What to eat when traveling

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Some of the most difficult eating choices are when you are traveling.

I know. For nearly the past two years I have been on the road.

There's a lot of common sense approaches.

Here are eight tips when traveling from the Bellingham Herald. With a few comments from me.

1. Healthier Hotels

Check to see if the hotel provides online menus for room-service and in-house restaurants. Ask the concierge about restaurants near your hotel.

What...the Hampton Inn's concierge is nowhere to be found? Take a look at Eat This, Not That website. Restaurants have good choices. It's just hard to find them without a plan.

2. Keep On Moving
Ask about exercise facilities before you book. What equipment is available? When are the facilities open? Is there an extra charge? Make sure the exercise opportunities match your schedule and needs. If there's no gym or pool, bring a jump rope to exercise in your room or run or walk laps around the hotel. Don't forget workout clothes when you pack.

The most important advice here is pack workout clothes. Walk all the time. Park far from the office door. Walk the extra couple of blocks. You can also pretend you are retired, and walk the mall. If you have your clothes you'll workout.

3. Stay in the Swim
If the hotel has a pool, bring your suit for swimming or water aerobics to get a whole-body workouts.

I love swimming...in my own pool. Those over-heated, over-chlorined, overly small pools are hardly designed for swimming. Unless you are Aqua-man, stick to more walking.

4. Eat Light In Flight
If meals are available on your flights, request a low-fat or vegetarian meal in advance. Kosher meals also tend to be healthier. It might be possible to bring your own healthier food, but make sure you'll have room in your carry-on bags and there won't be a problem with security.

When's the last time you had a meal on a flight? Anyway, I tried to remember to order the vegetarian meal. It's special. And even if you are not a vegetarian you'll enjoy it better than mystery meat and a candy bar.

5. Avoid the Cocktail Wiener Trap
Stay away from the appetizer table during cocktail hour. If you're trying to combine networking and meal time, fill a plate once with low-calorie apps and don't go back.

Eat as many shrimp cocktails as you want. Skip the sauce made with high fructose corn syrup. Skip the cocktail wiener. New study shows terrible stuff in those processed meats.

6. Power Snack
Snacking on power bars, energy drinks, bottled water, veggie sticks and fruit reduces hunger cravings so you don't overdo at dinner or during happy hour.

Skip power bars filled with calories. Instead I always carry almonds. There's lots of flavors, they are salty and satisfying. I also love veggies and humus. (Tough to find on the road, but it is possible.)

7. Just Say No
Exchange high-calorie alcohol for water or seltzer with a twist. It's healthier and better for your career. Plus, water keeps you hydrated and helps speed-up jet-lag recover. Avoiding alcohol will also leave you more energy for exercising.

I love club soda. But I also like a bloody mary, and gin and tonic once in while. Make sure the bloody mary is made with spicy V8. Anything else has a ton of sugar and no one over 25 years old wants sugar in their bloody mary. Gin and diet tonic has very few calories.

8. Half Portion Meals
Order off the senior or kiddie menu to reduce your portion. If that's not possible, ask about a half portion or the possibility of sharing a dish. If you're stuck at a banquet, slide half your portion onto the bread or salad plate and eat only the food on your dinner plate. Ask the waiter to remove the smaller plate to avoid temptation.

The best advice. Eat half now. Save rest for later.

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• Will Your Vacation Make You Fat? (maplewoodbootcamp.com)

Studies show calorie postings affect consumer choices, not bottom line

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I have been saying this for a while. Posting nutrition information is good for consumers and business.

From QSRweb.com: Studies show calorie postings affect consumer choices, not bottom line: A recent Ohio State University study provides more evidence that consumers do pay attention to calorie counts of meals when they are provided conveniently.

The study collected data about choices consumers made among 12 entrees offered at a university dining center that operates much like a QSR. Researchers found that when nutrition information was provided at the point-of-purchase, sales of high-calorie entrees dramatically decreased, while sales of lower-calorie items substantially increased. After the nutrition information was removed, sales of the higher-calorie items gradually increased again.

Of significance to operators, sales did not decline during the study, said Gail Kaye, one of the study's authors. The revenue per entree sold remained consistent before, during and after the nutrition information was offered. This finding could help reduce qualms of restaurants hesitant to offer calorie information to consumers for fear that sales would decrease.

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Should sugar drinks be taxed? And hamburgers?

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The New York Times takes a thoughtful look at the soda industry and obesity. The questions are should Coke and Pepsi drinks be taxed to 1) reduce obesity and 2) raise public money to fund anti-obesity programs?

I believe those taxes don't go far enough. Let's remove all government subsidies for beef and tax hamburgers as well.

What I find interesting is how the similar this battle is and the tobacco wars fought for 50 years. Remember the tobacco industry said there was no "direct" correlation between tobacco use and cancer. Then they said you can't change behavior with taxes. Then they said government shouldn't be in the business of dictating American behavior. All of these arguments were designed for just one thing: saving Philip Morris's profits.

