March 2008 Archives

Some complain that it costs to much to follow a healthy lifestyle. Paying more for healthy food, gym memberships, massages and counseling can run up quite a bill. But no one even thinks about how much it might cost them if they did not make those choices.

The Cost of an Unhealthy Lifestyle

Here is some interesting information regarding the amount of money you could save on life insurance premiums by making healthy lifestyle choices. The information came from a February 2008 Consumer Reports article. Based on a life insurance quote for a premium policy, the following can be saved:

• $4,600 for a 5'10" male who is 185 lbs instead of 205 lbs
  
• $4,600 to reduce borderline high blood pressure to less than 140/85
• $17,800 to cut cholesterol 80 points to less than 220; and total cholesterol to HDL ratio to less than 5.0
• $42,000 to quit smoking for three or more years

This is just savings over a 20 year period of life insurance premiums.  Not mentioned are increased health care premiums, doctor visits, medication, and poorer quality of life associated with unhealthy behaviors. 

The Cost of a Healthy Lifestyle

The other thing to realize is that it actually doesn't have to be more expensive to eat healthy and exercise if you do some creative planning. Here are some ways to cut costs on healthy living:

• Buy fresh fruits and vegetables from the farmer's market
• Eat vegetable sources of protein rather than meat
• Walking or running are probably the cheapest forms of exercise
• Prepare more meals at home
• Bring your lunch

Healthy living not only saves you money in the short term, it makes for a more enjoyable life for the long term. 

For those of you who live in North Carolina, and have Blue Cross Blue Shield, be sure to sign up for the 'Member Health Partnership' program to get six free visits with a dietitian this year.  Now that's cheap! 

- Julie

As a dietitian, the food I eat is constantly being evaluated by friends, family, and co-workers. I get the comment "If you're eating it, then it must be good for me". That's a dangerous statement, since I don't ONLY eat healthy food!

At one point, I started a food diary to share with one of my co-workers who was particularly interested.  When I mentioned the food diary to a healthy lifestyle class I teach, they each wanted a copy! It is curious to me that anyone would be that interested in what I eat, but I guess when it comes to an anticancer diet you would look to the cancer dietitian!

With that in mind, I thought I'd share the foods that I ate this week. I did my grocery shopping on Monday and bought some staples along with the foods to have with 3 dinners I planned to make.  Menu planning is one of the keys to eating healthy. 

The 3 dinners I planned for were Tofu Curry (see my post on Curry for the recipe), Spinach Lentil Soup and Mexican 5 Bean Soup. Both soup recipes came from Zonya's Lickety Split Meals. This is the best practical, healthy cookbook I've ever come across.

The Grocery Trip:

The staples I bought this week include:

• Granny Smith Apples
• Gala Apples
• Pineapple
• Strawberries
• Fresh spinach
• Asparagus
• Baby Carrots
• Plain Yogurt
• Green Peppers
• Milk
• Eggs
• Low-fat Cheese
• 100% Whole grain bagels

Julie's Anti-Cancer Meals:

Tuesday:

• Breakfast - 100% whole wheat mini bagel with laughing cow lite cheese, a banana, and hot tea.
• Lunch - Lentil Spinach Soup, 8 oz. plain yogurt with sugar and cinnamon added, apple, green pepper slices
• Dinner- Stir fried spinach, green pepper, and tofu

Wednesday:

• Breakfast - 100% whole wheat mini bagel with laughing cow lite cheese, a banana, and hot tea
• Lunch - Lentil Spinach Soup, 8 oz. plain yogurt with sugar and cinnamon added, apple, baby carrots
• Dinner - Tuna salad on mini bagel with Cabot lite Monterey Jack cheese
• 2nd Dinner - 1 cup leftover lentil soup

Thursday:

• Breakfast - fried egg on 100% whole wheat English muffin, strawberries and tea
• Lunch - Kashi granola bar, nectarine, apple juice
• Dinner - Tofu Curry
• 2nd Dinner - 1 cup leftover lentil soup, 1/2 cup pineapple
• 3rd Dinner - 100% whole wheat mini bagel with laughing cow lite cheese, 1/2 cup pineapple

Since my husband and I are training for a triathlon in 2 weeks, we've been swimming every night at 7pm. That means that I have a small dinner around 6pm, and then I eat again after we get home around 8pm.

