FIRST COURSE; Playing the Odds for Eating Right Foods

Playing the odds for eating right foods

The USDA’s new Dietary Guidelines are out, and while giving them high praise, most nutrition experts agree that very little of the nutrition information they contain is new.

Which leads us to two questions: Why all the hoopla? And why do Americans need so desperately to be told, again, how to eat for better health?

A partial answer to the first question can be found in the answer to the second: Execution is always 10 times harder. That’s true with respect to getting along with your spouse, to successfully managing your finances — and to following a healthful diet. We may know exactly what to do, but gritting our teeth and doing it is another matter.

What is new about the guidelines themselves, this time around, is an even stronger promotion of fruits and vegetables, expression of servings in common measurements (like cups), a call for regular exercise, and discernment between harmful fats such as trans fats and beneficial fats such as omega-3s, as well as whole-grains and simple carbohydrates.

We’ll leave the exercise component of the recommendations to you and your personal trainer — that taps into a whole different layer of self-discipline.

But for consumers with a sincere desire to embrace the guidelines and improve their diets, the very specific nature of food advice that is earning praise is also bound to intimidate some people out of even trying. Five vegetable sub-groups?

This is why it’s good to remind yourself that the guidelines are an ideal. No one I know has time to do the daily math required to ensure that never more than 10% of your calories come from saturated fat, that you don’t exceed the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of salt per day, and that you meet your proportional quota of dark green/orange/ starchy/other vegetables each and every week.

So instead, you play the percentages — you maximize your odds for eating the right foods in sensible amounts.

Smart stocking of your pantry (including the fridge and freezer) is a good place to start.

If the recommended foods are an arm’s length away, chances are you’ll cook them and eat them. If you stock a variety of such foods, your diet over time will reflect that variety. And as for the bad stuff, if you don’t bring it in the house, it can’t tempt you.

Breaking the guidelines down into smaller goals might work better for some people. Pick just one guideline per week, or even per month, and methodically work to make it become habit before moving on to the next.

For example, if you chose to focus first on getting your three cups per day of low- or no-fat milk or equivalent products, you might add a glass of milk to breakfast and dinner and include either a carton of low-fat yogurt or slice of low-fat cheese in every lunch. When this is routine, move on to another guideline. Start with an easy one.

Keeping a food diary at first can make you aware of what you’re eating as you work to make permanent changes.

But before you get hung up on the details, be sure you’re clear on what comprises a “nutrient-dense food” and what does not. This alone will ensure a better diet.

According to the guidelines, nutrient-dense foods are simply those that provide substantial amounts of vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) and relatively fewer calories.

Some of this is obvious: potato chips and ice cream are not nutrient-dense; a carrot or a banana is. When in doubt, read the nutrition label. Discerning one type of food from the other gets harder when it comes to prepared recipes and restaurant food.

Breaking down recipes into ingredients can be helpful, and in general, avoid highly processed foods, suggested Judy Mayer, nutritionist for Outpost Natural Foods stores in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa.

In working with customers new to a whole-foods diet, Mayer finds that what intimidates people most is the prospect of cooking. “They don’t know how to cook because they’re used to convenience foods,” she said.

” ‘Oh I don’t have the time,’ they say. Well, they don’t take the time. To be healthy you have to put a little more effort into it.”

Vegetables scare people the most, Mayer said. Aside from the old standbys like potatoes and corn, “They just don’t know what to do with them.” She tells them it doesn’t have to be hard. You can saute them, stir-fry them, steam them. And Outpost, for one, provides recipes.

Instructions for cooking various grains can be found right in the bulk foods department, where they’re sold, and some directions appear on the receipt when the foods are purchased. Every month, a new three-day menu of recipes is offered free in the store. February’s menus follow a health-healthy theme.

Mixing familiar foods with unfamiliar ones can make it easier to try new foods, she said. For example, mash sweet potatoes with white potatoes or mix brown with white rice. Likewise, blend regular with whole-grain pastas.

“It has a little different taste but a much nicer texture,” Mayer said of the whole-grain pastas. “It doesn’t take any longer to cook whole-grain than regular.”

If you don’t like milk, there are many alternatives, including low-fat cheeses or yogurts (watch the sugar in some yogurts) and soy and rice milks (just be sure they’re enriched with calcium).

But getting people to eat more fruits and vegetables will be the most difficult challenge, Mayer and others believe. The guidelines call for 2 cups of fruit and 2 1/2 cups of vegetables per day for a 2,000-calorie diet. Servings should come from all five vegetable subgroups: dark green, orange, legumes, starchy and “other.”

Lori Baer, with the Produce for Better Health Foundation, suggested people “take time to navigate the produce department and see what’s there.”

“We encourage people to think about variety through color. If you look in your basket and everything’s green, maybe you’re not getting the variety you need.”

There are so many value-added products now, she said, from microwavable spinach in a bag to precut winter squash chunks “that are perfect for throwing in soups. They have precut kale and other leafy greens already chopped up and ready to toss in a steamer.”

As for orange vegetables, baby carrots couldn’t be easier, and for legumes, “people shouldn’t think they need to be soaking beans overnight. Canned beans are such a wonderful resource.” Starchy vegetables are easy — they include the potatoes, corn (a grain to some) and peas we all know so well.

One way to include all five vegetable subgroups in your diet is to buy at least one of each every time you go to the store.

Rather than think of 9 to 13 servings of produce a day, Baer said, think about filling your plate half full with vegetables.

“And if you want second helpings, have more vegetables,” advised Mayer.

Next week: How to map out a detailed “Guideline” diet tailored to your needs.

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The dietary guidelines can be found at www.jsonline.com/alive/ news/jan05/292576.aspor www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines. Nancy J. Stohs is food editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can e- mail her at nstohs@journalsentinel.com.