Simple Substitutions/Fixes to a Healthier you

Simple Substitutions/Fixes to a Healthier you 

By Patrick Vaughan

 

·         1.) Switch from chocolate milk to Skim milk; it’s less sugar/less fat/less calories

·         2.) Carry a water bottle with you all the time! (It prevents dehydration and your body feels better)

             -You are mostly composed of water after all! "Stay fluid my friends"

 

·         3.) Switch from Pop/sugary drinks to lemonade/water/diluted water

·         4.) Switch from Cheeseburgers and fries to Garden burgers w/ hummus or sweet potato fries

             -baked fries are better than fried

·         5.) Switch from Ice cream to sorbet (lower in fat, lower in calories, a “healthier” dessert)

·         6.) Switch from Ice cream to ricotta cheese/cottage cheese with dried fruit like craisins on top

             -you can even mix in fruit, or trail mix/nuts

·         7.) Switch from Potato chips and ranch/dip to pita bread and hummus or carrots and a light dip

·         8.) Bring healthy snacks if you can’t get a meal! (oranges/carrots/sandwich/yogurt)

·         9.) Instead of barbeque chicken sandwich, make a chicken salad

·         10.) Instead of fatty ranch dressings/etc. go with light vinaigrette and oil, or an Italian/Greek

             -Use dressing moderately, one-two squirts, you’re coating the salad, not putting it into a dressing soup 

             -Transparent dressings over creamy ones

 

·         11.) Grilled chicken instead of fried chicken

·         12.) Breakfast (skip the breakfast sandwich/sausage/bacon/etc.) to highly fortified cereals (lots of nutrients) and fruit

 

·         13.) Drink 2 glasses of Orange Juice or 3 glasses of milk within the day

              -Space it out

              -Be wary of water-soluble vs. fat. soluble vitamins. Your body has a maximum absorption rate, so that 200% vitamin C pill you're taken, well you're only getting maybe 25% Vitamin C from that single dose and the rest is going out the natural way in your bodily excrement 

 

·         14.) If eating cookies, go for the healthier choices like oatmeal cookies

·         15.) If eating desserts, avoid the high caloric desserts (double layer chocolate stuffed cake with chocolate), instead go for carrot cake or some cheesecakes

               -keep portions small… ex.) one scoop of ice cream, or a sliver of cake

·         16.) Instead of that morning cup of coffee/espresso shot, eat an apple (seriously. It is packed full of sugars that provide a similar sugar rush! It also has fiber, and it will even whiten your teeth!)

               -You could even try drinking tea, it’s better for you

·         17.) Switch from white bread to whole wheat (white bread is basically just a sugar-based bread)

·         18.) Remove cheese from sandwiches. If you must put something on it, try veggie or rice slices. Avocado works too (has fat in it, but it is a good fat!)

·         19.) Move from Ground beef to Turkey!!! Whether it be in pasta sauce, a burger or meatballs. 

·         20.) Switch from meat sauces to prego and other types

·         21.) If eating an egg, lose the yolk. Cuts down on cholesterol. I'm certain that there is something to buy out there that has only egg whites so it doesn't feel like a waste.

·         22.) DO NOT eat in front of a TV, this will help you to be more aware of satiety - when you're full/content. 

·         23.) If at the café, if you are worried about getting too much food, then lose the tray! or at home,

·         Buy smaller plates! The larger the plate, the more you will put on it, and the more likely it is that you will over eat.... that's psychology 101

·         24.) Dark Chocolate isn’t bad for you (it has lots of natural antioxidants) – remember everything in moderation though!

·         25.) Eat whole fruit instead of fruit juice when possible! Whole fruit has more nutrients and fruit juice can sometimes have added sugar and other ingredients such as "fake flavoring"
          -Remember to read the labels, and be wary of what you are putting into that body of yours!

