Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I found this question in the entry about Weight Watchers:

• Starling Fitness » Why I Don’t Trust Weight Watchers Points System

Laura,

Does anyone have ideas on how to get daily oils? Not sure how to sneak the oils in…ideas on what foods or supplements to take to get the daily oils?

Heidi

Heidi,

I talked about some ideas for getting your healthy oils here:

• Starling Fitness » Ask Laura: Why do we have to eat two tsp. of healthy oil?

Here are some of the recommendations I’ve heard:

• Cooking food in the oil
• Using it on toast instead of butter (canola is good for this one)
• Adding it to smoothies (I prefer flaxseed oil in my smoothies because of the interesting taste)
• Choosing oil on your sandwich at Subway (they use olive oil)
• Eating it straight from a spoon like medicine

I don’t recommend taking a spoonful of oil like medicine. It’s yummy fat! ENJOY it!!

Here are some recipes that I eat regularly where I add one of the healthy oils:

• Starling Fitness » Frozen Grapes: Healthy Diet Staple
• Starling Fitness » Easy Meals: Italian Beans: I add 1 teaspoon of olive oil in the bowl. It adds one WW Point to the total.
• Starling Fitness » Easy Meals: Mexi-Beans
• Starling Fitness » Toad in the Hole: I use 1 teaspoon of canola oil instead of the non-stick spray. It adds one WW Point to the meal.

As far as Weight Watchers is concerned, I’ve heard my leader say MANY times that oil supplements are NOT considered a replacement for the healthy oil requirement, so you can’t take a few flaxseed oil capsules and be done with it.

Why would you?

Adding healthy oil to your food makes it TASTE GOOD. Let yourself enjoy an egg fried in canola oil. Let yourself sop up every drop of that oil out of the pan with a piece of whole wheat bread. Let the artichokes bask in the glory of a teaspoon of olive oil. Enjoy the rich creaminess of a teaspoon of flaxseed oil in your smoothie.

Weight Watchers is all about eating healthy food. FOOD, not pills. Let yourself enjoy the additional fat in your diet. Your body needs it and so do your taste buds!