Water it, flavor it and consume fewer calories

Do you drink sweetened beverages? If so, do you keep track of what you drink? If you don't, you may be consuming more "sugar" and calories than you realize.  We try to stay away from too much sugar and too many calories means putting on the pounds.

Many of us have switched to "diet" beverages but that may not be the best answer. While it will help to curb your calories, many advise to stay away from excessive levels of artificial sweetners. Others may have switched to juice but we really should limit our juice consumption to approximately 8-10 ounces. Juices (100%) are full of natural sugar and very caloric; drinks contain many added sugars. (Do you know all the ways sugar is labeled on packaging?)  Many tell us just to drink plain water and milk but realistically that might not be appealing to most. So how do we get enough to drink?

Often you will be guided to drink water, perhaps unsweetened tea and milk, no more than 8 ounces of juice daily . With so few options, realistically, how will kids comply? Get used to adding water to your non-carbonated drinks. Try 1/2 water to start. Start with your 8 ounce serving of any non-carbonated beverage and each time you drink it add a little more water. Challenge yourself to skew the balance to be more water than non-carbonated beverage. Go to the store and notice how many beverage products have water as the first ingredient on the package. If you were to add water to a beverage yourself, you'd save money too. So now if you could save calories and money, why not try it.

Now think about water as a beverage. Most of us who don't drink more think of it as too plain. So why not add something to the water? Lemon, oranges and other fruits are great to add. Even powdered drink mixes if you use a quarter of the package instead of the whole package.

What about milk? You can add unsweetened chocolate drink mix or blend in any kind of fruit for a smoothie.

Now that you have some ideas, I'd love to hear some ideas of your own. Contact me on Twitter @ foodfitter.

What's in a Name? Is a rose a rose by any other name?

Would you pay more for Friskies or Fancy Feast brand food for your cat? Meow Mix or Wholesome Goodness? Fun names are memorable but names that describe or suggest a desired benefit are likely to be perceived as more "valuable" and command a higher price.

You would expect that a higher priced product with a "premium" name was higher in quality but do you really know? Consumers who choose these products will certainly convince themselves that the higher price is justified and the product is better. It's human nature to do so.

What irritates you?

Do you always know what irritates you? When you are irritated, do you avoid the irritant or try to confront it?

Now think about this in the context of foods we eat. Sometimes we don't even know what is irritating us. Is the irritant a whole food or ingredient? Can it be easily isolated? If identified, can it be avoided or do we need to treat the symptoms caused by the irritant?

Finding irritants in our diet can be difficult. Irritants cannot always be isolated. At this time, there is no test available to identify irritants and so we need to do the best we can by observing what we eat and listen to how we feel.

Allergies or Irritants?

Today I went to the allergist to test for food and other allergies. The nurse came in with 66 bottles of potential culprits. Having spent the majority of my childhood with allergies that resulted in large amounts of my body covered with mosquito bites, I opted out of the skin method. Anticipating reactions - possibly 66 of them was too much for me to handle.

So I opted for blood tests and had to choose about 20 food and other allergens to start the process with that I thought might be the cause of my allergic reactions.

I mentioned that I react to many salad dressing and other ingredients and was told these are irritations rather than allergies. I'm now on a quest to understand these irritants in foods. I'll share more as I find out more about this.

Making sense of food labels

If we don't know what we're looking for we won't find it. Most of us don't know the terms used in food labeling. So how will we know what to look for on a label if we don't know what our options are? We didn't learn this in school, and even if we did, the terms have probably changed.

Our children may know more than we do if they are in one of the many new education programs popping up for our children. But what are we to do now? Logical assumptions about terms in labeling only take us so far.

Here is a quick list of new terms you might want to know about to demonstrate our dilemna:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/22/earlyshow/contributors/main6420933.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesSecondary

For a quick sheet of label claims you can print and take with you when you go to the grocery store:
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09365.html

Now if you are really serious about learning about your food labels see:
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/GuidanceDocuments/FoodLabelingNutrition/FoodLabelingGuide/default.htm

Organic's "healthy halo"

Cornell Professor Brian Wansink's latest research finds that organic foods have a "healthy halo" causing overeating. An organic food which is free of synthetic materials used in processing may be safer to eat if handled properly and eaten quickly, but defining a food as organic certainly does not give us license to eat a food without moderation. Organic foods can be healthier than non-organic foods in some respects because of how they are grown or processed but do not have more nutrients than naturally occur in that food and need to be eaten soon after harvest and in appropriate quantities. Organic does not tell us how healthy a given food is, it just says it is grown or formulated in a certain way with certain standards.

Importantly, organic certainly doesn't mean a food is low calorie. If we give ourselves permission to overeat when we choose organic foods are we defeating our purpose at least to some extent?

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_organic-labels-on-snacks-lead-to-overeating_1376941#share

Reward kids and make them happy!

New legislation in California puts restrictions on a "Happy-type meal" so that a kids meal that doesn't meet certain nutritional guidelines cannot be sold with a toy.

How did these "Happy-type meals" come about? Rewarding children for behavior works well to create a desired action. While, there are many ways to reward children, food and toys are typically the rewards of choice. Personally, I would argue for more love, hugs and attention with a few good toys and other treats. Can't we interchange rewards so that all the rewards are good and sometimes even an unexpected surprise? No one consciously wants to teach our children to mistake food or objects for love.

I vote for one reward at a time. If the reward is a burger or a food or candy treat, do we really need to double dip with two rewards - a food or candy and a toy? Just in case the first reward doesn't work, there is a fallback reward?

Now if it is established that if the toy is the reward, should the child be rewarded for eating an meal that doesn't meet nutritional guidelines? Wouldn't you want your child to be rewarded with a toy for eating a healthy meal?