Yesterday, while on the elliptical at the gym, I saw one of those new Walmart commercials. An attractive young mother was talking about how a family of four could save $880 a year just by foregoing fast food breakfasts for a "nutritious" breakfast at home. (First thought: Really? How many families of four regularly get their breakfast at a fast food place, and in what universe could anybody think that was a good idea?). Behind her was a table with a big box of Frosted Flakes and a gallon of milk. (Second thought: Seriously? A sugary, high carb cereal and some milk, no protein, no fresh fruit ... this is a nutritious breakfast? Maybe in Corporate America).
Then, V Adams commented in yesterday's post about the delicious vegan brownies at Whole Foods, and it got me thinking. We are all susceptible to lazy thinking in various areas of our lives, and most people are extremely lazy in their thinking about food, yours truly most adamantly included. Food is so basic! We have to have it every day. We get in trouble when we have too much of the wrong kind. But figuring out how much food we should have and what the right kind of food is and how we can get it into our bodies with the minimum muss, fuss, and expense, and how we can deal with food which is not good for us but is obsessively appealing ... well, that's where it gets very complicated.
The simple fact is that there is no Health Fairy Seal of Approval, there is no Mary Poppins umbrella, underneath which all foods are magically and assuredly Healthy. I can crow all I like about eating organic, locally grown products but if the bulk of those products are potatoes and cheese, that isn't healthy. Just because something is labeled "Vegan" does not mean it is good for you. V's delectable vegan brownies may easily have just as much fat and sugar as a conventional brownie, and may or may not score higher on the Healthy Foods Scoreboard. (Hydrogenated margarine? Vegan, but not healthy. Too much sugar, no matter what the source, not healthy. Sorry, V!). You don't get a free ride as a Vegetarian, either. Mac and cheese is vegetarian; so is a loaded baked potato if you skip the bacon bits. And all those animal product substitutes, like texturized vegetable protein (what they use to make veggie burgers) and various dairy alternatives --- those can be absolutely awful for your health.
Furthermore, labels like "organic", "free-range", and "all natural" can be very deceptive. They sound good, but thanks to USDA regulations, the product may or may not fulfill the spirit of the label. An appalling example is the term "free-range", which is supposed to indicate that the animals have been kept in a humane environment with access to roam freely outdoors. The advertising agencies responsible for promoting these products would like you to think those cows are wandering happily through sunny fields of green grass, eating hay and daisies. The chickens are clucking and scratching in the dirt, eating bugs and bits of rock like chickens are supposed to do. The reality in many cases is that these animals are being crowded into barns, fed things that are convenient for humans but ultimately unhealthy for the animals (cows are not meant to eat grain) and denied the opportunity to do and eat what comes naturally to them. The corporate farm is allowed to label their animals "free-range" (and therefore command a higher price) simply by allowing access to the outdoors --- which may be nothing more than a mud pen. And there is no specified amount of time which the animals must be allowed to roam freely outside.
Now, I don't intend this to be an animal rights rant (that's another blog post entirely), but rather to point out that you cannot trust labels. Labels are meaningless unless you have put in the time to figure out what they really mean.
It's a minefield, I tell you, a minefield! We must all stop eating everything immediately and subsist on alcohol and Starbuck's vente frappucinos, like the celebrities do!
Or, we could just educate ourselves about nutrition.
I know, I know, what a drag, but if you are really interested in being healthy and losing weight, this is one area where there are no shortcuts. Furthermore, you will also have to make decisions every step of the way about what makes most sense to you, because there is a lot of conflicting information out there.
My personal journey to weight loss has led me to do a lot of reading. I've listed some of the most influential books in one of the sidebars of this blog. If you can't bring yourself to sit down and read an actual book about nutrition, there are lots of excellent blogs out there. I'll work on compiling a list of them, and I'd love to hear reader recommendations.
In the meantime, here's what my own research has led me to:
While I don't think that eating meat or animal proteins is necessarily bad, I do think they are best consumed sparingly and then only if they come from reliable sources. Animals should be truly free-range and bred on the foods that are natural to them (i.e. grass-fed beef). Dairy products should be organic and as low-fat as you can stand. Yard eggs are far superior to those lily-white grocery store things.
Milk substitutes are a great way to get your milk on without the fat and calories that come from cow milk, and you KNOW I love my half-and-half in my coffee. But I've stopped using milk except for the nonfat organic milk I use in my homemade yogurt (turns out it's very hard to make yogurt successfully from alternate milk products). My current favorite is almond milk; the unsweetened kind has only 40 calories a cup! I also use unsweetened organic soy milk. Watch out for any milk alternative that has sugar added, and many of them do. Also, soy is one of those products that you absolutely want organic.
The issue of fat deserves its own book, let alone its own blog post, so let me just state briefly that I have come to believe that fat, like other foods, is best consumed as close to its natural, unprocessed state as possible. In other words, just like it's better to eat a whole fruit instead of fruit juice, it's better to eat a few olives than a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Yes, there are some fats that are healthier than others --- olive, canola, safflower --- but they are still very highly caloric and it's very easy to eat too much. My current ideal is to use a little spray canola or olive oil when needed to grease a pan for cooking, and the rest of the time, to get my fats from whole foods.
Speaking of whole foods, the less processed something is, the better off you are, healthwise. Fresh veggies and fruits, and even frozen ones, are so much better than anything canned or prepared in a frozen dinner. Whole grains offer much greater nutritional content and a lower glycemic load than heavily processed grains. Eat simple.
