Protein Bar Puzzle

There’s a lot of talk out there over protein bars.  They are touted as meal replacements, diet aids, snacks or nutrition supplements.  So what should we do with them?  How do you pick a good one?  Do any good ones even exist, or do they all taste like Styrofoam?

I’m here to help!  Protein bars can be a big part of weight loss and weight maintenance.  You can use them as snacks or meal replacements.  One thing protein bars are not: nutritional.  It doesn’t matter how many vitamins they pack in them, a protein bar cannot replace vegetables and fruits—natural sources of fiber, vitamins and minerals.  I often use protein bars to replace a breakfast when I know I don’t have time to put anything together or a snack when I know I’m going to be crazy busy at work.

When you’re choosing a protein bar, your choice is going to first be based on the nutritional facts and second on the taste.  When you’re looking at the nutritional facts, what’s the most important number?  Protein!  That’s why it’s called a “Protein Bar!”  You want there to be more grams of protein than fat.  Ideally, there will be 10 grams of protein or more.

Since you’re already comparing your protein number to your fat number, you simply want to make sure there’s as little fat as possible.  There should definitely be less fat than protein.  Ideally, there will be 5 grams of fat or less.

The next number you’re looking for is carbs.  When you start looking at the number of carbs in protein bars, you’re going to be in for a shock.  For the most part, you don’t want any more than 25 grams of carbs.  If more than 50 percent of those carbs is sugar, chances are that you’re not holding a protein bar in your hand.  Say “hello” to the candy bar that snuck its way into that section with fancy words like “nutrition” and “all-natural.”

If you’re following the rules listed above, you’ll get a protein bar that’s between 150 and 200 calories.

I have a list here of bars that I have tried and that actually taste good!

Special K Protein Meal Bar (Strawberry)
170 Calories, 5g Fat, 25g Carb (15g Sugar), 10g Protein

Zone Perfect All-Natural Nutrition Bar (Double Dark Chocolate)
190 Calories, 6g Fat, 22g Carb (14g Sugar), 12g Protein

Luna Bar (Peanut Butter Cookie)
180 Calories, 6g Fat, 26g Carb (11g Sugar), 9g Protein

I’ve tried a lot of protein bars, and some of them are just disgusting!  Have you tried any good ones?  Any we should avoid?  Were you surprised by the nutrition numbers on your own protein bar?

That Fleeting Good Feeling

During my December eating extravaganza, I pretty much let myself eat anything I wanted to.  I over-ate on several occasions, and I think about ninety percent of my eating was sugar.  I was mostly aware of the choices I was making, but it just felt so good!

When it comes to sugar, I have a very real and very noticeable physical reaction.  I feel good.  I feel happy.  And when that sugar leaves my body, I can feel that, too.  I noticed how quickly my old cycle of sugar high to crash to sugar seeking became habit again.  It’s so very similar to a drug addict seeking their next high.

But the high is never lasting.  It was scary how quickly my body became used to the sugar again.  I would look at a bowl of M&Ms and realize that it wouldn’t be enough to get that good feeling.  I would want the cookies instead.  I would add hot chocolate.  I was eating constantly, but eventually, it wasn’t making a difference in how I felt.

And I didn’t feel energized like I normally do.  I didn’t feel like I could go dancing or run around the block.  I felt comatose.  But gosh darn it—I “felt” good.

It’s interesting how our brains interpret these situations.  Because the sugar was sending endorphins and opioids to my brain, I interpreted it as feeling good.  But when I compared that feeling to my normal state, it wasn’t good.  I didn’t like the way that I felt.

Have you had any moments like this?  Moments when you realize that something you thought you desired wasn’t really anything you wanted?

Are You Drinking Your Weight Gain?

Considering my profession, I have an appreciation for good marketing.  I heard about this ad the other day on the radio and just had to look it up:

This ad comes from the New York City Health Department, and I love how they have executed it.  The look on the woman’s face at the end is the kicker.  She’s just absolutely disgusted at him as she sits and drinks her soda.  "You'd never eat 16 packs of sugar.  Why would you drink 16 packs of sugar?"

But I can hear you now, “Yeah, yeah, I know.  But I don’t drink a lot of soda.”  Here’s a study you’d be crazy interested in, then.  Scientists fed people either 450 calories of jelly beans or soda each day for a month.  At the end, the soda drinkers had gained more weight than the jelly bean eaters.  Why?  Apparently, the jelly bean eaters unconsciously reduced the calories they ate in other places, but the soda drinkers didn’t.  This means the term “empty calories” is more true than we know.  Our bodies don’t recognize calories from some beverages as sustenance—our brains continue to tell us to eat the same amount of food even though we don’t actually need the same amount of calories.

Interestingly, the radio article I heard this ad mentioned in was about New York City wanting to stop people from using food stamps to purchase soda.  There are already bans on other kinds of food people can use food stamps on—however, soda is among some high sugar foods and drinks that people are able to get.  Many studies have shown that low income families suffer from the highest rates of obesity than any other social class.  Are you wondering how that could be?  Try it out: take $10 to your grocery store and try to purchase fresh, healthy foods to make a dinner for four people.  You’ll find that your $10 stretches much further if you leave the produce isle.  Carbs and fat are cheap.

So, are you drinking a lot of calories in your day?  Are there any low or no-calorie drinks you’ve found to help keep your taste buds happy?

Finally, if you and your family are privileged enough to afford healthy and fresh foods every day, I would challenge you to consider families without that luxury next time you’re in your grocery store.

Is It a Fruit or Not?

Everyone knows that fruit is a fantastic way to get healthy, complex carbohydrates into your diet.  As long as you’re not over doing it (yes, you can over-do fruit), fruit can be an important component to regulating your blood sugar, keeping your energy up, and even keeping your sweet tooth satisfied.  Most people should be getting about 2 to 4 servings of fruit each day (a serving is a half cup, which is never as big as you think it is).

But then there is dried fruit—is dried fruit still fruit?

Dried fruit is a tricky thing, and you don’t want to treat dried fruit the same way you treat regular fruit.  The first difference is quantity.  Since dried fruit is so much smaller and lighter than its un-dried (or hydrated) counterpart, a serving size is much, much smaller.  Case and point: one cup of grapes is about 70 calories, and one cup of raisins is over 400 calories.  A serving size of dried fruit is generally about a quarter cup, but even that quarter cup is not equivalent to one serving of regular fruit.

The second big difference is that dried fruit often has added sugar.  I have a couple different salad recipes that call for dried cranberries:

40 grams of Dried Cranberries: 138 calories and 29 grams of sugar

40 grams of Cranberries: 18 calories 1 gram of sugar

The dried cranberries have 15 percent more sugar than the regular cranberries.  Although dried cranberries tend to get more added sugar than most fruits (because they’re so tart), make sure you’re checking the ingredients and nutritional info so you have a good idea of how much added sugar you’re getting.

Lastly, don’t underestimate the importance of the water naturally in fruit.  I have a weakness for dried mango—I find it hard to stop eating.  But when I eat regular mango, I can eat a small bowl (about 6 ounces) and then feel full and satisfied.   The water in fruits helps to fill you up so that you begin to feel full before you’ve eaten more calories than you actually need.  Since dried fruits remove that water, it’s best to make sure you’re drinking water while you snack to help you not overeat.

I’ll post in the comments my favorite salad recipe using dried cranberries.  Please post any of your own recipes for other good dried fruit uses.  I’m looking a great trail mix combination!

Incredible Weight Loss Drink!

You’re not going to believe it, but I’ve found a weight loss beverage that has 0 calories and no caffeine (or other iffy ingredients).  It’s pretty darn cheap, and it actually tastes good!   I’d like to introduce you to: Water.

If you actually fell for that, you haven’t been reading long (this blog definitely does not offer any silver bullets or quick fixes).  But I guarantee you that water can have a huge impact on your weight loss and maintenance!

