Food for Real

It’s a very busy time of year! We’re all gearing up for the holidays and some of us, including myself, are finishing up the last three weeks of grad school! Needless to say, this is not exactly a stress-free time. During the cold days of winter and when life gets a little hectic, I often find myself wanting comfort foods; my go-to usually being something of Italian origin.  But these foods often contain some less-than-healthy components like saturated fat, added sodium and/or sugar, and they are typically very high in calories. The good news is they don’t have to be! I tried this stuffed shells recipe below, absolutely loved it and had to share. It’s a bit of a nutrition makeover on a traditional, full fat version, but you would never tell the difference if I didn’t tell you! Enjoy!

Ingredients (Serves 4)

Ingredients

• 16 jumbo pasta shells ——– look for whole wheat for added fiber!
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil———-About 3 tablespoons for the baked shells and about 3 tablespoons for sauteed garlicky broccoli rabe (Olive oil is amazingly healthy, and while it does contain 120 calories per tablespoon, it’s incredibly good for you and is an essential for a Mediterranean kitchen!)
• 1/2 pound baby spinach ———- You can also just eye ball it, think about 4 handfuls. Plus there’s nothing wrong with left over spinach!
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped ———-Do you have a garlic mincer yet? Do it.
• 1/2 pound part-skim ricotta cheese (about 1/4 of a container)——-Full fat has about 20 grams saturated fat per cup. Part skim has 10 grams saturated fat per cup.
• 1/2 pound part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beaten ——–Keep the yolk. It has a lot of good nutrition like biotin and other vitamins, and one yolk spread through 4 people only provides 50 mg cholesterol each which isn’t bad.)
• 1/2 cup chopped basil and fresh oregano to taste
• 1 1/2 cups marinara sauce ———-I made my own sauce and froze it and used it again for this recipe. Do you have a favorite pasta sauce recipe?
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Bring a large pot water to a boil. You can salt the water if you’d like. Add pasta shells and cook until al dente (about 10 minutes). Drain the pasta shells and then put them in a bowl with the olive oil and coat them. Leave them there while you prepare the rest.

Toss cooked shells in olive oil and coat

Put spinach, basil, and oregano into a large skillet and drizzle with a tablespoon or two of water. Cook over medium low heat, tossing occasionally, until wilted. Drain it will and squeeze out excess water with the flat side of a spatula. Chop spinach and transfer to a large bowl. Add garlic, ricotta, mozzarella, and egg to make the filling.

Spread a few spoonfuls of marinara sauce in the bottom of a shallow baking dish. And now for the fun part! Fill each shell with the mixture and arrange in the dish in a single layer. I love recipes that include using your hands!  Pour remaining sauce over and around the stuffed shells and top with Parmigiano Reggiano. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes. Then uncover the shells and continue baking until golden brown, about 10 minutes more.

After you uncover the shells, brown some garlic in olive oil in a skillet and toss in the broccoli rabe for a side dish. Any dark green leafy veggie is a nice compliment to this dish.

My volunteer taste tester

One serving (about 11 oz) of this meal provides about 450 calories, 8 grams saturated fat, and 29 grams protein. Not too shabby for a nice Italian meal! This is sure to become one of my winter staples. Hope you enjoy it!

Many of you have probably heard of Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University who ate one twinkie  every three hours for ten weeks in order to demonstrate that weight loss/gain simply depends on calories in/calories out and nothing else.

This was a pretty interesting project. In the ten weeks that Haub conducted this diet, his body mass index went from the overweight category at 28.8 kg/m^2 to a normal range at 24.9 kg/m^2. Also, he lost 27 pounds in two months (which is not a recommended rate of weight loss…In order to have safe, effective weight loss, aim to lose 10% or less of your body weight over a period of 6 months. This usually maxes out at 2 pounds per week.)

Other interesting outcomes of Haub’s experiment: His  LDL cholesterol (the evil stuff) dropped 20%  and his HDL (the good stuff)  increased by 20%.  His serum triglycerides also decreased by 39%.

What can we infer from these results? First and foremost, do NOT take this experiment as license to eat junk food for life. Haub carefully constructed his intake so that he was burning more calories than he was taking in, which is why his weight loss occurred. It has been known for a while now that weight loss/gain strictly depends on calorie balance. However, we are missing a vital piece of the diet here: nutrition.

Which would you rather eat?

The goal of eating a healthy diet is not weight loss, contrary to popular opinion. Getting adequate nutrition ensures multiple benefits that are important factors in living a full, healthy and happy life:

• Increased longevity & Graceful aging
• Decreased incidence of chronic disease: Fruits & veggies have been found to be particularly prevenative
• Looking good: Nice hair, nails, skin, etc.
• More energy: Being able to do the things in life that make you happy without feeling fatigued
• Better pregnancy outcomes: Good nutrition is vital to the birth of healthy babies
• Better digestion: I can’t imagine feeling good inside after eating twinkies for 10 weeks!

And the list goes on and on…

Nevertheless, Haub’s experiment is certainly an interesting one. Despite national efforts to improve the diet of Americans, consumption of fast foods and junk foods is continually on the rise, and increased body weight alone has been shown to have poor effects on cardiovascular health, Type II Diabetes, and cancer (three of the leading causes of death in the United States). The field of nutrition would greatly benefit from additional clinical trials focused on calorie balance but that also consider good nutrition. There is literature on this topic, but the more we know, the better.

If we can simultaneously focus on calorie balance and adequate nutrition, hopefully we can reverse the chronic disease trend in the US and pave a more positive and healthy way for generations to come.