Habits are hard to break, right?  So, maybe it’s time you made some new ones!  If you’re thinking it’s about time you started eating healthier or you just want to stay the healthy path but feel like you’re struggling, how about developing a few good habits that will keep you on the low-fat and healthy?  Give these a try!

1.  Surround yourself with healthy-eating role models.  It’s not easy to be the lone green-bean eater at a table full of French fries, so how about taking lunch with someone else who’s trying to eat on the straight and narrow?  If there’s really no one around who prefers a great salad or homemade sandwich packed with fresh-food goodness to a burger and milkshake, then go it alone.  Take lunchtime to unwind and enjoy a peaceful break!

2.  Focus on your meal.  Slow down, turn off the TV, and focus, people.  If you sit and do nothing but eat your meal–no TV, internet, Twitter or phone–you may just find that, as you slow down, you eat less and feel more calm and satisfied after your meal.  Pay attention to each bite–the taste, the texture, the smell, etc.

3.  In the vernacular of the 80’s–take a chill pill.  When people are stressed, their bodies produce more of the stress hormone cortisol, and studies have shown links between cortisol and fat retention.  Try to think of those worries as pounds, and let them fall away.

4.  Take baby steps, one after another.  Too often, when people make drastic changes in the way they eat (or go on “diets”), they give up and fail, but if you ease into things and make small lifestyle changes over time, you’ll be surprised at how those small things can build to bigger and lasting changes.  For instance, cut out fast food, give up soda, etc.

5.  Don’t be afraid to take a snack break.  Just because you’re trying to be healthier or to lose weight, doesn’t mean that snacks have to be on a no-fly list.  Starving yourself is never good!  Just keep your snacks healthy–a protein and a carb make tasty friends!  How about an apple with peanut or almond butter?  Cheese with crackers or on whole grain toast and a fresh fruit smoothie with protein powder are good examples.

Check out Brown Bag’s breakfast and lunch menus for balanced, homemade meals with fresh ingredients; and if you want to build your own meal, go right ahead.  That’s what the brown bag is for!  Let us know exactly what you want on your sandwich, in your salad or making up your noodle, rice or quinoa bowl.  Need some snacks to take back to the office?  We always have fresh fruit available, as well as yogurt and other healthy snacks.  Feel free to stock up and stay on the right path during that late afternoon snack time.

They are the rainbow, and they’re probably in your refrigerator right now!  We know they’re filling our line at Brown Bag!  Negative-calorie foods are foods–fruits and vegetables, usually with a low-glycemic index–that actually require that the body burn more calories to digest them than the food actually contains.  Seriously.  Does it get any better than that?  Actually, yes!  Here’s how: Negative-calorie foods are high in fiber, so they leave you feeling full longer than other foods (therefore you eat less often), they take Ginzu knives to your cravings and hunger pains, and they boost your metabolism and enzyme production so your body burns fat instead of storing it.  They give you more energy, help cleanse your liver and colon, lower blood-cholesterol levels and, being mild diuretics, help you shed excess water.  And still there’s more!  They balance blood sugar levels, which stabilize your moods, and they reduce inflammation and improve circulation.  And they do all of this while making a rainbow on your plate and tasting great!

Ever heard the phrase, “Eat a rainbow”?  Unfortunately, it doesn’t refer to Skittles (that’s “Taste the rainbow”).  What “eat a rainbow” means is that people should be eating fruits and vegetables that are all kinds of different colors because different colors mean different nutrients.  Black, purple and blue colored produce are usually high in certain antioxidants and anthocyanins, while yellow, orange and red fruits are full of beta carotene, lycopene and vitamins C and A.   Dark green veggies are full of vitamins A, C, K and folate, as well as iron and calcium.  So, if you spend your whole life in the red zone, you’ll be getting lots of beta carotene and lycopene (which are great for your heart), but you might be lacking calcium (needed for bones) and iron (which is needed for healthy red blood cells).  You don’t want that, do you?  So, make like a leprechaun and spread some rainbows around your plate!

When you live in this kind of color, you’re eating foods that are low in calories, but that also make your body burn more calories than are contained in the foods you’re enjoying.  We don’t mean to be dream dashers, but we’ll break it to you now–there are no baked goods on this list.  In fact, you’ll get the most out of these foods if you eat them whole and raw (not juiced) or lightly steamed.  If you douse them with cheese or butter, you’ve negated the whole point.  Ditto on rolling them in flour and frying them in oil.  We think you’ll find, though, that raw fruits and veggies are not the blah-tasting snacks they’re made out to be.  In fact, once you try them, you might even be sorry that you’ve been covering their natural goodness with condiments for so long.  Ready for your list of negative-calorie foods?  Here you go!

Veggies

Asparagus, bean sprouts, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chicory/radicchio, cucumbers, endives, green beans, jicama, kale, leeks, lettuce, radishes, spinach, squash, tomatoes, turnips, zucchini.

Fruits

Apples, blueberries, cantaloupe, cranberries, grapefruit, honeydew melons, lemons, limes, mangoes, oranges, papaya, peaches, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, tangerines, watermelon.

Herbs and Spices

Anise, cayenne, chili peppers, cinnamon, cloves, coriander/cilantro, cumin, dill, fennel seeds, flax seeds, garden cress, garlic, ginger, parsley, onion, mustard seeds, watercress.

There’s a lot to choose from, right?  You don’t need to convert your everyday diet to nothing but negative-calorie foods to lose weight and enjoy their health benefits.  Replace your mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack of a granola bar or bag of chips to an apple or a bag of carrot sticks.  Whatever you love from  this list, fit it in!  When it comes to meals, remember that in all things there is a balance.  So, if you eat meat, keep your serving of lean meat, and have a side of one or more of these veggies, and a serving of a whole grain.  Have a bowl of berries for dessert!  When you keep these foods as natural as possible, you’ll reap the benefits.

And we’ve got you covered for breakfast and lunch at Brown Bag.  Choose a salad of fresh, leafy greens, add your favorite veggies from the list (and some fruits, too!), and top it with grilled chicken or steak–or simply leave it be and  enjoy the goodness of fresh produce.  If you want to keep your calories down, consider using a simple oil and vinegar dressing.  We designed Brown Bag to be all about you.  You can always choose one of our signature meals, but our handy, brown bag means that you choose; you can build the sandwich or salad of your choice.  And with all of the amazing choices on this negative-calorie foods list, your meals just got a whole lot more interesting–and healthy!

While we’ve all been worrying about GMO’s and whether or not they’re labeled, synthetic foods have been quietly creeping in the back door.  What the heck is synthetic food, you ask?  Synthetic foods are based on synthetic biology, which uses a “workhorse” organism to produce things more efficiently than nature (or to produce things that nature can’t make).  Take yeast, for example.  We’re already familiar with yeast’s ability to make alcohol out of sugar, but what else can these little beasties do?  A lot, apparently.  To make synthetic “foods”, genes from plants are given to yeast to make the same compound the plant makes but through fermentation.

The best example of synthetic food hitting the market now is vanilla.  Synbio vanillin was introduced this summer as an alternative for artificial vanilla flavoring, and while you won’t yet find it hanging out on grocery store shelves, it’s quietly making its way into foods, though International Flavors and Fragrances, the US partner of a Swiss company that invented the technology, isn’t saying just who’s using the synbio vanilla yet.  Next up: synbio saffron, resveratrol (an antioxidant found in chocolate and red wine) and stevia.

The positives given by makers of these synthetic ingredients are the relative ease and efficiency of production, as well as a couple of things they think should appeal to consumers and environmentalists.  Artificial vanilla flavoring is actually created using petrochemicals and paper mill waste, so it can’t be called “natural,” whereas synbio vanillin, on the other hand, takes its name from the compound in vanilla beans that creates its flavor  and is created through fermentation, and therefore can be labeled “natural.”  Hmmm.  Another perk: Some companies believe that synbio vanilla will be better for the environment because there is no farmland used to grow it.  Others argue about the amount of sugar that will need to be produced to feed the hungry yeast.  A potential rise in sugar cane farming, which has notoriously negative environmental effects, makes the question of the environmental perks associated with synthetic foods questionable.

