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.
Do you enjoy a good green salad? I do. Is your salad mainly leafy greens or do you go overboard and create a nutritional nightmare? Not hard to do at a lot of salad bars, is it? Everything seems to call your name and tempt you. How do you build a healthy salad with a nutritional profile that’s powerful for your body?
Try these three easy tips:
1. Start with a base of leafy greens. Red leaf, green leaf, arugula, spinach, or a mixture…whatever you like. Try different greens. I rotate them depending on what’s available and what looks good that week. I’m often asked this question and you may wonder as well “Do I need to rinse the prewashed bagged salads?” Most bags of greens say triple-washed so you would think there’s no need to rinse again.
Don’t miss this….tests on salad greens performed by the Consumers Union and reported in the March 2010 issue of Consumer Report found bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation and fecal contamination in their samples. They tested baby greens, organic greens, bagged greens and clamshells. Nothing made a difference. Their conclusions were to buy packages as far from the use-by-date as possible, rinse the greens even if the bag says prewashed or triple-washed and prevent cross contamination in your kitchen by keeping greens away from raw meats. My suggestion is to make sure to clean your salad spinner or colander after each use just in case bacteria adhere to the surfaces.
2. Kick up your veggie intake for the day. Add chopped carrots, green peppers, sliced tomatoes or cucumbers, yellow or zucchini squash, broccoli…basically take a look and see what vegetables you have on hand and toss them in. They add flavor, crunch and a boot load of nutrition. I also like fruit in my salad so I’ll add apple slices, strawberries, dried blueberries and cherries, even watermelon. What do you add to your salad that makes it healthy and delicious?
3. Add lean protein. My girlfriends always say they’re only going to have a salad for lunch. They order one with greens and a few veggies. In an hour or so, they’re hungry again. Sound familiar? Protein has many important roles in your body from helping you to feel full and satisfied longer to maintaining your muscle mass…no matter what your age. Add sliced chicken, turkey, fish or lean beef, low fat cheese or a hard-boiled egg. If you’re vegetarian or eating some meatless meals, try cubes of tofu or chickpeas or a chopped veggie burger.
The buzzwords ‘inflammation’ and ‘anti-inflammation diet’ continue to garner a lot of attention in the nutrition world so it’s time to give you an update on the latest information that may affect your health. Inflammation can be good or bad. It’s good if it’s acute or short term such as when cut yourself. Your immune system kicks in sending white blood cells along with other substances to jump start the healing process. Inflammation is not so good when it becomes chronic or longer term inflammation in your body. This invisible type of inflammation gets all the attention because it’s been implicated in the etiology or cause of many common diseases from heart disease and auto immune illness like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis to some cancers, diabetes, and even stroke.
Here’s what scientists think is happening in the body with this low-grade chronic inflammation. This on-going inflammation damages your blood vessels thus increasing your risk for heart problems. In the case of cancer, inflammation could damage your genes or increase the development of blood vessels that let cancer cells spread and grow. In your body, inflammation raises the level of what’s called C-reactive protein or CRP for short. The liver produces this CRP during periods of inflammation so if the body has chronic inflammation going on, the CRP level will be elevated. Now doctors can measure this level of general inflammation in the body with a blood test called the hs-CRP which stands for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.
What can you do about inflammation in the body? Does what you eat potentially make inflammation worse in your body or can it help fight inflammation? Is there an ‘anti-inflammation diet’? Yes there is. It’s called the Mediterranean Diet. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at the effect of a Mediterranean diet on inflammation in the body, particularly in people with metabolic syndrome.
Think of metabolic syndrome as a group or cluster of medical issues that includes excess weight around your belly, elevated total cholesterol and LDL levels, high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels. In fact, metabolic syndrome affects about 25% of our population. Why do I mention metabolic syndrome? Because it’s a syndrome that is tied to a pro-inflammatory state in your body…in other words…this chronic inflammation we’ve been talking about.
This study and others have found that a Mediterranean diet which includes healthy oils, nuts, fish and lots of fruits, veggies and grains decreased the level of CRP in the blood and reduced the level of inflammation in the body. Following a Mediterranean diet often results in weight loss which lowers markers of inflammation in the body…a very good thing.
1. Switch your type of fat: as much as possible use healthy oils such as olive, peanut and canola. These are rich in monounsaturated fats, the more heart healthy type of fat. Cut out as much trans fat and saturated fat as you can. These unhealthy fats not only raise the lousy cholesterol level (LDL) but also promote inflammation. Remember trans fat is the same as partially hydrogenated fat on a food label and saturated fat includes fatty meats, bacon, sausage, butter, full fat dairy, etc….opt for the low fat and lean meat versions.
2. Eat more whole grains and other high fiber foods such as beans, peas, lentils, oatmeal, etc. Consume fewer sweeteners such as sugar and corn syrup and other refined carbs including chips, cookies, pastries, and sweets. Why? They can make your blood sugar level spike which has also been tied to inflammation.
3. Consume more fish: especially fatty fish which contain omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats are found in fish such as salmon and tuna.
4. Add nuts and avocados to the diet: these are good sources of the healthy fat, monounsaturated which appear to be anti-inflammatory.
5. Increase the number of fruits and vegetables that you eat each day. The antioxidants they contain such as vitamins A, C and E along with all the naturally occurring healthy compounds called phytonutrients seem to ramp down the inflammation process in the body.
Give the Mediterranean way of eating a try. The synergistic effect of these foods eaten together over time can have beneficial effects for your health.
This may come as a shock but did you know that children as young as six suffer from body dissatisfaction coupled with eating disorders? Eating orders have emerged beyond anorexia and bulimia. Even during pregnancy, women may need to be screened for disordered eating. Joining me on this week’s podcast to explain more about these emerging trends is eating disorder expert Karen Beerbower.
Karen is a licensed and registered dietitian with a Masters degree in Medical Science from Indiana University School of Medicine. She is the Clinical Director of Blue Horizons Eating Disorder Services. As president of Nutritional Guidance based in Orlando, she has worked in private practice for over 20 years.
During the podcast Karen explains pregorexia and who needs to be screened plus symptoms, habits and lifestyle traits to watch for. She shares what is being done in the area of treatment to address these concerns.
I was very surprised to hear that eating disorders in children can start as young as six. Karen’s insight into where these trends are coming from and what you need to know are invaluable.
Also, be sure and check out our Cyber Weight Loss Club. Share your story and photos and we’ll enter you in a drawing at the end of January to win a copy of the book by TV’s The Biggest Loser, Ali Vincent called Believe It, Be It.
Happy 2010! Thanks for starting off your New Year with me. OK, let’s get right to it. This year do you want to hear those magical words…. “Have you lost weight?” How about a little more energy too? Many of you email, ask questions and share your struggles with me so I decided to start off this year with a Cyber Weight Loss Club. I want you to have a place to post your weight story…successes, struggles and questions…and chat with me. Share your before and after pictures. Tell us cooking and grocery shopping tips that work for you. If it affects your weight, I want to hear about it. I’ll be posting comments and tips along with some of our guests who will share insights and helpful ideas.
This is not a club you have to join but a cyber place to come where you can dish with others about weight issues that are on your mind. Where is it? You’ll see the link at the WDBO.com Nutrition & Health Center or just go directly to the Cyber Weight Loss Club page.
Speaking of someone who has heard the magical words, “have you lost weight?” joining me in the studio on this week’s podcast is WDBO’s Program Director Steve Holbrook. If you’re a regular listener you know that Steve was my guest on three podcasts last year as we followed his weight loss journey beginning about March 2009. To recap, Steve heard me discuss the research on protein and weight loss during my radio segment and he took it on as his personal weight challenge. Steve is the perfect example of a super busy guy who made a personal decision to change his eating habits, weight and health regardless of his crazy schedule…. which he knew wasn’t going to change.
By the way, you can see Steve’s before and after pictures which he has posted at the Cyber Weight Loss Club and if you want to ask him a question about his weight loss success, you can also do that at the Cyber Weight Loss Club. Remember, the Cyber Weight Loss Club is a forum for you….to help you stay on track, get accurate information and encouragement and succeed with your weight loss goals.
Are you excited about the New Year? 2010 is just two days away. I always look forward to the New Year which brings a fresh approach and a new look at areas in life that may have gone a little stale…know what I mean? If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’m not about gimmicks, miracle diet pills and products or diets that don’t work. I’m all about real life and how to make tweaks in your life so you feel better, have more energy and enjoy every day…not to mention eat good food. So how’s this for a ‘diet?’ All food is allowed….nothing is prohibited. Otherwise the denial, deprivation and overeating cycle sets in. You deny yourself something you really want to eat and then begin to feel deprived. Finally you can’t stand it any longer so you overeat on the food you denied yourself to begin with and the vicious cycle starts. You don’t win…ever.
In the January 2010 issue of Family Circle magazine, there’s a nice article on smart eating. This week’s podcast welcomes my regular guest, Margit Ragland, senior editor at Family Circle to chat on smart eating tips. Get your New Year’s health on and try these four tips this January.
