Photo by roygbivibgyor

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the dangers of sugar, and one reader asked:

So if you bake things from scratch with things like unsweetened apple sauce instead of sugar and whole grains and seeds etc… can they still be considered healthy? Like are healthy muffins or banana breads possible?

The reason this is hard to answer is because “healthy” is not a black and white word. Instead it is a fuzzy word with many shades of gray. That is because health is not made or broken by any single food, it reflects your daily choices and habits. Health is a pattern, not an event.

Adding less sugar or more nutritious ingredients may indeed move an item a few degrees in the healthy direction, but it won’t change the fact that a muffin is a muffin and will always contain some sugar and flour, and never be an example of healthy eating.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t eat a muffin and continue to be healthy.

The problem with a “healthier” muffin is a philosophical one, because the reality is we do not eat muffins for health. We eat them for enjoyment, which is arguably as important as health when considering your quality of life.

So is it worth sacrificing the pleasure you get from eating a muffin to make it slightly closer to something it will never be?

I think this answer will be different for everyone. For myself, it is definitely no. I’d rather eat fewer (or smaller) tastier muffins than any lesser version of the same.

But muffins don’t mean much to me, whereas for some of you muffins represent a cherished time with your grandmother, a Sunday morning ritual with your child, or some other deep, meaningful activity worth continuing regardless of health considerations.

In these cases, maybe there is a place for the slightly healthier muffin. Or maybe there is another habit you have that can be made healthier, so the impact of the occasional muffin is less significant.

Foods like muffins mean something different to everyone because they must be considered in the context of the diet as a whole. A breakfast muffin is certainly a worse idea if you had a 7 layer cake the previous evening, or if there are nachos in your immediate future.

The challenge for us as individuals is to be selective about which of our food habits we prioritize, which we drop, and which we upgrade.

It’s up to you to make the call.

Lastly, just to be sure we aren’t getting too serious with all this philosophy today, here’s the venerable Betty White describing her own delicious muffin.

Do you try to make desserts healthier?

Originally published April 20, 2011.

Shopping at the farmers market is one of my most rewarding healthstyle habits

Now that you all have your copies of Foodist I’m sure you’re itching to get started upgrading your healthstyle, and I want to help.

This week I’ve partnered with the habit-building app Lift, which is available on iOS as well as your web browser (if you join the Foodist group), to help you get started building healthy habits.

Once you join Lift head over and follow me. I have all sorts of fun habits I try to cultivate including trying new foods, eating something green, walking 10,000 steps a day, and shopping at the farmers market. Feel free to participate in any or all of these, and add your own if you want. Keeping track makes it much easier to stick to your goals.

I’ve also created a special Foodist group of habits in the Lift app for those following the Foodist healthstyle recalibration (Chapter 9). The recalibration requires eliminating sugar, wheat, dairy and alcohol for 2-8 weeks in order to to help restore insulin sensitivity and troubleshoot other food-related health issues. In the book I recommend the recalibration for people with more than 20 pounds to lose who may be metabolically compromised (insulin resistant) or suspect they have food sensitivities.

Although the recalibration is not required for foodists, it can be really useful for those who have had trouble losing weight in the past. If you choose to participate, you’ll be sent a short survey so we can see how the recalibration is affecting you.

Either way I hope you join me on Lift, it’s a great resource for building a better healthstyle. If you add any interesting new habits, feel free to mention them in the comments so other people can check them out and join in.

Photo by Humphrey King

Weight loss is tricky business. Obviously what you eat has a huge impact on your health and body weight. But anyone who has ever tried to modify their diet for the sake of losing weight knows it isn’t so simple.

Most of us understand intuitively that broccoli is healthier than cookies. We can talk about sugar, fat, gluten and antioxidants all day, but that doesn’t change the fact that cookies taste good and you still want to eat them. Any weight loss plan that simply tells you what to eat and neglects why you make the choices you make is unlikely to help you in the long run.

Nutrition knowledge is important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. The real secret is understanding your behaviors and motivations at their roots, and using this information to have a meaningful impact on your health. In this sense, good health starts in your brain, not on your plate.

The first thing you need to understand is that we don’t have as much control over our food decisions as most of us assume. We tend to believe that we can call on willpower anytime we wish and use it to order a salad instead of a burger, and if we fail to do so it is our own fault. However, self-control is not something we can simply turn on or off, and as a result the process of decision making––particularly when it comes to food––is much more complex.

Approximately 20 percent of the calories we expend daily are used by our brains. Because brain activity is so costly, things like self-control and decision making cannot be relied on indefinitely. As a result, willpower is a limited resource.

Like a muscle, willpower becomes fatigued when exercised too frequently. All the decisions you make throughout the day deplete your willpower, and when you start running out of steam your ability to choose healthy food over more convenient food rapidly diminishes.

