Foodie Stuff

Cereal for Breakfast a Good Thing for Your Weight?

There are many proverbs in the world about getting healthy nutrition during the day. The most popular one being: “Eat breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a merchant, and eat dinner like a poor man.” It is far better not to skip breakfast than to think that morning cereal containing more sugar is bad for your health.

Getting up in the morning doesn’t just start the day; it also starts your activity after a good nights rest. So, having a good nutritious breakfast cereal, full with healthy fibers, is great boosting fuel for the body.

In the morning, when people are preparing to go to work or school, there isn’t much time for cooking; and the easiest way to ‘eat like a king’ is a bowl full of cereal with milk. Cereals are full of nutritious healthy fibers low in fat, minerals, and vitamins. They fill the body with energy that it needs throughout the day.

Now, there are some that question the nutritional characteristics of good cereal meal, stating that some cereals contain more sugar than usual. Thus, giving more answers to the appetite then the nutritional body needs.

Cereals with a little more sugar is not that dangerous at all, not to the small children either. The logic of it is that when you metabolize proteins and fibers in the morning, you will definitely spend it throughout the daily activities. Skipping breakfast is more dangerous then that.

Almost 10.000 children between the age of 9 and 18 participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2006. 20 percent of children between 9 to 13 years old and third of children between 14 to 18 years old are ‘breakfast skippers’.

Why do children skip breakfast? The number one reason for it is weight. Children think that skipping breakfast will lower their chances of getting fat or lose fat. Skipping breakfast makes quite the opposite. Having lunch on an empty stomach makes the body put calories and proteins ‘in stash’; keeping it there to the next time it is left without breakfast. The car won’t drive if it has no fuel in it. The same goes for the body.

Another reason why children don’t have cereal breakfast in the morning is the fact that some families have low-income status and cannot afford cereals every day. This situation is more common in the minority families.

Wow – Fast Cooking Brown Rice is Healthy?

It has been a long held belief that, like fast versus slow cooking oatmeal, that slow cooking brown rice is healthier and may maintain more nutrients and fiber as well as have a lower glycemic index than it’s sister, the quick cooking brown rice. Fast cooking brown rice pretty much cuts the cook time down less than half the time it takes to cook whole brown rice, which is about one hour or a little less to get it cooked until it’s just right and tender enough to eat.

Studies were actually done by independent labs that showed that fast cooking and slow cooking brown rice really did not differ in the vitamins and minerals they contained, and they also had a somewhat surprising find as well. They found that fast cooking brown rice actually had a slightly lower glycemic index than it’s slower cooking counterpart. Why that would be, who knows!

However, it’s important to note that it was a really significant amount, so go ahead and keep slow cooking your brown rice if that’s the way you prefer it. I know that I like slow cooking brown rice because it is easy to throw in a rice cooker and get a fantastic tasting, just right and tender outcome, and you just throw it in that rice cooker does it all for you.

I actually also like to slow cook my brown rice because I put some seasonings in the water it’s being cooked in, and this allows those savory spices to better soak into the rice and make a more flavorful side dish.

Brown rice is a great way to get several nutrients into your diet, and it has actually been studied and proven that it is beneficial compared to white rice because it lowers the overall rate of diabetes in people that consume it, while white rice does the opposite, it actually increases blood sugar rates and therefore raises risk of diabetes.

The vitamins and minerals that brown rice offers, whether slow of fast cooked are manganese, magnesium which is excellent for keeping your ticker going at the right amount of beats and keeping it “well timed” shall we say, selenium, which is only found in trace amounts in most foods, and of course, dietary fiber, which brown rice is a great source of.

Brown rice, while healthy, is still a significant source of carbohydrates though, so you don’t want to totally over do it on the stuff.  Reasonable portions, maybe once or twice a week are good enough to provide you with the potential health benefits it offers.  It makes a great side dish to things like lean grilled fish or chicken and a big pile of veggies too, and it’s very satiating to the appetite and can help suppress hunger for hours after consumption.

Is Whole Wheat Pasta Really Healthier?

