What is a healthy food?

Doesn't everyone want to know what a healthy food is?  People ask me all the time whether a food is healthy, and I can't give them that yes or no answer that they want.  Here's an example: I had some ice cream on Sunday.  I'll tell you about it, and you can decide - is it a healthy food?

Per half cup: 110 calories, 25 calories from fat.  Okay, not bad: some of the leading brands have up to 330 calories per half cup.  I had 2 cups, or four half cups, or 440 calories.  Oops.

It has probiotics, those healthy bacteria that live in your gut and help your digestive system stay regular.  Good.

It has berries - real strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries.  Good.  They're listed in the ingredients somewhere after high fructose corn syrup.  Not so good.

It's sweetened with sucralose, a non-caloric sweetener.  Good.  It's also sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, brown sugar, polydextrose, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and corn syrup (did those last three look familiar?  The ingredients list label mentioned them twice, too). Not so good.
It has two grams of fiber per serving.  Hey, I ate four servings...that's 8 grams of fiber, almost a third of my daily amount.  Good.

The first ingredient is skim milk, and each serving has 10% calcium.  Good.

It has partially hydrogenated soybean oil, you know, the stuff that's famous for its artery clogging trans fats?  Not so good.

Overall? I'd like to know what you think.  Personally, I think it was a good choice for me.  It was a treat I had planned for, and it was definitely a better choice than a thousand calorie hot fudge sundae.  And I had a salad before it, so doesn't that make up for the six kinds of sugar? 

Organic pills?

I recently had the opportunity meet a representative from a weight loss company. Their program involves a diet plan and is based around the supplements, bars, and shakes that they sell. To me, it appeared similar to any other over priced and under healthy diet plan with fake foods that they claim are crucial to success.

When I spoke to her, I could not tell whether the representative genuinely believed what she was saying, or whether she was simply a good salesperson.  She spent a while telling me about the evils of all foods today, including organic and natural.  According to her, they all have chemical contaminants from pesticides or air pollution. I agree that our food probably isn't sterile, but what I'm not sure about is how her company's pills and bars solve the problem. Is it really healthier to eat a pill made from chemically produced vegetable-like compounds than a cup of broccoli? It's hard to believe!  I'm a fan of real food, and not chocolate-coated isoflavonoid meal-replacement tablets.

Mind Games

Now that the barbecues and fireworks are over, it's time to get exercising.  I'll admit it, though. I'm injured and I can't do my favorite exercise, which is running.  To feel slightly less like a bump on the log, I hit the exercise bike every morning.  It's not running, but it's at least a little bit of exercise.  I'm very fortunate to have a bicycle in my office.

Since I don't enjoy it as much as running, I have to play mind games to get myself on the bike. As soon as I wake up, I try to distract myself so that I don't think about whether or not I'm going to get on the bike.  Instead, I try to think deep thoughts such as, "Where did my shoes walk themselves to since I took them off yesterday?" or, "Should I set the fan on level one or level two?"  By the time I figure out the answers to these and other ("Will the bicycle find me more attractive in purple or red shorts this morning?") perplexing questions, I am on the bicycle and pedaling away.  Not quite happily, but trying hard. 

Getting started with your exercise session is half the battle.

Happy Fourth of July!

I always feel excited on Friday afternoon of a long weekend.  Even if I don't have anything special planned, holiday weekends feel festive and people are happy.  Of course, I'm always looking for the healthy options, so here are a few thoughts for a July 4 grill or barbecue.

My bias toward vegetables forces me to start with them.  What can you grill?  What vegetable can't you grill?  Try eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, and onions.  Try them plain or with herbs - toss a little rosemary, thyme, oregano, or basil. Of course, there's always chicken and fish for your lean protein.  For dessert, there's no better summer treat than watermelon.  Sugar free popsicles or snow cones (shaved ice with sugar free syrup) are refreshing, too.

One of the greatest parts about grilling is that you don't need a grill.  That's right.  This spring, my coworker taught me the magic of the stove.  You can literally place your vegetables directly on the burner and watch them roast.  My natural laziness has taken the indoor grilling technique a step further.  Now, I grill in the toaster oven.  All I do is turn the temperature up all the way, to about 450 or 500 degrees, and come back about a half hour later.  While this works for all the vegetables I already named, I've been doing this especially often with all kinds of peppers - red and green bell, Anaheim, Pasilla, and even jalapenos.  If you're not into flaming foods, I don't recommend the jalapenos, and you should remove the seeds and veins from the Anaheim and Pasilla peppers, too.

Hope you have a good weekend!