Savor the Flavor: Making Food Your Friend

Do you have a love-hate relationship with food? If so, you’re not alone.

We talk about “junk food,” “sinful snacks,” and “decadent desserts.” We “watch our diet,” “count calories,” “fight the battle of the bulge,” and fear the “food police.” In short, our relationship with food isn’t always positive.

There are other ways to think about food. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1775 – 1826) — possibly one of the greatest food critics ever — believed that "the pleasures of the table belong to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to every day; they can be associated with all the other pleasures and remain the last to console us for the loss of the rest."

Now that’s a positive attitude about the pleasures of eating! The notion of slowing down and enjoying food and eating is also an idea promoted by the Slow Food Movement, which you’ll read about in a moment.

This Healthy Eating article will give you some thoughts and ideas to help you bring enjoyment back into eating, while losing weight.

• It describes the Slow Food Movement and how you can apply the good-taste concept to help you lose weight.
• It gives you a tool called “volumetrics” that is based on the idea that high-volume eating can actually help you lose and manage weight.
• It contains a link to several suggestions for cutting calories when you’re cooking.

Stop the Fast-Food Fight!

Busy lives often cause us to turn to fast food! In recent years, though, the rush, rush, rush approach to food has produced a backlash.

The Slow Food Movement started in 1989 in response to the opening of a fast-food restaurant in Rome’s beautiful Piazza di Spagna, a favorite Italian meeting place. The Europeans who started the Movement originally were protesting the fast-food restaurants. A hamburger-and-fries meal you buy at any fast-food chain is the same in Rome as it is in New York City, Mexico City, or Kansas City. The Slow Food Movement focused on preserving the cultural heritage of local food flavors and customs.

Today, the Movement has expanded to include the value of taking time to, literally, “smell the coffee” and savor the flavor of food. If you’re interested in slowing down and savoring your food, try these other slow-food tips:

• Choose more fresh foods and less frozen or canned. You get the benefits of more flavor, nutrients, and fiber, and less salt, sugar, and other additives.
• Shop at the local farmers’ markets — a rich source of flavor, color, and fiber.
• Widen the variety of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables you eat. Have you ever tried …
  
  … wild rice or spelt?
  … guava or kumquats?
  … yams or fennel?
  
• Cook from scratch when possible.
• Sit down to eat and have a conversation with family or friends, instead of eating a fast meal in front of the TV or catching a quick lunch at your desk.
• And the best … savor every morsel!

To find out more about the Slow Food Movement, you can check out the Web site at www.slowfood.com.

When More Is Less

There are other ways to expand your food experience and still control your diabetes. Dr. Barbara Rolls, a professor and well-respected researcher at Penn State, in the United States, is an expert in appetite and taste. She has coined the term volumetrics to describe the idea that when you eat foods with low caloric density (explained below), you’ll be able to eat more, satisfy your hunger, and still reduce calorie intake.

It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? The idea is based on a fact discovered by Dr. Rolls: Our body cues us to eat about the same volume of food every day. Here are the principles behind the volumetrics approach:

• We generally eat the same volume of food each day, regardless of the calories that the food contains.
• When we eat large amounts of low-energy (low-calorie) foods, they fill us up more than smaller amounts of high-energy foods. They also provide more fiber and vitamins and minerals in the bargain. Low-energy foods aren’t just “rabbit food,” like lettuce or celery. You can indulge in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat proteins.
  • You can eat 118 ml of light vanilla ice cream for 100 calories, or for the same number of calories, you can have a fresh fruit salad with:

    1 medium apple, chopped
    1 medium peach, chopped
    60 g/59 ml fresh pineapple chunks
    Artificial sweetener, to taste (optional)

    You’ve gone a lot further toward filling up your “volume tank” with the fruit dish than with the ice cream.
• Drink water, “eat” water. Water and foods that contain a lot of water are filling. Here are some to try:
  • Liquids (any type of water, diet soft drinks, coffee, low-fat or fat-free milk, light fruit juices, soup)
  • Juicy fruits and desserts (apples, cantaloupe, grapes, oranges, peaches, pears, strawberries, watermelon, frozen yogurt, popsicles, flavored gelatin)
  • Vegetables (broccoli, salad greens, tomatoes)

Tried and True

Nutrition experts have said for years that a great way to cut calories is to cut fat and sugar and to be especially mindful of the fat and sugar “hidden” in cooking and food preparation techniques.

Turn From Fast Food to Slow Food, and Little Food to Big Food

Now it’s your turn to practice these concepts. What did you have for lunch? Write it here, along with your ideas for slowing and enlarging your meal. Here’s an example to get you started:

Summary

• You CAN manage your diabetes AND enjoy your food.
• A key is to slow down and savor every bite.
• Concentrate on fresh foods, whole grains, and high-water foods.
• Your body cues you to eat about the same volume of food every day. So concentrating on fresh foods, whole grains, and high-water foods will fill your “volume tank” and you’ll eat fewer calories while getting more nutrients.