Nutrition 101: How to Figure Out What the Heck You're Eating

People don't like to go grocery shopping with me. Not only am I an obsessive bargain hunter (meaning that my brain stores an impressive catalog of the typical price for a given item and I have to spend at least 30 seconds comparing the price of said item to its counterparts, therefore ensuring that I'm getting the best deal), but I also take the time to figure out what I'm putting in my body. I could not in good conscience buy a loaf of bread without giving the nutrition facts a once-over. Also, I really like food, so I enjoy spending time in grocery stores (I know it's weird, but I could happily frolic up-and-down the isles of a good store for upwards of two hours). 

My hometown market, where I accidentally almost bought something called "galanga root"

 Whenever I invite my roommates to accompany me to the market, the always thoroughly weigh the pros and cons. I ask if they want to come with me, and a thoughtful "Hm..." escapes their lips when really they're thinking, "Do I really need more milk? I don't know if I want to spend an hour at Macey's watching Ariel spend five minutes picking out yogurt while she critiques every item I put in my cart".

I know it's annoying, and I don't purposefully make my friends suffer, but in the end I do think there is a great deal of merit to it. Not only have I become adept at getting the best price, but I'm also getting the most nutritional bang for my buck. Which, after what I now realize is an extensive introduction, leads me to the focus of this post: reading a nutrition label. I know it seems basic, but I think that you may be surprised by how little thought you've given it.

For starters, there is a little something called "nutrient density". Basically, it's how much good stuff, such as vitamins, minerals, and fiber, you're getting for a certain number of calories. For example, if you're eating a piece of apple pie (mm...pie) you get all of the good stuff from the apple, but you also get lots of simple carbs (like sugar) and fats from the crust and filling. Compare a 100-calorie sliver of pie to a 100-calorie fresh apple. Which do you think is more nutrient-dense? Which has more vitamins and minerals? More fiber? Spoiler alert - it's the apple. This concept is true of any food, and when you're eating, you want to get the greatest nutrient-density possible.

I like the way Homer thinks

 The first things I look for when I'm inspecting a nutrition label are sodium, sugar, type of fat, protein, and fiber. Protein and fiber are good because they keep you feeling fuller longer, and fiber keeps a clean colon (nobody wants to develop diverticulum). Sugar, some fats, and sodium are bad, sugar more so that sodium. Just trust me on the sugar thing. In excess, it causes too many problems to list. For the fat, the amount really doesn't matter - it's the type that counts. Unsaturated is good, saturated is not-so-good, and trans is badbadbad.

Now how do you figure out how much or how little is good? The best advice I can give is to compare it to the things around it. Thinking about buying those Chewy bars? Try taking a look at a granola bar that's mostly nuts, or one that looks like it has a bunch of weird seeds and stuff. Compare the labels and see how they stack up. Then think about whether you will actually eat it or not and whether it's in your price range. If you need to eat four Chewy bars to take the edge off of your hunger, then it may be worth it to buy the more expensive snack that you only need to eat one of. 

In regards to sodium (and pretty much everything else on the label) a simple glance at % Daily Value that tells you how much you should consume in a day. Take a look at the anonymous label below and see what you think.

Low sugar, high protein and fiber: looks good

 *This is a side-note for fiber. Fiber is not considered "significant" unless it is in amounts greater than 5 grams. The American Diabetics Association recommends basing insulin doses off of grams of carbs consumed (carbs are not fiber). When there is more than 5 grams of fiber, the fiber acts as negative carbs and the number of grams of fiber can be subtracted from the number of carbs. For example, say a slice of bread has 30 g of carbs and 6 g of fiber. A diabetic would subtract 6 from 30 and dose their insulin for 24 g of carbs. That's how those flour tortillas can be advertised as "low carb".

Next on my mental checklist of things to look at is the ingredient list. Ingredients are listed in order of greatest weight to least. The classic ingredient dupe that can be avoided by glancing at the ingredients is whole wheat goods. Often times, "whole wheat bread" is really mostly white flour with a little bit of whole wheat sprinkled in for color, which entirely negates the benefits of eating whole wheat in the first place.

