The French Don't Diet Plan Page 8

  Fruit pops are fine if they’re made with 100 percent fruit, but the slurry of corn syrup and hydrogenated oil you’ll find in this aisle is ridiculous. You can make whipped cream at home in thirty-seven seconds—check out the recipe for Vanilla Whipped Cream. It’s dirt simple, and you can flavor it any way you like. You can also make your own fruit pops at home with 100 percent fruit juice, and the taste is better than any faux-food concoction you can shake a Popsicle stick at.

  BEST: Ice cream with fewer than six ingredients, all of which you can read and understand. Popsicles sweetened with 100 percent fruit juice.

  ACCEPTABLE: Fruit pops sweetened with sugar or cane juice.

  FAUX: Most ice cream bars, “healthy” ice creams, and whipped toppings.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: Ice cream is a perfect dessert, when eaten in small amounts. Real ice cream should be a stock item in your freezer. Fruit pops are fantastic summer desserts for kids (and dads when no one’s looking!).

  P. Frozen Fruits and Vegetables

  Frozen vegetables are great. They’re no less healthy than the fresh ones, may be more cost effective, and they’re convenient to boot. They won’t taste as good as fresh, but many times you’re putting these frozen veggies in something else anyway (like pot pie or casseroles).

  Frozen french fries, however, usually taste like they’re 5 percent real potatoes and 95 percent filler. Unless the ingredients stop at “potatoes,” you have no idea what they’ve spritzed on their spuds. French fries have gotten a nutritional black eye because food companies manipulate the texture of potatoes with chemicals called alginates, and “flavor enhancers” to mimic the desirable flavor of beef tallow. Even when these potato products reach the restaurant, they’re cooked in partially hydrogenated oils.

  It’s easy to make your own french fries. Cut up a potato at home, throw it in a pan with some olive oil, and sauté it until it’s just done. Made fresh, these become just another formerly forbidden health food you can enjoy any time you want. Baked or fried, spiced as you like, and they’re a million times healthier. Plus they take only a few minutes to throw together (about the same amount of time it takes to heat up faux fries in the oven).

  If you can find frozen dinners worth eating, you’re probably an archeologist. If you must have a frozen dinner, read the label. Unless it says, “nothing artificial, and this prepackaged pot pie contains less sodium than Salt Lake City, Utah,” don’t buy it. You can do it better and tastier at home. The same is true for frozen pizza. (See the recipes for Healthful Pepperoni Pizza, and Chicken Potpie.)

  Frozen fruits, like frozen veggies, are great in baked dishes. Blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries make great cobblers, fruit sauces, and additions to your morning yogurt.

  BEST: Frozen fruit, such as blueberries and raspberries. Frozen veggies, such as peas, corn, and beans.

  ACCEPTABLE: I have seen some frozen dinners that are not loaded with faux-food ingredients, and they taste okay. You’ll just have to look hard for them.

  FAUX: Most frozen dinners, pot pies, potato products, and pizzas.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: Frozen fruits are a stock item for your morning yogurts, for fruit sauces, and even for fruit cobblers (see the recipe for Cuppa Cuppa Cuppa Apple Cobbler). Purchase your frozen veggies only as you need them for an upcoming dish.

  Q. Cereals

  Have you ever been in a carnival exhibit where mirrors were placed at opposite sides of a room? When you enter, you appear to be replicated on and on into infinity. This is what it looks like when you turn into “cereal row” and have to choose something from the grinning painted clowns, green leprechauns, chocolate vampires, and tigers in groovy bandanas.

  As we know, all the candy, cookie, and frosted cereals are deliberately placed on the bottom row to better bait our children at eye-level. The aisle itself is placed roughly in the center of the store so that, by the time you get there, the child is tired enough to be primed for a good bout of whining.

