eating habits

The Allergen 8

Nibbles

For whatever reason (various theories abound), we humans are racking up quite the list of allergens and intolerance in our diet. And I’ve noticed it’s not just humans–have you noticed the rise in allergy issues in your family dog?

This has been more on my mind thanks to planning for the Great American Bake Sale, Helper Monkey Style! in 2 weeks. I try to stay conscious of my guests food preferences when I plan a party menu, but when baking for strangers? The word that comes to mind is “vigilance.”

We want happy, healthy bake sale customers on the 28th, and one way we can ensure that is by carefully labeling our baked goodies with the basic ingredient list, highlighting the eight most common food allergens:

  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Peanuts
  • Tree nuts (such as almonds, cashews, walnuts)
  • Fish (such as bass, cod, flounder)
  • Shellfish (such as crab, lobster, shrimp)
  • Soy
  • Wheat

(list via The Mayo Clinic)

But what’s the difference between an allergy, an intolerance and a sensitivity?

To qualify as an allergy, the body’s reaction is violent: hives, swelling, system shutdown. Your system declares all-out war on a substance and your body is the battlefield. Consuming products you know you’re allergic to can be life-threatening; even when the allergic response is mild, continued exposure can bring rapid escalation of the systems and the outcome.

Intolerance, on the other hand, is the body’s inability to process an enzyme in the food, creating unfortunate side-effects. Lactose intolerance means your body doesn’t produce enough lactase, for instance. To combat it we either take a pill that gives our body the needed lactase, consume dairy products that have been specially treated to combat the lack of lactase, or use a dairy substitute.   Being sensitive to a certain ingredient or additive means you experience certain unfortunate consequences when you eat or drink whatever it is, but it’s unlikely to kill you.

Sensitivity, though, is a middle ground. Each person can be more or less sensitive to a food, and wish to avoid it to improve their quality of life. For instance, I have a friend who went gluten-free to help her migraines and it helped, for a while at least. Another friend avoids gluten because she feels fuzzy-headed and sluggish if she eats it, and likes to be clear-headed. MSG sensitivity causes lots of headaches to folks in the US (pun intended). Like intolerance, though, it’s not going to kill you if you eat something you’re sensitive to, you just might feel pretty bad afterwards.

Your average bake sale is going to be full of wheat, eggs, and milk, with a good chance of peanuts or tree nuts as well. Somehow I don’t see a high probability of fish and shellfish being on our table, but it’s all up to the volunteers and what they choose to bake!

My to-bake list included mini pound cakes (perfect with some farmer’s market strawberries, mmm!), double chocolate muffins and I think I’m going to make up a big batch of spinach puffs just to have something different available.

Simple Pleasures

Nibbles

Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting
While some would caution us (with good intentions) not to place too much emphasis on the way food makes us feel, it’s undeniable that food does affect our mood.

Whether it’s the smell of fresh-baked cookies, fresh from the oven, the feel of bread dough as we knead it into rolls or loafs or braids, or the snap of fresh green beans before they hit the colander for rinsing, the use of our other 4 senses when cooking and eating are indispensable when it comes to the total food experience.

There are the phrases “eat to live” and “live to eat.” The first one is for folks who look at food as a tool: fuel for daily tasks. It has to serve its purpose and nothing else. The second is for the rest of us who really enjoy our food. Sometimes that leads to over-indulging, but I think there’s a middle ground.

Part of that middle ground is found by examining the quality of what we eat in relation to the quantity of it.

Recently we attended a friends birthday dinner and it was asked of all who wanted a second slice of cake. It was very good cake, and the first serving was definitely on the conservative side.

But…

While a part of me, the inner child if you will, wanted another, larger, frosting-overloaded piece of cake, another part of me (and, thankfully, the part that had control over my actions at the time) demurred. Why? Because one slice was enough.

Now, some would call this willpower. I am actually rather infamous for my lack thereof. Some would also call this self-deprivation. But I call it good sense. By appreciating the piece of cake I’d already had (following a delicious meal of lobster ravioli and a nice tall cocktail–see what I mean about the willpower?) I stopped myself from almost-certain indigestion and regret.

We’ve all been there, right? The oh-I-can’t-believe-I-ate-so-much moment after a large meal. The feeling of leaden limbs, the desire for a nap, the mushy-headed-ness of overdoing it. The hangover if it was a case of one-more-drink-won’t-hurt, last night.

What’s the secret, then, to avoiding overindulgence?

There isn’t one. Not really.

It’s just a matter of being aware of what we’re doing, eating and drinking. Of knowing how much really is enough. And enjoying it.

There’s some sort of major sporting even coming up this weekend, I’m told 😉 Many may be invited to parties. Those parties  may feature tables laden with heavy, fatty foods. Buckets of beer. You know the drill.

And I’m not going to preach small plates or counting calories, I’m just going to suggest that, if you want to avoid the calling-in-food-sick on Monday morning thing (when everyone knows that you really just partied too much), you think about each trip to the buffet or each scoop of 7-layer-dip you take. Notice the texture, flavor and enjoyment it gives and take a moment, a fraction of a second even, to appreciate it before going back to for another. And maybe realize it’s enough.

While I go set my DVR for the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.

Tidbits

Nibbles

Nothing major happened in my corner of the food world this week, but there are a few smaller bites to be had. After all, sometimes all you want to do is graze.

Ordering From the Wall

On Friday night, Todd and I took the recommendation of a friend and tried out a new-to-us Asian restaurant. Tan’s Asian Cafe is a tiny little spot next to a popular garden center and the menu we were presented read just like any other take-out place, with maybe more than it’s fair share of misspellings. But it had Bubble Tea, and the only other place in our corner of town that had it I have a significant issue with their business practices, so I was willing to wait it out.

The menu may have looked pretty standard, but on the wall were pictures of food and names. These we took to be their specialties. On thing I learned years ago is to always order a specialty of the house whenever possible, that’s when you learn if they’re worth a repeat trip.

Oh, man, was our trust not betrayed. I ordered Rendang–it’s like Malaysian pot roast, the way they serve it–and was amazing. Todd got the Chicken Curry and was also quite happy–so much so that he pretty much inhaled the entire spicy plate. We neglected to order egg rolls but we didn’t need to. And our Bubble Teas? So worth the wait (they came out midway through the entree but were like dessert, so it was totally fine).

A True Tamale

A kind friend has some Tucson Tamale Company tamales shipped to me, this week, as I’d never tried a tamale of any sort. Since we were having friends over on Sunday, we decided to share the wealth and serve them up with the rest of the predominantly tex-mex fare that evening.

Oh. My. Word.

First of all, I had no idea you could even have sweet tamales. The “Tahiti,” filled with grilled pineapple, mango and coconut was amazingly sweet. Some friends likened it to a really good apple pie (thanks, mostly, to the seasonings included–you know how flavor memories can do that), which makes me want to try an apple pie with a sweet cornmeal crust, now. I just thought it was heaven.

And of the savory tamales, I was absolutely in love with the Green Corn ones. It was like the smoothest, creamiest cheese grits with bits of jalapeno stirred in. I could have curled up into and gone to sleep, with sweet corn dreams my companion.

Food With Friends

I’ve never been good with group projects, it’s just not how I roll.  But we’ve lucked into a group of friends who is just as appreciative of good food as Todd and I are and are not shy about sharing.

Over the holidays we had several opportunities to dine with these fine folks and, let me tell you, for a self-professed control-freak when it comes to hospitality, it’s been a real pleasure to step back, let others take part in planning and preparation of a meal. Mostly, though, because I know they can deliver.

Trust is a funny thing, but I don’t think it’s misplaced to need to trust those who take a role in feeding you. After all, what we put in our bodies is a pretty major thing.

And thinking of it like that, makes me ever more grateful for those who come to our house for a meal and trust me to feed them well.

So, what’s happening in your corner of the kitchen?

 

Portion Perceptions

Nibbles

Since part of getting back into the swing of things this year meant watching what (and how much and when) I eat, I’ve been paying more attention to labels so that the info I’m entering into MyFitnessPal.com is as accurate as possible.

And while I always knew, and understood, the idea that we eat with our eyes as well as our mouths, it really hit home over these first two weeks with my occasional afternoon snack of chips and queso.

One week we had the large, restaurant-style chips in the house and a portion of those is approximately 7 chips. The next week, having run out of the larger chips (they were left over from holiday entertaining and snacking), I ended up buying the smaller bite-sized rounds.

Imagine my surprise when the same calorie count (140, for the curious) translated to 24 round chips.

Why is this relevant? Well, while quality should always trump quantity, sometimes the hand-to-mouth comfort of larger portions makes us feel better than the righteousness of a smaller portion. In this case, though, the portions are equal, it’s the perception of the many pieces in one versus the few in the other.

(Yes, there’s plenty to be said on meeting emotional needs with food–this isn’t a post about that and I sympathize with those in Overeaters Anonymous who struggle with just this issue.)

In fact, 24 of the rounds almost felt like too much. I’ve even been known to only have 12 (yes, I counted) and been perfectly satisfied. But there’s very little chance that I would have settled for only 3.5 of the larger chips. I mean, come on, would you?

 

Tortilla Chip Comparison--big triangles vs little rounds

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘your eyes are bigger than your stomach’?

