« Your Revolution Is Ready | Main | Reply To Rudd Center Blog Article on CR »
December 31, 2006
His and Hers Portions?
One of the first things I realized when I started monitoring my own calories and nutrition and trying to figure out what calorie level would be right for me was how very different calorie requirements are for women than for men. We women are usually smaller, carry more body fat on a percentage basis (all the good stuff, including the brain, is mostly fat!) and we tend to be shorter. Calorie needs depend on so many factors: age, activity level, body fat percentage, long and short term goals, number of times per day you have to lift a giant tabby cat, etc. But there's just no question that most women need fewer calories than most men. That's why I find it unsurprising that most of my female friends gain weight when they a) start eating out a lot b) get into a relationship with a man.
Portion sizes in most restaurants are absurdly large, yet people usually eat the entire serving. I am so grateful that my mother never forced me to clean my plate, so I wasn't programmed to eat whatever is put in front of me whether I was hungry or not. But most people aren't so lucky, and will consume until the plate is empty. If portions are large, women are disproportionally overfed, since our calorie needs are lower to begin with. Even at the family dinner table, portions are often served that are roughly identical, even though the people at the table are far from the same in their calorie needs. This just strikes me as goofy. Why overfeed your womenfolk? In time of famine, this might be a gentlemanly gesture, but most of us are quite fat enough as it is.
When MR and I first started dating, we quickly realized that just taking his food and cutting it into smaller portions wouldn't work. His diet was optimized to suit his nutritional needs in a calorie package that fits his calorie requirements. But for my much lower calorie requirements (I am ten inches shorter than he is and a much higher body fat percentage) it takes more precision to pack all the RDAs into three meals. The RDAs don't change when you drop your calories -- you still have to get all your nutritients. (BTW, Artifex, to answer your question, check out CRON-O-Meter, the best nutritional software on the planet. It was written by a real live CR practitioner, Aaron, and it is absolutely free!) So a girl diet has to be more carefully constructed than a boy diet.
As anyone who has been following the blog for very long knows, I simply adore playing around with my nutritional software. I never played video games, but I seem to have developed the same fascination for nutritional software that some folks had with Tetris. As a result of my nutritional explorations, I favor foods that very nutrient dense. For example, I traded in my nonfat cottage cheese for nonfat plain yogurt, which has 40% of the RDA of calcium per cup at 75 calories (that's my Butterworks Farm nonfat plain organic yougurt, aka "Magic Yogurt" because it has fewer cals per cup than most other yogurts) my cottage cheese was 16% of the RDA for 160 cals in a cup. That's just a bad deal. Sure, I still enjoy cottage cheese sometimes, but on a day to day basis, I get more calcium for my calories in the yogurt, and I enjoy it just as much. MR has more calories to play with, so he eats more vegetables, going way over the RDAs of C, A and K, and still having plenty of room for calcium containing kefir and whey protein, bean stews with rice protein powder, and other foods that I either don't like or find too high calorie to fit into my everyday diet while still touching all my nutritional bases.
It would be interesting to see if restaurants would begin serving his and hers portions. You wouldn't have to label it that way, of course, you could just have size small and size large. But imagine a restaurant where my 4'11" friend and her 6'10" husband could go, order, and be served dishes that more closely corresponded to their actual calorie needs. There could even be a menu of "Just for Her" tiny, low calorie side dishes like calcium-packed yogurt treats. Men could order off the women's menu, and women could order off the men's menu, but there would be a basic understanding that men and women come in different sizes and a one size fits all approach doesn't work.
We already accept the idea of kids' menus in restaurants, but unfortunately, the kids menus often contain the worst of the food. Imagine a world where kids' menus contained the most healthy food, in kid-sized portions, served in appetizing, fun ways. And women's menus contained woman-sized portions, so we don't turn out weighing what men should weigh. Wouldn't that be fun?
Women's food has for too long been crappy diet food... meal replacement bars and shakes, salads with iceberg lettuce and no protein, and super processed junk like Snackwells. What if woman food came to mean super nutrient dense, low calorie food, full of the protein, vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids that we need to stay healthy, slim and cheerful? Can you imagine a world where young women see their adult female role models happily consuming grilled turkey topped with steamed vegetables, olive oil and fresh lemon and just a bit of pepper with nonfat organic yogurt and hazelnuts for dessert? Eating like an adult woman could cease to mean either a) consuming large amounts of chocolate because we're all supposed to have chocolate cravings that we can't control b) eschewing real food in favor or diet bars and meal replacement shakes. "Girly drinks" could be smoothies that contain nonfat milk or yogurt, cause we chicks sure do need to pack in our calcium!
Interestingly enough, McDonalds is starting to market certain products to women. The fruit and walnut salad, for instance (300 calories, same as an Egg McMuffin) is targeted to women in their radio advertisements. Their line of grilled chicken salads, which actually are quite decent calorie-wise as long as you pick the low cal dressings, are, I suspect, aimed at moms who bring their kids to McDonald's for a Happy Meal but want to eat something lower calorie themselves. I'm sure the clever folks in marketing at McDonald's have figured out that drawing mom in with a healthier choice will still guarantee a revenue stream from kids eating the high cal happy meals. But even if it's a cynical move on the part of the chain, those of us who want to eat low cal, protein packed food can still take advantage of the options.
Maybe my wine and tomato bar will offer his and hers portions. The kids menu will have tons of fun tomato foods, like low carb whole wheat no transfats tortilla pizzas decorated with faces made out of vegetables. You can pop in for your morning megamuffin and coffee (lattes made only with organic skim milk, and a small side of nuts free with every latte purchase to help slow the blood sugar spike) and grab a to-go box for lunch in 300, 400, 500, or 600 calorie sizes. To-go desserts will be various combos of fruit, yogurt, and nuts. Come back at happy hour for a pint of grape tomatoes, straight up, with a five ounce glass of pinot noir. Stay for dinner and enjoy a tomato fritatta with organic eggwhites and six varieties of fresh tomatoes baked in to release the lycopene and guarantee juicy tomato goodness, covered with my fresh homemade tomatillo salsa. "Cream" of leek and shiitake mushroom soup as an appetizer (all my cream soups are made with yogurt or nonfat milk, always organic so don't start whining at me about hormones in milk, and I sneak in brewers yeast to up some of the B vitamins and other hard to find nutrients) Side dish of brussels sprouts with lemon and olive oil. Fruit salad topped with non-fat plain organic yogurt sweetened with just the smallest amount of creme de cassis and drizzled with hazelnut oil for dessert. Seems like a lot of food? Don't worry, I already figured out your calorie budget for the day and it fits perfectly.
In a food environment like that, you'd have to fight to gain weight. Eating healthy would come naturally. Now, serious CR practitioners would still have to work at getting everything right. But for the normal person whose goal was maintaining a healthy weight to reduce risk of disease, feel great, and love what they see in the mirror, eating would just not be an issue anymore. If people were bombarded with healthy, delicious, attractively presented choices that are affordable and convenient, they'd find it much easier to achieve their health goals.
I know, I know, don't quit my day job. But a girl can dream. And when you sit in traffic as much as I do, you've got to dream.
Posted by april at December 31, 2006 6:44 AM
Comments
April,
I'm not sure what happened to your previous post . I was in the middle of commenting on it when it suddenly disappeared! This has happened more than once so I'm not sure what's up. Anyway, I think Artifex made some great points that hopefully haven't been lost somewhere in cyberspace.
Another issue that really has to be addressed is the pharmaceutical model that permeates our society's perception of health. I suspect many people elect not to worry about being overweight or obese because they're waiting for some magic pill to undo all the damage they've done to their bodies.
I'm not knocking all the wonderful drugs that help people control diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. But wouldn't it be great if people invested in prevention so they would never need to take these drugs at all? Unfortunately, most Americans don't seem to think this way. That old adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" just hasn't sunk in.
My sense is that people don't give prevention much thought until it's really too late. My dad, for example, didn't change his diet until he already had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Now he wishes he'd paid more attention to diet and exercise when he was younger. But when you're young, it's easy to forget that the things you do now can really affect your health 20 or 30 years down the line.
I like Artifex's suggestions. We have to come up with concrete incentives for people to adopt healthier lifestyles. But we also have to keep in mind that we're not only battling the health care and pharmaceutical industries, we're also battling a deeply ingrained pharmaceutical model that permeates our culture. Getting people to skip the french fries instead of waiting for the magic pill will require some major changes in the way Americans think about health.
Posted by: Robin at December 31, 2006 10:06 AM
You and I have the same imagination. Restaurants -- all the eateries -- need to start serving appropriate portions. Can -- should -- the government do it? It seems to me that will be the next step as America starts to spend just not billions, but trillions of dollars, fighting the evil effects of obesity. We, the people, need to get all food establishments to see the benefits and marketing opportunities in providing the right size at the right price.
Posted by: Portion Power at December 31, 2006 10:07 AM
April, please move to northern california and open your wine and tomato bar!
I would be there everyday!
happy new year,
Sheila
Posted by: sheila at December 31, 2006 3:26 PM
Hello! I just wanted to write and say, "Great blog!". You have a writing style that is very fun to read. I am pretty new to CR, and your meal entries give me some great ideas. Thanks, and have a Happy New Year!
Posted by: Christina at December 31, 2006 4:04 PM
Thanks for the lead on Rudd Sound Bites Blog. Not sure how far back in the archives you made it, but I think you will find the October (26th I think) post regarding CR worth a comment.
Posted by: Rebecca at December 31, 2006 9:13 PM
You know, I'd never thought of overweight women as weighing about as much as a man should, but that makes so much sense. It just explains so much.
Posted by: emily at January 1, 2007 6:01 AM
Oh April, that sounds WONDERFUL! I think a whole chain of Wine and Tomato Bars are in order, preferably with one right here in St. Louie Louie!
Posted by: heather at January 1, 2007 10:47 AM
I'm with you and with Robin on a number of issues. I agree that certain meds are lifesavers, however, I dislike the automatic response of writing a prescription for something like statins when the patient is overweight and willing to make lifestyle changes to see if that will lower cholesterol. Additionally, why is it that the children's menu is nothing but the most unhealthy fare? If a few people spoke to the manager of their favorite restaurant might the impact be strong enough to see a shift? I hope so. I hope that the issue of child obesity (which is no doubt under-reported, making it worse than we think) continues to get media coverage. If we make changes to both children and adult diets -- what a wonderful gift to ourselves!
Posted by: Gina at January 1, 2007 10:54 AM
Although your idea has some merit, I am afraid you have been caught up so much in your own subjective experience to lose sight of the objective picture. I do not mean to be offensive, but I hope you do realize that not all women are so comically smaller than their husbands or brothers (in fact, I doubt those men genetically linked to you are 6'8" on average).
Most Americans of either gender fall somewhere between 5'3"-5'10" with plenty of women being taller than men. The global average is likely a bit shorter than this. Within this range there are plenty of taller women and shorter men. Although the median or mean average of the gender's heights favors men as taller, it is likely only around 4" or so.
So that roughly means for every 6'10" man there is a 6'6" woman and for every 4'10" woman there is a 5'2" man. If you take this into accout what beneficial purpose would be behind labeling a 'woman's' meal and a 'man's' meal beyond ridiculing those of each gender who lie at the unfavored extremes of the spectrum? Because what may qualify as the proper calorie intake of one member of a gender does not necessarilly extend across the entire gender.
Posted by: Ophiuchus at January 2, 2007 12:19 PM
Is there a reason why a vast, vast majority of comments here come from women?
Posted by: Anon at January 3, 2007 5:22 AM
I have no idea why the vast majority of comments come from women, or at least from people who use traditionally female names when identifying themselves. Either that's who's reading, or that's who's writing in. I publish all comments, except for once when I didn't publish a comment that directly attacked another commenter. I publish attacks on me. :)
a
Posted by: April at January 3, 2007 7:50 AM
Like most really wise ideas, doesn't this all seem obvious in retrospect! Of course, big portions are silly for women and plates should come in two sizes! It's amazing that they don't, isn't it? Perhaps we should start a consumer organization that works to get the food industry to create healthier products, including smaller sized restaurant meals. This would actually help us do CR more easily anyway.
Actually, I think a lot of things are tailored for men. Seats are all too high for me and leave my legs dangling uncomfortably. Portions are too large. Cars are sized for men. I am sure really tall men have the reverse problem.
Posted by: Little MR at January 4, 2007 3:03 PM