  Don’t be fooled by the boxes of cookies, s’mores, and marshmallow rice cereals that claim something like “part of a balanced breakfast because we threw a multivitamin in there.” If you absolutely have to get cereal for you kids, ordinary Cheerios are not too bad because they contain whole grain oats, plain sugar (fourth ingredient), and a multivitamin. Alternatively, you could pick up some regular oats and make oatmeal (see the recipe for Brown Sugar Cinnamon Oatmeal). The little powdered packets of oats are normally filled with disturbing ingredients. Regular oats are fine. Plain granola (Kashi makes a good one) makes a great breakfast with fruit and yogurt.

  BEST: Grains such as oats, grits, and wheat cereals. These are fantastic and can be prepared in the way you like best.

  ACCEPTABLE: Boxed cereals with no hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, or dyes, such as regular Cheerios.

  FAUX: Instant packets of oats, most cereals.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: Cereals are a staple to keep in your cupboard for a quick and easy breakfast.

  R. Condiments

  In the next step, we’ll be talking about easy ways to lose weight by losing your sweet tooth. One of the easiest ways to curb your sugar craving is this: Give up store-bought ketchup. Its high-fructose corn syrup feeds your sweet tooth and activates cravings for other overtly sweetened foods (although a few ketchup brands are now made with natural sweeteners). Mustards are wonderful and make fantastic additions to sauces and vinaigrette dressings (we’ve included a few super simple recipes that take all of five minutes to throw together). Mayonnaise, if made with eggs, vegetable oil, spices, and lemons, is wonderful (see the recipe for A Mayonnaise of Your Very Own).

  Make sure your jellies or jams are 100 percent fruit, and that your peanut butter has no partially hydrogenated oil or zinc oxide in it. Smuckers makes a good one that contains only peanuts and salt. Even better, you can find stores where they grind the peanuts on site.

  BEST: Any mustard, 100 percent real fruit jams, peanut butter with no more than two ingredients, any Tabasco or plain horseradish, olive spreads, hummus, and regular mayonnaise.

  ACCEPTABLE: Horseradish “sauces,” canola mayonnaise.

  FAUX: Reduced-fat mayonnaise, peanut butter with hydrogenated oil, and jams with corn syrup.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: These should be staples in your cupboard and refrigerator.

  S. Baking Aisle

  Please don’t buy the can of hydrogenated oil called shortening. Why bake with something that contributes to heart disease?

  As for white flour and white sugar, we have to talk about our obsession with “white.” What is it with this color? Food manufacturers strip all the healthy parts of the grain from their flour, just so it can look white. And they even bleach it, as if removing the nutrients were a good thing. Sugar refineries strip the minerals from the sugar so it can look … white. They even sell something called “brownulated” sugar, which is just brown sugar with extra caramel color added. Unbelievable.

  Although there’s nothing particularly unhealthy about white flour, when the whole grains are stripped out, there aren’t many vitamins and minerals left. The same is true for white sugar. So when you choose your flour or sugar, be sure to choose the darker varieties whenever possible. For example, have you ever looked at the back of a molasses jar? It’s a fantastic health food. A single tablespoon has 20 percent of all the calcium you need for an entire day, 20 percent of the iron, and 20 percent of the potassium (a potassium-rich diet has been shown to help reduce hypertension).

  Bittersweet chocolate should always have a revered place in your cupboard, at least for Hot Cocoa and chocolate truffles. It’s a wonderful health food and you need to have just a little every day. Make it dark chocolate and eat it as an ender, described in Step 4. If you do that, you’ll get the heart-healthy polyphenols of the cocoa. Don’t get cheap chocolate or chocolate bars with the nougat, wafers, and other fillers in them. Make chocolate your favorite health food by just eating the chocolate. Keep the amount you eat at any one time down to about
two thumbs (see Step 4).

  Another staple of this section is extra-virgin olive oil. When you need a lighter oil for pancakes or muffins or something like that, use 100 percent vegetable oil.

  BEST: Extra-virgin olive oil, whole-wheat flour, molasses, dark brown sugar, bittersweet chocolate, cocoa.

  ACCEPTABLE: White sugar, white flour, semisweet chocolate.

  FAUX: Bisquick, cocoa mix, “brownulated” sugar.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: Flour should be in your cupboard all the time, as should baking chocolate, cocoa, olive oil, and brown sugar.

