I am doing beans such a disservice by repeating that rhyme, because they truly are among the best foods around. First the nutrition – they have all sorts of good nutrients, including protein (good for vegetarians like me), folate, fiber, and several different minerals. They’re classified as a vegetable and as a stand-in for meat on the Food Guide Pyramid. And they’re really versatile. You can puree them into a dip, toss them onto a salad, use them in soup, add them to sauce. They’re easy to use straight out of the can, and they don’t cost very much. And if you eat them often, their “side effects” diminish.

The Dietary Guidelines say to eat at least 3 cups of legumes (dried beans, peas, lentils) every week. That’s certainly doable if you’re eating at home. What if you eat out a lot? Using some of the menus that we consulted for the meals in the 400 Calorie Fix and Prevention magazine, I went looking for beans and bean dishes in restaurants. I’ve listed the obvious below. (Au Bon Pain is the clear winner!) Some restaurants may include beans in, say, a salad or a Mexican entrée, but you have to ask.

Fast Food

Chili’s
Black Bean Soup
Black Beans (side)
Southwestern Egg Rolls

Chipotle
Black Beans
Pinto Beans

KFC
BBQ Baked Beans
Three Bean Salad

McDonald’s
Premium Southwest Salad

Mexican (Taco Bell, Qdoba, Chipotle, and friends)
Refried beans

Popeye’s
Red Beans & Rice

Quiznos
Chili (maybe)

Roy Rogers
Baked Beans

Subway
Chili Con Carne

Taco Bell
½ lb. Cheesy Bean & Rice Burrito
7-Layer Burrito
Bean Burrito
Fresco Bean Burrito
Pintos ‘n Cheese

Casual and Sit-down

Atlanta Bread Company
Baja Chicken Enchilada Soup
Classic Beef Chili
Fire Roasted Corn and Black Bean Fiesta Salad
Frontier Chicken Chili

Au Bon Pain
Black Bean and Corn Salad
Black Bean Soup
Curried Rice and Lentil Soup
French Moroccan Tomato Lentil Soup
Hummus and Cucumber
Jamaican Black Bean Soup
Pasta e Fagioli Soup
Red Beans, Italian Sausage and Rice Soup
Southern Black-Eyed Pea Soup
Split Pea with Ham Soup
Vegetarian Chili
Vegetarian Lentil Soup

Chevy’s
Beans a la Charra
Black Beans
Refried Beans
Tostada Salad

Panera Bread
Low-Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

Ruby Tuesday
Garbanzo Beans (Fresh Garden Bar)
White Bean Chicken Chili

Maybe you saw the depressing Time Magazine article last August that questioned whether exercise does anything for weight loss. Sadly, the article concluded that most of us either don’t exercise enough or we eat more calories than we burn during activity. I remember reading a study years ago – forgive me for not remembering the exact details – about a group of men who ran the same mileage for a lot of years. Guess what? Their waist measurement still increased and they gained weight. And now, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that it took at least an hour of moderate activity every day to help prevent weight gain in normal-weight, middle-age women.

So can you use exercise to win the battle of the bulge? Absolutely, but …

• Be realistic about how many calories you burned and what that equals in food. The elliptical machine that I was on for 35 minutes today said that I burned about 350 calories. That’s about the calories in a medium-size vanilla cone at DQ. BTW, walking or running burns about 100 calories per mile, a bit less for walking and more for running.
• Pace your eating. You might need to eat a small meal/snack an hour or so before you exercise and then another one after.
• Use exercise to give your motivation a boost. Lots of folks tell me that being active makes them want to eat in a healthier way.
• Work with Mother Nature. Sad but true, your metabolism does slow down as you get older. That means you have to eat less than you did in the decade before.
• Add muscle and add movement. Keep up your muscle mass – it burns more calories than body fat. And move around often during your day rather than staying planted in front of the computer or TV, where your body doesn’t burn many more calories than when you’re sleeping.

A couple of days ago, a friend told me that she couldn’t keep sweets in the house because they set off uncontrolled eating. She wondered if she might be addicted to sugar or carbs. That same day, I came across the summary of a research article that appeared in the journal Nature Neuroscience about signs of fat addiction in a group of obese laboratory rats who were fed a high fat diet. And maybe you’ve heard about people who have undergone gastroplasty – stomach surgery that forces them to eat less – only to develop other “addictions” like smoking, drinking, or gambling.

I don’t know what course of action to recommend if you think you might be addicted to a certain type of food. Working as hard as you can to lose weight and, more importantly, keep it off for a long time, may be part of the answer. In the rat study above, only obese rats showed signs of fat addiction while thin rats did not. Personally, I found it easier and easier to avoid temptation the longer I maintained my weight loss (I gained 40 pounds in high school, lost it by the end of college, and am at about the same weight now).

