What does Heinz 57 Varieties do for you?

Friends don't let friends eat Ketchup!!! Where is that saying coming from? A lot of us whether tall, large or small like our ketchup. It just goes well with fries, eggs or other foods. Besides that fact that it tastes good, there are certain health benefits.

Lycopene is one of the good things found in tomatoes, it becomes more bio-available if the tomatoes are cooked. Ketchup on the other hand contains a lot of sugar and salt, which offset the health benefits. A good alternative to ketchup are tomato sauces and other cooked tomato foods (Source:Wikipedia Ketchup-Nutrition).








Image Source: http://www.heinz.com/our-food/products/ketchup.aspx

Limits of our rational minds!

This was an awesome show on NPR this morning:


Limitis of our rational minds! by NPR/Radioland

Source: istockphoto.com/NPR

Cravings

How to overcome food cravings? This is probably something most of you have either directly asked yourself or struggled with before! There are of course several different reasons. I was listening to a show on NPR last night. The guy on the show was talking about the brain and was asking the simple question, why do we not know more about how our brain works. The same is probably true for knowing about cravings. There are some good articles about cravings out there, here one example:
How to reduce food cravings? by Anne Collins

The consensus is that there are several different reasons, but the biggest reason being a blood sugar imbalance. Easy ways of overcoming that is never letting your blood sugar drop too far, by eating snacks in between meals. These snacks can be a fruit or vegetables. I have also had good success with V8 vegetable Juices or V8 Fusion.
One of the other things I have heard is that cravings get more intense, if we discipline ourselves from not eating the craved foods at all (i.e. candy). A recommendation was: instead of cutting out candy for instance entirely from one day to the other, slowly reduce the amount of candy consumed and therefore having a less difficult time to control the craving, but with a sustainable result.

Have a great evening.

Steffen

Caffeine

Caffeine is known to increase your metabolism (Caffeine and your metabolism), which in effect means that fewer calories get absorbed (see Calorie Balance post). Caffeine is found in a lot of beverages and foods, coffee/tea is one of the ways of caffeine intake, which generally has few to 0 calories. That of course is only true if you don't add milk or cream, or a lot of sugar. Flavors that you can add to your coffee are high and sugar!! Sodas or soft drinks contain a lot of caffeine as well, but they eitehr contain a lot of sugar or artificial sweeteners (see blog on sweeteners). Of course there are some side effects of caffeine that most of us experience, such as difficulties to sleep etc.
The recommendation for the day is, drink a cup of coffee after you ate lunch. Only add a little bit of cream, or at least consider milk and don't add any sugar.

The link below lists the caffeine content of drinks, you can also find foods on the same website:

Caffeine Content of Drinks (Source:www.energyfiend.com)

Juices

Although juices are generally a good source of vitamins and are better than soda, they contain a decent amount of calories. Please look at the packaging of the orange juice of your choice. One of the things that you can do is to either not drink juice today, or try to mix it with 50% of water. This is also what you find in the grocery store under light juice, the companies simply add 50% water and therefore reduce the calories by 50%.

Early Dinner

Today, try not to eat dinner any later than 7.00 PM. Everybody’s metabolism slows down at the end of the day and the calorie absorption increases the later it gets in the evening.

Beer and Wine

This blog was inspired by a discussion I had with friends at a Master's Swim team social. We started talking about the different types of beers and eventually ended up talking about the calories of different beers. One has to consider, drinking alcohol in general, not only beer, slows down your metabolism. I knew something about the effect of alcohol and that the liver will be busy instead of actively supporting your metabolism. As always I ended up searching the web and found a really good article:

The REAL Effects of Alcohol On Your Body

What do we learn from that? If you are going to drink alcohol, have the drink you like!! Just don't have as many. One of the things I have successfully done is also not drink Monday through Wednesday or Thursday.

Just to be aware of how many calories beers and a glass of wine has, here are two interesting links:
Beer
Wine

An easy breakfast

While the pros and cons of eating egg yolks often changes each decade, no one will argue that fresh, chopped veggies are tasty and healthy. So an easy and quick breakfast you can make for yourself after that good morning workout, or before you head off for a busy day at the office:

1) a bit of olive oil in the pan
2) 2 whole eggs (or 4 egg whites only) beat and then added to the pan
3) throw in a few chopped veggies - spinach, green peppers, artichoke, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and any other favorites
4) cook thoroughly on low-medium heat without stirring for a fritatta
- or stir for scrambled style
- or cook halfway and then fold for an omelette
5) add a few of your favorite spices
6) Eat with a slice of whole wheat bread and a nice glass of fruit juice.

Voila! Good, healthy calories in a short time frame. Almost anyone can do it. :)

Don't break down

I have to apologize, I haven't been writing any blogs the past couple of days. I have a recipe ready, just need to type it it. Has anybody ever been in a situation, when you have been working 14 hour days and still haven't gotten everything done? Ok, enough wining for the day. I still managed to eat healthy and work out, even though it was only for 30 min on the treadmill, while still recovering from a cold.
Motto of the day: Drink lots of water, especially when you are working in a heated environment, continue to eat healthy (remember the energy balance (if you are not able to work out, simply eat less)). Ok, you can have a beer or two at night and sit down and relax.

Happy Wednesday

Calorie Balance

Losing weight is the New Year's resolution for many of us. How does it work? It is actually very simple, if you want to loose weight, you have to create a negative calorie balance. It essentially means that your calorie intake needs to be less than what you are burning.

