At a recent panel hosted by Tufts University, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian and other experts discussed the effectiveness and limitations of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. These medications, celebrated for their significant impact on weight reduction, are not a cure for the obesity epidemic. While they can lead to a 10-18% weight loss, the effects tend to plateau after about 18 months, and many patients face challenges such as high costs, side effects, and difficulties maintaining weight loss long-term.
Experts emphasize the importance of combining these drugs with a structured lifestyle support system, including “food is medicine” programs, to achieve sustainable results. Such programs integrate nutritional interventions into healthcare and could be a more cost-effective solution compared to the high expense of GLP-1 drugs alone.
Pat Gleason from Prime Therapeutics pointed out the decline in adherence to GLP-1 therapies over time and the high costs involved, which make them impractical for widespread use. The discussion highlights the need for policy changes to improve the accessibility and affordability of comprehensive lifestyle support and nutrition services.
As the new school year kicks off, the familiar hustle and bustle returns—early mornings, packed schedules, and the challenge of keeping everyone fueled with nutritious meals. Between the homework, after-school activities, and everything in between, finding time to plan and prepare wholesome meals can feel impossible.
Meet the Johnson family, who discovered the ultimate back-to-school hack: NutriFit. Last year, juggling work, school, and meal prep left them overwhelmed. But this year, they decided to make a change.
With NutriFit, the Johnsons found a solution that fits seamlessly into their busy lives. Every week, fresh, organic meals are delivered right to their door. From hearty breakfasts that kickstart the day to lunches that keep the kids energized, NutriFit has it covered. Even dinner—usually a stressful time of day—has become a breeze. The whole family enjoys delicious, healthy favorites without the time-consuming prep and cleanup.
And it’s not just meals—NutriFit also provides snacks and beverages that keep the kids going through their packed schedules, all crafted with the same commitment to quality and nutrition.
Now, the Johnsons have more time to focus on what really matters: being together, enjoying the moments that make life special, and knowing that they’re nourishing their bodies with the best.
As the school year ramps up, let NutriFit handle the meal planning. It’s not just about convenience; it’s about making sure your family has the wholesome, delicious food they need to thrive during this busy season. Let us help you take one thing off your plate—so you can focus on filling theirs.
On September 15th the time to celebrate the rich tapestry of Hispanic Heritage—a cultural legacy that spans centuries and continents, begins. From the vibrant streets of Mexico City to the lush landscapes of South America, Hispanic culture is alive with tradition, art, and, most importantly, food. Hispanic Heritage Month invites us to honor this vibrant culture by exploring its history, music, and, of course, its diverse culinary traditions.
At its core, Hispanic cuisine is about more than just flavor; it’s a celebration of community, shared experiences, and the deep connection between people and their land. Every dish tells a story, a tale of migration, resilience, and the blending of cultures that have shaped Latin America into the culinary powerhouse it is today.
As we embrace this month of celebration, it’s a wonderful opportunity to explore the flavors, aromas, and ingredients that make Hispanic cuisine so special. It’s a journey worth taking—not just for the love of food, but for the appreciation of the history and passion behind every bite.
At NutriFit, every day is a celebration of health, happiness, and the special bonds we share with our loved ones—including our furry family members! On International Dog Day, we’re thrilled to shine a spotlight on our two wonderful dogs, Bodhi and Floki, who bring endless joy and love into our lives.
Meet Bodhi and Floki
Bodhi, our gentle senior Labrador, has been a loyal companion for many years. His calm demeanor and wise eyes remind us of the beauty of aging gracefully. Despite his years, Bodhi’s love for life is evident in every wag of his tail, especially when he gets a treat from our kitchen.
Floki, our lively Husky, is a bundle of energy who keeps us constantly entertained. His playful spirit and boundless enthusiasm make every day an adventure. Whether he’s chasing a ball or exploring new scents on our walks, Floki’s zest for life is truly infectious.
NutriFit: A Healthy Lifestyle for the Whole Family
Just as we prioritize providing nutritious, delicious meals for our human clients, we’re equally dedicated to the well-being of our furry friends. At NutriFit, we believe that a balanced diet is essential for everyone, whether they have two legs or four. That’s why we make sure to bring home some special “doggie yum” for Bodhi and Floki, made with the same care and quality as all our meals.
The Joy of Sharing Healthy Food
Sharing healthy food with those we love, including our pets, brings a unique joy. Bodhi and Floki’s excitement for their nutritious snacks is a daily reminder of how much our pets appreciate the care we put into their well-being. It’s heartwarming to see them enjoy the wholesome goodness we create at NutriFit.
As we celebrate International Dog Day, we’re reminded of the importance of taking care of our pets just as we take care of ourselves. At NutriFit, we’re committed to promoting a healthy lifestyle for the entire family, and that includes our four-legged companions.
Celebrating the Love We Share
On this International Dog Day, we celebrate the love, loyalty, and companionship that our dogs bring into our lives. Whether you’re snuggling with a senior dog like Bodhi or playing fetch with an energetic pup like Floki, cherish every moment with your furry friend.
From all of us at NutriFit, happy International Dog Day! May your day be filled with wagging tails, joyful barks, and plenty of healthy treats.
At NutriFit®, our mission has been clear since 1987: to help others live a longer and healthier life. This commitment is not just a statement but a driving force behind everything we do. We are dedicated to providing more than just food; we offer a comprehensive approach to health and wellness that empowers our clients to thrive.
More Than Just Meals
Our meals are the cornerstone of our service, but they represent just one aspect of our mission. We take pride in offering food that is largely organic and always free from preservatives, additives, and GMOs. Each dish is crafted with care to support your body with the nutrients it needs, tailored to fit your lifestyle and health goals.
What sets NutriFit® apart is our ability to customize meals for a wide range of health concerns. Whether you’re managing kidney disease, diabetes, heart-related issues, or gut health conditions, our team can create a meal plan that addresses your specific needs. This level of customization distinguishes us and ensures that our clients receive the best possible support on their health journey.
A Holistic Approach to Health
At NutriFit®, we understand that good health is about more than just what you eat. That’s why we offer optional Health & Wellbeing Coaching, which includes biometric testing. This service allows us to take a deeper dive into your health metrics, offering insights that can guide your personalized nutrition plan. It’s a value-added service that reflects our commitment to supporting your overall well-being.
Our coaching service is designed to help you achieve your health goals with expert guidance and personalized support. Whether you’re looking to improve specific health markers, manage a chronic condition, or simply enhance your overall wellness, we’re here to help you every step of the way.
Exceptional Service, Personal Touch
Our mission is reflected in the exceptional level of service we provide. We know that life can be hectic, and maintaining a healthy diet can be challenging. That’s why we’re committed to making healthy eating as easy and accessible as possible. From the moment you connect with us, you’ll experience the personal touch that defines NutriFit®—we listen, adapt, and deliver a service that feels tailored just for you.
A Lifelong Commitment
For over three decades, NutriFit® has remained steadfast in our mission to help others live longer and healthier lives. This commitment continues to guide us as we look to the future. Every meal we prepare, every coaching session we offer, is a step toward helping you live your best, healthiest life.
At NutriFit®, we don’t just provide meals—we offer a pathway to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Because helping others live longer and healthier lives is not just our mission; it’s our passion.
Citrus fruits are more than just vibrant, refreshing additions to your diet—they are nutritional powerhouses that have been celebrated for centuries. On our farm, we cultivate a variety of citrus fruits, including oranges, grapefruit, lemon, lime, Persian lime, and Meyer lemon, These fruits play a starring role in the meals we provide to our clients, bringing both flavor and health benefits to the table.
The Nutritional Goldmine of Citrus Fruits
Citrus fruits are renowned for their high vitamin C content, a critical nutrient that supports immune function, skin health, and the absorption of iron from plant-based foods. Oranges, for instance, are one of the most well-known sources of vitamin C, offering about 70 mg per medium-sized fruit, which is more than 90% of the daily recommended intake for most adults . But the benefits of citrus fruits go beyond vitamin C.
Fiber-Rich Fruits: Citrus fruits are also rich in dietary fiber, particularly soluble fiber, which aids in digestion and helps lower cholesterol levels. Grapefruit, for example, provides about 2 grams of fiber per half fruit, contributing to heart health by managing cholesterol levels and promoting a healthy weight .
Flavonoids and Antioxidants: The vibrant colors of citrus fruits are due to flavonoids, powerful antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and protect against chronic diseases. These compounds, found in high concentrations in citrus peels and pulp, have been studied for their role in supporting cardiovascular health and reducing the risk of stroke .
Beyond the Usual Suspects: Persian Lime, Meyer Lemon, and More
While oranges and lemons may be household staples, fruits like Persian lime and Meyer lemon offer unique flavors and health benefits. Persian lime, often used in culinary dishes for its zesty flavor, is rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, supporting skin health and immune function . Meyer lemon, a cross between a traditional lemon and a mandarin orange, is sweeter and less acidic, making it ideal for enhancing both sweet and savory dishes while still packing a nutritional punch .
Farm-Fresh Citrus for a Healthier You
At our farm, we believe in the power of fresh, organic produce to enhance well-being. The citrus fruits we grow are integral to the meals we create, not only for their vibrant flavors but also for their myriad health benefits. Whether you’re savoring a tangy grapefruit for breakfast or enjoying a meal enhanced with the zest of Persian lime, you’re fueling your body with nutrients that support overall health.
Embrace the zest for life with our farm-fresh citrus fruits—they’re more than just food; they’re a step toward a healthier, more vibrant you.
Welcome to our farm, affectionately nicknamed The Mesa, where nature’s beauty meets culinary delight! We take pride in growing a variety of edible flowers that not only add a splash of color to your plate but also offer unique flavors and health benefits. Let’s take a stroll through our garden and get to know some of our favorite blooms: orchids, nasturtiums, chamomile, roses, and feijoa.
Orchids: Exotic Elegance
Orchids are renowned for their stunning beauty and delicate structure. But did you know they are also edible? These exotic flowers have a light, crisp taste, making them perfect for adding a touch of elegance to salads and desserts. Orchids are rich in fiber and vitamins, contributing to digestive health and providing a subtle boost to your immune system.
Nasturtiums: Vibrant and Peppery
Nasturtiums are a burst of sunshine in our garden with their bright, cheerful blooms. These flowers have a unique, peppery flavor that can spice up any dish. Nasturtiums are not just pretty; they’re also packed with vitamin C and have natural antibiotic properties. Try adding nasturtium petals to your salads or using them as a garnish for soups to enjoy their health benefits and vibrant taste.
Chamomile: Soothing and Sweet
Chamomile is often associated with calming teas, but the flowers themselves are also a delightful addition to your culinary repertoire. These small, daisy-like blooms have a sweet, apple-like flavor. Chamomile is known for its soothing properties, helping to reduce anxiety and promote better sleep. Sprinkle chamomile flowers over desserts or infuse them into syrups for a gentle, relaxing touch.
Roses: Fragrant and Flavorful
Roses are the epitome of romance and beauty, and their petals are just as delightful in the kitchen. With a flavor ranging from sweet to slightly spicy, rose petals can enhance both sweet and savory dishes. Rich in vitamins A and C, roses also offer anti-inflammatory benefits. Use rose petals to make fragrant syrups, jellies, or simply scatter them over salads for a touch of elegance.
Feijoa: Sweet and Surprising
One of the lesser-known gems in our garden is the feijoa, also known as pineapple guava. The petals of feijoa flowers are edible and have a delightful sweetness. These petals can be a surprising addition to fruit salads or desserts, adding a hint of tropical flavor. Feijoa flowers are also a source of antioxidants, which can help protect your cells from damage.
Bringing It All Together
Incorporating edible flowers into your meals is a wonderful way to celebrate the beauty of nature and enjoy the unique flavors and health benefits they offer. Our farm is dedicated to growing these delightful blooms with care and love, ensuring they bring joy to your table and nourishment to your body. Happy to share them all with you so that you can easily enjoy the floral feast!
When we watch Olympic athletes in action, their incredible feats often seem superhuman. Yet, a significant part of their success lies in their nutrition, which fuels their bodies to perform at the highest levels. One such example is Carmelita Jeter, who credits her peak performance to NutriFit, a renowned nutrition service that tailors diets to match the rigorous demands of elite athletes.
The Nutritional Foundation of Olympic Success
At the heart of every Olympian’s training regimen is a meticulously crafted diet that optimizes performance and recovery. NutriFit specializes in creating personalized meal plans that are not only nutritious but also strategically designed to support athletic goals. Whether it’s sprinting, swimming, or gymnastics, each sport places unique demands on the body, and NutriFit ensures that athletes receive the precise nutrients needed to excel.
Carmelita Jeter: A Testimonial of Excellence
Carmelita Jeter, known as the “Fastest Woman Alive,” is a testament to the transformative power of proper nutrition. Under the guidance of NutriFit, Jeter honed her diet to enhance speed, endurance, and overall performance. By fueling her body with the right balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and micronutrients, Jeter not only achieved Olympic glory but also sustained her peak performance throughout her career.
Ryan Miller: Excellence in the Goal
Another remarkable example of NutriFit’s impact is Ryan Miller, the only player ever named the best goalie in the NCAA, AHL, NHL, and at the Olympic Winter Games. Miller’s commitment to optimal nutrition, guided by NutriFit, played a crucial role in his storied career. By focusing on foods that enhance agility, endurance, and mental clarity, NutriFit helped Miller maintain the high standards of performance required at every level of his game. His success across multiple leagues and on the world stage is a testament to the power of personalized nutrition in achieving athletic greatness.
Key Benefits of NutriFit’s Approach
Personalization: Every athlete is unique, and NutriFit understands that one-size-fits-all diets simply don’t work. Each meal plan is tailored to individual metabolic needs, training schedules, and dietary preferences.
Optimal Performance: NutriFit’s emphasis on nutrient timing and composition ensures that athletes have the energy to train harder, recover faster, and perform consistently at their best.
Long-Term Health: Beyond immediate performance gains, NutriFit promotes overall health and well-being. By prioritizing whole foods and balanced nutrition, they help athletes maintain peak physical condition for years to come.
How You Can Eat Like an Olympian Too
While NutriFit’s services are designed with elite athletes in mind, their principles can benefit anyone looking to enhance their health and fitness levels. By focusing on nutrient-dense foods, balanced meals, and strategic eating, you can optimize your own performance, whether in sports, daily activities, or personal fitness goals.
Nutrition is the cornerstone of athletic excellence, and NutriFit exemplifies how a tailored approach can elevate performance to Olympic levels. Through personalized meal planning and a commitment to health, NutriFit empowers athletes like Carmelita Jeter and Ryan Miller to achieve their dreams and inspire others to reach their own peak potential.
By adopting NutriFit’s principles, you too can eat like an Olympian—fueling your body not just for competition, but for a lifetime of vitality and achievement. Start your journey today towards better nutrition and greater performance, and discover the transformative impact of eating like an Olympian with NutriFit.
Mushrooms, often celebrated for their unique taste and culinary versatility, offer far more than just flavor. They are increasingly recognized for their numerous health benefits and positive environmental impact. From boosting immunity to promoting sustainability, mushrooms are proving to be a powerhouse in both nutrition and ecological conservation.
Health Benefits of Mushrooms
Nutrient-Rich Superfood: Mushrooms are low in calories but high in essential nutrients such as vitamins B and D, selenium, potassium, and various antioxidants. These nutrients play crucial roles in supporting overall health and well-being.
Immune System Support: Certain mushrooms, such as shiitake and reishi, contain bioactive compounds that can enhance immune function. They stimulate the production of white blood cells and improve the body’s defense mechanisms against infections.
Antioxidant Properties: Mushrooms contain antioxidants like ergothioneine and glutathione, which help protect cells from oxidative stress and reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.
Digestive Health: The fiber content in mushrooms supports digestive health by promoting regular bowel movements and fostering a healthy gut microbiome.
Cardiovascular Health: Compounds found in mushrooms, such as beta-glucans and potassium, can help lower cholesterol levels and regulate blood pressure, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Potential Anti-Cancer Effects: Research suggests that certain mushroom varieties, including maitake and turkey tail mushrooms, may have anti-cancer properties by modulating the immune response and inhibiting tumor growth.
Environmental Benefits of Mushrooms
Sustainable Farming: Mushrooms are cultivated using less water and land compared to traditional livestock and crop farming. They can be grown indoors or on marginal lands, reducing pressure on valuable agricultural areas.
Waste Reduction: Mushroom cultivation often utilizes agricultural by-products or waste materials such as sawdust, straw, or composted manure, turning these into nutritious food. This process helps reduce agricultural waste and promotes circular economy practices.
Carbon Footprint: Mushrooms have a low carbon footprint due to their efficient use of resources during cultivation. They require minimal energy inputs and produce negligible amounts of greenhouse gases compared to other protein sources.
Soil Health: Mushrooms can improve soil health through their mycelium, which acts as a natural fertilizer and enhances soil structure. This benefits overall ecosystem health and supports sustainable agriculture practices.
Sources:
Health Benefits:
Nutrient Composition and Health Benefits of Mushrooms: Mushroom Council
Medicinal Mushrooms: Ancient Remedies for Modern Ailments: Paul Stamets
Health Effects of Mushrooms: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
In the quest for longevity and a better quality of life, our diet plays a crucial role. While many diets focus on weight loss or cardiovascular health, the MIND diet specifically targets preserving cognitive function and reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. But what exactly is the MIND diet, and how can you incorporate it into your daily life? Let’s explore.
What is the MIND Diet?
The MIND diet stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. It’s a hybrid of two well-established diets: the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes whole foods and healthy fats, and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, known for its heart health benefits. The MIND diet was specifically developed to target brain health, aiming to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia .
Key Components of the MIND Diet
The MIND diet outlines specific foods to include and avoid, encouraging a pattern of eating that promotes brain health.
Foods to Include
Leafy Green Vegetables: Aim for at least six servings per week. Spinach, kale, and other greens are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support brain function .
Other Vegetables: Try to consume at least one serving per day. The more colorful and varied your vegetable intake, the better .
Nuts: Include nuts in your diet regularly, aiming for at least five servings per week. They provide healthy fats, antioxidants, and vitamin E, which are essential for brain health .
Berries: Blueberries and strawberries are particularly beneficial, with at least two servings per week recommended. They contain high levels of antioxidants that combat oxidative stress and inflammation .
Beans: Incorporate beans into your meals at least three times a week. They are a great source of protein and fiber .
Whole Grains: Aim for three or more servings daily. Whole grains provide essential nutrients and fiber, which help maintain steady blood sugar levels .
Fish: Consume fish at least once a week. Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, crucial for brain health .
Poultry: Include poultry in your diet at least twice a week. It’s a good source of lean protein and B vitamins .
Olive Oil: Use olive oil as your primary cooking oil. It’s rich in monounsaturated fats and antioxidants .
Wine: Moderate wine consumption, particularly red wine, is encouraged. This means one glass per day for women and up to two for men, offering potential benefits from resveratrol, an antioxidant found in wine .
Foods to Limit
Red Meats: Limit to fewer than four servings per week. High consumption of red meat has been linked to various health issues, including an increased risk of Alzheimer’s .
Butter and Margarine: Use less than one tablespoon daily. Opt for healthier fats like olive oil instead .
Cheese: Restrict cheese consumption to fewer than once a week. High in saturated fats, cheese can negatively impact brain health if consumed in excess .
Pastries and Sweets: These should be limited to fewer than five servings per week. High sugar and unhealthy fat content in these foods can contribute to cognitive decline .
Fried or Fast Food: Minimize intake to less than one serving per week. These foods are typically high in unhealthy fats and sodium .
Benefits of the MIND Diet
1. Cognitive Health
Studies have shown that individuals who adhere to the MIND diet have a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Even moderate adherence to the diet has been linked to slower cognitive decline .
2. Heart Health
Many components of the MIND diet overlap with the heart-healthy aspects of the Mediterranean and DASH diets. Consuming more fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats can improve overall cardiovascular health, which in turn supports brain health .
3. Overall Well-being
The MIND diet encourages a balanced intake of nutrient-rich foods while limiting those that can contribute to health issues. This holistic approach can improve overall well-being, energy levels, and longevity .
Practical Tips for Following the MIND Diet
Plan Your Meals: Prepare a weekly meal plan that incorporates MIND-friendly foods. Batch cooking and prepping vegetables can save time and ensure you stick to the diet.
Experiment with Recipes: Try new recipes that incorporate leafy greens, berries, and other recommended foods. This can keep your meals exciting and varied.
Snack Smart: Keep nuts and fresh berries on hand for healthy snacks. Avoid processed snacks that are high in sugar and unhealthy fats.
Dining Out: When eating out, choose dishes that align with the MIND diet principles. Opt for salads, grilled fish, and vegetable-rich dishes.
Stay Hydrated: While the MIND diet emphasizes food, don’t forget the importance of staying hydrated. Water and herbal teas are excellent choices.
The MIND diet offers a sustainable, flexible approach to eating that supports brain health and overall well-being. By focusing on nutrient-dense foods and limiting those that can harm cognitive function, you can take proactive steps toward a healthier future. Whether you’re looking to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s or simply promote better brain health, the MIND diet is a smart choice. Start incorporating these principles today and nourish your mind for tomorrow.
Sources
Morris, M.C., et al. (2015). “MIND diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.” Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Harvard Health Publishing. “Can the MIND diet delay cognitive decline?” Available at: Harvard Health
Mayo Clinic. “MIND diet: 10 foods that fight Alzheimer’s (and 5 to avoid).” Available at: Mayo Clinic
Rush University Medical Center. “What you eat can influence your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.” Available at: Rush University
Eating a vegetarian diet has numerous benefits, including a lower risk of chronic diseases, a smaller environmental footprint, and often improved digestion. However, one concern often raised is whether vegetarians get enough complete protein. While animal proteins are complete—containing all nine essential amino acids in the right proportions—most plant proteins are not. The good news is that with a little knowledge and planning, it’s easy to combine vegetarian foods to make complete proteins.
Understanding Proteins and Amino Acids
Proteins are made up of amino acids, nine of which are essential because our bodies cannot produce them. These essential amino acids must be obtained from our diet. Animal products, such as meat, dairy, and eggs, provide complete proteins. Most plant-based proteins, however, are incomplete, meaning they lack one or more of the essential amino acids.
Combining Foods for Complete Proteins
The key to getting complete proteins from vegetarian sources is combining different plant foods that together provide all essential amino acids. Here are some classic and tasty combinations:
1. Legumes and Grains
Beans and Rice: This classic combo is a staple in many cultures. Beans (e.g., black beans, kidney beans) are rich in lysine but low in methionine, while rice is low in lysine but high in methionine. Together, they form a complete protein.
Lentils and Barley: Lentils provide lysine and isoleucine, which barley lacks, making them a perfect match.
2. Nuts and Seeds with Legumes
Hummus and Pita: Chickpeas in hummus are complemented by the amino acid profile of whole wheat pita bread.
Peanut Butter on Whole Grain Bread: Peanuts are rich in lysine, and whole grains provide methionine.
3. Grains and Dairy
Quinoa Salad with Feta Cheese: Quinoa is a rare complete plant protein but pairing it with feta adds flavor and texture.
Yogurt with Nuts and Seeds: Yogurt provides lysine, while nuts and seeds can fill in any gaps.
4. Soy Products
Tofu and Brown Rice: Tofu is another complete plant protein, and pairing it with rice makes for a nutritious meal.
Edamame and Quinoa: Both of these foods are complete proteins on their own, but together they offer a hearty, nutrient-dense option.
Practical Tips for a Balanced Vegetarian Diet
Diversity is Key: Eating a variety of foods ensures that you get all the essential amino acids over the course of a day.
Focus on Whole Foods: Whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables are nutrient-dense and support overall health.
Plan Your Meals: While it’s not necessary to combine complementary proteins in every meal, doing so throughout the day is beneficial.
Experiment with Recipes: Incorporate a mix of textures and flavors to keep your diet exciting and satisfying.
Sample Meal Plan
Here’s a one-day meal plan to give you an idea of how to incorporate these principles:
Breakfast: Greek yogurt with mixed berries and a sprinkle of chia seeds.
Lunch: Quinoa salad with black beans, corn, bell peppers, and avocado.
Snack: Apple slices with almond butter.
Dinner: Stir-fried tofu with broccoli, carrots, and brown rice.
Dessert: A small bowl of mixed nuts and dark chocolate.
Getting complete proteins from a vegetarian diet is not only possible but can be delicious and varied. By combining different plant foods, you can ensure that your body gets all the essential amino acids it needs for optimal health. So go ahead and mix and match those grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and dairy products to create balanced and satisfying meals!
Memorial Day is just around the corner, signaling the unofficial start of summer and, of course, BBQ season. While we all love the classics—burgers, hot dogs, and ribs—why not add a twist to your grilling menu this year? Grilled fruits are a delightful, healthy addition to any BBQ, bringing a burst of flavor and a hint of natural sweetness. Whether you’re a seasoned grill master or a backyard BBQ novice, here’s a guide to the best fruits for grilling this Memorial Day.
1. Pineapple: The Tropical Star
Pineapple is a grilling favorite for a reason. Its firm texture and natural sugars caramelize beautifully over the flames, creating a perfect blend of sweet and smoky.
How to Grill:
Slice the pineapple into rings or spears.
Brush lightly with olive oil to prevent sticking.
Grill over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes per side, until you see those lovely grill marks.
Serving Suggestion: Grilled pineapple pairs wonderfully with savory dishes like grilled chicken or pork. For a tropical treat, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of honey.
2. Peaches: A Southern Delight
Peaches are another top choice for the grill. Their juicy, tender flesh takes on a rich, smoky flavor when grilled, making them a standout addition to any BBQ spread.
How to Grill:
Halve the peaches and remove the pits.
Brush the cut sides with a bit of melted butter or oil.
Place cut side down on the grill and cook for 4-5 minutes until tender and slightly charred.
Serving Suggestion: Grilled peaches are fantastic on their own or as a dessert topped with whipped cream or Greek yogurt. They also make a great addition to salads with arugula, goat cheese, and a balsamic glaze.
3. Watermelon: The Unexpected Hit
Grilling watermelon might sound unusual, but the heat intensifies its sweetness and gives it a slightly smoky flavor that’s surprisingly delicious.
How to Grill:
Cut watermelon into thick wedges.
Brush lightly with olive oil.
Grill for 2-3 minutes per side, just enough to get grill marks and a bit of caramelization.
Serving Suggestion: Grilled watermelon can be served as a side dish or salad. Try it with a sprinkle of feta cheese, fresh mint, and a squeeze of lime juice for a refreshing and unique taste.
4. Apples: A Year-Round Favorite
Apples are sturdy enough to withstand the grill’s heat, and their natural sweetness makes them a versatile choice for both savory and sweet dishes.
How to Grill:
Core and slice apples into rings or wedges.
Toss with a bit of cinnamon and sugar for extra flavor.
Grill over medium heat for 3-4 minutes per side until tender.
Serving Suggestion: Grilled apples are perfect for dessert, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or alongside grilled pork for a classic flavor combination.
5. Bananas: A Sweet Finish
Bananas are another excellent fruit to grill, offering a creamy texture and rich, sweet flavor that caramelizes beautifully.
How to Grill:
Leave the peel on and slice the banana in half lengthwise.
Place the cut side down on the grill for 2-3 minutes until the flesh is caramelized and tender.
Serving Suggestion: Grilled bananas are a treat with a drizzle of chocolate sauce or a scoop of ice cream. They’re also delicious in a s’mores-style dessert with graham crackers and marshmallows.
Tips for Grilling Fruits:
Prep and Oil: Lightly oil the grill grates or the fruit itself to prevent sticking.
Moderate Heat: Use medium heat to avoid burning the fruit’s natural sugars too quickly.
Experiment: Don’t be afraid to try different fruits and flavor combinations. Citrus fruits like oranges and lemons can also be grilled for unique additions to drinks and dishes.
This Memorial Day, impress your guests with these delicious and healthy grilled fruit options. They’re simple to prepare, add a vibrant splash of color to your BBQ spread, and most importantly, taste incredible. Happy grilling!
In the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle and improved fitness, understanding metabolism and its relationship with exercise is paramount. Metabolism plays a vital role in how efficiently our bodies burn calories and ultimately affects weight management. Fortunately, exercise is a powerful tool that can significantly influence our metabolic rate, leading to enhanced calorie burning and better overall health. In this article, we’ll delve into the mechanisms behind increasing metabolic weight through exercise and explore various strategies to optimize your workouts for maximum metabolic benefits. NutriFit offers metabolic testing in our west Los Angeles facility with a 20 minute nutrition consultation with our founder, Jackie Keller, so you can best understand how to use your results to optimize your diet and exercise routine.
Understanding Metabolism:
Metabolism refers to the complex process by which your body converts food and drink into energy. It involves several biochemical reactions that occur within cells to sustain life and maintain bodily functions. At its core, metabolism can be divided into two main components:
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): BMR represents the number of calories your body needs to maintain basic physiological functions while at rest. This includes processes such as breathing, circulating blood, and repairing cells. BMR accounts for the majority of the calories you burn each day, typically around 60-75%.
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) and Physical Activity: TEF accounts for the calories expended during digestion and nutrient absorption, while physical activity encompasses any movement beyond resting metabolic rate, including exercise and daily activities.
Exercise and Metabolic Weight:
Regular exercise is one of the most effective ways to boost metabolism and promote weight loss or weight maintenance. Here’s how different types of exercise influence metabolic rate:
Aerobic Exercise:
Aerobic activities such as running, cycling, swimming, and brisk walking elevate heart rate and breathing, leading to increased calorie expenditure during the activity.
Additionally, aerobic exercise can have a prolonged effect on metabolism by stimulating the afterburn effect or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). This means your body continues to burn calories at an elevated rate even after you’ve finished exercising, helping to increase overall energy expenditure.
Strength Training:
Resistance or strength training involves exercises that challenge your muscles against external resistance, such as weightlifting or bodyweight exercises like squats and push-ups.
Strength training builds lean muscle mass, which is metabolically active tissue. Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest compared to fat tissue, thereby increasing BMR.
Furthermore, intense strength training sessions can induce EPOC, contributing to a higher overall calorie burn throughout the day.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT):
HIIT involves alternating between short bursts of intense exercise and brief recovery periods. This style of training is highly effective for boosting metabolism due to its ability to elevate heart rate and maximize calorie burn in a shorter amount of time.
Similar to aerobic and strength training, HIIT can lead to significant EPOC, resulting in sustained calorie expenditure post-workout.
Optimizing Your Workouts for Metabolic Benefits:
To maximize the metabolic effects of your exercise routine, consider implementing the following strategies:
Incorporate a variety of exercises: Combine aerobic, strength training, and HIIT workouts to target different aspects of metabolism and ensure overall fitness.
Prioritize intensity: Aim for challenging workouts that push your limits and elevate your heart rate.
Focus on compound movements: Compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously, such as squats, deadlifts, and lunges, are highly effective for building muscle and boosting metabolism.
Stay consistent: Consistency is key to seeing long-term metabolic benefits. Aim for a regular exercise routine that includes both cardio and strength training sessions.
Don’t forget recovery: Allow adequate time for rest and recovery between workouts to prevent overtraining and support muscle growth and repair.
Increasing metabolic weight through exercise is not only achievable but also essential for overall health and well-being. By incorporating a combination of aerobic, strength training, and HIIT workouts into your routine, you can optimize metabolism, burn more calories, and reach your fitness goals more effectively. Remember to listen to your body, stay consistent, and celebrate your progress along the way. With dedication and smart training strategies, you can elevate your metabolic rate and embark on a journey to a healthier, more vibrant life.
As the frost of winter yields to the gentle warmth of spring, nature bestows upon us a bounty of fresh produce, each vibrant gem carrying not just flavor but also a wealth of health benefits. Among these seasonal treasures, asparagus emerges as a verdant emblem of vitality, bursting with nutrients and flavor alike. Today, we invite you to celebrate the arrival of spring and embrace the nourishing qualities of asparagus with our enticing Asparagus Tarte recipe.
In this culinary ode to spring, we’ll explore not only the exquisite taste and texture of asparagus but also its remarkable health advantages. Asparagus, heralded for its status as a nutritional powerhouse, is rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that contribute to overall well-being. From its ability to support digestive health to its potential anti-inflammatory properties, each spear of asparagus offers a symphony of benefits that resonate with the body and soul.
——————
Servings: 3
Gluten Free, Vegetarian
Ingredients:
1 1/5 cup, asparagus
2 cup, egg whites (beaten)
1/4 cup, fat free milk
1 tsp, NutriFit Lemon Garden Salt Free Spice Blend
1 cup, reduced fat brie cheese
1/2 cup, reduced fat swiss cheese
1 ea., tomato
1 tbsp, trans-fat free, lite margarine
Directions:
1. Peel asparagus, blanch for 2 minutes & cut into 1″ pieces 2. Saute asparagus with Lemon Garden blend for one minute. Add tomato, cook for 1 minute more. Mix egg whites, cheese and milk in a measuring cup.
3. Pour egg mixture over vegetables in skillet, reduce heat to low.
3. Cover and cook 12-15 minutes or until bottom is firm and top is almost set. Remove from oven & place under broiler to cook top until done.
*Note – For each teaspoon of the Lemon Garden Blend, you may substitute: 1/4 tsp. basil, 1/4 tsp. marjoram, 1/4 tsp. black pepper and 1/4 tsp. dill weed.
A low-fat diet has been advocated by health professionals for decades, and it offers several potential advantages for those looking to improve their health and well-being. Some benefits include:
Weight Management: One of the primary advantages of a low-fat diet is its potential to aid in weight management. Since dietary fat is more calorie-dense than protein or carbohydrates, reducing fat intake can help lower overall calorie consumption, which may contribute to weight loss or weight maintenance.
Heart Health: Lowering saturated and trans fats, which are commonly found in high-fat foods like red meat and processed snacks, can help reduce levels of LDL cholesterol (often referred to as “bad” cholesterol). This, in turn, can decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Improved Lipid Profile: Along with lowering LDL cholesterol, a low-fat diet can also lead to an increase in HDL cholesterol (often referred to as “good” cholesterol). This balance between LDL and HDL cholesterol levels can further improve heart health.
Reduced Risk of Chronic Diseases: Research suggests that a low-fat diet may help reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer (such as breast and colon cancer), and gallbladder disease.
Digestive Health: Some high-fat foods can be difficult to digest and may contribute to gastrointestinal issues such as indigestion, bloating, and diarrhea. Choosing lower-fat options can alleviate these symptoms and promote better digestive health.
Nutrient-Dense Choices: Following a low-fat diet often encourages individuals to consume more nutrient-dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. These foods are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, which are essential for overall health and well-being.
Increased Energy Levels: Since fat is a concentrated source of energy, reducing fat intake can help stabilize blood sugar levels and prevent energy crashes commonly associated with high-fat meals. This can lead to more sustained energy levels throughout the day.
Easier Meal Planning: Low-fat diets can be simpler to plan and follow compared to other restrictive diets. By focusing on whole, minimally processed foods and avoiding high-fat options, individuals can create balanced and satisfying meals without the need for complicated meal plans or calorie counting.
It’s important to note that while a low-fat diet offers numerous advantages, it’s not necessarily suitable for everyone. Some individuals may benefit more from other dietary approaches based on their individual health needs, preferences, and lifestyle factors. As always, consulting with a healthcare provider or registered dietitian is recommended before making significant changes to your diet.
In the constant pursuit of a healthier lifestyle, many individuals turn to weight loss drugs as a solution. However, these pharmaceutical options often come with risks and side effects that can be concerning for some. Enter NutriFit Healthy Meal Delivery Service, a revolutionary alternative that offers a safe, natural, and sustainable approach to weight loss. Unlike weight loss drugs that may suppress appetite or alter metabolic processes, NutriFit focuses on providing nutritious, portion-controlled meals tailored to individual dietary needs and weight loss goals. By harnessing the power of whole foods and balanced nutrition, NutriFit promotes healthy weight loss without the use of synthetic chemicals or invasive procedures.
Here’s how NutriFit stands out as a compelling alternative to weight loss drugs:
Nutritionally Balanced Meals: NutriFit meals are expertly crafted by nutrition experts to provide a balanced combination of proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Each meal is designed to optimize satiety and energy levels while supporting weight loss goals. By consuming nutrient-dense foods in controlled portions, individuals can effectively manage their calorie intake without feeling deprived.
Portion Control: One of the key challenges in weight management is controlling portion sizes. NutriFit takes the guesswork out of portion control by delivering pre-portioned meals directly to customers’ doors. This eliminates the need for calorie counting or measuring, making it easier for individuals to stick to their weight loss plan. Additionally, the time savings can be used for exercise, relaxation or social engagement, all important elements for successful weight maintenance.
Convenience: Unlike weight loss drugs that may require regular doctor visits or prescription refills, NutriFit offers unparalleled convenience. Customers simply select their meal plan, customize their preferences, and enjoy hassle-free delivery of fresh, Michelin star chef-prepared meals to their doorstep. This convenience factor encourages consistency and adherence to a healthy eating regimen, which is essential for long-term weight management.
Health Benefits: In addition to promoting healthy weight loss or gain, NutriFit meals offer a myriad of health benefits. By emphasizing whole, unprocessed ingredients, these meals provide essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support overall health and well-being. Improved energy levels, enhanced mood, and better digestion are just a few of the positive outcomes that customers can expect from incorporating NutriFit into their lifestyle.
Personalized Support: While weight loss drugs may come with limited guidance or supervision, NutriFit provides personalized support every step of the way. From initial meal selection to ongoing nutritional counseling, clients have access to experts dedicated to their success. This personalized approach ensures that individuals receive the support and accountability they need to achieve their nutritional goals safely and sustainably.
Our service offers a compelling alternative to weight loss drugs by providing nutritious, portion-controlled meals, unparalleled convenience, and personalized support. By embracing a natural approach to weight loss, individuals can achieve their desired results without compromising their health or well-being. With NutriFit, the journey to a healthier, happier you begins one delicious meal at a time.
In a world where pills and prescriptions often dominate the healthcare landscape, there’s a powerful yet often overlooked ally in our quest for wellness: food. From ancient civilizations to modern science, the concept of food as medicine has endured, offering a holistic approach to nurturing our bodies and minds. At NutriFit, we embraced this concept at our inception, in 1987, have our own organic farm, and continue to believe that Hippocrates was right when he said, “Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food”.
Food has always been more than mere sustenance; it’s a source of nourishment, healing, and vitality. Traditional healing systems such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and Indigenous knowledge have long recognized the profound connection between what we eat and our overall well-being. These systems view food not just as fuel but as potent medicine capable of preventing and treating a myriad of ailments. In recent years, scientific research has begun to catch up, shedding light on the incredible therapeutic potential of certain foods and dietary patterns. Here are some key ways in which food can function as medicine in our lives:
Nutrient Density: Whole, unprocessed foods are rich in essential nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients, all of which play crucial roles in supporting our immune system, optimizing organ function, and promoting cellular repair.
Inflammation Reduction: Chronic inflammation is increasingly recognized as a root cause of many modern diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions. Certain foods, such as fatty fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids, leafy greens, berries, and turmeric, possess anti-inflammatory properties that can help mitigate this risk.
Gut Health: The gut microbiome, composed of trillions of bacteria residing in our digestive tract, plays a central role in our overall health. Probiotic-rich foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi support a diverse and balanced gut microbiota, which in turn can bolster immune function, improve mood, and even influence weight management.
Blood Sugar Regulation: Unstable blood sugar levels can contribute to a host of health issues, including diabetes and obesity. Consuming a diet high in fiber, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates from sources like whole grains, legumes, and vegetables can help stabilize blood sugar levels and reduce the risk of insulin resistance.
Brain Health: The saying “food for thought” takes on new meaning when we consider the impact of nutrition on cognitive function and mental well-being. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, walnuts, and flaxseeds are crucial for brain health, while antioxidants in fruits and vegetables help protect against cognitive decline and mood disorders.
Heart Health: A heart-healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins can lower cholesterol levels, reduce blood pressure, and decrease the risk of heart disease. Foods like nuts, olive oil, and dark chocolate have been shown to have protective effects on cardiovascular health.
Cancer Prevention: While no single food can prevent cancer, adopting a diet abundant in plant-based foods and low in processed meats and sugars can significantly lower the risk of certain cancers. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, and cauliflower contain compounds that have been linked to cancer prevention.
Weight Management: Maintaining a healthy weight is essential for overall health and longevity. By focusing on nutrient-dense, whole foods and practicing mindful eating, individuals can better regulate their appetite, improve metabolism, and achieve sustainable weight loss or maintenance.
Embracing the concept of food as medicine requires a shift in mindset—a move away from viewing food solely as a source of calories and toward recognizing its potential to nourish, heal, and energize us from the inside out. This approach not only empowers individuals to take charge of their health but also underscores the interconnectedness of food, lifestyle, and well-being.
However, it’s important to acknowledge that food is just one piece of the puzzle. A truly holistic approach to health encompasses various factors, including physical activity, stress management, sleep quality, and social connection. By integrating these elements into our lives alongside a nutrient-rich diet, we can cultivate a foundation of wellness that supports us in living our fullest, healthiest lives. These concepts are at our core at NutriFit, and part of our health and well-being coaching, in addition to our meal plans.
Let us embrace the wisdom of ancient traditions and the insights of modern science as we harness the transformative power of food as medicine. With each mindful bite, we have the opportunity to nourish not only our bodies but also our souls, cultivating a vibrant state of health and vitality that radiates from within.
Metabolic testing offers a comprehensive approach to understanding individual metabolic characteristics and optimizing health, fitness, and performance. By providing personalized insights into energy metabolism, nutrient utilization, and exercise efficiency, metabolic testing empowers individuals to make informed decisions about their diet, exercise regimen, and overall lifestyle.
Whether you’re striving to achieve weight loss goals, enhance athletic performance, or safeguard your long-term health, metabolic testing can be a valuable tool in your journey towards better well-being. By unlocking the secrets of your body’s metabolism, you can pave the way for lasting health and vitality.
Understanding Metabolic Testing
Metabolic testing is a scientific assessment that measures an individual’s metabolic rate—the rate at which the body burns calories to sustain basic functions such as breathing, circulation, and cell production. By analyzing oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production during rest or physical activity, metabolic testing provides valuable data about an individual’s energy expenditure and metabolic efficiency.
NutriFit® uses the MetaCheck, a metabolic testing device to determine your body’s resting energy expenditure. This simple breathing test gives us the information needed to calculate your target calorie zones, and identifies your caloric intake needs. The machine is able to estimate calorie requirements by calculating oxygen inhaled and comparing it to the concentration of oxygen exhaled. Since the rate at which oxygen is used is directly proportional to the rate of caloric expenditure, we can determine the amount of calories being used by your body. It provides the ultimate personal metabolic profile. Learn more about our testing here.
Personalized Nutrition and Fitness Plans
One of the most significant advantages of metabolic testing is its ability to inform personalized nutrition and fitness plans. Rather than relying on generic recommendations, such as calorie counting or following popular diets, metabolic testing allows for tailored strategies based on your body’s specific energy needs and metabolic profile.
For example, if your metabolic test reveals a slower-than-average metabolic rate, you may require fewer calories than standard calculators suggest. Conversely, if you have a fast metabolism, you might need to adjust your nutrient intake to ensure you’re fueling your body adequately without overeating. Similarly, understanding how your body responds to different types of exercise can help you optimize your workouts for maximum efficiency and results.
Targeted Weight Management
Weight management is a complex interplay of various factors, including diet, exercise, genetics, and metabolism. Metabolic testing offers a more nuanced approach to weight management by identifying individual metabolic tendencies that may influence weight loss or gain.
By understanding your metabolic rate and metabolic efficiency, you can fine-tune your weight loss strategies to achieve sustainable results. For instance, if your metabolic test reveals a tendency to burn carbohydrates more efficiently than fats, you might adjust your diet to prioritize protein and healthy fats while moderating carbohydrate intake. This personalized approach can help overcome common weight loss plateaus and prevent the frustration of ineffective dieting.
Optimized Athletic Performance
Athletes and fitness enthusiasts can also benefit significantly from metabolic testing to optimize their performance. By assessing aerobic and anaerobic thresholds, metabolic testing provides valuable insights into the body’s energy systems during exercise.
For endurance athletes, understanding aerobic thresholds can help them tailor training intensity and duration to improve cardiovascular fitness and endurance. On the other hand, strength and power athletes can use metabolic testing to optimize anaerobic performance and recovery, ensuring they train at the appropriate intensity for maximal gains.
Health Monitoring and Disease Prevention
Beyond weight management and athletic performance, metabolic testing can also play a crucial role in health monitoring and disease prevention. Certain medical conditions, such as thyroid disorders, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, can impact metabolic function. Metabolic testing can help identify underlying issues and guide interventions to mitigate health risks.
Furthermore, tracking changes in metabolic parameters over time can serve as an early warning sign for metabolic disorders or metabolic changes associated with aging. By detecting abnormalities in energy metabolism early on, individuals can take proactive steps to address underlying health concerns and prevent the progression of metabolic diseases.
Whether you’re looking to reduce sugar, cut back on refined flour, or incorporate more wholesome ingredients into your diet, making healthy substitutions offer a delicious way to indulge in baking while prioritizing your health and well-being. Traditional baking ingredients like white flour, sugar, and butter can weigh heavily on our health goals. Fortunately, there’s a world of healthy substitutions waiting to elevate your baking game without sacrificing flavor or texture. Experiment with different combinations to find the perfect balance of flavor, texture, and nutrition. Here’s some easy ways to do just that:
1. Flour Power:
a. Whole Wheat Flour: Swap out refined white flour for whole wheat flour to add fiber, vitamins, and minerals to your baked goods. Start by substituting half of the white flour with whole wheat flour and gradually increase the ratio as you adjust to the flavor and texture.
b. Almond Flour: Rich in protein, healthy fats, and antioxidants, almond flour lends a delicate, nutty flavor to baked goods. It’s an excellent gluten-free option for those with dietary restrictions.
2. Sweet Sensations:
a. Natural Sweeteners: Replace refined sugar with natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, or dates. These alternatives add sweetness while also providing additional nutrients and a lower glycemic index.
b. Applesauce or Mashed Bananas: Use unsweetened applesauce or mashed ripe bananas to reduce the amount of sugar and fat in your recipes. They add moisture and sweetness, making them perfect substitutes in muffins, cakes, and bread.
3. Healthy Fats:
a. Avocado: Creamy and nutrient-dense, mashed avocado can replace butter or oil in many baking recipes. It adds richness and moisture while boosting the nutritional profile with heart-healthy fats and vitamins.
b. Greek Yogurt: Substitute Greek yogurt for oil or butter to reduce fat content while adding protein and tanginess to your baked goods. It works well in muffins, cakes, and even pancakes.
4. Egg Replacements:
a. Flax or Chia Seeds: Mix ground flaxseeds or chia seeds with water to create a gel-like consistency, mimicking the binding properties of eggs. These seeds are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids and fiber.
b. Silken Tofu: Blend silken tofu until smooth and use it as an egg substitute in recipes that require moisture and binding. It’s an excellent option for vegan baking and adds protein to your treats.
5. Boost with Nutrients:
a. Add Nutritional Powerhouses: Incorporate superfoods like spirulina, matcha powder, or cocoa nibs into your baked goods to boost their nutritional value. These ingredients add antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals without compromising flavor.
b. Sneak in Veggies: Grated zucchini, carrots, or sweet potatoes can be hidden in muffins, bread, or brownies to add moisture, texture, and a nutritional boost. Plus, they add natural sweetness without the need for extra sugar.
In the realm of health and beauty, collagen has emerged as a superstar nutrient, promising benefits that range from youthful skin to joint health. But what exactly is collagen, and how can you ensure you’re getting enough of it in your diet?
Collagen plays a vital role in maintaining the health and vitality of our bodies, from our skin and joints to our muscles and hair. By incorporating collagen-rich foods into your diet, you can support your body’s natural collagen production and enjoy the numerous benefits it offers. It’s often referred to as the “glue” that holds our bodies together, providing structure, elasticity, and support. As we age, however, our bodies produce less collagen, leading to wrinkles, sagging skin, and joint stiffness.
Collagen Promotes Skin Health:
Collagen plays a crucial role in maintaining the elasticity and hydration of the skin. Supplementing with collagen has been shown to reduce wrinkles, increase skin elasticity, and promote a more youthful appearance. However, it is unclear as to whether applying topical collagen does the trick! It’s best to work with a skin professional to uncover the best ways to stimulate collagen production and help your skin “help itself”. To improve skin texture and elasticity and minimize wrinkles, focus on sun protection and using topical retinoids.
Supports Joint Health:
Collagen is a key component of cartilage, the tissue that cushions and protects our joints. Since our bodies cannot absorb collagen in whole form, it must enter the bloodstream and be broken down into peptides so it can be absorbed throug the gut. hese peptikes may be broken down into the building blocks that make proteins like keratin (which help form skin, hair and nails). Consuming collagen may help reduce joint pain and stiffness, making it particularly beneficial for individuals with conditions like osteoarthritis.
Aids Muscle Growth and Repair:
Collagen contains essential amino acids that support muscle growth and repair. Including collagen in your diet may help maintain muscle mass and accelerate recovery after exercise.
How to Get Collagen in Foods:
While collagen supplements are popular, may contain additives and fillers. There are plenty of natural sources of collagen that you can incorporate into your diet:
Bone Broth: Bone broth is one of the richest sources of collagen, as it’s made by simmering animal bones and connective tissue. Enjoy a warm cup of bone broth as a nourishing and collagen-rich beverage.
Gelatinous Cuts of Meat: Certain cuts of meat, such as chicken thighs, pork shoulder, beef chuck and veal contain collagen-rich connective tissue. Slow-cooking these cuts or using them to make stews and braises can help extract collagen and make it more digestible.
Fish and Seafood: Fish and seafood, especially those with edible bones like salmon and sardines, are excellent sources of collagen and other essential nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids.
Eggs: Egg whites contain a specific type of collagen called type I collagen, which is beneficial for skin health. Incorporate eggs into your diet by enjoying them scrambled, boiled, or in omelets.
Leafy Greens and Berries: While they don’t contain collagen themselves, foods rich in vitamin C, such as leafy greens and berries, can support collagen production in the body by providing essential cofactors for collagen synthesis.
Embracing the seasonal foods available in February allows you to savor the best that winter has to offer. From hearty root vegetables to vibrant citrus fruits and nourishing leafy greens, there’s no shortage of delicious options to inspire your winter cooking.
Root Vegetables:
February is the perfect time to celebrate the humble yet versatile root vegetables that thrive in cold weather. Potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and beets are readily available and can be used in a variety of dishes. Roasting these vegetables enhances their natural sweetness, making them a delightful addition to soups, stews, and casseroles.
Leafy Greens:
While some greens may not be in their prime during February, hardier varieties like kale, collard greens, and Brussels sprouts remain abundant. Packed with essential vitamins and minerals, these leafy greens can be sautéed, roasted, or incorporated into hearty winter salads to add a burst of freshness and nutrition to your meals.
Citrus Fruits:
February marks the peak season for citrus fruits, bringing a burst of brightness to the winter months. Oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and limes are not only rich in vitamin C but also add zesty flavor to both sweet and savory dishes. Enjoy them as refreshing snacks, squeeze them into dressings, or incorporate them into desserts for a touch of citrusy goodness.
Winter Squash:
The winter squash family, including varieties like butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash, continues to shine in February. Roasting or pureeing these squashes can yield creamy soups, flavorful side dishes, or even sweet treats like squash-based desserts. Their natural sweetness and hearty texture make them a comforting choice for cold winter days.
Cruciferous Vegetables:
Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are cruciferous vegetables that thrive in colder weather. These nutritional powerhouses are not only rich in vitamins and fiber but also versatile in the kitchen. Roast them, sauté them, or enjoy them in soups to add a nutritious and flavorful boost to your winter meals.
Seafood:
February brings a variety of seasonal seafood options to the table. Look for cold-water fish like salmon, cod, and haddock, which are at their peak during this time. Incorporate these omega-3-rich delights into your diet for heart-healthy benefits and delightful flavors. Consider trying new seafood recipes to explore different cooking methods and enhance your culinary repertoire.
Leeks and fennels are coming into season in February and we’ve got the perfect winter soup that incorporates both!
Fennel and leeks are both versatile and nutritious vegetables that offer a range of health benefits. Fennel is rich in antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins, particularly vitamin C, which supports the immune system and promotes healthy skin. It also contains anethole, a compound that may have anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. Additionally, fennel is known for its potential to aid digestion and reduce bloating.
Leeks, on the other hand, are an excellent source of vitamins A and K, as well as folate. They contain antioxidants and have been associated with promoting heart health by helping to lower cholesterol levels. Leeks also provide a good amount of dietary fiber, supporting digestive health and contributing to a feeling of fullness, which may be beneficial for weight management. Both fennel and leeks can be incorporated into a variety of dishes, adding flavor, texture, and a nutritional boost to your meals.
Recipe:
Servings: 8
Serving Size: 1 cup
Ingredients:
4, celery stalks (large)
1 tbsp, extra virgin olive oil
1 large, fennel bulb (about 3/4 lb)
1/4 cup, fresh thyme
3, leeks (large)
1 tbsp, NutriFit French Riviera Salt Free Spice Blend
3, onions (large)
1, russet potato (large, peeled & cut)
1 tsp, sea salt
8 cups, vegetable broth
Directions:
1. In a large saucepan or soup kettle over medium-low heat, place the olive oil, leeks, celery, onions, fennel, potatoes, salt, and French Riviera seasoning, and cook and stir until the onions are translucent and the vegetables have begun to soften, about 10 minutes. 2. Pour 8 cups of water over the vegetables, bring to a boil, reduce the heat. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally and add the fresh thyme. Cook 10 minutes more, about 30 minutes in total.
Diversifying your protein sources not only adds excitement to your meals but also aligns with a more sustainable and ethical approach to eating. Whether you’re fully embracing a plant-based lifestyle or just looking to reduce your reliance on animal products, these alternative protein sources offer a world of culinary possibilities while ensuring you meet your nutritional needs. Venture into the realm of plant-based proteins, experiment with flavors, and discover a plate that not only nourishes your body but also contributes to a healthier planet. At NutriFit, we offer both vegan and vegetarian plans that can help you explore more plant-based options.
1. Plant-Based Powerhouses:
a. Legumes:
Beans, lentils, chickpeas, and peas are not only rich in protein but also high in fiber and various essential nutrients. They form the foundation of many plant-based diets, offering versatility in salads, soups, stews, and even plant-based burgers.
b. Tofu and Tempeh:
Derived from soybeans, tofu and tempeh are excellent sources of plant-based protein. Tofu’s mild flavor makes it a chameleon in the kitchen, easily adapting to various dishes, while tempeh’s nutty taste and firm texture provide a satisfying meat substitute.
c. Edamame:
Young, green soybeans, commonly found in Asian cuisine, are not only delicious but also pack a protein punch. Enjoy them as a snack, in salads, or as a side dish.
2. Whole Grains:
a. Quinoa:
Known as a complete protein, quinoa contains all nine essential amino acids. This versatile grain can be used as a base for salads, bowls, or as a side dish.
b. Farro, Bulgur, and Freekeh:
These ancient grains contribute not only protein but also a hearty, nutty flavor to your meals. Use them in salads, soups, or as a side dish to add variety to your diet.
3. Nuts and Seeds:
a. Almonds, Walnuts, and Pistachios:
Nuts are not just crunchy snacks; they’re also excellent sources of protein and healthy fats. Sprinkle them on salads, yogurt, or enjoy them on their own.
b. Chia Seeds and Hemp Seeds:
Packed with protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and fiber, these seeds make a nutritious addition to smoothies, yogurt, or oatmeal.
4. Seitan and Jackfruit:
a. Seitan:
Also known as wheat gluten, seitan has a meat-like texture and is a popular meat substitute in various cuisines. It absorbs flavors well, making it a versatile ingredient in savory dishes.
b. Jackfruit:
With its fibrous texture, jackfruit is often used as a plant-based alternative to pulled pork or shredded chicken. It takes on the flavors of your seasonings, making it a perfect base for savory dishes.
5. Dairy Alternatives:
a. Greek Yogurt Alternatives:
Plant-based yogurts made from almonds, soy, or coconut can be just as creamy and protein-rich as their dairy counterparts. Use them in smoothies, parfaits, or as a standalone snack.
b. Nutritional Yeast:
Often used to create a cheesy flavor in vegan dishes, nutritional yeast is a complete protein source and a great addition to salads, pasta, or popcorn.
In the quest for optimal heart health, dietary choices play a pivotal role. The Portfolio Diet, a plant-based eating plan, has emerged as a nutritional powerhouse renowned for its heart-protective benefits. We incorporate these tenets into all of our meal plans as part of our commitment to helping our clients improve their overall health.
Understanding the Portfolio Diet:
The Portfolio Diet is a plant-based approach specifically designed to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease. Originating from research conducted by Dr. David J.A. Jenkins, a pioneer in the field of nutrition, this dietary strategy combines various cholesterol-lowering foods to create a potent portfolio of heart-healthy choices.
The Four Key Components:
1. Soluble Fiber:
The Portfolio Diet emphasizes a high intake of soluble fiber, found in abundance in oats, barley, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. Soluble fiber helps lower cholesterol levels by binding to cholesterol molecules and facilitating their elimination from the body.
2. Nuts:
Including nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, in your diet provides a dose of heart-healthy fats. Nuts contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats that can help reduce LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol) levels.
4. Plant Sterols:
Foods fortified with plant sterols, like certain margarines and spreads, are a crucial element of the Portfolio Diet. Plant sterols have a similar structure to cholesterol and can compete with it for absorption in the digestive system, leading to lower cholesterol levels.
4. Soy Proteins:
Incorporating soy-based products like tofu, soy milk, and edamame provides an excellent source of plant-based protein. Soy proteins contain compounds called isoflavones, which may contribute to reduced cholesterol levels.
Benefits of the Portfolio Diet:
Cholesterol Reduction:
Numerous studies have shown that the Portfolio Diet can be as effective as statin medications in lowering LDL cholesterol levels. By combining the cholesterol-lowering properties of various plant-based foods, this diet offers a natural and sustainable approach to heart health.
Blood Pressure Management:
The plant-based nature of the Portfolio Diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, and nuts, is also associated with lower blood pressure. This further contributes to its heart-protective effects.
Weight Management:
Following the Portfolio Diet can support weight management due to its emphasis on whole, nutrient-dense foods. Maintaining a healthy weight is a key factor in reducing the risk of heart disease.
Anti-Inflammatory Effects:
The abundance of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds in the Portfolio Diet may contribute to its protective effects against cardiovascular diseases.
Implementing the Portfolio Diet:
Gradual Transitions:
Start by incorporating one or two components of the Portfolio Diet into your meals and gradually expand from there.
Diverse Food Choices:
Enjoy a variety of plant-based foods to ensure you receive a wide range of nutrients and health benefits.
Consultation with a Healthcare Professional:
Before making significant dietary changes, especially if you have existing health conditions, consult with a healthcare professional or a registered dietitian.
A study led by Andrea J. Glenn, PhD, RD, from the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, delved into the dietary habits of 73,924 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), 92,346 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII), and 43,970 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS). The participants, free of CVD at baseline, were meticulously followed biennially on lifestyle, medical history, and other health-related factors.
Researchers utilized food-frequency questionnaires (FFQs) every four years to categorize foods into the six components of the Portfolio Diet. Each component, such as plant protein, nuts, fiber sources, phytosterols, monounsaturated fats, and sources of saturated fat and cholesterol, was scored from 1 (least adherent) to 5 (most adherent). The Portfolio Diet Score (PDS) was then associated with incident CVD cases, CHD cases, and strokes over a follow-up period of up to 30 years.
Need a pick-me-up that’s not caffeine? Many of us (me included) rely on coffee to combat fatigue, but there are some really good alternatives that are truly healthy (coffee consumption should be moderated…)! By incorporating these caffeine-free strategies into your daily routine, you can foster sustainable energy, enhance your overall well-being, and face each day with renewed vitality.
Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate:
Before you drink coffee, think water! Often overlooked, dehydration can lead to fatigue and decreased energy levels. Headaches can also be caused by dehydration, as can irritability! Ensure you’re drinking enough water throughout the day to keep your body and mind functioning optimally. After all, our bodies are supposed to be 70% water!
Power-Packed Breakfast:
Start your day with a nutritious breakfast rich in complex carbohydrates, proteins, and healthy fats. Whole grains, fruits, and lean proteins can provide a sustained release of energy. Long periods of fasting can cause fatigue.
Move Your Body:
Physical activity is a natural energy booster. Incorporate regular exercise into your routine, whether it’s a brisk walk, yoga, or a quick workout. Exercise helps improve blood circulation, delivering more oxygen to your cells and brain by increasing blood flow – thereby boosting energy.
Snack Smart:
Instead of reaching for sugary snacks that cause energy crashes, choose snacks that combine protein and fiber. Nuts, seeds, and fruits can provide a quick and sustained energy boost. Most fruit and vegetables are 90% water, so you can, literally eat your water by consuming these foods.
Power Naps:
Short power naps (10-20 minutes) can revitalize your mind and body without causing sleep inertia, the grogginess associated with longer naps. Find a quiet space, close your eyes, and recharge.
Sunlight Exposure:
Natural light exposure helps regulate your circadian rhythm and improve sleep quality. Spend some time outdoors each day, especially in the morning, to boost your energy and enhance your mood.
Mindful Breathing:
Practice deep breathing or mindfulness exercises to reduce stress and increase oxygen flow to your brain. This can help improve concentration and overall energy levels.
Herbal Teas:
Swap your regular cup of coffee for herbal teas like ginseng, peppermint, or ginger. These teas can provide a gentle energy lift without the stimulating effects of caffeine.
Superfood Boost:
Incorporate energy-boosting superfoods into your diet. Foods rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, such as berries, spinach, and quinoa, can support your body’s energy production.
Quality Sleep:
Ensure you get enough quality sleep each night. Establish a consistent sleep routine, create a comfortable sleep environment, and limit screen time before bed to promote restful sleep and wake up feeling refreshed.
As the New Year unfolds, many of us embark on a journey of self-improvement and set ambitious resolutions to create positive change in our lives. However, the challenge often lies not in setting these goals but in maintaining the momentum to turn them into lasting habits. Here’s how to turn your resolutions into habits that contribute to a happier and healthier life throughout the entire year.
1. Start Small and Specific: Begin with manageable, specific goals rather than overwhelming yourself with broad, ambitious resolutions. Breaking down larger objectives into smaller, achievable steps makes the process more digestible and increases the likelihood of success. For example, rather than aiming to “exercise more,” start with a commitment to a 20-minute walk three times a week.
2. Set Clear and Achievable Goals: Clearly define your goals, making them measurable and achievable. Instead of a vague resolution like “get in shape,” specify your intention, such as “lose 5 pounds in the next two months” or “complete a 5K run by March.” This clarity provides a roadmap and allows you to track your progress more effectively.
3. Establish a Routine: Habits thrive on routine. Integrate your new behavior into your daily or weekly schedule. Whether it’s dedicating a specific time for exercise, meal prepping on Sundays, or setting aside moments for mindfulness each day, consistency builds habits. Make your resolution a non-negotiable part of your routine.
4. Use Triggers and Cues: Associate your new habit with existing habits or specific cues in your environment. For example, if you want to develop a habit of daily stretching, pair it with an established routine like brewing your morning coffee. Over time, the association with the trigger will make the new behavior more automatic.
5. Track Your Progress: Keep a record of your efforts and achievements. Tracking your progress not only helps you stay accountable but also provides a tangible representation of how far you’ve come. Use journals, apps, or calendars to monitor your consistency and celebrate milestones along the way.
6. Stay Flexible and Learn from Setbacks: Accept that setbacks are a natural part of the process. Instead of viewing them as failures, consider them opportunities to learn. Analyze what led to the setback, adjust your approach if needed, and move forward with renewed determination. Flexibility and adaptability are crucial for long-term success.
7. Share Your Goals: Communicate your resolutions to friends, family, or a support network. Sharing your goals creates a sense of accountability and may lead to encouragement and shared experiences. Social support can be a powerful motivator and a source of inspiration during challenging times.
8. Reward Yourself: Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. Treat yourself when you reach milestones, reinforcing the positive behavior with a reward. This positive reinforcement helps create a positive association with the new habit, making it more likely to stick.
In a fast-paced world where stress and uncertainty seem to be constants, the search for natural solutions to support our well-being has intensified. Enter adaptogens, a fascinating category of herbs and mushrooms that have been used for centuries in traditional medicine systems. These natural wonders offer a unique way to adapt to the challenges life throws our way, promoting balance and resilience in both mind and body. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the world of adaptogens, exploring what they are, how they work, and how you can incorporate them into your daily routine for a healthier, more balanced life.
What Are Adaptogens?
Adaptogens are a class of herbs and fungi that are believed to help the body resist and adapt to stressors, whether they be physical, chemical, or biological. Unlike stimulants, which can temporarily boost alertness and energy, adaptogens work by supporting the body’s natural ability to cope with stress and maintain homeostasis. Common adaptogenic herbs include ashwagandha, rhodiola, holy basil, and medicinal mushrooms like reishi and cordyceps.
How Do Adaptogens Work?
The magic of adaptogens lies in their ability to modulate the body’s stress response. They interact with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathoadrenal system, helping to regulate the production of stress hormones like cortisol. This, in turn, can have a balancing effect on various physiological processes, promoting a more adaptive response to stress without causing excessive stimulation or sedation.
Benefits of Adaptogens:
Stress Reduction: Adaptogens are renowned for their stress-reducing properties. By helping the body adapt to stressors, they may contribute to a calmer and more balanced mental state.
Improved Energy and Endurance: Some adaptogens, such as rhodiola and cordyceps, are known to enhance physical performance and endurance. They can help combat fatigue and support vitality.
Enhanced Cognitive Function: Adaptogens like bacopa and ashwagandha have been associated with cognitive benefits, including improved memory, focus, and mental clarity.
Immune System Support: Certain adaptogens, including astragalus and echinacea, are believed to support immune function, helping the body defend against infections and illnesses.
Incorporating Adaptogens into Your Routine:
Herbal Teas: Enjoy adaptogens in the form of herbal teas. Combine herbs like tulsi (holy basil), ashwagandha, and licorice for a soothing and stress-relieving blend.
Smoothies and Elixirs: Add adaptogenic powders or tinctures to your morning smoothie or create nourishing elixirs for a potent dose of resilience-boosting goodness.
Supplements: Adaptogen supplements, available in capsules or powders, offer a convenient way to incorporate these powerful herbs into your daily routine.
Culinary Delights: Some adaptogens, like rhodiola and maca, have a pleasant taste and can be incorporated into recipes, such as energy balls or savory dishes, to make wellness delicious.
As we navigate the demands of modern life, incorporating adaptogens into our routines can be a natural and holistic way to support our bodies and minds. While individual responses may vary, the centuries-old wisdom behind these herbs and mushrooms suggests that adaptogens have the potential to enhance our resilience and well-being. Whether sipped in a calming tea or blended into a morning smoothie, adaptogens offer a gentle nudge towards balance in an often hectic world. So, why not let nature’s resilience boosters accompany you on your journey to a more harmonious and healthful life?
In a world where the pursuit of health and well-being has become increasingly complex, health and wellness coaches have emerged to offer personalized support and expertise. In this blog post, you’ll discover the ways in which health and wellness coaches can make a positive impact on your well-being.
Personalized Guidance and Goal Setting: One of the key benefits of working with a health and wellness coach is personalized guidance that you receive. Coaches take the time to understand your unique needs, preferences, and goals. Together, you can create a customized plan that aligns with your lifestyle, ensuring that your journey towards better health is both realistic and sustainable.
Accountability and Motivation: Staying motivated on your wellness journey can be challenging, especially when life gets busy. Health and wellness coaches act as a source of accountability, helping you stay on track with your goals. Regular check-ins and progress assessments provide the motivation needed to overcome obstacles and celebrate achievements, fostering a positive and supportive environment.
Holistic Approach to Well-being: Unlike quick-fix solutions, health and wellness coaches take a holistic approach to well-being. Together with your coach, you consider various aspects of your life, including nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, and mental health. This comprehensive perspective allows you to address the root causes of health concerns, promoting long-term and sustainable lifestyle changes.
Education and Empowerment: By arming you with knowledge and practical skills, you are empowered to make informed choices that contribute to your well-being. Understanding the ‘why’ behind certain practices enhances your ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle independently.
Navigating Behavioral Change: Changing habits and behaviors is a central component of any wellness journey. As coaches, we are trained in behavior change strategies, helping you identify and overcome barriers to success. Whether it’s breaking unhealthy habits or establishing positive routines,you provide the tools and support needed for lasting transformation.
Stress Reduction and Mindfulness: In the quest for better health, managing stress is crucial. By introducing you to mindfulness and stress-reduction techniques, your coach can help you enhance your ability to make healthier choices in the face of life’s challenges. Remember, investing in your well-being is a journey, not a destination, and a health and wellness coach can be your trusted companion along the way.
NutriFit founder, Jackie Keller, is a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) issued by the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching and holds multiple other professional certifications including ACC, accreditation by the International Coaching Federation. with specialty designations in Health and Wellness. Jackie conducts one-on-one sessions both in person and virtually, during which clients set achievable goals in six “wellness” areas: fitness, weight, nutrition, stress, health, and the life issues that impact health. Jackie’s coaching style emphasizes education, empowerment, and a commitment to lasting behavioral change. By leveraging her profound understanding of nutrition, stress management, and lifestyle factors, she helps clients make informed choices aligned with their health goals. Whether it’s crafting a personalized nutrition plan, fostering stress resilience, or creating sustainable fitness routines, Jackie is dedicated to guiding individuals towards a healthier, more balanced life.
In today’s world, where climate change is a growing concern, you can make a significant impact by making mindful choices in your daily life. One area where we can all contribute to a greener planet is through our food choices. Here are 5 ways you can reduce your carbon footprint by making sustainable and eco-friendly decisions when it comes to what you eat.
Choose a Plant-Based Diet: One of the most effective ways to lower your carbon footprint is to transition towards a plant-based diet. Animal agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and water pollution. By incorporating more fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes into your meals, you not only improve your health, but you help the planet.
Buy Local and Seasonal Produce: Supporting local farmers not only boosts your community’s economy but also reduces the carbon emissions associated with transporting food over long distances.
Reduce Food Waste: Approximately one-third of the food produced for human consumption is wasted globally. Minimizing food waste is a powerful way to reduce your carbon footprint. Composting is also a great way to ensure that food scraps are returned to the earth rather than ending up in landfills, where they contribute to methane emissions.
Minimize Processed Foods: The production and packaging of processed foods often involve a significant amount of energy and resources. By minimizing your consumption of processed foods and opting for whole, unprocessed ingredients, you not only make healthier choices for yourself but also reduce your carbon footprint.
Embrace Eco-Friendly Packaging: At NutriFit, we donate your gently used containers to local charities. When you shop, bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store and consider using a reusable produce bag for fruits and vegetables.
Reducing your carbon footprint through food choices is an achievable goal that can have a positive impact on both your health and the environment, and contribute to a more sustainable and resilient planet. Every bite you take is an opportunity to make a difference—let’s eat our way to a greener future.
Gut health has gained significant attention in recent years, and for good reason. Your gut, or gastrointestinal system, plays a crucial role in your overall well-being. A healthy gut is not only responsible for efficient digestion but also influences your immune system, mood, and even your skin’s health. To maintain a balanced and thriving gut, you need to make conscious choices about what you eat. In this blog post, we’ll explore the connection between gut health and the foods that can support it.
The Gut Microbiome: Your Body’s Ecosystem
The gut microbiome, a complex community of trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes, inhabits your digestive tract. These microorganisms are not freeloaders; they actively contribute to your health. They help digest food, synthesize essential vitamins, and play a significant role in regulating your immune system. The key to a healthy gut is maintaining a diverse and balanced microbiome.
Foods that Foster Gut Health
Fiber-rich Foods:
Fiber is a crucial component for gut health. Soluble fiber, found in foods like oats, legumes, and fruits, helps regulate bowel movements and nourish beneficial gut bacteria. Insoluble fiber, prevalent in vegetables and whole grains, adds bulk to your stool, aiding in its passage through the intestines.
Probiotic-rich Foods:
Probiotics are live bacteria that can enhance your gut’s microbial balance. Yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and other fermented foods are excellent sources of probiotics. They introduce beneficial microorganisms to your gut, promoting a diverse and healthy microbiome.
Prebiotic Foods:
Prebiotics are a type of dietary fiber that feeds the friendly bacteria in your gut. Foods like garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, and bananas are rich in prebiotics. By including these in your diet, you can encourage the growth of beneficial gut bacteria.
Fatty Fish:
Fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines, are packed with omega-3 fatty acids. These healthy fats reduce inflammation in the gut, which is important for maintaining a balanced microbiome.
Bone Broth:
Bone broth is a nutrient-rich source of collagen and amino acids like glycine and proline. These compounds help repair the gut lining and support the growth of beneficial gut bacteria.
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables:
A diet abundant in colorful fruits and vegetables provides essential vitamins and minerals that nourish the gut microbiome. These foods are also rich in antioxidants, which protect the gut from oxidative stress.
Nuts and Seeds:
Almonds, chia seeds, and flaxseeds are excellent sources of fiber, healthy fats, and protein. They can help support gut health by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.
Herbs and Spices:
Certain herbs and spices, like ginger and turmeric, have anti-inflammatory and digestive properties that can soothe the gut and promote overall digestive health.
Foods to Limit
While certain foods support gut health, there are others that can disrupt it. It’s essential to limit or avoid:
Sugary and Processed Foods: Excessive sugar and highly processed foods can lead to an imbalance in gut bacteria and promote the growth of harmful microbes.
Artificial Sweeteners: Some artificial sweeteners may negatively affect gut bacteria and digestion. It’s best to consume them in moderation.
High-fat and Fried Foods: Large quantities of unhealthy fats can lead to inflammation and gut dysbiosis.
Excessive Alcohol: Heavy alcohol consumption can harm the gut lining and disrupt the balance of gut bacteria.
Antibiotics: While necessary for treating infections, antibiotics can disrupt the gut microbiome. If prescribed, consider taking probiotics to help restore balance.
Your gut health is a key component of your overall well-being. By making mindful choices in your diet and prioritizing foods that support a healthy gut, you can enjoy better digestion, a stronger immune system, improved mood, and even healthier skin. Remember to maintain a balanced diet rich in fiber, probiotics, prebiotics, and nutrient-dense foods, while limiting or avoiding items that may harm your gut. A thriving gut microbiome is a testament to your commitment to long-term health and vitality.
In a world where health-conscious individuals are constantly searching for ways to boost their well-being, antioxidants have emerged as superheroes in the realm of nutrition. These powerful compounds, found in various foods, play a vital role in protecting our bodies from the damaging effects of free radicals and oxidative stress. In this blog post, we will delve into the world of antioxidants in food, exploring what they are, why they matter, and which foods you should incorporate into your diet to harness their benefits.
Understanding Antioxidants
Antioxidants are molecules that combat oxidative stress, which occurs when there is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body. Free radicals are unstable molecules that can cause cellular damage, leading to a variety of health issues, including chronic diseases and premature aging. Antioxidants neutralize these harmful molecules, preventing or minimizing their damaging effects.
The Many Types of Antioxidants
Antioxidants are a diverse group of compounds, each with unique properties and benefits. Here are some common types of antioxidants:
Vitamins: Vitamins C and E are well-known antioxidants. Vitamin C, found in citrus fruits and berries, is essential for collagen production and overall skin health. Vitamin E, present in nuts, seeds, and leafy greens, helps protect cell membranes from damage.
Minerals: Selenium is a trace mineral that acts as an antioxidant in the body. It can be found in foods like Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, and brown rice.
Carotenoids: Carotenoids are pigments found in colorful fruits and vegetables. Beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin are some examples. Carotenoids, found in carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach, are associated with eye health and immune system support.
Flavonoids: These plant compounds are prevalent in fruits, vegetables, tea, and red wine. They have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Quercetin, found in apples and onions, and catechins, abundant in green tea, are notable flavonoids.
Polyphenols: Polyphenols are a group of naturally occurring compounds found in foods like dark chocolate, red wine, and various berries. Resveratrol, found in red wine, is a well-known polyphenol with potential heart-protective properties.
The Benefits of Antioxidants
Antioxidants offer a wide range of health benefits, including:
Protection Against Chronic Diseases: Consuming antioxidant-rich foods may reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Enhanced Immune System: Antioxidants help support a strong immune system, making your body better equipped to fend off infections.
Skin Health: Antioxidants can help maintain healthy skin by reducing the effects of aging and protecting against UV damage.
Eye Health: Certain antioxidants, such as lutein and zeaxanthin, are essential for maintaining good eye health and preventing conditions like macular degeneration.
Reduced Inflammation: Many antioxidants possess anti-inflammatory properties, which can aid in managing chronic inflammatory conditions.
Incorporating Antioxidant-Rich Foods into Your Diet
Now that you understand the importance of antioxidants, here’s how to make them a staple in your diet:
Eat a Rainbow: Consume a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables. Each hue represents a different set of antioxidants and health benefits.
Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, walnuts, chia seeds, and flaxseeds are excellent sources of antioxidants and healthy fats.
Herbs and Spices: Incorporate herbs and spices like turmeric, cinnamon, and oregano into your dishes for an antioxidant boost.
Tea: Green, black, and white teas contain antioxidants, particularly catechins in green tea, which have numerous health benefits.
Dark Chocolate: Enjoy dark chocolate (70% cocoa or higher) in moderation for a dose of polyphenols.
Red Wine: If you drink alcohol, red wine, in moderation, can provide resveratrol, a polyphenol with potential heart-healthy properties.
Antioxidants are not just a buzzword; they are essential for maintaining your health and well-being. By incorporating a variety of antioxidant-rich foods into your diet, you can fortify your body against the damaging effects of oxidative stress and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. So, go ahead and savor that colorful salad, sip on a cup of green tea, or indulge in a piece of dark chocolate – your body will thank you for it.
Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude, togetherness, and of course, a feast of delicious food. While traditional Thanksgiving dishes tend to be indulgent and calorie-laden, it’s possible to enjoy the holiday without overindulging. By making some healthy substitutions, you can savor the flavors of Thanksgiving without compromising your health and well-being. In this blog post, we’ll explore a variety of wholesome alternatives for classic Thanksgiving foods that will leave you feeling thankful for your health.
Roast Turkey Breast Instead of Dark Meat:
Turkey is the centerpiece of any Thanksgiving meal. Opt for lean turkey breast instead of dark meat, which is higher in saturated fat. Roast it with herbs and spices for a flavorful, lower-fat alternative.
Cauliflower Mashed “Potatoes” Instead of Regular Mashed Potatoes:
Cauliflower mashed “potatoes” are a fantastic low-carb alternative. Simply steam or boil cauliflower and mash it with garlic, a bit of Greek yogurt, and a touch of olive oil for a creamy texture and savory flavor.
Whole-Grain Stuffing Instead of Traditional Stuffing:
Replace white bread stuffing with whole-grain or whole-wheat bread to boost fiber content. Load it up with vegetables, herbs, and dried fruits for added nutrients and flavor.
Vegetable Gravy Instead of Traditional Gravy:
Traditional gravy can be high in fat and sodium. Make a vegetable-based gravy using low-sodium broth, sautéed mushrooms, onions, and herbs for a rich, delicious alternative.
Quinoa or Wild Rice Instead of White Rice:
Substitute white rice with quinoa or wild rice for your Thanksgiving side dishes. These grains are higher in protein and fiber, adding a nutritional punch to your meal.
Cranberry Orange Relish Instead of Canned Cranberry Sauce:
Make your own cranberry orange relish using fresh cranberries and oranges. It’s a lower-sugar, high-fiber option packed with vitamins.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes Instead of Candied Yams:
Skip the marshmallow-topped candied yams and opt for roasted sweet potatoes. Toss them with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a dash of sea salt for a healthier and equally delicious side dish.
Green Bean Almondine Instead of Green Bean Casserole:
Ditch the creamy and fried green bean casserole for a light and nutrient-rich green bean almondine. Sauté green beans with slivered almonds and a touch of lemon for a delightful crunch.
Homemade Applesauce Instead of Apple Pie:
Apple pie can be high in sugar and calories. Make your own unsweetened applesauce with a dash of cinnamon for a nutritious dessert option that’s lower in added sugars.
Greek Yogurt Dip Instead of Sour Cream Dip:
Serve vegetable or fruit platters with a dip made from Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. It’s high in protein and lower in fat, with the same creamy texture.
Baked Pears Instead of Pie for Dessert:
Baked pears with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of honey are a healthier, naturally sweet dessert option. Top them with a dollop of Greek yogurt for extra creaminess.
Thanksgiving can be a time to celebrate both gratitude and health. By making these healthy substitutions for traditional Thanksgiving foods, you can enjoy a delicious meal without feeling weighed down by excess calories and unhealthy ingredients. These options not only taste fantastic but also help you maintain your health and well-being during the holiday season. So, this year, give thanks for the opportunity to enjoy a feast that’s good for your body as well as your soul.
Let’s face it – all of us (women) experience menopause, typically occurring in our late 40s or early 50s. This transitional period marks the end of reproductive years and comes with a multitude of physical and hormonal changes. Nutrition plays a crucial role in managing the symptoms and overall well-being during this time.
The Menopausal Transition
Menopause is characterized by a reduction in the production of estrogen and progesterone, two essential female hormones. These hormonal changes can lead to a variety of physical and emotional symptoms, such as hot flashes, mood swings, insomnia, and bone loss. Nutrition becomes a key factor in managing these symptoms and minimizing their impact on daily life.
Key Considerations
1. Calcium and Vitamin D: One of the most significant concerns during menopause is the risk of bone loss. Osteoporosis becomes more common, and to counteract this, it’s crucial to maintain an adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D. Dairy products, leafy greens, fortified cereals, and supplements can be valuable sources. 2. Protein: Protein is essential for maintaining muscle mass and preventing weight gain during menopause. Include lean sources of protein such as chicken, fish, beans, and tofu in your diet. 3. Fruits and Vegetables: These should form the foundation of your diet. They are rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that can help combat inflammation and support overall health. 4. Healthy Fats: Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, flaxseeds, and walnuts are known for their anti-inflammatory properties and can help reduce the risk of heart disease, which can increase after menopause. 5. Fiber: High-fiber foods like whole grains, legumes, and fruits can aid in digestion and help manage weight, which can be challenging for some during this time. 6. Limit Processed Foods and Added Sugars: Processed foods and added sugars can lead to weight gain and exacerbate mood swings. Reducing or eliminating them from your diet can help manage these symptoms.
Managing Hot Flashes
Hot flashes are one of the most well-known and disruptive symptoms of menopause. While they can’t be completely avoided, their severity can be lessened through dietary choices:
1. Spicy Foods: Some women find that avoiding spicy foods can reduce the frequency and intensity of hot flashes. 2. Soy Products: Soy contains natural compounds called phytoestrogens, which can mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. Incorporating soy-based foods like tofu and edamame may help alleviate hot flashes for some women.
Mood and Mental Health
Hormonal changes can also affect mood and mental health during menopause. To support emotional well-being, consider these dietary changes:
1. B Vitamins: Foods rich in B vitamins, like whole grains, leafy greens, and lean proteins, can help manage stress and promote a positive mood. 2. Hydration: Staying well-hydrated is crucial. Dehydration can exacerbate mood swings and lead to increased feelings of irritability and fatigue.
Remember that everyone’s experience of menopause is unique, but for all of us, making informed dietary choices and prioritizing your health can help you navigate menopause with confidence and grace.
You’ve just crushed a grueling workout session, pushing your body to its limits, and you’re dripping with sweat. You might be tempted to call it a day and hit the showers, but don’t forget one crucial step in your fitness journey: post-workout recovery nutrition. What you consume after your workout can make a significant difference in your overall progress, from muscle recovery to performance enhancement. In this blog post, we’ll explore why it’s important to eat right, and when to eat to maximize your gains.
The Science Behind Post-Workout Recovery
Here’s why it matters. During exercise, especially intense workouts, your muscles undergo stress and damage. This damage triggers a series of processes within your body to repair and rebuild those muscles, making them stronger and more resilient. Nutrition plays a pivotal role in these processes by providing the necessary building blocks and energy to facilitate muscle repair and recovery, including the following:
Muscle Recovery: Protein intake is vital for repairing and rebuilding damaged muscle fibers. It helps to reduce muscle soreness and accelerates the recovery process.
• Replenishing Glycogen: Carbohydrates are crucial for refilling your glycogen stores, which provide energy for future workouts.
• Hydration: Sweating during exercise can lead to dehydration. Rehydrating with fluids is essential to maintain optimal bodily functions
• Reducing Inflammation: Certain nutrients, like antioxidants, can help reduce exercise-induced inflammation and oxidative stress.
What to Eat After a Workout
• Protein: Aim to consume a source of high-quality protein within 30 minutes to 2 hours post-exercise. Options include lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, or plant-based sources like tofu, beans, and legumes.
Carbohydrates: Replenish your glycogen stores by consuming complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, or fruits.
• Healthy Fats: Include sources of healthy fats like avocados, nuts, and seeds in your post-workout meal to support overall health and provide sustained energy.
• Antioxidants: Fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals, such as berries, spinach, and kale, help reduce inflammation and aid in recovery.
• Hydration: Water is crucial for maintaining proper bodily functions, especially if you’ve had an intense, sweat-inducing workout.
Timing Makes a Difference
The timing of your post-workout meal is also crucial. Consuming nutrients within the “anabolic window” (approximately 30 minutes to 2 hours after exercise) can optimize muscle recovery and glycogen replenishment. A combination of protein and carbohydrates during this window is ideal for maximizing these benefits.
Supplements
In some cases, supplements can be a convenient way to ensure you’re meeting your post-workout nutrition needs. Protein smoothies, for example, can provide a quick and easily digestible source of protein. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) can also be beneficial for muscle recovery and reducing muscle soreness. At NutriFit, we offer a variety of high protein smoothies designed specifically for post-workout recovery, including nut-free and dairy-free options.
Post-workout recovery nutrition is not something to overlook if you’re serious about your fitness goals. What you eat after exercise can determine how quickly you recover, how well you perform in your next workout, and how effectively you build muscle and endurance. Prioritize a balanced intake of protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, and hydration to make the most of your fitness journey. Remember that individual needs may vary, but for all of us, the right nutrition strategy will put you on the path to maximizing your gains and achieving your fitness aspirations.
I recently completed the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s introductory course for my recertification as a National Board Certified Health Coach. Happy to share some of the key takeaways form this extensive learning experience! In today’s fast-paced world, where convenience often takes precedence over health, a growing movement is emerging—one that emphasizes the profound impact of lifestyle choices on our overall well-being. Lifestyle medicine is a discipline that seeks to prevent and treat chronic diseases by addressing the root causes, primarily through changes in diet, physical activity, stress management, and other health-promoting behaviors. This holistic approach to health is gaining recognition as a powerful tool for improving the quality and longevity of our lives.
Understanding Lifestyle Medicine
Lifestyle medicine is a branch of medicine that recognizes that many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and certain types of cancer, are largely preventable and even reversible through changes in lifestyle choices. It acknowledges that genetics play a role in health, but lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and social connections also exert significant influence. It combines traditional, Western medicine with a much broader interpretation of heatlh than previously taught in our medical schools.
Key Principles of Lifestyle Medicine
• Diet and Nutrition: One of the fundamental pillars of lifestyle medicine is the promotion of a whole-food, plant-based diet. This approach emphasizes the consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds while reducing the intake of processed foods, saturated fats, and added sugars. Research consistently demonstrates that this dietary pattern can reduce the risk of chronic diseases and improve overall health. The emphasis is on plant foods, not necessarily to the total exclusion of animal products.
• Physical Activity: Regular exercise is essential for maintaining a healthy body and mind. Lifestyle medicine encourages individuals to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines. This can range from walking and biking to more structured forms of exercise like strength training and yoga. Exercise not only helps with weight management but also improves cardiovascular health, bone density, and mental well-being.
• Stress Management: Chronic stress can have a detrimental impact on health. Lifestyle medicine places a strong emphasis on stress reduction techniques such as mindfulness meditation, yoga, and deep breathing exercises. These practices can help individuals better cope with stress and improve their mental and emotional resilience.
• Sleep: Adequate and restorative sleep is crucial for overall health. Lifestyle medicine encourages healthy sleep habits and the importance of getting 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night. Poor sleep can lead to a host of health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
• Tobacco and Alcohol Use: Lifestyle medicine advocates for the avoidance of tobacco products and the moderation of alcohol consumption. Both tobacco and excessive alcohol intake are well-established risk factors for numerous chronic diseases.
Benefits of Lifestyle Medicine
• Prevention and Reversal of Chronic Diseases: Lifestyle medicine has been shown to prevent and even reverse chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. By addressing the root causes through lifestyle changes, individuals can reduce their reliance on medications and improve their quality of life.
• Improved Mental Health: Lifestyle medicine not only benefits physical health but also supports mental and emotional well-being. Stress reduction techniques and regular exercise can alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression, promoting a positive mindset.
• Enhanced Longevity: Adopting a lifestyle medicine approach can lead to a longer and healthier life. By reducing the risk of chronic diseases and their complications, individuals can enjoy a higher quality of life well into their senior years.
• Sustainability: Unlike short-term diets or fads, lifestyle medicine offers sustainable and lifelong changes that can be integrated into one’s daily routine. This makes it more likely for individuals to maintain healthier habits over the long term.
Lifestyle medicine offers a promising path to improved health and well-being by focusing on the power of everyday choices. This includes incorporating Health Coaching into the formula for a team-based approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of physical, mental, and emotional health. By embracing lifestyle medicine principles and making conscious decisions to prioritize health-promoting behaviors, individuals can take control of their well-being, prevent chronic diseases, and enjoy a higher quality of life for years to come. It’s never too late to start making positive changes that can lead to a healthier and more fulfilling life.
Introducing our spooktacular Pumpkin Protein Boost Smoothie, the perfect treat to celebrate Halloween in a healthy and delicious way! This bewitching blend is not only gluten-free and vegan, but it also packs a powerful punch of nutrients. With the rich, earthy flavors of pumpkin, a hint of warming spices, and a generous dose of plant-based protein, it’s a potion that will leave your taste buds howling for more. So, get ready to sip on the essence of autumn while staying true to your dietary preferences – this Pumpkin Protein Boost Smoothie is a real treat for all the goblins and ghouls in your life! Best of all, this recipe is gluten free and vegan!
Servings: 2
Serving Size: 16 oz
Ingredients:
2 tbsp – agave nectar
3 oz. – organic or non-GMO extra firm lite tofu
1/4 tsp – NutriFit Certainly Cinnamon Spice Blend
1.5 cups – vanilla pea protein milk
4 tbsp – pumpkin, cooked & mashed
Directions:
Put all ingredients in blender. Process until completely smooth.
Nutrition Facts:
135 cal
5.2 g protein
4 g fat
0.3 g saturated fat
0 g trans fat
0 mg sodium
0 mg cholesterol
19.4 g sugar
0.2 g fiber
In a world increasingly obsessed with health and fitness, calorie counting has become a ubiquitous practice. From smartphone apps to dedicated diet plans, tracking the calories we consume has never been easier. While calorie counting can be an effective tool for weight management and achieving fitness goals, it’s not without its drawbacks. In this blog post, we’ll explore the pros and cons of calorie counting to help you decide whether it’s the right approach for you.
The Pros of Calorie Counting
1. Awareness and Education: Calorie counting forces you to become more aware of what you’re eating. It’s an educational tool that helps you understand the nutritional content of different foods. This knowledge empowers you to make informed choices about what to eat.
2. Portion Control: Counting calories encourages portion control. You become mindful of portion sizes, which can be especially helpful if you tend to overeat or struggle with portion sizes.
3. Customization: Calorie counting allows for a highly customizable approach to your diet. You can tailor your calorie intake to match your specific goals, whether it’s weight loss, maintenance, or muscle gain.
4. Accountability: Tracking your daily calorie intake provides a level of accountability. It can be motivating to see your progress and stay on track with your goals.
5. Effective for Weight Management: For many, calorie counting is an effective method for weight management. By creating a calorie deficit (consuming fewer calories than you burn), you can achieve weight loss.
The Cons of Calorie Counting
Obsession and Stress: Calorie counting can lead to an unhealthy obsession with numbers. Some individuals become overly fixated on tracking every calorie, which can lead to stress and anxiety around eating.
1. Inaccuracy: Counting calories isn’t always precise. Labels on packaged foods may not be entirely accurate, and home-cooked meals can be challenging to measure accurately. This margin of error can lead to frustration and inaccuracies in tracking.
2. Micronutrient Neglect: Focusing solely on calories can lead to neglecting the quality of your diet. You may end up consuming empty calories from highly processed foods, neglecting essential micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
3. Social and Emotional Impact: Calorie counting can sometimes interfere with social events and emotional well-being. It may lead to anxiety when dining out or cause you to avoid social gatherings that involve food.
4. Not Sustainable for Everyone: Calorie counting can be time-consuming and may not be sustainable for everyone. Some people find it too restrictive, leading to a cycle of strict tracking followed by overindulgence.
Calorie counting can be a valuable tool in your health and fitness arsenal, but it’s not suitable for everyone. NutriFit alleviates the burden of calorie counting for their clients by providing customized meal plans meticulously overseen and planned by experienced nutritionists, allowing them time to focus on other aspects of their health such as sleep, stress, exercise and hydration.
Ultimately, the decision to count calories should align with your personal goals, lifestyle, and preferences. If you choose to embark on a calorie-counting journey, it’s essential to strike a balance between mindful tracking and maintaining a healthy relationship with food. Remember that there are alternative approaches to achieve your health and fitness goals, so explore different options to find what works best for you.
When it comes to skincare and overall health, few ingredients have garnered as much attention and praise as retinol. This powerful compound, a derivative of vitamin A, has gained fame for its ability to transform the skin, but its benefits extend beyond the cosmetic realm. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the world of retinol, exploring its effects on health and why it’s more than just a beauty secret.
Understanding Retinol
Before we dive into its health benefits, let’s briefly understand what retinol is. Retinol is a fat-soluble vitamin A compound found in various animal products, such as liver, fish, and dairy, as well as in some plant-based sources, like sweet potatoes and carrots. In skincare, it’s often used as a topical treatment to address issues like fine lines, wrinkles, acne, and uneven skin tone.
Health Benefits of Retinol
1. Vision Health: Vitamin A, of which retinol is a form, is essential for maintaining healthy vision. It plays a crucial role in the function of the retina, the part of the eye responsible for light detection. A deficiency in vitamin A can lead to night blindness and other eye problems.
2. Immune System Support: Vitamin A is vital for a well-functioning immune system. It helps maintain the integrity of the skin and mucous membranes, acting as a barrier against pathogens. Adequate vitamin A intake can bolster your body’s defense against infections.
3. Skin Health: Beyond its cosmetic benefits, retinol can improve overall skin health. It promotes collagen production, which keeps the skin firm and elastic. Additionally, retinol can help treat certain skin conditions, such as psoriasis.
4. Cell Growth and Differentiation: Retinol is involved in cell growth and differentiation, which is crucial for various bodily processes. It supports the growth and development of tissues like bones and the epithelial lining of organs.
5. Antioxidant Properties: Vitamin A, including retinol, acts as an antioxidant. Antioxidants help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals, potentially reducing the risk of chronic diseases and premature aging.
Considerations and Caution
While retinol offers numerous health benefits, it’s essential to use it wisely and in moderation:
1. Topical Application: When using retinol for skincare, start with lower concentrations and gradually increase to minimize potential skin irritation.
2. Dietary Sources: Include vitamin A-rich foods in your diet, such as sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, and liver. However, excessive vitamin A intake from supplements can be harmful, so consult a healthcare professional before taking them.
3. Pregnancy: Pregnant individuals should exercise caution with retinol supplements, as excessive vitamin A intake can harm the developing fetus. Consult a healthcare provider for guidance.
4. Sun Protection: Retinol can increase skin sensitivity to UV radiation, so always use sunscreen when using retinol products.
Retinol is a versatile compound with a range of health benefits that extend beyond its well-known role in skincare. It supports vision, the immune system, skin health, cell growth, and acts as an antioxidant. However, it’s important to use retinol wisely, whether topically or through dietary sources, and consult with a healthcare professional when considering supplements. By harnessing the power of retinol, you can enhance both your beauty and overall health.
The quest for effective and safe weight loss solutions has led to the development of new medications that promise to assist individuals in achieving their weight management goals. With medical advancements constantly evolving, it’s essential to stay informed about the newest weight loss drugs hitting the market. In this blog post, we’ll delve into three crucial things you should know about these cutting-edge treatments.
1. Understanding Mechanisms of Action:
New weight loss drugs often work through innovative mechanisms to help individuals shed excess pounds. It’s essential to comprehend how these drugs function to make informed decisions.
a. Appetite Control and Hormonal Regulation: Some new medications target hormones that regulate hunger and satiety. By modifying these signals, these drugs can help individuals feel fuller and more satisfied with smaller portions of food, ultimately reducing calorie intake.
b. Fat Absorption Inhibition: Certain medications interfere with the body’s ability to absorb dietary fats. This means that a portion of the fats consumed in meals pass through the digestive system without being absorbed, leading to a reduction in caloric intake.
c. Metabolism Boosting: A few weight loss drugs work by increasing the body’s metabolism, helping it burn more calories even at rest. This approach can aid in achieving sustainable weight loss over time.
2. Efficacy and Safety Considerations:
Before considering any weight loss drug, it’s crucial to assess both its effectiveness and safety profile.
a. Efficacy Varies: Results can vary from person to person. Some individuals might experience significant weight loss, while others might have more modest results. Factors like genetics, lifestyle, and adherence to the medication regimen play a role in the outcomes.
b. Potential Side Effects: Every medication comes with potential side effects. It’s vital to understand the possible adverse reactions associated with new weight loss drugs, as well as any contraindications with other medications or pre-existing conditions.
c. Consult a Healthcare Professional: Before starting any new weight loss medication, consult a healthcare provider. They can evaluate your overall health, consider any existing medical conditions or medications, and provide personalized guidance on whether a specific drug is suitable for you.
3. Comprehensive Approach:
While new weight loss drugs can be a valuable tool, they are most effective when integrated into a holistic approach to weight management.
a. Lifestyle Changes Are Key: Healthy eating habits, regular physical activity, and managing stress all contribute to successful and sustainable weight loss. Weight loss drugs should be seen as an adjunct to these lifestyle changes, not a replacement. NutriFit meal plans can help you with sustainable weight management by providing healthy, balanced, delicious meals customized and designed for your biometrics, exercise level and health needs.
b. Long-Term Commitment: Weight management is a journey that requires ongoing effort. Weight loss drugs might assist in the short term, but long-term success relies on consistent healthy habits.
c. Personalization Is Paramount: Just as no two individuals are alike, no single weight loss strategy fits all. Work closely with healthcare professionals to develop a plan that suits your unique needs, preferences, and goals.
The emergence of new weight loss drugs offers promising possibilities for individuals seeking effective solutions for weight management. However, it’s essential to approach these medications with caution, understanding their mechanisms of action, potential side effects, and limitations. Remember that these drugs are most effective when combined with lifestyle changes and a personalized approach to your health and well-being. Consult your healthcare provider to make an informed decision that aligns with your overall health goals.
Managing one chronic condition can be challenging enough, but when you’re dealing with both diabetes and kidney disease, the dietary considerations can become quite complex. However, with careful planning and guidance, it’s possible to create a balanced and nourishing meal plan that supports both conditions. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to manage a renal and diabetes diet simultaneously while prioritizing your health and well-being.
Understanding the Dual Challenge: Diabetes and Kidney Disease
Diabetes and kidney disease often go hand in hand. High blood sugar levels can damage the blood vessels in the kidneys, leading to reduced kidney function over time. Managing both conditions requires a delicate balance of controlling blood sugar levels while also considering the dietary restrictions necessary to support kidney health.
1. Work with Healthcare Professionals:
Before making any significant changes to your diet, consult with your healthcare team. Your doctor, registered dietitian, and diabetes educator can provide personalized guidance based on your specific health needs, current medications, and blood test results.
2. Monitor Carbohydrate Intake:
Carbohydrate management is crucial for diabetes control. Focus on consuming complex carbohydrates with a low glycemic index to prevent sharp spikes in blood sugar levels. Incorporate whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, and whole wheat bread, and aim for controlled portion sizes.
3. Control Protein Intake:
In kidney disease, excess protein can strain the kidneys. However, protein is also important for managing blood sugar levels. Work with your healthcare team to determine an appropriate protein intake that supports both conditions. Opt for high-quality protein sources like lean meats, fish, poultry, eggs, and plant-based options like legumes and tofu.
4. Watch Your Sodium Intake:
Kidney disease often requires limiting sodium to prevent fluid retention and manage blood pressure. Read food labels carefully, and avoid processed and packaged foods, which can be high in sodium. Use herbs, spices, and other flavorings to enhance the taste of your meals without relying on salt.
5. Choose Heart-Healthy Fats:
Focus on unsaturated fats, such as those found in olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds. These fats support heart health without adding stress to the kidneys or affecting blood sugar levels.
6. Portion Control and Meal Timing:
Eating smaller, more frequent meals can help stabilize blood sugar levels and reduce strain on the kidneys. Monitoring portion sizes is crucial to prevent overeating, as excess weight can exacerbate both diabetes and kidney disease.
7. Hydration Matters:
While kidney disease may require limited fluid intake, it’s still essential to stay adequately hydrated. Opt for water as your primary beverage and monitor your fluid intake according to your healthcare provider’s recommendations.
8. Individualize Your Plan:
Both diabetes and kidney disease can vary greatly from person to person. Customize your meal plan with NutriFit to accommodate your unique health needs, preferences, and lifestyle.
9. Regular Monitoring:
Regularly monitor your blood sugar levels and kidney function through the recommended tests. Adjust your diet as needed based on the results and guidance from your healthcare team.
10. Seek Support:
Managing a dual diet can be overwhelming, but you’re not alone. Seek support from support groups, online communities, or counseling to share experiences, tips, and advice. NutriFit’s team of experts can help guide you through the process and make your meal prep seamless.
Managing a renal and diabetes diet simultaneously requires a careful balance of nutrients, portion sizes, and lifestyle choices. While it might seem daunting, with the right guidance and dedication, you can create a meal plan that supports both your kidney health and diabetes management goals. Remember, your healthcare team is your best resource, so don’t hesitate to ask questions and seek help as you navigate this challenging but manageable journey towards better health.
As the leaves start to change color and a crisp breeze fills the air, it’s time to welcome the cozy and comforting flavors of fall. From pumpkin-spiced everything to hearty root vegetables, the autumn season offers a bounty of delicious ingredients that warm both the body and soul. Here are five of our favorite foods that truly capture the essence of fall.
1. Pumpkin – The Reigning Star of Fall Fare
When fall arrives, pumpkins take center stage. These versatile gourds are not only perfect for carving into jack-o’-lanterns but also for creating a variety of scrumptious dishes. From creamy pumpkin soups and velvety pumpkin pies to pumpkin-spiced lattes that have become synonymous with the season, this iconic ingredient adds a rich, earthy sweetness to every bite.
2. Apples – A Crisp and Juicy Delight
Fall wouldn’t be complete without the allure of freshly picked apples. Whether enjoyed as a crunchy snack, baked into comforting apple crisps, or transformed into spiced applesauce, apples offer a burst of natural sweetness and a satisfying crunch. Explore the diverse range of apple varieties, each bringing its unique flavor profile to your fall culinary adventures.
3. Butternut Squash – Velvety Elegance in Every Spoonful
Butternut squash, with its smooth texture and subtly sweet taste, is a fall favorite that’s hard to resist. Roast it to create creamy soups that warm your soul, or cube and bake it with a drizzle of olive oil for a delightful side dish. The rich orange hue of butternut squash reflects the vibrant colors of the season, making it a must-have ingredient for fall feasts.
4. Pecans – Nutty Goodness and Autumnal Charm
Pecans, with their distinct nutty flavor, lend a cozy touch to fall recipes. Whether used in salads for added crunch, baked into decadent pecan pies, or lightly toasted and sprinkled over oatmeal, pecans bring a satisfying richness and a hint of earthiness that pairs perfectly with the season’s ambiance.
5. Brussels Sprouts – Petite Gems of Fall Flavors
Brussels sprouts are small in size but big on flavor, making them a delightful addition to fall menus. Roast them until they’re crispy and caramelized, or sauté them with a touch of bacon for a hearty side dish. These miniature cabbages offer a blend of mild bitterness and nuttiness that complements the cozy tastes of autumn.
Incorporating Fall Foods into Your Culinary Adventures
As the autumn season unfolds, these five favorite fall foods present endless opportunities to get creative in the kitchen. From soups to sides, desserts to beverages, the flavors of fall offer something for every palate. Embrace the spirit of the season by visiting local farmers’ markets for the freshest produce or by trying out new recipes that showcase the rich and comforting essence of fall.
Fall is a time of transition, and the foods that grace our tables during this season reflect that transition beautifully. Whether you’re sipping on a spiced latte, enjoying the warmth of a pumpkin-based dish, or savoring the simplicity of freshly picked apples, these five fall favorites capture the essence of the season and invite us to indulge in the simple pleasures that autumn brings. So, put on your coziest sweater, head to the kitchen, and let the flavors of fall inspire your culinary journey.
While macro guidelines offer a useful framework, every person’s needs are unique. Listen to your body’s signals and adjust your macros accordingly. If you become tired, irritable or experience digestive disorders, you might need to experiment with different ratios to find what makes you feel your best, both physically and mentally. Remember that flexibility is key; giving yourself permission to deviate from your plan can help maintain a sustainable and balanced approach to eating.
Tracking Tools: Utilize Wisely
Numerous apps and tools are available to help track your macros, making it easier to stay on top of your nutrition goals. While tracking can be beneficial for understanding your eating patterns, it’s important not to become overly obsessed or rigid. Strive for mindfulness in your eating habits, and use tracking as a tool rather than an obsession.
The Role of Timing: Pre and Post-Workout Nutrition
Timing your macros around your workouts can enhance performance and recovery. Consuming a balanced meal with a combination of carbs and proteins about 1-2 hours before exercise can provide the necessary energy. After your workout, a protein-rich meal can aid in muscle repair and growth.
Managing your macros is an integral aspect of maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Remember, it’s not just about hitting specific numbers but about nourishing your body with the right types of foods in the right proportions. Embrace individualization, make nutrient-dense choices, and stay attuned to your body’s cues. By mastering your macros, you’re setting yourself up for sustained vitality and well-being.
In the realm of nutrition and fitness, the term “macros” has become increasingly prevalent. Short for macronutrients, these are the essential components of our diet that provide the energy our bodies need to function optimally. Macros consist of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, each playing a distinct role in our overall health and well-being. But what’s truly important when it comes to managing your macros? Let’s dive in and uncover the key factors that matter.
Understanding Macros: The Basics
First, let’s briefly review what each macronutrient entails:
Carbohydrates: These are the body’s primary source of energy. Carbs are found in foods like grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.
Proteins: Essential for muscle repair and growth, proteins are crucial for maintaining a strong and healthy body. Sources include meats, poultry, fish, dairy, legumes, and certain grains.
Fats: Fats are essential for various bodily functions, including hormone regulation and nutrient absorption. Healthy fat sources include avocados, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish.
The Balance Factor: Finding Your Ideal Macro Split
The optimal distribution of macros can vary based on individual goals, preferences, and activity levels. A balanced macro split usually involves:
● Carbohydrates: 45-65% of total daily calories
● Proteins: 10-35% of total daily calories
● Fats: 20-35% of total daily calories
For those aiming to lose weight, a slightly higher protein intake might be beneficial, as proteins aid in satiety and muscle preservation during calorie restriction. Athletes and individuals engaged in rigorous physical activity might require a higher carb intake to fuel their energy demands.
Quality Matters: Emphasizing Nutrient-Dense Choices
It’s not just about hitting your macro targets; the quality of your food choices matters immensely. Opt for nutrient-dense foods that provide a range of vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients.
● Carbohydrates: Prioritize whole grains, fruits, and vegetables over refined sugars and highly processed foods.
● Proteins: Choose lean sources like chicken, turkey, fish, legumes, and plant-based proteins.
● Fats: Opt for sources rich in unsaturated fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil while limiting saturated and trans fats.
This hot weather has got me thinking a lot about hydration. And, of course, there’s that water shortage to consider. So what are the facts about getting adequate fluids?
Water is essential and plays a critical role in many bodily functions, including the transport of nutrients, digestion, waste removal, maintaining blood pressure and regulating body temperature. Dehydration can contribute to constipation, fatigue, reduced mental activity (I get headaches) and places a stress on the cardiovascular system. Even inflammation in the body is exacerbated by dehydration, which might increase the risk of damage.
How much do you need? Well, it depends on your physical activity level, size, humidity, and even ambient temperatures. So on these hot days, following the National Academy of Science recommendations is an optimal goal. Adequate intake for men is 13 cups per day and for women, 9-10 cups per day (more if lactating or pregnant). But individual differences trump averages, so if you’re thirsty or exercising, drink more and it’s advantageous to set a baseline for yourself.
What to drink? Water is the best choice for hydration, along with unsweetened tea or coffee. Milk is also a great thirst quenching beverage. Remember, our sense of thirst is not that sensitive, so develop the habit and set reminders for yourself to drink up!
We all have our traditions. Whether they are ones we start ourselves or those we inherit, these practiced and well-worn habits add comfortable touchstones to our lives. They serve to anchor us in familiar harbors as we navigate life’s challenges, and root us in ritual and warm remembrance. No time of year serves up heavy portions of tradition like the swath of holidays at the end of it, with the desire for reflection rounding the corner as our planet completes another circle around the sun. Whether they be religious, cultural, familial, or simply an excuse to gather, our end of year traditions may vary in content and location but in context remain strikingly similar. Friends and family gather around meals and warm hearths, share stories and hopes for the coming year.
Over the course of this undeniably wild year, we’ve visited cuisines from around the world in our Txoko virtual tastings. Each dish we’ve explored, born out of the unique combinations of environment, history, and culture, has been an expression of that place through the senses. Holiday meals, far from the exception, are that embodiment sent into overdrive, as they combine the rituals and importance of tradition with the culinary expression of culture. Take for example the Sufganiyot, the traditional round jelly doughnut made during the Jewish festival of Channukah. Based on the tradition of eating fried foods during this holiday of oil and light (a tradition considered ancient by scholars even 800 years ago), these sweet pastries made their debut in Europe in the 15th century, and has since became an Israeli and eventually U.S. staple on bakery shelves during the winter months. Or La Bûche de Noël (or Yule Log we may know it), a French medieval tradition based on burning a large wooden log from Christmas Eve to New Years for good luck within the familial hearth, the center place of gathering in the home. As hearths disappeared, the log ritual moved to the dinner table, with the actual wooden log eventually replaced with an edible cake one. In Denmark, the risalamande, a rice pudding topped with a Danish cherry sauce, is found in nearly every household on Christmas Eve. Often these traditional dishes are served up alongside other rituals, whether it be decorating a tree, lighting candles, or perhaps simply gathering together with friends new and old. These time-honored remembrances are almost automatic, an indication that even as we pass into the new year, we remain rooted in our past.
There is a time and place for every tradition, and with this special holiday tasting, we hope to share with you some of our favorites. Whether our own or those of others we honor in our menu, we promise you an evening of culinary exploration of the dishes which make the holidays happen around the world. Alongside this, we have exciting news to share about what the coming year will bring, and can’t wait to celebrate with you all.
Learn more at TxokoUSA.com
Let’s be honest – British food does not get a good rep. Many words may come into your head when you think of the cuisine of the United Kingdom, but not too many of them are equivalently laudatory as one might give to say, its rival across south across the channel whose name rhymes with “Prance”. But like any good stereotype or assumption, it deserves a thorough smashing upon the rocks of widening gastronomical perspective. So, let’s get to smashing, shall we?
The thought of food of the British Isles (English, Scottish, and Irish food) as at best bland and worst boring, is one that may come from a revolutionary pride within the American psyche. As the American food writer Bill Marsano quipped, “The British empire was created as a by-product of generations of desperate Englishmen roaming the world in search of a decent meal.” But end of empire may allow us a new perspective on mushy peas, fish and chips, and meat pies. This food above all provides, beyond a hefty serving of fried calories, comfort. Comfort from the grey skies and drizzling rain perhaps which the islands are so famously known for. But what is wrong with comfort? Who said food has to be pain or for that matter, complicated? Occam’s Razor is not a myth which requires disproving. The simplest solution is often the best, and the simple balance of starchy, salty, and savory flavors, with a tinge of earthiness that harkens to some indefinable authenticity, is not something to snub your nose at.
From the wind-swept plains of the Scottish moors to the white Cliffs of Dover to the south, or the emerald rolling fields spanning from Dublin to Galway, there is something real and uniquely historical about the landscapes of these countries which is translated to its food. Take Shephard’s Pie – the story goes it came about as Irish and northern English housewives struggled to turn leftovers into another meal for their husbands and children at the end of a long day of work. Irish Soda Bread was similarly innovative, as baking soda was supplemented into recipes as a leavening agent due to the lack of well rising yeast locally available. Further down the historical tree, Beef Wellington, another pastry ensconced meat dish, was named in honor of the Duke of Wellington after his defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, a dish made to honor the triumph of the British empire. An empire which, after colonizing over 26% of the world (the largest in history), had at its disposal a dazzling array of spices and ingredients, which it could incorporate into its daily life, as it did with curries from India, a dish now so important the UK celebrates a National Curry Week each October. But it doesn’t stop there; sloshing in a tall glass beside these meals may be a Guinness, the dry stout first produced 262 years ago in a Dublin brewery (which he leased for 9,000 years at an annual rent of £45) as a healthier alternative to whiskey and gin, widely consumed as alcoholic drinks were preferable at the time to water due to lack of municipal sanitation. By 1866 it was the worlds largest brewery, and today still remains one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide.
Of course, the British Isles are known for their dreary skies, harsh landscapes, and ever persistent rain. But rather than seeing the food of these great nations as mirror to those landscapes, we must look at them as a reaction, a natural antidote to the harshness of life which birthed some of the most successful cultures the world has ever known. All told these are hearty meals, made to enjoy inside and away from the harshness of a cold evening, warmed by a crackling fire and the coziness of hearth and home. That is not something to put down – it is something we must hold on to recognize in our deepest hearts is a comfort we cannot and should not deny ourselves. So, as they say, keep calm, carry on, and raise a pint in salute to the glory of the warm and hearty cuisine of Ireland and the UK.
Trying everything you can to set yourself up for a lifetime without dementia? I am. As a fan of Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition and Harvard, Jackie always reads studies associated with his work, and this one was another of those!
A July 28 study co-authored by Willett found “mounting evidence that flavonoids are powerhouses when it comes to preventing your thinking skills from declining as you get older”. So it’s important to think about ways to incorporate more foods with flavonoids, like apples, blackberries, blueberries, celery, cherries, grapefruit, oranges, pears, peppers and strawberries (along with other orange and yellow fruits and vegetables) into your diet.
That’s where NutriFit comes in – we grow them on our farm and put them to delicious use in the meals that we prepare for our clients!
Check it out here – your brain will thank you!
I’m going to write a word, and I want you to say out loud the first thing that comes to your mind: Italy.
What was it? Was it “art” or “culture”? Was it “pasta”, “pizza”, “wine”? Or was it more broadly, just “food”? Maybe it was “delicious”. All of these are appropriate, because Italian culture, history, art, religion, and cuisine, has been one of the most successfully celebrated and exported that the world has ever known. And for good reason, as anyone has ever enjoyed a bite of a Napoli pizza can attest to!
Endless volumes can be written on the Italian affinity for the combination of beautiful ingredients grown under the Mediterranean sun. But what may be most fascinating is that what we find so uniquely Italian, that distinctive flavor we know so well, comes from a combination of ingredients that were never truly Italian to begin with. Tomatoes, for example, are native to the Americas, and did not arrive in Italy until after Columbus’s journey in 1492. And even after, the first printed recipe to even mention tomatoes in Italian cuisine didn’t occur until 1692, some 200 years later. This was largely due to the widespread belief at the time that they were poisonous, there red color earning them the nickname “the devil’s fruit”. Furthermore, there was even a general distaste for them by those brave enough to try, with authors at the time maligning them to as a mushier, worse version of an eggplant. Basil, another staple of Italian fare, is originally from India, and was thought to be an evil plant in Europe until the 17th century, causing scorpions, yes literal scorpions, to appear in one’s brain if smelled too often. Oddly enough for the longest time, Italians (Tuscans especially) were known not for their hearty consumption of bread or tomatoes, but beans, something we rarely associate with modern Italian cooking. The fagioli, as they were known, were particularly fond of fava beans, which had been cultivated since 6000 BC in the region and were celebrated religiously in medieval Sicily, being tied to mystical Christianity. This is strange however, as exposure to the beans can trigger a fatal reaction (known as favism) in about 20% of people who carry a genetic mutation most prevalent in the Mediterranean, known as G6PD deficiency. How could the beans remain so celebrated then, when a somewhat high percentage of people in the area could die from eating them – wouldn’t it be bred out, or the beans be cursed (like basil or tomatoes)? In a fascinating case of food influencing human evolution, fava bean consumption has been to shown create an internal environment in the body hazardous to the parasites which the deadliest disease humankind has ever known: malaria. Malaria was widespread in the central and southern regions of Italy up until the beginning of the 20th century, infecting nearly 2 million people per year. In fact, immunity to the disease was found to be even greatest in those who carried the G6PD deficiency, but who did not suffer the fatal reaction of favism, about 80% of that population. So, fava beans remained; their usefulness for malarial resistance outweighed their potentially deadly consequences for some.
As any chef worth their salt will tell you, it is the ingredients that make the dish (though with some humility they may attest they had something to do with as well). This seems evident when we look back on the history of Italian cuisine – from devilish fruit to gene-altering beans – there is nothing so important as the individual plants, animals, and fungi which are the true DNA of our favorite cuisines. Rich soils, rolling hills, pleasant climates, and abundant sunshine create a happy and productive farm, whether on the central coast of California or the vibrant hills of Tuscany. There is no substitute for a truly magnificent tomato, artichoke, peach, or pomegranate. So, while we may raise a glass to the chef, let us not forget to raise one as well for the farmer, who has brought from seed to plate, and another (why not?) to the ingredients themselves, whose very essence we celebrate tonight and give thanks to with our cheer.
Join us at our upcoming virtual guided tasting celebrating Italian cuisine here
Buon appetito!’
Bring on the lignans! More and more research is being conducted around the connections between diets rich in lignans and coronary artery disease. Lignans are molecules found in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, red wine and coffee! Yayyy – my kind of diet – and now, even more justification for including these ingredients in as many meals and snacks as possible!
According to a new study by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, diets rich in lignans (and high in fiber) significantly reduced the risk of coronary heart disease compared to those who ate low amounts of lignans. For more details check the study published online in the August 2021 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology here.
Reaching your weight loss goal can seem almost impossible sometimes – whether you’re just beginning your weight loss journey or need help losing those last 5 stubborn pounds, here are some tips to help you lose weight and, most importantly, maintain that weight loss.
1 – Get real about your weight
Ask yourself the following questions:
Do you have a point of reference for when you were at your ideal weight?
How do you measure your weight now? Is it the same as before?
How do you determine what your weight should be?
How recent is your weight gain?
These will help you form a realistic point of reference and help you determine a successful path forward. The best weight loss plans are the ones that are sustainable over a long period of time and help you achieve your goals in a healthy way.
Avoid fad diets that are difficult to maintain. Diets that quickly take off water weight may help to jump start the process, but it is important to have a long term plan that you can easily adopt to maintain the weight loss you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
Consider researching the Mediterranean and DASH diets – both of which have been extensively researched and heralded as the best overall diets you can follow.
2 – Look at your eating plan
Ask yourself if you have one. Do you schedule your meals and snacks?
Are you willing to follow a regimen on paper? Are you hungry before your meals?
Consider keeping a food diary or creating a schedule to follow. It will help you
Extra tip – eating fiber with your meals is important for weight management as it helps you feel fuller after your meals
3 – Look at your drinking plan
Do you have one? Are you drinking the recommended 8 glasses of water per day?
4 – Look at other factors that affect your weight
Stress, alcohol intake and sleep are all important factors
5 – Make a Schedule
Our brains loves habits – research has shown that it takes 66 days to form a new habit so take the time to create a schedule to help you form new habits that create a healthy relationship with diet and exercise.
Break up your day into mini habits and form a plan to build a foundation for healthy habits
Focus on the behavior, not the outcome. Guarantee success by making your first goal easy and build from there.
Measure your progress visually – using any marker that is meaningful to you
Ask yourself this:
When I _________________
then I will ___________________
Feel like you could use a little extra help? Consider jump starting your weight loss with a customized meal plan. Unlike other companies, we do not take a ‘one size fits all’ approach to weight loss; our plans are personalized to your goals, schedule and needs. Our founder, Jackie Keller, is not only an expert nutritionist but also board certified health and wellness coach, with years of experience coaching clients and helping them achieve success.
The term “melting pot” seems inadequate to describe the true nature of the conglomeration that is America. Perhaps (and stick with us here), a salad bowl is a more appropriate metaphor. All parts mixed together, a theme woven between them but the separate pieces retaining their shape, their flavors, their individuality. As unconventionally American (if we’re being completely honest) as a salad bowl may seem, it is a good metaphor for the rugged individuality which defines the American spirit. The richness of flavors in a salad comes not from the ingredients melting together, but in the revelation of their uniqueness tasted in unison, complimenting and contrasting each other to become something greater than any individual part can achieve on its own. The beauty of America is that its landscapes, its people, its cuisines and cultures are inherently different, each holding something beautiful and unique.
Whether they were the traditional owners of this land (in the neighborhood where our Txoko event is being held, the Tongva people), or immigrants from all over the world, our ancestors carried with them an individuality that is at its heart the most American thing there is. One can imagine that as they surveyed the possibilities of the landscapes around them, they brought recipes passed down from generations far flung, their thoughts ripe with the possibilities found in a place to begin anew. Cuisine was the gift they brought most often, taking old recipes from their ancestors’ kitchens and combining them with the ingredients and ideas offered in the New World. Eyes ever on the horizon, the spirit of Americans, from coast to coast and throughout time, has always been an ever present “I can”, that belief that we are the masters of our destiny. This belief, ever present, wound its way into the cuisines we know and enjoy today.
That unwavering “I can” is what has defined this country, and it is what has defined us, too. At NutriFit, we ask our clients to look within and say, “I can do it”, no matter what the goal. We started NutriFit 34 years ago with that spirit, with the idea that anyone, given the tools, knowledge, and encouragement, can make a difference in their own life for a brighter tomorrow. That has been our own odyssey, our journey of self-discovery and growth, and we have been honored to have you with us on it. Together we say not only, “I can” but now we say, “We can”, by listening, sharing and learning from one another’s journeys. Our Txoko USA dining table is an area open to all, where we can share stories and dreams of our pasts, presents, and futures. So, let’s begin this odyssey, this epicurean journey through this salad bowl country and with our eyes on the horizon, discover the treasures it may hold.
We hope you’ll join us on this next adventure. To view our full menu for the event and purchase tickets, click here
We’re turning the corner in the COVID-19 pandemic just in time to start getting in shape for summer! As we get back to enjoying our normal activities, some may be worried about how to shed the quarantine 15 for their ideal summer body. Whether you’re hanging out by the pool, going to the beach or just enjoying the great outdoors on vacation, we want to help you look your best.
Here are a few of our best, simple diet tips that you can start adopting today:
1. Eat seasonal and introduce more fruits and veggies into your diet! Switching to a more plant based diet is not only good for the planet but beneficial for you in so many ways including lowering your risk for certain cancers, cardiovascular disease and cholesterol. Plus, they’re packed with vitamins and minerals crucial to maintaining a healthy diet. Fruits and veggies in season during the summer: Cherries, Watermelon, Strawberries, Green Beans, Blackberries, Blueberries, Peaches, Eggplant, Plums and Corn
2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! We cannot stress the importance of drinking water – especially during the hot summer months. Drink at least 8 cups of water per day and reap the benefits of good hydration including improved skin appearance, maintaining electrolytes, regulate temperature and blood pressure, help regulate your metabolism, cushion/lubricate joints and much more.
3. Focus on making small, manageable changes to your diet and exercise routine. Many people find it to lose weight with the latest fad diet – usually a variation of a low carb diet – but quickly gain the weight back or hit a roadblock in losing those last few pounds. Our advice – which has helped thousands over the last 33 years lose weight and keep it off – is to adopt a healthy way of eating and exercise routine that works for you. The key to maintaining a healthy diet is one that focuses on whole grains, healthy fats, plant based proteins, limited red meat – balanced and wholesome diets are the main takeaways from this approach. Reducing your stress levels, limiting alcohol intake (especially when you’re first trying to lose weight) and, of course, drinking enough water are all important factors in dieting. Eating every three hours and exercising regularly are also important factors in maintaining blood sugar and improving your metabolism.
Feel like you could use a jump start before summer officially begins? Try our SimpliHealth Organic Reboot! More than just a cleanse, our Reboot is designed as a nutritionally balanced way to enjoy the benefits of a short term liquid diet. Each of the three phases features organic, vegan and gluten free meals, smoothies, pressed juices and Mighty Liquid Blends (meal replacements). Our clients have lost an average of 8 lbs over the total 12 day reboot! Learn more and sign up for the reboot here
Our upcoming virtual tasting aims to transport you on a culinary journey through the Americas. No need for travel FOMO – find inspiration and experience local cuisine from the comfort of your own living room on March 26 by attending our next virutal tasting experience. View our menu and purchase tickets here.
In the meantime, read background info on our featured destinations below.
The Riviera Maya, a stretch of Caribbean coastline south of Cancun along the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, may be one of the a rare world regions that has it all: white sand beaches, impeccable coral reefs, awe-inspiring archeological sites, verdant green tropical forests and the world’s longest underwater cave systems (known as cenotes). But most of all, this region, once the seat of power for Mayan civilization, is an incredible place to experience Mexican culinary traditions in all their glory. The abundantly-rich land and sea in this area provided local peoples with a dazzling variety of fruit, vegetable and seafood which birthed a deeply rooted tradition of food and place. Pibil, a Mayan-style of cooking in which food is cooked in a pit or underground, birthed amazing Yucatan stews of cochinita (pork) and Tikin Xic, a dry rubbed fish rubbed in achiote paste and wrapped in banana leaves before cooking underground. Ritual and tradition are found in every bite of Maya Riviera cuisine, embodying an intimate meeting of humanity and this vibrant, wonderful land.
Ecuador is one of those unique countries whose borders envelope all environments. Packed into a small area are coastal deserts, towering mountains and lush rainforests. This land of geographical diversity is one of spectacular biodiversity as well – and that’s just the mainland. The Galapagos Islands, the rocky volcanic island chain famous for its endemic (only found there) species and its inspiration towards the theory of biological evolution, is also part of Ecuador. Ecuadorian cuisine is as varied as it’s geography – from potatoes and cuy (guinea pig) found the Andes mountains, to bananas and roasted pork in the Amazon basin, to ceviche and plantains along the coast. As an island chain over 500 miles from the coast of South America, it is no surprise that cuisine of the Galapagos is based around seafood, or mariscos. Scallops, or vieiras, are a particular delicacy, as are patacones, quartered and twice-fried plantains often served with a delicious ceviche. Located at the nexus of four ocean currents, the islands are one of the most critical places for marine life on the planet, as each year mass migrations of sharks, whales, turtles and birds traverse its waters. The cold nutrient waters make the eastern Pacific Ocean one of the world’s most fished regions as well, and makes our support of sustainable seafood practices here, as well as a globally, particularly important.
New Orleans cuisine is a fusion of fusions, a melting pot of so many cultures that separate culinary traditions born in this area could fill entire segments of cooking history individually. Creole cooking, the most unique to the New Orleans area, was born from the native, slave and colonist populations who made this bustling port home before Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Aristocratic yet homey, it heavily displays the French traditions of rich sauces and complex preparations while incorporating the styles and ingredients of Native American, Spanish, and West African cooking. Cajun cooking was born from French-Canadian colonists who were deported to southern Louisiana after the French-Indian War in the 18th century. At a loss for the ingredients of their homeland, they developed an entirely new culinary tradition, again combining Native American, Spanish, and West African styles with those they knew before. Established around home-cooking and familial gatherings (such as the famous crawfish bowl), the cuisine developed a distinctive aroma and spiciness in the 20th century that today has cemented its place in the distinct culture of New Orleans. Finally, Soul food, now the traditional fare of the Southern United States, arose from the cultures of enslaved Africans who combined their native West African traditions with that of their European captors and Native American neighbors. Combined, these distinct and incredible culinary styles define the flavors of this truly American city, a crossroads of cultures new and old and a definition of what it means to be an American.
The Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, Chūn Jié (春節), this year beginning on February 12th, has a history in China dating back almost 4,000 years and every year prompts the largest migration of people on our planet. Beginning on the new moon appearing between January 21st and February 20th, it has been celebrated for thousands of years as the traditional end of winter and beginning of the spring season, heralding the beginning of a new year of luck, love and fortune. Spring Festival celebrations in China last for 40 days and is marked on its eve by the year’s most important meal – the New Year reunion dinner, held in the house of the eldest family member and attended by any and all family members that can make it. During this time, an estimated 3 billion travelers make their way across China and other countries around the world for family reunions and New Year’s celebrations.
Celebration of the Lunar New Year often ties in closely to celebrations of the Chinese zodiac, a 12-year cycle of animal signs which serves a similar purpose to the Western astrological cycle. The legend of the Chinese zodiac goes back over 2,000 years to the Qin dynasty, when the legendary Jade Emperor summoned all animals to his palace for a great race across a raging river. The order they arrived determined their place in the zodiac. The rat, and its once great friend, the cat, contrived to beat the rest by jumping on the back of one of the strongest contenders (and this year’s zodiac sign), the ox. However just before they finished the crossing, the rat pushed the cat off the ox’s back, solidifying their eternal enmity, along with the cat’s hatred of water and its omission from the zodiac. The crafty rat proudly hopped into first place, followed by the ox in second. Following the ox were, in order, the tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The ox is considered a symbol of honesty, patience, and conservativeness – symbols we will all be grateful for in the coming year.
Before the start of the new year, houses are thoroughly cleaned to remove any bad luck lingering in the corners, and often new decorations are put in place to symbolize the start of new beginnings. The color red is of particular importance in this celebration as well, with small red paper envelopes containing small amounts of money, passed from elder to junior family members. In northern China, dumplings, or jiaozi (餃子), are made and consumed with special frequency during this time, as they are associated with wealth and prosperity due to their shape resembling that of the Chinese gold ingots, sycee, used as currency until the 20th century. The reunion dinner may also heavily feature (depending on region and household), fish (Yú, 鱼), spring rolls (Chūnjuǎn, 春卷), and glutinous rice cakes (Niángāo, 年糕), all of which symbolize the gaining of wealth, good fortune, and prosperity. Auspicious and delicious food aside, the importance of gathering together and taking time to enjoy family and friends are paramount in the celebration of the Lunar New Year. With the arrival of the new moon heralds a fresh start. It signals the chance to let go of the past and embrace a new year filled with luck, love, and hopefully, plenty of delicious food.
Côte D’Azur (the Azure Coast), otherwise known as the French Riviera, is the famous coast of southeastern France whose sea-side specialties perfectly blend the Mediterranean cuisines of Italy, Spain and France. Known for the glamour beach towns of Saint-Tropez and Cannes, the region birthed some of the most eponymous dishes of French cuisine. Ratatouille, Nic oise Salad and Bouillabaisse soup all have their ancestral roots amongst its cobblestone streets and sandy shores. Herbes de Provence, tapenade, and of course, seafood, are the highlights of this Mediterranean home of haute cuisine. And while we may know the region for its jet-setting status, its most famous contributions are of humble origin. Bouillabaisse originated as a soup prepared by the poor fisherman of Marseilles, made from the fish that wasn’t sold during the day. Ratatouille, similarly, was a vegetable stew made for local soldiers. Even the delicate signature cake of St. Tropez, named by Hollywood icon Brigitte Bardot Tarte Tropézienne, was invented by Alexandre Micka, a Polish baker who settled in the village in 1955. Food, after all, is the great equalizer. While the region may be known for its glamourous beaches, yacht-filled harbors, and high-end food and fashion, we remember its humble beginnings through bites of delicious rustic cuisine created by well-worn, sunbaked hands, shared around smiling tables.
The Amalfi Coast may be a UNESCO world heritage site, and one of the most famously beautiful coastlines in the world, but few know the history of this glorious Italian region. Stretching between the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno and shadowed by Mount Vesuvius, this coastline is a series of stunning seaside towns nestled between high cliffs. The region is named for the beautiful city of Amalfi, which was founded in the 6th century, soon after became the site of vacation villas for Roman emperors, and later remained an independent republic until 1075, much longer than many of its neighbors. This was due in part to its ability to ward off the regions many pirates, but also its control of the seafaring trade of a much-desired particular resource for fighting scurvy on long sea voyages: lemons. The local climate made a perfect home for this originally Middle Eastern fruit, which local farmers crossed with bitter oranges to create unique regional varieties, the Sfusato d’Amalfi and the Limone di Sorrento. Many family orchards along the coast have lemon trees that are several hundreds of years old and depictions of Amalfi lemons grace the walls of ancient Pompeii. A source of local pride and history, today most Amalfi lemons are still harvested by hand and laboriously carried up and down the steep hillsides of this region. Part of the key to their success is that the lemons are unusually large and sweet – so sweet in fact you can bite straight into it, peel and all. Whether combined with the abundant local seafood in a pasta dish such as Scialatielli al Frutti di Mare, pressed into the famous local lemon liquor limoncello, or drizzled onto the sweet Torta al Limone cakes, it is the humble lemon which most embodies this glorious stretch of the Italian coast.
Our last “Small Business Saturday” highlight this week is featuring our friend Jesse Trace from “Traceland Organics” in Cayucos, California, who have supplied NutriFit customers with not only their signature organic avocados, but a variety of beautiful, certified organic fruits and veggies.
Check them out on the web at http://tracelandorganics.com/ to learn more about them and their one-of-a-kind local operation.
1. When did you become a farmer? What influenced your decision to start growing food?We planted our avocados in 2005, but were farmers back “east” in Illinois and lived on a farm there. Growing food has always been the first step of many towards personal sovereignty. We grow food because we love stewarding the land and cultivating the reciprocal relationship between ourselves and nature.2. What variety of crops do you grow?We mostly have Hass avocados, though we also have several varieties of pollinizer avocados sprinkled throughout the orchard to foster pollinator health and a thorough fruit set. We are ramping up production of other unique subtropicals like white sapote and passionfruit. We also grow a lot of our own food and in total have over 60 varieties of fruit trees.3. What is your philosophy around growing food?Being close to the land and living within her is crucial to growing food, and as it turns out, important for just about everything else as well.4. How do you see your role in the community?Energy generation. Food is our primary form of energy as humans. We are an organic power plant at Traceland Organics, producing nutrient dense calories to fuel human lives.5. What has been your greatest challenge as a small farmer?The long wait for profitability. Tree crops take a very long time to grow, but once they are big they are a resilient food source. Humanity is playing the long game here, it is worth the wait.6. You grow some amazing varietals of produce; do you have a personal favorite?The Vernon white sapote fruit tastes like what a banana and a pear tree would produce if you could somehow splice them.7. Do you have any new or upcoming projects you’re particularly excited about?We are very excited about our creek restoration project. We are partnering with a local watershed stewardship NGO to work on balancing our water footprint through careful design and reforestation.8. If you could share any message with NutriFit clients, what would it be?You are what you eat and you vote with your dollar. I know it isn’t always possible to pay extra for certified organic fruits and vegetables, but your investment will pay dividends towards healthy resilient communities.
In today’s installment in our Small Business Spotlight blog series, we’ll be highlighting Jessica Baiza and Rustin Fuss, who manage Branch Mill Organic Farm in Arroyo Grande, California. Learn more about Branch Mill, which also serves as a one-day retreat center and has a wonderful roadside produce stand, at branchmillorganics.com.
1. When did you become a farmer? What influenced your decision to start growing food?Jessica: I became an organic farmer in 2015. Before then I had no idea where my food came from or what the difference was between organic and non-organic. Through this initial hands-on learning, I realized the tremendous value of caring for the environment while growing nutrient dense food for the local community.Rustin: During my travels in 2010 I had heard about work exchange programs on organic farms. I then had some wonderful work exchange experiences at several farms. I officially started farming as a profession in 2016 working at an organic farm in Hawaii. The next farm was in Gilbert, AZ and for over a year now here at Branch Mill Organic Farm in Arroyo Grande, CA. Those earlier transformative experiences inf
me n rustin farminluenced my decision to grow food sustainably and to be a steward of the land.2. What variety of crops do you grow?We grow organic garlic, tomatoes, various winter and summer squash, sweet and spicy peppers, turmeric, various herbs, edible flowers, beets, reddish, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, chard, arugula, lettuce, avocado, apples, figs, loquats, pomegranates, lemons, finger limes, persimmons, olallieberries, pineapple guava, passion fruit, and specialty crops per request!3. What is your philosophy around growing food?We take so much for granted with all of the comforts of today. By carefully watching and caring for this food grown from seed all the way to harvest grants a reconnection with nature and an appreciation for the miracle that is life.4. How do you see your role in the community?By providing wholesome organic food for the community, we are increasing their health and connecting them to their local economy.5. What has been your greatest challenge as small farmers?Nearly all of the small organic farms that [we] have worked on have struggled financially to make ends meet. A fierce adversary in this area are also the armies of hungry gophers. Wildfires and droughts are also very challenging in this region.6. You grow some amazing varietals of produce; do you have a personal favorite?I have many favorites, persimmons, pineapple guava, lacinato kale, arugula, nectar carrots, and heirloom tomatoes just to name a few. I love being able to experience the rich flavors of freshly harvested organic produce.7. Do you have any new or upcoming projects you’re particularly excited about?Yes, we are very excited about our plans to adopt more permaculture and regenerative farming practices. We also have plans to start a nursery in the greenhouse which will include some subtropical fruit, like cherimoya, mango, papaya, banana, sapote, and pineapple.8. If you could share any message with NutriFit clients, what would it be?We all vote with our currency. Be sure to do some research and choose to support the businesses and farmers whose practices and values align with the greatest good for the planet and for all.
By Adam Yaney-Keller
“Happy Holidays!” Most often, we focus on the later part of this well-worn salutation at this time of year. Our minds drift to images of candles, holiday lights, warm fires and presents to loved ones, or maybe a cookie-cutter film made just for T.V. that we dread (but secretly enjoy). But, let’s shift our attention the first word of that statement – that elusive and all-consuming feeling of happiness. We know what makes up the holidays. But what are the ingredients of happiness?
Some researchers look at people nearing the end of their lives, and asks them questions about their biggest regrets. Bronnie Ware, an Australian end-of-life care nurse and author, did exactly this with her patients for years. She found one of the most common themes among her patients’ answers was this: “I wish that I had let myself be happier”.
For many of us, this statement may be startling – perhaps because it rings so true. And how much truer is that statement now, in these times when we are asked (for good reason) to sacrifice the holiday get-togethers with friends and family that normally bring us such joy? In times such as these, how do we “let” ourselves be happy? An answer for these times, we hope, is through this month’s virtual “Holiday & Celebrations” tasting. Read on for the explanation…
It is interesting we have to allow ourselves be happy, the implication being that maybe when it comes to happiness, we are our own worst enemy. It is the little voice in our head that looks at the happiness ingredient and says, “Oh, better not try that…”. But what if we ignore that voice? Or better yet, create the space for it to say, “Oh, I have got to try that!” What if, in the true spirit of a “Happy Holiday”, we throw caution to the wind, and for an evening, let ourselves be not only happy, but positively indulgent? That is our goal with our virtual holiday celebration get together. If the current situation requires that we sacrifice our normal holiday gatherings, then let us to do it in style, and replace them with something wonderful – delicious food and drink, guided in its tasting by the loving hands who created it and shared with a community all gathered in the same (virtual) room. This is exactly the reason we are sampling four desserts in this tasting, instead of our usual single sweet. If we are asked to sacrifice, then we sacrifice we shall. But we will do it indulging on the likes of Crème Brûlée Tiramisu and Mousse au Chocolat with Chestnut Puree, and we shall never, ever look back.
When we reflect on holiday seasons come and gone, we hope that this will not be remembered as a season lost to a lockdown, as happiness that we did not let us ourselves attain. Although we cannot gather as we usually do, that does not mean we cannot gather virtually. With this tasting we aim to bring you all together in virtual hearth and home, around the delight of a meal shared in good company. So, join us in raising a glass and toasting to the “Happy” in “Happy Holidays”. Bon Appetit!
To purchase tickets for our upcoming tasting event on Dec. 11, 2020, please click here
BOAs we exit one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, we wanted to highlight the importance of supporting small, local businesses, especially during the challenges of this current time. Being a small, family-run operation ourselves, we understand the importance of supporting local companies and especially, local farmers. In a time of unprecedented small business hardship, it is more important than ever to remember the small businesses of the hard-working people who grow our food.
Close to our own farm, the Mesa, on California’s central coast, we have partnered with a number of small, organic nonprofit farm operations that share our mission of healthful eating and environmental sustainability to supply our clients with high quality, locally grown, organic produce. In light of “Small Business Saturday”, we thought this would be the perfect time to sit down with them and introduce them to you, so you can get to know the real people and places that grow the produce that delights your NutriFit meals.
Today we’ll be highlighting Brandon Hurd and Olympe Rabaté, who manage the farm at the Arroyo Grande, California non-profit and intentional living community, The Lavra. Learn more about them, their farm and their philosophies at their websites TheEcologistCowboy.com, LearningFromLandscapes.com, and TheLavra.org.1. When did you become a farmer? What influenced your decision to start growing food?
