How Fast is Fast Food???????

The top two reasons people give me for choosing fast food and take-out over cooking their own healthy foods...

“I don’t have the time to prepare a healthy meal”

“It’s too expensive to eat healthy”

I’ve been preaching over and over how cost-effective home cooking is.  Visit my recipe blog for healthy cheap recipes.  And as a busy working mom, I know for a fact you can create healthy meals in short time.  But today, I decided to put some (pseudo)scientific data behind my theories.

In order to test my theory that you can put together a healthy meal faster and cheaper than fast food and take-out, I will spend the next few months documenting my own experiences with convenience foods vs home cooked meals.  Read on.

Day One:  Lunch, Friday at 1:50 pm (slow time, only 3 cars in line)

Restaurant:  Burger King drive thru 

Data:

Enter Drive Thru:  1:50

Leave Drive Thru: 1:54

Finally get out of shopping center parking lot and back on the road:  1:58

Cost of “value meal”  (burger, fries, and water):  5:49

Results:

Time it took to get my fast food: 8 minutes

Cost it took to buy my fast food: 5:49

Conclusion:

I can do better than that!  

In less than 5 minutes, I can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, put it into a sandwhich bag, add an apple and a slice of cheese for a super healthy meal for just $1.15.

Stay tuned for the next experiment, more results to follow

Eat Well                         www.sickofspaghetti.com                          Spend Less

Bargain Shoppers Beware!

My mother is the quintessential bargain shopper.  She’s amazing at getting a deal and loves to share with you how she executes each score.  Mom starts with an ‘End of the Year Sale’, layers it with a clearance rack and a cupon from the paper, then tops it all off with her senior citizen discount.  

This time of year my mom has a tradition, the end of the year dress sale at a local department store.  When my sisters and I come home each year for Christmas, our mom shepherds us down to the basement where she displays her booty- a clothesline full of dresses, coats, and accessories.

Marked down from $100 or more to just $5 a piece, these items are serious bargains and my mom presents them to us like Oprah delivering her “favorite things”.  There’s just one problem.  The dresses are always 2-3 sizes too big, and 3-4 seasons too old.

My mom can’t pass up a bargain, its in her blood.  Its an obsession.  The feeling of getting extra value for her dollar fills her up like Christmas pudding.  Its understandable, she was raised in the era of the real Great Depression.  She knows what it is like to wear clothes made from feed sacks and eat things caught in her own back yard.  But now that her freezer’s full and her fabric’s from JoAnn’s, I remind her over and over, “It’s not a bargain if you don’t need it”.  Let’s face it,  $100 of unwanted clothes, is $100 wasted.  

These are the thoughts going through my head as I peruse the grocery store isle.  Egg Nog, powdered donuts, and Little Debbie cakes are all “10 for 10$” this week.  Groupon offered me a cupon for half priced Big Macs last week, and on Wednesdays the Chinese buffet advertises a 5$ early bird special.  

Tempting aren’t they?  We all want value, whether we are in a recession or not.  In fact, some of my wealthier friends are actually the cheapest.   There is something satisfying about knowing that you could have paid more, but didn’t, like somehow, you got around the system and came out ahead.

Not this time though.  Because before you know it, the afterglow of a good deal becomes the regret and belly ache from a fast food frenzy.

During this holiday season, and throughout the new year, be reminded that a bargain is never a bargain if you didn’t need it in the first place.  

Eat Well             www.sickofspaghetti.com            Spend Less

Surviving the Holidays 101


The holidays can be a trying time for all of us, but extremely difficult if youʼre watching your weight. We associate the winter holidays with excess-food, drink, and money. It doesnʼt have to be that way. Use these tips to help you avoid a New Yearʼs hangover....

Basic Survival Tips


Planning nutritious menus for each week, including 3 meals and snacks helps to prevent excessive hunger and falling into temptation. Be sure to include high quality, nutrient packed food to ensure cravings wonʼt rule the day. Cravings can often be due to deficiencies of certain nutrients, like good quality carbohydrates, or minerals like
magnesium.

Start each day with a good breakfast. Research shows that when you start the day
with a healthy breakfast, including good carbs, protein, and calcium rich foods like milk,
yogurt, or cheese, you will feel more satisfied and have fewer cravings the rest of the
day.

Create a shopping list, based on your weekly menu, eat a good meal, and go grocery
shopping. Keeping a list and shopping on full stomach help you avoid impulse buys,
like holiday chocolates and fruitcake.

Keep healthy treats like yogurt and granola, Babybel cheese and Triscuits, or dried
fruit and nut mixes in your workplace fridge, your desk, your car- anywhere you are
likely to find yourself hungry and tempted to raid the holiday gift basket in the break
room.

