Guilt-Free Holiday Faves at Dave’s

 

Here’s my weekly post on WebMD! This week it’s all about three yummy dishes you can eat throughout Thanksgiving day that are amazing good tasting as they are good for you! Please try them and let me know what you think. Of course, I’d love to try some of your favorite holiday recipes, too! Got any for me??

By David Grotto, RD, LDN aka “The Guyatitian”

Nobody likes a party pooper. Especially one of them there high and mighty, judgmental nutrition-types who would never be caught eating your triple-fudge holiday death bars (until nobody was watching) if their life depended on it. Maybe that’s why I don’t get invited to parties anymore?

Truth be told, I (and most of my colleagues) stopped being the food Gestapo a long, long time ago. We realized that for good habits to be sustainable, diets must include your favorite foods (healthy or not), especially around the holidays. Of course, our mission is to prove to you that “healthy” and “favorites” can co-exist as one. Well, tasting is believing, my friend. So for this blog post, I give you three holiday recipes that my family loves and craves.

Sharon’s Simple Berry Sauce*

Serve over pancakes, waffles, French toast, Thanksgiving turkey or anything that you want to taste “berry-good”!

Servings: 4

Prep time and cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

1-10 ounce package frozen mixed organic berries

¼ cup agave syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

A pinch of salt

Directions:

Place frozen berry blend. Agave syrup, vanilla extract and salt into a sauce pan. Cook over low heat until frozen berries are defrosted. Bring to boil. Let simmer, uncovered until sauce becomes think – about 20-30 minutes.

Calories: 95; Fat: 0gm; Cholesterol: 0gm; Saturated fat: 0gm; Trans fat: 0gm, Sodium: 75mg; Sugars: 21gm Protein: 0 gm; Fiber: 1 gm; Total carbs: 24gm

Click here to see the rest of the article featured on WedMD!

* Recipes excerpted with permission from 101 Foods That Can Save Your Life Bantam Books 2007.

The Skinny on Eating “Low-Fat”

As we are ready to wrap up the holiday season, I wanted to share with you some advice I often share with patients: fat serves a multitude of purposes in the diet – there is no need to avoid it – eat the right kinds and in moderation. That sounds great as a sound bite but what does that statement really mean? Well, I came across a great article from my good friends at the International Food Information Council that has some slick (pun intended) information about the health benefits of healthy fats.

The Truth about Fats and Oils and Health.

In this article, you will find the statement “People who do not feel satiated [full & satisfied] by the food they’ve eaten, either because the flavor was missing or the food was not filling, may be more likely to continue eating in search of those sensations, likely offsetting any caloric deficit created by removing fats from foods.” This is EXACTLY why I don’t espouse low-fat eating. I find that my patients don’t get the same satisfaction as they do when eating full flavored, full fat original versions of recipes when they eat “liposuctioned” versions of the original. They key with eating fatty foods is to enjoy them in LIMITED portions.

As always, olive to skim your thoughts on this heavy subject. Sorry…couldn’t resist!

The Guyatitian

My Exclusive Interview With Lisa Lillien aka “Hungry Girl”

Appearance of Blog Posts

Can you guess I’m just building\figuring out as I go? I have had several people contact me today and ask, “Whats up with your blog post that lined up all the way to the left?” Well, I just found that is the template design I chose and until I add more posts, it will stay that way – guess it is yet another incentive for me to blog and blog often. Let’s see how it looks after I post this.

Another comment was “Your posts are waaaaaaaaaaay to long.” I agree. That was just my “Letting you know who I am and junk” but I promise that I will pull out my brevity powers and get down to business in a concise way.

Also found some dead links – working on those. Let me know if you come across anything else.

I picked up an itouch for each of my daughters for Christmas and not only are they hooked, I am too!  As you may know, there are very cool apps that can be downloaded for free. Speaking of, here’s a cool app from my friends at the California Strawberry Commission that features 50 unique strawberry recipes from 50 of the most popular food bloggers!

–       Remember, it’s free! Here’s the link for the app at the itunes store: http://bit.ly/8LANJo

Let me know what you think…

Ciao and Chow

Dave