Missed Part I?  Take a flying leap there now!

1.  Cut down on SUGAR (yep – it’s a HFCS-like concentration of last weeks tip).

SUGAR = fat on the belly (visceral fat)!  Guess what?  THIS IS REALLY bad (your chances of heart disease are higher if your fat is hanging from the old belly.

Apple juice, grape, orange, and other “natural” juices are NOT that natural.  Do you know how many apples it takes to make 8 oz. of apple juice (more than 6 apples).  Pure juice is fructose sugar.   Liver fat increases more with Fructose sugar than Sucrose.   CUT OUT OR WAY BACK ON JUICE!  STAY AWAY FROM “ADDED SUGAR.”

Whenever there’s more sugar in the liver than it can process, it starts converting it to fat.

2.  CUT out, and CHANGE, the fats you eat (All fat is NOT created equal).

Try weaning yourself down to NON-FAT milk (2% to 1% and then, nada).  Buy blocks of parmesan cheese and use a fine grater. Save yellow cheese for treats (once a month).  Replace yellow cheese with President Fat Free Feta or Trader Joe’s Light Feta (even regular Feta is better for you than yellow C).  Use Fat-Free Ricotta.

2% Cottage cheese is a daily staple.  You might scream if you knew all the things I put it in.

Do you love mayo?  I’ve got a great recipe that calls for Mayo.  I’ve weaned myself down to Best Food’s Light mayo.

3.  Save Calorie-dense foods for treats (I’ve got a trick for continuing to use them).

Oil, nuts, avocados, Jr. Mints, fruit juice, processed meats, chips and crackers . . .

If it’s physically small (less filling), but FULL of calories it’s calorie dense!  DON’T EAT LIKE A DENSE!

Tips:

I’ll mix a big cucumber, some celery, and lean chicken breast together with a small amount of onions, lots of tomatoes, and Reduced-fat mayo.  I sometimes throw in peppers (Green, Red, or sometimes jalapeno), or 1/2 cup of black beans.  Sprinkle with almond slivers, and then season.  I use 1 Tbsp of Mayo, 1 Tbsp of Trader Joe’s humus Salad dressing (You might try their Champagne Pear Vinaigrette dressing).  Add fresh basil, pepper flakes, a few cashews, or half an almond.

THE BIG IDEA: you can create a large volume of food that is low-fat, low-sugar, and low-calorie.

98% of a group of 16,000 people the National Cancer Institute studied, ate far to little green and orange vegetables, beans, and whole grains.  But 78% of the woman, and 67% of the men, went way overboard on added sugar.

Check back:

Look for a pictorial quickie of a great low-density calorie meal – It’s  what I’m cooking up tonight (a favorite for Laura and me).

NEXT WED.   The final installment on Health Tips (my 10 best ways to lose fat).

Extra:  THINK SMALL!

88 college students were asked to watch a 22 min. TV show.  There was a bowl of M&M’s on the table close to them.  The bowl was either a 3 cup bowl or 1 cup bowl.  There were three test groups.  One group got the 1 cup bowl with 7 oz. of M&M’s in it.  Another control group got the 3 cup bowl with 7 oz. of M&M’s.  And the last group got a 3 cup bowl with 21 oz of M&M’s. YEP, the two groups with the BIGGER BOWL ate TWO TIMES as much as those who had the 1 cup bowl.

Numerous studies have been done on different sized cups, bowls, and plates and the effect it has on how much we eat.  ALL data agrees, if you eat from a smaller feeding trough you’ll end up eating less.  Well, what’s our assignment then?

Share this blog with a friend.  Discuss it with three friends.  Set a 30 day goal.

Remember, If you do life solo, then you’ll likely stay shallow.  Jump in the deep end with a friend!

One of my favorite dual purpose landscape plants is the edible fig. It has interesting foliage and delicious fruits that are beginning to ripen. Figs are great raw or in numerous concoctions and they are easy to grow. I made some fig bars last year that were decadent although also wall-to-wall calories.

Figs can be planted away from other landscaping and treated as an orchard crop, but they make a great specimen plant. You can prune them and maintain an attractive shape with dense foliage without hindering fruit production. Many varieties such as ‘Brown Turkey’, ‘Celeste’, ‘Black Mission’ and the large yellow ‘Conadria’ grow and produce well in eastern North Carolina.