Keep a clean set of workout clothes, shoes, and gear by the front door, at your office
desk, and in your car. When you are faced with the temptation to join the office lunch
party, put on your shoes and head for street (or stairs if the weather is bad).


If the holiday party is your downfall, be picky. You may find you donʼt really care to go
to every event in your calendar. Learn to say no, and plan to attend only those that
mean the most.

Hydrate!! During this busy time, make sure you are drinking enough water.
Dehydration can cause fatigue (sending you out for more coffee), headaches, and
hunger. Drink at least 6-8 glasses of water each day.

A “cheat day” is actually an effective part of a weight loss plan, and including a day of
indulgences can actually help you meet your weight loss goals. Make this principle
work for you, but planning your cheat days around special events during the holidays.

Just make sure that you are intentional about your eating the rest of the week.


Eat Well                                www.sickofspaghetti.com                                 Spend Less

The REAL Cost of Healthy Food

When asked what holds them back from making the changes necessary to lose weight and improve their health, I typically hear the following answers........

"I can't afford it"

"It's cheaper to eat fast food than healthy food"

" I can't afford to pay out of pocket to see a nutritionist"

" I don't have the money to join a gym"


These are the things said to me by the Starbucks toting woman whose weekly trips to Target fill the back of her Suburban. So I began to do some research, and here's what I found.

Sarah is a friend who is trying to lose weight. She is a very busy working woman. On a typical day, she makes the following stops.......and here's what she spends........

7 am - Starbucks for a Venti Caramel Machiatto .......................4$

(just coffee, trying to watch her weight)

10 am - Diet Soda and Baked Lays at the Mapco.......................3$

(a little hungry, on the way to a client meeting)

1pm - McDonalds Extra Value Meal at the drive thru...................5$
(starving, can't eat it fast enough-Quarter Pounder
w/ cheese, fries, and diet drink- because she's watching her weight)

4pm - Vending Machine snack - snackwell cookies................ 0.75$
(trying to make healthy choices)

7pm - Lean Cuisine Select meal............................................... 3$
( only 320 calories!!!)

9 pm - 1/2 pint Chunky Monkey .............................................2$
( just can't hold out any more)

Total food cost........................................ $17.75 per day

Now lets look at what she is consuming.........

Starbucks Venti Caramel Machiatto...................... 300 calories

1 Package Baked Lays........................................ 130 calories

McDonald's meal................................................ 890 calories

Snackwells cookies ............................................ 210 calories

Lean Cuisine Meal............................................... 320 calories

Chunky Monkey ................................................. 600 calories

That's a total of 2450 calories- far too many for a 35 year old, 5'2", 140 pound inactive woman. At this rate, Sarah will gain close to 85 pounds per year, and be morbidly obese before her 40th birthday.

Sarah is also getting 113 grams of added sugar- that is more than 22 tsp of added sugar in her day. This alone has a huge impact on her weight and health-but more on that another day.

Now, lets look at an alternative..............

7 am - Home brewed coffee (cream & sugar).......$1 and 180 cal
hard boiled egg, and a banana

10 am - Carton of yogurt & an apple...................$1 and 230 cal

1 pm - Grilled Chicken Sandwhich on whole .......... $4 and 500 cal
wheat bun (lettuce, tomato, mustard),
with small veggie salad

4 pm - handful of almonds and 1/4 cup dried.......$1.25 and 160 cal
blueberrries

7 pm - Grilled Salmon, spinach salad, .............. . $4 and 500 cal
and brown rice

9 pm - 1 orange and piece of string cheese........... $.75 and 140 cal

The new totals are..........$12.00 per day and 1710 calories per day

By making these changes in her day, Sarah can save herself $5.75 and 700 calories per day!

Calories:

A 700 calorie deficit alone translates to a 5 pound weight loss per month, bringing her to her healthy ideal weight in just a few months.

Money:

By purchasing and preparing her own food, Sarah can save over $170 per month.

With this savings, Sarah can afford to.......

Join the YMCA ...................... ............... $60 / month

Participate in YMCA group personal .......$90 for 2X/week
training sessions,

----- or -----

2- 30 minute massages at the YMCA .........$90

These are immediate savings; savings that are obvious and hard to deny. But what about the other savings? With her new diet, Sarah is getting an abundance of fruit and vegetables, antioxidants, good fats, and fiber-all of the nutrients she needs to avoid the downhill track she was headed on towards obesity and disease (see Nutritiacare 101).

The excuse that healthy choices are more expensive just doesn't make sense. I know that change is difficult. In future posts we will introduce the baby steps needed to make a total transformation in your health with little effort or pain.

