August 11, 2010
My cousin is a kindergarten teacher and started school on Monday! It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over and school is back in session. That means it’s time to gear up and think about school lunches… ideas that won’t break the bank, are nutritious and that your kids won’t trade.
Check out this month’s Family Circle recipe for Maple Bran Muffins. Drizzle with maple icing and serve for breakfast or a snack.
Try these five tips to pack a lunch your kids will keep and eat:
- For your sanity, think about cooking and preparing for the week to come on Sunday. Go over your schedule for the week and think about what you can fix ahead to make the week less hectic. Consider meals that will provide leftovers for lunch the next day. Kids love leftover pizza, lasagna and manicotti.
- Get your children involved in the kitchen with you and bake oatmeal or peanut butter cookies.Cut up fruit, make trail mix with nuts, soy nuts, pumpkin seeds, a mixture of their favorite dried fruit, and even add some mini chocolate chunks.
 Or try one of my several favorite mixes from Target’s Archer Farms line, Sunny Cranberry. Many of you know that I partner with Target as their nutrition & health expert and have come to rely on their Archer Farms products for my day-to-day meals and snacks.
- Kids love the power of choice so involve them in choosing from your healthy selections. Think about taking them to the grocery store at a time when you’re not rushed or tired…I know…when is that? You guide the decisions and choices but do allow them to pick an item or two.
This week on the podcast, Margit Ragland, Health Director at Family Circle magazine, joins me to talk more about lunches that will be keepers.
According to Family Circle, Meredith Corporation’s Motherboard surveyed moms and 84% were looking for new options to add to their children’s brown bag.
- Rethink the sandwich…switch from bologna with cheese on white bread. Try a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread…add a slice of low fat cheese or soy cheese.
Try whole-wheat tortillas or whole grain wraps as an alternative to bread and in addition to turkey, stuff with lean ham or beef and low-fat cheese, tuna, chicken, hummus or egg salad, and top with sliced veggies such as red peppers and cucumber. Peanut butter, almond butter or sunflower butter with banana or raisins works well too.
  Keep baskets in your pantry filled with healthy snack selections that your children like. Include whole-grain cereal bars (try blueberry almond flax), dried fruit such as cherries or blueberries, nuts, whole-grain crackers, peanut or almond butter, and pop-top cans or pouches of tuna.
Looking for a healthier chip alternative with less fat and calories? Margit suggests Pirate’s Booty as one option. Putting together a lunch is much easier when the choices are there.
For more ideas, listen to this week’s podcast.
Listen to this week’s podcast
May 12, 2010
 What is the one item of clothing women hate to shop for? A swim suit. My college roommate was in town last week and we were over at the beach. She was shopping for a swim suit and I wish you could have heard her comments. “I’ve got to lose this extra flab.” “This suit makes me look even fatter than I feel.” “Wow, is my butt really that wide?” “The flowers on this suit make me look like an extra-large arrangement.”
She had me laughing out loud but at the same time, we discussed how we women are our own worst critics. Isn’t that right ladies? We don’t need anyone else to point out our flaws when we try on a swim suit…we do that very nicely on our own. We would never hear a guy say…”Do my thighs look like cottage cheese?” or “Wow, my gut has really gotten big.”
If you want to drop a few pounds before you put on your swimsuit, take this quiz with me and let’s do some diet myth busting.
Here we go: Diet Myth or Diet Truth?
#1, True or False: You can lose weight if you eat grapefruit or drink/use vinegar?
FALSE: This myth is considered ‘food folklore’–wishful thinking for many people who have heard this faux promise for years. Unfortunately no food can directly “burn fat” nor “burn off the calories in a food”. If you lose weight because you eat grapefruit, it’s because you substitute this low calorie food for one in your diet that is likely much higher in calories and fat. Same for vinegar. You may substitute it in place of a much higher fat salad dressing for example and therefore cut significant calories.
This is not going to sound sexy or be the magic pill that we all wish we had but weight loss, bottom line, is about how much you eat day in and day out. I’m talking portion size and total calories plus how physically active you are.
