That's Fit

Every week, in our CSA crate, we get at least two large bags or several bunches of greens. We've never eaten so many salads and sauteed greens in our life, and honestly, I'm getting a little bored. But today I've found new inspiration in Prevention's 25 summer salads.

These mouth-watering salads are loaded with fruits and/or veggies, many of them straight from the summer garden. Not only that, they're deliciously low-cal and low-fat, not overloaded with heavy dressings or fried meats. This gallery also reminds us, in the form of a yummy looking bean salad, among others, that salads don't always have to contain lettuce. I'm just not sure which one to try first!

What about you? What's your favorite summer salad recipe?

As I've been leading you through the paces of enjoying the best Walt Disney World has to offer, without trashing your health and fitness habits, this is one of the easiest days to master. On our second day of vacation we headed to the holy land of wholesome family fun, The Magic Kingdom. Ahhh yes! This is the place where children squeal, Mommies well up with tears of joy on a regular basis, and Daddies shout like kids themselves on the roller coasters. It's also a place where every last visitor is likely to do a ton of physical work. In fact ... read on and you'll learn exactly how many calories we burned during this day. It's insane!

So! Our day consisted of pushing the kids in the double stroller, then watching the castle show. Did I mention each of my children weigh almost 40 pounds? Then we pushed the kids in the double stroller some more, and rode some rides in Fantasyland. In fact, before we even stopped for lunch, we pushed the double stroller again and rode rides in: Fantasyland, Tommorowland, back to Fantastyland, Mickey's Toontown Fair, Adventureland, back to Tommorowland and finally landed back in Adventureland for lunch. Then we ran circles in the water squirters at both Ariel's Grotto and Pooh's Corner to cool off for about an hour. The latter half of the day resembled the first half, except it seemed even busier.

There is always room for an occasional treat in any healthy diet. (Occasional is a concept I have trouble with!) But though an occasional treat won't bust your good nutrition track record, if you're serious about lowering the amount of fat and calories you eat, you can tweak your favorite recipes to make them healthier.

For instance, the oil that's used to make brownies moist can be switched out for applesauce. You can also use half of the nuts called for in a recipe and toast them instead, which will bring out their flavor. Other tips include:

• Use only the white of the egg to save 60 calories.
• Use canned pumpkin instead of vegetable oil.
• Add a puree of potato, celery, and onion to soups instead of cream.
• Choose meats that are labeled "loin" or "round" or ground meats that are 90% lean.
• Cook poultry with the skin on, but remove before eating.
• Use vinegars instead of oil based marinades.
• Replace salt and soy sauce with seasonings instead.
  
  

In general, recipes with low-fat substitutions tend to cook faster, so you may need to adjust your cooking time. For more calorie cutting tips, see AOL Body's Easy Ways to Cut 100 Calories.

I don't know about you, but I love flipping through the pages of Cooking Light magazine (or, really, any gourmet food magazine). The pictures are gorgeous and inspiring, and the recipes are well written -- even I haven't managed to botch any of their recipes. However, while the pictures and dishes send me into a state of bliss, there is something I don't like -- the ingredient lists that run the length of my arm and cost that, plus a leg.

For special occasions, I'm willing to spend a bit extra for special ingredients. However, if I'm looking for an everyday recipe that I can make on a weekly basis, I don't want to have to keep purchasing a huge variety of expensive ingredients. I want a recipe that looks and tastes like a fancy dish, doesn't pack a ton of calories, and doesn't blow my budget every time I make it. Is that so much to ask?

I generally try making the recipe as it's written the first time, and remove or substitute something for the expensive ingredients after I've tasted it. It's not a perfect system, but it works for me. Do you have tricks to keep costs down on would-be cost-prohibitive recipes? Or do you just bite the bullet and make the dishes will all ingredients listed? Or, do you just find healthy recipes that are inexpensive to make in the first place?

Counting calories can be a drag, let's face it. Some people do it some of the time, while others never do it at all. I'll be the first to admit that it's a hassle. So, what do we do instead? We make educated guesses. A body of research has shown that we're wrong more times than we're right, so maybe this isn't the best approach, either. What, then, is the best way to go (providing we leave counting every calorie we consume out of the question)? Well, for starters, being at least reasonably aware of how many calories we're drinking.

