Pita Pizzas and an Introduction
Dinner tonight: pita pizzas again I’m afraid, made this time with a Spolumbos Italian sausage (from the freezer) cooked up with a thinly sliced onion, some mushrooms I found in the back of the fridge (frozen on the inside, wrinkly on the outside) and some frozen spinach. These babies were load-ed. I’m sorry it isn’t very inspiring, but I am sticking to my no-shop agenda. I even managed to bake chocolate cupcakes for book club tomorrow using what I have in the cupboard. (I may, however, need to duck into the corner store for some eggs to make Seven Minute Frosting to go on top.)
But before I go – I want to introduce you to someone.
His name is Dr. Walter Willett. He’s a world-renowned Harvard-based researcher and chairman of the Harvard School of Public Health’s department of nutrition, and he has been working since the 70′s on the optimum diet. (By diet I mean way of eating in general, not a weight loss diet.)
When people ask me – how do I eat? Do I follow Canada’s Food Guide? (Short answer: No.) Do I follow any other sort of nutritional plan? Not really. It would be most accurate to say I follow food like Wimpy follows a hamburger, but if I had to give you one basic nutritional guideline to follow, this would be it.
Dr. Willett, along with the faculty in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, came up with this Healthy Eating Pyramid. Why another pyramid? Using a pyramid is just a way to make it easy for us to visualize what the structure of our diet should look like – rather than try to remember how many servings we need and what size those servings should be (which might then vary depending on our age, size and physical activity) we can remember that in general, our diet should be based on whole grains, fruits and vegetables, plant oils, nuts, legumes and seeds, then lesser amounts of lean protein from fish, poultry and eggs, modest dairy consumption and butter, red meat and simple carbs only occasionally. And it’s all science-based.
I won’t get into comparing Canada’s Food Guide, except to say that I ran a typical day’s worth of food through my nutritional analysis program and came up with well over 3000 calories. (And oh: 25% of the members of the Food Guide Advisory Committee are from Big Food.)
Dr. W was the first to make the distinction between healthy fats and unhealthy fats, and the fact that people on a low-fat diet often missed out on important nutrients. (Canada’s Food Guide doesn’t pay much attention to fats: “include a small amount – 2-3 Tbsp. – of unsaturated fat each day. This includes oil used for cooking, dressings, margarine and mayonnaise” – kind of hard to calculate tablespoons of fat when it’s in something. And while there is a mention of trans fat, the directive provided is “Limit trans fat”, this despite the fact that Health Canada’s own trans fat task force calls for the elimination of trans fat from our food supply. So shouldn’t it be “Avoid trans-fat”? And you might notice that pudding (!), chocolate milk and sweetened yogurt are all lumped in with 1% and even skim milk in the dairy group, as if they were equal choices.)
Dr. Willett is my kinda guy. If you’re interested in this nutrition stuff, poke around the Harvard School of Public Health website – The Nutrition Source – it really simplifies things, and nothing is skewed by companies who have a vested interest in selling their products. There’s even a page on weight control.
(And if you’re looking for extra reading credits, there’s an excellent story on Dr. W in the April 2007 issue of Cooking Light.)
Pyramid Illustration Copyright © 2008 Harvard University. For more information about The Healthy Eating Pyramid, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, , and Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, by Walter C. Willett, M.D. and Patrick J. Skerrett (2005), Free Press/Simon & Schuster Inc.
March 03 2009 09:12 pm | leftovers and sweet stuff
Theresa on 03 Mar 2009 at 10:00 pm #
You are such an incredible source for information….. thank you so much Julie! BTW, I won’t be at the cupcake festival tomorrow.
Don’t stop asking me though!
Morgan on 04 Mar 2009 at 6:30 am #
Mmmm…I LOVE pita pizzas. My mom always made them while we were growing up. I have three brothers and she would always set them up on baking sheets, line up the ingredients and we would make our own. They’re soooo good! I think I know what I’m making for dinner tomorrow night, now! Thanks!
Oh, have you tried them with Naan bread? VERY delicious and three fit a baking sheet perfectly!
Ann on 04 Mar 2009 at 6:53 am #
Thanks, Julie, for all the recipes and information you provide!!
I loved reading the chocolate cupcake original post! What a cute, cute picture! That dinner sounded yummy, too.