I also believe in eating as low-fat and low-sugar as I can manage. I like to bake, but I almost always replace added fat and sugar in my recipes, and I don't miss them. And I have a major sweet tooth.
To encapsulate: I believe in eating a largely organic plant-based, unprocessed diet occasionally supplemented by animal proteins and treats.
And even with all this, I still have to carefully read every label and decipher its meaning. It's worth it to me, because not only do I want to finish losing and keep off this weight for the rest of my life, but I want to do so without having to think about it so much every single day. That means surrounding myself on a regular basis with foods I know are good for me, and getting in the habit of eating the right amount and the right things most of the time. (Note: not all of the time. Life's too short not to eat gelato and garlic naan with saag paneer and sweet potato fries with chipotle mayo. I'm just sayin'). I want to be healthy. I want to be one of those old ladies with more energy than anyone else around her, making all the 30-year-old moms shake their heads and wonder how I do it. And also, I think this way of eating is better for the environment, the economy, and the soul. I think it's better for the human race.
And while I'm not on a campaign to make all the heathens eat EXACTLY THE WAY I DO OR ZOMG YOU'RE GOING TO CULINARY HELL, I do very much encourage you to explore, to educate yourselves, and to find out what works and what makes sense to you. Because that is what you will be able to stick with over time, and it's what will make you happy and comfortable and healthy in the long run. It will evolve, too. Let it, and enjoy the ride!
MK, funny you should mention Dr. K's book and the article in the Times --- I was just reading the article yesterday and am interested to see the book. I intend to address it in another blog post, but I will say this: I think it's kind of a no-brainer that the food industry (restaurants and retailers) do whatever it takes to keep us buying their foods; but I don't think that's the only reason or even the main reason people overeat. My own process has led me to believe that it's a very complicated and individual cocktail of factors. And BTW, thanks so much for the nice comment about my blog helping you! I really appreciate that and I am really glad it's been of use.
V, sorry if I came across as picking on you! I didn't mean to imply that you hadn't thought about that yummy brownie before you ate it, or even that you shouldn't eat one once in a while. Heck, I'm planning to go out for full fat, full sugar, decidedly unhealthy birthday cake next week (delayed gratification --- my birthday was two weeks ago). It just struck me as something we all do (myself included). My hubby and I do this all the time. "Well, it's from Whole Foods so it's probably healthy! It's vegan, so it's go to be better than that packaged cookie!" And I see the same attitude a lot in friends who are trying to diet.
BTW, I also have Mindless Eating (Brian Wansink, I have to look at his name every single time to remember how to spell it) and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to defeat their poor eating habits.
Posted by: Cindy | June 24, 2009 at 08:33 AM
I also read Dr. Kessler's book and was gobsmacked by what I learned about (ahem) healthy choices offered at many popular chain restaurants (they put fake grill marks on the grilled chicken -- FAKE GRILL MARKS -- so we think it's not fried. It is). I can relate personally to Cindy's post here about fooling oneself about the true nature of food. Obviously I have a weakness for the Vegan Whole Food brownies! I really like them for the intense chocolate flavor, and not b/c I think they are magically calorie free or better for me (although, I hadn't really thought about the hydrogenated oil that must go into making them. Shudder - thanks for bringing that up Cindy!). But this post reminds me of an exchange I had several years ago with a European friend visiting in NY. I hadn't started my weight loss journey yet, but was on a vegan kick. I made a beautiful vegan lasagna that was, I kid you not, to DIE FOR. It was so good. I proudly had the friend over for dinner and she loved it. She consumed the very ample, American portion I put in front of her and I urged her to eat more. Our conversation went something like this:
ME: Let me get you some more of that, there's plenty.
HER: No, thanks. I've already eaten too much. But it's really good.
ME: It's ok, it's practically fat-free! And everything is organic. You can have as much as you want.
HER: (giving me a funny look) Well, it maybe fatfree, but it still has calories. I'm done, but thanks.
I, of course, heaped my plate with second helpings. Sigh...portion control remains a big challenge for me. It's what I work on the most in my weight loss journey -- 63lbs down now -- and I'm constantly battling my old programming to eat, eat, eat until really really full. In this regard, Brian Wainsik's (check spelling of his last name) book Mindless Eating has really helped me find techniques to slow down, stay present, not kid myself into thinking those five extra bites don't matter. For one, even though I'm right handed, I'll often try to eat left-handed. Also - chopsticks! I just can't get huge bites with those suckers, so now fast stuffing of the pie hole.
But it's good to get a reminder too that just because something is purportedly "good for you," it doesn't mean it really is. Or that you can eat as much of it as you *think* you want/need because it's vegan/organic/fat-free/homemade etc...
Posted by: V Adams | June 24, 2009 at 07:42 AM
I recommend Dr. David Kessler's book, The End of Overeating. It presents an interesting idea that I think you are approaching independently, that the food and restaurant industry consistently hits the "sweet spot" (pun intended) of sugar/fat/salt ratios,the ones that stimulate our brains to produce what Kessler calls "conditioned hypereating". They do it because it increases profits.
See yesterday's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/health/23well.html?_r=1&hpw
Your blog has been a great help in my effort to lose weight, and great fun as well. Thank you for championing the thinking
person's approach to maintaining a healthy body.
Posted by: MK | June 23, 2009 at 04:29 PM