Nutritious choices made simple®
Having diabetes is hard enough. Layer on food shopping questions about which products the best choices to help manage the condition and, well, it can make feeding yourself (or your loved one) a big, intimidating job. If you’re looking for an easier way to make food choices for someone with diabetes, Guiding Stars is here to help!
The release of updated Dietary Guidelines happens every 5 years. This allows improved scientific findings to be folded into the USDA’s healthy eating recommendations. At Guiding Stars, we closely examine updates to these guidelines. We’ll share what’s changed, and how you can fold the new recommendations into your eating patterns.
Keeping nutrition in mind during the holidays can be a struggle. And frankly, it’s the holidays. I think it’s okay to lighten up a bit on the nutrition focus. Just enjoy the season and all it brings—even if what it brings to your kitchen might not be your typical healthful fare.
When thinking about eating during the holiday season, mindfulness might not be the first thing that comes to mind! That’s okay…and expected, really. The holidays themselves and the various food scenarios that come with it mean different things to different people. One person’s traditional multi-day preparation for an elaborate Feast of 7 Fishes sounds like someone else’s recipe for multi-day anxiety, for example. But beyond that, this time of year often comes linked with busy-ness, stress, and worries.
This time of year, we see orange foods all around us. We associate orange with autumn, and also with energy and vibrancy. Of course, we know that some of our favorite orange foods come by their color naturally (although there are some instances where might be fooled—more on that later). Other foods we know are colored somehow to appear orange. This is a little primer on the various ways that foods can acquire their orangey hue—and why those methods may impact your food selection criteria.
Orange is one of my favorite colors (I use it as an accent color in my kitchen year ‘round). Frankly, I like a lot of foods that are orange, too! I’m not talking about puffed cheese snacks or candy corn (I don’t care for either). I’m going straight for the produce aisle here. If you need a refresher on why you should be putting all that golden goodness on your plates right now, this is it.
You probably know that Guiding Stars is all about healthy, nutritious food. Follow the Guiding Stars signage throughout the store. Choosing mostly items that earn stars. You’ll automatically and easily end up with a cart full of nutritious food. You might be wondering exactly what we mean by “nutritious,” though, so here’s a little background on Guiding Stars defines the word.
It seems we all have more demands on our time and attention than we used to. I’m certainly not judging those that have difficulty making family dinners happen. I know how hard it can be to get a meal on the table while also coordinating everyone’s schedules, and when I was a single parent it all seemed even more difficult. Here’s the thing, though: research shows there are some benefits to sitting down at a meal together—for both children and adults—that might convince you that making the effort to have family meals together is a trade-off that will pay off for everyone.