The meal: Frozen Healthy Choice Tuscan Style Chicken meal
Kimberly Snyder's assessment: "I understand the intense temptation to buy those frozen meals at the supermarket. After all, all you have to do is microwave them and you're all set, right? And, it sure is convenient how all the nutritional info is neatly listed out on the back of the box, without having to guess, right?
But behind the glitzy, easy temptation that packaged foods present as being 'healthy' and 'low calorie' the truth remains: Packaged foods are processed foods. And processed foods never, ever behave the same in the body as fresh, whole foods do.
The company's website didn't provide a full ingredient list on this product, but I'm sure there were more than several that do not qualify as whole foods. The nutritional information did say, 'contains milk, soy and wheat' probably because they are such high allergens. They are also two of the most mucus-forming, extremely acidic foods in the body, and combined with the gluten-containing wheat, we are seeing a meal that will not digest very cleanly in the body, or promote Kristal's natural beauty. Why? Because the more acidic we are, the easier it is to hold on to excess weight and the faster we tend to age.
Another thing to point out is the 540 mg of sodium, which is more than likely coming from cheap, denatured table salt. As we are moving into summer, who wants to look overly bloated from cheap salts?"
Next: See Snyder's changes/suggestions for Kristal
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Changes/Suggestions:
"If we want to not only slim down, but improve our complexions and overall beauty, while maintaining high energy, we need to look beyond just the calories or protein content of food. I recommend Kristal ditch the processed frozen meals, and treat herself to a fresh salad and grilled veggie wrap or some freshly made brown rice with avocado sushi rolls instead."
Next: Email Marketing Specialist Devran's lunch is appraised...
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The "Victim": Devran M. -- Email Marketing Specialist
The meal: Brown rice pasta with stir-fried tofu, mushrooms, kale in a little bit of olive oil and some low-sodium soy sauce and an orange.
Kimberly Snyder's assessment: "This lunch isn't horrible, especially if Devran is cooking it herself. It has a macrobiotic theme to it, minus the fruit since fruit is considered an occasional rather than a main staple of the macrobiotic diet.
Tofu is OK occasionally, but I don't recommend in on a daily basis. Soy in our country is now a mass produced crop that is not only one of the most heavily sprayed with pesticides, but it is also highly genetically engineered. Genetically modified foods can increase food sensitivities, which may be why soy has become one of the top allergenic foods in America. Soy is also a trypsin inhibitor, meaning it keeps us from assimilating protein correctly, and at the same time it contains isoflavones, which have been known to depress thyroid function. It also contains phytoestrogens that mimic hormones in our body and can lead to complications. So while we may consume limited amounts of soy from time to time, it should not be a large mainstay of the diet. In 'The Beauty Detox Solution' I also explain which soy options are best. For example, tempeh, which is a fermented soy product, is actually a better option than tofu."
Next: See Snyder's changes/suggestions for Devran
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Changes/Suggestions:
"The brown rice pasta is a good option, but she should try swapping it for quinoa pasta if it's available, since quinoa is a delicious whole grain that has all essential amino acids. Instead of cooking with olive oil I would suggest coconut oil, which is made up of medium chain fatty acids that maintain their structure and don't become rancid when heated. It also has a lot of beautifying properties and may help burn excess body fat. Low-sodium soy sauce is OK, but we must be aware that it still contains wheat, and therefore gluten, so an easy switch to consider is low-sodium tamari, which has a similar flavor profile but is wheat-free.
From the way Devran described her lunch, it sounds like she ate the orange last. Fruit digests very quickly in the stomach (in around 25 minutes), and if we eat it for dessert after heavier foods which take a few hours to digest, it gets backed up in our system like a traffic jam and can ferment, leading to bloating and other issues, so it essentially rots before we can assimilate all of its nutrients. I'd like her to switch to eating it first, or a few hours later as a snack."
Next: Assistant Editor Sharon's lunch is appraised...
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The "Victim": Sharon Y. -- Assistant Editor
The meal: Ox tail soup with tofu and seaweed. Rice, an over-hard egg, sauteed anchovies with green peppers, sesame leaves -- all mixed with chili paste.
Kimberly Snyder's assessment: "Well I�m happy to see something here in Sharon's lunch I don't see in a lot of lunches: seaweed! Seaweed, a.k.a. sea vegetables, is a very rich source of beta-carotene, chlorophyll, enzymes, amino acids, and fiber. They are one of the most nutritionally dense sources of vitamins and minerals of any food, much higher than land vegetables. They are high in thyroid-nourishing iodine, while being low in bloating sodium.
This is a wonderful form of green plant food, and I encourage her to
keep it in her diet and in her lunches. If you are ever at a Japanese
restaurant be sure to order the seaweed salad. Also, an easy way to
incorporate sea vegetables into your diet is to visit the Asian section of
your health market. You'll find nori (the flat black sheets they wrap
sushi in), dulse flakes and kelp. Cut up or sprinkle these sea
vegetables into your salads, to get a wonderful boost of beauty
minerals. Start with small amounts especially if you are new to the
taste. I personally try to incorporate some form of sea vegetable into
my diet every day.
On the downside, there are many types of protein in this one meal:
Ox tail (beef tails), tofu (soy), egg, anchovies (fish). Protein takes the most digestive work to break down, as the foods have to be broken down into amino acids first from complex chains. Each type of protein requires specific substrates to break it down, so to eat so many types of protein at the same time is exhausting to our digestive system, and our overall energy."
Next: See Snyder's changes/suggestions for Sharon
At this time of year it seems like every woman is on a diet. Makes sense since summer's around the corner and we all want to be able to wear cute little sundresses, short(ish) shorts and, eek, perhaps even a swimsuit.
The thing is that a lot of us simply don't know how to eat healthily -- whether we're dieting or not. And, since a personal nutritionist is cost prohibitive for all but a lucky few of us, we're pretty much left to our own devices when it comes to figuring out what to eat. Even here at Total Beauty, where looking good and being fit is our business, most of us fall short in the "eating for optimum health" category.
That's why we thought it would be fun to enlist the help of celebrity nutritionist, and natural health/beauty expert Kimberly Snyder in making over our lunches. We asked Snyder, whose diet expertise has worked wonders on all sorts of celebs like Drew Barrymore, Fergie and Channing Tatum, to critique Total Beauty staffers' lunches. We wanted her honest (read: sometimes harsh) opinion on the choices we're making and her professional recommendations for what we should be eating instead.
The result? Nine complete lunchbox makeovers. For the next couple of months, Tuesday will be "Lunchbox Makeover" day and you'll get to see what Snyder thought of an individual staffer's menu and find out her suggestions for making the meal more healthful. (She's the consummate pro at this as her new book, "The Beauty Detox" illustrates beyond the shadow of a doubt.)
Did our staffers take Snyder's advice to heart? You bet. Will they forever and always adhere to her every word and suggestion? Probably not, but knowledge, as they say, is power and we're all definitely wiser when it comes to nutrition now thanks to her frank assessments.
So, without any further ado, let's begin with the first "guinea pig"�
