Dr. S: How do you feel about it now?
Stephanie: I’m so proud of him. A lot of his friends encouraged him and told him he looked great. There were many times he could have gone off of the diet, but he didn’t. His attitude is better—now he wants to try on clothes. I’m really proud of him.
Dr. S: Was it difficult for you to make changes in your home?
Stephanie: I pretty much took control of his diet and everyone in the family supported him. Jonathan’s diet consisted mostly of fast-food restaurants—Wendy’s, McDonald’s—and he ate pretty much everything he wanted to eat. In the beginning it was very hard for me because I had to learn for myself, as well, to buy the proper foods. Shopping was so much different than in the past.
Dr. S: Do you feel responsible for the way he was eating before, when he was gaining the weight?
Stephanie: I feel responsible because he ate what was given to him. A lot of junk food, a lot of high-fat foods, foods that I was brought up on. I fed him what I was accustomed to. So this was a change for both of us. My family as well. We drink Crystal Light now and eat Morningstar sausages and other veggie products. There’s food in our house that we never had before. He taught himself as well as the family.
Dr. S: So Jonathan’s healthier and responsible for helping everyone in your house to eat healthy and lose weight?
Stephanie: I guess you can say that.
Dr. S: I think I will. What advice would you give to a child who’s overweight?
Stephanie: Basically, to seek help and to be a leader. I would tell a mother to go out and seek help not just for her child but for everyone in the family.
Dr. S: At what point would you tell a mother to intervene?
Stephanie: Right away—I’m giving advice already.
When you think about it, what you’re really trying to do is introduce new foods and/or flip the ratio of foods in a typical meal. That is, where you once served a large platter of meat and made vegetables a side dish, you now want to focus on the vegetables and relegate the meat to a marginal role in the meal. In introducing new foods, be aware that it may take a kid a dozen, fifteen, even eighteen tries before he or she is willing to embrace a new food. Our advice? Keep bringing the food back over and over again in different guises or versions and just put it on the table.
Suppose you offered green beans one day and they didn’t get a great reception. Bring them back the next day in a soup, the next day in a stew, the next day on a pizza, the next day cold in a salad. Keep at it, and don’t be discouraged. In time, your child will begin to taste the new food, then to accept it, then to like it.
* * *
SNACK ATTACK
Commercials do sell products, which is bad news when so many TV ads are for unhealthy foods. When kids between the ages of seven and eleven were shown a half-hour cartoon interspersed with ads for food, they ate 45 percent more than did kids of the same age who watched the same cartoon with non-food-related ads. Ditto for adults: they snacked more while watching TV shows with ads for junk food than those with ads promoting healthful foods or good nutrition.
* * *
Another trick: disguise the healthy food in or as something already well known. Our nutritionist has created recipes for pizza, a smoothie and cookies that are actually soy-based—and no one ever realizes it. Dr. Shapiro once served soy sausages to a bunch of New York City firemen, and they scarfed them down with gusto. Serve kids fruit on top of French toast or as a fruit pizza topping, or hide vegetables in a tart, and they’ll think these foods are fun to eat.
You’ll find plenty of recipes and food comparison demonstrations in these pages that will help you provide healthy foods to your children in varied versions or in clever disguises.
In addition, here are some essential dos and don’ts for building a strong foundation of healthy eating for your children.
Don’t:
Make food a bargaining chip
Judge your child’s eating either in words or body language
Deprecate your own body image, weight or eating habits in front of your kids
Pressure your kids—about their appearance, achievements, etc.—such that they flee from the pressure into food
Isolate your overweight child from his or her siblings
Force your child to eat when he or she claims satiety or lack of hunger
Do:
Start early
Make mealtime as much fun as possible
Stock your larder with healthy snacks—after cleansing it of high-calorie foods
Set limits on computer and television time for your kids; two to four hours a day is way too much for bodies that are developing and growing
Serve small portions; if your child asks for a second helping, offer the lower-calorie foods first
Encourage exercise by taking a walk with your kids, playing catch with them, enrolling them in sports activities. Assign household chores that require movement: mowing the lawn, walking the dog, cycling to the store to pick up a loaf of bread.
Listen to your kids. If your child tells you about an incident of teasing or the like at school or makes negative comments about his or her body, seize the moment to have a discussion about healthy eating as a means to weight loss and strength.
Make sure you lavish the same love and attention on your overweight child as on all your children; they very much need to know they’re important to you.
Seek professional help and a thorough medical evaluation for your child if his or her excess weight has you concerned.
DOING IT RIGHT
And when you implement the changes that can save your child from a life of overweight and ill health, be sure to do it right. That means following the Beat Diabetes Pyramid as closely as possible, every day, at every meal.