That's what researchers from Perdue University suggest, pointing to the common practice of overindulging on liquid calories. More specifically, the researchers tested whether people who consumed many calories in drink form before a meal would take those calories into account when it came time to actually chow down. Turns out, the vast majority of people didn't.

Moreover, volunteers in the Perdue study reported feeling full -- whether they ate whole foods before their meal or had a drink. The major difference was that the group who had a drink (ex. watermelon juice instead of an actual piece of watermelon) consumed more total calories for the day.

Health is hip these days, and almost every company out there is trying to capitalize on this by claiming their products are healthy. But unfortunately, many of these so-called 'healthy' items aren't necessarily good for you. Be wary of foods with these labels on them:

• All Natural. Sure, it might not be heavily processed, but it still may be high in calories, fat or both.
  
• Cholesterol-free. This doesn't mean fat free. In fact, many cholesterol-free foods are high in saturated fat
• Low fat or fat-free. This doesn't mean calorie-free so watch out.
  
• Trans fat-free. Just because there's no trans fat, doesn't mean there's no fat. There are probably some dangerous saturated fats in there.
  
• Low sodium. It's a good idea to reduce your sodium but look into what they've replaced it with. It might be sugar.
  
• Good source of ... Many unhealthy food items claim their healthy by emphasizing one nutrient. For example? Macaroni and cheese packages claim it to be a good source of calcium (it is) but they don't mention that it's very high in fat, sodium and calories.
  
• Multi grain. Multi grains aren't necessarily whole grains, so check the label.
• Baked. Backed chips are a better choice than fried ones, but they're often high in calories and sodium
• Organic. There's no doubt that organic food is better than regular stuff, but just because it's organic, doesn't mean it's healthy. It can still be high in organic fat and organic calories.

You can bet that when our parents and grandparents were growing up, the grocery store wasn't full of low-fat, omega-3-enriched, antioxidant-infused foods. In those days, 100-calorie packs would be seen for what they are -- a rip-off. Things were what they were, without flashy labels and empty promises. And yet, with all the low-fat food in our grocery stores, the population as a whole is much heavier than we were even a few decades ago. These so-called health foods aren't doing much for our health, it appears. Which brings up a very interesting question: Are they what's making us fat?

A new study shows that if you view an item as healthy, you tend to overeat said item. So while it might not be the item itself that's making you fat, it's your perception of it. This is understandable -- when I have butter in the fridge, I don't use it nearly as liberally as I would olive oil, even though the two items probably have roughly the same amount of calories.

So here are some things to keep in mind: Fat-free doesn't mean calorie-free. Healthy fats are better for you, but they have just as many calories as unhealthy fats. And just because the commercial says it's a healthy choice, chances are it's not. Be your own diet detective.

It seems like everyone and their dog has come up with some new fabulous way to lose weight. Here's another prime example: Kimkins. It's described as Atkins but low-fat. It was developed by a woman named Kimmer who lost 118 lbs in 11 months by following the eating plan she suggests.

It sounds viable but to be honest, I wouldn't give them my money because of their website. They have a link that says '10 Reasons to Join'. I clicked on it and it asks for my Email address, which I gave, but then I got an Email saying the I would be Emailed the 10 Reasons, one a day, and I haven't received them yet. I get that it was just a ploy to get my Email address, but why make a potential customer go through hoops just to find out why they should join? It seems a bit sketchy to me.

I'm curious to know -- have you tried Kimkins or a variant? Were you craving carbs like crazy?

You see it everywhere now: the "Low Fat" marketing pitch. Many processed, frozen and fresh foods are advertised this way, along with plenty of beverages. That's grand, but fat content is not the only variable to look at when deciding when to eat or drink something.

How about something sweetened with Splenda (instead of real sugar) that has "low fat", but still packs a wallop of calories? It still may not be a good choice.

So, how do food manufacturers add in taste once they've removed all the fat from those various products? Why, adding sugar, of course. So, "very low fat" may also mean "incredibly high calories".

Summertime makes me crave some of those all-American foods we all love: apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, potato salad and root beer floats, just to name a few.

