Healthy Diet - FOOD PRESCRIPTION #6 - Fill Your Plate With Vegetables

FILL YOUR PLATE WITH VEGETABLES

Vegetables play a major role in The Healthy Diet. They’re included at lunch, dinner, and in snacks. You can even eat them at breakfast, blending them into smoothies or tucking them into scrambled eggs. On the STAT Plan, we focus on lower-calorie vegetables—remember, when you first get started, we want to kick-start weight loss STAT. During the RESTORE Plan, you have even more vegetable choices.

The most important reason to include veggies in your diet is your health. Vegetables are full of all kinds of nutrients that do all kinds of wonderful things for your body, from protecting your eyes, blood vessels, and heart to boosting your immune system, keeping cells healthy, and even helping your body fight off cancer.

But there’s more—and this is a major deal for us because we’re focusing not just on good health but on losing weight: vegetables are turning out to play a crucial part in weight loss. Studies show that people who eat more vegetables are way more likely to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight than those who eat fewer vegetables.

One of the main reasons for the veggie–weight loss connection is that vegetables are filling because they’re packed with fiber. When you eat high-fiber foods, they take up more room and spend more time in your digestive system than low-fiber foods. All that bulk in your intestines activates hormones that tell your brain to put down your fork and stop eating—or to wait longer before you pick it up.

What’s more, there’s a lot of water in vegetables—snap a piece of celery in half and you’ll likely get sprayed in the face with more than a few drops. The water in vegetables also helps with weight loss because, like fiber, it contributes bulk to your digestive system, filling your belly and adding to that full feeling you get when you’ve had enough to eat.

A MATTER OF DENSITY

It all comes down to this: foods such as non-starchy vegetables and lower-calorie fruits (like the ones recommended during the STAT Plan) simply do a better job than most other foods at filling you up.

Here’s what’s going on. Vegetables are considered to have low energy density—that is, you can eat a lot of them for a small number of calories. (In comparison, high energy–density foods such as brownies or cheese have a large number of calories relative to their weight or volume.) With low energy–density foods, you can simply eat more food than you can when you eat high energy–density foods.

Here’s an example. Say you’re going to have a snack that weighs in at 200 calories. For that number of calories, you can have a couple one-ounce squares of cheddar cheese, which is a high energy–density food. As anyone who’s ever been to a cocktail party knows, two pieces of cheese go down quick. But if you choose 200 calories worth of salad, you can eat way more food. For the same number of calories, you can pile a bowl full of all kinds of greens and veggies—and you can even drizzle it with a bit of dressing made of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and add some cheese crumbles as well.

A few chunks of cheese or a big salad with some cheese crumbles—which do you think will fill you up more? No question, the salad, which is packed with fiber and water and is laced with hunger-busting (and heart-healthy) monounsaturated fat as well.

When you look at all the evidence, it makes a huge amount of sense: including vegetables at most (or all) of your meals is one of the best ways we know of to satisfy your appetite and help you lose weight. And, as a bonus, you get giant servings of nutrients, too!

LEARNING TO LOVE VEGETABLES

Some people love sitting down to a giant bowl of raw broccoli or steamed cauliflower. They enjoy nothing more than plain-old raw veggies. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people. When I was growing up, vegetables were an afterthought, they usually came from a can, and they were often swimming in butter or sauce. So it’s been something of an adjustment for me to learn to love veggies.

Although it didn’t come naturally, I made the commitment to learn to like vegetables because I know how nutritionally valuable they are. Yeah, I could probably go days without eating anything green. But if I do, I know I’m missing out on fantastic nutrients. I’d probably start putting on weight, too, because my hunger would send me off in search of higher energy–density foods instead.

The secret to learning to love vegetables is all in the preparation. Give me a stalk of raw broccoli and I’m likely to frown; sauté some broccoli in a little olive oil and garlic and sprinkle it with a little fresh Parmesan cheese and I’ll probably be nibbling at it before you even get it out of the pan. Same goes for roasting: I don’t care much for raw or steamed squash, asparagus, or eggplant, but if those vegetables are tossed on the grill or roasted in the oven, I love them.

If you’re not a born vegetable lover, try experimenting with different ways of cooking, such as sautéing, stir-frying, roasting, steaming, broiling, and grilling. You may be surprised by what a difference a new preparation technique makes.

EVERY TIME YOU DO YOUR WEEKLY GROCERY SHOPPING, BUY ONE NEW VEGETABLE. YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT FIND A NEW FAVORITE.

