Low Sugar, High Fat or High Fat, Low Sugar.. or neither?

My father-in-law was recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and my own father was diagnosed about 10 years ago. I know I'm sugar sensitive and at risk of developing diabetes, but for now I've been able to control my sugar through diet and exercise.

My wife had me try some sugar free cookies that her dad liked, since he can't eat much sugar at all without getting sick, low sugar or sugar free is a must for him. The cookies taste great, but I was a little disappointed in the fat levels. Since my sugar is under control, I'd rather eat something low fat but maybe has a little sugar in it, like reduced fat Chips Ahoys, which are very good.

For example, the Murray's Sugar Free Chocolate Chip cookies have a serving size of 3 cookies (32g). A serving is 150 calories which isn't bad, but 20g of carbs (even with 0g sugar) and 9g of fat (14% of DV) and 3.5g sat fat (18%DV).

The reduced fat Chips Ahoys, while they do have 9g of sugar in a 31g serving, they only have 5g of fat (8%DV). Is that enough to make a huge difference? I'm not sure.

The other thing that caught my eye was two boxes of Pop-Tarts I bought lately, one of which happened to be the "Reduced Fat Strawberry". I wanted to try them, but I'm not daft enough to think Reduced Fat Pop Tart = Healthy.

I was shocked with what I saw on the nutrition panel (and of course I didn't look too hard until I got them home).

The second box was chocolate chip cookie dough. Which sounds healthier, strawberries or chocolate chip cookies? Depends on what your looking at.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:
200 Calories
5g fat (8% DV)
18g sugar
35g Carbs

Reduced Fat Strawberry:
190 Calories (only 10 less).
3g fat
21g sugar
40g Carbs

The low fat ones are higher in total carbs and sugars and don't reduce the calories so I don't think those are even really worth bothering with.

I guess it depends on what your health goals are, but for myself I think I should stick to the non-fat, low-fat even if it means a few more grams of sugar. And carbs are 4 calories per gram, fat is 9 calories per gram, so low fat will be much lower in calories.

What do you think?

Drive Thru Diet? Seriously?

I see a lot of stuff on TV that leaves me scratching my head? I wonder.. who believes this stuff? And then I remember the millions every year who get scammed, hoodwinked, bamboozled or otherwise relieved of their pocket change. As PT Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute.

The latest thing that caught my eye was the Taco Bell commercial for the "Drive Thru Diet" about the lady who didn't want to give up her "fast food" so she switched to Taco Bell's Fresco menu and lost 20 pounds.. or 40.. or whatever. This has to be a joke right? Just a clever way to advertise the menu? "Results not typical" indeed.

The Fresco menu is lower fat, because it forgoes cream based sauces and sour cream and the like.. but it still has the same greasy meat and probably cheese... how much better can it be?

For Comparison:

Crunchy Taco Supreme: Shell, Meat, Lettuce, Cheese, Sour Cream

200 Calories, 100 calories from fat, 12 g of fat and 5 g saturated fat.

Fresco Crunchy Taco: Shell, Meat, Lettuce, Fresco salsa

150 Calories, 70 calories from fat, 7 grams of fat, 2.5g saturated fat.

This isn't too bad, almost 50% reduction in fat and exactly 50% in Sat. Fat.

Based on 65 grams of fat and 20 grams saturated fat as the recommended daily allowance, the Fresco Taco isn't too bad roughly 10% for both. But that is a little high for a "diet" food... and well.. you have to eat like 3 of them.

Maybe the Fresco items aren't so bad.. but there is something hideously wrong with even suggesting that you can lose weight at a fast food joint. Next someone is going to sue them because they ate one Fresco taco a day (along with non-Fresco items like Nachos Supremes and deep fried Chulapa's) and then wondered why they ballooned up to 500 pounds. Just watch.. it will happen. Taco Bell opened the wrong can of worms with this one.

I love Taco Bell as much as the next guy.. where else can you get food at 2AM and only spend 3.16$. It's great, but healthy it's not. The only thing not deep fried is the meat and it's swimming in a jacuzzi of it's own grease. If it drips down your chin like a memphis pork rib.. delicious it may be, but low fat it's not!

Saving money and losing weight.

I haven't posted a blog in a while (mostly due to a 2 week lose of computer access) but I wanted to share this.

