Satiety Trumps Reward

Definitely. The genius behind nutritarian eating is the double-benefit of eating high-nutrient-low-calorie foods--the nutrients satisfy the body's nutrient needs more fully than do low-nutrient foods, and the quantity of nutrient-dense food it takes to get enough calories more than meets the body's need for a sense of fullness and satisfaction. Click on the title of this post to see a scientific study that proves this not even from subjects' eating experience but just on their thoughts about pictures of foods and how much they'd fill them up. Think how much more they could recognize the principle if they were actually eating in a nutritarian approach!

The recipe below is my nutrient-intensive version of what I made for my family tonight. I plan to enjoy the slaw leftovers in the days to come, as well.

BARELY-FISH SOFT TACO

Slaw (makes about eight cups)
Six cups shredded cabbage
1-1/2 cups shredded carrot
1/2 chopped red bell pepper
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (unseasoned, though seasoned would be fine if you left out the sugar)
1 teaspoon sugar
1-2 tablespoons cucumber dressing (mine has 60 calories per 2 tablespoons, 50 from fat)

2 ounces cooked frozen breaded cod fillet (mine is about 80 calories, 25 from fat)
1 South Beach Living whole grain wrap (110 calories, 8g fiber)

Combine slaw ingredients and let stand for an hour or two, then warm the wrap (I like to pass it over my stove burner, back and forth, until it starts to brown a bit) and fill with a good cup of the slaw and the fish fillet, broken into little pieces.

Verdict--Excellent! I really enjoyed this, a healthy variation that inspires me for how to deal with some restaurant items. By the way, I've never had a fish taco before! :-)

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--Smoothie of elderberries, banana, peach (I freeze dud peaches in the summertime if they're too mealy to eat out-of-hand, as long as the flavor is decent.), orange, blueberries, and flax seed meal. This was sweeter than my usual smoothie--nice deep berry flavor, too.

Snack--Pear, about 1/2 ounce roasted edamame

Lunch--Leftover EGGPLANT ALMOST-PARMESAN (two slices) with CHUNKY PASTA SAUCE and no pasta, leftover QUINOA-MUSHROOM SOUP

Supper--BARELY-FISH SOFT TACO; one corn taco shell toasted and divided and one part spread with refried beans and salsa, the other with black beans and dried onion, both topped with diced tomato; honeydew and blackberries .

Though this supper felt really filling and perhaps "dangerous" to me, I realize the soft taco had no more than 250 calories, the other crunchy stuff under 200. And I'm really full! (However, about three hours later I was hungry, even a little dizzy, so I had . . . )

Snack--Golden delicious apple and <1 ounce roasted cashews