Wedding Wednesday: Eat More & Lose Weight With Volumetrics
You know that moment when you order something at a restaurant and they bring you a platter for a plate? 76 percent of chefs surveyed say they serve ‘regular size portions’. Oh, and 90% of the serving sizes for pasta exceeded serving size standards. Don’t trust chefs to help you eat healthy. So all of those wedding celebration parties your fab friends are hosting for you at restaurants…brides beware! So why do we eat such high calorie meals? The number one influence of calories on a plate for chefs is plate presentation. More looks better on big plates! The bottom influencer though, is calorie content.
Is the solution to simply eat less food? No. You can eat more food, get more nutrients and still eat less calories. We call it vegetables, fruit and air. Okay, actually we call it volumetrics. (image)
The concept of volumetrics gives us awesome stats like this:
- Serving larger portions of fruit at a meal increases fruit intake by 70%
- Using fruit or vegetable purees in things like breads, daily calorie intake decreases by 11% for kids with similar stats for adults.
If you remember that platter…er, plate, from the restaurant, think about how it would look filled with veggies in addition to the meat and potatoes. Or if we used veggie puree in that pasta sauce? Elie Krieger, tv cooking diva and registered dietitian as well as author Barbara Rolls, gave some totally usable suggestions for using stealth veggies in every day cooking during the FNCE session 'Is Eat Less the Best Message?'
Ways to use a puree:
- Ready to use: pumpkin, apple sauce
- Just blend: bananas, blended cauliflower
- Cook-blend: carrots, potato
Volumetrics Every Day for Wedding Wellness:
- Want chips? Try popcorn instead like Boom Chicka Pop which uses a variety of corn that makes each kernel seem bigger! Or, try my nori chili popcorn recipe for a spicy treat.
- Take your breakfast syrup and make a fruit puree, using maple syrup as a sweetener.
- Incorporate air into your life! Used puffed cereal.
- Try whipped butter. 1 tablespoon of butter is 100 calories. Whipped butter is 65 calories.
- Have a smoothie.
- Make frozen banana snack and let it really whip!
- Make a big salad and top it with dinner. So you could have that pathetic tiny dish of pasta, or you could have artisnal greens with chopped chicken, apples, walnuts and avocado on top. Just a thought.
- Skip sliced cheese and grate it instead. Less is more over a biiiiig area.
