Eat This, Not That: Chipotle

BY TRACY

David Zinczenko and Matt Gould­ing co-authored a series of books called “Eat This, Not That”, which out­lines what you should and should not be eat­ing when eat­ing out. Today we cover Chipo­tle, a seem­ingly easy and healthy choice when faced with a fast food lunch. How­ever, David and Matt give it a C– (worse than McDonald’s!) and say only with a care­ful selec­tion and small por­tions can you eat healthy here.

“There are only a few bad items on Chipotle’s menu: the 290-calorie flour tor­tillas, the 130-calorie serv­ings of white rice, and the 570-calorie por­tions of chips. Unfor­tu­nately, with Chipotle’s pared-down menu, these are the sta­ple comestibles that form the back­bone to most meals. With­out real­iz­ing it, the care­less cus­tomer can eas­ily con­struct a thousand-calorie bur­rito. Drop some chips along­side it, and the meal reaches dan­ger­ous lev­els of calo­ries, fat, and sodium. Still, Chipo­tle gets bonus points for using respon­si­ble, sus­tain­able pur­vey­ors like Niman Ranch to fill out their fridges.”

Sur­vival Strat­egy: Chipo­tle assures us that they’ll make any­thing a cus­tomer wants, as long as they have the ingre­di­ents. With fresh salsa, beans, let­tuce, and grilled veg­eta­bles, you can do plenty of good. Unfor­tu­nately, with 13-inch tor­tillas, cheese, and huge scoops of white rice, you can do plenty of harm, too. Stick to one of our 450-calorie favorites: Three crispy tacos with car­ni­tas, black beans, let­tuce, and fresh salsa.

What are your daily food sur­vival strate­gies? Share your ideas by click­ing “Com­ments” above.

Happy Hanukkah! 3 Healthy Oils

Honor the mirac­u­lous oil in a dif­fer­ent way: by iden­ti­fy­ing and cel­e­brat­ing some of the most health­ful and nutri­tious edi­ble oils in the world. Use these to dress your sal­ads, sauté your veg­eta­bles and more! Opt for low lev­els of sat­u­rated fat, com­bined with high lev­els of monoun­sat­u­rated and/or polyun­sat­u­rated fat. Look out for other nutri­ents like omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids, too. We used the Cleve­land Clinic’s guide to healthy cook­ing oils as a ref­er­ence, but be sure to check out their com­plete infor­ma­tion here.

Almond
Sat­u­rated Fat: 7 per­cent*
Monoun­sat­u­rated Fat: 65 per­cent
Polyun­sat­u­rated Fat: 28 per­cent
With a high ratio of monoun­sat­u­rated to sat­u­rated fat, almond oil is one of the health­i­est options out there.

Extra Vir­gin Olive Oil
Sat­u­rated Fat: 14 per­cent
Monoun­sat­u­rated Fat: 78 per­cent
Polyun­sat­u­rated Fat: 8 per­cent
The most well known of the health­i­est oils, extra vir­gin olive oil is prob­a­bly best known for its role in pro­tect­ing the heart by boost­ing “healthy” HDL cho­les­terol. It may also help to lower can­cer risk.

Avo­cado
Sat­u­rated Fat: 17 per­cent
Monoun­sat­u­rated Fat: 65 per­cent
Polyun­sat­u­rated Fat: 18 per­cent
Avo­cado oil is a lit­tle higher in sat­u­rated fat than most of the nut oils, but it may play a role in pre­vent­ing gum dis­ease as well, mak­ing it a great option.

Learn more→

In Season! 5 December Superfoods

1– Mush­rooms

Why we love them: Mush­rooms pro­vide a burst of fla­vor with­out adding many calo­ries. A num­ber of vari­eties have antivi­ral, immunity-bosting and anti-inflammatory proper­i­ties, WebMD reported. Cer­tain kinds, like shi­itake, may lower cho­les­terol and fight can­cer. They’re also rich in sele­nium, says Van­dana Sheth, R.D., C.D.E., reg­is­tered dietit­ian and spokesper­son for the Acad­emy of Nutri­tion and Dietet­ics. This antiox­i­dant pro­tects against heart dis­ease, aging and some can­cers, she says, and is often found in meat, mak­ing mush­rooms a good pick for vegetarians.

How to enjoy them: “One of the eas­i­est ways to enjoy is in a salad raw,” says Sheth. “Or, sauté in a lit­tle olive oil and gar­lic. You get a lit­tle extra kick and still retain the nutri­ents,” she says. You can also try chop­ping the ‘shrooms, stir fry­ing them and serv­ing on top of toasts as a take on bruschetta.

