Heels to Laces Menu

Viewing all items for tag healthy option

Permalink:

Oatmeal Might Be A Superfood After All

We all know that oatmeal is good for you and can be a great way to start the day.  But it wasn’t until my daughter started eating it and then got her younger brothers to eat it, that I took a second look.  I was aware, like most of us, that oatmeal had fiber, and I had seen all those commercials about it lowering your cholesterol.  But I thought a lot of this was just overblown advertising.  However, when my kids started asking for it as a snack after school, I decided it was time to do a little more research.oatmeal

As a child, I ate the instant maple brown sugar kind in those little brown packets. At the time, I thought it was tasty and sweet.  But as I got older, it was too sweet and uninspiring for me to keep eating it.  It wasn’t until recently that I had the ‘real stuff’ – the slow cook rolled oats or the steel cut version.  What a difference!  Before trying it, I was under the impression that the ‘real’ oatmeal took forever to cook.  But it takes maybe 10 to 15 minutes – quick enough for most crazy rushed mornings.

I listed many of the nutritional information and health benefits of slow cooked oatmeal below. One half cup of oatmeal uncooked (which about doubles after cooking) has the following nutritional content.

Protein: 5 to 6 grams of protein depending on the type.  Oats have one of the highest protein levels of any grain, even beating out today’s favorite, quinoa.  Oats, like many other whole grains, is a complete protein – meaning it contains all 10 essential amino acids. Oats have a one of the highest levels of these amino acids, again, beating our other whole grains like quinoa and brown rice.

Fiber:  4 grams of fiber.  Women need between 21 and 25 grams of fiber per day and studies show that the majority of Americans get only about 15 grams a day.  If you add fruit, such as bananas or apples, to your oatmeal, you will pump your fiber intake up to by an additional 3-5 grams of fiber.  This one meal will meet 1/3 of your recommended daily fiber needs.

Beta glucan:  This is a type of fiber that appears to be the all-star compound in oatmeal. There have been hundreds of studies published on beta-glucan and how it naturally boosts your immune system. Beta-glucan stimulates immune cells that ingest and demolish invading pathogens and stimulates other immune cells to attack. In addition, beta glucans stimulate lethal white blood cells (lymphocytes) that bind to tumors or viruses, and release chemicals to destroy it.  And to top it off, our bodies do not produce beta-glucan, so you have to ingest it to get it.  Hello oatmeal!

Low in fat and calories: Approximately 3 grams of fat and 150 calories per serving.

Whole Grains: Oatmeal is a whole grain, and eating whole grains can lower your risk for several diseases, including high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Oatmeal also contains lignans, a plant chemical that has been found to prevent heart disease.

Low Glycemic Index (GI):  Oatmeal has a low glycemic index (Steel Cut have an index of 42, standard rolled oats have an index of 55.). (Instant has 83 – NOT a low GI food.)  GI measures the actual impact that a carbohydrate food has on blood sugar.  Foods with low GIs provide sustained energy and do not spike insulin levels.  As such, we feel full longer which can aid in dieting and fat loss.  In addition, low GI diets are associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stoke, depression and certain cancers, to just name a few.

Lower Cholesterol: Since 1963, study after study has proven the beneficial effects of oatmeal on cholesterol levels.  Yes, the commercials are actually true!  Studies show that in individuals with high cholesterol (above 220 mg/dl), consuming just 3 grams of soluble oat fiber per day (an amount found in one bowl of oatmeal) typically lowers total cholesterol by 8-23%. This is highly significant since each 1% drop in serum cholesterol translates to a 2% decrease in the risk of developing heart disease.