Studies show that drinking water before a meal will result in you eating about 75 to 100 calories less than you would normally.  Avoiding those calories alone, you could lose 5 pounds over several months.  One study actually showed that drinking water increased the rate at which subject burned calories (their metabolism) by 30 percent!

Another reason to drink water is that it keeps you from drinking other sugary or fattening drinks.  Many studies have proven that your body tends to compensate it’s caloric intake when you eat high-calorie foods.  However, our bodies do not compensate for extra calories from beverages!  Meaning, if you sneak a handful of M&Ms before lunch, you’re likely to eat a few less calories at lunch.  But if you have a large Coke with lunch, you’re still going to eat the same amount of food.

What’s the best way to drink enough water?  Keep it with you!  I have this nifty plastic cup with a lid and straw that I keep at my desk at work—super convenient.  There are a lot of great water bottles out there, too.  Are there any tricks you use to drink lots of water throughout your day?

Highly Palatable – Part I

After a few previous weeks of pretty willingly giving into temptation, I decided it was time to fully get back onto the wagon (instead of running alongside the wagon so that I didn’t look like I had fallen off, but was intentionally choosing to be where I was). But this weekend was just more than willpower could do for me: pizza, chocolate, munchies and more. I felt bad about my choices, but I couldn’t even muster a decent feeling of guilt—it was all so good!

But it’s Monday and Monday’s a new slate for me. And, I have a new hero: David Kessler. Kessler is a former FDA commissioner and a fellow to our struggle with food. He's done much research and discovery around how we have conditioned ourselves to overeat certain foods.

When we eat highly palatable foods—delicious foods containing fat, sugar and salt—our brains begin to release dopamine. Dopamine is the chemical our brains use to let our bodies know that pleasure is coming (kind of like a neurotransmitter version of “Oh yeah, baby, here it comes!”). Kessler found that those dopamine pathways begin to activate at the mere mention of food. Hear that? You don’t even have the food in front of you, but I could just say “double chocolate brownie” and your brain’s instant response is “Where?” Once you eat that food, your brain starts to release opioids which make you feel that emotional release (also known as endorphins) or a sense of pleasure.

So you’re driving to work and you see Krispy Kreme (or Dunkin' Donuts for my East Coast family). Your hands turn the wheel and you’re at the checkout counter before you know it. You eat one doughnut, and you think to yourself “This was totally worth it.” The one doughnut turns into two doughnuts. Maybe you even justify another doughnut after that, and you weren’t even hungry to begin with.

Kessler strikes it home for me when he says, “I used to think I ate to feel full. Now I know, we have the science that shows, we’re eating to stimulate ourselves.”

I didn’t want this post to be crazy long, so we’ll chat more this week. Until then, check out Kessler’s Washington Post article and his NPR interview. They’re fascinating!

Meatless Monday Misguided Move

I was listening to NPR today on my way to work and caught this article: Campaign Aims to Make Meatless Mondays Hip. I think the gentleman behind Meatless Monday is a bit misguided (one woman in the article applauds her healthy meatless meal of tempura—for my East Coast readers, tempura is a Japanese dish of battered and fried vegetables).

Even the sentiment behind the campaign is admirable, but foolishly simple: if we could just get people to make one small change, then somehow that will help make our diets healthier. However, the obesity epidemic in America isn’t the fault of one food or another. Plenty of diets have tried to completely remove fats, sugar, carbohydrate, or specific foods like meat. But, obviously, the elimination of one element of our diet has not proved to be a cure-all.

I think the first step to truly making change happen is to educate people about food: how food works in our bodies, how to combine foods to make them work better, how to make better choices of the foods that surround us.

Conquer Your Cravings

We all have cravings—those foods you find you just absolutely need to have. I used to give in to every craving I ever had with an excuse about rewarding myself. But how do we overcome these cravings?

Most cravings are a very short term desire. There are different strategies we can use to help outlast a craving, and usually they simply go away. Use the 5 D’s to help:

Delay giving in to any craving for at least 10 minutes. When you force yourself to wait, you know you’re not giving in impulsively. There are times when giving into a craving is perfectly fine! But make sure you’re not giving in on impulse. Give yourself time to think and evaluate why your craving something and how you are going to either give in or not give in.

