Sam's Health Blog
Eating Right
Do You Know What You Eat? (Not A Silly Question)
Eat when you’re hungry. Seems simple enough. (I am always snacking. I can’t go for more than two hours without eating.) Your body needs food; it is your body’s fuel. Calories are not enemies. (Note: Calories are the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water through 1 degree Celsius. This is why many foods produced outside the U.S. will say “energy” instead of calories.) Calories are what keep you going. The challenge is where you get these calories.
Our (now) Ubiquitous Food Label
Most packaged food in America are required by law to show its nutritional content information. This should make eating easy. But what about a restaurant you may ask, and I will address this later. On a package of food there will be a label similar to this:
There is a lot of useful information on this label. Big food corporations fought the passage of the law that makes this information mandatory. We consumers won something big when this law passed. Just the fact that this information exists and that we see it everyday on every package has begun to change the way that food providers produce our food. Transfats, which are cheap to make, but are artery-clogging and a risk for heart disease are all but being discontinued. For example, MacDonalds doesn't use it in their French fries anymore. So we start our study of the nutritional label knowing that information is power in our quest to be healthy. As you see some have percentages and some don’t, some are bolded and some aren’t. Lets start from the top and move our way down.
Serving Size: This is a big one. People are often tricked by this and food companies lead you astray on purpose. For example, you grab a packet with 2 cookies in it. You read the label, give it a quick glance, you read 160 calories. You think well that’s not bad for two delicious cookies. Take a closer look. Does the package say that the serving size is 1 cookie, or 2? If the serving size is one, and you ate both, your two delicious cookies were a whopping 320 calories, or double what you thought! Another way companies trick us is in choosing an arbitrary serving size. Some packages will say 100 calories per serving while others say 200 calories. You automatically jump for the 100 calorie one right? But what if the 100 calorie one has a serving size of 15g while the 200 calorie one has a serving size of 60g. Which one is better now? It is really quite simple; we just have to learn what to look for, and use some arithmetic.
Calories: Many of us have heard that a person should consume about 2,000 calories per day. It still says that on the nutritional information label even though the FDA has released a new “food pyramid” which is very different. I would recommend going to their website, www.myfoodpyramid.gov, and looking at your own requirements. (A link is provided on the RESOURCES page.) They will range widely. Someone who runs marathons will have drastically different caloric requirements than someone who is forced to work in a cramped office space all day and gets no exercise. But for the rest of who fall into a normal category the percentages we see on the back of food labels are good ballpark markers. When people see calories which are high they freak out. Don’t. You need a certain amount of calories so decide how you want to eat them. Lets say, to make things easy you need 2,000 calories. So you are eating something with lets say 500 calories. Now most people would say "Woah, that's a lot." But let's think for a moment. What is it that has 500 calories? Is it an entire meal? Is that all your eating for breakfast? There are 3 meals a day (For most of us, but maybe you are like me and you eat about 5 smaller ones, and we will get to this later.) So 500 out of 2,000 doesn’t seem so bad right? You still have 1500 calories for the rest of day. And as we all now breakfast is important. Make sure you eat. You don’t need to eat 500 calories, but eat. Far too many people skip breakfast thinking they will save on the calories. Try eating a well balanced breakfast that fills you up (which will most certainly have a positive effect on you morning mood as well as work performance), and smaller lunches and dinners.
Total Fat: This nutrient has subcategories. There are different kinds of fat. Fat is an infamous thing. We all think about it as a bad thing. Too much fat is bad, but fat is necessary to a healthy diet - everyone needs fat. Fat is extremely high in energy (calories.) This has its positive and negatives. Fat is also needed for sorting other nutrients, forming cell membranes, helping our body produce hormones and many more. Let me reiterate, we need fat. But unlike carbohydrates, fat is more easily stored and in an almost limitless way which is why is causes so many health issues. Here are the three kinds of fat:
Saturated: 7%-10% of our calories should come from saturated fats. These are fats that do not come from plants. This includes cheeses, red meats, butter, and fat from milk.
Unsaturated: 25% of our daily caloric intake. These come from plants and are considered the "good" fats. Foods that contain unsaturated fat are avocados, olives, nuts, fish, most oils (except coconut oil and palm oil) and more. Most of your fat should be from this group.
Trans fatty acids: This is a fat that is not naturally occurring and is made by humans for its taste. It is made through a process called hydrogenation. Without getting too technical it is the process of moving one hydrogen, of a mono saturated fatty acid, to the opposite side of the molecule (hence trans, meaning across.) It is recommended that 0% of our daily diet should come from trans fatty acids. That’s doesn’t mean we aren’t going to eat it but try to eat as little as possible. You might have noticed that unsaturated fat and trans fatty acids are not required by law to be posted on the label. My best guess is that they are put there as a proof of how “healthy” the product is, because more and more foods are containing less trans fatty acids as laws against them (such as the prohibition to cook with them in a restaurants in Brookline, MA.) and the correct warning from doctors and nutritionists to avoid them.