We started farming two years ago. We discovered farming while volunteering on organic farms (through “WWOOF” [World-Wide Opportunities through Organic Farms]) and became attracted by a change in lifestyle. We realized growing your own food can also enhance local biodiversity.
2. What variety of crops do you grow?
We tend to grow a little bit of everything. We just harvested our summer crops with a focus on tomatoes, scarlet runner beans, peppers, Jerusalem artichokes, pomegranates, berries, squash, rainbow chard, kale, and tree collard. Currently, we are planting winter greens, asparagus, rhubarb, new fruit trees, oak trees, and prepping soil for next year. We also have eggs, cheese from the goats, and wine from our small vineyard year-round.
3. What is your philosophy around growing food?
We are always experimenting with the food we grow and have a combination of traditional annuals [plants that live about one growing season] and more unique perennials [plants that live more than two seasons, generally dying back in autumn and blooming in spring]. Ultimately, we’d like to convert much of the farm to perennial crops to mimic a natural ecology. We choose minimal and no-till farming to protect the soil health and sequester carbon.
4. How do you see your role in the community?
Since the farm is connected to the non-profit The Lavra, we offer a place for gathering, hosting events, and educational workshops / lectures.
5. What has been your greatest challenge as small farmers?
After visiting many successful organic farms, we saw people struggle making a living even when selling high-quality produce. So, our approach has been to sell to niche markets and make value-added goods. Our main revenue still does come from hosting workshops, events, and experiences at the farm using the produce we grow.
6. You grow some amazing varietals of produce; do you have a personal favorite?
Although we love what we grow, we are very excited about foraging for wild food as a sustainable way to eat: acorns, prickly pear, seaweed, mushrooms, etc. Native Americans have eaten these foods for over 12,000 years in a way that is harmonious with nature and we hope to learn from those practices.
7. Do you have any new or upcoming projects you’re particularly excited about?
Things we are very (very) excited about: our mushrooms that will soon be fruiting from our plugged oak logs; our new aquaponics that will help us save water while creating a closed-loop ecosystem between fish and veggies; and our forest garden that will combine different species to grow a lot of (perennial) food in a small space using layers and synergies found in a natural forest.
8. If you could share any message with NutriFit clients, what would it be?
“Support farmers who care about the nature that supports us by eating perennial and organic food, along with focusing on wild and native resources.” – Brandon“Mindful eating is the key to reconnect with your food, where it comes from, who grows it, and the benefits that it has on you. Slow down and enjoy it.” – Olympe
As we approach a holiday season like no other, conversations about health have never been more at the forefront of our minds. Perhaps a silver lining to this challenging reality could be re-framing of our interpretation of health and happiness. Taking care of yourself and those around you is no longer just an important personal mission, but also a global one. And for many, weight loss will be a central goal of that mission.
Unfortunately, stay at home orders, while good for reducing risk of exposure to Covid-19, has increased time spent on more sedentary habits that take a toll on health. The closure of many gyms and reduced capacity in outdoor spaces has increasingly meant that more and more of our usual exercise habits are interrupted. The hard-won discipline which may have previously helped us maintain a healthy weight has been tested to the extreme; and eating and drinking to curb the anxiety of an uncertain future became the for many of us. The “Quarantine 15” or “Covid 19” (the number being the number of pounds gained) became a meme online, a collective joke to help with the unfortunate reality. But eventually those gains may have real health consequences.
The CDC reports that about 40% of U.S. adults are obese and 32% are overweight [1]. This means that about 75% of Americans may be struggling with an issue involving maintaining a healthy weight. It’s important to remember that these categories are defined by a person’s body mass index or B.M.I., the measurement that compares ratio of height and weight. This measurement does not take account what makes up weight (i.e. muscle v. fat), which can be problematic when analyzing athletes or those with different genetic make-up or body type. However, there is a well-documented connection between obesity and chronic health issues such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease and a variety of cancers, a group of some of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Other studies have demonstrated that obesity may also be linked to lower vaccine responses for numerous diseases [2]. Finally, obesity also raises your risk of severe complications from Covid-19, potentially tripling the risk of hospitalization from a Covid-19 infection and the chance of experiencing life-threatening consequences [2].
Thinking of your personal weight goals as they relate to your bodies’ ability to defend itself from disease may make you think of multivitamins, doctor’s offices and dreaded “weigh-ins”, but in reality, the process doesn’t have to be bad at all. Personalized meal plans such as those we offer at NutriFit can take the guess work out of creating a diet that is both effective and enjoyable. With over 2400 recipes, a Michelin-star chef, and over 30 years of experience creating delicious, fresh, portioned meals and delivering them straight to your door, we take the guess work out of any diet. Whether your goal is weight loss, general health, disease management, weight gain or athlete meals, we have the tools to help you get to where you want to go. This holiday season, when so many things seem difficult, let us help you and your loved ones make eating for a healthy, fulfilling lifestyle easier.
1 – https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
2 – https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/obesity-and-covid-19.html
Numerous studies and research have shown that maintaining a healthy diet is a key component to maintaining your overall health. However, when people look to strengthen their immune system (especially during a pandemic), many first turn to nutritional supplements before considering whole foods and alternate diet choices. Boosting your immune system and increasing your intake of vital micronutrients such as vitamin C, calcium, vitamin B, magnesium, zinc and selenium can easily be accomplished by making a few changes to your diet. Per Harvard Health Letter, published by Harvard Medical School, while supplements can provide some benefits to bridge small gaps in nutrient intake or for those with nutrient deficiencies, “nutrients are most potent when they come from food” and have the added benefit of additional minerals and antioxidants not found in a pill.
So, what food should you be eating to help boost the immune system? A whole foods diet approach, like the one we take at NutriFit, is a good start. Begin by cutting out highly processed food, refined sugar and limiting red meat in your diet. Your meals should feature plenty of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean protein, legumes and healthy fats from nuts, seeds, soybeans and olives. Make sure to keep hydrated and drink plenty of water throughout the day as well. Sleep and stress, while not always controllable, are also important factors in regulating immune responses.(4) Be sure to manage your sodium intake as well. A combination Mediterranean and DASH diet have been shown to potentially reduce the risk for multiple disease including colorectal cancer, hypertension, and heart disease. (2) (3) The recommendations outlined above are also important components of an anti-inflammatory diet. Reducing inflammation
From our own experience – balance is key in maintaining a healthy diet long term. Make manageable changes over a longer period of time if need be. Begin by cutting out processed food, then swapping unhealthy snacks for fruits, vegetables or nuts. Find healthy foods and recipes that you like and substitute for clear unfavorites. Following a healthy diet not only helps with building a stronger immune system but also reducing your risk for other health problems.
Feel like you need some help? At NutriFit, we design our meals to be nutritionally balanced and follow the Mediterranean and DASH diets. Additionally, we regularly prepare meals for immuno-compromised patients and those with specific health conditions including anti-inflammatory plans for those with arthritis, diabetics and renal patients.
Sources:
(1) https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/should-you-get-your-nutrients-from-food-or-from-supplements
(2) https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.113.000495#:~:text=The%20aspect%20or%20aspects%20of,sodium%20and%20alcohol%20were%20not.
(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2980967/
(4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3256323/
(5) https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/16/health/immune-boosting-foods-wellness/index.html
Hailing originally from France, these delicate confectioneries are named after the famed fungi due to their physical resemblance. But, like so many delicacies, the history of chocolate truffles is wrapped in a layer of legend and some misunderstanding.
The classic chocolate truffle, a ball of ganache, chocolate, and cream rolled in cocoa, was said to have been created in the kitchen of the iconic French chef Auguste Escoffier. A wayward apprentice accidentally poured hot cream into a bowl of chocolate chunks. As the mixture hardened, they were surprised to find the chocolate paste could be rolled into an (albeit lopsided) ball. Rolling the ball in cocoa powder, it bore a striking resemblance to the black subterranean mushrooms that have long been part of cultural lore. Thus, the name and the dessert were born. Over the coming years, the creation evolved as new textures, mixtures, and ingredients to the ganache were explored, from chopped nuts to Champagne.
Like any new species, the truffle continued to evolve as it spread into new kitchens across Europe. Migrating into Switzerland, the combination of melted chocolate in boiled dairy cream and butter was set into molds before sprinkling cocoa powder. In Belgium, the truffle was cross-bred with the Praline (a powder of caramelized nuts mixed with chocolate, cream, and butter and covered in a chocolate shell) to form an entirely new Belgian truffle variant. But it was after a chance encounter in 1972 in Paris with a young woman named Alice Medrich, a native Angeleno, that the truffle would be transported to the confectionary new world of America, a continent rife for colonization by this symbol of European decadence. Medrich, touched by her encounter with this chocolate anomaly, returned in 1973 to Berkeley, California, and began selling her truffles, which had a characteristically soft center and larger, lumpier outward appearance than their svelte Parisian ancestors. Eventually known as Californian truffles, Medrich’s creation found a ripe niche in the U.S. chocolate market, coinciding with the rise in chocolate, especially luxury chocolate, consumption in the U.S. in the mid-to-late 1970s. helped her eventually launch the chain of famous Cocolat patisseries, described as “the Tiffany’s of chocolates”. Her book, Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts, remains one of the modern bibles of chocolatiers. Over time, the truffle spread across the continent and world, dominating bakery ecosystems and Valentine Day’s gift boxes to this very day lines. Of course, now, the lines are blurred on what is and isn’t a truffle and many modern-day “truffles” bare small resemblance to their forebears. But at their ganache-y, chocolate-y, creamy hearts, they remain like their mycological namesakes, simple and timeless.
As we sit together at tables spread far and wide, connected in ways that (not long ago) seem like science fiction, let’s take a few minutes to think about why we gather together to celebrate. For many, the smells and sounds of a busy kitchen are quintessential to the holiday experience. It is because these recipes and traditions are part of our familial history, our ancestry, and our cultural heritage. Indulging in the dishes that evoke our greatest gustatory recollections is bringing to life our fondest past. Sharing these is an act of kindness, an epicurean gift passed down from generation to generation. In the words of the great Craig Claiborne, “Cooking with care is an act of love”. We gather now not only to enjoy a meal, but to share the joy of shared stories and experiences.
It is no wonder that across history and cultures, holiday celebrations revolve around spending time over food. Digging deep to our hunter-gatherer roots, the collection and sharing of food (whether it be around the fire or around the dinner table) is an innately human ritual. Collective efforts obtaining and preparing food ensured the survival of all members, and the story-telling from one generation to the next allows knowledge and traditions to survive and thrive. To come together over fork and plate is part of our DNA, as is the power of food to trigger memory and emotion, through taste, smell and touch. These are all ways of reminding us that we are, at heart, one family.
This remains truer now more than ever, when we may be spread out and unable to gather physically. But like an old recipe, the key ingredients – good food, good drink, and good company – remain timeless, and engaging with them brings a joy that is as familiar as the smells of our family’s kitchens. If the holidays are for the sharing of collective goodwill, nostalgia and laughter, and the simple pleasure derived from a good meal, then let this tasting be our testament to that experience. With it, we hope to bring you all together around one large, virtual table, to enjoy the simple but enduring Convivial Connection of a festive holiday meal. Bon appétit!
Many diets purport to be optimally designed for the human body, and the Paleo Diet is no exception. This well-known dietary plan was popularized in Dr. Loren Cordain’s 2002 book of the same name, and is based on the hypothesis that our bodies’ dietary needs are based on our early evolution as hunter-gatherers. It states that humans are evolved to eat the foods available during the Paleolithic era, approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago (before the advent of agriculture). This means an emphasis on lean meats and eggs, fruits, vegetables and nuts/seeds, and avoidance of grains, legumes, dairy, refined sugar, salt, and any highly processed foods. It can generally be thought of as a high protein/low carbohydrate diet and the increase in fiber and protein is meant to keep you full so calorie counting is not necessary. Cutting down salt, refined sugar, and highly processed foods follows most mainstream dietary advice and most sound dietary plans will suggest at least a decrease in the presence of these items in your food. But is the complete removal of grains, legumes and dairy necessary? Recent discoveries in the field of paleo-archeology and genetics potentially point to an answer: no, not really. The Paleo Diet’s basis for cutting out these staples of modern human diets (grains, beans, and dairy) is rests on its interpretation of our genetic make-up more or less settling into its modern state around 10,000 years ago, and that chronic degenerative diseases in our population are a result of sub-optimal nutrition from this diet, most specifically the addition of refined carbohydrates. This mismatch between Paleolithic genes and modern food intake is called the “evolutionary discordance hypothesis”, which first appeared fully in a 1985 scientific article entitled “Paleolithic Nutrition: A Consideration of Its Nature and Current Implications”. But, fifteen years of scientific discovery, including the sequencing of the human genome, has presented some difficult challenges for this hypothesis to overcome. The idea that our bodies have not significantly adapted to match our diets post-Paleolithic times (ie. 10,000 years ago)is largely becoming a difficult pill to swallow.Archeological research has shown starches and grains making a very early appearance in pre-agricultural diets well before the end of the Paleolithic era, and dairy products not long after. Furthermore, all foods available today are widely different than those available to our Paleolithic ancestors, meaning adherence to a Paleolithic lifestyle of eating is not really possible, even if one were to follow the guidelines. 10,000 years of artificial selection for bigger and more calorie dense vegetables and animals, for example, has seen to that.And quite a few genetic changes in our own bodies have arisen since this time as well. Lactose tolerance evolved independently in many localities (e.g.Europe and the Middle East)around the world over the past 7,000 years.Malaria resistance and eye and hair color variations have also evolved over that time period, and continue to evolve today. Perhaps more importantly, the billions of gut bacteria which live in our intestines and are a crucial part of our digestive system (helping break down tough plant matter, for example) evolve extremely rapidly, as our understanding of anti-biotic resistance has shown. The diet also does not take into account the sheer scope of human being’s variability across the world. Isotopic analysis of early human remains from different global regions has shown some had more meat heavy diets, while others had more plant heavy diets. Human’s being opportunistic nature and problem-solving ability likely meant we took as much calorie dense foods as we could get our hands on, depending on what was available wherever we were. This can be seen in more modern examples as well. Some recent human diets featurefar more meat than others – the Inuit people of Greenlandfor example – because very few edible plants grow in the environments,they livein.Diets in south and east Asia, as evidenced in Hindu and Buddhist practices, have been largely plant-based for several thousand years. The simplicity of the Paleo diet masksthese differences which have always made us human.Finally, the lifestyle of paleolithic hunters-and-gatherers means that they were in fact out and about all day, moving and expanding high amounts of energy, meaning their caloric needs are going to be different than are our more modern sedentary lifestyles, regardless of genetic history.The idea of any single ideal human diet negates the depth to which we have and continue to evolve to the challenges of attaining food in nature.What the paleo (and for that matter plant-based,Mediterranean and many other) diets do get right is asignificant decrease in highly processed foods and an emphasis onleaner meats and healthy fats.This has long been shown to be a healthy, long-term dietary rule that will continue to serve as a guide star to all those wandering down any dietary path. A focus on whole foods is also a positive, and many people may find some success with the Paleo diet plan. But it is likely not the only diet humans have been, and continue to, be adapted to. For those looking to try the paleo diet, we do offer Paleo meal planning, with meals that have been carefully designed by our expert nutritionist and founder, Jackie Keller. No ideal human diet has every existed, and diets have always been in flux due to changes in the attainability of resources both across different regions, and different time periods. What is certain is that a truly human diet places an emphasis on nutrient-rich, healthy eating tailored to the needs of the individual. The truest human diet, really, is one which recognizes, shifts and changes its components based on what is available and what it needs. This has been and will always be our species’ greatest strength – the ability to adapt and thrive. It is why we have an omnivore’s dentition, an omnivore’s gut, and omnivore’s tastes. An Omnitarian Diet Plan, designed towards the individual, may in fact be the most healthful way forward. Sourceshttps://www.nature.com/articles/nature02734https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/evolution-of-diet/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/food/the-plate/2014/04/22/prehistoric-dining-the-real-paleo-diet/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/paleo-diet-debates-evolve-into-something-bigger/2016/03/07/792828ba-d690-11e5-be55-2cc3c1e4b76b_story.htmlhttps://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/12/17/1016868108https://www.nature.com/news/art-of-cheese-making-is-7-500-years-old-1.12020https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130603163749.htmhttps://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/early-meat-eating-human-ancestors-thrived-while-vegetarian-hominin-died-out/
Immortalized in poems, books and songs, few celestial events have stirred so deeply in the human mind as the end of summer arrival of the Harvest Moon. This name, “Harvest Moon”, dates back to the farming traditions of ancient Europe, though celebrations of its arrival are found throughout the world. As summer in the northern hemisphere comes to a close with the onset of the autumnal equinox (the biannual crossing of the Sun over the Earth’s equator, this year on September 22nd), the days begin to shorten and nightfall arrives earlier and earlier each day. However, due to changes in the moon’s orbit around the Earth, the full moon (this year appearing on October 1st) at this time rises in the sky just after sunset, bathing the land in its warm glow. The bright light it provided during these early evening hours was said to provide farmers more time for harvesting the last of their summer crops, and was celebrated as a gift and a symbol of the transition to fall.
With this month’s theme of Harvest Moon, we aim to honor these old traditions and thoughts of transition and the arrival of the new in our unique culinary way. The end of summer heralds many changes, especially in the world of food. The summer fruits with their citrus-y, sharp flavors leave and the warm and hearty flavors of fall arrive, filling us with thoughts of hearth and home. The last of the summer’s wine grapes are picked in this time as well, and the new wines begin appearing in the markets from previous years harvests. We thought this was an especially auspicious time to premiere our new wine-pairing samples, which we believe will be a fantastic addition to the NutriFit Virtual Guided Tasting Experience.
At our local farm, the Mesa, our own summer harvests are coming to a close, with tomatoes bearing the last fruits on their vines and the last lemons of summer appearing on branches. And it’s not just us – our bees are stocking up on honey to prepare for fall and winter and Monarch butterfly caterpillars are munching away on our planted milkweed, preparing to transform themselves and embrace a new, fall world. Like them, we here at NutriFit are embracing these times of change. We warmly invite you to join us in this new guided tasting experience and wish you all a joyful and peaceful transition to fall, under a beautiful Harvest Moon.
In honor of the beginning of fall, we’re posting our recipe for a fall favorite side dish sure to be a hit at your next (socially distanced) get together.
A traditional fall ingredient staple, pumpkin is quite nutrient dense while lower in calories due to its high water content. Rich in antioxidants, other benefits nutritional benefits include high fiber, beta carotene, potassium, plus vitamins A and C.
So please enjoy our low-fat recipe for comforting homemade Pumpkin Bisque!
Pumpkin Bisque Recipe
Servings – 6
Serving Size – 1.5 cups
Ingredients
3 cups – canned pumpkin
3 cups – carrots, sliced
12 oz. – fat free evaporated milk
2, 10.75 oz. cans – fat free, reduced sodium vegetable broth
1/4 tsp – ground white pepper
1.5 tsp – NutriFit Certainly Cinnamon Salt Free Spice Blend
1/4 tsp – sea salt
1 tbsp. – sugar
1/4 cup – water
Directions
1. Combine carrot and 1 cup broth in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool slightly.
2. Transfer carrot and liquid to container of an electric blender; cover and process until smooth. Transfer to a 3-quart saucepan; add remaining broth, pumpkin, evaporated milk, water, sugar, pumpkin spice, salt, and ground white pepper.
3. Cook over medium heat until hot, stirring frequently; ladle into bowls.
Calories – 123
Protein – 7.8g
Carbohydrate – 23.6g
Total Fat – 0.4g
% Cal. from Fat – 3%
Sat. Fat – 0g
Cholesterol – 2mg
Sodium – 379mg
Dietary Fiber – 4g
Sugar – 9.9g
NutriFit Executive Sous Chef Oscar Gonzalez has a favorite saying, “First, you eat with your eyes. Then, your nose. Finally, your mouth.” This month’s tasting event, “The August Bloom”, brings to the table your sense of smell in a ground-breaking new way, through the use of ‘aromatic mists’. These mists capture the essence of a smell, for example orange blossoms, lemon thyme, or lavender, and adds them to a dish. This application creates an incredible new flavor profile that we were astonished to discover, transporting the diner out of the range of what they thought flavor could be. But why would these mists be so powerful, and why would a chef choose to highlight or add them to a dish?
We all can think of the power of aroma in defining a great meal. Close your eyes and think back to a time you were brought joy by not the taste of food, but the smell. Perhaps it was waking up to the savory scent of a delicious breakfast wafting in from another room, or coming home and the house filled with the aroma of your favorite dinner dish. This is the power of smell in cooking. It overwhelms, it makes us stop in a way the other senses simply do not. And there is a scientific reason for this. The sensation of smell is activated as odor molecules travel through the air and into the nasal cavity, where they come into contact with olfactory receptors which directly transmits, through the olfactory nerve, a message to your brain. That direct brain connection is enough to create a powerful emotional reaction, but it doesn’t stop there. A retro-nasal cavity, packed with olfactory receptors, exists also in the back of your mouth, and odor continues to permeate from food to your brain even as you chew. The visceral ‘punch’ you get from a strong smell, be it good or bad, is due to this direct link between nose and brain.
This link was evolutionarily adaptive for our ancestors, as the ability to quickly recognize rotten food can mean the difference between life or death. The strong emotional reaction we get to bad smells evolved for this reason, and the joyful emotional experience from pleasing smells, such as those of a delicious meal or fragrant flowers, came along as part of the package. And this strong link to emotion is why smells can trigger memories so readily, and why food holds such meaning in culture. Flavor, the descriptive quality of food, is as much perceived through these olfactory receptors and a foods’ smell, as it is through your taste buds. It’s been said that 80% of flavor is actually smell, and anyone with a cold who has tried to enjoy their favorite dish and been disappointed can attest to this.
So, what happens when we begin to experiment with flavor not simply through taste, but through aroma as well? Chefs have, whether knowingly or not, been doing this since our ancestors first applied fire to meat in caves long ago. Just as you can change the taste of a food by applying heat in different ways to alter chemical reactions in the ingredients, (ie. Baking v. Frying v. Sous-vide), you can change the aroma. Certain aromas can be coaxed out of, or even applied separately, to different dishes which in turn effects the flavor in a way that can surprise and bring joy in ways never thought of before. For example, a lavender aroma, or mist, can be created and captured by pushing hot air over lavender petals at a controlled temperature, pressure and duration. This mist, when applied to our decadent chocolate Organic Beauty Bites, adds an entirely new experience to this dish. Suddenly you are no longer eating this sumptuous chocolate delight in your home, but in a field of blooming lavender in the rolling hills of Provence in springtime, relaxing amongst the petals as a cool breeze surrounds you.
By highlighting and challenging your flavor perceptions with aromas, we hope to create an experience that is completely unique, one that transports you and blooms within the mind. Join us on this culinary and perceptual journey at our virtual tasting event this Friday, August 28th, and experience flavor in a way you never thought possible.
Full menu, information and tickets may be purchased here.
Nestled on five oak-studied acres on the Central California coast, our sustainable farm SimpliHealth Growers, affectionately called “the Mesa”, produces some of the delicious organic fruits, veggies and herbs that grace our client’s plates. But the Mesa is more to us at NutriFit than a farm – it is a commitment to building a sustainable future for our planet through locally grown, organic, farm-to-table ingredients. Over 30 years we have continuously innovated how we provide nutritious and delicious meals to our clients, and we continue to do so through our environmentally friendly farming operations.
We strive to stay on the cutting edge of sustainable farming techniques. Our farm is 100% solar-powered – all of our electricity is supplied without the use of polluting greenhouse gases, affirming our promise to fighting climate change. We also use minimal water by using drip-irrigation techniques, which saves up to 70% of the water used in traditional sprinkler systems, to grow everything from wholesome kale and asparagus to mouth-watering peaches and black-berries. We take this a step further in our greenhouses by using hydroponics, which use a whopping 80-90% less water than traditional methods, to grow tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and many other delicious veggies. Finally, we only utilize hydrogen, hybrid and high fuel-efficiency vehicles to transport our produce on the short-drive back to our Los Angeles kitchen, furthering our pledge to produce locally and think globally.
But its not only our growing techniques that are sustainable. Our farm itself is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat, providing food, water and shelter to co-exist with a whole host of native species. Red-shouldered hawks’ nest on our property, while Anna’s hummingbirds buzz between flowers and California quail raise families in the shade of our magnificent oak trees. Native rabbits, gopher snakes and ground squirrels are our frequent guests, and we boast a healthy population of insect-munching little brown bats. The fragrant flowers of rosemary, basil, golden poppies and milkweed (critical for declining Monarch butterflies) dot our land, unveiling beautiful flowers to the California sun. Finally, the addition of our very own bee hive ensures we boost important pollinators, contribute to reversing drastic bee population declines, and that soon we can provide organic, local honey to our loyal clientele.
Here at NutriFit, we have committed in mind, body and spirit to the tenants of environmental stewardship and creating a sustainable future. SimpliHealth Growers and the Mesa is a testament to our commitment to sustainable organic farming and to supplying the best ingredients to our clients. And while we can’t supply everything in our meals from our farm (though that won’t stop us from trying), we pledge to use only the best ingredients to fulfill our client’s healthy food needs. Next time you receive a NutriFit meal, keep an eye out for one of our SimpliHealth Growers labels and know that from our farm to your table, you are part of building a better, more sustainable future.
Ah, Basil. From its humble origins in the wilds of India, central Africa and Southeast Asia, Ocimum basilicum is one of the culinary worlds most popular herbs, finding its way into dishes from every corner of the planet. With an incredible amount of variation, (over 150 different types of basil and counting!) from “Holy Basil” to “African Blue Basil” to “Thai Basil”, this strong, fragrant, and often sweet tasting member of the mint family has held some surprisingly important roles in history. In fact its name is rife with meaning, as Basil comes from the Greek word Basileus, meaning “king”.
From its birthplace in India, the variety “Holy Basil” (also called tulsi) is considered an essential religious symbol and venerated plant, the earthly incarnation of the god Tulsi/Vrinda. It is the holiest of all plants in Hinduism and no Hindu household is considered complete without a tulsi plant growing in its courtyard, often in a special pot or masonry structure. Offerings of basil leaves are required for worship of the god Vishnu and his avatars and its use in Ayurvedic medicine for all manner of prevention and cure is trumped by no other plant.
In ancient Egypt, basil was believed to have been used in embalming and preserving mummies, and has been found in ancient tombs beneath the pyramids. Interestingly enough, it was also thought to ensure safe journey to the afterlife, a belief shared in Ancient Greece, where basil was also associated with poverty and misfortune. On the island of Crete, it was an emblem of the devil, and was paradoxically planted on window ledges to ward away evil. In the modern day Greek Orthodox church, it is sometimes found on alters, and sprigs of it are used to sprinkle holy water. African folklore stated that it helped ease the pain of scorpion stings – perhaps misreading this, a 16th century French doctor believed it cause scorpions to grow in the brain of anyone who smelled or ate it!
Basil is sometimes known as “l’herbe royale” (the royal herb) in French and was believed to have grown on the original cross of Christ (perhaps another reason for it “kingly” name-sake) and in Jewish folklore was thought to lend strength while fasting. It was thought by some Medieval doctors to be poisonous, and by others to cure the venom of the infamous Basilisk monster (also from Harry Potter fame), which could kill by simply gazing at its victims. Today in Portugal, it is considered a symbol of love, given to loved ones in a small decorative pot or manjerico on St. Anthony’s and St. John’s days.
Uses for basil range from Thai to Italian cuisine. This herb traveled along medieval trade routes and eventually found its way to North America, where it is commonly found on many plates and in gardens today. The colorful history of basil is a testament to its remarkable taste and incredible variety. It’s why we are so excited to highlight it in our first virtual tasting! Remember to pick up your tickets today, while supplies last!
In honor of our 33rd business anniversary, we’re holding a very special virtual guided food tasting experience to celebrate with our clients while still appropriately socially distancing.
Enjoy a five course menu of epicurean creations designed by our Executive Chef team, Jackie Keller and Oscar Gonzalez. The menu will be delivered FRESH to your door on Friday, July 31, with the guided tasting via Zoom beginning at 6:30 PM that evening and lasting approximately 30 minutes. The tasting also includes a lively presentation and interactive discussion, with recommendations for wine pairing. Affordably priced at $59.95 per participant, purchase 4, and the 5th one is our gift.
Invite your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to join in for this unique virtual food tasting event. Simply RSVP (enrollment is limited), and pay through the link below. Free local delivery for current NutriFit members, nominal delivery fee for those not yet part of our NutriFit family. Shipping nationwide available for arrival on 7/31 (cost depends on location).
Tickets for this special event may be purchased here
Our menu titled “The Basil Flight”, features two options – omnitarian or vegetarian and both are designed to highlight our SimpliHealth Growers organic basil – hand planted and harvested on our own solar-powered farm. Don’t miss this unique culinary experience – the kick off event for our new NutriFit loyalty program, the Connoisseur’s Club.
The Basil Flight – Omnitarian Menu
1- Heirloom tomato Farcie with fresh Buffalo burrata cheese
2- Miso-glazed Mary’s chicken confit with pickled beetroot, vichyssoise, Basil pea salad
3- Pinot Noir braised Short Ribs with celeriac mousse. Lamb au Jus with Cipollini onions
4 – Palate Cleanser of Watermelon Bites with Port and basil reduction
5 – Ganache au Chocolat – coated Cake Pop with Cara Cara orange
The Basil Flight – Vegetarian Menu
1 – Heirloom tomato Farcie with fresh Buffalo burrata cheese
2 – Forest Fire: Szechuan-roasted cauliflower, and Basil, Lime and Sesame Broccoli
3 – Thai basil marinated Maitake mushroom with tempeh in French choux topped with Green crown
4 – Palate Cleanser of Watermelon Bites with Port and basil reduction
5 – Ganache au Chocolat – coated Cake Pop with Cara Cara orange
Post by Adam Yaney-Keller
As of this year, 34.2 million people, or 10.5% of the total US population, struggle everyday with a diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes [0]. For those with this challenging disease, eating can be a frustrating and difficult routine, because creating a diet that manages blood sugar levels takes time and precision. At NutriFit, we have helped our clients with diabetes not only manage their daily meals, but accomplish their long-term, real health goals of living happier and healthier lives. How do we do it? Well, when building a nutrition program around diabetes, it’s important to keep in mind three things: timing, portions, and content.
Timing is crucial for managing diabetes with diet, because you need to regulate your blood sugar levels throughout the day and keeping your meals evenly spaced will help keep those levels steady. For proper control, space your meals out at regular intervals of about 4 – 6 hours apart [1] generally keeping a similar schedule each day, and try not to skip meals. Some people can be more flexible with this than others – for example if you take insulin with your meals [2], so it’s important to create a meal schedule that works for you.
Portioning out your meals, not only in terms of overall size but in the amount of carbohydrates per meal, is an adjustment for many people. However, its importance can’t be overstated in managing your diabetes. Your body converts carbohydrates to sugar, so controlling the amount of carbs on your plate will be critical. But this doesn’t have to mean cutting out all carbohydrates – it’s just about balancing out what you eat and when you eat it so your blood sugar levels stay stable. A general rule to follow is to fill about one quarter of your plate with healthy grains or starches – such as potatoes, whole grain rice, bread or pasta, and about one half your plate with non-starchy vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and salad greens. The last one quarter of your plate is designed for a lean meat such as chicken, turkey or fish. Portion controlling for weight loss will be critical to avoid complications from diabetes which include an increased risk for heart disease, kidney disease and stroke [3]. This is a life-long commitment, so figuring out a diet plan you can stick to and enjoy is critical.
Meal content simply means eating foods that will help you maintain healthy blood sugar levels. This means adding more of certain foods in your diet than maybe you would have had before, and getting rid of others. Limit foods with refined carbohydrates and added sugars, such as white breads, white rice, white flour pastas and especially high sugar drinks and desserts which will cause blood sugar to spike quickly. Add more foods that are high in fiber to your diet, as these not only make you feel full allowing for better weight control, but the fiber helps to minimize rise in blood sugar. This includes foods like oatmeal and beans, carrots, beets, broccoli, and dark-colored greens (think collard, mustard greens and Swiss-chard) and fruits like raspberries, apples (with peels), mangos and bananas. It’s important to remember to drink lots of water to avoid constipation when adding fiber to your diet.
There are a few other foods that have some proven benefits specifically for diabetes. Chia seeds have been shown to lower blood sugar and slow the rate at which food is absorbed, which can help control those levels [4] [5] [6]. Flaxseeds have been show to improve blood sugar control [7] and help diabetics with hemoglobin levels [8]. Fatty fish such as salmon, sardines and mackerel are great ources of omega-3 fatty acids and can help reduce the increased risk diabetics may face for heart disease [9] [10]. Turmeric packs a strong one-two-punch as it can lower inflammation and blood sugar [11][12], but also improve kidney health, which is also very important for diabetics [13][14]. Finally, Greek yogurt has been shown to improve blood sugar control and reduce heart disease risk [4] [5] [6] .
At NutriFit, we are prepared to help you build a diet that works for you and your health needs. If you struggle with diabetes, we have the experience and knowledge to help you start managing it with your diet. Eating does not have to be a stressful or long process of counting carbs, managing portions, and adding in foods to help manage diabetes. Get diabetic meals delivered straight to your home from NutriFit, so that you can get back to living your best, healthiest life.
[0] https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics/statistics-report.html
[1] https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/features/diabetes-eat-control-blood-sugar
[2] https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/diet-eating-physical-activity?dkrd=/health-information/diabetes/overview/diet-eating-physical-activity/carbohydrate-counting
[3] https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/diabetes/why-diabetes-matters
[4] vhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18287346/
[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20087375/
[6] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17092830/
[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20003621/
[8] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17987126/
[9] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24850465/
[10] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22682084/
[12] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26088351/
[12] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22930403/
[13] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23828329/
[14] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25875220/
Blog Post by Adam Yaney-Keller
The Zone Diet, as told by biochemist Dr. Barry Sears in his 1995 book “The Zone”, takes the approach that weight gain, sickness and premature aging are caused by inflammation in the body. The diet proposes a specific macronutrient ratio of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat for each meal (commonly known as the 40/30/30 rule) to reduce this inflammation, and get your body in “The Zone”, a clinical state which can be measured by testing certain biomarkers in your blood, such as blood sugar and cholesterol. According to Sears, if you achieve “the Zone” through the diet’s rules, you’ll reap the benefits, including “performing better”, “thinking faster” and “losing excess body fat at the fastest possible rate”[1]. If these sound like a very broad range of benefits, it’s because it is. And while for many achieving “the Zone” may work, for significantly more people it probably won’t. That’s because, simply put, everyone’s “Zone” is different.
An easy way to look at the problems with the Zone Diet is to examine what it does and does not allow you to do. While the Zone does not strictly forbid any foods, it somewhat resembles a Mediterranean diet in what it suggests you avoid and recommends you eat, namely lean proteins (e.g. egg whites, turkey, fish), monounsaturated fats (e.g. avocados, nuts, olive oil) and low glycemic carbs (e.g. oatmeal, spinach, berries). Since the Mediterranean diet is well known to be one of the healthiest globally [2] [3], it works for many people to reduce weight. But, research has shown that the Mediterranean diet doesn’t work for every circumstance[4] . This makes sense because overall health depends on biology, dietary history, environment, and other factors – no one diet is perfect for everyone, since no one person is the same as another.
If you have a more complex goal, such as increasing endurance and energy for athletics, the Zone diet may not be ideal [5] . The Zone diet does not allow for shifting your macronutrient consumption to different times of day, such as more carbs before workouts and more proteins after (which has been shown to work well for athletes to build muscle [6] [7]) – it’s 40/30/30, every meal, every day. And if you have allergies to certain foods, or you simply don’t like them, you may find it challenging to meet the restrictions required by the diet. Measuring out macronutrients is a chore, and over time the burden of it adds up, especially when the diet’s benefits may not align with your goals or preferences. But with the Zone diet, your individual activity and desires are not as important as getting into “the Zone”. That means this diet doesn’t work for you – you work for it. And in the long run, that may not work at all.
So, what’s the alternative? Well, the good news is that there are many. Making your diet work for you is about tailoring a personalized diet plan to your body and your needs. At NutriFit, our process is to ask questions about your history, goals and preferences. We’ve found that by taking this highly-customized personalized diet plan approach (for over 30 years), the best strategy is one that minimizes your headaches and maximizes your preferences, while keeping the end goal in sight. And that doesn’t mean doing the same thing over and over – your needs may shift from year to year, and day to day, as does your health. We commit to you by working to find a customized solution and staying dynamic in that role by seeing your results and changing with you. It doesn’t mean you still won’t restrict some foods and eat more of others – this is a huge part of a healthy lifestyle.
The truth is, the problem with the Zone Diet is that everybody’s “Zone” is different. Each of our bodies has different shapes, make-ups, histories, and needs. Instead of thinking in “Zones” we must achieve, we should rather think of “Paths” we can go down, paths which may lead one way at one stage in life and a different way in another. But each person’s path is different and finding the one you like doesn’t mean committing to the strict Zone Diet ratio every day, for the rest of your life. We can help you find your path, and help you stick to it.
Sources
[1] https://www.zonediet.com/the-zone-diet/
[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28710052/
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20929998/
[4] https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/46/5/1478/4056503
[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11834107/
[6] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28919842/
[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17609259/
1. Get real about your weight.
Most of us look in the mirror from the neck up. When was the last time you looked at yourself from the neck down? Do you have a point of reference from before the COVID-19 quarantine? How do you measure your weight now? Is it the same way you measured before the stay-at-home period began? How do you determine what your weight should be? How recent is your weight gain (really)?
2. Look at your eating plan.
Do you have one? Are your meals and snacks scheduled or random? Are you willing to schedule your regimen formally (on paper)?
How hungry are you before your meals (using a 1-10 rating scale – 1 = starved; 10 = stuffed) and after you eat?
3. Look at your drinking plan.
Do you have one?
Are you eating to quench your thirst instead of drinking water?
4. Take a look at the other factors that can directly affect weight.
Rate your stress on a scale of 1-10: 1 is totally relaxed, 10 is completely stressed out.
How do you deal with your stress?
5. Make a schedule.
Our brains love habits – good and bad (the brain doesn’t distinguish).
How long do you think it takes to form a new habit? Surprisingly, it’s not 30 days, like we may have thought – it’s 66 days. Specifically, what new habits would you like to develop around your relationship with food? How can you break them down into Mini Habits that you can weave into your day? What can you do to build a foundation for these habits so you can start eating healthy during quarantine and avoid the “Quarantine 15”?
Focus on the behavior, not the outcome. Guarantee success by making the first goal really easy.
Measure your progress – visually – using any marker that is meaningful to you.
Ask yourself this: When I _______________then I will _____________________.
Celebrate weight progress – it builds success!
In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we’re pleased to share one of our client-favorite Mexican fusion recipes: Mexican Spring Rolls!
While the COVID-19 pandemic may have derailed your usual Cinco de Mayo celebration, you can still create a party atmosphere in your kitchen with this festive, Mexican-inspired recipe.
Mexican Spring Rolls RecipeServings – 6 rolls
Serving Size – 2 rolls
Ingredients
cilantro leaves – 12 ea
enchilada sauce – 1/2 cup
green onion, diced – 2 ea
ground turkey – 1 lb
NutriFit Calypso Salt Free Spice Blend – 1 tsp
onions, chopped – 1/2 cup
reduced fat cheddar cheese, grated – 3/4 cup
rice paper – 12 ea
romaine lettuce, shredded – 2 cups
tomatoes, diced – 1 cup
Directions
For each teaspoon of the Calypso Blend, you may use: 1/2 tsp. ground chilies, 1/4 tsp. ground cumin, 1/8 tsp. each black pepper and garlic powder.
To make filling:
1. Sauté ground turkey with enchilada sauce, Calypso blend and onions until cooked through. Pour off any excess fat and cool.
To roll the spring rolls:
1. In a bowl of warm water, dip a sheet of rice paper until both sides are moist. Let sit for 1 minute until the rice paper is soft.
2. Place approximately 2 tbsp. of the meat filling on the edge of the rice paper (closest to you) and add a teaspoon of green onion, cilantro, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Take the rice paper from edge and roll 1/3 of the way; fold in both sides towards the center and then continue to roll the rest of the way (like you would roll a burrito).
3. Repeat for the remaining sheets of rice paper. (You can cover the rolls with a moistened paper towel as you are rolling the other sheets to avoid the rolls drying out.)
4. Serve immediately or cover the rolls with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
There are many different types of social support systems that we all need as humans. Now, more than ever, it’s important to figure out who is actually there to support you, and what kind of support he or she provides. Here’s a simple exercise that can help you define your social support system using pen and paper. No drawing skills needed!
Start with a small circle, just big enough to contain the people with whom you can be most intimate. Put their initials in that circle. The next circle is for family or close friends – draw a larger circle around the first and insert these folks in that circle. The next outer circle is for friends that you enjoy spending time with but are not people with whom you’d share your inner thoughts. You’re halfway there! Three more circles – professional colleagues are placed in the next circle, or those people whom you think you could count on for help if needed. Then comes a circle of non-professional acquaintances, more distant relations or neighbors. The outermost circle are people who provide informational; support, like your lawyer, banker, therapist or coach.
Now that you have a visual of your perceived social support system, you have a more concrete understanding of the people that you can call on. Perhaps the most helpful part of this is seeing where you have “holes” in your social support, and since friendships benefit all parties, reaching out now really can be very helpful to others who may need to fill holes, too. And, you might come away with a new perception and increased gratitude for supportive people in your life right now!
Taken from a Podcast with Dr. Shelley Carson, author of Your Creative Brain (Jossey-Bass).
Are you in the 60% of US consumers that order takeout once a week? Have the number of times you order per week gone up during the current COVID-19 pandemic? Are you worried about quarantine weight gain, or the ‘quarantine fifteen’? We have some healthy takeout meal tips and advice on why it might be better to consider healthy home delivered meals while you’re staying safe at home.
Think Beyond A Single Meal
It’s easy to order up something on the spur of the moment that’s delivered before you’ve had time to consider the overall nutritional value of the meal, and how it fits into your daily caloric targets, but that’s where you can easily get in trouble. Consider your daily caloric intake , and what that spontaneity might cost, beyond the amount you’ll pay in dollars and cents. The overall calorie, fat, carbohydrate and protein of each meal matters.
Consider Portion Sizes
While a larger container of any given item may be less a better value, it’s important to consider what the right portion size is for you when you ‘dish up’ for dinner! Leaving some leftovers for the next day is a great way to avoid the dreaded quarantine weight gain. If your delivery doesn’t contain a recommendation for portioning that is appropriate for your individual body and lifestyle (you’re remaining active while staying safer-at-home, right?), finding out the correct portion size can help turn a regular delivery dinner into a more healthy takeout meal!
What To Do With Leftovers
Not one for repeating the same meal? Think about buying up some freezer bags and putting some of that delivery away for a couple of weeks. Most cooked food can be successfully frozen if properly packaged for the freezer (ie. ziplock-style bags that allow you to see what’s inside) for up to 3 months.
COVID-19 – How to handle containers that you might bring in from outside
Do you have confidence in the safety of the food that is being delivered to your door? If you are receiving meals from a source (like NutriFit) that wipes the containers and bags before sending them out, you can rest more easily. However, it’s a good idea to wipe off any boxes that you receive from others with a bleach towel, then throw out the wipes or put the towel back into a bucket of diluted bleach solution and sanitize the surface that you worked on.Wear gloves while you’re doing this, then dispose of the gloves and wash your hands thoroughly with warm soapy water.
Everyone has their favorite guilty pleasure takeout – at NutriFit, we offer healthy, tasty versions many of your favorite Chinese, Mexican, Italian (and more) dishes. Our A La Carte menu features over 100 items including vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, gluten free options – all of which come labeled with full nutritional information.
These days, it’s impossible to miss the constant reminders about the importance of robust health. We all know that, when you eat foods that boost your immune system, you are better able to remain healthy, even under stress.
NutriFit is here to help. For the past 32 years, our meals have contained the healthiest, premium-quality ingredients obtainable. Precisely the kinds of foods that boost your immune system. In fact, foods that boost your immune system have always been the cornerstone of our service – free range, antibiotic- and hormone-free meat, poultry and pork; wild-caught fish and seafood; wholesome whole grains; and healthy dairy, nuts and seeds. And of course, largely organic produce, an increasing amount of which is grown on our own small, sustainable farm, by us, personally.
It is universally recognized that a well-rounded diet that features abundant variety from plants and proteins of all kinds is the key to better withstanding illnesses of all kinds, including viruses such as COVID 19. To this end, we also provide an unparalleled variety of organic fresh juices and smoothies to enhance your nutritional status and round out your diet.
Your health is our paramount concern. We value the trust you place in us, and maintain the strictest standards of sanitation and safety in the purchase, preparation and delivery of your meals. Our entire NutriFit team of employees, from the office, to the kitchen staff and our drivers, all continue to be extraordinarily vigilant in the furtherance of this mission – to help you live a longer, healthier life.
There is nothing more important to us at NutriFit than food health and safety, and the safety of our clients, employees and community. That’s why we wanted to share the steps we are taking and our sanitation and food health and safety practices with all of you.
First, we have always maintained an extraordinarily clean and sanitary facility. We proudly display our A Rating granted by the Department of Public Health since ratings began. All of our kitchen employees have received certified food health and safety training. In fact our founder, Jackie Keller, taught Food Handling and Safety for the Department of Health for many years.
Our facility is also cleaned thoroughly each day using environmentally-friendly and highly effective cleaning agents. We use food gloves (non-latex) when plating your meals (and always have)! We wipe the insides of our delivery bags with a bleach solution daily.
You many have noticed some of our new containers. As new, durable and truly compostable alternatives become available, we are sourcing and experimenting with them. Our goal is to eliminate any non-recycled containers. In the interim, any meal containers that are returned to us are washed and donated to the local food banks (OPCC/West L.A. Food Bank/Step up on Second). We have done this for over 20 years.
We welcome visitors, so if you would like to see our kitchen, we are located in the heart of west L.A. and would love to meet you!
Please feel free to call with comments, questions or concerns.
A common question we’re asked is the difference between healthy fats vs unhealthy fats. With high fat fad diets, like the ketogenic diet, it is important to examine what the difference is between healthy fats vs unhealthy fats. Many years ago, people thought eating low-fat foods would lead to a low-fat body without taking into consideration the difference in fats and which they were consuming. While that myth has been dispelled time and time again, there’s still a lot of confusion among people without a nutrition background about what constitutes healthy fats vs unhealthy fats. Good fats include monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats and omega-3’s – these fats do not increase cholesterol and are very heart-healthy. These fats are an essential part of a healthy diet and help to the body absorb nutrients, assist never transmission and maintain cell membrane health.Unhealthy fats include trans-fats found in hydrogenated oils and some saturated fats. Not all saturated fats are created equal – some may not have either a positive or negative effect on health, such as those found in canola oil – while others, such as those found in butter and ice cream, fall into the “bad” fat category. These “bad” fats result in obesity, heart disease and other devastating health problems.Rather than look for non-fat products, which may be high in calories or sugar, choose foods with healthy fats for weight loss, heart-health, lowered cancer risk, and great taste. Here is a list of six healthy fats that you should start eating today:
Nuts
Many nuts and seeds are rich in omega-3 fatty acids which help to protect your heart by regulating rythms that can cause heart attacks. Several studies have also shown that eating nuts lower your risk of heart disease and type-3 disease.
Seeds
Seeds are a great source of healthy fats. For example, flax seeds contain omega-3’s that have been linked to a reduced risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke. Additionally, chia seeeds are loaded with omega-3’s and are also high in protein.
Avocados
Avocados can lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise your HDL (good cholesterol) and also reduce the risk of prostate and oral cancer.
Cold water fish
Fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids that reduce inflammation and growth of plaque on heart arteries.
Eggs
Eggs are an excellent source of protein, Vitamin A, B, D, and E as well as favorable minerals such as zinc, phosphorous and selenium.
Olive oil
Olive oil is high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats that lower total cholesterol, normalize blood clotting and help control insulin and blood sugar levels.
You might be wondering at this point if you should adopt a low fat or low carb diet for weight loss. A recent 12 month study published in JAMA showed no significant difference in weight loss success with either diet. So what should you eat? Our recommendation is to focus on a diet that you can maintain long term- including wholesome diet high in whole grains, legumes, plant-based protein, nuts and healthy oils, fish, limited red meat and no highly processed foods or refined sugars. This will ultimately set you up for long term success so that you can eat healthfully without worrying about dieting.
Want to eat healthfully but need some help in the cooking department? Check out our healthy sample menus menus for great options.
Have a marathon coming up? Here are some marathon nutrition tips for training and race-day to help keep you in top shape. As the saying goes, “not planning is planning to fail” and this holds especially true for marathon runners. To keep energy levels up and avoid crashing, ensure that you have a marathon diet plan and a race-day hydration plan. Eat a small meal or two four hours before the race – make sure that you do not try any new foods to avoid any unexpected reactions. As a part of your marathon nutrition, make it a habit to bring and eat small snacks that are high on the glycemic index on runs longer than one hour. It is important for your marathon diet plan to not wait until you are hungry to eat, especially during longer runs. Knowing your body and when to refuel before waiting for a rumbling stomach is crucial for healthy marathon nutrition. The body stores a maximum of 2000 kilocalories of glycogen, which it quickly burns after 90 minutes or so. Research shows that the typical 145 lb male burns 100 calories/mile with 80 of those calories coming from carbohydrates and 20 from fat. Another way to keep energy up during your marathon diet plan is with caffeine – but only use this if you regularly consume it and have a plan in place to balance caffeine intake with water and carbohydrate intake. Energy gels and sports drinks also contain carbohydrates and, when used properly, are a good supplement to your GI snacks. Incorporate these energy gels in your marathon diet plan and consider using them as a chaser after re-hydrating with water. NutriFit also makes a wonderful Mighty Muscle Mix, which is a great recovery snack for your marathon nutrition.It is also important to take race-day conditions into consideration – high humidity and heat will affect your energy and run. Be sure to drink plenty of water and stop at aid stations along the marathon path. Pay attention to the color of your urine and bladder to identify possible problems and know the affects medications you may be taking might have on your body during the race.
Marathon running nutrition works hand-in-hand with your training so be sure to consult a physician before adopting a new diet.
Need some help in planning your meals? Check out our Sports Nutrition Diets for sample menus and information on how we can help you get into optimal shape.
Looking for a vegan and gluten free snack to keep you satisfied between meals? Look no further than today’s featured recipe: Moroccan lentil soup with Lemon & Coconut! This yummy coconut lentil soup recipe is packed with protein and a perfect pre- or post-workout snack.
Lentils are a great vegan and gluten free plant-based protein that are high in fiber and a good source of folic acid, magnesium and iron.
Additionally, lemons provide a great source of vitamin C; coconuts are high in manganese, which is important for bone health, as well as copper, iron and selenium.
Moroccan Coconut Lentil Soup Recipe with Lemon
Servings – 3
Serving Size – 1/2 cup
Ingredients:
canola (or other) oil – 2 tbsp
cilantro leaves – 1 bunch
cumin seeds – 1 tsp
ginger – 1 (2″) piece
fresh red chiles, chopped and seeded – 2 small
garlic, minced – 2 cloves
lemon juice – 2 tbsp
NutriFit Rockin’ Moroccan Spice Blend – 1 tsp
onion, finely chopped – 1/2 cup
multicolored lentils – 2/3 cup
reduced fat coconut milk – 1 cup
almonds, silvered and toasted – 1/4 cup
water – 1 cup
Directions
1. Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet, add the ginger, onion, garlic, chiles and cumin and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until the onion is softened but not colored.
2. Stir in the lentils, water and and Rockin’ Moroccan spice blend. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes, until the lentils are just tender, but not broken up.
3. Stir in all but 2 tbsp. Of the coconut milk. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes more, until the mixture is thick and pulpy. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and cilantro leaves. Season to taste.
4. Top with toasted almonds and serve reserved coconut milk
Want to leave the cooking to us? Check out our sample menus here
Gaining weight can be distressing, especially when you feel you’re doing everything right. Aside from not eating right or exercising enough, there might be several surprising reason’s you’re gaining weight that might not occur to you! Here we examine a number of reasons for weight gain that might affect your health. In addition to maintaining a healthy diet and exercising regularly, it is also very important to get enough sleep to keep your metabolism and hormone levels in check. This also helps you avoid late-night snacking Examining stress level is also important. When we are extremely stressed, our bodies secrete a hormone called cortisol that can cause an increase in appetite (resulting in an increased intake in calories). Stress generally takes attention away from diet or healthy eating, causing unnoticed and unwanted weight gain. Many people who quit smoking also experience weight gain. Although this is not universally true, studies have shown that people who tend to gain weight after quitting smoking do so because the lack of nicotine has decreased their metabolism, made food taste better and has left you feeling hungrier and eating more. Smokers also tend to look for something to eat to substitute a cigarette during withdrawal. Here’s a recent study on the effects of smoking cessation and weight. Weight gain can also stem from intake of excess alcohol. This is a common area that people skip when analyzing the reasons for their weight gain and lifestyle. There are many empty calories in alcohol that are digested and broken down much slower by the body and therefore cause weight gain or slow down weight loss.
At NutriFit, we’re dedicated to helping clients achieve long term success by taking a science-based approach to healthy eating.
To learn more about our weight maintenance programs, click here
Clients struggling with their weight may also benefit from health and wellness coaching. Our founder, Jackie Keller, holds multiple board certifications in health and wellness coaching and is a practicing Health and Nutrition Coach.
Beginning January 1, 2020, doctors will be able to prescribe health and wellness coaching. Under the Category III Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Codes approved by the American Medical Association (AMA), health and wellness coaching prescribed by a physician may be eligible for medical reimbursement with certain types of insurance.
NutriFit founder Jackie Keller, is one of the elite coaches with the required National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBHWC) certification awarded with the Category III CPT codes.
Mastering health and the confidence to sustain wellness is a journey of personal growth. Health and wellness coaching is founded on coaching psychology, a new and fast-growing field dedicated to the enhancement of well being and generating more meaning, satisfaction and positive emotion in life.
As a certified health and wellness coach, Jackie conducts one-on-one sessions during which clients set achievable goals in six wellness areas: fitness, weight, nutrition, stress, health, and the life issues that impact health. Along the path of change, you will create solutions to overcome obstacles. This helps you build confidence and energizes you to maintain new behavior patterns.
Jackie guide clients in mindful thinking and building confidence and helps clients define a higher purpose for wellness. By drawing a personal wellness blueprint, Jackie will show clients how to harness the strengths needed to overcome obstacles. Coach and client will build a support team, inspiring and challenging clients to go beyond what they might be able to do alone. By the end of three months, clients typically reach 80% of their first priority goals, and more than 70% of their second priority three-month goals.
Coaching sessions can be conducted in-person, by phone or via video conferencing.
Interested in seeing how coaching can help you? Learn more about personal wellness coaching at NutriFit or visit Jackie’s website
To learn more about health and wellness coaching insurance coverage, click here
A recent study published in JAMA analyzed the connection between mortality and consumption of plant-based protein vs animal protein. The two year study included approximately 131,000 participants and assessed protein intake by percentage of energy, adjusting results for risk factors associated with poor diet or unhealthy lifestyles.
The study concluded that higher plant-based protein intake was “associated with lower all-cause mortality” and animal protein intake was “not associated with all-cause mortality…but was associated with higher cardiovascular mortality”.
Furthermore, the study recommended substitution of plant protein for animal protein (with an emphasis on processed red meat) – especially for those with low lifestyle risk factor.
Excellent sources of plant-based proteins include non-GMO tofu, tempeh, edamame, lentils, beans and quinoa.
NutriFit offers both plant-based meal planning as well as plans that included balanced amounts of animal proteins. All of our plans are also low sodium and are high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables and healthy fats from nuts and seeds.
To read more about the benefits of plant-based protein, read the entire study.
Source:
JAMA Intern Med. 2016 Oct 1;176(10):1453-1463. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4182.
It is widely accepted that there’s an important need for eating healthfully during pregnancy. However, will all the conflicting information out there – it can be confusing! Most pregnant women are worried about what they should be eating to allow for healthy baby development without unneeded or unhealthy weight gain.
While you should discuss what diet is best for you with your doctor, adopting a Mediterranean diet during pregnancy may be beneficial to reducing your risk of gestational diabetes and maintaining healthy weight gain. A study just published in the journal, PLOS Medicine, found that woman who followed the Mediterranean diet during pregnancy had significantly lower risk for gestational diabetes. These women also gained about 2.2 lbs less during pregnancy. Read the entire study here.
We fully support the Mediterranean diet platform at NutriFit, which focuses on whole grains, healthy fats from nuts and oils, no processed food, seasoning with herbs and spices and limit, and limited amounts of red meat. At NutriFit, we are committed to the long-term success in health for our clients by taking a science-based approach to nutrition.
Eating healthfully during pregnancy is only one small aspect of nutrition for moms and babies – and maintaining a healthy weight is equally important for living longer and healthier lives. Unlike other fad diets, the Mediterranean diet is easy to maintain long term – meaning moms (and dads) can adopt it before and after pregnancy.
In addition to helping moms get back in shape after pregnancy with her book, Body After Baby, NutriFit founder Jackie Keller has also helped many expectant moms with eating healthy before and during pregnancy. Whether expectant mothers need help with how many calories to consume, or more complicated issues like gestational diabetes, Jackie guides moms through all aspects of pregnancy nutrition.
Find out how you can have healthy pregnancy meals delivered to your door with our Body After Baby meal plans.
Looking for a bright and unusual side dish for your next summer gathering? Here’s a healthy Beets recipe with Blue Cheese – sure to impress your friends!
Roasted Beets with Blue Cheese & Balsamic
Servings: 8
Serving Size: 1/2 cup
Ingredients:
8 beets, medium, whole
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp NutriFit Salt & Sugar Free French Riviera Spice Blend
1/3 cup pecans
4 oz. reduced fat blue cheese
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Wash the beets and place them on a sheet pan. Roast in the oven until they pierce easily with the tip of a paring knife.
3. Remove the beets from the oven and let cool until cool enough to handle.
4. Trim the ends from the beets and peel. Cut the beets into wedges and place in a serving dish. Season lightly to taste with the French Riviera blend. Drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
5. Sprinkle with the nuts and blue cheese and serve at room temperature.
We’re often asked about the health benefits of turmeric by our clients. Turmeric has long been used as a staple in Southeast Asian cuisine. This bright yellow spice from the root of the Curcuma longa plant is one of the most well-studied and powerful anti-inflammatory superfoods. The main compound responsible for turmerics’ power is curcurmin, which is responsible for that famous canary yellow color. It is also a powerful antioxidant, giving it wonderful anti-cancer and age related disease properties as well.
Curcurmin has been shown in studies to relieve chronic inflammation, which overtime can lead to heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other degenerative conditions [1],[2],[3]. On an acute basis, it also leads to the daily aches and pains that can prevent a more active lifestyle. Curcurmin has been shown to improve the symptoms of arthritis, even more so than some anti-inflammatory medications [4].
Curcurmin has also been shown to improve the function of the endothelium (the lining of blood vessels) which can regulate blood pressure and help with circulation [5]. Additionally it has shown promise as an antidepressant, boosting serotonin and dopamine, which can help get into the healthy mindset that is crucial for maintaining overall wellness [6]. Because turmeric contains only 3% curcurmin by weight, try combining it with black pepper and fats in order to boost uptake and maximize it’s powerful beneficial properties.
Here are a few of the many terrific NutriFit options that you can order that contain turmeric:
——————————————————————————————————————————————-
[1] Libby, Peter, Paul M. Ridker, and Attilio Maseri. “Inflammation and atherosclerosis.” Circulation 105.9 (2002): 1135-1143.[2] Coussens, L. M., & Werb, Z. (2002). Inflammation and cancer. Nature, 420(6917), 860.[3] Lumeng, C. N., & Saltiel, A. R. (2011). Inflammatory links between obesity and metabolic disease. The Journal of clinical investigation, 121(6), 2111-2117.[4] Chandran, B., & Goel, A. (2012). A randomized, pilot study to assess the efficacy and safety of curcumin in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. Phytotherapy research, 26(11), 1719-1725.[5] Akazawa, N., Choi, Y., Miyaki, A., Tanabe, Y., Sugawara, J., Ajisaka, R., & Maeda, S. (2012). Curcumin ingestion and exercise training improve vascular endothelial function in postmenopausal women. Nutrition research, 32(10), 795-799.[6] Kulkarni, S. K., Bhutani, M. K., & Bishnoi, M. (2008). Antidepressant activity of curcumin: involvement of serotonin and dopamine system. Psychopharmacology, 201(3), 435.
A recent study funded by the Gates Foundation and published in the Lancet found that around 11 million global deaths in 2017 could be attributed to diseases caused by poor diet, such as high sodium diets and low fruits and grains consumption. The study was conducted over the span of 27 years (1990 – 2017) and included data from 195 countries.
The authors chose 15 well-researched and accepted adverse dietary risk factors to correlate with available data for each population’s morbidity and mortality rates. These risk factors included but were not limited to, diet low in whole grains, fiber, fruits, vegetables, legumes and diets high in red meat, sodium and trans fatty acids.
The study concluded that diet-related diseases were “responsible for more deaths than any other risks globally, including tobacco smoking” and that “improvements of diet could potentially prevent one in every five deaths globally…unlike many other risk factors, dietary risks affected people regardless of age, sex, and sociodemographic development of their place of residence. Although the impact of individual dietary factors varied across countries, non-optimal intake of three dietary factors (whole grains, fruits, and sodium) accounted for more than 50% of deaths and 66% of DALYs attributable to diet.”
At NutriFit, it has always been our mission to improve the health of our clients through diet. For over 30 years, we have promoted a diet that is low in sodium, high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts and seeds with limited amounts of red meat and no highly processed foods or unhealthy trans fats. The study’s findings are another validation of these diet philosophies we incorporate in each of our client’s meal plans.
Link to full study.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30041-8/fulltext
For over 30 years, we have adopted the Mediterranean diet as our default client meal plan and, once again, it was named as the best diet of 2019 by US News and World Report earlier this year.
So what is the Mediterranean diet?
The diet emphasizes well-rounded plant based eating while still allowing fish, low fat dairy products, eggs and poultry as well as with limited amounts of red meat; healthy fats; whole grains; seasoning with herbs and spices rather than salt, and lots of fruits and vegetables. There are no tricks or complicated rules associated with it – just simple, wholesome eating that excludes refined and processed food.
What are the benefits of the Mediterranean diet?
Several studies have confirmed that the benefits of the Mediterranean diet include reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, memory loss, cancer and high cholesterol. The diet is easy to follow and helps adherents not only lose weight, but maintain weight in the long term.
Where can I read more about it?
We recommend the following studies if you’d like to read more about the benefits of the diet:
According to the American Heart Association, heart disease accounts for 1 of every 7 deaths in the United States and approximately 92.1 million Americans currently live with some type of cardiovascular disease or after-effects of stroke. Extensive research has confirmed that a heart healthy diet plan and lifestyle lowers the risk of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and certain cancers.
To help kick off your heart healthy diet plan, consider switching to a primarily plant based and whole grain diet by limiting red meat, eating fish at least once a week, choosing low fat dairy products, cutting out refined carbs and sugar and limiting unhealthy fats. Additionally, limit sodium intake – the AHA diet plan recommends limiting daily sodium to 1,500 mg for a healthy adult. Switching out salt for herbs and spices is an easy way to add flavor to your food without eating excess salt. If you need guidance, the Mediterranean or DASH diet meal plans are consistently found to be the healthiest diets for overall health and what we recommend at NutriFit.
Nutrition is just one part of the equation – regular exercise is also an important factor in preventing heart disease. Check out the following info graphic with recommendations for physical activity from the AHA.
Good nutrition is not only the key to a healthy body but also a healthy brain!
For example, a well-balanced Mediterranean diet (like we provide at NutriFit) has been shown to decrease the risk of cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease and dementia. A brain-healthy diet can also reduce homocysteine levels, a risk factor for age-associated cognitive decline.
Leafy vegetables (such as spinach, kale & romaine lettuce) are high in folate and B vitamins which can affect brain function, mood and metabolism. Studies on nutrition and the brain have shown that people who eat a brain-healthy diet of at least one portion of leafy vegetables per day had a slower rate of cognitive decline than those who did not. Additionally, cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, etc) have been shown to decrease risk of stroke by decreasing plaque build up and inflammation in the brain.
Polyphenols found in citrus fruits, blueberries, onion, parsley, apples, kiwi (and more) have been associated with promoting memory and learning, reducing brain inflammation and decreasing the risk for dementia.
Along with a proper brain-healthy diet, exercise is also an important factor in maximizing your brain health. Studies on nutrition and the brain have also shown that the combination of a healthy diet and regular exercise can decrease the negative effects of a high fat diet. Resistance training improves cognition as well as muscle strength and bone density which are especially important to focus on as you age.
With the start of the school year just around the corner, we thought we’d share our blueberry chutney recipe that can be used as a healthy after school snack served with crackers and cheese or as a relish to go with meats or poultry for dinner. Let us know what you think of this healthy chutney recipe!
Blueberry Chutney
Servings: 4
Serving Size: 1/4 cup
Ingredients:
blueberries – 3 cups
dried cranberries – 1/4 cup
fresh ginger, minced – 1/4 tsp
ground cinnamon – 1/8 tsp
lemon juice – 1 tbsp
onion, minced – 1/4 cup
raspberry vinegar – 1/2 cup
sea salt – 1/4 tsp
sugar – 1/2 cup
Directions:
1. Combine the vinegar, sugar, onion, ginger, cinnamon, lemon and salt in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes. 2. Add 1 cup of the blueberries, and the cranberries. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently. 3. Add the remaining 2 cups blueberries and simmer another 10 minutes.
You’ve heard it about it all over the news, celebrities tout it, your friends have suggested it. But do you really understand the mechanics of the diet? We’re here with the definition of the keto diet and some answers to common questions.
So, what is a ketogenic diet?
The definition of the keto diet is an eating regimen based on eating very low carbs, moderate amounts of protein and very high fat.
By eating very low amounts of carbohydrates you deprive your body of its main source of energy, glucose. Your body then turns to stored glucose in your muscles and liver until eventually it is depleted and must look to other sources for energy. Your body then enters a state called ketosis, in which it releases an alternate fuel source called ketones, produced by your liver from stored fat during periods of intense exercise.
The idea of the diet is to eat enough food during the day to avoid going into starvation mode and all of the negative associated effects while staying in ketosis. According to an article published by the Harvard School of Public Health, “Proponents of the ketogenic diet state that if the diet is carefully followed, blood levels of ketones should not reach a harmful level (known as “ketoacidosis”) as the brain will use ketones for fuel, and healthy individuals will typically produce enough insulin to prevent excessive ketones from forming. How soon ketosis happens… is variable from person to person and depends on factors such as body fat percentage and resting metabolic rate.” (1)
While some studies have shown that the ketogenic diet is beneficial for weight loss in the short term, research results are inconsistent. Furthermore, maintaining a very low carbohydrate/high fat diet is difficult for most in the long term and there can be some negative effects of ketogenic diet on your mood and energy level. “Available research on the ketogenic diet for weight loss is still limited…A ketogenic diet has been shown to provide short-term benefits in some people including weight loss…However, these effects after one year when compared with the effects of conventional weight loss diets are not significantly different.” (1)
So what kind of diet is right for you?
There are many factors that go into weight loss and we work with you to find what kind of diet works best for your lifestyle. At NutriFit, we believe in a highly individualized approach to weight loss that allows our client’s to maintain their weight in the long term. While everybody finds success differently, we’d like to offer the following research based tips for improving your diet:
Cut out highly processed foods, refined starches and added sugar
Focus on a wholesome, plant based diet high in whole grains; fruits & vegetables and healthy proteins (such as beans, nuts, seeds & lentils)
Limit red meat and watch your sodium intake – the FDA recommends eating less than 2,400 mg of sodium per day
Try to reduce your stress level and get the recommended 8 hours of sleep per night
Drink plenty of water
Adopt a daily exercise routine that works for your schedule and lifestyle
For more information on the keto diet, we recommend the following articles:
(1) https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/ketogenic-diet/
(2) http://davidkatzmd.com/toasting-2017-goodbye-with-ketogenic-kool-aid/
Celebrate spring with our fast and simple Strawberry Spring Salad recipe!
Ingredients:
2 tsp – extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp – honey
6 cup – Italian blend salad greens
2 tsp – pine nuts, roasted
3 cup – strawberries, quartered
1/8 tsp – salt
3 tbsp – water
3 tbsp – white wine vinegar
Directions:
1. Combine vinegar, water, honey, olive oil, salt, and pepper and stir well with a whisk.
2. Combine strawberries and greens. Add vinegar mixture; toss to coat.
3. Sprinkle with pine nuts
You’ve probably been told your entire life that you need to be eating veggies, but do you know why? We can’t talk enough about the health benefits of vegetables but here are some of our top reasons to #eatyourveggies:
Leafy vegetables – such as spinach, kale, arugula and collard greens – are important sources of folate and other B vitamins. Studies have also shown that people who had daily intake of leafy vegetables had a slower rate of cognitive decline compared to those who tended to eat little or no greens.
Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower can help reduce inflammation and buildup of plaque which increases the risk of stroke.
Vegetables are high in fiber which aids digestion, reduces cholesterol and may reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity.
High potassium vegetables such as sweet potatoes, white beans, tomatoes, lima beans, kidney beans and spinach can help maintain a healthy blood pressure.
So the next time you’re thinking about what to eat – think green!
New research from the Stanford University School of Medicine has declared the the low fat vs. low carb diet debate a draw – with neither diet prevailing in the fight for the best weight loss results. The diet comparison study, published in JAMA and led by Dr. Christopher Gardner, found that not only did either diet yield greater weight loss success than the other but also that participant’s genetics and insulin levels did not predispose them to better results.
A group of 609 participants were split into two groups – low fat and low carb – and had part of their genome sequenced and insulin levels measured to see if there was a genetic component to how much weight they lost on a particular diet. Neither group was instructed with exactly which foods to eat, but instead were given guidelines on making healthy choices and what their general daily carbohydrate and fat intake should be. At the end of the year long analysis, researchers found that participant’s weight loss success did not correlate to either a low fat/low carb approach nor was there a genetic or insulin level component that predicted a better outcome.
Instead, the study found that the best diet consisted of cutting out unhealthy, highly processed foods, added sugar and refined starches while eating a wholesome diet high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy sources of proteins (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds) and drinking plenty of water. In other words, the key to maintaining weight loss lies in quality of diet, not just quantity of food or eliminating just sources of high carbs or high fat. Furthermore, learning how to eat mindfully was the most important factor in maintaining long term weight loss rather than an emphasis on a low carb or low fat diet.
Need a way to get more veggies in your diet? Try our Beet and Carrot Soup recipe which is high in fiber, antioxidants, vitamin C, iron, magnesium and help promote healthy liver function and heart health.
