Nutritious choices made simple®
Kitty is a member of the Guiding Stars Scientific Advisory Panel, a panel of experts in the fields of nutrition and public health, formed to develop a set of criteria which resulted in the design of a now patented algorithm used to analyze food products. Kitty is also a food and nutrition communications expert and the owner of NutriComm Inc., a marketing and communications company that services food manufacturers, trade groups and public relations firms nationwide.
Previously on the editorial staff at Good Housekeeping magazine, she has written many magazine articles and contributes regularly to a variety of publications and websites, including the Guiding Stars blog. Kitty is also the co-author of several cookbooks. A member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and several of the association’s practice groups, she served two terms of service as the president of the Maine Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Kitty is also an adjunct instructor in the nutrition department at Southern Maine Community College. A mother to two young adults, she resides in South Portland, Maine with her husband.
If you keep up with food and health news, you probably saw coverage of a recent study on red meat that seemed to give the green light to red meat consumption. But most health authorities recommend limiting the amount of red meat and processed meat. So is meat okay to put back on our daily plates or not? Here’s our take…
Traditional pasta is comfort food for lots of us. Filling, warm, and comforting, regular pasta is generally made from refined semolina flour (from durum wheat, a type grown specifically for pasta). Eggs are sometimes added in, making them egg noodles instead of regular pasta.
You know that including more whole grains in your diet—and limiting refined grain products—is recommended for an overall healthful diet. Yet, though we eat enough grain foods, we’re not taking the advice of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to “make half your grains whole,” which translates to 3 oz. of whole grains per day.
Calories, macros (macronutrients), daily weights, water intake…the amount of data one can track on dieting apps can really add up. For me, as a person who has made her living talking, writing, and teaching about nutrition and food intake, tracking my diet when MyFitnessPal and other similar apps were new was an interesting (even fun!) thing for me to do. It fit with my mindset about weight control (calories matter…and I still think they do). I wrote about macro tracking on this blog in 2017 if you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about. But, somewhere along the line, tracking my food intake and weight became less fun, much less fun. I also grew as a nutrition professional over time, and found that diet tracking didn’t suit me or fit my food and health philosophy anymore.
In a perfect world we’d all have a few hours a day to devote to nourishing ourselves well—growing and harvesting our own organic produce (if that’s your kind of thing), planning well-rounded meals, carefully preparing beautiful and healthful meals all from scratch and then allowing ourselves plenty of time to mindfully savor those meals with friends and family. Doesn’t that sound amazing? It makes me smile just to think about all that. Of course, that scenario isn’t real-world for most of us. In fact, with the autumn season arriving, your life may be getting busier by the day.
Plant-based diets are a flexible way of eating that can be tailored to your individual preferences and lifestyle. It celebrates and emphasizes plant-based foods, but it isn’t limited to them. Here are my top 3 tips to pay attention to when starting to eat in a more plant-forward style.
It seems to me that main dishes and desserts get all the glory. Lots of times side dishes are an afterthought, and coming up with something to put “on the side” ends up being a hunt through the fridge or pantry for anything that can fill in the empty space on the plate. When we do that, we shortchange both our plates and our palates.
No doubt you’ve noticed the growing number of milk-like products that have appeared in the dairy case (or in close proximity to it). The colorful containers and variety of flavors available make for an attractive, yet somewhat confusing display. Whether the source of these beverages is a nut (cashew, almond, macadamia, hazelnut), a grain (oat, rice, hemp), a seed (flax), a fruit (coconut, banana), a tuber (tigernut) or a legume (soybean, pea), plant-based beverages offer a variety of nutrients. Sales of these beverages are increasing each year, but they aren’t really milks, are they?