Is Moderation Meaningless?

MODERATION. We all know the word and the platitudes that surround it, but how many of us know exactly what a moderate amount of our favorite food is? And does the term moderation refer to the amount of something you can have on your plate or the number of times you can eat it per day or per week or per month? And couldn’t one person’s moderate portion be another person’s maximum serving depending on height, activity level, metabolism and food sensitivities? No doubt one family may view four ounces steak as a moderate portion, while another family may think eight ounces is moderate. An ounce of cheese may make one person's stomach cramp while another person could drink an eight ounce glass of milk with no ill effect.

In my opinion, “moderation” is a lazy term totally overused by people in the food and nutrition world. It especially bothers me when media representatives for  companies like Nestle and Coca-Cola use it to justify selling a food product with no nutrient value. If you lived by the motto "everything in moderation" you could feasibly eat a diet consisting only of moderate portions of junk food without breaking your rule.

Consuming the right foods in generous amounts is much more important than consuming the wrong ones in moderation. If you have no vegetables in your diet, does it really matter if you have a half cup or a whole cup of pasta? Instead of the useless cliche "everything in moderation," use this rule of thumb instead: Consume high quality foods in moderate to high quantities and low quality foods in low to zero quantities.  A high quality food (think avocado, salmon, walnuts, sweet potatoes, apples, kale, quinoa) is nutrient-dense; a low quality food (bread, pasta, cake, chips, soda) is mostly made up of empty calories. 

The truth is if you want to maintain a healthy weight for life, the only food group you don’t need to eat in moderation is green vegetables. Because as good as almonds and sweet potatoes are for you, eating too much of anything with a moderate to high calorie content will make you gain weight. I like to live by food science writer Michael Pollan's rule: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." A simple way to do this is to fill at least half of your plate with plant foods, eat meat and grains as side dishes and garnish with fats like olive oil, nuts and cheese. So breakfast might be a bowl of fruit topped with a few ounces of Greek yogurt and garnished with granola or almonds. Lunch might be a grilled vegetable and quinoa salad garnished with feta cheese and lightly dressed with olive oil.

However, a lot of foods, even some you may think are bad for you, can be enjoyed a few times a week or month in the appropriate quantities without compromising your health or weight. The key is to measure. Remind yourself what a Tbsp of butter looks like; measure out an appropriate portion of pasta or rice per person before you cook it! Cut blocks of cheese into 1 oz snack portion sizes and divide meats into 4 oz. portions for salads or stir fries. This will help you practice what I call “calorie awareness” without the drudgery of counting calories. Instead of moderation, focus on balance. While measuring is key to controlling the quantity of your food intake, balance is key to maintaining the quality of your life! 

In order to make good health a habit, you have to have a realistic approach to food. Just like everyone should have a clothing budget, it is smart to have your own personal food "budget" as well.  Love butter and cheese? Can't live without cream in your coffee? Fine, have an appropriate serving size of the real thing (meaning no "fat free" of "sugar-free" processed versions) and skim fat or calories from somewhere else in your diet.

Below is a table of foods people tend to over consume and the actual appropriate portion sizes per person. What I have listed may be different from what is on the package because I find the portion sizes on food labels are often unrealistic. 

Cereal	1 cup dry with 1/2 cup milk of choice a few times a week or daily if it's a high fiber option
Pasta (best as a side dish)	Cook 1/2 to 3/4 cup dry a few times a week
Rice and other refined grains (best as a side dish)	Cook 1/4 to 1/3 cup dry a few times a week
Granola	1/4 cup as garnish a few times a week
Cheese	1 to 2 oz a day if you tolerate dairy well
Juice	4 oz a day max
Nuts	1/4 cup once or twice a day
Nut Butters	1 or 2 Tbsp a day as part of a healthy meal (in other words, don't stick the spoon in the jar between meals)
Wine	One or two 5-oz portions (measure a few times to eyeball a glass appropriately) a day
Oils (olive, flax, canola, rapeseed, sesame, coconut, peanut, etc)	Up to 2 or 3 Tbsp a day for cooking, dressing, flavoring, etc.