Two huge factors have changed. Number one, we’ve become sedentary as a society. Remote controls, computers, cars, golf carts, etc. do all the work for us. Then consider that most of us don’t live where we can walk everywhere like in the European countries. Number two, portion sizes are obscene. Cookies are the size of small pizzas so we pack on the pounds like never before.
#2, True or False: You must stop eating at 7pm or you won’t lose weight?
FALSE: Calories do not count more in the evening. In terms of fat burning, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, regardless of when it is eaten. The bottom line for weight loss is calories consumed against calories expended. Think about this.
Do you often skip breakfast or lunch or else eat very lightly all day? Are you so ravenous by the time you get home that you could eat the door off the refrigerator and have absolutely zero self control? Do you eat anything you can get your hands on and then fall asleep and never burn the calories off?
Research from The National Weight Control Registry shows that people who eat breakfast and throughout the day have less cravings at night and tend to eat much less after 7 pm.
Listen to this week’s podcast for more diet myths…busted.
Listen to this week’s podcast
May 5, 2010
If you have children or care for children, do you often feel confused about what and how to feed them? My guest on this week’s podcast, dietitian and mom Maryann Jacobsen, has useful tips you don’t want to miss.
 Check out the blog, Raise Healthy Eaters, founded by registered dietitian Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen. The focus is on three essentials to raising healthy eaters: what to feed, how to feed and how to be a healthy role model.
You’ll find useful information on what to eat during pregnancy as well as what to feed infants and toddlers. Plus find out how to outsmart a picky eater!
Maryann shares her insight on children and set mealtimes, the eating cues of hunger and satiety (feeling satisfied or full) and the roll of the parent.
 Here’s a quick bio: Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen is a registered dietitian, mother of two and creator of Raise Healthy Eaters, a blog dedicated to providing parents with credible nutrition advice. Maryann has counseled overweight clients for years and understands the connection between how children are fed and the kind of eater they grow up to be. After having kids of her own, she decided to focus on prevention by helping parents learn how and what to feed their children.
Listen to this week’s podcast
April 28, 2010
 You’ve asked me questions such as how do I know where my fish is from and is it farmed or wild-caught?
Here’s your quick A-Z guide to purchase fish.
Sources for fish information fast:
- Monterey Bay Aquarium in California has a Seafood Watch Program. Check out their Seafood Guide App that you can download to your iphone or ipad to help you make sustainable seafood choices quickly and easily, whether you’re eating out or shopping at your local supermarket. The app features regional guides so you can see what seafood is best in each area of the country and a sushi guide.
- You can send a text while you stand in front of the fish counter and make sure the fish you plan to purchase is eco-friendly and without a health advisory. This very cool tech tip is courtesy of blueocean.org.
Send a text to 30644 with the message FISH followed by the name of the fish you want to buy…for example, FISH SCALLOPS or FISH SALMON. I sent a text for FISH SALMON and received two texts within a few seconds.. The Blue Ocean Institute tracks 90+ fish species and regularly updates their database.
- Other good sources for information on seafood choices that protect marine life and/or the environment and support well-managed fisheries are seafoodwatch.org and nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch, part of the government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
How do you know where your fish is coming from?
The Country of Origin Labeling called COOL, which was developed by the USDA, requires all large retailers (supermarkets) to disclose the country of origin of fresh or frozen fish and whether it is farm-raised or wild-caught.
What about sustainable seafood?
The Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) certification program and seafood ecolabel recognizes and rewards sustainable fishing. They are a global organization working with fisheries, seafood companies, scientists, conservation groups and the public to promote the best environmental choice in seafood. Look for their label on fish products.
Do farmed fish provide the same health benefits as wild?
There’s a lot of controversy about farmed-fish versus wild-fish in regards to nutrition content, environmental safety and toxins. Farmed fish can be a healthy and delicious alternative to more expensive wild-caught fish but, there is potential for higher amounts of toxins and poor nutrition content. The key is ‘farmed responsibly’ resulting in fish that is an affordable and perfectly recommendable source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids.
Listen to this week’s podcast
April 21, 2010
Easy Snacks and Meals to Fuel Fitness
To fuel up for fitness, here are a couple of my favorite (and easy) breakfast/snack ideas courtesy of Family Circle magazine:
 Chocolate-Peanut Butter Oatmeal
½ cup rolled or quick oats made with 1 cup fat-free milk
1 tablespoon creamy natural peanut butter
2 teaspoons mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
I’m a self-proclaimed chocoholic so even this small amount of chocolate chips satisfies me.
- Apple & Nut Butter (snack)
1 medium apple, sliced and spread with two tablespoons almond butter
My breakfast version: I spread almond butter on whole grain toast, followed by the apple slices and a drizzle of honey. If you haven’t tried almond butter, it’s worth the extra expense as an alternative to peanut butter.
Try this 20-minute recipe from the Family Circle kitchens: Red snapper with gazpacho salsa
I hope spring is all around you…the weather is warming up, the birds are singing, and flowers are starting to bloom. I’m ready to take my workout…outdoors. How about you? I am a walker, especially on the weekends when I have more time to be outside.
For those of you who have listened to my podcast for a while, you know that Family Circle along with the American Heart Association sponsor the annual Start! Walking Challenge. You can find out more at familycircle.com/walk2010 or in the May issue. This month the focus is on walking and eating to lower cholesterol. You’ll find a very helpful mix-and-match meal plan.
 Margit Ragland, Health Director at Family Circle joins me on the podcast this week to talk about the Walking Challenge with a focus on cutting your cholesterol level in three ways:
- Keeping a cap on saturated fat that can raise your total and lousy LDL cholesterol levels while it shrinks your good cholesterol…HDL.
- Focusing on fiber, a nutrient that works like a sponge to help rid your body of cholesterol.
- Loading up on superstar foods that conquer cholesterol-like oats, nuts, beans, fish, soy, and even dark chocolate.
Listen to this week’s podcast
April 14, 2010
 With the trend towards locally grown, eco-friendly, natural food, raw milk is touted as being more healthful, better tasting and nutritious than pasteurized milk…but is it? Proponents of raw milk say it’s safe to drink…but should you drink it and give it to your family
Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized. It’s milk from any hoofed animal including cows, sheep or goats. Because of the potential for raw milk to contain a wide variety of bacteria including such suspects as:
- Salmonella
- E. coli
- Listeria
- M. tuberculosis
- Campylobacter
- Brucella
Public health officials for decades have expressed concern over drinking raw milk. Symptoms of illness range from:
- vomiting
- diarrhea
- abdominal pain
- fever, headache and body aches
However, people with weakened immune systems from HIV or autoimmune diseases or infants, young children, pregnant women and the elderly are especially sensitive and illness from raw milk can be very serious and result in death.
Joining me on the podcast to answer more questions about the raw milk movement is Dr. Ronald Schmidt, Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Florida. Dr. Schmidt has authored more than 100 scientific publications and presentations in dairy/food science technology, food safety, and microbiology, and is co-editor of the book, Food Safety Handbook.
Dr. Schmidt delves into these questions that you have asked?
- First, I have to ask this same question that I asked Joe Wright, the dairy farmer who was our guest last week. Do you drink raw milk or pasteurized milk and why?
- Proponents of raw milk say it is more nutritious with additional enzymes and healthy bacteria that are destroyed by pasteurization. Is one milk more nutritious than the other?
- Does raw milk contain antimicrobial components making pasteurization unnecessary? What effect does pasteurization have on milk?
- Dr. Schmidt, advocates of raw milk point to some studies where children drinking raw milk have less allergies, asthma and eczema. Where does the scientific community come out on this debate on drinking raw milk and giving it to children?
- What about cheese made from raw milk? Is it safe? I see dairies selling it at farmers’ markets.