Whole-wheat pasta contains entire grain seed and it is better for you. Whole-wheat pasta contains vitamins, minerals and fiber, and many other which aren’t lost in the refining process when pasta is made from refined and processed flour.

The whole-wheat pasta has a slightly different taste and texture than the whole-wheat variety, and that is the main reason that so many people prefer processed pasta, and many people have become accustomed to processed pasta. It is true that whole grain pasta is better for the body, offers health benefits that can’t be found in the processed pasta.

Whole-wheat pasta has not only higher content of natural nutrients but it also contains more fiber and vitamins. In addition, whole-wheat pastas have a lower glycemic index. This means – good for diabetics – do not raise insulin level.

This is very important for people who are a diabetic or are on a diet with low glucose. People, who are familiar with the taste and feeling of the pasta from refined flour, can taste a new product richer with proteins and vitamins. When it cooked with some spices it becomes delicious when served with flavorful sauces and vegetables.

There is one well established misconception that pasta is a fattening food. But pasta is not fattening as it is made from grain, which is a naturally low fat food. The sauce and other dressings that are put in the pasta add the calories to the meal. If someone wants to eat pasta but keep calorie count low, he must eat whole-wheat pasta topped with a green raw vegetables and little spices without sauces, oil or any kind of dressing.

Today, whole-wheat pasta that is made from whole grain is healthier and has better taste. But what exactly is ‘whole wheat’ pasta, and what does it contains?  Whole wheat flour is basically the flour where the whole grain is grounded to get the flour. Also it contains more nutrition values, derived from the processed whole grain without any lost of the nutrition in the manufacturing process.

As the concept of ‘healthy foods’ has caught on, a widespread awareness about the health of whole wheat products; bread, pasta, and all bakery products is rising on. Pasta is one dish that is easy to make and enjoyed by all, children and adults, as an everyday serving. Also paste is an everyday part in everybody’s diet so changing the way of eating habits is the best gift that everybody can give to himself.

There is no need of help or scientist advice to switch from refined flour to whole-wheat pasta, everybody can go to the nearest shop and by some whole-wheat pasta and make at home.
By choosing whole grain pasta, you can choose something healthy for your body and mind and this is worth and easy to try.

Naked Smoothies Provide a Quick Pick Me Up

I’ve recently become a huge fan of Naked fruit smoothies. You can find them in a lot of natural foods stores and also they are carried, I’ve found, in quite a few chain grocery stores as well.  They can be a bit pricey, but I’ve found that they go on sale quite often at the natural foods stores I frequent (actually the grocery store rarely has all flavors on sale, go figure), for 2 for five bucks (Whole Foods has had this sale a few times), so that’s not bad at all when you consider the high price of nutritionless sodas and “juice drinks”.

There is another brand too that has a similar concept, Odwalla, but I’ve foudn the Naked ones to have more flavors that I personally like – just a personal preference, nothing against Odwalla.

If you are a person who watched their calories, or even more so their carb intake, you may look at the back of one of these smoothies and think it’s really high in both. However, I’ve found that just a few swigs is a great tide over to dinner and lunch when you’re just starting to get hungry and need a quick natural blood sugar pick up.

I have never drank a whole one at one sitting, I’ve found them more beneficial when you keep them around for a little “snack” in between meals.  My two favorite blends are the Green Machine, which contains everything from apples, to broccoli, to spirulina for an even great energy boost.  And it tastes nothing like vegetables, and yet it’s got them in it.  That one is probably my all time favorite, plus there are tons of good nutritious ingredients in it.

The runner up for me is the mango flavor with beneficial probiotics added, for digestion and waste elimination efficiency. It helps you to be regular, since mango is filled with fiber, and also helps replenish your healthy intestinal flora that keeps things moving in that regard, if you know what I mean.

When I’m buying the smoothies, I try to really look at what’s in them, including their “boosts” and see if those vitamins and nutrients are something that I might be lacking in or not.  This way, I know I’m getting the right benefits from drinking them, in addition to the benefits I’m getting from drinking something that helps tide my appetite over for big meals.

Does Chocolate Cause Depression, or Do Depressed People Just Like It a Lot?

