Session 4 More Food

This session will talk about:

How we went with our goals from last session
Discretionary or ‘sometimes’ foods
Shopping, meal planning and label reading

Consistency doesn’t mean never messing up, it means never giving up. -Anon.

Review

Thinking over how you’ve gone with putting in changes is an important process. Think about what you tried, what went well, and what could be improved for next time. This is something you will find yourself doing continually over time.

Nutrition 101

The foods we eat contain a variety of nutrients that provide energy and minerals that our body needs. The main types of nutrients are:

Carbohydrates: these are starches and sugars which are the main source of energy for our brain and helps fuel our muscles.
Fats: these are used to build nerve tissue (including brain and nerves) and has a role in regulating our hormones. The body also uses fat as fuel.
Proteins: these are the body’s building blocks and these are used to maintain and renew our cells.
Vitamins and minerals: we need appropriate amounts of these for all areas of our body to function well

As shown by the Dietitians, many foods fall in these general categories, though some foods can be mixed.

Sometimes Foods (Discretionary Foods)

What makes food a ‘sometimes’ food?

Most ‘sometimes’ foods are foods that come with a lot of energy (normally in the form of fat and sugar, which is a carbohydrate), as well as other things we don’t need in our diet. The way this happens can be through:

What the food is made of (such as adding in extra fats and sugars)
How the food is cooked or prepared (such as frying which will add a lot of oil)
Extra additives such as preservatives, artificial sweeteners, etc.

If we don’t use up all the energy from this food, we end up storing it in our bodies as fat.

We recommend no more than 2 servings of these foods a week.

Why so little?

Discretionary foods tend to be very energy dense: we only need a little bit to give us a lot of energy. So if we choose to have a sometimes or discretionary food, we should try and limit ourselves to a small amount.

As a quick summary, here are some common examples of discretionary foods

Meal Planning

Many people quite enjoy cooking but they get very frustrated with having to think of “what’s for dinner tonight?” Planning ahead can help, and it doesn’t need to be complicated.

Make a list of the meals your family enjoys – keep adding to this list as you try new things or remember old favourites. You can keep this list on your fridge or inside a kitchen cupboard if you like an uncluttered fridge.

Also make a list of vegetables that are enjoyed by the family (these can accompany the meals).

Make a note of

Which meals are good for leftovers or lunch the following day.
Which meals can be made into other dishes – e.g. Bolognese to lasagne/pasta bake/nachos/tacos.
Which meals can be cooked in bulk and frozen in portions for quick future meals.

If you take some time during the week to plan meals and shopping then you can reference this list of favourite meals to guide your planning.

As you get more familiar with planning meals you can give some time to considering how you might make these meals more nutritious considering yours and your family’s health needs.

The following tables may help you with planning your meals for your family.

Favourite Meals

Menu Planner

Shopping List

Shop Smart

Knowing the tricks that supermarkets use to get us to buy more helps us stay on top of our budget as well as our health. Watch out for…

Supermarkets selling holiday treats (like hot cross buns, Halloween lollies, Christmas treats.) early. They know that if they’re on display, we buy them, we’ll eat them earlier and then buy more.

The bakery and roast chicken at the front. Even if we aren’t buying them, the smell often makes us feel hungry, which means we are more likely to buy more and make less healthy choices.

Buy 2 for 1 sales and deals. It can feel like we’re missing a deal, but often these sales mean we end up buying more than we planned to (it wasn’t on the shopping list, for example). This means we spent more money, and then have more food we didn’t want at home.

Supermarket layout. Essentials (like bread, milk, eggs) are put at the back and far away from each other, meaning you have to walk through the store to get to them. The displays at the end of each aisle get the most people walking past, and so tend to have things which people tend to impulse buy if you see a good deal. And different colours and placements on each aisle mean that certain items catch your attention, or your children’s attention, meaning you’re more likely to buy it.

Look out for these next time you’re shopping. Knowing this information means you can recognise how marketing affects you, and make better choices.

Make a shopping list and stick to it. If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t get bought.

Keep to your budget, which will avoid the ‘deals’ which get us spending more money than intended.

Ask yourself, are you buying it because you need it, or because you might be missing out on a deal if you don’t?

Think about who might eat it once it’s home, and is having that food going to be helpful or unhelpful.

Read labels before you put things in your basket – this gives you the power to make healthier choices rather than being affected by the advertising and marketing strategies designed to have you spend more money.

Label Reading Basics

Goal Setting

What’s your next nutrition goal?

Look back at the nutrition missions and pick the next one you will achieve this week.

What’s your physical activity goal?

What can you do from this week’s information?

What can you try from this week?

Summary

By next week…

By next week, you will have…

Worked on your next nutrition goal
Worked on your physical activity goal
Worked on something you learned from this week’s information on discretionary foods, managing food cues, or changing our language to ourselves
Continued with monitoring your food and activity levels
Continued working on your social goal