Jeff Levine Swaps Fat for Flavor
The Biggest Loser's family doc shares how to fool your taste buds...and
enjoy your favorite foods.
As a doctor, Jeff Levine knows how to make life-saving decisions for
his patients. Now, he's doing it for himself by changing his eating (and
cooking) habits.
His tip for a delicious, satisfying meal? Keep the most flavorful
ingredients, and replace the least flavorful. Here's how it works:
Instead of lox and bagels, try lox and Wasa bread. All the flavor is in
the salmon. So skip the bland bagel and heap that fish on a cracker.
"I can eat five slices of Wasa bread and it adds up to only 100
calories, with very little fat or carbohydrate. I put fat-free cream cheese
on the Wasa bread with the onions and lox, and I don't even taste the
difference!"
Instead of spaghetti sauce and pasta, try spaghetti sauce and spaghetti
squash. All the flavor is in the tomato and garlic of the sauce. So
replace the pasta with a high-fiber, filling veggie.
"Half a cup of spaghetti squash has only 23 calories, compared to pasta
at 100 calories. I'm a pasta person, and spaghetti squash is a terrific
substitute. I want to see if I can sneak it past my kids."
Other flavor-saving ideas from the Biggest Loser Club: Salsa and celery
instead of salsa and chips. Tuna on melba toast instead of tuna on
white bread.