‘Celeste’ is probably the most common type found in eastern North Carolina

Fig foliage

. Commonly called the sugar fig, it is long lived and hardy. They usually stay at a manageable size with very little pruning. Most trees seldom grow much taller than ten feet and can be trained to less than that. They can be harvested almost entirely from the ground.

In general, figs have excellent disease and pest resistance, although green fruit beetles can rob you. Drought and heat tolerance are superb, making them very adaptable to our growing conditions. They don’t thrive in wet soils or shady conditions although they may grow there. Deer also generally leave them alone. Likely this might be because stems are full of a bitter latex material.

Fig growers encounter this white juice when pruning branches or harvesting fruit. Many are sensitive to it and have a reaction much like people have with poison ivy. It can be severe, particularly if the material comes in contact with the eyes. Other complications can arise when sun exposure follows contact with the plant sap. A good practice is to wash your hands thoroughly after handling fig clippings or fruit. Those allergic to latex might also want to avoid exposure to these.

Some people have a skin reaction when they eat too many fresh figs. Usually cooking the fruits eliminates this problem. Other allergies are possible though.

Should most people avoid figs in their diets? I would say a resounding no! Fresh fruits are a healthy treat rivaling any other. The biggest problem I have with fresh ones is that they are extremely perishable. Even in the refrigerator they don’t keep very long, so we often must preserve them by drying or canning.

Dried or processed figs may be high in sugars but they still contain large amounts of fiber and are a rich source of potassium and calcium. What gives figs their diet killing reputation is what you do with them. Adding additional sugar and incorporating them into floury greasy dough pretty much makes any fruit less healthy.

Nice fruit set of Conadria. These get tennis ball size.

Ted Manzer teaches agriculture at Northeastern High School.

Low GI foods are known as slow carbs as they take longer to digest and enter the bloodstream. Slow carbs require less insulin secretion. Besides improving blood sugar levels slow carbs can improve nutrient extraction and lower cholesterol and triglycerides.

High GI foods are fast carbs that are absorbed more quickly, require a greater insulin load and create more stress on the body as a whole.

Low GI Foods: artichoke asparagus carrots celery spinach beans broccoli lettuce celery green beans Brussels sprouts Cherries Apples Pears grapes oranges peanuts grapefruit soy milk

High GI Foods: Rice waffles donuts white bread baguettes potatoes pretzels dates jelly beans pastries croissants cheese pizza buns oat bran shredded wheat ice cream macaroni popcorn apricots raisins

My takeaway is this: Little or no High GI foods. Its easy to see that many High GI foods are highly processed, calorie-dense and negatively affect overall health.

Read more:

List of Slow & Fast Carbs | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_7386367_list-slow-fast-carbs. html#ixzz1udfUU9r1

Extensive list of GI foods can be found at: http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

You can search a certain food directly at: http://www.glycemicindex.com/

Giant portion sizes are one of the culprits behind the epidemic of bulging waistlines, and nowhere is the portion-creep more evident than in restaurants with French fry-heavy meal deals or plates overflowing with pasta. Now scientists are tapping into the psychology of eating to find ways to trim portions without people feeling cheated – focusing on everything from the starchy sides to the color of the plates.

“The small Coke now is what used to be a large 15 years ago,” laments psychologist Janet Schwartz, a marketing professor at Tulane University who led the Chinese food study. “We should ask people what portion size they want,” instead of large being the default.

Restaurants are paying close attention, says prominent food-science researcher Brian Wansink of Cornell University. His own tests found children were satisfied with about half the fries in their Happy Meal long before McDonald’s cut back the size, and the calories, last year.

“We’ll be seeing some very creative ways of down-sizing in the next couple of years,” predicts Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.

But let’s call it “right-sizing,” says Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely. Right-size suggests it’s a good portion, not a cut, he says.

Couldn’t you just get a doggie bag? Sure, if you’ve got the willpower to stop before your plate is mostly clean. Lots of research shows Americans don’t. We tend to rely on visual cues about how much food is left, shoveling it in before the stomach-to-brain signal of “hey wait, I’m getting full” can arrive.

