It is, pretty much, the equivalent of a drinker sucking down boilermakers. (That’s a shot of whiskey with a beer “chaser.”) It is, pretty much, fat on top of fat on top of fat.
Which, most unfortunately, can lead to all sorts of problems. Both short-term. (The dryer shrinking one’s jeans again.) And long term. (Putting one’s health at serious risk.)
But, and here’s the heart of my confession, I really, really liked how that cookie tasted. Dripping eggnog. (All right, all right, all right. I really really liked how those cookies tasted dripping eggnog.)
So the dilemma I face — the one many of us face — during this time of the year is how to lose the fat but keep the flavor.
We all know most of us have too much fat in our diet. We all know lowering that fat intake is a good idea (without going too low, which can also be a health risk). But still…
’Tis the season.
So what can we do? Here are seven suggestions:
4. Try baking with applesauce instead of fat.
This may take some experimenting so don’t make your first attempt the cake or cookies you have to take to the office party or the in-laws.
Dieticians say that, generally speaking, in most baked goods, you can replace all or part of the fat with an equal amount of pureed fruit. So if that muffin recipe calls for one cup of oil, you may be able to substitute a cup of applesauce.
5. Eat the food part, not the fat part.
Trim away excess fat from cuts of meat, both before cooking and on your plate. And take a smaller portion of the meat part.
6. Eat the food you love, just not a lot of it.
Here I’m going to assume that celery and rice cakes are not on your “love list.” But even if they were, too much celery or too many rice cakes wouldn’t be good for you. Assuming you have no other health problems, you can have a chocolate. You can have a slice of fruitcake. You can have a little wiener wrapped in a slice of crescent roll.
Not a half a box of chocolates. Not a half a fruitcake. Not a half a baking sheet of little wieners wrapped in slices of crescent rolls.
And — sorry, bad news — not a chocolate, chunk of cake and a wiener in one day, day after day. We all know that from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, every day can be seen as a day to celebrate. That is, eat the rich stuff. The fat stuff.
We may not be aware of the calories and fat-intake adding up over a short period of time, but the bathroom scale is. It adds too well.
Drat it.
7. Read labels twice.
We’re fortunate that packaged food now lists calories and fat and such but what can trip up folks is “serving size.” If the company’s idea of serving size is only half of your idea of serving size, then you need to double those numbers.
For instance, a serving of eggnog has 180 calories and 10 grams of fat. A four-ounce “serving.” Half a cup.
My idea of a serving of eggnog, as I blissfully dunked, wasn’t a measly four ounces. And my cookie probably had almost as many calories and as much fat. The taste was good. But the “price” was too steep.
Especially since it had to be paid by a middle-aged body.
1. Remember your taste buds are in your mouth, not your stomach.
Your stomach pretty much only knows food/no-food. If, for example, you ate a dinner roll without any butter on it until the very last bite, your stomach is perfectly content. And your mouth — which has those taste buds — is going “Mmm. Butter.”
Your entire body, of course, can tell the difference. If you had butter slathered on every bite of that roll, your body would set it aside and say, “Let’s store that here. In the hips.”
This is not a scientific explanation. To get more technical, your body might say “In the waist.” “In the thighs.” “In the…” Oh, no, not there! But you get the idea.
Your body likes fat, too. So much so, it hangs on to it. Sometimes for years.
2. Try replacing fat with spice.
A low-fat main dish (or even a low-fat single-serving frozen entrée) may start out bland but it doesn’t need to stay that way. A little Tabasco sauce, a little cayenne pepper, a little curry, can go a long way.
Don’t care for zippy food? Choose a favorite less-volatile spice or zero-fat sauce.
3. If you can’t taste it, skip it.
By that I mean, if the recipe calls for a high-fat item but there really isn’t much difference in the final outcome, don’t bother. Those mashed potatoes may not really need the butter and sour cream or whole milk to whip up just fine. A lower-fat spread, non-fat sour cream and non-fat milk may do the trick. Or they may be close enough. (Just double up on the gravy. No. That isn’t a good solution.)
