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Nutrition

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Grazing and Snacking

by Libby Logan Grazing can be defined as eating small meals or snacks whenever or wherever you go -- at home or away from home, any time of day. It's a practice that can bring nutrition into a busy life. There is evidence that nibbling is better for your health than gorging. It can help to lower blood cholesterol, increase brainpower and control weight. Skipping meals or waiting too long to eat leaves people hungry. They get less work done and make decisions more slowly. By evening, meal skippers are ready to gorge on anything they can find. Grazing is not always planned. For successful grazing, snack at least every five hours, when you are physi- cally hungry. Use something construc- tive and non-edible to motivate and cheer yourself up if you're bored or blue. Be conscious of what you are nibbling on. It is easy to lose track of how much has been eaten throughout the day. One trick is to pre-package mini- meals in appropriate sizes -- when the meal is finished, the eating stops. Snacks need to be easy to incor- porate into a busy day. Each snack or

"mini-meal" should have a food from at &

least one of the four food groups, be nutrient dense, portable, ready to go and accessible.

Meals don't have to be hot to be nutritious -- uncooked meals and snacks can fill the need just as well. Examples include cold cereal with milk and ba- nana, yoghurt with granola mixed in, small muffins, pita bread toasted with cheese, an apple with cheese or peanut butter, cantaloupes stuffed with cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, or turkey sandwiches on whole grain bread.

Children can prepare these easy snacks by themselves if they are readil

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available in the home. They are natural grazers and snacking can be a vital component of their nutrition.

Most children snack at least once a day, usually in the morning and almost always at home. For children, taste is more important than nutrition when choosing a snack. If they don't find tasty nutritious quick foods to snack on, they may fill up on empty calories either at home or the corner store.

Children of all ages like snacking on fruit, and nutritious portable snack foods (i.e. granola bars, cereal bars and fruit snacks) are among the ten fastest growing edible products in grocery stores.

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Food, Exercise and Body Image

"I went down South for a month and didn't eat a thing. I came home skinny. My friends entered me in a beauty pageant. That only made things worse. I ate 600 calories a day and did aerobics three times a day."

-- Ann

"I wouldn't take Tylenol be- cause it might have sugar in it. Sometimes I would just drink tea. Eating just one Cheerio could set off a binge."

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by Charlene Burt, Kim Ford, and Amanda MacDonald

"Every time I went on a diet I'd lose weight and then gain it back plus more. I dieted my way to 200 Ibs., eating much less than most of my thin friends. The ironic thing is, if I had never started dieting, I'd probably weigh about as much as an average woman weighs."

-- Arlene

From early childhood, society teaches us that appearance is very important. The "ideal" woman is tall, thin, and beautiful. The "ideal" man is tall and athletic looking with defined muscles, and little body fat.

; In reality, most of us will never achieve this goal. The message we get from the media is that this goal can be achieved if we try hard enough. Asa result, we may spend many hours and a lot of money trying to alter our natural appearance. Many researchers believe that food problems, including eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa can develop from our attempts to achieve unrealistic societal ideals. Men and women should develop personal strengths, such as building strong relationships with family and friends, in order to increase their self- esteem. The key is to accept that bodies come in a variety of natural shapes and sizes and that every individual is unique. It is important to appreciate the differ- ences among people instead of compar- ing them to the "ideal". _ For more information on body image, food exercise and self-esteem, join us in the breezeway Friday, March 22, 1996, from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm for an informative display.