Tuesday, 20 October 2009
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Strange Rules for Healthy Eating
I am addicted to Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Along with colorful leaves and brisk, but sunny October days, they are one of my favorite things about the autumn season. I try to hold myself to only a couple each week and I have this weird deal that I make with myself: if I order it with skim milk, I’m allowed to have whipped cream on it. Somehow, in my mind, this all evens out.
So, when I read this post by Michael Pollan on the NY Times Well blog, I had to laugh. He asked readers to send in the rules that they use to guide their eating, rules that have been passed onto them by grandparents, parents, family and friends. The results are hilarious and well worth a read. My favorite: Avoid snack foods with “oh” sound in their names. Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Hostess Ho-Hos, etc.
It made me think about what my personal rules for eating are, the ones that I live by without even noticing it. Here is what I came up with:1) Only keep two kinds of junk food in your house: pretzels and frozen yogurt. They fix your salty and sweet cravings and neither is too bad for you in moderation. Chips and other snack food are only for parties or if you order subs for dinner.
2) When you cook dinner, you should serve a protein, a grain, a vegetable, and a fruit. My mom always had canned peaches or pineapple with dinner. I have no idea why she did this, but it stuck with me.
3) Drink water, tea, and coffee. Juice and soda are a now-and-then treat.
4) Don’t buy diet products made with artificial ingredients: low-fat salad dressing, diet soda, etc. You have no idea what kind of chemicals you’re putting into your body. It’s better just to eat the real thing in moderation.
5) Cooking is more fun if you’re making a meal to share with someone else. The food tastes better this way too.
Most of my rules came from family. They were never spoken aloud; they’re just things I picked up from my parents’ examples. What are your rules for healthy eating? Where do you think you learned them?
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About the Author
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- From: lindsaya
- Name: lindsaya
- About Me: I am a teacher/writer who lives in New York city and I am always on the go. In between my various jobs, obligations, and activities, I try to make time to lead a healthy and balanced life. I love to run, swim, do yoga, and try new activities. I am also a long-time vegetarian who is constantly struggling between my desire to eat healthy foods and my love of all things made out of bread or covered in cheese!
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Comments (25)
i DEFINITELY agree with #4.
I learned no rules for healthy eating. We love our junk food at my house. Somehow, none of us are obese. I don't really understand that.
Good job on the post! =]
Most of my eating rules I picked up on my own. I don't really think my parents had many other than the typical "eat your vegetables!" =P
Nowadays I look at foods' calories and Protein:Carbohydrate:Fat ratio. After several weeks of strict calorie and PCF keeping, I can basically estimate how I do through the day and what I should eat.
don't eat too fast or you may over eat. and totally limit the amount of sodas. all my friends that are over weight love soda. i have it once a week or when i go out to eat, which isn't often.
oh and instead of Starbuck's pumpkin spice latte, if you have a Jamba Juice close by they have a pumpkin smash smoothie. though there are a lot of calories in this, it's a great source of iron, calcium and a lot of things i forgot and plus it taste better lol. (i used to work for starbucks and now work for jamba juice)
Yumm...that sounds good and probably healthier since a Jamba Juice can be a meal and not just more unneeded caffeine in my system!
we just never had junk food at our house when I was growing up, so I never liked it too much.
here r some of my rules
1) never EVER mix carbs with protein
2) never EVER eat things with saturated fats and trans fats. crunchy packages are therefore a no-no
3) low sodium please
4) brown sugar doesn't make it ok. integral cookies r still cookies
5) always eat salad with every mean
6) breakfast is an egg white, roasted soy beans or fruit
7) if u feel full, say hi to mr. toilet shell
8) broken rule --> back to mr. toilet shell
9) lots of hydration
10) green tea is god
but that;s jsut me...
nice read.
My mom has this new rule that she's been following. She never drinks cold water anymore, only warm or lukewarm. A doctor told her that apparently, the worst thing you can do while eating is drink cold water. It's kind of like what a refrigerator does to your food, so if you're eating food with any significant amount of oil...ew. I like my cold water, so I only drink warm water if we're eating beef or something.
hmm those are good rules...but my mom does all the cooking...so i don't really have a choice in what to eat and how much stuff is put into the food....