It seems like all these causal studies beg the question, is it the cart before the horse, or the horse before the cart?  What I mean by this is, does the object that they say “causes” something in the human body or mind actually cause it, or are people who are drawn to the object just using it as a crutch or self medication because it makes them feel better, albeit temporarily.

Chocolate is one of my favorite foods. I’m not unlike millions of other women who feel the need to reach for their favorite velvety chocolate treat when they are either PMS’ing or are having troubles ranging from romantic to on the job issues.  Chocolate sometimes really does “make it all better”. It’s been shown in some studies to release feel good chemicals into the blood stream, which helps to explain why some find chocolate so dang addictive. Myself included.

Chocolate, or the cocoa bean, is not in itself bad for you. It’s the fattening milk and sugar that is added to the cocoa bean to make it into what we know as pure bliss chocolate bars, pecan turtles and truffles that makes it bad for us, and makes it stick to our thighs.  There are actually health benefits to dark chocolate. It’s rich in antioxidants and benefits the heart, but even that should only be eaten in moderation because of the sugar and fat content, and oh yeah, that little thing called calorie density.

Now, some research is pointing to the theory that depression and chocolate consumption may be related. Why? Because they found that those that ate chocolate more experienced feeling depressed substantially more than those who did not consume much chocolate or didn’t really like it at all (this is a totally foreign concept to me).

The thing is, it’s not clear whether depressed people just look for that instant pick me up that chocolate gives, and are using it to “self medicate”, or whether consuming the chocolate actually lends itself biochemically to imbalances in the human brain that contribute to depression, anxiety, etc.  I know that when I put a piece of luscious chocolate in my mouth, it seems to solve my problems.

However, if I’m not careful and I over indulge, which it’s easy to do with chocolate, let’s face it, then I actually feel worse in the next hour or so after the sugar crash. Maybe this is the depression they’re referring to

Applebees Has 500 Calorie and Under Meals

I must say, I’m not personally a huge fan of the Applebees chain of restaurants, but I have to give them kudos for being one of the only chains that offer lower calories options that don’t make you want to run for the more “exciting” menu options of burgers and fries when you get a load of their descriptions.

They are Weight Watcher’s approved, and all are 500 calories or less, which is ideally what just about everyone should be sticking to for their meals, especially at dinner time when most of your calories aren’t going to be burned off any more for the rest of the day.

My husband’s brother actually works out of town most of the time, and Applebees is one of this favorite choices because they offer these tasty, nutritious and calorie appropriate meals. He’s super body and health conscious, so these meals are a pleasant surprise, especially from a chain, to those that are health conscious.

Among the menu choices are light fish that are grilled and seasoned, an herb and garlic chicken breast dish, a mexican style fajita type of roll if you’re wanting naughty mexican but want to be nice to your thighs, an onion soup with cheese, and a few other tempting sounding dishes. It’s refreshing that they offer hearty meals that are actually hot instead of just the plain old salads that many other places offer to satisfy their dieters.

All of the 500 calorie and under meals come with generous portions of low cal, high fiber and vitamin content veggies too. This is a great way to fill up with out overloading on calories. I recommend the loading up on veggies strategy to anyone, whether you’re out enjoying a meal or cooking at home. Your meals should ideally be about 2/3 veggies and 1/3 meat and/or starch (your “main dish”).

There’s just something that is more satisfying about an actual hot meal I guess, so these are better for helping you to feel good about what you ate when you’re leaving a restaurant where there are a ton of BAAAAAD choices.  And, on the flip side, by the way, if you’re ever at Applebees and you’re in a naughty mood, and you want a dessert that is postively to die for (I know, who’d have thought it, at a chain restaurant no less), try this Maple drizzled blondie.

It’s a warmed up blondie (a cake-cookie like vanilla baked good) with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, and a side of this absolutely amazing maple cream sauce (also hot).  It is TO DIE FOR. Of course it’s not low calorie – not even close, like I said, it’s only if you’re in the mood to indulge. And I highly recommend you split it or else you’ll want to throw up you’ll be so full.

