20 Tactics for Good Eating Habits

[Guest guest]

This is a pretty interesting article. Of course, some of it won't apply to

us as post-op BPD/DS folk, but maybe someone will gleam some knowledge or

insight!

all the best,

co-moderator, duodenalswitch

Dr. GAgner/Mt. Sinai/NYC

January 25, 2001

lap bpd/ds with gallbladder removal

pre-op: 307 lbs/bmi 45 (5' 9 1/2 " )

now: 228 (stuck there for awhile, I'm afraid...)

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/MensHealth/menshealth_105.html

 

Eat Right Without Thinking About ItTwenty Tactics for Good Eating Habits

By Holly McCord and Virginia Leoni Moles

Special to ABCNEWS.com

Aug. 3 — Listening to some experts talk, you'd think healthy eating was more

complicated than the arterial map of Larry King's chest.

Carbohydrate-to-protein ratios. Phytochemicals. Antioxidants. It's enough to

make you nostalgic for high-school trigonometry class.

But don't get out the slide rule just yet: We have an easier way to improve

what you eat. Adopt some of the following smart habits. These 20 simple

tactics — if you stick to them regularly — will help you get more of the

stuff you need into your diet while eliminating the stuff you don't. The best

part? Before long you'll be dining like a nutrition expert, without even

thinking about it.

Milk Before Coffee

At breakfast, put coffee in your milk instead of milk in your coffee. Fill

your mug to the rim with skim milk first thing in the morning. Drink it down

until all that's left is the amount you'd normally add to your coffee; then

pour your java on top. You just took in 25 percent of the vitamin D you need

every day, and 30 percent of the calcium.

Take your vitamins every morning. Study by study, evidence is mounting that

a standard multivitamin fills enough of the gaps in your diet to make a real

difference. For example, a recent study at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer

Research Institute in Seattle showed that people who took a multivitamin

supplement and 200 I.U. of vitamin E for 10 years were half as likely to get

colon cancer.

Drink two glasses of water before every meal. This will do two things — keep

you hydrated and make you eat a little less. A Dutch study showed that

drinking two glasses of water can make you feel less hungry, possibly

reducing your food intake and aiding weight loss.

Heavy on the Sauce

Always order your pizza with double tomato sauce and light cheese. Men who

eat a lot of tomato products tend to have less prostate cancer — probably

because tomatoes are a rich source of lycopene, a type of carotenoid that's

believed to cut your risk of cancer. If you double the sauce on your pizza,

you get double the lycopene. Reducing the mozzarella by just one-third (you

won't miss it) will save you 20 grams of fat. That's as much as in a

Mc's Quarter-Pounder.

Always order your sandwiches with double tomato slices. Another chance for a

healthy dose of lycopene.

Pile onions on everything. Research has revealed that onions are so

healthful — they're a top source of heart savers called flavonoids — that

it's practically your duty to eat them lavishly on hot dogs, pizza, burgers,

and sandwiches. And speaking of junk food …

Wash Down That Big Mac

Whenever you eat fast food, drink two glasses of water afterward. Big Macs,

subs, fries, and pepperoni pizza are all loaded with fat and sodium, which

can be hellish for your heart. You can't do much about the fat once you've

eaten it, but you can flush away some of the excess sodium by drinking plenty

of fluid afterward, says Tina Ruggiero, R.D., a New York City dietitian.

When the waitress asks what you want to drink, always say iced tea. The more

we learn about tea, the more healthful it looks. A recent U.S. Department of

Agriculture study found that a serving of black tea had more antioxidants —

crucial to your body's defense against heart disease, cancer, and even

wrinkles — than a serving of broccoli or carrots.

Have an afternoon snack every day at 3 o'clock. A nutritional boost between

lunch and dinner wards off fatigue and keeps you from overindulging later,

says Ayoob, Ed.D., R.D., director of the nutrition clinic at the Albert

Einstein College of Medicine's Rose F. Kennedy Center. Just don't scarf down

a candy bar. Try yogurt and fruit, crackers and cheese, or eat — an egg

(hard-boiled), an apple, and a thirst-quencher like bottled water. All of

these foods will give you long-lasting energy.