This label is, admittedly, a little vague, but notice how the flour is a mixture of whole wheat and wheat mixed together aka not actually 100% whole wheat. Sometimes they will try and get tricky by just putting "wheat flour". If it doesn't say "whole wheat", it's not whole wheat.

I also scan the list for things like hydrogenated oils. These are oils that are naturally liquid at room temperature, but have been altered to be solids. This prolongs shelf life and clogs your arteries. I also keep my eyes peeled for high-fructose corn syrup and other processed sweeteners like fructose along with any ingredient that I can't easily pronounced. These flavorings, stabilizers, and preservatives are unnatural and a sign of a lot of processing.  

So lets say you found these really good cookies and they look pretty healthy and you think that they will be a good option to help turn your cookie addiction around. Before you leave the store with enough to live off of for four months, make sure to look at the serving size. It may turn out that one serving size (and the amount that the nutrition facts describe) is actually 1/4 of a cookie, or the cookies might be really really small (this happened to me once). This is a classic example of serving size deception:

It's advertized as fat free. Well, how can it be when the main ingredient is canola oil? If you look closely, you can see that the serving size is a 1/3 second spray. The amount of oil in a 1/3 second spray is so small that according to guidelines, it is considered negligible and does not need to be listed on the nutrition label. So you buy this spray thinking that it's fat free when in reality it is anything but. Tricky tricky PAM. 

Congratulations if you actually read this whole thing. I know it is a little rambling, but really it comes down to three things:

1. Nutrient density
2. Ingredients
3. Serving size

Simple enough. 

I would like to point out that no where in here do I recommend counting calories. I do believe that most things are good in moderation, and I also believe that we should be informed and knowledgeable in regards to what we eat and how it affects our bodies, but I do not believe in diets. Diets are degrading to the soul and they often consist of recommendations for unsustainable behaviors. If you feel that you are not healthy in regards to what you eat and what you do, research changes that you can make that you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life like exercising for 30 minutes a day. No one can live to be a happy, active 100-year-old by eating 500 calories a day, so pick something better.

I do believe that you will become a healthier person as you make an effort to be more aware of what you are putting in your body. I also believe that as you do this and treat your body well, you will gain more respect for what is truly a magnificent piece of biological machinery. 

To feel grateful for what you have been given, read this.

For the Love of Popcorn

So I was killing some time by browsing Pinterest (what's new) and I found this handy-dandy site. It sorts inexpensive healthy whole foods into six major categories, listing each food's average price per serving and per pound along with a few health benefits and a recipe or too. Good, no?

I like lists like these because they give me ideas of new things to try. All of these are fairly basic, but maybe you've never tried lentils or beets, or you've considered your options of fresh, canned, or dried. 

One of my current favorites from this list (of which I have many) is popcorn. Not Orville's over-priced, artery-clogging bags that never seem to pop like you want them - no. I'm talking about the whole kernels that they only ever seem to have five pound bags of at the store. I came home with one of those babies when I went grocery shopping on an empty stomach with a hankering for popcorn. I realized my folly when I got home and remembered that I don't like popcorn very much. I lamented my foolishness (very vocally, I might add, much to the dismay of my roommates), but nonetheless vowed to use the entire bag. Little did I know that fate had led me to my next food obsession.
 

So pathetic

Homemade popcorn is a magical thing. It is extremely inexpensive, easy to make, and can be tailored to your tastes. S'mores popcorn? Not a problem. What to throw some cinnamon-sugar on there? Go right ahead. Craving good ol' fashioned butter and salt? The kings of old would pay a reasonable price for such a treat. Get the point? Sure you do. 

So many possibilities

2 tablespoons of popcorn kernels makes about 5 cups, each cup coming in at a mere 35 calories, which means that you can eat a lot of this stuff. There are two ways to home pop: 

Mm...popcorn

1. The classic stove top method. Turn the burner up to medium to medium-high heat, throw in some oil of your choice (I recommend no more than 1 teaspoon per tablespoon of kernels, but I won't judge you if you do more), toss in your kernels, put a lid on it, and swish and shake* the pot around until you have fresh, steamy, perfectly-popped popcorn.