It’s not your eyes that are the problem, it’s your mind. Taking the chip example and putting into dinner mode, think about the size of  your average dinner plate: 10+ inches.

Now place a deck of cards (for meat/protein), a 1 cup measure (veggies) and a 1/2-cup measure (grains or potatoes) on it.

Swap out that whopper of a dinner dish for the smaller salad plate (8 inches) and place the same representations onto the plate.

10.5 inch dinner plate with portion representations 8 inch salad plate with portion representations

The dinner plate on the left looks positively naked while the salad plate is full. And it’s not unusual to feel short-changed with a small item on a large plate. That perception of being deprived or “gypped”  by a near-empty plate is what leads to loading up double portions or going back for seconds. And soon a habit is formed that a 12 oz steak is a single portion (not more than 2!) or that if you’re plate isn’t filled you won’t be full.

Switch to a smaller plate, though, and a lot of those habits are easier to break.

We still keep our dinner plates around, of course. They’re great for holidays when a little indulging is okay. When you’re having a cookout they’re great for serving kebabs or acting as serving dishes for smaller dinners. Or under a soup-bowl to hold a slice of bread or corn muffin.

But we don’t use them very often for dinner and we don’t miss them, then, either.

All Things in Moderation

Nibbles

It’s a new year and with the starting of a new calendar many folks around the world have all vowed to do one thing: lose weight.

And I saw a statistic the other day that was not all that encouraging for their chances.

Me? While my doctor would love to see that scale go down at my 6-month check-up, I’m not as concerned with the numbers as I might have been before. For me, it’s less about losing weight and more about being healthy.

That’s where moderation comes in.

Todd and I are pretty good about eating the “right” things, 9 times out of 10, but lately we’ve been less concerned about portion size. And if lab rats have taught us nothing, we’ve learned that too much of anything–even the good stuff–can be harmful.

Here’s a for instance for you: A while back I participated in the Game On! Diet challenge with some friends (which was a fun way to do things if you’re competitive and wanting to break some old habits, though I don’t completely agree with the way they categorize certain foods). Since we were going by the instigators instructions and not the book itself–and everything was being done via Facebook posts–there was a slight miscommunication/misunderstanding that led to the idea that each of the 5 meals the plan called for needed to include 2 cups of approved veggies.

Folks, there’s a reason cows have 4 stomachs–1 is just not enough to deal with all that roughage in one day!

It didn’t help that, by no longer having a gall bladder, my body was just not equipped to handle such large meals in succession anymore. Basically, to say I was uncomfortable by mid-afternoon would be a severe understatement.

But before I swore off the challenge I dug around a bit and found where I’d gone astray (for the record, only 2 of the 5 meals–easily lunch and dinner–required the 2 cups of fibrous veggies) and the rest of the 4-week challenge went just fine (I even managed to lose 5 pounds, and our team won!).

Back to the point, moderation relies on one major factor: awareness. What you’re eating, how much of it and what it’s made of all play a part in this sort of healthy lifestyle choice. So how can you be more aware?

First, write everything down that you eat and drink. Really. You can do this in a notebook or use a hand website/app like MyFitnessPal.com. I started playing around with the latter the week before Christmas and found that if I was committed to writing everything down I was less likely to go grab a cookie from the breakroom because I didn’t want to have to write it down. And the time that I was willing to do so, I really appreciated that cookie a bit more.

Second, think about what really constitutes a portion. A 6 oz steak mike look pretty small on your plate, but it’s technically 2 servings of protein. Some folks like to relate portion sizes to the palm of your hand, the size of your closed fist, etc. but all I have to do is look at the size difference between my hand and Todd’s and know that’s not an accurate guide! If might feel weird, but carry around a 1/2-cup measuring cup for a week or two and visually compare it to the food on your plate will give you a much better idea of what a portion is.

Finally, know what you’re putting into your body. Obviously, if French fries are a regular part of your daily diet, you might want to start substituting something less fried for your side. But even the seemingly “healthy” stuff can do you in if you’re not sure of what’s in it. A salad topped with fat-free dressing might sound like a good thing, until you realize all the chemicals that went into making that dressing could be more harmful than a basic oil and vinegar dressing with, yes, fat (but the good kind of fat). If you’ve got the time to make everything from scratch, more power to you–I don’t and don’t expect anyone else to, either. But educating ourselves about ingredients is a step in the right direction and the Fooducate app is, I think, a great tool for making better choices at the grocery store.

That’s my plan, at least, and if the numbers on the scale go down, that’s great. (If not, you won’t find me boo-hooing, though, because quality of life, to me, is more than a number on a scale.)

Do you have any healthy plans for the upcoming year?