Let them eat... candy!

Hello! I'm back to writing after a long absence complete with plenty of changes and new adventures in the world of nutrition, food and wellness.  I am starting this blog up again with some short posts starting with this excellent article on how to handle Hallowe'en candy with your kids. I think there are lessons in here for all of us - what stands out for me the most is giving ourselves permission vs. restriction - which quickly amplifies our desire! I've been experimenting with this lately and find just telling myself I can have as much as I want of whatever it is I'm eating, or want to eat takes away the 'charge'. I find myself actually forgetting about whatever it was that was dancing around in my brain distracting me from my work a few minutes before.

click here for Ellyn Satter's article on the Sticky Topic of Hallowe'en Candy.

Beans – How to Eat Them… Quietly

Beans are a supremely valuable, nutritious food. They are delicious, versatile, easy to use, cheap, convenient and pretty much last forever.
Some people, however, have bad digestive experiences when they eat beans and understandably shy away from them. Beans can cause gas and digestive distress because of the resistant starches (carbohydrates) they contain, which are broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. These bacteria produce methane and sulphur compounds, i.e. gas, in the process. This can be really uncomfortable and well – unpleasant for everyone. But there are things you can do:

1) Experiment: Some beans are less ‘offensive’ than others and are better tolerated/more digestible. If one type of bean caused you distress, try others until you find a better match for your digestion. Here are a few tips to guide you: Soy- edamame and tempeh are usually better tolerated than other soy products (common offenders to avoid are TVP, soy grits and soy flour). Pink beans have higher concentrations of resistant starches than black beans, anasazi beans and apparently chickpeas. I find chickpeas, red kidney beans and lentils hardest to digest and I take the steps below so that I can eat AND enjoy them. 

2) Soak’em! : Soaking dried beans allows time for the carbohydrates to absorb water. Cooking speeds this process and softens them at the same time, however it is not a replacement for soaking. Many of the resistant starches are dissolved out of the beans and into the soaking water as well, which reduces the amount consumed. Soak beans overnight, discarding the soaking water and then simmer long and slow in fresh cooking water or use a pressure cooker. For this same reason, always rinse canned beans. The thick liquid they are packed in is full of resistant starches. So give them a good rinse before eating. 

3) Cook them properly: Bean are often undercooked and/or cooked too fast. A properly cooked bean should easily mash on the roof of your mouth with little tongue pressure. Cook soaked beans with Kombu – a sea vegetable that helps tenderize the resistant starches. Drop in a 2 or 3 inch piece to your beans while they are cooking. It may dissolve or you can fish it out once the beans are tender and discard the kombu. Eden Organics brand canned beans are soaked and then cooked with kombu.

4) Chew more than you think you need to: Digestion of starches starts in the mouth with salivary enzymes. Most people eat quickly and wash down chunks of food with drinks instead of chewing. The result - food passes to the stomach in large pieces with little effect from salivary enzymes. While beans do contain carbohydrates resistant to these enzymes, chewing ensures the beans are mixed with salivary enzymes so they can get a head start on these carbohydrates and also ensure that the beans are ground up to have more surface area so pancreatic enzymes released into the small intestine can do their work. Smaller bean pieces also mean that bacteria that finish digesting the resistant carbohydrates in your intestines can do so relatively easily and cause less digestive distress in the process. I can’t stress enough how much of a difference it makes to my digestion when I chew my beans very well vs. eat in a hurry and swallow larger pieces. Try it. You’ll be surprised. 

4) Grow happy gut bacteria: One of the reasons people get such smelly gas when they eat beans is that they dont' have many of the bacteria that readily digest the resistant starches in beans (and don't produce much sulphur in the process).  This makes sense, they aren't going to grow where there's no food (i.e. resistant starches). Other bacteria take over the job, and well, they stink at it! ;).   If you feed them, they will come... Building up a strong, healthy digestive system with a healthy, diverse gut bacterial population takes a little time, but is one of the most important things you can do for your health in general and you will magically be able to digest beans with little effect. Ways to promote the growth of beneficial gut bacteria include: eating unpasteurized fermented foods (sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt, kimchee, miso, tempeh etc.), eating pre-biotics: foods that act as food for beneficial gut bacteria (bananas, artichokes, garlic, onions and... beans), avoiding anti-biotic sources (many factory farmed meats and farmed fish) and finding ways to manage stress levels which greatly affects digestion and bacterial populations (see my link to Relaxation Resources).
 

5) Start slow: If you are sensitive to beans try introducing them very slowly. Eat tiny amounts of beans (a spoonful of hummus, a swallow of soymilk, a few kidney beans) every day for a couple weeks then gradually increase the amount. You should be able to increase your tolerance this way and enjoy this delicious protein source . 

New Years Resolutions - A Better Way

An excellent article from Maya Naumann on how restricting foods just doesn't work. I love her slogan - All Foods Can Fit. Making space for the foods you love, whatever they may be, takes away some of their "power" or their forbidden appeal. When you know you can have more tomorrow, you're much more likely to notice when you've had enough today. Check out her website here for more on the non-diet approach.

