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Vegetarian Does NOT Mean Healthy

July 25, 2008 By 8 Comments

As most 60 in 3 readers know, I’m a vegetarian.  However, I want to make one thing clear, being vegetarian does NOT automatically make you healthy.

But All The Studies Show…

Yes, there are many studies that show people who eat a vegetarian diet are in better health.  However, I would argue that this is because they are more aware of what they eat and select healthy food as opposed to the simple fact of eating no meat.  Let me give you an example.  I can survive for the next 30 days on a diet of nothing but twinkies and coke.  Technically I would be eating a vegetarian diet.  In fact, I think this would be a vegan diet although I’m not 100% sure of that.  However, would it be a healthy diet?  Not even close.

Can Meat Be Healthy?

The answer is absolutely.  In fact, it’s not that meat CAN be healthy.  Meat IS healthy.  Meat contains a lot of nutrients that are difficult to find elsewhere.  Not impossible, but difficult.  Meat can also be a great source of healthy fat and protein.

So What The Heck Is The Problem?

The problem is that we eat too much meat and too much of the wrong kinds of meat.  Industrially processed meat is NOT good for.  Eating large quantities of it three times a day is even worse.  Eating small portions of healthy meat like wild caught fish, free range turkey and chicken or even grass fed beef is healthy.

So Why Are Vegetarians Healthier On Average?

My theory are that people who limit themselves to a vegetarian diet are, for the most part, the kind of people who pay more attention to what they eat than the average person.  They are consiously choosing to be aware of what they put into their bodies and this leads them to select healthier foods.  If you have the same kind of attitude but are NOT a vegetarian, I think you’ll be just fine.

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Healthy eating is not about overly restricting yourself to one type of food or another.  It’s about being aware of what you eat and making a consious decision to eat better.

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Nutrition

What’s A Calorie?

July 23, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Sometimes, after living something for years, you forget that you once were a beginner who knew virtually nothing.  That happened to me yesterday when I saw an email from a reader.  The email had a very basic question in it which was “what is this thing we call a calorie?”  My first thought was, “oh wow, how could anyone not know this.”  Then I remembered that not too long ago, I didn’t know this myself.  So my apologies to the sender of this email and my thanks to her for allowing me to post the response.

What Is A Calorie?

A calorie is a unit of measurement, like a yard, meter, gram or gallon.  More specifically, it’s a unit of measurement for energy.  So if yards and meters measure length and gallons measure volume, a calorie measures energy.  Even more specific, a calorie is the amount of energy required to heat 1g of water by one degree celsius.  By the way, that’s a very broad definition right there, since the amount of energy required to heat up water varies by air pressure, water purity and a few other factors.  However, for our purposes, stating that a calorie is the amount of energy required to heat up one gram of water by one degree celsius is close enough.

Wow, I Must Be Burning Thousands Of Calories Just Standing Here!

When I first learned this I did a quick calculation in my head.  Let’s see, I weight about 100 kilo grams which is about 100,000 grams.  My body temperature is about 37 degrees Celsius.  So if I just stand outside on a cold day I’d be burning thousands of calories an hour as my body raced to keep me warm, right?  Yah, not so much.  Unfortunately, in an attempt to confuse you even more, a calorie used for food is actually 1,000 of the original calories.  So a food calorie is actually the amount of energy required to heat up 1 kilo gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.  For your non metric folks out there, that means a food calorie is the amount of energy required to heat up 2.2lbs by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

So now when I look at the energy requirements to keep my body warm, they don’t sound so high.  They’re measured in the 100′s and not in the 1000′s.  Plus my body doesn’t lose enery very quickly since I don’t typically go outdoors on a cold day wearing no clothes, which also reduces the energy requirements.

By the way, our bodies don’t use calories just to keep warm, that’s just one way in which this energy could be used.  For example, moving a part of the body also uses up energy, which can be measured in calories.  That’s why a lot of gym equipment can show you how many calories you’ve used up in your current workout.  It’s basically figuring out how much energy you’ve spent and then translating it into this standard unit of measurement.

So How Do We Get Calories From Food?