As you go through the Pyramid chapter by chapter, you’ll see precisely why. You’ll learn about “light” foods that are anything but, about foods that claim to be “reduced fat” but still offer the wrong kind of fat, about “saboteur” foods that look and sound good for you—natural! wholesome!—but are actually loaded with calories and with substances that raise your risk of metabolic syndrome and your susceptibility to such killer diseases as diabetes.
The following meal plans show you what we mean. The daily meal plan on the left looks and sounds benign enough, but check out the totals compared to the far better meal plan—based on the Beat Diabetes Pyramid—on the right.
It isn’t even just a matter of the numbers; it’s also a question of the kinds of ingredients. Fats from milk, cheese, turkey, sour cream and sugar-free cookies are the “bad” kind of fat we discussed in Chapter 2. The low-fat granola is full of calories and added sugar. The 2 percent milk isn’t much lower in saturated fat than whole milk—not to mention the fact that dairy is not recommended for preventing or managing diabetes. Even the seven-grain bread, which sounds so nutritious, doesn’t necessarily contain the whole grain that is so important for nutrition. As to the sugar-free cookies, they are full of starch and fat.
Now look how the Beat Diabetes Pyramid would do it, giving your child half the calories, half the fat and more than three times the fiber. This meal plan offers healthy fats from soy milk, peanut butter and guacamole. The classic Cheerios breakfast, as opposed to the granola on the left, includes a whole-grain cereal without added sugar. It’s served with soy milk that is low in saturated fat, cholesterol-free and, as you will read in the pages that follow, filled with benefits for weight loss, heart health and diabetes prevention. The sandwich bread is light bread, versus the seven-grain bread used on the left; it is lower in calories than regular bread and is an excellent source of fiber—the same amount of fiber (or more) than you find in regular whole-grain bread.
Get the picture? Then it’s time to start doing for yourself and your children what your mother told you time and time again—that is, to eat your vegetables.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: IT’S YOUR CHOICE
Eating is a matter of choosing. Below are different f
ood options with equal calories. Seeing the difference between food options can help you make healthy choices for a healthier you, and your children.
* * *
Want to show your kids how healthy eating can be fun, tasty and important? Sit down with them and go through the food demonstrations that follow. Every kid will find foods to love in these pages, so the demos are a great way to introduce your kids to new food choices—and to the idea that healthy eating is the most satisfying eating there is…
* * *
TOTING UP TACO BELL
Stopping by Taco Bell with the kids? Try steering them to the lower-calorie, better-for-you choices—a veggie fajita wrap or bean burrito, both of which offer the benefits of fiber—instead of the supersized nachos, loaded with saturated fat.
Nachos Bell Grande
740 calories
vs.
Veggie Fajita Wrap
420 calories
Bean Burrito
380 calories
CARROT CAKE COUNTDOWN
Just because it has carrots doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you. Take a look at what this slice of carrot cake contains in terms of fat, starch and sugar. That’s an 820-calorie danger signal for your health—not to mention the impact on your waistline!
6 ounces carrot cake
820 calories
38 grams starch = 9 ½ teaspoons
48 grams bad fat = 9 ½ pats butter
52 grams sugar = 13 teaspoons
LUNCH OUT
You’re out doing errands, the kids are with you and it’s lunchtime. To avoid the chaos and mayhem that hungry children can cause, you’ve got to feed them on the road. You can do so without sacrificing their health.
Drive right past that fast-food franchise that only offers burgers and head for one that offers more—or for the downtown coffee shop that makes sandwiches to go. Just look at the difference. The typical fast-food cheeseburger lunch, overstuffed with calories and saturated fat, is a ready-made package of future ill health. A more varied lunch—turkey sandwich with fruit and nuts—comes in at half that calorie count, while a tuna salad sandwich plus a banana and diet drink offers even less in the way of calories. Neither of these choices contains saturated fat, and both offer the health benefits of whole wheat and fruit.
You hate it when your kids get hungry and cranky, but you love them enough to make sure you satisfy their hunger in a healthy way.
Large cheeseburger
530 calories
Large fries
450 calories
Medium Sprite
220 calories
TOTAL
1,200 calories
vs.
Tuna salad on whole wheat
395 calories
Banana
100 calories
Diet Sprite
0 calories
TOTAL
495 calories
or
Turkey sandwich on
440 calories
whole wheat with light mayo Grapes
90 calories
Small package peanuts
140 calories
TOTAL
670 calories
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Here’s a difference in weight loss and diabetes-fighting power that’s pretty remarkable—especially if you love the taste of salami. Look at the salami sandwich on the left, and note how it measures up in terms of calories and fat. Both measures are pretty stunning. Now check out the sandwich’s fiber content: just 2 grams.