Distract yourself. Take your mind off of whatever you’re craving. Go check your email, work on your scrapbook, call your friend, clean your bathroom. Give your brain something to concentrate on other than your craving.

Distance yourself from the food you are craving, and I mean physically move yourself away from the food’s location. If you’re standing in line at the grocery store craving a Hershey bar, get out of that line. Go check out at the customer service counter where there is no candy display, or at one of the self check-out lines. If you’re at home, go for a walk or bike ride. If you’re at a party, go to the other side of the room—for heaven’s sake, why were you standing next to the buffet in the first place?

Determine how important it is for you to eat the food you crave. Often, we’re not truly craving a food but the reaction from our bodies to a certain food. If you’re craving a soda, you might just be looking for an afternoon pick-me-up. Have a cup of black coffee instead—you still get the caffeine, but for only 5 calories. I often determine that a craving right now isn’t as important as something I have planned for later. I’m not going to give in to that doughnut in the office kitchen today, because I’m planning on having a GIANT piece of cake at my birthday party this weekend.

Decide what would be the smartest way to give into your craving, and accept your decision. If we’re truthful with ourselves, there’s no way we could deny every craving we ever have. Take a moment to decide how you will give into your craving. If I’m craving a chocolate bar, I might decide instead to have one of my chocolate Zone bars. The Zone bar has protein and less sugar than just the straight chocolate bar. The Zone bar is still about the same calories, but it’s a smarter way to give in that won’t leave me in a bad spot after my decision (looking for more sugar when my metabolism crashes). But even if I give in and eat the chocolate bar, I need to accept that I made the decision. That means not beating myself up over the decision I made and jumping right back to eating smart and healthy.

How do you overcome your cravings? Do you have any moments where you gave into a craving but in a very smart way?

Food Addiction

I’ve mentioned previously that I have and continue to struggle with an addiction to food. Today we get to do some learnin’ because I’m going to explain how this addiction works. Those of us with an addiction to food (which is more of us than we’d like to admit) struggle with a very drug-like addiction. Granted it’s not as severe as drug addiction; however, I would argue our social acceptance of obesity makes food far more dangerous to our society than drugs.

We have two chemical systems in our bodies that influence what we “like” (Opioid System) and what we “want” (Dopamine System) to eat.

Our Opioid System releases a kind of pleasure chemical when we eat a food we like. We’re sitting eating a hot fudge sunday and our opioid system is releasing chemicals that tell our brain we’re happy (I dare you to try to eat a hot fudge sunday and be sad about it). Our Dopamine System releases chemicals into our brains that our brains translate as a reward when we eat something we like (if we eat a hot fudge sunday every night except Thursday, our brains on Thursday begin to go through withdrawal).

High fat and high sugar foods increase the opioids in your system when you eat them. Interestingly, so does morphine (just on higher level). Check out this article on the research. Once we experience this pleasure, we seek to have it again and again. But we develop a tolerance—the second time we eat that sweet, our opioids system only releases a third of the opioids it previously released. Now you need more and more of that food to get the “feel good” experience you had the first time.

The dopamine system simply compounds the problem. When we continue to overeat foods we like, we teach our brains that every time we eat hot fudge sundays we get a dose of dopamine. When our brains don’t get the dopamine it tells us to go eat a hot fudge sunday. Interestingly, cocaine also causes our bodies to release dopamine (just on higher level).

Are you seeing the pattern yet?

The worst part is that dieting actually increases the reward effect that happens in our dopamine system. When you abstain from that hot fudge sunday for several weeks—then give in—that hot fudge sunday tastes like the best hot fudge sunday you’ve had in your entire life. You think to yourself, “Why don’t I eat these every night?” And you’re back to where we started.