So if the previous section explained how we used calories, then how the heck do we get calories out of food?  Well, that’s a more complicated explanation involving a lot of chemistry and biology.  I’m sure that some scientist out there is going to cry when he reads my amazingly simplified explanation but hey, I’m not trying to teach biology here.  Essentially, the bottom of the food chain are plants, who take energy that they absorb from the sun and store it as chains of carbon molecules.  As animals eat plants and we eat both plants and animals, these carbon chains are broken down to release the energy stored there by the plant.  If we can’t use the energy right away, we store the energy in various forms, one of them being fat and another being various sugars.  That’s why foods that contain sugars and fats are so high in calories, because we’re basically eating something else’s energy storage.

It’s Good To Know What A Calorie Is

By understand calories and what they represent, a lot of things about fitness and health make more sense.  For example:

  • Now it makes sense why turning the thermostat down a bit in our homes would help us burn more calories.  The room temprature is lower which means our bodies have to spend more calories trying to keep us warm.
  • Negative calorie foods also make sense.  It’s not that these foods somehow grab calories and go hide them somewhere.  Negative energy foods like celery still have some calories in them, it’s just that the energy required to chew and digest them is more than the energy we get out of them.

You can even use this knowledge to understand a few more things about your body.  For example:

  • Why do we sweat?  Well, because your body is trying to keep cool.  So it puts out moisture.  The body then uses up extra heat energy to evaporate this moisture, causing your to be cooler.  (and yes, that’s a very simplified explanation of perspiration).

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Fitness is part art and part science.  The science part tells us the basic facts.  The art part is how we apply those facts to our daily routines.  The art is important, but it’s also important to educate yourself about the science underlying all this art.

Filed Under: Nutrition, Research

Pictures of 300 Calorie Servings

July 14, 2008 By 2 Comments

I usually try to use my weekend roundups to link to other sites with useful articles. Sometimes though, I find something that I’m so impressed with that I just want to give it a bit more spotlight. Today is such a case.

I forget how I stumbled onto this site.  In fact, I think I did use Stumble Upon to get to it.  Quick plug – If you like any 60 in 3 articles, don’t forget to Stumble them! :) Anyway, I found it quite randomly but I was amazingly impressed by what I saw.  It’s such a simple idea and yet very powerful.  What the author has done is take picture of 300 calorie servings of various foods, from fruits and vegetables to meat and dairy.

Why So Impressed?

Because it’s great to talk about portion control and serving sizes but it really doesn’t sink in until you see it visually.  For example, the difference between 300 calories of apples and 300 calories of bacon is easy to understand but seeing it in pictures really drives home the difference in what you’re eating.  Even better, these pictures can take differences that are a bit less obvious and make them clearer.  For example, compare the 300 calories of grapes to 300 calories of raisins.  It’s hard for many people to see the difference between eating grapes and eating raisins, and this sort of visual aid really makes a difference.

But Wait, There’s More!

Not only did the author include all the weight measurements used for these pictures, she also included the prices.  Now some of these might not be accurate for your neighborhood, but it’s still useful information.  For example, it’s easy to see why so many people eat too much meat, it’s cheap, something you can chalk up to our government’s misguided farm policies.  300 calories of beef cost less than 300 calories of tomatoes, which is just crazy.  I should probably get off this topic before I go into a full political rant!

How To Use This Information

This isn’t meant to be a reference guide.  I don’t think you should come to this site and check out the pictures every time you’re going to eat.  Just take a good look through this link.  Spend some time and get to know your typical food serving.  Come back a few days from now and do it again.  Basically, I want you to educate yourself so that, when faced with real food, you know how much is too much and how much is just right.

Without Further Ado…

Here’s the link:

Health Assist

And a similar link only this time to 200 calories servings:

Wisegeek

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Nutrition

5 Tips For A Healthy Salad Bar

June 20, 2008 By 4 Comments

For some strange reason, people assume that vegetarian means eating a lot of salads.  It’s not true folks, there are plenty of good non meat dishes that don’t involve meat.  However, I’m quite often asked about salads as soon as I tell people that I don’t usually eat meat.  Well, ok, I give up!  Yes, I do occasionally eat salads, and when I do, I’m still pretty careful to make sure that they’re healthy.  So follow along for a quick five tips on what to do at the salad bar.

Salad = Vegetables

The first and most common sense tip is to focus on vegetables.  You wouldn’t think this would be a necessary tip until you see some of the salads people get.  Tuna salad which is mostly pasta and tune with maybe a cherry tomato.  Potato salad that’s mostly potatoes and mayo.  Chicken salad which is mostly chicken, lettuce and dressing.  Taco salad which is mostly chips, beans, salsa, sour cream and that ever present lettuce.  These things are not healthy folks, even if they do include the word salad in their name.

