Put variety in your veggies

Charlyn Fargo, Contributor

Want your kids to eat more veggies? Try offering them a bigger variety.

A study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (August 2012) finds that increasing the variety of healthy vegetables at a meal can help increase the amount of vegetables eaten.

Filling half the plate with a variety of vegetables led to greater consumption than serving a single type of vegetable, even the most preferred one.

In the study, once a week for four weeks, participants recruited from Penn State University were served a meal of pasta and cooked vegetables by 66 adults (34 women and 32 men). The meals varied in the type of vegetables offered - at three meals, 600 grams of a single vegetable was served, such as broccoli, carrots or snap peas.

At one meal, 200g of each of the vegetables was served side by side. Researchers found that serving a variety of vegetables increased vegetable intake at the meal. Participants ate more vegetables when served the variety than any single vegetable. The increase even occurred when the variety of vegetables was compared with a preferred vegetable.

Earlier studies also found that offering a variety of well-liked options with different sensory properties also led to increased intake. The researchers in this study also found that vegetable intake could be increased by increasing the portion size of vegetables, adding chopped or puréed vegetables to mixed dishes and serving a variety of vegetables that are liked.

- Information courtesy of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, August 2012

Charlyn Fargo is a registered dietitian at Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, www.creators.com.

Speeding up the metabolism

Q: I was gradually losing weight for about six months, and now I seem stuck at a plateau. Is it true that this is probably because of slowed metabolism?

A: Some evidence shows that people may end up with a major drop in metabolic rate if they have lost large amounts of weight very quickly by doing hours of intense exercise daily while also reducing calories dramatically. But a group of experts that reviewed the literature in energy balance found that this is probably not the most common reason for the weight-loss plateau so many experience. The consensus of the experts is that although calorie needs do decrease with gradual weight loss, it is not enough to stop weight loss until a person has followed a reduced-calorie diet for about three to five years.

More likely, the authors say, people who see a plateau at six to eight months are not continuing their initial changes in calorie consumption. Try keeping a detailed food record for a week. Include everything you eat and drink other than water; include even odds and ends outside of meals, and note all portion sizes. Often, the act of keeping a food record actually changes eating behaviour. For more help, review your record with a registered dietitian who can put the information in perspective by comparing it to your calorie and nutrient needs.

Or you might start by entering your food record into an online programme or smartphone app that tallies what you've eaten and compares it to very general recommendations for weight loss in someone of your age, weight and gender. Sometimes it's a few small changes that gradually creep in keeping calorie consumption too high to allow weight loss. Don't take extreme measures; look for a few smart calorie cuts you think you can continue long term while eating balanced, mostly plant-based foods that keep hunger satisfied.

- Information courtesy of the American Institute for Cancer Research