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.
Hi everyone! If you’ve been listening to me for a while, you know I’m a self-proclaimed chocolate lover. I’ve never met a chocolate that I don’t like. I adore dark chocolate and enjoy tasting a variety of flavor profiles. In fact, I just heard that Orlando is having The Festival of Chocolate in March presented by the Orlando Science Center. Have you attended a chocolate festival? Would you go again?
The news has been abuzz with the potential health benefits from eating chocolate so let’s get right to the source and find out. And who better to chat with than my guest on my podcast this week, Dr. Amy Preston from The Hershey Company.
A registered dietitian and PhD, Dr. Amy Preston is a Senior Nutrition Scientist at The Hershey Company. Dr. Preston also currently holds an adjunct position within the Nutritional Sciences Department at The Pennsylvania State University. She has studied many different populations, including healthy participants, overweight/obese subjects as well as those at risk for cardiovascular disease. Now her focus is on chocolate and health. Dr. Preston updates you about the latest research on chocolate.
Some of the questions I ask Dr. Preston include:
Would you break down the latest research on chocolate and heart health? What about chocolate’s effect on blood pressure?
Do the levels of flavanols/antioxidants in chocolate vary?
Does processing affect the flavanol/antioxidant content?
How does this antioxidant content compare to other foods such as wine or blueberries? If I prefer hot chocolate to red wine, would I get similar benefits?
Does percent Cacao on the label indicate the level of flavanols in a chocolate? What should we go by when choosing chocolate?
You’ll going to like the news about chocolate. If you’re looking for Valentine’s Day ideas, check out their website at Hersheys.com. You’ll find decadent Valentine’s Day recipes and all types of ideas for a chocolate covered February. Now I need my little dark chocolate fix for the day!
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.
Ali Vincent was the “one to watch” on Season 5 of TV’s popular reality show, The Biggest Loser. She won the competition while viewers watched her amazing transformation from overweight and discouraged to fit and inspiring. As a nationally and internationally ranked synchronized swimmer, Ali never thought she would have a weight problem. She was a competitive athlete! Ali readily admits that when she gave up swimming, she never replaced that activity with anything else. Gradually, by adding five pounds at a time, after thirteen years Ali tipped the scales at 234 pounds. With determination, a positive outlook, and a commitment to her goals, even when she was voted off the show, Ali Vincent lost 112 pounds and became the first female Biggest Loser. Ali joins me on the podcast this week to share her experience and philosophy that you can also read about in her book “Believe it. Be it.”
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.
My girlfriend called last night and she has the swine flu. She thinks she picked it up on a flight home last week. Do you have a cold? Even worse, the flu? Did you know that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) up to 20% of Americans will likely get a rotten case of the flu this year? Along with the H1N1 flu, that percentage will likely be much greater. When you are feeling absolutely rotten, what you eat can help fortify your immune system and even help ease your cold and flu symptoms.
Tea: all types of tea including green, black, white and red offer health benefits in the form of antioxidants. Besides feeling good to your throat and warming your body when you have the chills, hot liquids temporarily thin out the mucus in the nose and throat. Here’s a little unexpected tip. Regular tea (not decaf) contains enough caffeine to give you a slight energy boost when you feel so bad you don’t want to lift your head off the pillow. Remember, in addition to tea, continue to drink a lot of water to keep your body well hydrated and to help thin out mucus buildup.
Potatoes and other vitamin C-rich foods: Surprise, most people don’t think about potatoes but they are a very nice source of vitamin C and potassium. Add them to your chicken soup or baked one quickly in the microwave when you don’t have much of an appetite. Other vitamin C-rich foods include kiwi, blueberries and blackberries, cherries, tomatoes, and the traditional tangerines, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple and strawberries. Choose the whole food over a vitamin C supplement since you get the benefit of the water content as well as other vitamins and minerals in the fruit. Research has not proven that vitamin C prevents colds but it does aid your immune system which in turn helps you fight off the cold and flu. By the way, 100% fruit juices provide hydration plus the benefits of vitamin C and antioxidants, particularly the deeply colored juices such as pomegranate, cherry, blueberry and blackberry.
Chicken Soup: The zinc found in chicken is good for your immunity. Enhance your soup with garlic, onions, potatoes and lots of broth. The garlic and onion loaded broth nourishes you and helps ease congestion and thin out mucous. If Mom isn’t around to make that chicken soup for you, there are some good canned versions on the market. Be sure and check the Nutrition Facts label for the sodium content as canned soups can be over the top when it comes to added salt and sodium.
Yogurt. This is probably a food you never would have thought about to fight flu and colds but here’s the deal. You want yogurt that contains active cultures so check the label. Yogurt with active cultures such as acidophilus (also called probiotics) replenishes healthy bacteria in the body, especially your gastrointestinal tract where a lot of your immune function happens. Active cultures are particularly important if you are taking antibiotics which tend to strip out the bad bacteria and take the good along with it. The active cultures help replenish those healthy bacteria. Probiotics are strain specific meaning that you need a certain strain of probiotic bacteria if you are taking antibiotics so be sure to discuss this with your doctor, dietitian or pharmacist. You can also find these active cultures added to other products such as cereal bars, cereal, yogurt smoothies or kefir.
Spicy foods such as hot sauce, wasabi, chili or spicy sauces help to temporarily open sinuses and help with congestion. A bowl of chili or spicy tortilla soup with a dash of hot sauce may cause your nose to run and eyes to tear but right now, that could be a good thing. This relief helps you to breathe easier for a little while so if you’re up for it, try a little spicy food.
