Food still has it all!

We are often given warnings, especially by some companies that sell the 'milkshake' diets, that our food is toxic and poor in nutrient content. They imply that we will all be much better off drinking their shakes rather than eating what Mother Nature has to offer. Ha!

But then on the other hand, some food purists are forecasting that we are all going to develop all sorts of cancers and ambiguous genitalia because of all the chemicals in our foods. They stress that 'organic' is the only way to live. Well, that would be more than excellent, but organically grown produce is not always within reach of all of us, so what now?

Now we face reality. The truth is that not all chemicals and food additives are harmful. Some serve a very useful purpose. Another truth is that, although most producers use pesticides and chemicals in varying degrees, there are still more than sufficient levels of nutrients in fresh or frozen produce to justify their daily consumption! In fact, while the war between producers and food purists continues to rage, scientists have concluded that any potential risk from chemical residues is still outweighed by the benefit of the reduction in chronic diseases and nutrient deficiencies when adequate amounts of fruit and vegetables are consumed.

Avoiding foods for fear of consuming artificial chemicals will definitely result in a high-protein diet, as well as a diet high in fatly, sugary foods. The inevitable conclusion of such a diet is obesity and the resultant long-term diseases related to it, as well as malnutrition. Besides, sugar, starch and meat products are not free from added chemicals. So there, Eat your fresh produce!

Salads: sink or swim

Salads don't guarantee leanness. You can and probably often do, go right over the top with what goes into your salads. Again, establish beforehand what your intention is when you want to eat a salad: is it to be a meal on its own, an addition to the main course or a starter?

Most salad ingredients offer abundant nutrition and very few kilojoules. A large, 100 g pack of lettuce leaves contains a humble 67 kilojoules. Other green vegetables such as baby marrow, green pepper, cucumber and broccoli contain (on average) around 100 kilojoules per 100 g. Thus, enjoying a medium-sized salad bowl filled with a salad made of these ingredients, dressed with an oil-free dressing, will provide you with no more than about 140 kilojoules. This is a real bargain in the healthy slimming stakes. But go one further and dress the salad with two tablespoons of a simple, basic vinaigrette (oil and vinegar) dressing. Instantly you have 'bulked out' your salad with an additional 840 kilojoules - kilojoules you cannot taste as you would taste say a slice of rye bread or a baked potato (that you could enjoy with your salad), and kilojoules that cannot make you feel any fuller.

The plot thickens more when you take the sink-or-swim decision to add delicacies to your salad: cheese, meat, eggs, oily fish and olives. When you want to add any or all of these delicacies, go light on the dressing. Use an oil-free dressing. Furthermore, regard this kind of all-in-one salad as a meal rather than an addition to your meal. In that way you will balance the scales and not experience that sinking feeling when you weigh yourself the following day and find that you have consumed far-far more fat kilojoules than you were aware of. Even a simple, mixed vegetable salad, if dressed heavily with an oily or creamy dressing, will cause your kilojoule intake to soar and your once-crisp, fresh salads to be drowned in fat limp and unappetising.

The bottom line is this: if you choose to have something light such as a salad, keep it light.

Desserts: the big guilt trip

Desserts tend to evoke more feelings of guilt than any other item on the menu. And we know the reason why: most desserts are laden with fat and/or sugar and dessert is not really necessary to satisfy the appetite. It is the proverbial 'cherry on the cake'. Many of us have the mindset that we are only entitled to dessert if we have been 'good'. And very few of us ever feel that we have been 'good', because we feel that being overweight is already a symptom of being 'bad'. So we don't really feel entitled to it, but we have it anyway; it's irresistible; we are addicted to sugar. Then we feel bad about having had it and the guilt trip sets in, a guilt trip that can only be alleviated by some chocolate. By then we feel we are in so deep already that we might as well go all the way - another example of the vicious obesity cycle in full motion!

Follow a few simple rules about dessert and banish the guilt.

• Regard dessert is part of the menu, not 'over and above' it. Then, plan your menu accordingly, bearing in mind that the sugar and fat content of the dessert must make up part of the total intake of fats and carbos of the meal. In this way you will create the correct balance.

