Fill up on vegetables

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“Eat your vegetables!” We say it to our kids, but how about to ourselves? Now is the perfect time to start including more vegetables in your diet. Farmers markets are open and the warmer weather is conducive to preparing fresh seasonal salads.

The health benefits of vegetables include getting lots of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and fiber, but the real bonus is that all this goodness comes with few calories. As a rule, vegetables are a low calorie food with high nutrient value. For example, one cup of a non-starchy vegetable (like spinach) contains an average of 50 calories and 10 grams of carbohydrates. The starchy kind like corn and potatoes will have more calories and carbohydrates so you need to eat them with more moderation in mind.

Non-starchy vegetables like kale, broccoli and zucchini, just to name a few, are a dieter’s best friend because they fill you up. Most of us like to eat a certain volume of food and even though we are being told that portion control is key to weight management, there are those among us who still want a generous portion. Since vegetables contain a good amount of water and fiber, they “take up space” on our plate and in our belly, giving us the portion we crave without the calories that we don’t need. The notion of eating a certain volume of food was introduced to us by Barbara Rolls, an innovative nutrition researcher at Penn State. Her latest book, ”The Ultimate Volumetric Diet” (HarperCollins, 2012), provides an interesting and sensible approach to eating well and eating enough to keep you happy. It’s her contention that big portions of low calorie foods do not necessarily cause weight gain. It’s the bigger portions of high calorie foods, so popular today, that are contributing to the obesity epidemic.

If you are looking for a way to eat that will give you the nutrients you need and keep you satisfied while reducing calorie intake, then vegetables are your answer. In her book, Rolls explains the science that supports volumetric eating and offers a week-by-week practical adaptation to make it work for you and delicious filling recipes that will make you say to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” As a matter of fact, I bet many of you are already doing some of what she advises. If you have ever added extra vegetables to a dish of pasta so that you can reduce the amount of pasta and keep the portion size the same, you are using volumetrics. The plan is not only about vegetables. There are many ways to add more to your plate without the calories such as using reduced-fat dressings, selecting grilled meats over fried and choosing fruits and whole grains.

Volumetrics is not just for adults — kids can use it too. Now there’s a group who could use to eat more vegetables. If your child chooses carrots over cookies, good for you, maybe you should write a book. However, I know the majority of parents struggle with getting their kids to eat vegetables. Try tossing green beans, broccoli or cauliflower (be sure to chop them up into small bites) into macaroni and cheese and transform a favorite dish into something that has fewer calories per bite. For an overweight child this could be a good weight management tactic.

One more thing about vegetables; eat as much of the plant as you can. In Environmental Nutrition (February 2012, Vol. 25), there’s a report that reminds readers to avoid waste when preparing vegetables. This has both environmental and nutritional benefits. After washing vegetables well or better yet, choosing organic produce when you can, you can safely consume those stalks, stems and peels that may otherwise be discarded. Be creative and add them to soups, make purees or shave them into fine pieces for salads. Whichever way you slice them, vegetables are nature’s way of filling you up and keeping you fit, so go ahead and “eat your vegetables.”

Nina Marinello, Ph.D., is the chairwoman of Nutrition Science at The Sage Colleges, Troy.

To get the most taste and nutrition out of your vegetables, here are some tips for buying and cooking cruciferous vegetables:

Heat can destroy nutrients in vegetables so make sure that if you are going to cook them, you do so for a short period of time and with minimal amount of water.

When buying vegetables, try not to buy them more than a few days ahead of when you’re planning to serve them. Also, look for fresh broccoli, look for firm florets with a purple, dark green, or bluish hue on the top.

When you peel the outer skins from vegetables, you are throwing away many of the nutrients the food contains. It’s best to scrub the outer skin and leave it on for cooking and eating to get the most health benefits.

You can buy several types of cruciferous vegetables ready-to-go in the frozen or fresh packaged sections of your supermarket, including broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.

Some vegetables that when combined become a lot healthier; one example of this is broccoli and tomatoes. They taste great together and provide protection against prostate cancer.

— WebMD.com

– FIT AS A FAMILY: A six-month Times Union project presented by Albany Medical Center in partnership with the Capital District YMCA and Price Chopper to give you tools to build a fitter family. Check us out at timesunion.com/fitasafamily and on Facebook at facebook.com/fitasafamily.

– event: Fit as a Family celebration, June 19 at Camp Nassau, Route 155 between Nott and Dr. Shaw Roads in Guilderland. Come and enjoy the many fun activities the camp has to offer. Then stay around for the final drawing for the Fit as a Family grand prize.

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