Ingredients:
2 cups – beets
2 cups – carrots
3 cups – reduced fat vegetable broth
1/8 tsp – allspice
1/4 tsp – nutmeg
1 tbsp – lemon juice
1 cup – onion
3 tbsp – fat free, plain yogurt
1/2 cup – unsweetened orange juice
Directions:
1. Combine the beets, carrot, onion and chicken broth in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil; cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Remove the mixture from the heat, let it cool for 10 minutes.
2. Transfer the vegetables to the container of an electric blender, using a slotted spoon; reserve the broth. Cover and process the vegetable mixture until smooth, stopping once to scrape down the sides. Add the pureed mixture, orange juice, lemon juice, nutmeg and allspice to the broth, stirring well with a wire whisk. Cover and chill thoroughly.
3. To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls. Top each serving with 2 tsp. yogurt.
Vitamin B complex includes the the 8 types of B vitamins — B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12 – all of which help the body with essential functions such as breaking down carbohydrates and protecting brain function.
One of the benefits of Vitamin B is that it is an important regulators of neurotransmitter function. Studies have also shown that B vitamins may affect central metabolism, brain function and the modulation of mood.
Vitamin B6 is an important cofactor for the enzymes that synthesize the neurotransmitters serotonin, epinephrine and norepinephrine. Good sources of vitamin B6 include protein, eggs, legumes, nuts, seeds and soy products, seeds, avocado. Additionally, Folate (B9) found in dark leafy greens, beets, asparagus and root vegetables, may reduce risk for depression and memory loss.
Riboflavin (B2) and Cobalamin (B12) both assist with red blood cell production and Niacin (B3) assists in raising HDL (good) cholesterol. Best sources of B12 are fish, dairy, eggs and beef and B2 are almonds, yogurt, eggs, milk, soybean. B3 can be found in beans, milk, eggs and green vegetables.
Biotin (B7), found in pork, chicken, potatoes, cauliflower and barley, helps keep skin and hair looking healthy.
Statistics about smoking show that just one cigarette daily is associated with a “much greater than expected” increase in risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, according to research in The BMJ.
In a meta-analysis, the researchers analyzed 141 prospective studies examining the association between smoking and CHD or stroke in millions of generally healthy people. Overall, compared with never-smoking, smoking one cigarette daily conferred significantly increased risks for both outcomes. Here are the findings based on the subset of studies that adjusted for multiple confounders (e.g., cholesterol, blood pressure):
Women who smoked 1 cigarette daily had a 119% increased risk for CHD and a 46% increased risk for stroke.
Men who smoked 1 cigarette daily had a 74% increased risk for CHD and a 30% increased risk for stroke.
The risk from smoking 1 cigarette daily was about half that from smoking 20 cigarettes daily.
Looking for a healthy weekend breakfast recipe?
Try out this recipe for whole grain buttermilk spiced apple pancakes! Apples are high in fiber and antioxidants, both of which make them great for heart and digestive health.
Ingredients:
baking powder – 2 tsp
baking soda – 2 tsp
fat free egg substitue – 0.5 cup
apples, finely chopped – 2 cups
ground cinnamon – 1 tsp
ground nutmeg – 1/8 tsp
honey – 1 tbsp
lemon juice – 2 tsp
molasses – 1 tbsp
reduced fat buttermilk – 2 cups
trans fat free, lite margarine – 1 tbsp
unbleached all purpose flour – 1 cup
whole wheat flour – 1 cup
Directions
1. Combine the whole wheat flour, all purpose white flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl; stir well.
2. Combine the buttermilk, honey, molasses, margarine, lemon juice, and egg substitute in a small bowl; stir well.
3. Add the flour mixture to liquid mixture, stirring until smooth. Fold in the chopped apples. Do not overmix. Let the mixture stand 5 minutes.
4. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot nonstick griddle. Turn the pancakes when the tops are covered with bubbles and the edges look cooked.
Feeling hungry can make even the best of us grumpy but there may be a larger connection between food and mood beyond feeling hangry!
Numerous studies have shown that regular exercise and eating a balanced diet are key to preventing fatigue, stress and lessen your risk for anxiety.
Current research at Tufts University is being conducted to study the connection between diet and mental health. Initial results show that highly processed foods and high refined carbohydrates have been linked to increased risk of anxiety and depression. However, diets with foods rich in whole grains, vegetables and omega-3s have been linked to decreased risk of depression (this is one of the benefits of the Mediterranean diet). The Mediterranean diet is also rich in folate, selenium and anti-oxidants, which have all been shown to have positive effects on not only mood but overall health.
A recent study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology found yet another health benefit of hot tea: Subjects that consumed at least daily hot tea drink had a 74% decreased chance of developing glaucoma.
Tea has also been shown to have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and is a great healthy alternative to caffeinated soft drinks. Flavanoids found in tea are beneficial in reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke and high cholesterol.
So next time you’re thinking about reaching for a soda – think about heating up a glass of tea instead!
What you eat can have a big impact on your external health and the largest organ on your body – your skin!
Here’s some simple anti-aging diet tips that can help improve your nutrition for healthy skin that’s protected and looks great:
Foods high in antioxidants are helpful in anti-aging and can help prevent cellular damage. You might even find some of your favorite foods in this category – including red wine, chocolate, green tea, oranges, kiwi, strawberries. Other high anti-oxidant foods include onion and leafy vegetables, eggs, avocados and whole grains.
Additionally, lycopenes found in red fruits & vegetables (tomatoes, watermelon, red peppers, etc) help fight the damaging effects of UV rays and sunburns.
Foods high in protein, magnesium, zinc, vitamin C and omega-3’s can promote collagen growth and improve skin elasticity and fight wrinkles. Additionally, foods in the alpha-linoleic acid family such as tofu, flaxseed, walnuts, soybeans, canola & olive oils can prevent dryness and skin irritation.
Iron and zinc-rich can help thicken your hair, while foods high in cysteine (red peppers, egg yolks, oats, broccoli, onions and garlic) and silicon (spinach, whole grains, mineral water, coffee, lentils) contribute to stronger hair and nails.
This Moroccan quinoa salad with raisins is one of our favorite Superfood Recipes you can try out at home on your next Meatless Monday with our very own NutriFit Salt Free Rockin’ Moroccan Spice Blend!
Rockin’ Moroccan Quinoa Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
1 tbsp – canola oil
2 ea – celery stalk
6 ea – dried apricots
2 tbsp – golden raisins
2 tbsp – lemon juice
1 tsp – NutriFit Rockin’ Moroccan Salt Free Spice Blend
1 tbsp – orange juice
2 tbsp – pine nuts, toasted
1 cup – quinoa, uncooked
2.5 cup – water
Directions
1. Rinse quinoa in colander before cooking. Bring water to a boil, add quinoa and stir. Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes. Drain off excess liquid.
2. Add apricots, raisins and celery. Mix gently.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together juices and seasoning, then drizzle in oil, whisking constantly. Add dressing to quinoa while quinoa is still warm.
4. Garnish salad with pine nuts. Serve hot or cold.
White quinoa seeds on a wooden background
Read this morning in the New England Journal of Medicine:
Drinking coffee daily — in particular, several cups daily — is associated with a wide range of health benefits, according to an umbrella review of meta-analyses in The BMJ.
The review included over 200 meta-analyses of observational or interventional research into coffee consumption and health outcomes in adults. Among the benefits:
Daily coffee consumption of 3 cups of coffee — regular or decaffeinated — was associated with a 17% lower risk for all-cause mortality, relative to no coffee consumption.
Caffeinated coffee was linked to lower risks for cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke, with benefits highest at 3–5 cups daily.
Caffeinated coffee was associated with lower risks for cancer and liver conditions.
Both regular and decaf coffee appeared to lower risk for type 2 diabetes.
Coffee
Took my Clarity downtown this weekend to see the BodyWorlds Pulse exhibit at the California Science Center. With 5 of us in the car, it was a comfortable ride, and the first time I’ve been driving 3 adults in the rear seat. EASY fit, for any size body, and the air conditioning was more than adequate to cool everyone off! BTW, the exhibit is wonderful, too
Summertime means plenty of barbecues and grilling… and to keep our summertime foods as healthy as possible, The American Institute for Cancer Research has some helpful healthy summer grilling tips.
Research tells us that grilling foods can increase their level of cancer-causing chemicals. Fish, red meat and poultry are the most potentially harmful when prepared on the grill. Why? When the fat from the meat drips onto the coals or stones in the grill, PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are formed. These chemicals are deposited on the food from the smoke and flare-ups in the form of charring on the outer surfaces of the meat. The meats themselves produce another carcinogen, HCA (heterocyclic amines), which is formed in the animal protein when it is cooked at high temperatures. HCAs have been responsible for increasing cancer risk in the colon, prostrate, stomach and breasts.
The following healthy BBQ grilling tips can help keep your foods free of carcinogens.
Trim meats to be as lean as possible.
Marinate grilled foods in low-fat marinades to reduce the HCAs.
Watch your portions- eat small amounts of grilled meats.
Lower temperature, and turn the foods often.
Pre-cook meats before placing them on the grill. (pre-bake or parboil)
Wrap foods in foil; poke small holes in it while cooking. This allows the fat to drip out, but keeps the meat protected from smoke.
Never eat charred or burnt pieces.
Place meat on skewers, cut in small pieces, so shorter the cooking time.
Try making grilled fruits and vegetables instead; they add volume and variety to your barbecue. Consider preparing grilled meat as a side dish rather than an entrée. Cook pastas, vegetables, salads and fruit dishes to serve with the meat. Also instead of serving thinly sliced grilled steak with a side salad, try making a large salad and topping it with grilled fish or chicken. The healthiest way to enjoy outdoor cooking is to plan ahead and make sure you are balancing the meal with plenty of vegetables and fruits, using moderation and portion control.
Check out our website, www.nutrifitonline.com for great grilling recipes and menu ideas.
As mentioned in yesterday’s Summer Savvy Tips, Here are 5 of my healthy summer BBQ recipes, including some great recipes for the grill. Please comment and let me know if you try any of them.Avocado-Corn SalsaServing Size: ¼ cup
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
2 ea. avocado, seeded, peeled & diced
2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
3 ea. tomatoes, peeled, seeded & diced
3 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped
½ tsp. green chile pepper, seeded & diced
½ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. NutriFit Calypso Salt Free Spice Blend*Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, gently combine avocado, corn kernels, tomatoes, lime juice, cilantro, chile peppers, Calyspo blend and salt.
2. Refrigerate until ready to be served.
Nutritional Information: Calories: 182; Fat: 10.5g; Carbohydrate: 23g; Fiber: 6.6g; Protein: 3.7gChilled Honeydew SoupServings: 4Serving Size: 1 cupIngredients:
4 cups honeydew, cut into cubes
¼ cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 tbsp. superfine sugar
Directions:
1. Using a food processor, puree the melon, mint, lime juice and sugar.
2. Taste for acidity, add 1 tbsp. Midori (melon liqueur, if available), and reprocess again.
3. Refrigerate until well chilled.
Nutrient Information: Calories: 101; Fat: 0.4g; Carbohydrates: 24.5g; Fiber: 2.6g; Protein: 2gBlack Bean, Corn and Barley SaladServing Size: 2 cupsServings: 4Ingredients:
3 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 cups black beans, cooked
1 tbsp. grapeseed oil
2 tbsp. fat free parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp. fat free, reduced sodium vegetable broth
2 tbsp. fresh basil, minced
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
¾ cup medium pearled barley
2 ¾ cups water
Directions:
1. In a 2-quart saucepan over high heat, bring the water and barley to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low; partially cover and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, or until tender. Drain off any remaining water. Transfer the barley to a large bowl.
2. Add the beans, corn, and peas.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, basil, broth, and oil. Pour over the salad; toss to mix well. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Serve warm or chilled.
Nutrient information: Calories: 380; Fat: 6g; Carbohydrates: 69g; Fiber: 16g; Protein: 17gPasta with White Beans & KaleServing Size: 2 cupsServings: 4Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
10 cups kale, stems removed and chopped
½ cup reduced sodium vegetable broth
1 tsp. NutriFit Mediterranean Salt Free Spice Blend
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 ½ cups pasta, cooked al dente and drained
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 cups white beans (cannellini or other)
¼ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
¼ cup feta cheese, crumbled
Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute.
3. Add kale, broth, spices and pepper, stirring to combine.
4. Cover; reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes or until kale wilts, stirring occasionally.
5. Add pasta, juice and beans to pan, stirring to combine; cook 1 minute or until mixture is thoroughly heated.
6. Divide pasta mixture evenly among 4 plates; sprinkle each serving with 1 tablespoon parsley and 1 tablespoon cheese.
Nutrient Information: Calories: 373; Fat: 8g; Carbohydrate: 58g; Dietary Fiber: 8g; Protein: 18gFresh Fruit TrifleServing Size: 1 SliceServings: 8Ingredients:
8 slices angel Food cake, sliced about 2″ thick
1 cup lite whipped topping
2 cups fat free, vanilla yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. Amaretto, or other cordial
½ cup blackberries
½ cup strawberries, hulled and halved
½ cup blueberries
½ cup peaches, peeled and sliced
½ cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
½ cup pear, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
Directions:
1. Cut the angel food cake into large chunks, about the same size as the fresh fruit pieces you are using. Put in a large bowl.
2. In a small bowl, combine the whipped topping with the yogurt. Mix very well. Add the vanilla extract and the Amaretto.
3. In a serving bowl, assemble the trifle as follows: put a thin layer of cake cubes on the bottom, top with a thin layer of fruit to cover. Continue layering the cake and fruit until all your ingredients are used up. Pour the topping mixture over the top layer, shaking the bowl gently to allow the mixture to settle down through the layers. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Best if served within 2 hours of preparing.
Nutrient information: Calories: 193; Fat: 1g; Carbohydrates: 39g; Fiber: 2g; Protein: 5g*All recipes by Jackie Keller, Founding Director, NutriFit LLC
*NutriFit’s Salt & Sugar Free Spice Blends available at www.nutrifitonline.com or call 310.473.1989.
The excessive amount of sugar kids consume during and after the Halloween holiday can be spooky. But it doesn’t have to be. Though most trick-or-treaters tend to throw out the apples and raisins put in their pillow sacks, there are yummy treats that offer a nice compromise – great taste without all the sugar. It’s all in the way you present it. Little ones will love these healthy alternatives – and parents, you’ll love the way their children respond to them. Get your kids involved in preparing healthy treats. Letting them decorate their own creations using miniature candies/chips/sprinkles means they’ll have a blast making and eating them!
Check back soon for some healthful recipes you can make with your Little ghosts and goblins!
It was nice to see the Honda Clarity at the Alt Car Expo on Saturday, but am even MORE EXCITED to have it HERE AT NUTRIFIT on Wednesday afternoon, 9/21!!
If you want to swing by and see/sit in it, please let me know. Can’t wait for my FCV!!!
So excited to drive the new Honda Clarity Fuel Cell – coming to L.A. by the end of this year! Amazed to learn that it will have all of the latest driver safety features (lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control, among others) that will help me stay on the road safely on my drives to our farm (The Mesa) – I can’t wait – less than 20 weeks to CLARITY.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed and our international cooking
series. You know, when I was a teenager I wanted desperately to go to
France and attend Le Cordon Bleu. I’ve been fortunate during my life
to travel the world and of course I got to do it. I went to Le Cordon
Bleu in Paris and I studied at the Chef’s school there but while I was
there I had a lot of spare time, too to tell you the truth and I did a
lot of shopping around and looking for little, unique, interesting
food tools and gadgets and little markets and you know it’s amazing
what you can find when you go to another country and you really get
immersed in what their food culture is like.
France is a nation of food lovers and the food culture is enormous.
There are over 5,000 restaurants in Paris alone and of course now that
I’m a health coach I’m always interested in how people manage their
health and how they manage their weight and that French paradox, you
know those low rates of chronic heart disease, they’re still a mystery
for us. Despite the fact that the French have a high amount of
saturated fat in their diet, we still don’t really know how they
manage to stay so slender. Some attribute it to the consumption of red
wine and the French do love to drink their wine. The French style of
eating and the low incidence of obesity kind of don’t mesh. We still
don’t get it. The obesity rates are among the lowest in the entire
European Union and particularly French men have some of the lowest
obesity rates on the continent and France has the second lowest
obesity rates among women on the European continent.
So there you go. There are three or four main approaches to French
food. First is the classical French cooking and that traditionally
uses cream-based sauces. That’s the way I learned to cook at Le Cordon
Bleu. There was cream and butter, cream and butter and everything was
made with either one or the other or both. But there’s also what’s
called Haute Cuisine, which is the most sophisticated and extreme end
of the French cooking paradigm, with very elaborate and elegant
dishes, a strong emphasis on presentation and then there’s Nouvelle
Cuisine, which is simpler, lighter, smaller portions, more emphasis on
seasonal and simpler ingredients and more what we see today among the
younger people.
And finally, the Cuisine de Terrior, the rustic, local cuisine, the
local food traditions if you will, locally grown produce, locally
sourced meats, that’s a big thing right now in France. And joining me
today on Food Exposed is Inge Rouge. Inge is a Munich born citizen of
the world. She spent the past 34 years living in six different
countries with her great husband and her two fabulous sons. Inge,
welcome to Food Exposed.
Inge Rouge: Thank you very much.
Jackie Keller: Thank you for joining me, straight from Paris.
Inga: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Well? Ooh-la-la, I thought we’d do a little classic French
cuisine today, but Nouvelle style.
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: So emphasis again on those locally sourced ingredients,
the simple, fresh herbs, the things that I know you grow at Primrose,
your home outside of Paris. So, our beautiful flower arrangement today
is fresh rosemary and the rosemary of course, you like to store it
like you do flowers, in a vase, right?
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: Did I understand; you put the stems in water and put it in
a vase and that preserves it?
Inga: Yes, it does.
Jackie Keller: Do you have to refrigerate it after you do that or can you
leave it out like roses or carnations or something?
Inga: For a couple of days you can leave it like that.
Jackie Keller: Really?
Inga: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Wow. Well, we’re going to use this rosemary to make some
interesting chicken as I understand it, right? Using this handy dandy
herb stripper tool, it’s called an herb stripper. I’d never seen one
of these before. I understand that you find them in Paris fairly
frequently. So, show us how it works.
Inga: Okay. So this has to go. It had been off, but I put it back on to
make it look nicer.
Jackie Keller: Okay. So you just take your regular piece of rosemary?
Inga: You have a regular piece of rosemary. Here you have different sizes
and I think this one will do just fine. And while we pull it through
it will also measure.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Inga: Sorry, I…
Jackie Keller: That was not a good one.
Inga: …ripped it off. It was not a good one.
Jackie Keller: Let’s try another one.
Inga: All right.
Jackie Keller: It measures the…
Inga: It measures the leaves already.
Jackie Keller: Oh, how cool. Well, you know cleaning fresh herbs like
this is so tedious. It takes forever to get the needles off of things.
So I see you don’t take it all the way off.
Inga: No. I think it looks really pretty if a little bit is still present.
Jackie Keller: And now what? We have some chicken here.
Inga: We have some chicken here and now I just…
Jackie Keller: We’re going to make chicken rosemary skewers.
Inga: Chicken rosemary skewers, yeah.
Jackie Keller: And these are popular in France, where people grow herbs
in their own gardens and in window boxes, I understand because not all
the French have their own…
Inga: Not in Paris, not in Paris.
Jackie Keller: …homes outside of the river or on the river like you do,
right?
Inga: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: So how much chicken do you put on the skewer? A couple of
pieces?
Inga: Maybe one more. A small one. This one. This is perfect.
Jackie Keller: And then would you marinate this or would you grill it?
Would you pan saute it? What would you do with this?
Inga: Every three possibilities are possible.
Jackie Keller: Okay. And would this be in France, if we were in France
when would we eat this?
Inga: You would eat that probably for dinner, because for lunch you are
out. Most of French people work and they would go out for lunch so it
would be dinner.
Jackie Keller: So brown-bagging is not the thing, huh?
Inga: Not really. Oh, no. They like going out to restaurants and to have
really, they don’t speak of work; they eat their three course meal and
have a glass of wine.
Jackie Keller: At lunch?
Inga: At lunch.
Jackie Keller: Oh my goodness. Wow. That sounds like my kind of place.
Inga: Think about it.
Jackie Keller: I don’t know how you go back to work after having a glass
of wine in a two hour lunch.
Inga: I know, I know.
Jackie Keller: So you set these things up, now I also have some basil.
Now this basil is on a very stiff stem. This is some that I grew in
our garden.
Inga: Ah, that would work nicely.
Jackie Keller: Should we try that zip stripper thingy with that?
Inga: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Inga: I’ll use this one here or this one.
Jackie Keller: Oh I see, there’s different sized holes.
Inga: Yeah. Right.
Jackie Keller: That’s so clever, those French.
Inga: Very clever. Look, it’s done.
Jackie Keller: Wow. Look at that. You know half the time, I’ll tell you
the truth. I don’t even cultivate this basil and use it in my food
because it’s so much work to get the leaves off. This thing is great.
Okay so we made some ahead of time and so this is what they look like
when they’re cooked, right?
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: And that is really a very pretty presentation, very
unique. And it tastes like rosemary?
Inga: It does.
Jackie Keller: It does? Shall we taste it?
Inga: Mm-hmm.
Jackie Keller: All right. Let’s see. I could be very gauche and just eat
it off the skewer.
Inga: Why don’t you?
Jackie Keller: Okay. All right. There you go. Here. Mmm. I love the taste
of rosemary. Wow. This is wonderful.
Inga: Very nice.
Jackie Keller: Very nice.
Inga: Fresh.
Jackie Keller: And just enough rosemary. Just enough rosemary, because
sometimes rosemary can be pretty overwhelming.
Inga: It can be overpowering. That’s true, yeah.
Jackie Keller: Lovely, lovely. Well thank you for showing us this zip
stripper. And then I think you can use the herbs for all kinds of
things.
Inga: For all kinds of things. Now you can chop them up and put them
wherever you want to.
Jackie Keller: Okay. Great. Well, I appreciate your joining me today for
Food Exposed.
Inga: My pleasure, again. Thank you very much.
Jackie Keller: And I hope you’ll tune in for another segment of our
international cooking series. If you’d like this recipe or any of the
others on our show, go to the Food Exposed page on EmpowerMe.TV. And
thank you for joining me today. For more Food Exposed check me out on
EmpowerMe.TV and until next week remember, make food your best friend
and exerciser companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed in our international cooking
series. You know, I love to travel. I’ve been lucky enough to visit
every continent multiple times, and I’ve lived and studied abroad
including a short tenure at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France. One thing
I always do when I travel is visit local markets and shops, and I’m
always surprised to find some interesting food tool, something unique,
something different to try out.
Well, in Danish cuisine there’s many similarities to other damp and cool
European continents, Northern European countries I should say. Danish
food does have some distinct characteristics including a heavy
reliance on butter, cheese, potatoes, pork, bread, pastries, and all
kinds of things. The Danes love to eat, and modern Danish cuisine has
undergone many changes in recent years due to a heavy influence by
France, Spain, and Italy. Lightening up traditional dishes is more
common among the younger generation, but family meals are generally
pretty hearty, and the breakfast is a pretty hearty meal as well.
Joining me today on Food Exposed is Inga Rush [SP],a Munich born citizen of
the world. Inga has spent the past 34 years living in six different
countries with her great husband and her two fabulous sons. A simple
Danish breakfast might be eggs, right?
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: And Danish butter, what else?
Inga: What else? Ham, roast beef, marinated herrings.
Jackie Keller: Wonderful, first thing in the morning, marinated?
Inga: First thing, yes. It actually tastes quite good.
Jackie Keller: Does it?
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Well, how about we just do an egg dish?
Inga: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Alright, so I know Danish butter is worlds renowned as
are Danish cheeses, but today we’re going to go healthy, so no butter.
Instead, we’ll use a healthy margarine. Inga, why don’t you get ready
and we’ll some of this in our skillet?
Inga: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Shall we? Is that probably more than we need?
Inga: Probably.
Jackie Keller: Probably, huh?
Inga: That’s okay.
Jackie Keller: Alright, and I’ll crack an egg. Okay. Now would you leave
that butter in there or you would take it out?
Inga: I would take it out because it’s enough for . . .
Jackie Keller: So we can put it there.
Inga: Yes, right.
Jackie Keller: And seasoning, what kind of seasoning would you
traditionally use?
Inga: Traditional salt and pepper.
Jackie Keller: Salt and pepper, alright.
Inga: They’re pretty straightforward without a lot of chi chi.
Jackie Keller: Okay and there it is. That’s probably a lot. Well, so
what? Here you go; a pinch of salt?
Inga: Yes, thank you. What service.
Jackie Keller: Okay, so now to our food tool, right? Our little handy
grater, this Eva grater which goes back a long ways, here you go.
Inga: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: I have some Danish cheese, of course, Danish Havarti
cheese. Show us how it works.
Inga: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Right over the top, wow. You get that egg done. Perfect.
Inga: This is pretty much it.
Jackie Keller: Then I noticed that the Danes also love their pork,
right?
Inga: Pork, yes, pork and bacon.
Jackie Keller: Pork is a big one. Do they have this all natural kind of
no sulfites, no additives, no preservatives?
Inga: Now they have it as well, yes.
Jackie Keller: Would you typically have that with a Danish breakfast egg
like this?
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Yes? Well it’s just about cooked. Let’s turn it over,
maybe not. I should have left the butter in, right?
Inga: Shall we put it back?
Jackie Keller: Alright, it’s going to be a sunny side up egg, I think.
Inga: Easy over.
Jackie Keller: Easy over? Okay, go easy over the egg.
Inga: I like it easy over.
Jackie Keller: I’ll add some bacon there to it.
Inga: They always have it easy over.
Jackie Keller: Do they? I think it’s scrambled to tell you the truth.
Well, the cheese is the thing, right?
Inga: The cheese it the thing.
Jackie Keller: Egge ke?
Inga: Kage, cake, kage.
Jackie Keller: Okay, alright, alright, shall we taste it?
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Alright aeg kage, here it is. It’s kind of a loose egg.
Inga: Where’s this pause thing? Clear, pause.
Jackie Keller: There you go. Alright.
Inga: Me again?
Jackie Keller: You again.
Inga: Would you like to try?
Jackie Keller: Okay, I’ll try. I like eggs.
Inga: Me too.
Jackie Keller: I love Havarti cheese.
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Delicious, thank you so much for joining me today.
Inga: You’re very welcome, my pleasure.
Jackie Keller: If you want this recipe or any other recipes in our
international cooking series visit me at empowerme.tv and check out
the Food Exposed page. I hope you’ll tune in for another segment of
our international cooking series where we explore what’s on your
plate. For more Food Exposed check me out on empowerme.tv, and until
next week remember make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed and our international cooking
series. I’ve been fortunate over the years to have visited many, many
different countries, and to travel the world. I’ve studied in
different countries on different continents, and I’ve been in a
million food stores, cooking stores, and little shops everywhere, and
I never get tired looking for unique, different food tools. It’s
amazing what you can find. And in Germany, the culture has long been
associated with food. Just remember the fairytale Hansel and Gretel
and the gingerbread house. But today when you think of German food,
what’s the first thing that comes to mind, all right, besides
Octoberfest? Now, you got it.
The different regions of the country have very different and distinct
styles of cooking. And there are many staples of German cuisine that
are found throughout the country, everywhere you go, like sausage, and
cold cuts, and seasonal vegetables, and white asparagus, which is keen
during the season; it’s on every table and every restaurant. But
styles of cooking have changed over the past 50 years in Germany.
Lighter mid-day meals are more common and more often the heavy meats,
the game, the pork, the things that are traditionally associated with
German cooking are less dominate. Mustard is always popular, and there
is a huge variety of mustards served on every table, and horseradish
is also commonly used as a condiment.
Joining me today on Food Exposed is Inga Rouse [SP], a Munich-born
citizen of the world. Inga has spent the last 34 years living in six
different countries with her great husband and her two fabulous sons.
She’s here for a short yearly visit from her magnificent 120 year old
home on the Rivers end, just outside of Paris, Inga, welcome to Food
Exposed.
Inga: Thank you for having me.
Jackie Keller: Thank you for joining me. Today we are going to make
something I think that’s sort of Nouvelle German, so preparing
vegetables, I think no matter where you are, it’s one of the hardest
parts of cooking. It’s one of the most time consuming, one of the most
burdensome, and I was so excited when you introduced me to this German
food tool called Spirelli. And it’s a spiral food cutter, that simple.
So it’s made by this company, GEFU, that makes these German food
tools. And today, we’re going to show our guests what we can do with
it. Are you ready?
Inga: I’m ready, yeah.
Jackie Keller: All right. I’ll let you be the Spirelli master.
Inga: The Spirelli master, okay.
Jackie Keller: And while you’re doing that I’ll whip up a little
dressing for our salad.
Inga: All right. Would you mind if I [inaudible 03:11]
Jackie Keller: Please. Spirelli away.
Inga: So this is how it works, it’s really easy.
Jackie Keller: Oh, look at that. That’s so pretty. They look like
noodles.
Inga: Like spaghetti.
Jackie Keller: That’s the whole point, right?
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: Wow. It doesn’t take much, huh?
Inga: No. It doesn’t.
Jackie Keller: Beautiful. So you’re starting with zucchini. And
zucchini, you find that in a German salad?
Inga: Yeah, nowadays, yes.
Jackie Keller: Tell me about Germans and German home gardens and that
whole movement?
Inga: Well now, it’s beautiful, isn’t it? It’s so colorful. If ever
possible, locals would grow their own salads, vegetables, and herbs.
My uncle who lives in Eunuch, even drives to a farm to make sure to
get well-fed and naturally raised chickens and cattle meat from
chickens. While he is out there, he gets his farm eggs; so things have
been rediscovered, old things.
Jackie Keller: And what about the vegetables? Now you’ve got these
beautiful carrots. So we’ve got probably a good amount of that to
bring some color to it. What other vegetables might you find in a
salad like this?
Inga: Well, always of course, the green leafy vegetables like Romaine. But
also, long-forgotten treasures like sugar-leaf salad for instance,
buttercup; there are many varieties. Asparagus you might find in
salads as well.
Jackie Keller: But with the Spirelli cutter?
Inga: The Spirelli cutter, turnips work nicely. And by the way, there is a
typical old, very old forgotten turnip which is [inaudible 05:16]
gourmet food that’s called [inaudible 05:20] turnip. And this you can
Spirelli away, too.
Jackie Keller: Well, you know, I’m going to make a very simple with
this, because I would guess that you don’t get too elaborate. And I
see we brought along some sun-dried tomatoes, so shall we put that in
as well for some color and some rich flavor?
Inga: That would be absolutely great.
Jackie Keller: And we have some sun-dried tomatoes packed in a little
olive oil. And it doesn’t take much to get that flavor. Shall we use
some of that olive oil flavor for our dressing as well?
Inga: Mm-hmm, and the radish.
Jackie Keller: Oh, look at that, it’s so pretty. Now what time of day
might Germans be having a salad like this?
Inga: Probably for lunch.
Jackie Keller: Lunch is the mid-day meal there?
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Yeah. So I’ve got some salt, a little bit of fresh
cracked pepper, and we’ve got some white balsamic vinegar here. I’ll
put that in, and I brought some fresh basil. That is so pretty.
Inga: I think that’s enough for showing.
Jackie Keller: Right. Do you want to pair some fresh basil leaves into
that? And I’ll whip together this with a little bit of more olive oil,
and what about protein? Protein here in the States, everybody is crazy
about protein. Everybody has to have protein in everything. We’re
eating a lot of protein these days. I brought some Mozzarella cheese.
What else might you find in this typically German kitchen?
Inga: In the typical German kitchen? Well, chicken for protein.
Jackie Keller: I know German cuisine, there is a lot of different
sausages.
Inga: A lot of, that’s true, yeah. Sausages, however, very often are not
so very healthy.
Jackie Keller: All right. So we have a little dressing here to go on our
salad. And let’s just pour a little bit on. I don’t want to overdress
it.
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: Just lightly drizzle, and…
Inga: That looks wonderful.
Jackie Keller: Here we go.
Inga: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: There you go. That is so pretty.
Inga: It’s pretty.
Jackie Keller: It’s very pretty. Now this is noodle salad, but there are
no noodles.
Inga: No noodles.
Jackie Keller: So in German, what would you call this?
Inga: [inaudible 08:05].
Jackie Keller: It’s a [inaudible 08:08]. All right, well, let’s taste
this [inaudible 08:15] salad, shall we?
Inga: Okay.
Jackie Keller: All right. So look at that. It’s so nice. Just like
spaghetti.
Inga: Exactly.
Jackie Keller: That’s fun. Are you going to be brave enough to try to
taste this thing?
Inga: Oh yes. It smells wonderful.
Jackie Keller: All right. You’re going to have to get a little cheese in
there, a little couple of cubes of mozzarella. All right, let me know.
So this could be a light lunch?
Inga: A light lunch, but for dinner as well. It’s really so versatile.
Jackie Keller: All right. How did we do? Oh, you are so delicate.
Inga: It’s delicious.
Jackie Keller: Good.
Inga: It’s really nice.
Jackie Keller: Great. [inaudible 09:05]
Inga: [inaudible 09:06]
Jackie Keller: Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I
hope you’ll join me again for some more international food tools. And
for this recipe, you can visit our website. You can come to Food
Exposed, and find the recipe and more tips about German cooking and
German foods. And of course, we hope you’ll tune into another segment
of our international food tools series, where we explore what’s on
your plate. For more Food Exposed, check me out on empowerme.tv. And
until next week, remember make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we take a close
look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller, and I’m the
founding director of NutriFit, Los Angeles leading healthy food
company. Let’s talking about eating out and the whole healthy food
movement; while they are not always synonymous, these two are becoming
increasingly paired in conversation, both written and verbal. So
exactly how popular are the healthy restaurant menus these days? And
I’m not talking about fast food. Well, my company NutriFit is a member
of the California Restaurant Association which is a part of the
National Restaurant Association.
I was looking at their reports and figured out that about 71 percent
of adults are trying to eat healthier at restaurants. In fact the top
restaurant culinary theme includes children’s nutrition, gluten-free
cuisine, and healthy nutrition. Other menu trends include local
sourcing, whole grain items, lower sodium, lower calorie items, and
people are even asking for restaurants to offer smaller or half-size
portions at a lower price. Today’s consumers seem to be more
interested than ever in what they eat, and where their food comes
from. And this is reflected in many trends. And that was a quote from
the National Restaurant Association’s Vice President. So this is
really good news since eating out continues to be on the rise.
According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, nearly half of every
dollar spent on food is spent on food away from home, home away from
food. So here are some interesting restaurant statistics. Nine out of
ten consumers say that they enjoy going out to a restaurant. Seven out
of ten say that restaurants provide taste sensations that aren’t
easily duplicated at home. And eight in ten look for their favorite
menu items. Nine in ten go out to restaurants for good service and
seven in ten go out to restaurants because they have a convenient
location. So how do we choose our restaurants? Ease of parking, decor,
atmosphere, some place new, and a place that serves food that they
haven’t tried before. These are all things that seem to factor into
choice.
Did you know that six out of ten are looking for eco-friendly
practices that restaurants use and locally sourced ingredients? Seven
out of ten are interested in having some healthier options on the
menu. So it’s really no surprise that I met my guest in a venue
dedicated to healthy lifestyles. Michael Epstein and Scott Schwimer
have taken on the food and hotel scene around the globe. They are
lovers of food, life, and each other, and they know more about luxury
hotels and the restaurant scene than any other couple I know. Michael
Epstein became the youngest jaguar dealer in the country at the age of
19 following his passion for automobiles, and today, he remains an
avid car collector. Michael founded System 800 International in 1986,
which went on to become the largest reseller of 800-phone line service
in the United States, and pioneered touch-tone technology for credit
card processing. After going public in 1988, the company merged with
Independent Entertainment Group, and produced pay per view events for
cable t.v.
A native Angelino, Scott E. Schwimer was appropriately born in the
year of the Monkey. He received his BA from Stanford University, and
his JD from Loyola Law School. He worked on Capitol Hill before
jumping into his career as an Entertainment Attorney for both
Television and Motion Pictures. Scott’s passions also include being an
artist, photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, producer and world-
traveler; and of course, he is passionate about eating and dining.
Michael and Scott have been collecting photography for over twenty-two
years. And they have one of the largest collections of glamour
photography archives in the world. They’re the publisher’s of George
Hurrell’s work, as well as Mel Roberts’, Henry Langdon’s and Ian
Wright’s photos. The Dining Duo travels the globe and takes on the
foodie scene in L.A. and other hot spots. Lovers of food and each
other, they know more about the restaurant scene. These two partners
who eat out at least 21 meals a week for about 26, 27 years together,
they have a world to share with us. Michael and Scott welcome to Food
Exposed. I’m so glad you could come today.
Michael Epstein: We’re glad to be here.
Scott Schwimer: Thank you for that intro.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much. Well it really is true. It is true,
you eat out meal?
Michael Epstein: We do.
Scott Schwimer: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Every single meal?
Scott Schwimer: It used to be an embarrassment to say something like
that, but now we get to gloat about it.
Jackie Keller: And we talked about a little bit earlier about how people
make choices for restaurants and what they look for. How do you guys
decide like where should we go? You’ve probably been to most every
place in LA?
Scott Schwimer: Well, we have in fact, but it’s not always going out to a
fancy restaurant. It’s not always about that. Sometimes we’ll choose
something that is, as you just said in your introduction, someplace
close to our home.
Michael Epstein: Easy to park.
Scott Schwimer: Easy to park. Healthy is a big consideration. And then
we, of course, do like to treat ourselves and go to really wonderful
places, unique restaurants, one of a kind type places. It’s just
really how we feel and how we’re doing that day.
Jackie Keller: Do restaurants let you know that they, are you on a list
to get a little special treatment in there?
Michael Epstein: We like to go incognito, although, obviously, people know
who we are because of our names. But we choose restaurants that we
really enjoy, the food and the quality of food. In fact, one of our
favorites is right in this neighborhood, Providence, which is probably
the best restaurant in Los Angeles as far as we’re concerned, one of
the best anyway.
Scott Schwimer: And in fact, we’re all in Los Angeles very lucky, because
they open up for lunch on Fridays.
Michael Epstein: That’s a good point.
Jackie Keller: So how do your passion for art and cars intersect with
your love for food?
Michael Epstein: Well I think food is an art and Scott has been very adept
at photographing food now, and food has really become an art for him.
And it’s changed a lot over the last, I’m going to be 60 years old,
and I’ve seen so many changes, because I was raised with basically
some gourmet food at really fine restaurants. But the food was always
prepared beautifully, but now it has to be photographable so that has
certainly changed over the years. And as far as the cars go, you know
we like restaurants where we can park close and we can keep an eye on
our cars when we’re driving something special.
Scott Schwimer: And I noticed in the introduction that you had a picture
of our dog Triple, our beloved dog. And so oftentimes he will
accompany us in the car,
Jackie Keller: Oh, does he?
Scottt Schwimer: In the car.
Jackie Keller: Does he come into the restaurant.
Michael Epstein: No, he doesn’t.
Scott Schwimer: But we have to be able to keep an eye on him.
Michael Epstein: Well, if it’s a restaurant with an outside patio.
Scott Schwimer: And there are some restaurants that are quite animal
friendly. In fact we also live in the desert, and there are numerous
restaurants there that will allow you to bring your pet, and they
bring out bowls and all sorts of other things. So restaurants have
become quite friendly.
Jackie Keller: Interesting. So what do you see as the top trends in
restaurant menus, I mean what do you see?
Michael Epstein: Some of the things that you mentioned, Jackie. It’s about
locally-sourced ingredients more now than ever. Scott and I don’t
really get the gluten-free concept unless you have celiac disease. But
this is like the hot button as you know in this business, and every
restaurant we’re seeing now is popping up with gluten-free menus and
gluten-free items on the menu. Scott will tell you about our big
button recently which is sodium.
Scott Schwimer: Yes, well, we’ve discovered, I know you showed our
pictures a little earlier in the introduction, and we don’t quite look
like that anymore. But as we’ve been getting older, we realized that
when you get that horrible feeling, a lot of restaurants feel like
they have to create flavor by adding a high amount of sodium. And when
we wake up in the morning, we’re completely swollen; we realize it’s
swelling our organs on the inside and not just the outside. So we have
been instructing restaurants on low sodium usage. We find that they’re
starting to get a trend now.
Jackie Keller: That’s interesting.
Scott Schwimer: Yeah, so we hope that trend will continue, because we
really don’t need salt in order to enjoy the food.
Jackie Keller: Interesting. So is there a stigma attached to the word
healthy when you go to a restaurant and you ask for a lower sodium
option? You ask them to keep it on the healthy side?
Michael Epstein: No. I don’t think so at all. I think that is to be
expected nowadays.
Jackie Keller: Even in the finer restaurants? I know you guys go to some
pretty fancy places.
Scott Schwimer: I think especially in the finer restaurants. They’re a
lot more accustomed to accommodating a menu. We went to a new
restaurant that we tried out on this last week, and I asked for
something that was low sodium, and they just looked at me like a deer
in the headlights, because apparently, everything had high sodium. So
I think that as you go up to a more expensive and tailored experience,
then they are happy to accommodate you. And hopefully, the trend will
go in that direction with the other restaurants.
Jackie Keller: I think if consumers demand it, then you’re going to see
more of it.
Michael Epstein: Yeah, and you, Jackie, being in the food business, I’m
sure you noticed that pre-processed foods, I mean, we’re just in
amazement, 30, 40 percent sodium in products. It’s scary.
Jackie Keller: It is scary. And there’s a lot of learning that has to
take place, I think, at the consumer level in order to avoid ending up
with a saltier product than needs to happen. So when you’re on the
down low and you just want to go slumming, where do you go? Is it
Tommy’s? Is it Pings?
Scott Schwimer: That’s very funny. I can’t handle any of those. I
actually don’t eat red meat, probably for about…
Michael Epstein: Beef, you don’t eat beef.
Scott Schwimer: Beef, for about years now. I haven’t had a hamburger
since my sophomore year in college. Michael has joined suit because…
Michael Epstein: My cholesterol was a little high. I’m a big burger lover,
but I tend to switch to turkey burgers now. But if I am going to treat
myself to a beef burger, I go to Five Guys or to [inaudible 11:25].
Some of my favorites are the [inaudible 11:27] which are grass fed so
at least it’s somewhat healthy.
Scott Schwimer: And one of our favorite guilty pleasures is Motza, which
has the best pizza that we have found really anywhere and the best
chopped salad, and fantastic lemonade, and they have a fantastic
desert selection. I feel like I’m promoting Motza, but it is a really
a good guilty pleasure.
Jackie Keller: Well, I asked you, and it’s nice to know that there are
places out there that you can go and enjoy that are really good
quality food.
Scott Schwimer: And not spend a fortune.
Jackie Keller: And not spend a fortune. Well, I thought it would be fun
if we spend a few minutes creating something healthy and low sodium
and fun that you might find in a restaurant if you were looking for it
here today. Are you game?
Scott Schwimer: Sounds great.
Michael Epstein: Let’s do it.
Jackie Keller: You know, one of the things that I love most are salads.
I’m a big salad person, and it really annoys me when I get to a
restaurant and the salad is soggy or I can feel the greasy, and I
usually try to ask for everything on the side. But some things are
already mixed in, and you’re just stuck with it. And so I thought it
would be fun to show how good sesame chicken salad can be without
having it being loaded with oil, loaded with fat, and unhealthy. So I
got the ingredients together to make a really quick simple, this is
sort of, it’s not really Chinese chicken salad. It’s a sesame tahini
style, like a Middle Eastern chicken salad. So I thought we’d put it
together real quick and…
Scott Schwimer: It sounds great. You’re making me hungry.
Michael Epstein: Teach us something.
Jackie Keller: Who’s going to hold the whisk? You’re going to whisk, and
I’m going to make the dressing.
Michael Epstein: We eat out every meal…
Jackie Keller: So this is a little bit of sesame tahini paste. And this
is, of course, ground sesame seed, so it is high in oil, but it’s a
very healthy fat.
Scott Schwimer: How do you do that though? How do you grind the seeds?
Jackie Keller: You can even use a coffee grinder.
Scott Schwimer: Seriously?
Jackie Keller: And grind it to…
Michael Epstein: So what makes it liquidly?
Jackie Keller: The seeds eventually, it’s the oil in the seeds, right?
So I have some vinegar here. And this, by the way, is the sesame
tahini if you wanted to buy it and cheat. You don’t have to grind your
own seeds. You can just go to the Middle Eastern store and buy it.
Some of the better stock supermarkets will have it, but you can also
find it at the Middle Eastern market and get that.
Scott Schwimer: Smells wonderful.
Jackie Keller: So we’re going to add a little bit more liquid to that to
get it to thin out. So I’m adding a little white vinegar to it.
Michael Epstein: Are you taking notes?
Scott Schwimer: Yes, I’m taking notes.
Jackie Keller: And a little cayenne pepper. Now this is…
Michael Epstein: I love cayenne pepper.
Jackie Keller: I noticed that, Michael. I looked you up in our system
from the time that you got a couple of meals from us and I know that
you like it spicy.
Michael Epstein: I do like it spicy.
Scott Schwimer: He certainly does.
Jackie Keller: Now here is where we get into trouble in restaurants,
with the soy sauce. And so I have low sodium soy sauce. This is not a
fancy one, but if we put a little bit of this in, it will add just…
Scott Schwimer: Now where do you get low sodium?
Jackie Keller: Now that’s the sesame oil. This is the sodium.
Scott Schwimer: Okay.
Michael Epstein: How low is it, Jackie?
Jackie Keller: Well, Michael, you have your glasses on, and you can
[inaudible 15:17] I do.
Michael Epstein: Okay.
Jackie Keller: So yeah, you want to sit that down and keep it away from
that pretty shirt. Close that.
Michael Epstein: Okay, so it’s got 19 percent, so that’s not too terrible.
Jackie Keller: No, because we’re going to spread this out over multiple
servings, so that’s another thing to keep in mind, is that you can
dilute this by adding in just a little bit of water. And if you want,
or a little bit more of the vinegar to cut through the fat a little
bit, and to reduce the sodium. So that’s enough dressing for five
servings, easily.
Scott Schwimer: Jackie, or one serving for him.
Michael Epstein: I like dressing. But, Jackie, is this something that if I
am on your food program, this is something you serve?
Jackie Keller: Yeah, this in the NutriFit menu. We use the base of
romaine hearts for this, and then the chicken, which has just been
poached. Now, all I did was bring some water up to a boil. I added a
little bit of ginger, a little bit of lemon to the water, put the
chicken in, turned the heat off, and let the chicken poach for 20
minutes. That’s it, on very, very, very low heat and then we hand
shred the chicken, so this goes here.
Michael Epstein: Now, do you need to learn how to do that?
Scott Schwimer: I think it’s easier to just order it from you.
Jackie Keller: Well, first you have to taste it. So let’s put in some
green onion and a little bit of cilantro.
Michael Epstein: The cilantro, it looks great.
Jackie Keller: And now we’re going to get the dressing in, so…
Scott Schwimer: By the way, it smells amazing.
Michael Epstein: Doesn’t that smell amazing?
Jackie Keller: So let’s pour that in.
Scott Schwimer: Okay, here we go.
Michael Epstein: I think that is really what defines Jackie from other
food delivery services is that the food is really so tasty.
Jackie Keller: Thank you, Michael. That’s so sweet of you.
Scott Schwimmer: Well, we know. We’ve experienced it.
Michael Epstein: So we’re putting all of this in?
Jackie Keller: Yeah, we’re going to put all of this in because I know
this is multiple servings. And, of course, we have more lettuce, and
you can always add more lettuce. No. Bad. Have you been hanging out
with Triple too much?
Scott Schwimer: That’s our doggy.
Jackie Keller: All right, Michael. Do you want to just hand me that
plate, and we’ll just plate a little of this salad up, and you guys
can give it a taste. And remember we didn’t measure anything, so you
know, you’ll have to tell me.
Scott Schwimer: It looks delicious.
Jackie Keller: There you go.
Michael Epstein: It does look delicious, yum. Is it good?
Scott Schwimer: Sensational.
Jackie Keller: Sensational is a great word; you sweetie pie. Oh, thank
you. That makes me so happy.
Scott Schwimer: Too bad you guys aren’t getting any, because this is
amazing.
Michael Epstein: This is really tasty. And is it low calorie, Jackie?
Jackie Keller: Yes, it is. It’s low calorie. It’s healthy. It’s low in
fat. Of course, for you guys, it’s low in sodium.
Scott Schwimer: Fantastic, fantastic.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much.
Michael Epstein: Will that be enough for all of us?
Jackie Keller: We’ll have to take a take home..
Scott Schwimer: And this is really good.
Michael Epstein: It’s really tasty.
Jackie Keller: Thank you.
Scott Schwimer: Thanks so much for having us.
Jackie Keller: You’re welcome.
Michael Epstein: This was really fun.
Jackie Keller: I know that the audience wants to follow the Dining Duo.
Your site is so much fun. I know you’re big in Instagram as well, and
you post pictures constantly of places you’ve been. Some of them look
so fun. It’s fun to look vicariously. So if you could tell us how
people can find you.
Michael Epstein: Oh, thank you so much. Well, if you go to
www.thediningduo, and it’s really important to put in the t-h-e,
thediningduo.com, or follow up on face book. We have lots and lots of
visitors. We review all sorts of restaurants, all sorts of exclusive
hotels.
Scott Schwimer: Tell them where we’re off too.
Michael Epstein: And we’re off to Mexico City, because there is a huge
food scene explosion in Mexico City.
Jackie Keller: Oh my goodness.
Scott Schwimer: Everybody’s heading to Mexico City over the summer.
Michael Epstein: We’re leaving next week.
Jackie Keller: I’ve never been. Can I go in the suitcase or something?
Michael Epstein: Absolutely.
Jackie Keller: Just send me lots of pictures.
Michael Epstein: You know if you put a little tequila right in here, it
would be perfect.
Jackie Keller: Well, I wish you safe travels, healthy travels, and lots
of fun, and come back and visit us when you get back.
Michael Epstein: It’s been really fun. Thank you for having us.
Scott Schwimer: We’ll see you out in the restaurants.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, absolutely. One of my favorite parts of coaching
involves the use of metaphors. Just as a reminder, a metaphor is the
expression of an understanding of one concept by relating it to
another similar concept. And artists use metaphors all of the time as
do authors. So here is a metaphorical story that you might be able to
relate to. It’s called the tree. It was a warm sunny day in the
magical forest, and several rabbits frolicked by the side of the
forest pond as the gentle breeze rippled through the largest oak
overlooking the water making the leaves dance and tingle softly, the
unmistakable scent of wild lavender in the air. I can do a lot better
than this declared the largest branch on the tree. Soon I’m going to
branch out on my own. I’m almost as big as the entire tree now. I take
most of the light around here and absorb the food and catch most of
the rainfall.
On top of that, I provide the best shade for travelers in the summer and
the majority of acorns for future growth, food for the squirrels, and
rabbit population. I am supreme said the largest branch. The other
branches on the tree agreed. They had to accept what the big branch
said. He was indeed the most predominant in most ways. His only
failings being a lack of modesty in understanding that all parts of
the tree were one. The trunk of the tree in his usual manner said
nothing. Unnoticed, he just quietly kept on supporting the chattering
branches as he had done year in and year out since ancient times.
Late one year when the cold nights were drawing in and all of the golden
leaves had stumbled sleepily to the ground, a woodcutter appeared and
eyed the large branch. That’ll keep us warm for the winter, he said to
his apprentice. With no more ado, he sawed off that large branch and
dragged it away to his hut. The smaller branches were panic stricken
thinking that their turn was next. Your time is yet to come groaned
the trunk in a deep grumbling voice for his body ached where the big
branch had been chopped off. He felt not only had he lost an arm but a
son as well. Everyone’s turn will come, even mine. So be advised that
you can survive longer and be happier if you don’t get noticed or too
big for your boots like he did. So a tree is just one branch. The same
way as a branch without twigs and dancing leaves is barren neither is
a trunk alone a tree. I am but nothing without branches and roots, and
that’s the metaphor.
Thanks for joining me today on Food Exposed. Make sure to tune in next week
for another close look at what’s on your plate. And if you have
questions or comments, reach out to me at empowerme.tv/foodexposed.
For more Food Exposed, check me out on empowerme.tv and until next
week, remember, make food your best friend and exercise your companion
for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we take a close
look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller and I’m the
Founding Director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading healthy food
company. Today we’re taking a closer look at the second deadliest
disease plaguing our modern world – cancer. First, some good news on
the cancer front; death rates for all cancers combined and for the
leading cancers among men are declining. For women, those rates have
stabilized. According to the National Cancer Institute, this is true
across the fifteen most common cancers for all races and all
ethnicities combined. Still it is estimated that 35% of all cancers
are tied to our nutrition habits. We hear a lot about that these days
and how much fat is good for you. What kind of fat is good for you?
What we should be worried about. Here’s a quote that I want to share
with you. “Obesity-related cancer is now an official definition used
by both the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute,
but this does not mean that other cancers are not related to obesity;
only that there is currently not enough evidence because the cancer is
not well-studied or rare. Only lung cancer so far has not been linked
to obesity probably because of its strong association with smoking and
low air quality status. As recently as April 9th, just a few days ago,
a large published study of over 330 thousand women living in ten
European countries were followed for over 11 years. That study
concluded that high saturated fat and high total fat intake were
associated with a higher risk of breast cancer.
So it all comes down to basics. What should we be eating to provide
the best opportunity to lower our risk of cancer? Eating seven or more
portions of fruits and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death
from cancer at any point in time by 25% compared to eating less than
one portion, according to a new study that was published in London in
March of this year; eating three to five portions of fruit and
vegetables daily decreased death risk by 19%. A new study published in
the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who ate a daily
serving of nuts were significantly less likely to die from any cause
as opposed to those who never ate any nuts at all. The message is
clear. Eating healthily, plenty of fruits and vegetables, all of which
are rich in antioxidants, moderate amounts of saturated fat, not
having too much meat or full-fat dairy and having modest servings of
healthy nuts and monounsaturated fats, that will give your body the
best ammunition possible to fight cancer.
Most of us know someone that has been touched by cancer. My own mom
died from cancer and this has driven a lot of my energy and purpose.
Every time I think of purpose, I think of OnPurposeMagazine.com. It’s
an online publication that I write blog posts for and that I interact
with. My next guest is the founder of this wonderful publication. JW
Najarian spent the first 35 years of his career as a computer engineer
and a project manager before he changed to a career in commercial real
estate. He started the Commercial Real Estate Professionals Investors
Group in 2006 and then began working actively in philanthropy for
Humanities Unites Brilliance and Feed 333. A proud veteran, JW also
built a LinkedIn group of over 40 thousand U.S. veterans use the
resources of the group to connect and help each other. Since then, On
Purpose Magazine has flourished and it’s dedicated to helping people
find comfort and hope in today’s complex world; JW, welcome to Food
Exposed.
JW Najarian: Thank you for having me here.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much for coming.
JW Najarian: We’ve talked so many times and it’s really great that we
finally get to meet in person.
Jackie Keller: I’m delighted.
JW Najarian: I’m just delighted to be on your show.
Jackie Keller: Well, thank you. Thank you. Do you like to report on
nutrition for On Purpose Magazine? Tell us about that?
JW Najarian: As we talked about in the interview that I did with you,
it has kind of been a hobby of mine over the years. I actually went to
Naturopathy School for a very short time because I thought it was my
calling to be a Naturopath and talk to people about nutrition and
things like that, but I found it was more of a hobby. I got tired of
it and got into other things, but I still really am interested in
nutrition and I do report on it quite a lot. You were just talking
about cancer. I’m a cancer patient right now.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
JW Najarian: I went from burgers and my new friend is kale.
Jackie Keller: Good. Good. You’ve met kale.
JW Najarian: I’ve met kale.
Jackie Keller: Yes. Kale is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
JW Najarian: Yes. I’ve learned I’m a nut eater, I’m a kale eater and
I’m learning how to make kale taste good and how to eat vegetables and
stay away from sugars and salts. There has been a major change in my
diet. So I’m really excited today to talk about it.
Jackie Keller: Good. Good. What about the fitness side? Do you report on
fitness too in On Purpose or is more nutrition-oriented? Tell us a
little bit about that.
JW Najarian: First of all, On Purpose Magazine is a magazine that we
put together mainly to put out some really… There’s a lot of content
on the internet as you know, but we wanted to put out some really good
content on the internet. Just really helpful stuff, there’s a lot of
garbage out there. So we started by talking to celebrities because
celebrities bring eyeballs. They bring people to you. So talk to them
about their cause and their foundations and the good things that are
going on. I love to talk to authors. They have great stories. I talk
to authors, especially the ones that are talk about self-help and
personal development and things like that. That’s how I got into
talking to authors about nutrition like yourself and fitness and
working out. I workout, I go to the Y every day.
Jackie Keller: Good.
JW Najarian: I’m learning about stretching after as opposed to before.
One of the things you learn… I spent this last year pretty much in
bed a lot of the time because I had spine surgery from tumors in my
spine as I had stage 4 cancer. One of the things you find out is that
you lose muscle mass… I’m on Androgen Deprivation Therapy also.
That’s taking all of the testosterone out of my body which means I
lose muscle mass very, very quickly. I have to go to the gym. I have
to be a gym rat in the morning and workout really hard; harder than a
lot of people. You’ll notice right now I’m sweating a lot because I’m
going through, what women would call, their personal summer of
menopause because I don’t have any testosterone left in my body and
that’s one of the treatments I have to go through. Working out is
really essentially… You’ll notice most people say, “You have cancer.
You haven’t lost your hair and you’re overweight.”
Jackie Keller: You look great. No, but you look great.
JW Najarian: Well, thank you. I haven’t had to do the chemo therapy
that makes you lose weight or lose your hair. Not at this point.
Jackie Keller: You have to be on a special diet though.
JW Najarian: Yes. They don’t make you. Nobody comes to your door. The
cancer doesn’t come to your door and give you a hard time, but the
numbers that you talked about. They are real. You have to beat the
odds. The odds are not good for all cancers. In order to beat those
odds, you have to do the right things. That has a lot to do with
nutrition, but also mindset. It’s not easy to pass up my favorite
burger place.
Jackie Keller: Right.
JW Najarian: When you’re out with your friends and they’re eating a
bunch of fries, it’s not easy to say no.
Jackie Keller: When you think about the magazine, do you have a favorite
type of article that you like to do? Do you have a favorite type of
interview? Is it about causes and things that revolve around those
issues? What do you enjoy the most?
JW Najarian: We do highlight causes a lot of times. I came up with the
name On Purpose because I wanted to do articles with purpose, on
purpose, if that makes any sense. That means that the articles I do
mean something and teach something. They are hopefully intriguing and
educational. They make you think. They teach you something. That’s why
I love your articles. They have great recipes that you put in our
magazine and also great articles on all kinds of things for wellness
and health. Those are the things we look for. My personal favorites
are authors because of the stories that they tell.
Jackie Keller: You have celebrities that do shout-outs to the vets and to
various things.
JW Najarian: That’s my favorite thing. Every time I get a vet on, I try
to get them to do a U.S. veteran shout-out. One of my favorites was
when I was a kid I loved space and the whole Apollo thing so I’ve had
Buzz Aldrin to yell out to the vets for me.
Jackie Keller: That’s cool. That’s cool. What about authors and up and
coming authors? How do you help them out?
JW Najarian: The magazine actually makes no money. It’s just out there.
It was my outlet to put out good information and good content. I was
doing a lot of stuff in commercial real estate where I was putting out
content about the economy. I was talking to world economists and
things about finances for the commercial real estate industry, which
is a little boring. So I moved over to celebrities because it was more
fun.
Jackie Keller: Right.
JW Najarian: The question again was? I’m sorry.
Jackie Keller: How do you help up and coming authors?
JW Najarian: Oh, authors. Yes. What I’m trying to do is move to a model
where I… Because I talk to a lot of best-selling authors and one of
the things I do in the last ten or fifteen minutes of the interview is
I talk to them about their journey that they’ve taken writing the
book. Why they decided to publish a certain way? Who they published
with? What is their writing cycle like? All of those kinds of things,
this is very interesting to authors. We’re trying to move over now to
a monetization phase, where maybe we can help some authors out; up and
coming authors who don’t know how to get their books out and how to
promote their books. Nobody’s calling them up to promote their books.
Maybe if they’ve got any interviews [inaudible 11:19] in Kenosha,
Wisconsin it’s not on a site like mine that gets a lot of attention.
So we’re working on something now to put something together that will
cost a little money, but we’re going to try to make it fair where we
can help you promote your book.
Jackie Keller: That’s great. Do you ever discuss religion or politics? Do
you get into controversy?
JW Najarian: No. We really stay away from those kinds of things because
they are non-academic subjects to us. We don’t want to really… It’s
hard to talk about those. We are going to start something called “Talk
Summit”. That’s coming up, watch for TalkSummit.com. That’s going to
be a blog/talk radio show with me and a couple of my friends. We’re
going to pretty much tear it up.
Jackie Keller: That sounds great.
JW Najarian: We’re going to let loose.
Jackie Keller: Alright.
JW Najarian: It should be fun.
Jackie Keller: Well, we’ll watch for that. In the meantime, I thought we
might spend a couple of minutes in the kitchen together cooking up
some great antioxidant-rich cancer protective foods. What do you
think?
JW Najarian: I think that’s a great idea.
Jackie Keller: Alright. Well, let’s cook.
JW Najarian: Alright.
Jackie Keller: OK, JW we’re ready to cook and I thought it would be good
to structure a recipe that anybody can make at home; something very
simple, something very nutritious and something very appropriate for
guys with cancer, or guys that want to protect their prostate because
I know that we have a high incidence of prostate cancer, it’s a very
common one. We also know a little bit about how healthy it is for guys
to have tomato products. Particularly, cooked tomato products because
tomatoes…
JW Najarian: The lycopene or something?
Jackie Keller: Exactly. Tomatoes have a lot of lycopene and when you cook
the tomatoes, the little cells in the tomatoes burst and more lycopene
is released, so that is a very cancer protective element and we want
to get more of that in our diets. So here’s a great simple vegetable
casserole that is designed with guys in mind.
JW Najarian: Wonderful. Perfect.
Jackie Keller: Are you ready?
JW Najarian: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Simply, we’re going to take out a warm skillet and I’m
going to spray it with just enough oil so that we don’t burn our
vegetables. I’ll start with some of the harder vegetables first. I
have some zucchini here and we’re just going to get that in so that it
has a little bit of time to soften up before we add in some other
stuff. You’ll notice that I did start with some healthy oil, but I
don’t want to add more to it because we talked a little bit about
healthy fat and obesity and the fact that so many cancers are tied to
obesity. So we want to let the vegetables kind of get started. Whoops.
I confused it. We’re going to let the vegetables get started this way.
JW Najarian: When you were talking about fats and cancers, the fats and
cancers, were you talking about omega-3 fats too, just as much?
Jackie Keller: Omega-3 is…
JW Najarian: Or just saturated fats?
Jackie Keller: It is really more saturated fats that contribute to a
higher incidence of cancer. There have been studies that have shown
that the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are very healthy,
helpful fats, but a lot of people don’t know when you’re eating out,
particularly what kind of fat is the restaurant using? A lot of
restaurants use highly saturated fats. You want to make sure that when
you’re cooking at home, you’re cooking with either an extra virgin
olive oil, or you’re cooking with canola oil that you know is not GMO,
which is high in polyunsaturated fat. A little bit of coconut oil is
considered very healthy. There are a lot of organic coconut oils out
there right now. I started with the zucchini, but now I’ve added the
tomatoes because I want to get that tomato base.
JW Najarian: It’s starting to smell good already.
Jackie Keller: We know those tomato based dishes are so good. Smell is so
important. It really has to smell right; otherwise you don’t want to
eat it, right? It has to look pretty and smell right. We’re going to
add in some color now with some cauliflower and broccoli. These
vegetables are very high in [inaudible 15:23] which are a chemical
that is contained in vegetables…
JW Najarian: Easy for you to say.
Jackie Keller: Vegetables from the cruciferous family. They all have this
chemical in common and chemical properties in common. These are very
cancer protective. They are very high in antioxidants which combat the
free radicals that attack our bodies internal systems, disrupt us and
become carcinogenic, some green peas. This is a vegetarian dish, so we
want to be concerned about protein because do want to have protein in
our dish. Of course, peas are part of our legume family and everything
in the legume family has protein. So we add the peas in, not just
because they’re colorful and they’re pretty, but because they have a
protein element; some carrots as well, I just love that panoply of
color.
JW Najarian: I can’t help it because I’m an interviewer at heart.
Jackie Keller: Sure.
JW Najarian: I have a couple of questions.
Jackie Keller: Ask me. Yes.
JW Najarian: First of all, you’ve heard the talk now about antioxidants
causing cancer? Have you heard any word on that?
Jackie Keller: I have not found anything in my research that
substantiates that.
JW Najarian: I just heard it on this on the news just recently that too
many can cause cancer too. I’ll have to send you that one.
Jackie Keller: You send me that one because that I’m not familiar with.
JW Najarian: The other thing is, I notice that what I hear all the time
is colors.
Jackie Keller: Mm-hmm.
JW Najarian: All the colors. I see every color in there.
Jackie Keller: Every color I can find. The more color, usually the higher
the vitamin and mineral content. This isn’t always true because you’ll
notice we put in cauliflower. That’s white. It’s not a whole lot of
color, but cauliflower is loaded with calcium and loaded with vitamin
C, so poor little cauliflower gets left out a lot because it doesn’t
have that deep rich color. Yes. Generally speaking, you want to eat
from every color of the rainbow and you want to put in your dishes as
many colors as possible. That’s always a good indication. Now for
seasoning, I’m going to use one of my salt and sugar-free spice
blends. This is a Mediterranean blend because this is kind of a
Mediterranean style casserole, but you can use basil or oregano or
whatever herbs and spices you have in your cabinet that you love the
most. I love the Mediterranean seasonings so we’re going to get some
of that in there to get some flavor going. Then I’m also going to add
in… This will surprise you maybe because it surprises some people,
but I’m going to add in some other tomato. Again, we are trying for
maximum lycopene here.
JW Najarian: Right.
Jackie Keller: Ketchup. I know people think of ketchup and think high
fructose, corn syrup, bad, bad, bad, bad, condiment, and bad sugar,
whatever. You can add find now, very reasonably priced organic ketchup
that is not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. It has natural
cane sugar in it, but it’s lower sugar, lower salt and of course it’s
pure tomato.
JW Najarian: I’m on a low salt, low sugar diet.
Jackie Keller: So you want to be sensitive to that. This is a really
great product. You could use a little tomato paste instead of a little
bit of ketchup if you wanted. I kind of like the idea that there are
healthy ketchups out there and that it’s a product, if you know what
to look for, you can find it and still enjoy something as kind of old
fashioned and homemade as ketchup. If you were using tomato paste, you
might want to adjust the seasonings a little bit because ketchup does
bring more to it than just tomato paste.
JW Najarian: It makes it more exciting because I used to like to put
ketchup on everything.
Jackie Keller: Were you one of those kids?
JW Najarian: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Ketchup on everything?
JW Najarian: Oh yes.
Jackie Keller: Now, who cooks at home for you?
JW Najarian: Me. I’m the cook.
Jackie Keller: You’re the cook in the house. Well this is an easy, easy,
easy dish. This has grown as you’ve seen. You start with a little bit
of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of what’s in your
refrigerator and before you know it, you have a very full sauce pan of
absolute pure health here.
JW Najarian: I love this idea because one of the biggest problems I
have is that I go out to the store and I get all these vegetables and
they all look really good. Then I put them in the fridge and I mean
well, but about three days later I’m like, “I haven’t cooked any of
the carrots. I haven’t cooked any of the peas. What am I going to do?”
Jackie Keller: Right. This is what you do. If you get to the end of the
week and you have all of these vegetables and you still haven’t made
your casserole or used them up in a salad, you make soup.
JW Najarian: Oh yeah.
Jackie Keller: That’s another you can do which is a very useful, creative
way of doing all of this. We’re cooking it in a frying pan as though
it was a vegetable casserole, but we could have used a stockpot and
made a tomato based soup out of it and we would have called it mock
minestrone instead of vegetable casserole. So there you go. It’s that
simple. I also brought just a little bit of brown rice because again,
we want this to be perceived as a complete meal, so we want a complex
carbohydrate with it other than just what’s in our vegetables; so a
little bit of cooked brown rice along with the peas. Now follow me on
this. When you combine a grain and a legume, a whole grain and a
legume in the same dish or same meal, a complete vegetarian protein is
formed. All of the amino acids are present so you don’t need meat. By
adding the grain of brown rice in with our peas which was our legume,
remember, we’ve created a complete vegetarian protein in this dish.
JW Najarian: Wow.
Jackie Keller: So good to know because saturated fat of course is found
in foods of animal origin predominantly. You want more plant-based
meals in your diet. You don’t want to sacrifice your protein, so it’s
good to know about the rules of combining so that you can make
complete vegetarian proteins out of your meals. It is just that easy.
JW Najarian: That’s why I love talking to you. When we interviewed you
the first time, I had some really wrong information about, if you
recall because I listened to the interview again today, I had wrong
information about whole grains.
Jackie Keller: Right.
JW Najarian: How we could take them out of our diet and we would be
fine because of the paleo thing. You set me straight and thank
goodness because it really has rounded out my diet to add some good
whole grains.
Jackie Keller: Yes. You should have it. In fact, would you like to try
this one?
JW Najarian: Yes. It smells amazing.
Jackie Keller: OK. Well, let’s grab a plate.
JW Najarian: OK.
Jackie Keller: I’ll dish up something that’s maybe not too big of a piece
so you can actually get to it. It’s a little hot and of course if you
have a little bit more time, you can let it cook and it will just get
softer. You do it according to your taste.
JW Najarian: Another thing on my bucket list. I’ve watched all of the
cooking shows and never been able to taste until now.
Jackie Keller: Oh. OK. Hot? It’s alright?
JW Najarian: Mm. That’s so good.
Jackie Keller: Oh. Thank you.
JW Najarian: The texture makes a really big difference.
Jackie Keller: Yes. It’s just that little bit. Well I hope you’re not too
busy to tell people how to follow you. Everybody will want to find On
Purpose and want to follow all of the various things you’re doing and
that talk radio show that’s coming out. It all sounds so exciting.
What’s the best way for them to find you?
JW Najarian: Thank you so much, Jackie. What you can do is go to
www.OnPurposeMagazine.com. You can find me there. On Facebook at
JWNajarian and you can find me on LinkedIn or Twitter all the same
address. On Twitter we have OnPurposeMag and my name at twitter. Just
go to On Purpose Magazine. You’ll find all of the links there. Watch
for Talk Summit coming up. TalkSummit.com.
Jackie Keller: Great. Great. Thank you for joining me today. I hope
you’ll come back and visit us again. Good luck with your cancer
treatment. You look like you’re doing great.
JW Najarian: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: Keep up the good fight.
JW Najarian: Thank you. Thank you.
Jackie Keller: What five goals do you believe will lead you to lasting
happiness? In her book, “Creating Your Best Life”, Caroline Adams
Miller describes research tested happiness boosters and techniques for
building self-efficacy. The book collects and integrates studies and
research on relationships, passion, self-regulation, positive
emotions, flow, strengths, exercise, values, savoring and grit as they
relate creating an ideal life. When I did this exercise, my goals were
to number one, savor. This means slowing down some which is really
hard for me to do. Number two, to strengthen, in my world, that means
physically strengthen, which I do daily to emphasize the positive, as
in looking at a glass half full instead of half empty and to develop
my personal relationships which means taking more time for people. To
be more mindful in the moment was my fifth goal and this means being
less distracted, but to accomplish these goals and most others it is
important to remember that goals need to be smart, specific,
measurable, action-oriented, realistic and timed, but they also have
to be value-driven. They have to be intrinsic and they have to be
enveloping. They need to be exciting for you. If you can make sure
that your goals are approach goals, not avoidance goals, your value-
driven goals will compel you. They’ll have a better likelihood of
being pursued. Goals that foster independence and empower will help
you to create a life that is filled with vitality. If you want to
share your goals with me, contact me at empowerme.tv/foodexposed.
Thank you for joining me today. I hope you’ll tune in next week for a
closer look at what’s on your plate? For more Food Exposed, check me
out on empowerme.tv and until next week remember make food your best
friend and exercise your companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we take an inside
look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller, and I’m the
founding director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading healthy food
company. We’ve been hearing a lot about gluten free foods these days,
a whole lot. It seems that everyone is trying this new style of
eating, for a variety of reasons.
Today, I’d like to focus on Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity,
which when diagnosed, dictate the need to follow a gluten-free diet.
While many people are eating gluten-free for other reasons, like
following a fad, thinking that’s it’s going to be a magical weight
loss cure, curing bad habits in general by eliminating gluten is
another reason people are doing this, the autoimmune disorder that is
Celiac is a serious condition. It’s estimated that nearly 1 in 100
may have it. It’s the condition in which the absorptive surface of
the small intestine is damaged by gluten, and this results in the
body’s inability to absorb nutrients. No fat, no protein, no
carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, which are all necessary for good
health, are not well absorbed. According to the science, anything
above 20 parts-per-million of gluten can cause damage to a person with
Celiac disease. An additional three to five percent of the population
suffers from a condition known as non-Celiac gluten sensitivity, which
is not an autoimmune disease like Celiac, but it has similar
gastrointestinal symptoms and requires the same gluten free diet.
What is gluten, anyway? Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and
barley. It helps bread and other baked goods bind and prevents
crumbling. As a result, gluten is widely used in the production of
many packaged and processed foods. Gluten-containing flours and
starches are also used as thickeners, and they are present in many
soups and sauces. In fact, gluten in present in so much of our food
supply that following this specific dietary platform is really
challenging. For those not afflicted but looking for a way to
improve their diet in general, simply eliminating foods with highly
processed or refined products and emphasizing a diet rich in fruits,
vegetables, wholesome lean proteins, dairy, and fat will help.
Common symptoms of Celiac disease are anemia, chronic diarrhea, weight
loss, fatigue, cramps, bloating, and in some individuals, itching and
burning rashes. Still others present overt symptoms at all, but none
the less, they suffer the intestinal damage. The wide spectrum of
potential symptoms has historically made Celiac very difficult to
diagnose. It’s frequently misdiagnosed as Irritable Bowel Syndrome,
lactose intolerance, Crohn’s Disease, or other conditions. About 10%
of individuals with Type I Diabetes also have Celiac Disease, and
Celiac Disease, especially when untreated is also associated with
osteoporosis, liver and thyroid diseases, and Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a
whole host of things.
My guest today knows all about getting diagnosed and living with
Celiac Disease. We met under circumstances completely unrelated to
this condition, but definitely related to healthy food. John Volturo
is best known for his avant-garde marketing tactics and is behind some
of the biggest aspirational consumer brands in the marketplace today.
As the former Senior Vice President for Marketing for Guthy-Renker,
John spearheaded business development and marketing strategies for the
the direct marketing conglomerate and it’s world-renown products like
Chaz Dean’s Wen, Anthony Robbins, Winsor Pilates, and Sheer Cover.
Formerly the CMO of BeachMint, silicon beaches most recognized
startup. John was a primary in the company’s genesis and early
growth. Last November, in 2013, John founded Scriball, a platform
that connects brands and consumers through interactive, immersive
social storytelling. Scriball uses multimedia and sequenced content
to inspire creativity and build brand-to-consumer or consumer-to-
consumer based content and conversations.
John received his MBA with a concentration in Marketing, Marketing
Management from Drexel University and his Bachelor’s in Communication
from Temple University. He’s a strong supporter of the LGBT community
here in Los Angeles and PTSD recovery organizations. John and his
husband, Adam Christian, live in Los Angeles, California, with their
twin daughters. John, welcome to Food Exposed. It’s so nice to have
you here. I know it’s hard for you to get away, and I’m so delighted
that you could join us. Let’s start with the newest child in your
life, your new venture, Scriball. Tell me more about it.
John Volturo: As you were saying, the whole idea behind Scriball is
really about communities. I started thinking about communities a lot
when I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease because there wasn’t a lot of
information out there back in 2009. Really, my community was you, was
Jackie Keller. Jackie, I was lucky enough to have feed me and she
delivered my meals and experimented on me and helped me figure out
what worked and what didn’t work. I slowly started realizing that
food actually was changing the way I felt. Everything from headaches
to the rashes that Jackie mentioned earlier, to just no feeling
bloated all the time. Suddenly, I felt like a different person.
I started seeking out communities, and I realized that across the
country there were these micro-communities formed around certain
areas. Here on the west coast we were lucky; some places in Florida.
When I started talking to these people, I realized that a movement was
starting. To Jackie’s point earlier, it really wasn’t about a fad,
per se, but there were a lot of people who were actually suffering
illnesses. I was lucky enough to find out early for me. Out of that
whole idea of community grew this idea that communities are really
starting to fragment off Facebook and Twitter. People are starting to
have conversations, but the problem with Facebook and Twitter that I
saw as somebody who was actually running a social commerce company was
that didn’t let people actually have a narrative. The narrative kind
of escaped our daily life. For me that was really exciting because as
a storyteller at heart, because I worked in television for eight years
building out infomercials, 30-minute commercials, the story was the
king.
You told the story about somebody, a passionate developer like Jackie
Keller, and you told this story about how they became who they were,
and you convinced the person to buy a product through the passion and
the fact that this is authenticity. All those communities started to
disappear, and the whole narrative started to disappear. I got this
idea, shouldn’t there be a narrative in the story online. I decided
to leave my company that I was at, BeachMint, and start Scriball. The
idea behind Scriball is that it enables all of these small
communities, or large communities, or brands, to have a conversation
with each other, but collaboratively so people can build stories
together. In the case of what you’re doing with your work, Jackie,
the way I see the stories, all these people that you help have stories
to tell. Not just testimonials, but stories that they want to tell
about the way you’ve impacted their life. The other part of the whole
community is that it’s fun, it’s gaming. If you want to have recipe
competitions, like who’s made the best gluten-free recipe, or which
ingredient causes this bread to rise better. I’ve actually done that
and seen the power of the communities when they’re together; they just
make it a much more rich experience. That’s what Scriball’s all
about.
Jackie Keller: I know you mentioned community and you mentioned Adam and
the other new children in your life. Your twin daughters, and now
they’re about three years old. What’s it like to become an instant
parent, John?
John Volturo: It was exhausting.
Jackie Keller: You didn’t have to breastfeed.
John Volturo: No, I didn’t have to breastfeed, thankfully, and I didn’t
have to carry them, thankfully. We were really lucky to have a
surrogate here in Los Angeles, so we got the whole experience from the
beginning to end. All of the sudden you go from being a married
couple to having two kids in your house within three days of them
being born. Your life gets turned upside-down, and you realize how
small the world is. You realize that community, again, going back to
that, is so important.
In Los Angeles we’re really lucky there are organizations like Parents
of Multiples, and we’ve joined a lot of organizations just to get
close to communities because you go through a major life change. On
top of it, being a Celiac, I don’t like to label things of course, but
being a Celiac I started thinking about the impact that the food that
my kids were eating and what types of formula. We did have our
surrogate actually breastfeed, not breastfeed but pumping milk. She
started eating food with gluten in it, and one of my daughters became
ill almost immediately. It was really interesting because I was
actually introducing this to my doctor. When we brought it to the
doctor she was surprised that it happened so early, but we pulled back
all of the gluten. It was very hard to do that with someone that was
doing us a big favor by pumping milk, but only one of our daughter’s
ended up with breast milk; the other one ended up on formula because
of the gluten intolerance.
Jackie Keller: She’s nearly three now, two-and-a-half, right?
John Volturo: They’re both two-and-a-half.
Jackie Keller: Does she have Celiac Disease? Can you tell at this point?
John Volturo: We can’t tell. It’s interesting that you ask because when
she does have a piece of bread or a cracker, I can tell her stomach
gets a little distended. That was the way I felt initially when I
started to discover that I might have Celiac Disease. I actually
didn’t even know Celiac Disease existed until I was diagnosed with it.
I think the things that she feels, I can tell physically are similar
to what I went through. She gets a bloated looking stomach and then
she’ll cry in the middle of the night. I used to wake up in the
middle of the night. Her form of expression is crying; mine was ouch,
my stomach is hurting, why is that happening.
Jackie Keller: Come on, I know you cried.
John Volturo: I cried, I cried. I cried at work because I was tired. I
think she may have an insensitivity. I hope she doesn’t have the full-
blown Celiac disease. We haven’t had her tested. We feel like it’s a
little bit too early. We just want to try to see if we can maybe diet
her.
Jackie Keller: Now, because you have this relatively recent diagnosis,
how big of a challenge has it been for you to convert your whole way
of eating? I know you’re a pasta guy, you come from a good Italian,
pasta thing. That’s just one of the examples I know that you’ve had
to eliminate from your diet.
John Volturo: I’m glad to asked about that, because I will tell you,
back in 2009 when I was first diagnosed the biggest problem I had was
figuring out what to eat. Luckily, like I said, we were working
together, but I love to go out to dinner; it was part of my job as a
matter of fact. Talking to talent, going to speak, having dinners,
and cocktail parties, all of the sudden you start realizing that
gluten is everywhere. Wheat is in soy. Wheat is everywhere you can
possibly imagine, even in oatmeal. There’s certain oatmeal’s that you
can’t even have because it’s grown on the same fields that… It
became a really difficult thing for me to do. For the first month I
lost a lot of weight because I was just afraid to eat. Right after
that I started thinking about all of the things that I wanted, and we
started experimenting at home. Adam was a baker, so in addition to
all of the cookies and desserts that you were making for us, he
started baking bread. All of the sudden I gained weight, and I became
more heavy than I ever was before because I started thinking about the
things I was not able to have, and I started eating them. You get to
that balance, where all of the sudden you figure it out. Fast forward
to today where it’s 2014 and everybody seems to have a gluten-free
recipe, which is great. Even most recently, now I can go to
supermarkets that are on every corner and buy gluten-free pasta if I
want to eat it.
Jackie Keller: How can people who face similar challenges use Scriball to
get more information about not only Celiac but I know you’re also
dairy-free if I remember correctly.
John Volturo: I’m a little difficult.
Jackie Keller: You’re a little difficult. I would guess that your
community helps with that.
John Volturo: We haven’t actually set up a Celiac Scriball, but we
should. I was actually thinking what I wanted to do for you was set
up a community for you for all of your folks, because I think you’re
able to reach a group of folks who have been transformed by all of the
different recipes you’ve created for them. I think you’re right, we
should set up a Scriball community for Celiac Disease, because people
are constantly trying to figure out ways to improve upon what they
eat. What I’ve discovered is that recipe searching is the most
important thing. When I’m at home on a Sunday, and I want to cook a
big Italian dinner for my family because I’m Italian and I grew up
that way in New York City, it’s really hard for me to go online and
find a really great recipe. If there was a community of people
talking about the recipes that work for them, that would be great, and
that’s what Scriball is really about, that micro-community of people
figuring out what’s best and working together to get things done.
Jackie Keller: Let’s do that together.
John Volturo: I would love to do that together.
Jackie Keller: Should we start with a recipe right now?
John Volturo: Yeah, let’s do it.
Jackie Keller: Alright, let’s cook. All right, John, time to cook. I
thought today we would make something that is gluten-free, dairy free,
and for you soy free, and still nutritious, delicious, doable, nothing
fancy, nothing foreign or weird, nothing exotic, and just show people
how easy it is to put together something without a whole lot of effort
that meets all of those criteria, and is nutritious as well. We’re
going to make a quinoa-based dish. As you know, quinoa is a gluten-
free grain, and it’s loaded with protein so this will take care of the
fact… This is actually a vegan protein dish. A little bit of extra-
virgin olive oil, and of course some onions and bell peppers, which I
know you like.
John Volturo: Already smells delicious.
Jackie Keller: Maybe you can give that a stir while I get the rest of it
going. We’re just going to allow, maybe, 30 seconds for this to take
on some color and flavor. I cheated a little bit, because…
John Volturo: No cheating.
Jackie Keller: I cheat all the time. A little bit of collard greens. I
pre-blanched them because collard greens do take a couple of minutes
to cook, and I knew we would be a little short on time. You’re going
to want to spread those out. If you’re starting with raw collard
greens in the recipe, you’re going to want to either blanch them or
allow for enough time for the collards to cook. Unlike spinach or
chard, which you could use in this recipe, collards are a little
stiffer. The good thing about collards is they are so, so high in
Vitamin K and in fiber.
John Volturo: I love collards. I do love them.
Jackie Keller: It’s not a common vegetable for some of us. I didn’t grow
up with collard greens. I didn’t know anything about them.
John Volturo: We started to grow them in our backyard.
Jackie Keller: How nice.
John Volturo: Yeah, we do.
Jackie Keller: We have a farm now. NutriFit has a farm and we are going
collards.
John Volturo: Farm-to-table.
Jackie Keller: Literally, in our case it’s literal. For our clients,
they’re getting things that we grow on the farm and bring in and put
in their plates. Collards are one of the easiest things to grow,
which is really nice. I’m going to add a little bit of vegetarian
vegetable broth. Here would be an instance where we would need to
look and see, does this have gluten. I don’t have my glasses on.
John Volturo: I don’t have mine on either, but I can tell that this is
gluten-free because it doesn’t have any soy in it, and it does not
have anything related to wheat or modified starches. That tells me
right away that it’s probably gluten-free, even though it doesn’t…
It actually says it on the front.
Jackie Keller: Shows you what you can see when you can read, but in other
times or with other products you may not be able to see that it’s
gluten-free on the front.
John Volturo: A lot of products still don’t have it on there.
Jackie Keller: Right, because it’s not necessarily what people are
looking for. Although, I think we are going to see more and more
things labeled gluten-free that never have gluten to begin with, but
this is a product like a broth, sauce, or something pre-made like this
where you would have to read the label carefully.
John Volturo: You really do have to be careful because brown gravies,
like you were saying before, have a lot of gluten in them.
Jackie Keller: We’ve got some vegetable broth in there. Now I’m going to
add some black lentils to this. If you didn’t have these black
lentils, which aren’t that exotic or hard to find, you could use
regular lentils. I kind of like something a little different.
They’re smaller; they have a little better texture for this dish
because they’re not going to get really mushy on me. Of course, by
adding in the lentils, we’re adding in fiber, folate, and a lot of
protein.
John Volturo: A nice crunch too.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, they’re good. I’ll add in some of our salt and
sugar-free lemon-garden blend because I know what’s in it. Again,
another circumstance where it could be a filler or something added in
it that could create a reaction.
John Volturo: If you haven’t tried Jackie’s spices, they’re amazing.
Jackie Keller: That’s sweet of you, thank you. You just earned yourself
a bottle to take home.
John Volturo: That’s why I said it.
Jackie Keller: Give that a stir here while we get the quinoa in there.
This is red quinoa. You don’t have to have red quinoa; you don’t have
to have black quinoa; you don’t have to have tri-colored quinoa; you
can have just plain old quinoa. This is organic, and I like this
product because, again, I want something that looks a little unique.
I want something that contrasts with the dish and really creates
something interesting. We’re going to add in this pre-cooked quinoa.
You know you have to rinse quinoa before you cook it because it has
that bitter outer coating. When you just rinse it in a colander that
outer coating is rinsed off, then you just put in in a pot with some
water, bring it up to a boil. Of course, the recipe for this dish is
on empowerme.tv. It’s also on my health blog, so you don’t have to
worry about writing it down.
John Volturo: It smells delicious.
Jackie Keller: We’re going to top it off with a little bit of meyer lemon
zest and meyer lemon juice. This is another thing we’re trying to
grow up on our farm, meyer lemons. We have a regular lemon tree,
which is prolific. The meyer lemons are harder to grow and a little
bit more delicate, but they have a much sweeter flavor, so we’re
experimenting. We’re not farmers by trade.
John Volturo: It’s not Green Acres.
Jackie Keller: It’s not Green Acres, no, it’s not Green Acres. Well,
part of the acres are green, thank God. If we could just get more
rain we’d be in good shape. I love the smell of lemon zest.
John Volturo: I can smell it from here; it smells great.
Jackie Keller: Then we’ll take some of the juice out as well. You just
keep stirring there. Pretty soon we will have our dish. Can you hand
me one of those forks. I’m going to spear this guy and take the juice
out just like that. Who needs a fancy juicer when you have a good old-
fashioned fork? Maybe a little bit more. I think there’s a seed or
two in there so I have to be a little bit careful. We’re just about
done. It’s really that simple.
John Volturo: This was fast, yeah.
Jackie Keller: Of course, I pre-cooked a couple of things, but nothing
took more than 15 minutes to pre-cook.
John Volturo: You could do while you do other things as well.
Jackie Keller: A nice salad with this, or something like that would be
done for the day. You’ve got protein, fiber, fat, healthy vitamins,
minerals, everything you need.
John Volturo: I think I’m going to go home and make this for dinner
tonight. This smells delicious. You might have to give this to me.
Jackie Keller: You might have to taste it first, what do you think, ready
to do that? Let’s do this. Let’s turn it down because it’s pretty
hot. Why don’t you dish yourself up a little bit, and I’m going to
have you take a taste. I think you have a fork right there. Let me
know what you think. Hot, I know. Is it good?
John Volturo: As good as I thought it would be. I did get that one
seed.
Jackie Keller: That tiny seed found you.
John Volturo: It’s very good.
Jackie Keller: This is a base. Obviously, you could modify it. If you
didn’t have collards you could use something else; make it your own,
but I’m glad we came up with something. If you did want to make this,
and it wasn’t for John, and you wanted to add some soy nuts to it, you
could for a little additional crunch, some roasted soy nuts on the
top. It’s good without it as well.
John Volturo: Or you could put pine nuts, if you’re me.
Jackie Keller: There you go, and pine nuts would be a lovely addition to
that. John, thank you so much for joining me today.
John Volturo: Glad to me here. I’ll have to give you a hug. I love
this woman.
Jackie Keller: I know that everybody wants to stay connected to you
personally, and they also will be interested in Scriball, so please
tell our audience how they can find you.
John Volturo: You can find me at JohnVolturo.com, thank you.
Jackie Keller: We’ll stay connected.
John Volturo: Yes.
Jackie Keller: We’ll stay in touch.
John Volturo: I’d love to do that.
Jackie Keller: We’ll do this again.
John Volturo: Yes, let’s do it again.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much. Think for a minute about the most
important relationships in your life. What are the characteristics of
the people to whom you feel closest? Happy couples describe their
partners as interested and responsive. Besides existing
relationships, curious people act in certain ways with strangers that
allow relationships to develop more easily. Research shows that
curious people ask questions and take an interest in learning about
partners and intentionally try to keep interactions interesting and
playful.
Here are a couple of things we now know about social relationships.
In a recent blog in Scientific American magazine, Ingrid Wickelgren
writes, “People who are part of a group are also far better equipped
to conquer an internal foe, the threat of bad health. In one of the
recent studies, the health benefits of social relationships published
earlier this year, researchers provided evidence that social ties and
increased contact with family and friends are also associated with the
lower risk in death in young women with breast cancer. Another study
presented a similar conclusion with respect to surviving heart
surgery. What’s more, a 2010 meta-analysis of 148 other studies
showed that social connection doesn’t just help us survive health
problems, but lack of it causes them.”
She goes on, “Many languages have expressions such as hurt feelings
that compare the pain of social rejection to the pain of physical
injury. We now know that those are more than just metaphors. There
are two components to physical pain, an unpleasant emotional feeling
and a feeling of sensory distress. They’re both associated with
different structures in the brain, and social pain is also associated
with a particular brain structure. This connection between physical
and social pain reflects the tie between social connection and the
psychological processes of the body.” The health message is clear.
Reach out socially, you’ll engage your curious self, you’ll minimize
the pain of social isolation, and live more fully.
As John Lennon wrote so poetically, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but
I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world
will live as one.” That’s our show today. I hope you’ll join me next
week for another episode of Food Exposed, where we’ll take a close
look at what’s on your plate. For more Food Exposed, check me out on
empowerme.tv, and until next week, remember, make food your best
friend and exercise your companion for life.
Jackie: Welcome to Food Exposed where each week we take a close look at
what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller and I’m the
founding Director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading food
company. You know during the course of my work I’ve had the
privilege of working with people from all walks of life from all
over this country and all over the world. I’ve been able to
travel to every continent and have traveled through most of the
United States as well and during the course of this I’ve heard
great stories about getting healthy and staying healthy.
There’s a general perception that almost no one succeeds in the
maintenance of long term — long term maintenance weight loss.
However, research has shown that about 20 percent of overweight
individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined
as losing at least ten percent of initial body weight and
maintaining the loss for at least one year.
The National Weight Control Registry provides information about the
strategies used by successful weight loss maintainers to achieve
and maintain long-term weight loss. The National Weight Control
Registry members have lost an average of 72 pounds and
maintained the loss for more than five years.
Many registry members follow these basic strategies. Rule number one
they never cheat. They don’t give themselves break not even on
holidays, not on weekends. Rule number two they eat breakfast.
The National Weight Control Registry shows that one of the most
common traits of those who succeed in keeping those pounds off
once and for all. And rule number three they get on the scale
every day. They don’t let the pounds creep up.
Rule number four they put in the equivalent of a four mile walk seven
days a week. Number five they watch less than half as much TV
as the overall population. Rule six they eat 50 to 300 calories
per day less than most people; moreover, weight control gets
easier over time and after individuals have successfully
maintained their weight loss for two to five years the chance of
longer term success greatly increases.
Continued adherence to diet and exercise strategies, low levels of
depression and disinhibition and medical triggers for weight
loss are also associated with long term success. Many registry
members say that these behaviors are common traits but not
something they necessarily do all the time.
Well, my guest today is a woman whose story could be in the National
Weight Loss Registry instead it’s in her book “Tipping the
Scales in Your Favor”. Dian Thomas, author and self-published
the book in 2011 losing amazing 120 pounds. Dian hails from the
beautiful mountains of southern Utah where she grew up in the
family of boys as the daughter of a forest ranger. She
developed wonderful camping skills including a host of
activities centered around outdoor cooking and after completing
her master’s thesis Dian published her first book “Roughing It
Easy” which made The New York Times best seller list and landed
her on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from that came
contact with the Home Show, Good Morning America, and now you
can catch her own Hallmark’s Home and Family Show.
I met Dian ten years ago and at that time she weighed 326 pounds,
I’ll let her tell the rest of the story to you. Dian, welcome
to Food Exposed.
Dian: Thank you.
Jackie: Thank you so much for coming down from Utah. You know I know
people are really captivated by weight loss stories but yours is
unique. What motivated you to lose weight?
Dian: Well, I was here in Santa Monica speaking because I had been on
television for so long. I was speaking about how to do publicity
and how to do performances and I was all finished and all
gathering up and I remember this wonderful woman came and said
you know I went to my car and I decided I should come back and
here’s my card and I can help you lose weight and that was you.
I have been grateful ever since because it gave me hope.
I think one of the big things is and I haven’t done it perfect as you
know but one of the best things is you stay on the track and
even if you slip a little bit, you keep staying on the track and
you stay on the track. Pretty much at whole I’ve conquered it
but I still am challenged a little more when I travel and that’s
a hard one for me.
I’ll still work on that. I’m not going to giving it up but I
remember in the beginning I said to myself I’ve got to find an
activity that I love and if I don’t, I’m not going to stick with
it and so I think that was a huge, huge key and that was riding
my bike and that’s opened up the gate. In fact, this year I’m
riding my bike down the Rhine River and through the tulips in
[inaudible 00:05:38]
Jackie: Wow.
Dian: . . . and in Paris. So it still is a passion for me.
Jackie: That’s great. So what changed in your life because you lost
the weight?
Dian: Oh, I have a new life. It’s totally new. I love traveling and
I was always really active. As you mentioned, I’m from the
forest, and my dad was a ranger, we went out camping and all of
that. So I had a really active upbringing and also I traveled
the country doing promotion, promoting books, but pretty soon
when you get so heavy you’re just looking for the next chair to
sit down and your life totally changes. And it’s kind of like
you go downhill and then coming back up is really difficult.
I remember I used to ride my bike. That was really my main exercise.
I used to ride it for two hours in the morning at home. I would
be so exhausted some days that I couldn’t do much the rest of
the day and I still, I did, the highlight for me was when I rode
across to Iowa two years ago and rode every mile.
So one of the things we do is called RAGBRAI. Some of you may know
especially if you are in the middle part of the country but
15,000 bike riders come to Iowa towards the end of July and Iowa
is bordered by the Missouri River on the West and the
Mississippi on the East and so we start riding our bikes, we
back our back tire into the Missouri River and then you ride
across the state and each day you ride about 60 to 80 miles.
And then in the next day you get another 60 to 80 miles and so
there’s about 25,000 people. So some of the towns that you stay
in are only 3,000 people so here’s all these bike riders, so I
think associating with people who work out and do healthy living
things also is a big help for me.
Jackie: And you have a new career I think in there as I . . . tell us
about it.
Dian: Which one?
Jackie: Well you mentioned like riding your bike down the Rhine River
and tulips in Holland. I think you’ve had a few other trips
that are pretty exciting since you’ve lost the weight.
Dian: Absolutely. What happened, to be honest with you Jackie, is
when I lost the weight I rode my bike so much that everybody
knew I was riding my bike. Every day I was on my bike and a
friend of mine told the travel agent in Salt Lake about that and
they called me when I was in California and said would you come
and do a bike tour to China? I go that’s a no brainer. I mean
of course I would do a bike trip to China.
And so I went in, met with them, and they never got enough people to
go to China for the bike ride but all of sudden I found myself
in China. He said just go take tours for me, go take tours, so
I had been China to 16 times and I also stay in China and I ride
my bike which is pretty dangerous. It’s not like riding in LA
because they don’t anticipate you. It’s like they have rules in
China but nobody follows them so people are coming from all
directions.
So I decided Europe is where I’m going to go because they have bike
lanes and they actually have that in China but so I started
doing tours to China and then next one was to Peru to Machu
Picchu which I’m going back again in a couple of weeks. And this
last I just got home two weeks ago from South Africa where I
went to Kruger Park to see the animals and next year I’m going
back and take people on a camping trip in South Africa.
Jackie: Now would that have been possible at 326 pounds?
Dian: No, none of it would have been possible and so it’s really
thrilling and that’s one thing that keeps me going. Like I
said, one of my challenges is when I travel. But you just keep
working on it. I mean a lot of people the thing about weight
which you could have told me is it’s a long-term effort and just
because you fall off the wagon what I used to do is, “Well I
fell off the wagon. I’ll just eat for a week, and then I’ll go
back on.”
But no you get up the next morning and you start and then your own
way again so I think losing weight is a challenge. Our country
is as you know we have a challenge with that and that’s why it’s
so good to have people like you who lead the way and show us. I
have a background in home economics but it’s not just knowing
the information. It’s really applying the information.
Jackie: So how valuable was it to have a coach through this process?
Dian: I don’t think I would have done it. I have told many of my
friends I don’t think I would because it’s a long term you have
to just keep doing it. And again in my suitcase I brought down
some more books to work on tonight to make a plan and I think
eventually I’ll get a plan.
But one of the things I think plagues is we need fast food. Not fast
food in the terms of McDonalds and all of those but when you get
ready to eat. You’re tired, you’re back from the office, you
need to be able to fix it fast and so that’s been my challenge
is learning how to set my kitchen up so that when I go in there
I can make something really fast and is healthy. That’s the
key.
I tell people I can fix . . . this is my kind of mantra. I go
shopping on Saturdays, come home, and if I can set it up like
even pre-measure all of the stuff. Last night as I’m getting
ready to come here I just bought some turkey hamburger and when
I buy it I get about four pounds or so. So I measured it all
out, made the hamburger patties, and put them in the freezer,
and then they are all ready to go. I just take them to the
freezer up, put them in a pan, turn it over, and then turn up
the heat, go into work, and then when I come back out, I need to
steam some vegetables or something like that, and I have a meal.
So it’s fast.
Jackie: Well about doing some fast cooking with me today?
Dian: I would love to.
Jackie: So let’s join me in the kitchen.
Dian: I always love watching your stuff. It gives me ideas to do so.
Jackie: Let’s do it together.
All right, Dian. We are ready to cook.
Dian: I’m excited.
Jackie: I know you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. In fact, you do
a lot of your cooking at home. You can do that when you are
home, but do you do that all of the time?
Dian: All of my cooking. Yeah.
Jackie: So I thought that I would give you a couple of another ideas
to take home.
Dian: Yes, I would love that.
Jackie: These are really easy and they are very quick and they are down
your alley because I know you love vegetables. You tell me all
the time you go to the farmer’s market, you pick up what’s
special, what’s seasonal, what’s fresh, what just and then you
come home and create.
Dian: Exactly.
Jackie: And that’s sort of the way this recipe evolved. It’s very
simple pasta dish so its base of carbohydrate is whole grain
pasta, and for protein we are using white beans, and for fiber
we are using kale. So vegetarian pasta dish with just a little
bit of feta cheese at the end, which of course is optional. You
know you don’t have to do it that way but I think that kind of
rounds it out.
So let me get started with some extra virgin oil. As you know the
extra virgin means that it has the best flavor and the highest
purity so we need the least amount because every drop is going
to contribute just a little bit more flavor benefit so just
enough that we don’t burn the bottom of the pan.
Dian: Good.
Jackie: And of course we love to start all of these dishes with some
garlic.
Dian: Oh yeah.
Jackie: And you know we like to start with something that people are
familiar with because when you don’t do a pasta dish that has
meat or something like that, sometimes your guests are “okay
like well something is missing.” “You know like this more like
an appetizer than an entree,” but the truth is that you don’t
need the meat. What you need is something that smells good and
looks good.
Dian: It really smells good.
Jackie: Yeah, it’s very fragrant so.
Dian: So this is the kale?
Jackie: This is some fresh kale. Now we steamed it a little just to get
ahead start.
Dian: So that’s the big leaf.
Jackie: That’s the big leaf kale. You can use baby kale, you can use
red kale or blue kale or any kind of kale you can get your hands
on but I like the dark rich green color of this. And since I
don’t want to add anymore oil and I don’t want to burn the
bottom of the pan, I’m going to add in a little organic
vegetable broth, and that’s just enough to give it some juice
and keep that garlic from burning and the vegetables can
continue to cook a little bit and now.
Dian: Did you blend the garlic? That’s one thing I noticed right off
the top.
Jackie: I did not. That is fresh garlic, that we minced, mince, mince,
mince. We set it up like you talked about setting up your meals
in containers. We set up our ingredients in these little
containers, food safe containers designed for food to keep in
the refrigerator and that way you don’t have to start completely
from scratch. You know you are starting with something, some of
the harder stuff already done. The beans, I pre-cooked the
beans and these are just white beans. Now you could use
cannellini beans, black beans, red beans.
Dian: You could freeze this ahead of time, couldn’t you? So I got
two great ideas from you today already. Chopped up garlic and
you could do that so you can just put more in.
Jackie: You can do that at the start of week and have it all week long
and the beans…
Dian: The beans could be frozen.
Jackie: Put them in an eight ounce containers or two cup containers and
you are good for the week.
Dian: Good.
Jackie: And then the same beans can be used in many different ways.
Dian: So now I think that’s the key to that because doing it ahead of time
is easy. This is fast food, really good fast food.
Jackie: This is fast food, yeah. And you mentioned that’s really been
one of the challenges, right?
Dian: Yeah, that’s the key.
Jackie: And then another not so secret secret is of course is to have
these salt and sugar free spices available. This is one of ours
it’s Mediterranean but you know you don’t have to have ours to
make this recipe work you can do your own and this is a brand
new bottle so I’m going to do another little trick that I like
to do which is to crush the seasoning and really releases all of
the flavor in the dried herbs.
Dian: That’s nice.
Jackie: Now I’ll let you stir for me here while I clean my hands.
Dian: Looks nice.
Jackie: And I love the smell on my hands of those seasonings but I also
appreciate having something to kind clean of my hands and add a
little more flavor to it. I’m going to take some lemon and go
right into that with some fresh Meijer lemon and I’m going to
clean my hands too. So my hands now smell like lemon which I
love.
Dian: So you could use lemon or lime?
Jackie: Lemon or lime either one. And you just want a little bit just
to because we are not making a tomato base sauce here. We are
making a vegetable based sauce so I’m going to go ahead and add
in now some pre-cooked. I pre-cooked a little bit of vegetable
penne, whole wheat penne. And again you don’t need much.
Dian: Could you freeze this as well, couldn’t you?
Jackie: You can, pasta will lose a little bit of texture in the
freezer. So when it comes out what you could do with this which
would take care of the texture issue we are going to serve it
just fresh out of the skillet but let’s say you had frozen the
pasta and it had become a little watery when you defrosted it
and you were like oh it doesn’t look beautiful anymore. Well
you take it, you added some mozzarella cheese, you pour it into
a baking dish and you bake it. Now you have a baked pasta bean
vegetable casserole as opposed to the way we are doing it here.
So you see very easy.
Dian: This is fabulous. This is great.
Jackie: Look at how easy that is. And now to add just a little bit
protein to it because we know we like cheese this is low sodium,
low fat feta cheese.
Dian: Cool.
Jackie: And it’s just going to be enough to again to bring some color
to the dish. It adds a little bit of salt flavor because you
notice you didn’t add any salt.
Dian: But you add the extra. See that’s what I love about watching
you because you know those little tricks to put into to make it
so it’s gourmet.
Jackie: Well, it’s a dressed up version.
Dian: That’s right.
Jackie: Very rustic Italian dish which as you know pasta with white
beans. So it’s a pasta fagioli upscale.
Dian: There you go. I’m going to get you a plate.
Jackie: No, this is going to be your plate.
Dian: Is this my plate? Oh good.
Jackie: I need to dish up for you.
Dian: I’m ready to try to that.
Jackie: Just try that? All right.
Dian: That looks beautiful. One thing Jackie told me a couple weeks
ago is that my food is a little boring, so I came down here to
jazz it up but I can see why.
Jackie: Hot, hot, hot. Careful.
Dian: That is great.
Jackie: Thank you. That’s so sweet but you know Dian I know that
viewers are going to want to get in touch with you. They are
going to want to not only know how to contact you just to hear
your story and hear more of your story and of course tipping the
scales in your favor to find the book but they are also going to
be interested in following you through your travels so what’s
the best way for our viewers to find you?
Dian: Just to go my website, it’s www.DianThomas.com and I do have a
. . . I spell it different without an E but I also have on with
the E so either way DianThomas.com.
Jackie: All right.
Dian: And if you want to see Johnny Carson, you can go to my website
and watch that today.
Jackie: Well, great. Well, thank you so much for coming down.
Dian: Thank you.
Jackie: It is always a pleasure to see you, we are going to keep
working together, and keep up the good effort.
Dian: You have been a fabulous coach so if you need a good coach.
Call Jackie, she’s the best.
Jackie: Oh thanks, Dian.
Dian: You’re welcome.
Jackie: My coaching moment today is about how committing to your goals
helps you achieve happiness and is based on the work of Sonja
Lyubomirsky in the book “The How of Happiness”. She writes that
people who strive something for personally significant whether
it’s learning a new craft, changing careers, or raising moral
children are far happier than those who don’t have strong dreams
or aspirations. Find a happy person and you will find a
project.
You know I think she’s right we all know people who have goals but
lack the motivation to pursue them. What really makes us happy
is when we find the drive to chase our dreams. So what is
committed goal pursuit do it for us? Well, let’s consider the
opposite for a moment when you don’t have that significant goal,
it’s hard to feel connected to something. Having a goal gives
us something to work for. It also increases our self-esteem.
Goals make us feel confident and every time we accomplish a step
along the way you get another emotional boost. These lift are
not only reinforcing our happiness but they help us stay
motivated. And third having goals to pursue give us structure
and meaning and we can also have a natural way to connect with
others through our goals.
Related to this is yet another benefit of being committed. It helps
us schedule our time and ourselves and should something derail
us from one goal, we are better built to cope with problems and
replace that goal with another.
Finally, as human beings we have a need to belong and engage with
people if only on a goal-related level. Goals can be happiness
inducing even in virtue of just connecting us with other people
and this contributes to our continued vitality. In the words of
Robert Louis Stephenson, an aim in life is the only fortune
worth finding.
Thank you for joining me today on Food Exposed. I hope you will join
me next week as we take another close look of what’s on your
plate. For more Food Exposed, check me out on emPOWERme.tv and
until next week make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where, each week, we take a close
look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller, and I’m the
founding director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading healthy food
company. Today, we’re taking a close look at why we put stuff on our
plates, literally, our eating habits as a country in general. This is
serious stuff, because, as you know, two-thirds of adult Americans are
overweight or obese, as are one-third of our children. What do
hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer have in
common? Obesity is an underlying cause of all of these chronic
diseases that are killing more than 100,000 Americans every year.
We’re going to get to the heart of this problem with our guest, but
before we do, I thought that it would be interesting to take a look at
where we’ve been with dieting trends over the last few years, and look
back even further to see how little has changed since the 1930’s in
general. So, here’s a quick tour through the history of dieting
trends.
In the 1930’s and 40’s, you could blame Lucky Strike. Smoking was the
way we got thin back then. The cigarette brand used the line, “Reach
for a Lucky, instead of a sweet.” Yuck! Literally, heart disease and
lung cancer, that’s what we got, not skinny. That’s not the only thing
that debuted back then. The lemonade diet was popular, which is
remarkably like, well, wait for it, today’s Master Cleanse. In the
1950’s, we were praying for weight loss. The Christian dieting
industry was born, and followed Reverend Charlie Shedd’s book, “Pray
Your Weight Away”. This was followed by, “I Prayed Myself Slim,” and,
“Help Lord- The Devil Wants Me Fat!” Fast forward to 2002, and Don
Colbert publishes, “What Would Jesus Eat” cookbook. I mean, seriously.
In the 1960’s, we all shared the love, right? When it came to dieting,
we grew support organizations like Overeaters Anonymous and Weight
Watchers. We ate the cabbage soup diet to bloat our stomachs up so
we’d feel full and lose weight. Well, not. In the 1970’s, the era of
miracle pills, from Dexatrim to Fat Blocker. Where have we heard more
about this recently? This gets revived again, just a few years later,
with Fen-Phen and other miracle diet pills. Oh yeah, the cookie diet.
Turns out it’s not so new. It started in the 1970’s. By 1980, the
Scarsdale diet came in with hardcore, high-protein, low-carb, low
calorie, and you thought starving was new?
In the 1990’s, Dr. Atkins took Scarsdale one step beyond, and
introduced high-fat to the no-carb picture. So, why does this sound
familiar? In 2000, we’ve had an explosion of diets. Since then, you
have your choice. There are cleanses. There is Paleo, which is one of
the worst diets of 2013, according to the U.S. News and World Reports.
The DASH diet, the South Beach diet, the Mediterranean diet, and
there’s even a new one called The Ice Cream Cleanse! Yep, it just made
the scene, straight from right here in Venice, California. Yet, as a
nation, we keep getting fatter. So, what really works, and how can we
get a grip on our waistlines? Well, my guest today is an expert in
this area. In fact, she’s a senior natural scientist and a leading
researcher at Rand Corporation, an M.D. with a Master’s in public
health, and the author of a recently published book, “A Big Fat
Crisis: The Hidden Forces Behind The Obesity Epidemic, and How We Can
End It.” Dr. Cohen, welcome to Food Exposed.
Dr. Cohen: Thank you for inviting me.
Jackie Keller: Well, you know, in your book, “A Big Fat Crisis,” you talk
about changing the conversation around obesity. Tell me more about
that. I hear people talk about diet all day long, and clearly, as a
country, we’re awash in food. Everywhere you turn, there’s an
opportunity to eat, and we all know you can’t eat constantly. I own a
food business, and a lot of industry is driven around food business.
How do we reconcile that segment of the economy with having too much
food and temptation?
Dr. Cohen: Okay. The problem we have now, with the obesity epidemic, is
that we generally consider this an individual problem. If we continue
to do that, we will never change this issue. We have to think of this
as a public health crisis at this point. You mention the statistics.
Two out of three adults are overweight or obese and we have this huge
increase in chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes. It’s making our
health care costs soar. So, instead, we have to really look at what’s
underlying this epidemic. In my view, the problem is that we have
allowed our country to be turned into a food swamp.
Jackie Keller: Oh my.
Dr. Cohen: So, and you’ve mentioned it! There’s food everywhere you go.
Jackie Keller: That’s true.
Dr. Cohen: The problem is that when we see food, it makes us feel hungry.
If it’s convenient, if it’s in front of us, it encourages impulse
buying and impulse eating. Unfortunately, that’s the way human beings
are designed. It’s in our DNA to eat when food is available. There are
so many studies that show that if you serve people more than they
need, they will eat more than they should. So, if we really look at
the underlying causes, the problem is our restaurants- they serve way
too much food, too much salt, too much sugar, too much fat, too many
calories- and it’s our supermarkets, which encourage us to buy foods
that increase our risk of chronic diseases.
Jackie Keller: Oh. So, there are many people who literally can’t control
their urge to eat, and eat the wrong foods?
Dr. Cohen: Well, look, that’s most of us. Remember, two out of three
people are eating more calories than they burn in physical activity.
So, that’s the normal person.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Dr. Cohen: As I said, we’ve done studies where you serve people too much
food. People automatically eat more than they should. The problem is
that we have this misperception of human nature. We tend to think that
people are in full control of everything they do. We think that if we
choose something and put it in our mouths, it was our deliberate
decision. The truth is that most of our behaviors are actually
automatic, and they occur without our intention or conscious control.
So, just think about eating. If you were watching a movie and had a
bowl of popcorn in your lap, as you’re watching the picture, you can
take your hands, put them in the popcorn bowl, put the popcorn in your
mouth, chew it, and swallow it all without paying attention, without
directing that to happen. We can do it automatically. We can keep
eating, and we won’t even know that we’re finished until there’s
nothing left in the bowl, right? That was an automatic behavior. We
can do it unconsciously, without intention, without deliberation, and
without any effort. We were designed that way. Eating is an automatic
behavior.
Jackie Keller: My goodness. You mention in the book- and, by the way,
what a great title.
Dr. Cohen: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: It’s a wonderful book- that we don’t fully control our
senses. How does that tie into advertising and personal choice?
Dr. Cohen: Okay. So, we don’t control our senses much, at all. You know,
if we hear a sound, you know, we’ll automatically turn toward that
sound. We don’t think, “Oh, I heard a sound. I better turn my head.”
It’s the other way around. You know, if we see a tempting food, we
will automatically start salivating. We don’t tell ourselves, “Okay
body, start salivating and feel hungry.” No! That happens as a
reflexive response to food. That’s the problem. We have food all
around us, and it’s causing this reflex, which we cannot control. No
one can control that. It makes us feel hungry. What we can partly
control is whether we act on those feelings of hunger and desire.
Basically, the market has figured out what increases the chances that
we will act on those desires. So, they’ve set up restaurants and
supermarkets to lead us to buy more and eat more than we really
should.
Jackie Keller: So, you talk in the book about the food environment being
at the root of the problems today. One example might be the
supermarket example. Can you give us some others?
Dr. Cohen: Yeah. So, I mean, let’s go back to restaurants. Right now, when
we go out to eat, we’ll be, 95% of the time, increasing our risk of a
chronic disease, just by going to a restaurant.
Jackie Keller: Oh, my goodness.
Dr. Cohen: Yeah! That’s because restaurants will serve you more food than
you need, right? If you get too many calories at one meal, it’s very
hard to compensate later, because people also have a very limited
ability to track what they eat. You know, they’ve done all kinds of
studies. They ask people, “What did you eat in the last 24 hours?”
Jackie Keller: Right, a recall.
Dr. Cohen: Most people under-report by anywhere from 200 to 1,000
calories. The average person doesn’t remember eating what constitutes
a full meal.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Dr. Cohen: So, you know, four to five to 600 calories, we won’t even
realize. Again, it’s because we’re not paying attention to what we’re
eating. You know, we can eat, and I can talk to you , or drive a car,
or watch T.V., and that means we’re not tracking what we’re eating.
What we’re swallowing, we can’t really keep track of that.
Jackie Keller: So, I’ve heard a lot about this, sort of, eat following
your intuition, your body will tell you. So, what you’re saying is
that’s not so.
Dr. Cohen: That is absolutely not so. People were designed to be able to
eat more than they need. That’s why we have a pathway where we can
convert the extra calories into fat. If we could only eat what we
needed, we wouldn’t be storing fat. So, we’re actually designed to eat
more than we need.
Jackie Keller: So, what would you recommend that we push for? Is this
something that should be legislated? How does that work with personal
choice?
Dr. Cohen: Okay. Well, we legislate a lot of things to protect people who
are at risk. So, we legislate the quality of the water that’s in our
pipes and comes through the faucet, so people don’t automatically get
exposed to toxins and things that will make them sick. Well, we can do
something like that when it comes to the food environment, because
right now, we’ve allowed businesses to put all of us at risk. We’re at
risk every time we dine out. We’re at risk every time we go to the
supermarket. One of the things I proposed in restaurants is to have
standardized portion sizes. So, when we buy something, when we order
something, we should be able to get that in an appropriate portion
size, a standard portion size which is appropriate for one person to
eat at a single serving.
Jackie Keller: Well, that’s pretty controversial, because that takes away
the whole value proposition…
Dr. Cohen: Well, but right now…
Jackie Keller: …from the equation.
Dr. Cohen: Okay. But right now, if you go to the restaurant and they serve
you more than what’s appropriate for you, you’re going to get sick.
You’re going to increase your risk of obesity or chronic disease. If I
wanted to go out and eat, and not get sick, I don’t have that option.
So, if every restaurant would just have it available in a single,
standardized portion, then it would be up to me. It would be up to
every consumer to decide, to choose one portion or not. If someone
wanted two portions, they could, but right now, we have no way to
estimate what we’re getting. I have to tell you, we already have
portion standards when it comes to alcohol. If we order a drink,
whether it’s a beer, wine, or a shot of liquor, the amount we get only
has 0.6 ounces of ethanol.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Dr. Cohen: Right, so we can gauge our risk of becoming drunk. You know, if
you renew your license at the DMV, you’ll get some information that
tells you how many drinks you can have and then it would be safe to
drive, right? People can gauge that by counting their drinks. We don’t
have that for food, and that’s all I’m proposing. It’s not taking away
people’s right to choose to eat as much as they want. It’s just a
system that will allow people to track how much they’re getting, and
to not be put at risk every time they go out to eat.
Jackie Keller: Fascinating. Wow. Well, speaking of personal choice, I
thought we’d take a few minutes today, in the kitchen, for putting
together some great choices for managing a healthy diet.
Dr. Cohen: Okay.
Jackie Keller: I know that portion control is a big issue for many, many
people, and i think that food labeling in restaurants and fast food
operations is a step in the right direction, but I think it’s going to
be awhile before we get to the point where the government is going to
step in further. I know that there have been some attempts to do that.
Dr. Cohen: Yeah. You know, every restaurant already has portion sizes,
they’re just different for every single restaurant.
Jackie Keller: That’s very true.
Dr. Cohen: If they would all get on the same page, then people would have
the option to choose. It would give people the power to choose how
much they’re eating. Right now, we don’t have that choice. We just get
whatever they give us. If it’s too much, tough on us; tough on us! You
know, people actually don’t have the capacity to estimate volume just
by looking at it. We have a limit when it comes to, you know, figuring
out how many jelly beans are in the jar, right? That’s what they’re
asking us to do.
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Dr. Cohen: Most people can’t do that. In general, we underestimate. The
larger something is, the less we think is in it. So, it really puts us
at a huge disadvantage. I mentioned about what restaurants can do, but
one of the things we need to do with supermarkets is to do something
about all the impulse marketing that they have, candy at the cash
register, chips and sodas on the end of aisles. It turns out that
where they place the food in the supermarket determines what we buy.
Jackie Keller: Yeah. I’m not surprised.
Dr. Cohen: Who would think that the placement of something would make us
buy something or not? But it does. So, when they put that stuff that
we need to avoid in front of our faces, it triggers our impulse
buying, and again, it’s a risk factor for making us sick.
Jackie Keller: Well, I think understanding that association is something
that we need to talk more about.
Dr. Cohen: Right, absolutely.
Jackie Keller: That’s why I’m so glad that you put it in this book.
Dr. Cohen: And you know, one of the things that we do, at least for
alcohol, is that we don’t allow alcohol to be sold at the cash
register. We don’t allow it in vending machines. There are some
regulations that don’t allow alcohol within five feet of the register
in California. It’s against the law. Or, five feet of the front door
when you go to a gas station. So, we could certainly have a regulation
on where things could be placed. It wouldn’t prevent people from
getting whatever they want, but it would assure that, when we got
something, it was deliberate. If we have to go and look for something
at the third aisle, on the bottom shelf, then you know you really
wanted it.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Dr. Cohen: But if you’re just grabbing it because it’s there, and it’s an
automatic, sort of unconscious thing, that’s something we could
protect people from without limiting their free choice.
Jackie Keller: Well, very interesting. We’ll have to see how that
evolves.
Dr. Cohen: Yes!
Jackie Keller: Now, let’s go to the kitchen and talk about choosing
fruits and vegetables.
Dr. Cohen: All right!
Jackie Keller: All right.
Dr. Cohen: Let’s go.
Jackie Keller: So, today I thought we’d spend a few minutes talking about
the value proposition for foods that are healthy. I think there’s a
perception that healthy foods are expensive and that people don’t buy
things that are healthy because they cost too much, and availability
is an issue if it’s healthy food. But, you know, as you and I both
know, in the world of plants, economy is the byproduct of it being
plant based. Also, availability, we’re fortunate. We live her in
California, and we have fruits and vegetables in abundance. I wanted
to share a recipe for a vegetable curry, which I thought would be
quick, easy, and fun to make. I’ve cut up a bunch of vegetables here,
that we can put into the pan all at once. It’s one of those one pot
wonders, you know. You don’t have to mess with it. The longest part of
preparing a dish like this, of course, is cutting everything and
chopping. Once you have that down, or you buy frozen, which is another
option, it’s really a quick fix as far as healthy meals are concerned.
Let’s talk for a minute, if we could, about portion sizes and value.
So, I brought along an onion. We talked before the show, and you
mentioned that it looked like a really big onion, and it must be at
least a pound of onion. In fact, weighing it, we realized, yes it is a
pound of onion.
Dr. Cohen: Yeah. That’s an extra large onion.
Jackie Keller: That’s an extra large onion. Of course, I have some here,
chopped and ready to go, but…
Dr. Cohen: So, you would probably be able to get three of those in this
one onion.
Jackie Keller: Exactly. That one onion might cost $0.69, $0.79. In a
cheap market, or a less expensive market, it might cost half of that.
Dr. Cohen: Maybe 30 or 40 cents, yeah.
Jackie Keller: So, that’s three or four servings of onion…
Dr. Cohen: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Depending on your recipe. I also prepared a little bit of
broccoli, and I brought a broccoli stalk, and this one is just about
six ounces, so about one-third of a pound of broccoli.
Dr. Cohen: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Clearly, you would get at least this much out of it, if
not more. This is a 12 ounce cup.
Dr. Cohen: Yeah. I think a pound of broccoli is something like 10
servings.
Jackie Keller: So, you know, we see, quickly, how inexpensive it is to
put all these together. So, let’s start by seasoning our pan with a
little bit of the onion that I brought. I’m going to add in a little
bit of curry powder, because, you know, I think a vegetable curry is a
really easy dish to prepare.
Dr. Cohen: How do you know how much to shake out? Do you ever measure it?
Jackie Keller: Well, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I no longer
measure.
Dr. Cohen: Just covering up the onion.
Jackie Keller: Exactly, exactly. By toasting the curry, it brings out the
flavor in the curry powder. It tastes a little bit of the… Curry can
be pretty sharp. Doesn’t that smell wonderful?
Dr. Cohen: It smells so good!
Jackie Keller: Let’s talk for a minute, while the vegetables are
sauteing, about smell and purchase decisions. That’s probably
something you’ve researched a bit, too.
Dr. Cohen: Not really.
Jackie Keller: No; because, I know you talked about the physical
appearance of food at the register affecting a purchase decision?
Dr. Cohen: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Do you think that the smell, as well, makes a difference?
Dr. Cohen: Well, I think most vegetables don’t have much of a smell. Some
of the leafy green vegetables might smell, like arugula has a fabulous
smell. But I haven’t noticed a smell for broccoli or celery, just when
it’s cold. Maybe after it cooks, it has a smell.
Jackie Keller: Right. Well, you know, I ask because I know, when you’re
selling a house, they bake cookies or do something that has cinnamon
to make the house smell good, because it affects people
psychologically.
Dr. Cohen: Yeah. I think fruits have a wonderful smell.
Jackie Keller: Let’s talk for a minute about, I brought a cantaloupe.
Dr. Cohen: You brought a cantaloupe. That probably has a great smell.
Jackie Keller: Of course, a cantaloupe like that weighs about a pound.
Usually, you buy them by the piece. Quite often, a cantaloupe like
that will be maybe $2.00 or something like that. Two dollars, two for
four, or something like that.
Dr. Cohen: Uh-huh.
Jackie Keller: Typically, again, servings, I would guess that you would
get eight average servings, so, again, about $0.25 per serving.
Dr. Cohen: Right.
Jackie Keller: So, I’ve put in here, our onion, carrots, bell peppers,
and celery. We can add in some broccoli. We’ve got even a little bit
of cauliflower here. You see, what’s here, visually, is we’re creating
something that has this wonderful pallet of color.
Dr. Cohen: Yeah, beautiful.
Jackie Keller: Really, we eat first with our nose. So, we want to make it
smell right. If it passes the nose test, it goes to the eyes, because
after the age of three, you no longer put things in your mouth that
look bad or smell bad. Then, if it passes the eyes and the nose, we’ll
taste it.
Dr. Cohen: The purple is beautiful.
Jackie Keller: Isn’t that pretty?
Dr. Cohen: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: You know, just a little bit of purple cabbage. And again,
talk about affordable, this is maybe 10 cents a serving. The other
vegetables range in price. Some zucchini here form 15 or 20 cents a
serving.
Dr. Cohen: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: So, we put in, let’s see, one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight different kinds of vegetables. All right, and let’s
say, on the average, there in a little bit more seasoning, because our
volume here has grown. Let’s say 25 cents an average serving size. So,
we’ve created a dish here that will easily serve four or five people,
maybe with a little brown rice at the bottom. Maybe some potatoes
could be added to it to complement the vegetables. But, we’re talking
about something that has a price point per serving.
Dr. Cohen: Right. It’s affordable, definitely affordable. You know, the
USDA has done research on what vegetables do cost, and I don’t think
anywhere in the country, vegetables are more than, at the most, 50
cents a serving. You know, the USDA guidelines for Americans say that
the average person needs four and one-half cups of fruits and
vegetables every single day.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Dr. Cohen: Four and one-half cups. That means, if you divide it across
three meals, that’s one and one-half cups per meal.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Dr. Cohen: You know, fruits and vegetables, people forget that they need
that every day, and if they don’t get it every meal, then they’re
going to somehow have to compensate.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Dr. Cohen: If you didn’t get it at breakfast or lunch, try getting all
four and one-half cups at dinner.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, it’s…
Both: Not going to happen.
Dr. Cohen: Right?
Jackie Keller: Right.
Dr. Cohen: That’s why it’s really important to spread it out, because it’s
pretty hard to eat it all at once. The volume is so great. What’s so
nice about it is that it does fill you up.
Jackie Keller: Right. All that fiber really makes you feel full. I am
wondering, now that we’ve got this colorful, wonderful, beautiful
dish…
Dr. Cohen: Uh-huh.
Jackie Keller: Is your salivary glands, are we feeling it a little bit?
Dr. Cohen: Yeah, I’m feeling it. Especially that smell, it’s so lovely.
Jackie Keller: How about if I ask you to taste, will you take a bite?
Dr. Cohen: Okay.
Jackie Keller: All right, let’s dish it up. Just a little bit, because I
know it’s hot; again, just realizing that the color is so lovely and
so welcoming.
Dr. Cohen: All right.
Jackie Keller: Here you go.
Dr. Cohen: All right.
Jackie Keller: Now, obviously, a little bit more time, and we…
Dr. Cohen: I’m going for that carrot, uh-huh. Yummy, that is really good.
Jackie Keller: Thank you. Thank you so much!
Dr. Cohen: I’m going for these carrots.
Jackie Keller: That bright orange color really attracts us, right? It’s
the color of health. So, Dr. Cohen, Debra, I know that people will
want to follow your work. Of course, your book is available on Amazon.
Dr. Cohen: Yes.
Jackie Keller: That’s where I found it.
Dr. Cohen: It is a Kindle book, too.
Jackie Keller: A Kindle book, too. It’s an easy read, a great read, but
how else can people find you?
Dr. Cohen: Well, I’m at the Rand Corporation. You can look at the Rand
website and see the work that I’m doing. I do hope that you’ll read
the book, and in the book there’s a chapter on what people can do
about this obesity epidemic. I think the first thing is really that we
have to stop blaming ourselves. You know, nobody wants to be fat. I
don’t think anyone is deliberately trying to eat too much and exercise
too little. It’s really the environment that’s creating this situation
that is undermining our long-term goals. So, we’ve got to do what
we’ve done with other issues in public health, you know, have some
standards, and have some way to control the environment so that it
doesn’t put as at risk every time that we step out the door. We have
standards for cars, so we don’t crash, so cars don’t explode, and so
cars don’t catch fire. We have regulations that check that out. We
have standards for water. We have standards for air. We have standards
for housing. Just imagine if we didn’t have railings on stairs. We’d
be falling, and would we blame ourselves? No. We realize that, by not
having a system that keeps us safe, we’re at risk. That’s what’s
happened with the food environment. We have nothing that protects us
from being overwhelmed with too much food making us feel hungry when
we don’t need to eat. That’s the problem. Just, let’s target where the
source is, and then we can all be healthy effortlessly.
Jackie Keller: Wouldn’t that be great?
Dr. Cohen: Right. That’s what it would be.
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Dr. Cohen: If people didn’t serve us too much and make us buy food that
would make us sick, we would be healthy.
Jackie Keller: Well…
Dr. Cohen: That’s the way I look at it.
Jackie Keller: It’s a great read. We’ll definitely keep in touch, and see
how we’re doing as a society.
Dr. Cohen: Okay.
Jackie Keller: I hope you’ll come back and visit us again.
Dr. Cohen: All right. Thanks for having me.
Jackie Keller: Thank you again for coming.
Dr. Cohen: All right. My pleasure.
Jackie Keller: My coaching moment today is about the experience of
choice. In his book, “Why We Do What We Do,” Edward D.C. says, “At the
heart of human freedom is the experience of choice.” As a coach, I
talk to people in terms of making their own choices and forging their
own path all the time. The entire premise of coaching, in fact, is
built on the assumption that if you can help people unlock their own
intrinsic motivation, they will be empowered to do most anything. So,
it’s surprising, then, that we don’t expect our experts to open the
doors of decision making for us. We expect to be told what to do, but
research shows that, while being told or controlled is the easy
answer, it assumes that the promise of reward or the threat of
punishment will make the offenders comply. Anyone who’s ever raised a
child, or tried to compel somebody to do something, knows just how
true that is. However, when we’re controlled or compelled to do
something, we act the part, but we don’t necessarily live it. So
consider this; compliance and defiance exist in an unstable
partnership. We’re often told to do it someone else’s way to survive
or succeed, yet fulfillment lies in living the most unique expression
of ourselves.
A very wise boss of mine once told it to me like this, and I will
always remember Neal Salinger for telling me, “We all operate out of
our own mutual self-interest. The trick is to find people whose self
interest is mutually aligned with yours.” John Steinbeck, in his book
, “East of Eden,” says that the Hebrew word, timshel, “thou mayest,”
that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world.
That says, “The way is open,” and that throws it right back on a man.
For, if thou mayest, it is also true, thou mayest not. That’s my show
for today. Join me next week on Food Exposed as we take a look at
what’s on your plate. For more Food Exposed, check me out on
empowerme.tv, and until next week, remember: Make food your best
friend, and exercise your companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed where each week we take an inside
look at what’s on your plate. I’m your host Jackie Keller and
I’m the Founding Director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading
healthy food company. I’m also a firm belief in community
participation and education. It is this belief that has taken
me in many different directions.
One of the more recent examples is my involvement with the Michelle
Obama Initiative, and Let’s Move and the Chef’s Move to
Schools movement. The Chefs Move to Schools Movement was
founded in May 2010 and it’s an integral part of First Lady,
Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Initiative. The goal is to solve
the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
When my children were in elementary school, I visited their
classrooms and did cooking programs with the kids on a
regular basis. Like most parents I found this very gratifying
and I had a ball doing it. Young children are so easy to
please. As my kids got older and the average weight of school
age crept higher and higher, I was determined to continue my
involvement.
Over the past 20 years, obesity rates among children have more than
doubled resulting in one third of the children and
adolescents in the United States now classified as overweight
or obese. The U.S. Surgeon General estimates 70% of these
obese children will grow to become obese adults and will be
susceptible to serious health problems.
Here are a couple of other surprising statistics about children.
These are from the CDC study in school health policies and
practices. On the nutrition front only 14.8% of school
districts required that students be offered a self-serve
salad bar. Just 38% of districts require that schools
prohibit advertisements for junk food or fast food
restaurants on school property.
On the physical education front, 59% of districts require that
elementary schools provide students with regularly scheduled
recess, but only 10.8% of districts require that middle
schools provide physical activity breaks outside of physical
education. 2% of districts require that high schools do so.
There are a number of issues with physical activities in
schools and there are also a number of school garden programs
popping up all over the country.
We’re especially lucky here in California because our climate is so
conducive to outdoor gardening. Why have school gardens?
Again, the CDC gives us this startling statistic. The
majority of America’s children go without eating one serving
of fruits or vegetables every day. Without eating one! So
while schools are not the only place that our kids eat, but
schools can help with this challenge.
My guest today is an expert in school gardens. She’s an expert in
school nutrition and how we teach our kids about their
health. Kerri Eich is the Director of the School of
Environmental and Health Sciences at University High School
in West Los Angeles where she has been teaching since 2001.
The school converted to LAUSD’s Small Schools Format in 2008
and she led the transition to the school and Academy of
Health and Environmental Sciences.
Her academy classes include food sciences, physiology and
environmental science. She also envisioned and created a
large school garden which was built in 2011. It includes a
native pollinator garden and she raises crops on a one acre
urban campus farm with the help of 90 food science students.
Kerri also coaches men’s volleyball and teaches health classes. In
addition to the Master’s Degree she currently holds, she’s
adding another Masters in Nutrition Science. On top of it
all, she is the mother of two young children.
Kerri, welcome to Food Exposed.
Kerri Eich: Thanks, Jackie. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much for coming. I know you had to get out of
school for this, right?
Kerri Eich: Yes. I did. I have a sub in my classroom. My kids were
excited I got to go and they promised… They wanted me to
say hello to you because they are excited that you’re coming
next week.
Jackie Keller: I am coming next week. Tell me more about your program.
Tell the audience more about your program. I know the part
that I’m involved with which is the classroom cooking and
we’ve been doing that for the better part of a year or two
years now. You’ve also converted your classroom into a pretty
well-stocked kitchen. What did it take to get that
accomplished?
Kerri Eich: Back in 2008 we wrote a grant. Four or five other teachers
and I wrote a grant for a California Partnership Academy
Grant. That gave us funding to transition our newly developed
small school into having an academy which focuses on a career-
tech pathway. We’re focused on preventative health around
community and public health.
I saw this need. I was teaching health. I’ve taught P.E. for six
years at my high school. I have a P.E. credential, a health
credential and an art credential. I saw the need… Even as I
was teaching health, the students’ habits weren’t really
changing. It wasn’t integrated enough into action-based
learning.
I presented to the principal… We had an area that we were going to
be moving into and there were four or five buildings on it
that were taken down because it was on a fault line. So the
contractors came in and put in a bunch of plants that didn’t
needed very much maintenance. The contractor was walking
through with the principal and I tagged along. He was hoping
to get another contract to maintain the plants that didn’t
need much maintenance.
I looked at him and looked at my principal and said, “I kind of want
to take over this space over here.” He showed me a plot of
land that was about six foot by ten foot. I said, “That’s not
really going to work for us. We have a lot of kids here. We
want to do something important.” And then I said,
“Potentially I kind of want to take over this hillside over
here.”
My principal is pretty easy going and forward-thinking so he was just
like, “All right.” He just kind of shook his head and was
like, okay. I measure it by my son’s age because it took a
long time to get the contractors to finish what they were
doing. They had to install all of the plants and the trees on
the hillside by contract before we could even go in there. So
the day that my son was born, I got a text from my principal
saying, “You’re good to build your garden.”
Jackie Keller: Oh my goodness.
Kerri Eich: So I had the support from the Environmental Media
Association, United Talent Agency and Mud Barron and the L.A.
Conservation Corp. What we did is we came together with about
$10 thousand of funding from United Talent Agency to build
about 900 square feet of raised bed gardens.
Jackie Keller: That’s wonderful.
Kerri Eich: About four months prior to this, I’d had a neighbor in the
community, Don Smith, who is really into gardens and was
helping out at the Venice Learning Garden. He said, “I’d like
to come and volunteer at your garden.” Little did I know, he
was a soil science wiz and an all-around great guy. He
designed our garden beds based on some ideas that I gave him
and after nine designs we put it in place.
We also built little amphitheater seating area so there was a place
for the kids to sit so we could come out and learn in the
garden. From there we just kind of expanded. I sat in my
principal’s office maybe six to nine months after we started
our garden and I was in the assistant principal’s office and
he was like, “Hey, Kerri. Everything’s going great. When are
you going to expand your garden?” So I said, “Pretty soon.”
You don’t just get those invitations very often. Then about another
two weeks later I was sitting in the principal’s office and
we have a tie-in’s program with UCLA. She said that they had
50 volunteers that wanted to do something. I said, “Well,
we’re going to expand our garden to create the food forest,
maybe we could do this.” The principal was sitting there and
was like, “All right. Okay.” From there on out, that was
Earth Day 2012, we put in 40 fruit bearing trees, food-
bearing trees into the food forest on the second half of the
hillside and since then we’ve just expanded and the kids have
gone with it.
Jackie Keller: What are the biggest challenges that you find dealing…?
It sounds like you’ve figured out the administration and how
to get what you need out of the administration and maybe out
of the community in terms of financial support. But you’re
dealing with a tough population. Let’s face it. High school
is a difficult age. I wasn’t an easy high schooler. I don’t
know what kind of a high schooler you were. My kids are past
high school age now. What are the biggest challenges dealing
with high school aged kids?
Kerri Eich: You’ve got to let them be kids. You have to know where
they are coming from. Our kids are coming to school… I
counted the zip codes one time. Ninety-three zip codes, over
23 languages spoken in the home and we have about 1,800 kids
on campus.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Kerri Eich: Of those kids, many of them haven’t had a good breakfast.
They all like food. Everybody likes food, especially the kids
if they are having to travel quite a distance to get to
school, they are all hungry. I found something that they all
like to do. They all like to cook. I have kids ask me all
over campus, “What are we cooking this week, Miss Eich?”
Those are kids that wouldn’t even talk to me before.
They are excited about the garden too. They see things. They see
change happen. I ask the kids to give me some comments about
things that they learned from cooking and from gardening and
they’re like, “Miss Eich. Gardens are really like people.
Like raising humans.”
I feel like my students have become more in touch with their human
side because they’ve had the opportunity to create something
that’s alive and watch it grow.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Kerri Eich: I really think that has shape-shifted how they see food. How
they see each other. It’s pretty exciting.
Jackie Keller: Yes. It sounds like it is. I know when I come to the
classroom, the kids are always very receptive. Whatever it is
that I have planned, they’re on the plan and they’ll go along
with it. Yes, there’s an element that hangs back and doesn’t
get involved. The two cool kids that don’t want to be a part
of it, but over the months and now over a year that we’ve
been doing this together, I see even more excitement and
involvement on the part of the kids and a real interest in
fruits and vegetables. I’m excited to see that because my
whole thing is that we need a more plant-based diet.
Kerri Eich: Right.
Jackie Keller: Do you find resistance to the fact that it’s healthy as
opposed to junky?
Kerri Eich: They come into the classroom with their Lipton Brisk Tea’s
and I’m like, “Okay. Put away the sugar water.” We don’t
always cook with meat. We mostly cook with plants. They want
to bring those things in because that’s what they’re used to.
In their reflections that they’ve been writing to me, I’ve been
seeing they are like, “Oh. Well, healthy food doesn’t have to
taste bad. It actually tastes good.” There’s a lot of things
they’ve never been exposed to.
I think a new habit takes several experiences to really appreciate
that habit and start to have it engrained with anybody. So
we’re really trying to show students how they can make
positive changes in their life with just a few plants and
that plants are pretty cool. That’s definitely fun to see
them change.
Jackie Keller: Before we go to the kitchen, and I did prepare something
today that I thought would be fun to cook with you sort of
along the lines of what we do in the classroom. I was
wondering if you could share with us the best way that the
community can support you in your efforts.
Kerri Eich: I think, really, just getting involved. I think any school
that’s within your vicinity that is easy accessible for you
to go to, I think that if you are interested in gardening and
nutrition, if you have something to offer, then you should go
get in touch with people in the main office. Figure out who
to talk to at that school and say you want volunteer.
Schools are dying for volunteers. I feel like since a lot of schools
around here have gates up or fences up, that they feel
inaccessible. I think that the one thing that has really
helped me… I don’t have a great background in plants, but
I’ve just been learning as I go, it’s getting the community
involved and realizing that it’s okay to ask for help.
This is a community that we share. It’s everybody responsibility to
bring our human population to raise our awareness and change
the way we think about food. It can’t just be one family or
one person at a time. Those interactions in the classroom…
You’re a one to 30 or 40 ratio with teacher to student in
some of these classrooms, so the more volunteers you have,
the more conversations you can have and the more positive the
influence will be.
