Whole Foods

In the past couple of weeks, I have read several books about nutrition.  I read Eat to lose, Eat to Win, by Rachel Beller.  This is the easiest to understand book about nutrition I have ever read.  The most helpful part of the book are the recipes for snacks.  Beller suggests a hearty afternoon snack like a sandwich wrap made with sushi nori instead of less satisfying snacks like granola bars.  In the book Why French Kids Eat Everything, a mom candidly discusses her battle adapting her family to eating in France.  She introduced her children to new vegetables by making creative pureed soups like "special spinach sauce".  I am looking forward to making some of the recipes for my son.  My favorite tip was her suggestion to mix vegetable purees into a bottle with milk when first introducing new flavors.  Finally, I read Practical Paleo, as an introduction to the Paleo diet.   The Paleo diet focuses on whole (unprocessed foods) including meat, fruit, and vegetables as the main staples.  My husband suggested that we try this diet together because his doctor recommend he switch to a gluten and dairy-free diet.  My biggest take-away from this book is the importance of healthy fats in a diet.  After many years following weight watchers I lean towards a very low fat diet.  I didn't want to spend the points on even olive oil to sauté my dinner and chose to use non-stick cookware instead.  Reflecting back, I now believe that these lower fat meals left me less satisfied and hungry for snacks in between meals.  My goal is to continue reading more books about nutrition.  I've checked out the audiobook Whole, Rethinking the Science of Nutrition for my car trip this week and I downloaded Human Biology- Digestion and Nutrition for free from the kindle store.  I am really excited to learn more because the better I understand how what my body needs and why, I feel empowered to make healthier choices.

The message I've taken away from every book is the importance of eating whole foods.  If you cook it yourself using fresh produce and healthy oils, it's going to be nutritious.  If it has ingredients on the label that you don't know what they are, it's probably not a healthy food.  So, I'm not going to say that I'll never eat processed food again, but I'm going to start focusing on eating mostly whole foods.  I truly hope that as I eliminate processed foods from my diet, I will start to feel so much better that I don't crave them anymore.

Reading all of these books is inspiring me to cook new recipes.  When I was following a low fat diet I used apple sauce to cut fat out of baked goods and used a tiny spritz of canola oil when cooking in a skillet.  It really doesn't taste as good.  So, now that I am embracing the importance of fat in a healthy diet, I am excited to cook again.  Last weekend I made this delicious Paleo diet recipe, carrot and zucchini quiche.  I just mixed 12 eggs with grated carrot and zucchini and a little salt, rosemary, and sage.  I melted a tablespoon of butter in the bottom of the Pyrex baking dish and poured the egg mixture in.  I baked it at 375 for 40 minutes.  This recipe makes 6 servings.  It was delicious!   And they're great because you can freeze individual portions to reheat on busy mornings.

Yesterday morning I made the most delicious pumpkin pancakes.  I made my own recipe because I wanted pumpkin to be the primary ingredient and eggs the secondary ingredient.

PUMPKIN PANCAKES (3 servings of two pancakes)
For the batter-
mix dry ingredients first..
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 ts. baking powder
1/2 ts. baking soda
1 ts. cinnamon
1 ts. nutmeg
add wet ingredients...
1 small can (15 oz) pumpkin
4 eggs

The batter will be thick.  Scoop it onto a hot griddle greased with 1 TB. butter or coconut oil.  The recipe makes six pancakes.  They took about 5 minutes to cook on each side.  I put sliced banana and cinnamon on top.  I also poured a small side dish of maple syrup.  I alternated a bite of pancake with bananan and a bite of pancake with syrup.

This was a delicious and filling breakfast.  I didn't feel hungry again until six hours later.  I was curious to  see the nutrition info so I entered the recipe in to myfitnesspal.com.  Here's the breakdown for one serving(including the banana and syrup):

572 calories
90 gm carbs
20 gm fat
18 gm protein

According to nutrition.gov the daily breakdown of macronutrients in your diet should be 45-66% carb, 10-35% protein, and 20-35% fat.  I was really surprised to realize that even though I used whole eggs with yolk and cooked my pancakes in butter, this meal was only 16% fat.  So, it was on the lower side of the recommended amount.  It was 70% carbs, so it falls above the recommendations.  I am going to continue tracking my foods, not to count calories, but to gain a better understanding of what I'm eating.  I have a feeling that most of my meals tend to be carb heavy and low fat.

The past week went well.  I tried out some great new recipes and have been doing a good job eating healthier foods and only eating when I'm hungry.  Next week is going to be challenge.  I'm taking a road trip to visit my husband's family in Alabama.  To start with, car trip = snacks.  My family has stocked up on the usual goodies...oreos, nutty bars, fruit gummies, and chips.  My plan is to drink plenty of water and make sure I'm really hungry before I snack.  I am going to bake blueberry bran muffins so I have a sweet treat that appeals to me.  I also bought a few healthy snacks for myself including beef jerky, vegetable chips, kind granola bars, and Ghirardelli dark chocolate.  The dark chocolate is so delicious and satisfying (even in small portions) that it helps me avoid junk chocolate, like Oreos.  And the challenge continues after the car ride.  All of our plans revolve around what and where we are going to eat.  We're having a seafood feast at an uncle's house, fried seafood at the favorite local restaurant, and we're going to Gulf Shores for the famous restaurant- Lambert's Home of the Throwed Rolls (I'm pretty sure green beans rendered in bacon fat is the healthiest thing on the menu there.)  I am going to eat my usual favorites.  I just wouldn't feel satisfied if I went to Alabama and didn't indulge in some fried crab claws.  But I am going to keep my portions in check and stop eating when I'm full.  I'll check back in throughout the week and let everyone know how it goes.   Thanks for the continued support!

Alexandra