Mindful Eats

Eating While Traveling Doesn't Have to be a Disaster

American Road Trip, Kristen Gill Photography, www.kristengill.com

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St. Augustine

Something about leaving town makes me feel a little more free. It doesn't matter if it's vacation or business - being slightly outside the everyday structure is exciting, and that extends to food as well. I grew up on the great American road trip, which meant unfettered amounts of junk food in the car, and lots of fast food on the way. Then there are airports - a mecca of trashy food and trashy magazines. Staying healthy while traveling is tough. To me, there's almost something Pavlovian about travel and bad food - it's a strong urge to moderate. But I did it, and you can too.

The key to healthy eating while traveling is to plan mindfully. You know that 1) you won't know all the eateries, 2) there are going to be Bacchanalian meals, 3) you will have to snack and 4) there will be unforeseen events. So plan for them, and you can feel great while you are away, and guilt-free when you come back.

Hassle-Free Healthy Meal: Steaming

Broccoli, tofu and enoki mushrooms - ready to be steamed

Some people love to cook - they find it relaxing and fun. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. I don't mind cooking for special occasions, but at the end of most days, I want dinner on the table as quickly as possible, with the least amount of hassle. I find the easiest way to make that happen is steaming. As one of my go-to methods, steaming is super-healthy, requires minimal prep, and can be finished in 10 minutes (depending on what I'm cooking). It's a lot faster, cheaper and more mindful than ordering pizza. Preparing your own food and knowing exactly what goes into it makes you much more mindful of what you're eating than when you chow down a finished meal. If I have a long week, I'll steam several times a week. The benefits:

• More nutrients. The more you cook a food, the less vitamins and minerals it retains. And when you steam, food doesn't come in contact with water so even fewer nutrients are leached.
• Speed and ease. Steaming is quick, and you don't have to watch your food as it's steaming.
• It's not processed. You are feeding yourself and your loved ones high quality food. This is an easy way to up your whole foods ratio.
• No extra fats. You don't cook with any fat or oil. 
• Multipurpose. You can steam almost anything - vegetables, fish, chicken. You can steam meat too (it's often steamed in Chinese cooking), but find a good recipe. 
• Flavor retention. Food retains its juices and its natural flavors since steaming is moist cooking.
• Minimal clean up - all you have to do is chop, and there are no messy caked-on pans to clean.  

If you've tried steaming before, and you thought it was flavorless "rabbit food", look at the last step below to see how you can spice it up. However, your palate has probably changed so you now need the intensity of artificial flavors and chemicals of processed foods (massive amounts of sodium and flavoring). Stick with us. As you stay committed to a whole foods diet, you will get healthier and start craving the taste of natural foods instead of chemicals. It's amazing how the body adapts!

Water Bottles - Stainless Steel or Aluminum?

 Stainless steel vs. Aluminum Water Bottle.

"Water is the only drink for a wise man." - Henry David Thoreau

3/1/10 Update: We've found a great-looking steel water bottle, so the clear winner of the contest is steel over aluminum.

9/19/09 Update: Sigg admitted that their former "secret" lining contained BPA (but maintains it does not leach). MindfulEats is proud that we always noted the squirellyness of their secret lining and we still stand by this post.

As we discussed in a prior post, you should be drinking filtered tap water. The Mayo Clinic, a renowned medical center, advises that your fluid intake may be adequate if "you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) or more of colorless or slightly yellow urine a day." Sorry to be crude, but have you ever measured how much urine you are producing? We didn't think so. You can probably drink more water. 

It's easy to drink water when you're sitting in one place, but what about when you're running around town or exercising? Then you need a water bottle. Glass breaks and we know that we don't want plastic. That leaves metal.

Eat More Whole Foods

Some whole foods

"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health." - Hippocrates

If you want to lead a healthier life, you need to eat more of a plant-based, whole foods diet and less processed foods. There are no ifs, ands or buts.

What are whole foods? They are unaltered foods still in their natural state. Processed foods have been refined/created by people.

