Desizeme - Dieting, Weight Loss, Calorie Control

Healthy Low Fat, Low Sugar, Low Calorie Comfort Food Alternatives

Comfort food is an easily consumed meal or snack that is rich in calories and nutrients, sometimes eaten in cold weather, to boost the feelings of warmth and having hunger satisfied. It can also provide a sentimental or nostalgic feeling to the person eating food they love.

However, comfort food is often associated with mood swings and is the food people eat when they are feeling low, over-tired, hungry or depressed. They often eat too much of this food and go well beyond satisfying any hunger pangs.

Comfort food is often eaten to relieve negative feelings and boost positive ones, via a ‘sugar’ hit or the satisfaction people feel when their stomachs are full of satisfying food.

For people on diets, comfort foods are often see as a ‘break-out’, a high calorie splurge, and may even border on binge eating.

It may be triggered by the hunger people feel when dieting. It can ruin weight loss plans and destroy the motivation to lose weight. Often the amount eaten goes well beyond that required because people are hungry.

This article discusses the dangers of comfort foods for people trying to lose weight by controlling the amount they eat through various diets.

It includes many tips and recipe ideas for comfort foods that have low fat, low sugar levels and generally low calories.

It also provides advice on how to stop succumbing to the temptation of comfort foods and to over-eat.

What are Comfort Foods and Why They Are Problems for Dieting and Obesity

Various studies have identified into five categories of comfort food:

• nostalgic foods
• indulgence foods,
• convenience foods
• physical comfort foods
• guilt foods, break-out foods, rebellion foods
• mood modifying foods

There appear to be major differences between sexes and age groups:

• Males mostly appear to prefer hearty, warm, comfort food dishes such as stews, curries, steak, casseroles, and soups
• Females mostly appear to eat comfort foods as snacks (such as chocolate, shakes and ice cream).
• Younger people appear to like snack-related comfort foods than older people

What’s Wrong with Comfort Foods?

Comfort foods soothe, satisfy, and nurture, and also help deal with emotions and feelings of depression us, but most of them have high fat and carbohydrate contents and high calories. It is wrong to deny people foods that they have emotional attachments to. Similarly eating to relieve stress is not inherently bad. It’s just that people on diets eat too much of the wrong foods. It may not be a matter of denying particular foods, but simply making foods with better choices of ingredients (low-cal and low-fat versions). In other cases people on diets can eat ice cream, but just have a small serving.

Many popular comfort foods are very nutritious and contain fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein and carbohydrate. However most of them are overloaded with calories. The table below lists common comfort foods and snacks. The table lists calories, fat, carbohydrate and protein for each of the foods which have a common serving size of 100g. The foods are ranked and list with the highest calories listed first.

The main points about the foods listed are:

• The comfort foods with the highest calories in a standard serve of 100g were nuts, potato chips, biscuits and cookies and snack bars, which have over 350 calories. Nuts have high fat levels and foods high in carbohydrates and natural sugars are packed with calories.
• All of the fast foods such as chicken nuggets, burgers and hot dogs have high calories.
• Dries fruits such as raisins (300 calories), apricots (240 calories) and prunes (240 calories) and sandwiches all have high calories.
• Not surprisingly, the foods with the lowest calories were vegetables and fruits (not avocado which is rich in fat), soups and smoothies.

Ways to Enjoy Comfort Food, Wisely

Reduce the calories - Prepare versions of your favourite comfort food that have reduced calories, fat, sodium, and sugar. There are a huge number of recipes for low-cal versions of your favorite dishes.

Control when and how much comfort foods you eat – Try to only eat your comfort food when you are really hungry. Remember that hunger pangs only last for about ten minutes. Drinking water or eating an apple can overcome the hunger pangs. Similarly eating a tiny portion of many hunger foods such as sultanas, cheese and nuts can ‘kill’ the hunger ( 1/2 cup). The problem is that there is an overshoot, you tend to keep eating long after the food would satisfy the appetite. If you need to fill your stomach to feel better and satisfied, eat green vegetables, cabbage, bell peppers, green beans and celery sticks. You can eat these with hommus or fabulous dips and salsa. Just make sure the amount of the dups is very small and that you ‘fill-up’ on the vegetables.

Try not to snack on comfort foods - To avoid eating for emotional reasons, aviod comfort foods as snacks, but have them as regular meals and not as a snack eaten on impulse.

Make healthy adjustments to your recipes – If you enjoy casseroles, beek steak, pasta dishes as comfort food, boost the nutritional value of the food and lower the calories but using less meat and more vegetables. Buy smaller amounts of the better cuts of meat such as fillet steak and really enjoy its tenderness and flavour. For sweet comfort foods, add more fresh fruit, and decrease the sugar and dairy ingredients to reduce the fat content and calories.

Related Articles for Dieting and Calorie Control Diets

=> Q&A Do Menus with Walking Times to Burn Calories Lead to Healthier Choices

=> Dieting Myths Debunked - Calories from Protein, Fat, Carbs are Equal

=> Proven Ways to Increase Metabolism Naturally - Create a Calorie Deficit

=> Why Calorie Counts for Protein and Fiber are Inaccurate

=> At Last - Cause of Global Obesity Identified - We Passively Eat Too Many Calories

=> Zero Calorie Snacks that Fill You Up - Stop Perpetual Snacking

Tips for Low-Cal, Low-Fat Comfort Food Recipe

The table below outlines the substitutes you can use to reduce the calories and fat in homemade and prepared foods and dishes.

Low-Fat and Low-Cal Substitutes

Nutrient Summary for Popular Comfort Foods