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FRUIT OR VEGGIE?

Technically, an avocado is a fruit. So are corn, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, squash, and tomatoes. But their savory flavor makes most people think of them as vegetables, so that’s what we call them in The Healthy Diet.

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THE COMPOUNDS THAT GIVE VEGETABLES THEIR VIVID COLORS ALSO DELIVER SOME PRETTY AMAZING NUTRIENTS. SO DON’T JUST STICK TO THE SAME OLD VEGGIES—EAT FROM THE RAINBOW.

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WHAT’S IN YOUR VEGETABLES?

NUTRIENT	BENEFIT	BEST VEGGIE SOURCE
Vitamin A	Helps keep eyes and skin healthy; protects against infection	Sweet potato, spinach, carrots, pumpkin, peppers
Vitamin C	Helps cuts and wounds heal; keeps teeth and gums healthy	Red peppers, green peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes
Potassium	Contributes to healthy blood pressure	Spinach, Swiss chard, mushrooms, kale, Brussels sprouts, zucchini
Iron	Needed for healthy blood and cells	Spinach
Folate	Protects unborn babies from spinal cord defects; contributes to heart health	Spinach, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, avocado, broccoli
Magnesium	Helps with bone and blood health	Spinach, broccoli, okra, avocado
Fiber	Helps lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity	Cauliflower, cabbage, leafy greens, celery, squash
Calcium	Important for healthy teeth, bones, and muscles	Turnip greens, kale, bok choy, broccoli

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FAMILIES OF VEGETABLES

Vegetables are divided into different nutritional families; some are members of more than one family.

•  Cruciferous vegetables: arugula, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, horseradish, kale, radishes, rutabaga, turnips, wasabi, watercress
•  Dark-green vegetables: bok choy, broccoli, collard greens, dark green leafy lettuce, kale, mesclun, mustard greens, romaine lettuce, spinach, turnip greens, watercress
•  Red and orange vegetables: acorn squash, butternut squash, carrots, Hubbard squash, pumpkin, red and orange peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes
•  Starchy vegetables: black-eyed peas (not dry), corn, field peas, fresh cowpeas, green bananas, green lima beans, green peas, plantains, potatoes, taro, water chestnuts
•  Other kinds of vegetables: artichokes, asparagus, avocado, bean sprouts, beets, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, green peppers, iceberg lettuce, mushrooms, okra, onions, turnips, wax beans, zucchini

PHYTOCHEMICALS, CAROTENOIDS, ANTIOXIDANTS—OH MY!

If your eyes start to glaze over when you read about the nutrients in foods, especially vegetables and fruits, don’t worry; it’s a completely normal reaction. Unless you studied biochemistry or nutrition, it’s likely that words like isoflavones and polyphenols will go in one ear and out the other. That’s OK.

You don’t have to know what all of these things are—you just have to eat them, and that’s easy if you fill your plate with a variety of plant foods, especially vegetables, fruits, and legumes.

In a nutshell, “phytochemical” is the name for the approximately 4,000 different chemical compounds produced by plants and found in various plant foods. Some you may have heard of include antioxidants, carotenoids, flavonoids, catechins, and anthocyanidins.

Carotenoids are the pigments that give many vegetables and fruits their bright colors—the orange in carrots, for example. Some carotenoids you may have heard of include alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene.

Although we don’t know the full story of how these phytochemicals work in the body, we do have enough evidence to suggest that they are darn good for us. For example:

•  People who eat generous amounts of carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables have lower rates of heart disease and some kinds of cancer.
•  The lutein in green vegetables contributes to eye health and may help prevent the onset of macular degeneration, a major cause of vision loss in older adults.
•  The lycopene in tomatoes, pink grapefruit, and red peppers helps with healing and may protect men from prostate cancer.

Supplement makers have separated out some carotenoids and other chemicals in fruits and vegetables into vitamin pills in hopes of creating supplements that are as good for us as vegetables. But so far, none of the supplements seem to be anywhere near as good as whole foods at combating disease—in fact, in a few studies, phytochemical supplements have actually raised the risk of certain diseases. That’s probably because compounds in vegetables and fruits work synergistically with each other in ways that we don’t yet understand.

Might researchers someday come up with pills that replace vegetables? Maybe—although I don’t think it’s likely to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, you can get powerful packages of disease-fighting nutrients simply by eating a variety of veggies.

