Harvard Healthy Eating Plate, a step in the right direction

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harvard healthy eating plate, healthy living, nutrition, paleo, trends, USDA MyPlate

Harvard School of Public Health released the new Healthy Eating Plate this week. Unlike the USDA My Plate, the Healthy Eating Plate is designed around current accepted science regarding nutrition. That means middle of the road, not sitting out there on the cutting edge , just to clarify for my fellow fitness and nutrition junkies.

A quick look at both plates shows the major differences. Harvard includes specific direction regarding type of food that fits into each category. Water is the suggested beverage and healthy fats are specifically highlighted.

There are several areas where you can argue with the Harvard plate. Paleo advocates will throw a fit about the presence of whole grains. That said, it’s an improvement over MyPlate as a clear teaching tool.

Interesting to see how things look when you don’t have food lobby groups offering input. Your thoughts?

Sugar by any other name is still the same

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clara k.showalter, clara showalter, fitness, healthy, how many types of sugar, nutrition, sugar, types of sugar

One of the easiest ways to start cutting unwanted calories from your diet is to reduce sugar. This is a no-brainer for most of us. Sugar is a treat food, plain and simple. It’s not something the human body is used to consuming in bulk, it’s designed as a source of quick energy, and bottom line is we eat way too much of in the US.

Thing is, the manufacturers are sneaky. They know sweet is a trigger for higher consumption. So they hide sugar in a variety of ways by changing the type. Take a look at some of the types of sugar out there.

1. Barley malt
2. Beet sugar
3. Brown sugar
4. Buttered syrup
5. Cane juice crystals
6. Cane sugar
7. Caramel
8. Corn syrup
9. Corn syrup solids
10. Confectioner’s sugar
11. Carob syrup
12. Castor sugar
13. Date sugar
14. Demerara sugar
15. Dextran
16. Dextrose
17. Diastatic malt
18. Diatase
19. Ethyl maltol
20. Fructose
21. Fruit juice
22. Fruit juice concentrate
23. Galactose
24. Glucose
25. Glucose solids
26. Golden sugar
27. Golden syrup
28. Grape sugar
29. High fructose corn syrup
30. Honey
31. Icing sugar
32. Invert sugar
33. Lactose
34. Maltodextrin
35. Maltose
36. Malt syrup
37. Maple syrup
38. Molasses
39. Muscovado sugar
40. Panocha
41. Raw sugar
42. Refiner’s syrup
43. Rice syrup
44. Sorbitol
45. Sorghum syrup
46. Sucrose
47. Sugar
48. Treacle
49. Turbinado sugar
50. Yellow sugar

I imagine some of those caught your attention. Take a look at the boxes you have in the house again. Do you see rice syrup listed in the first three ingredients for a child breakfast cereal? Guess what, that’s sugar. Yes it’s “healthy”, yes it’s organic. It’s still sugar. If you are looking to reduce calories then this is something you can look at cutting back on.

As you start looking more, you’ll find sugars in all kinds of products from ketchup to breads. Take a look in your pantry. How many sugars can you find right now? Let me know.

Eating healthy on a budget

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$35 a week, eating, fitness, health, life, lifestyle, nutrition

A recent research study presented data which indicates that eating healthy adds on average $380 a year to the household grocery bill. This started a series of discussions about the viability of eating healthy if you are on a restricted budget.

My default reaction is to call shenanigans and start picking the study apart. Thinking about it further, I’ve reconsidered. Sure the study was done in a very affluent neighborhood where the default store options are Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. The deeper message has gotten misplaced. How do you eat healthy on a budget? Is it really possible to do this?

Since I’m coming home to a fairly empty fridge, this is an excellent week to start this off and see how it works. I’ve set a target budget of $35 a week for food. This week’s purchases:

2.5 pounds of chicken breasts- $6.00

4 cans tuna fish- $3.50

4 bags mixed frozen veggies- $4.00

1 bag black beans- $.99

1 lb tomatoes- $1.97

Fresh mozzarella cheese- $4.00

3/4 lb stew meat- $2.75

Plan yogurt- $3.00

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I’ve got assorted frozen veggies in my freezer, and a selection of flour and grain products in my pantry. The idea is to mix and match to create interesting eating options, while also aiming towards healthy eating. It should prove to be interesting.

Trainer Ethics

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clients, food rules, healthy eats, indecision, nutrition

There's another challenge weighing on me this weekend. As I progress through changing my own eating habits, I've got to figure out what I tell my clients.

I mean it's tough when I've got someone telling me they want to drink whole milk and I'm caught between trainer persona and year in persona. For someone trying to lose weight and understand better eating habits, liquid calories are generally a no-no. There's good reason behind this logic. People who have not successfully lost weight yet have very poor understanding of calories, portion size, and the signals the body sends out.

Taking a person who's used to eating every meal out of a bag or a box and trying to drop them into better eating habits is tough. I can't fathom trying to shift them into something like this. Especially when I'm struggling with some of the concepts.

So I end up in a constant mental battle. I'm telling them to eat low cal this, fat free that, and watch the fats etc. At the same time I've got to make sure to keep injecting current research (no eggs really aren't that bad for you, honest, but right now use egg substitute). I do this because it makes keeping track of portion sizes and calorie levels FAR easier. Now some will argue I need to teach people how to eat intuitively. I won't dispute that. But from past experience, if people have never eaten correctly at all they struggle to eat if I don't provide some structure. 

Once you start down this path, you can't just go an unlearn things. You've got to figure out how to make them work. There's not an option. Ignoring what you've learned is willful ignorance. For me that is a sin of the highest order. You don't get to ignore things that are inconvenient. That's how you get into crushing debt, fat, and totally out of control. 

That doesn't make it easier when I'm trying not to tell a client to stop drinking almond milk because it's got a pile of extra junk in it that's bad for you. I can't lecture someone about eating cottage cheese with several uncool ingredients in it. I've got to work big picture first. In this case, big picture is cleaning up what they are currently doing. It's not turning the world into a bunch of little Clara clones.

Though I do complain that I need to be triplets…

So again, no answers, more questions, and nowhere to go but forward.

Note to any of my clients reading this- you monkey with the nicely designed meal plans I've given you and I'm gonna have you doing wind sprints until you puke. 😉