Ironically, increasing your blood sugar can help restore willpower to some extent. But finding a healthy way to raise blood sugar in a state of depleted willpower can pose quite the dilemma. Tired brains find it much easier to just grab a cookie.

The way our brains cope with the willpower conundrum is to automate as much of our decision making as possible. It does this by creating habits. Habits are specific behaviors that occur in response to a trigger or cue. They are also always associated with some kind of reward, which in turn reinforces and strengthens the trigger.

For example, a buzz in your pocket is a cue to reach down, grab your phone, pull it out and glance at the screen. The information you see causes a bit of dopamine to be released in the reward center of your brain. We humans love novelty, which is why most of us have a reflexive response to checking our mobile devices when we receive a notification. This is how habits are born.

Once established, habits occur automatically without expending any willpower or mental effort. Scientists have estimated that up to 90 percent of our daily food decisions occur as a result of habits. This saves our brain energy for more difficult decisions where habits cannot be used.

How can this knowledge help us lose weight?

For one thing, it shows that willpower is not particularly reliable as a means to achieve lasting weight loss, and we’re better off spending our efforts creating healthy habits.

It also teaches us that any habit we wish to develop needs to impart a meaningful reward in order for it to stick. You can probably guess that some vague promise of future thinness is not sufficient––the reward for any habit needs to be immediate and tangible.

This means that in order to achieve long-term weight control you need to find healthy foods you actually enjoy eating, physical activities you like doing, and spend your time making these as convenient and accessible as possible.

Fabulous news, right?

Using willpower for restrictive dieting is difficult and incredibly unpleasant. We can all let out a collective sigh of relief that it doesn’t actually work. To achieve true success in health and weight loss, we’re better off quitting diets altogether and focusing on building healthy habits we enjoy.

Try starting with something as simple as breakfast. Warm muesli with a splash of almond milk and cinnamon only takes two minutes to prepare and is absolutely delicious. Invest in a pedometer and challenge yourself to reach 10,000 steps a day. Setting and achieving an attainable goal is a very powerful reward, and is one of the reasons so many people love videogames.

Since our brains are easily overwhelmed, don’t try to develop too many habits at once. Work on just two or three habits at a time, and build from there. Habits take anywhere from two weeks to six months to take root, but on average about two months. Start with the easiest ones and work your way up. Once you’ve built enough good habits, your health will take care of itself.

To learn how to stop dieting, build healthy habits, and make life awesome check out my new book Foodist.

Photo by x-ray delta one

Moms are wonderful. But as Mother’s Day approaches, I am reminded once again that my parents’ generation didn’t do the greatest job of equipping us to feed ourselves healthy foods.

Of course this isn’t exactly their fault. The food industry tried their best to ensure that we all became dependent on frozen foods and ready-made meals. Fortunately we now know enough to reverse a lot of these trends, but developing new habits can be more difficult as we get older.

The good news is that it isn’t too late for Mom. This year let one of your Mother’s Day gifts be to help make her life easier and improve her nutrition by sharing some of these kitchen upgrades. And if you’re really serious about this stuff, a copy of Foodist makes a wonderful Mother’s Day gift as well (wink, wink).

12 Ways to Upgrade Mom’s Kitchen Skills

1. Sautée instead of steam

Probably the most common way vegetables are ruined in the kitchen is the steam basket. Almost everything tastes better and is healthier when cooked in a little olive oil. Don’t forget to sprinkle your veggies with a little sea salt and toss some minced garlic in toward the end. It’s not much more work and it tastes way better, so you’ll happily eat those veggies.

2. Spring greens instead of ice burg or romaine lettuces

While I have nothing against either of the latter two greens from a flavor perspective (particularly when they are organically grown and fresh picked), the industrial varieties you typically find at the grocery store are rather uninspiring. For an easy upgrade, recommend that your parents grab the box of mixed spring greens instead. These have become easier to find, and if nothing else you’ll be getting a wider range of nutrients from a mixed greens bag rather than a single lettuce varietal.

3. Olive oil instead of margarine

At some point we all became convinced that butter was bad and we should use margarine instead, and many people still do. We eventually learned that margarine was made from highly processed hydrogenated oils that drastically increase the risk of heart disease, and that butter was actually better. However, I avoid common industrial butters because of the hormones and antibiotics used in the livestock (I actually get breakouts if I eat industrial dairy). Grass-fed butter is a nice alternative, but can be expensive and difficult to find. Olive oil is a great option and my go-to choice for most cooking.

4. Tongs instead of a spatula

This discovery revolutionized my experience in the kitchen. Get your mom a pair of 12-inch silicone tipped tongs and you’ll stop having to watch as carrots and zucchini slices fly out of the pan. Cooking vegetables has never been easier.

