Archive 2005 2006 2007 2008

Q: At bedtime I like a bowl of cereal with skim milk and a piece of fruit. Will this cause weight gain? Why is it so bad to snack at night?
S.L., VIA THE INTERNET

A: There's nothing "bad" about a bedtime snack, particularly not the healthy one you describe. You'll gain weight only if it adds calories to your daily intake and you don't burn them off.

Studies on the effect of timing of meals on weight gain have had confusing results. Some find that eating at bedtime has no effect on weight gain; others have contrary results. Some of the studies that do link nighttime eating with weight gain have been done with obese people, who may tend to overeat at night. People sitting in front of the TV with high-calorie snacks at hand may also tend to overeat, but it's not the time of day that causes them to gain weight.

If you are not overweight or putting on excess pounds, you shouldn't worry about a bedtime snack. Many people find it helps them sleep. If you are gaining weight, do re-evaluate whatever you eat throughout the day—both meals and snacks—and trim calories where you can.

Q: When cooking ground beef (chuck), if I squeeze out the fat and then rinse the cooked meat in hot water, will it be as low in fat as ground turkey?
R.B., VIA THE INTERNET

A: Not as lean as ground turkey breast, but maybe as lean as regular ground turkey.

Any type of cooking will remove about half the fat from ground beef—even more if the meat is fatty, crumbled, well cooked, and then well drained. You can get rid of about half the remaining fat by placing the cooked meat in a strainer, pressing out some fat, and then rinsing the meat with hot (not boiling) water.

You can do this only for ground beef that will be used in spaghetti sauce, chili, or other recipes that call for crumbled meat. The meat does lose some flavor and texture.

Ground chuck is high in fat—about 25% fat by weight—which supplies about 75% of the total calories. Any type of cooking will remove some fat—bringing the fat content of the chuck down to perhaps 15% by weight, depending on how you cook it and how well done it is. Strain and rinse the meat and you may get down to 10% fat or less by weight (the fat would still supply nearly half the total calories, however).

If you start with leaner beef—ground round or sirloin, or that labeled "extra lean"—you would end up with a little less fat.

Regular ground turkey, which contains dark meat, averages about 8% fat by weight when raw. But ground turkey breast is only 1 to 2% fat by weight. You can't beat that.

Another thought: Instead of all this effort to defat ground beef, why not try textured vegetable protein? Made from soy and sold in many supermarkets and health-food stores, it is low in fat, has no cholesterol, and works well in chili or spaghetti sauce.

Q:You've said that prickly pear cactus is of dubious value as an herbal medicine, but what about its food value?
M.L., SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA

A: Prickly pear cactus, also known as Opuntia or nopal (nopales or nopalitos in Spanish), is no nutritional powerhouse, but a perfectly good food. A cup of raw chopped cactus has 60 calories, about 5 grams of fiber, and a little vitamin C, calcium, and iron. You can buy it in specialty produce markets and on the Internet.

Handle cactus only with heavy vinyl or leather gloves—it has sharp stickers in its natural state. Pads sold commercially here are often de-thorned. Small young pads are best—they should be bright green. Remove the "eye," thorns, and tiny hairlike spines. Trim any bruises or dry parts. You can add prickly pear to salads, casseroles, scrambled eggs, or soups. You can boil or broil it. Stir-fry it with onions and garlic for a nice side dish with beans.

After the flowers bloom, cactus bears a fruit, called "tuna" in Spanish. Some are good to eat, tasting a bit like strawberries or melon, depending on the variety. But they are hairy—though you can buy them de-haired—and must be peeled. They contain many small hard seeds. You can make jam or syrup out of cactus fruits.

On the Internet you can find all sorts of Opuntia products, edible or medicinal. Be wary of wild health claims. Opuntia does not have curative powers.

UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, August 2002