Easy sugar conversion

Each of the cubes in the image represents one teaspoon of sugar. To figure out how much sugar is in your food/drink, look at the nutrition facts and divide the number of grams of sugar by 4. This gives the number of teaspoons, PER SERVING. For example, if a product has 12g of sugar per serving, that equals 3 teaspoons.

You'd be surprised how much sugar is added in processed foods. The nutrition facts for Kashi's "Heart to Heart" instant oatmeal in raisin-spice flavor lists 16g of sugar. That's 4 teaspoons of sugar per bowl! Way more than you would add yourself if you started with plain oats and made your own bowl of oatmeal from scratch. I don't even add sugar to mine. The dried fruit, cinnamon, and sliced almonds add plenty of flavor.

Another shocker: Yoplait Original Strawberry Yogurt has 26 grams of sugar! In one tiny cup, it packs 6.5 teaspoons of sugar. That's like half the container! You are much better off starting with plain yogurt and adding the sugar yourself. When you sweeten things yourself, you'll realize that you don't need to add that much sugar.

Another conversion you can use is grams to calories. Each gram of sugar contains 4 calories. 26 x 4 = 104. So 104 out of the 170 calories per Yoplait yogurt comes from sugar!

I'm not advocating artificial sweeteners to cut down on sugar. Nor am I against occasional desserts. Just be aware that unexpected foods can contain a lot of sugar. Be aware of how much sugar you're eating, and try to minimize it, naturally.

How not to blow it when you're on vacation

Summer is here!! Since many of you will be traveling this summer, I am sharing my healthy travel tips. Whether you're on the road, a long flight, or a cruise, you can stay healthy while still enjoying your vacation.

For the flight

- Pack a bag of snacks for the plane ride, so you aren't tempted with junk from the airport. Fruits and veggie sticks are fine to bring on the plane, as long as you eat them before you get to customs on the other side. Soy chips, rice cakes, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, and dried fruit are also easy to pack.

- If you have dietary restrictions, order a special meal when booking your flight. I get the Asian (Indian) Vegetarian meal. Other meals include low sodium, low fat/cholesterol, and vegan meals, available depending on the flight and carrier.

- Watch out for liquid calories. Ask for just a glass of juice/beer/soda, not the whole can. Water is best.

Dining out

- Don't skimp on breakfast, which only sets you up to go overboard later. Eat a hearty, healthy breakfast with protein, whole grains, and some fruit. Avoid filling up on simple carbs and sugar, like pancakes and muffins, which result in an energy crash later.

- Go for foods steamed, grilled, sauteed, boiled, baked, and roasted, which are healthier cooking methods, rather than fried.

- Watch out for foods that are breaded, battered, or encrusted (with nuts, etc), which add on extra calories.

- Have a broth-based soup or salad before your entree to help fill you up.

- Reduce calories from Mexican food by asking for less sour cream, guacamole, and cheese. Ask for extra lettuce and salsa.

- Consider soup and salad for a light yet filling meal.

- Not all salads are healthy! Watch out for loads of cheese, bacon, dressing, ham, tortilla chips, etc. Ask for the dressing on the side, and choose a vinaigrette rather than a creamy dressing.

- Avoid creamy sauces and soups.

- Consider dining out for lunch, which is usually cheaper and lighter, and cooking a healthy dinner at "home."

- Share an entree or dessert.

On the road

The foods I mentioned to bring on the plane can also be packed for road trips. You could also bring a cooler with hummus, peanut butter and jelly, and other sandwich ingredients, water, string cheese, yogurt, whole grain crackers, fruits, veggies, etc. Japanese (brown) rice balls are a great road trip food, too.

Of the fast food places, I think McDonald's offers the healthiest choices. Get the grilled chicken instead of fried, and order a small order of fries instead of the standard size. Ask for no mayo. You could even get a kids' meal instead of their normal combo. They also have healthy snacks such as a yogurt parfait and apple slices. Go for a vanilla ice cream cone, which only has 150 calories, versus the "Mcflurry" which has 620!

Happy travels!!!

Mindful Eating

Simply paying attention to the food you're eating seems hard these days. We're always eating on the go, in the car, grabbing a quick meal before moving onto the rest of the day. It's almost a hassle when you're busy. But eating can be a pleasurable chance to stop and take care of yourself with foods that nourish and revitalize the body, and no hectic schedule should take that away from you.

So try sitting down to eat, and only to eat. No reading material, no TV. Notice the smells, flavors, and textures of the food as you eat. Eat slowly, chewing each bite well. Listen to your body's signals when it's had enough. You should feel satisfied, but not completely full. It takes 15 minutes for your body to recognize that it's full, so you could be overstuffing yourself before you realize you've had too much. If you practice this by yourself often, it'll come naturally when you're eating with company.

Tip: Go a step further and try closing your eyes when you eat! You'll notice your other senses will be intensified. It's a burst of flavor sensation!

Functional Foods and Supplements

There are so many "functional foods" out there, tricking you into thinking that they are better than the natural food itself. For example, pasta and eggs high in omega 3s, water with added vitamins and minerals, and all those meal replacement bars. Then there are the countless supplements. You can get everything in the form of a pill or powder these days: fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, protein, etc.

The problem is, now that you're loaded up on your nutrients, what are you going to eat?

If you eat a variety of healthy, wholesome foods, you would get all your nutrients the natural way. For example, antioxidants are all the rage these days for being cancer fighters, but you don't have to search for product labels that boast "High in Antioxidants!!" on them. They're abundant in fruits, vegetables, and beans.

Research shows that your body can absorb vitamins and nutrients from whole foods much better than from supplements. When you swallow a huge amount of a single vitamin at one time, your body can only absorb so much, as little as 10-15% of it. And vitamins do not work in isolation. Suppose a study showed that the vitamin E from almonds reduced the occurrence of prostate cancer. It could have been the cooperation of vitamin E with other crucial micronutrients that caused this, not vitamin E alone. There is surprisingly little evidence that taking vitamins has any benefit.

So the bottom line is: try to get most of your vitamins and nutrients from whole foods. If you're healthy, you probably don't need supplements. You might consider them if you have a medical condition or have a restricted diet. Just keep in mind that they are supplements, intended to supplement your diet, not replace it!

Pick of the Week

Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burger

I don't know who Dr. Praeger actually is, but he makes awesome veggie burgers! It's not one of those 'fake meat' burgers. You can see the ingredients inside these burgers, like corn and green peas and potatoes. It kind of tastes like the filling of very mild samosa. I love to break it up and sprinkle it over salad - It has so much flavor, you don't even need dressing!

Even if you're not a vegetarian, it's a healthy and tasty alternative to a regular hamburger. It has no cholesterol or saturated fat, has 5 grams of protein, and only 110 calories.

I love how the top of the box says "Where you recognize all the ingredients.." High five, Dr. Praeger.

They also have TexMex flavor, but I like the California one better... Not that I am biased...

Sold at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods in the frozen foods aisle!

Getting Preachy About Organic

Organic food is awesome, or else my name would not be Organic Lisa. Organic food is grown naturally without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and are not genetically modified. Conventional means the opposite of organic. There are many reasons why you should eat organically.

If you had the choice between eating chemicals or not, why would you? Let's eat food the way nature intended it to be, not how large scale industrial farmers want it to be. It's in their best interest to mass-produce one product in the cheapest and quickest way possible, but it's not the healthiest for us.

Organic is better for the environment. The chemicals that seep into the soil get washed into the rivers and oceans, harming marine life. Also, we need those little critters in our soil; some are beneficial to the crops, like ladybugs. Getting sprayed with pesticide is probably not a fun way to die. Being called a pest hurts their feelings too.

Organic food tastes better! Try comparing an organic orange vs. a conventional one. The organic orange tends to be way more intense in flavor, both citrusy and sweet, while the conventional orange will have a more monotone sweetness.

Save money by buying organic produce in season. You could spend $8 on a tiny box of organic blueberries flown in from Chile in the dead of winter, or you could buy organic blueberries when they're in season (summer) and get them for much cheaper. If you can't afford to buy everything organic, you can save money by buying organic only when it comes to the following foods, which have the highest levels of chemicals:

The Dirty Dozen - which foods to always buy organic

1. Peaches

2. Apples

3. Sweet bell peppers

4. Celery

5. Nectarines

6. Strawberries

7. Cherries

8. Pears

9. Imported grapes

10. Spinach

11. Lettuce

12. Potatoes

And these are the least contaminated:

1. Onions

2. Avocado

3. Sweet corn

4. Pineapple

5. Mango

6. Asparagus

7. Sweet peas

8. Kiwi

9. Bananas

10. Cabbage

11. Broccoli

12. Papaya

You'll notice that the most contaminated produce are the ones with little or no skin to protect themselves, while many of the least contaminated have a thick removable skin. That's a good way to remember which foods you should buy organically.

The farmers market is a GREAT place to buy organic, local food for very cheap. Be sure to ask each vendor if they use pesticides or chemical fertilizers. I just got 3 cartons of delicious organic strawberries for $4 last week! For a list of farmers markets in CA go to http://www.cafarmersmarkets.com/ Or go to http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/ for all farmers markets in the US.

Now, don't even get me started about organic animals and animal products... cows and chickens getting injected with hormones and antibiotics, feeding artificial food coloring to make the flesh of farmed salmon more red, genetically engineering pigs to make them higher in omega 3 fatty acids... GO ORGANIC. Or leave these poor animals alone.

With love,

Lisa the Organic Queen

Pick of the Week

Nature's Path Organic Heritage Cereal

This is one of my favorite cereals, available at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. It has an impressively simple ingredients list and is low calorie, low sugar, and high in fiber. The best part: it doesn't get soggy in milk! It's like a crunchy, delicious blank slate that you can add anything to: dried cranberries, sliced almonds, bananas, fresh blueberries, granola, etc.