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

The foodie weblogs are fun to read and sometimes I find something interesting to write about. Imagine my surprise when a person who is unashamedly addicted to food voiced my same feelings about processed food.

• Slashfood – Hostess: the CupCake no longer beloved – by Sarah Gilbert

Sarah Gilbert explained that her once-beloved treat from childhood, the Hostess Cupcake, was no longer something she had any desire for. It wasn’t about health or fitness or diet. It was about the taste of the food. She has eaten the best of the cupcakes from the finest bakeries around the country. Hostess just doesn’t do it for her anymore.

Ironically, the finest cupcakes from the elite bakeries around the country probably have about the same amount of calories and fat as the Hostess variety. If I’m going to spend that many calories on something, it better be the best.

According to an online survey conducted by ARAMARK Corp., a food services company, people want to have more information about the nutritional facts of the food they eat in restaurants and they also want to be able to order half-portions.

• USATODAY.com – Diners want more info and smaller entrees

When Ruby Tuesday provided the nutritional facts for all the food items on their menu, I was shocked at how high in calories and fat everything was. It was difficult for me to find anything on the menu that was within the amount of calories I had left for the dinner. I ended up ordering something and cutting it in half, throwing the rest away. It sure would have been nice to be able to just order half an entree in the first place.

• Nation’s Restaurant News: Ruby Tuesday halts on-menu disclosures: nutrition watchdog group CSPI sees end of 5-month-long effort as ‘step backward’

Now, Ruby Tuesday has stopped putting the nutrition facts on their menus and are putting them on tablecards instead. They say it was cost prohibitive to replace all of their menus whenever a recipe changed, but I suspect it might be the embarrassment of printing the hard, cold facts next to the pictures of yummy treats.

I know I can find something healthy to eat at whatever restaurant I go to, but having the nutrition facts easily accessible makes that so much easier. Being able to order a smaller portion would help me also. The restaurants won’t do it until we demand it. Let’s make our voices heard.

Just in case those Halloween treats look good enough to ruin your eating plan, here are some treats that look gross enough to say no to. Nick Vagnoni highlights some of the grosser ideas for those holiday treats:

• Slashfood – Again with the baked body parts – by Nick Vagnoni

Every year we have a Halloween party. We offer a prize for the best potluck dish. The dishes that tend to win are usually unique and delicious. The foods that tend to remain untouched are the ones that look like things you shouldn’t eat. Gelatin brain molds, purple gunk that looks like a million eyes are swimming in it and the Jello Frankenstein hands are the dishes that just flopped on the table.

If you have ever thought of making a pumpkin pie out of your jack-o-lantern, be glad you didn’t. Most pumpkin pies are made out of a squash that is vastly different than the bright orange pumpkins you carve for the holiday. Sarah Gilbert has the inside “scoop” on which pumpkins are in the can.

• Slashfood – Canned pumpkin – is it really pumpkin? – by Sarah Gilbert

Two years ago, Mike and I searched the city for pumpkin pie pumpkins and finally found them at a specialty food store in the eclectic part of town. He cooked up some delicious pies with those pumpkins, but it was a lot of work. We decided that canned pumpkin was good enough for us in the future.

It’s easy to be confused about what is healthy and what is not. There are so many experts out there telling us conflicting rules about what we should eat. Erich Kuersten takes a humorous look at the implications of eating the Caveman Diet in Manhattan.

• Slashfood – A Cro Magnon in Manhattan – by Erich Kuersten

Considering the genetic diversity of our species, I don’t believe there is one diet that works for everyone. I think you have to experiment and find what works for you.

As if bingeing wasn’t enough, there are so many other factors that can cause us to overeat. The size of the glass can cause us to drink more high-calorie drinks. The accessibilty of treats can cause unwanted snacking. Even buying food at bulk stores can cause us to eat more than we normally would. Professor Brian Wansink is a professor of Nutritional Science, of Marketing, of Advertising, and of Agricultural and Consumer Science. He has performed many studies on Food Psychology. Here are a sampling of them:

• Why We Unknowingly Overeat

These abstracts don’t read like weight-loss magazine articles, but if you are willing to wade through the formality of them, here are a couple of things that you’ll learn:

• Studies at “Weight-loss Camps” (and with veteran bartenders) show that visual illusions unknowingly cause people to pour 32-43% more in to short wide glasses than tall narrow ones.

• Subjects ate more popcorn when they were served more, even if the popcorn was stale and didn’t taste good.

• Unknown to the participants, they used self-refilling soup bowls to show that people keep eating regardless of what they intended to eat or how full they were.

