Loading ...Sarah Roberts
Webitor’s Note: This is a continuation of last month’s article on healthy eating.
Jasmine Ho says that according to 2004 statistics from the Population Health Profile Toronto, 60% of adults weren’t eating the minimum recommended health and vegetables daily as recommended by Canada’s Food Guide. According to this year’s 2007 Canada’s Food Guide, adults aged 19-50 years old should be getting an average of 8 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
Around the city, many healthy eateries have and are opening up, so that people have a greater choice when making healthy meal decisions.
Among the many new eateries are Cerealicious in BCE Place, Camros Organic Eatery -a family-owned organic restaurant and take-out- Naturally Yours Gourmet at the First Canadian Place and Lettuce Eatery.
Lettuce Eatery opened two years ago and business seems to be booming. Not only is Lettuce set up in great business and university spots around the city, but it offers a variety of healthy meals that can be customized any way a person likes.
“(We’re) striving to change people’s eating habits for the good. We’re striving to do something different,” Matthew Corrin, Founder of Lettuce says.
Corrin agrees with Ho that people are making unhealthy food decisions out of time constraints or buying fast food because 
it may be the easier way.
“People want the convenient way,” he says.
Beverley Edwards-Miller is a Registered Dietician. She believes people make themselves so busy with everything they’re involved in like work and kids and projects that they make unhealthy food choices because of time constraints.
Lettuce Eatery, which makes meals out of what we might think of side dishes, such as salad, offers a unique menu with a twist. On the menu, Breakfast, Lunch, Soupt and Yoggi menus are featured, all custom- or customer- crafted.
“If they’re healthy choices, absolutely. If it’s a nice big healthy salad with some green leaves, chick peas, and other proteins thrown in there…if it’s a good substantial salad, then absolutely. Have some whole grain bread, then that’s a good meal there,” indicated Edwards-Miller.
Corrin says he is hoping to expand Lettuce, as currently its locations are only in Ontario. Ho believes that having healthy food choices readily available is the key answer to eating better, especially if on the run.
“By following Canada’s Food Guide, it will help get people the nutrition they need and prevent (developing) diseases,” Ho says.
Edwards-Miller mentioned that she has heard and has seen changes in the eating habits of Canadians more recently.
“I have seen some research that people are starting to eat healthier, are getting those messages about eating healthy, and even throughout my own practice through speaking with lots of people, they are saying, ‘you know what, I’m eating more fruits and vegetables these days and definitely having the whole wheat bread,’” she says.
In terms of her work schedule, Saeedah Pirzada says she had to arrive at work for 8:30 a.m. and normally left between 6 p.m and 7 p.m. She also says that normally she would skip breakfast or only eat something small; some days breakfast would consist of cookies and tea or coffee, or a piece of toast with jam or peanut butter and some milk to drink.
“I had to adjust my sleeping time to (waking up) earlier. That was hard, and on top of that, everything I ate had to be earlier. When I first started, I ran out the door without eating anything, but then got in trouble eating in front of people. So, I had to starve until lunch which was usually around one in the afternoon, and by that time, I was no longer hungry!”
Edwards-Miller says that no mater what your time constraint is, there is always a solution. “Some people don’t realize that the way we should be eating is this: Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and then supper like a popper,” she says.
“If you’re having a really substantial breakfast, that’s going to hold you over, and even if it doesn’t hold you from 7 am to 1pm, having some water to drink between (that time) or even a small bowl of fruit or something (will help).”
Edwards-Miller recommends not food shopping on an empty stomach, as people are most likely to buy according to what they think will satisfy them at the moment. She says if you shop according to a menu and have a plan, you’re only buying food for the week and not extra.
“If on the kitchen table or counter, you’ve got a bowl of fruit, then you see it there and its easy access. Or in your fridge, have some cut-up fruit, so that when you open up your fridge you wont be looking for that ‘junky’ stuff, you’ll see the cut-up fruit,” she says.
Loading ...