« July 2010 | Main | September 2010 »
August 30, 2010
Selve-Serve Yogurt Shops
Call it yogurt mania.
Self-serve, pay-by-the-ounce frozen-yogurt shops are sweeping the country, creating a rage among kids and their moms, teens, college students -- and pretty much everyone else.
The concept, which originated in California, combines healthy -- and not-so-healthy -- choices with the all-important ability to control how much you eat and spend.
The idea is simple:
• Grab a cup.
• Fill it from levered dispensers with any amount and combination of a dozen or so frozen yogurt flavors, from fruit punch to red velvet cake batter.
• Pile on toppings -- fresh fruit, nuts, cereal, crushed cookies, chopped candy bars and gummy bears, to name a few.
• Get it weighed, and pay. (Owners say cups average $3 to $6.)
The degree of healthfulness depends on the choices you make. Piling on candy, cookies, syrups could tip the scale - your weight and the weight of the sundae.
Posted by Lisa at 6:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 26, 2010
Losing Weight On the Web
An effective weight-loss site is interactive, offering access to goal-setting modules and record-keeping tools. It provides support, letting users communicate with each other and with nutrition and exercise experts. It encourages accountability, prompting users with E-mails and phone calls to record their weight, exercise, and calorie intake. It's personalized, tailoring meal plans and workouts to the individual. And it's trustworthy, providing clear and credible health information.
CalorieKing ($12 monthly, $85 for a year). A food and exercise database linked to a personal diary converts meals and activities into calories so you can visualize if you're hitting your weight-loss goals. A drag-and-drop interface makes meal plans easy to create, even for the least technologically savvy. Guidance to successful meal planning is provided. March believes that its weekly progress charts and graphs can motivate dieters.
Nutrihand ($9.95 per month or free when you join with your nutritionist or dietitian). Featurewise this site is more plain vanilla than rocky road, but if you're getting professional help offline, it allows you and your counselor to work together online on meal plans, shopping lists, and fitness goals. You can print out reports to bring to your sessions. Diabetics who use insulin pumps can upload data from their glucometer on a private and secure network and chart or graph glucose levels, blood pressure, and other personal data to tweak pump settings and track health status.
SparkPeople (free). It's supported by ads that run the gamut from hotels to granola bars, but get-slim-quick gimmicks are blessedly absent. The focus is on meeting simple goals: eat less, exercise more. March advises her clients to take advantage of the site's nutritional planning tools. Users can create meal plans based on calories and dietary restrictions, plan meals up to a week in advance, and save favorite meals to a daily log. Members exchange advice through forums, blogs, and message boards. Bonus: The more time you spend on the site, the more SparkPoints you earn towards prizes like T-shirts, water bottles, and exercise DVDs.
Vtrim ($695 for six months). From the University of Vermont, Vtrim requires dedication and a good chunk of cash. You sign on for a six-month commitment consisting of 24 one-hour classes with approximately 20 other members guided by a Vtrim-certified "facilitator" trained in diet, nutrition, or weight management. Groups meet weekly in chat rooms to discuss specific habits geared towards healthy living. They utilize graphs, charts, body mass index, featured recipes, and other tools to help track calories. Although the price tag packs a hefty punch, Vtrim takes a sensible approach to dieting that focuses on changing behavior, not starvation. In fact, it shies away from diets entirely and encourages walking as the primary form of exercise.
WeightWatchers ($47.90 for the first month and $17.95 for each additional month, plus a $23.95 start-up fee). If your chief concern is diet and not fitness, it's a great resource. Although members are encouraged to exercise, the emphasis is on healthy eating and community support. Best known for its "points system," WeightWatchers bases its program on choosing healthy foods that satisfy hunger as long as possible. The site keeps track of food intake; provides recipes, meal ideas, and dining out tips; and creates personalized weekly progress charts. Signing up online won't allow you to attend local meetings, but it does allow you to access your plan from your cell phone.
Posted by Lisa at 6:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 23, 2010
Try Something New: Maple Almond Butter!
Justin's Natural Maple Almond Butter Squeeze Pack
Move over peanut butter and jelly. This maple-laced almond butter marries sweet, salty and savory all into one. Perfectly sized in convenient, portable 2-tablespoon squeeze packs, it makes a smart spread for topping an apple or whole-grain crackers.
It's completely free of hydrogenated fats and has only 2 grams of saturated fat, and is surprisingly low in sodium (only 70 milligrams) and sugars (only 3 grams).
One squeeze pack provides 200 calories, 17 grams of total fat and 6 grams of protein
Posted by Lisa at 6:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 19, 2010
Rigatoni Peperonata
* 1/4 cup pine nuts
* 12 ounces rigatoni (3/4 box)
* 2 Tbsp olive oil
* 3 bell peppers (preferably red and yellow), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
* 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 2 tablespoons chopped capers
* 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
* 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
* salt and black pepper
Directions
1. Heat oven to 400º F. Spread the pine nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast, tossing occasionally, until golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bell peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the olives, parsley, capers, vinegar, crushed red pepper, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until heated though, 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Add the pasta and pine nuts to the skillet and cook, tossing, for 1 minute.
Serves 4
Posted by Lisa at 6:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 16, 2010
Making Room For Legumes
You might already be aware of the health benefits of chick peas, beans, lentils and other members of the legume family, but that doesn’t mean you’re eating them. Beans and legumes are most commonly found in dishes from Central and South America, Asia or the Mediterranean. Yet their rich nutritional value makes them a valuable addition to almost any diet.
So how to incorporate these unique and powerful foods into our diet?
Beans for beginners
If you rarely, if ever, eat beans or legumes, one of the easiest ways to start is with hummus.
