Fast Food Menus Offer Healthier
Alternatives to High-Fat Meals
Excerpt By Judy Creighton, The Canadian Press

Feeling guilty about noshing on fatty, junky fast food because you're just too busy? "Many of the foods served by fast-food restaurants are high in fat and calories," says nutritional consultant Rose Reisman, "but if you examine the menu carefully, you will find plenty of lower-fat healthier choices."

Instead of nachos with cheese sauce (20 chips and 60 ml/¼ cup sauce equals 500 calories and 34 g fat) she suggests baked potato with vegetables, grated cheese, salsa and light sour cream.

In fact, Reisman believes most fast food outlets are trying to offer healthier choices to their customers. "But it's still a matter of asking, reading and taking control," she says.

In June, McDonald's launched a lighter menu of salads, veggie burgers and low-fat yogurt parfaits.

"In the last year and a half, people's tastes changed dramatically and they were asking us for different choices on our menu," says Bill Johnson, McDonald's president.

And if a restaurant doesn't offer healthier choices, Reisman says, "then ask for some specific food items or dishes prepared in a certain way. Most restaurants will try to cater to you."

This is but one of the many suggestions she offers in her latest book The Art of Living Well: Light Cooking and Eating to Fit the Way We Live (Penguin).

The book contains 150 new low fat recipes from her Toronto kitchen, gives advice on how to overcome obesity, fad diets, harried food shopping and eating out on the run and examines the reasons people eat poorly.

"About 32 per cent of all cancers are caused by what we eat," says Reisman, who donates 25 per cent of the proceeds from book sales to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. She has raised more than $1 million for the cause through sales of her previous cookbooks.

With obesity rates among children dramatically increasing (24 per cent of girls and 26 per cent of boys between seven and 13 are overweight) she suggests parents start educating their youngsters early about healthy eating.

"My kids (she has four) go to other people's houses and they are offered potato chips, double cheese pizzas, hot dogs and Oreo cookies," Reisman says. "They understand that they can have small portions of these high-fat, salt-laden things, but because their tastebuds have been educated they want healthier snacks.

"If we could educate kids at a younger age we are going to save the next generation from illness and we are going to give them a healthier start in life."

On fad diets, Reisman takes aim at the popular low-carbohydrate and high protein regimes.

"When you don't eat carbs, you body lacks glucose, its only fuel source," she says. "On this diet while you are burning fat your body survives by forming ketones through a process called ketosis, which gives you the fuel your body needs."

But ketosis will increase the blood level of uric acid, which is a risk factor for kidney stones and gout. As well, eating only protein, especially meat products full of saturated fat, can be damaging to your heart and increase cholesterol levels.

Reisman also frowns on weight loss plans that provide pre-packaged, ready-to-go meals.

"The only path to successful weight loss is learning how to prepare foods yourself from nutritious ingredients and learning how to eat away from home."

She prefers lifetime weight management which meets the nutritional recommendations of Canada's Food Guide to Health Eating. In this, individuals can eat a wide variety of foods in proper amounts to obtain healthy weight loss and maintenance.

"It's really about moderation coupled with regular exercise," she says.

The book offers advice on nutritional requirements, how to maintain heart health, how to eat well when you're run off your feet, how to shop "light" and how to put together a "light" kitchen.

To learn more about Reisman's books and cooking school, log on to her Web site at www.rosereisman.com

Reference Source 114

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