Nutritious choices made simple®
The turkey as the center of the Thanksgiving meal is a tradition that many really enjoy…and others really dislike (but are afraid to swap out for fear of being boo’d out of the kitchen, or pelted with Brussels sprouts). Why do so many of us feel compelled to recreate the Norman Rockwell holiday meal? There are other birds we could serve—or even non-bird entrees that could impress our guests. Still, the bird is the word most of the time.
I just returned from the annual conference and expo of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that was held in Nashville this year. It’s a wonderful chance to catch up with colleagues, attend educational sessions and news briefings and–my favorite part–check out the new food products at the expo. Here are three of the trends I spotted as I browsed around (along with some info on brands of products—I don’t typically discuss brands here and I am not recommending these brands, I’m just giving a few examples of things I saw at the conference.)
The phrase “clean eating” or “clean food” is being used more and more in the food and fitness arenas. The food industry also utilizes the “clean” concept in relation to food labels, but what exactly does “clean” mean in relation to food? Let’s take a look at this increasingly common (yet often confusing) term…
I grew up with a father who loved popcorn, and he made it so well—popped perfectly on the stove and topped with melted butter and a generous sprinkling of salt. Sometimes he would make it for my mother, my little sister and me and we’d sit all cozy with my mom, noshing on the freshly-popped corn while she read our nightly stories. Ah, popcorn memories…
It’s that time of year when lots of folks are tempted to lay in a big supply of packaged snack foods for kids’ lunches. It’s hard for kids to resist the wide array of colorful pre-packaged snacks and treats, and let’s face it—they are easy for parents to use as lunch/snack time “filler” food. And yes, parents like them too, for keeping in the gym bag for a quick nosh before the gym, etc. My problem with most of these snacks are 1) they usually are not healthful snacks, but merely supply calories, fat, sugar and sodium. 2) They packaging is wasteful. 3) The prices—all those little bags of treats add up fast when you’re quickly tossing a few into a your kids’ backpack or lunchbox.
I love shopping at a farmer’s market. It’s a feast for the senses to shop among the colorful piles of produce and buckets of cut flowers. It’s easy to get swept up in the spirit of it all because everything looks so fresh and beautiful…until you get home and realize you bought waaaaaay too many veggies—more than you’ll use in a week. The same thing sometimes happens when you get a CSA share packed with wonderful vegetables (some you might not even recognize). Well, I’m here to help you out with my top five tips for handling all that vegetable goodness so you get the nutritional benefit and keep waste to a minimum.
Eating foods grown closer-to-home holds a number of advantages for you, the earth and your community. You’ve no doubt already thought about some of those—for example, supporting local farmers and food producers, and saving fuel/diminishing truck exhaust in the environment since food doesn’t have to travel as far. There are probably some health advantages, too, which people often fail to realize.
There’s a saying you might have heard: You can’t outrun (or out-exercise) a bad diet. I get the gist of this—that the average person can’t undo dietary damage with exercise. But what counts as a “bad diet” anyway? That’s so variable—there’s a chance that some folks’ diets are really that bad and that they technically couldn make up for their food intake with exercise. But let’s face it, most of us would have to exercise quite vigorously for a looooong time to make up for the cocktails, doughnuts, fancy coffee/milkshakes and other less-than-nutritious foods we consume.