The now-ubiquitous dip is made from mashed chick peas, along with variable amounts of garlic, lemon, salt and tahini (sesame seed spread). Of course, now that hummus is common fare in grocery stores and restaurants alike, you can find variations made with different spices and peppers, or even made from different beans.
Calorie-wise, hummus is neither the lowest (salsa), nor the highest (artichoke and asiago) of the common dips, so most people can safely enjoy anywhere from 2 tbsp (50 calories) to ¼ cup (100 calories) without blowing their caloric budget. As an added benefit, you get a nice balance of protein (5 grams per ¼ cup), fiber (4 grams per ¼ cup), and healthy fats (from the tahini), not to mention antioxidants from the chick peas and garlic.
Chili is another simple way to add beans to your diet. Be it a vegetarian chili or a more traditional recipe made from lean ground beef or turkey, beans (most commonly red kidney beans) add flavor, texture and fiber to this popular dish.
For those who frequent salad bars or the fresh counter at the grocery store, a mixed bean or chick pea salad makes an easy choice, no culinary skills needed. A bean salad can make a nice side dish at meal-time, but it can also be used as a filling afternoon snack.
Intermediate beans
If you’re ready to try cooking with beans or lentils, but don’t know how, it’s easiest to start with the canned stuff. The salt content can be high, but washing the beans and discarding the liquid will help — and canned varieties tend to be less gas-producing than dried beans. Since no cooking is needed, simply grab a can opener and start experimenting with a range of dishes. Try adding lentils to soup, black beans to salad, or chick peas to a stir-fry.
You can also mash or purée beans and use them in dips, soups or wraps. Puréed lentils can be used as the base for a hearty lentil soup, black beans can be used to make quesadillas. Try adding some cumin, a bit of salt and pepper, and blend with grated cheese to make a quick meal that becomes well-balanced with a side salad or vegetable soup. Of course, chick peas can also be tossed into a blender to make hummus.
If you’ve never made a bean salad, it’s quick, inexpensive and best of all, easy. While the variations are virtually endless, try mixing a can of chick peas, a can of corn (or two cobs of cooked corn) and some chopped carrot and green pepper. Make a quick vinaigrette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and voila: You have a bucket of side dish salad for less than $2. You can also try mixing black beans with red onions, sliced cherry tomatoes, and avocado to make an easy side salad or pita topper.
The bottom line
Whether it’s a scraping of hummus, or a more complex side or entrée, adding beans and legumes to your diet makes good sense economically, ecologically and for good health. Aim for a ½-cup serving (or ¼ cup of hummus or bean dip), three to four times per week, or as often as you’re able if these foods are new to you.
Posted by Lisa at 6:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 12, 2010
Pouring On the Pounds
The NYC Health Department is launching a new awareness campaign, which debuts in the subway system this month. In the spirit of last year's "Pouring On the Pounds" campaign, it urges New Yorkers to consider what goes into a large serving of sweetened soda. The answer: a shocking 26 packets of sugar.
The campaign comes amid indications that New Yorkers are starting to cut back on the nation's leading source of excess calories. The Health Department reported that the proportion of New York City adults consuming one or more sugary drinks each day declined by about 12% between 2007 and 2009.
The decline is a sign of progress in New York City's prolonged battle against obesity - but the battle is far from over. Sugared beverages still add millions of empty calories to New Yorkers' diets each year, and roughly 3 out of 5 New Yorkers are overweight or obese.
The Health Department's new ad is part of a continuing effort to encourage that trend. Last summer the agency caught New Yorkers' attention with a subway poster that showed soda turning to blubber as it tumbled from a bottle into a glass. "Are you pouring on the pounds?" it asked. "Don't drink yourself fat." The agency raised the stakes a few months later, with an online video in which a man downs a glass of the same fatty substance, pretending to enjoy it.
The posters debuting this month take a similar tack, but they go a step further, showing the actual sugar content of a 20-ounce bottle of soda (16 packets) - or a 32-ounce bucket (26 packets). Each image is accompanied by a reminder that sugar consumed in these quantities can lead to obesity and other health consequences, such as diabetes and heart disease.
Posted by Lisa at 6:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 9, 2010
Do You Really Need a Sports Drink?
You're headed to the gym or for a bike ride after work. Should you sip a sports drink before, guzzle it afterward or stick with water?
These drinks — Accelerade, Gatorade, Gatorade G, PowerAde, Pure Sport and more — provide water for hydration, energy in the form of carbohydrates and electrolytes that help the body retain fluids. Their ingredients are calibrated to meet the needs of athletes.
Sports drinks are mostly water, important for any active individual, whether a competitive athlete or fitness hobbyist. But a person's need for the added ingredients in the drinks (typically sodium, potassium and sugar, and, in so-called recovery drinks, protein) varies depending on how hot it is outside and how long and how intense a workout is.
Sports drinks typically provide about 15 to 18 grams of sugar in every 8-ounce serving. But for the average workout, people who are eating three square meals a day don't need the extra calories those carbs provide.
Sports drinks are for an hour to an hour-and-a-half or more of hard exercise, like a 100-mile bike ride or a 10-mile run.
The electrolytes sodium and potassium help keep a body hydrated, but most people don't become depleted in either mineral during a moderate workout. Sodium is already abundant in the American diet, and potassium is plentiful in lots of fruits and vegetables.
Posted by Lisa at 3:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 5, 2010
Homemade Ice Cream
If you have an ice cream maker, this recipe couldn't be any easier.
2 cups Fat Free Half and Half
1 can Fat Free Evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients together with a whisk and place in the refrigerator for a few hours to chill. Pour into your Ice Cream Maker and proceed according to your Ice Cream Maker's instructions.
Makes 10 servings
Nutrition Information
147 Kcal
.8g Fat
30g Carb
5.6g Protein
Posted by Lisa at 8:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack