Healthy Trucking

by Jack Kelsh, professional driver

Make healthier food choices

In last month’s column, we wrote about preventive maintenance in terms of maintaining a healthy body, just as you might maintain a well-running truck. We talked a little about how to eat healthy, even on the road, and not to be fooled by fancy packaging. This month, we’ll discuss how to make healthier food choices in more detail.
          For example, people often assume that eating a tortilla wrap, as opposed to a sandwich, is the healthier choice. The truth is that an average tortilla has about three or four times the amount of saturated fat than what is found in regular bread, and that even includes wraps that appear green or red (and healthy) because they contain spinach or sun dried tomatoes.
     There are some healthy sandwich wraps on the shelves, but you have to know what to look for. Make sure they do not contain lard or hydrogenated oil. If the ingredients list says they contain shortening, that is hydrogenated oil, so don’t eat it–in anything. It is the most incompatible saturated fat that we can put into our bodies. Also wraps are usually made with “enriched” flour, which means all the good complex whole grains are refined down to what amounts to pure sugar. The label says “flour” but it metabolizes in our bodies the same as sugar. You should always eat 100 percent whole grain breads when you eat them.
     Another thing to watch for is steamed vegetables. That’s right. If they are steamed, they are still cooked, and all the important enzymes in them are killed off. Vegetables should always be eaten fresh and raw. Don’t eat them from a can.
     Frozen is not as bad as long as they are not blanched before they are flash-frozen, but you nev-er know, so get them from the produce section or the salad bar. On the salad bar, if the vegetables are in a syrup or sauce, they are not healthy or fresh.
     One more little tip out of so many more: caffeinated beverages don’t always wake you up. Our bodies are designed to do an “uptake” if exposed to too much of one thing, such as caffeine. Our bodies shut off the initial effects of the stimulant, and in turn we become actually more tired physically than if we only had a little bit of caffeine. As with many things in life, if a little is good, more is not necessarily better.
     I lost 180 pounds, and I have kept my weight steady for the last seven years. If I can do it, so can you. You can learn what I did and order my book and 19th wheel on the Web site: safetythruwellness.com. As always, I am here to help.
     Jack Kelsh is an over-the-road professional driver and a certified sports nutritionist.

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