Fresh Dietary Ideas

Since early December, I've been reading some new books about health and diet. This is in no way related to that whole New Years resolution idea. Due to some health concerns, my doctor has encouraged me to educate myself more about dietary hows and whys, specifically and especially about the Glycemic Index.

Both books that I am reading so far have given me lots of concrete and practical information. Both books have me exclaiming: Cool! I understand this so much better now!

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The first book is from the Brand-Miller and Foster-Powell series of books about the Glycemic Index, which is "a measure of how quickly carbohydrates hit the bloodstream." The book I chose is called The Low GI Diet Revolution, which was not my first impulse. However, it seemed like the best option from library selections. I'm liking it more and more.

The gist of what I am getting is that one should chose mostly low-GI foods while getting more exercise. Here's one quote:

Low-GI foods have two important advantages for people trying to lose weight [and gain better health, I might add]:
• They fill you up and keep you satisfied longer than their high-GI counterparts.
• They reduce insulin levels and help you burn more body fat and less muscle, so your metabolic rate is higher.

There's much more, of course. I might write more later, but if you want to read it, buy the book! :) Or your library has some rendition.

I am being more conscious about choosing foods with a low-GI. Not always easy, but I'm going to try it for a while. As the author emphasizes, it's not a diet book really, but an approach to eating better the rest of your life. And since I am trying to get in shape for this upcoming backpacking trip, I don't mind having diet and fitness info packaged together like this.

And as the insulin surges and drops have been annoying me for some time, and I have been already making some headway in recent years, I am even more motivated now to make better eating choices. And yea for that!

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The other book is The Portion Teller by Lisa R. Young, Phd, RD. I picked this up on impulse in the library, and I am pleasantly surprised; it's very cool, very sensible.

The gist of the Portion Teller seems to be that in this era of extravagant super-sizing, we have lost all sense of what constitutes a reasonable portion of food. Larger portions (what we actually eat) turns into more servings (recommended food amounts) that we realize, which means more calories and ... you know... bigger butts.

I am especially interested in the idea that we are so influenced by comparative size of the packaging or presentation.

One serving on a big plate looks teeny, and so we invariably feel unsatisfied with our portion and so we eat more. The same serving on a smaller plate looks more satisfying (larger) and so we tend to eat less.

I have noticed this effect with my ice cream bowls. When I visited Italy, all gelato was served in tiny cups with tiny spoons. I do the same thing at home now-- I have several small cut-glass bowls that hold maybe an even cup total, and several little demitasse spoons. If I serve myself ice cream in one of these small bowls and eat it with one of these cute little spoons, it feels like a special treat, and I'm usually satisfied with my portion. However, if I try to put ice cream in, say, a larger cereal bowl, that half cup or whatever, looks measly! You know you have to add more ice cream into a larger bowl!! It's sure happened to me. Big bowl leads to big portion, leads to feeling like a hog afterwards.

Did you know that plate sizes have expanded dramatically in the last 30-50 years? Did you know that a serving of pasta is more like an appetizer than a trough? Oohwee, this is so fascinating. I knew there was a reason I liked using my smaller plates and dishes.

Likewise with larger "jumbo" packaging versus a smaller package. Research has shown that we eat more out of a jumbo container. Hmmm. I'm thinking Co$co is NOT a good option for me.
But even in an average store, many foods are packaged *as if* they are a single serving, when in fact a package may contain several! Eating the whole darn bag means you are eating *how* many servings? Ack! Yes, that's x times more calories etc than you thought. I knew this, but somehow it did not sink in until I read this book.

So I've been practicing being more aware of portion size. When we were traveling recently, I tried to steer myself away from the usual junk or candy that I tend to indulge in on long trips. Keeping the whole protein-carb-vegetable balance in mind (yes, it talks a lot about that as well), I chose a modest bag of trail mix that contained mostly various nuts, dried fruits and a scattering of MnMs. This way we'd get a little chocolate with the energy food, but not the whole shebang.

Well, this was a great idea, and I made sure to read the back of the package. And do the math, tho the results were painful!

This 6 oz bag had *5* servings in it! Of 160 calories each. So clearly, I was not going to be able to wolf down the whole thing with impunity. Not with *800* calories and *50* grams of fat to be had! OMG.

My strategy (one idea/strategy from the book) was to portion out one serving at a time into my hand, in this case, 3 Tablespoons. The author recommends taking what you *think* is a serving, and then measuring or weighing it to see how accurate you are, then trying again for better accuracy. It's supposed to help retrain your eye to discern a more accurate serving size.

... Anyway, I did not do badly with it, estimating Tablespoons, although I did not have access to a measuring spoon to check my accuracy. And so I ate only approx. 1 serving at a time..... and then waited a couple hours before snacking again. *Knowing* that it was actually a serving helped me avoid eating out of boredom rather than actual hunger... or eating most of the bag in one sitting.

I did the same thing with my G@torade, drinking a cup (8 oz) at a time rather than guzzling it without a thought. Even what looks like a single serving of soda these days is actually 20 oz! That's about 2.5 servings right there.

There is apparently a movement in the FDA to list the nutritional information for the *whole* package of anything.... so that we are not suckered by misrepresentation of information. Can't wait!


The book has much more about balancing portions of food groups-- I can't write it all here, but it's pretty neat too.

The six groups listed are:
• Grains or starchy vegetables (4-8 servings per day)
• Vegetables (3+)
• Fruit (2-4)
• Dairy (2-3)
• Fish, Meat & Meat Alternatives (2-3) (what I think of as the protein group)
• Fats (1-3)
• Treats & Sweets (0-2)

This is another area that is open to misinterpretation if we don't have an accurate idea of a serving size. While we may aim for 5 servings of grain, that may be 5 slices of bread OR one bagel!! Ack! Yes, even foods themselves have gotten larger over the years. She has a whole list of this kind of portion-inflation.

. . .
Ok, I realize I am probably babbling here (although it's my blog, so hey, who cares, right?), but there is a bunch of really interesting and useful information in these books. I find that thinking about food using ideas about both portion and Glycemic Index is way cool.


Now if you add the book that my husband is currently reading-- The Omnivore's Dilemma (about the development of the modern food-industrial complex)-- into the mix, it gets *really* interesting. I have read only the intro and heard my husband talk about it so far, but I am getting the feeling that it will be very eye-opening as well. What little I have heard has encouraged urges to revisit the Macro-biotic philosophy, of which one aspect is that you eat food as close to its natural form as possible, i.e. little or no processing. .... But that's a topic for another day...


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One last thought, though. When I became a mostly-vegetarian (cheese, egg, occasional fish, meat maybe 2-3 times a year), I found myself making interesting choices. I do like most vegetarian foods, and am less thrilled with meat, so it's not hard for me to be MV.

It boils down to this: if I have a vegetarian option, I chose it.

No whining about how I should do this or that, or how I'd rather eat this or that, I just made the healthier choice. So with these fresh dietary ideas, I have even better information to make better choices, and I can approach each meal positively.

It's so easy to eat junk or overly processed junk. Yeah, yeah. But if you approach it day by day or meal by meal, you can find yourself saying-- for THIS meal, I will make a good choice. Even if I had too much ice cream or chocolate earlier... well, I can still have some veggies and get myself back on track...

I find it encouraging that I don't have to berate myself for past dietary sins. I can make that positive choice if I so chose. Yum yum. Now go eat something good for yourself. :)

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