Happy New Year! Resolution Ideas from The Honest Dietitian

2017 has arrived. I am sure many of you have been bombarded by ads and commercials from companies hoping to monetize on the "New Year, New You" hope and drive that comes with the annual dropping of the ball. I know there are also many people out there who will tell you that making resolutions is useless and will just set you up for failure. I am not one of those people.

I think making an effort to make any positive changes in your life is absolutely fantastic. I think it is wonderful no matter what time of the year you do it! New Year's is just that time of year when people take a minute to think about themselves and what they would like to accomplish for the upcoming 365 days and believe me...I am a firm believer that people (including myself) do not take enough time to really sit and ponder what we can do to make ourselves better. We often put to much pressure on ourselves trying to do things to make things better for other people, but can forget that we need goals, hope, and certainly attention and love for ourselves from ourselves.

10 Surprising Foods with Health Benefits

If you are anything like me, you are alway on the lookout for foods which are going to pack a punch. The fact is, it can be all too easy to get into the old routines of eating. Part of the problem for many people is that they have forgotten how to branch out. This might sometimes be because they don’t think that those other foods can really bring any benefit. Often, however, it is the case that foods provide you with many benefits which you don’t necessarily consider. Often, common everyday foods which we overlook are actually packed full of goodness. At other times, they simply provide a little boost which you might not have been aware of. In this article, we are going to take a look at some surprising health benefits of various foods. Hopefully, this will encourage you to bring in a little more variety into your diet. Let’s take a look.

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Chocolate

We all know that chocolate is delicious, but those who are nutritionally minded will usually shun it from their everyday diet. It’s true that you don’t want to include too much chocolate in your diet, of course. However, that doesn’t mean that it is all bad news. In fact, chocolate does have a couple of positive points which are worth considering. Dark chocolate in particular has the advantage of being full of antioxidants, while this is less true of milk or white chocolate. It is also good for your circulation, so long as you keep the amount down to a minimum. And if that wasn’t enough, it has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke. What’s more, taken in the right quantities, it can actually reduce your cholesterol as well. It’s starting to look like chocolate just might be your best friend!

Popcorn

This one might seem a little shocking, but bear in mind that we are talking here about popcorn without the added salt and sugar. Cinema popcorn is unlikely to be any good for you at all. But take away the toppings and you are left with a surprisingly healthy snack. Plain popcorn includes whole grain, fiber and antioxidants, and as such is likely to work wonders on your system. Next time you are looking for a snack, popcorn is likely to be a much more healthy alternative to crisps, for example. What’s more, it also happens to be cheap when bought in bulk wholesale. This is a whole new side to popcorn which we just haven’t seen before. Of course, as with anything, there is such a thing as overdoing it. But for the occasional snack, you could do much worse than grabbing some plain popcorn.

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The Honest Dietitian's 2016 Commuter Food Favorites

Featuring My Favorite Commuter Foods

I drive a lot. I made the choice to go for my PhD and since I am a parent and had no intentions of moving my kids away from their friends and schools, this means I have a 3 hour round-trip commute to school between 1-4 days per week (depending on the semester). Couple that in with a full-time job as a clinical nutrition manager for three of those years...I have been busy. There is no doubt that a crazy schedule like this can sure make a person Hangry if they are not careful. And, since a lot of my commute is on the beautiful I-40, there have been many a times when I have been stuck in traffic for hours due to car accidents, fires, and so on. The worst was when I was leaving campus in time to make it home for my husband's delicious Fodmap friendly taco dip when I hit a standstill on I-40 with no possible way to exit to an alternative route. It was over 90 degrees outside and I had no water (I always carry a refillable bottle but it was empty), no food...and almost two hours later when we started to move, I had a raging migraine. That was the last time I have ever traveled without an emergency snack. Sometimes my schedule has been so packed that the only real "free" time I have had in a day has been the time I am in my car driving to the next scheduled event. I have found that I need to have 3 different types of foods to make my days and commutes the best they can be. I am also making this list with the very true assumption (for me) that there is not going to be appropriate access to a microwave to heat up any food. Here they are:

• Commuter Food Number One: Foods that will get me through my scheduled meal times when I do not have a lunchbox with an ice pack. This is the good 'ole "I'm running so behind that I am going to throw a bunch of food into a plastic bag" situation. Even as a mostly Type A personality, I can't plan for everything to go smoothly so this does happen more often than I like.

GoMacro Thrive Bars & Protein Bars.
I love these bars. My favorite flavors are the Caramel Coconut Thrive Bar & the Protein Pleasure Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bar. GoMacro makes really great products. I just noticed they have a sampler pack, so if you haven' tried these before- I highly recommend them. 


Barney Butters Almond Butter Snack Packs.
These butters are perfect to have on hand and with the large variety of choices, you are definitely going to find a flavor that you love. My favorite flavors are the Vanilla Espresso, Honey Flax, Cocoa Coconut, and the Bare Smooth Almond Butter. I literally have one of these snack packs in my purse at all time. Buy them here.

You will love these almond butters!

Artisans Organics Single Serving Squeeze Packs.
To be honest, I might be in love with the cashew nut butter. It is so incredibly creamy and delicious, I just love it so much. They also make squeeze packs for pecan butter, walnut butter, coconut butter, and so on. You will see me using their coconut butter & unbelievable cocoa spreads in some future recipes. Get your squeeze packs here.

Glutino Crackers.
You have to have something to put all of those delicious butters on! I like the original, cheddar, and sea salt crackers by Glutino. They are gluten-free but have a great consistency and are strong crackers to take on the road. The original crackers with the cashew nut butter and an orange, washed down with some chocolate coconut water is my pre-workout snack on my busy driving days. Give Glutino crackers a try!

Nutrition tips to keep your immune system tough through the flu & winter season

While we all have a good idea that what we eat affects how we feel. It can be easy to forget that before the pharmaceutical industry, our medicines came from natural sources.

At the time a lot of these things were consumed as food or drink, and we can still receive the benefits of imbibing them now. Read on to find out what they are.

Vitamin C

There are plenty of things that contain a good dose of Vitamins C like carrots and bell peppers. But did you know that Brussel Sprouts also have lots too?

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Well, if you are a sprout fan, then you should definitely start eating them on more than just your Christmas dinner. This is because getting enough Vitamin C can help boost your immunity to disease. It acts as a natural antibiotic killing off harmful bacteria in your system. I love grilling Brussel sprouts but in the winter, I often steam them.

Antioxidants

We hear a lot about antioxidant and free radicals these days but does anyone known what they actually are? Well, free radicals are the nasty things that our cells produce when they take in and use oxygen.

These can be harmful your systems so we don't want too many of them hanging around in our body. That is where antioxidants come in.

As we don't want too many oxidants or free radicals in our system eating foods like sweet potatoes and oysters are a good idea. They release molecules that attached to the free radicals making sure that they don't get reabsorbed by the body and cause harm. Oysters are also high in magnesium & zinc, which help boost immunity.

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So You're More Active...What's Next?

Most of us have had some fitness aims or goals over the years. And most of us know how hard it can be to achieve them. Some people find it easier to scale things back a bit and concentrate on one thing at a time. You might try increasing the number of steps you walk or try being a little more active at lunch time. Increasing your activity is certainly one of the best ways to improve your fitness and tone up a little. But what comes next?

Health and fitness go hand in hand. It’s worth considering how you can also improve your health now you’ve made those big steps toward fitness. Walking is one of those activities that can help you become more active and make you healthier. It’s not just your physical health you need to consider. Your mental and emotional health are just as important. Walking can help calm your mind, and you’ll feel emotionally well by taking in the fresh air and beautiful surroundings.

This picture is from Flickr.com

Health is Wealth Toolkit- Tracking Your Intake

One of the most useful tools for someone who is looking at making improvements to their current diet is to keep an accurate record of what they are actually eating. I can’t tell you how many times I have been tracking my diet and found that I was not getting enough Calcium, Vitamin A, and especially Potassium in my diet. I value variety in my diet and am always trying new recipes and dishes, but not everyone is like me. When working with clients who want to lose weight, 99.9% of the time they have already tried some type of calorie-restricting diet that has major deficiencies in important vitamins and minerals. There really is no reason for this! Granted, there are many, many factors that play into a person’s ability to lose weight but there are many nutrient-dense foods that one can incorporate into their diet that promote more than healthy weight loss. Nutrient-dense foods can prevent and treat many nutrition-related chronic diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and so on. (Not familiar with the term nutrient-dense foods? Nutrient-dense foods are foods that have a lot of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, but not a lot of calories. Think of fruits, vegetables, or complex carbohydrates like quinoa, oatmeal, and beans/lentils)

Five Ingredient Gluten-Free Apple Crisp

I Love Apple Season! Maybe it is the Michigander in me, but once football season starts, I sure do get a hankering to make cobblers, stews, and casseroles. Granted, it is still in the 80's right now in North Carolina but I did see a few leaves in my pool so that counts, right? I have never used a boxed cake mix before with my cobblers but I had a box of Glutino Gluten-Free Old Fashioned Yellow Cake Mix in my pantry and a bunch of gala apples and decided to give it a try. It was a big hit in the house! I will definitely be making this recipe again:

Ingredients:

Easy Banana Bites for Kids

My wonderful interns have been working on Healthy Kids Snacks this year.  I had the opportunity to see two of my interns make Banana Bites and was impressed by how simple the treat was to make, but also how perfect the snack is for teaching kids how to use utensils.  I admit that I don't let my kids use knives as much as I should, but making the Banana Bites gives them the opportunity to use a plastic knife and also gives me the opportunity to become a little more comfortable with it as well.  It is SO important to let your children become comfortable with making food by themselves and using utensils.  This is the perfect treat for them.