So Schwartz and Ariely tested a different approach: Could we limit our own temptation if we focus not on the tastiest reason we visited a restaurant – the entree – but on the side dishes? After all, restaurants can pile on calorie-dense starches like rice or pasta or fries because they’re very inexpensive, filling the plate so it looks like a good deal, Schwartz says.

A popular Chinese franchise at Duke University, with a mix of students, staff and visitors to the campus hospital, allowed the researchers in at lunchtime.

In the serving line, customers pick the rice or noodles first. The standard serving is a whopping 10 ounces, about 400 calories even before ordering the entree, says Schwartz. There was no half-size option on the menu board.

In a series of experiments, servers asked 970 customers after their initial rice or noodle order: “Would you like a half-order to save 200 calories?” Those who said yes didn’t order a higher-calorie entree to compensate. Weighing leftovers showed they threw away the same amount of food as customers who refused or weren’t offered the option.

A 25-cent discount didn’t spur more takers. Nor did adding calorie labels so people could calculate for themselves, the researchers report in this month’s journal Health Affairs - concluding the up-front offer made the difference.

Anywhere from 14 percent to 33 percent chose the reduced portions, depending on the day and the mix of customers.

Even 200 fewer calories can add up over time. And other tricks can trim portions without people noticing, whether dining out or at home. Cornell’s Wansink found people served 18 percent more pasta with marinara sauce onto a red plate than a white one – and 18 percent more pasta alfredo onto a white plate.

A stark contrast “makes you think twice before you throw on another scoop,” explains Wansink. His own family bought some dark dinner plates to supplement their white ones, because people tend to overeat white starches more than veggies.

Wansink’s other research has found:

* Switching from 11-inch plates to 10-inch plates makes people take less food, and waste less food. The slightly smaller plate makes a normal serving look more satisfying.

* People think they’re drinking more from a tall skinny glass than a short wide one even if both hold the same volume, a finding Wansink says was widely adopted by bars.

* Beware if kids eat from the adult bowls. He found 6-year-olds serve themselves 44 percent more food in an 18-ounce bowl than a 12-ounce bowl.

Restaurants are starting to get the message that at least some customers want to eat more sensibly. Applebees, for example, has introduced a line of meals under 550 calories, including such things as steak.

And a National Restaurant Association survey found smaller-portion entrees, “mini-meals” for adults and kids, and bite-size desserts made a new trend list.

It’s all consumer demand, says association nutrition director Joy Dubost: More diners now are “requesting the healthier options and paying attention to their calories.”

Source:
nzherald.co.nz

What’s your thoughts?

Would you order a half-sized portion and be willing to pay full price?

Instead: Kick off with fresh vegetables and low-fat dip, fruit kabobs, whole-grain breads and a variety of lean meats for sandwiches. During the second half, snack on popcorn, pretzels with mustard dip, baked tortilla chips and salsa, apple slices and low-fat caramel dip. Post-game, offer your guests fruit parfaits or angel food cake with chocolate sauce.

• Have a small snack before going to a party. Going out hungry often results in overeating.
• Use a plate for even the smallest snack. You’ll eat less.
• Moderate your alcohol consumption. Alcohol causes blood sugar to drop, which leads to hunger.

Source: http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=4294967948

The breakfast of short champions

1/2 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 red onion, sliced into thin rings
2 large egg whites, beaten
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon capers, rinsed and chopped (optional)
1 ounce smoked salmon
1 slice tomato
1 whole-wheat English muffin, split and toasted

1. Toast english muffin.
2. Heat oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about 1 minute. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Add egg whites and season with salt. Cook, stirring constantly until whites are set, about 30 seconds..
4. Layer the egg whites, smoked salmon, tomato, onion, and capers on English muffin. (Serves 1)

It’s not a bagel, but I promise that it will do the trick. And now let’s tally up the stats: The calories have been cut by more than half, bringing this amazing breakfast to only 214 calories (!), 5g fat (heart healthy Omega-3 fat), 25g carbs, 3g fiber, and 19g protein. Not bad at all. Even if you’re not a breakfast person, once you eat this you will be.