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DEL.ICIO.USIs Your Kitchen Unhealthy?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Could your kitchen be making you fat? When losing weight and getting fit is your goal most folks know that means less time spent in the fast food drive through and more time spent on the treadmill. Two terrific changes for the better, of course. But, adopting healthy habits that become part of your longterm lifestyle requires a long look at just about everything that makes up your “personal environment.” So, clean out the kitchen cupboards! Get rid of chocolate cake mix temptations and cartons of super premium macadamia chunk ice cream. Instead, stock your fridge and pantry with foods that will help you win the battle of the bulge. If there is a container of pre cut fruit in the fridge to satisfy your sweet tooth- you’re less likely to grab the cookies. Make it easy on yourself! If you’re in a rush to make dinner there’s no need to call out for pizza. If you have those individually packed frozen chicken breasts in the freezer, some quick cook brown rice in the pantry and a bag of fresh broccoli florets….a healthy dinner can be ready way before the pizza guy could get there!! Other healthy kitchen staples to whip up a flavorful healthy meal include include olive oil, vinegars, dried herb mixes, gourmet mustards, lemons, limes and a good pepper grinder. Two must have kitchen tools for healthy cooking include a vegetable steamer and a non stick pan!! There’s so much more to recommend. But, what do you think????? Can your kitchen be unhealthy????
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By frank123
June 30, 2006 10:36 AM | Link to this
The kitchen contributes to making my wife fat because she does her bills, taxes and other work there (i.e. a home office), and there is a TV there. She likes to work, eat and watch TV at the same time.
On the good side, it keeps the rest of us thinner since she harasses us for bothering her if we come in to eat.
By Thinner
June 30, 2006 10:43 AM | Link to this
With the things Carolyn suggested for the meal (chicken breasts, brown rice, broccoli) I could have dinner made before I could even get off HOLD while calling the pizza place. Kudos for printing one of our favorite meals!
I keep a small amount of “junk” in my kitchen for my man. He needs to put on weight and I’m losing. I have the WILLPOWER to stay away from his stash. I think that’s one of the biggest issues in the kitchen and on the road…willpower. If I’m in a “will-die-without-chocolate” mood ; ) I have ONE Hershey’s kiss or one of their tiny bars. No more. My craving is gone and I have no guilt whatsoever.
My candy bars? Yes, I have them. I have fallen in sweet love with the Quaker 25% less sugar, low fat granola bars. I really do feel like I’m having a candy bar when I eat one. 100 calories, very little salt, very little fat! Yummy!
By Thinner
June 30, 2006 10:48 AM | Link to this
Oh frank! Tell your poor wife to get all that crap OUT of the kitchen! She’s not gonna be able to fit through the door if she keeps that up. No TV’s are allowed in our kitchen and NO stressful situations like paying bills, taxes or the likes are allowed in their either. Then again, the kitchen is MY domain and I set the rules. When I’m in there it’s me, my saute pan, a glass of wine and the lovely sound of silence!
He gets the rest of the house!
By Cletus Snow
June 30, 2006 11:28 AM | Link to this
Get real, you know its not our kitchens its McDonalds.
By Annie Gray
June 30, 2006 11:40 AM | Link to this
My kitchen made me fat!! So… if I don’t actually go INTO the kitchen I will lose weight, right?? Finally, a legitimate excuse to not have to cook. When I get to the maintenance stage, I’ll just LOOK in the general direction of the kitchen!
By JW
June 30, 2006 11:52 AM | Link to this
Its a tough transition, but it can be done. Gradually we have weaned our kids (and ourselves) off of snacks and junk food and eat more fruits and vegetables.
Now is the perfect time of year too. Peaches and blueberries are in season as well as many other fruits and vegetables. Look for the roadside stands or folks selling the in the back of pickup trucks along the road. They’re usually cheaper than grocery stores and have many less chemicals like pesticides, insecticides, and fetrilizer sprayed on than commercially grown crops. No one has ever been overweight from eating too many grapefruits or overindulging in apples.
Reading food labels is critically important when it comes to losing weight and staying healthy. Avoid foods with enriched wheat flour, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and high fructose corn syrup. Be very wary of foods which say: light, diet, low fat, low carb, less sugar, etc. These generally have sugar substitutes which are worse for you than sugar, such as: Aspartame, sucralose, fructose, saccharin, etc. These chemicals are designed to make you fatter! Try switching from diet coke, back to regular coke. If you change nothing else, you will lose weight! (Switch to water and you’ll really lose weight and feel better too.)
When and how much you eat has drastic effects on your health also. 80% of people who are fat or sick eat no breakfast. If you eat a huge breakfast and change nothing else about your life you will lose weight. If you eat a big dinner, then go to bed, the food lays there all night, not properly digested, absorbed and stored in your body, until your metabolism kicks on again in the morning.
Use common sense. Humans are not designed to eat chocolate cupcakes, barbecue flavor chips, and beef injected with growth hormones. Keep in mind chocolate (cocoa beans), potatoes, and red meat are not bad and will not make you fat. The added chemicals, flavoring, preservatives, chemicals fed to livestock (including chickens), and processing WILL make you fat. Our bodies were intended to process fruits, vegetables, grains, and a limited amount of meat. 100 years ago 1 in 80 people died of some form of cancer. Now its 1 in 4. You tell me what,s different.
By JW
June 30, 2006 11:55 AM | Link to this
Hey Frank123. Your wife could watch TV and pay bills 24 hours a day. If she eats grapefruit, salad, and apples while doing it, she’ll never get fat.