You want salad?  It better be 90% or more fresh vegetables!

Go For Color

An easy way to make sure you have a good load of nutrients is to pick vegetables with different colors.  Sounds silly but it works.  Go for plenty of green with things like spinach and broccoli.  Add some reds with tomatoes and peppers.  Now toss in the yellows with zucchinis or bell peppers, mix in some orange carrots and top it off with a bit of white, gray and brown mushrooms.

Easy On The Toppings

Grabbing a healthy salad and then adding half a chicken to it is not healthy.  Want to add some protein?  That’s great, but in moderation.  A little blue cheese, some hardboiled egg, maybe even a chicken strip or two.  Maybe try some kidney or garbanzo beans.

Ditch The Dressing

A good salad doesn’t need dressing.  It tastes fine just the way it is.

Fruits Are Not Vegetables

Yep, there’s no doubt that fruit are good for you.  However, they also contain many more calories than vegetables.  So feel free to munch on some apples, oranges and other fruit, but filling your whole bowl with them might be a mistake (unless of course you were about to fill your whole bowl with a Philly cheese steak, in which case fruit are definitely a healthier alternative.)

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Salad does not necessarily mean healthy.  Many fast food places will lure you in with salads that have more calories than your average big mac.


Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Nutrition

Rule #3 of Healthy Eating, The 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 Rule

May 28, 2008 By 1 Comment
This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series SERIES - The 5 Rules of Eating Healthy

Last Monday, I started talking about the five rules I use for eating healthy food. I use these relatively simple rules because It’s just too difficult to keep up with all the guidelines, recommendations and plans for eating the perfectly balanced diet. You can drive yourself crazy and still not be 100% perfect.

Today we look at rule #3, which I like to call, the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule.  This particular rule was inspired by a podcast I downloaded off of iTunes a while back.  I believe it was Fitnessrocks but I might be mistaken.  Either way, my thanks to the authors for a brilliant idea.

By the way, you may have noted that I’m not exactly following a sequential order in discussing these rules; I started with rule #2, followed by #4 and now I’m jumping to rule #3. That’s for two reasons, one because I want to emphasize that none of these rules is more important than the other. Also, I picked each rule because it was appropriate to the day I was writing it. Today is Wednesday and I am working from home while trying to get over a cold.  So when I prepare my meal today, this rule will come in handy.

What Is The 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 Rule?

One of the first things I did when I started eating healthy was attempt to eat a balanced diet.  You know the one I’m referring to.  It’s where you eat 5 servings of vegetables and fruits, 3 servings of grain, 2 of dairy and 1 of meat.  Wait, is that right?  I think it might actually be 4 servings of vegetables and 4 servings of grain.  No wait, that sounds wrong too.

As you can see, my memory isn’t the best and I was never able to remember just how much of anything I should be eating.  Even worse, I could never figure out what a “serving” was.  Was a serving one vegetable like a tomato?  What about spinach?  How much spinach is a serving?  And what is a serving of dairy products?  Is it one slice of cheese or one cup of milk or…

Yah, it didn’t go well.  So that’s when I heard of the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule.  It’s pretty simple.  When you put food on your plate, it should go in the following proportions:

  • 1/2 should be fiber rich, water rich vegetables.  These are things like leafy greens such as spinach or green onions but they can also be things like tomatoes, carrot, cucumbers and other water rich plants.  These are NOT fried vegetables like tempura or very starchy vegetables like potatoes.
  • 1/4 is starchy, more energy rich plants like potatoes, squashes, grains or legumes.
  • 1/4 is protein like lean meat, tofu or dairy products.

That’s it.  Make your food in those proportions and you’ll usually have a relatively balanced meal.

Advanced Applications

This rule also applies to meals that aren’t served on a plate.  For example, when you’re making a sandwich, if the bread is half your meal, you aren’t following the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule.

Sauces, especially creamy ones, will break the rule.  You can fill half your plate with fiber and water rich vegetables but if you cover them in creamy ranch you may as well not eat them.  The whole point of the rule is to make sure a good portion of your food is energy poor material like vegetables.

Clarifications to the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 Rule

Can you balance your food intake this way over a whole day?  Sure.  For example, for lunch your food is all water rich, fiber rich vegetables while for dinner you eat more protein.  It’s not as healthy, mainly because it’s harder to keep track of, but it’s certainly possible.

Why Use the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 Rule Rule?

