Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 27, 1993 TAG: 9312170272
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Almena Hughes
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Well, it's one thing to hear about the fat in foods. Seeing it, on the other hand, really drives the point home, which is the intention of the Virginia Cooperative Extension's new "Fat Tubes."
Extension agent Charlotte Kidd said the recently acquired set of 40 cylindrical tubes filled with varying amounts of fake fat (because real fat turns rancid) is being used to graphically demonstrate just how much of the artery-clogging substance we're talking about. In the demonstrations, primarily being given to Expanded Food & Nutrition Education Program and TAP brown-bag program groups, participants select numbered placards bearing food names and their caloric and fat contents. The cards are then matched to a fat-filled vial bearing the same number. The impact is immediate.
Picture a typical fast-food deluxe hamburger with cheese, sauce and a bun. It's maybe 3 to 4 inches in diameter, right? Now pick up its corresponding tube, which can hold roughly 20 grams, and find it filled to the brim with fat that, if spread out, probably would cover roughly 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Yuck.
The fat tubes can be examined at the extension office by anyone who's interested, but call 857-7915 first to make sure they'll be available at the time you'd like to come by.
While fat is a bane for some, it's a boon for others. Low-fat/no-fat cookbooks are constantly coming out, often joining diet books at the top of bestseller lists. And weight-loss programs obviously are an expanding industry. A few innovators have taken fat-fighting even further. For about $4 per meal, Alexandria-based Diet-To-Go provides its clients with three square, low-fat, low-calorie, heat-and-eat meals a day. No one is yet doing this in our area, but maybe someone should. Diet-To-Go can be reached at (703) 550-3438.
For roughly $6 a month, the Light & Easy Cooking Collection promises subscribers monthly slimmed-down versions of favorite recipes, most requiring under 30 minutes of preparation time. Baked Alaska with 138 calories and 1 gram of fat vs. the traditional 442 calories/26 grams of fat. A ham and cheese omelette with 133 calories and 13 mg cholesterol vs. the old 529 calories/448 mg. cholesterol. Low-fat, low-cal or low-cholesterol versions of linguine with red clam sauce; chocolate amaretto cheesecake; macaroni and cheese or burritos. Other perks include wipe-clean recipe cards, a recipe binder and a newsletter. For more information, contact the Order Fulfillment Center, P.O. Box 2463, Birmingham, Ala. 35282-9893.
For a little over $200, Chicago-based Health Products Marketing offers InControl, a home video weight-loss program used by the American Heart Association in its Heart At Work health-promotion program. Health Products Marketing president Mitchell Morris said the behavior-modification plan, originally developed in 1983 and revised in 1991, includes a no-impact exercise regime specifically designed for overweight people who have not been exercising regularly, a low-calorie/low-cholesterol cookbook using everyday foods, and telephone access to a dietitian's services. He said roughly 90 percent of those using the program lost weight, and about two-thirds of those kept the weight off during the six months a follow-up study was conducted.
The plan appeals especially to people who can't fit other programs into their schedules or who want to avoid the comparatively higher costs of other similar programs, Morris said. An extra incentive is a refund of the $44 enrollment fee when a participant reaches his or her goal weight. For details, call (800) 288-8446.
"America is the fattest country in the world," said two recent studies. The University of Chicago's Nutrition and Weight Control Clinic found that in 1990, 28 percent of Americans over age 17 were obese, meaning 20 percent or more over ideal body weight. That was up from 24 percent in 1985, while a Harris poll found that 66 percent of Americans were overweight in 1992, up from 58 percent in 1983. What's more, Yale University researchers have found that stress may be a contributing factor to fat in some women, stimulating in those who cope poorly with stress and carry fat around their middles further secretion of a hormone that encourages further fat buildup. How's that for stress-inducing news?
The good news is that overall, the average American's blood cholesterol level is down 6.8 percent from 1960 when the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was conducted. However, more than half of the nation's adults still have cholesterol levels higher than the desirable maximum of 200 ml/dl. We're watching it, though . There's even now a home-cholesterol test from a Sunnyvale, Calif., company that debuted in June.
Sometimes I wonder, though, are Americans the only ones obsessed with fat? We've all heard tales of how the French consume vast quantities of cream sauces without ill-effects. And a recent cookbook of favorite recipes of the Swiss National Ski Team called for ham, eggs, real butter, cream and cheese in a single dish. Did the team members seem concerned about calories and cholesterol? Fat chance.
\ see microfilm for receipe for Spaghetti with Cheese Sauce
by CNB