1. Leave two bites at every meal (about 100 calories total per day). Cutting just 100 calories every day in 2010 results in a ten pound weight loss. Not bad. How would you like to weigh 10 pounds less at the end of next year and accomplish this by slightly cutting your portions?
2. Cook at home one more night each week. Most home cooked meals tend to be lower in fat and calories plus smaller in portion than what you typically get eating out.
3. Turn off the kitchen lights at 8 p.m. Cut out mindless eating at night.
4. Serve your meals on eight inch salad plates. Compared to a standard dinner plate size of 10 inches (or more), the smaller size looks like more food and you have less room to load up.
To start the New Year off right, we have a new spin on eggplant parmesan. Be sure and try the Panko-Crusted Eggplant Parmesan recipe posted at the WDBO.com Nutrition & Health Center.
Thanks for stopping by for a little holiday cheer. Are you ready to start your ovens? The holidays are here and it’s time to cook. Let’s talk about easy tips for healthy holiday cooking that let you enjoy the feast and festivities and not increase your dress or pant size. I love to eat and I look forward to my favorite comfort foods this special time of year. Don’t you? My grandmother and my mother both made this festive yeast bread called Christmas Stollen. It’s a German recipe filled with pecans, cinnamon, dried cherries, apricots and raisins. I can almost smell it coming out of the oven. I’ve learned to make it with a few little tweaks of my own so I carry on their tradition of a spicy cinnamon, buttery yeast bread but with a healthier spin. Small changes in recipes yield big rewards when it comes to cutting calories and fat without sacrificing flavor.
So, tip number one to keep the flavor and perk up the health benefits in your holiday cooking:
1. Switch from candied fruit such as lemon, orange and cherries that are typically used in fruit cake to dried fruit such as plums, blueberries, apricots, and cherries. Easy switch… big flavor. I did this in my Mom’s Christmas Stollen recipe and it gives the bread an updated appeal with the health benefit of the antioxidants from the dried fruit.
2. Nutrition is about making smart choices, not about deprivation such as you feel when you’re on a diet. It’s about real, delicious food made with healthful ingredients. Kick up the nutrition in your recipes by adding vegetables, fruit and nuts. For example, add nuts to pumpkin, banana or zucchini breads; diced green pepper, carrots, onions and garlic to pasta sauce; your favorite chopped vegetables to omelets or scrambled eggs; dried plums or blueberries to yogurt, oatmeal or cereal. All of these efforts add up and make it easy to fit more fruit and vegetables into your busy day.
3. Mom’s Christmas Stollen recipe also called for 1 cup of whole milk. Replace whole milk with 1% or skim milk. For most recipes, you won’t notice a taste difference and you still get the protein, calcium and vitamin D but your hips and heart will notice the drop in total fat and saturated fat. Cut the fat and saturated fat with all your diary choices. For example, when I make dark chocolate fondue and the recipe calls for evaporated milk, I use skimmed evaporated milk. For a key lime pie, I use fat free sweetened condensed milk. For mac and cheese, try reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese (not fat free) and use part-skim ricotta for manicotti and lasagna. The reduction in total fat and saturated fat adds up quickly without you feeling deprived of anything.
By the way, do you have guests spending the night and want to impress them for breakfast? Mix up pumpkin pancakes. The recipe is posted at the WDBO.com Nutrition & Health Center along with others we’ll talk about today. You can make the pancake batter up the night before. Just make sure you have the ingredients on hand. If you’ve never made pancakes, they’re much easier than you think. The point to remember is to flip them only once on the griddle or skillet. Wait until you see bubbles around the edges and then flip and cook the other side. The recipe includes canned pumpkin, cinnamon and vanilla yogurt. Pumpkin is a source of vitamin A for healthy eyes and contains fiber which most of us need a lot more of. The bright orange color tells you that pumpkin naturally contains alpha and beta carotene and other carotenoids tied to good health. I use skim milk instead of 1% and add raisins to my batter instead of making the topping. These pancakes are a winner at my house.
4. Focus on the fat. Did you know that one tablespoon of regular butter contains 11 grams of fat with seven of them being saturated fat? Saturated fat is the least healthy type of fat and known for clogging arteries. Light butter with added oil such as olive or canola brings down the saturated fat content and is a better choice along with light spreads made from heart healthy oils such as soybean, canola, and olive. Light spreads are typically even lower in saturated fat than light butters. Both light spreads and light butter work well on toast, muffins, corn on the cob and vegetables but remember that light butter and light spreads are not the best choice for baking. The water content affects the outcome of the recipe.