Always leave the skin on your fruit. If you peel apples or pears, you're

throwing away heavy-duty nutrients and fiber. Same goes for potatoes. Go

ahead and peel oranges, but leave as much of the fibrous white skin under the

rind as you care to eat — it's loaded with flavonoids. Ditto for the white

stem that runs up the middle.

Lots of Water

Put a bottle of water in the office freezer every night before you leave

work. You already know that you should drink eight glasses of water a day,

but how are you supposed to do it? Fill a half-gallon bottle in the morning,

and make sure you've downed it all by the time you go home. If you like your

water cold and you have access to a refrigerator, fill the bottle partially

the night before and stick it in the freezer. Next morning, fill it the rest

of the way. You'll have ice-cold water all day.

Whenever you buy grapefruit, go for red instead of white. Remember lycopene,

that stuff in tomatoes that may fight prostate cancer? It's what makes

tomatoes red. And it's responsible for the color in ruby red grapefruit

(Watermelon and guava also have some).

Eat salmon every Wednesday. Actually, the day doesn't matter; the important

thing is to have it once a week. Salmon is a rich source of omega-3 fatty

acids, a type of fat most experts say we don't get enough of. Omega-3s seem

to keep the heart from going into failure from arrhythmia — men who eat fish

once a week have fewer heart attacks — and they may even ward off depression.

A weekly serving of salmon should supply the amount of omega-3 fats you need.

Rinse Your Meat

Always wash your meat. Here's an easy way to cut the fat content of your

secret chili recipe: As soon as you finish browning the ground beef, pour it

into a dish covered with a double thickness of paper towels. Then put another

paper towel on top and blot the grease. If you want to remove even more fat,

dump the beef into a colander and rinse it with hot (but not boiling) water.

The water will wash away fat and cholesterol. Using these methods together

can cut 50 percent of the meat's fat content.

Whenever you have salad, keep the dressing on the side. Here's the drill:

Dip your fork in the dressing first, then spear a piece of lettuce, then eat

it. Sound dumb? In fact, it's one of the smartest habits you can have. Four

tablespoons of, say, honey-mustard dressing can have 60 grams of fat — nearly

an entire day's worth for an average guy.

Whenever you eat broccoli, put a little margarine, olive oil, or cheese

sauce on it. This is our kind of nutrition advice. Broccoli is a rich source

of beta-carotene — one of the major antioxidants your body needs. But

beta-carotene is fat-soluble, which means it has to hitch a ride on fat

molecules to make the trip through your intestinal wall. Without a little fat

in the mix, your body won't absorb nearly as much beta-carotene.

Always have seconds on vegetables. If we had to pick one food that

represents the best insurance for long-term good health, vegetables would be

it. Your daily goal: Three servings minimum. A serving, by the way, is 1/2

cup. Think of a tennis ball — it's about half a cup in volume.

Watch the Fat, but Eat Dessert

Do a fat analysis before every meal. It's tempting to go fat-free at

breakfast and lunch so you can indulge in a high-fat dinner. Wrong. Studies

show that, for several hours after you eat a meal with 50 to 80 grams of fat,

your blood vessels are less elastic and your blood-clotting factors rise

dramatically. Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham

Cardiovascular Institute, says, " The immediate cause of most heart attacks is

the last fatty meal. " Spread your fat intake over the whole day.

Always eat (a little) dessert. Here's why: Sweets such as cookies and

low-fat ice-cream bars signal your brain that the meal is over. Without them,

you might not feel satiated — which might leave you prowling the kitchen all

night for something to satisfy your sugar jones.

Eat a bowl of dry cereal every night before you go to bed. A low-fat,

low-calorie carbohydrate snack eaten 30 minutes before bed will help make you

sleepy, says Judith Wurtman, Ph.D., of the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology. The nutrition bonus? Cereal is one of the easiest ways to reduce

your fiber deficit. Most men eat only half the 25 to 35 grams of fiber they

need daily. So pick a cereal that has at least five grams of fiber per

serving.