Imagine a scale, if you are eating more calories than what your body is burning, your body will store access calories in form of body fat. The objective is to have an even (maintain weight), or negative calorie balance.
Ways to achieve a negative calorie balance:
1. Eat less
Reduce the amount of food you are taking in. There are several helpful tool to do so, often referred to as calorie counters. One of the iPhone apps that I have heard positive reviews for is Tap&Track. Some people like the help from organizations like www.weightwatchers.com. You ultimately need to be comfortable with what you are doing. It may be as simple as following the advice that we are providing on www.LoveToEatRight.com. It is often enough to be aware of what you are eating an knowing how many calories the food contains.
2. Burn more calories
Any kind of physical activity will burn calories, even a 15 min walk in your lunch break does. It starts with easy things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator etc. If you enjoy doing sports even better!! Tomorrows blog will talk about the different types of work outs and the related ways of burning calories.


Most importantly, how do you find out, how many calories you should be taking in per day. Here is a helpful site, which lets you calculate your daily calorie needs.

Olive Oil

Olive Oil is commonly known for its health aspects, unlike animal fats, it is known to lower cholesterol levels as well as blood sugar and blood pressure. It is high in mono saturated fat. You can use Olive Oil for cooking and frying, if you like its flavor. For less flavor, you can use cheaper version of Olive Oil for frying. My favorite salad dressing is balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, salt, little bit of sugar and pepper. If you like, you can add mustard and/or light sour crème. Olive Oil is also good as a base for any marinate. If you’d like to know more about its nutritional facts, please see the following links:

Cooking with Olive Oil

Nutritional Facts

Culinary use (incl. comparison with other fats)

Sleep

Go to bed early, to be well rested for the week. A decent amount of sleep is necessary to maintain a normal metabolism. There are studies that show that your metabolism is negatively affected if you don’t get enough sleep on a regularly. Sleep is also important for your immune system, especially in the cold weather we have been having!!

Early Dinner

Today, try not to eat dinner any later than 7.00 PM. Everybody’s metabolism slows down at the end of the day and the calorie absorption increases the later it gets in the evening.

2. Recipe: Sweet Potato Gratin

Cook time: 1 hour, prep time 20 min

4-5 entree servings

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds of sweet potatoes

¾-1 pound of boneless chicken breast

1 yellow squash or zucchini

1 small onion

4 eggs

1 ½ cups of milk

¼ cup of flower

1 can of beans of your choice

Bag of sharp cheddar cheese (2% milk fat, if you prefer a lower fat cheese)

Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Black Pepper

Paprika

Crushed Red Peppers

Directions

Chop onions into small pieces and poor a little bit of olive oil into a frying pan, caramelize the onions, add black pepper and crushed peppers to the onions by your liking. Cut chicken into small pieces and add into the hot frying pan. Add sea salt, black pepper and paprika.

Cut the sweet potatoes (1/8”) and squash (1/4”) into thin slices. If the potatoes or the squash are thick, cut them in half so the slices aren’t too big. Put the potatoes, squash, beans and the chicken into a big bowl and mix it.

Mix the eggs, milk and flower in a bowl; add sea salt, black pepper and other spices.

In a big glass baking form, spread some olive oil, so the gratin won’t stick. Add the potatoes and other ingredients from the big bowl. You can get fancy and put the potatoes in layers, most importantly mix the ingredients that you have a nice mixture of the potatoes, beans and squash. Pour the eggs and milk into the baking form. You should have roughly ½-2/3 of the potatoes covered with the eggs. Spread cheese as a final layer on top of the other ingredients, feel free to add as much cheese as you like. Cover the baking form with aluminum foil (otherwise the potatoes won’t get done).

Bake in the oven at 380 degrees (190 C) for ~40-50 min.

Note:

The potato egg combination is one the most effective ways for the human body to absorb protein. Here are two links explaining the Biological Value as well as a listing of the best protein sources:

Biological Value (Protein)

http://www.livestrong.com/article/27450-list-high-protein-foods/

3 in 1 New Year's Resolution

What are your New Year's Resolutions?
1. Money: Handle money better and get out of debt.
2. Weight: Lose weight, go on a diet.
3. Time: Manage time better and spend more time with your family and friends
Those seem to be the top 3, if you are a little creative, you can accomplish them all at the same time!!


1. Money: If you spend a little time analyzing your monthly spending , you will most likely find out that you spend a lot on "Eating out". (If you are looking for a good tool to do so, Mint has gotten decent reviews) Eating out means that you don't really know how the meal is prepared and what exactly you are eating, in addition, portions are usually too big when you are eating out and the healthy food choices are limited.
2. Weight: A lot of us have the goal to lose some weight going into the new year. Diets are not the way to go, your goal should be to change your eating habits long term, which makes them sustainable. Simply read the love to eat right" blog and you will hopefully get some good ideas on what you need to do.
3. Time: Have you ever thought of cooking being one of the things, where you could spend more time with your family?


1+2+3=Cook and eat  the weekly "Love to eat right" recipe with your family and friends and you will accomplish all three resolutions at the same time. You will learn about foods, know what you are eating, enjoy the company of your family and friends and if planned out, you will even save time driving around to a restaurant and waiting in line.


If you have a questions or ideas, please send me an e-mail: steffen@lovetoeatright.com

Aspartame and its effects on liver glycogen

Here we go, we sit at breakfast this morning and have a conversation about carb loading. There are two ways to store carbohydrates in your body, the liver (up to 160 g) and muscles (up to 720g). Thoughts that are going through my head are, how to improve the glycogen stored in the liver. I was doing some research on how the liver works and what causes the release of glycogen. Without being to scientific, a hypothesis could be that Aspartame (commonly known under the brand name Nutrasweet) has a negative effect on storing glycogen in the liver. Aspartame has a similar effect as carbohydrates, as far as triggering the liver to manage the blood sugar levels. This process, will negatively affect the stored glycogen, which we need throughout the day or in a race.

Long story short, stay away from Diet Sodas and anything that contains artificial sweeteners.

Happy racing in 2010 :)