5. Quinoa instead of rice

I like rice, but it’s easy to forget there are other grains out there. Quinoa is very nutrient dense, and cooks up much faster than traditional rice. Just boil for 15-20 minutes and strain. Easy peasy.

6. Dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate

I think chocolate makes an excellent gift for anyone, especially Mom. Make this year’s gift even more luxurious by springing for the fancy dark chocolate varieties instead of the more common milk chocolates. Dark chocolate has far more of the healthy polyphenols and other antioxidants that improve health, and also has less sugar. If you get the good stuff it shouldn’t be bitter at all, it should be divine.

7. Look at ingredients instead of fat grams

For the longest time dietary fat was the boogeyman and many people still check labels religiously to see how much fat a food contains. This is pointless. Fat itself is not innately bad for you. To determine the healthfulness of a packaged food you and your mom are better off looking at the list of ingredients. The more the ingredients sound like real foods instead of chemicals, and the fewer of them that are added sugars, the better. Here’s more on how to decipher food labels.

8. Plain yogurt instead of frooty yogurt

Fruit yogurt sounds healthy, but it usually isn’t. Check the ingredients. If the yogurt contains more than milk, live bacterial cultures and fruit, something is amiss. You’re probably better off buying plain yogurt and adding fruit yourself.

9. Homemade salad dressing instead of bottled

Salad dressing is one of the easiest things to make. Just mix olive oil and some vinegar with a little salt and pepper. Feel free to get fancy by adding chives or stirring in a little Dijon mustard or miso paste, but those aren’t necessary. Check the ingredients, pre-made salad dressings tend to be some of the most egregious offenders.

10. Kale chips instead of potato chips

People love their chips. If mom just can’t give up the crunch of her afternoon snack, see if she’ll replace her potato or tortilla chips with kale chips. She may need to experiment with different brands (I’m a fan of Alive & Radiant Foods), but in my experience kale chips are some of the best tasting items in the “health foods” aisle.

11. Sparkling water instead of soda

If water seems too boring to have with a meal or as a mid-afternoon refresher, try getting in the habit of having some sparkling water and adding a lemon wedge or a splash of real fruit juice. You can save money by purchasing a SodaStream and making it yourself. Mom might like one too.

12. Almond butter instead of peanut butter

I LOVE me some peanut butter. The problem is that most of the supermarket varieties are highly processed and filled with hydrogenated oils. Try almond butter instead, as it is usually more natural. If you can find natural peanut butter (hint: the ingredients should be just peanuts and salt), that is a healthier option as well.

What are your simplest healthstyle upgrades?

Photo by » Zitona «

It’s a little known fact that before I became interested in neuroscience (which was well before I became interested in food) I spent three years as a literature major at Berkeley. The power of language to whisk us away to other worlds, different times and even into other people’s minds never ceases to astound me.

Fiction can often give me a better glimpse into a culture than even visiting, since the amount of time and exploration required to really get a sense for the mindset and lifestyle of the people who live there is substantial, and vacation time is typically limited.

Excellent works of fiction transform me as a person as I internalize the vibe of a book, and what I read has the power to influence what music I listen to, how I dress, and even how I eat. When a book really pulls me in its hold can last for weeks or even months at a time.

For instance, it’s impossible for me to read Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, which I’ve done several times, without craving Spanish tapas and red wine for the better part of a month (this is also why Spanish food is one of my favorite cuisines). The Last Chinese Chef had me exploring obscure alleyways in Chinatown in search of the best dumplings and peking duck, and before reading it I would have said Chinese food wasn’t really my jam.

Midnight’s Children, the meta-award winning book by Salman Rushdie, forever changed the way I think and feel about Indian food. Spices and heat permeate the characters and events in Midnight’s Children, which is one of the literary tools Rushdie uses to portray his native culture. My obsession with Indian food lasted for months as I read this and other works by Rushdie, since I couldn’t stop reading him after finishing the first.

Initially this manifested as more trips to my favorite Indian restaurants, but eventually it led me to spend more time in the spice aisles at the grocery store and cook more Indian food at home. As I got into it I bought myself some Indian cookbooks and found an Indian grocery where I could get specialty ingredients. It was certainly one of the more delicious times in my life.

Though I don’t cook as much Indian food now as I did during that phase, the time I spent experimenting with Indian food at home gave me a decent sense of how flavors work together in the cuisine. I can now improvise with these tastes in the kitchen and often hint at them in various dishes that I cook without going all in. For example, instead of making a full curry dish I might make a yogurt and curry marinade for lamb, or add cumin, coriander and chilies to spice up my lentil salad.

One of the best ways to become a better cook is to care about what you’re making. Trying to recreate flavors you’ve had in restaurants or even just read about in books can help you dive deeper into a cuisine and get a better understanding of how tastes and textures interplay to make those characteristic flavor profiles we associate with different cultures.

How has reading spiced up your kitchen?

Originally published May 21, 2012.