The Spread About Your Diet

Spread the word.

The salad that you’re digging into, the baked potato that you’re taking apart, the grilled chicken sandwich that you’ve just prepared, it may all look very healthy. You may feel like you’re partaking in a strict diet and that the pounds are about to come off quicker than a prom dress.

Just remember one thing: It’s the little things that count.

The little things, of course, are condiments, flavoring, or sweeteners. They’re things that you spread, sprinkle, or pour onto your foods or beverages for the pleasures of taste, things that can turn a nutritious feast into a dietary nightmare.

There are several alternate means to loading up the morning coffee with sweeteners or packing your lunchtime sandwich with tasty condiments. In many cases, you need not even need to sacrifice the taste to better your health.

Take a look at what we mean:

SALAD: How often do you see that woman at the salad bar? She’s got it down to an art form - the foundation of the lettuce, the careful placement of the tomatoes, the carrots, the cucumbers, and the onions on top. What a healthy-looking salad, you think. Good for her.

Then you look again and you’re suddenly eating your words.

Out come the croutons. They come crashing down upon the salad like deadly comets. Then the salad dressing. Underneath the pour of that creamy, thick Italian, the healthy veggies are screaming to get out. Of course, what salad would be complete without the cheese? So she digs straight into the cheddar and starts littering the salad by the spoon-full. A little cottage cheese is tossed on there for good measure before the final topping calls for a quick sprinkle of bacon bits.

She heads back to the office with this 5-pound lug of fat and brags to everyone within earshot about how well the new diet is going.

Salads in their most simplistic form are healthy, nutritious meals. They are also an excellent source for Vitamin-K and should become a part of your regular eating agenda.

But know that salads were not originally intended to be drenched with fattening dressings and covered with unhealthy toppings. Eat for nourishment, not for taste, and refrain from loading up on the cheese, croutons, and bacon bits. Salad dressing can be as fattening as 10 grams of fat per so substitute with either a low-fat dressing or a tasty vinegar. Vinegar is fat-free.

COFFEE: It’s one of the worst things you can possibly say if you’re a health-conscious coffee drinker:

“Cream, two sugars, please.”

The guy behind the counter is most likely covering his ears. The “cream, two-sugars” bit is a double no-no, because aside from the richly fat cream that you have doused in your java, the sugar poured in there is guaranteed to be stored as fat.

Next time you stroll up to the counter for your morning ambition, try saying this:

“Milk and Sweet & Low, please.”

Low-fat milk will do your body good while the Sweet & Low will spare you of the fat-storing sugar. If you’re making coffee at home, another choice is the non-dairy creamers that come in the powdered form and are very low in fat.

SANDWICHES: The very first thing you do, besides taking the bread out of the bag, is to whip out the spread of choice. Hopefully, it’s not white. Mayonnaise is hardly the whip of miracles; it’s loaded with 11 grams of fat per tablespoon. Next time, try a tasty mustard, perhaps a honey or Dijon, both of which are fat free.

OTHERS: You can do better than butter when it comes to flavoring up potatoes, bagels, and vegetables. It may be hard to fathom but “I Can’t Believe it’s not Butter” now comes in a fat-free form and is an ideal substitute for the real thing.