At the same time I'm trying to eat healthy and lose weight I'm also trying to save money and pay off debt. I wanted to share my little shopping trip today where I used some tricks I learned online.

I've read several websites and blogs about saving money and clipping coupons for groceries including extreme examples of people spending 10$ or less on 100$ worth of items etc. One of the big keys is using a coupon to buy something on sale and boy did I hit it big today.

I went to Food Lion and bought a loaf of bread, a 6-pack of applesauce cups, 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper, a gallon of milk and a bottle of ketchup. I spent $8.99 and my coupon savings were 7.53. I almost paid half price for everything. The bulk of the savings came from the Hamburger Helper.

Regular price $2.16 per box. Food Lion sale 10 for $10. Coupon .75 cents off 3 boxes.

3 boxes regular price - $6.48
3 boxes @ $.75 each $2.25
Savings = $4.23

Plus, the applesauce was half price (buy one get one) savings - 1.23$
the ketchup was 10 for $10 = regular price $1.42, savings $.42
The bread was 1.79 (40 cents off) and a 1$ coupon with the bread and milk dropped the milk to $2.52 for a gallon.

It was a small trip, but it shows what you can do if you plan it out right. I saved around 45% on my total bill, but plenty of people out there have done way better. Multiple coupons, bigger sales etc and you can save a ton.

Makes up for some of that healthy food being so darn expensive.

New Years, Weight Loss, Treadmills

"After the holidays we'll start working out."

We're all guilty of it. Even my wife recently started talking about getting in shape after the holidays. For my wife and I it's not a random resolution though.. we are both losing weight and getting healthier so we can work on having children. I started early and surprisingly didn't gain any weight over the holidays. Since the beginning of October I've lost 15 pounds. Not a staggering amount but I'll be able to start working out again since my wife's parents are giving us a "lightly used" treadmill. Isn't that how most treadmills end up? Well I plan on using it, since moving to the new house with our little 1/4 mile dead end cul-de-sac off a major highway I don't have anywhere safe to walk anymore like I did around the apartments in Raleigh.

Some diet changes I've made recently include switching from potato chips to pretzels (1g of fat instead of 12-14g), fat free ranch dressing (0g fat instead of 12g, and yes the texture is a little off, but you don't notice much in a salad), eating more fruits and vegetables.. we've been eating salads with dinner, yes it's not that healthy with cheese and bacon bits, but its a start. I like bananas and they are cheap.. I want some grapes but I refuse to pay 4.00$+ a pound for them. I switched to diet soda's years ago, but i'm trying to drink more water.

How sad is it that my goal weight which is 100 pounds less then I am now is still considered "obese" by the BMI calculators. Oh well, it's a start. If I make it there I'm sure I'll keep going. I've walked a 5k (58 minutes, or roughly 3 miles an hour) I want to eventually run one. Not like 19 minute rocketship pace, but something in the 25-30 minute range would be nice (6 miles an hour).

Here's to the New Year. Have a happy and healthy 2010.

Reduced Fat Wheat Thins

Wheat thins are probably pretty healthy to begin with (compared to potato chips) but the reduced fat version makes them even more so.

Here's the stats.

Serving size 29g (about 16 crackers)
130 Calories
3.5 g of fat (only 0.5 saturated, plus 2 grams poly unsaturated) compared to 5 g fat in normal wheat thins (30% reduced).
230 mg sodium
22 g carbs (2g fiber, 4 g sugar)

Label claim - 11g of whole grain per 29g serving.

Not only are they better than regular Wheat Thins, compared to potato chips

Chips: 28 g serving
150 calories
9 g fat, 2 g saturated
95mg sodium
14 g carbs

I like the reduced fat Wheat Thins just on taste alone, I've always liked Wheat Thins, but the health aspects make them a guilt free snack.

Food Trends

As a food science student we spent a lot of time talking about trends in the food industry. When we got jobs we'd either be capitalizing on things that were hot now, or looking for what would be the next big trend.

Healthy foods are very trendy right now with issues such as diabetes, trans-fats, artificial sweeteners and other topics hot in the news right now. Some of these trends can be misleading though and it bothers me to watch food companies try to scare people into using their products based on misleading facts or an uneducated public. Here's some examples.

Whole Grain: Everything is made with whole grain these days, including sugar-coma inducing cereals like Lucky Charms. I'm sure most people are smart enough to realize a cereal with marshmallows is not healthy but that front of the label claim sure makes it sound healthy. The FDA is starting to look into some of these label claims that were previously not enforced.