• Examples of whole foods: fruit, potatoes, brown rice, vegetables, chicken, fish, beans, milk, raw nuts, raw honey, quinoa
• Examples of processed foods: canned fruit, french fries, white rice, chicken nuggets, pasta, cheese puffs, bread, jam (all processed food comes in containers)

Nutrients are removed from processed food during the refining process, and you often end up eating more of it since it's not as filling. For example, to get white rice, the outside bran is removed (which is where the fiber and a lot of nutrients are). Without the fiber, you need to eat more white rice to feel full, you get constipated, and you have to eat more food or take supplements to get nutrients. To make matters worse, the average American gets 80% of their sodium from processed food, and high sodium can lead to high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease. The good thing is that a low-sodium whole foods diet can reduce your blood pressure the same amout as 2-3 blood pressure medications. Personally, I'd rather eat a whole foods diet than be tied to expensive drugs!

If you are on an all-processed diet for a significant period of time, you will have health issues, be sallow and constipated, and probably overweight. Not attractive. Eat whole foods! Studies have shown that whole foods have a slew of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. We haven't catalogued all the nutrients that exist, but you'll get all of them by eating natural foods.

What Other People Eat

Many of you have commented that you like seeing what I eat. Here's a peek through the looking glass into other people's diets:

Heather Marks, fashion model, the week before fashion shows.  This looks like a moderate, healthy diet, especially for someone who eats out a lot.

Ed Levine, restaurant critic. This is not a healthy diet.  However, it is hard to be healthy if you eat out all the time, especially if you're a restaurant critic.

What does a family eat in a week? This Time magazine photography piece from 2007 is especially fascinating since it takes you on a tour around the world to see what families eat in a week, and how much it costs.

• Part I of Peter Menzel's book, "Hungry Planet". Notice how many processed foods the American families eat.
  
• Part II of Peter Menzel's book, "Hungry Planet". The French family in slide 8 eats a particularly nice mix of fresh, unprocessed foods. 
• Part III of Peter Menzel's book, "Hungry Planet". How families shop for food around the world. 

If you are interested in how other New Yorkers eat, go here.

Leave a comment and tell us what you ate!

Going forward, my food log will have a one day lag (today's log on tomorrow's post), so I can start publishing my posts earlier in the day.

Caffeine - Blessing or Curse?

My beloved Francis Francis espresso machine.

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” - TS Elliot

Caffeine is controversial. One camp is convinced it is harmful, whereas another camp thinks there is no health damage, and believes it might even help protect men from Parkinson's (but not women). Either way it is a drug. It stimulates the nervous system to make you more alert. It can enhance performance - both athletic and mental. Caffeinated drinks have an ancient history - people have been drinking tea for over a thousand years. People are physically addicted to it. So is it a blessing or a curse, and where does it fit in a healthy diet?

I know that I run better races when I have an espresso beforehand. And I love a good latte. My espresso machine is both the most stylish thing in my kitchen and an excellent source of savings - I haven't bought a $4 latte since the machine came home. I find a morning cup of coffee or tea comforting.

The trendy Skinny Bitch books advocate a dependence-free diet.  They make the point that if you are cranky and unpleasant before taking a substance (morning coffee anyone?), you shouldn't be taking the substance. That's an excellent point. 

The key to caffeine is moderation (as is the key to nearly everything in MindfulEats). If you get a headache without it, then you are addicted and you should give it up (at least for a while). If you aren't addicted and you like your cuppa, then enjoy it in moderation, and do so mindfully.

What to do

1. Figure out if you're addicted or not. Go a day without drinking it, and see if you are irritable or get a headache.  If so, do not have any caffeine until you finish withdrawal and have a couple of happy, caffeine-free weeks. You might want to stop drinking it completely at this point, or go back to it mindfully with step #2. Though I have caffeine regularly, it has little impact on me - I have gone weeks without it and not even noticed.
2. Be mindful, and notice its impact. When do you have it, and how does it make you feel? Does it keep you from falling asleep at night if you have it after a certain time? Keep track of it in your Mindful Log. I have a very high tolerance to caffeine - I can have a cup of coffee and fall asleep 10 minutes later, but my friend Murtada won't have it after 4pm or he'll suffer a sleepless night.
3. Using the parameters that you put in place in step two, enjoy your caffeine mindfully. I used to mindlessly down six cups of coffee a day - I just liked to get up and go to the pantry while I was working.  That is ridiculous. I halved that, and now enjoy each cup that I have.

