When Good Foods Aren't So Good
Olive oil, protein bars and tuna sandwiches all sound really healthy, don't they? Well, according to Tanya Zuckerbrodt, MS, author of The F Factor Diet, you have to watch for extra calories, even with foods that sound healthy.Olive oil is good for your heart, but while a little is good for you, a lot of olive oil is not. Ms. Zuckerbrodt says, "oil is oil - whether it’s olive oil or some other kind of oil, it still has 120 calories and 14 grams of fat per tablespoon.
What about a tuna sandwich? "The average overstuffed tuna sandwich served in a restaurant contains 700 calories and 43 grams of fat. Tuna fish has just 35 calories per ounce and it’s full of omega-3s, but mayonnaise has 100 calories per tablespoon," Ms. Zuckerbrot says. "You’re better off having a turkey or even a roast beef sandwich."
Protein bars and a frequently consumed "healthy" snack. Ms. Zuckerbrot describes protein bars as her least favorite food and said they are basically glorified candy bars. They’re also often high in calories, fat and do little to satisfy a person’s hunger.
A better choice is hitting the salad bar and grabbing lots of lettuce, artichokes and broccoli, topped with plain balsamic vinegar. For 100 to 200 calories, you get a lot more for a lot less calories.
You need to watch out for those frozen diet meals too. "They are fairly low in calories and convenient, but they’re also highly processed and high in sodium," says Ms. Zuckerbrot. A better choice? Ms. Zuckerbrot suggests eating a slice of whole wheat bread with some light sauce and light mozzarella or an egg white omelet with some vegetables.
For more about Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, visit her website.
Salad Photo © Patrick Moore
Comments
As a nutritionist with a specialty in weight loss - the last thing I deem worthy of counting is calories. That just makes everyone hungry. What we should be counting is fiber, since those calories fill us up but are never retained!
I wouldn’t worry too much about how many calories are in olive oil. Unless you drench your food in it, you are going to be doing fine. What I recommend is to pick a very flavorful olive oil, and you will find that a little goes a long way to satisfy your tastes buds.
As for any tuna, chicken, ham salad available in restaurants, I say stay away from them, they are loaded with mayonnaise. Salad bars are a good choice but often lack protein choices, except for cottage cheese which is not a good option as salad bars don’t offer the skim kind. You can almost always ask for a salad with grilled chicken or grilled salmon, and either olive oil and vinegar dressing or balsamic vinaigrette. This makes for a very satifying and figure friendly meal. Also remember to ask the waitress to hold the cheese, retaurant salads will often have grated, flavorless cheese, an unnecessary extra calories.
Enjoy!
These are all great comments but I’d like to simplify things and get people to focus on what’s really the main culprit in an overweight society. Empty calories, people today consume far too many empty calories, which provide no real nutrition to the body, and as a result the brain is like saying “gee I didn’t get any real nutrition from that over- processed food, please feed me some more.”
It would be a pretty boring existence if we tried to eliminate all fats and carbs from our diet. A smarter idea would be to think if the fat or carb is from a more natural source that’s okay (in moderation), while rejecting (or at least greatly reducing) that from refined and over-processed foods. Plus concentrate on trying to get more of the top foods in our diet like tomatoes, nuts, garlic, olive oil, whole grains, red grapes, faty fish like salmon (omega-3’s), berries (like blueberries and goji), spinach and tea.
Doing so should reduce the cravings for the refined sugar and over processed junk foods and most likely we would be a leaner sexier society that could pull our belt in a couple notches.
It been quite a treat to read your srticles on olive oil and tuna sandwiches. A good reminder to me when i cut the lunches for the kids this week.
REgards Claude Fullinfaw
With all due respect, I do not feel it is proper to put olive oil and tuna in the list of foods that may sound healthy. These are the types of foods that one should be consuming. Anyone that knows even a small fraction of their nutritional value would understand that they are not to have a quart of olive oil on their salad or add a pint of mayonnaise into their tuna fish. I think that you could do better in your search of foods that are truly worthy for your list of “foods you may think are healthy.” How about a list of the foods that are labeled as being trans fat free while at the same time actually do contain them because the FDA allows the listing as such if they contain 1/2 gram or less, now those are foods that are deceiving the people.
exaclty to Jim….what a waste of time reading senstionalized articles like this. it’s like those news reports about the devastating effects of drinking too much water. are you so bored by real nutrition and trying to help people that now we need the tapes played backwards just to make it interesting? should helmann’s be in your fridge? absolutely not, but even mayonaise could be healthy (if it were made with the right oils) the problem is with eating empty calories and too many of them. not everyone needs to lose weight but we all need to eat healthier. get real!
Jim Donaldson,
Your comment is excellent! Put the comment “Do not put large amounts of mayonaise in your tuna fish” in your article for those who do not already know this. Sensationalism in titles grabs attention and possible web site hits (to someone’s profit.) For a FREE, GOOD Blog on Nutrition for Healthy Longevity, see
my own MYSPACE Blogs, Display name: sterlingharris on MYSPACE.com.
Sterling
Totally agree with the fiber and diet bars being like candy. I would even apply that comment to almost any pre-made food.
Reading about poor tuna and olive oil. I make my tuna salad with olive oil, not mayo, add shredded carrots and finely chopped celery for a sandwich. Took a bit to give up the mayo, but really do not miss it now.