Hi everybody this is Monica Reinagal and you're listening to the nutrition

divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous welcome.

Nutrition diva listener, Anne, writes,

I loved your 300th episode about what has changed in your diet since you started doing the

Nutrition Diva podcast.

You mentioned that you've reduced your consumption of grain-based foods.

What I'd love to hear more about is what foods you have increased.

You mentioned eating more vegetables, but these don't make up for the calories from grains.

And now let me address Anne's great question.

As I explained in a recent episode, I haven't cut grains out of my diet entirely, but I have cut back on them because I find that they're easy to overeat and they tend to crowd other more nutritious foods, like vegetables, off of my plate.

But Anne is absolutely right. Vegetables tend to be much lower in calories

than grain-based foods.

Now for some of us, that's a good thing.

Eating more vegetables and cutting back on grains can help us to fill up on fewer calories.

But it would be hard to stay full eating nothing but vegetables.

And let's also remember that not everyone needs to cut calories. So if you're

eating less bread, pasta, crackers, baked goods, and other grain-based foods, what foods

besides vegetables could you eat more of to compensate for those calories?

In my own diet, as I've cut back on grains, I've allowed myself a little bit more liberty with foods that are high in fats. I'll snack on nuts rather

than pretzels. I now buy full fat yogurt and milk, but I usually skip the cereal aisle.

All those vegetables that I'm eating are often roasted or

sauteed in a generous amount of olive oil and I wouldn't dream of dressing a

...