*costs listed are estimates based on market prices for items in the Nashville, TN and surrounding areas
**calories listed are based on estimates taken from food product labels, manufacturers websites, and restaurant literature

Let Food Be Your Medicine......

The food industry spends billions of dollars each year “improving’ our food supply:  taking out trans fats, adding in omega-3’s and probiotics.  Ironically, the more money American companies spend on manufacturing new food “products”, the sicker and fatter we have become.

It begs the question, why do we think we can do better than nature?  We humans have been put on this earth with everything we need to survive and thrive, yet we continually think we can improve what is already perfect.

Recently I have come across the story of one man, Joe Cross, who has shown us just how we can take what Mother Nature has provided, and use it to cure ourselves of the messes we’ve made. 

In his documentary film Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, Cross gives a compelling example of the power of food to either harm or heal us.  Cross is  shamelessly honest as he shares how his lifestyle choices have left him literally fat, sick, and nearly dead.

What I love about this film is how it illustrates the power of the nutrition of fruits and vegetables.  In just sixty days after giving up a diet full of fast food, sugar laden and over-processed foods, and going on a supervised fast of pure vegetable and fruit juices, Joe Cross lost almost 100 pounds, and became completely symptom free (and medication free) of a debilitating autoimmune skin disease.                     

Another powerful example of the power of food to heal is the story of Dr. Max Gerson.  Dr. Gerson used nutrition and lifestyle therapy to cure patients of diabetes, tuberculosis, and cancer.  His story is documented several ways, but a beautiful illustration of his work is found int he documentary Dying to Have Known.

Dr. Gerson had a keen understanding of just how powerful nutrition is against the disease process.

But as Joe Cross explains, in the beginning of his film, maybe curing disease has more to do with allowing the body to do what it does naturally.  The only true way we can do this is to

1- take away those things which interfere with normal functioning of our body (toxins like artificial ingredients, preservatives, colorants, sugars, etc)    AND

2- give our bodies all the good things they need to work properly- fruits and vegetables, good fats, and proteins


Do we really need to go on a juice fast?  Maybe some of us do.  Maybe a reboot is exactly what some of us need.

For the rest of us, we should all make an effort to make fruits and vegetables a bigger part of our diet, whether we use whole food supplement like Juice Plus, make our own juice, or just be more intentional about our choices each day. 

Our health is in our hands, and people like Joe Cross and Dr. Max Gerson have shown us what we can achieve when we ...

“let food be our medicine, and medicine be our food” - Hippocrates

You can find more information about Joe Cross and his amazing journey on his website fatsickandnearlydead.com

You can learn more about Dr. Gerson and the Gerson Institute at gerson.org



Eat Well          www.sickofspaghetti.com         Spend Less

Butter!

Dinner tonight is roast beef- I can't wait.  Beautifully browned beef, caramelized onions, and savory herbs and spices.  I just finished preparing the meal for my slow-cooker.  The best part- a big, glistening pat of butter on the top.

Over the last 10 years, butter has become a staple in my diet.  It took some time to re-program my Ornish-inspired, non-fat brain, but the addition of this mouth watering condiment has added more than just taste to my life.

Butter, for years, has had a horrible reputation as a disease-causing, artery-clogging fat, a stereotype that is interestingly stubborn.  Despite research to the contrary and improved understanding of the qualities of butter, nutritionists, health care professionals, and tv health "experts" continue to discourage its use in our daily diet.  This is unfortunate.  Consider the following......

Since the early 1900's, heart disease has risen from nearly non-existent, to become the leading killer of both men and women today.  In contrast, butter consumption has dramatically decreased, from an estimated 18 pounds per person per year, to less than 4 pounds per person per year.

And then there is the "French Paradox", coined by French scientist Dr. Serge Renaud in the early '90s.  According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the average French person consumes four times as much butter, 60 percent more cheese and almost three times as much pork as the average American, but suffers relatively low rates of heart disease, and obesity.  

Slowly, Americans are beginning to grasp the real cause of disease- fake foods- originally intended to improve our health, make our lives easier, and food cheaper.  These include ingredients like trans fats (in margarines and processed foods), high fructose corn syrup (in soft drinks and processed foods), and preservatives (in processed foods).

Our grandparents and great-grandparents ate fresh bread that molded after a day or two.  They ate loads of eggs, butter, biscuits and beef.  The difference is that their food was pure, whole, and straight from the farm. No hormones, no antibiotics, no chemicals or processing.  Equally important, the animals our grandparents and great-grandparents consumed were fed real food - natural grasses and grubs- not processed soy designed to fatten them up quickly.

The theory that saturated fat is responsible for problems with high cholesterol, heart disease, and heart attacks is finally starting to look like just that, a theory.  Research can be flawed, and we all have our biases, which can make the path to the truth a long and winding road.  In my humble opinion, common sense is always a good barometer of truth. But if you still need to see some solid facts, consider these health benefits of butter.