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BROCCOLI TO THE RESCUE

Many studies have found evidence to suggest that eating broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables lowers the risk of several types of cancer, including cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, liver, lung, and stomach. Brightly colored red, orange, and yellow vegetables also contain compounds that are believed to fight cancer, heart disease, and some kinds of eye diseases.

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VEGGIES, VEGGIES EVERYWHERE

Eating a plate of vegetables or a bowl of salad are just two ways to get the vegetables you need. But there are some other convenient ways to include veggies in your diet that may sound more appealing, if you’re like me and don’t love plain veggies:

Slurp up veggie soup. It’s amazingly easy to make vegetable soup from “scratch.” Follow my Anytime Vegetable Soup recipe, or go free-form: sauté some minced onion and garlic in a little olive oil, pour in a can or carton of low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth, toss in whatever fresh or frozen chopped vegetables you have lying around (carrots, celery, broccoli, spinach, zucchini, green beans, cabbage—you name it), and simmer until the vegetables are cooked to your liking—anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, depending on what kind of vegetables you’re using. During the last couple of minutes, add whatever mix-ins you like, such as fresh herbs, spices, a small dollop of Dijon mustard, any kind of cooked legumes (black beans, chickpeas, lentils), or tomato sauce. Serve with a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Not only is soup a delicious way to add vegetables to your diet, but it can actually help with weight loss, according to researchers at Penn State University. Several studies from there found that when participants ate low-calorie soup before having a lunch entrée, they reduced their total calorie intake at lunch (soup + entrée) by 20 percent, compared to when they did not eat soup.

Veg out your smoothie. Add greens such as spinach or kale to your favorite smoothie recipe. Greens add a tangy taste that is surprisingly good, but it may take some getting used to, so start with a small amount and work up from there.

Vegi-fy your omelets. On mornings when you choose to have eggs for breakfast, vegetables can turn ordinary scrambled eggs into a delicious omelet. Sauté chopped tomatoes, spinach, onions, peppers, mushrooms, or other finely chopped vegetables in a squirt of cooking spray for about a minute before adding whisked egg or egg whites; then cook as usual. This is one of my favorite ways to load up on veggies.

Veg out with juice. Although I’m not a huge fan of fruit juice, because it raises blood sugar quickly and has little to no fiber, I’m fine with 100 percent vegetable juices such as tomato juice and veggie juices made at home with juicers. You should still eat whole vegetables, but it’s OK to replace one or two servings a day with veggie juice. Choose low-sodium versions, because there’s quite a bit of salt in the full-sodium kinds.

Make fresh veggie salsa your go-to sauce. Most grocery stores sell fresh salsa, which is a delicious mix of tomatoes, onions, garlic, lime juice, and cilantro. Spoon it right from the container onto baked or grilled poultry or fish, scoop it onto salads, stir it into soups, and use it as a dip for cut-up vegetables. 

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Q: IS IT OK FOR ME TO PUT SALT ON MY VEGGIES?

A: There’s been a lot of controversy lately about whether salt is safe for health. For a long time we thought high intakes of salt caused health problems, but recently opinions are starting to change, and the research is all over the place. I think this is a topic we’re going to be hearing a lot about in the next few years. Until the evidence is clearer, my suggestion is that unless your doctor has told you to avoid salt and sodium, it’s probably OK to use small amounts of it. But in general, I recommend that you limit salt use. We tend to get so much of it anyway in our American diet, and my gut feeling is that going light on salt is a better idea than having a lot of it.

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IN A 2013 STUDY OF 71,000 SWEDISH ADULTS, PEOPLE WHO ATE AT LEAST THREE SERVINGS OF VEGETABLES DAILY LIVED 32 MONTHS LONGER THAN THOSE WHO NEVER ATE VEGETABLES.

VEGGIES ON YOUR PLATE

I don’t want to go overboard here, but the fact is that vegetables are just about the healthiest foods out there. They may not be your favorite food—I admit, they’re not always my first choice—but when you think about how packed they are with all kinds of nutrients and disease-fighting compounds, you have to love them. And when you look at the studies that associate vegetable eating with long-term weight loss and longer life, you can’t argue with the fact that they belong on your plate.

If, like me, you don’t have a natural love for veggies, use the ideas in this Food Prescription to sneak them into your meals. As long as they’re somewhere—blended into a smoothie, tucked into an omelet, chopped into a salsa—you’ll get all of their amazing health benefits and weight-loss boost.

And now, in the next Food Prescription, get ready for some great news about another occupant of your grocery store’s produce aisle.