Jackie Keller: Great. Let’s do some cooking.
Kerri Eich: All right.
Jackie Keller: Kerri, I thought today what we would do is a little quick
stir fry. I know we’ve done some of this kind of stuff in the
class and you’re probably working on something that you can
bring into the conversation as well with what you’re doing in
the classroom right now. Getting kids focused on something
that they can eat with their hands and that they can cook in
a few minutes that uses some of what they can find
inexpensively in the market or in the food forest on campus.
I thought this would be a great way to put together a simple
lettuce wrap kind of thing.
Kerri Eich: Okay. Great.
Jackie Keller: This would be the kind of thing that you might make at
lunch or for lunch. I’m starting with a little bit of fresh
ginger. As you know from our classroom cooking, we usually
try to start with something that looks and smells good. I can
already smell that ginger . . .
Kerri Eich: Yeah, ginger.
Jackie Keller: . . . coming. Of course, we know it’s a great digestive
aid as well.
Kerri Eich: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Always a little onion to accent the flavors. When we cook
in your class you have some burners, right? Then you have
electrical equipment.
Kerri Eich: Yes. We have a makeshift kitchen. We didn’t even have sink
until about a year and a half ago when our celebrity garden
sponsor, Emily VanCamp came in and we’d made here some Swiss
chard wraps and she said, “How do you do this without a
sink?”
So she helped us get a sink, but we make-shifted our whole kitchen in
the back of our classroom. We have some portable burners that
we bring in. We have cupboards that we’ve installed all
through the help of our CPA grants and other people within
the community.
It’s exciting to make lettuce wraps today. I’ve got two different
students. We’ve got our 6th Annual Health and Fitness Fair
coming up April 10th and I have two students trying to make
lettuce wraps. So I’m doing a healthy food challenge with the
students, so kids are teaming up in groups three to five and
they are creating a healthy dish that they have to prepare
for the class. Then the top 10 dishes will be chosen to be
served at the fair for healthy food tasting.
Jackie Keller: Cool. Now who’s deciding which are the top ten?
Kerri Eich: The students are choosing. They’re voting on the top ten
based on some of the same principles we did in the fall for
our food day challenge. The kids are very excited about it
and they’ve come up with some very interesting recipes. We’ve
got two different lettuce wraps that they are going to try to
make. So I’m excited.
Jackie Keller: Great. Let me tell you what I’ve done here because while
you’ve been talking I’ve been sort of tossing stuff in here.
So we started with the ginger and then a little green onion
or scallion. Then I added some shitake mushroom that I soaked
and stemmed and sliced. I’ve got some chicken breast meat
here which I cut into small enough dice that it would cook
really, really quickly. I’ve added to that some cut up bok
choy. Of course, any of these vegetables can be swapped out
for something else.
Kerri Eich: Right.
Jackie Keller: I put in some water chestnuts because I had them. If I
didn’t have them, we’d leave them out. Maybe we would put
celery or something else crunchy. I know when we cook
together in class we talk about the fact that it’s cooking.
It’s science, but it’s not science science. Being constrained
by a recipe in a situation like this really doesn’t make a
lot of sense. What you’re going to want to do is pick the
things you have on hand or are affordable. For seasoning, I
know that you have to watch gluten. When I come to cook in
your class we are very sensitive to gluten because you have a
gluten free…
Kerri Eich: I have a couple of students who are celiac.
Jackie Keller: Yes. So I’m using tamari here which is a gluten-free
naturally brewed sodium. A naturally brewed soy sauce. This
is a low sodium variety.
Kerri Eich: Great.
Jackie Keller: Hoisin sauce. Now, hoisin does have a little gluten in it,
but since we’re not in front of your class right now, we’re
just cooking for taste you can add in a couple of spoonfuls
of that for flavor. Of course, if you needed to be mindful of
certain ingredients, you would just leave them out in this
circumstance. I’ve also brought something that we’ve been
doing at NutriFit. In our garden and our farm we’ve actually
started doing some hydroponic farming.
Kerri Eich: That’s awesome.
Jackie Keller: Yes. So this is one of our hydroponic lettuces.
Kerri Eich: Beautiful.
Jackie Keller: You can see…
Kerri Eich: The roots.
Jackie Keller: There’s the little root ball.
Kerri Eich: Oh. That’s really neat.
Jackie Keller: Isn’t that neat?
Kerri Eich: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: You grow it in this little net. They’re called nests, but
they are really some little things. They just grow so
beautifully. So if you want to grab a couple of lettuce
leaves there that look good for wrapping, our mixture is
already done. That’s how quickly it cooks.
Kerri Eich: That’s great. We have lettuce popping up all over the
garden that has seeded itself in different places.
Jackie Keller: We call them volunteers.
Kerri Eich: My dad always says that a recipe is a source of
inspiration to help the cook. It can be led in the kitchen,
but it always doesn’t have to be followed. I’ve been trying
to help the kids understand that.
Jackie Keller: Yeah. It’s a tough concept when you feel uncertain of your
own knowledge base, but I think… Why don’t you see what you
can do as far as getting that one together?
Kerri Eich: I always talk to the kids about chemistry. If chemistry is
involved like in baking, then we really need to follow the
recipe. If there’s no chemistry and it’s just cooking, we can
make it… Let’s see. I’m going to fold it over a little bit.
There we go. Sorry.
Jackie Keller: Let me see if I can…
Kerri Eich: See if you can go over that a little better.
Jackie Keller: Let’s put this guy aside and we’ll see if we can get this
one to behave. Sometimes it does and sometimes you just can’t
put too much in there. Which is kind of good from a portion
control standpoint. You can use small amounts of the filling
and a lot of lettuce leaves. That way you end up getting a
lot of… There you go. That one’s more like a little bit
more…
Kerri Eich: Let me just try to fix this one.
Jackie Keller: Now what I want you to do is I want you to taste that one.
Kerri Eich: Okay. I’ll taste it.
Jackie Keller: All right.
Kerri Eich: Yum.
Jackie Keller: Tell me how we did.
Kerri Eich: Mmm.
Jackie Keller: So maybe this will be one idea that your students come up
with.
Kerri Eich: Yeah. Right. I like the crunch. The crunch from the water
chestnuts and the bok choy. It’s really nice.
Jackie Keller: Right. Good. Good.
Kerri Eich: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: As simple as that is as simple as it can be. When it comes
to healthy food and healthy cooking it doesn’t have to be
complicated and I’m so thrilled that you came to talk to us
today a little bit about your exploration in the kitchen and
food forestry. I know that our audience will want to stay
connected to you in order to follow not only your progress at
school, but the other things you’re actively involved with as
well. What’s the best way for them to reach you?
Kerri Eich: I have a simple e-mail. It’s [email protected]. You
can e-mail me. Otherwise, I’m at University High School in
West L.A. We have UniversityofWildcats.org is the school
website. U-N-I-A-H-E-S.com is our academy website.
Jackie Keller: Great. Thank you so much for joining me today. I’m looking
forward to joining you next week in your classroom. I just
couldn’t be more thrilled that you came all the way over and
spent this time with me this afternoon.
Kerri Eich: Thank you so much. I’m really excited to be here.
Jackie Keller: We’ll see you again soon.
Kerri Eich: All right. Sounds good. See you next week.
Jackie Keller: My coaching moment today comes to a workshop that I love
to present and have many, many times. It’s called Brain
Boosters: Improving Your Memory. Let’s face it, we’re all
concerned about forgetting what we really want to remember.
In this presentation I talk about the value of attaching to
memories using our different senses like smell, touch, taste
and sight.
We all know how powerful some of these memories can be. Like the
smell of your favorite food. The touch of a soft object you
carried around as a child. We also have auditory memories
like remembering the words or melody to your favorite song.
And symbolic memories like the V for victory or peace.
These memories which are made in the hippocampus area of the brain
are formed, organized and stored from sensory memories. It
turns out that gardening also helps us with memory formation
and retention. How? The sense of touch and smell are all
involved in gardening as are spatial relations. These
important activities help the brain form memories.
Let’s not forget that being outside, gardening means you’re being
active and that helps you remember more as well by
oxygenating the brain and improving blood flow to the brain.
It helps you remember, but it also helps improve your health
overall. Associating the activity with a sensory experience
using multiple senses, using physical cues like clenching
your fist to cement a memory, or repeating something out loud
multiple times, all of that will help you remember. You want
more memory aids? Contact me through this show at
emPOWERme.tv or at NutriFitOnline.com.
Thanks for joining me today. Please tune in next week for another
look at what’s on your plate with Food Exposed.
For more Food Exposed, check me out on emPOWERme.tv and until next
week remember make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we take an
inside look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller, and
I’m the Founding Director of NutriFit. We’re Los Angeles premiere
healthy food company, and today we’re talking about a universal
subject, people all over the world have in common. We’re talking
about denim, how to look good in your jeans is a topic that millions
of people worldwide face. We practically live in denims about four
hundred fifty million pairs of jeans are sold in the U.S.A alone each
year. Did you know that on the average every American owns about
seven pairs of jeans? So, if you own them, or like the way they look,
listen in, here are some little known denim facts.
First of all, it takes about two pounds of cotton to make a single
pair of jeans, and denim is currently a twelve billion dollar a year
industry. Traditionally denim is made with blue and white thread sort
of woven together. The blue fibers are usually more densely packed,
which make the material pretty dominantly blue. Then they’re woven
together to strengthen the material, and they’re dyed with indigo. In
the 1930’s Levi Strauss sewed a small red flag next to one of the
pockets on his jeans, and that became the very first label to be
placed on an article of clothing. Designer denim was first introduced
in the 1980’s. So, let’s face it, just because you can zip them up
doesn’t mean they fit you, and there are really two issues when it
comes to finding the best pair of jeans for your figure; the first,
finding a pair that fits you, and then finding a pair that flatters
you. My guest today is an expert in both of those things. In fact
she’s a high end denim designer, and an expert in denim fashion, a
loyal friend of mine personally, and of NutriFit Kearstin Nuckles;
Kearstin, welcome to Food Exposed, thank you for joining me.
Kearstin Nuckles: Thank you Jackie.
Jackie Keller: You know I know you worked for Page Denim for Earnst
Sewn, for Textile Elizabeth and James, and most recently for Hudson,
and you’ve been involved in the world of fashion for, it’s hard to
believe, twenty years. You’re the mom of two great kids, and you’re
an avid triathlete. How do you balance all of that? How do you do it?
Kearstin Nuckles: That’s a challenge every day, every day; it’s lots
of balls in the air, and just prioritizing.
Jackie Keller: Okay. So, where did denim come in? I mean, how did you
get involved in the world of fashion?
Kearstin Nuckles: Gosh, I was eighteen when I started in the garment
industry, and started actually in t-shirts, and sort of evolved, and
landed a job doing denim about ten years ago, and it stuck, and there
forever more.
Jackie Keller: So, so what’s the secret? I mean, how do you find a
great pair of denim that actually fit you?
Kearstin Nuckles: I think the number one thing is you don’t get hung
up on size. I think you…A lot of women get nervous about, “Okay, I
need to be a twenty-six, or I need to be a twenty-seven.”
Jackie Keller: In my dreams.
Kearstin Nuckles: I think the number one thing is you find a pair
that looks good on you, that’s the number one thing. You forget the
size; find the fit that looks good on you. Some women look good in
skinny, some women look good in flares, some women look good in boots.
Generally I would say most women though, is though it’s not the most
fashionable thing right now, but the most flattering is the boot cut.
Jackie Keller: Well, okay. Since we’re all about health and nutrition
here on Food Exposed, you know are there certain types of messages
that certain kind of jeans convey? I mean, I know you know there
are…At one time they were a big social statement. I mean, jeans
were sort of how you expressed yourself, are they still that way, like
they used to be in the sixties, and the seventies?
Kearstin Nuckles: I think now denim is just the staple of our
wardrobe. It’s acceptable anywhere, dressed up, dressed down, light,
dark, holes, no holes, I think it’s a self-expression of how you feel
on any given day, and what pair of jeans you put on that makes you
feel good.
Jackie Keller: So, what should we know about the different kinds of
jeans fabric.
Kearstin Nuckles: I would say there’s basically two kinds of jean
fabric, there’s rigid, and there is stretch. I’m a true denim girl,
so I love my rigid’s, but I would say as far as fit, and flattering,
definitely go for stretch, comfort, versatility, wear ability.
Jackie Keller: Okay, yeah. So, where did that expression “skinny jeans”
come from? Because, you know we all talk about looking great in your
skinny jeans, and where did that come from? What’s hot in the world
of denim today?
Kearstin Nuckles: Well, skinny is still hot, obviously. I don’t
think skinny’s ever going away.
Jackie Keller: Can a big person wear skinny jeans?
Kearstin Nuckles: Yes a big person can wear skinny jeans, as long as
you balance out your top with the skinny. If you have more hips, if
you’re a little fuller in the thigh, if you wear a top that’s a little
looser you can definitely wear your skinny jeans. I would say keep it
a dark wash, a clean wash, you want to elongate the lines of your
body, but yes I think anybody can wear skinny jeans as long as it’s
the right size, and the right fit.
Jackie Keller: Now, are certain colors in, certain colors out? What
about color, and…?
Kearstin Nuckles: I think anything goes right now. I think that
across the board in fashion everybody’s just looking for something
new. So, I think prints, I think color, I think light washes, dark
washes, boyfriend, destructed, everything, and anything goes right
now.
Jackie Keller: Boy, you’re already using terms I don’t know, like
destructed, and boyfriend. What does that mean?
Kearstin Nuckles: Boyfriend is generally like a slouchier baggy fit.
Jackie Keller: So, you’re wearing your boyfriend’s pants?
Kearstin Nuckles: Exactly, your boyfriends denim, and then destructed
means holes.
Jackie Keller: Okay, alright. So, speaking of color we were talking
before about indigo being the main color in denim. I thought it would
be fun to cook up some great blue foods, because denim is blue, right?
Kearstin Nuckles: Right.
Jackie Keller: Right? So, you know, how about joining me cooking up
some blue foods that will make us all look great in our skinny jeans.
Kearstin Nuckles: Sounds great.
Jackie Keller: Are you good? Let’s go. You know, this is one of my
favorite recipes Kearstin, because we get to make foods that are blue,
and you know blue is not necessarily a color that we as humans
associate it with healthy food, but for example, did you know that in
the insect world, and in the bird world, foods that are blue are an
indication of ripeness?
Kearstin Nuckles: Didn’t know that.
Jackie Keller: In fact, if you take a blue light, and you pass it over a
banana the color that a ripe banana shows under blue light, which
birds see, is blue, and that’s how they know which bananas to eat.
So, anyway, that’s a little bit of food trivia. I wanted to make a
dessert, kind of dessert snack that is healthy, nutritious, and blue.
So, I’m going to need your help.
Kearstin Nuckles: Sure.
Jackie Keller: This is called Apple Blueberry Delight, and it uses fresh
apples. So, we’re going to start with some sliced fresh apples, and
I’ve heated up our pan here. It’s kind of hot so I’m going to put in
a little bit of very healthy margarine. Now, you know that
margarine’s are not always considered healthy, but this is a very
healthy brand, it’s a Smart Balance brand, and basically what we’re
going to do is add our sliced apples to the pan, and I’ll let you stir
for me while I season it up with a little bit of sour salt, and sugar
free cinnamon spice blend. We know that cinnamon of course has
wonderful nutritional properties, very, very healthy.
Kearstin Nuckles: Yes it is.
Jackie Keller: And I’m going to add a little bit of Agave, which is a
sweetener that doesn’t have the sugary side effects of sugar, or maple
syrup, but it has some of that same flavor characteristic. It’s like
a liquid honey, but without the sugar load. So, you can see your
starting to smell that cinnamon, it’s so healthy. You know cinnamon
has actually been shown to lower blood pressure. So, just adding a
little cinnamon to something like this actually can bring down your
blood pressure. So, once you’ve got that going we’re going to add in
a little bit of orange juice, and even a little bit of orange zest.
So, I’ll go ahead and do that, while you continue to stir, because we want
to get that bright orange flavor, and I like to zest the orange, and
then rub them on my hands to take…I love the smell of the oranges,
and of course that high Vitamin C content is really healthy for skin,
and helps us stay fit, and healthy, and well balanced, and all that,
and then of course our blue food. Blueberries, one of my favorite,
not always available fresh and in season, but when they’re not you can
always use frozen blueberries in this dish, so, very simple dish. The
apples are soft, you can see their not mushy, they still have nice
texture; we left the peel on them so that we get that extra fiber in
the dish, and then add in the blueberries. I washed them, and we can
bring the heat back up a little bit, because what we want is that
sizzling dessert, and you know, this is one of those dishes that you
can eat it by itself in the morning, with your cereal, or just as a
fruit, as a healthy way to start the day, or you can take it at night,
and put it over soft vanilla low-fat ice cream, or vanilla yogurt, or
something like that.
Kearstin Nuckles: Yum.
Jackie Keller: Which would be really good, or mix in some Greek yogurt
with it.
Kearstin Nuckles: Delicious.
Jackie Keller: So, what do you think?
Kearstin Nuckles: Sounds good, looks great.
Jackie Keller: It smells good too, doesn’t’ it?
Kearstin Nuckles: Delicious.
Jackie Keller: And of course we want to stop the cooking before the
blueberries sort of fall apart on us, and then give it a taste. So,
are you ready?
Kearstin Nuckles: I’m ready.
Jackie Keller: You’re ready? Alright let’s turn this thing down. We’ll
bring the heat down, and we can go ahead and dish up a little
bit…and you can see nice texture. You can still tell what
everything is, but we’re definitely in the blues here, and there you
go.
Kearstin Nuckles: Delicious.
Jackie Keller: I have a fork for you here. It’s kind of hot, but maybe
you can give it a quick taste, see what you think.
Kearstin Nuckles: See what we’ve got here.
Jackie Keller: Careful…Good?
Kearstin Nuckles: Delicious.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, well it’s good for you.
Kearstin Nuckles: Delicious.
Jackie Keller: Good for your figure, good for your skinny jeans, right?
Kearstin Nuckles: We like that.
Jackie Keller: You like that?
Kearstin Nuckles: We like that.
Jackie Keller: We like that, alright. Well, thank you so much for
joining me today Kearstin. I really appreciate your sharing your
expertise. I know that I definitely…I’m wearing my jeans today, and
I’m thinking there’s so many questions I want to ask her about jeans,
and fit, and color, and fashion, and where to buy, and what the price
points should be. How can people find you? How can they follow you?
Kearstin Nuckles: They can find me at the LALookBook.com, and on
Instagram at the LA Look Book on Instagram.
Jackie Keller: Great, great. Well, we’ll stay connected, and I know
that we’ll all think of you when we go out to buy our next pair of
skinny jeans. Thank you, Kearstin.
Kearstin Nuckles: Thank you Jackie.
Jackie Keller: I really appreciate your time.
Kearstin Nuckles: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: No matter how much spiritual practice, self-improvement,
or therapy we’ve been through there’s one area where many of us still
find ourselves challenged every day, and that’s the area of self-
acceptance. It seems all too easy to fall into the trap of judging
ourselves as inadequate, finding fault with our achievements, or our
bodies, and believing our inner critical voices that insist we’ll
never measure up. Self-respect it turns out is not narcissism,
instead self-respect helps to build the confidence, and capacity, to
create the life you want, and since you’re the only person who’s been
with you from the day you were born, and is guaranteed to hang in
there with you until the day you die, it might be helpful to practice
the art of being a good friend to number one. I read an interesting
article in psychology the other day. It was about the dysfunctional
relationship that so many women have with their bodies, and it
referenced some research on marriage done by Dr. John and Julie
Gotman. They found that successful marriages generally have a ratio
of five to one, positive to negative interactions.
So, what would happen if we actually applied that science to our
relationships with our bodies? For every negative thought we have
about our bodies we have to think about five positive things, and for
those ladies who reported and average of negative thirteen body
thoughts a day that’s sixty-five positive body comments each day,
could you do it? I’ll leave you today with this clever appropriate
poem from none other than Dr. Seuss, “You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes. You could steer yourself in any direction
that you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know.
You’re the guy who’ll decide where you go.” And thanks for joining me
today on Food Exposed. Join us next week for another look at what’s
on your plate. For more Food Exposed check me out on EmpowerMe.tv, and
until next week remember make food your best friend, and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie: Welcome to Food Exposed where each week we take a close look at
what’s on your plate. I’m your host Jackie Keller the Founding
Director of NutriFit Los Angeles leading healthy food company,
and I’m so excited about today’s show, because we’re talking
about the future. We’re talking about the Honda Fuel Cell
Prototype car called the FCX Clarity, but we’re also talking
about how that relates to the environment, and our health.
So, what exactly is a fuel cell anyway? I mean fuel cells generate
electrical power quietly and efficiently without pollution.
They’re unlike other power sources in that they don’t use any
fossil fuels, and the only byproducts from operating the fuel
cell are heat and water.
So, with a fuel cell chemicals constantly flow into the cell so it
never goes dead, and as long as there’s a flow of chemicals into
the cell the electricity flows out of the cell, but what does
this have to do with food?
Well, carbon dioxide and other air pollution that’s collecting in the
atmosphere is like a thickening blanket trapping the suns heat,
and causing the planet to warm up. Coal burning plants are the
largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide pollution, and the second
largest source is, you’ve got it, automobiles.
Well, the consequences of global warming, melting glaciers, early
snow melts, severe droughts, they’ll all cause more dramatic
water shortages in the American West, and rising sea levels are
leading to coastal flooding on the eastern seaboard in Florida,
and other areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico.
Warmer sea surface temperatures will fuel more intense hurricanes in
the Southeast Atlantic, and Gulf Coasts, forests, farms, and
cities will face troublesome new pests, and mosquito borne
diseases, and disruption of habitats, like coral reefs, and
alpine meadows could drive many plants and animal species to
extinction.
In fact the world health organization estimates that over a 150,000
deaths per year can be linked to climate change, and that’s
excluding deaths resulting from extreme weather conditions, like
hurricanes. Heat waves and drought can cause food insecurity,
and as the weather changes the range of disease carrying
mosquitoes can increase.
So, public health issues resulting from climate change are not
insulated to vulnerable developing nations. California’s
drought has put communities at risk, running out of drinking
water, and the drop off in ground water means that there’s less
water to dilute preexisting contaminates, which is going to lead
to drinking water contamination that has high levels of
pollutants that can cause health problems. More asthma attacks
are another thing.
But my guest today is a nature lover, an outdoorsman, a marathon
runner, an avid dirt bike racer, we met at the Los Angeles Auto
Show several years ago when I first saw, and fell in love with,
the Honda Clarity. Steve Ellis is the Manager of Fuel Cell
Marketing and Sales for Honda at American Honda, and he’s
responsible for the Fuel Cell Vehicle Business Planning and the
FCX Clarity deployment to retail consumers. In addition to
providing guidance for Honda’s natural gas vehicle, and plug in
electric vehicle programs, he is so versed in this Steve welcome
to Food Exposed.
Steve: Thank you, Jackie.
Jackie: Tell us about your, how your professional life sort of
intersects with your love of the outdoors?
Steve: Sure, it was you know years ago I kind of ran my first
marathon, and you learn about health effects of bad air, and
smog, and things like that, and of course I also really wanted
to have a role to play with solving some of those problems, and
at Honda I’m really lucky that I am deploying vehicles that run
on alternative fuels, and provide great value to the
environment, and reduce the emissions.
Jackie: Well, today people hear a lot about alternative fuels, and
advanced technology in cars. There’s so much talk now about
what we’re going to drive in the future. So, like you know the
Jetson’s car whatever happened to that?
Steve: We all had a dream of the Jetson’s car, but I think you know
what you’re driving the F6 Clarity is more akin to the Jetson’s
vehicle than let’s say the rest of the people, which really has
its roots more like with the Flintstones car. So, we haven’t
quite got to the flying ones yet, but the key here is we can run
cars on fuels other than gasoline that have a significant impact
on reduced smog emissions, certainly reduce dependence on oil,
and also cutting CO2 emissions, and that’s what we’re doing
today.
Jackie: Well, you know when I think of an automaker, I think of cars,
and I think of getting around, but also I think about pollution.
So, what do cars have to do with healthy eating, and being fit?
Steve: Well, you know in my own example, if I’m going to be out
running marathons, if I’m going to be out mountain biking, and
doing this healthy sports activities, certainly what I want to
do is eat, eat healthy, and I think these things are
synergistic. You know, if I’m going to exercise and get in
shape I want to do it outdoors, it is not fun to do it if you’re
constantly you know like coughing, or having trouble breathing
just because of smog. So, literally there’s a connection
between my role with deploying clean vehicles, and also being
kind of a healthy eater, healthy lifestyle living.
Jackie: Well, you connected your work with your passion for the
outdoors, and with zero emissions cars, what can our viewers do
about that?
Steve: Well, I think people can make choices. No different than, you
know, you make a lifestyle choice about eating healthier,
picking healthier foods, including vegetables, and things like
that. That’s the fuel for your body, so really what you can do
is make a choice of which fuel you use for your car. We have
alternatives, such as we have a natural gas powered Civic, the
F6 Clarity a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle that only emits
water as its only emission, so people can make choices. Today
you have choices with battery electric vehicles, even who’s to
say you can’t go to that level hybrid vehicles that get great
fuel economy, and so today I think we have an array of choices
we’ve never had before.
Jackie: You know, you talk about the relationship between cars and the
environment, what about the relationship between that
motorcycles rides you’re doing and you’re diet?
Steve: Well, we also have to have recreation and fun. We can’t just
kind of burrow in on a single thing. So, my roots were racing
motorcycles, and I did mountain bike racing, and that’s really
where it all came together. You know, you’re breathing, you’re
running your heart rate up to like 175, 180 at peak, you know
way above the average I should be at for my age, and you can’t
do that if you’re breathing bad air, you can’t do that if you’re
eating the wrong foods, and I just learned a lot through my
efforts with really exercising, and pushing the bodies limits to
extremes that a lot of people don’t.
Jackie: So, what’s next for you is motorcycle racing, mountain biking
racing, another marathon? What’s next?
Steve: You know it’s kind of all of the above.
Jackie: Uh-oh.
Steve: So, yeah I still have some dirt bike races I’m doing. I won a
championship last year on that. I’m not doing LA Marathon
that’s just here in a few days this year, but I’ve done a few of
those, but I’m going to get that back on the radar screen, and
just general recreation with bicycling, and also mountain bike
racing.
Jackie: Well, I bet you don’t have much time to cook?
Steve: I don’t cook very much, but when I do I try to pick, make the
right choices to propel it.
Jackie: Well, about cooking today a little bit in the kitchen with me?
Steve: Well, I’d love to do that.
Jackie: I thought we could whip up something very earth friendly, and
something that is very nourishing, and maybe a little good fuel
for this, for the body.
Steve: Well, I’m sure if I’m out running this week my body will
perform admirably, because of the meal that we fixed today.
Jackie: Well, join me in the kitchen.
Steve: Let’s do it.
Jackie: Well, Steve today it’s your day to be master chef.
Steve: That isn’t likely.
Jackie: I know that you don’t do a lot of cooking these days, but you
still have to eat, and it’s good to know how to feed yourself
the healthy way, the right way, when you want your body to
perform, because your body’s a machine, and it needs the right
kind of fuel, and so I thought today we would make a chicken
dish with a pistachio citrus sauce, and it sounds complicated,
and elegant, but it’s really, really very simple. There’s only
about eight ingredients in the whole thing, and one of them of
course is white meat chicken, and we’re using an organic product
today, and it’s a very simple recipe, quick and easy, all right?
Steve: Simple is good.
Jackie: Simple is good, okay. Simple is good. So, here’s what we’re
going to start with, we have a relatively hot skillet, and I can
tell that because I put my hand about two inches above the
surface of the pan, and I feel the heat rising, and I don’t want
to get to the point where “ouch” it’s too hot.
I want to get my oil, a little bit of healthy oil in there first, and
this is just an organic oil that is high in Omega-3 Fatty Acids,
so a little tiny bit of oil to coat the bottom, and I have pre-
marinated my chicken breast in a little bit of orange juice with
a little bit of orange zest, just to do two things. One, that
high acid marinade actually tenderizes the chicken while it’s
marinating, and flavoring.
So, a little bit of orange juice, a little bit of orange zest, put it
in the refrigerator, you could even do this part two or three
days before you were ready to cook it, because what the citrus
acid does is it lowers the pH, it lowers, the pH, which means it
makes more acidic, and that helps preserve the chicken. So,
under refrigeration it actually lasts even longer than it would
otherwise, okay?
So, here’s our chicken breast it’s ready to go, and our oil is hot.
Step back, because you don’t want to get this on your nice shirt
there, but there we go we’ve got it in our skillet, and we’re
going to get a little bit of chicken broth in there before it
burns. I don’t want to add more oil, but I do want to make sure
there’s enough moisture so that it cooks all the way through.
So, I’m using an organic low sodium chicken broth, because we don’t
need more salt in our diet than, and I like to season things
with some of our salt, and sugar free spice blends, so I’m using
the NutriFit Rocking’ Moroccan Blend, which has turmeric, and I
don’t know if you’ve read at all about turmeric, but turmeric,
which is a key ingredient in a lot of curry style spices, has a
lot of wonderful, wonderful nutritional properties. So, it’s
really good not just for adding color, and flavor, but actually
for health.
So, again as the skillet gets a little dry just add in a little bit
more chicken broth, let it sort of simmer in there, and then
make sure it doesn’t stick. You can turn it over and see that
we are coating the chicken now with the seasoning. Now, are you
an onion kind of guy?
Steve: I love onions.
Jackie: You love onions. Okay, so I’m going to have you do a little
onion cooking here.
Steve: Okay.
Jackie: These are just green onions, yeah. Just slice a few on that
plate for me if you would Steve.
Steve: Okay, you trust me.
Jackie: I do trust you, and while you’re doing that part I’m going to
add some chopped pistachio nuts. Now, we know that nuts are a
healthy source of fat. They’re also a healthy source of Vitamin
E, and Selenium, and so we want to get these nuts in there, give
that chicken broth some flavor, give it a little bit more oil to
work with without adding more fat to the dish, and then looks
like your…
Steve: Is this how you want them?
Jackie: Yeah, it’s good enough.
Steve: Okay.
Jackie: We’re going to cook them down a little bit with the chicken, so
we want to get it in there, and get a little flavor going, and
it doesn’t matter how perfectly they’re cut because they’re
going to disappear in our chicken momentarily as it goes. So,
shall we put that in there right now?
Steve: So, I should move faster?
Jackie: Well, you know what? I think we have enough to get started
with, so go ahead, and put those in for me.
Steve: Great.
Jackie: And I’m going to add in a little bit more, I kind of cheated on
you there.
Steve: Okay.
Jackie: And then we can just, you see let it kind of cook down.
Steve: Yeah.
Jackie: And together, oops, kind of making a mess in our kitchen here.
Steve: That’s like me.
Jackie: Yeah. Well, who does the clean up?
Steve: I get the cleanup.
Jackie: You do, you get to clean everything so.
Steve: I clean the mess I make.
Jackie: Okay, well this chicken breast because it is a plump one, and
it’s going to take a few minutes to cook, I actually prepared
one ahead of time.
Steve: Okay.
Jackie: Knowing that we wouldn’t necessarily have enough time for the
chicken breast to cook all the way through, but under normal
circumstances if you had fifteen minutes or so you could cover
up your pot, you could let it cook to perfection, then let it
rest for about three minutes before you went to slice it, it
would be done perfect. We have one that’s already finished so
why don’t we turn the heat down on this guy, and I’ll have you
taste the one that I’ve prepared already.
Steve: Awesome.
Jackie: Are you ready?
Steve: I’m ready to go.
Jackie: You’re hungry?
Steve: Of course I’m hungry.
Jackie: It smells delicious, doesn’t it? Alright, well there’s a fork,
and there’s your chicken.
Steve: Okay.
Jackie: So if you want to give yourself a, there you go, it should be
fork tender.
Steve: Yeah, now this cuts great.
Jackie: Do you feel that, that fuel coursing through your body already?
Steve: I feel powerful already.
Jackie: Well, great, great. Well, you know Steve…
Steve: No, that’s a great flavor.
Jackie: Isn’t it nice, and it’s so simple to make?
Steve: Yeah.
Jackie: Even you could do it Steve.
Steve: Thank you.
Jackie: Okay. I know that people are excited about the Honda fuel cell
technology, but they’re also interested in finding out more
about, you know, what’s happening in the world of automotive
technology, and what’s going on with you, what is the best way
for people to follow you, and to find you?
Steve: You know for that car I would say go to our website, which is
FCX.honda.com, it’s dedicated to that vehicle. It lets you
learn a lot about the technology from there you can branch out
to the other vehicles that we have, the battery electric, the
[inaudible 00:15:37], the Civic Hybrid, the Accord Hybrid, or
Plug-in Hybrid, all of those, but that’s the place to learn more
about it, and even kind of sign up for more information.
Jackie: Okay, great. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.
Steve: This was great, thank you.
Jackie: It was fun, I learn something new every time I’m in your
company, and I will look forward to seeing your posts on
Facebook. I know you’re active on Facebook, and we can follow
your dirt bike racing, and your marathon running, and your
marathon biking, and look forward to staying in touch.
Steve: Well great, I hope that your viewers learned something today
too.
Jackie: Thank you.
Here’s a little story about making a difference. Once upon a time,
there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his
writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began
his work. One day he was walking along the shore, and as he
looked down the beach he saw a human figure moving like a
dancer. He smiled to himself to think someone would dance to
the day, so he began to walk faster to catch up, and as he got
closer he saw that it was a young man, and the young man wasn’t
dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore picking
up something, and very gently throwing it into the ocean.
As he got closer he called out, “Good morning, what are you doing?”
The young man paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish
in the ocean.” I guess I should have asked, “Why are you
throwing starfish in the ocean?” “The sun is up, the tide is
going out, if I don’t throw them in they’ll die.” “But young
man, don’t you realize that there are miles, and miles, of
beach, and starfish all along it you can’t possibly make a
difference.”
Well, the young man listened politely. Then he bent down, and he
picked up another starfish, and threw it into the sea, past the
breaking waves, and he said, “It will make a difference for that
one.” Thanks for joining us today on Food Exposed, join us next
week for another look at what’s on your plate.
For more Food Exposed check me out on emPOWERme.tv, and until next
week remember make food your best friend, and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed where each week we take a good
look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller and
today we’re talking about the whole DYI thing, no not arts
and crafts DYI but the art of crafting something wonderful to
eat. Making something delicious from whatever you can
scrounge up in the kitchen, that’s like play with your food
elevated to a whole new level. And you know you don’t have to
go far to find cooking shows of all types these days from
mild to wild and wacky, but if you struggle with cooking and
don’t want to spend all of your money eating out, here are a
couple of really simple, quick menu planning tips.
Number one, organize your food stuff. Pull the old cans, the jars,
the packages, go ahead check for expiration dates, don’t be
afraid of what you’re going to find. Be prepared to dispose
of anything that isn’t wholesome or a mystery food, like if
it doesn’t have a wrapper, you donate or your throw it away.
Anything that you can’t use or don’t need or haven’t thought
of what to do with.
Number two, assess what you’ve got left in terms of the food groups.
I like to think of it in terms of fruits and veggies then
proteins, grains, and if you can’t tell because there is no
label on it, just open it, dump it, and recycle the contents
of the can.
Number three, go online or look at your recipe files for those major
ingredients that you have left. And even if you can’t find
something to match exactly, you’ll get inspired by reading
other recipes or seeing what other people have done with that
ingredient. Remember it’s already bought and paid for if it’s
in your pantry or your refrigerator, so you’re really not
losing anything by trying and who knows, you just may love
what you create.
My guest today is an expert at doing just that. He’s an expert at
making magic in the kitchen. Chef D. Brandon Walker is the
program manager and instructor of the Culinary Training
Program at St. Joseph’s Center in Venice, California, and he
also serves as the Executive Chef at Bread and Roses Cafe
where they feed the homeless with a gourmet meal five days a
week. Last summer he won the competition on the hit TV show
Chopped and I am so proud to welcome Chef D to Food Exposed.
Thank you so much for coming.
Chef D: Well thank you, it’s my pleasure.
Jackie Keller: I’ve got you out of the kitchen.
Chef D: Yeah, that’s right.
Jackie Keller: So tell me about St. Joseph’s Center. Let’s start with
that because I know that is your main stay, your passion,
your focus right now.
Chef D: Well, I’ve been working at the St. Joseph’s Center in Venice
Beach for seven years now.
Jackie Keller: Has it been that long since we worked together?
Chef D: Yeah, it’s been seven years and I really found my passion
there. It’s about helping the people that are most vulnerable
in the community and there’s a great synergy between two
programs at the St. Joseph Center which is the Culinary
Training Program and the Bread and Roses Cafe. So everything
that I’m teaching the under employed and unemployed at the
CTP or the Culinary Training Program, we utilize those same
techniques down at the Bread and Roses Cafe where we take
what really in essence other people would throw away and we
create these gourmet meals.
So the synergy is, again, wonderful between the two programs and it
raises, it elevates the level of food at the cafe and I don’t
think that there is anymore appropriate time or reason to
give someone a great meal as when they’re at their lowest.
And again, we’re serving the homeless men and women and low-
income families.
Jackie Keller: Wow, so if I understand it correctly, I mean, it’s really
. . . And I visited once, and very briefly, so I didn’t see
how the whole operation works, but people make reservations
and they come, they sit down, they’re waited on. It’s not
like a soup kitchen.
Chef D: No, it’s not a soup kitchen and that’s a really important
aspect of what we do at Bread and Roses is that everyone
makes a reservation. So their name appears on a list that is
then printed out and then we receive them at the time that
they’ve made a reservation for either 9:30, 10:30, 11:30,
whenever they’ve made their reservation. What we’re striving
for is accountability. We need people to show up and be a
part of their own solution. And so basically you go through
an orientation at another site which is called the homeless
service center, which is about a couple blocks away.
And there you go through orientation and you are assigned a case
worker. And the case worker sits down and says, “What got you
here?” Let’s try to figure out what’s happening whether it be
mental illness or some type of addiction. And then one of our
core competencies at the agency that we pride ourselves on is
our ability to give someone a referral to bring in our, you
know, our other agencies that are doing good work in the
community and get someone the help that they need. So we’re
not just feeding someone and then, you know, having them, you
know, shuffle along.
Jackie Keller: Go back on the street.
Chef D: Right, correct.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Chef D: We really want them to be accountable and to check in with us
each and every day, so that’s one of the privileges of doing
that is being able to eat at the Bread and Roses Cafe which
is such a unique place.
Jackie Keller: Wow, that is just wonderful work. It must be so gratifying
to hear people who literally would otherwise potentially be
eating food off the street to be able to serve them something
that’s wholesome.
Chef D: Well, that’s what brings in that nutrition component. That’s
what makes it so vital that we’re giving them something that
is wholesome and nutritious because for most of those folks
that will be the only meal that they’ll eat that day.
Jackie Keller: Wow, and the Bread and Roses Cafe relies on donations or .
. .
Chef D: It’s a combination. Basically, we have great partners in the
community like Whole Foods and Panera Bread, and California
Chicken Cafe. And they are great partners and they donate
things that they are a day of or no longer able to sell for
some reason and so they’ll go ahead and give those to us
which we utilize. We also utilize . . . Most of our fruits
and vegetables come from the West Side Food Bank which is a
great organization that is affiliated with the Los Angeles
Regional Food Bank, so that’s another great partner of ours.
Everything else we shop for ourselves because there are certain items
that you just can’t get donated or don’t get donated usually
like proteins. So I’ll usually go out and buy a protein and
then I’ll combine that with whatever we happen to have on
hand.
So one week we’ll get grapefruits and zucchinis, and bell peppers.
And then the next week we’ll get a sack of potatoes and some
carrots. So whatever I have and then I think, well, what am I
teaching over at Culinary Training? So if we’re making a
classical French brown sauce then maybe we’ll go and buy some
beef and we can put together something like a beef
bourguignon, and use the carrots, and use the potatoes.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Chef D: And so that’s basically how I do my menu planning.
Jackie Keller: That’s great and I know that you do a lot of menu planning
for your own catering business as well. Tell us a little
about that.
Chef D: I run a successful catering business here in Los Angeles. It’s
called Commis which is it just means cook or humbled cook in
French. And we do corporate galas. We do dinner parties. We
do weddings, a lot of weddings. We do parties for 20 people,
for 200, for 500 people in the past. And that certainly keeps
me busy because I do work full-time at the St. Joseph Center.
But it, again, is a real passion of mine to do this elevated
seasonal farm to table really style cooking for really a wide
range of clients. And that usually takes up my time on
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sundays. I’m usually doing events
each and every week pretty much.
Jackie Keller: Wow, so where do you have time for family?
Chef D: Well, luckily I’ve got these wonderful little girls. I have
three girls, ages four, five, and nine, and they love to
cook. So I get them down at Bread and Roses. They’re
volunteering . . .
Jackie Keller: Oh, that’s great.
Chef D: . . . which is such a great, you know, and that’s really
important to me, being a great example for them. And so they
come down and they help out in the kitchen and then when
we’re at home they kind of understand, and they help with
dinner. And so I have benchmarks in my life like, okay, I’m
going to coach my daughter’s basketball team regardless of
how busy I get. I’m going to be home for dinner as much as I
possibly can and we’re going to sit down and we’re even going
to prepare that food together. So things like that, that’s
basically how I keep it all in balance. It’s just that
certain things I will not compromise.
Jackie Keller: And in the middle of all that was Chopped, tell us about
that.
Chef D: Yes, 2013 was an amazing year both at the Bread and Roses Cafe,
for St. Joseph Center, for me personally, the business is
doing better than ever. And then along comes the opportunity
to be on Chopped which is one of my favorite shows. I think
it’s such a successful show on the Food Network because it’s
not really about personality, it’s really about the cooking.
It’s four chefs, mystery ingredients, a clock, they start it,
boom, you got to go, and then you’re judged, and then
somebody gets chopped. And I was fortunate enough to come out
on top. So yes, I am officially Chopped Champion.
Jackie Keller: Hey!
Chef D: And the great thing about it is they came down to Bread and
Roses. They did all of the back story there and the bio
pieces, and the amount of attention and notoriety that it’s
brought to the good work that we’re doing out there in
Venice, I mean, we’re getting letters from Vermont and New
York, and you name it.
Jackie Keller: That’s great.
Chef D: Yeah, it’s just so wonderful to be able to go and say, look, I
may cook at a place that gives the food away and we might
utilize things that people have no use for otherwise, but we
can still produce food that comes out and is on a
tremendously high level of execution.
Yeah, so I think what prepared me for the show, I mean, little did
they realize is that I am really going through an episode of
Chopped each and every day at the Bread and Roses Cafe
because, I mean, we’re literally walking in in the morning
and someone will walk down the street and one of our
neighbors will come in with a basket full of these giant
zucchinis or eggplant. And so you really never know what
you’re going to get and so I was well prepared fortunately.
Jackie Keller: Well, I think you’re going to be well prepared for what
we’re going to do because I could not resist doing a little
co-cooking with you here.
Chef D: Oh, no.
Jackie Keller: It maybe seven years since we shared the kitchen when you
worked for me and we cooked together, but I thought we’d do a
little bit of that today.
Chef D: Awesome.
Jackie Keller: So I have some mystery ingredients for you. Are you ready
for your challenge here on Food Exposed?
Chef D: I am. I am ready.
Jackie Keller: Well let’s go cook.
Chef D: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Okay Chef D, so now is the time for you to absorb this
challenge because what we’re going to do is throw it
together. I just bought some ingredients from the kitchen and
I thought you could create something wonderful from it. I
know you can. I did pick the ingredients for a reason, so
real quick I brought some cooked brown rice.
Chef D: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Because we know that that’s wholesome, nutritious, high
fiber . . .
Chef D: Fiber.
Jackie Keller: . . . good base. And then kale because you know
everything’s kale these days.
Chef D: I love kale, personal favorite of mine.
Jackie Keller: Good, good, and I steamed it a little bit because kale
does better with a little bit of time, so I know time would
be of the essence. So I steamed a little fresh kale for you.
We chopped some red bell peppers.
Chef D: Great.
Jackie Keller: And I brought some almonds because this is another one of
my favorite nutritionally . . .
Chef D: Dense foods, yeah.
Jackie Keller: Really great, great nutritional calories there, great
Vitamin E, and great Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and then because I
love dried fruit, I brought some unsulfured slivered dried
apricots. You have some vegetable broth to work with.
Chef D: Okay.
Jackie Keller: You have some extra virgin olive oil and you have one of
our salt and sugar free seasoning blends. This is the
Mediterranean blend which you probably remember from when you
worked with me.
Chef D: Yes, wonderful. I love that stuff.
Jackie Keller: So the pan is getting hot and I’m going to turn the
cooking over to you.
Chef D: Okay.
Jackie Keller: And let you just kind of go for it and put something
together for us.
Chef D: Okay, wonderful.
Jackie Keller: All right.
Chef D: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: So.
Chef D: Well, this is really my philosophy . . .
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Chef D: . . . that there are just certain recipes that work and then to
understanding why those recipes work really will set you free
from the necessity of having a recipe. So we will just get
started by adding a little bit of fat to the pan and that’s
pretty hot there.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, I’m going to cool it down a little bit for you.
Chef D: That’s warm.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, this thing really heats up well.
Chef D: And we’ll start with the aromatics. And the aromatics, you
know, this could be celery, this could be onion, yeah, these
beautiful red bell peppers, this is great, this is great. And
so we’ll just kind of, I mean, you can already smell that.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Chef D: That’s wonderful. And so this is flavoring the fat that we have
in the pan and it’s just going to get a little bit of
carmelization on it, and we’ll just have those soften. And
again, I mean, I would add some fresh herbs to this.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Chef D: Any kind of onion. It’s really about what you have on hand. And
now this looks like leftovers from my house. This looks like
brown rice that you know . . .
Jackie Keller: It’s just plain cooked.
Chef D: Rice is just one of those things. Right? You always make a
little bit too much and you always end up with some of it
leftover. So the next thing that we’ll do is add the nuts.
The thing about when you’re cooking with nuts is that they’re
very high in fat, good at fat, but they will burn on you. So
that’s why we add them halfway through the cooking process.
The same way that you would do garlic.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Chef D: You know? So I would have the onions or the peppers going first
and then I would add the nuts or the garlic about halfway
through.
Jackie Keller: It smells great already.
Chef D: Yeah, because you’re going to start getting the toastiness from
the nuts.
Jackie Keller: Right, right, and that toasting does bring out all the
flavor and fragrance of the nut.
Chef D: Basically yeah, I mean, what’s going on is that Maillard
reaction where you’ve got proteins and carbohydrates that are
browning at temperatures over 120 degrees Celsius and they
are forming new flavored molecules. That’s what’s making this
so delicious.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, yeah. I’m going to give this a little bit since
we’ve got some stuff in the pan now.
Chef D: A little bit of juice. Yeah, and then go ahead and add the
dried apricots. Now again, these are high in sugar. They have
quite a bit of fructose, not processed sugar, so this is good
sugar. But because they do have that sugar content you kind
of have to watch out for these guys as well because they will
burn as well. So it’s about proportion and timing. So what am
I basing this on? I’m doing about one part aromatic, one part
nut, one part fruit.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Chef D: Just kind of a one to one ratio. I’m going to add a little bit
more fat to the pan.
Jackie Keller: And you can also, I know, moisten it with a little bit of
vegetable broth if you want to . . .
Chef D: So what I’m doing is I’m creating a fond on the bottom of the
pan.
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Chef D: And then I’m going to go ahead and deglaze it because this is
just about the time and you can see that it’s starting to
brown up there.
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Chef D: It’s a lot of flavor.
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Chef D: And I’ll go ahead and add my vegetable stock just enough to
cover the bottom of the pan, and then we’ll go ahead and kind
of scrap and get all of those tasty bits up off the bottom of
the pan. And this is classic French technique here. So just a
little technique goes a long way for a lot of different
dishes.
Jackie Keller: Now do you emphasize this kind of cooking technique at the
St. Joseph’s Center in your program?
Chef D: I do. This is exactly what I teach because it’s so practical.
And no matter what the flavor profiles that a certain chef
works with, most of the techniques are very similar. So when
I prepare the students with these techniques, they do really
well when they eventually get to their jobs.
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Chef D: We have graduates of the program that are now executive chefs
and it’s just absolutely mind blowing.
Jackie Keller: That’s wonderful. I know I’ve employed several of your
graduates.
Chef D: Yes.
Jackie Keller: We start them out in our kitchen and I’m always grateful
to know that I can rely on the basic training that they’ve
had through you.
Chef D: Well, that’s the cool thing about being a chef. It’s like a
family tree. Your resume speaks volume and it’s all about
where you’ve been and who you’ve learned from, so I’m happy
to have come from the NutriFit kitchens. And you can see that
this is actually starting to like make like kind of a syrup.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, it is. It’s thickening.
Chef D: Because the apricots are kind of giving off their pectin and
their sugar, and it’s getting delicious.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, that’s one of those nice things about apricots is
they have that high pectin content which really helps too, to
make it thick.
Chef D: And now we’ll just add some base to it. We’ll add the brown
rice. This will make it hearty. We’ll go ahead and stir that
in.
Jackie Keller: Now I know you’ve mentioned that you like to use a lot of
fresh herbs. And as you know now we have our own farm at
NutriFit and we’re growing a lot of our own fresh herbs.
You’re doing the same. Aren’t you?
Chef D: Yes, we have an herb garden at the Bread and Roses Cafe. I was
sick of all my like fancy pants chef friends, “Oh, I got to
go to the roof and get some silver back thyme. I’ll be right
back.” And so I was like, why not. You know? So I had a
friend at my church who was a Troop Leader for the Boy Scouts
and as an Eagle Scout project one of the Boy Scouts came and
built us like a tiered herb garden that we have in the back.
Jackie Keller: Right, how cool.
Chef D: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: That is wonderful.
Chef D: Really neat.
Jackie Keller: Neat. So you just go out there, pick what you need.
Chef D: That’s right.
Jackie Keller: So at what point now will we add the kale and wrap this
dish?
Chef D: Well, yeah, the kale is going to come here at the end because
we don’t want to overcook the kale.
Jackie Keller: I love the color.
Chef D: Yeah and it’s so vibrant, and we don’t want to lose any of that
by over cooking it. And we don’t want to lose any of the
enzymatic activity by raising the temperature too high. So at
the end and it’ll just wilt into your dish nicely. And you
can do a little massaging of this beforehand if you want to
break it down a little bit. You can just put a little dash of
salt which the sodium ions will draw the water out through
the semi-permeable cell membranes and make it just a little
bit softer, and then voila.
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Chef D: Look at that.
Jackie Keller: That looks wonderful.
Chef D: And that’s ready to go and it’s beautiful. It is beautiful.
Jackie Keller: It is very, very beautiful.
Chef D: Now don’t forget the seasoning.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, you might want to pull the whole top off that. I was
just adding a little. Now you’re adding in the key
ingredients for our Mediterranean blend, the basil, oregano.
Chef D: Ooh! And I can smell the dill in there.
Jackie Keller: The dill, yeah.
Chef D: Oh, my God. That’s so good. Wow.
Jackie Keller: That looks absolutely wonderful Chef D. Thank you.
Chef D: Yeah, my pleasure. Let’s plate it up.
Jackie Keller: All right.
Chef D: Take a little bit of this.
Jackie Keller: Presentation I know is so important.
Chef D: Yes.
Jackie Keller: I remember your episode of Chopped, you know, getting it
just right.
Chef D: Well, we . . .
Jackie Keller: And they really grade on that. That’s really real. Right?
Chef D: Oh, absolutely. We do eat with our eyes, that is half the
battle. You want the plate to look good and look at that.
Jackie Keller: That is beautiful.
Chef D: That’s wonderful.
Jackie Keller: All right, I’ll hold it for you, you taste.
Chef D: Yes, absolutely, be my pleasure. See and I know I’m going to
get all kinds of texture. Mm, what could be easier? You’ll
live forever eating like this.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, yeah.
Chef D: And we’d be happy to.
Jackie Keller: And healthy.
Chef D: That’s right.
Jackie Keller: That’s so good. Well, thank you so much for sharing that
and improvising like that, and giving us a little culinary
lesson at the same time.
Chef D: It was my pleasure.
Jackie Keller: And so much fun. I know that our audience is going to want
to follow you. They’re going to want to experience what
you’re doing, live through your eyes. What’s the best way for
them to find you?
Chef D: Well, I have a fabulous website. It’s ChefDBrandonWalker.com
and it’s a wonderful site. I have instructional videos. I
have recipes. I talk about all the things that we’re doing as
far as charity and philanthropic endeavors, and of course it
talks about the new book that’s on the way which is all about
improvisational cooking.
Jackie Keller: Well, I’m going to look that up and I’m going to follow
you.
Chef D: Please do.
Jackie Keller: And I’m going to hope that somewhere in that book there is
a shared recipe that you wouldn’t mind me borrowing for our
NutriFit clients.
Chef D: That would be an honor.
Jackie Keller: And I thank you again, so much, for coming to see us
today. It was really, really great to have you.
Chef D: It was my pleasure.
Jackie Keller: Keep up the good work.
Chef D: I will.
Jackie Keller: We need people like you out there.
Chef D: I will. Thank you, Jackie.
Jackie Keller: All right, thank you.
Here is a little story that illustrates the value of sharing
resources and creating something from nothing. There are many
versions of it and I’m not really sure where it comes from
originally, but here it goes.
So many years ago in a time of great hardship and famine, an old
soldier wandered into a poverty stricken village and asked
for shelter for the night. “There is nothing here to eat!”
The villagers told him. “You better just move on.” But, the
soldier stopped and he said, “I have enough here in my
backpack to make soup for all of us if I could just borrow a
large pot.” So the curious villagers, they produced a pot and
stood around watching as the soldier filled it with water and
built a small fire underneath.”
He then took three round stones from his backpack and dropped them
into the water. As the water came to a boil, the soldier
sniffed it and said, “Mm, I love stone soup, but if I had
just a little cabbage it would take even better.” At this
point one of the villagers disappeared and came back a few
minutes later with a cabbage he had been hiding and he put it
into the pot. And awhile later the soldier tasted the soup
again and said, “Mm, this is good, but a couple of carrots
would make it better still.”
And another villager produced a bunch of carrots and so it went on as
potatoes, and onions, and mushrooms, a little bit of salt
beef were all added to the pot until indeed there was a
delicious meal for all. We all have a contribution to make
and by sharing our gifts and resources our lives are
enriched. That’s my story. Thank you so much for joining me
today on Food Exposed. Join us next week for another look at
what’s on your plate.
For more Food Exposed check me out on emPOWERme.tv and until next
week remember, make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we take an inside
look at what’s on your plate. I’m your host Jackie Keller. I’m the
founding director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading healthy food
company. And today we’re talking about staying healthy under the
pressure of life on the road, which can be very challenging, even for
the most experience traveler. You know, millions of people fall ill
every year and many even die as a result of eating unsafe food.
So, what causes this lack of food safety? There’s a combinations of
many factors, but here are some simple rules to remember about food
safety. Number one, keep hot foods hot; two, keep cold foods cold.
And, number three, keep all areas clean. So you really have to plan
ahead. Travel with non-controversial foods; things that are easily
identified like bars, dried fruit, nuts, and keep the portions small
enough to eat in just one serving. Avoid very salty foods because they
can help you bloat and retain water and that is often a problem when
you’re traveling anyway. So you don’t want to exacerbate that problem
by having really salty foods because then you’ll want liquids and you
don’t want to risk taking liquids through security. No soups, no
smoothies, sometimes even salads dressings are going to be
confiscated. So don’t take them with you because you’re probably going
to get them taken away anyway.
Fresh fruit and turkey jerky are great travel snacks. But if you’re
and international traveler, and this has happened to me, I can say it
does happen, remember you have to consume any open food before you
land and pass through agricultural inspection because if you don’t,
not only will they take it away from you, but they will fine you!
Because if you’re traveling internationally you cannot take animal
proteins across country borders and there’s nothing more depressing
then having them take away some expensive turkey jerky that you bought
and you didn’t eat. Well, my guest today is a very experienced
traveler. She’s spends about 60 percent of her working days on the
road and knows all too well what toll a schedule like that can take on
your health, your sleep, your stress levels, your eating habits. As
the California director the National Wildlife Federation, Beth Pratt
has worked in environmental leadership role for over 20 years;
included two of the country’s largest national parks, Yosemite and
Yellowstone, which are two of my favorite places. She lives outside of
Yosemite right now with her four dogs, two cats, three western toads,
and she even has a frog pond in her back yard, which is a certified
wildlife habitat. Beth Pratt, welcome to Food Exposed!
Beth Pratt: Thank you for having me Jackie.
Jackie Keller: Well thank you so much for coming. You came all the way
from Yellowstone this morning.
Beth Pratt: Yosemite.
Jackie Keller: Right, Yosemite.
Beth Pratt: Yellowstone’s too cold right now.
Jackie Keller: But even Yosemite, that’s quite a drive.
Beth Pratt: Yeah, it’s about four and a half hours. But for me that’s a
walk in the park these days with all the traveling I do.
Jackie Keller: Almost literally, right?
Beth Pratt: Exactly.
Jackie Keller: Well, I know that we’ve met several times both in the
course of the National Wildlife Federation, but also in the course of
our shared interest in the Climate Reality Leadership Core. How are
those two interests connected for you Beth?
Beth Pratt: Yeah, obviously for me with the National Wildlife Federation I
work to conserve wildlife and to do things to make sure we have
wildlife in the future. And climate change of course is one of the
overriding impacts for both people and wildlife, so the two are so
interrelated. And it was fun spending time with you, training with Al
Gore, two summers ago now, to make ourselves more aware and better
able to communicate about the climate change. For me it’s the issue,
for both wildlife and people.
Jackie Keller: You must be seeing a lot of impact of climate change just
in Yosemite, right?
Beth Pratt: Yeah, you know, I’ve lived up there for 15 years; have been
going to Yosemite for 25 years now. And anecdotally I’m noticing
stuff. The frogs are coming earlier to my frog pond. They’re singing
their mating song earlier. Of course we had one of the worst fire
seasons, just in my area, that was terrifying. We had the rim fire in
Yosemite, and some people think climate change is fueling that.
They’re burning longer, hotter, and bigger. And of course we’re having
the worst drought now in some say 500 years. And birds are impacted by
that, bears are coming out of hibernation earlier, so, a lot of
impacts, yep.
Jackie Keller: Tell us more about the work you do on a day in and day out
basis, and what takes you on the road so much.
Beth Pratt: So, I have the best job in the world, as you know. I get to
drive around California and get people inspired to help wildlife. And
it’s an amazing job. That’s how we met through the National Wildlife
Federation. And so, California is a big state, as we know, and I spend
as you said, about 60 to 70 percent of my time on the road, because I
have project all over the state. He in LA we’re working on, I think
it’s one of the most inspiring wildlife conservation projects I can
think of.
Jackie Keller: Tell us about it.
Beth Pratt: We have P22. Most of you know P22 is living in the middle of
Griffith Park, he’s a mountain lion. He had to cross two major
freeways to get there.
Jackie Keller: That’s more than most of us can do in LA traffic I think.
Beth Pratt: I don’t even survive that 405! So he’s in Griffith Park, and an
average mountain lion territory is 250 square miles. He’s making do
with 8! It’s unbelievable. So, we’re working on building with the
National Park Service in the USGS in the Santa Monica Mountains fund a
wildlife crossing on the 101 so that it doesn’t happen again. So that
animals live P22 have safe space and can disperse to green areas and
not be living 2 miles from the Hollywood block.
Jackie Keller: Now let me ask you something, will they use the freeway
overpass? I mean, honestly?
Beth Pratt: Yes, animals do. They build these underpasses and overpasses
and animals do use them. I mean, they know these areas are pinch
points. And animals use existing underpasses now. So they know where
these animals are funneling. And they build it they will come. And
really the future of the Santa Monica mountain lion population is
dependent on things like this. They are not going to survive if they
can’t move.
Jackie Keller: So that project brings you to LA a lot?
Beth Pratt: I will be here a lot, yes. It’s a big project, it’s a
monumental undertaking. So, I’m down here at least once a month,
probably twice.
Jackie Keller: OK. And I know we’ve talked about some of the challenges
that you’ve personally have faced with all of this travel and the
impacts on your own personal health. Tell us a little bit about that.
Beth Pratt: Yeah, and I can’t thank you enough. We came together through
our shred love of the environment, but what’s been helpful is your
coaching around, you know, I put a lot into my work, I travel a lot.
And what’s suffered has been my fitness and health. When we first
started talking I told you I was in the worst shape of my life,
because I was driving and I was sitting at the computer all day, and
the things you talked about, those challenges, I was eating badly and
not exercising. So, I would say that the two biggest challenges for me
is, you know, when you’re not working in an office and sitting all the
time and doing a routine, and when you go on these trips it’s really
hard to make time to exercise. Sometimes you’re working from 7 to 11
at night plus it’s hard to just find time. And then the eating badly,
you’re eating quickly, or you’re going out to dinner or lunch. You
know, business meetings seem to gel around a meal. And when the other
person is having this elaborate beautiful delicious high calorie
dinner, it’s hard to sit there with water and a salad. So those have
been some of the challenges I know you have been working with me on,
I’m making a lot of progress, it’s great.
Jackie Keller: Well, we talked about the fact that you are willing, and
it’s unusual from my perspective for somebody to be willing to go
public about their challenges with weight and health and eating
properly. So we talked about a creative way of doing that kind of fits
with the dynamic of charity and philanthropy and being public. So,
tell us a little but about that.
Beth Pratt: This is really fun. So one of the things that Jackie worked
with me is, so, we know you’re a person who is very self motivated and
especially around my main motivations which I want to save wildlife.
And looking at the weight gain and me being out of shape… Let’s look
at motivations and what motivates you. And what we came up with
jointly is what motivates me is saving wildlife obviously. So, how do
you tie that in with weight loss? Brainstorming between the two of us,
we came up with: what if you do directly tie that in with weight loss?
So, we came up with the idea with Weighing for a Cause. Which I think
we’re about to launch; which is, you set a goal weight, and you set up
a fundraising campaign, much like you do for a walkathon or something
where people give money. But if you don’t get to your goal rate, the
nonprofit doesn’t get the money. We thought this was a great motivator
because, I mean, if you’re putting money up for the puppies at the
SPCA you’re going to make your goal weight.
Jackie Keller: That’s right.
Beth Pratt: You don’t want to just point them. And what’s fun is getting
the non-profit involved too. Obviously they’re going to have some
motivation.
Jackie Keller: So your non-profit, we’re calling this Weighing In for a
Cause, and we’re doing this on Crowdrise, and your non-profit is…
Beth Pratt: Yeah, so I work for the National Wildlife Foundation, but we
partner with Save the Frogs. In fact, the mountain lion was one of my
projects, but another one of my projects is we’re going to be doing
this campaign for the Red-Legged Frog around California. So I chose
for my Weigh In for a Cause that joint project that we’re doing. So
here’s Save the Frogs. And frogs are one of my favorite animals! So
we’re excited about this. And the executive director Cary Krieger for
Save the Frogs, he has promised to be emailing me daily to make sure
that I am not exceeding my calorie count and to take me on hikes. So I
think it’s fun to get the non-profit involved too. But also NutriFit’s
a very philanthropic organization, you help National Wildlife
Foundation by donating your time, your services. But your also going
to be putting up some of your money for your clients.
Jackie Keller: I am! And in fact, I have a check for you, for the
National Wildlife Federation!
Beth Pratt: Yay!
Jackie Keller: To support the Save the Frogs and the Weighing in for a
Cause. And if I understand it correctly, you have to give some of this
back if you don’t make your goal, right?
Beth Pratt: Exactly. A portion of this is going to go to the Save the Frogs
campaign. So Cary and your staff at Save the Frogs, start emailing me
to make sure I’m not eating too much!
Jackie Keller: Well, you know what in fact, I thought what we would do
now is take a minute to cook up something really quick and easy that
you can use for your road trips; something nutritious, something
clean, something easy, something quick, something that doesn’t require
refrigeration. So would you join me for a little cooking?
Beth Pratt: That would be wonderful. I’d love some tips.
Jackie Keller: Alright, let’s go.
Jackie Keller: Alright so, we’re going to make something really simple
now.
Beth Pratt: Awesome.
Jackie Keller: I chose this recipe. We call them Quinoa and Flour
Fritters. And I chose the recipe because Quinoa, as you know, is a
very wholesome grain. It’s very high in protein, it has no gluten,
even though I know you don’t have Celiacs disease or anything but, you
want to incorporate more variety in whatever you can. So quinoa is one
of the most popular foods right now. It’s very simple to make, you can
find it anywhere. You just rinse it, rinse it, rinse it, before you
cook it, and then you put it up un water and you let in simmer. That’s
it! Fifteen minutes later it’s done! And if you make it plain like I
did, then you can season it however you want afterwards and use it
however you want to use it. So we start with some cooked quinoa,
that’s what I’ve done here, I’ve pre-cooked it to make it a little but
faster for us. And into a bowl it goes with a little bit of rice
flour, just to get it to stick together. And this is just grocery
store plain Japanese rice flour. And then I’m going to add a little
bit of egg substitute. And this is just egg white in a carton, but you
can crack an egg and beat it and add it in. So, you can see what
you’re aiming for is a fairly wet consistency, but we’re going to bind
it even further with a little bit of cheese. This is low-fat
mozzarella cheese. Just plain mozzarella, a little bit more than you
need, but then you go a little less with the other cheese, which is a
little bit of parmesan, and finally our fiber, not only from the
quinoa, but from cauliflower.
Beth Pratt: Oh, OK. That’s a nice combination.
Jackie Keller: So, this adds some vegetable into the dish. And
cauliflower is just steamed cauliflower chopped up. So, very simple, a
little bit of salt and sugar free seasoning to give it some flavor.
And this is one of our salt and sugar free seasoning blends, this is
our Mediterranean blend. But you can use basil or whatever your
favorite sugar free blends are, whatever you like the best. And one
thing you don’t want to do is add any salt because the cheese has a
lot of salt in it to begin with. So you don’t need any more salt. And
remember we talked about…
Beth Pratt: I noticed from traveling, even minimally amounts of salt I
start feeling it definitely.
Jackie Keller: And so, we’re stirring it up here. And I’m going to have
you spray the skillet lightly with a little bit of extra-virgin olive
oil spray.
Beth Pratt: Nobody’s going to believe I’m cooking.
Jackie Keller: A little closer, alright.
Beth Pratt: There we go, OK.
Jackie Keller: And now, and we have a lot of mixture here, far more than
we’re going to make, but you see, we need to get something in there
before we burn the bottom of that skillet. So, grab a spoon and follow
me. You can make them as big as you want to make them they can be
little, they can be medium. My thought was that you would be eating
them in the car.
Beth Pratt: Yes, and it’s a bad habit, but with the amount of driving I do,
eating and driving is very efficient. This does look perfect for
nibbling while I’m driving.
Jackie Keller: We’re going to form them into… there you go, see? Who
said you couldn’t cook!
Beth Pratt: I’m cooking! Hey mom, I’m cooking!
Jackie Keller: Look at that!
Beth Pratt: She’d never believe it.
Jackie Keller: And then we’ll flatten them a little bit. So we’ll make
like a nice little… And obviously you know if you were making these
at home, you could use a scoop, like an ice cream scoop or something
to get nice uniform sizes and things like that. But you can tell, it’s
not that fancy.
Beth Pratt: And this is perfect, because it is really hard to buy healthy
snacks sometimes. So this is perfect.
Jackie Keller: This is probably not the ideal cooking implement because
what I really want is the spatula to flip it. But, you kind of get the
drift, right? So, they cook pretty quickly because essentially all
we’re doing is cooking the egg that bound it together, because the
quinoa is already cooked, the cheese doesn’t require cooking. So we
just want to cook it until the egg allows it to set up and bind it
together. And they get nice and toasty. And then the challenge of
course is going to be to flip it. Yeah, but’s it’s not quite there
yet. So, one suggestion that I have for this recipe is to make a big
batch of them and freeze them, because they really freeze beautifully.
And if what you want is something that you have handy that you could
just grab and go, this is truly just grab and go food. They’re not
greasy, so they’re great for the car because the other thing about
them is they’re balanced, you have protein, you have fiber, you have
carbohydrate, you have a little bit of healthy fat, so it’s really an
ideal meal.
Beth Pratt: And I love the cauliflowers in there, because you got to get
your vegetables.
Jackie Keller: You got to get your vegetable in there.
Beth Pratt: Which is the one I always struggle with! I’m from Boston,
Irish, we don’t eat vegetables.
Jackie Keller: Potatoes are sort of like cauliflower.
Beth Pratt: Yeah, exactly.
Jackie Keller: Alright, so I think we’re about ready to attempt the flip!
Well, no that one failed. You want to give it a try?
Beth Pratt: Well, if you’re having trouble, I’m willing. I’ve got to learn
to do this because this looks like the perfect snack for…
Jackie Keller: Well trust me, because if you have a flat spatula it
probably works perfectly. There we go! You see, it’s not bad! One or
two more and then maybe you’ll to sample, what do you think?
Beth Pratt: I think so.
Jackie Keller: Great.
Beth Pratt: I’m not going to be able to flip that, I’ll give that to you.
Jackie Keller: What I’m going to do is I’m going to turn this guy off.
Beth Pratt: Look at that! Aren’t they perfect?
Jackie Keller: Wow! Anyway give it a try, tell me what you think.
Beth Pratt: Mm. It’s the perfect snack.
Jackie Keller: Now, couldn’t you eat that on the road?
Beth Pratt: I’m sure this would be perfect.
Jackie Keller: And the nice thing about that is that it can go through
customs too. It can go through security, they’re not going to take it
away from you. While ideally you’d want to eat whatever you brought…
Beth Pratt: Well, this is perfect airplane food too, like you said, a lot
get confiscated. And airports are traps. You get in there and of
course you want the junky food when you’re there. Coming armed with
these would be perfect.
Jackie Keller: Alright, great. Well, Beth I know that everyone is going
to want to follow you, they’re going to want to keep up with what you
do, what’s the best way for people to reach you?
Beth Pratt: You know, I’d say the two ways, Facebook, BethPratt1, the
number one, and I post great photos of wildlife as I travel along.
Jackie Keller: That is true, you defiantly do.
Beth Pratt: You want to see mountain lions? My twitter handle is BethPratt.
Or NWFCalifornia is also a Facebook page that is, again, also a lot of
adventures in wildlife photos. And also we’ll be posting on how I do
with my goal weight. So, come tune in.
Jackie Keller: And we can find that on where?
Beth Pratt: I’ll be posting that on my Facebook page and the NWFCalifornia
Facebook page as well.
Jackie Keller: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming!
Beth Pratt: That you Jackie, it’s always wonderful to see you!
Jackie Keller: Yeah. And I wish you good luck. I know you’re already
losing some weight, right?
Beth Pratt: Yes, I’m down 8 pounds, and yeah. I feel great. And I can’t
thank you enough, because your coaching, your food has been
instrumental in that.
