Real Food and Good Times at UNH

October 19th, 2011 by Betts FitzGerald in Colleges and Universities, Eating Well, General

I was on a college campus this past week, specifically in a college dining hall, watching and taking photos with my Blackberry of an exciting Guiding Stars Healthy Chef face off. It has been just a few years since I pushed my tray through the food line to see what kind of grey meat was being served or how much green had already drained out of the “green” vegetable that sat in the steaming tray for too many hours. I was curious to see up close and personal how today’s college kids were being treated at feeding time.

Meet the USDA’s Kevin Concannon: Long Title, Simple Strategy

October 18th, 2011 by Erin Dow in Nutrition Crusaders

I recently had a talk with Kevin Concannon, the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and I learned that there’s another entity trying to make your healthy lifestyle easier: the federal government. While that may be surprising to some, supporting the well-being of Americans–and children in particular–has been an important mission of the USDA since the Great Depression. Since healthy children grow up to be vibrant, well-educated, and capable adults, the entire country benefits from good nutrition. And given the fact that the U.S. obesity rate is fast approaching 50% and one in four Americans receives some sort of direct benefit from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, Mr. Concannon is a very busy man.

Meet the USDA’s Kevin Concannon: Long Title, Simple Strategy

Veggie of the Month: October

October 13th, 2011 by Erin Dow in Expert Chef, Vegetable of the Month

If you used to find squash in your grandmother’s basement or tucked under your cousin’s bed, chances are they were the winter varieties like Acorn, Hubbard, and Butternut squash. Specifically bred for a tough skin and low-moisture yellow to orange flesh, winter squash ensured that families could store and eat the healthful vegetable throughout the winter. Some varieties will stay in perfect condition for six months or more when stored properly; in fact, my mother had a spaghetti squash perched on her basement steps for almost a year with no ill-effects whatsoever.

A Long Way to Go

October 11th, 2011 by Allison Stowell in Eating Well, Health and Wellness

I’ve recently returned from the annual Food and Nutrition Conference for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). This tremendous conference regularly attracts 6,000 dietitians from across the country…all to one place…and very often with several thousand in one room. Yes, that’s a lot of dietitians.

Super, Simple Smoothies

October 5th, 2011 by Recipes in Recipe Roundup

Breakfast is tough. Many kids don’t want to eat first thing in the morning, and not too many parents are all that excited at the prospect of cooking either. Smoothies might just save the start of your nutritional day. Not only are they packed with micronutrients, if you use the right bases and sources of sweetness, they’ll be low in added fat and sugar as well. By buying frozen fruit or pre-chopping and freezing fresh fruit, smoothies require almost no prep work. Even younger kids can make smoothies with only a little supervision. Best of all, smoothies are basically a nutritious milkshake. What kid would turn that down?