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Monday, February 23, 2009

A Study A Day?

Reading a study a day in the latest health magazine doesn't necessarily keep the doctor away.

Sometimes it's not clear how you should apply this information to your particular diet. Sometimes another study is more information out of context that you need to sort through. Sometimes too much information complicates the picture instead of sorting it out. Knowing about the research is fine but how you use what you've learned may be a whole different exercise.

Color your plate for healthy eating

Think in color themes - if your plate isn't colorful at each full meal think again about what you are eating.

Some fun suggestions to start...

Breakfast - think American flag colors
Dinner - think Fall colors - orange, beige, brown, yellow, red and green

How will you paint your plate?

Simple cooking or do you do microwave?

In a nutshell that's microwaving for most because you don't have to watch the burner, you can eat out of the same dish you cook in and it's fast.

I'm giving seniors who have never cooked before lessons in how to simplify the meal process. It's that easy.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Food is art

All this input can be confusing so how do we keep eating simple? Think of your plate as art - anykind of art you like as long as it's colorful and multi-textured. If not consider changing your plate!

Chaos means a lot of choices

Maybe too many but maybe just what you need. And a lot of choices means a lot of variety which is good for our diet.

Picky Eating

It's great to be a picky eater if you know what your picking! Don't just pick what is in front of you, know what to select, how much and remember to mix it up and pick a lot of different foods.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Vitamin D

Have you had your Vitamin D checked? It's not part of a standard annual exam but a good idea to ask your doctor to check at your next physical. With all the advice to stay out of the sun to avoid skin cancer, most use sunscreens and are staying out of the sun. Combined with the fact that many are lactose intolerant and don't drink milk fortified with Vitamin D likely the best source in our diet, many of us don't consume enough Vitamin D nor have enough sun exposure for our bodies to produce. Lack of sufficient Vitamin D can result in premature osteoporosis, a weakened immune system, stones, etc.

If you need a supplement consider taking D3 with Vitamin K to facilitate absorption.

Monday, February 9, 2009

A touch of this and that

Try adding "a touch" to your foods - little nutrient content and usually big on taste. When eating well, have you tried adding "a touch" of what you love eating to your food but not going overboard? For example, if you add a tablespoon of sorbet to your fruit and nut snack, it turns the snack to an indulgent one and still permissible. Similarly, an ounce or two of a healthy version of cream of mushroom soup, asparagus soup, etc. could make all the difference to your vegetable servings and meal. Go for the lowest saturated fat, calorie and carbohydrate version you can find. Some of us may need to watch sodium added and sodium labels. If you can stick to grocery foods under 500 mg of sodium per serving, it might be a good thing. I keep my saturated fat as low as possible while still getting enough mono and unsaturated fat in my diet. I'm on a stay away from dairy diet right now.

Enjoy your touch ups!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Listening to Our Bodies

What ever happened to listening to our bodies? When we eat something how does it make your body feel health wise? If the first time you eat a fatty food in a while feels bad, that should tell you something. Getting used to a bad thing is never good. Our bodies are very intelligent and we need to remember to listen.

Whole nutrition

We seem to be practicing nutrition by dissection more and more these days. If cocoa is good, chocolate must be great. Say what about the sugar content? Avocado oil is great but what's in that guacamole? When we choose a food, we should think about it in the context of your whole diet and the portion you really eat.


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