NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

October 1, 1998

Prairie Fare: What I Think about When I'm Running

By the time most of you read this, I will be feeling like I've aged 20 years, and it will have taken me only about 4½ hours to get into this condition. Barring anything unforeseen, I will have completed the Twin Cities marathon.

Training for a marathon gives me plenty of time to think, and what I think a lot about is what I'll eat when I'm through with the race. My attention most often is drawn to foods coming from the tip of the Food Guide Pyramid. After the first marathon I ran, I ate a half-pound each of chocolate-covered peanuts and chocolate-covered raisins. Another year, it was chocolate Bismarcks with chocolate filling and chocolate icing.

This year? Well, I've pretty much satisfied my chocolate craving, so maybe it's time to take a run at mocha bars, those peanut-covered delights that remind me of angel food cake. Probably not fattening enough. How about Baklava, that honey-nutty Greek pastry? Nope. Too sweet. Cheesecake is tantalizing but I recall a Thanksgiving day incident involving a chocolate-cherry cheesecake and the sensation that I may need to call the paramedics, so I think I'll pass on that too.

What I really crave after burning all those calories is something with texture, like the crunch and chew of the peanuts and raisins or the velvety smoothness of the chocolaty Bismarck goo. But then again ... When my wife, Nicki, made the recipe that follows, I decided the bars were a nice accompaniment to a cold glass of milk.

Butterscotch Brownies

From SOARthe Searchable Online Archive of Recipes, University of California, Berkeley (http://soar.Berkeley.EDU/recipes/)

Yield: 24 servings
Ingredients:

¾ cup butter
2 cups dark brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 X 13-inch baking pan with cooking oil. Combine the butter and brown sugar in a sturdy saucepan and set over moderate heat. Stir frequently until the mixture is bubbly and the sugar is melted, then set aside to cool slightly. Beat the eggs and vanilla into the butter and brown sugar mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir together; add to the first mixture and beat just until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in the pecans. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is dry and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bars comes out barely clean. Remove from oven and cool on a rack before cutting.

What's Your Take on This, Julie?

Dean, if you ever hang up your running shoes, we may be seeing a lot MORE of you if you continue to eat as much. Although most of us won't be running a marathon at any point in our lifetime, we can all benefit from a little more physical activity. A survey done by the North Dakota Health Department shows there's room for improvement among North Dakotans.

More than one-third of North Dakotans are considered physically inactive outside of work, meaning they become couch potatoes as soon as they arrive home. Only about 17 percent of North Dakota adults engage in light to moderate activity. North Dakota youth have a ways to go too—only about 37 percent of youth in grades 9 to 12 are physically active.

Unlike the sweat-producing advice of the past, the current recommendation from the 1996 Surgeon General's Report is to accumulate 30 minutes of moderate activity per day for at least five days of the week. But weekend workout warriors beware: you can't pool a month's worth of activity on one hectic weekend. It's the consistency of an activity that produces health benefits.

Not only does moderate activity reduce your risk of several diseases, it also can help you sleep better, maintain a healthy weight, gain energy and reduce stress. The pace of a brisk walk is an example of moderate physical activity. At this activity level, you'll burn about 150 calories of energy in 30 minutes, which adds up to more than 1,000 calories a week. The more vigorous the activity, the less time you have to spend at it.

When you select an activity, make sure it suits your interests. Engage the entire family whenever possible. Other moderate activities that will help you reach your 30-minute goal are raking leaves and dancing fast. You don't have to dance nonstop for 30 minutes, just accumulate 30 minutes of physical activity throughout a day. You can also meet your 30-minute quota by biking 5 miles, pushing a stroller 1½ miles or walking 2 miles.

For more vigorous activities like snow shoveling, playing basketball, walking stairs or jumping rope, you would spend only 15 to 20 minutes to get the recommended moderate activity. For less vigorous activities like washing and waxing a car or washing windows, you would spend 45 to 60 minutes to meet the goal.

Diet goes hand in hand with physical activity for long-term health and weight control. Portion control counts. One butterscotch brownie (1/24 of the recipe) contains about 165 calories and 10 grams of fat—or just slightly more than the number of calories you'd burn during 30 minutes of moderate activity. It's OK to enjoy sweets on occasion, but remember to eat a variety of foods from all the food groups in the proportions suggested by the Food Guide Pyramid.

Modifying recipes helps too. For example, by eliminating the cup of chopped pecans in the butterscotch brownie recipe, each brownie would contain about 133 calories and 6.5 grams of fat. So, the per-serving savings equates to about 30 calories and 3.5 grams of fat.

While you're accumulating your activity on at least five days of the week, remember the other five in North Dakota's 5 Plus 5 program: strive to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Doing less sitting and more eating—of fruits and vegetables—will help ensure that you have better health. So hide the remote control, and couch potatoes, arise!

###

Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136 and Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187

Click here for a pdf version of this graphic.