  T. Canned Fruits and Vegetables

  Look for the canned vegetables that do not contain added sugars. For example, in my local grocery store, only one brand of canned corn (out of four) was free of syrup. Why in the world would you put syrup in corn? We like to buy spiced beans for our chili, but had to sort through the brands before we found the one with the least ingredients and no added sugar at all. That’s the one you want. In addition, canned veggies are also more likely to have added salt.

  Most of the canned vegetables you’ll use on a daily basis will be beans (white, black, pinto, and field peas), which can be spiced up and ready to eat in no time. Canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste are easily used as a base for chili, spaghetti sauce, and tomato-based soups. As for the others, canned mushrooms taste like sole de la shoe compared to fresh, and canned green beans and asparagus are so dishwater insipid that it’s no wonder an entire generation has grown up hating vegetables. So get these fresh and sauté them in a pan. It’s a breeze, and they’ll taste terrific.

  BEST: Any canned beans or tomatoes with no more than two ingredients (tomatoes and salt, for example), fruit packed in water, or 100 percent fruit juice.

  ACCEPTABLE: Canned veggies like mushrooms and asparagus often taste horrible, but are not explicitly bad for you and might go well in some dishes, such as Hot Artichoke-Cheese Dip.

  FAUX: Any with corn syrup, or more than 5 percent of your daily requirement of sodium per serving.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: Canned beans and tomatoes should be in your cupboard all the time, for recipes such as The Last Lasagna, but you don’t need to have canned fruit unless you’re making a particular dish that calls for it.

  U. Alcohol

  State laws are quirky regarding alcohol in grocery stores. Some won’t let anything but cough syrup and vanilla flavoring through their doors. Some allow beer and others sell wine and even spirits, so you don’t have to make multiple trips. When your shopping involves beer or wine, there are a few things to keep in mind.

  Before I tell you that alcohol does what aspirin does (prevents platelet accumulation), and that beer and wine provide health benefits (great B vitamins, great for your heart, great antioxidants), I have to be conservative and say that some people can have trouble keeping their quantity small. Just as with butter, eggs, sugars, and everything else, a little may be good for you, but a lot is not. This is especially true with alcohol. If you don’t think you can hold your consumption to just one to two drinks per day, don’t even start. Switch to grape juice or cocoa to get your polyphenols.

  Disclaimer done, now on to the health information.

  Dark beer has been shown to reduce homocystene, a factor associated with heart disease. Guinness, for example, is great for you—sort of like liquid bread. Wine is like vitamin W, famously packed with antioxidants and flavonols that protect your heart. Red is better than white, not only because of its nutritional properties, but also because you tend to sip red wine rather than gulp it, and this helps you practice the habits of eating and drinking small. Other alcohols are okay, but the best benefits come from dark beer and red wine.

  BEST: Dark beer, red wine.

  ACCEPTABLE: Light beer, white and sweet wines.

  FAUX: Oversweetened wine coolers.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: If you have a little wine or beer with your dinner, you should buy according to your proclivities. If you only cook with wine or sherry, you will purchase these once a month or so.

  V. Coffee and Tea

  In the 1950s, researchers suggested a link between caffeine and cancer, which has been repeated in the media many times. But this study was found to be flawed, and this link has since turned out to be completely false. In fact, in the massive Nurses’ Health Study II, Harvard’s Walter Willett investigated whether cancer is related to caffeine consumption. He found that “during almost 2 million person-years of follow-up, 1,438 cases of colorectal cancer were observed. Consumption of caffeinated coffee or tea intake was not associated with the incidence of colon or rectal cancer.” In addition, other research has found that coffee or tea drinkers were far less likely to have indications of liver disfunction than people who abstained.

  So it’s time to move on. Sure, get the decaf if regular coffee makes you jittery, but know that regular coffee is perfectly fine. But please note: To emulate the healthy French habits, you’re allowed coffee that comes only in a normal-size cup, not the the venti mambo Big Gulp. Always buy the small size. Tea is equally wonderful, is loaded with heart-healthy polyphenols, and you’re free to choose the kind you enjoy most.