Iron:  10% of recommended daily amount

There are so many ways to dress up oatmeal and add variety and nutrients.  Our favorite way is to add peanut butter, banana and a teaspoon of honey.  We eat the natural peanut butter so the honey gives us a little sweetness.  You can also add any kind of nuts or seeds to get a little crunch.  Another favorite is to add nonfat Greek yogurt – it adds a little creaminess and pumps up the protein.  Fruit is also a popular option – we usually use bananas at this time of year, but any fruit works beautifully.  Cinnamon and flax seeds are other options to jazz up your oatmeal.  The possibilities are bountiful and each one only increases the healthfulness of the meal.  If you had relegated oatmeal to the back shelf, it may be time to give it a second look.

To leave a comment on this article or any other blog entry, please fill in the “Leave a comment” box under each blog entry on our site: Heels to Laces

  • Thanks for leaving a comment, please keep it clean. HTML allowed is strong, code and a href.

    Comment moderation is enabled, no need to resubmit any comments posted.

Permalink:

Getting Back On The Exercise Wagon And Staying On It!

It has happened to all of us – and often before we even realize it.  One week you miss your workouts due to a busy schedule, and then the next week you skip because you don’t feel well.  Before you know it, a month has passed by and your laces haven’t seen any action. Months may even turn into years.  Once you stop fitting exercise into your life, it may seem hard to find time for it again. You may not remember how you ever found time for it in the first place.  But don’t throw in the towel!  You can start again and find the time.  Here are some tips to get you going again:

 1)         Stop beating yourself up for quitting – Just Start!  Forget about the lost days and months – you can’t get them back, but you can change the days to come.  And you are not as far gone as you think.  All that earlier work created a foundation that is waiting to be drawn out.  Muscles do have memory.

2)         Define and write down your WHY.  There will be days when you are tired and not in the mood, so it helps to have something powerful to remind you why you started in the first place.  It should be something motivating that stirs an emotional reaction, and probably needs to be more powerful than just fitting into those skinny jeans (although that can be part of the reason!).  Think of your life long wellness and how exercise can lead to a healthy and longer life.

images-3

 3)         Write down your goals.  Studies have shown that people who write down their goals are much more likely to obtain them.  Just ensure that they are realistic and achievable. When you first set a goal, you’re full of energy and completely motivated, but over time those feelings can wane and your overzealousness can push you to do too much too soon. The fix is to define a progressive set of goals that build on one another to help propel you toward that big goal. Breaking a big goal into smaller, realistic goals can help you both mentally and physically. For example, start with weekly goals such as a certain number of visits to the gym or minutes of exercise a day, rather than a six month goal of losing 40 pounds.

4)         Try something new.  This is especially helpful if boredom was one of the reasons that you fell off the wagon in the first place.  Today’s fitness options are varied and almost limitless. In most areas, you can choose among boot camps, CrossFit, Zumba, kick boxing, Bar Method, spinning, yoga and running groups, as well as many other options.  If you want to start out at home, there is an excellent supply of home DVD videos.  If you really need to be accountable to someone, consider hiring a personal trainer.

5)         Join a challenge!  These are not hard to find.  Look for local 5K runs or short distance triathlons.  You can check out your gym for contests and even workplaces are getting into the game as they see the benefits of healthy employees.  These will require determination and hard work, but you will be surprised how much fun you have and how many people you meet.

6)         Look beyond the scale.  If weight loss is your main goal, don’t rely entirely on the numbers of the scale.  It is common for exercisers to lose fat and gain muscle without a change in body weight, so it is important to look beyond the scale. Notice how your clothes fit and how your body feels stronger.  You should also feel your increased energy level and overall better mood, as exercise has been proven to boost both of these.

Falling off the wagon happens to everyone.  Stop worrying about what happened in the past and look forward.  The first step back on is the hardest and requires motivation, but soon it will become habit and that will keep you going.

  • Thanks for leaving a comment, please keep it clean. HTML allowed is strong, code and a href.

    Comment moderation is enabled, no need to resubmit any comments posted.

Permalink:

Why We Can’t Put Those Chips Down.

images-2

There is a growing body of evidence that supports what many of us have always thought  – junk food is truly addictive.  The more we eat, the more we want.  Our brains crave junk food in much the same way as a drug addict craves drugs. And this is no accident.  Junk food has been designed and marketed with one goal in mind – to get us to eat more of it!