*This keeps the kernels from burning.

2. The magic microwave method. I don't know why this never occurred to me, but I was nevertheless enthralled when I saw it done for the first time. All you do is put up to 1/4 cup of kernels in a brown paper lunch bag, fold the top edge over a couple of times, and microwave it as you would the aforementioned pre-packaged sacks of hydrogenated oils. And viola - perfect popcorn waiting to be eaten. The only down side to this method is that because the kernels aren't popped with butter or oil, unless you get some grease on them fast post-popping, any seasoning doesn't stick very well.
 

First kernels, then popcorn!

Well there you have it. If you're not converted then come see me and I will convince you. That's a promise.

Top of the Muffin To You

Oh man, it has been a while since I last posted. I have no excuse; I just got lazy (but what's new?). 

Anyway, I have found myself in an interesting food dilemma. I am staying in Provo for Spring/Summer, which means that I don't have to spend an entire month abstaining from grocery store trips so that I can eat every edible item in my possession before I go home for the summer. However, I am moving apartments, and this is a transition that is eased by simply having less stuff to haul. Alas, I don't have to get rid of all of my food, but doing so makes my life a lot easier. Which leads me to today's recipes.

I have a lot of random ingredients laying around my apartment that need to be used. Two such ingredients are 1) two granny smith apples that I bought...a while ago for another recipe that never got made and 2) some sweet potato puree left over from this recipe (which I highly recommend). I thought it was a good idea to make muffins out of these things, and they turned out so well that not one, but two of my roommates requested the recipes.

Apple left, sweet potato right

Not to brag, but my food usually tastes pretty good. However, it does not often look very attractive. People are often skeptical about the offerings I bring to parties or break-the-fast. Such is not the case with these babies. The pictures don't really capture it, but they looked like they belonged in a bakery, particularly the sweet potato muffins, which domed perfectly with their crispy streusel tops. Mmm...streusel. 
 

It took my about an hour to make both types. The most labor-intensive process of the whole operation was grating the apples.

So here's the moment you've all been waiting for: the recipes!

First, the apple muffins. For starters, I left the skin on the apples. It gives a little fiber boost and it's much less work. I just quartered and peeled each apple and then grated the quarters by hand. NBD. Since I have no idea what vanilla powder is, I just used 1 tsp vanilla extract. I used canola oil instead of olive oil. I added 1/4 tsp of nutmeg in with the cinnamon. Also, I didn't bother with the lemon-sugar topping. The muffins were sweet enough on their own, so if you have a lemon on hand that you're dying to use, I recommend adding the zest to the batter. In addition, the oven temperature is in Celsius, and it's about 340 degrees farenheit. 

Note for both recipes: In case you didn't know, "zest" is the outside part of citrus fruits - the part with all of the oils that really give these fruits their quintessential flavors. There are special zesters and microplanes for zesting citrus, but you can improvise by either using the smallest holes on your cheese grater or by carefully using a knife to cut off the zest and then mincing it. Now here's the important part: when you zest (you gotta admit, it's a pretty fun verb), make sure not to get any of the white stuff; you only want the colored part. The white stuff is bitter and nasty. A little is alright, but a lot can ruin your food.

Now that that's settled, here are the sweet potato muffins. The only real change I made was to use all whole wheat instead of the negligible amount suggested in the recipe. It was a risky move, since too much whole wheat can make your baked goods dense and kind of nasty. But they were as fluffy and delicious as ever. Also, her mixing was kind of fussy and it sounded like you need to use a million different bowls so I just did the classic baking method: I mixed the dry ingredients together and in a separate bowl I creamed the butter and sugar, added the eggs and vanilla. Then I chucked everything together in one bowl (I usually add the dry ingredients to the wet), mixed it all together, and all was well. 

And finally, because I can't eat a muffin without thinking of this episode of Seinfeld, here's this: