Nutrition

Nutrition Matters E-Message, April 24, 2009

Healthy/unhealthy messages about food prove misleading

It is late afternoon and you have a twinge of hunger.  One of your colleagues offers you some freshly baked cookies, saying, “I tried a new recipe for this high-fiber oatmeal snack made with healthy ingredients.  Whole grain oatmeal is good for your health because it contains soluble fiber. So, this oatmeal snack is high in soluble fiber, as well as low in saturated fat and free from trans fat.”  You accept the cookies and begin to eat them.

How would it affect your eating if the cookies received a different introduction?  Same scenario, late afternoon, you're hungry and your colleague offers you some freshly baked cookies, saying, “I tried this new recipe for gourmet cookies made with fresh butter and old-fashioned brown sugar. So, these cookies are a great treat with a pleasant, sweet taste.”

Researchers at the University of Toronto used these two messages as they set out to investigate the effects of food-related beliefs about the healthiness of foods on actual food intake during a snack.  In the study, undergraduate students were offered oatmeal raisin cookies under the guise of a market-research study involving a taste-testing task.  The students were offered identical cookies with one or the other introduction and invited to eat as many as they wanted after they had completed the taste-testing form.   Participants ate about 35% more when the cookies were presented as a healthy snack as opposed to when they were offered as a tasty treat.

Foods often are categorized as healthy (good) and unhealthy (bad).  Whether a food is in the healthy or unhealthy category may be based on your perception of the fat or calorie content of the food.  It may be based on something you've heard about the food being “fattening.”  Or perhaps the classification comes from a stereotypical belief related to its name (oatmeal snack = good, gourmet cookie = bad). 

No matter the reason, when a food is deemed “healthy” it seems normal to eat more of it.  The categorization itself, then, influences how much you eat without you even realizing it.  Healthy/unhealthy food thoughts manipulate your eating rather than allowing you to trust your natural instincts about what and how much to eat.  Giving yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods lessens the impact of food-related messages.  You are able to disregard good food-bad food categorizations.  You can savor the foods you choose and eat as much as you desire.

References:

Provencher V, Polivy J, Herman CP. Perceived healthiness of food.  If it's healthy, you can eat more! Appetite . 2009; 52:340-344.

It is very important to eat healthy foods.
That is why you will find a variety of nutrition information below.

Smart Nutrition Starts at Nutrition.gov

Nutrition.gov provides easy, online access to government information on food and human nutrition for consumers. They have helpful articles about how to stay healthy through nutrition. Site subjects include Whats in Food, Smart Nutrition 101, Life Stages, Weight Management, Nutrition and Health Issues, Shopping, Cooking and Meal Planning, Dietary Supplements, and Food Assistance Programs.

Get Kids to Eat Their Vegetables!!!

Parents know the hassle of trying to get kids to to eat vegetables. Kids just don't understand the importance of a well rounded diet and no matter how hard parents push, their kids push back that much more. Kids will always say "yuck" to plain old vegetables, but you can change their opinions early and hopefully alter their life habits to include healthy eating! Below you will find a list of ways to get kids to eat those veggies they all hate.

• Serve vegetables different ways- stir-fried, roasted, grilled, and steamed.
• Top veggies with reduced fat shredded cheese
• Keep fresh veggies in the fridge as snacks
• Serve salad as a dinner or as a snack. You can add chicken or beef for some protein.
• Have kids try new vegetables and serve them in a platter with dinner
• DO NOT GIVE UP!!! You may have to serve a new food up to 10 times before a child will consider tasting it.

MyPyramid.gov

We all know that one size does not fit all, so how can the same food pyramid fit everyone? It can't!!! At MyPyramid.gov, you can see what the general recommended daily food servings are, but you can also create your own pyramid that fits you.

By entering your age, height, weight, sex, and physical activity level, you create a My Pyramid Plan that tailors the food pyramid to you and gives you information on what you need to eat in your diet. It also links you to pages with tips on how to incorporate the different parts of your food pyramid into your meals.

Boundless Benefits
The blood flow benefits were even better after 3 weeks of consistent eating. Researchers think it may be the antioxidants in grapes that help keep blood vessels relaxed and blood flowing freely. In fact, grapes may even help protect your blood vessels from fatty meals -- something that normally does immediate, transient damage. And early animal research suggests that something in grapes may help protect your blood pressure from salty foods, too. (But don't fill up your saltshaker just yet. Get the whole scoop on salt intake and hypertension .)

Reality Check
Of course, no single food will make your heart and arteries impervious to the perils of a bad diet. So in addition to fresh fruit like antioxidant-rich grapes, feed your heart what it really wants, including:

• Garlic, olive oil, and dark chocolate. Here's why you need these -- plus four more "must eats."
• Oatmeal with strawberries. Find out what makes this pair so potent for your heart .
• A couple of shakes of cinnamon each day. Here's how it can help .