  BEST: Regular coffee and tea that comes in bags or loose.

  ACCEPTABLE: Decaffeinated coffee, flavored herbal teas.

  FAUX: Instant flavored coffee mixes and bottled “tea drinks” with high-fructose corn syrup.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: To your tastes. Keep in mind that you do not have to drink coffee just because the French do, or tea for that matter. When you have it by the small cup, you’ll end up purchasing this product sparingly.

  W. Boxed Foods

  Some boxed foods are fine, like plain pasta and natural rice pilaf. But the mac and cheese with the Yellow No. 6 packet of powder should be replaced by making it at home. Whipping together a delicious macaroni and cheese is so easy, can be done on the stove, and takes no longer than the typical cardboard variety (see the recipe).

  Most of the “helper” foods are best left on the shelf with the instant au gratin potatoes. Again, these taste much better when made at home, and aren’t hard to throw together. Just check the ingredients on the back of the box if you have questions about whether something is a food or not.

  BEST: Plain pasta, rice, 100 percent natural pilafs, and risottos.

  ACCEPTABLE: Boxed grains (pilaf, couscous, and so on) with spice packets.

  FAUX: Most “helper” boxed products, any of the boxed potato products, Rice-A-Roni–type foods, and any rice and sauce packets.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: Keep natural pilafs and risottos on hand. They’re great for a quick addition to the meal. Pasta is also a must to stock in the cupboard for those nights when you have no idea what you’re going to have (see the recipe for pizza sauce).

  X. Soda and Drinks

  Unless you’re picking up seltzer water, which you can mix with 100 percent juice if you want a bubbly drink, don’t even visit this aisle. Diet drinks are just as bad, because of the chemical sweeteners like aspartame and phosphoric acid. You must cut these out altogether. If you do nothing other than give up these drinks, you’ll take weight off and improve your health. If you want something in a bottle around the house, have water.

  Be careful when choosing juice. Some labels blare FRUIT JUICE in seventy-two-point, extra-bold type, but the juice is really only 10 percent of the total. This means they are 90 percent dyed syrup with some cranberries waved over the top of the vat before being trucked to the bottling plant. If you want juice, get juice. If you want syrup, get syrup. Just don’t confuse the two!

  Sport drinks: You’re told that your physiology constantly teeters on the edge of a disastrous electrolyte imbalance and, with any exertion at all, you’re going to need immediate replenishment. This may be true if you’ve just swum the English Channel, finished an Ironman competition, or been stranded in Death Valley for a day. Even at that, it makes no sense at all to replace them with a neon vehicle for high-fructose corn syrup.

  Sweetened teas and flavore
d waters are additional confusions to watch out for in this aisle. You don’t need to drink your calories, and you don’t need to feed your sweet tooth with these drinks either. Stick with regular tea and regular water.

  BEST: Water, 100 percent fruit drinks.

  ACCEPTABLE: Naturally sweetened teas.

  FAUX: Any drink with high-fructose corn syrup and dye in it—which means just about all of them, in bottles or sold as powders.

  HOW OFTEN TO BUY: Bottled water and juice are good to keep around, especially if you have concerns about what’s coming out of your tap. As for the other choices, unless you’re Lance Armstrong and have just pedaled over the Pyrenees, you don’t need them, ever.

  Y. Chips and Snacks

  Since the increased awareness that hydrogenated oils contribute to heart disease, food manufacturers have been looking for alternatives. This is the power of people voting with their shopping carts. The way to continue this trend in the snacks section is to buy chips with nonhydrogenated oils or those that are baked. Unfortunately, we’re still hard-pressed to find pretzels or crackers without these heart-harming oils.

  Plain popcorn—not popcorn from a bag—is a great snack because the ingredients read: corn kernels. You just put them in a pot with a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil, throw a lid on, and shake until all the kernels are popped. It’s easy, there are no chemicals for your body to fight off, and it’s great entertainment for kids. Unsalted nuts are also fantastic snacks. The extra salt is unnecessary, can contribute to hypertension, and also makes you crave more later.