• Trade in sugar for fruit. Many fruits offer an abundance of natural sweetness, reducing the need for extra sugar in the recipe.
• If your recipe requires sugar, go for fructose. It is a natural fruit sugar with a very slow GI, thus keeping your blood sugar levels more even and thus preventing a further sweet craving later on.
• Trade in cream for yoghurt. Even Greek yoghurt contains much less fat (and therefore kilojoules) than cream. It also tastes cool and refreshing on the palate, ideal after any meal.
• Trade in ice cream for frozen yoghurt or sorbet. The fat content and therefore the kilojoule content is much less.
• Bear balance in mind. A heavy meal warrants a very light dessert - such as sorbet or fruit salad with yoghurt - and a light meal might justify the enjoyment of a small portion of richness - such as cheesecake or chocolate mousse.
• Don't have an all-or-nothing approach. It leads to a feeling of being deprived and that leads to bingeing. Have some - but just a little - and enjoy it without any guilt. Remember, guilt trips could cause hunger pains!

Does sugar make you fat?

Although obesity is not classified as a disease, it is associated with a variety of diseases and since it is a problem - or potential problem - for so many people, the role of sugar in its development and treatment needs to be looked at carefully.

Firstly, overweight, and later obesity, develop as a result of an imbalance between your energy intake (from food) and energy output (the energy used for daily living, including basic body functions and any exercise you do). When you take in more energy than you are using, the body stores the additional energy as body fat. The source of this extra energy is immaterial; it makes no difference where the additional kilojoules come from. In other words, it is not eating one particular food but rather eating too much overall that leads to weight gain. It is possible to put on weight by eating (or drinking) too much of anything.

In practice this would of course be extremely difficult in the case of bulky foods with a high moisture content - such as certain vegetables - simply because it would be difficult to eat enough of these foods to provide kilojoules in excess of your energy needs. By contrast, in the case of concentrated, energy-dense foods such as rich desserts, fried foods or chocolate, it is all too easy to eat enough to lead to an excessive energy intake. Sugar, being a carbohydrate, is not the worst offender in this respect - fat is a far more concentrated source of energy - and it has been said that sugar is often 'guilty by association' because many so-called 'fattening foods' are high in both fat and sugar. For example, in the case of chocolate, sugar contributes approximately 33°k of kilojoules, compared to the fat contribution of over 50%.

Studies have shown that fat people don't eat more sugar than lean people, neither do they have more of a sweet tooth. They do however tend to eat more fat. In the light of recent research this makes sense, since we now know that it is easier to become overweight by eating too much fat than by eating too much carbohydrate.

Fat vs sugar

There are several reasons why fat is a bigger culprit than sugar when it comes to the problem of overweight. To begin with, as mentioned above, fat is far more energy-dense than carbohydrate - a gram of fat provides 38 kilojoules, whereas a gram of carbohydrate provides only 17. Secondly, carbohydrate seems to have a so-called thermogenic' effect, that is, it pushes up the body's metabolic rate so that kilojoules are burnt up faster. Lastly, the process by which the body converts dietary fat into body fat is a very efficient one - only 3% of the kilojoules are lost along the way. By contrast, when the body converts dietary carbohydrate into body fat, 23% of the kilojoules are lost. In other words, when you eat carbohydrate, only 77% of the kilojoules from that food are available as energy for the body.

To prevent weight gain, therefore, the best diet to follow is one that is low in fat and high in carbohydrate. This does not mean a diet high in sugar - the recommended carbohydrates in this case are complex carbohydrates, or starches. You can, however, include a limited amount of simple carbohydrates or sugar in your diet without fear of becoming overweight, as long as the total energy value of the diet is in line with your energy needs. Remember, it is the balance between your energy intake and your energy output that counts, rather than the type of food you eat. People who burn up a lot of energy (through, say, regular exercise or even nervous tension) can therefore eat more of these foods without fear of gaining weight, than can those whose energy requirements are much lower.

Sugar and slimming

When it comes to weight reduction, however, sugar should be looked at more carefully. The basic principle of a slimming diet is to select foods that are high in nutritional value but low in energy, so that although your kilojoule intake is restricted, all your nutritional requirements are met. Sugar provides only energy, so it is the first thing that should be excluded from a slimming diet. Interestingly, though, there is a school of thought which suggests that from a psychological point of view, a small quantity of sugar may be included in a slimming diet to help prevent feelings of deprivation and resultant binges. This obviously depends on the individual - some people crave sweetness and provided they can limit their consumption of sweet foods to one 'treat' a day, it may not be necessary for them to eliminate sugar totally. Of course, if once you've opened a packet of sweets you can't stop until you've eaten the last one - or if you're one of the lucky ones who seldom craves `something sweet' - it would be simpler to cut out sugar completely!