Ingredients:

• One half of a Banana
• One graham cracker in a Ziplock bag
• One plastic knife

Have the kids start by mashing the graham cracker in the Ziplock bag until the graham cracker is fine crumbs (they think that is really fun).  Then, have them use the plastic knife to cut the banana in to small slices.  Take the banana slices and drop them in the plastic bag & lightly shake the crumbs over the bananas.  Take them out of the bag and you have delicious Banana Bites!

A great way to make a fun snack, teaching skills, and making sure your kids are getting their fruit in!

Healing Juice with Genesis Today

I love a good juice.  I hardly ever buy juice though because very few have impressed me to the point to where I would keep it in my home.  Genesis Today sent me their Acai Berry & Pomegranate and Berries with Reservatrol juices to try and PRAISE BE!  These juices rocked my house's socks off.  Every one in my family loved these juices.  They taste the best, but also offer so many health benefits.  The Acai Berry juice is loaded with antioxidants and even has 1000% Daily Value of B12, which is great for us who don't eat a lot of meat.  Acai is called the "Beauty Berry" because of it's load of antioxidants and this juice is a perfect way to get those antioxidants.  The Pomegranate & Berries with Reservatrol juice was my very favorite.  And as I have mentioned before, Reservatrol is a very powerful anti-inflammatory and keeps your heart healthy by supporting your cardiovascular system.  This is one happy juice that loves your heart, so why not drink it?  Genesis Today has other products to encourage a healthy lifestyle.  I would HIGHLY recommend these juices when you are in the mood for a delicious glass of health.  Find out where you get get these products here.  Thank you so much to Genesis Today for letting me sample your delicious juices.  I will certainly be purchasing these for my family since they were such a big hit!  Yum!

Peter Rabbit Organics Review by Actual Children & Giveaway!

Working in a childhood & adolescent weight management center, I am always on the lookout for healthy snacks to recommend to families that actually taste good.  AND being someone who fancies a Starbucks every once in a while, I was curious about the Peter Rabbit Organic Products that I would see whenever I would go inside the coffee shop.  I was hesitant about trying these because after working as a clinical dietitian for so long, I was worried that anything "blended" would be...well...icky.  So, I decided the best way to test these treats was to give them to actual children.  I tested them on kids ages 4, 6, 6, and 10.  They tried the following flavors:

• Strawberry and Banana
• Apple and Grape
• Mango, Banana and Orange
• Sweet Potato, Corn and Apple
• Carrot, Squash and Apple
• Pea, Spinach and Apple

It turns out that all four kids thought that the flavors were awesome!  Except for one flavor (the sweet potato, corn, and apple):

The most raved about flavor was the Pea, Spinach, and Apple!  I was told to go and buy more of those pronto!  There are so many benefits to these snacks besides their kid-approved taste:

• These products are ORGANIC
• They are BPA-free & easy to transport, use, and cap for later use!  These snacks are a perfect addition to a day out, a long car ride, or school & sports team snacks.
• There are 100% fruit and vegetable, with no added sugar or preservatives
• They are high in Vitamin C, between 70-85 calories each (a perfect snack), 0 grams of fat, and between 1.5-2 grams of fiber!
• You can find them all over the place:  Starbucks, Whole Foods, www.amazon.com...Just to name a few!!

And thanks so much to Peter Rabbit Organics, YOU have a chance to try them too by entering the giveaway! The grand prize winner will receive a 12-pack of these Peter Rabbit Organic treats in the six flavors mentioned above.  GOOD LUCK!



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Going bananas sure tastes good!

I think bananas get some bad hype.  I used to hear it all of the time in the hospital from patients..."Bananas are too high in calories"..."Bananas have too much sugar"...and that made me sad.  Bananas are a wonderful fruit that you can get year round.  They are one of the best sources for potassium and vitamin B6.  They also contain vitamin C and manganese, which protect your body from nasty, harmful free-radical damage to your cells.  If you are picking bananas out at the store, and want some that are ripe and ready to eat (or bake banana bread/muffins with), you need to look for ones that are yellow with a few brown spots on them.  The vitamins & healthy enzymes are at their peak when the fruit is ripe!

One medium banana only contains around 109 calories, which is a great snack choice!  Put it between two pieces of whole grain bread and slap on some peanut butter and you have yourself an "Elvis" sandwich (but keep off that bacon)!  Bananas are cheap & easy to add to many recipes to sneak in some extra nutrition, such as smoothies, fruit salad, and oatmeal!