• Hidden cameras at Italian restaurants show that people who put olive oil on a piece of bread will eat more fat and calories than if they instead used butter. The good news… they eat fewer pieces of bread.

Via: CalorieLab Calorie Counter News » Archives » The more we’re served, the more we eat

Yahoo has a healthy eating weblog. Last week, she wrote an entry about ethnic foods and received this sarcastic comment:

so basically, watch out for the stuff that tastes good…thanks!
Posted by oneluv

I saw the comment and looked at it unbelievingly. The entry had recommended staying away from tempura fried Japanese dishes and phyllo pastry in Greek dishes. All the greasy and oily stuff that makes the food too rich to eat. Hurts my stomach, too. And then I realized it had happened to me…

(more…)

Here are the easy and pat answers that you will find everywhere:

• Don’t buy it until the day of Halloween and give the rest of your bowl to the last kid.

• Buy Halloween candy that you don’t like.

• Don’t buy it period and give out small toys or Halloween pencils instead of treats. The kids don’t need the extra sugar anyway.

• Buy Halloween candy that is really low in calories so that if you DO binge, it won’t hurt you that much.

If you wanted easy and pat answers, you wouldn’t have cancelled your emails from Hungry Girl.

(more…)

Although fun-size candy bars are available all year long, you can’t beat the selection at Halloween time. My favorite candy to binge on was the bite-size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I still keep a bag of these in a cupboard so that I always know that I have my favorites close by. I don’t have to actually eat them to feel better. Just knowing that they are in my house is a comfort and keeps me from bingeing. These little candy bars, however, can be a double-edged sword.

They Are a Plague:

• It is easy to eat several of these candy bars in a sitting.

• They come in large packages with a total of more calories than a single candy bar.

• They come in multi-packs with several different candy bars in one package, which can cause further bingeing. When you’re sick of one type, you’re tempted move on to the next.

They Are a Godsend

• The individual bars are small, with calories between 50 and 120 apiece.

• You can have a taste of your favorite candy without risking a lot of calories.

• You can plan to have your favorite candy EVERY day with these little bars, meaning that you never have to feel deprived ever again.

One note of caution: It’s not a good idea to “stock up” during the Halloween season. I never knew this before I started eating healthy, but it’s possible for candy to go bad. After months of lying untouched in my cupboard, I decided to have a taste of my favorite only to find it gray and rotting. Before that, I had never thrown away a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. They had always disappeared within hours of purchase. I discarded the bag and wrote the words “Reese’s PB Cups” on the grocery list. I felt such a strange sense of accomplishment because I had been able to keep my favorite candy in the house long enough for it to rot. It was a new first for me.

When I was a kid, tuna fish was eaten one way: with lots of mayo on white bread. It was one of the first things that I could make on my own and I enjoyed the autonomy of being able to make my own dinner if I had to. I used to make it with so much mayonnaise that it would be slimy and slick. I haven’t eaten fish that way for years now and I don’t really miss it.

Now, I eat tuna fish in many more dishes and all more healthy than that old tuna fish sandwich:

• Tuna Fish Sandwich: I still like a tuna fish sandwich, but I usually skip the mayo and put the tuna right on the bread without mayonnaise. Sometimes I mix in a little dill relish. Other times, I include a slice of cheese and grill the sandwich with a little Pam.

• Tuna on Triscuit Crackers: I like this for a good snack. When I’m feeling tired in the afternoon, a small serving of tuna fish (100 calories worth) on 7 Triscuit crackers fills me up and gets me going again. The Olive Oil and Rosemary flavor Triscuits are particularly good with this.

• Tuna Helper: I know it’s full of preservatives and is a highly processed food, but as highly processed foods go, Tuna Helper is pretty healthy. You usually can have a serving for about 250 to 300 calories. If you bulk it up with frozen veggies, it’s a huge serving.

• Tuna Salad: Just a small amount of tuna fish can really change the flavor of your boring green salad. I usually add a 100-calorie serving and a little lemon juice. I don’t even need salad dressing.

• Alone in the can: Sometimes I need a protein fix. When I’ve had too much sugar and my hands are shaking as I come down, I can eat a couple of bites of tuna fish for an easy protein boost. Sometimes I have a whole can for a meal when I’m busy and in a hurry. This is really easy if you’re on the run. You can get the tuna in packets, a fork from the deli and you have a quick meal from the grocery within seconds.

For more ideas, here are a list of tuna recipes from FoodFit.com. They have all the nutrition facts, so you know exactly how to plan them into your healthy eating:

• FoodFit.com – Tuna Recipes