Healthy B.P.M.

It’s lunch time folks and you want to eat healthy. Most of us head on over to the salad bar because its much better on our waistlines than Wendy’s or McDonalds. Now here is where things go awry…we start adding high calorie, low nutritional value items to our salad!

Listen to this, certain types of lettuce are even better for you. Iceberg lettuce is a standard on most salad bars but it offers very little nutritional value. More greener, leafy varieties such as romaine start your salad out packed with nutrients. The typical salad bar is full of items that are definitely not healthy, like high fat dressings, calorie laden tuna salads, high fat cottage cheese, baby corn (starch), sugary jello mixtures with dates and other high calorie fruits in heavy fructose syrup.

Picture this, a Classic Cobb Salad with chopped bacon, egg, blue cheese, avocado, and creamy dressing, or standard restaurant Chef Salad loaded with Swiss cheese, roast beef, eggs, and dressing can contain more than 1,000 calories and 80 grams fat! For some people, that’s more than half their day’s worth of calories (and all their fat). You would have woofed down more calories than a McDonalds Big Mac and regular fries! What a way to shoot your diet in the foot.

Joy Bauer, a leading nutritionist shared with Katie Couric on the Today Show “5 rules to make the best low-calorie salads” Joy says “don’t give up on salads; they’re loaded with nutrition and can be satisfying and delicious. Follow my guidelines for making a perfect low-calorie salad — and you’ll never have to worry again.

1. Pile on leafy greens
2. Load up on plain veggies
3. Add a few lean proteins
4. Indulge in one high-calorie “extra”,
5. Go easy on dressing

I also came across a good video on CBS Early Show with Hannah Storm and R.D. Terri Glassman with audience members challenged to prepare a good salad on stage! Check it out here

Salad Bar, High Fat Salads, Salad, Katie Couric, Joy Bauer, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, Hannah Storm, Terri Glassman, diet, Lowfat Salads

Tired of wrestling with your kids every night at the dinner table to eat their vegetables? Unfortunately kids are made to dislike vegetables. We all know how important it is to get our kids to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, especially when more kids are becoming obese. I watched an episode on Oprah dedicated to this challenging issue for parents. One of her guests, Dr. Oz, says there’s a very good biological reason why it’s so hard to get kids to eat their vegetables. In fact, they are hardwired to not like them. Dr. Oz says when our prehistoric ancestors searched for food, their children were most susceptible to poisons, which often taste bitter. So instead of liking something bitter—like broccoli—children tend to crave sweet and bland foods like dairy or chicken nuggets.

Children also have a biological reason not to like certain foods. Flavorful fruits and veggies may actually taste differently to kids than they do to adults. “An older adult has 3,000 taste buds,” Dr. Oz says. “A kid has 10,000.”

Dr. Oz says we run into problems when we don’t allow our taste buds to mature. “That’s the big challenge we have in America—we’ve infantilized our taste buds. When a 3-year-old wants hot dogs, a burger, fries, a shake, cola, that’s not abnormal. When a 30-yr old likes those foods, we’re in trouble.

It is interesting to note that celebrities face the same issues at the dinner table as we do. Oprah had Jessica Seinfield, wife of comedian Jerry Seinfield, on discussing her new book, Deceptively Delicious. Jessica spoke about how discouraged she was when fixing healthy meals for the kids - and them not eating it. This prompted her to find a way to slip vegetables into every meal - without them knowing it!

What is so facinating and amazing is that Jessica’s recipes are not just for the kids. There is a wonderful brownie recipe that is to die for! Check out more exerpts and recipes from show here.

I hope this story has inspired you to be more creative in the kitchen in order to win the dinner table war!

Kids, Eat your vegetables, Deceptively Delicious, Jessica Seinfield, Kids Corner, Oprah

I did a post on raw food diet a long time ago. 451 press has come a long way since then

Here’s an excerpt of the raw food diet post:

Fruits, veggies, sprouts, dried fruits, legumes, seaweed, freshly made veg and fruit juices,
coconut milk(fresh) are some of the things you can live on. Why do people go in for this kind of diet? Well their claim is that cooking food causes te food to lose any nutritional value it has. The nutritional content of fruits and veggies are destroyed when exposed to heat and water. Raw
food is rich in enzymes and these enzymes are essential if healthy digestion is to take place.

This kind of diet is believed to help detoxify the system and leave you fresh and rejuvenated. But take your doc’s advice if you want to stay on this diet for more than a week. There are chances that you can get Irritable Bowel Syndrome if you take in an excess of raw food diet. But since fruits are so low on calories, there is a positive chance that it helps in weight loss. Just make that you scrunch on nuts since nuts are a high source of protein. Also keep in mind that such a diet is low on iron as well. Patients with cancer and pregnant women should stay off this diet, since it guarantees weight loss.

Raw for 30 Days is a documentary film that uses raw food to tackle diabetes. Six McDonald’s-munching Americans with diabetes who switch to a diet consisting entirely of vegan, organic, live, raw foods in order to reverse diabetes naturally. The six participants are challenged to give up meat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, soda, junk food, fast food, processed food, packaged food, and even cooked food – as well as go without their loved ones and many of their creature comforts – for 30 days.

Check out the trailer….looks good.

451 press, raw food diet

I was hunting for some swell low-fat recipes and I discovered my healthy recipe guide in Stephanie Hyatt. She has put up some great recipes on her Elementary Chef blog. I’m posting a vegetarian and non-vegetarian low-fat recipe each here:

Light Pasta Primavera

1 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 T butter
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 c sliced mushrooms
2 carrots, sliced
1 large zucchini, chopped
1/2 c chopped fresh basil
3/4 t salt
1/2 t pepper
2 T all-purpose flour
14 oz can 2% evaporated milk
12 oz fusilli
1/3 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Melt butter over medium-high heat; cook onion, garlic and mushrooms for 5 minutes. Stir in carrots, zucchini, asparagus, 2 T each of the basil and water, salt and pepper; cover and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Cook, uncovered, for 1 to 2 minutes or until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Stir in flour; cool, stirring, for 1 minute. Pour in milk; cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until thickened. Meanwhile, in large pot of boiling water, cook fusilli al dente; drain and toss with sauce.
Sprinkle with Parmesan and remaining basil, toss again.

Chicken Artichoke Pasta

1 small onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 small jars of marinated artichoke hearts (save the juice from the artichokes)
pinch of salt and pepper on the chicken breast
1 small jar roasted red peppers cut in strips
1 can pitted black olives, partly drained
1 lb boneless chicken breast
2 c tri-colored rotini pasta

In a frying pan add 1 tbsp olive oil, cook onions and garlic for 1 minute. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes or till there is no pink in the middle of chicken. Take out of pan. Cook pasta, drain, add chicken, artichokes, peppers, olives with the juices from artichokes, and 1/2 juice from olives. Toss altogether and serve. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Elementary Chef, low-fat recipes, Italian recipes

I’m hunting for some healthy recipes to post in this space. It’s easy to keep saying ‘eat healthy’; preparing a healthy meal requires some effort and sensible shopping.

Some interesting ways to make your diet interesting(source:CNN health)

-Shred a small zucchini into marinara sauce.

-Pep up your diet with onions and peppers.

-Thicken sauces with tofu.

-Add chopped, slivered, or sliced almonds to hot and cold cereals, salads, and casseroles.

-Stir a cup of yellow corn kernels into soups, pasta dishes, or corn bread batter.

Also check out Terra’s Lunch Date with a Sandwich for some healthy sandwich fillings.

Send me those recipes!

healthy recipes