I think there were some snacks in there that I left out, but you try to think about what you ate the last three days and see if you don't forget something! Also of note, I was in a hurry for lunch on Thursday and didn't have a chance to eat, so I had to throw together a few snacks to make my lunch.

I typically have a lot of variety from week to week, but this is my cancer prevention diet for this week.

Have a great weekend, be sure to get your fruits and veggies!

- Julie

Grilling the Healthy Way!

Last post we learned about the link between grilled meats and cancer. The bottom line is that grilling is a healthy way to prepare food, and is a great option if done right.

Grilling is a good way to cook meat without adding fat, and it tastes good too! To keep from increasing your risk for cancer, here are some tips from the American Institute for Cancer Research on making the most of your grilling.

1. Grill veggies instead of meats

• Try grilling marinated vegetables on skewers, on a grilling tray, or wrapped in foil
• Other healthy barbecue choices are veggie burgers, pizza, tofu, or quesadillas
• Grilled fruit makes a sweet, healthy dessert

2. Marinate meats before grilling to reduce the amount of HCAs.

3. Trim the fat

• Choose lean, well-trimmed meats to grill, as they have less fat to drip into the flames
• Remove the skin from poultry
• Avoid high-fat meats such as ribs or sausages

4. Pre-cook meats, fish and poultry

• Use the oven or microwave to cook the meat, then grill briefly for flavor
• Keep meat portions small so they only need to spend a brief time on the grill
• Skewered kebobs cook the fastest

5. Fix the drips

• Avoid letting juices drip into the flames or coals, which causes smoke and flare-ups
• Use tongs or a spatula to turn foods instead of piercing meat with a fork
• Cover the grill with punctured aluminum foil, do not place meats directly over coals and keep a spray bottle of water on hand (to control flare-ups)

6. Flip frequently

• Recent research has found that cooking hamburger patties at a lower temperature and turning them often helps prevent the formation of HCAs
• Veggie burgers cook very quickly on the grill, so you don't have to cook them for as long as you cook beef burgers.

7. Try to keep flames from touching food directly and remove all charred or burnt portions of food before eating.

Now that Spring is here, it's time to get out the grill. Be sure to use these tips and make your grilled food healthy and cancer free!

- Julie

(Reference: Tips from http://www.aicr.org)

I Didn't Know Grilling Caused Cancer!

Last time we were talking about using marinades for flavoring foods, and included several recipes. Many times people use marinades for grilling meats and veggies. Did you know that there is a link between eating grilled meat and cancer? 

At this point, you might be thinking "but grilling is supposed to be a healthy, low-fat way to prepare meat!"

Here's the bottom line: Grilling is a healthy way to prepare food, and is a great option if done right.

How Does Grilling Cause Cancer?

So what is the science regarding the link between grilling and cancer?

According to AICR, grilling can cause meats like steak, poultry and fish to produce cancer causing compounds called HCAs (heterocyclic amines). HCAs have been shown to cause tumors in animals and are thought to increase the risk of breast, colon, stomach, and prostate cancer.

Another cancer causing substance, PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) is formed when fat from the meat drips onto coals. This is then put on the meat during smoking or flare-ups. The charred parts of the meat are where the cancer-causing chemicals are mostly found.

The good news is that you don't have to worry about these compounds forming on foods that aren't meat. When other foods burn, like veggies or grains, there are far less HCAs and PAHs formed. Also, the technique of 'blackening' a food doesn't form these compounds.  Blackening burns the spices, not the meat.

How Can I Grill the Healthy Way?

Since the biggest risk in grilling is with meats, this is another reason to try grilling meatless!