Carbohydrates: One of the most, if not the most important nutrient to the human body when it comes to physical activities is carbohydrate. It is pretty much the staple of our diet. Carbs should make up about 50%-55% of our daily diet. There are many kinds of carbs. There are monosaccharide, Disaccharides and Polysaccharides. Without getting into much detail, here is a breakdown of carbohydrates:
Monosaccharide and Disaccharides are simple sugars. Examples of each are fructose and glucose; Lactose and sucrose.
Polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates are made up of many monosaccharides. This is where most of our carbohydrates should come from. Polysaccharides are split up into two groups: plant and animal. The three most common kinds are glycogen (from animals,) starch (from plants) and fiber (also from plants.) We eat a lot of starch. It is found in corn, potatoes, spaghetti, bread, beans, cakes, pancakes, crackers, cereal, chips…etc - most of our diets are from starch.
Fiber is another polysaccharide; fibers are cellulose from plants and almost completely indigestible by humans. Fiber is a very good carbohydrate for people looking for a low caloric diet. Most of us do not eat enough fiber. We should have about 20-35 grams of fiber in our diet. Low fiber intake is correlated with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and problems with our intestines. Foods that are high in fiber are bran, whole-wheat flour (cereals, breads, etc) almonds, apples, and green beans and many more.
Cholesterol: There are four different types of cholesterol – LDL, HDL, triglyceride and Lp(a.) High levels of LDL, triglycerides, and Lp(a) can have adverse effects on our bodies while HDL can have positive effects (although some studies show that too little HDL can increase the risk of heart disease while more than 40mg/dl carries cholesterol to the liver (and away from arteries.) Cholesterol is very important in our body. We use it to build cell membranes as well as an essential part of many other bodily functions. Thankfully our bodies produce about 70% of our needed cholesterol (approximately 700mg out of the needed approximate 1000mg.) So we need to consume about 300mg of cholesterol. This is not difficult. Many people consume too much cholesterol. One egg contains your full days requirement of cholesterol. For most young people cholesterol is not something to worry about too much. But for many older people it is. Foods that are high in cholesterol are red meat, eggs cream cheese, butter, and ice cream (notice a trend? Cholesterol is found in saturated fat as well as trans fat. This means all vegetables, fruits, grains and so much more have zero cholesterol.) Too much cholesterol has been linked coronary heart disease.
Protein: Protein does thousands of things in our bodies. Protein is built up of amino acids. There are 20 kinds of amino acids. Eight of them are essential amino acids. They are called this because our body cannot make them itself. Therefore it is essential that we make sure we eat foods with them. Don’t worry this is easier then it sounds. Meat contains all eight of these amino acids (we just have to watch out for saturated fats.) Plants - even though separately do not contain all eight, which is why they are called incomplete proteins - can be mixed so that we consume our essential amino acids. So vegetarians can, by all means, eat enough protein. As you may have noticed there is no percentage next to the protein on the nutritional facts. This is because people need different amounts depending on the the amount of exercise they get, or if they are children, or if they are pregnant. It is recommended that people eat about .9 g of protein/kg (a kg is 2.2 lbs) of bodyweight (“BW.”) If you are a more physically active person, you should eat about 1.1g/kg of BW. A bodybuilder would eat up to 2g/kg of BW! Children of course should eat about 1.8 g/kg of BW because their bodies need more to support their growth. Many people eat too much protein, but unless you are eating what a bodybuilder should eat and you are someone who never exercises you should be fine. If you are concerned about your protein intake you should consult your physician. Overall, 15% of our daily calories should come from protein.
Vitamin A: This is a very important vitamin because it supports vision, hormone production and regulation of the hormones, bone growth, our skin and our immunity to illness. RDA: Adult men: 900 µg. Adult women: 700 µg.
Found in: cheese, butter, eggs, carrots.
Vitamin C: This vitamin in an integral part of intracellular maintenance of bone, teeth and more. Usually people get enough vitamin C. RDA: Adult males: 90 mg. Adult female: 75mg.
Found in: citrus fruits, tomatoes, green peppers, bananas, spinach and more.
Calcium: An extremely important mineral that our body needs, but most people do not get enough of. We all have heard that calcium builds strong bones. In addition, it also helps to control our blood pressure, nerve functions, blood clotting, contraction and relaxation of our muscles, and immunity to illness. RDA: For adult males and Female: at least 1000mg. Children ages 9-18: should have 1300 mg.
Found in: Milk (and milk products,) legumes, and most greens. I eat these great chocloate disks made by ADORA which have 500 mgs of calcium!
Iron: Another mineral that is very important and again most people get too little of it. Iron plays an important roll in hemoglobin and myoglobin (basically helps our blood take in oxygen) and very important to many enzymes. Iron is hard to digest as a tablet, so if you want enough of it you really have to eat the right foods, and these tend to be unprocessed. So to get enough iron you have to eat well. RDA: Adult male: 8 mg. Adult Female: 18 mg. Ages14-18: 11 mg.
Found in: Red meats, dried fruits, poultry, legumes, fish, eggs and very green leafy vegetables..