5. Consider baking with a spread. There are many choices in the spread aisle and the lingo can be confusing. Be a label sleuth. Here’s the bottom line you need to know. You want a spread that is made with healthy oils such as canola, olive and soybean, contains no added trans fat (aka partially hydrogenated oil), and has the least amount of saturated fat. I’m talking 2 grams or less of saturated fat per tablespoon. That will cull down the selection pretty quickly. Yesterday I was doing an interview for a magazine and one of the questions asked was if you can substitute spreads for butter when baking. The writer had an apple crisp recipe that called for a stick of butter and she was concerned for her father had a heart attack recently. Yes, regular spreads bake cakes, cookies and fruit crumbles or crisps beautifully without all the artery-clogging saturated fat.
I’ve posted a number of recipes on the WDBO.com Nutrition & Health Center for you to try this holiday season that use spreads low in saturated fat and free of trans fat including Promise and I Can’t believe It’s Not Butter! Try the oven-baked harvest apples, banana, date & walnut muffins, honey & orange mini cakes, and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies (yes, I add chocolate chips to the batter). The parmesan-crusted sweet potato fries make a tasty side for your leftover turkey sandwiches. Let me know which recipes are your favorites and have fun in the kitchen with your family and friends.
Chocolate’s popularity, particularly dark chocolate, is soaring. Women especially feel that they’ve been given permission to pamper and indulge themselves with something they love without so much guilt. I bet you’ve heard that chocolate can be good for you. You may not why, you just know it is.
Research indicates that the flavanols in cocoa may have heart health benefits which include improved blood flow, reduced blood pressure and lowered production of the lousy or LDL cholesterol. In addition to the flavanols found in cocoa, dark chocolate also contains other nutrients including iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and fiber. The caveat here is that the nutritional profile can be significantly hindered by the addition of less healthy ingredients such as trans fat or hydrogenated fat, butter oil, coconut or palm oil, or even milk fat. It’s up to you to be the label sleuth and read both the Nutrition Facts label and the ingredient list closely. The longer the ingredient list, the more likely it is that added items will take away from cocoa’s potential health benefits.
Have you noticed that the packaging on dark chocolate often includes a percentage of cocoa? For example, the wording might say ‘dark chocolate, 65% cocoa content’. It’s currently assumed that the higher the percent of cocoa in chocolate, the darker the chocolate and the better for you from the standpoint of the flavanols. Although the percent of cocoa in the chocolate is often marketed on the label, the percentage is not a true measure of flavanol content.
In cocoa, the flavanol level depends on both the flavanol content of the cacao plant and the procedures used for making chocolate. Traditional processing often destroys many of the flavanols. So unless the flavanol content is truly measured and indicated on the package, the percentage of cocoa in chocolate remains speculative as it relates to flavanol content. More companies are starting to do just this. CocoaVia brand is an example. Until the flavanol content is measured routinely, the best bet you have is to choose dark chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa and fewer added ingredients that are less healthy.
Go Green! Eco-friendly! The grocery store and your kitchen are good places to start going green. Every item you buy potentially impacts the environment from the resources used to create it to the energy used to get it to the grocery store shelf. Have you heard the term carbon footprint? A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, specifically the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) produced in our daily lives from the burning of fossil fuels for electricity or transportation for example. The goal is to lower the carbon footprint for each person by making small changes that have a big impact. If you want more in-depth information on GHG, check out the Environmental Protection Agency’s website.
Let’s look at a food’s packaging as an example. The post-consumer waste of a food product is the packaging. It is the trash that you routinely throw away. The industry standard for post consumer waste varies from about 35% to as high as 70%. Eco-friendly food companies are now striving for around 20% post consumer waste.
What’s realistic for you? What can you do to go green in your kitchen?
Start with reusable bags available everywhere. Use them at the grocery, farmers’ market, anywhere you’ve been using plastic bags. I have large ones that I take to the grocery each week and smaller ones for the farmers’ market in my town. I always have one or two small ones in my car for quick stops at the grocery on the way home. The colors and prints are fun and varied…check your favorite shops for unique ones. I read where Cooking Light magazine readers trade reusable bags from their favorite shops.
Instead of brown bags for lunch, try a reusable lunch bag. I found this great insulated lunch bag at reusablebags.com. It’s very colorful and made by a women’s co-op in the Philippines from recycled juice boxes. Each one is different and people always ask me “where did you get your lunch bag?” It keeps the juice boxes out of the landfill and keeps my lunch cold.
Use stainless steel or BPA-free reusable plastic water bottles and cut down on the cases of plastic one-time-use bottles that go in the landfill.
