about this. . .

Food companies make, obviously, food! They make their food tasty. They make their food pretty to look at. They make food that smells good. They make food cheap and easy to eat. Yes, I’m thinking about processed foods – but those are the ones that tend to put on weight. Think the candy bars at the checkout, cake mixes, snack mixes, ice cream, mac and cheese and those sorts of foods. And, don’t forget all those fast foods and restaurants out there. Do they want you fat?

Honestly, I don’t think they want you, or me, or anyone else fat. But what they do want is for you to eat more of their food. The more of their food you eat, the more money they make. They entice you to eat more through commercials (food = love and acceptance, food = a treat or something you deserve), packaging, and product placements in movies and TV shows to name a few.

Restaurants get you to eat more by hiding calories in the food to make it taste good. Honestly, I don’t want to know how much butter they use. OK – I KNOW they use a lot of butter. I had the chance to work in a kitchen for a few months and discovered the secret of tasty food – BUTTER! The cooks had pitchers (yes, those iced tea pitchers) full of butter that went in and on everything. Next time you get a sandwich or hamburger, look at the bun. I’ll bet you it has butter on it. And, restaurants are good with add-ons. “Yeah, I’d like that dessert.” Sound familiar? It does to me, too.

It doesn’t take a lot of thought to see that if you eat more than your body needs – whether you know it or not -you’ll gain weight. Our bodies are not good at calculating calories as we eat. So, what can you do? Be an informed eater. Print out the nutrition information from all the restaurants that have them (I keep copies in my car for quick reference). Look at the book Eat This Not That or Dining Lean. Or, try Dr. Jo’s Eat Out and Lose Weight Diet Plan which is a deck of cards to keep with you to help make healthy choices.

Food companies can try to entice you to eat more, but you don’t have to. Remember – you are in control of what you eat. So, food companies may inadvertently want you fat – but you don’t have to be.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about planning your food for the next day.  If you are taking food to work or school (or even with you to have after a workout), you need to be confident that it will stay at the appropriate temperature.  In food safety, they talk about the “Food Temperature Danger Zone” which is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.  You don’t want your food in that “danger zone” more than two hours total (remember the prep time and time sitting on the counter counts).  If food is left in the “danger zone” longer than two hours, there is increased chance for bacteria and other organism growth which can lead to food poisoning.  When thinking about transporting your food, there are two things to consider: the containers the food goes in, and the container for the containers.

Food Containers
Lots of options are available from the standard Tupperware/Ziploc/Glad lines of bags and containers to things a bit more fancy.  I’ve heard rave reviews about lunch bento boxes.  They have multiple little boxes that fit together for easy transport.  Here is another one called laptop lunches.  I saw the Fit N Fresh containers at the American Dietetic Association conference last year and was very impressed.  They have containers for preparation (marked with serving amounts) as well as really cool storage boxes with ice cores to keep the food cold.  In example is the “breakfast chiller” that has a container for your cereal, milk, a re-usable ice ring that goes around the milk, another container for fruit or something else and a spork.  All these things fit neatly together.  The Fit N Fresh line is available at Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond and other retailers.  The important thing is to find containers that work for you and your food.

Food Container Transport
Once you’ve got your food in their containers, you need to transport those containers.  If you need a cooler or lunch box to carry food, now is the time to start looking.  Since it is back to school time, most of the big box retailers have lunch boxes stocked.  As with the food containres, there are a lot of options out there.  When thinking about transportation, consider how much food you’ll be taking on a daily basis, the sizes and shapes of the containers, and how long the food will need to be kept cool.  I typically carry a lot of food when I’m at school for a full day (yeah, I know this is a surprise).  This is the cooler I got last year at Target.  I wanted something large because I’d been having to carry two smaller ones and something that would keep everything cold if it sat in the hot car for a couple of hours.  I’ve been really happy with the Arctic Zone cooler (my only complaint is that the strap isn’t adjustable and there isn’t a handle in case you don’t want to use the strap).  I still have my smaller, lighter ones to use on days when I don’t have that much or will be straight to school.  So, you may want to look at getting a couple.  And, don’t forget the re-usable ice packs to keep the food cold.  If you don’t want to use those or have odd shaped containers, put some ice cubes in plastic bags and fit them in the cooler (you can empty and re-use the bags, too).  Sometimes I use both.

A final note. . . .
The easiest way I find to be sure my food makes it out the door with me is to pack the night before – either physically or mentally.  If you pack the food then forget to take it, put your keys with the food in the fridge.