@kairi_kawaii@xanga - I think that's a myth. True, if your body didn't produce any of its own heat, it would solidify fats and instantly clog your heart. However, your body DOES produce heat, and heats up whatever icy beverage you're consuming, making it the appropriate temperature by the time it reaches your stomach.
Plus, your body has to work a little bit to heat up the ice water, so it burns some calories, too
Looking at the amount of saturated fat is one of the most important things, aside from eating (too) processed foods. Calories really aren't that big of a deal to me, since weight isn't an issue, but saturated fat! Oh lord!
eat slowly
eat the healthy things first such as salad or an orange/apple.
No french/corn/white bread
eat until hunger is dulled, not until stuffed.
my portions are never larger then my fist, except for the 6" sub lol
those are some...I'll keep the rest to myself.
i agree w/ all of these, especially #4.
that is, if said person doesn't mind eating a 100% vegan meal.
=]
I don't agree with #4. I don't buy diet sodas (because I don't drink soda) but low fat is a must for salad dressing, in my opinion. Better yet, I just use balsamic vinegar as a salad dressing most of the time.
There's no point in eating a salad if it's covered in fattening dressing.I go off and on with healthy eating habits. Lately, it's been on.
My first concern is the amount of calories I eat. I shoot for 1400 or a little less per day.
After that, my biggest and most important thing is eating breakfast. It's must for me. Usually oatmeal with protein powder mixed in and some low fat milk.
I drink plenty of water every day. I try to get the 8 glasses each day, but usually end up around six. Too much more than that and I'm peeing every 10 seconds! :)
Protein and calories dominate the food choices I make. I usually have some sort of Lean Cuisine meal for lunch/dinner, unless I am making a chicken quesadilla. Both have decent protein content with minimal calories.
As for snacks, it's usually fruit or a protein shake. I get a good protein powder online at http://bulkfoodsdirect.com that I can mix with most of my meals but also works great in shakes. Such an easy, healthy snack.
I think those are the main rules for me. My parents never had much growing up, except for a lot of canned peaches or pears. What is it with moms and the canned fruits? :)
@sororitygirl_slimdown@xanga - low-fat dressing has no nutrients in it. your dressing needs to be of regular fat content.
@kaos_calle@xanga - these aren't HEALTHY eating rules, they actually sound pretty obsessive =/
@soyeahthatswhathappened@xanga - Ummm no. Why does my dressing need to have fat and nutrients? That's what the vegetables in my salad are for. You can't say dressing NEEDS to have regular fat content, that's just stupid.
@sororitygirl_slimdown@xanga - it's actually not "just stupid." low fat dressings have no nutrients in them. look it up if you think i'm lying to you.
if that's what you think maybe you should just eat your salads dry.
@soyeahthatswhathappened@xanga - Lol okay sorry I said it was stupid, but my question was why do you NEED nutrients in salad dressing? Anyway, what nutrients are in full fat salad dressing anyway?? And I basically DO eat my salads dry (compared to most people), with just some balsamic vinegar, like I said earlier.
So are you saying it's healthier to have a salad with fatty dressing instead of a salad without dressing...? I'm just trying to understand what you're trying to say, since I honestly don't get your point.
@sororitygirl_slimdown@xanga - i suppose what i am saying is that if you're going to have dressing on your salad, it's better to choose a salad with regular fat content rather than low-fat or fat-free. i think i worded this wrong-fat doesn't have nutrients in it per se, but it helps our bodies to absorb nutrients. we all need some unsaturated fat for that reason. not to mention typically low-fat/fat-free dressings are loaded with artificial this and that. but it is better to eat a salad dry generally because dressings are so full of unneeded fat.
@soyeahthatswhathappened@xanga - well, I see what you're saying. Only thing is, we need GOOD fats, and salad dressing will have bad fats. Our fats are supposed to come mainly from vegetable oils, (not in salad dressing at all). One thing I've done is mix olive oil with vinegar to use for salad dressing. Other than that I would still stick with what I said before, fats in dressing aren't good for you.
For more healthy eating rule, go to
http://BeautifulLifeSharing.blogspot.com
My grandparents firmly believed that eating anything that was burned would give you cancer. Scrape the black off that toast!