 I'm Chef Robin. Welcome to A Hands in the Kitchen workshop all about guilty pleasures. Guilty pleasures are usually those foods that are very highly sweetened or very salty that we eat as snacks or after dinner. And the reason we call them guilty pleasures is because oftentimes after consuming that food stuff we don't feel physically as great as we should and emotionally we take ourselves to task for possibly going off diet or ingesting too much sugar against medical advice. So today we kind of want to look at it differently and rethink how to get pleasure from food but not feel guilty about it and how to kind of think about snacking in a different way. So we're going to talk about why we crave sweets to begin with, why we sometimes need salt and our body is saying salt, salt, salt. We're going to look at the consequences of too much sugar or the consequences of too much salt and then provide some healthier alternatives. We've done a complete workshop on both those things sugar and salt so we're not going to spend the entire workshop today specifically on sugar and salt but we want to get some background because those are the two flavor tastes that most drive us in searching out a food snack. So why we crave sweets? The very first reason why we crave sweets is pure habit. I know a friend Jack. Jack is an older senior now. Jack is obese. Jack has heart disease. Jack grew up on a dairy farm and every single evening after dinner ice cream cake, ice cream pie, ice cream cookies, lots of ice cream. There were lots of kids in Jack's family so ice cream was always being made ice cream was always being consumed but Jack continued to consume that ice cream cake pie cookies throughout his life even as he became less active even as he became to be more poundage than he necessarily needed simply out of habit of always doing that and consequently now he has some chronic health issues that sugar definitely contributed to. I'm not saying sugar is the BNN end all of why Jack is obese or has heart issues now but certainly a contributing factor and if he could have broken his habit up maybe earlier in his life in his 40s or his 50s or his 60s maybe his senior years would not be quite so problematic health wise so we're going to look at some ways to try and rethink that. Habit is the first reason as we discussed the other reason that second and foremost is that sugar is an addictive food stuff just like nicotine just like opiates sugar has an addictive nature to it that our body gets used to gets programmed to wants to have and once you start wants to have more so if you start off your day with a sugar coffee sugar on top of sugared cereal you're going to look at sugar through the rest of the day your body's just going to say more and more sugar it's just going to desire that so it's an addictive quality it's also going to be a little bit hard to start tapering off your sugar consumption because your body has gotten used to that just like any addictive food or otherwise. So blood sugar fluctuation oftentimes as we get older we don't eat our healthiest meals we don't eat nutritionally balanced meals instead we kind of zing zang through our day from a high sugar to a low salt to the high sugar we don't necessarily fulfill our body's need for that fuel from sugar instead we're finding it in quick bites of something that is sugar intense so because of that ping ponging effect of eating sometimes our blood sugar can be low and we need to bring it up but what our body is telling us up is fast fast fast consume sugar sugar sugar and so we go for that Snickers bar or we go for something that's not quite as healthy for us instead we want the direct package quickly so we need to kind of eat healthy throughout our day so that we're not confusing our body and getting different messages that are going to lead us to unhealthy practices stress and insomnia are also two things that can contribute to a desire for sugar sugar translates to pleasure in our brain it activates sensory in our brain that says oh I feel better now oh I can get up and do this oh run run run so if we have added stress and we have insomnia where we're sleeping we just want something to kind of like make us feel better and so we naturally will turn to something that's going to do that in a quick way and oftentimes that is a sugar laden food and that necessarily is it going to bring our stress level down or deal with our insomnia there are other things that could help us with those two items but insomnia and stress could lead us to wanting that sugar salt is a totally different animal counter intimate counter intuitively if we do not have our eight glasses of eight ounce water a day and become dehydrated our body for some reason crave salt it's very kind of not the way that you would think it's going to happen but it does happen that way and it has been medically proven and I was reading about it and shaking my head from the Harvard School of Medicine but if you do not consume enough good liquid throughout the day it can set you up for assault craving the other thing just like we have blood sugar fluctuation the electrolytes in our body become can become imbalanced and sometimes you will see energy drinks or Gatorades with added electrolytes because when we sweat or when we have activities or when we're stressed and sweating we're losing salt from our body and we may be oh we may have a crop salt craving because of that stress can also lead us to crave salt and then there are two medical conditions Addison's disease and barter syndrome that should you notice that you have some issues and you are craving salt and you are eating healthy and you cannot really figure out where this desire for more salt is coming from you could possibly be a candidate for either of these conditions Addison's disease and barter they're not very well known they are sort of rare but it is a possibility that you are craving salt because of that so lots of reasons for us to be desiring sugar and for us to be desiring salt and the most important thing to kind of keep in mind is what our delivery system is for that salt and sugar instead of just sugar from the sugar bowl or salt from the salt shaker can we get those flavor profiles somehow in a different way that are more healthy for us that still give us the energy that balance our electrolytes that keep our blood sugar balance without having to consume over amounts or unhealthy