Early last year, Michael Moss wrote a cover story for New York Times Magazine about the science behind junk food addiction and taste.  He interviewed James Behnke, a top executive at Pillsbury, about his attempt during a 1999 meeting,  to get the CEO’s at America’s largest food companies to look seriously at America’s growing obesity problem.  Behnke discussed a pivotal moment of the meeting when Michael Mudd, a VP at Kraft, made an uncomfortable analogy.  He compared the large food companies to the tobacco companies in the way they advertised harmful products to children.  And he went on to claim “the toll taken on the public health by poor diet rivals that taken by tobacco.”

On this basis, Mudd presented a plan to address obesity and asked for the food industry to be part of the solution, but he was not successful.  Since that meeting in 1999, obesity rates have continued to surge.  Today, one in three adults and approximately one in six children are clinically obese.

Maybe it was naive to expect these tremendously successful food companies to make any changes that would alter their highly profitable brands.  At the time of the meeting, General Mills was reaping over $500 million in annual revenue just from their line of Yoplait yogurts.  These yogurts were marketed as a healthy food, but most flavors contained over 20 grams of sugar per 6 oz container (more than twice the sugar per serving as the marshmallow cereal Lucky Charms). And they had just launched Go-Gurt, the squeeze yogurt with 10 grams of sugar per tube (close to the 15 grams per sugar for the same serving size of most ice creams).

Sugar, Fat, Salt & Other Food Industry Tactics

Moss, a Pulitzer prize winning author, continued on to write “Salt, Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us”.  After more than four years of research and over 300 interviews, he found that there was a “conscience effort – taking place in the labs and marketing meetings and grocery store aisles – to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive.”  The food industry uses sugar, salt and fat, to make processed foods addicting, as well as other scientific techniques to make sure that we keep eating.

Sugar:  Sugar alone has been shown to be more addictive than cocaine.  Food manufacturers use sophisticated taste science to determine the “bliss point” that makes us crave more.

Fat:  The industry strives to find the best ‘mouth feel.’ That’s the feeling we get when we bite into a warm, gooey taste of cheese, or crispy fried chicken.  The feeling rushes right to the same pleasure centers of the brain that sugar does.

Salt:  Moss describes salt as “the miracle ingredient that solves all of the problems.”   Salt provides a burst of flavor, but also acts as a preservative so that the food can last on the shelf for months.  Salt also hides much of the off-notes in flavors that are common to processed foods.

Vanishing Calorie Density:  Big food companies also look for this attribute when designing junk food.  The term “vanishing calorie density” refers to the feeling we get when something melts quickly in our mouths.  When this happens, our brains think that there aren’t any calories in it, and, as such, we can keep eating it forever.  Cheetos are a perfect example of this type of food.

“Craveability”:  The food industry aims for this goal, so they can be assured that we keep eating.  Moss explains that foods with bold distinctive flavors can overwhelm our brains, which in turn, prevents us from over indulging on them.  To combat this, food industry scientists strive to create “craveabliity” in a food.  This is the exact balance between enticing our taste buds, but not overwhelming them, thereby overriding our brain’s natural tendency to say “stop”.

So – what are we to do?  The key is to eat less processed and packaged junk food.  Try to shop around the perimeters of the grocery store (think vegetables, fruits and meats) and stick to whole foods as much as possible.  Snacking occasionally, and in small amounts is OK, but be aware that these foods are purposefully designed to be addictive.  Understanding some of the science behind these packaged food may help us in resisting them.  Remember the food industry’s goal is to make money, not to keep us healthy.

  • lisa

    Love it!

  • Thanks for leaving a comment, please keep it clean. HTML allowed is strong, code and a href.

    Comment moderation is enabled, no need to resubmit any comments posted.

close
Facebook IconYouTube IconInstagram