Dr. Frieden, who promoted a soda tax when he was a health commissioner, sees further parallels between soda and tobacco: “There are aspects of the food industry that are reminiscent of tobacco — the sowing of doubt where there’s no reasonable doubt, funding of front groups, use of so-called experts, claims that new products which are safer for consumers are available, and the claim that they are not marketing to children.”

...In their critics’ eyes, producers of sugar-sweetened drinks are acting a lot like the tobacco industry of old: marketing heavily to children, claiming their products are healthy or at worst benign, and lobbying to prevent change. The industry says there are critical differences: in moderate quantities soda isn’t harmful, nor is it addictive.

16 Ways To Change Your Child’s Diet

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Sometimes we just don't know what to do.

With obesity reaching epidemic proportions, there's very little a parent can do, except start in your own home.

Here's 16 tips to change your child's diet (and your own).

16 Ways To Change Your Child’s Diet From Habit To Healthy | Health Reform

Companies can't count calories

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Everyday I read that Americans want government out of their lives.

But what happens when there is no accounting, no rules, and no laws.

Here's a very small, almost minuscule problem that happens when there is self-regulation, only business oversight, and buyer-beware companies: they cheat.

How would you feel if everytime -- that's everytime -- you went to fill up with gas, Citgo or Mobil gave you just 72% of a gallon for a gallon you paid for? What if Shell gave you just 50% of a gallon? How would you act if the butcher charged you full price on just 75% of a pound.

I believe Americans would be outraged. But that's happening everyday in fast-food restaurants throughout the U.S.

According to new study from the American Dietetic Association, some restaurant foods contained up to 200% of stated values and, in addition, free side dishes sometimes are an average of 245% of stated values for the entrees they accompanied. And restaurants are not alone. Supermarket packaged foods under report calories.

According to the FDA, packaged foods are allowed a 20% margin of error. Therefore, a 300 calorie sandwich may contain anywhere from 270 to 330 calories. (Amazingly, there was very little over-estimating of calories.)

These findings suggest that stated energy contents of reduced-energy meals obtained from restaurants and supermarkets are not consistently accurate, and in this study averaged more than measured values, especially when free side dishes were taken into account. If widespread, this phenomenon could hamper efforts to self-monitor energy intake to control weight, and could also reduce the potential benefit of recent policy initiatives to disseminate information on food energy content at the point of purchase.

FoodNavigator.com reports: "Restaurant meals tested were even less accurate. Of 29 quick-serve and sit-down restaurant meals analyzed, calorie content averaged 18 percent more than stated. There is no FDA-regulated limit for the amount by which a restaurant meal may exceed stated calorie content, the researchers wrote."

Where's the outrage? Or are we all so cynical we know companies cheat.

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Jamie Oliver’s Ideas to Reduce Obesity

Jamie Oliver -- the winner of the TEDprize -- has 4 simple ideas for reducing obesity, and they are not the typical ideas.

• Every child in the U.S. should learn to cook 10 meals before leaving high school.

• Supermarkets should appoint “food ambassadors” to explain to customers how they can prepare local, fresh and seasonal foods.

• Food companies should make education a central part of their business.

• Food labeling should be improved to accurately warn people about unhealthy food.

"I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity." -- Jamie Oliver

What do you think? and read more...Jamie Oliver’s Ideas to Reduce Obesity

First victory for Obama

It's not a new health plan, but it will help to make Americans healthier.

From the Wall Street Journal: Pepsi, Coke Support Calorie-Labeling Effort

The beverage industry unveiled new labeling plans that will move the calorie content to the front of their beverage containers by the end of 2012, as part of a wider initiative pushed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. were among those to issue statements supporting the initiative, which will cover vending machines and fountain-drink equipment.

Foundation puts its money where our children's mouths are

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said Wednesday it would spend $500 million over the next five years to combat an "epidemic" of childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity is threatening the health of one-third of the nation's young people. Nearly 25 million children age 17 and younger are considered obese or overweight, costing $14 billion a year in medical expenses, the foundation said.

Childhood obesity is one of the most urgent and serious health threats confronting our nation. It deserves a serious response.

That's why the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will commit at least $500 million over the next five years to fight childhood obesity. The Foundation's goal is to reverse the epidemic in the United States by 2015.

This is the largest commitment any foundation has made to combat childhood obesity. As we embrace this new challenge, we expect to build on the lessons drawn from our past work on other critical health issues, such as preventing tobacco use and helping to roll out the nation's 9-1-1 emergency response system.

Childhood obesity affects all of us—every race and ethnic group, all income levels and every area of the country. It's going to take all of us—government, schools, food and beverage companies, health care providers, families and other foundations—to turn the tide.

Foundation President Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., calls the situation a real and present danger:

Q: Is childhood obesity a real epidemic?
A: Yes. The prevalence of childhood obesity is excessive and rapidly escalating, with severe clinical consequences. All communities and populations are adversely affected, particularly low-income communities. Left unabated, the epidemic will overwhelm health care delivery and financing systems and destabilize health programs and other services for children, the elderly and the poor.