If your cookouts aren't complete without these classics, check out WebMD before you cook. They have tips on how to lighten up chocolate chip cookies, apple pie and cornbread, just to name a few.

They also have recipes for baked potato chips, potato salad, Waldorf salad and others you may like.

Would I eat any of these "lightened" versions? Personally, not a chance.

Our weekly feature, Recipe Rehab, takes a recipe -- sometimes basic, sometimes decadent and sometimes just plain unhealthy -- and turns it into a scrumptious and healthy dish, pumped up with nutrition. Sometimes all it takes is a few alterations to prepare a dish that would make even your nutritionist proud.

Sometimes all it takes is a few small changes to make a breakfast favorite healthy enough for every day.

Pancakes

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup Egg Beaters®
1 1/4 cups skim milk
3 tablespoons safflower oil

Sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add eggbeaters, milk and safflower oil and beat together until smooth. Drop by spoonfuls onto a hot griddle or frying pan sprayed with non-fat cooking spray.

Rehab Rundown

• Whole wheat flour was substituted for white flour, adding fiber and flavor
• Egg Beaters were substituted for whole eggs, dropping the fat
• Skim milk was used instead of whole milk, dropping calories and fat
• The oil was reduced from 1/4 cup to 3 tablespoons

Rehab Reveal

Based on 1/4 recipe

	Original	Adapted
Calories	451 (37% from fat)	341 (27% from fat(
Fat	18g	11g
Saturated Fat	6g	3g
Protein	12g	13g
Carbohydrate	59g	52g
Fiber	2	7g
Sodium	850mg	850mg

Americans eat an average of 23 pounds of ice cream every year, can you believe it? I guess I can see how that would happen, but that's a lot of ice cream! No wonder the "light" varieties make up 40% of the ice cream industry! So if you eat ice cream regularly (which it sounds like most of us do), then you've probably noticed that some "low fat" ice cream brands taste better than others, and it may be about more than just brand name and quality.

I don't understand why all the companies don't use it (maybe it's expensive?), but there is a method for making ice cream called "low temperature extrusion" that has been proven to make low-fat ice cream taste creamier by more evenly distributing the little milk-fat globules. If you're looking for low-fat ice cream made in this way they are usually labeled as cold churned, slow churned, or double churned.

Of course it's still important to exercise some self control, because low-fat or not, the calories still add up. And even among the "light" ice cream varieties the recipes and sugar content can vary wildly -- read labels!

Different diets work for different people, but it may be about more than just personality type and food preferences. New research suggests that your biology may have a lot to do with having more success on some diets over others. In a study looking at individuals on low-glycemic-load diets, those who secreted more insulin naturally lost much more weight than those who secreted lower levels of insulin. But those same people who were so successful on the low-glycemic-load diet lost a lot less weight when on a low fat diet instead. But the lucky ones are the people who generally have less insulin in their systems, because they did equally well on both diets.

Although this study was obviously very limited regarding the diets it looked at compared to how many options are out there these days, it does take a little of the wind out of the sails on the "it's all your fault" ship. If you're having trouble, and you don't think willpower is an issue, have you considered that maybe you're just on the wrong diet for your biology?

As if you don't already have enough stress in your life (trying to lose weight being one of them) your diet may be causing you even more. In a study of mice, those who were switched from high fat/high carb diets to lower fat/lower carb diets showed brain changes and behavior consistent with increased anxiety and increased stress. Also interesting was the fact that the mice were much more willing to go into an unpreferred environment (bright light) to get the "better" diet than they were previously.

So beware, if this is true for people too then even though switching to a healthier diet is still overall a good idea, understanding how you may feel on a subconscious level could really help in the battle to succeed and stick with it.

Heart attack patients have typically been put on low-fat diets to help prevent a recurrence in the future, but that may no longer necessarily be the case. A new study shows that a Mediterranean style diet (including "healthy" fats like olive oil) is just as effective at reducing further cardiovascular incidents as the more usually recommended low-fat American Heart Association diet.

Interestingly enough, the patients in the study who were put on the Mediterranean diet had a harder time following it -- despite being allowed more fat. Apparently, since they were mostly older individuals, they weren't used to eating so much fish and seafood.