Because it’s a quick and easy way to get a balanced meal.

But I Don’t Like Vegetables!

That’s probably because you were raised on the classic American diet where vegetables mean some steamed broccoli that you were forced to eat as a child or a green salad made up of nothing but lettuce.  Vegetables can actually be extremely tasty.  Try a steamed zucchini as an add on to your dinner, or how about a finely chopped salad of onions, bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers?  There are a ton of healthy and tasty vegetable recipes out there.  Why not give them a try?

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I have no desire to spend my meal times figuring out how much I need to eat of every specific food group.  It’s frustrating, overly complex and almost impossible to follow.  I would much rather follow something simple like this 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule.  It’s easy, quick and over time, leads to a very balanced diet.

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Healthy Habits, Nutrition

Rule #4 of Healthy Eating, the 20 Minute Rule

May 26, 2008 By 2 Comments
This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series SERIES - The 5 Rules of Eating Healthy

Last Monday, I started talking about the five rules I use for eating healthy food. I use these relatively simple rules because It’s just too difficult to keep up with all the guidelines, recommendations and plans for eating the perfectly balanced diet. You can drive yourself crazy and still not be 100% perfect.

Today we look at rule #4, which I like to call, the 20 minute rule which is based in large part on my own experience.

By the way, you may have noted that I’m not exactly following a sequential order in discussing these rules; I started with rule #2 and now I’m jumping to rule #4. That’s for two reasons, one because I want to emphasize that none of these rules is more important than the other. Also, I picked each rule because it was appropriate to the day I was writing it. Today is memorial day in the US, a day when many of us BBQ and eat enormous quantities of food. So I thought that taking a moment to appreciate that food would be good.

What Is The 20 Minute Rule?

When I was growing up, I always ate my food as fast as I could. I did because I always had other things I wanted to do and so eating fast saved time. I also did it because I liked eating and eating fast allowed me to eat more. Finally, I did it because my dad did it and I looked up to him and wanted to be like him. That habit stayed with me into adulthood. I would eat fast enough to finish my food before everyone at the table had even been served. In fact, my friends still repeat a rather amusing story where the waitress for our table almost brought me out an unintended second helping because I had finished my food and had the dishes removed before she had brought everyone’s food out.

Then came my little health meltdown. A lot of research later, I found out that eating fast is one of the worst mistakes you can make. It’s right up there with not getting enough sleep or not eating a healthy breakfast. So now I follow a different rule. I try to eat a bit of food and make it last at least 20 minutes. If it didn’t last 20 minutes then I make myself wait until the whole 20 minutes are up before I even think about taking seconds. I also eat slower, trying to savor the sensation and the flavors a bit more.

Advanced Applications

Do you typically wolf down your sandwich in less than 4 bites? Do you ever find yourself eating without chewing? Yep, that was me a few years ago, and while I still occasionally backslide, I am actively trying to avoid those habits. Take small bites of your food and chew them thoroughly. Savor the sensation of eating by eating 1 sandwich over 20 minutes instead of 2 sandwiches over 10 minutes.

How many of you use chopsticks? If you’re a fast eater like I used to be, you probably don’t. Chopsticks are not the most efficient way of eating, especially if you’re not used to them. Which is a perfect reason to use them. Next time you’re at an Asian restaurant, use the chop sticks. They’ll slow you down and make you focus on your food. I know that this has been an effective way for me to eat less.

Do you go to a buffet and fill up a huge plate? Yep, that’s exactly what I used to do because I wanted to get back to table and eat up all that food without any interruptions. Well, start thinking smaller. Take a small plate, fill it up just a little and then go back to your table. Eat that food, take a small break and then see if you’re still hungry enough to go back. That break between small plates is a great way to slow down. By the way, that’s a great tip for those of you BBQing today. Don’t fill up your plate with those three hamburgers, two hot dogs and a pile of chips. Take ONE of those things, have a seat, eat it slowly and then see if you’re still hungry enough to another run at the BBQ.

Bring a friend and talk during the meal. Talking forces us to stop eating (unless you like to talk with your mouth full which is just wrong!) So bring someone with you to meals and carry on a conversation while you eat. You’ll find yourself taking a much longer time to eat and eating far less.