• Caffeine fact: a cup of tea has less caffeine than a cup of coffee.  Pound for pound tea has more caffeine than coffee, but much less tea is used in a cup than in coffee. 8 oz. drip coffee has 104-192 mg of caffeine, 1 espresso has 100 mg, 8 oz. brewed tea has 20-90mg. 

What I ate: 1 banana, 2 green teas, 1 slice whole wheat bread + butter + jam, 5 clementines, brown rice + steamed broccoli + tofu + mushrooms, 3T banana pudding, 1 c. pistachios, 1 apple, 1 cherry yogurt, turnip/collard green/quinoa soup, yogurt + strawberry/peach jam, 1 handful Mindful Mix, 2 hot chocolates, 66 oz. water, 3 Airbournes, 2000 mg Vitaming C (fighting a cold).

Exercise: 1 hour cardio + weights

Healthy Snacks for the Day - Pack It In

Deanna's Snack Drawer - Fruit Bowl, pumpkin seed, walnuts, almonds, prunes, dried apricots, organic no-butter popcorn

"Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark." - Robert C. Cushing

I don't know about you, but sitting down for hours at a time makes me ravenous.  That means that work is a danger zone for me.  If there's any time that I'm going to be mindless about eating, it's during those 9+ hours at the office.  To make it even worse, there's always a ton of fatty food sitting around (though there's a lot less of it now since we've in a recession) - doughnuts, bagels, cookies, pizza.  How does one make it through the day without gaining a couple pounds? It took me a long time to figure it out. It's all about planning, and packing it in.  

What to do: Create a Snack Strategy

1. Know your weaknesses. Look at your Mindful Battle Plan. You know when your meals are. What is your snack pattern? Mine is mid-morning, followed by a shameful feeding frenzy that starts at 4.
2. Plan the snack strategy around the weakness. I have a mid-morning snack, and then to prevent the 4pm food frenzy, I eat at 2 and 4pm.  The 2pm snack stems the frenzy.
3. Pack it in. It's easy to stuff your face with the easiest alternative when work gets crazy or you're bored. Now that you know which snacks you have to plan for, figure out what they are going to be and pack in the whole foods - Mindful Mix, a Fruit Bowl, nuts, dried fruit, popcorn.  Keeping these things in stock will keep you away from the junk food around the office.
4. Pick your schlep.  My friend Deanna (one of the most mindful eaters I know), brings a week's supply of food in on Monday. I don't like to schlep, so I bring food in every day. I've also found that the downstairs drug store is a good source in a pinch. You're going to have to keep your inventory continuously replenished, so figure out what works for you. Experiment. When you find something that works, keep doing it.

What I ate: 1 banana, 1 coffee, 2 clementines, turnip/collard green soup, 1/2 c. pistachios, pumpkin seeds, tomato/cucumber salad, eggplant caponata, orzo salad, smoked salmon, 1 cracker + cheese spread (it's gross but I love it - and I only had 1!), pasta alfredo (so rich, very bad - but I had a moderate, mindful portion), chocolate Mousse + whipped cream (another mindful portion), Bengal Spice tea, 55 oz. water, 1 multivitamin

Exercise: 1 hour yoga,weight lifting (lower body)

Mindful Eats Soft Launch!

bigfoto.com

Thanks for coming by! Put your feet up and stay for a while. Mindful Eats is now officially in soft launch. We know you want to live a healthier lifestyle, and our goal is to provide practical tips to help you and those you love achieve the healthier lifestyle you want.

Let us know what you think - feel free to leave comments about:

• if Mindful Eats is helpful
• what you like and what you don't like 
• topics you are interested in 
• how Mindful Eats could be more useful 
• if you find any breaks or bad grammar
• anything you want

We're really excited you are here, and we will respond to all comments.  Or email us at jean@mindfuleats.com. 

Namaste.

What I ate: 12 oz. green juice, 1 orange, 1 coffee, brown rice + roasted vegetables (resavored), 5 squares dark chocolate, 1 banana, 1 apples, 2 clementines, sashimi dinner, 1 bowl of rice, 3 oz. tofu, 1/2 spongecake + 1 t. ice cream, 1 T. dried cranberries, hot chocolate, 47 oz. water

Exercise: none

Drink Water for Your Health

 More water please: Cora Carafe, Sigg .6L aluminum bottle, 1L steel bottle

"Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium.  There is no life without water." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

The adult human body is about 50-65% water, and people can live significantly longer without food than water. You need to be well-hydrated to function optimally. Your body needs water to help flush the kidneys and move "things" around. People swear that when they drink more water, they have more energy and their skin looks better. So, shouldn't you be drinking more water?

