A few weeks ago I went to heat up an Amy’s frozen meal for lunch – roasted polenta with swiss chard. “Yum,” I thought. Then I realized when I opened the box that this was an “Amy’s light & lean” frozen meal, which translated to 140 calories with 4 grams of fat. “Yikes,” I thought, “I’m going to be hungry in an hour!”
I love Amy’s frozen meals for the occasional day when I don’t have anything else to take for lunch. They taste good and when you look at the ingredient list, you don’t have to get out a chemical dictionary to understand what it is that you are eating. This one had sweet yellow cornmeal polenta topped with an organic summer stew of squash, sun-ripened tomatoes, mushrooms and a side of fragrant slow-cooked chard. (Take a look at the ingredient list of a Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers frozen meal – you might be surprised.) When you open the box and look at the food, it looks like something that I would have cooked and put in the freezer for a quick meal.
Now, I bought this meal because it sounded good, not because it was ‘light and lean.’ After discovering the nutrition facts, I wondered how many people would eat just this for lunch or dinner and think they are being ‘so good.’ Paired with a lean protein, this could be a very satisfying meal. But on it’s own, it is not enough to eat.
When I got home, I looked at the “Southern Dinner” that I usually get – cornbread and beans with greens and sweet potatoes to see how this meal compared to the ‘light and lean’ one. This meal has 310 calories and 7 grams of fat. What’s wrong with this? Why isn’t this one considered ‘light and lean?’
The mentality of many people in this culture is the lower or lighter the food is, the better. My clients who severely restrict their eating because they are dieting or have an eating disorder eat ‘light’ like this all day long. And they complain of being hungry all the time. They also report craving carbohydrates like pretzels, bread or muffins. And if they tend to ignore cues to eat and live with extreme hunger, they crave simpler carbohydrates like jellybeans and candy corn. Sound familiar?
“Becoming familiar with your physiological hunger and working with vs. against it is helpful in avoiding overeating and/or feeling out of control” says Amy Tuttle of Nourishing Connections. At Be Nourished, we work with clients to improving their meal mix by eating a combination of protein, fat and carbohydrate and they discover they are not hungry ALL the time.
Eating foods, meals, or snacks that provide us with a combination of carbohydrate, protein and fat helps keep our energy level up and our mood more manageable. And it enables us think more clearly because our body and brain are receiving better fuel and we are not distracted by hunger.
So the next time you are thinking about what to eat, consider composing your meals and snacks differently. We’d love to hear what you discover along the way!