Our food choices are driven by a pleasure and reward system rather than an energy deficit or excess signal system. How do you get back on track? Knowledge! When you know how many calories you’ve eaten and how many you need, it’s much easier to rationalize your brain back on track. But, when it comes down to it, everyone works differently. You may discover there are certain foods you just cannot have; otherwise you can’t stop yourself from overeating. You might find that abstaining for the most time isn’t too hard, as long as you let yourself indulge every once in a while.

Think Nutritionally, Not Healthy

I find it interesting that we insist on classifying foods as “healthy” and “unhealthy”. As if all food could be classified into 2 distinct categories of “eat” and “don’t eat.” That somehow cucumbers are something we eat and ice cream is something we don’t eat.

On one hand, it would be nice if food were so black and white. It would certainly make choosing what to eat easier. However, wouldn’t we just be miserable if we just never ate the foods that we classify as unhealthy? Let’s be honest—none of us choose not to eat foods because we think of them as unhealthy. But we do make many choices about what we think we should eat based on what we think is healthy.

I’m sure you’ve stood in the cereal aisle and reached for your favorite sugar cereal. Then you change your choice and grab a box of granola because you think you should be eating healthy and you’ve classified granola as a healthy food in your mind. Wait! Turn that box over and give the nutritional information a good look over! I’ll bet you didn’t realize there’s so much sugar in most granola cereals that in half a cup you’ll be eating close to 40 grams of carbohydrates and only 5 grams of protein. Hmmm. From what we learned about carbohydrates, if you eat a bowl of this cereal (which I guarantee you will be more than half a cup of cereal), then you’ll be hungry again and looking for something sweet in no time.

So, unless you plan on accompanying this bowl of granola with some cottage cheese or a cup of greek yogurt, then a bowl of granola is not your best option for breakfast.

Uh oh. Does that mean granola is actually unhealthy? No! Granola has great value in breakfast—as long as you pair it with some protein and heart-healthy fats. I would go so far as to say most all foods have great nutritional value—as long as you are being smart in how you balance them in your diet.

There are some foods we can leave in the “unhealthy” category: any foods with trans fats, for example. And there are obviously foods that have a greater nutritional value than other foods: whole grain wheat versus refined wheat, for example.

But let’s pull ourselves out of our black and white thinking and begin to be aware of the nutrition in our foods and how to build them into a diet that keeps us healthy for life!

Insulin Invasion!

This information may at first seem very unrelated to weight loss and management, but I promise you it’s some of the most important information you could put into action. Our culture is inundated with carbohydrates, and we need to know how our bodies respond to carbs before we can consume them in a healthy way.

First things first: insulin is a hormone our bodies produce which allows our cells to absorb the glucose (or sugar) in our blood and convert it to energy. So we need insulin in our system so that we can use the sugar in our blood. Think of insulin as the key to the locked doors in our cells; insulin opens the door and lets sugar enter the cell.

Here’s the catch, though—as soon as we taste something sweet on our tongue or smell something sweet, our bodies begin producing insulin. So what happens when we consume something sweet (like a diet soda) but there is no sugar in our blood for the insulin to work with?

That insulin sticks around until it has sugar to work with. You may not even realize it, but you’ve just caused your body to produce a whole lot of insulin that it isn’t going to use. With all that extra insulin sitting around, your cells get used to it. Your cells eventually become insulin resistant, but your body thinks “I should probably just produce more of it and that will help.” This insulin resistance causes hyperinsulinemia, where you’re just producing way more insulin than you need.

Type 2 diabetes, anyone?

So, today at 2:30 in the afternoon you’ll be standing at the fridge in the office kitchen. You’re looking at this 6-pack of Pepsi and Carla’s can of Diet Pepsi (she’s wound so tight that she has a post-it with her name on the can). You’re thinking to yourself, “I really want a snack, but I should go for the diet since it has no calories.”

Wrong! It’s almost better for you to grab the regular Pepsi—I say “almost” because you’re still drinking over 100 calories of sugar and caffeine. So you reach for the regular Pepsi (I mean, you’re pretty sure you saw Bob put them in here, but they’re clearly not labeled).

Or you could skip the soda altogether. There’s this stuff called “water”…