Overcoming a food addiction is difficult and there’s no denying that sticking with new eating habits is hard. Remember to seek out whatever support maintain a healthier relationship with food, whether that support comes in the form of friends, family, a healthcare professional, books and recipes (like 400 Calorie Fix), or your own inner strength.

[ Photo credit: rallycat! via Flickr]

While I was working out at the gym this morning, I caught a commercial for Chili’s new $9.99 fresh pairings. The ad suggested a pairing of an appetizer of what looked like nachos plus a half rack of ribs. Certainly a budget bargain but also a gazillion calories. So I decided to explore a few money-savers at national chains to see if I could even come close to the 400-calorie mark by picking the lowest calorie options, as well as to see how high the calories might go. Keep in mind that you probably need 1,600 to 2,000 calories for the entire day.

So here’s my confession – I don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables. According to the soon-to-be-updated Dietary Guidelines, my daily diet should include about 4 1/2 cups, the equivalent of 9 servings. Or about 1/2 cup at breakfast and 2 cups each at lunch and dinner. And as a registered dietitian who rarely dines out, I have no excuse. How about people who eat a lot of restaurant and take-out meals?

When I was working on 400 Calorie Fix, I gathered menus from lots of restaurants. So here are a few different ways to hit the 2-cup mark in a lower calorie, lower fat way; many meals still exceed 400 calories. (I’ve chosen to leave off the fries, which are the most popular vegetable in the US.)You can forget the value or dollar menu; this is strictly an a la carte and more expensive deal.

At McDonalds:

• Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken (320 calories)
• Hamburger (250 calories), Premium Caesar Salad (no chicken) with low fat Italian dressing (150 calories), Apple Dippers (35 calories)

At Roy Rogers:

• Grilled Chicken Filet Sandwich (413 calories), side salad  without dressing (99 calories), baked apples (102 calories), fresh fruit cup (44 calories)

At Boston Market:

• 1/4 White Rotisserie Chicken, no skin (240 calories), fresh steamed vegetables (60 calories), seasonal fruit salad (60 calories)

When we were researching restaurant meals to include in the 400 Calorie Fix, we were shocked to find that eating the 400 calorie way is virtually impossible when you’re eating out. Portions are too big and they have too much fat – chef friends of mine brag about using butter with abandon. And try finding whole grains or beans on the menu. So I was pleased to read in the LA Times that restaurants are beginning to offer lower calorie fare on their menus. You’ll still find plenty of dishes with almost enough calories for the entire day. When you let a restaurant chef decide what and how much you should eat, weight gain shouldn’t come as a surprise. Here are a few tips for eating out sensibly:

1. Start your meal with a side salad, creamless soup, or bowl of fruit. According to research by Dr. Barbara Rolls, people who start their meal this way end up eating fewer calories.
2. Salad dressing on the side and used sparingly, always. At up to 100 calories per tablespoon, dressing can be the highest calorie part of your meal.
3. Enjoy less than a fist-sized portion of pasta, rice, or potatoes plus a palm-sized portion of meat, fish, or poultry. Take the rest home for tomorrow.
4. Wait at least 10 or 15 minutes before making a decision about dessert. Then order just one, with plenty of spoons.

The January 20 food section of the New York Times featured an article on the culture of snacking in the U.S., Snack Time Never Ends. In the article, columnist Jennifer Steinhauer laments the fact that American children are plied with snacks at every turn, in school, on the ball field, in the car, and at after-school activities. Certainly we snacked when I was a kid, but snacks were at set times, sometimes mid-morning, always mid-afternoon, and sometimes in the evening (back when my dad ate a piece of cherry pie while watching his favorite prime time shows). Snack had a mission – to quiet our hunger between meals, give us a kick of energy, and add nutrition. Not anymore. Snack is what kids do.

Now that I am of an age where I have to think about calories, I am very circumspect about my snacks. They have to be filling – I don’t want to down 300 calories in, say, a candy bar, just to be hungry 30 minutes later later. They have to be nutritious – every calorie really counts. They have a beginning, middle, and end – no non-stop snacking. And they have to taste good. That goes without saying. So here is a list of 5 great snacks for kids of all ages, in no particular order:

• Cookies and milk. Any kind of cookies (don’t kid yourself into thinking that some are that much healthier than others), as long as they weigh an ounce max (125-150 calories). Dunk in milk (80-100 calories per cup of skim or low-fat, and packed with calcium and protein).
• Peanut butter on graham crackers. For the peanut butter, smooth or chunky, natural or regular, whichever you like best (180 calories in 2 tablespoons); all types have a bit of protein, some fiber, and plenty of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. A couple squares of cinnamon (my favorite), honey, or chocolate have about 60 calories, and some brands are made from whole grain.
• Yogurt parfait. I don’t love super-sweet, so my parfait has a cup of calcium-rich low-fat plain yogurt (120-150 calories, depending on the brand) layered with a couple handfuls of cereal (maybe 80 calories) and a cup of frozen berries or half a banana, sliced (about 50 calories).
• Baked sweet potato. It’s a bit unusual, but what a great snack. Toss a medium-size sweet potato (100 calories) in the microwave until it’s mushy, slice open, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar or your favorite sweetener. It’s packed with fiber and important vitamins and minerals, and it’s really filling.
• Popcorn. Not movie theater popcorn. The stuff you make yourself in the microwave or in the air popper. Figure up to 100 calories for three cups. While it’s still hot, toss with 4 tablespoons of grated reduced fat cheese, any flavor (80 calories).

[ Photo credit: Denise Cross via Flickr ]

I got a lot of questions from the photo studio during the photo shoot for 400 Calorie Fix. Does the Cosi Signature Salad Light include bread in its 400-or-so calories? (No.) Do the 370 calories in the Baja Fresh Baja Ensalada with Savory Pork Carnitas include the extra packet of tortilla chips? (No.) What about the extra dressing or barbecue sauce tossed into the fast food bag? (No.) So I started thinking about restaurant calorie counts and how accurate they really are.

Researchers in Boston posed the same question in a study published in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. They found that the average actual calories in 29 different restaurant foods were slightly higher than what was stated, although some dishes has twice as many calories as the number posted. BUT, extra items that were provided free of charge along with the main item – bread, chips, and the like – more than DOUBLED the calories in the meal. So if you go into a quick-serve restaurant thinking that you’re ordering a 400 calorie meal, you might actually be served 800 calories.

How can you avoid falling into the calorie trap? Unfortunately, the folks serving your food probably don’t know which items are and are not included in the calorie calculations. So don’t even ask. Instead, you’ll need to do some sleuthing ahead of time on the restaurant website, or get ideas from the meals in 400 Calorie Fix.

Remember – if it looks like an extra food item, the calories probably are extra also. And the best news is that a growing number of restaurants are increasing their calorie-smart offerings, making it easier for you to follow your diet wherever you eat.

If you eat in New York City, Westchester County, New York, or any of a number of other cities and counties across the country, you may have noticed calorie counts on restaurant menus and signboards. Some of the numbers are reassuring – a plain cup of coffee at Starbucks is only 5 calories and a soft serve cone at McDonald’s weighs in at 150 (not many calories for a perfectly satisfying dessert). But others are pretty discouraging, like the 750-calorie tuna salad sandwich at my beloved Panera Bread; that’s almost half the calories I need for the whole day. I have to admit that the numbers on menus do affect what I order.

Not everyone notices the calorie counts or does anything about them. In fact, in some urban neighborhoods, patrons ordered higher calorie fast food meals when calories were posted. And in working on the 400 Calorie Fix, the new book that I co-authored with Prevention’s Liz Vaccariello, I learned that the average fast food order is over 800 calories! That’s why it is important to use calorie counts as a way to order a more sensible meal, like the study participants [http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/AJPH.2009.160226v1] who ordered 250 fewer calories when the restaurant supplied calorie info plus info on daily calorie needs.

Here are a few simple guidelines:

• Decide ahead of time on your own personal calorie limit, whether 400, 500, or 600 calories, and stick to it. (Adults generally need 1,600 to 2,000 or so calories per day.)
• Look for ways to fill up on lower calorie fare like salads (light dressing is best), non-creamy soups, and fruit. I’m also a big fan of yogurt parfaits.
• Save money by cutting your meal in half, making it last for two meals. Keep the leftovers in the fridge for no more than a day.

A growing number of supermarket chains have developed food rating systems to help shoppers make healthier food choices. Hannaford led the way with its Guiding Stars program that awards foods up to three stars, based on their nutrition value. Foods that score highly have more vitamins, minerals, fiber, and whole grains, and less fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, added sodium, and added sugars. The newest system, NuVal™, can be found in HyVee and Price Chopper markets. Food scores are calculated on a scale from 0 to 100; the higher the score, the higher the nutrition value. While these rating systems are helpful, common nutrition sense is important. Most of us should eat more fruits and vegetables, all types of fruits and vegetables rather than just those with the highest scores. And just because one cookie has a higher score than another doesn’t mean it’s okay to eat a bigger portion.