For information on my nutrition and weight-loss coaching services, visit my website at www.inhabithealth.com or email me at lindsay@inhabithealth.com

Fine, I'll Try Gluten-Free Already!

I pushed back and pushed back against the gluten-free craze but curiosity finally got the best of me.  And as it always does for my son's favorite cartoon character, curiosity led to a few really cool discoveries.  I had actually given up gluten for periods of two to three weeks before on low-carbohydrate weight-loss plans such as "The Fat Flush" and my own Inhabit Health E.A.T. Plan ©,  but I had done it in conjunction with giving up dairy and sugar so I wasn't sure which of the positive effects I had experienced -- weight-loss, less bloating, better skin, less fatigue -- had been results of giving up gluten, especially since on these diets I had also given up most starchy carbohydrates including rice, corn and potatoes, none of which contain gluten.

For those that still aren't sure exactly what gluten is, it is a protein found in wheat including kamut, barley, spelt and rye.  Gluten is what gives wheat flour its structure and that "dough" texture we all love, which is why it's very hard to find decent gluten-free breads.  For someone who has Celiac's disease (an intolerance to the protein) it is essential to avoid gluten in any form (including dextrose and other "thickeners" found in a lot of processed foods), but if one just wants to experiment with eating less gluten it should suffice to give up anything in which the primary ingredient is wheat such as breads, crackers, pasta, pastries -- most of which you should eat less of anyway -- as well as grains like bulgur, wheat berries, farro, cous cous and barley, all of which I recommend in moderation as part of a healthy diet.  Whether or not oats contain traces of gluten seems to be up for debate so best to buy gluten-free oats and granola for this experiment.

In addition to curiosity, something else spurred me to try the low-gluten life: I had been experiencing awful stomach aches after eating pasta.  I gave my husband a Kitchen Aid pasta making kit for Christmas and we had been enjoying homemade pasta and good wine on weekend nights when we didn't have a babysitter but still wanted a special evening in. However, each time we did this I experienced awful stomach aches, regardless of the amount of sauce (I blamed that first) or wine (I limited myself to one or two glasses most evenings anyway).  I mentioned it to my son's allergist and he said women can experience increased sensitivities to foods as a part of hormonal changes during and after pregnancy. I also mentioned it to my primary care doctor and she did a Celiac's test (which was negative) but she acknowledged, in a rare moment of physician humility, that a lot of internists and gastroenterologists are coming around to the idea that food sensitivities, especially to wheat and dairy, are likely responsible for vague diagnoses like "IBS" and "Inflammation" in a lot of individuals. Hmmmm...does that mean doctors will finally start studying nutrition in med school???

So, the curiosity factor plus the stomach aches plus the fact that I still had a few lingering pregnancy pounds, gave me the motivation to try a mostly gluten-free diet for a few weeks. The results surprised me!

The biggest shock was that despite eating MORE potatoes (in the form of "oven fries" and my husband's unbelievable pan fried potatoes with onions and cilantro), corn (in the form of fresh corn, my favorite healthy-ish tortilla chips made by Food Should Taste Good and corn tortillas) and brown rice (with chili or veggie stir-fries) I did lose a few pounds and my stomach was unbelievably flat compared to usual for the duration of the time I gave up wheat. I experienced NO bloating or stomach pains despite this being a frequent issue since the birth of my second child. This was very surprising because although I know that giving up carbohydrates other than fruits and vegetables is the quickest way to drop a few pounds, I was surprised to find I could get almost the same results and still enjoy brown rice, quinoa, potatoes and corn.  I should mention that I am nursing a baby right now and can get away with eating more than usual but the effect of no wheat was notable regardless.

So for now I have decided to live a "low-gluten" lifestyle meaning that I stay away from bread as much as possible, opt for gluten-free crackers (Mary's Gone Crackers are the best), corn instead of flour tortillas and brown rice or quinoa instead of pasta.  Hence all the quinoa recipes on my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inhabit-Health/123676251003381) lately!  So far this has kept my weight a little lower simply because I don't have as many options when I am at a party, but it's not a diet plan per se. Just remember that since French fries are gluten-free and restaurants and bakeries now make all kinds of gluten-free treats, one still has to practice moderation and common sense when living gluten-free.

