Drinking Water with Meals Could Mean Healthier Food Choices

What you drink could affect what foods you choose to eat.

We tend to pay a lot more attention to what we eat than what we drink – we usually decide on a beverage after we’ve decided what we’re going to eat.

But there are times when the beverage calls the shots.  Pour yourself a glass of cold milk, and you’re suddenly craving a chocolate chip cookie.  A steaming mug of coffee brings on the urge for a sugary donut on the side.  And is there anyone who hasn’t noticed that beer pairs really well with salty, fatty foods – like pizza, hot dogs and peanuts?  Okay – so if certain beverages can steer you to eat the wrong foods, is it possible that other beverages could help you make better choices?  Researchers at the University of Oregon and Michigan State University think so.

Findings from a study published last week in the journal Appetite¹suggest that having water as a beverage might improve our food choices at meals.  The researchers performed two very simple experiments, designed to figure out if certain food-beverage combinations are preferences that we develop early on.

First, the researchers surveyed 60 young adults to get their thoughts on various food and drink combos.   And the findings were clear – soda goes great with pizza and French fries, but it’s a lousy drink when you’re chowing down on raw or steamed veggies.  Those foods, they said, call for water.

In the second study, 75 preschoolers were offered a snack of raw carrots and bell peppers – which were served on two separate occasions with either water or fruit punch.  Not surprisingly, the kids drank more punch than plain water – it’s sweet, after all – but the interesting thing was that the kids ate more vegetables when they were served water than they did when they were served punch.

The findings suggest that kids may learn very early on to pair certain beverages with certain foods – soda goes with fatty, salty foods, not with vegetables – and carry those preferences with them as they grow up.   It means that if you expose kids to the soda-salt-fat combo over and over throughout childhood, then every time they drink a sugary drink, the palate gets primed for the burger, fries and pizza that’s sure to follow.

And so, the authors said, if the beverage choice determines whether we do (or don’t) eat our vegetables, then maybe it’s time to think about the beverage first – since the right one could steer us to make better choices at mealtime.

It’ll surely take more than a one-two punch of veggies and water to knock out the childhood obesity epidemic. But if kids learn early on to associate healthy beverages with healthy foods, it might just encourage them to eat more vegetables – and that’s a great place to start.

Snack attack – should you eat snacks and are they really bad for you?

  3 meals a day or 6 meals a day – does it matter?

Everybody eats.  Which is why people are so willing to throw in their two cents when it comes to any nutrition debate. One thorny issue has to do with meal frequency and weight control.  There are those who ‘just say no’ to snacking – the ones who restrict themselves to three meals a day, period.  In their view, snacking is simply a bad habit that can pile on the pounds.  In the opposite corner are those who say that small, frequent meals will help control hunger, so it’s better to eat five or six times a day.

Is one strategy better than the other?  Research has yet to give us a definitive answer, leading one¹ to conclude that whether you eat three times a day or six, “the question of whether there is a health benefit … will ultimately depend on how much energy is consumed, as opposed to how often or how regularly one eats” (italics mine).  In other words, if it’s weight loss you’re after, the bottom line is keeping your calorie intake in check.  Snacking in and of itself isn’t bad, unless it’s pushing your calorie intake past the tipping point.

If you look at what many people consider ‘snack foods’ – greasy, salty, sugary packaged snacks like chips, cookies and candy – it’s easy to see why they’d adopt the ‘no snacking’ approach to weight management.   If snacking = junk food, then yes, processed goodies can dump a lot of calories into your system in no time.  Some people avoid snacking because they find it hard enough to just to curb their calories at mealtimes.  If they find it hard to control what they eat at breakfast, lunch or dinner, they figure snacks will just add insult to injury.

Of course, there are plenty of healthy foods to snack on, too – which is just one reason that I side with the small, frequent meal approach.  It’s a practical issue – the more often you eat, the more opportunities you have to meet your nutritional needs.

Let’s say you’re trying to get 7 to 10 fruit and vegetable servings a day, a couple of servings of dairy, and you have protein needs to meet, too.  That might be hard to do if you try to distribute all that food over just three meals.  But if you use snacks as an opportunity to work in more healthy fruits and vegetables, or maybe some calcium-rich yogurt, or an additional  portion of protein, it’s a lot easier to hit your daily nutritional targets.

Here’s another thing: people who eat less frequently can convince themselves that they’ve ‘hardly eaten all day’ – giving themselves license to do pretty much whatever they want when mealtimes roll around.  Or, they assume that eating huge – but less frequent – meals will ‘hold them’ longer.  That rarely happens. They usually end up snacking anyway.

Frequent feedings can really help with portion control.  if you know you’ll be eating more often, you can teach yourself to be satisfied with less every time you eat, since you know you’ll be eating again in a few hours.

That’s the beauty of eating healthfully.  High fiber fruits, veggies and whole grains have relatively few calories per bite, and low-fat protein foods help to satisfy hunger.  That means you can eat every few hours, and still have quantity and quality – without spending huge amounts of calories.

