Eating just one meal a day flirts with nutritional trouble

grains, legumes or nuts, and these are the basis for a healthy diet, in my opinion. Your diet is deficient in many micronutrients (such as vitamin C and calcium), so I hope you just neglected to mention these and actually are consuming some. A nutritionist or your doctor can provide more information.

Dear Dr. Roach: What is the deal with monoglycerides and diglycerides? I’ve read that these ingredients are just transfats in disguise and that they are not considered as fats by the Food and Drug Administration and so are not included in the fat calorie count. Should I avoid products with these ingredients because of concerns about cholesterol levels?

A: Mono- and diglycerides are very much like fats, which are chemically triglycerides. They all have a glycerine “backbone” to which one, two or three long chains of fatty acids are attached. Mono- and diglycerides are used in many products as emulsifiers, which help oil and water stay together.

Trans-saturated fatty acids (“transfats” for short) increase the levels of LDL cholesterol (the unhealthy kind) and decrease HDL cholesterol (the good kind) in the blood and increase the risk of developing blockages in the arteries. Foods that contain less than 0.5 grams of transfat can be labelled as having “0 grams of transfats,” which makes avoiding them difficult. You have to carefully read ingredient labels.

I recommend minimizing mono- and diglycerides, although it is very difficult to avoid them completely if you buy commercial breads and pastries (and many other products, too). You can minimize your consumption by cooking using ingredients you can trust, buying products without them when you can and reducing processed foods.