What am I? Answer: An artichoke
Please submit your answer when reporting your
total point count for the week.
Health Hints for February 3-7, 2003
The Power
of One Dietary
Change in Losing Weight
Alice Henneman,
MS, RD, Extension Educator
ahenneman1@unl.edu
University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension - Lancaster County
What do 10 pounds of fat look like? For a rough
estimate, imagine 40 sticks of butter or margarine or 10 1-pound cans
of
vegetable shortening.
Looks like a lot ... yet
how many of us add this much
weight in a year without realizing it until our pants fit a little
tighter or our belt runs out of notches?
It takes an excess of about
3,500 calories to gain a
pound. Break that into smaller bites and 100 extra calories a day can
put on about 10 pounds a year. The GOOD NEWS is LOSING 10 pounds can
be as easy as eating 100 calories LESS each day for a year.
Sometimes, we're too hard
on ourselves when we're
trying to lose weight. We eat some pretty awful-tasting foods, forgo
getting together with friends if food is involved, or take the joy out
of eating through a monotonous and limited "diet." While people
have lost
hundreds of pounds through some of these methods, it's often the
same 10 pounds over and over again!
ONE dietary change may
be all it takes. Here are some
simple changes, involving just ONE food; each will decrease your daily
intake by about 100 calories. The amounts of calories saved are
approximate; check Nutrition Facts labels on specific foods for exact
amounts.
As a general rule, the
"Dietary Guidelines for
Americans, 2000" recommend a gradual weight loss of no more than
1/2 to
2 pounds per week. The Guidelines also recommend losing weight
under the guidance of a healthcare provider, especially for obese
children and older adults, the Guidelines advise. If you'd like to lose
more than
10 pounds over the next year, try two or more of the following
changes daily. It's difficult to obtain adequate nutrients if you
consume less than 1,200 calories per day; supervision by your physician
is especially important when dropping below this level. It's
beneficial for most people to increase their activity level and eat
less.
Single Dietary Changes
Equal to about 100 Calories
1. Modify Your Milk
Instead of drinking two
cups of whole milk, switch to
two cups of 1% lowfat milk or skim milk. The nutrients are comparable.
2. Modify Your Mayo
Switch from two tablespoons
of regular mayonnaise to
two tablespoons of low-fat mayonnaise.
3. Rethink Your Drink
Substitute a 12-ounce can
of a diet soft drink at 0
calories for a similar amount of a regular soft drink at 150 calories.
(Or,
drink a cold glass of water, perhaps with a slice of lemon!) This strategy
also may help you eat less in other ways. According to Dr. Barbara
Rolls, Pennsylvania State University nutrition professor and author
of
Volumetrics: Feel Full on Fewer Calories:
"Various liquids are
processed by different mechanisms
in the body. The hunger and thirst mechanisms are quite separate. A
soft drink will trigger thirst mechanisms, not hunger mechanisms, and
add calories without satisfying hunger. You may end up consuming
more total calories than if you didn't take the drink."
4. Downsize Your Drink
If you've been drinking
a 20-ounce container of a regular soft drink,
switch to a 12-ounce container size.
5. "Dress,"
Don't "Drown" Your Salad
Pam Anderson (How to Cook
Without a Book, Broadway Books, 2000)
advises about 1 tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of vinegar for each
1
1/2 cup portion of salad.
In How to Make Salad (Boston
Common Press, 1998), the
test kitchen staff for Cook's Illustrated magazine advise a fourth
cup of vinaigrette should be enough to dress 2 quarts (8 cups) of loosely
packed salad, an amount they suggest for 4 servings. That means each
2-cup serving of salad greens should have about one tablespoon of
dressing on it.
NOTE: Dressing slides off
damp salad greens and
collects in the bottom of the salad bowl. You'll get more flavor with
less dressing throughout your salad if salad greens are washed and
thoroughly dried. If you're using bagged lettuce that's
pre-washed and labeled "ready to eat," it should be dry enough
as is. If you
need to wash salad greens, the easiest way to dry them is in a
salad spinner. Pack lightly to avoid overcrowding and bruising the
greens. After spinning, pat off any remaining moisture with clean paper
towels. If you don't have a spinner, dry greens thoroughly with clean
paper towels.