Main Tips:

1.) Eat until content/full, NOT until your button is going to pop off of your pants/when your stomach hurts, this is called binge-eating. Your body knows when it has enough calories; so please just stop eating when you are full.**

2.) Depending on who you are as an individual, I will recommend to look up eating strategies - NOT DIETS - from which you can base your eating lifestyle. These include: Intermittent Fasting (check out what Justin Grinnell at the State of Fitness has to say on intermittent fasting), eat 5 meals a day (check out the benefits to multiple meals on the web), stick to the traditional three meals a day, or even improvise until you find what is right for you!

3.) Everyone is different, and there is NO set scheme. Eating right is a lifestyle choice, so pick something that you can live with and perform EVERY SINGLE DAY!  Diets don't work, they're too short term. So my suggestion is to start with a few of these simple substitutions for what you already eat/drink and watch the results. Maybe it will even inspire you to do more research and to continue changing a few of your bad habits at a time. The goal is not to "give up" those foods that you love, but to substitute them with something else that you not only will love, but that is good for you as well. 

4.) Lets start building a Healthier You!

Daily Values - Can You Trust Them?

 Written by: Tim

Daily Values highlighted in purple

Hypothetical situation time! You are doing your usual shopping rounds and getting the usual items. You come across two different type of cereals and see different nutrient contents for each. You decide to pick the cereal that has 1g more fiber per serving than your usual one. Great!

Next to that on food labels, listed is numbers in percentage form. These values are the percentage of what is in that food in comparison to the "daily value" (DV) for a person. Obviously the new cereal is going to have a higher percentage and you will feel great making that choice.

So what is the point of this? The point of this article is to point out that the daily values are not as accurate as one might think. With most recommended values for intake of vitamins and minerals, they are reviewed and changed relatively often. I will give a couple examples.

The value that nutrition professionals use to identify nutrient needs by age, gender etc. are known as the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA). These are reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) whenever new scientific data comes out to better estimate what the correct daily allowances are.

There also guidelines made for Americans that are a basis for evaluating diet and identifies foods both high and low in solid fat, sodium and sugars known as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). These guidelines provide the general American public science-based info on what foods they should consume to most improve the health of a human aged 2 years or older. The great thing about these guidelines are that, by federal law, they MUST be revised every 5 years. The most recent edition has been released in 2010 and the 2015 DGAs are currently in the process of making.

Now, back to DVs. Daily values were originally known as something different. DVs are modeled after the United States Recommended Dietary Allowance (USRDA) from 1968! It has been 45 years and counting since the Daily values have been revised. Yes food labels are regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), however the FDA makes the percentages for the food labels using the Recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) which is based from the USRDA from 1968.

The USRDA from 1968 was the RDA for an adult male in 1968 with two exceptions:

• Iron: Increased to 18mg (RDA for women in 1968)
• Calcium: Increased to 1000mg (RDA for women in 1968)

Not only is the USRDA insanely outdated, but it hardly accounts for the nutritional needs of women which are different from men.

Since 1968, the RDAs have changed multiple times due to the advances in scientific knowledge, information and discovery. That being said, the DVs have sat unchanged and inaccurate for quite a while. This is why the percentages listed on food labels are, for the most part, useless.

My recommendation is not to ignore food labels, because that is not what this article is about and food label nutrient content is important. My recommendation would be to get an understanding of how much of each nutrient you need in reference to the RDAs and keep track of your own progress  by using the weight in grams in your food. If that sounds a bit too daunting at first, then just be aware of what the percentages mean and do not solely base your diet off of those numbers.

There is information, like DVs, that is not made known to the public and in many cases this lack of education to the greater good really hurts us. I feel that a major problem with the nutritional standing in the world today is that many people are not as educated about what they eat as they should. It is ludicrous to think that dietitians will be able to reach our goal of educating the public to the desired level when part of the food label is false!

Source

Image: http://www.fda.gov/ucm/groups/fdagov-public/documents/image/ucm078945.gif

my HNF 377 class at Michigan State University