ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605170087
SECTION: SENIOR STYLE PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH COX
By the time Nicole Biricocchi sees her patients, they really, really need to talk to her - about low fat foods, low-sodium cooking and high-fiber diets. Biricocchi, a cardiac dietitian at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, said a lot of times her patients have been eating high-fat foods and whole milk for decades.
The hardest transition, for them, is learning how to shop and cook another way.
She starts by giving them very practical advice, she said. For instance, instead of a crash-and-burn approach to healthy eating, she suggests they ease their way into it. Go from 2 percent to 1 percent milk, and then try skim, she said. If you use a lot of salt, try cutting back on it gradually, using one shake instead of two for the soup pot. Begin to eat skinless poultry and more fish, and prepare it in ways other than frying. If you eat port or beef, trim it well.
And don't take the "all or nothing" approach. If you eat healthy the majority of the time, she said, you can treat yourself occasionally.
Biricocchi cautioned that fat-free doesn't mean calorie-free. She warns her patients that they need to keep total calorie count in mind, also. Using the food-guide pyramid, concentrate on the base and lower parts and try not to venture near the top too often. The base includes grains and starchy foods, and the next tier is fruits and vegetables.
"With just one or two in the household, it's easy to open a can,'' she said. But fresh fruits and vegetables often offer more vitamins.
To help her patients understand how to approach a grocery store, often a daunting challenge once they know they have to change their diet, she gives them a tour.
"We start, at the beginning of the store, read labels, talk about products, and I teach them how to survive in a grocery store because it can turn into a major production. I try to give them an easy way to read labels,'' she said.
Sodium content is extremely important, she said, especially for heart patients. They may want to look for foods with 200 mg. or less of sodium. With fat content, she advised not to just pick a number, for instance 4 grams of fat, but to look instead at the percentage of fat in the food. According to the American Heart Association, only 30 percent or less of a serving's calories should come from fat. To determine that, look at the total number of calories per serving on the label, and compare that to the total grams of fat per serving. It should be no more than a ratio of 3-1.
The good news is that snacking can be good for you. Munch on fresh strawberries, a banana, a whole wheat pita pocket stuffed with veggies and fat-free cream cheese, a baked potato topped with low-fat cottage cheese and Parmesan cheese, low-fat or fat-free yogurt, or a great fruit shake.
This is a lot for her heart patients to try to digest, in addition to recovering from whatever serious situation has put them in her care. To reinforce this teaching, Roanoke Memorial offers a refresher course every Thursday, said Biricocchi.
According to Brenda McManaway, director of Carilion Physician Referral and Health Information, the Heart Healthy Diet Class is offered every Thursday at 2 p.m., and is free. The Healthy
Eating and Grocery Tour, which takes a group through Tanglewood Kroger every second Tuesday, is $5. For more information about either class, call 981-7461.
Roanoke County also offers living fit classes on a regular basis, according to Paul Nester, supervisor of adult planning.
Everyone is beginning to be aware of how to eat right, he said, and the county is responding to this need. Both the Roanoke County and Roanoke City schedules will be out the first of June.
Provisions, the gourmet cookware and provisions shop in Hunting Hills Plaza, also offers a variety of cooking demonstrations and hands-on classes. Some of these are directed toward those interested in more healthful eating, said owner Karen Hunter. Look for her classes described as "healthy, low-fat, heart-healthy, vegetarian, etc." and you've found it. She said that at first she needed to make these classes broad-based enough to attract people; now they sell out.
Hunter, who will put your name on a mailing list to receive her periodic newsletters with information about these classes, also recommends a series of cookbooks published by Eating Well magazine. These cookbooks, she said, take a common sense approach to cooking. They're not so extreme that they eliminate all fat.
Jane Brody, a syndicated health columnist, has also written cookbooks that Hunter recommends. You'll find both in Provisions.
Bon appetit.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB