The truth about low fat and non fat foods

You would think that if you ate foods listed as low-fat and/or non-fat, it would be good for you. However, these foods all have extra sugar to make them taste just as good as the "regular" foods. For example, I was at Whole Foods the other day, buying yogurt. I of course wanted the non-fat yogurt. When I looked at the nutritional information, I saw that it contained more sugar than the regular plain yogurt.

I was talking about this to my best friend (a skinny bitch) who said that she'd rather have non-fat because fat is much worse than sugar. After some research, I found that she was wrong. Sugar, this is the white sugar, high fructose corn syrup (now known as corn sugar) and other man made sugars, is absorbed into our bodies very quickly. The process actually begins before the sugary food makes it to our stomach! Sugar and simple carbohydrates are turned into glucose and it spikes our blood sugar levels. It is possible that someone with a blood sugar reading of below 100 drinks a large grape soda, their new blood sugar could shoot over 200. A sugar reading of 200 or more means you're diabetic. Excessive glucose turns into fat regardless of the amount of calories you consume. The average American eats about two to three pounds of sugar a week.

This explains why I'm so fat. I used to eat a lot of sugary items. But even if I swore off all sugar, high corn fructose and other sugars are found in every processed food item. It's in our ketchup, our mustard, our spaghetti sauce.

So I try to stay away from sugar. I can't avoid it. I mean I'm not going to make my own spaghetti sauce because it's too time consuming. But I can limit the amount of sugar I eat. For example, I check all of the labels of non-whole foods to see how much sugar they contain. If it's more than 5 grams of sugar, I put it back. I stopped eating white rice and pasta made with enriched white flour. I'd rather go for the regular "full fat" items even if they contain more calories, as long as the item isn't hight in saturated or trans fat.

Eating more green leafy vegetables: Salmon with sauteed Swiss chard

The only time I ever ate a green leafy vegetable was on Thanksgiving or some other holiday, where my mother cooked a big ol' pot of collard greens. Vegetables had never really been my thing. But now that I'm older and obese, I have to eat these green veggies in order to lose weight and get healthy.

One of my favorite new vegetables is Swiss Chard. You've probably seen it next to the spinach and lettuce. I know that I always skipped over this particular vegetable, because I didn't know what it was and what it would taste like. I mean who wants to spend money on something you're not sure will even taste good? Chard has a similar taste to spinach, but it's a little sweeter.

This recipe features Swiss chard and salmon. Swiss chard is full of vitamins. One cup of cooked chard has about 44% of your daily recommended vitamin A. However it is deficient in vitamin D. Salmon is good source Omega-3 fatty acid as 1/2 a fillet of salmon has about 4.2 grams of monounsaturated fat (this fat helps lower your total cholesterol and and LDL cholersterol (the bad one) and raises your HDL cholesterol (the good one).  It contains about 5 grams of polyunsaturated fat (Omega 3), which also lowers your total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.

SALMON WITH SWISS CHARD

This recipe is simple and should take less than thirty minutes. You can add pasta to this dish as well. For dinner, I prefer to forego carbs at dinner because around that time, I'm resting and not burning those carbs. This recipe has a lot of calories that come from fat. Most of that fat is good fat. Every gram of fat equals 9 calories. 

Ingredients

About 20 leaves of Swiss chard

1 pound salmon (bones and skin removed)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. Wash Swiss chard (don't worry about drying the leaves) and discard the the thick stems (you can save those for later)
2. Cut salmon into 1-inch cubes and season with salt and pepper. 
3. Heat oil in a heavy pan and when the oil is hot, add salmon and cook for about 10 minutes or until the fish turns opaque and then remove from the pan.
4. Add garlic to the pan and stir immediately, making sure to scrap up any salmon bits. Cook garlic for no more than 30 seconds and then add the chard. Add salt and pepper. 
5. Cook chard until it reduces in size and is tender. Remove pan from the burner.
6. Toss salmon and any juices accumulated on the plate and toss with the Swiss chard. 
7. Time to serve!

Nutrition Info: 

Calories: 233 

Calories from fat: 125

Total fat: 14 g

Saturated fat: 2 g

Cholesterol: 62 mg

Sodium: 203 mg (doesn't include salt added into the meal)

Total carbohydrates: 3 g

Dietary fiber: 1g

Sugars: 1 g

Protein: 24 g

Vitamin A: 89%

Vitamin C: 36%

Calcium: 5%

Iron: 12%