amounts Let's just talk about the consequences very quickly of too much sugar and too much salt I'm sure your medical professional has spoken to you about them as we get to these ages but like we said before sugar has no fiber sugar has no nutrient value sugar has no mineral value it is definitely empty calories that give us fuel but because they are empty calories and we're not as active we can often times lead to obesity or just a weight issue that we don't need as we age also sugar is a proponent or is a propeller of heart disease along with other things like hereditary and other bad eating habits sugar is up there as something that can be contributing to heart disease diabetes we talked about keeping our blood sugar level balanced if we go over or under too often sometimes our body loses the ability to make our own natural sugar which is insulin and we have to take it in a manufactured form daily and that is a diabetic situation lots of people are pre diabetic which means that they are just eating their body is just you know one stage away from so we kind of want to nip it in the bud eat healthier find healthier avenues delivery systems for that sugar so that that is not an issue to where we are dependent on manufactured insulin for the rest of our life sugar also jacks up our blood pressure also is a known cause of inflammation which no one needs inflammation or high blood pressure too much salt same thing if you're using salt in an unhealthy way it can lead to the chronic condition of kidney stones which are painful crystallized little things that sometimes you can pass yourself but sometimes need medical attention but they're incredibly painful no one is interested in having more pain hypertension we don't need hypertension as we age we kind of want simple easy a lovely way of life instead of something stress out high blood pressure also isolated muscle pain can be caused by too much salt so if you are having muscle pain that you can't really figure out because you're not doing calisthenics for riding your bike it could be because your salt level is too high an immediate effect of too much salt can be a bad headache so there are things that too much salt in our system on an immediate basis we can notice and try to address there are also chronic conditions that can come about from too much salt or sugar in our system on a daily basis that we want to give some attention to so let's just figure out how much salt and sugar is the amount that the recommended daily amount is from the food and drug administration it varies the tiniest amount for women and men but in this glass of water I have put the nine teaspoons that is the recommended daily amount for a gentleman of senior age to consume in one day so this is a teaspoon this is nine teaspoons if I pour it into this measuring cup it's a little less than a quarter cup of sugar so that actually is a fair amount of sugar I don't know how anyone could necessarily need more you don't sit down and just eat down a quarter cup of sugar what happens is a lot of the products that you buy in the store that are processed products have added sugar to them whether it's crackers whether it's bread whether it's anything that you could dream of having sugar sometimes it's in there as glucose fructose sucrose high corn syrup and you're not even really that aware that you're consuming more added sugar to your day so whereas you probably don't think that you're sitting down and consuming a quarter cup of sugar depending on what your food is and your snack items are throughout the day you could easily be consuming that much and over and just not even be aware of it now for salt it's an even more extreme number salt the recommendation is only one teaspoon of salt a day we are all over there is no one I know that is under that amount of salt a day so we have to be incredibly conscious of when we cook with salt when we eat salty pretzels when we eat any kind of processed food that is generally getting its umph from salt that we were over and above tending to lead ourselves down the road of a heart condition a hypertension condition high blood pressure any of those things that have this red to them that are danger danger we kind of want to not be doing so it's a small amount sugar small amount of salt for us to actually get by and be physically capable to capable to get through what we need to get done so just bear in mind it's a smaller amount than you think so say we do have that snack attack what can you do when you have that snack attack so many things but they all require you getting up out of that recliner and actually doing something but they don't require an investment of money necessarily they don't require an investment of someone else's guidance or necessarily even a partner in crime but they do require action on your part so these four circles here are all kinds of ways that you can kind of address that motivation towards a snack address that motivation through too much salt and sugar the first one is just distract yourself just distract yourself with another activity if your activity is mostly sitting in your recliner watching tv and i'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that maybe every other commercial you do something else maybe on your tv tray you have a coloring book and you do some coloring you have a crochet book and you do some crocheting you have a knitting project going on that you do for a while you are reading and maybe you always snack when you read instead of snacking every single page maybe when you get to the end of a chapter that's when you take a bite of something somehow rather apply yourself in some strategy to it to where you're not constantly consuming but breaking it up and enjoying it more so you're in control you can do this so the other thing is getting up off of that chair and being physical just being physical just getting some exercise you can outlive while you're in your chair there are even dumbbells that are smaller than this there are also wrist bands and ankle bands that you can use to just give yourself some exercise just be a butterfly while you're sitting in your recliner or if you're sitting in a straight back chair just do some marching while you're sitting down you could still be watching your show but you still could be also exercising and that's going to generate a healthier appetite than something that's just going to want to have a