Still Struggling to Trust the Carbs? Step out with this lentil soup!

Another soup recipe?!

Struggling to step out of your comfort zone and try new foods? Carbs still not safe? Selecting foods you can justify by their nutritional value can be quite helpful to get you started. Take lentil soup, for instance. Knowing that lentils are good for you—a great source of protein, oh-so-satisfying fiber, as well as carbohydrate—may get you through. And remembering that carbohydrate is a necessary nutrient, which fuels our active (and sedentary) bodies.

Lentils are also a valuable  source of iron, thiamin, and folate. Being inexpensive, easy to prepare, tasty and versatile places them high on my list of ingredients to keep on hand.

And once you try this soup, I’m sure you’ll be hooked, even if you’ve never liked lentils before. Lentils come in all colors and sizes, (the so-called red ones which really look orange are a lot lower in fiber) and are interchangeable in lentil recipes. By the way, this soup, by itself, is not an adequate meal. But serve with a salad (with nuts and dried fruit, perhaps) and some bread for a healthy, balanced, and delicious dinner! This one is sure to please.

Grilling just isn't an option these days!

Lentil Soup (adapted from Jane Brody’s Good Food Book)
Serves 8

2 Tbsps. olive or vegetable oil

2 large onion, chopped

3 carrots, sliced

¾ tsp. oregano

¾ tsp. thyme leaves

1 28 oz. can tomatoes with their juice, coarsely chopped

7 cups broth/stock (chicken, beef or vegetable, regular or reduced sodium)

1 ½ (or 2*) cups dried lentils ( brown or yellow)

½ tsp. salt (omit if using prepared commercial broth/stock)

6 oz. dry white wine

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

• In a large stockpot heat oil and sauté the onions, carrots, oregano and thyme, stirring, for about 5 mins.

• Add tomatoes, broth and lentils and bring to a boil.

• Reduce heat and cover, simmering for an hour. Lentils should be tender.

• Add the salt (optional), wine, and parsley, and simmer the soup for a few more minutes.

• Serve and enjoy!

PS: Looking for another chance to try out lentils? Visit my old post http://dropitandeat.blogspot.com/2010/11/lemony-lentil-stew.html for a delectable lemony lentil stew.

 *(use 2 cups to count as a protein, if following an exchange plan.)

Why Carbs Got a Bad Rep. And What you Can Do About It.

My home-baked, white flour challah from last night.
(Today's french toast!)

 It’s all fat’s fault. It started with fatphobia, a fear of fat. Yes, back in the 80’s when Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Sinatra’s New York, New York were hits, Americans were instilled with a near fatal fear of fat-containing foods.  Meanwhile, carbohydrate was deemed safe and free to consume, without restraint. Ah, the good old days.

Heart disease became linked to saturated fat, and the message got oversimplified. Instead of saturated fats, the true culprit, all fats were grouped together as unacceptable.

And so food companies, ever interested in meeting consumer demand, supported our desire to eliminate the fat from most food products. Welcome Snackwell fat free cookies, fat free ice cream, reduced fat peanut butter—you name it.  Clients would declare, so proudly, that they had eaten 5 or 6 fat free sandwich cookies, clinging to the “free” part of the description. That they had consumed as much from these ”safe” cookies as they would from regular Oreos, never crossed their minds. They simply homed in on the fat content.

As fats were vilified, intake of carbohydrate-rich foods expanded, as did our waistlines. As you eliminate one of the three main building blocks of foods (fat) you are left with only two others (protein and carbohydrate) to fill the void. And we were given incentive to increase our intake of these items—they were “free” (of fats) and seemingly good for us. And their portions increased as well, as our guilt for eating them bottomed out.

So obscenely large I had to dig out my food scale and see what it weighed. Yes, 7 oz!

Unless you grew up in Brooklyn (which I happen to) a bagel was something Lenders made. It weighed about 2 ounces, the equivalent of two slices of pre-sliced bread. But even commercially baked bagels bulked up to 4 and 5 ounces, as in Dunkin Donuts, Finagle a Bagel, and Einstein.

No, not all bagels weight this much!

The thought of energy balance, of eating to meet your need, was absent, as larger amounts of carbs were eaten, regardless of hunger or need.

Finally the reality hit. Americans’ weight was climbing. In spite of having cut the fat, our weight, as a population, was increasing. (By the way, for those of you still fat phobic, this only further supports the fact that fats don't link with weight gain.) The culprit? Well, according to such authorities as Barry Sears (The Zone Diet) and Dr. Atkins (of restrict-carbs-to-make- ketones fame), the obvious conclusion was that carbs were bad. 


And boy did that message take off! They reinforced their messages with a distortion of a truth about carbs—that they increase insulin levels in the blood stream. They pathologized this situation, making it seem like a bad thing. Yes, insulin levels increase upon eating carbs. But a healthy body handles carbohydrate quite well, thank you. Yes, even diabetics can and should include carbohydrate as a chunk of their intake. (I say this as both an RD and a Certified Diabetes Educator.)

When panicked, we tend to not trust ourselves, instead latching on to information, even illogical and incorrect information.

Carbs don’t increase your weight. Period. 

Excess calories do. And the way we were eating carb-rich foods clearly resulted in taking in too many calories. And by choosing more processed, less filling carbohydrate-rich foods, it was quite easy to over consume them. For instance, eating a 5 oz. bagel was a breeze. But could you easily eat 2 ½ cups of cooked oatmeal? Because they’re the same, calorically.  And a 12 oz. can of apple juice? That’s about 3 ½ whole apples. Which would fill you up more? See the point. And the bagel pictured on this page (purchased from local bagel shop)? That’s like having 7 (yes, seven) slices of bread! But we tend to see foods as units—a sandwich, for instance, or a bagel, failing to recognize just how large the portion really is.

That isn’t to say that you should only eat high fiber grains, though. Truly, it’s simply about the portion. They eat white, processed pasta in Italy, and white baguettes in France, as part of their healthy Mediterranean diet. And the record shows it doesn’t cause weight gain. But they also include legumes, and fruits and vegetables on a regular basis. And they rarely eat in their cars, or on the train. And they tend to take time to eat. And I suspect they really enjoy those crusty baguettes and croissants. Get the picture?

Still struggling to trust the carbs? Make a substitution for a protein source, not an addition, just to prove it’s okay. Take baby steps. Once your worst fears don’t come true, do it more frequently. Start with foods you might see as healthier, to get started.

This one was too cute to cook. The rest got tossed with olive oil and baked!

Go ahead. Give it a try. You’ll see that bad things don’t happen. I promise!

Back to Your Roots. Simple Planning and Cooking to Keep You on Track.

I’m driving home from work. It’s 6:30 PM. And I’m hungry, very hungry. I get stuck in rush hour traffic and now I’m starving. Unless I know that the hired help will have dinner ready for me when I get home, my thoughts wander to take out. And since I don’t have hired help awaiting my return, I know I’d better have a plan in place for dinner. Because I need immediate gratification. And I won't feel good eating out too frequently, especially when I'm hungry and vulnerable.

Nutrition knowledge is great. But if the groundwork isn’t laid to prepare a meal, even to mentally prep for eating, your knowledge will get you nowhere. Yes, even nutritionists can be impulsive if they fail to plan. Cooking in advance helps enormously. Soups and stews work like a dream—they freeze and reheat well, contain lots of satisfying ingredients in one bowl, with only one pot to clean up! And they typically make enough for multiple meals, so leftovers can be enjoyed for many days.

Tonight’s dinner (mentally prepared during my lunch break) was leftover Back to Your Roots soup—a root vegetable puree that is delectable, even reheated from the freezer.  It is total comfort food, creamy and satisfying, but relatively low in saturated fat (given the number of servings it makes). Don’t let the half and half scare you. The bulk of the soup is pureed yummy veggies. The cream is a tiny morsel of this meal! And so satisfying and filling.

Tonight, I served it with a small omelet. I arrival home from work at 7 PM. Dinner? Served at 7:20 PM. And yes, it beats fast food and take-out any day of the week! I had never tried many of these vegetables yet they were a perfect combination of flavors! This is now an absolute favorite, guaranteed to please.

Back to Your Roots Soup (makes 10 generous servings)

(adapted from New England Soup Factory Cookbook by Marjorie Druker)

Ingredients

3 Tbsps. oil (olive or canola, or  butter)

3 whole cloves garlic, peeled

1 large onion, peeled and diced

2 ribs celery, diced

4 large carrots, peeled and sliced

4 parsnips, peeled and sliced

1 large turnip or rutabaga, peeled and cut in chunks

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1 bulb celeriac, peeled and cut in chunks

12 cups stock (chicken, vegetable, regular or reduced sodium cartons work well). Some water can be substituted as well.

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

2 cups half and half

salt and pepper to taste (skip the salt if using regular stock versus reduced sodium)

Heat oil (or butter) over medium heat. Add garlic, onion ,celery, carrots, and parsnips. Saute about 8 minutes. Add turnip, sweet potato, celeriac, and stock.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium.

Simmer until vegetables are soft and tender, about 40 minutes.

Remove from heat, adding nutmeg.

Puree soup with a hand blender until smooth (those wand-like devices that save you the trouble of pouring scalding soup into the food processor).

Add the half and half and stir.

Savor every spoonful! And let me know what you think.

I have a few other soup favorites I'd be glad to share--just say the word!