Fast does not have to mean fat. With a little planning, you can have healthy, sugar-free meals that are just as convenient as fast or frozen food. You can control your family's intake of simple sugars and starches by cooking at home.

Following the recipes in this book will help you to regulate and restrict the quantities of what your family eats.

Nutrition Planning

Plan your menus around delicious tastes as well as nutrition. There should be some salad or a vegetable at lunch and dinner. These should be brightly colored and attractive as well as very delicious and healthful. A serving of protein such as fish, chicken, or meat is in order, and a very small side of potatoes or pasta will satisfy almost any eater. Portion control is the key to weight control. You can feel satisfied without being stuffed, and it's important to eat foods that will stay with you.

Breakfast on the Go

Who has time to make breakfast? You don't, but the smiling faces behind the counter at McDonald's do. Conveniently enough, you probably pass several fast-food joints on your way to work, all of which are more than happy to hand you some sugar and fat thinly disguised as a tasty breakfast patty. Frozen breakfast sandwiches are more of the same — processed fast food that in this case happens to come from your own freezer.

There's a problem here, and the solution is simpler than you might think. Making a healthy, sugar-free breakfast takes no more time or effort than standing in line for an egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich.

Before you go grocery shopping, think about your breakfast options. Buy the ingredients and make items ahead of time if necessary:

• Fresh fruit of any kind can ride shotgun on the ride to work with absolutely no preparation.

• Whip up a smoothie in the blender and throw it into a travel-safe mug.

• Instant oatmeal is just that — instant.

• Mix plain yogurt, fruit, nuts, and high-quality granola or cereal for another instant meal.

• Bake muffins in advance and freeze them for quick breakfasts.

What to Munch for Lunch

Lunch needs to sustain the body without adding undue sugars and fats to the diet. It might sound a little backwards, but you can eat dinner for lunch. Freeze dinner leftovers in lunch-sized portions that you can easily carry with you. It takes even less time out of your day to reheat them than it does to cook a high-sugar frozen meal. Cook more food than you know you'll eat at dinner so you will always have leftovers to freeze.

Salads make nutritious lunches. Buy a bag of pre-washed salad at the grocery store, dress it at work, and add some fruit, leftover chicken, or a small can of tuna fish for a fine sugar-free lunch.

People who work from home or stay at home have the blessing and the curse of close proximity to a fully stocked kitchen all day. You have more choices, but it's easy to reach for quick, unhealthy lunches when you are pressed for time. Resist the temptation by having equally quick nutritious lunches on hand.

For children, school cafeteria lunches have become toxic. Except for a few school districts, most school lunches are mass-produced meals that are high in sugar, fat, and calories. Vending machines allow children to supplement their unhealthy lunches with equally unhealthy candies, chips, and soft drinks.

If your kids head to school for a fast-food meal, it's important to change the agenda. Get your PTA behind a healthy food program for the school cafeteria. Start by sending your child or children off to school with homemade lunches, which won't take any more time than the lunch you pack for yourself.

Keep in mind that schools won't have microwaves or refrigerators, so only pack food that can be eaten as is. Take two slices of bread, such as pumpkin bread, spread with some low-fat cream cheese. Add little bag of salad and some fruit for dessert. Well nourished, your child will get through the afternoon's study and sports with flying colors.

The Ever-Changing Dinner Table

The advent of frozen-food technology revolutionized dinner. The family meal used to be full of fresh food, and leftovers went into a pot of soup, constantly simmering on the back of the stove. Then came frozen veggies, TV dinners, and many precooked meals in plastic bags. Frozen and precooked meals tend to be chock full of sugar and other preservatives and flavor enhancers. Making dinner yourself with fresh ingredients cuts down on the amount of sugar you ingest. Not only do you know exactly what you're eating, you can control it.

Fortunately, cooking a fresh dinner doesn't have to be a long drawn-out affair. The recipes offered here show you how effortless cooking a sugar-free meal can be. There are dozens of equally nutritious and delicious entrée choices. Rice and pasta have their own chapters, but they are meant to be used primarily for side dishes. Starches are good, to a point. If you decide to make pasta or rice as a main course, add lots of vegetables and toss in a bit of seafood, poultry, or meat.