SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR DIETERS
Fats
Use skim milk or powdered milk; or take the cream off whole milk and use the fat-free milk in your beverages—hot skim milk is good in breakfast coffee—and in soups, mashed potatoes, gravies, and so on. Powdered milk is excellent for gravies. Use cottage cheese instead of butter or margarine. Try it with chives or celery salt on thin, dry toast.
Cook finely chopped spinach and other greens in very little water to which a bouillon cube has been added, and you will not miss the butter. Avoid fried foods, especially those that are french fried. Boil or poach eggs; you probably will not mind unbuttered toast if you serve your egg on it. Try cooking eggs on the type of pan that does not require greasing. Cook stews ahead of time, let them cool, and remove the hardened fat, at least from your portion. Trim the fat from your meat. Omit the rich gravy.
Sweets
Sponge cakes are not very high in calories if you remove your portion before adding the icing for the family, or before adding jam or filling. Take very small portions of any dessert. Avoid sugar-rich soft drinks.
Starches
Eat leafy green vegetables to provide the bulk you are accustomed to getting from starches. Do not munch on bread and butter, especially in restaurants. In America, salads are served first. This is a good idea because salads take the edge off your hunger before you get to the higher calorie foods. Take wine vinegar with herbs or lemon juice on salads instead of oily dressings.
Other suggestions
Do not taste while cooking. It has been jokingly estimated that half the overweight housewives in this country have ‘tasted themselves fat.’
Nibbling and snacks
A cup of tea or coffee without cream and with one teaspoonful of sugar is only 16 calories. It may satisfy your hunger and provide the quick energy you need. In contrast, a chocolate sundae contains between 300 and 400 calories, while half a brick of plain ice cream is 200. Nibbling between meals helps some people to diet by decreasing their appetite at mealtime. If you try this, keep careful count of calories so you will know whether or not it is really helping you.
‘Helping’ children by sampling their dinners or finishing their portions is a common form of nibbling that helps neither them nor you.
Eating binges
Some dieters are able to go off their diets occasionally without ill effect. But remember, your appestat is easily conditioned, so be careful.
Breakfast
For reasons explained previously, a hearty, high-protein meal in the morning usually keeps people from being hungry in mid-morning and from eating too much at noon.
Alcoholic beverages
These are high in calories, and they seldom satisfy your hunger. Usually they make you forget you are on a diet. For example, three glasses of beer at 115 calories per 10 ounce glass will supply as many calories as a fairly substantial breakfast. Several mixed drinks at a party or before dinner will give you almost as many calories as a full day’s reducing diet. Even more serious is the fact that alcohol supplies empty calories, or energy without any of the other necessary food values such as proteins, vitamins, or minerals.
Moderation
This should be your key word. Remember, it took a long time for you to put on the fat you want to lose, so be moderate about reducing, too. Fat lost at the rate of one half pound to a pound a week stays off much better than that lost in a hurry—and a pound a week adds up to 52 pounds a year! When you lose weight slowly, your skin adjusts itself, and you do not look like a deflated balloon.
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