" Cooking yourself thin" By Lifetime TV
This show is the best new food half hour program that I am dying to tell you about. Today's episode took a women who ate a burrito for lunch, meatloaf for dinner, and had a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. The chefs took the same foods and made them healthier, by changing some ingredients, and cut the amount of calories and fat she was taking it.
3,000 calories a day vs. 1,500 on the same foods. Check it out: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/cook-yourself-thin/recipes
*** Yes, this isn't a vegetarian edition, but keeping with the "vegetarian" mind set it looks at how many calories your taking in, and if the food your eating is actually nutritious for you.
Editorial on Eating Healthy... by Alia Fernandez
I often hear from "non-vegetarians" that just because we don't eat meat, that our food choices aren't any healthier because we usually focus on carbs ( tons of bread and pasta) and often take in just as many calories as meat eaters, if not more.
I would agree to a point.... I feel that meat eaters tend to only consume about one vegetable, and one fruit a day, and the vegetable usually consists of iceberg or red leaf lettuce. This is the norm. Some people are much healthier in their salad choices and pick spinach and a few people even reach out to kale. Vegetarians usually eat at least three fruits and veggies a day and often pick them from a list of more nutritious fiber-filled "superfoods" I would say.
But I do agree that vegetarians often eat too many carbs in search for something besides meat as an option. Bread and pasta are fall back meals, and some foreign foods often are higher in calories then say a piece of chicken. so I will give the meat eaters this one. So what do we do?
We have to be more conscious about what our food can do for us, then how many calories it contains. We need to rethink the purpose of food, in terms of:
- What variety of colors are we eating each day?
- Are the vegetable I choose to eat providing enough fiber for my digestive system?
- Are the fruits I am eating organic, natural, or pesticide sprayed?
- Which can I afford to choose to pay higher prices for organic and which can I choose to buy natural? ** see earlier posting on organic lists***
- Am I aware of the portion size on the box in connection with how much I just poured into my bowl?
- If I am a true vegetarian ( no fish, eggs, or meat), am I including nuts into my diet for protein?
- When I eat deserts, am I aware of how many calories per serving? Is it dark chocolate?
- If I am eating fish, Do I know where the fish was raised? (wild vs. farm raised)
- Is the cheaper cost of non-organic milk worth the risk of hormone induced milk? Or can I cut spending in another area of my budget to afford a couple more dollars on milk?
- Is the bread I am eating whole wheat, ezekiel, or sprouted grains? ( these are the best options for bread. Ezekiel bread is only 80 calories, with 9 grams of protein.)
And the biggest question I often find interesting is this... When I see people care for their "babies" they often take extra caution to make sure they are getting enough food variety, vitamins, water, etc. We are concerned about their "Health". But as we get older, this pattern doesn't continue , we I see parents feed their children FAST FOOD, or giant soda's because it is cheap and fast. Cheap and fast in my mind correlates with "we will deal with your pending diabetes and that cost later. " My point is this.. Continue to think of your child, and your self as "striving to be healthy", as a way of preventative medicine. Yes, the cost of organic food can affect your budget now, but the cost of illness's due to poor nutrition and poor eating habits will show up later in life.... "PAY NOW, OR PAY LATER." IT IS THE SIMPLE TRUTH..