salty snack or a sugary snack it's going to drive you to get more attention to how to fill up that appetite and it's going to burn calories so practice chair yoga almost every community senior center now has an instructor that is going and teaching chair yoga once you use or once you learn some basic chair yoga moves and postures do it at home do it with a neighbor but just remember that it takes no time it takes a chair and yourself you don't have to have straps or pulleys or any kind of equipment you just have to have yourself a little bit of memory from what you learned in your class or in your community center and practice it at home visit a neighbor visit a neighbor with lemonade instead of necessarily coffee cake ride those stationary bikes some people have stationary bikes that they sit on other people have those floor models that you just use your feet on but whatever your comfort level is it's some kind of small exercise that is going to move your body in some way other than just couch potatoing or recliner reclining move that body the other thing is if you want to have a healthier snacking profile during your day you got to have them on hand to enjoy the grocery store is doing everything it possibly can to bring your dollars to their store they have individual apple sauce which is low calorie fibrous tasty and a good size okay they have individual puddings that are low sugar or no sugar they have cheese already sliced for you for crackers and cheese they have edamame that's already roasted for you for snacking healthy so a lot of things that are packaged can still be healthy can still be low waste in terms of you do have waste from the individual container and packaging but you're not losing a whole jar of apple sauce and also if it's in a convenient size where all you have to do is recycle I mean just rinse out and then recycle you don't have to put it in a bowl all you have to do is grab a spoon you can't do that that seems very easy and not problematic the other thing is to have healthy or to enjoy having healthy whole foods in your household so apples can be sliced and had with peanut butter oranges orange slices grapes pop them in the freezer very delightful my grandkids will consume a whole bag of these colorful peppers you can too prepared hummus is very easy and very enjoyable with pita chips or crackers and then we have sweet vegetables we'll talk about as well so there are many food items that are available to kind of steer you away from the overpriced and non-nutrient dance snack without too much trouble so have this don't yo-yo I don't know yo-yo is okay physical activity but what I'm talking about is if you were to keep a food diary it seems a little funny at our age to keep a diary about what we eat we probably think we do know what we eat but if you were to be asked to recite what you had two days ago you may be impressed to do it so just keep a food diary for a few days for a week you may be surprised to see that you see a food pattern of eating that you weren't aware of that you were starting sweet then craving salty that you were starting salty craving sweet that you were ping-ponging or yo-yoing back and forth in what you consume throughout the day if you don't take the time to maybe record it but you are always looking at your cover or always looking at your refrigerator and feel like I know I have nothing to help me in here just possibly address some of that especially if there are issues that you want to kind of tackle if you want to be the most vibrant grandparent you can be or if you want to be the botchy ball player at 80 he's going to win the senior tournament or the senior marathon take it into consideration and modify your food habits to help you get to that goal we could still have goals even if we're seniors and even if your goal is just to feel better small things that you can do on your park are going to help you get to that end so let's look at actual ideas about helping snacking the very first thing that I want you to think about then maybe you totally are conscious of this but maybe you're not maybe it's something you don't think about at all but you'll see this word a lot now mindful and mindfulness when you're eating anything when you're drinking anything try to be mindful and be in that moment of consuming try to be mindful of what led you to that food product why you feel like it's going to bring you the most pleasure in that moment but the other backside of that is in being mindful think about what it took to get that apple to your plate even if that apple came from sheltered orchard or sampling orchard it still had to have an orchardist or an arborist that took care of that tree it still had to have pickers who picked that apple it still had to be truck drivers who brought it to the store maybe it even went to a food inspector it had to have people at the store who put the price tags on it it had to be clean it had to be stacked so many steps of energy from other people to you in this food product even the energy that the food has itself for you you should have a level of gratitude for that will make you hopefully taken to consideration what it's doing for you and what you can get back just by being thoughtful in the consumption of that food and maybe it will slow down the whole snacking process if you think that apple had to go through one through 20 steps to come to your table maybe you'll take a little bit more time to chew it up maybe you'll sorry take the smallest amount of time to enjoy that apple-y flavor but it is actually incredible the amount of steps that has to happen before a product comes to you so just mindlessly is really not where we should be at this point in time in our life we should be incredibly grateful that we have food so readily available in so many different ways and also the fact that that food is going to be more nourishing to us if we can take the time to ingest it in a way that's reflected of that I mean even this little apple sauce had to go from the apple being made to apple sauce to somebody designing this to being designed in this container to being packed that way it's just sometimes this is like mind-blowing to me that food is as inexpensive as it is when you look at all that had to happen for that food to come to be enjoyed by yourself so mindful gratitude chewing up starting a digestive process take it a little slower enjoy it you also might want