As with GMO’s, there’s the question of labeling.  Right now, synthetic foods seem to be slipping through the loopholes surrounding the word “natural,” and not only are consumers unaware that these products may be in their foods, sometimes even the companies that buy the flavorings don’t know they are synbio.

There are so many questions surrounding the use of synthetic foods–labeling, health and environmental safety, etc–that going forward will more than likely be a tricky road to navigate (as are GMOs).  Other engineers are jumping on the synbio foods train already–new dairy products are in the works that wouldn’t even require cows–so we won’t be seeing the end of this conversation any time soon; in fact, the conversation is just beginning.

How much do you want to know about what’s in your food?  Do you think GMOs should be labeled? Synthetic foods?  And we’re curious: How many of you knew that artificial vanilla is made from petrochemicals?  Is cost a big enough factor to make you opt for GMOs and synthetic foods over conventionally created foods?  These are the questions we will have to ask and answer as this discussion goes forward.

To read more about this topic, take a look at this article on NPR’s The Salt.  We found it most helpful in beginning to understand this topic.

If you live in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts or a handful of other states where these little green gems are grown, then the kiwi berry may not sound so strange to you, but while shopping in Maryland last week, I stumbled upon them and was intrigued.  Any new type (or new-to-me type) of  produce can unlock a treasure trove of fun in the kitchen, so I grabbed a pack and took them home.  I’m here to report back on my taste test: They were delicious!  Basically, kiwi berries (also known as “hardy kiwi”), are like bite-size kiwi poppers!  And, really, they’re hard to put down.  Sans furry skin, they are similar in size to a grape, some slightly bigger, and look just like a kiwi on the inside (they taste like one too!).  I found my own children, as well as the neighborhood kiddies, not so eager to try them, but over the years, I’ve found kids somewhat distrustful of green fruit and produce with a furry exterior (they couldn’t seem to separate big kiwis from the actual berries in front of them), so don’t let them influence you.

Grown on a hardy vine, kiwi berries are native to Korea, Japan, Northern China, and Russian Siberia, and they are considered in some places in the US an invasive species–  just ask the Audubon Society of Massachusetts.  But many others argue against this distinction.  We’ll let you make your own ruling on that because it seems like more research is needed to determine why it could be considered invasive in one region vs. another, etc.  Right now, we’re going to focus on a few reasons why you should consider giving these berries a try.

Nutritionally, they’re super fruits!  They have 5 times the vitamin C of an orange (per serving), and they’re also high in fiber, Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, antioxidants, potassium, chromium and calcium–all in one delicious bite!  So, basically, they’ll help to keep you healthy all over.

You may have to hunt for kiwi berries, though, as only 200 commercial acres are currently farming these little beauties on the planet.  If you’ve got your own little grove tucked away somewhere in New England or the Pacific Northwest, count yourself lucky.  We’ve found them at Whole Foods and Wegman’s locally, but if you discover them somewhere else, let us know.

If you actually make it home without munching them all down on the way (they’re quite portable and an easy on-the-go snack), then there are recipes out there that include kiwi berries.  How about this autumn salad with kiwi berries?  Doesn’t it sound delish?  Or this kiwi berry chutney?  Try this website (or search for more on your own) for lots of other recipes that include kiwi berries.

If you happen to find a pack of kiwi berries, grab them!  You won’t be sorry and the berries won’t stay around long.  I ran back to Wegman’s the day after my first discovery and they were gone–every last pack!  Enjoy your autumn apples and pears, the fresh kale and snappy greens, but welcome this little berry into your fall produce line-up–if you can find them.  You can thank us later.;)