PAST PICKS JULY 2008

A special shout out to our clients in Long Island:  Warren Levi Karate and Martial Arts studio in Lawrence is offering a two-week complimentary trial in the program of your choice.  Choose from Shotokan Karate, Abs & Jump Rope, Boot Camp or Muay Thai (The Art of the Eight Limbs).  So while you're kicking some bad eating habits with us, why not kick it up a notch with him!    Click here to print out a flyer.

Before you get lulled into a false sense of complacency about the relationship between fat and cancer, I say it’s no coincidence that 3 of the many newsletters that I subscribe to arrived in the mail all in the same day a week or two ago and each of them brought back to reality that nothing good comes from being overweight!  Environmental Nutrition reported on a recent joint endeavor by the American Institute for Cancer Research and its European counterpart, the World Cancer Research Fund, who conducted the most comprehensive look ever at the evidence linking cancer to diet, weight and physical activity.  Particularly striking is the report’s emphasis on overweight——not only does the science show that overweight and obesity increase the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer and cancers of the colon, pancreas, kidney, endometrium and esophagus, but research now shows that in the United States excess body fat is second only to cigarette smoking as an avoidable cause of cancer.  The recent issue of Lifeline (issued by the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization) pointed out that if there’s one piece of advice they would give women who have (or have had) breast cancer it would be to get their weight under control, that doing so may give them an edge in survival and help to prevent recurrence.  Fat tissue raises estrogen levels, and estrogen plays a role in certain breast cancers.  Fat also produces insulin, and insulin can promote tumor growth.   Finally, the Mayo Clinic newsletter had a great article about cancer and weight, which you can read in its entirety on the Articles page.  So, ladies and gentlemen … repeat after me:   Slim is good.  Fat is bad.

Combine 2 TBS of balsamic vinegar with 1 TSP brown Splenda (or a sugar-free maple syrup).  Drizzle the mixture over a medium tomato.  Add a twist of pepper, and a few fresh basil leaves, and yummmmmeee.

Want to jazz up your just-cooked brown rice in seconds?  Add a half-cup (more or less, based on the amount of rice you make) of mixed, finely chopped basil, parsley, cilantro, arugula and/or spinach and some halved small red and yellow cherry tomatoes.  Finish it off with a drizzle of olive oil (or a couple sprtzes of olive oil cooking spray), a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Deee-lish.  Even your kids will eat it.

Purée the following in a food processor:  a 15-oz. can (drained and rinsed) Great Northern, navy or other white beans, 2 TBS extra virgin olive oil, 1 clove garlic, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.   Serves 4:  ½ cup (or 8 TB) = ½ P + ½ FT.

I actually found a low-calorie, low-fat chocolate bar snack.   It’s not the super-size bar  that we used to think was normal-size that got us fat, but, you’re gonna like ‘em, believe me.  Of the many products CocoaVia makes, I’m recommending only two of them because these they fit into our program, both in terms of calories and fat content——CocoaVia Chocolate Snack Bar and the CocoaVia Almond Snack Bar.  At 80 calories per snack, with only 2 grams of fat and 6 and 8 grams of sugar, respectively, they’re a welcome treat.  I know they sell them at CVS and Walgreen pharmacies, but, don’t go shlepping around town to find them.  Go onto the Coca Via website and use their‘store locator.  I already did that using the zip codes for each of our four locations and a whole bunch of places pop up.  Or, you can order them online.  For our kosher clients, be advised that in response to an email I sent, CocaVia tells me “these products are not kosher at this time.”  Hopefully, that means they’re working on it.  Either of these two bars = either 1 M or 1.  Visit the site at www.cocoavia.com.

With an average of 70 calories in each TBS of a typical regular salad dressing, you can easily turn an otherwise low-calorie salad into a high-calorie nightmare.  Light dressings and vinaigrettes do cut half the calories, and fat-frees cut even more——but one careless twist of the wrist and you can easily drown your veggies in too many calories, too much salt, or both.  Enter Wish-Bone Salad Spritzers.  Each spray is only one calorie’s worth of dressing.  The serving size on the bottle is 10 sprays per one cup of salad = 10 calories.  You could easily use twice that much (but who really needs it) without putting your calorie budget in peril.  (Sodium is a different story.  With about 90-100 milligrams per 10 sprays, be smart … don’t stray too far from the 10-spray serving.  Great flavors:  Balsamic Breeze, Italian Vinaigrette, Red Wine Mist, Caesar Delight, Asian Silk, Ranch and Honey Mustard Buzz (which is, by the way, great on a turkey sandwich or hamburger).  The relatively small 7 oz. bottle is also great to throw in our bag to a restaurant.

This is one instance where it’s OK to cut the cheese (sorry, I couldn’t resist).  Finally, there’s a low calorie cheesecake that actually tastes like a higher fat cheesecake.  I tasted a sliver of a piece that a client brought in for me to try; then I checked out the website.  I was thrilled to see that in addition to the larger family size cakes, all higher in calories and fat, they also make a Portion Controlled Personal Size Cheesecake (that’s the actual name of it).  It is, however, a little higher in fat than what is considered ‘low fat’ (FDA allows a product to be called ‘low fat’ if it is 3 grams of fat or less per one serving) so it shouldn’t be indulged in on a regular basis.  Only 1 pre-portioned serving per box at 90 calories = 1 Milk.  Their web site gives you supermarkets and specialty shops that sell them, but, unfortunately, only in New York (several in Brooklyn, one in Lawrence, NY).  However, the site also provides two phone numbers to call if you want to order a bunch and freeze them.  www.saycheesegourmet.com