ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605220003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES FOOD EDITOR
Ever notice how studiously people assemble their plates at a salad bar? Many equate salad with healthful eating and therefore believe that no matter what they pile on, they're building a nutritious, balanced meal. It's too bad that the diners' ultimate accumulations often lack nutrition and balance (plus exceed their caloric and fat needs for an entire day). But that explains why Americans, although more health-conscious than ever, are reportedly growing fatter each year.
Don Mankie, a registered dietitian with the Lewis-Gale Health Management Center, recently theorized that portion sizes are probably the biggest reason for this unwelcome phenomenon.
"Big is in, so we end up eating double, triple or quadruple the amount of food that we need. Plus we overeat low or nonfat foods because we think they're also low in calories, which isn't always the case," Mankie said.
Tall, lean, energetic Mankie is a living billboard for the benefits of healthy eating and physical activity. He personally practices the lifestyle and at the center, where he's worked for eight years, he counsels people who have special dietary needs (because of diabetes or allergies, for example) that require long-term management.
His busy schedule forces him to eat a lot of fast but healthy foods, such as frozen vegetables, he said. He sometimes enjoys grazing a good salad bar.
On a recent morning at a Kroger salad bar, Mankie assembled a hefty, satisfying meal that he estimated equaled about 500 calories, contained almost no fat, and fulfilled the USDA Food Guide Pyramid guidelines. Here's how:
"You don't get a lot of good grains choices on most salad bars," Mankie observed, referring to the pyramid's largest requirement for six to 11 daily servings and what should have been the base of his meal. Promising to get grains later, Mankie began by spreading a generous helping of iceberg lettuce across his Styrofoam platter and topping it with leaves of romaine lettuce and spinach.
"Nutritionally, iceberg lettuce is more of a filler. The darker leafy green vegetables add vitamins A and C," he said.
He next added tomatoes, carrots, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and other plain vegetables to increase fiber and help satisfy hunger. He pointed out that recent studies cite many of these vegetables as possible deterrents for some forms of cancer. The green peppers would add flavor, plus they contain more Vitamin C than an orange, he said. These selections came under the pyramid's requirements of three to five vegetable servings per day.
Mankie sank a serving spoon into the marinade surrounding a cucumber-tomato mixture. "You can see that this is more water than oil, so it would be OK to add if you wanted," he said. He then stirred another mixed-vegetable concoction in which oil was visible. "That would be out if you're trying to keep down your calories and fat."
Most of the pastas, if unadorned, could have met some daily grain requirements. Alas, these pasta choices were doused with mayonnaise, sour cream or other presumably calorie- and fat-laden dressings. A half-cup could easily add 200 calories, Mankie said. And, let's face it, most people eat more than a half cup.
Describing himself as about 95 percent vegetarian, Mankie chose kidney beans as one of the two to three daily servings of protein called for by the pyramid. Diced turkey or ham would also be good protein sources, he said, as would the cottage cheese. (The cottage cheese could also apply toward the two to three recommended daily dairy servings.)
You can splurge a little with every salad, Mankie said. And so he placed five olives strategically among the other ingredients. Small condiments easily add up, Mankie pointed out.
"These are about 20 calories and a gram or two of fat," he said of the olives. "But they add flavor. When you eliminate fat, replace it with flavor," he advised, popping in a couple of pepperoncini peppers for the same reason.
As a grain, Mankie selected melba toast, saltine crackers and a package of bread sticks. The club crackers and fried croutons and taco shells were higher in calories and fat than he desired. But in a supermarket setting, Mankie said, you could easily walk over a few aisles and buy a bag of baked tortilla chips or low or nonfat crackers. Bagels could also fill some grain requirements, but you have to watch their size; the larger ones often contain up to 300 calories.
"Now, if you wanted, you could put some fruit in another container and you'd have servings from all your groups," Mankie said, smiling at his finished creation. Its ingredients were carefully arranged to please the eye as well as the palate.
"Presentation is important in making food taste good," said Mankie, who teaches the center's "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy" cooking classes. Upcoming topics include grilling, seafood and summer vegetables.
For more information about Mankie's methods or the center's dietary and health-related programs, call 772-3750.
For more ideas for creating pyramid-based salads at home, send self-addressed, stamped business-size envelopes to: Best Dressed Salads, c/o The Association for Dressings and Sauces, 5775-G Peachtree-Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, Ga. 30342; Radish Council, 49 East 21st St., New York, N.Y. 10010; and Centennial Recipe Collection, T. Marzetti Company, P. O. Box 29163, Columbus, Ohio 43229-0163.
recipes for:
LAYERED PARTY SLAW
TUNA PASTA SALAD
TOMATO, LOX AND BAGEL SALAD
STRAWBERRY-PORK SALAD
SANTA FE SALAD
MEDITERRANEAN CHICKPEA SALAD
THAI SALAD
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: roger hart staff 1. Don mannkie, a registered dietitianby CNBat Lewis-Gale Health Management Center, prepares a salad at a Kroger
sald bar. 2. The salad (below) satisfies most of the nutritional
requirements of the USDA Food Pyramid. color.