Meeting registered dietitian Malena Perdomo was exciting but a little intimidating.
On one hand, Julie Erck felt the anticipatory thrill of embarking on a new project she hopes will make her fit and trim.
On the other, she worried about her ability to measure up to Perdomo’s nutritional standards, and about sticking to those standards.
“I only cook about three times a week — not very much,” she apologized as Perdomo looked over the Ercks’ tidy pantry.
“I do a lot with chicken. I buy the skinless chicken breast frozen at Sam’s, and then I have cream soups I put over them, and stuff. And if (my sons) don’t like what I’ve fixed, then they can make themselves a corn dog or a quesadilla.”
“Mm-hmm,” Perdomo said noncommittally, browsing through the Ercks’ collection of boxed breakfast cereal — Kix, Reese’s Puffs and other brands with sweet-tooth appeal.
Every night about three hours after supper, the Erck boys, Dan, 14, and Aaron, 11, eat up to three bowls of cereal before going to bed. Regular food doesn’t seem to fill them up, Erck said.
“And besides, when I look at the cereal box label, it’s got more vitamins and minerals than I could ever cook.”
But on the same the nutrition panel, Perdomo pointed out the fiber content, a category that Erck hadn’t noticed before.
“The cereals with more fiber will fill them up,” Perdomo said.
“The fiber content is what you really need. These here, they’re really fluffy, with not much fiber. The best of them has 3 grams of fiber per cup. We want more like 5 grams per cup. How about trying peanut butter and crackers for a snack? That will fill them up more than cereal, because of the combination of protein and carbohydrate.”
Going through the refrigerator, Perdomo approved of the fruit bouquet, an anniversary gift from the Ercks’ adult daughter, and bags of apples and baby carrots. She removed the apples from the produce drawer and put them in a bowl on the kitchen table.
“We eat with our eyes too,” Perdomo said.
“With the apples out of the refrigerator and on the table, it’s the first thing everyone sees, so they will reach for it. A good trick with children at dinner: Put the vegetables on the table first. If it’s the first thing they see, they will start picking at it. If you serve all the food at once, they will ignore the vegetables.”
Perdomo put the bag of carrots on the eye- level shelf in the refrigerator. Another afternoon snack idea, she suggested, would be to put some ranch dressing in a small bowl, and set it out with baby carrots, for dipping.
Next, Perdomo examined the Ercks’ plates and glasses. Erck showed her the glasses that the boys use for juice. Each glass easily held 16 ounces, twice the recommended serving amount on the commercial juice the boys like. That meant 240 calories’ worth of juice, Perdomo observed. Erck looked stunned.
“From now on, those will be the water glasses, and these will be the juice glasses,” Perdomo said, reaching for the smaller glasses that held only about 8 ounces each.
Then Perdomo picked up a dinner plate.
“Maybe if we had smaller plates, we wouldn’t weigh so much,” Erck ventured.
“No, it is just paying attention to the amount,” Perdomo said.
“By doing small things like this — portion control — you can save calories. What works well is the plate-proportion method: one fourth of your plate is for chicken or meat or protein; one fourth is for pasta or rice or grain; and half is for vegetables. If you eat like that, then your meal is balanced, and your family will be filled up.”
Green beans, broccoli and carrots are the vegetable mainstays on the Erck table, and they are not especially popular. Dan Erck eats broccoli stalks, but not the florets. Julie Erck said she rarely serves salads.
“I’ve heard that salad just collects in your colon — is that true?” she asked Perdomo, who shook her head.
“No, not true; you need the salad for a balanced meal, and your family will eat more if there is a tasty dressing,” Perdomo said gently. She showed Erck how to make a quick vinegar- and-oil dressing, adding the oil last so the ingredients emulsify instead of separating immediately.
Finally, they tackled dessert, the dieter’s perennial downfall. The Ercks stock no cookies (“Good!” Perdomo said) but like ice cream, and they scoop it into generous bowls. Perdomo examined the bowls, then she asked for a measuring cup.
“Here is a half-cup of ice cream, and I’m packing it in,” she said, “and this is 120 calories.”
She decanted the half-cup of ice cream into the bowl. It sat there, a lonely little island.
“Dress it out with some fruits,” Perdomo advised. “Cut up some apples, some bananas, some strawberries, and put them around the ice cream. It will look like more, and the fiber in the fruit will help fill their stomachs.”
Erck sighed.
“It’s a change,” Perdomo said reassuringly.
“But if you do these things one at a time, and let your family have something to say, let them buy into the change, it will stick. And you are not alone. A lot of families have the same problems.”