- Do you think raw milk will become legal in Florida and other states?
What’s your opinion on raw milk? Post your comment on my blog and I’ll share some of them on an upcoming podcast.
Listen to this week’s podcast
April 7, 2010
 dairy farmer Joe Wright Raw milk is touted as being more nutritious than pasteurized milk…but is it? Proponents of raw milk say it’s safe to drink…but should you drink it and give it to your family?
You don’t want to miss this week’s podcast. I dig into the questions about raw milk that you have asked and get answers from dairy farmer Joe Wright. Questions such as:
- Joe…you’re a dairy farmer. Do you drink raw milk or pasteurized milk and why?
- There is a large underground market for raw milk with people selling it as pet food yet humans consume it. Would you explain this?
- Some farmers sell both raw milk and pasteurized milk…is that correct?
- Can you really insure that raw milk or cheese made from raw milk is pathogen-free?
Joe has traveled a very interesting path from the firm to the farm. He grew up in Florida and attended the University of Florida law school. Ok, so I went to The University of Tennessee and he IS a gator…but I won’t hold that against him. While practicing law specializing in health care, he met his wife, the daughter of a dairy farmer. The rest, as they say, is history.
After spending time working with his father-in-law on the farm, he knew he could never go back to an office. Passionate about dairy farmers and active in their industry, Joe serves as first vice president of Dairy Farmers, Inc., Florida’s milk promotion group.
Raw milk has been making headlines lately from proponents who feel it’s not only safe to drink but boosts the immune system and shouldn’t be banned. On the flip side were reports in the media last week of an outbreak of campylobacteriosis in Michigan from raw milk with symptoms of diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain.
If you ask 10 people if raw milk is safe to drink, you would probably get 10 different responses. So today and next week we’re delving in to what the evidence-based science says about raw milk and whether it’s safe to drink or a setup for illness which could be potentially deadly.
Listen to this week’s podcast
March 31, 2010
 Does the herb guarana pack the same caffeine punch as coffee? Guarana, pronounced gwa-rah-na, is an herb from South America and is very popular as a stimulant in energy drinks with names such as Pit bull, Pimp juice, Rip It, Venom and Cocaine Energy Drink whose website says ‘it tastes like a fireball, a carbonated atomic fireball!’.
When I say caffeine, what’s the first thing you think about? Coffee? Maybe tea or chocolate? Like tea, coffee, and chocolate, guarana contains compounds in the caffeine family including theobromine and theophylline.
Caffeine is known to:
-
help treat migraine headaches
-
fight fatigue
-
help improve mental function
Most of the proposed uses of guarana fall into line with these effects of caffeine although some scientists suggest there are other compounds in guarana that may have similar effects but the research currently doesn’t exist.
If you take a look at the majority of energy drinks and other products with caffeine, you may find guarana added along with stimulants like ginseng. When a caffeine containing product is enhanced with the herbal guarana you have a potential caffeine double whammy…that may or may not be fine for your body.
For someone who is caffeine sensitive or not use to caffeine, the effects of guarana by itself or added to the caffeine in coffee, energy drinks or other products may not be pleasant and could be dangerous:
-
The heart rate and blood pressure jump up
-
Feelings of panic and anxiety can set in at any age
-
It’s hard to sleep
-
Heartburn, gastritis
-
Disturbances in heart rhythm
A typical dose of guarana supplies 50 mg of caffeine about half the amount in a cup of coffee. However, take a look at the label of most products containing guarana and the amount will not be listed. If you want to find out, check the website of the company who makes the product and look for the ingredient disclosure.
Young children, pregnant or nursing women, or people with heart disease or taking the medications we just discussed should not use guarana. So Moms, be aware of what your children drink, especially if they play sports of any type. Energy drinks are handed out like water but the effects are nowhere near the same.
