REALITY BITES

Beth Sonnenburg

Got time for made-from-scratch meals? Neither do we. Here's how to eat right when racing against the clock.















Got the latest Martha Stewart Living in the mail yesterday. Fantasized about serving golden blintzes filled with caramelized rhubarb and impressing dinner guests with balsamic marinated skirt steak. Considered baking the elegant Maypole Cake, colorfully ringed with gumdrop-topped cupcake "dancers."

Fell back to earth when I realized my life resembles more of a Lean Cuisine than a page out of Living. Made-from-scratch meals may be the ideal, but such a goal is often unattainable. Let's face it: Even preparing a grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli takes time, energy and cookware. And who wants to break out the entire collection of Calphalon when you're running late for work or exhausted after a long day?

Lucky for you, eating healthfully can peacefully co-exist with a crammed schedule. When you don't have time to make a delicious and nutritious "Martha meal," turn to our diet-right, real-world suggestions - no pots, pans or oven required!

Supermarket savvy
You may think the quick, easy foods at your local Albertson's or Kroger's are filled with processed, sugary junk - and with good reason. Many packaged foods are indeed sky-high in sodium and additives, besides lacking fiber and whole grains. Fortunately, the aisles of most commercial supermarkets also contain many healthy choices . . . if you know where to look. And we aren't just talking fruits and veggies here: Nutrient-packed boxed pasta and rice mixes, breads, cereals, soups, crackers and even cookies can make great meals in minutes.

We've listed many such items in "Foods to Choose" on page 50 - products that will allow you to quickly assemble meals for those occasions when you don't have time to cook from scratch. Many of the packaged products were deemed "Best Bites" by the Center for Science in the Public Interest's (CSPI) Nutrition Action Healthletter. Their criteria for a Best Bite include lower amounts of percent calories from saturated fat and total fat, sodium content and sometimes total sugar, and higher amounts of fiber.

The only factor we were a bit more lenient with was sodium intake.

As UCLA nutritionist Sheri Albert, MPH, RD, explains: "Stringent sodium intakes will be a concern for someone with high blood pressure but not so much for the athletic person. I'd say don't worry about it so much unless you have a medical condition that warrants doing so."

When checking labels on packaged foods, keep the following considerations in mind:

Whole grains. Healthy cereals, breads or crackers contain whole grains such as oats or whole wheat. ("Enriched wheat flour" does not qualify.) Albert recommends eating at least three servings of whole grains daily.

Fiber. Look for a product with at least 3 grams of fiber per serving, with 5 grams being preferable. Low Saturated Fat. A healthful snack will usually have only a couple of grams of saturated fat per serving; you can be a bit more lenient with a meal. Albert recommends limiting total daily fat to less than 30% of calories and saturated fat to less than 10% of calories.

One caveat about fat-free and reduced-fat snack foods like cookies, cakes and crackers: Manufacturers often lower the fat but up the sugar, resulting in a low-fat product with the same amount of calories as in the full-fat version. Check the label of a food's regular counterpart to ensure the lower-fat version is also lower in calories.

Low Trans-Fatty Acids. Trans fat is created when vegetable oil is hydrogenated to make it solid. "We know that trans fat is just as bad, if not worse, than saturated fat," explains Albert. She recommends making your criteria for saturated fat stricter if a given product contains trans fat. Since grams of trans fat aren't listed on nutrition labels, check the ingredients list. If partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is the first ingredient, beware; if it's near the bottom of the list, the amount of trans fat is probably low.

Protein. Getting on-the-go protein is very difficult, so your choices are somewhat limited. We recommend ready-to-eat sources such as low-fat cottage cheese and low-fat cheese, yogurt, beans, nuts, canned tuna and hard-boiled eggs.

Reap the benefits of being active
"I usually try to communicate with my active clients that one benefit of regular exercise is that your calorie needs are higher," states Albert. "You can maintain your weight by eating more food. The guideline for sugar, for example, is that you can enjoy up to 10% of calories from added sugar; and of course the more calories you consume, the more room you have for some added sugars."

Keep your balance
Sometimes your on-the-go meal will be high in fat or low in protein. Instead of feeling guilty, simply load your subsequent meal with veggies and lean protein, for example. Conversely, if you have a very low-fat breakfast, you have a little more flexibility later in the day with higher-fat foods. Got all your whole-grain servings at breakfast? "You still have more grain servings that don't have to be whole," Albert notes. "They can be the refined white stuff or some sweet dessert. Look at the big picture: Having the white rice is okay. It won't make you fat unless you eat too much of it."

Maintain perspective
Driving home the other night I was struck by a desire to cook homemade spaghetti, meatballs and those little refrigerated crescent rolls. Yet I ended up watching "The Sopranos" over a bowl of cereal and sliced banana. Sound familiar? The good news is, a few hectic days of fast food, takeout or grab 'n' go meals generally won't harm your physique, fitness level or health. Just try to balance especially nutrient-void meals with better choices later that day and keep in mind that your fitness level permits some indulgence without consequence. So if your kitchen doesn't measure up to Martha's, don't despair - with a little forethought, eating on the run can still be fitness-friendly.

Doing the numbers
For an active woman eating approximately 2,000 calories per day, Sheri Albert, MPH, TD, recommends the following general guidelines.