Can Jessica Simpson's Pregnancy Be a Teachable Moment?

I hate to pick on poor pregnant Jessica Simpson, especially when half of the idiots on Twitter are commenting on her weight and when I find her girl-next door charm refreshing. However, she is leaving me no choice.  According to media interviews and her Twitter feed, she is stuffing herself with delicacies such as buttered pop tarts, fried Twinkies and her own invention, the "slut brownie" which involves baking chocolate chip cookie dough and Oreos into a fudge brownie (okay, it sounds kinda good). Like many women, Jessica believes pregnancy is a time to indulge every craving. As a fellow curvy girl who enjoys food, I won't comment on her weight, but I will take her to task for flaunting her unhealthy pregnancy diet. By doing so she promotes the profoundly exaggerated idea that one should "eat for two" while pregnant. A celebrity with access to the best nutritionists and personal trainers should know better.

The truth is that while you need more calories than usual when pregnant, you only need about a hundred more a day during the first trimester and 300 more a day during the second and third trimesters.  You also need MORE nutrients so ideally those extra calories should come from nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables, legumes, lean protein and unprocessed whole grains.  The extra calories should not come from junk food and especially not sugar bombs like donuts, brownies and heaping bowls of ice cream given the health risks associated with consuming too much sugar while pregnant.  

Eating too much sugar during pregnancy increases your chance of developing gestational diabetes, of having a c-section and of having an overweight toddler. In fact multiple studies link excess sugar consumption during pregnancy to neonatal and maternal health problems, while I have yet to find a study linking light alcohol consumption (one to two units once or twice a week) during pregnancy to increased health risks for the mother or baby.  Everyone knows to avoid nicotine when pregnant, yet most people wouldn’t bat an eye if they saw an expectant mother eating M&Ms, which contain dyes the Center for Science in the Public Interest warns cause ADHD and other behavioral problems in children. Eating loads of sweets is a socially acceptable vice for pregnant women although it may be just as dangerous as those considered taboo. So, why all the confusion and what does this say about us as a society?

Our attitude regarding nutritional choices during pregnancy reflects the larger problem with our attitude toward nutrition in general.  Women say "I love being pregnant because I don't have to watch what I eat."  For most Americans the expression “watch what I eat" means some form of counting calories or following a new fad diet when really watching what you eat should mean ensuring you get the nutrients you need from food on a daily basis.  Our focus, during pregnancy and at all other times, should be on eating nutrient-dense whole foods. If you set about getting the nutrition you need to function at your optimal energy level, you will naturally maintain a healthy weight and feel great.  

Being pregnant was actually a huge turning point for me, and I think it can be for all women if we stop thinking of pregnancy as a calorie free for all. Being pregnant inspired me to eat or avoid certain foods for health reasons, not just because I deemed them “good” or “bad” for maintaining a certain weight (the whole ideal weight thing was kind of out the window anyway!).  Pregnancy forced me to recognize that my body is a much better judge of what I need than my mind.  Sure I ate a little more than usual and baked cookies now and then, but overall I rarely craved fattening foods because I was not preoccupied with avoiding them for vanity's sake.

Eating what your body wants is different that eating what your mind craves. Your body wants nutrients; your mind wants donuts.  Your body needs iron and minerals; your mind wants fast food because you just saw an ad for it on TV.  It’s an important distinction.  With the exception of perhaps the first trimester when morning sickness can leave you unable to stomach much of anything, pregnancy is a great time to start focusing on proper nutrition and the naturally nurturing and healing properties of whole foods.  When you are pregnant what you eat affects not just you but your baby.  Thinking this way is good practice for what’s about to come because it’s never going to be just about you again!

If you like my no-nonsense advice about healthy eating and weight-loss, please visit my website www.inhabithealth.com to find out more about my coaching programs.