Jessica Montague shows how changing just one food habit can help kick those kilos.Six months ago, I began an illicit affair with cheese. Not just any cheese: the gooiest, creamiest double brie in the business. You see, I’d never been a “cheese person”. Before, my one diet downfall was always chocolate, but that all changed around Christmas when cheese and I were introduced to each other at a party through a mutual friend. Before long, we were seeing each other every day, always before dinner and accompanied with a tub of pesto, parmesan and cashew nut dip, toasted Turkish bread and a glass
(or three) of sauvignon blanc.
By the New Year, I realised two things: cheese had officially overtaken chocolate as my number-one food vice, and secondly, that I needed a new wardrobe (the only outfit I could comfortably wear was a loose singlet teamed with an elasticised skirt). I had no choice. I said my last goodbye to cheese one January evening with nothing but a slather of new cellulite and fond memories to show for our time together.
After speaking with a few friends, I learned my behaviour was nothing new. In fact, every day thousands of Australian women give in to a food vice when they rip open a block of chocolate, pop a bottle of champagne or scoff a mouthful of gelatinous lollies. It just amazed me how much of an impact one single type of food had on my waistline.
Leading dietitian Susie Burrell (susieburrell.com.au) is empathetic to women like myself who find themselves overpowered by a tasty vice. “The foods in this category have very complex flavours and are very rich in both fat and sugar,” she explains. “There is mounting evidence to show they actually prime the brain to look at them more like drugs, so they can almost be like addictive substances. There is also a psychological aspect in the sense we get something from that food because it is often linked to the memory of stress relief, comfort or reward.”
So how can women like myself stop from falling into this trap? Burrell suggests we change the way we think about our vice. It shouldn’t be the friend we turn to every night when we have a rough day at work – it should be more like the distant cousin we catch up with occasionally.
Together, we’ve narrowed down the most common culinary culprits and come up with some hard-hitting facts to stop you following in my cheese-laden footsteps.
Vice #1: Cheese
Recommended intake: Between 20-30 grams (about the size of a domino), two or three times a week.
A common trap: Generously slathering half a wheel’s worth of brie, camembert or cheddar onto crackers, while enjoying a couple of glasses of wine.
This equates to: About 1439 kilojoules or 45 per cent of your recommended daily intake of fat – and that doesn’t even include the crackers or wine.
Think of it as: A 40-minute circuit class at the gym.
Cheese does have more nutritional value than chocolate – it contains calcium, magnesium and protein – but the problem is, one piece is never, ever enough. “One of the biggest mistakes people make is serving a couple of wheels and blocks when they have guests,” says Burrell. “The food disappears before your eyes.” Portion control remains the only way to stop the cycle of overeating cheese and Burrell recommends cutting off slithers – not chunks – rather than making the entire block available. “Try having cheese with fruit and vegetable sticks, using thin wafer crackers instead of the heavier variety, and alternate it with low-fat dips
so you’re not just eating the cheese all by itself.”
Vice #2: White bread
Recommended intake: None. “It should be banned,” says Burrell. “It offers nothing nutritionally, but is completely addictive.”
A common trap: Toasting big chunks of Turkish bread for breakfast, then smearing them generously with butter and Vegemite.
This equates to: Around 913kJ or 10 per cent of your daily kilojoule intake (not including the spreads).
Think of it as: A full 20 minutes of high-energy sparring with a boxing partner.
“Bread is a staple food and we eat it every day, so it has to be gold standard,” says Burrell. Yet when it comes to healthy eating, white bread fails every nutrition test out there. “It’s far less satisfying than a grain product and because it is so concentrated in white flour, it contributes to a high GI diet.” But wait, there’s more bad news for bread-lovers: one slice will never satiate your craving because the sweetness triggers the same receptors in the brain as lollies do, and the light, fluffy texture requires less chewing – thus tempting you to scoff more slices.
According to Burrell, the only healthy option is to ditch it entirely for more nutritious varieties like soy and linseed bread or other wholegrain varieties. “It’s like switching from full-cream milk to skim – you can’t wean off one to the other. You have
to decide to change and just do it.”
Vice #3: Lollies
Recommended intake: None. “They’re nothing but pure sugar. You have to think of them as party food for kids,” says Burrell. We’re talking musk sticks, jelly beans, the list goes on...
A common trap: Keeping a bag of jelly snakes in your drawer at work and eating half the packet when you stay back to meet a deadline.
This equates to: About 1380kJ or a massive 47.7g of sugar – that’s over half the recommended daily limit.
Think of it as: Fifty minutes of cross-country hiking.
“This is a really bad habit you have to kick completely,” says Burrell. “Lollies offer nothing nutritionally and are very easy to overeat. Just six snakes is the equivalent of two pieces of white bread.” Because your favourite Gummi bears and jelly beans are practically all sugar, you’ll also digest them at light speed, resulting in your blood sugar shooting sky-high. And chances are, you’ll reach for yet more sweets to combat the crash. The only way to break the cycle? Stop eating them altogether, and get your sugar hit from natural sources like fresh fruit.
Vice #4: Alcohol
Recommended intake: A few glasses of wine or champagne (100ml) twice a week.
A common trap: Celebrating a birthday out on the town, then realising you’ve had a bottle of bubbly all to yourself.
This equates to: Up to 2219kJ or about 25 per cent of your daily kilojoule intake.
Think of it as: A whopping 85 minutes on a stair-climbing machine, or for every 100ml glass of wine or champagne you drink, 20 minutes on the treadmill.
“It’s easy to fall into the trap of having a couple of glasses of wine every night as a reward for a hard day’s work,” says Burrell. “But unless you’re really strict with your diet and exercise, you can’t get away with this.” Nibbling on unhealthy snacks (hello, cheese again) as you sip is another blunder which automatically doubles your kilojoule intake. Burrell recommends ditching the bowl-sized wine glasses (remember, one serving is only 100ml) and putting the bottle out of sight after pouring a glass. “You have to limit your intake from the beginning rather than pouring as you go,” she explains. “Otherwise, you’ll lose track of how much you drink and the liquid kilojoules add up very quickly – not to mention the headache you’ll have the next day.”
Vice #5: Chocolate
Recommended intake: Twenty grams per day (a Freddo Frog or row of chocolate squares from an average 200g block) if you’re not indulging in anything else high in fat and sugar.
A common trap: Curling up with a block when it’s that time of the month and watching half of it disappear over a few episodes of Sex and the City.
This equates to: Around 2230kJ or 74 per cent of your total recommended daily intake of fat.
Think of it as: Seventy minutes on the rowing machine.
If you raid the vending machine every afternoon for a Mars Bar or religiously gobble down a family block every week, you have – for want of a better word – a problem. “Besides being very high in fat, chocolate doesn’t give you any protein or other significant nutrients, so it’s not making you feel full,” says Burrell. “You’re better off satisfying your craving with a small amount of chocolate – say a couple of squares – and then eating something sour or savoury that’s healthy and more substantial.” A piece of wholegrain bread with Vegemite or celery and carrot crudités with a low-fat dip are not only better nutritionally, they’ll help weaken your link to sweet food, so
you’ll crave less of it in the future.
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