This is the text version of Hungry Girl. 
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<br>Hungry Girl Today: 10.01.08 
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<br>ASK HUNGRY GIRL 
<br>
<br>
<br>Dear Hungry Girl, 
<br>
<br>Your recipes sound great, but I've noticed that you use a lot of packaged 
<br>foods in them. Why do you use so many packaged foods? I heard someone 
<br>on TV say it's best to only shop the "perimeter of the grocery store" and 
<br>avoid the inner aisles -- is this good advice? 
<br>
<br>Confused in Aisle 1  
<br> 
<br> 
<br>Dear Confused, 
<br>
<br>I am actually asked these questions A LOT. Yes, I have heard that you 
<br>should only shop the perimeter of the supermarket as well as a bazillion 
<br>reasons why you should only eat natural and/or organic foods. And while 
<br>those ideas are good in theory, they're not 100% realistic for most of us. 
<br>Here's the bottom line. I personally eat a ton of fresh fruit and veggies -- I 
<br>also eat a lot of lean meats and low-fat dairy. Those are all great things, and 
<br>I encourage others to eat them. The HG book and emails have many recipes 
<br>with a lot of fresh fruit, veggies, and lean protein. And there ARE some HG 
<br>recipes that don't call for any packaged foods at all -- check out our Bake-
<br>tastic Butternut Squash Fries, Yummy Yummy Eggplant Goo, and Fiesta 
<br>Tropical Fruit Salsa. But telling people to never eat the other stuff isn't 
<br>entirely reasonable. I don't think people are going to live their lives never 
<br>eating a crunchy chip or a scoop of ice cream... never indulging in a piece of 
<br>cake or a brownie. It's not realistic to think most people can live that way. 
<br>Also, a lot of people think that if they get their cake or brownies at Whole 
<br>Foods, it is automatically a good choice for them and somehow diet-friendly. 
<br>This is completely untrue. You will never convince me that eating thousands 
<br>of calories' worth of "natural" foods is somehow better for you than a calorie-
<br>controlled diet, one that addresses your cravings but contains some foods 
<br>with ingredients that are a little hard to pronounce. HG recipes often call for 
<br>packaged foods because they keep the recipes low-calorie, low-fat, delicious, 
<br>and easy. And another thing -- some people claim to be super-healthy 
<br>because they avoid packaged foods, yet they'll head out to eat and devour 
<br>an entire plate of onion rings as an appetizer and a slice of cheesecake for 
<br>dessert. I'd rather avoid fried foods and fatty desserts at restaurants and 
<br>make baked onion rings (with Fiber One cereal) and low-calorie desserts 
<br>(with a bit of Cool Whip Free) in my kitchen. I think including those "inner 
<br>aisle" foods as a way to maintain a healthy weight without feeling totally 
<br>deprived is actually pretty smart. Especially since deprivation can lead to 
<br>overdoing it with the food you were avoiding in the first place. My point here 
<br>is that the HG lifestyle is one that is "real world". It's a strategy and an 
<br>approach that is reasonable enough for people to live with forever -- it's not 
<br>too extreme or off-putting. And that is super-important when dealing with an 
<br>eating plan. Again, eat whole and all-natural foods as part of a sensible diet 
<br>whenever possible -- I'm all for that. But that doesn't mean you have to cut 
<br>all the other stuff out of your life completely. Thanks for the great questions!
<br>  
<br> 
<br> 
<br> 
<br>Dear HG, 
<br>
<br>If a product says that it's "97% fat-free", doesn’t that mean that no more 
<br>than 3% of the calories can come from fat? I realized recently that my 
<br>beloved Hebrew National 97% Fat Free Beef Franks have 1.5g fat each. Since 
<br>a gram of fat has 9 calories, that means each hot dog really has 13.5 
<br>calories from fat -- and that's THIRTY PERCENT of the total calories. How can 
<br>this be?!? 
<br>
<br>Percentage Perplexed  
<br> 
<br> 
<br>Dear Percentage Perplexed, 
<br>
<br>First of all, I'm extremely impressed with your math skills and savvy 
<br>detective work! Those dogs DO have 30% of their calories coming from fat. 
<br>Don't panic -- here's the deal. The percentage claim is actually based on 
<br>WEIGHT, not calories. So since each of those dogs weighs 49 grams, only 
<br>3% of that weight can be from fat. Since 3% of 49g is just under 1.5g, the 
<br>97% fat-free claim is totally accurate. A little confusing, I know! So does this 
<br>mean companies can get away with labeling super-fatty foods as a certain 
<br>percentage fat-free just because they weigh enough? Luckily, NO! For a 
<br>product to tout that it's ANY percentage "fat-free", it has to at least be "low-
<br>fat" -- that means it can only have 3g fat or less per serving. So as long as 
<br>you don't eat TOO many servings, you should be okay! And if you wanna 
<br>watch your percentage of fat per day, pay attention to the % daily value on 
<br>the label. That IS based on a 2,000-calories-a-day diet, but it can be a good, 
<br>quick reference. Hope that helps. BTW, I LOVE those hot dogs and eat them 
<br>all the time! 
<br> 
<br>
<br>For links in this email go to: 
<br>https://www.hungry-girl.com/askhg/askhgdetails.php?isid=1559 
<br>
<br>-- 
<br>
<br>CHEW ON THIS: 
<br>October 1st (today) starts the beginning of PUDDING SEASON! Yay! It's also 
<br>Homemade Cookies Day -- so bake up a batch of our Grab 'n Go Breakfast 
<br>Cookies.
<br>
<br>Have a question for Hungry Girl? Send it in! She answers two new Qs each 
<br>week (but cannot respond to emails personally). 
<br>https://www.hungry-girl.com/contact/contactus.php 
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<br>2008 
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