Stay tuned for the next post: Grilling the Healthy Way! I will give you the practical tips on how to have great tasting grilled foods without increasing your risk for cancer.

Have a great weekend!

- Julie

By now, you probably have heard about spices providing you with cancer fighting phytochemicals. In a recent post we focused specifically on curry. This time, we're talking about a great way to add in phytochemicals while flavoring your food: marinating!

Many times when people are trying to cook low-fat, healthy protein, they turn to skinless, boneless chicken. After a few meals they comment  "all I eat is chicken, chicken, chicken!"  Not only does marinating with fresh herbs reduce your risk for cancer, it's also good for making your lean meat or vegetables taste good without adding a lot of fat.

You do need to be careful that the marinades you use do not have a lot of sodium in them.

Here are some marinating recipes and tips from Nutrition Action, an excellent health newsletter by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Marinating Tips:

• If you eat meat, buy it raw and unseasoned. 
  
• Try marinades with tofu. Simply cut an extra firm block of tofu into one inch cubes. Make the marinade and let the tofu sit in the marinade for several days.  When I do this, I put the tofu on a salad and use the marinade as salad dressing.
• Try a bottle of Mrs. Dash's new marinades or one of the recipes below (created by Nutrition Action's Tamara Goldis). The saltiest of the two adds just 160 milligrams of sodium to each 3-ounce serving of meat, fish, poultry, firm tofu, or vegetables.
• Combine the ingredients in a bowl, put the food down in the liquid, and let sit for 10 minutes or more.  Then roast away.
• Each recipe makes 1 ½ cups of marinade, enough for about two pounds of food.  Never brush used marinade on cooked meat, poultry or fish unless you first heat the liquid until boiling to kill any germs.

Marinade Recipes

Garlic Herb Marinade

• 6 garlic cloves, chopped       
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh thyme
• ¼ cup chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 Tbs. chopped fresh basil
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• ½ tsp. salt

Tamara's Famous Marinade

• ¾ cup balsamic vinegar
• ½ cup olive oil
• 3 Tbs. prepared (bottled) mustard
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. dried minced onion

Using marinades is an easy way to spice up a boring meal, so give them a try and tell me about it!

- Julie

They’re NOT a food group! Fats and Sweets

On the old pyramid, fats and sweets were their own food group. Not this time though! When it comes to fats, most people know that there are good fats and there are not-so-good fats.  Good or bad, all fats have the same amount of calories in them. 

When trying to lose weight, pay attention to the calories, regardless of good or bad fat. 

However, for heart health and overall health, the type of fat is very important. Healthy fats are  monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.  They are found in nuts, seeds, avocados and oils.

Not-so-healthy fats are saturated and trans fats, which are found in meat and dairy as well as many boxed foods or foods you get at restaurants.

It’s important to know what you’re looking for on the food label. When looking at fat, don’t focus on the total fat, rather see how much of the not-so-healthy fats are in it. Sugar is listed on the food label under the carbohydrate section. However it doesn’t tell you if it’s a healthy sugar (from fruit or milk) or an unhealthy sugar (from table sugar or corn syrup). By looking at total carbohydrate and fiber, you will know if there are too many added sugars or not.

Supermarket Smarts: Buy It or Bypass It?

Here is a guide for how to determine if you should buy an item or not. If the item is one part of a meal, or a snack, use the chart for ‘Snacks’. If the item is going to be most or all of your meal, use the chart for ‘Meals’. In order to qualify as a buy it, it needs to meet ALL the ‘Buy It!’ criteria.

Snacks                         Buy It!                Bypass It!

Calories                                 < 200                           > 200

Saturated + Trans Fat             < 2 g                            > 2g

Sodium                                  < 350mg                       > 350mg

Carbohydrate                         < 30g                            > 30g

Fiber*                                     > 3g                              < 3g

Meals                          Buy It!                  Bypass It!