Don't Leach Plastics into Your Body

1/18/10 Update: The FDA is now concerned about BPA and about to embark on a two year study. MindfulEats advice remains the same: don't wait for the outcome of the study - avoid it. If the study shows BPA is bad, you avoided it. If it doesn't, no skin off your back.

There have been several inconclusive reports that plastic is bad for you. The plastic that has come under the most fire is bisphenol a (BPA), which is common in hard plastics and epoxies. It has been shown to disrupt the hormonal functions of animals. If you are reading this, you can not avoid BPA. It is in everything from bottles to sports equipment to dental fillings. It's the stuff that makes really strong, almost shatter-proof plastic. The only way you can avoid it is you are living off the land, completely isolated. 

When plastic leaches into your food or water, you are ingesting chemical substances. Plastic leaches more when it is hot or washed by harsh abrasives - hot liquids, microwaving and dishwashing. Again, it is inconclusive how hazardous plastic is, and the quantities you are ingesting are tiny. At this time, the FDA does not recommend that you stop using products with BPA. Unless you have an infants, young children, or are pregnant - if you are in one of those categories, skip down to "What to do." However, MindfulEats thinks everyone should avoid it.

The bottom line is that we don't know what the actual effect is. Plastic is great because it's light and cheap. But while people are doing their definitive studies, I'm going to avoid plastics in my food and drink as much as possible. I'm eating food in plastic no matter what I do (yogurt, ice cream, dried fruit, etc.), so I'll limit what I can control. My body's got enough work to do working on all the toxins I don't know about, why add more? If the final word is that plastics are fine, I still won't be any worse off for having avoided them. Mindful Eats almost always recommends moderation in everything, but in this and a few other cases (like avoiding fried foods), we're ok with being extreme.

What to do - Replace plastics that touch your food or drink

1. Identify all the plastic that you use to store food or beverages. Recycle it. BPA should be identified with a 7 on the bottom of your containers in the triangle - however, not all 7's have BPA. Regardless, recycle all the plastic that holds anything you are going to ingest.  
2. Figure out what food storage you need, and replace it with glass or stainless steel alternatives. You can recycle used jam and preserve jars, which is smart and thrifty. You probably already have sets of ceramic or stainless mixing bowls, which do the trick. Get a set if you don't have any. If you pack lunch (which you should, since you are becoming a healthy eater), you will need a glass or metal lunch box.
3. As for beverages, you may need to replace water bottles with glass, steel, or aluminum. While you're at home, use glass and recycle all those plastic cups you have with the names of sports teams on the sides. See this post for bottle alternatives.
4. If you are using plastic baby bottles, replace with PBA-free bottles immediately.  Dr. Brown's makes 3.5 oz. glass bottles. My discerning friend Suzi likes Dr. Brown's bPA free polypropolene since she finds glass to be too heavy. She likes the 4 oz. version, but there is also an 8 oz. version.  Replace plastic sippy cups with metal.
5. Cut down on your canned food use. BPA is in nearly all the linings of canned food. There are a few canned goods that have BPA-free liners, and these will be marked. While I am still going to use canned tomatoes, I am going to be more mindful about fresh alternatives whenever possible.
6. A lot of take-out and prepared food comes in plastic containers. Don't put them in the microwave, and after you're finished with them, don't store food items in them.

Things to consider:

• Get a steel water bottle: this widemouth Klean Kanteen is great
• Use glass to pack your lunch in/store leftovers
• For baby: glass bottles or BPA free plastic 4 oz. version or 8 oz. version
• Replace plastic sippy cups with metal

What I ate today: 4 clementines, 1 cup coffee, huge spinach salad + beets + brussell sprouts + barley + pasta + green beans + tofu + beans, 3 squares dark chocolate, 1 cup tea, pumpkin seeds, 1 banana, 1 hard-boiled egg, roasted veggies, whole wheat pasta, 66 oz. water, 1 multivitamin

Exercise: None