Friday, January 21, 2011

Food & Thought


It’s January, which of course means that I’m on a quest to be healthier, fitter, blah, blah, blah. But it’s going really well, I’ve lost like eleven pounds. Some of that was winter break weight, but I’m still counting it as a win. I saw this online today and thought it was great, and it reminded me of some wisdom that I got in a college nutrition class awhile back. I think our [unrealistic] professor told us that when you go grocery shopping, you should only shop the perimeter of the grocery store and not purchase shelf items. While I think this is perhaps a bit on the unrealistic and extreme side, there is a lot of wisdom here. Think about what most grocery stores have around the perimeter: fresh produce, dairy, fresh poultry, meat and fish. That just about covers the food pyramid! I'm really refocusing and the majority of what I'm eating is fruit, veggies and dairy. I don't think I realized how far off I was on getting the right amount of fruits and vegetables in, but it's exciting to reassess!


My cooking is a little limited at the moment, but I hope to share some of the healthy things that I'm implementing for myself here. Also, on the topic of portion control, I also came across this lovely image. It's definitely something to think about: how big is the actual capacity of your stomach versus the things that we put in it? Yeah, it's good that the 30 ounce trenta that Starbucks is rolling out is coffee and not a hamburger, but if you get a beverage that has whipped cream, whole milk or sugary syrup, that's A LOT! Comedians have poked fun at Starbucks' naming scheme (tall, grande, venti - and now trenta) because "tall" is the smallest, but it means big, "grande"" also means big and "venti" is somewhat made up - it means 20 in Italian, which fits because the venti size beverages are 20 ounes. And, of course, "trenta" means thirty. But keeping with the theme of portions, all of these coffees are actually pretty big - the "tall" is 12 ounces - which is actually kind of a lot of coffee if you think about it in terms of your coffee cup at home. No judgment here though, I usually don't head out to my first class with less than three cups of coffee, but I have switched from fat free creamer to fat free milk :)

2 comments:

  1. I love that food chart. I found it online and I think it's both amusing and beneficial!! Also, as someone who used to work at Starbucks, I think the Trenta is a horrible idea (also from a nutritional perspective, but that goes without saying).

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  2. These are very interesting nutritional and health thoughts! Thanks for putting them up. I also really like your size of stomach vs size of drink chart! I just saw a thing in my real simple magazine showing the nutritional changes in the food chart. Basically, it was like a pie chart and it represents your plate. 1/2 the plate should be fruits or veggies, 1/4 should be lean protein, and the last 1/4 should be a healthy grain. I thought it was an interesting change from the food pyramid we grew up with!

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