Contrast those measures with the measures of the veggie salami sandwich on the right plus a cup of tomato vegetable soup with its healthful supply of phytonutrients. At less than half the calories and only 4 percent of the fat, this lunch is already a help to your waistline and your fight against diabetes. Add in the 10 grams of weight-busting fiber and the soy protein of the veggie salami, and you have a diabetes fighter that really measures up.
2 slices rye bread
160 calories
0 grams fat
2 grams fiber
6 ounces salami
540 calories
50 grams fat
0 grams fiber
1 tablespoon mustard
10 calories
0 grams fat
0 grams fiber
TOTAL
710 calories
50 grams fat
2 grams fiber
vs.
2 slices light rye bread
80 calories
0 grams fat
4 grams fiber
4 ounces veggie salami
140 calories
1 gram fat
2 grams fiber
Lettuce/tomato
10 calories
0 grams fat
2 grams fiber
1 tablespoon mustard
10 calories
0 grams fat
0 grams fiber
1 cup tomato vegetable soup
70 calories
1 gram fat
2 grams fiber
TOTAL
310 calories
2 grams fat
10 grams fiber
A TREAT EVEN A MOTHER CAN LOVE
Sometimes kids just need a treat. (In fact, sometimes everyone needs a treat.) But you can help steer your kids to the kind of treat that has minimal adverse impact on their health. Instead of this chocolate chip cookie, for example, offer your child this frozen yogurt in a cone. Yes, it has some sugar and starch, but at about one-fifth the calories of the cookie and with no fat, it’s a treat for parent as well as child.
4-ounce chocolate chip cookie 640 calories, 40 grams fat
vs.
1 scoop frozen yogurt with cone 140 calories, 0 grams fat
PB&J
It’s everybody’s favorite, but if you’re weight-conscious, you can make it with a significant difference in calories that can achieve a significant difference for your waistline and your health. Use light bread, which is a great low-calorie source of fiber, and sugar-free jam and save 200 calories. You’ll still get all the taste you love—without the high calorie count that doesn’t love you.
2 slices wheat bread
180 calories
2 tablespoons peanut butter
190 calories
2 tablespoons jam
120 calories
TOTAL
490 calories
vs.
2 slices light wheat bread
80 calories
2 tablespoons peanut butter
190 calories
2 tablespoons sugar-free jam
20 calories
TOTAL
290 calories
POLKA DOT PIZZA
1 large low-carb, high-fiber tortilla*
½ cup tomato-based pasta sauce or pizza sauce
½ cup zucchini slices; steamed
2 plum tomatoes, sliced
1 ounce veggie pepperoni slices (12-14 slices)
1 tablespoon chopped herbs—basil, oregano, Italian blend, etc.
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 500°F. Oil a baking sheet or spray with nonstick spray.
2. Place tortilla on baking sheet and spread sauce evenly over top, leaving a ½-inch border.
3. Arrange zucchini, tomato and pepperoni slices over sauce.
4. Sprinkle herbs on top. Sprinkle on garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Drizzle with olive oil.
6. Bake 10 minutes, or until edges are crisp.
Pepperoni Pizza
Celeste Pizza-for-One
546 calories, 3 grams of fiber
30 grams of fat = 6 pats butter
vs.
Polka Dot Pizza
Makes 1 serving
230 calories
20 grams of fiber
7 grams of fat
= 1½ teaspoons oil
MAUVE MADNESS
¾ cup blueberries and/or blackberries
¾ cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
3–4 packets Splenda
½ cup crushed ice or a few ice cubes
1. Process all ingredients except ice in a blender until smooth.
2. Add ice gradually, blending well after each addition.
8 ounce berry-flavored yogurt
240 calories, 0 grams of fiber
40 grams sugar
= 10 teaspoons sugar
vs.
Mauve Madness
Yield: 1 serving
120 calories
6 grams of fiber
0 grams added sugar
PUMPKIN PIE PUDDING
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 package sugar-free instant vanilla pudding
¾ cup water
1 tablespoon brandy or rum (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
¼ teaspoon salt
Mint leaves
Whipped topping for garnish if desired
1. Combine all ingredients except mint leaves and whipped topping in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 1 minute, or until smooth and well blended.
2. Spoon into dessert dishes and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.
3. Garnish with mint leaves and whipped topping, if desired.
Yield: 4 servings
Eat & Beat Diabetes with Picture Perfect Weight Loss Page 5