Calories                                 < 600                            > 600

Saturated + Trans Fat             < 5 g                             > 5g

Sodium                                  < 800mg                        >800mg

Carbohydrate                          <65g                             > 65g

Fiber*                                      >5g                               <5g

*When you're looking at fiber on the food label, don't expect to find any if it's a dairy or meat product. Only plant products have fiber in them. So if it's a dairy or meat, just ignore the guide for fiber.  If you see fiber on a dairy product, you know that it has been added.

For a printable chart of this information, click here.

Happy Shopping!

- Julie

I love Kale. It's not that I grew up with it. In fact, the first time I had kale was probably just 3-4 years ago. It didn't take long before I made it a staple in my house.

I remember one of the first times I tasted it. My husband's mother had made it at his sister's house and I was having leftovers. I couldn't believe that such a coarse, leafy vegetable could taste so good. Now, it's like I crave it!

The point of my story is that I never would've tried to cook kale without some mentoring of how to do it. I have love/hate stories about many different vegetables including broccoli, green beans, spinach, cabbage, etc. And by mentoring I'm talking about more than how to pour them out of a can into a pan and turn the heat on, or the 'can-pan-&-heat' style of my husband's earlier years!  Here's what I have learned.

Your "made easy" guide to cooking vegetables:

Cooking vegetables is a procedure. Different ingredients can be substituted, but the procedure remains. First I'll give you the procedure and then I'll tell you which vegetables to use with what seasonings. You may have some more ideas and I would love to hear them!

The Procedure (Something I'll call a combination of pan frying and steaming):

1. Pour oil (I usually use Canola or peanut) into a pan till it thinly coats the bottom. 
2. Add chopped onion, minced garlic, or both.
3. Heat oil and onion and/or garlic until hot. (I think this is the secret; don't add vegetables to cold oil!It's hot when a water droplet hits it and pops). 
4. Add vegetable and stir to mix with oil.
   
5. After vegetables start turning bright and before they start burning, add some water to the pan (just enough to keep vegetables from burning; add more water as needed).
6. Cover and let cook/steam until done (taste test to tell).
7. Add salt or other seasoning as desired.

Here are some specifics for different vegetables and how I cook them:

• Kale (chop): Cook onion in oil until transparent, then add chopped kale, water and salt; cook until tender, about 15 minutes.
• Broccoli (stems can be used if you cut off the skin and chop): Garlic and salt
• Cabbage (chop): Onion and salt
• Spinach: Garlic - NOTE: With spinach, I don't need to add water if the spinach is rinsed. The water on the leaves from rinsing is enough. Even more importantly is that it's almost impossible to undercook spinach while stir-frying. It's very easy to over cook it. I add it to the pan and stir it around until it wilts.
• Collards (Chop; They're not my favorite, but I'll cook them on occasion): No garlic or onion; Add brown sugar and red wine vinegar with the water.
• Green beans: Garlic and salt.
• Yellow squash/ Zuchini (slice): Onion. After cooked I sprinkle sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame seeds on for flavor
• Okra (I use fresh or frozen whole okra): Onion. I add okra and fresh or canned diced tomato along with the water. After cooked, season with cajun salt.
• Asparagus (cut off and toss coarse ends): No garlic or onion; salt

That's your practical tip for the day, I hope you enjoy it!

- Julie

Should I Eat Meat or Not?

Have you had someone tell you that it is unhealthy to eat meat or animal products? Many studies have shown health benefits for those who choose not to eat meat.

You might wonder if you should be a vegetarian or a vegan.   A vegetarian is someone who eats eggs and dairy foods but does not eat meat.  By contrast, someone who eats no foods that have animal components, including eggs, dairy, or meat is a vegan. 

Following a vegetarian diet is one healthy eating pattern. What makes it particularly healthy is that vegetarians tend to consume a lot more plant products than meat eaters do.

While it’s not necessary to completely eliminate meat from your diet, it is probably a good idea to make your main meal meatless at least twice a week. Beans, soy, nuts, and seeds are great sources of protein and you also get extra fiber and nutrients that you don’t get with animal protein.