2– Bok Choy

Why we love it: While its rel­a­tive, cab­bage, made our Octo­ber list, bok choy, which hits peak sea­son in win­ter months, car­ries many of the same ben­e­fits, says Sheth. “It’s a good source of vit­a­min K, which plays a role in healthy bones, and research shows a con­nec­tion between vit­a­min K and pos­si­bly some kind of ben­e­fit with Alzheimer’s,” she says.

How to enjoy it: “The sim­plest way is just steamed or stir fried,” says Sheth. And be care­ful not to over­cook it, which can sap both nutri­ents and fla­vor from the leafy green.

3– Broc­coli

Why we love it: Broccoli’s healthy rep­u­ta­tion is well deserved. It’s loaded with fiber and vit­a­min C, low in calo­ries and has one of the high­est antiox­i­dant rat­ings around, says Sheth. Broc­coli also boasts cal­cium, iron, potas­sium and vit­a­mins B, E and K for pro­tec­tion again can­cer, heart dis­ease, stroke, vision prob­lems, bone loss and more.

How to enjoy it: If you’re tired of the raw stuff in sal­ads or steam­ing it for stir fries, get cre­ative. Try it in a cozy soup or slice it extra thin for a broc­coli slaw.

4– Cele­riac

Why we love it: Also known as cel­ery root, this earthy bulb is rich in fiber, vit­a­min B6 and potas­sium. There’s been some sug­ges­tion that cele­riac can fight can­cer, espe­cially colon can­cer, says Sheth. Its peak sea­son ends in Decem­ber, she adds, so get it while you can.

How to enjoy it: Try roast­ing cele­riac along­side other fall and win­ter veg­gies, with a lit­tle olive oil and fresh herbs and spices. “Enjoy it as a side dish or toss it on top of sal­ads,” Sheth suggests.

5– Gar­lic

Why we love it: This aro­matic bulb can pro­tect against cer­tain can­cers and help fight off bac­te­ria and viruses. Allicin, a com­pound found in gar­lic and its cousins, onions, “is a big source of can­cer pro­tec­tion,” Sheth says.

How to enjoy it: “You can get the ben­e­fits from a sup­ple­ment, but there’s noth­ing like eat­ing it,” she says. “It adds so much fla­vor to everything!”

A December to Remember

Check out the blog daily for health arti­cles, moti­va­tion tips, fit­ness tools, and nutri­tion advice… and leave com­ments! We get lonely when we don’t hear from you!

Today’s arti­cle is from Kristin Kirk­patrick, a reg­is­tered dietit­ian and well­ness man­ager for The Cleve­land Clinic Well­ness Insti­tute, and pro­vides some moti­va­tion for food journals.

Here are few per­spec­tives on why food diaries are impor­tant (and effective):

Account­abil­ity: Writ­ing every­thing down and see­ing your daily intake increases your per­cep­tion of how much you actu­ally eat.

Makes you stop before you chomp: The extra help­ing of ranch dress­ing in your salad, the candy bar you picked up when you got gas for your car, even the sec­ond drink you had at din­ner. They could all add up to another 150–650 extra calo­ries through­out the day, yet we tend to for­get about these lit­tle food extras and instead focus on our main meals. When it comes to food, even a lit­tle adds up.

Helps to truly por­tion out your foods: When indi­vid­u­als are asked to keep a food diary, they often must mea­sure all their food for the most accu­rate assess­ment. I find that many peo­ple mea­sure food based on the bowl or plate the food is eaten on. For exam­ple, some­one may say they have a “medium bowl of cereal” in the morn­ing when in fact, after mea­sure­ment, it is deter­mined they actu­ally have a very large serv­ing. Once indi­vid­u­als use more accu­rate meth­ods of mea­sure­ment, they have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of their over­all por­tion distortion.

Ties in the con­nec­tions to stress, emo­tion, tim­ing and loca­tion: I often ask my clients to jot down not only their food choices and amounts but also the time of day, loca­tion and emo­tional level dur­ing their meal or snack. This can help peo­ple assess how stress may be con­trol­ling their food choices. For exam­ple, a client of mine real­ized that she con­sumed large amounts of choco­late and fried foods after inter­ac­tions with one of her fam­ily mem­bers. The fam­ily mem­ber was clearly a trig­ger to unhealthy eat­ing but only after see­ing the con­nec­tion on paper did my client real­ize this. Another client real­ized he was going six or seven hours in between meals and would gorge because he was so hun­gry. Many clients are shocked that dur­ing the entire day, not one meal was con­sumed at a table but rather on the couch in front of the TV or in the car. One of my clients real­ized after she com­pleted her food diary that she ate all her meals stand­ing up and because she was not focus­ing on her food but rather every­thing else around her, she ate much more than intended.

Wanna know more? Read the full article →

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