Check out the new appliances. Are you in the market for a new refrigerator or stove? Refrigerators that have water filters to filter the chilled water and ice that come from the dispensers are common place but recently, a few manufacturers have begun adding interior air filters as well. For example, according to the pros at Aggressive Appliances here in Orlando SubZero has a very advanced filter. Originally created for NASA, this system does more than just clean the air. It significantly reduces bacteria, odors, and the ethylene gas naturally emitted by some foods such as apples and apricots. This gas causes over-ripening and hastens the spoilage of foods. The air in the refrigerator is refreshed every 20 minutes.
Consider induction cooking. An induction cooktop looks like a traditional glass-top electric cooktop, but it doesn’t have the traditional heater coil under the glass. What is under the glass is a high powered electromagnet. Roughly 90% of the potential energy of the cooktop ends up being used to cook the food. Not only are induction cooktops greener due to greater efficiency, they also get to the temperature much faster, shortening the time the cooktop is on.
When it comes to grilling, gas is better for the environment. According to Christian Science Monitor, a new study reported in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review compared grilling using charcoal and propane. They found that propane is better for the environment than charcoal. Propane, the author says, has a carbon footprint almost two thirds less than charcoal’s. It’s seems to be a question of efficiency in the manufacturing process (how much fuel it takes to make the fuel). Then, according to the study, there’s the matter of efficiency at your grill. Gas-burning grills turn on and off quickly, so you have control over how much is burned and how much CO2 gets released. By comparison, charcoal grills aren’t as easily started or stopped plus they require a lighter, an additional fuel with a CO2 footprint.
Go green and make a few eco-friendly changes in your daily habits. Mother Earth will thank you.
What’s keeping you awake at night? The lousy economy or money issues? Maybe you’re concerned about losing your job or just lost your job.
Did you know that one-third of Americans are losing sleep over the state of the U.S. economy and other personal financial concerns? This is according to a new poll released in March of this year by the National Sleep Foundation.
Two out of every ten Americans sleep less than six hours a night. Your body needs seven to eight hours. Those of you sleeping too few hours report being too tired to work efficiently, to exercise or to eat healthy. The poll suggests that inadequate sleep is associated with unhealthy lifestyles and negatively impacts health and safety. You might be thinking….how does lack of sleep affect safety? How about drowsy driving? The 2009 poll finds that 54% of adults (that’s potentially 110 million licensed drivers) have driven when drowsy at least once in the past year. Nearly 28% of drivers polled say that they have nodded off or fallen asleep while driving a vehicle. Now that’s scary!
Speaking of driving while you’re asleep, I have to share this report from the Food and Drug Administration or FDA where a woman in Virginia allowed herself two pieces of chocolate per day. Here’s the problem: after taking her prescription sleep medication at night she began waking up to an empty box of chocolates. After consulting with her doctor and waking up to an empty chocolate box a number of times, it was decided that she had been “sleep eating”. This occurrence is known as a complex sleep-related behavior. Sleep eating, sleep driving, making phone calls or having sex are all behaviors that may occur. Most people do not remember these events later and they can occur with some prescription sleep aids. So, if you consider a prescription sleep aid or are taking one now, be sure and read the patient insert and discuss this potential side effect with your doctor.
So just how many people around the nation are losing sleep? Well, according to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 70 million people in the US are affected by a chronic sleep disorder. And ladies, it turns out that we are suffering from lack of sleep more often than men and with increasing frequency as we age. Does this sound familiar?
Sleep is the time that your body restores and maintains itself. Think of it like rebooting your computer. Here are five tips that may help you get a better night’s sleep:
Just like you may have a workout routine, have a bedtime routine and keep regular sleep times. Your body craves a sleep routine and gets into a rhythm. Remember, there’re TIVO and DVRs so you don’t have to stay up all night to catch your favorite shows! Once in a rhythm, your body will begin to let you know it’s tired and ready for sleep at about the same time each night.
Exercise, yes this includes sex, improves sleep. Try to get in some exercise during the day but make sure to finish a couple of hours before you turn in so you’re not wired and unable to sleep.
You’ll love this one. Don’t go to bed hungry. Try a light carb snack like a piece of fruit.
Nix the caffeine by mid afternoon so it doesn’t keep you awake.
Make sure your bedroom is dark, cool, quiet and comfortable. Make your bedroom inviting for a great night’s rest. Remember this is the place where you escape whatever it is that stresses you out. Create your own personal bedtime ritual. Try using aromatherapy or a warm bubble bath. Listen to your favorite relaxing music or read a book. But give your laptop, work materials and other such distractions the boot. Your bedroom is your place to chill, not get worked up again and be too stressed to sleep.
Now more than ever a good night’s sleep is important to your overall health and wellness. Along with a great diet and exercise, plenty of sleep will help you better cope with the stresses of today’s world. Take care of you…you’re worth it.