to seek out natural sweetness before you seek out that processed product with added sugar seek out the natural sweetness of whole fruits in their whole form or 100 all-fruit juices or 100 all-fruit applesauce usually it's going to be on the label as 100 fruit jams and jellies now you can get 100 fruit with no added sugar and then there's always the lovely frozen fruit like I said you can put grapes into your freezer they're very delightful very sensory just fun or popsicles popsicles are really refreshing and they also can be found easily 100 all-fruit just like we seek out natural sweetness let's seek out natural savouriness savouriness is not salt but savouriness is a taste that we can enjoy and that a lot of vegetables and fruits can impart to us because of their own richness and quality when you roast root vegetables which all have the sweetness to them it tends to concentrate that sweetness in your onion or your sweet potato or even in your white potato concentrating that sweetness and savouriness through a cooking process is one way that you can kind of address the need for not added salt or added sugar also some people consider the avocado the fruit some people consider the vegetable however you consider it the avocado has a great natural fat quality to it and a natural fat healthiness to it that when you consume it it just has a lovely texture in your mouth and you can buy guacamole already made from avocados that you could have with crackers or vegetable slices or something that's not necessarily a carbohydrate high in sugar like white bread you could use a whole grain cracker or hard cheeses also sometimes have a saltiness to them in their process of being made it doesn't mean that salt was added to it it means that it's the quality of that cheese product but it sometimes can give you that taste profile that you're seeking also savouriness from nuts and seeds nuts and seeds are protein rich they're a good fat source a healthy fat source they make you feel like you're filled up you don't need to eat a whole can of planters peanuts even if they're lonely salted or no salted eat a minimal amount to satiate that desire at the time or like we were talking about before maybe you only eat every fifth commercial you have five peanuts somehow or other figure it out for yourself so that your consumption gets slowed down so you get satisfied over a longer period of time and you let your digestive system work in a healthy way you also this is a thing so that you don't ping pong back and forth between the salty and the sweet and the salty and the sweet instead of just having a solitary snack make a combo snack in other words two things that naturally go together in a fun way cottage cheese and fruit has been around since i got my consoles out in the hospital a million years ago cottage cheese is a great protein source that can be savory if you'd like but also can be sweetened up so that you kind of get the best of both worlds so it's healthy for you and it's a good snack for you bananas and dark chocolate one of my go-to's instead of a reese cup is to use a rice cake as my delivery device instead of a reese cup i'll use a rice cake i'll put a layer of peanut butter on the rice cake i may sprinkle some dark chocolate chips on the rice cake or a sweet banana on the rice cake pop it in the toaster out in for a few minutes that's my alternative to instead of spending big dollars on candy that has a lot of other things that i don't particularly want to eat on something that is fun to eat healthier for me and also very satiating also very uh filling for me kind of crunchy gives my mouth something to do and it's a lot of fun and chocolate and banana i mean how can you go wrong um veggie chips and hummus is also a good snack to have uh the protein rich tuna fish and cucumber spears when i was little my mother used to hollow the seeds out of cucumbers put a prepared tuna fish with a little mayonnaise in it and then put cherry tomatoes on top i thought it was delightful it was just sweet it looked fun you don't have to go to that much trouble but tuna is a tuna is a protein rich usually low sodium item and cucumbers bright fresh give a lot of moisture in your mouth they're just paired together really well apples and peanut butter every kids go to favorite and they can be your favorite too so um those are some compost snacks to think about i'm sure there are more out there that maybe you can think of or put together what are two things that you really like maybe that aren't particularly healthy what would be healthier alternatives how can you put them together to enjoy the other thing for healthy snacking is if you are going to have cakes or brownies or toast or crackers try to go with the grain try to go with the whole grain product it's going to say on the label that it's a whole grain product even cereals now you can get seven brain cereal you could break brain cereal they're lower in sugar they have more fiber to them they take a longer time to digest so you're not getting this spike and then feeling low and meeting another spike and then feeling low so they have a slower release of the sugar and they're also nutrient dense if you start off your day with great creamy oatmeal which has a delightful texture in your mouth and sweet blueberries really can't go wrong or sweet potatoes and pecans and if you have to pop a marshmallow pop a marshmallow on that sweet potato but it's really not necessary but try to think of ways where you're getting that sweet and savory or sweet and salty taste but addressed in a healthy manner you do have control you can do it uh it's going to take some thinking it's going to take some preparedness on your part and it's going to take some doing without but maybe on your next grocery trip that's super processed one deadly ho ho that you always bring home don't bring it home this week if it's not there you're not going to consume it try to taper off your sugar and salt in a healthy manner so your body doesn't go wacky too quickly but try to taper off try to introduce in things that are just going to make you feel a little all the way around so I hope that that's informative to you and I hope that that's something that you may consider doing especially if you do have health issues you want to address on your own just be aware go slowly don't have grand expectations but be intuitive and have fun in the kitchen until next time