Thyme For Nutrition

Lowering fat can make recipes taste a little different. One way to zest them up again without the extra calories is to add spices. Try a little curry in your chicken dishes. Rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil are all tried and true spices. Of course there is always chili powder. Garlic whether in the powder form and cloves cut or put in a press adds zing.

If cooking with spices is new to you, purchase a spice chart. It will tell you what spices to add to chicken, fish, tomato dishes etc.  Experiment! You may find some new favorites.

Avocados naturally come perfectly packaged. Wash and slip a small one into your lunch bag along with a knife for a great addition to salad, a sandwich, or just on its own. Distinct from other vegetables, avocados have a higher fat level but it is in the form of healthy fat (mono and polyunsaturated) that your body requires. This makes it a great substitute for foods rich in saturated in fat. Avocados contribute nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and beneficial plant compounds that can contribute to the nutrient quality of your diet.

For most of us apples have become part of everyday life - like seasons of the year. We take them for granted forgetting what they offer us. Easy to pack around with us, just wash and throw in a bag for a very convenient snack. A major source of antioxidant flavonoids, apples are low in calories, low in price and a great source of soluble and insoluable fiber.

Interesting to note, most of the vitamin C found in apples is found just under the skin and the fragrant smell of the apple is found in the apple skins cells which when ripened release their sweetness. Studies have shown that soluble fiber (pectin is just one of them) makes the apple heart healthy.

There are 7500 varieties of apples worldwide but only 100 varieties are grown commercially. If you like sweet-tart tastes try Braeburn or McIntosh. If you love the tartness of apples, the Granny Smith is the choice for you.

It’s amazing how a few changes can affect your weight and how you feel. Instead of buying a case of soft drinks, purchase a large bottle of carbonated spring water and a bottle of pure sugarless fruit juice. Try something exotic.  Add ¼ of a cup of the spring water to a glass of exotic fruit juice and you will have a pleasurable drink as well save yourself a lot of empty calories.

A healthy snack is a homemade fruit muffin. Use canola oil instead of margarine and exchange ¼ of the white flour for whole wheat flour. It tastes great and satisfies you until your next meal. Keep it interesting by using whatever fruit is in season.

The good news is that food with trans fats are disappearing from the shelves and replaced with non-trans fat foods. The not so good news is that you still have to be wary.  Food manufacturers don’t have to list trans fat in the nutrition label if there is less than 0.5 g PER SERVING. They can even “no trans fats” on the label. But depending on the serving size you may eat several servings at one sitting.

Make a habit of scanning the ingredients as well as the nutrition label. If you see hydrogenated in the label then it contains trans fats. Those that are truly trans fat free will include in their ingredients healthy fats like liquid canola oil and olive oils.

Believe it or not, potatoes are the number one vegetable crop in the world and most of us have grown up on them. Potatoes themselves are not fattening; it’s how they are cooked.
One whole, large potato provides almost half (45 percent or 26 milligrams) of the daily value of vitamin C — and just 220 calories. A single large potato also is high in potassium (21 percent of the daily value, 845 milligrams) and fiber (20 percent of the daily value, 5 grams). Potatoes are a great source of niacin. It’s best to eat potatoes with their skin - you’ll double your intake of most nutrients by eating both.

Stuffed Baked Potato: bake the potato, cut lengthwise, carefully scoop out and mash and add plain yogurt or 1% cottage cheese. A bit of onion and garlic along with thinly sliced peppers. Toss with mashed mixture and stuff back in the potato. Add a sprinkling of grated lowfat cheese. Serve with a salad and you have a low-fat filling meal.

It is best to lean towards nutrition when losing weight. But to be effective at weight loss, it is wise to know where you stand calorie wise throughout the day. In the same way that you round up the amount you are spending in a store before reaching the cash register, do the same with your calorie spending plan. An example would be breakfast. If you had 1 cup of 100% Natural Granola Oats and Honey (464 cal) + ½ cup of fresh blueberries (42 cal) + ½ cup milk (51 calories), it doesn’t sound like much. But the total intake is 557 calories! This is a high amount of calories for the amount of food received. Exchange the granola for an equal size of Raisin Bran (also a high fiber choice and only 188 calories) and you will cut 276 calories. Use part of this for a piece of whole wheat toast for extra staying power and you are still saving calories.

The best way to lose weight is to eat a nutritionally balanced diet of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, lean protein, plenty of water and limiting sugars/desserts to a treat. This and exercise will make great strides to a smaller healthier and fit body.  But if after all this you still find that the scale isn’t budging, it is time to look at your calorie intake and your calorie requirements.

Most people estimate the amount of calories they require in a day higher than it actually is. They also estimate the amount of calories they take in as lower than they actually are. Daily calorie calculators are available on the internet. The Mayo Clinic website offers one that includes your activity level in its calculations. The calorie calculators will tell you the amount of calories you should consume to maintain your current weight. To drop weight you will need to cut out 500 calories daily. For many it is easier to eliminate 200 calories in food/drink and then pick up an extra activity that will burn 300 calories. Thirty minutes of swimming, active cycling (including hills), 50 minutes of walking at a brisk pace or 40 minutes of walk/jog/walk will all burn about 300 calories. If you cut these 500 calories out each day you will lose 1 pound per week.

Even with the firmest of commitments to eat healthily there are times when fast food restaurants are convenient or unavoidable. Many fast food restaurants have made it a priority to have at least one or two healthy heart smart choices.

If you know which restaurants you are most likely to frequent, go to their website and look at the nutritional information they have for each item on their menu. The results might surprise you. Choose a couple of ideas for each of the restaurants so that you will be ready when the time comes. A little planning can keep you on your weight loss plan while still enjoying the convenience. Interestingly, most people tend to estimate about 200 calories below whatever they actually eat.

Except for some magazine covers, the 2 Week Diet is a thing of the past. Thanks to media and medical stories, it is now widely known that if you want to lose weight and keep it off, a consistent, healthy lifestyle is the way to go.

If you have been on a low fat diet, eating whole grains, veggies and fruits and lean protein with just a few desserts here and there and would still like to slim down more, a study by Pennsylvania State University will interest you. They found that women who added lost of low-cal produce to an already low-fat diet lost more weight than women who were just cutting fat. The group of women who lost the most weight were given a large salad (3 cups worth of greens and low calorie veggies) before they were served the rest of lunch. The result was they ate 100 less total calories. Keep in mind that you must use a no fat/low fat salad dressing for this to be successful. The result will be weight loss and the added benefits of vitamins, nutrients, phytochemicals and fiber.

Grape Seed Oil has a nice mild flavor and great for salad dressings, marinades as well sautéing and frying. One of the healthier oils, it is less expensive than olive oil.

Grape seed oil is a powerful antioxidant, 50 times more potent than Vitamin E and 20 times more effective than Vitamin C in destroying free radicals (harmful molecules that roam the body and damage cells).

Nutrition labels on sides of packages are priceless sources of information. This is particularly true if you have health issues or if you need or desire to lose weight.

Nutrition labels list the total fat and then break it down to saturated and unsaturated fats. The unsaturated fats such as olive, canola oil – often known as the healthy fats are more favorable than the saturated fats (shortening, animal fat etc).

When reading nutrition labels, aim for the unsaturated portion of the total fat to equal 75% or three-quarters the amount of the total fat.

Ideally, less than thirty percent of your total daily calories should come from fat in your diet. If most of that fat is unsaturated, you are doing well.

Lemon is a great way to include Vitamin C in your diet. A major antioxidant, it boosts the immunity, helps bones, ligaments, blood vessels and tendons. An easy way to incorporate lemon juice is to add just ½ a tablespoon of fresh juice to your glass of water. When possible choose fresh lemons for your juice rather than bottled juice.

Fresh lemon juice contains almost twice the amount of vitamin C as bottled lemon juice. Fresh lemons also give you the added bonus of the lemon peel. Grated lemon peel can be used on salads, in muffins and breads for added flavor and vitamins and nutrients.

Next time you want a little something sweet, reach for dried figs. Figs are a great source of fiber and like most dried fruits, rich in antioxidants. J.A. Vinson, professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton and a leader in a study of antioxidants in dried fruit found this to be true of figs: Figs can help you meet daily fruit and fiber recommendations and, like all dried fruits, provide a big dose of polyphenols, potent antioxidants.

The great thing about figs is they are so versatile. Add them to your morning cereal, cut them into pieces and add to a salad or in a baked recipe or put a few in a container to have ready for an afternoon snack.

Although the ill effects of sugar have been known for a while, new research has shown that a lifetime of overeating sugar can damage your skin. Dr. Nicholas Perricone, M.D. explains, “When blood sugar goes up rapidly, sugar can attach itself to collagen in a process called “glycation,” making the skin stiff and inflexible. Losing this elastic resilience of young skin will give you deep wrinkles and make you look old.”

A balanced diet, low in sugar and low in high-glycemic foods (white bread, pastas, starchy foods) but built on vegetables, whole grains (whole wheat/whole grain breads, brown rice etc), lean proteins, fruit and plenty of water will help keep your body running smoothly and protect your skin.