Now that you’ve given your body food to fight that flu or cold, it’s time for some much needed sleep. Rest and feel better.
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.
Has your stress level already kicked up a notch and the holidays haven’t technically started yet? Too tired to cook? Do you plan on dining out more often with friends and family but want to eat healthy too? The good news is that many popular restaurants are going green plus offering you healthier options. All you have to do is order and enjoy them.
Leading the way is Darden Restaurants headquartered in Orlando. You may not know that name but I bet you know your favorite restaurant under their umbrella including Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille and LongHorn Steakhouse. Just recently Darden opened their new 469,000 square-foot corporate restaurant support center. Designed to achieve Gold certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (known as LEED) from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), it will be the largest LEED Gold new construction building in Florida. I had the opportunity to chat with Rich Jeffers, Director, Media Relations & External Communications. He shared with me that Darden’s commitment to sustainability is seen in the many sustainable design and construction elements found in its new home.
More than 90 percent of the waste generated from construction was recycled.
The facility has an automatic lighting system that dims or brightens according to the amount of sunlight entering the building which helps reduce energy consumption.
There is increased use of natural light which we have a lot of here in Orlando made possible by a 114,000 square-foot glass curtainwall exterior.
Besides being an ecofriendly facility, from an employee health perspective, the Darden café offers 1300 employees daily healthful selections along with break rooms throughout the facility stocked with fresh fruit and nutritious snacks. With a ½ mile walking trail, business meetings can truly be taken outside. Plus, and this is one of my favorite design features, nine extra wide staircases encourage movement which ultimately may help improve productivity.
I asked Rich if these same green and healthier living parameters carry over into their restaurants. All of Darden restaurants have ‘green teams’ whose mission is to find energy conservation opportunities within each facility.
I also wanted to know answers to the questions you ask me. If you want healthier options, are they available in each restaurant? How are the healthier options designated on the menu? Can you look at the menu online before you head to your favorite restaurant?
Although sustainability may be new on the menu, meeting the diverse palate and dietary needs of customers is not. Menu options abound. Let’ talk about restaurant options plus some smart tips for dining out during the holidays and anytime.
I’m starting with dessert first since you know I’m a chocolate lover. Share a dessert…you share the calories and still enjoy the treat without feeling deprived.
Seafood is very popular and healthy. Order your selection poached, steamed, broiled or grilled (without butter) or blackened. You won’t miss the butter for the spice profile negates the need for it. Heading to Red Lobster? They offer a fresh selection of fish that can be wood-grilled and prepared to your liking. Also check out the LightHouse menu at RedLobster.com with selections less than 500 calories and 750mg of sodium.
Want shellfish? Try cocktail sauce instead of melted butter for dipping. Big calorie saver with lots of flavor.
If you have a choice, opt for the smaller portion size. You save many calories and still have the item you want. When you order a regular portion size, also ask for a to-go container right then. When your order arrives, put half of it in the to-go container. Why? Because typically the portion size is way more than you need and if you don’t cut it in half then, guess what, you’ll eat it…right? This is my favorite trick.
Don’t forget to ask for all of your sauces on the side so you control the amount used. This includes salad dressing, mayo and butter. If you have a hard time controlling the amount of salad dressing you pour on the salad, try dipping the tines of your fork into the salad dressing and then into your greens. It lowers the amount used significantly. Going to Olive Garden? Take a look at the Garden Fare menu which has a range of dishes from low fat to gluten free or no sugar added.
Breading, frying and cream sauces add calories to your backside so less is more when it comes to healthy selections. Meeting at Seasons 52? All of the menu items contain 475 calories or less.
You can tell that I’m a big fan of reviewing menus online. Why? Because many of you have told me that you love to eat out but have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or need gluten-free choices. Checking the menu before you go puts you in control of your health and what you eat. You make decisions based on what’s right for you.
Are you pregnant or close to someone who is? I have a treat for you today. My guest on this week’s podcast is registered dietitian Frances Largeman-Roth, author of Feed the Belly: The Pregnant Mom’s Healthy Eating Guide. Frances has been the Senior Food & Nutrition Editor at Health magazine for five years. She covers healthy recipes, food trends, weight loss issues, and the latest nutrition research. Frances was previously part of the editorial team at the Discovery Health Channel.
With a seven-day tear-out eating plan, this new book is an informative and easy-to-follow resource for healthy eating during pregnancy. From cravings to food safety, Frances covers it all. During the interview, Frances discusses the topic of food safety during the holidays and why pregnant women need to be more concerned about food safety than the rest of us.
Also, there is confusion over cheeses and which are OK and not OK to eat during pregnancy. Frances clarifies the smart cheese selections and speaks to smoked salmon canapés, pigs in blankets, and Belgian endive spears as well.
Most pregnant women avoid alcohol due to its potential to harm a developing fetus. But in addition to eggnog and the usual suspects, there are other booze-filled things to watch out for at holiday parties. Don’t miss these useful tips for yourself or to share with other pregnant friends.
If you want to find out more about Frances and her new book Feed the Belly, check out her website at franceslargemanroth.com. We’ve also posted a recipe from the book (Mornin’ Sunshine Parfait) at the Nutrition & Health Center on WDBO.com under breakfast items.
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.
Posts
©2009 Practicalories,
Inc. All rights reserved.