The protein/carb balance

I had this IM mini conversation with my husband recently. I thought it made an excellent blog prompt, so here it is:

J: So does the BFL [Body for Life] mantra still hold true in your eyes - for every carb you eat, you should eat a protein?

InstantBlue: Mostly, but not so strictly. If you're going to eat a carb, you should have protein to go with it. But really, it's about averaging it out across the day. It's fine to have just a carb by itself, if the protein balances it later and, you don't HAVE to have a carb always. Just protein alone is ok, too. For example, on BFL, you would not eat just a chicken breast and veggies for lunch, you'd add some whole grain bread or oatmeal or something too. Now, I often eat just protein and veggies, no carb. And I'll often save the carby English muffin from my breakfast and save it for about an hour after I eat my eggy-protein dish. In general, I try to keep my carbs to less than 40% of my daily intake, and my proteins to 30% or more. (I have no restrictions on fats at all, but it's pretty hard to eat too much fat if you're eating the kinds of things you should be eating anway! (: ) Works for me so far!

A science experiment

I've been wondering for a long time just how much fat you get rid of when you drain ground beef. I've also been taking draining it to the next level by rinsing my ground beef in hot water to get as much of that icky melted beef fat out of there as possible. Yes, I realized I'm probably also washing away any special beef flavor along with the fat, but seriously, it's ground beef. Not the choicest of beef cuts, you know?? Plus also, usually ground beef is the base for some kind of saucy goodness, not the flavor of the meal itself. I've always kind of hoped that a significant portion of the fat gets removed by draining/rinsing, and it seems like it makes sense. There is a very large exposed surface area for all of the fat to exit the meat easily, and when you heat it up like that, it melts and separates itself out, right?

So, tonight my dear husband requested we have tacos, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to see once and for all just how much draining and rinsing really helps. Here's what I found out:

I browned a pound of ground beef (well, 17.76oz, actually.), then I carefully drained as much liquid fat as I could off into a container and massed the drained fat. I was surprised to get 62g just by draining! The original fat content of the 17.76oz was (according to the nutrition label) 102g, so just draining removed 60% of the fat. That was way more than I expected.

However, I still could see the melted beef fat coating all my tasty ground beef crumbles. Bleh. So, I took the whole pan, beef and all, and massed it. Then I rinsed it out thoroughly with hot water, and drained off the water and massed it again. I rinsed off another 27 grams of fat. Woo.

So, all in all, my pound of beef lost 89 grams of its 102 original grams of fat. 87%!

So here's the bottom line:
Before draining and rinsing: (per 4oz) 290 Calories, 23gfat, 0g carbs, 20g protein

After draining and rinsing: 107 Calories, 3g fat, 0g carbs, 20g protein.

100 Calorie Packs Are Evil

I hate these things. But I have to give credit to marketers for thinking of a way to make junk seem like it's a smart, healthy decision. Seriously? Just because it's only 100 calories doesn't eliminate the processed flours, refined sugars, preservatives and nasty dyes in it. Sure, it might help you control your munching better than a huge bag of Oreos with no built-in portion control. But a small portion of crap is still crap. You'll still be hungry 30 minutes later, craving more carbs, and then want to reach for another, or go foraging for something else. And since you "only" had 100 calories for your first snack, what does it matter if you have another? :P

Personally, I would rather just have some string cheese and an apple - about 120 calories, but full of protein, fiber, and fat that will help keep me full for a while and prevent an insulin-induced repeat snack attack. And I didn't pay extra for a fancy label telling me it only has 100 calories, either!