Thursday, April 21, 2011

Does evening-eating cause weight gain?

People seem to think that food is metabolized less efficiently when it’s eaten at night rather than earlier in the day, and that because of this eating at night causes weight gain. I don’t believe this.

Eating in the evening only causes weight gain if you eat too much. Frequently people try hard to ‘be good’ during the day only to end up hungry at night, when it’s all too easy to get more calories than you need from desserts and high calorie snacks. Face it–when you’re hungry at 10 or 11 p.m., do you make a salad or do you have a bowl of ice cream?

Try having more healthy food during the day until you find the right balance and aren’t uncontrollably hungry at night. It’s not just your weight you’ll control but the types of foods you end up eating also.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

How much fruit is too much?

Yesterday I sent out an Email asking for questions about nutrition that I could answer in this blog and the response was huge–I got some great questions. I’ll try to answer one a day and I’ll Email whomever wrote that question to make sure they see my answer.

For today I’ll talk about fruit–I’m always saying that fruit is “free”–that you can eat as much as you want even if you are trying to lose weight, because it is so low in calories, so filling and high in vitamins, minerals and fiber.

The question was: “How much fruit is too much? (Too much sugar?)
My answer: I would not restrict fresh fruit at all. When you want it, eat it (this doesn’t include fruit juice or dried fruit). The kind of sugar you want to avoid is refined or concentrated sugars that no longer look like a plant.

See how this works for you– how do you feel? I’m not advising you to eat only fruit– fruit alone provides such a short-term energy boost, that you may end up with low blood sugar (weak, headachy) if you don’t get some healthy protein and fat.

Have oranges, banana or berries with your breakfast of eggs or oatmeal & walnuts. Have mangoes and apples for snacks and desserts. And see my blog below for a mango salad recipe.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

My favorite fruit is in season

If you aren’t already addicted to Champagne (or Manila or Ataulfo) mangoes, now is the time to begin your love affair. These yellow mangoes are smaller than the usual green and red variety–and they are superior in every way. Champagne mangoes are tart and sweet and smooth- kind of like a peach.

Wait until the mangoes are a little soft–they may have some small black spots too–peel them, cut the flesh off of the large pit, and eat it plain or in almost any salad.

The other day I made a salad with Manila mango slices, avocado, chopped roasted almonds, lime juice and salt–yum. For protein you could add some small cubes of tofu fried in olive oil, cooked shrimp or some chick peas, and to make it even more satisfying a little roasted walnut oil is good.

Right now these mangoes an incredible bargain for $1 each at Sigona’s Market and Whole Foods Market. Like any fruit they are a great source of the potassium and magnesium that we need for heart and muscle health so this is a win-win food choice.