Review : Better ‘n Peanut Butter

Well, I finally got to try a product that is a lower calorie and fat version of peanut butter that I thought I would be able to satisfy my occasional cravings for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with, without all that fat and calorie content. I love having the occasional pb&j for breakfast, or slathering some creamy (crunchy is good too) peanut butter on my hot, toasty bread or an english muffin in the morning.

But what kept me away from doing that all the time was the ridiculous amount of calories in peanut butter. For a measly 2 tablespoons (which isn’t much, I use a lot more than that in my pb&j sandwiches), it’s about 200 calories. That means that you are already adding 200 calories to your sandwich, just with the peanut butter, that doesn’t even include the bread of the jelly, even though I do like to use reduced sugar jelly or Polyner just fruit spread, which is calorie and sugar spare.

I just tried my brand new jar of Better ‘n Peanut Butter. It’s a spread that is supposed to taste pretty close to the real thing. It still uses real peanuts, but it looks like a large part of the calorie savings is that it’s low in oil, instead using peanut flour. The consistency is different form “real” creamy peanut butter, in that is is much more liquidy, not as thick as real peanut butter is.

My husband thought it had a little taste of soy to it, but I told him it’s not a soy based product, it’s probably just the peanut flour he was tasting. The taste is good, I want to say a little more like chocolate or something, and a bit salty and sweet, which is how I like my peanut butter, so that was ok with me.

I would say the biggest difference between this and real peanut butter is that the real just seems to have more substance to it, more thickness, and that is something that was missing. Although, what I liked is that when I put it on my hot, toasty english muffin (whole wheat of course), it immediately melted into the nooks and crannies well. And I really couldn’t tell much of a difference from real peanut butter when it was hot and melty with jelly on it.

It’s a great peanut butter alternative if you’re worried about calories. It clocks in at just 100 calories for 2 tablespoons. That’s almost half of real peanut butter! I would just say it’s not the type of thing you can eat out of the jar and get that same satisfaction as you do with the real thing, you have to eat it with something for it to be a good substitute.

Dominos “New” Pizza Review

Ok, so I know that this is a blog all about healthy eating and making the right food choices, but as you well know if you’ve been reading my blog for any period of time, I also like to revel in the occasional pigout, and like to talk about eating bad as well. C’mon, who doesn’t throw the rules out the window once in a while and enjoy a nice greasy cheeseburger, or a gigantic slice or two of New York style pizza? After all, variety is the spice of life,and sometimes it’s oh soooo fun to be bad.

Our day to kind of throw the rules out the window for dinner was this past Saturday, the Saturday before Valentines day.  We were very excited to indulge in something super naughty and not feel any guilt about it, and we also had two very good movies on Blu Ray DVD that we were going to watch. Bliss, my friend, pure bliss, and mine and my husband’s idea of a night of heaven!  However, instead of choosing one of our regular favorite naughty food indulgences, we decided to give the “new” Dominos pizza a try.

After all, I had told him my interest was piqued when I saw and hear the ads on the tv and the radio for this new recipe, and was alos intrigued that they were so upfront about how bland and tasteless their pizza was before they supposedly changed it with this new fangled recipe.

Also, the $6 a pizza was very appealing since we were trying to really watch our budget, and didn’t want to blow a wad on a naughty dinner that we were just going to wolf down during a movie anyways.  So, we got the two pizzas, since there was a minimum with the $6 medium pizzas of 2. We ordered one with mushroom and extra cheese, and one with pepperoni and onion.

On the ride home, the pizza sure did smell good, so I got my hopes up that it might be good, however when my husband asked me to open the box so he could see if they looked any different, his face dropped when he saw that it looked like the same pre-fab crust they had before.  I said, no fear, it may taste a lot better, maybe it just still looks flat, but there are lots of good pizzas that aren’t thick out there!

So, to make a long story short, the pizza does not taste any different at all. The only difference I may have noticed is that they added a little more spice to their crust, maybe some sort of garlic spice, but other than that, it still tasted like it was a frozen premade crust. The cheese was the same lifeless, tasteless cheese they’ve always used as far as I could tell, and there was barely any cause or toppings on the pizza, which made it taste totally bland. In other words, this pizza was so unsubstantial that I felt like I could eat an entire pizza and still be hungry an hour later.