Jackie Keller: Well, you’re most welcome.
Beth Pratt: So you’re helping wildlife by helping me.
Jackie Keller: Alright. I’d like to talk a minute with you today about
commitment with passion. No, I’m not talking about the romantic kind,
as in intimate relationships with others, not that kind of commitment.
But I’m talking about the kind of commitment that leads to creating
self-fulfilling prophecies. Let’s face it; pursuing your goals even if
you’re highly motivated isn’t always a piece of cake. And nearly
everything means overcoming some kind of obstacle, personal sacrifice,
and risking some failure. So developing skills for this requires some
form of patience, practice, labor, and passionate commitment carries
many benefits. It reinforces our sense of autonomy, but also helps us
feel that we belong to something. When we follow through on our
decisions to something it shields us from social pressures. For that
reason, when we make a commitment in front of others in particularly
potent. You know there was a study that was recently done a the
University of Scranton and it found that people who made public New
Year’s resolutions were ten times more likely to succeed at their
goal. And there are many people who’ve written about commitment and
how it relates to achievement. There’s some great quotes from leading
business gurus. Here’s one I particularly like; “Unless commitment is
made, there are only hopes and promises, but no plans.” And that’s a
quote from Peter Drucker*. And here’s one from Stephen Covey “Without
involvement there’s no commitment.” Mark it down, asterisk it, circle
it, underline it. So, what about talking about committing publicly
like Beth did? How about doing that? Check out Weigh In For A Cause,
as you’re way to cement your goal. And do well by doing good. Thanks
for joining us today on Food Exposed. Join us next week for another
look at what’s on your plate.
Jackie: Welcome to Food Exposed where each we talk about the story
behind what’s on your plate. I’m your host, Jackie Keller. And
today we’re talking about teenagers. You know, whether you have
one, you are one, or you know one, listen up.
Thirteen to seventeen can be a really confusing age. It can be
confusing for lots of reasons, but particularly with respect to
body image and self-awareness.
Here are some interesting statistics from the World Health
Organization. Forty-three percent of the world is currently
under 25; about 16 million girls age 15 to 19 give birth every
year. An estimated 150 million young people use tobacco. Alcohol
use starts at a young age; 14% of adolescent girls and 18% of
adolescent boys age 13 to 15 use alcohol. In any given year
about 20% of the adolescents will experience a mental health
problem. Suicide is the leading cause of death in young people.
And despite our cultural obsession with diets and being thin, obesity
is increasing among young people in both low and high income
countries. Nearly two-thirds of premature deaths and about one-
third of the total disease burden that we experience as adults
is related to health practices that start in our youth years. So
clearly establishing good health practices at a very young age
is especially important just for the health of our population as
a whole, and for us as we age.
And for that reason I am very, very privileged to welcome today our
guest. Amita Swadhin is the Los Angeles Executive Director of
Peer Health Exchange, and she has dedicated her practice and her
business model to helping students and young people learn more
about their bodies and deal with these issues. Amita, welcome to
Food Exposed, and thank you for coming today.
Amita: Thank you so much for having me, Jackie.
Jackie: Tell us about Peer Health Exchange. You know, we don’t hear
about it very much; just tell us.
Amita: I like to think that we’re the best-kept nonprofit secret in
the world. We are a national organization. We have been in
existence for ten years. We’ve been here in Los Angeles for five
years, and our model is basically empowering teenagers to make
healthy decisions. We do that by training college student
volunteers to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in high
schools that lack health education and in which a majority of
students come from low-income households.
Jackie: So you recruit college kids to volunteer to go into high
schools, to go back, and relate to ninth graders?
Amita: Yes, that’s right; we’re specifically in the ninth grade. We
know that so much changes for a teenager in that ninth grade
year. They are often facing going to parties for the first time
with much older kids. They are actually making decisions around
whether to have sex, around whether to use drugs, or alcohol.
And in general facing a lot of the self-esteem challenges that
you talked about. So it’s a pivotal year and that’s why we
target the ninth grade.
Jackie: So what are the biggest challenges that you face with this
group and with the model that you’ve established?
Amita: I think that there are a lot of good things about the model.
Teenagers listen to their peers much more than adults. You could
have the best teacher in the world, but I’m 35 now and I’ve been
in the classroom since I was about 19 as a Peer Educator.
Jackie: Wow!
Amita: And so I really believe in the model, because I’ve seen a
shift. When I walk into a classroom now to observe our college
volunteers there is this hush, and people are like, well, who’s
this lady? Why is she here? Whereas our college students, you
know, they are in hoodie sweatshirts, they’re in some jeans.
They are 18 to 21 and able to captivate the classroom right
away. And it’s really compelling; we have a lot of data on our
impact on the teenagers and how they actually grow in their
knowledge and skills from the workshops that the college
students are presenting.
Jackie: That is just wonderful. And what about the bureaucracy, I mean.
L.A. is a big place. I know you’re a national organization. But
your area of responsibility is this big monolith that we call
Los Angeles. Tell me about bureaucracy and how does that affect
your work?
Amita: You know, I’d like to answer that on two different levels. So
first, we are a county; I think it’s taken some time for our
national organization to really wrap their heads around, you
know, we are not just Los Angeles City. There are 81 school
districts here.
Jackie: Oh my God. I’m a native and I didn’t realize there were that
many school districts in L.A.
Amita: Yes, and we’re the largest county in the United States. So just
thinking through which teens are we going to serve here, and why
it is a challenge in and of itself. This is our fifth year in
Los Angeles, and we’ve started with LAUSD. And I think LAUSD has
its own challenges and I think also that the need is not as
obvious as in some of the smaller districts within L.A. County.
So a lot of people don’t realize that LAUSD actually has a high
school graduation requirement around health education. Now that
doesn’t necessarily mean there is a certified health teacher at
every LAUSD high school.
Jackie: I can speak to that, because my kids are LAUSD kids, and it
hasn’t been that long since they’ve been out of high school. And
they both had health education in their classroom, but neither
one was taught by a health ed teacher.
Amita: Yes, and so you know exactly what I’m talking about. So I think
part of our challenge is that we sometimes get high school
principals reaching out to us directly within LAUSD, saying,
“Hey, you’re a free program. We need this program here. Come and
serve our students.” And we don’t always have the permission of
the district to do that. So that can be frustrating at times.
I think on the flip side, because L.A. is huge, even within LAUSD a
lot of people don’t realize that we actually have the largest
number of charter school students in the country.
Jackie: Wow!
Amita: There are a lot of exciting and innovative things happening in
education nationwide and L.A. is kind of a hot bed for that. So
these are Title I public schools, low income public schools that
are not able to afford a health education teacher; so that’s
largely who we partner with now. We have 25 high school partners
this year within LAUSD’s geographic districts.
Jackie: That’s a lot of schools. How many students do you serve?
Amita: We’re reaching over 3,000 ninth graders this year with 300
college student volunteers from U.S.C., U.C.L.A., Occidental,
and Cal State Northridge.
Jackie: Now are you looking for more students, more schools, or more
volunteers? How can the community support what you do?
Amita: Yes to all of the above. We get calls from district
administrators and teachers and even this summer there was a
ninth grade high school student in Long Beach Unified, and
health education recently got cut there about two years ago from
what I understand, who heard about our program in some summer
research project she was doing and said, “Can you come and serve
our school?”
Jackie: Wow!
Amita: Obviously that’s compelling; you don’t want to ever say no to a
teenager who is saying come and help me, and that’s what our
program was founded to do.
I think some of our constraints are around having the network of
supporters and revenue that will let us grow at a rapid enough
pace to meet the need that’s there. We’ve had a waiting list
every single year that we’ve operated, and we are trying to
broker relationships with districts beyond LAUSD now since there
are 80 other ones. But we are looking for board members; we’re
looking for adult mentors for our college volunteers.
We are building a talent pipeline as a secondary impact in addition
to empowering the teenagers themselves to have the knowledge and
skills to make healthy decisions. We have this cadre of 2,000
volunteers throughout the country this year; about 7,000
throughout the ten years that we’ve existed, who are now
interested in public health and public education as a career. So
we are looking for mentors for them. And we’re looking for
relationships within community partnerships and school districts
that can help us grow and serve even more teenagers in L.A.
County.
Jackie: You have such a full plate. What’s the biggest challenge for
you personally with all of that?
Amita: That’s a great question, you know. I got into this work for
some very personal reasons. I’m a survivor of child sexual abuse
and domestic violence.
Jackie: Wow!
Amita: And I’m very public about that, because I think in order to
really be a good role model for teenagers we have to de-
stigmatize the reality that a lot of young people are facing at
home. And so for me a challenge is a lot of our supporters like
to pull our curriculum apart. There are 11 health topics that we
teach; nutrition and physical activity is one.
Jackie: Right.
Amita: But they say, “I’m really interested in this one topic and I’m
going to support you in that one topic area.” And I think the
reason that I was drawn to Peer Health Exchange is that we’re
such a holistic model. We teach about rape and sexual assault
prevention and treatment. We teach about mental health. We teach
about safer sex for a lot of the reasons that you listed in the
statistics that you went over. You know, a teenager can’t pull
apart the effects of body dysmorphia and poor self-esteem.
Just being about the food and the drinks that they put into their
body every day, of course, that’s a big part of it. But I think
you also have to help young people really care about themselves.
And so what’s challenging for me is knowing how much access to
healing that I’ve had and really wanting to find a way to
provide that in as holistic a manner as possible for the teens
that we’re serving.
Jackie: Well you great work and what a wonderful, wonderful opportunity
it is for the community to get to know a little bit more about
you; and realizing that that is a free resource for a body of
people that don’t have access under normal circumstances to the
kind of information and the quality delivery method. I know that
there is a lot of research that goes into your curriculum.
Amita: Yes, there is.
Jackie: And one of the things that I was hoping to share today is just
some fun, easy, quick ideas for school lunches. Even though it’s
not everything, we do know that nutrition and healthy
nutritional practices are the base of a lot of learning that can
happen. So I thought today we would take a quick look at some
easy, fast, nutritious, delicious, school lunches and see what
we can throw together.
Amita: I’m excited about this, especially because the teens that we
serve are often living in neighborhoods that, you know, we talk
about food deserts and access to good produce, and so I’m really
excited for you to show us something that any teenager in any
community in Los Angeles can make.
Jackie: This is pretty simple.
Amita: Okay, great.
Jackie: Well, let’s go cook.
Amita: Great.
Jackie: Well, it’s time to cook, Amita, and what I thought we would do
today is prepare a really, really simple dish that basically
anybody can make, any age. Now we’re talking not just high
schoolers; I’m thinking of starting even younger with this one.
And the other nice thing I liked about this dish is that it’s
inexpensive, and let’s face it, we need affordable food. It
can’t be about what the wealthiest can afford; it has to be
about what anyone can afford.
So that’s why I chose this dish. And also it has some great
nutritional properties, because it’s a balanced meal and so what
we’re creating is something that’s high in fiber, high in
protein, low in fat, so it’s going to be good for heart health.
It’s going to be good for brain functioning. It’s going to have
a high satiety value, so this is something that will stick with
students of any age, and adults as well, and really kind of fuel
you for the day.
Amita: Great. I’m excited. I think I’m going to learn something, and
I’m not the best cook, so if I can do it I think any teenager
can do it.
Jackie: Well, this is simple, trust me. You know, there are a couple of
key ingredients here; one of them is enchilada sauce. Now we
don’t make our own, I mean we make our own, but we don’t
advocate that everybody has to make their own. What you do need
to know, though, when you’re choosing enchilada sauce is that
it’s a combination recipe of whatever the manufacturer chose to
put in it. So even though a brand may be expensive, it doesn’t
mean that it’s necessarily more healthful than the next brand.
And one of the key things with enchilada sauce is the sodium content.
And so, what you want to do is always as you’re shopping for it
pick up the can, look at the nutrition facts label and check to
see that you’re selecting one that has as close to 140
milligrams per serving as you can get, or less; because that is
the legal limit for a low-sodium product. And what we’re looking
for, particularly with the under-served populations, is a way to
minimize the risk of high blood pressure and the resulting
illnesses that can complicate heart health.
So low sodium enchilada sauce, and then the other key thing, of
course, is having whole wheat. When we want grains and we want
whole grains in the diet, so whole wheat tortillas or corn
tortillas, which are also whole grain, would work in this
recipe, because there is a lot of different ways we can make it.
But if you are going to go with the flour product you want to
make sure that it’s based in whole grains.
Amita: I love that you’re bringing this up; this is exactly how our
nutrition and physical activity workshop is structured, just
simple every day choices that a teenager can make, knowing how
to look for whole grains, low sodium count.
Jackie: Yes, look at this one, not that one. That’s very simple. And
then of course, depending on how hot you like your food, whether
you put in chilies or you don’t put in chilies; this is a
jalapeno chili and it’s fairly mild. If you take the seeds and
the veins out, the heat is not in the flesh, it’s in the seeds
and the veins. So you want to make sure that you seed and de-
vein those.
So it’s really simple; I’m going to spray our skillet with a little
bit of extra virgin olive oil spray. And you can find this in
every grocery store. And let’s get some meat in there, before we
burn this thing. Actually, I think I’ll put a few chilies in
there.
Amita: Great.
Jackie: And do you like it spicy?
Amita: I’m Indian American, so I do like spicy foods.
Jackie: All right. So just to take a little bit of the heat off, there
we go.
Amita: We’ll be getting the smoke alarms going in here.
Jackie: Yes. It’s this induction cooking, so we’re just going to get
something in here so we don’t burn the stuff. I have precooked
ground turkey with some enchilada sauce, so that’s as simple as
it gets. You brown the ground turkey, add a little enchilada
sauce to it, and the rest is just in the seasoning. I have some
fresh tomatoes . . .
Amita: Just chopped up.
Jackie . . . just chopped up. And these can come out of a can, but I
would suggest that–and let’s turn this down–that fresh is
better.
And once we have this going here, and the meat by the way, when you
start with raw meat it does cook very quickly. So what I like to
do is make a big batch of the meat, and then I freeze some of
it. And these are really inexpensive little food safe
containers. You can buy them in a sleeve of 25 from Smart &
Final. They cost almost nothing. And what I like about them is
they’re designed for food, you know, they’re not like a
margarine tub that you have left over that you put leftovers in.
It’s really designed for food and they freeze beautifully; they
stack up. They are really inexpensive.
And we’re also going to add in a little bit of a salt and sugar free
spice blend. This is one of my blends, but it’s like a chili
powder. And I like it because I thought of it.
Amita: I would imagine you’d like it.
Jackie: But you can use any kind of chili powder. So again, depending
on whether you’ve added chilies into the mixture or you like
your hot and spicy, what I’m really trying to emphasize here is
don’t add salt. We’ve got a little bit of sodium in the
enchilada sauce; we chose a low-sodium one. We made a good
decision there, so why would you then turn around and add more
salt to it? If you want flavor add spices, but don’t add the
salt.
Amita: And I heard you say stay away from sugar, too, right?
Jackie: Absolutely. And you know, one of the things that you don’t
realize is that these spice blends are again a combination of
whatever the manufacturer chose to put into them. So a lot of
times you’re not even aware that the first ingredient might be
salt.
Amita: You have to read the label.
Jackie: You’ve got to read the label. Now we’re ready to make the
burrito.
Amita: Great.
Jackie: So this is where you come in.
Amita: Okay, I’m ready. I think I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.
Jackie: Okay. So you’re going to take a tortilla, a flour tortilla, and
we can just grab one, a nice soft one. And then we’re going to
put in it some of our meat.
Amita: Okay.
Jackie: And we can add a little bit of low-fat cheese to that.
Amita: And the low fat part is important I’m guessing.
Jackie: Because the fat that’s found in cheese is highly saturated milk
fat, and you don’t need that milk fat. I mean, the fact of the
matter is that it’s like having whole milk, drinking whole milk
as adults we know that’s not good fat for us. We don’t need that
fat. So reduced fat cheese is like drinking reduced fat milk.
And the lower the fat content the better. What we’re looking for
is good melting properties, and good flavoring properties, and
this cheese has both without that highly saturated fat.
Amita: Great.
Jackie: You can add a little bit of lettuce to that if you want, but
you have to go easy; because once it gets too full–I’m kind of
setting you up here.
Amita: Oh, great.
Jackie: Don’t take it personally.
All right, so now the burrito wrap. Start with the sides, fold in
both sides, okay. Add a little bit more space, because what
you’re going to want to do is now fold the bottom up, and roll
it the rest of the way.
Amita: I’ve got it.
Jackie: All right, so you see what happens when you over fill it?
Amita: Yes, I over filled it.
Jackie: Now turn it upside down real quick and squash it.
Amita: Squash it? Okay. Great.
Jackie: So kind of what you’re doing here is you’re sealing it so that
the cheese will melt and kind of seal the burrito.
Amita: Got it.
Jackie: And then it is a little messy to eat.
Amita: You are totally setting me up; this is going to be fun.
Jackie: But the other thing I wanted to point out is that this is the
burrito and not everybody can have cheese; not everybody can
have wheat. But let’s say you loved the idea and you just wanted
to nix that. You could just make a taco salad out of it the same
way by taking a little bit of your lettuce and then you could
add a little bit of your meat on top, and some tomatoes to your
taste.
Amita: Great.
Jackie: And if you wanted to, because as you said, you like it spicy.
Amita: I do like it spicy, that’s true. And so these are just fresh
chopped jalapenos?
Jackie: Fresh chopped up jalapenos, and there you go. And it’s just a
simple little taco salad, and now of course the proof is in the
tasting.
Amita: Oh gosh. I’m going to try the taco salad so I don’t spill
burrito all over myself.
Jackie: I did set you up.
Amita: It’s good.
Jackie: Is it spicy enough for you?
Amita: If I get the jalapeno right in there, yeah.
Jackie: Yes.
Amita: Okay, great.
Jackie: Again, an example of a very inexpensive meal. This can be made
for pennies, literally and can be made ahead, put in the
refrigerator; you grab it when you’re ready to go to school, and
it’s there for you.
Amita: I love that there are simple choices in each of the ingredients
that teenagers can make to be healthier; even if they’re
preparing the simple meal it doesn’t have to be fast and
unhealthy.
Jackie: Absolutely, and you know what, if you didn’t have the money for
the meat or you chose to not have animal, you could just do
black beans with this, and the whole recipe would work just as
well.
Amita: Just checking for the sodium, right?
Jackie: There you go. So, Amita, I know that the audience wants to be
able to find you, they want to be able to follow Peer Health
Exchange, and they want to stay connected to you. What’s the
best way for them to do that?
Amita: Well we have a website www.peerhealthexchange.org, and we also
have a Facebook page that anyone can click like and I encourage
you to do that to keep up with our posts about our volunteers
and our teenagers; just Peer Health Exchange. And then if you
want to follow me on Twitter I’m at @ASwadhin.
Jackie: Well, thank you so much for coming today. It was really a
pleasure and I look forward to staying connected to Peer Health
Exchange myself, and staying current with what you’re doing.
It’s great work. Thank you, thank you, thank you for dedicating
yourself to the community the way you have. We really appreciate
it and God knows we need it, right? So have a great afternoon
and continue the good fight.
Amita: Thank you so much, Jackie. It was great to be here with you
today.
Jackie: My pleasure.
Research shows us that our self-talk really influences how we behave.
Basically, we have our own inner dialogue and it drives our
behavior. And this is truly any age whether you’re an
adolescent, whether you’re an adult, whether you’re a child, we
talk to ourselves and that makes us do what we do.
So what’s the best way to get yourself to do something? Well,
research shows us that giving yourself permission to do
something as opposed to dictating behavior is really what’s
going to make a difference in how the outcome is read.
For example, if you say to yourself, “I will go do this,” it’s like
you’re forcing yourself, like you’re compelling yourself, as
opposed to saying, “I’m thinking that I might go do this,” or “I
am considering going and do this,” and giving yourself
permission to make that decision. That’s really what’s going to
influence your behavior, that’s what’s going to make you want to
go do something, and as a parent and as an educator, as a coach,
I see this all the time. If you tell people, “The decision is
yours, you’re in control, you’re in the driver’s seat,” either
you want to do it for yourself or you don’t, you’re going to
make that decision based on you own inner motivation. We do
better when we’re motivated internally than when we’re motivated
externally or compelled externally.
So the message is: your self-talk drives you, give yourself
permission, give yourself autonomy, give it to the people around
you, give it to the people you love, and everybody will be
happier, and behaviors and outcomes will be much more positive.
That’s my talk today. That’s my coaching moment. I hope you’ll
watch the show, I hope you’ll share with friends and family, I
hope that it helps you, and I hope you’ll tune in next week for
another episode of Food Exposed.
For more Food Exposed, check me out on emPOWERme.tv and until next
week remember make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we look at the
story behind what’s on your plate. I’m your host, Jackie Keller and
welcome to Food Exposed. Today we’re going to talk about how to look
fit and fabulous at 40, 50 or beyond. Let’s face it. We all get there
and it’s a fact of life. So, you don’t need to let your body give away
your age. In fact, according to Dr. Oz, your lifestyle and what you eat
and how you live controls somewhere between 70% and 80% of how well you
age and how you look, at any age. That’s great news for people who are
proactive.
So, what are the best foods to control that aging process? Well to
start off with, you want foods that have anti-inflammatory properties.
These are foods that slow the aging of your blood vessels like salmon,
walnuts, flax seed, other healthful nuts like almonds and these are
things that will reduce your memory loss, will reduce the constriction
of your blood vessels. You also want foods that enhance your immune
system, that slow the deterioration of your immune system and some of
those foods are berries, orange juice, lentils, tomatoes and kale.
There’s a whole host of foods that have very high antioxidant
properties that help with that. And finally, you want foods that
counteract environmental factors that influence aging. So, foods that
are organic, foods that are non-GMO, foods that are sustainable or
locally grown that don’t use any herbicides, pesticides, fungicides;
our own farm at NutriFit, which is on the central coast of California
is a sustainably grown farm and we use organic farming methods. Those
are the kind of things you want to look for in your food supply.
Remember, if you eat smart you can have your best body at 40, 50, maybe
even 60 or 70.
My guest today is IFPB fitness professional and mother of three, Nita
Marquez. Her passion for fitness is expressed in her branded
motivational mantra “Be Phenomenal! You are worth the work!” After a 10
year career as a top five national fitness competitor with the NPC,
Nita won the fitness nationals to earn her professional status in 2008,
which led to the release of her book Fit for Combat. Nita Marquez,
welcome to Food Exposed.
Nita Marquez: Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to see
you again.
Jackie: It’s nice to see you and you look not only fit but fabulous.
Nita: Thank you so much.
Jackie: I know you have some tips for all of our listeners. They’re
very interested in knowing how to get to look their best. I mean, we
can’t all look like Nita but we would all like to look fabulous.
Nita: Well, thank you. First of all let me just preface the conversation
with a thank you for all the kind accolades but honestly I grew up with
a weight problem. They called me Low Fat when I was growing up because
I’m only four-eleven, just under five feet and I was overweight and
because I was short and chubby, kids made fun of me and kids are cruel.
Jackie: Aw. You were bullied.
Nita: Yeah, I was.
Jackie: Oh my goodness.
Nita: Yes, I was. And as I got older, when I met my husband we had our
first baby and I had distinctly remembered Charlene Tilton on the cover
of Sports Illustrated when I was 15 years old and she was talking about
how she had just had her baby and she had the best body ever, after her
birth and I thought if I ever have kids I’m going to remember this. So
I really started investigating, at that point in my life, what it would
take not only to stay in shape not only for myself but also to have a
really healthy pregnancy. I was really fortunate that I gained a lot of
weight but I was able to drop it relatively quickly and as I’ve aged
and as I’ve had more children-I’ve had three, as you’ve mentioned-I’ve
just been very fortunate that conditioning my body over the years just
with-pardon the pun-baby steps toward healthy eating, toward working
out and then getting into competitive fitness, it’s been really helpful
for the aging process for me. I’ve enjoyed aging. I mean honestly, when
I was in my mid-thirties I couldn’t wait to reach 40 because…
Jackie: Oh my goodness.
Nita: I was excited about that number.
Jackie: Bless you, my dear.
Nita: Thank you. Thank you. I have just loved every second of it. 40 is
such a wonderful age because you really, as you know, it’s just like
this age of self-commanding and you discover so much of who you are and
you’re so much more aware, so much more in control of your own behavior
patterns because you’re more aware of them and you can stifle certain
things that are maybe not good for you. That goes along with craving
certain foods. I don’t have the same cravings I used to and not only do
I not have the same cravings but when I do have a craving for something
I know when to stop. I know that it’s okay once in awhile to cheat as
we call it but it’s really important to just be free spirited and
understand that nutrition is not something that’s just good for your
body, it’s good for your soul and to listen to your body and honor your
soul and say “Hey, I’ve had plenty, I feel good” and stay energetic and
stay smiling. I have a number of tips that would help you physically
stay in great shape with these physical choices but the number one
thing beyond the five tips that you asked for me to share today, the
number one thing I say is just staying in joy. If you have peace of
mind that is the number one way to anti-age. It really, really is.
Jackie: That’s important.
Nita: You have to smile a lot.
Jackie: You know I work with a lot of women who really have sort of a
love/hate relationship with food. They really battle their bodies. You
talk about loving yourself and having a mature, sort of sophisticated
relationship on a higher level with your body and respecting it and
understanding where you fit into the universe with your body but there
are a lot of women out there and men too who struggle with making peace
with their body. So I wanted to ask you, how do you keep your body the
way it is and not fall into that “Well, I’m over 40 now,” or “I just
hit 40, now all of a sudden things are starting to fall apart.” Is it
really inevitable or can you find a way to sort of make peace with it
and still look so fabulous?
Nita: Well, personally I subscribe to the theory that you really have to
love your own league because we’re all in a league of our own, every
one of us. Not one person is like everybody else or any other person in
their “category,” even physically. You know we all have different DNA,
we have different bone structures and where we might be parallel to one
person we’re still different in another area. So it’s about accepting
your body and saying “Hey, I’m in a league of my own,” and just that
self-acceptance has really helped me. Because for as tiny as I am,
under five feet, at four-eleven my height, being tiny it’s always been
really a struggle to keep my weight down and when I would gain five
pounds it would look like 15 on me.
I think a lot of it comes with that self-acceptance of “Hey, I’m in a
league of my own.” It’s really perspective. It’s not about, oh there’s
nobody else like me, nothing fits. I’m in a league of my own and that’s
what I’ve come to grips of my body type with is that there’s nobody
else like me. I’ve got to do what’s going to work for me specifically.
Jackie: Okay.
Nita: Of course there are rules of thumb that you could follow, but yeah.
Jackie: Well, share some of those with us.
Nita: Well, first of all I think it’s really, really important to do
something that’s going to help you practice proper breathing because
what happens is you get this great chemical activity going on in your
brain that helps you relax, which is great for your cells. It helps
anti-age the cells, so any discipline that teaches you proper form and
technique in breathing alone, like yoga or pilates is fantastic.
Meditating is fantastic but in addition to that it also helps you
posture your body. You learn how to use your core to reinforce your
back. A lot of people started experiencing back problems, so you’ll
reinforce your back muscles by using your core more and putting more
impact there and strengthening those muscles, which helps keeps your
bones in order and in the right lines.
When you’re doing that, that leads me into my second tip, that will
help you have proper form and technique with weight training. Now if
you haven’t by the age of 40 been weight training, I highly recommend
that anybody go and really do intense research on a physical trainer
who does weight training who matches not only a great experience level,
not somebody that just got their internet certification in two hours,
but a real, qualified expert in weight training…
Jackie: That makes sense.
Nita: …who can help you learn to use your muscles effectively for
developing and sculpting your body. I think that that’s been really
helpful for me. The weight training, it gives me a sense of power and
strength and there’s like some kind of mental control that goes in that
space and it really helps me feel good about myself. When I walk out of
the gym and I’ve been consistent and I’ve really burned those muscles,
it feels great and you get that endorphin rush just like you do with
cardio or with yoga or pilates. The third thing that I really recommend
to people is really starting to investigate the idea that your body is
not producing what it once did. As we age, inevitably we…
Jackie: That’s so true.
Nita: …yeah, we…
Jackie: We change.
Nita: Yeah, we change our cellular activity. Our hormones change. Our
cellular activity drops somewhat. In certain areas of your body you’re
just not able to do as much so the only way to really start
regenerating some of that is through supplementation. I really
recommend doing your research. Your company is great with educating
people on proper nutrition. In addition to that, where people find that
they are lacking on what they’re taking in on a daily basis in terms of
nutrients and minerals, it’s really important to look into supplements
that are going to help-like you said-with vitamin C is great for your
cells. All the major vitamins and minerals that you would get from all
your greens and your proper foods; if you’re not taking those and in
terms of your nutrition, get the proper supplementation, also glutamine
which is an amino acid that your body produces for recovery. Your body
can’t possibly keep up with the manufacturing of that as you age and
then on top of it, if you’re working out, in addition, you need
probably an additional five to 10 grams a day of glutamine, minimum
just to keep yourself in recovery mode so that you’re helping your
muscles not to stay sore for quite as long, they’re recovering
properly. So your amino acids, your vitamins and minerals, so
supplementation, I think is very important.
Jackie: You know, that’s one thing that I wanted to ask you about, with
respect to body building in general. And I know in your sport there is
a lot of controversy about supplementation. There’s a lot of men in
your sport, we usually hear about men in the sport really heavily
relying on supplements and artificial muscle enhancement techniques.
What did you find as a woman in that sport and is it prevalent?
Nita: It is. It’s very prevalent in my industry to use not just over-the-
counter supplements but of course-like you said-you’re talking about
steroids. There are a number of fat burners. Ephedra has been now
deemed…
Jackie: Unsafe.
Nita: Unsafe, right. I have very, I guess you would say positive reviews on
any of that. I think that if you’re using supplements like that; a.,
you should be going to a doctor, and there are a number of anti-aging
clinics all over the country, especially here in southern California.
There are anti-aging clinics that recommend different supplements that
are consider anabolic. There’s HGH. There are things that can help your
body speed up its metabolism. You know ironically as you age, some of
those things are actually really quite healthy for you but I don’t
recommend going the street route and getting drugs from your local
steroid dealer at the gym. These anti-aging clinics, they’re there to
help you keep your body healthy, not morphed into some big, crazy, out
of order freak of nature. You know what I mean?
Jackie: Of course; and you know we know with good nutrition and with
the work I do at NutriFit with helping people just through being
natural and available to everybody foods and beverages that we can all
find and drink it’s possible to have an extremely healthy, longevity
promoting, anti-aging diet.
Nita: I agree.
Jackie: So, I thought that’s what I thought we would do in terms of
showing our audience today some of the healthiest and easiest ways to
put together some simple, great, delicious foods that they can make at
home.
Nita: I think that’s absolutely the number one method. If you have access
to proper nutrition and you can get, like I said, the supplements that
provide you with the minerals and vitamins that you need, that’s the
number one way to keep your body healthy for, like you said, for the
purposes of longevity. Within my industry there are a number of vain
reasons to do all of those other things. I only recommend that you ever
evaluate any of those things in the appropriate circumstances and with
doctor support. I really think that’s important.
Jackie: Well, let’s make some deliciously healthy, nutritious food and
join me at the table.
Nita: Ah.
Jackie: Well I’m delighted to have the opportunity to share a very,
very easy recipe that features some of nature’s best, healthiest, most
nutritious foods and it’s so easy, so simple that I know that you can
make, anybody can make this at home. And Nita, I know lentils are a
particular favorite of yours so I think you’re going to love this
little lentil vegetable salad that we’re going to make here today. It’s
very simple and there are just a few key ingredients that I want to
point out. One is of course extra virgin olive oil.
Nita: Yes.
Jackie: We know that these highly monounsaturated, healthy fats are
some of the best fats for you. They’re very anti-aging and we want a
lot of these fats in our diet. So whenever we make a dressing, we try
to feature extra virgin olive oil if the flavor lends itself to it. And
in this particular case, we’re going to just pour a little bit of this
extra virgin olive oil into a bowl.
Nita: Now, is that about two tablespoons for one serving?
Jackie: More or less. It’s going to be a little less than that for one
serving, but I think for the volume we’re preparing today it’s about
right, which is going to be about two servings of this salad, depending
on whether you’re having it as a snack, which would work or an entree,
which would make life a lot easier.
Nita: Well I don’t like cooking so this is right up my alley.
Jackie: Well, watch how easy this is. A little bit of vinegar to
balance out the olive oil; now traditionally, and this is a fig-infused
vinegar, it’s just one of those kind of unique flavors that adds a
little bit of sweetness, naturally of course, no sugar. It’s a vinegar,
but it will balance out the olive oil and also a little bit of Dijon
mustard, which just adds a kick to the dressing. So, whisking all those
three things together very quickly…
Nita: I like a little kick in my meals.
Jackie: Yeah. Well, you’re Latin, right?
Nita: Yeah, so we like it spicy.
Jackie: You like it spicy.
Nita: I like my food like I like my men.
Jackie: Okay, well this is going to work in your world, then. And then
some of our salt and sugar free seasoning, this is our lemon garden
blend, which we think goes really nicely with this dish as well. So,
once you have your dressing done, and that’s all it is, just those four
ingredients; seasoning, oil, vinegar and mustard, we’re going to make
the salad. And basically these are cooked brown lentils. They’re the
easiest ones to cook. Twenty minutes and they’re done.
Nita: Yeah, but it literally takes like 30 seconds to prepare. You stick it
in a pan and you put the water and it’s easy. And speaking of the
spice, is that the NutriFit brand?
Jackie: It is. It is.
Nita: Okay. Because your spices, I’m telling you, I’ve been ordering a lot
of them off the site. They’re so good.
Jackie: Oh. Well, thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed them. I think they’re
great too, but you know I would because I thought of them. Some carrots
and we know carrots are very high in vitamin C. You talked about
vitamin C, how important it is for anti-aging.
Nita: Yes, it is.
Jackie: And muscle repair too, right?
Nita: Yes.
Jackie: That’s really important. Some celery for crunch and also to add
volume and fiber to the recipe; we like to put in just vegetables that
have good texture and good color. So we have some brown, some orange,
some green and some purple onions.
Nita: And the other thing with celery is that it’s actually a natural
diuretic; so when we’re having that time, women, when there’s a little
extra water the celery is good.
Jackie: It is, it is. It’s good. It helps squeeze a little moisture out
and then with those onions I always like to make sure there’s plenty of
parsley because that helps to clean the breath, it helps to digest, and
of course parsley is very high in vitamin C, right?
Nita: Yes.
Jackie: So some people think it’s just for decoration but you and I
know it’s good.
Nita: It’s good stuff.
Jackie: It’s good stuff. So, once you have your salad ingredients you
just pour the dressing over it and then we can toss it together. And
the other thing I like about this salad is that you can make it ahead
of time. And I know you have three kids, right?
Nita: Yes.
Jackie: That must put a tremendous…
Nita: We have to prepare food.
Jackie: Pressure on your time, right?
Nita: Yes.
Jackie: Now do they, are they lunchbox age? Do they take school
lunches? What do you do with that?
Nita: We have always done lunches ironically because my son had his
pancreas removed at birth. He is diabetic.
Jackie: Oh my goodness.
Nita: And so our meals are really scaled to fit lower carbohydrates, lower
glycemic carbs, higher fiber, higher protein and also he’s lactose
intolerant and so is my middle daughter. And so we stay away from very
much dairy. If we do any dairy it’s generally goat’s milk or goat’s
cheese and then we just do as much vegetables as possible. And my son
loves vegetables and he loves lentils
Jackie: This is right down your alley.
Nita: Yes, it is. It is.
Jackie: Well, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen these before, but I
found these amazing leaves. These are actually Brussels sprouts leaves.
Nita: What?
Jackie: Yeah. I know. Isn’t that outrageous? They’re just gorgeous and
they’re actually a new vegetable product that my guy found for me.
Nita: For NutriFit. That’s great.
Jackie: And they’re called Brussels sprouts leaves and I just think
they’re gorgeous and make such a pretty thing. And you know the other
thing I discovered about them is that they’re sweet as opposed to the
Brussels sprout which is kind of an astringent taste. It’s not for
everybody. Some people are very, it can be pretty polarizing. But these
are more in the cabbage family-well Brussels sprouts are in the cabbage
family, but these are milder, sweeter and I just love the awesome
color.
Nita: It kind of like is with the bell peppers. The green ones have a
little kick but the red, yellow and orange are really sweet so this
would be along the same line.
Jackie: I think so. I think so, but there you go. It’s just that simple
and…
Nita: That’s easy.
Jackie: of course that’s a large single portion or maybe enough for two
small lunches. And, you want to give it a quick taste?
Nita: Yeah. I was wondering if I was going to get to do that. I want to
chew on camera. I don’t want to make anybody have camera envy here.
Jackie: What do you think?
Nita: Hmm. I can’t talk. I want to go eat.
Jackie: Great. Well thank you so much for joining me and for sharing
the recipe. You know, I know that my audience would love to know how to
find out more about you, how to stay current with what’s new in Nita’s
world. Tell us how to find you.
Nita: Well, speaking of Nita’s world, that’s my website. It’s
www.nitasworld.com minus the parsley that’s in my mouth. That’s my
website. You can find out more about nutrition and my recommendations
regarding that on my blog. I do actually endorse Nitrify. I love their
products, I love their foods; the spices, if you like really tasty
food, which I do, but you don’t like cooking, those spices will give
anything life and just a wonderfully savory flavor.
Jackie: Oh, thank you. And what’s next for you, Nita? What’s on the
horizon?
Nita: Well, I have a few things. I’m still at this point just waiting to
launch my next two books, which are catered to women specifically.
Jackie: That’s fabulous.
Nita: And one of them is for novice workout enthusiasts and maybe stay-at-
home moms or new moms and the second book is for intermediate fitness
enthusiasts who are really avid with the gym but maybe need some new
steps to really step it up.
Jackie: Fantastic.
Nita: So I’ve got that coming out soon and then on top of that I’m going to
be competing in fitness again this year after three years.
Jackie: Wow. That’s wonderful. What an inspiration.
Nita: Yeah, I haven’t done it in a while so I’m excited.
Jackie: Well, thank you so much for joining me. Good luck on
everything.
Nita: Thank you.
Jackie: We’ll stay connected and I appreciate your being here today.
Nita: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Jackie: Welcome to the last bite. This is the moment in the show when I
share with you a little helpful tip about how to make your life more
positive, happier and healthier. And today I’d like to share a little
tip with you about being mindful. And mindfulness is difficult in
today’s society. It really means being present in the moment, being
aware of your body, being aware of where you are emotionally, really
being in tune with yourself and living in the moment. So how do we do
that with all of the distractions that are out there, with all the
things that can sort of pull us in so many different directions and
send us so many different signals? We’re constantly bombarded by
stimulus. How do we just quiet the mind and bring it all to a sane
place? Well, there’s a simple system. It’s not mine originally. I’m not
sure who designed it, but I’ve customized the simple system that I like
to call HALTS. And it stands for H-A-L-T-S. H is for Hungry. Now
sometimes we don’t realize that we’re as hungry as we are and we
mistake other things for hunger or we mistake hunger for other things
so the first tip is to really sit with you and say “Am I really hungry?
Am I just eating out of anger; sometimes we’re frustrated, we’re angry,
we don’t realize it, but we reach for food. So it’s either hunger or
anger. The L, lonely; you know in today’s world we are again, a lot of
electronic communication, a lot of lack of human connectedness, L is
for lonely. Am I lonely? Is that what’s really going on here, and if
I’m lonely, what should I be doing? Should I really be eating? Should I
maybe reach out and call somebody, touch a friend, hug a dog, cuddle
with your kids, pick up the phone and call somebody that you haven’t
talked to in a long time. Sometimes it’s just that we’re lonely. And
other times it’s just that we’re T, which is tired. In the end it isn’t
that we’re hungry, it isn’t that we’re lonely, it’s that we’re just so
darn tired. So instead of reaching for food, instead of reaching for
wine, instead of reaching for coffee, maybe what we really need to do
is just allow our body to relax, take a quick nap. There’s a lot of
research that shows that power napping is really good for you. It
really energizes you. It helps you sharpen the saw just like exercise
does. It kind of cleans out the cobwebs and refreshes you. So if it is
that you are tired, that’s another thing to do instead of eating.
And finally, S for stress; you know, sometimes it’s nothing but the
over, kind of low level of anxiety that we feel that we recognize in
our body as stress and we are biologically designed to deal with our
stress by doing something physical, not by eating, not by sleeping, not
by hibernating but by getting out and being physical. Our physiology is
geared to it, so if it is Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, Fatigue or Stress,
being tired or being stressed, think about that HALTS system and the
next time you’re feeling really agitated, calm yourself down, take a
step back and ask yourself: what is going on with my body, and become
mindful. Be present in the moment. That’s a great way to increase your
happiness, to make your life a little smoother, a little healthier, a
little happier, and to help yourself look and feel as fabulous as you
are. That’s my tip for today. Thank you so much for joining me on Food
Exposed. Share this show with your friends, your family, your
associates, and don’t forget to tune in next week. For more Food
Exposed, check me out on EmpowerMe.TV and until next week remember,
make food your best friend and exercise your companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed where each week we look at the
story behind what’s on your plate. I’m your host, Jackie Keller, and
today we’re talking about sports. You know, over the past 26 years
heading Los Angeles leading healthy company NutriFit, I’ve had the
privilege of working with professional athletes, both men and women,
in all kinds of sports. Athletes like Ryan Miller, the ice hockey
player; Brian Goodell, the Olympic swimmer; horse racing jockey Aaron
Gryder; boxing heavyweight former champion Fernando Vargas; baseball
star Kevin Tolan; and Olympic speed skater Michael Hubbs. Each of
their needs has varied greatly as their sports do. It’s a complicated
situation, and everybody’s needs are slightly different. So, today I’d
like to talk about some of the leading tips that sports nutritionists
like Nancy Clark tell us that are really the key to how to train
effectively and fuel yourself for sports.
One of Nancy’s first tips is to make sure that you have a carbohydrate
rich breakfast, adequate protein, adequate carbohydrates, enough to
fuel your sport. She also suggests that you keep your pre- and post-
workout snacks wholesome and balanced. Athletes generally need
carbohydrates at each meal, but you also have to make sure you get
enough rest and enough sleep – which is oftentimes a problem. Spread
your calories throughout the day. Make sure that all food groups are
adequately represented in each of your meals. And, drink water
constantly. Hydration is a major issue with all of us but particularly
for professional athletes who lose so much water through evaporative
sweat. Following these guidelines will help you get the most out of
your workout and speed you towards your performance goals. My guest
today is Maggie Vessey. Maggie is a NCAA all time All American runner.
She’s competed twice in the world championships, winning the women’s
800 meter event in a time of under two minutes – 1 minute 57 seconds
for 800 meters. She is one of the fastest women in the world quite
literally and is sponsored by Team New Balance. She’s ranked among the
top 20 fastest women in the world and among the top 5 fastest United
States runners. Maggie, welcome to Food Exposed.
Maggie Vessey: Thank you so much for having me.
Jackie Keller: Well, thank you so much for joining me. I know everybody
is so curious about understanding basically what makes Maggie run.
Tell us about it.
Maggie Vessey: Well, I’ve always been very naturally athletic. It was
obvious from a very young age that that was one of the gifts that I
had been given. I tried many different sports. I tried Little League
and soccer. Just the underlying factor in all of those was that I was
a really fast runner. So, while I wasn’t necessarily like the best
with ball handling skills in soccer or the best at hitting a baseball
in baseball…
Jackie Keller: I’m sure you’re probably downplaying those skills, too.
Maggie Vessey: Well, I could get to the ball faster than anybody, or if I
got on base I could steal bases. But, you know, the key skills that
you need to have in those sports were not very… I wasn’t naturally
inclined to those. So, my mom had me go out for track and field. I
wasn’t really interested in it at first, which is kind of funny
because now I do it professionally. But, I just started winning races
and I really liked winning. So, I kept up with it.
Jackie Keller: Well, I guess… Now, how many years have you been running
professionally?
Maggie Vessey: I’ve been running professionally since about 2009.
Jackie Keller: Okay, okay. I’m curious, because I know there’s a lot of
myth about whether exercise makes you hungrier or less hungry. Are you
hungrier after you train?
Maggie Vessey: I would say definitely I do feel hunger pangs after
training. Some of the sessions are particularly grueling. I think one
of the most important things is to not let yourself get hungry,
though. I feel like anybody in my family or any of my peers would tell
you that if I get hungry it’s a little bit nasty. I think while I do
feel like I’m hungrier after training, one of the most important
things to do is to immediately start recovering all the things that
you’ve depleted during a session. That’s one of the things that I try
to focus on.
Jackie Keller: Do you find that Nancy Clark’s tips, the ones about pre-
and post-snacks and the ones about maintaining your calories
throughout the day, have helped you at all?
Maggie Vessey: Definitely. You know, before I work out… I would never
go into work out without putting something in my stomach first. I
always have a really hard time with the thought of your body eating
itself, that idea of, like, inner cannibalism. So, I always try to
have something with a little bit of carb, a little bit of protein, and
definitely I’m hydrating before I go into work out. There’s something
with athletes that’s important. It’s timing. I would never have
something like that and then wait, like, five minutes and then go out,
because it might end up on the track again in a different form. I just
try to give myself maybe 45 minutes before I start training.
Definitely afterwards you’ve depleted so much energy stored, depending
on the climate that you’re in… I did a lot of training in Texas, and
at that point we’d actually salt our water and things like that.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Maggie Vessey: Because you sweat so much.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Maggie Vessey: You do have to be really in tune with what you’re asking
your body to do and then replacing it with the necessary ingredients
afterwards.
Jackie Keller: Do you have to watch your weight?
Maggie Vessey: Unfortunately.
Jackie Keller: Do you have to be careful? Is it hard to maintain your
weight even with all that energy expenditure?
Maggie Vessey: I think one of the hardest things to face was it’s not
just all about exercising. I’m somebody that definitely would like to
have it just all be about exercising, then I can eat whatever I want.
But, I definitely came to the realization that you actually can
control your weight a lot more through diet than you can with
exercise…
Jackie Keller: Sure.
Maggie Vessey: If you had to choose…
Jackie Keller: That’s so very true.
Maggie Vessey: …between one you would probably… I mean you want your
body to be very balanced and harmonious, and you want to exercise and
be mindful of your diet. But, if it came down to it and you had to
make a choice in weight control I think it would be diet first.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Maggie Vessey: So, yeah, I definitely have to worry about that.
Jackie Keller: But what about when you’re not training? What do you like
to eat when you’re not training? Do you just go out and splurge? Do
you have fun? Do you toss down a glass of wine or two?
Maggie Vessey: Right. I definitely will allow myself some of those no-no
foods that I think we’re all very familiar with. I am particularly
partial to pizza.
Jackie Keller: Oh my.
Maggie Vessey: But, I think one of the things that you start learning
about your body is that even eating those unhealthy foods, while they
might taste good, the way that you feel afterwards it’s not really
worth it. I might after a season allow myself some of those no-no
foods, but then it’s pretty apparent quite quickly that I just don’t
like the way that it makes me feel.
Jackie Keller: Okay. So, you end up sort of self-regulating as a result.
Maggie Vessey: Right. But I will, I mean I definitely am a girl that
likes a glass of red wine every now and again. It’s just with
anything, moderation.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Maggie Vessey: Keeping yourself in check.
Jackie Keller: Right, right. What tips do you have for people? You’re a
professional athlete. You’ve kind of won the battle essentially. I
mean you’re still out there winning every race. But, you’ve won the
battle of trying to find that balance for yourself and trying to find
harmony between exercise and eating. What tips do you have for people
like me who are trying to lean out, maintain their weight, but still
maintain muscle mass?
Maggie Vessey: Right. I think you kind of have to play a little part with
science and then a little part with just how you are in your life. I’m
somebody who… If you have this at your availability to be able to go
do some blood testing and just kind of see where your body is at, see
what’s going on in there, and see if any needs are addressed…
Because sometimes if you are having trouble fighting a little bit of a
weight issue it can be something that’s going on with your body that’s
not facilitating that. I think knowing what’s going on in your body
first is really important. Then, after that I just think striking a
balance is very important. You’re not going to do anything that you
don’t like doing. You’re not going to want it. For a while you might
be able to get away with eating things that you don’t like if you’re
seeing results in your body. But, if you’re not liking the way that
you’re feeling I think you’re probably going to stop doing that.
So, my advice would be just to listen to your body and definitely have
a very vegetable rich diet. That’s something that I’ve incorporated
into mine. You definitely see just your body taking on like a
healthier cycle in things. It definitely helps you lose weight as
well, just being in tune with yourself and allowing yourself to be
happy and healthy. I think that once you start seeing results and
feeling better you’re going to be naturally inclined…
Jackie Keller: Right.
Maggie Vessey: To keep up with it.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, success breeds success, right.
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: Well, I know that post-recovery meals are extremely
important in an athlete’s diet, and making sure that you refuel
quickly after you’ve had a training session with the proper nutrition
so that, as you say, your body doesn’t eat itself, you’re not
cannibalizing all that lean muscle tissue that you’re building, is
extremely important. I thought today we might share one I know was one
of your favorite meals when you were with us as a client, the pasta
with turkey meatballs.
Maggie Vessey: I do love that one.
Jackie Keller: All right, let’s go make it.
Maggie Vessey: All right.
Jackie Keller: You know, today we’re making one of my favorite post-
recovery meals. It’s actually one of my favorite meals of all time.
Maggie Vessey: It’s a good one.
Jackie Keller: Who doesn’t love pasta, right?
Maggie Vessey: I couldn’t find anybody that didn’t like it.
Jackie Keller: There are so many varieties of pasta out there. For those
of you who are trying to follow a gluten free diet right now or
looking for alternatives to wheat, please know that this recipe is
quick. It’s easy. It can be made with virtually any type of pasta.
But, instead of going into the meat realm with respect to ground beef,
what we’re using today is ground turkey. Because it’s a leaner meat,
it has less cholesterol, less fat naturally – although you have to
watch the level of fat even in your ground turkey.
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: Because there are fattier ones than others. What I really
like best about it is that it’s simple and quick. I know from our work
together…
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: That getting food in quickly that is easy to digest, not
heavy, not hard on the stomach, not hard on the body, is really
important, right?
Maggie Vessey: Very important.
Jackie Keller: So, I thought we would show people sort of the key
ingredients of what’s in this pasta with turkey meatballs dish. First
of all, 100% whole wheat pasta; again, you could use rice pasta. You
could use something made from corn. It doesn’t have to be wheat. If
you’re looking for gluten free pasta there are shelves and shelves of
them now that you can find. But, today we’re doing a whole wheat
pasta. We’re using a homemade marinara sauce. You can buy marinara
sauces. There are dozens of them out on the market. But, make sure if
you’re buying something that you haven’t made yourself that it’s low
in sodium. Because although you mentioned sodium being an issue for
athletes because of your sweat loss…
Maggie Vessey: Right, depending on where you’re training.
Jackie Keller: Right. You still have to be mindful of not having too
much, I would guess.
Maggie Vessey: Right, right.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, because too much salt, you hold in your water.
Maggie Vessey: The water retention.
Jackie Keller: That must be hard on an athlete not to be able to sweat
and pour it off.
Maggie Vessey: Right. It’s all such a delicate balance.
Jackie Keller: It is. Well, I’ve made the meatballs ahead of time.
Maggie Vessey: Tasty.
Jackie Keller: You can make these ahead of time just like I did and
freeze them beautifully so that if, for example, you had a mind to
have barbecued meatballs instead of marinara meatballs you could do
that. Or, you could have meatballs with any kind of sauce that you had
a fancy for – sweet and sour, barbecue, there’s all kinds of ways you
can do that. Let’s heat up this pasta with turkey meatball dish. A
little bit of extra virgin olive oil into the skillet. Then, we’ll put
in our meatballs and let them get brown. Step back, because we don’t
want to… There we go. Again, the beauty of having pre-made the
meatballs is that if you get back from a run or a training session…
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: And you really just want to get some protein and good
quality carbs into your system… And, I think the rule is within
about two hours…
Maggie Vessey: A half an hour I would say.
Jackie Keller: A half an hour.
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: Yeah. So, you want to have the stuff ready to go.
Maggie Vessey: You really do.
Jackie Keller: Then, add some of your sauce. In this case we’re doing
this marinara which is just a lovely…
Maggie Vessey: Yum.
Jackie Keller: …low sodium marinara. And, I even pre-cooked my pasta. I
like to do this ahead of time, because when I get home I’m not
training like you.
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: But, I don’t want to wait for the water to boil.
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: I mean isn’t that the most frustrating thing?
Maggie Vessey: Right. Then, you find yourself eating between when you’re
going to eat just to stave off some hunger. That’s really smart.
Jackie Keller: So, if we pre-cook the pasta and then wash it really well
the starch on the outside of the pasta is washed off and the pasta can
sit in a food safe container in your refrigerator for a day or two.
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: Do you ever snack on pasta at all?
Maggie Vessey: I don’t usually. I have tried to do vegetables and fruit.
Jackie Keller: Good girl.
Maggie Vessey: If it was around handy I probably would eat some of it
though.
Jackie Keller: Yeah. Then, we’re just going to heat this up. Literally,
that’s all it takes. I mean if you have some fresh basil to put in
there that would be great and add a little bit more flavor to it.
These meatballs were made with one of my salt- and sugar-free spices,
one of the blends that I’ve designed that help make food taste tasty
without adding salt, without adding sugar, without adding any fillers.
It does give a lot of flavor. Just like that. Now, obviously, what’s
missing here?
Maggie Vessey: Garlic?
Jackie Keller: The vegetable.
Maggie Vessey: Oh. I cook with so much garlic.
Jackie Keller: You know, garlic is great for you, too.
Maggie Vessey: It really is. I kind of overdo it, though. You can overdo
garlic.
Jackie Keller: And what happens when you overdo it?
Maggie Vessey: You get a little bit of a funky tummy…
Jackie Keller: Yeah, yeah.
Maggie Vessey: But I really like it.
Jackie Keller: You know what cures that funky tummy?
Maggie Vessey: What? Please tell me.
Jackie Keller: Something else that would make this dish green, which I
don’t have here today. But, I would add a lot of parsley to your…
Maggie Vessey: Oh, I have a lot of parsley.
Jackie Keller: …very garlicky things.
Maggie Vessey: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Because parsley is not only great for your breath, which
is a natural breath freshener…
Maggie Vessey: Oh, good, that’ll fight my garlic breath.
Jackie Keller: Which is always good to know. Yeah, it will. Really,
truly, I mean after a heavy garlic meal just eat a plate of parsley.
Maggie Vessey: Okay.
Jackie Keller: The other reason is that it is a good digestive aid.
Maggie Vessey: Oh, perfect.
Jackie Keller: You could easily kind of kill two birds with one stone –
take care of the garlic breath, take care of the funky tummy.
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: And, still have your garlic and enjoy it, too. It is
that…
Maggie Vessey: But you are going to add a vegetable in there.
Jackie Keller: Yeah. You would want to add a vegetable in here. You’d
want to have some broccoli maybe. Or, what are some of your favorites,
Maggie?
Maggie Vessey: Some of my favorite vegetables… I always do bell
peppers, a ton of bell peppers. I really like asparagus. I really like
broccoli. Broccoli, I think, would probably go best with this, though.
Jackie Keller: Right, right.
Maggie Vessey: Yeah, definitely.
Jackie Keller: And the bell peppers, too.
Maggie Vessey: Right.
Jackie Keller: A lot of Italian dishes have bell peppers.
Maggie Vessey: I’d probably throw some cayenne flakes in there, too. I
like a little spicy.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, hot and spicy.
Maggie Vessey: I know.
Jackie Keller: She’s fast, hot, and spicy. Okay, guys, that’s it. All
right, are you ready to taste? Do you remember?
Maggie Vessey: Yes, I am so ready.
Jackie Keller: When was the last time you trained?
Maggie Vessey: I trained this morning.
Jackie Keller: This morning, all right. I knew that.
Maggie Vessey: This morning, right.
Jackie Keller: I knew that answer. And, you probably had already a little
post-recovery meal.
Maggie Vessey: Of course I did.
Jackie Keller: Good girl, good girl. Well, there you go, Maggie.
Maggie Vessey: Thank you so much. All right.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Maggie Vessey: Let’s get some meatball.
Jackie Keller: Just a little meatball and…
Maggie Vessey: A little bit of pasta.
Jackie Keller: A tiny bit of pasta. I know you’re careful.
Maggie Vessey: How hot is this going to be?
Jackie Keller: Good?
Maggie Vessey: It’s so good.
Jackie Keller: Oh, good, good.
Maggie Vessey: It’s so good. Thank you.
Jackie Keller: You’re welcome, and thank you so much for coming today.
Maggie Vessey: Thank you so much for having me.
Jackie Keller: You know, I know everybody wants to know when is your next
race.
Maggie Vessey: Okay.
Jackie Keller: And how can they find you.
Maggie Vessey: My next race is February 1 in North Carolina. And, I have
a website, maggievessey.com. I also can be found at newbalance.com.
And, of course, I am participating in all of the social media outlets.
You can follow me #maggievessey, maggievessey on Instagram, all that
good stuff.
Jackie Keller: Great. Well, thank you again for being with us. It’s been
a delight.
Maggie Vessey: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: Good luck at your next race.
Maggie Vessey: Thank you so much.
Jackie Keller: Again, February 1, right?
Maggie Vessey: February 1, coming up.
Jackie Keller: All right. We’ll be watching you run.
Maggie Vessey: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: And, I couldn’t be more delighted to have had you with me
today.
Maggie Vessey: I am really happy that I could be here. Thank you for
having me.
Jackie Keller: I have a little story to share with you here to conclude
our show today. It’s an old parable which I still find very relevant,
and I think you will, too. It goes something like this. One evening an
old Cherokee was speaking to his grandson about the battle that goes
on inside of people. He talked about an evil wolf and a good wolf.
They both live inside us. The evil wolf is filled with anger, filled
with envy, filled with jealousy, filled with sorrow, filled with
resentment, with lies, with false pride, with superiority and ego. The
other wolf, the good wolf, is filled with humility, with love, with
peace, with joy, with benevolence, with kindness, with truth,
compassion, and faith. As the grandfather was speaking to the grandson
the little boy sat back and he absorbed it. He said to his grandfather
well, grandfather, which wolf wins the battle. The old Cherokee looked
at his grandson, smiled, and said very simply the wolf that wins is
the wolf that you feed.
The moral of the story, of course, is to be sure to feed the
positivity in your life. By feeding the good rather than the evil, by
feeding the truth rather than the lies, by feeding the joy rather than
the sorrow, you unleash the possibilities for positivity in your life
and allow more of that to happen. If you don’t feed the evil, it
doesn’t flourish within you. Thanks for coming today. Thanks for
joining me on Food Exposed. I hope you’ll share this with your
friends, with your families, with your associates. And, I hope you’ll
follow me on jackiekeller.com.Tune in next week to empowerme.tv and
join me for Food Exposed. For more Food Exposed, check me out on
empowerme.tv. Until next week, remember, make food your best friend
and exercise your companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed. I’m your host, Jackie Keller, and
I’m here today to share some exciting information with you about super
foods. But before we get to that topic, let’s spread some news.
There’s a lot of great stories out there. The first one I want to
share with you is from JAMA. It’s a study that was published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, and it has to do with
pregnant moms and peanuts. Turns out that there’s no reason to fear
having peanuts while you’re pregnant. So if you’ve been avoiding those
peanuts which you know you love and you know are great for you because
you were concerned that you would pass an allergy onto your child,
research has now shown that by eating peanuts while you’re pregnant,
you actually help to insulate your baby against a peanut allergy. So
have that. Enjoy. They’re great for you, a super snack and good for
your baby as well.
Another good for you story coming out of Massachusetts. This one is
based on a study that was done at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
They designed a diet called the Traffic Light Diet. And that’s
relatively simple and straightforward. We all know what a traffic
signal looks like. It’s red, yellow, green . . . you know, green is
go, red, stop, yellow, slow . . . Well, what they did was, they took
the foods in the cafeteria and they color-coded them with either a
red, a yellow or a green. And for two years, they studied the buying
and eating habits of the employees in the hospital. Turns out that we
are really geared to those colors, because after two years, people
made better choices, eating more of the green foods, which are the go
foods: the fruits, the vegetables, the healthiest choices, less
of the yellow foods, the slow foods, things that you should really
think twice about eating before you do, and even less of the red
“stop, don’t eat me” foods, the highly-processed sugary, fatty,
unhealthy foods.
So good news is, if you color-code your kitchen, you will make better
choices about the foods that you eat, great study and interesting,
simple approach. And speaking of simple, the 2014 list of super foods
is out, and guess what’s at the top? One of my favorites, kale, and I
know that it’s something that we’ve been hearing a lot about this
year, last year . . . Kale is not a new food. It’s a member of the
cruciferous family, it’s one of the healthiest vegetables we know, and
today, I am going to share for you a nourishing recipe from the
NutriFit kitchen that features that wonderful super food , kale.
Here’s your nourishing recipe from the NutriFit kitchen featuring our
super food today, kale. And as we know, kale is just one of many
vegetables that have some fabulous health properties. But this is a
real superstar. First of all, kale is easy to grow. And I’m for
everything that’s easy to grow, because even house plants are not easy
for me. But you can grow kale in a little earth friendly pot. You can
grow kale in the ground.
There’s lots of different varieties, but it just needs good sun, lots
of water, good soil and you can produce your own kale. But if you’re
going to buy it, this is what you’re looking for. These dark, curly
leaves . . . and kale comes in different colors. It comes in dark
green, it comes in red, it comes in red, there’s blue kale now, a
Tuscan blue kale . . . Basically, they all have these very curly
leaves, and yes, this is what they put on the hamburger plates
underneath the slice of tomato and onion. If it looks like a garnish,
it’s because it’s often used that way. But it is so edible and so good
for you, and the best thing about it? Inexpensive and easy to make. So
what do you look for when you’re buying kale in the market? First,
this good texture. The leaves should have a little crunch to them.
They shouldn’t be wilted. They shouldn’t be yellow. That’s not one of
the colors of kale that nature made. That’s an old bunch of kale. So
you’re going to look for kale that is crisp and brightly colored.
And be aware that as it is with all of the dark, leafy greens, when
you’re cooking with kale, it’s going to shrink quite a bit. So you’re
going to start with what you think is more than you need to end up
with just the right amount. You chop the kale pretty finely. Kale does
take a little while to cook, so the smaller you make the leaves, the
faster it’s going to cook. And wash it really, really, really well,
because there is soil that gets in those little crinkly parts of the
leaves and you want to make sure you get everything out that doesn’t
look like kale, because trust me, if it looks like dirt, it is dirt.
So wash it, rinse it, and when you’re ready to go, you’re going to
heat a pan over medium to high heat. When the pan is hot and you can
feel the heat coming off of it, you’re going to add in a little bit of
extra virgin olive oil. Now it doesn’t matter whose brand of extra
virgin olive oil you use. We know that as long as it’s called “extra
virgin”, it’s going to be superior quality because the Italian
classification system for olive oil was based on “extras” and
“virgins”.
Who knew that the Italians would put more “extras” and “virgins” in
the title to indicate a purer product? Makes sense? Yes. So extra is
more pure that just regular olive oil, and virgin is better than light
olive oil. And by the way, speaking of light olive oil, it’s not light
in fat. It’s not light in calories, it’s not light in flavor, and it’s
certainly not light in price. So if you’re going to invest in an olive
oil, invest in one that says “extra virgin.” Put a drop of it in your
pan. You don’t need much. And then immediately, your washed kale,
right into that pot pan. Wow. That is great. Give it a quick saute.
You may want to add a little bit of water to it. You don’t want to
have to use too much oil. And now it’s time for the seasoning. We’re
going to add into our kale, turmeric. This salt-and-sugar-free spice
blend, which is one of NutriFit’s signature blends, one that I
designed myself, has some of the best, healthiest seasonings in the
world, in the bottle, all mixed up for you, ready to go. It’s called
Rockin’ Moroccan.
It’s got cinnamon, which we know lowers blood pressure, it’s got
turmeric, which is an anti-septic, anti-bacterial powerhouse spice,
and about tell other herbs and spices, no salt, no sugar, lots and
lots of flavor and it’s based on the North African part of the world,
so it has a little clove, a little cumin, some of that going on in
there . . . So we put the seasoning in, and then it’s just a matter of
letting that kale cook until it is as wilted as you like it. Now, I
like my kale pretty tough. I mean, I like to get my teeth into it, you
know? I’m not looking for soft, wilted vegetable. If you like better
cooked, you just leave it in a little bit longer. You might even add a
little more water to it. That way, the pan doesn’t burn. But you let
that kale cook, season it, and when it’s ready to go . . . Here’s
another thing you want to remember about kale. That is that kale is
high in iron, as are many dark, leafy greens. Now, how do you deal
with the body not loving the iron that comes from plant foods? Because
we know the body loves meat iron, heme iron, and the iron that’s found
in kale is plant iron, so non-heme iron.
Well, we’re going to trick the body into absorbing all the iron in
that kale by adding in one food that is very high in vitamin C. And
there’s nothing that makes me happier than adding tomatoes into
anything, because I love tomatoes. So add in some tomatoes, and what
happens? Magic. The vitamin C in the tomatoes unlocks the iron in the
plant food and allows the body to take up three times more of the iron
than it would otherwise absorb, just by adding in that high-vitamin-C
ingredient. Now, if you’re one of those people for whom tomatoes are
like, ew, no thank you, she was until she went to the tomatoes, then
she kind of lost me, you can add strawberries, you can put a lot of
lemon juice in, you can add in oranges . . . There’s a lot of ways to
get vitamin C into this dish. Red bell peppers would be another good
choice, maybe some carrots . . . But you want to unlock the iron in
that plant food by adding in that high-vitamin-C ingredient. And it’s
a good tip to remember for all of your high-iron foods.
So that’s it for our kale. It’s a super-great ingredient, it’s part of
a whole family of dark, leafy greens that have wonderful fiber, that
have good vitamin A, vitamin C, good isoflavonoids and other
phytochemicals that help protect our bodies against certain of cancer,
it’s very helpful for heart disease . . . Truly, having a high-fiber
diet helps to regulate blood sugar, so it’s good for diabetes
management as well. You just can’t go wrong with kale. If you enjoy
that, just wait, because my next guest, Patricia Greenberg, is going
to be here with a whole tableful of super foods.
To help us really understand how super foods impact our health and can
be incorporated into our diets, I’ve brought a friend to help us out
today, Patricia Greenburg, the fitness gourmet. Patricia is the author
of two books; one, the whole soy cookbooks, and soy desserts. But she
has a breadth of experience in all aspects of food and health, she’s a
certified culinarian, she is a chef, a nutritionist and an avid
marathon runner, my friend, Patricia Greenburg. Welcome, Patricia.
Patricia Greenburg: Thank you, Jackie. Great to be here.
Jackie Keller: So glad you could join us. So tell me about these
wonderful super foods. I see we’ve got a whole tableful of health.
Patricia Greenburg: Super foods are the new catch-all term for foods
that are good for you, and essentially what is means is, foods that
are whole. It gets back to eating foods in nature, foods that are
healthy for you, without being tampered with. So we usually group them
more by categories. We say foods that do certain functions rather than
the food itself. But I narrowed it down to a handful that are really
fantastic, really easy to get.
Jackie Keller: So there really isn’t such a thing as a “super food “?
There’s a food that has super properties?
Patricia Greenburg: That’s exactly right. It’s the nutrients and the
chemicals that work together in foods. It’s not so much that just
eating walnuts is going to make you healthy.
Jackie Keller: Oh, darn. Because I know so many people who are looking
for that . . . “Okay, if it’s walnuts, and I don’t want the calories
from walnuts, I can just take a pill that’s a walnut pill, and I’m
going to get it. But that’s not what we’re talking about.
Patricia Greenburg: So what we’re trying to do here now is to group them
by the properties that have. So we look at certain fruits and
vegetables, say blueberries, for example. This is my best guideline.
Anything that’s purple or red is good for you in nature’s kingdom.
Jackie Keller: My favorite colors.
Patricia Greenburg: Mine too. So blueberries, black beans, even beets,
those that have that rich dark purple and red color, have compound
that, we’re finding now, reduce the risk of heart disease, certain
types of cancer, and one of the big things we’re looking at now is the
inflammatory response. Inflammatory response is often in response to
eating processed foods: foods that have a lot of artificial
ingredients and a lot of refined sugars and carbohydrates. So again,
getting back to those items that are in nature, starting with what I
call the purple category, the blueberries, anything that has that rich
color, is considered one of the best super foods right now.
Jackie Keller: Now, let me ask, what about something like eggplant?
Eggplant has a purple skin, but you don’t always eat the skin.
Patricia Greenburg: That’s my favorite vegetable. I can do anything with
an eggplant. I love the skin. Leave the skin on, bake it, saute it,
throw it in soup, it is fantastic. Remember when we were little,
people would say, “Take the skin off. It has no nutritional value”?
Now we know differently.
Jackie Keller: And that must be the same thing with those apples and the
other red things.
Patricia Greenburg: Exactly. The second category now, really big, is the
omega-3 fatty acids. We find that in fatty fish. People hear the term
“fatty fish” and they don’t want to eat it, but salmon, mackerel,
herring these are really good for you. Also, whole eggs. We’re back to
square one with the eggs. We want to have eggs that include the yolk.
It doesn’t seem to be too difficult in managing your cholesterol if
you eggs, because there’s other dietary and exercise techniques we can
do to keep the cholesterol down.
Jackie Keller: So all those fattier things that we though we shouldn’t
have, they’re all good for you.
Patricia Greenburg: They’re good fats. Again, it gets down to the
fattier fishes, and the wild-caught is preferable to farm-raised.
Jackie Keller: Now what about for salmon and mackerel and sardines, do
they have to be fresh, or is a can okay?
Patricia Greenburg: I will have canned sardines and herring in the house
because you get the whole fish. So you’re getting the benefit of the
entire fish. And salmon, I buy cured salmon. Low sodium, no nitrates
added to it and freshly prepared, caught in the while, and of course,
any which way you want to cook it, it’s fantastic. The other thing I’m
finding to be prevalent in the news now . . . And I find it confusing
for the consumer and that’s what I want to clarify, is again this idea
of one nutrient. So I like to take the super foods, which are fruit
and nuts and even some chocolate after dinner. Chocolate is very high
in antioxidants.
Jackie Keller: Yum. I love chocolate. It’s my favorite food.
Patricia Greenburg: For most people, it is.
Jackie Keller: I was so happy to know that it’s good for you.
Patricia Greenburg: Squash, pumpkins . . . I picked items today that are
easy to get. You can go to the supermarket and get them.
Jackie Keller: That’s very important. They need to be available anywhere.
Patricia Greenburg: Exactly. Mixed bag with certain foods: yogurt and
cheese are high in calcium, calcium has been shown to help reduce the
risk of certain cancers and heart disease, but too much can cause an
accumulation, so moderation on these . . .
Jackie Keller: And what about the fat in the yogurt and the cheese? I
thought that was really bad for you.
