How to eat our way to a healthy future.

Press, 4 September 1982, Page 10

How to eat our way to a healthy future.

Food for health, for here and now, is the topic of today. While scientific researchers around the world debate evidence to support their theories for our food needs in the 19905, what will we eat in 1982?

Professor Don Beaven suggests that we lag behind other Western countries, both in nutritional policies and in reducing the amount of fat we eat.

We are indicted as the world gourmands for fatty foods. Can we face the reality of our increasingly seden-

tary existence in a progressive nation of the Western world?

Our right to choose the foods we like to eat is as precious to our individuality as the way we spend our money.

But we do not have to give up eating to be healthy. The Human Nutrition Centre at the United States Department of Agriculture has devised a system of “any time” foods; “moderation,” and “now-and-then” foods.

High-fat, high-sugar, highsalt foods, and alcohol are to be kept to an occasional use. My adaption of this concept is that I‘any time” foods are “here-and-now” foods — 1982 style.

• “Any time” foods: Whole grain cereals and bread, dried peas and beans, pasta, brown rice, oats, fresh and’ dried or frozen

fruits and vegetables, low fat dairy products. • “Moderation” foods: Refined or white cereals and breads, seeds, nuts, fish, chicken, lean meats, sauces, fruit juices, butter or margarine, whole dairy products. • “Now and Then” foods: Sweetened cereals and breads, cakes, biscuits, bacon, ham, corned meat, sausages, salami, fried food, ice-cream, hard

cheeses, pickles. Greasy takeaways, fried foods, sweets, sugar and snack bars, are okay now and then, particularly if we are highly active adolescents o’r growing children. Most other foods can be eaten in moderation.

It is best to keep whole grain cereals and bread, fruit, vegetables and water as foods to have any time. It

Good eating Janice Bremer DIETITIAN

is these foods that must comprise the bulk of the meals for those who have to watch their weight, have a family history of heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes or cancer.

This is simply a system of “trade-offs.” '

What do these changes represent on our dinner plate, or in our lunch package? The eye appeal of food is a powerful stimulus to eat. Recognition of the actual volume of the food we choose to eat is a simple method to begin assessing our nutritional input. It serves as a practical foundation for change. We can radically up-date our thinking on food to take us into the next decade. Follow these guidelines: (1) Triple the amount of cereals and whole grain bread, fruit and vegetables (most particularly the leafy, flower, fruit types), you serve.

These foods should occupy by far the largest space by volume in any meal — up to 96 per cent! Their greater bulk has a counter-balancing effect on our total calorie intake, they help us to change to less meat, less fats, less sugar, less salt, and less alcohol. (2) Have more exercise. Regular exercise can reduce the appetite, and improve mental performance. A run for an hour can burn off that occasional meat pie, or two pieces of chocolate cake!

(3) Drink more water. Fibre in our foods absorbs water to ensure that bowel movements -are soft and bulky. More water is reqiiired when we exercise.

(4) Halve the anima) foods we eat.

Animal foods are caloriedense, contain fat, and are fibreless. They need to be only a small part of a meal, although they are nutritionally valuable. Non-fat or lowfat dairy products have such a reduced fat and calorie level they can be used in larger quantities. (A caution with Cheddar cheese — four large slices is equivalent in calories, but higher in fat, than a large steak). (5) Exclude added sugar and salt from food.

Sixty per cent of our added sugar comes from processed foods — jams, biscuits, icecream, confectionary, drinks.

There are four teaspoons of sugar in: a glass of cordial or soft drink, a homemade cookie, four “lollies,” six teaspoons of jam. Breakfast cereals are often pre-sugared — check the label.

The 50 to 80 grams of sugar that many New Zealanders eat each day would be more nutritious as six slices of bread (equal calorie value).

(6) Cut all visible fat off meats, and use no fat in cooking. By cutting the fat off a porterhouse steak, and grilling it instead of frying, we can save ourselves a half hour jog. Cut the fat off a grilled chop — we get less than half the calories and only one-third the fat! (7) Have less of baked goods containing fats and sugars, have less fat spreads (margarine and butter). A home-made cookie has up to two teaspoons of butter and four teaspoons of sugar in just one biscuit. (8) Drink less alcohol. Resolutions for 1982 (1) Double our cereals and bread, fruit, and vegetables. (2) Have more exercise. (3) Drink more water. (4) Have mostly lean lowsalt meats and low-fat dairy products (except children) — fatty cuts only “now-and-then.”

(5) Reduce sugar to one to two tablespoons (6 teaspoons) each day (including processed foods). Small amounts of salt only in cooking.

(6) Cut fat off meats, and mostly use cooking methods without adding fat. Have fried foods only “now-and-then.” (7) Have less baked goods. Limit margarine and butter to two to three tablespoons each day. Use polyunsaturated oil occasionally in cooking. (8) Drink less alcohol. Use soda or water as mixers, have less beer, select dry wines. The basic nutritional changes needed in our diets are simply an increase in fibre; a subtraction of fat and sugars; a reduction in alcohol; combined with an increased energy turnover: exercise. Remember — take time out to enjoy the experience of chewing through a lot more food.