DELI NEWS
Easy and Healthy Eating for Busy Times

by Dan Moore, Deli Manager

In the past few years there’s been a lot of news regarding the rate of obesity in the U.S. Since 1960 the rate has nearly doubled, and a whopping 31% of U.S. adults fall into this category. Obesity increases the risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, hypertension, stroke, osteoarthritis, and a number of other serious health issues. How did this increase happen?

There are a lot of factors. While genetics plays a major role in determining your body type, the genetic makeup of 31% of the adult U.S. population didn’t change in a generation. So, the main culprit seems to be a change in our lifestyles. Advances in technology (he says, while sitting at his computer), longer work hours and less free time, the rise of fast food, and urban sprawl have all encouraged people to make less healthy eating choices while reducing their ability to build some exercise into their daily routine. They drive to work because they live in the suburbs, or they stop at a fast food joint in their rush to get home and eat before taking the kids to practice.

Childhood obesity rates tripled
This leads to the even scarier statistic. Since 1980, only 25 years ago, the rate of obesity in children has tripled. Eating habits are learned at a young age, and kids now have a lot more options for spending time in front of the TV, video game, or computer—as well as a lot more options for unhealthy eating. Less exercise plus fast food is a dangerous combination. Most fast food is considered “energy dense.” That’s a nice way of saying that it packs a lot of calories into a relatively small meal—typically about one-and-a-half times the calories of the average home-cooked meal. So, you feel like you’re eating the same, but you’re taking in almost twice the calories. Add the high sugar content to the high fat content and it’s no wonder why kids (and adults) crave fast food so often—a recent study showing that up to 30% of American children eat fast food every day!

Making change
For adults, changing our eating and exercise habits is a conscious lifestyle change. We recognize what choices we make and have the ability to adjust them. Most children haven’t yet developed the learned dietary restraint necessary to avoid obesity, and the culture around them isn’t going to help. But, as I said, eating habits are learned early and you can help teach them—as long as you are willing and able to put in the time.

Home cooking
A good place to begin is by doing your own cooking. And for those of us without a lot of time in our workweek to make a meal, planning ahead is a must. Start with a shopping list. I happen to be very fond of cookbooks, so I make my list using two or three of them to plan out relatively quick meals I can make in an afternoon. Soups, casseroles, meats, and seafood work well because you can freeze them and you can also use similar ingredients while having variety. After choosing your recipes and doing your shopping, it’s time to cook.

Do all your cooking at once
One option is to choose a day and do all your cooking at once. You take your Saturday afternoon and whip up all those recipes you just shopped for and stick them in the freezer for later use. I happen to enjoy spending five or six hours in the kitchen with NPR or the Brewer’s game on the radio, while my basset hound eagerly assists with floor cleaning duties. She enjoys it too; I’m a sucker for a sad face and she usually eats like a queen. The advantage to this method is that the food is done; all you have to do is heat it up. Much better than buying TV dinners, but just as easy when it counts.

Ingredient prep
Other (normal?) people prefer to spend their Saturday afternoons doing something besides cooking. For you folks, there’s an equally nice option. Take an hour in the evening and pick an ingredient. You can cook off chicken, brown hamburger, chop veggies, prepare some sauce, whatever. Then you freeze (or refrigerate if you’re using it soon) your prepped items and have the ingredients ready to throw together quickly when you want to cook. I recommend labeling your containers with the recipe you’ve prepared for (along with the cookbook and page number). This method has a couple of advantages. First, it let’s you change your mind. If you decide on Tuesday that you want teriyaki chicken instead of chicken fajitas you can do it. It also helps you take advantage of sales. Let’s say the Co-op has a special on green peppers, a common ingredient in a lot of recipes. With this method you can stock up, prep and freeze them, and you’re set for a while. Just remember that not all foods hold up in the freezer as well as others.

With either method, you make cooking for yourself or your family a much easier and healthier option. Throwing something into the oven sounds much better after eight hours of work than starting from scratch each night, and one hour of prep work is definitely manageable once you’ve sat down and eaten. Best of all, you control both what’s going into your dinner and what you’re sending with your kids for lunch.

Involving kids in the process
Which brings us back to healthy eating habits. Involve your kids in the cooking and prepping, and maybe more importantly let them help with picking out the recipes. They may pick mac and cheese, but you’ll be deciding on the ingredients used and how much fat and sugar goes into it. In return, they have a meal they helped choose and create that they may choose over the super-sized McWhopper with cheese meal. As a matter of fact, one of the healthier frozen meals I make is always a hit with the kids.

A quick kid-friendly meal
Take one Vicolo brand corn flour pizza crust from the frozen food aisle. Add your favorite spaghetti sauce or marinara in a light layer. Shred a little mozzarella from our Cheese department over the top. Then add fresh basil and tomatoes from our Produce department and sprinkle lightly with some Parmesan. Take this beautiful concoction and wrap in plastic (I use old bread bags or non-holey shopping bags, like a good co-oper,) and freeze. When you get home from work, heat it at 350º until the cheese is melted (10 minutes, give or take). Leftovers are fairly rare, but the kids will love them for lunch.