If you've been using 3 (or more!) tablespoons of
dressing per two cups of salad, try cutting back to 1 1/2 tablespoons
of
dressing or less. Or experiment with some of the reduced calorie versions
-- even then, your salad will taste best if "dressed," not
"drowned."
6. Size up Your Cereal
Bowl
A study reported in the
Journal of the American
College of Nutrition (June, 2001) found the amount of cereal eaten by
adults was approximately twice the serving size listed on the
box. That's not necessarily bad, but may be one place calories are
sneaking into meals. Check the portion size you're pouring in relation
to
the size cited on the box; decide if you're pouring more calories than
desired. Try eating from a smaller bowl to aid in portion control.
7. Watch Your Bread
and Spread
Limit the amount of bread
(or rolls) and spread eaten
before the main course to one serving when dining out. You always can
eat more later if you're still hungry!
8. Count Your Cookies
A single medium-sized cookie
easily can have about 100
calories. Often we pop two or more into our mouths before we realize
it. If you feel you're not getting enough "crunch" by limiting
yourself to one cookie, try eating an apple instead -- the calories
are similar.
9. Top Your Potato with
Fewer Calories
It's easy to slather a
couple of tablespoons of butter or margarine (200
calories/2 tablespoons)on a baked potato. Try switching to sour cream;
you can have as much as a fourth cup for 100 calories. For even fewer
calories, use one of the light or fat-free sour creams. Or, substitute
yogurt for sour cream.
10. Lessen Your Liquor
If you drink alcohol, limit
your daily consumption to
one drink for womenand two drinks for men as recommended by the Dietary
Guidelines. A typical 5-oz. glass of wine has 100 calories; a 12-oz.
serving of beer, 150 calories; and 1 1/2 ounces of distilled spirits,
100 calories.
11. Be Size-wise with
Fast Food
Try one or more of these
strategies the next time you
visit your favorite fast food restaurant and you easily can save 100
or
more calories:
Skip the mayonnaise when
ordering your favorite
fast food burger. If you're not very hungry, perhaps a "small,"
"regular," "junior" or whatever term is used by
the restaurant for its
smallest burger, may be enough for you.
Order the smallest size
of fries or split them
with a friend. Instead of fries, consider a side salad with a
fat-free or reduced calorie dressing. It's still important to check
the calories on the salad dressing. Many salad dressings come in
packets; a reduced calorie dressing still may contain around 100 or
more calories per packet. Refer back to tip number 5 -- your salad
might taste just fine without using the whole packet.
Order a diet soft drink
or plain water. See tips 3 and 4 for more
about this.
Most fast food places offer
nutrition information,
including calories, at their restaurant. Many also provide nutrition
information on their company Web site. At your next opportunity, total
the
calories you obtain from your favorite fast food meal. For many
adults and children (age 2 and older), a calorie range somewhere between
1,600 to 2,200 is sufficient. It's easy to consume one-half or more
of
your daily caloric needs at one fast food meal, especially if you're
super-sizing portions!
12. Practice Portion
Control with Popcorn
Popping microwave popcorn
can be a daily occurrence in
many workplaces and homes. It's easy to eat half a bag or
more at a sitting. While even TWO cups of the more buttery popcorns
may
weigh in at 100 calories or less, the entire package might yield
10 or more cups, or possibly over 500 calories! To gauge how many cups
of
corn you're consuming, one cup is about equal in size to a
baseball or to your fist.
Microwave popcorn can be
a great snack. If you'd like
more than a few cups, experiment with some of the lower-fat versions.
Putting The Power of
One DietaryChange into Practice
Think through the foods
you eat on a regular basis.
Are there small changes, like those mentioned in this article, you
could implement? Perhaps these have given you ideas for other changes
that might work for you. To obtain an approximate idea of the calories
and nutrients in additional foods, search the USDA National Nutrient
Database at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp or check the Nutrition
Facts labels on foods.