Listen to this week’s podcast
March 24, 2010
 Do you buy organic items? Would you like to buy organic if you thought the price wouldn’t bust your budget? I would. Do you think pesticide levels in all produce are the same? Actually they’re not. Even when you wash fruit and vegetables, some still have higher levels of pesticides than others. The Environmental Working Group labeled these as the ‘dirty dozen’…the fruit and vegetables where it’s smart to buy organic. These include apples, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, raspberries, strawberries, bell peppers, celery, potatoes and spinach.
You can then save money and buy conventional produce that has very low or no pesticide residue. Reach for bananas, pineapples, kiwi and mango as well as broccoli, cauliflower, corn, peas, onions and asparagus. Remember that all products labeled organic must go through the same process to become certified. How does this save you money? You can opt for the less expensive store brand. For example, I consult as Target’s nutrition and health expert. The Archer Farms premium brand, which is exclusive to Target, has over 100 organic products in its line including organic waffles and organic maple syrup at affordable prices. Affordable is the key word here and that’s why shopping for the store brands is a savvy move.
This week, Margit Ragland, Health Director at Family Circle joins me on my podcast with more idea to go organic on a budget. You will find the full article in the April 17th issue but a few of her noteworthy tips include:
Buy a share in a community-supported agriculture program (CSA). You pay part of a local farm’s operating expenses, and in return you receive a box of fruits and vegetables weekly for the duration of the growing season, which usually lasts 24 to 26 weeks. Don’t forget to ask if your CSA is certified organic. Checkout: localharvest.org.
Join a food co-op. All you have to do is sign up and pay modest dues, although some co-ops require volunteering. Go to coopdirectory.org/
Other sites for organic on a budget ideas: unitedbuyingclubs.com, mambosprouts.com and Amazon. I would love to know how you buy organic on a budget so email me your suggestions.
Each month Margit shares a recipe from the Family Circle kitchens and this month  it’s a 20-minute Three-Bean Veggie Chili. You can find the recipe at the WDBO.com Nutrition & Health Center.
Listen to this week’s podcast
March 10, 2010
 Did you know that March is National Nutrition Month and today is Registered Dietitian Day? I want to give a shout out to Registered Dietitians. They are committed to improving the health of our communities and our country. As the nation’s food and nutrition experts, registered dietitians bring food and nutrition expertise to the table. Thank you for all that you do every day to provide accurate and usable nutrition information and to empower people to make smart decisions for their health.
Salt is quickly becoming the next trans fat. Which item do you think contains the most sodium? A Subway six inch oven roasted chicken sandwich or the serving of Subway roasted chicken noodle soup? If you guessed the soup, you’re correct. A serving of the soup is a mere 80 calories but a whopping 950 milligrams (mg) of sodium compared to the six inch chicken sandwich which contains 320 calories and 750 milligrams of sodium…still quite a high number. Here’s another chance. Which contains more sodium? A McDonald’s Big Mac or a large order of French fries? It’s the Big Mac with 1,040 milligrams of sodium (half the sodium you need for an entire day by the way and two thirds of the sodium people need as they get older or if they have high blood pressure). Compare the Big Mac to the French fries which contain 350 milligrams of sodium. Surprised? Many times you don’t taste the sodium added to the product the way you taste the salt on the outside.
Table salt is sodium chloride which means that it’s made up of part sodium and part chloride. But there are many other types of sodium or sodium products in food, particularly processed foods. As a general rule, the more processed a food item, the more sodium it will contain. You will see names such as the preservative sodium benzoate, or sodium bicarbonate which is baking soda, monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer or sodium nitrate/nitrite which are used as curing agents/preservatives in deli meats. It’s the total amount of sodium that you take in every day from both salt and all the other forms of sodium combined that affect your body. Sodium is measured in milligrams and designated as ‘mg’ on the Nutrition Facts food label. Any idea how much of your total sodium intake every day comes from the salt shaker? Most people get 25% or less of their total sodium intake from the salt shaker. The rest is added to food in the various sodium forms.
Listen to this week’s podcast
Older Posts »
Powered by WordPress
|
Posts
©2009 Practicalories,
Inc. All rights reserved.