Eating Healthy!

Today's paper gives those of us who are always worrying about our weight, more "food" for thought!

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler has written a book about what he calls, "conditioned hyper eating". This is described as a willpower sapping drive to eat high fat, high sugar foods, even when we're not hungry. Oh, boy! How stupid am I not to have written that?

Anthony Robbins put it quite simply several years ago: "Food tastes good!"

Tonight, on The Biggest Loser (8:00 p.m. Eastern), they are going to show us how to shop at the supermarket for healthy food that will help us stay on track! Since I want to watch baseball, I will tell you a really good trick for shopping healthy and I am sure someone will let me know if they touch on this.

Shop the outside walls of the supermarket. That is where the "safe" food is. Of course - and all due respect to my friend, Daisy - do not go near the Bakery area! Linger as long as you like at the fresh veggies and fruits, especially the veggies. Meat is on the outside as is dairy - soy milk and yogurt preferably - are there. Have you thought about using ground turkey instead of ground beef? Fish is a very good bet, just don't fry it!

Have you thought about only eating 4 ounces of meat, if you have meat at all? Veggies are our best bang for our calories. Do check out your salad dressing and make sure it is low in calories; read the label carefully!

Now, I am not an expert, but I do know the basics of what we should eat to be healthy and fit. I do know that we are motivated to eat badly by our emotions and when we feel bad, we eat! Of course, when we celebrate, we eat! When we dine out, we eat and we are not sure exactly how everything stacks up calorie-wise. We eat out more these days because of our hectic lives.

Of course, the truth is that food is marketed in such a way that any of us who are emotional eaters - and that is a very high percentage of us - will taste it and eat as much as is placed in front of us. At restaurants, portions are BIG!

Will power should be bottled and consumed like water whenever we feel like a meal at a fast food outlet!

Sonic, Burger King, McDonald's, and Jack-in-the-Box all sell beautiful salads. If you just eat the salad, okay, but take a look at the calories listed on the packet of dressing they give you. (In fairness, some places do stock low cal dressings, if you ask for them.) If you Google any of the chains, you will find they do list the calories and nutrition breakdown for every item on their menus. It is not classified information. (If you stay in your car, perhaps you can keep a bottle of your own dressing in that box between the seats - in a ziploc bag so it won't spill!)

Remember, all these fast food companies are in business to make money and they are not about to make a lot of money by telling you stuff your Momma used to tell you when you were a kid! We're adults now and we like to make our own choices. (Sometimes we just have difficulty making good choices!)

Perhaps, some day, years from now, long after I am gone, like cigarettes, they will have big warning signs. Can you see the massive signs over the fast food outlets proclaiming, "Science shows our food may make you fatter", just under the number proclaiming how many have been sold?

Now, I don't want to be sued by anyone and you need to know that we balance our portfolio (such as it is these days) with stocks exactly like McDonald's. Good stock to own! Why wouldn't they be?

If you are really wanting to learn more about how to eat and exercise to bring your weight down, do visit richardsimmons.com.