What Are the Healthiest Animal Foods?

When consuming food that comes from an animal, there is a chance that you will be getting not so healthy saturated fats. In order to make sure you don’t get too much saturated fat, choose low-fat dairy (1% or skim) or soy milk and choose lean meats like poultry without the skin, fish or vegetarian sources of protein.

There is also a lot of talk about consuming fish for the health benefits to your heart. Fish like tuna, salmon, sardines, rainbow trout, and mackerel all have heart healthy omega-3 fats in them. It is recommended that we consume fish 2-3 times a week. Remember that a serving of fish is 3 ounces, about the size of a deck of cards. Sorry to say it, but fried fish doesn’t count!

If you don’t like fish, you can get the heart healthy fats with fish oil pills and by eating plant sources of omega-3. Plant sources are walnuts and flax seed meal.

Recipe:

This week’s recipe is for hummus. It’s made from garbanzo beans and sesame paste, so it counts as a vegetarian or vegan protein. It’s great as dip for veggies, pita chips or baked tortilla chips. It’s also good in a wrap or on a sandwich.

You can purchase hummus in the grocery store in the deli section where they sell the specialty cheese. Or save yourself the money and make it yourself! By adding things like roasted red pepper or sun-dried tomatoes, you can give it a little kick.

Hummus

• 16 oz. can chickpeas/ garbanzo beans, save ¼ cup of the juice
• 3-5 T lemon juice
• 1 ½ T tahini (sesame paste) – this is usually sold in the ethnic foods section
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• ½ t salt, optional
• 2 T olive oil

Drain chickpeas, set aside reserved liquid. Combine chickpeas and remaining ingredients in a blender or food processor. Add the reserved liquid and blend for 3-5 minutes on low until thoroughly mixed and smooth.

Enjoy the weekend!

- Julie

Depending on your occupation, lunchtime can be something you look forward to or just an inconvenience.  Many days I find that my lunch meal is an afterthought. It might be 11:30 and I'm starving but I don't have lunch. In that moment, I'll take anything to eat regardless of how healthy it might be! THAT is the danger in not planning.

In a previous post I talked about cancer fighting breakfast meals. Today I'll give you some ideas about stocking your kitchen with the right foods to pack a cancer fighting lunch. It used to be called brown bagging. Now, I don't think I see anyone bringing lunch in a brown bag, except my dad!

What to Include:

No matter what container you use, it's important to bring the right things for lunch. Remember that even at lunch time it's important; I'll  go so far as to say necessary, to include vegetables.

The lunches that I see often have a lot of protein and grain or other starch. A lot of times, there is no fruit or vegetable present. It's like people are eating meat on starch with a side of fatty starch and a sweet, fatty starch for dessert. Where's the vegetable? Where's the fruit? All we have is too many calories and not enough nutrients!

To make for a healthier lunch, here are the essentials:

• 1-2 vegetables (1 cup or more)
• Starch (1-2 servings)
• Protein (2 ounces)
• Fruit
• Dairy (milk or yogurt)

Sample Meals:

Here are some sample meals that would make a healthy lunch:

• Leftovers with fruit and yogurt. (I find this to be the easiest one!)
• Peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread, carrots and red peppers, apple and 1% milk
• Hummus, Raw veggies, Triscuits, banana and yogurt
• Trail mix, salad, chocolate 1% milk
• Tuna salad with celery and cherry tomatoes, vegetable soup and fruit
• Turkey wrap, yogurt, orange, carrot sticks
• Healthy choice frozen meal, salad, fruit and soy milk.

Many times, I have some of these ingredients in my work cabinet, fridge or drawer. That way, if I've forgotten my lunch, I have some food on standby to fall back on.

Don't know if you need to improve your lunch or not? Try keeping a food log at lunch time to see how you're doing. Click here to access a food log.

Have a great week and be sure to pack your lunch!

- Julie