Roasting Vegetables: Making the Most of the Fall Harvest

 The change of seasons brings with it a new group of fruits and vegetables you can enjoy. Apples. root vegetables – like carrots and sweet potatoes – and all the cabbage family foods, like broccoli and cauliflower, are at their peak now.  And they’re all great candidates for roasting – one of my favorite fall cooking methods.

With the grilling season over, I start giving a lot more foods the roasting treatment.  The oven’s dry heat caramelizes the natural sugars in foods and brings a depth of flavor to fruits and vegetables that summer grilling can’t touch.

If you’ve never roasted root vegetables, you should give them a try.  Roasted carrots are particularly delicious.    Toss them with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then spread out on a cookie sheet and roast at 425 degrees for about a half hour until they’re tender.  The vinegar turns into a sticky, syrupy glaze that coats them irresistibly.  You can give the same treatment to sweet potatoes or beets – tossing them with something tart before roasting like lemon or lime juice, vinegar, or even pomegranate juice contrasts with their natural sweetness.

Roasted veggies make a great side dish, but on the off chance there are any leftovers, they’re great added to soups and stews, or you can slice them up cold and dress with vinaigrette, or add to mixed greens to give some fall flavor to your tossed salad.

I was never much of a cauliflower lover until I started roasting it; now it’s become a fall staple at my house.  Roasting softens the strong flavor – the cauliflower gets sweeter, and the texture becomes almost meaty.  I coat the florets and a sliced onion with a dash of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and curry powder, and then roast.  Broccoli and Brussels sprouts – other veggies that are often a hard sell – are also delicious roasted with some oil and garlic.

You can roast fruits, too – and fall apples are fantastic when they’re prepared this way.  Pretty much any variety will do, and you don’t need to peel them – just cut in halves or quarters, remove the core and spread them in a single layer on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray and roast like you would the veggies.  You can toss them with a little lemon juice, apple juice or spices first if you want, but if you start with tasty fresh apples, they’re really good on their own.

Enjoying All Of The Health Benefits Of Carrot Juice

Did you know that eight ounces of carrot juice can contain as much as 800% of your daily recommended dosage of vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential and necessary for tissue growth, especially within the bones. Vitamin A is also very important in maintaining good vision. The old myth that eating carrots will help you see better is true, as vitamin A deficiencies can lead to vision problems such as night blindness. Spinach is also a very rich source of Vitamin A. A little spinach juiced with a few carrots will deliver a vitamin A mega beverage. Vitamin A is also very crucial for expectant mothers and the unborn fetus. Although vitamin A is very important for your body, it is also important to maintain moderate levels of vitamin A intake, as too much can lead to liver toxicity, and other health problems.

Carrot juice is also an excellent source of vitamin C. An eight ounce glass of pure carrot juice can provide your body with up to 35% of your daily recommended dosage of vitamin C. Vitamin C has a wide variety of uses throughout our entire body, such as collagen production of the mucous membranes, skin, bones, and teeth. Vitamin C is also a very crucial antioxidant. A few carrots juiced with blackcurrant berries, oranges, lemons, or kiwi, can easily provide you with your whole daily vitamin C dosage, without the need to take synthetic vitamins supplements.

Carrot juice is an excellent drinkable source of potassium. Potassium is very important in helping to maintain a healthy electrolyte balance and fluid level in the cells of your body. It's also necessary in muscle movement, such as contraction, as well as neurotransmission. Potassium deficiencies are very bad for your body, with such effects as Hypokalemia, acne, muscle spasms, dry skin, and elevated cholesterol levels. Carrots juiced with celery or turnips can provide your body with a large intake level of potassium. An eight ounce glass of pure carrot juice will usually provide up to 10% of the daily recommended intake level of potassium. It should be known that individuals who suffer from kidney disease, should avoid taking in large amounts of potassium, as it can be very harmful on the organs.

Pure carrot juice is a very low calorie juice drink. Eight fluid ounces of the beverage yields usually no more then 80 calories. Carrot juice is an excellent nutritional supplement for dieters, providing you with a rich supply of essential vitamins and minerals, without being accompanied by all of the calories that a health shake might give you. For athletes and weightlifters, the calorie level of carrot juice can be upped by blending it with fruit yogurt, milk, ice cream, or a protein powder supplement. I have even heard of people blending the juice with rolled oats, cereal, or boiled rice to dramatically increase the calorie and nutritional levels.

Pure carrot juice in an eight ounce serving can provide up to 6% percent of your daily recommended intake level of calcium. It is very important to receive a healthy level of calcium in your daily diet. Bones and teeth are dependent on calcium for growth and formation, especially the skeletal structure and development of children. Calcium absorption should also be accompanied by vitamin D, which helps aid your body's intake of the mineral. Like potassium, calcium is important for neurotransmission, and muscle movement and contraction. Carrots juiced with broccoli can provide an excellent vegetable calcium drink. For a calcium shake, you may also choose to juice your carrots and then blend it with yogurt for a carrot juice smoothie, which makes for a healthy breakfast shake, or evening dessert.