Our nutritional sense
By Nadine Kam
seems to desert us when
we get to work
Assistant Features Editor
Star-Bulletinhe path to dieting is paved with good intentions. We would like to think we can resist junk food, and maybe we do in the privacy of our homes. But if the work place is any indication, there's a whole lotta snackin' going on, none of it good.
The evidence starts with our own office, where a typical reporter's -- and we're not naming names -- snack diet for one day (excluding lunch) might include 1 Diet Coke, 1 Chinese rice cake, 3 pork hash, 4 Diamond soda crackers, 1 slice cinnamon bread, 1 chocolate-covered macadamia nut (with 2 nuts) and 10 Cookies in Paradise chocolate chip arare rice cracker cookies (they're small cookies of the sort that 4 add up to one normal-sized cookie, honest!).
Now, none of us are stupid. It would be foolish to ignore all the nutrition studies, the rat tests, the warning labels that are linked to everything we consume.
But healthful living requires concentration and work and that's where we mess up. We conscientiously breakfast on fruit and cereal, and lunch on salads, only to slip when the siren song of a lonely malassada drowns all reason. We sabotage ourselves with snacks and we're not alone.
Linda Giles, general manager for Weight Watchers in Hawaii, said many of her clients are shocked to learn how many snack "points" they consume in a day. Points are based on a Weight Watchers formula that measures fat and calories. Dieters are allowed 18 to 30 points a day, based on their height and weight, and the amount of weight they want to lose. A malassada is worth three points.
"If you're not paying attention, it's possible to eat as much fat and calories in between meals as at your meals," Giles said. "When people are paying attention, they don't go anywhere near that."
Weight Watchers tries to teach awareness as a first step toward avoiding unhealthy snacking.
"We encourage healthy snacking rather than saying you should never snack," Giles said. "That just sets people up for failure, where they say, 'Oh well, I can't do it.' "
It's especially tough in Hawaii, where hauling snacks to the office is an obligation, a symbol of affection or a dumping ground for leftovers/ old kakimochi/Halloween candy. It becomes a vicious cycle of reciprocal feeding frenzy.
"People are gonna bring things, so you bring things too. Have your low-fat pretzels and popcorn ready," Giles said. "It's so funny, because our members who do bring fruit to the office, well, everybody wants their fruit instead of the pastries."
Once people are aware that they may be ingesting in snacks the caloric or fat equivalent to a couple of meals, Giles said, they "are gonna think twice before having certain snacks, in terms of 'What's this gonna cost me?'
"You don't have to stay away from doughnuts, but you also don't have to make it a point to go get one every single day."
Every office has its moocher or moochers. The moocher is vilified for bringing one malassada to your 30, or no bags of cookies a year to your monthly contribution. The moocher takes and rarely gives—
but maybe that's a good thingThe moocher is derided but is really the one person smart enough to realize that he or she has no willpower and when confronted with a chocolate decadence cake must have a block of it, rather than a sliver. The moocher knows a snack out of sight is a snack out of mind.
So be kind to the moocher. The mooch is kind enough to devour enough fistfuls of mini cookies and that wicked vat of guacamole so as to remove it from harm's way. The moocher will suffer from cardiovascular disease, maybe diabetes, later in life. You will live long and prosper.
And if you still feel entitled to goodies from the moocher, well, keep in mind that like a chicken on a steady feed diet, the moocher never learned to forage outside the pen. A little direction is all that's needed.
Nadine Kam, Star-Bulletin She suggests keeping a journal of your eating habits and checking to see if there's a method to your munchie madness, such as a certain time of day you're most susceptible to a coffee cake come-on. "Is there one thing to stay away from," she said, "where if you eat one you have to eat 25?"
There are ample reasons for snacking, and hunger isn't usually at the top of the list. At the Kapiolani Counseling Center's Eating Disorders Program, nutrition therapist Daryl Smith-Oswald suggests asking yourself why you're eating. Often, stress is the culprit behind office snacking. Carbohydrates and certain fats in foods can bring relief through the release of pain-killing endorphins into the bloodstream, sugars give a quick burst of energy, and this is all comingled with warm, fuzzy associations from the past.
"There's a learned association between food and comfort," Smith-Oswald said. "It starts when you're a baby and you cry and your mom puts a bottle in your mouth.
"If you can begin to learn about food and environmental associations, you can learn to deal in a more healthy way with your stresses and help prevent unplanned eating."
Smith-Oswald said it may be possible make a pact with co-workers to bring healthy foods only, or to change your stress response. Instead of eating, for example, co-workers might go for a short walk at break times.
Even so, she doesn't condemn all snacking and advises people to beware of extremely fat-free diets. Although it helps to familiarize yourself with food nutrition labels, she said an obsessive avoidance of fat is unhealthy and in extreme cases can lead to loss of hormone function.
She said that researchers suggest getting 25 to 30 percent of one's calories from fat, half of which usually comes with moderate amounts of poultry, meat and dairy products. For a person who requires 2,000 calories a day, this works out to 55 grams of fat on the low end and 66 grams of fat on the high end. (To calculate this for yourself, multiply daily calorie needs by the percentage -- .25 or .30, and divide the total by 9, which is the number of calories in a gram of fat.)
"Fat has a lot of functions," Smith-Oswald said. "It keeps your hair and skin healthy. You have to have a certain amount of essential fatty acids. That's why they're called essential. Fat also gives you satiety. It helps you feel content. Fat stays in your stomach longer so you can work.
"People who don't get enough fat can't think because they feel hungry. The fat-free obsession fuels many eating disorders."
Fat and snacking become trouble when they lead to obesity or dental problems. But snacking is an American way of life, and healthy snacks can be beneficial. Smith-Oswald said that people who skip meals often compensate by snacking on complex carbohydrates from breads, cereals and grains, and by eating lots of fruit and vegetables.
Some foods that you might think are bad are not purely evil. Kakimochi has almost no fat, though it does contain sodium. Fortune cookies or senbei have no fat, though they contain sugar. But these are OK in moderation.
"A healthy diet takes a little bit of forethought, but I think co-workers really appreciate that. People love fruit trays and vegetable platters."
Smith-Oswald said that pre-cut veggies in grocery stores eliminate some of the work, and when it comes to diced fruit, toothpicks can solve the sticky-fingers-on-the-keyboard dilemma.
"It doesn't take long to cut an apple or orange," she said. "It's not as chic as some of the other office food, but it could catch on."
Bad snacks/Better snacks
Calories and fat add up quickly when you choose just two or three items from a list of snacks deemed "old" by Weight Watchers. Calories and fat are necessary in a balanced diet, but "old" snacks serve up empty calories with little nutritional value.Contrast this with a list of "new" snacks that deliver complex carbohydrates, vitamins and fiber, with fewer calories and fat:
The old
Doughnut: 230 calories, 12 grams fat
By Dean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
... but arare is a better snack choice.
Candy is full of empty calories.The new