January 2010 edition of Maya’s Sound Bites
15 Years ago, when I was 19, I had my first serious boyfriend. John was an American. He spent a year in Cape Town, then went to the US for a few months to work, back to Cape Town for a further year, then he returned to the US to study. A few months later, I went to visit him. This relationship gave me several opportunities for goodbyes, where I didn’t know how long it would be before I saw him again, if ever.
Those days, before the Big goodbye, we behaved strangely. Part of what that involved, has helped me to understand why dieting does more harm than good.
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Ignoring or listening?
The night before a looming goodbye, at around 22:00, my eyes would get scratchy and I would start yawning and feel a dip in my energy level- my body indicating to me that it needed sleep. I would, of course, fully ignore my body and stay up all night talking to John, because I knew that the hours were numbered and that I would not have the opportunity again for some time. A higher objective allowed me to tune this subtle prodding from my body out completely. Now, many years later, my husband sometimes tries to start a conversation with me at 22:00 (when I am really sleepy) I can tell him to hold the thought till morning or another day, because I need to go to bed. There is no urgency. I see him every day, and he is with me to stay. I am able to follow the lead my body gives, most of the time.
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Saying goodbye to favourite foods?
This is the time of year when the end of the festive season often prompts people to swear off all sorts of favourite foods. I’ve heard several conversations, read blogs and new year’s resolution articles to the effect. No more chocolate, sugar, dairy, meat, bread, beer, wine, fast food- or whatever the individual deems as damaging to his or her trim waistline – until an acceptable weight is reached. The forbidden food is shunned- kitchen cupboards are cleared, the food-chains come back on and the holiday excesses are replaced by restraint.
What my experience in a long distance relationship taught me is that the restraint causes (or at least contributes to) the excess - not the other way around!
Try noticing and responding to the subtle message from your body as you are eating your favourite ice cream – it starts with “wow, that’s really delicious, I’m really enjoying it”. Then, after a while it changes to “it’s getting a bit sweet now, I think I’ve had enough of that vanilla flavour, not much more space in here, please stop eating!”
If you know you can have the ice-cream again when you want to, it’s not hard to stop here, completely satisfied.
Try that again when you know that you will not be seeing ice-cream again for who knows how long. It is virtually impossible to hear (not to mention respond to) these communications when there is the knowledge that this will not be available again in the foreseeable future.
Instead of cutting these foods out completely, setting yourself up for another trip on the dieting merry-go-round, how about trying some more reasonable resolutions for the new year?
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New Years resolutions that stand a chance:
Instead of spending time trying to prevent yourself from eating certain foods, spend time learning how to do it really well when you do.
The key word here is “when”. If you accept the fact that there will be times when you eat chocolate/ice-cream/pizza etc, then you understand that it is necessary to be a competent chocolate/ice-cream/pizza eater. If, in the back of your mind you think that you ought not to be eating these foods anyway, and that the perfect version of yourself never touches them, you don’t bother learning how to eat them, because you have the expectation to stop doing so in future (when you become the perfect version of yourself) and don’t see the point in learning a skill you won’t have to use in the long term.
Try to let go of the idea that the ideal diet does not contain certain things, and accept that all foods can fit.
All foods can fit is the slogan of the South African Dietetics Association, so I’m not alone in preaching this! The question is, when you eat sweets, what is the “right” way of eating them? A few tips to get you going:

1. Don’t eat sweets instead of food. If you meet your appetite needs regularly throughout the day with balanced meals, it doesn’t take much to satisfy a sweet tooth.
2. Savour each bite. Eat slowly, take pleasure in the texture and flavour of what you’re eating.
3. Make a point of giving yourself permission to eat before you do.
4. If you are feeling ambivalent about a food choice - i.e. you feel torn between the part of you that wants to eat and the part of you that judges it as “bad”, you’ll have to ignore part of yourself when you eat. You force yourself to be fragmented, not the intuitive, attentive person you need to be to really tune in to your body. You’ll eat fast and you’ll eat guiltily, and it won’t be a good, satisfying experience. Because it is not satisfying, you’ll have to repeat it or have more to get the feeling you are after and end up overeating.

Family Dinners

The pace of life today can make family meals feel difficult, but with a bit of planning, a look at priorities and an understanding of just how beneficial they are, most of us can find time for at least one or two a week. If you live alone or with roommates you can take part as well... perhaps by having a friend over for dinner once a week or sharing a meal with your roomie. However you do it, and no matter what you serve, taking time to sit down to a meal at the table tells your family and friends (and yourself!) that you are worth the time and effort. It's a very nourishing act.

Here is a great post on the importance of family meals and making time to sit down together from my friend Amy, mother and full time worker.

Ellyn Satter is also an excellent resource for feeding families. See the side bar for links to her website.

Enjoy!