Barb on 04 Mar 2009 at 6:54 am #
Very interesting and helpful information, Julie. Thanks for doing the leg work for us by searching it out and handing us the links. You’re the greatest!
mmac on 04 Mar 2009 at 7:26 am #
Wow. I feel like I’m finally a cool kid. I’ve been a fan of his pyramid for a few years. Thanks for validating it! I wish I could come to book club too, if for no other reason than to meet the fellow foodies. Hope it’s fun.
heather on 04 Mar 2009 at 8:45 am #
Walt Willett! Wow, I did not expect to see his name on any food blogs, but I’ll be, here he is. As a dietitian, I know the name well, and yes, he is the father of some great innovations. Another being his work in developing standardized methods for dietary recall to assess a person or population’s eating habits.
I really like Canada’s Food Guide and integrate it into my work in the U.S. I also like that pyramid and the former USDA pyramid better than the new MyPyramid that was rolled out a couple years ago – much easier for consumers to understand.
Now that I feel like I’ve mumbo-jumboed enough [I don't want to drive any of your readers away screaming!], I’ll say that pita pizzas are wonderful! I agree with Morgan above that naan pizzas are brilliant as well.
Thanks for the info and cheers,
*Heather*
Janice S on 04 Mar 2009 at 9:26 am #
Great post Julie! I agree wholeheartedly about the Canada Food Guide. Ridiculous. I would be double my size if I followed it.
Corine on 04 Mar 2009 at 11:17 am #
Hi Julie
I just wanted to mention another great eating/lifestyle food plan that I follow. It is the GI Diet, by Rick Gallop, who used to be the President of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario.
I’ve followed this for a few years now (sometimes better than others), and I find that this is a very simple plan to follow. No weighing or calculating anything. It’s just based on a traffic light strategy. Foods that fall into the green category can be eaten to your heart’s content, in the yellow category in moderation, and in the red category not at all (unless you feel like a cheat meal/day).
I love it. Just wanted to through it out there.
Thanks.
Fiona on 04 Mar 2009 at 3:41 pm #
Thanks for the links! I have a dietitian friend who loves Walter Willett, and I’ve always meant to take a look at his research. It makes so much sense.
I wish I could join you at book club this evening – instead, I’m skipping running club too so I can work. Jeers to late interviews, that’s all I have to say.
Manon from Ontario on 05 Mar 2009 at 5:01 am #
Hey Julie, I’m watching A Channel News in Ottawa and there’s a lady cooking your bread and she mentioned your blog….you are so famous my friend
I’m trying to find out her name.
MFO
Manon from Ontario on 05 Mar 2009 at 5:39 am #
Her name is Korey Kealey, she was cooking with Kurt on A Channel Morning news, in Ottawa, and they made your bread Julie…and she called you her friend
MFO
JulieVR on 05 Mar 2009 at 5:49 am #
Yes, Korey Kealey is my friend! She’s wonderful. I can’t take credit for the bread though – Jim Lahey came up with this new bread baking method at the Sullivan Street Bakery in Manhattan, and I believe Mark Bittman was the first to write about it. And bread bakers everywhere (myself included) are eternally thankful!
Vivian on 05 Mar 2009 at 1:24 pm #
Being bread fans as we obviously are, may I mention “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day”? It seems the next logical step from Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread. I’ve now used their master recipe five times (Yikes! That’s 20 loaves and every one a crusty, flavourful winner).I am a major fan! To think I almost went out in search of an expensive enamelled cast-iron Dutch oven. Check out the website at http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com to see for yourself.
Manon From Ontario on 06 Mar 2009 at 11:35 am #
Julie, I looked up the information of the food pyramid but I’m still wondering how many calories I should be eating for my age, height and weight? I’m 42 this April, 5’3″ and drum roll please, 228 this morning.
Does he have a book on his pyramid, the how to of his food guide, any info?
Thanks again and again Julie.
MFO
JulieVR on 06 Mar 2009 at 3:29 pm #
It should be in the 2000 calorie range, but really how many calories you need depends on how many you burn – how active you are, if you exercise and how often.
LisaMer on 06 Mar 2009 at 7:37 pm #
Hi Manon,
Since I’m doing Weight Watchers, I plugged your info into their points calculator. The only thing I don’t know is how you spend most of your work day (e.g., office job vs something like a mail carrier). Picking somewhere in between gives me about 30 points, which is roughly 1500 calories. This is for a weight loss of about 2 lb per week. I would guess that 2000 would be a good level for maintenance for you.