Save your money and go somewhere else where they actually have good pizza. This “new” recipe is for the birds, Dominos!

Is Eggnog Fattening?

Gosh, eggnog is really SOOOOO good. I haven’t had it in a few years, but I remember the first time I ever had it (the non alcoholic kind) at my aunt and uncle’s house at Christmas time, and I remember thinking that it was one of the most scrumptious things I had ever tasted. Even at that ripe young age of probably ten years old or so, I thought eggnog was the bee’s knees.  Usually you think that stuff that tastes wonderful as an adult is gross as a kid, but not this, it was divine, even as a kid.

But is eggnog fattening, and what is it made of that makes it so bad for you if it is? Well, eggnog is pretty fattening if it is made the way it is supposed to be, without reducing the fat by using lower fat ingredients. Which you can do by the way, but it doesn’t taste nearly as good as the full fat stuff, trust me!

Oh boy, yes, eggnog is quite the “heart attack in a glass” to be morbid. It contains eggs, milk, heavy cream, bourbon in the alcoholic version, brandy as well, and sugar – lots of sugar, fat and salt – and liquor to top it off – oh my!  Quite the recipe for weight gain, but nonetheless a wonderful, traditional Christmas little slice of heaven if you ask me. 

There are of course many variations of the eggnog drink, however, this is the most basic one that has been out there for a while.  The eggs, cream and milk make a lovely, thick, creamy and very tasty concoction that is a holiday favorite that is definitely something you can write home about with it’s stiff, creamy texture.  I’ve actually had coffee drinks made this way and they are also divine, if not calorie laden and ridiculously rich. 

But, the holidays are for fattening up, right? As long as it’s only five pounds or so, then you can take it off right away, and it’s all fun and games!

Oatmeal, How I Love Thee – Now!

Did you ever really despise a certain food for most of your life, and then come to really enjoy it once you’ve learned that you were either eating it the wrong way, with the wrong combination of foods, maybe cooking it wrong, or buying bad brands or something of that nature? Well, my sudden turnaround with oatmeal may be a combination of all of those, plus add in a little bit of maturity and the desire to eat a hot, nutritious breakfast without having to do a lot of work, oh and the fact that we have one of those nifty insinkerator hot water machines at our newer house.

You wouldn’t believe how easy oatmeal is to make in the morning with a hot water dispenser. Shoot, it’s easy even without the hot water machine, it’s just way easier and almost ridiculously lazy to make once you have that too! Oh, and the best part is, we also have one of those insinkerator things where I work too, so it’s voila, instant hot breakfast at work as well. Cheap and nutritious, and filling too. Here’s the types of oatmeal that I have found a new love for, and how I prepare it so that it’s tasty, never bland.

I really enjoy the brand Quaker Oats, which is probably one of the biggest maker of the ready made packets they sell at most any grocery store. There’s that and then I’ve seen a few other brands like Kashi cashing in on the craze too. My current favorites are the reduced sugar Maple and Brown Sugar, the Banana Bread, Cinnamon Roll and Cinnamon and Brown Sugar flavors. They’re all excellent, and you totally forget you’re eating mushy oatmeal when you’re eating them because the flavoring is so good.

I add only the equivalent of a few tablespoons of hot water, since I’m not a fan of really soupy oatmeal. This gives it a thicker texture, although I also don’t like it too thick and pasty, so I often add a little water first, check it’s consistency, then keep adding it until it’s just right. I then add a couple tablespoons of chopped plain walnuts to the top of the oatmeal. I sometimes add a little extra sweetness by adding a half packet of stevia to the top as well.

I only eat one packet of oatmeal in the morning, so I’m pretty generous with the walnuts because they add the really filling fats and omega 3′s that get me through the morning and help suppress my appetite better throughout the day.

Oatmeal provides a filling, hot and nutritious breakfast that’s fiber filled and the walnuts add a lot of vitamins and nutrition as well, I wouldn’t recommend eating it without them. Sure, the plain stuff may be better for you, but when you’re eating such a small amount, it probably doesn’t matter.