High Fructose Corn Syrup: High fructose corn syrup has gotten a very bad rap in the press and I'm not sure why. It has been linked in some research to increase the incidence of diabetes and obesity, but more recent research disputes this fact. The fact is, corn syrup is a byproduct of cornstarch manufacturing and has been around for a long time. Normal corn syrup is roughly 60% glucose and 40% fructose. High Fructose Corn Syrup has been processed a little bit more to bring the ration very close to 50/50 Glucose to Fructose. This is the exact same ratio as Sucrose (table sugar) and your body processes it in exactly the same way. The culprit is not the ingredients, but quantity. Because it's found in everything from sodas to cookies to cakes it has gotten blamed for obesity. Recently some companies have begun advertising their products have no HFCS, or like Snapple, are made with "real sugar", as if somehow that is healthier.

Here's a good article from MSNBC that takes a look at it from both angles. "High Fructose Corn Syrup: How Dangerous is it?"

There is one caveat to this. A research study that fed participants a diet of 100% Fructose, did in fact show an increase in cases of obesity and diabetes, but there are no foods that contain that high of an amount of Fructose so that's not a concern, although that probably started the scare about "High" Fructose Corn Syrup, even though it's only 42-55% Fructose just like normal table sugar.

Free Range: This one is almost comical. Free Range brings up the notion of chickens running around someone's back yard. This is not the way it works, at least not on large commercial farms. Based on USDA regulations, to qualify as free range all that has to be done is that the door of the cage/barn be left open and that they have "access" to the outside. This does not guarantee that the "outside" is a pasture. It may be dirt or gravel. There is not legal definition for Free-Range eggs. This doesn't mean producers are lying, it just means it's not enforced. Also in the US, free range refers only to poultry (since by definition, most other live stock in a pasture would all be considered free-range).

Here's a PDF from the USDA about Turkeys. The same rules apply to chickens. "Turkey Raised by the Rules"

Natural: Natural is another one you have to be careful with. It's not as strictly regulated as "Organic" which is very tightly mandated by the FDA. There are several levels of "natural" that is used on food labels. The two most common are "Contains Natural Ingredients/Made with Natural Ingredients" and "100% Natural". 100% natural is pretty much exactly what it says. The product must contain no artificial ingredients/colors/flavors etc. The other designation is not so clear. You can have a product made with a "natural" ingredient such as sea salt, but could still contain artificial ingredients/colors etc so you have to make sure you check the labels.

The USDA has a legal definition for "Natural" which states that a product cannot contain any artificial ingredients/colors/preservatives etc and has been minimally processed (no more then what can be done in a home kitchen). This only applies to raw meat products. Once they've been cooked, processed, or treated with flavors/brine/preservatives this goes out the door.

Here's a link to the Natural Ingredient Resource Center.

Hope this helps next time you're reading labels.

Diet Sodas

One of the easiest ways I've found to cut out calories and sugar is by switching to diet sodas. Yes, it takes some getting used too and some diet sodas taste terrible. Personally I don't really care for either Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi.

The easiest way to get over the taste of diet drinks is to choose a soda with a strong flavor which will mask any off flavors from the artificial sweeteners. One of the best flavor wise is Diet Dr. Pepper (including it's store brand clones, Kroger's Diet Dr. K and Wal-Mart's Diet Dr. Thunder). When they advertise it tastes just like regular Dr. Pepper they are not lying.

Some other good ones that I drink often are Coke Zero (and it's Wal-Mart clone, Cola Zero), Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, Diet Mt Dew, Kroger Cola Oh! (another Coke Zero clone).

Once you get used to the taste of the diet sodas, the real stuff will taste sickly sweet and just remind you how much sugar you are cutting out of your diet. It has helped me tremendously.

I used to drink Mt Dew at a clip of a 2-liter a day. Adding up the sugar content of that soda it's the equivalent of nearly a 5 pound bag of sugar a week. That's 2000g of sugar, or 8000 calories a week.

For a comparison, a 12 oz can of Wild Cherry Pepsi contains 150 calories, 28 g of total carbs, 28 grams of sugar and 30 mg sodium. Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi contains (as expected) 0 calories, 0 grams sugar and 35 mg sodium. Very slight increase on the sodium but dropping all of the calories.