Category: Healthy Tips

Did you know that October is Vegetarian Awareness Month? For those looking to find more room on the plate for nutrient-rich produce, consider scaling back on how much meat you eat or skip it all together! If Meatless Monday isn’t your thing, however, look for meats that earn 3 Guiding Stars such as boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pork tenderloin or sirloin steak. You can also find meats that are raised with environmental responsibility in mind, but making the effort to include vegetarian meals in your routine has a wealth of benefits worth considering.

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Possibly you have heard that you need to eat more whole grain…and possibly you haven’t known how to do that. I’ve got you covered with a list of foods, from game day snacks to quick breakfast options that are made with whole grain. Of course, they also earn Guiding Stars so they are also the “good, better and best” choices for you too! Substitute these options for the one’s you currently choose and you add more whole grain to your day. Yes, it’s that easy.

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I was recently asked about my top ten pieces of nutrition advice. You might be surprised by a few of my suggestions, but I promise you: I’m telling the truth. I have a lot of experience working with individuals and families, and if you’re looking to improve your nutrition, start here:

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Craving sweets is only human. We’ve all been there. The problem with giving in to those cravings, of course, is that added sugar is a high-calorie, low-nutrient form of food and there are good reasons that both the USDA and the Nationals Institutes of Health recommend limiting how much added sugar we eat. Our bodies often don’t seem interested in the research on what’s best to put into them once hunger strikes, so a little advance planning can go a long way to helping us cut down on added sugar.

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Many of us have spent hours in the kitchen pickling, canning and making jams to preserve the bounty either from our own gardens or from our local farmers’ market when the prices are low and the produce is fresh. The problem with canning is that so many of those recipes go something like “make a simple syrup with a pound of sugar…” or have ingredients that include multiple cups of salt. The good news is that you don’t need them to preserve the food, and even better for those of us who dread the hours of hot, sweaty working necessary to prepping safe canned food, there are alternatives.

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We all know how great salads are. The right combination of vegetables and protein makes for a power-packed and nutrition-friendly meal. There’s just one big, glaring problem. Salads can get boring when you make the same one day after day. They can also be tedious when you end up having to buy so many different ingredients. The answer? Mix up your salad routine!

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Nothing beats a delicious, fresh ear of corn as a side to your meal. It is one of the easiest and quickest vegetables to prepare. The fresher the corn, the better, actually: the sugars from the corn quickly develop into starches as soon as the ear is harvested. If possible, you want to get your corn the day it is picked or as soon after as you can.

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I heard that 2012 has been one of the warmest years on record. If you are living in one of the parts of the country that has seen temperatures in the nineties or hundreds, then this seems likely. Young or old, active or sedentary, indoors or out, you need to make hydration a top priority when the mercury rises that high. Of course, where there is a potential problem, there is an industry to try to provide a solution–no doubt the beverage industry has many suggestions when it comes to hydrating. Let’s take a look at them and see how they measure up…

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