Clarifications to the 20 Minute Rule

Is it always 20 minutes? What if I’m eating a steak vs. a small amount of peanuts? Should both last 20 minutes? No, of course not. The amount you eat will determine the time it takes. However, 20 minutes is a good basic guideline because that’s how long it takes for your brain to notice that you’re eating and full. So waiting 20 minutes between portions is a good way for you to ask your brain “hey, have you caught up yet? Are we still hungry and should get a bit more or are we full and done?” If you want to make it 60 minutes, go for it.

Why Use the 20 Minute Rule?

Because eating too fast leads to eating too much. The two are very closely linked.

But I Don’t Have Time To Eat Slow!

Yes you do. You’ll be spending the same amount of time you are now, you just won’t eat as much. Trust me, I looked at my eating habits and I still spend the same amount of time that I did when I ate faster, I just eat less. And hey, if you’re a real efficiency devotee, maybe you can do some work between those small portions. It’s a better use of your time than scarfing down more food as fast as you can manage it.

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I love food and yet I would eat it so fat that I never really savored or enjoyed it. Stop rushing yourself and enjoy your mealtimes. You’ll end up spending just as much time but you’ll eat less and yet enjoy the food more.

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Healthy Habits, Nutrition

Rule #2 of Healthy Eating, The 100 Year Test

May 21, 2008 By 1 Comment
This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series SERIES - The 5 Rules of Eating Healthy

On Monday, I started talking about the five rules I use for eating healthy food. I use these relatively simple rules because It’s just too difficult to keep up with all the guidelines, recommendations and plans for eating the perfectly balanced diet. You can drive yourself crazy and still not be 100% perfect.

Today we look at rule #2, which I like to call, the 100 year rule. This is based in large part on one of Michael Pollan’s recommendation which I’ve taken and modified slightly.

What Is the 100 Year Rule?

If you were to take the food you’re about to eat and show it to someone who lived in the 19th century, would they recognize it? Would they believe you when you said it was food or would they look at you like a crazy person? If what you’re about to eat makes a 19th century person quiver in fear, run away screaming or shake his or her head in disbelief, you probably shouldn’t be eating it.

Advanced Applications

Does the food seem like something that would have been eaten in the 19th century but was prepared in some really odd way? For example, Twinkies seem like sponge cake which would probably seem normal to someone from a 100 years ago. However, if you ever watched how twinkies are made, I think you would agree with me that they simply aren’t food.

Does the food contain ingredients you don’t recognize? Take a look at that ingredient list. Are there more than five chemicals in there that have long scientific names? Is there at least one ingredient in the top five that’s nothing more than a long chemical formula? Perhaps you should put that food down then.

Was it raised in a completely unnatural way? No cow was born to live in a 6′ by 3′ pen, pumped with antibiotics every day and fed corn, grain and pieces of other cows. Sorry, that’s just not natural. You may want to remember that the next time you think about ordering a steak. Feel free to eat meat but try to make sure it was raised the way meat should be raised and not the way some factory finds it most efficient to raise.

Clarifications to the 100 Year Rule

Is it a 100 years from when I was born? I suppose. Mainly you’re trying to answer the question of “would someone who lived in a time before massive food processing and chemical engineering have recognized this food?” To me, that’s the 19th century and about 100 years ago. Your time line may vary.

Do I need to base it on the country I was born in? Not really. For example, if I showed sushi to someone who was born in my homeland 100 years ago, they would think I was crazy for eating raw fish. However, people in Japan would think I was fine. As long as someone from a preindustrial society somewhere would agree with you that this is food, you’re probably fine.

Why Use the 100 Year Rule?

Because processed food sucks. We put too many chemicals into our food, too much crap that really belongs nowhere near our bodies.

Are You Saying This Because You’re Some Kind of Anti Technology, Anti Progress Fanatic?

Not at all. At no point in my life did I wish I could live back in the days before modern medicine, modern standards of living, modern rule of law and modern technology. Heck, this blog should be sufficient evidence that I like modern technology. However, I do think we’ve gone overboard in the things we do to our food. I love that I can fly around the world. I love that I can instantly communicate with people thousands of miles away. I love that we no longer lose 1 out of every three children to disease or starvation. I don’t love the fact that my food contains more chemicals than a toxic waste dump, more antibiotics than a hospital ward and was prepared using the same process that’s reserved for refining gasoline.

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There are some things that technology does well and some things it does not. Technology can give us better food, I firmly believe that. I also believe that mass production, industrial processing and chemical cocktails are meant to give the food companies a better profit margin and have nothing to do with quality of food.

Filed Under: Editorial, Healthy Habits, Nutrition
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