By Rod
June 30, 2006 12:17 PM | Link to this
JW, people were still dying of cancer 100 years ago (and 500 years, 1,000 years) - it’s just people didn’t know what to blame it on. The medical advances have allowed us to now determine that the cause of death in many instances is cancer.
Choice: meat without added chemicals that goes rancid quickly or meat with preservatives. You’ll die alot quicker on rancid meat.
By JW
June 30, 2006 01:06 PM | Link to this
Sounds like you either work for the FDA, pharmaceutical industry or in a field of the medical profession. Your response is exactly the one I would give in your position.
By JW
June 30, 2006 01:12 PM | Link to this
If the medical research was used for the public’s best interest, it would advertise the existing ways to prevent cancer. Instead big pharma creates, patents and profits from the numerous, high dollar prescription drugs used to treat (mask the symptoms of) cancer, not cure cancer.
By Willpow
June 30, 2006 01:41 PM | Link to this
Poeple…it’s not the “whats in the fridge/cupboard” it what you eat, how you prepare it and how much of it you eat!!! An occasional chocolate cake and ice cream will not break the fit/healthy lifestyle. MODERATION….enjoy life…and have your cake. Use WILLPOWER daily, and watch as you self customize your own personal diet. Watch how you prepare your foods. And eat a meatless meal at least twice a week…
By FDA
June 30, 2006 01:41 PM | Link to this
Yeah JW, it’s all just a giant conspiracy - we’re all out to get you. Why don’t you just give up and let us win?!?!
By RKS
June 30, 2006 01:58 PM | Link to this
I tend to agree with Willpow. Has anyone thought of eating too much is a problem when you cook? We may eat more when we have our favorite food at kitchen than eating in restaurants. What do you think?
By Carolyn
June 30, 2006 02:04 PM | Link to this
Well, I just got back from looking around my kitchen. And while I do have a bowl of lemons and limes and fresh tomatoes and garlic I used in cooking….I also have a little bowl of really good individually wrapped bite size pieces of chocolate. These are for those moments when a small splurge is in order and one of those bon bons certainly contains less calories than a bowl of ice cream!So, as a dietitian, I’m not talking about banning all treats from the kitchen. My favorite pan, which stays on the stove, is a big vegetable steamer. WHen I start dinner I fill it with water and get it going. Then I decide which veggie to steam…it’s ready to go when I am.
By cee
June 30, 2006 02:47 PM | Link to this
@JW you sure a downer. Sounds to me you only eat air. It’s not what goes in your mouth but how much you put in your mouth. You seem to have to cure all for eating habits. We all are made up genetically different but we all know that too much of ANYTHING is not good for no one.
By TinaTeach
June 30, 2006 03:00 PM | Link to this
Speaking of Air-Eaters there is a group of people called Airatariens (Spelling?). They do not eat anything except this liquid substance once a day that supposedly contains all the nutrients that they need. I’ve met one who has been doing this for like seven years and he is so ghastly pale and skinny! I bet his kitchen doesn’t make him fat! hut then again he looks like a ghost!
By Luke
June 30, 2006 03:32 PM | Link to this
Wow, JW, sounds like you believe everything you read. Sorry, but artificial sweeteners don’t do what you claim — it always boils down to calories in vs. calories out. Stuff you gullet with more calories than you burn and you’ll get fatter. Work off more calories than you eat and you’ll get thinner. Just that simple. Anything else is an excuse for weakness of spirit, weakness of will.
As to the “my kitchen made me fat!” thing… Horsehooey. You’re fat or not fat because of what and how much you put in your mouth plus how much you exercise. Nobody forces you to buy junk at the store, nobody forces you to bring it home, nobody forces you to cook it, nobody forces you to shovel it into your mouth.
I love it when people tell me I’m “so lucky” to be slender. I tell them there’s no luck involved - they can look like this too but ONLY if they’re willing to cut out the junk food, eat moderate quantities of food, drink little or no alcohol, and run thirty miles a week (or an equivalent amount of exercise). Luck? Nope, just good old fashioned hard work.
By JW
July 5, 2006 02:31 PM | Link to this
Incidentally cee, Air is one of the most unhealthy things you can eat. It contains many toxins like jet fuel residue, contaminants from vehicles exhaust, and any number of herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides. I’ve never heard of anyone attempting to eat air, but even contaminated, is probably better than some things found in a grocery store.
Luke: FDA approved or not, artificial sweetners not only make us fat, but are designed to make us fat. Whether you want to beleive it or not.
Sorry if I have frightened anyone out there; this is not my intention. Some are ready to hear the truth, and some are not.
By the truth
July 12, 2006 05:02 PM | Link to this
JW, are you serious when you say that red meat won’t make you fat? Try a diet of beef for 2 weeks and tell me you won’t gain any weight. Make that organic-fed beef. You’ll still gain weight unless you increase the time you exercise. Hippie.
By Luke
July 13, 2006 08:40 AM | Link to this
JW – Hmm, let’s compare. On one hand, I have personal experience of achieving significant weight loss while still consuming sweeteners (artificial & natural). On the other hand I have some unknown on a internet board claiming some bizarre biochemical magic where artificial sweeteners make you gain weight even if you don’t change caloric intake.
I call B.S.
Of course, the response will probably be some vague handwaving explanation like “it would have been so much easier if I’d eliminated artificial sweeteners”.
When advocating a position that goes against common wisdom and goes against current scientific understanding, you really need to present concrete evidence if you wish to be taken seriously. You can shout “It’s True! It’s True!” ‘til you’re blue in the face, but with no independent scientific studies to back you up, don’t expect any credibility.