Butter contains Lauric Acid- this fatty acid is known for its antiviral, antimicrobial and antifungal properties.  

Butter contains Conjugated Linoleic Acid - this wonder nutrient has anti-tumor / anti- cancer properties.  It is also a dream for dieters.  A significant amount of research indicates that CLA helps reduce body fat, while increasing lean body mass!

Butter contains Arachadonic Acid - one of the most abundant fatty acids in the brain, AA is necessary for proper neurological development, and is being tested as a supplement to prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease.  AA is also necessary for proper muscle growth,and is being used as a supplement among body builders for improved muscle endurance, strength,and power.

Butter contains antioxidants- powerful super-chemicals that fight inflammation, and disease, including cancer and heart disease

Butter contains lecithin- a substance that actually helps reduce serum cholesterol

Butter contains Vitamins E, B, and D- all powerful nutrients that keep our immune system strong, our bones healthy, and prevent disease.

It's important to note, that like all foods, not all butters are created equal.  Choosing butter made from dairy cows that are pasture raised, and grass fed improves the quality, and nutrition of the final product.  Butter from grass-fed dairy cows contains 300-500% more CLA than butter from cows fed a more conventional grain based diet.

The next time you're shopping, skip the margarine, the "fat-free" spreads, and sandwich sprays, and pick up a container of real, organic butter.  You will taste and feel the difference!

Oh, and by the way- remember, too much of a good thing is never a good thing.  Use butter in moderation.  Just a tablespoon for my roast adds enough flavor for 6-8 servings!

Eat Well         www.sickofspaghetti.com       Spend Less

Whole Foods is Coming!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to tour the new Whole Foods Market in my neighborhood.  In my circle of friends, we lovingly refer to Whole Foods Market (WFM) as "Big Food", or "Whole Paycheck".

Like so many of my budget-conscious friends and clients, sticker shock has limited this nutritionist's trips to the natural food mecca to 'every now and then' for those specialty items you just can't find elsewhere.  I am a firm believer that we don't have to shop at a health food store to create health.

It almost feels like blasphemy to write these words, but the truth is, we all have to make the best decisions we can with what we have.  The purpose of this blog is to help you, the reader, determine what those decisions will be and how best to carry them out.

So with that in mind, I am writing today to share with you some of the things I have learned about Whole Foods Market, from my tour-guide, Jennifer.

First, is quality.  You can be sure that the foods you purchase at WFM are held to extremely high standards.  They choose their foods wisely, making sure to avoid foods with artificial colors, preservatives, and sweeteners.  Even the colors on the freshly decorated birthday cakes come from foods like beets and blueberries (no more red food color taste on my kids cakes!!!).

Second, they are committed to customer service and offer services traditional grocery stores do not.  In our new store in Franklin, TN, an entire section is devoted to help you become a better cook.  The IPad station allows you to search a database of recipes from professional chefs and customers alike.  You can upload your recipes to share, and get answers to your cooking questions sent directly to your email.

They also have designated staff available forty hours a week to help you with your cooking or nutrition questions.

Third, WFM establishes partnerships with food suppliers that promote sustainable farming practices, and provides customers the tools they need to make informed decisions about their purchases.  WFM's seafood rating program provides information about the sustainability of the fish offered in their cases.  The Whole Trade program is designed to make sure that the suppliers also receive a fair price for their products, much like the 'Fair Trade' coffee offered at Starbucks.  These products are marked with a Whole Trade Guarantee symbol.

Of these things I have always been aware, and I have admired WFM for their commitment to high quality food.  My epiphany today is not how good the products at WFM are, but rather, how affordable.  Yes, I said it, affordable.

WFM has their own store brand, 365 Everyday Value- which maintains the high quality standards of WFM, at fractions of the cost.  In my swag bag, for instance, I received a 16 ounce jar of 365 Roasted Chipotle Salsa, a great deal at just $3 a jar.  As you can see, it's already half-gone!

To find more great deals at Whole Foods Market, log onto www.wholefoodsmarket.com/wholedeal, You can sign up for their e-newsletter, download printable cupons, and find specials for your store.

And no, I do not work for WFM, nor do I receive any kind of financial gain from this post.  But my experience has brought about a new perspective of the food giant.  While I still may not purchase all of my families food at WFM, I will visit more often, and make a point to do the best I can with what I have.

For ideas on how to stretch your food dollar, find great deals on good food, and recipes for super healthy, super yummy, budget friendly food, visit the ultimate resource to Eat Well  and Spend Less, www.sickofspaghetti.com.