Perfect Nutrition: It's Impossible

It is a common misconception that one must be nutrionally perfect to meet their goals, whether it be longevity or weight loss/gain. While a growing awareness of one's nutrition is an amazing thing, when taken to the extreme, it contributes to a rise in eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and an overall normalization of body-shaming. In simple words, not everything you eat has to be "good" for you. Dietitians recommend following the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the time one should strive to eat nutritious foods, and the remaining 20% one should treat oneself. Following this rule helps maintain a stable relationship with food and allows people to eat the foods they love in proportion. Nutrition is not about cutting out the "bad" foods; it's about adding to the foods one loves to make them a little more nutritious.

Last night, my boyfriend wanted cookies, so I adjusted a recipe I found online and made him a batch of snickerdoodle cookies. The original recipe was mostly sugar and fat, as expected, so I added some Greek yogurt for a small protein boost. The original recipe also yielded about 36 cookies. To practice mindful eating and limit food waste, I used half of everything in the original recipe, making about 18 cookies.

My recipe for chewy, snickerdoodle cookies:

Ingredients

cookies:

• 2 cups of flour

• 3/4 cup of sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1/2 cup softened butter

• 2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt

• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• 1/8 teaspoon of salt

coating:

• 1 tablespoon of sugar

• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and prepare the baking sheet by greasing it with avocado oil or lining it with parchment paper

2. Beat sugar, egg, butter, yogurt, and vanilla until creamy and smooth. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.

3. Slowly combine the flour mixture into the creamed butter mixture until the dough forms. If your dough is still too sticky to work with, add about a tablespoon of flour; repeat until the dough is workable

4. Make the coating by mixing sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

5. Shape the dough into 2-teaspoon balls and roll in the cinnamon-sugar. Arrange the balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheet

6. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 7 minutes. (Note: I baked some of my cookies on the bottom rack, and they came out slightly burnt on the bottom.)

7. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before enjoying.

Macros	Per Cookie
Calories	136 cal
Carbohydrates	20 g
Protein	3 g
Fat	5.5 g

While 3 g of protein may not seem like much, it is a great boost over the original recipe's 0.5 g. For some fiber, I recommend eating with a cup of raspberries, which yields about 8g of fiber.

Only five left from last night...