Patricia Greenburg: There’s a tendency towards lower fat. You don’t have
to get non-fat, you don’t have to get full-fat, I’m a mid-ranger when
it comes to that. This, I was so thrilled to find. It’s called a bag
of super food.
Jackie Keller: Oh. Well that takes all the mystery out of it. I don’t
have to think about what’s in it.
Patricia Greenburg: This is what I want to say for the consumer. It is
so easy to get these super foods. Cabbage, red cabbage, green cabbage,
cruciferous vegetable, broccoli, cauliflower, all mixed up, throw it
in a salad, throw it in your soup saute it with chicken, you’re all
set to go, really easy.
Jackie Keller: That’s great. So it’s got kale . . .
Patricia Greenburg: It’s got kale, cabbage . . .
Jackie Keller: Kale, cabbage . . .
Patricia Greenburg: Shredded Brussels sprouts . . .
Jackie Keller: Some radicchio . . . That’s that purple stuff, right?
Patricia Greenburg: And last, but not least, is the tea. Now, green tea
seems to have the highest level of cancer-fighting compounds. Nobody
really knows why, we just know that it does. How is this? The American
Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and all these
institutes of health have done studies on all these populations that
live the longest and seem to be the healthiest. And these foods all
fall in the categories of what they eat.
Jackie Keller: Well, I know the Chinese have great longevity and they
have very low incidence of heart disease and cancer, and they drink a
lot of green tea.
Patricia Greenburg: They drink a lot of tea.
Jackie Keller: Does it matter where it’s from?
Patricia Greenburg: Again, in the interest of our bodies and paying
attention, organic is always the best way to go, and if you can’t find
it then just stick with the pure single item and you should be OK.
Jackie Keller: OK. Now, how often do I have to have to have these foods?
Do I have to digest, have super foods or can I have, you know..?
Patricia Greenburg: I’m on the super foods bandwagon, I think we should
just eat super foods. There’s a few things floating out there that are
controversial, as you know, soy products have a mixed blessing.
They’re very, very good for you, they reduce the risk of heart
disease; the problem is if you have some problems with your estrogen
levels you know, you ‘re not supposed to eat too much of them. My
recommendation is a constant rotation.
Jackie Keller: OK.
Patricia Greenburg: Salad, green, leafy, every single day.
Jackie Keller: Got it.
Patricia Greenburg: Fatty fish, three times a week.
Jackie Keller: Got it.
Patricia Greenburg: Tea every day. Fruits and vegetables…
Jackie Keller: Every day.
Patricia Greenburg: Every day. Any kind of fresh fruit, grab an apple,
grab an orange, oranges are loaded with vitamin C. The fiber alone is
so beneficial for your digestive tract.
Jackie Keller: True, that’s very true. Well, thank you so much for
joining me.
Patricia Greenburg: You’re welcome.
Jackie Keller: And bringing all these wonderful foods, I can’t wait to go
home and look and see if I really have them in my pantry like I think
I do. And I know that our guests want to find you and ask more
questions. How can they do that?
Patricia Greenburg: They can get me at www.thefitnessgourmet.com.
Jackie Keller: OK, great. Well, thank you Patricia for being here.
Patricia Greenburg: Thank you Jackie.
Jackie Keller: I can’t wait to share some of these ideas with our
viewers..
Patricia Greenburg: Yes.
Jackie Keller: And I thank you so much.
Patricia Greenburg: Thank you, thank you.
Jackie Keller: And now it’s time for the last bite. I want to share with
you some insights from the coaching world, and todays coaching moment
is about curiosity. I know it sounds strange because in today’s world
we think about happiness, happiness, happiness, happiness; but really,
one of the key components of happiness that we have discovered; and
this is based on the book by Todd Kashdan called “Curious”; is that
curiosity is what really moves us, as opposed to just the endless
pursuit of happiness. So, what does it mean by being curious? Well,
think of it as being a curious explorer in life and some of the key
elements, some of the key characteristics of being a curious explorer
mean having a deep interest in others around you.
And not just other people, but other things; really become immersed in
the process, get into the flow of it so that you actually forget
yourself and you’re so engrossed in what you’re curious about. It
feeds itself, that’s one of the key elements of being a curious
explorer in life. The object is to relish the unknown, don’t fear it;
race toward it, not from it, to deepen your experience by immersing
yourself in the moment, and by reaching out for things that excite and
challenge you. The risk is worth the reward, enjoy yourself. Go out
there, experience the world, find something that you’re curious about
and don’t forget, join me next week for another episode of Food
Exposed. For more Food Exposed check me out on empowerme.tv, and until
next week remember; make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Hi welcome to Food Exposed on empowerme.tv. My name is
Jackie Keller, and my company is called NutriFit. I’ve been running
this company for 26 years, we’re Los Angeles leading healthy food
company, and in the course of that time we’ve helped thousands of
people live longer, healthier lives through better nutrition. Thanks
for joining us, let’s get started. So what’s in the news? Well U.S.
news and World Report has given us a summary of the 2013’s best and
worst diets, and I love this, because I’m always curious about whether
or not what the nutrition and health experts say about what’s good for
you and what isn’t. Surprisingly enough at the bottom of the list of
healthy diets was Google’s most frequently searched diet term the
Paleo Diet. Yep, down at the bottom tied for last place with the Dukan
Diet, and we’ll talk more about that in another episode, but what’s at
the top of the list? The Dash Diet, Dash Diet very simple diet plan
designed by the FDA to help us lower our blood pressure, and improve
our heart health. It’s a very general diet, fruits and vegetables,
lots of lean meats, lots of grains, whole grains, not very processed,
and most importantly minimizing the amount of salt we put in our
foods.
So the Dash Diet at the top, the Paleo Diet at the bottom, and
speaking about things that are at the bottom let’s talk about the
bottom of the ocean for just a minute. Fukushima, radiation waters are
spreading, and unfortunately their coming closer, and closer to the
coast of the United States. So what do we need to know about how to
protect ourselves from the effects of radiation potentially
contaminating our waters? Well there’s some diet tips for you. One,
eat greens, chlorophyll apparently has very protective benefits, so do
organic apples, so you want to eat the skin with those apples, and
with chlorophyll foods you want to make sure you emphasize alfalfa
sprouts, water crests, and parsley. And finally, let’s talk a little
bit about the cold weather. You know we’ve been suffering with the
Polar Vortex, and what brings that polar air, it brings skin problems,
dry, chapped, irritated skin. That’s skin that you need to nourish,
because it’s your largest organ, it covers your entire body, so our
next segment is going to teach you some wonderful nourishment from the
inside out. Stay tuned for nourishing recipes from NutriFit.
Welcome to our nourishing NutriFit Recipe Segment, and I’m so excited,
because this pairs two of my most favorite, favorite, favorite foods,
chocolate-avocado, chocolate-avocado. How could it be bad? It’s not,
and not only does it taste great, but it’s really good for you. The
recipe is a simple mousse or pudding, and it features fresh avocados
which are really high in healthy fats. We know that avocado helps,
it’s about 83% of the calories in avocado come from fat, but it’s the
kind of fat that we need in our bodies. Not only from the standpoint
of you know, helping our biological processes absorbing fat soluble
vitamins, and minerals, but also avocados have wonderful anti-aging
properties. So you’ll want to have these wonderful jewels, and it
doesn’t matter what kind of avocado it is, this is a Hass avocado, it
can be a Fuerte avocado, there’s a lot of different varieties, but
avocado key to this ingredient, this recipe.
Another key ingredient coconut milk; now, we hear a lot today about
coconut milk. Coconut milk comes in a lot of different varieties; this
is coconut milk, not coconut water. There is a difference between the
two. This is light coconut milk, so there’s a little less fat than its
traditional full fat counterpart, but even the light coconut milk has
great antioxidant capabilities, it’s also an antibacterial, and it
helps to provide more skin elasticity. And you know as we get older
our skin becomes less elastic. And finally, I told you chocolate is my
favorite, unsweetened cocoa. Now we know that unsweetened dark
chocolate is the best chocolate for us, and this cocoa in this recipe
not only creates a luscious texture, and a yummy taste, but chocolate
has polyphenols, and flavanols that help protect our skin against
radiation damage. They also help to repair our skin, so you’ll want to
have chocolate on hand for this recipe. And it’s so simple, all we do
is we cut open an avocado, and then we’re going to take the meat from
the avocado and put it in a food processor. And so real simple, just
scoop out the flesh and into the food processor it goes. And if you
get in a little bit of the skin, make sure you get it back out again.
And then with the avocado you’re going to add in the coconut milk, and
your unsweetened cocoa.
Now, the next ingredient is really a question of taste. I’m all for
avoiding processed sugars, and we know that processed food is not good
for our skin at all, but this recipe uses Agave which is a plant
sweetener, it’s all natural, and it doesn’t raise our insulin level
like regular sugar does. So you’re going to put in some Agave to
taste, and I’m using about two tablespoons here for this quantity, but
we’ll taste it, and see what we think, and finally to balance it out
just a pinch of all natural sea salt. Sea salt is a little less
processed then our normal table salt, and once you have all of those
ingredients in there, the recipe is quite simple, just want to put it
in your food processor, and let it do the work. This is my kind of
recipe, one bowl, one spatula, one spoon, one measuring cup. And when
the pudding is done, or the mousse is done as it is right now, we’ll
just go another quick minute, because you do want to get it completely
smooth.
This recipe despite the fact that it has avocado in it will
refrigerate very well for several days. Now I know usually when things
have avocado we worry that it’s going to turn brown, but guess what?
This is already brown, so we don’t have to worry about that, isn’t
that great? And here we go, we have a bowl here, we can dish up our
avocado mousse, looks wonderful doesn’t it? It’s so good, and so good
for you. This simple recipe makes three servings of avocado mousse,
you won’t want much more than that, because it’s kind of rich, and if
you don’t love the taste, well let me tell you something all of these
ingredients are good for you to put on the outside of your skin too.
It would be a terrible waste, but you could use it as an avocado mask,
because a lot of cosmetics now actually have chocolate in them, so
there you go. Choco-Avo Mousse, a nourishing recipe from NutriFit.
Stayed tuned while we talk next with a leading skincare expert who’s
going to tell us how to make our skin beautiful on the outside while
we’re eating foods that make our skin beautiful on the inside? I’m
happy to introduce my guest today Sara Turbeville. Sara is the founder
of SKIN Santa Monica; she is one of Los Angeles leading skin care
specialist, so without further ado welcome Sara to Food Exposed.
Sara Turbeville: Thank you Jackie, I appreciate you having me on.
Jackie Keller: Well thank you for coming to share with us. You know, I
know a lot of people have resolutions that they have made about their
skin care, kind of goes hand in hand with your healthcare, and I’ve
heard you say many times that your skin is your largest organ, so you
do have to take care of it like the rest of your body.
Sara Turbeville: Absolutely you do, and I’ve thought of five resolutions
that you can make for your skin to look its best in 2014.
Jackie Keller: Oh I need to know what I’m supposed to do.
Sara Turbeville: Yes, I will share my secrets with you.
Jackie Keller: Great.
Sara Turbeville: Are you ready?
Jackie Keller: I am.
Sara Turbeville: Okay, the number one is so simple, but it’s wash your face
twice a day. It seems so simple, but a beautiful complexion begins
with a clean canvas.
Jackie Keller: Well what do we wash with?
Sara Turbeville: We wash with a gentle liquid cleanser. You don’t want a
bar soap as the waxes that hold in a compressed form don’t allow it to
really rinse off of your skin, and so dirt…
Jackie Keller: That’s interesting.
Sara Turbeville: And oil and makeup kind of get trapped underneath there.
Jackie Keller: I didn’t realize that, I thought those little beauty bars
were the right thing to do.
Sara Turbeville: No not necessarily, there are some exceptions, but
generally you want to look for a lotion based, or a liquid cleanser
that rinses completely clean off of your skin.
Jackie Keller: Okay, so I’m going to wash my skin twice a day?
Sara Turbeville: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Do I dry it with a towel?
Sara Turbeville: You can pat dry, just don’t rub it, and if you come in
late at night and you just tend to not wash your face, because you’re
tired, wash it as soon as you get home from work, even if it’s 5:00 or
6:00.
Jackie Keller: Are you in my place? You know I do that?
Sara Turbeville: Oh yes, I do, I do. Those makeup wipes come in handy too.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Sara Turbeville: But you know, you can wash it at 5:00 or 6:00, you’re done
for the day, get the face cleansing done.
Jackie Keller: Okay, so what’s number two?
Sara Turbeville: Easy number two. Number two is use one product everyday
that’s specifically chosen just for your skin. There are so many skin
care products out there, it’s so confusing, even to me it’s
overwhelming. But if you can get a skin care professional to recommend
one product for you, and just use it as close to everyday as you can,
you’ll see a substantial difference in your skin throughout the year.
Jackie Keller: All right so, my problem is that I’m getting older, and…
Sara Turbeville: Aren’t we all?
Jackie Keller: So I need a skin care product that’s good for you know
mature skin.
Sara Turbeville: Yes, ladies of a certain something.
Jackie Keller: A fine wine skin.
Sara Turbeville: Yes, I understand, I’m of that age myself, so kind of one
size fits all product is Retinol which is topical Vitamin A, and it
works for both zits, and for wrinkles, and both, so it’s kind of
great. And you can get a prescription Retin-A from a physician. It’s a
little stronger, and sometimes it can lead to irritated skin, so a
Retinol is just an over the counter strength of Vitamin A.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Sara Turbeville: And using that is kind of a great one size fits all
product.
Jackie Keller: All right, and what’s the third thing?
Sara Turbeville: This is something else that you’ve heard before a lot, use
a sunscreen every single day of your life. It’s the best anti-aging
product ever, and although we do need some natural sun exposure for
Vitamin D.
Jackie Keller: Right.
Sara Turbeville: 20 minutes, generally speaking, of unprotected sun
exposure, but most of us get that without even really trying,
especially in California.
Jackie Keller: Absolutely.
Sara Turbeville: But the best anti-aging product. 80% get this, of visible
aging on your skin is due to incidental sun exposure, 80%. So you can
easily combat that just by daily sunscreen.
Jackie Keller: I know you’ve said this to me before, but it doesn’t
matter what age you are, you still need sunscreen, even if you’re like
young, and 20, and you like to live on the beach?
Sara Turbeville: Heck yes, that’s the most important time, because so much
of your sun damage accrues before the time you’re 18 or 20 years old.
Jackie Keller: Oh my goodness.
Sara Turbeville: And what’s really interesting to me is that sun damage,
your body stores like a clock. It’s not when you go to the Bahamas’s
and you lay out every day for a week that you get most of your sun
damage. Most of it is 20 minutes walking the dog one day, driving to
work the next day, your body literally adds up all those minutes, and
then eventually it just shows on your face.
Jackie Keller: How cruel is that?
Sara Turbeville: It’s cruel.
Jackie Keller: That doesn’t seem right.
Sara Turbeville: I know, it’s a cruel world.
Jackie Keller: Oh well, there you go. At least there’s something that you
can do, you put sunscreen on, it helps to protect your skin. And what
else do we need to do?
Sara Turbeville: The fourth tip that I got for you is wash those makeup
brushes. I know it’s a boring task to do, but put on some good tunes,
maybe have a glass of wine, and just wash those things.
Jackie Keller: What do you wash them with?
Sara Turbeville: A liquid cleanser, even maybe some dish soap, liquid dish
soap. But those germs just accrue, and then you’re putting those germs
back on your face, and then they sit until the next day, and the germs
just keep growing. And what gets me especially grossed out is, if you
use like a compact makeup and those sponges, and you reapply that
makeup on with the sponge, and then putting it back, and then back on,
and the germs just keep breeding. So, a quick and easy way, I mean
once a week is ideal to wash those brushes.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Sara Turbeville: But if that’s just too much for you, take a paper towel,
sprinkle a little rubbing alcohol on it, and then take the brushes,
and just swoosh the bristles over the rubbing alcohol.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Sara Turbeville: And that’s a quick and easy way to do it between actual
washings.
Jackie Keller: And is that all of our brushes? I mean our blush brush,
our eye brush, you know all of those things?
Sara Turbeville: Yes, yes it is absolutely all. You cannot skip.
Jackie Keller: Once a week, twice month?
Sara Turbeville: Ideally, but, you know, at the very least once a month.
Jackie Keller: Okay, all right.
Sara Turbeville: But just do what you can.
Jackie Keller: I’ll do my, I’ll try.
Sara Turbeville: Please, I’m going to check in with you on that.
Jackie Keller: Okay. And what’s the last thing?
Sara Turbeville: Okay, the last one is, I want you to wash those pillow
cases at least once a week, especially if you are prone to breakouts.
All that bacteria once again, just kind of breeds and then gets
transferred onto your face. And another tip is try to avoid using
dryer sheets and fabric softeners in towels that touch your skin, and
pillow cases.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Sara Turbeville: Because those are full of chemicals, and artificial
fragrance that just gets pressed next to your skin. It can cause
dermatitis, irritation.
Jackie Keller: You never think about those things.
Sara Turbeville: No, I know.
Jackie Keller: You think, oh make sure..
Sara Turbeville: It smells so good.
Jackie Keller: It smells so good, but it’s bad for your skin.
Sara Turbeville: It’s the chemicals. What’s not good are the chemicals in
it, and then you’re just pressing it next to your skin.
Jackie Keller: Okay, so wash with hypoallergenic detergent?
Sara Turbeville: Yeah, fragrance free.
Jackie Keller: They have those fragrance free; they’re not that much more
expensive than the regular stuff.
Sara Turbeville: Exactly.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Sara Turbeville: And then just skip all that artificial dryer sheet stuff.
And then..
Jackie Keller: Those are great tips.
Sara Turbeville: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: And they’re so easy.
Sara Turbeville: I think so, they’re doable, they’re manageable.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, and on that same note.
Sara Turbeville: Yes.
Jackie Keller: There are things that you can do from the inside out that
are also are good for your skin. So, I want to share with you my top
five favorite foods for skin care, and let me run this by you Sara,
and see what you think.
Sara Turbeville: Okay.
Jackie Keller: I think that some of the healthiest foods for your skin
include avocado, almonds, and other nuts, almonds and walnuts for
their Omega three fatty acids.
Sara Turbeville: Yes.
Jackie Keller: They’re really good for the skin, right?
Sara Turbeville: Yes, those are awesome. They hydrate the skin from the
inside out, and they help you retain some of the water that you’re
drinking hopefully every day.
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Sara Turbeville: So essential fatty acids, bingo, very important.
Jackie Keller: And along with that there’s that new darling food that
everybody’s putting you know, on muffins and on cereals, and in
smoothies, the Chia seeds for Omega three fatty acids.
Sara Turbeville: Yes.
Jackie Keller: I think they go along with the Flax seeds, they sort of
the new food when it comes to Omega threes.
Sara Turbeville: That and hemp seeds right?
Jackie Keller: Yeah.
Sara Turbeville: I’ve heard that those are cool too.
Jackie Keller: I’m not that familiar with hemp.
Sara Turbeville: Okay.
Jackie Keller: But it could be, you know, there’s, every year there’s a
new seed.
Sara Turbeville: Right, the new cool, the new cool seed.
Jackie Keller: Right, and then dark chocolate. Isn’t that surprising?
Sara Turbeville: Yay, I’m so happy.
Jackie Keller: Good news for chocolate lovers.
Sara Turbeville: I know.
Jackie Keller: And those flavonols are protective for the skin. And
finally green tea for it’s wonderful antioxidant properties.
Sara Turbeville: Yes. It is a wonderful; green tea is awesome, white tea.
Jackie Keller: So but we do your five tips, and we eat my five foods.
Sara Turbeville: Gorgeous.
Jackie Keller: We’ll be gorgeous.
Sara Turbeville: Gorgeous, it’s settled.
Jackie Keller: I love it, I love it. Well thank you Sara so much for
joining me.
Sara Turbeville: My pleasure.
Jackie Keller: I know our viewers will want to found you, so where do
they go?
Sara Turbeville: I will tell you. You can go to www skin Santa Monica dot
com, and you will find all the information about how to get a hold of
me. You can email me, or call me, and I’ll be happy to answer your
questions, or give you a great skin care treatment.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much for being here.
Sara Turbeville: You’re welcome.
Jackie Keller: It was great.
Sara Turbeville: Thank you for having me.
Jackie Keller: I can’t wait to see how good my skin can look. It’s time
for the last bite. It’s at this moment in the show that I share with
you one of my cooking tips, something to help you understand, and
absorb the information that we’ve presented here today. So I’d like to
talk a little bit about goals, because this is the time of year when
we not only make resolutions, but we set goals for ourselves, and we
have some specific things that we look for when we’re setting those
goals.
So how do you know if your goal is a good one? Here’s five ways to
structure your goal to make it smart, S-M-A-R-T, that’s an acronym. So
the S stands for specific, you want your goal to be really; really
specific to what it is that you’re going to do. So for example if my
goal was to add more avocados in my diet, a specific example of that
would be I’m going to have third of an avocado which by the way is a
full serving of avocado, a third, I’m going to have a third of an
avocado twice a week beginning next Monday. That’s an example of a
specific goal. M stands for measurable. Make your goal something you
can measure, not just I’m going to have more avocado, but I’m going to
have a third of an avocado. That is very specific, very measurable.
That’s S-M, A, action oriented. I’m going to eat a third of an avocado
twice a week starting next Monday. I’ve committed to an action that I
can measure myself against, so specific, measurable, action oriented.
The R in smart stands for realistic. So let’s face it, if I were to
say I’m going to have a whole avocado every day for the rest of my
life, not going to happen. Instead make the goal something realistic,
why? Because if it’s realistic you can achieve it, and if you can
achieve it, you can celebrate, and if you can celebrate you feel
successful, and if you feel successful you’re going to keep making
more goals. So specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, and
the fifth element of a good goal is that it’s timed, commit.
Set a time and a day, a place, whatever it is, make it something
timed, so that you can really hold yourself accountable. So again
remember goals are good, they give us something to achieve, something
to strive for, something to aim for. Give yourself some rewards every
time you achieve one of your goals, and if you break those goals down
into little baby steps that are smart, specific, measurable, action
oriented, realistic and timed you will be successful. And thank you so
much for joining me, my name is Jackie Keller. I hope to see you next
week on Food Exposed. For more Food Exposed check me out on
empowerme.tv, and until next week remember make food your best friend,
and exercise your companion for life.
Welcome to Food Exposed on empowerme.tv. My name is Jackie Keller, and for
the last 26 years, I’ve spent my time dedicated to helping people live
longer, healthier lives through better nutrition, and healthy cooking.
Speaking of healthy cooking, today, we’re making deliciously healthy white
and dark chocolate delights. They’re easy, quick and they make a great gift
from the heart; let’s get cooking. There are three key ingredients that
make this recipe very special. First, chocolate and who doesn’t love
chocolate. You know, chocolate is one of those universally favorite foods.
It is good for the heart, it’s good for the soul, makes you happy and it
comes in lots of different flavors.
This one is a mint and chocolate blend. You can also use white chocolate
for these. In fact, we call them white and dark chocolate delights. White
chocolate has some of the same flavonols and heart healthy benefits as dark
chocolate but it comes only in this white color. So make sure, when you
pick your brand, you pick a brand that you know will melt. The other key
ingredient that makes this recipe special, is cereal nuggets. Now these are
high fiber, crunchy little bites of cereal. You can find them in every
grocery store, on every grocery store aisle. They’re high in fiber, they’re
low in sodium and fat and they provide so much nutritional benefit. You
want to make sure you have these on hand.
And finally, speaking of nutritional benefits, here’s our powerhouse
ingredient, chopped almonds. Almonds, as you know, are very high in omega
three fatty acids. They’re really healthful, they protect your heart, they
are good for your skin, for your eyes, for your hair, for your whole body
and of course, they taste wonderful and they’re available all year round.
Now that we know what ingredients you’ll need on hand and that is the
entire set of ingredients for this simple recipe, let me show you how easy
it is to make. All you need to do is set up a little double boiler system
in your own kitchen. Now, that can be done without any fancy equipment, a
stainless steel pot, a non-reactive bowl, preferably glass that will
withstand the heat, and also allow you to set it inside of your pot; over
simmering water, not rapidly boiling. So the water should be sufficient to
come to a boil and stay at a simmer while the chocolate is melting.
I’ve set this one up so the chocolate is nearly melted. It just takes a few
minutes; and once it’s melted, you’re going to stir it, so that your
chocolate is ready to accept the other key ingredients. Watch your hands,
the bowl can get hot. Into your chocolate goes some of your nutty cereal.
Your cereal, you need about for one 12 ounce package of chocolate, you’re
going to need about a cup of cereal. The exact recipe can be found on
empowerme.tv. And, you stir it in, and then, add in your almonds. And
again, stirring, just to get the ingredients melted it helps to have a pan
that has a cool handle.
Once you have everything mixed together, you’re ready to scoop it out. And
what you’ll need to that, is a simple cookie scoop. You can find them in
all different kinds of sizes at your favorite food store. This one came
from, I don’t even know. It’s just a little cookie scoop. And that’s all
you need to form your balls of nutty delights. Once you have them formed,
they’re going to go onto a plate, where you’re going to want to refrigerate
them until they are hard; now that can take a few minutes, depending on
your refrigerator, or an hour or so. So all you do is set up your balls,
set up all your mixture. And if you’re making one recipe of this, it’s
going to produce about 22 balls. They’re about a half an ounce each. And
once you’re done with that, into the refrigerator to cool down. If you want
you can use your fingers to make them form into nice perfect little balls.
And the recipe is ready now to package. It’s that easy. You have your
choice of how you package these things as gifts.
I like coffee, so I take a coffee mug and a food bag and I fill my bag with
our nuggets. Both colors, I think, make it look really festive and nice.
Fill them up. And then, go ahead and splurge on a colorful twisty tie;
little gold one, just to make the packaging pretty. And you’re going to
insert that right into your coffee cup, so that you have a nice gift that’s
ready to go. If you don’t like the top showing, no problem, turn it upside
down and you have a beautiful gift, just like that. Or, you might want to
think about buying one of these little decorative heart baskets or
different shapes. They come in all kinds of shapes. And arrange your
nuggets or your delights, if you will, into the basket, mounded as high as
you like, because everyone’s going to enjoy them and they’re not going to
last for long. Even though, you should know, that these nuggets do not
require refrigeration once they’re made, so they make the ideal gift to
ship anywhere in the country, if they last that long. Or you could take a
decorative jar, fill them with your nuggets and put it out on the corner of
your desk for your friends and your family to enjoy.
Packaging is one of those things that is a very individual choice. I like
the natural bows but they’re not as colorful as say, you know the frilly,
pretty Christmas-y things that you can find. So it’s up to you what you put
on it. But quite simply, everything comes back to how it tastes once you
enjoy these little pieces of paradise. So, simply assemble your gift. And
thanks for joining us. For this recipe and more like it, visit us at
empowerme.tv and don’t forget to tune in, in January for more Food Exposed.
Have a healthy and happy holiday season.
Researchers examined diet and mortality among some 125,000 male and female health professionals who were free of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes at baseline. During roughly 30 years’ follow-up, over 33,000 participants died. High intake of saturated fat — when replacing carbohydrates — was associated with an 8% increase in total mortality. Similarly, high trans fat intake conferred a 13% mortality increase. In contrast, high intakes of polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids were associated with 19% and 11% reductions in mortality, respectively. In addition, replacing 5% of calories from saturated fat with calories from polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids was associated with mortality reductions of 27% and 13%, respectively. The authors conclude: “Replacement of saturated fats with unsaturated fats … should continue to be a key message in dietary recommendations. These findings also support the elimination of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, the primary source of trans-fatty acids.” At NutriFit, we minimize saturated fats because we care about your health. Science proves it, and we believe it.
The Aztecs and Mayans were the first to recognize the potency of chocolate – they’d celebrate the harvest of the cacao bean with festivals of wild orgies. Montezuma believed that drinking 50 cups of chocolate each day enabled him to better serve his harem of 600 women. For my NutriFit meal delivery service clients, I believe that it puts us in “the zone”. The zone of health, that is!
Science gives us another reason to enjoy this heady delight. Dark chocolate contains naturally occurring plant compounds called Flavonoids. These natural powerhouses are part of the polyhenol group.
Some of the key heart health benefits of chocolate include:
Decreases LDL oxidation (Low-density lipoproteins, which are the unhealthy kind).
Reduces stickiness of platelets in the blood, which reduces risk of blood clots
May lower blood pressure
Increases blood flow in the arteries- (Increased blood flow can lead to brain health benefits, including boosting memory, attention span, reaction time and problem solving skills).
Some psychological benefits of chocolate include improved mood and pleasure, by boosting serotonin and endorphin levels in the brain.
Finally, flavonoids absorb UV light, and so have a beauty benefit of keeping women’s skin more moist, smoother and less scaly. After all, better blood flow in general also means increased blood flow to the skin!
For all these reasons, and because I love chocolate, I’ve designed hundreds of delivered, healthy diets that include daily doses of the best quality, most delicious, guiltless decadent desserts.
edible flowers, lettuce, purple and fingerling potatoes, bok choi…
PLUS MORE
Awesome Country Berry Tart featuring our own Mesa grown organic blackberries (handpicked yesterday by yours truly), strawberries blueberries and raspberries !!!
This coffee health news is from the Tufts Health and Nutrition Update this morning:
In a recent report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Committee for the first time addressed safety concerns about coffee, concluding that drinking three to five cups a day (up to about 400 milligrams of caffeine) was associated with minimal health risks. The experts also noted observational studies indicating that the benefits of coffee consumption
also include a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Summer is right around the corner and we want to make sure you are in the best shape for bikini season. Whether you are trying to lose weight, or just tone your body up, the Fit in Five program will work for you. Combined with your custom-built 5-week diet plan and our expert knowledge of nutrition, we will make sure that that you reach your goals safely, efficiently, and in great condition.
Take The Stress Out Of Getting Healthy
With our Fit in Five package, all the hard work is gone from your diet. We custom-build a 5-week “Get Fit” diet plan based on your goals, then ship it straight to your door for every week. We don’t draw on some template that was designed for someone else – every meal is carefully thought out and put together with your needs, goals, and tastes in mind.
All-in, including delivery anywhere in the continental U.S, it’s only $399* per week for five weeks. That’s less than $5 per meal. Try getting dinner that’s tailored to your fitness goals anywhere for $5.
More scientific evidence affirming health values associated with drinking coffee: “A large new Korean study reports that people drinking three to five cups of coffee daily were 41% less likely to show signs of coronary artery calcium than non-coffee drinkers. This calcification is an early indicator of the artery-clogging plaques (atherosclerosis) that cause coronary artery disease, which afflicts nearly 16 million Americans.The findings should in any case perk up coffee drinkers, many of whom grew up hearing that their favorite beverage was bad for you. The recent report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Committee for the first time addressed safety concerns about coffee, concluding that drinking three to five cups a day (up to about 400 milligrams of caffeine) was associated with minimal health risks. The experts also noted observational studies indicating that coffee intake is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”
Planning on super sizing your Super Bowl Sunday snacks? Whoa – slow down – you may be surprised at some of the calories you can consume in one (long) sitting.
Here are 5 nutritious Super Bowl snack ideas and healthy tips for making it through the game without eating yourself silly:
Have a substantial, balanced breakfast on Sunday morning (seriously)– I’m thinking whole grain hot cereal with berries, maybe a poached egg or two, half a grapefruit or orange and even a piece of whole grain toast. Wash it down with a good cup of coffee or green tea, and at least 1 (8 oz) glass of water. That ought to hold you for awhile.
Go for a FAST walkfor an hour, about an hour after you eat.
Make a platter full of raw vegetables and fresh fruit – and put it front and center on the table in front of the TV
Put all the rest of the goodies on a table far away from the TV
Lose the full fat cheese, full fat dairy dips (think low fat only), full fat chips, cookies or crackers- Try white meat chicken skewers, shrimp cocktail, vegetable kabobs, and air-popped popcorn for starters.
Need more ideas? Leave me a comment. If you’re a “Monday morning quarterback” and need some remedial coaching, I’ll be here….
www.nutrifitonline.com
Herbs and spices are an important part of the human diet. Not only do they enhance the taste and flavor of foods, they also increase their shelf life by being both antimicrobial and anti-oxidant. The health benefits of herbs and spices also include a wide range of physiological and pharmacological properties.
Dietary factors play an important role in human health and in the development of certain diseases, especially cancer. In particular, many Phenolic compounds are attracting the attention of food and medicinal scientists because of their anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic and anti-carcinogenic properties and their capacity to modulate some key cellular enzyme functions.
Several commonly used herbs have been identified by the US National Cancer Institute as possessing cancer-preventive properties. These cancer-preventing herbs include members of the Allium sp. (e.g. garlic); members of the Labiatae family (e.g. oregano, rosemary, and thyme); members of the Zingiberaceae family (e.g. turmeric and ginger); and members of the Umbelliferae family (e.g. cumin)
The health benefits of herbs and spices, such as cumin, garlic, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and turmeric, include having remarkably effective anti-oxidant activities. These anti-cancer foods and herbs are among the safest natural antioxidants available. It is expected that natural antioxidants will lead to chemo-prevention of inflammation, cancer and aging. (Source: http://www.gaiaresearch.co.za/nutrispice.html)
Garlic & Onion – Many of us know about garlic and onions, each of which contains allyl sulfides, powerful and helpful antioxidants, and substances shown to lower cholesterol and thin the blood. The same group of compounds has anticancer properties.
Garlic is a natural antibiotic and immune system enhancer, a free radical attacker, and it increases the enzymes that break down carcinogens in the body. Ample research has shown garlic to be one of the best cancer preventative foods, linking its consumption with slowing or stopping the growth of tumors in prostate, bladder, and stomach tissue, and preventing cancers of the skin and lung. The evidence is particularly compelling for garlic as a cancer preventative food to help against prostate and stomach cancers. The Iowa Women’s Health Study found that women who regularly ate garlic had a lower risk for colon cancer. Eat as much of this mighty food as you can stand!
* NutriFit Spice Blend: Mediterranean Spice Blend, Lemon Garden Spice Blend, Calypso Spice BlendThyme – Thyme contains an essential oil that is rich in thymol, a powerful antiseptic, antibacterial, and a strong antioxidant. The oil of thyme is used in mouthwashes to treat inflammations of the mouth, and throat infections. It is a common component of cough drops.
Because of its essential oil, thyme possesses expectorant and bronchial antispasmodic properties, making it useful in the treatment of acute and chronic bronchitis, whooping cough, and inflammation of the upper respiratory tract. Thyme enhances the action of the cilia in the bronchi and directly acts on the bronchial mucosa. The terpenoids are responsible for the expectorant activity of thyme while a variety of flavonoids are responsible for the spasmolytic effect of thyme on the bronchioles.
All the members of the mint family, including thyme, possess terpenoids, which are recognized as cancer preventive foods. Rosmarinic and ursolic acids are major terpenoids in thyme that possess anti-cancer properties.
* NutriFit Spice Blend: Mediterranean Spice BlendGinger – Ginger works wonders in the treatment of everything from cancer to migraines. Ginger is a rhizome that is related to turmeric. Gingerol, the main component of ginger and responsible for its distinctive taste. Have anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor powers.
In some studies, gingerol inhibited tumor angiogenesis (formation of blood vessels leading to the tumor), and seemed to reduce metastasis of cancer cells. Gingerol also acts as an antioxidant, scavenging free radicals that might otherwise cause cell damage.
* NutriFit Spice Blend: Certainly Cinnamon Spice Blend
Turmeric – The medicinal properties of this spice have been slowly revealing themselves over the centuries. Long known for its anti-inflammatory properties, recent research has revealed that turmeric is a natural wonder, proving beneficial in the treatment of many different health conditions from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease.
Turmeric is the spice most often used in curry powder. It has an active ingredient called curcumin that may prevent metastases from occurring in many different forms of cancer.
* NutriFit Spice Blend: Rockin’ Moroccan Spice BlendCumin, Dill, Fennel, Parsley – The parsley family (parsley family of herbs and spices, the same family that contains anise, caraway, coriander, dill, fennel, and parsley) contains some unique phytochemicals, such as phthalides and polyacetylenes which show cancer-protective activity and anti-inflammatory properties.
Cumin has been seen to effectively decrease the incidence of chemically-induced tumors of the stomach, colon, and cervix. Its cancer-preventive activity can be explained by its significant antioxidant activity and the ability of cumin to modulate the metabolism of carcinogens. Cumin seeds are known to induce the activity of glutathione-S-transferase, a protective enzyme that helps eliminate cancer causing substances.
Cumin has a significant level of caffeic, chlorogenic, ferulic and other phenolics acids that have anti-inflammatory activity, as well as the phytoestrogen, genistein.
The activation of nuclear transcription factor kappa B has now been linked with a variety of inflammatory diseases, including cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, allergies, asthma, arthritis, and psoriasis. The pathway that activates this transcription factor can be interrupted by phytochemicals derived from spices such as cumin, turmeric, and garlic.
*NutriFit Spice Blend: Mediterranean Spice Blend, Lemon Garden Spice Blend, Calypso Spice Blend, Rockin’ Moroccan Spice Blend, & French Riviera Spice Blend
Basil- One of the several herbs known to have anti-carcinogenic effects has been shown in studies to help in prevention of early stages of cancer development.
*NutriFit Spice Blend: Mediterranean Spice Blend, Lemon Garden Spice Blend, & French Riviera Spice BlendCayenne pepper – Capsaicin is the main ingredient of cayenne pepper and is used topically to treat everything from osteoarthritis to cancer. Capsaicin promotes the natural cycle of programmed cell death, called apoptosis. Cancerous cells attempt to resist apoptosis and, if successful, eventually overtake the body with cancer. When cancer cells were treated with capsaicin, the chili pepper compound attacked the tumor cells’ mitochondria — which generate ATP, the chemical that creates energy within the body. Capsaicin also bound to certain proteins within the cancer cells and triggered apoptosis — natural cell death.
*NutriFit Spice Blend: Rockin’ Moroccan Spice Blend*NutriFit Spice Blends available at www.nutrifitonline.com or by calling (800) 341- 4190
Planning to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday? Just in time, here are some simple, healthy Super Bowl snack recipes that you’ll surely enjoy!
Avocado-Corn Salsa
Servings: 6
Serving Size: ¼ cup
Ingredients:
2 ea. avocado, seeded, peeled & diced
2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
3 ea. tomatoes, peeled, seeded & diced
3 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped
½ tsp. green chile pepper, seeded & diced
½ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. NutriFit Calypso Salt Free Spice Blend
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, gently combine avocado, corn kernels, tomatoes, lime juice, cilantro, chile peppers, Calyspo blend and salt.
2. Refrigerate until ready to be served.
Nutrient information:
Calories: 182; Protein: 3.73g; Carbohydrates: 22.99g; Fat: 10.56g; Fiber: 6.68g
Gluten Free Vegetable Samosas
Servings: 4
Serving Size: 3 each
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups zucchini, coarsely shredded
1 medium russet potato
½ medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup spinach leaves, thinly sliced
6 tbsp. rice flour
¼ cup peas, fresh or frozen
¼ cup Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp. safflower oil
1 ea. egg, beaten well
1 tbsp. NutriFit Lemon Garden Salt Free Spice Blend
Directions:
1. Grate the potato into a bowl of cold water. Prepare all of the other vegetables. Squeeze the water out of the potato and mix them all together in a large bowl. Season with Lemon Garden blend. Stir in egg.
2. Form 3 tbsp. of mixture into 4″ diameter patty. Place on large baking sheet. Repeat with remaining mixture. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
3. Heat nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add grapeseed oil and cook vegetable patties in batches until golden, about 4 minutes per side.
Nutrient information:
Calories: 171; Protein: 5.38g; Carbohydrates: 26.18g; Fat: 5.36g; Fiber: 2.88g
Lavosh with Peanut Butter & Dried Fruit Snack
Servings: 12
Serving Size: 3″ piece
Ingredients:
12 oz. extra firm lite tofu
2 pieces lavosh
1 1/8 cups reduced fat peanut butter
2 oz. dried cranberries & raisins
1 oz. dates, chopped
Directions:
1. Combine the tofu and peanut butter in the carafe of a food processor and mix well.
2. Spread each piece of lavosh lightly with peanut butter mixture.
3. Arrange the mixed fruit evenly over the top.
4. Roll and cut each lavosh roll into 6 even pieces.
5. Serve immediately or wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Nutrient information:
Calories: 205; Protein: 9.32g; Carbohydrates: 22.04g; Fat: 9.81g; Fiber: 2.45g
Chocolate Chip Fondue
Servings: 12
Serving Size: 3 tbsp.
Ingredients
1 cup chocolate chips (you may used reduced-fat variety)
¾ cup fat-free evaporated milk
1 (2.5-oz) jar baby food prunes
Fresh fruit for dipping
Directions
1. In a heavy saucepan, combine chocolate chips and milk over low heat. Stir until smooth, making certain mixture does not burn.
2. Add prunes slowly, stirring constantly. If using as a fondue, keep warm in fondue pot.
3. Fondue is great with all fruits, especially bananas, oranges, and pineapple, and is also good with small pieces of cake or graham crackers.
Nutrient information:
Calories: 125; Protein: 2.3g; Carbohydrates: 23.4g; Fat: 4.9g; Fiber: 1.6g
Fruit, Nut & Raisin Spread
Servings: 12
Serving Size: 2 oz.
Ingredients:
2 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
4 oz. fat free cottage cheese
1 tbsp. pecans, finely chopped and toasted
3 tbsp. golden raisins
2 tbsp. each dried figs & pitted prunes
Directions:
1. Process the cottage cheese in the food processor until smooth.
2. Add the cream cheese and continue to process to form a smooth base.
3. Coarsely chop the figs or raisins (you may use either – remove the stems), and blend into the creamy base with the raisins and pecans.
4. Chill until ready to serve.
Nutrient information:
Calories: 108; Protein: 1.6g; Carbohydrates: 25.11g; Fat: 0.4g; Fiber: 2.3g
Power Snack Mix
Servings: 8
Serving Size: ½ cup
Ingredients:
1 cup small pretzels
1 cup shredded wheat cereal
¾ cup roasted soy nuts
1 cup raisins
1 cup chex mix
Directions:
1.Combine all ingredients together and serve
Nutrient information:
Calories: 171; Protein: 7.051g; Carbohydrates: 29.68g; Fat: 3.523g; Fiber: 2.714g
Looking for specific healthy recipe? Leave me a comment and let me know. Or check out the recipe section for more deliciously healthy NutriFit recipes!
www.nutrifitonline.com
February is heart health month, and it is the perfect time to get to know the most important muscle in your body, and improve your relationship with it. Your heart is a powerful machine, pumping oxygen rich blood to your brain and other organs and transporting waste and carbon dioxide out. Taking care of your heart is one of the most important things you can do, and one of the most beneficial to your overall health and happiness.
More than 1 million Americans suffer from heart attacks each year, approximately half of them dying. Increased risk of heart failure and heart disease are influenced by a number of factors, not all of which we can control, such as age and race. However you can lower your risk through healthy eating and exercise habits. When plaque, a build up of cholesterol and other material, grows in your arteries, it can lead to blockages in blood flow and a loss of flexibility in the heart muscles, which can be potentially fatal. To manage this, try a few heart-healthy diet tips, including limiting your intake of saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol by choosing lean meats, such as poultry and fish. Fish are also high in omega-3 fatty acids, which can help lower your risk as well. Whole-grain and high-fiber foods can also help lower your blood cholesterol levels. Maintaining a balanced heart-healthy diet that is high in fruits and vegetables is essential to all aspects of health, supplying your body with the vitamins, minerals, and fiber it needs without the calories it doesn’t. Regular exercise is also extremely important for maintaining cardio-vascular health, and the American Heart Association recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity five days a week. This includes running, biking, swimming and any other physical activity that gets you out of the chair and your blood pumping. The heart is a muscle after all, and you can make it stronger through exercise. Women have just as much if not more risk of heart disease, despite common belief, with 1 in 3 U.S. women living with heart disease today. Removing habits such as smoking and binge drinking from your life, as well as maintaining a healthy weight are incredibly important for a fit and healthy heart. But what about a happy heart?
We often look at the heart and the mind as two opposing components of our body, two equal but opposite forces that combine to give us life and conscience. But in reality they are two sides of the same coin, and in fact are more inter-connected than we may know. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that clinically depressed women had more than twice the risk of other women to suffer sudden cardiac death. Another study found that men who were aggressive and angry in their day-to-day lives (as opposed to professionally aggressive) had a 19% greater risk of coronary heart disease than those with a lighter demeanor. The idea of the connection between stress and heart health is certainly not new, but the clear associations between chronic stress and strain on the heart is becoming to clear, and potentially life-threatening to ignore. A 2007 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that patients who had a heart attack and then returned to a stressful job were twice as likely to have a second attack than those who viewed their jobs as more stress-free. And while you may not be able to quit your job, you may be able to change how you cope with it. Deep breathing exercises, meditation, and taking short walks outside when you are in stressful situations are important to building the awareness you need to realize when you are stressed, and taking the first steps to removing the stress from your life. Regular exercise will also reduce your stress, and help reduce your risk of cardiac diseases as discussed earlier. Getting enough sleep is also extremely important for not just regulating stress, but avoiding heart risk in general, especially for women. A 2008 study from Duke University showed a consistent correlation between poor sleeping habits and higher levels of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes in women.
While we all have stress, how we manage it defines our ability to stay fit and productive in our daily lives. That’s why this month you should examine your choices carefully, and choose ones that will build upon and reinforce a healthy and active lifestyle. Take the time out of your day to exercise, sleep, and eat right. Those choices will directly affect your capacity to have a strong and healthy heart, and therefore will lead to a longer and happier life.
Use that leftover Thanksgiving turkey with this easy Homemade Harvest Turkey Wrap recipe!
Leftover Thanksgiving Harvest Turkey Wrap Recipe
Servings – 5
Serving Size – one 3″ piece
Ingredients
1 lb turkey breast
1/4 cup celery
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lb lavosh
1 tsp NutriFit Lemon Garden Salt & Sugar Free Spice Blend
1/2 cup reduced fat blue cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp walnuts, chopped and pan toasted until golden
1 cup watercress sprigs
Directions
1. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil, turkey breast and seasoning and cook, stirring, until browned (no longer pink) and cooked through. Set aside. 2. In a bowl, mix together blue cheese, turkey, dried cranberries and celery. Moisten with a little fat free blue cheese salad dressing, if available. 3. Just before serving, mix in the walnuts. Spread the mixture over the lavosh in a thin layer, sprinkle with watercress sprigs and roll up, leaving the ends open. Cut into serving lengths. 4. If using as a lunch, roll as a burrito or wrap.
Announcing the launch of the NutriFit signature Mighty Liquid Blends, a juice and smoothie meal plan based on the NutriFit philosophy of wholesome and balanced eating, combined with the rejuvenating effects of a short-term, healthy liquid diet meal plan.
Unlike others, the Mighty Liquid Blends line is designed to allow for optimal macronutrient consumption while remaining a low calorie, liquid plan. With six offerings of distinctly unique taste profiles, nutrient content and texture, you’ll feel satisfied and invigorated at the end of the day, instead of hungry and tired.
The Mighty Liquids Blends healthy liquid diet meals use specific combinations of extensively researched, low calorie, high nutrient, predominantly organic foods to offer a balanced, deliciously healthy approach to liquid nutrition. I am excited to offer this new product line, and encourage you to give it a taste.
Call (310) 473-1989 to order! Nationwide shipping available.
We are often inspired by wonders of nature – and in your meals today you might find the source of the newest, most amazing addition to our cornucopia! The magnificent Romanesco Broccoli/Cauliflower or BroccoFlower has arrived in our kitchen. This natural fractal (a shape or object that exhibits some level of structural self-similarity at all scales), is a broccoli cauliflower hybrid. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do – we’re starting to grow it on our own farm at the Mesa!
Eating more fruits and vegetables adds nutrients to diets, reduces the risk for heart disease, stroke, and some cancers, and helps manage body weight when consumed instead of more energy-dense foods. Are you eating the right amount?
Adults who engage in <30 minutes of moderate physical activity daily should consume 1.5–2.0 cup equivalents of fruit and 2–3 cups of vegetables daily. However, during 2007–2010, half of the total U.S. population consumed <1 cup of fruit and <1.5 cups of vegetables daily; 76% did not meet fruit intake recommendations, and 87% did not meet vegetable intake recommendations.
This delicious Meatless Monday recipe is vegan, high in protein, low in calories and an excellent meal for lunch or dinner!
Tofu Stir Fry with Hoisin Sauce, Vegetables and Walnuts
4 Servings
Serving Size – 1 cup
Ingredients:
broccoli florets 3 cups
canola oil 1 tsp.
extra firm lite tofu 1 (12.3 oz.) pkg.
garlic, minced 6 cloves
hoisin sauce 1/3 cup
red bell pepper, cut into strips 2 medium
red pepper flakes (optional) 1/8 tsp.
reduced sodium tamari 1 tbsp.
sake 2 tbsp.
sesame oil 1 tsp.
walnuts, chopped 4 tbsp.
water 1/3 cup
Directions:
1. Cut the tofu into 1″ cubes. Season with 1/2 tsp. Sesame oil and 1 tbsp tamari. Combine the hoisin sauce, sake, remaining sesame oil and tamari and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat until hot, but not smoking. Make sure the tofu is patted very dry to prevent sticking. Add the tofu to the wok and stir-fry until lightly golden. Transfer the tofu to a platter and reduce the heat to medium-high.
3. Saute the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes (optional) and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the red bell pepper, broccoli and walnuts and toss to coat with the garlic. Pour in the water, toss the vegetables, then cover the pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender but crunchy.
4. Stir in the tofu, then pour in the sauce mixture. Stir-fry for 1 minute or until the sauce coats everything and is thickened. May be served with steamed brown rice.
Filet of Sole with Homemade Meyer Lemondaise (Lemon Mayonnaise) RecipeServings:3Serving Size:5 oz.Ingredients
1 lb. fillet of sole, rinsed
¾ cup white wine
2 tbsp. unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp. NutriFit Lemon Garden Salt Free Spice Blend
2 tbsp. shallots, minced
½ tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 3 tbsp. water
½ tsp. sea salt
5 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. Zest of 1 lemon, grated
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ tsp. turmeric
1 cup fat free half and half
Directions
To make lemondaise: In a medium size saucepan, reduce wine, turmeric, shallots and lemon zest until volume is reduced by 2/3. Add cornstarch slurry bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until thickened. Whisk in half and half, but do not boil (if using fat free half and half). Add lemon zest and juice and puree sauce. Set aside.
To make fish: Wash fish and pat dry with paper towels. Lightly dust with flour, mixed with Lemon Garden seasoning.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and fish fillets in a single layer, shaking pan gently to prevent sticking. Cook until lightly browned (about 4 minutes, depending on thickness of fish), then turn and cook on opposite side until lightly browned.
To serve, top each filet with a tablespoonful of the sauce across the middle of the fillet, top with fresh chopped thyme or Italian parsley.
Homemade Valentine’s Day Chocolate-Dipped StrawberriesServings: 2
Serving Size: 3 berries
Ingredients
1 oz. semisweet/ dark chocolate
6 ea. strawberries, whole
Directions
1. In a double-boiler, melt chocolate, do not boil.
2. Gently wash strawberries and pat dry with paper towel.
3. Dip berries into chocolate (halfway up the berry) and place on wax paper to cool and harden. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Grilled Shrimp (Prawns) with Lemon CoulisServings: 9
Serving Size: 5 oz
Ingredients
2 ea. garlic cloves, peeled
3 lb. shrimp
¼ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. sea salt
5 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
¼ cup fresh oregano, finely chopped
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup vegetable broth
3 ea. lemons
Directions
1. Snip through shells of shrimp along middle of back using kitchen shears, exposing vein and leaving tail and adjoining segment of shell intact. Devein shrimp, leaving shells in place.
2. Mince and mash garlic to a paste with salt using a large heavy knife or a mortar and pestle. Transfer to a blender along with lemon juice, broth and pepper and blend until smooth. With motor running, add oil in a slow stream, blending until emulsified. Transfer dressing to a bowl and stir in chopped oregano.
3. Prepare grill for cooking over direct heat with medium-hot charcoal (moderate heat for gas).
4. Toss shrimp with 1/4 cup dressing in a large bowl and marinate no more than 15 minutes. (Texture of shrimp will change if marinated too long.)
Lightly brush lemon wedges with some of remaining dressing and grill, turning over once, until grill marks appear, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a large platter.
Grill shrimp on lightly oiled grill rack (covered only if using a gas grill), turning over once, until just cooked through, 7 to 8 minutes total. Transfer to platter with lemons as grilled. Serve with remaining dressing.
For all you Meatless Monday lovers – here’s a quick, easy and healthy vegetarian recipe to try out featuring an ingredient you may not have heard of – Textured Vegetable Protein!
Cajun Vegetarian Bean Casserole & Textured Vegetable Protein Recipe
Ingredients:
dried black-eyed peas 1 cup
onion, finely chopped 1/2 cup
garlic, minced and pressed 2 cloves
boiling water 1 quart
brown rice, uncooked 1/2 cup
TVP 1 cup
NutriFit Calypso Salt Free Spice Blend 1 1/2 tbsp.
sea salt 1/4 tsp.
extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp.1
Directions:
Note – For each teaspoon of the Calypso Blend, you may use: 1/2 tsp. ground chiles, 1/4 tsp. ground cumin, 1/8 tsp. each black pepper and garlic powder.
1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and cook the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the black eyed peas and seasonings and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Add the TVP and continue cooking another 15-20 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.
Jackie was quoted in an article on how to keep kids healthy during the winter months – a task that’s not always easy!
See the article by Vince Paventa on Camp Shane here –
More bad news for those with high BMI’s – a measure of body weight relative to height (not always the best marker of body fat percentage, but still relevant as a measuring tool). A study published in Lancet Oncology finds that “globally, nearly 500,000 new cancer cases were attributable to high BMI, with the BMI-cancer link higher among women than men. Highly developed nations had the most high-BMI-related cancers: North America accounted for about a quarter of all such cases. Postmenopausal breast, colon, and uterine cancers made up over 60% of all malignancies attributable to high BMI in women.”.
Also of note, other important causes of cancer, such as tobacco use and infections, are associated with an even larger proportion of cases of cancer.
So, there are 3 words that come to mind immediately: Lifestyle, lifestyle and lifestyle…
After the party’s over, it’s time to get down to getting through the rest of the holidays without doing yourself in. I like to call this the “Maintain, Don’t Gain” time of year.
1. If you’ve made the traditional version of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie – think about who in your family needs that food more than you. Drawing a blank? You can put the food in food-safe containers (like the sandwich containers that are designed to be semi-disposable) and drive them to your local food pantry or street corner where homeless people beg for food. While healthy versions of these dishes can be created, it’s too late to do so now (if you already have unhealthy leftovers), so rather than eat them yourself, either give them to a grateful neighbor or family member, or toss them out. Full fat cheese or dips and fiber-free crackers and chips belong in the same category,
2. Leftovers that you can repurpose into healthy versions include turkey and vegetables (unless they were cooked in butter). There are endless salads and stir fry dishes that can be created with bits of both, or even a turkey pot pie (using brown rice and egg white as a crust). Make a meal plan for whatever you can use up healthfully. If you have a menu thought out that actually incorporates these items, they’re much more likely to get used up in a rational manner.
3. Drinking your calories is just as bad as overeating. Start this period off right by committing to drinking at least 2 glasses of water for every glass of wine or alcoholic beverage that you drink at dinner or a party. That’s in addition to the 8 glasses that you should be drinking daily. Let’s face it, there’s only so much liquid you can hold, so if you make that bargain with yourself before the start of an evening or event, you’ll be far less likely to consume excess beverage calories.
4. Eat a healthy, well-balanced breakfast daily. This is especially important at the holiday time of year, as it’s much more unlikely that you’ll overeat during the day if you’ve started it right with a good, satisfying breakfast.
5. Make a point to incorporate vigorous activity daily – structured or functional exercise – don’t let the day end without some form of activity. Even if it’s 15 or 20 minute intervals (walking, taking the stairs). Add that up and you’ve got over an hour a week of exercise, which wakes up your body, your brain and helps keep your stress at bay. This can greatly help “curb the insanity” that starts just after Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is here and I am reminded of a friend of mine, born and raised abroad, telling me years ago why he had fully embraced this great American holiday.
“Food, Family and Football!”
“But in all seriousness, Thanksgiving is the perfect American holiday” he continued. “Non-denominational, embraced by every creed and celebrated by every wave of immigrant to have graced these shores. Thanksgiving transcends class, religion, money and everything else to be about, simply, Gratitude.” Well sure, what better reason for a holiday than that? And it turns out, being thankful is also good for your health. Noted below are some fascinating facts I found recently at the Body Works exhibition.
People who are grateful in their daily lives have healthier levels of key body chemicals than those who say they are not. These individuals have been found to have lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone linked to type two diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. They also have lower counts of fibrinogen, an essential blood clotting protein that in high doses is an indicator of future heart disease. People who are grateful respond differently to their environment and cut their risk of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Grateful people also report higher levels of optimism and, those who think of the glass as half full are less likely to die of heart disease than pessimists. To believe that the worst will happen is more significant than age, weight or heart condition in increasing your risk of dying from heart disease.
So, enjoy the Holidays with your family, try to eat healthily and mindfully, and remember the gratitude you feel is good for you too!
All ready to cook for Thanksgiving but realize you’re missing a few ingredients? Or your recipe needs a little extra help? There are several dilemmas I and clients of mine have come across, around Thanksgiving:
What to do if there’s no buttermilk in the house? Pour 1 cup of nonfat or 1% milk into a measuring glass. Remove 1 tbsp. and add in 1 tbsp. of plain white vinegar or lemon juice. Stir, wait 15 minutes and use in place of buttermilk.
Need to thicken gravy but have no cornstarch or trying to avoid the gluten in flour? Try arrowroot or potato starch instead! They’re all natural thickeners that work very much the same way. Still stumped? Puree a potato (well cooked) in with the gravy until desired consistency is reached.
Sick of traditional, canned, jellied cranberry sauce? Try a pineapple-cranberry relish or salsa instead. It’ll be a sparkling, refreshing change of pace that’s still reminiscent of cranberry without the gloppy stuff.
Here’s the last Thanksgiving recipe I have for you: Sweet Potato Soufflé. It’s golden brown, light and delicious! Let me know what you think…
Sweet Potato Soufflé RecipePreparation Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
½ Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. trans-fat free, lite margarine
¼ Cup Grape Nuts cereal
¼ Cup Chopped Pecans
¼ Cup Sugar
4 Cups Cooked, Cubed Sweet Potato
2 Tbsp. unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
½ Cup Fat Free Egg Substitute
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven 350° F. Spray a 1 1/4-quart casserole and set the casserole aside.
2. Toast the pecans by placing them on a baking sheet and toasting them in the oven until they are fragrant and a golden brown color.
3. Using a food processor, process the sweet potatoes, egg substitute, sugar, vanilla, and 2 tbsp. of the flour until the mixture is mostly smooth, leaving some small chunks of sweet potato for texture. Transfer the mixture to the prepared casserole.
4. In a small bowl, use your fingers to rub together the brown sugar, the remaining 3 tbsp. flour, and the margarine until crumbly. Stir in the pecans and the cereal. Sprinkle the mixture on top of the casserole.
5. Bake the soufflé for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve immediately.
But if cooking is too much for you this holiday season, NutriFit is here to help serve up delicious healthy sides that come straight to your door! Call us at (310) 473-1989 or order online
Here are two more delicious Thanksgiving sides to wow family and friends (especially the calories!); Pumpkin and Squash Risotto, and Spicy Sautéed Yams with Kale. Enjoy!
Pumpkin and Squash Risotto Recipe
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 60 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
2 cups butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1″ cubes
2 cups pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 tsp. NutriFit Mediterranean Salt Free Spice Blend
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3 cups fat free, reduced sodium vegetable broth
2 cups onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup short grain brown rice
¼ cup dry white wine
2 tbsp. parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. white pepper
Directions: Note: For each teaspoon of the Mediterranean Spice Blend, you may substitute: 1/4 tsp. basil, 1/4 tsp. oregano, 1/4 tsp garlic powder and 1/4 tsp. black pepper.
1. Sprinkle pumpkin and squash with the Mediterranean Spice Blend. Steam, covered, for 15 minutes or until tender; set aside.
2. Bring broth to a simmer in a saucepan (do not boil). Keep warm over low heat.
3. Heat a large saucepan with cooking spray; place over medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic; saute 5 minutes. Add rice; saute 1 minute. Add wine; cook 1 minute or until liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly.
4. Add warm broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of broth is absorbed before adding the next (about 18 minutes total).
5. Stir in squashes; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat; stir in cheese and remaining ingredients. Serve immediately.
Nutrient Information: (serving size: 1 cup)
Calories: 142; %Calories from fat: 12.85%; Total fat: 2.028g; Protein: 5.736g
Carbohydrate: 25.4g; Dietary Fiber: 4.306g; Cholesterol: 1g; Sodium: 203mg
###
Spicy Sautéed Yams with Kale RecipePreparation Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. curry powder
2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 fresh jalapeno chile, seeded and cut lengthwise into fine strips
1 3/4 lbs. kale, washed, stems removed, and torn
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 3/4 cups reduced sodium vegetable broth
1 lb. yams or sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2″ dice
Directions:
1. Combine the vegetables, broth, and ground spices in a large nonstick casserole and toss to mix.
2. Place over moderately high heat and bring to a boil. Partially cover, reduce heat slightly, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has nearly evaporated (15 to 20 minutes) and the root vegetables are fork-tender.
3. Toss well and transfer to a serving dish. Drizzle with lime juice and olive oil. Serve warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with jalapeno chile.
Nutrient Information: (serving size: 1 cup)
Calories: 168; %Calories from fat: 14.25%; Total fat: 2.66g; Protein: 5.344g
Carbohydrate: 31.33g; Dietary Fiber: 3.261g; Cholesterol: 0g; Sodium: 105mg
Again, if cooking is too much for you this holiday season, NutriFit is here to help serve up delicious healthy sides that come straight to your door! Call us at (310) 473-1989 or order online.
Stuck for delicious wholesome sides for Thanksgiving the whole family will enjoy, that are unique? Try my recipes for Apple Stuffing Casserole and Couscous Salad with Chicken & Cranberries.
Apple Stuffing CasserolePreparation Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 12
Ingredients:
2 cup (about 3 cups) McIntosh apples, pared and chopped
3 tbsp. canola oil
¼ cup celery leaves
½ cup celery, chopped
1 cup Mocha Mix lite
spray non stick cooking spray
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp. parsley, chopped
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ cup raisins
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup water
16 slices whole wheat bread, dried, cut into 1/2″ cubes
½ cup fat free egg substitute
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Spray a 6-cup baking dish with cooking spray. Mix all the ingredients together, including raisins (if using), and bake for about 45 minutes.
Nutrient Information: (serving size: ¾ cup)
Calories: 144; %Calories from fat: 31.94%; Total fat: 5.11g; Protein: 4.27g
Carbohydrate: 22.59g; Dietary Fiber: 3.276g; Cholesterol: 0g; Sodium: 243mg
###
Couscous Salad with Chicken & CranberriesPreparation Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 20
Ingredients:
1 (10 oz.) whole wheat couscous
1 (15 oz.) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp. canola oil
¾ cup dried cranberries
10 oz. chicken breast, cooked and diced
2 cups fat free, reduced sodium chicken broth
5 tbsp. fresh mint, chopped
5 ea. green onions, chopped
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
Directions:
1. Heat the canola oil, cinnamon, and cumin in a small saucepan, stirring the mixture constantly. Then pour the mixture into a small bowl to cool.
2. Bring the broth to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Mix in the couscous, chicken and cranberries. Cover and remove from the heat. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Then transfer the couscous to a bowl; fluff the couscous with a fork. Cool. Whisk the vinegar into oil mixture. Pour over the couscous. Mix in the green onions, beans and mint. Season with salt and pepper. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Nutrient Information: (serving size: ¼ cup)
Calories: 112; %Calories from fat: 15.77%; Total fat: 1.962g; Protein: 6.442g
Carbohydrate: 17.85g; Dietary Fiber: 2.433g; Cholesterol: 8g; Sodium: 65mg
But if cooking is too much for you this holiday season, NutriFit is here to help serve up delicious healthy sides that come straight to your door! Call us at (310) 473-1989 or order online.
Looking for creative recipes to get turkey onto all plates this holiday season? Here are some good ideas for incorporating leftover Thanksgiving turkey for the most finicky of all eaters!
1. Incorporate turkey into a filled pasta dish, like manicotti or shells or mince and mix with ricotta cheese, which “disguises” it well!
2. Mince and bind turkey in a mixture with egg whites, whole wheat bread crumbs, diced onions and seasonings – it makes a great croquette.
3. Cut turkey into small cubes and mix with chopped apples, grapes, celery, and jicama, and dress with a reduced fat or fat free mayonnaise – it makes a delicious pita pocket sandwich.
www.nutrifitonline.com
How about a deliciously healthy recipe to celebrate National Stuffing Day?
Sweet Potato Stuffing Recipe*recipe by Jackie Keller, NutriFit
Ingredients:
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
3 large sweet potatoes
2 tbsp. grated rind and juice of 1 large orange
dash paprika, pepper, and garlic powder
1 large yellow onion, chopped
spray nonstick cooking spray
1/2 cup parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 medium celery stalk, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. trans-fat free, lite margarine
1 tsp. dried sage, crumbled
Directions:
1. Place the sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan, cover with boiling water; add the salt and cook, covered, for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife. Drain well and mash. Stir in the grated orange rind.
2. Meanwhile, melt the margarine in a 10″ skillet over moderate heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery and parsnip, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the sage. Blend the mixture into the mashed sweet potatoes. Let the potatoes cool slightly, then spoon it into the cavities of a turkey breast or serve as a side dish.
Enjoy!www.nutrifitonline.com
How about a deliciously healthy recipe to celebrate!
Peanut Butter Hot Fudge Dip*recipe by Jackie Keller, NutriFit
Ingredients:
1 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup fat free evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. reduced fat peanut butter
1/2 unsweetened cocoa
Directions:
1. Place the cocoa and sugar, in a 1 1/2-quart pan, and mix well.
2. Slowly whisk in the two types of milk.
3. Place the pan over medium heat, and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes, or just until the mixture comes to a boil.
4. Reduce the heat to low, add the peanut butter, and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes, or until the mixture the peanut butter has melted.
5. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the vanilla extract.
6. Serve the dip warm, with cake or graham cracker squares, fresh strawberries, and/or chunks of bananas, pineapples, apples, or pears.
Enjoy!www.nutrifitonline.com
Celebrate NutriFit’s deliciously healthy
Homemade Vanilla Walnut Cupcake Recipe
Servings: 12
Serving Size: 1 cupcake
Ingredients:
1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. trans-fat free, lite margarine
¼ cup fat free egg substitute
1 cup fat free evaporated milk
¾ cup sugar
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. walnuts, finely chopped
1 tbsp. low fat sweetened condensed milk
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a jumbo muffin pan with cooking spray.
2. Toast walnuts until fragrant.
3. Mix the flour and baking powder together.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg substitute with the sugar and margarine.
5. Add the milk and the vanilla extract.
6. Stir in the flour mixture just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
7. The mixture will be lumpy; do not overmix.
8. Scoop the mixture into the prepared pan, filling the cup about 2/3 full.
9. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
10. In a separate bowl, combine the walnuts and cinnamon; stir to mix.
11. Drizzle condensed milk on top of muffin, and sprinkle the walnut mixture on top of each muffin.
www.nutrifitonline.com
Homemade Spicy Baked Apples Recipe
Ingredients:
1/3 Cup Apple Juice
4 Medium Apples
1/3 Cup dry white wine
¼ tsp. Ground Cinnamon
2 Tbsp. Finely Grated Orange Peel
1 Tbsp. Raisins
1 Tbsp. Chopped Walnuts
1/3 Cup Water
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Toast the walnuts until fragrant and golden brown. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan over low heat, simmer the apple juice, wine, and water for 10 minutes. Add the orange zest and set aside.
3. Core and peel the apples halfway down from stem end. Place in a small nonreactive baking pan just large enough for the apples and reserved apple liquid. Generously sprinkle the apples with the cinnamon. Fill each apple center with raisins.
4. Bake, basting with pan juices every 10 minutes, until apples are tender but still hold their shape, about 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Serve the apples warm with 1 tablespoon of the pan juices spooned into the cored center. Top each serving with chopped walnuts.
The excessive amount of sugar kids consume during and after the Halloween holiday can be spooky. But it doesn’t have to be. Though most trick-or-treaters tend to throw out the apples and raisins put in their pillow sacks, there are yummy treats that offer a nice compromise – great taste without all the sugar. It’s all in the way you present it. Little ones will love these healthy trick-or-treat alternatives – and parents, you’ll love the way their children respond to them. Get your kids involved in preparing healthy treats. Letting them decorate their own creations using miniature candies/chips/sprinkles means they’ll have a blast making and eating them!
Homemade Rocky Road Popcorn Balls Recipe
Servings: 20
Serving Size: 1 rocky road popcorn ball
Ingredients:
8 cups air-popped popcorn
¼ Cup toasted chopped almonds
2 tsp. cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. trans-fat free, lite margarine
¼ Cup fat free evaporated milk
½ Cup Hershey’s Cocoa
¾ Cup light corn syrup
1 Cup miniature marshmallows
1/8 tsp. Salt
1 ¼ Cups Sugar
Directions:
1. In a heavy saucepan, mix together the sugar, cocoa, corn syrup, vinegar, and salt.
2. Add the margarine and cook slowly, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil; add the evaporated milk slowly so it does not stop boiling.
4. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 265°F when measured with a candy thermometer.
5. Add the nuts and marshmallows to the chocolate mixture. Mix into the fresh popcorn.
6. Dip out large spoonfuls and make into balls, wetting your hands first in cold water or rubbing them lightly with margarine.
7. Assemble into balls quickly before the mixture hardens.
8. Place the balls on wax paper and cool.
Enjoy!
Here’s the first of a few deliciously healthy recipes we’re sharing this week in the spirit of Halloween week!
Simple Homemade Pumpkin Hummus Recipe (Vegan)
Servings: 12
Serving Size: 2 tbsp.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. sesame tahini
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. NutriFit Rockin’ Moroccan Salt Free Spice Blend
1 tbsp. vegetable broth
1 ea. garlic, minced and pressed
2 tbsp. Italian parsley, finely chopped
2 cups canned pumpkin puree
½ tsp. sea salt
Directions:
1. Place tahini, lemon juice, spice belnd, broth, garlic, pumpkin and salt in a food processor, and process until smooth.
2. Add parsley, pulse until blended. Taste for seasoning.
3. Garnish with pumpkin seed kernels, if desired.
Be sure to check back regularly for more great Halloween recipes, and let us know if you try them!
Was so thrilled to read these lovely comments from NutriFit client, Margo Milman. “I have been using NutriFit for the past 3 months and have lost l0 pounds; but that is not what I want to talk about. My husband and I were hosting a Caribbean themed party and were debating who to use to cater the event. So we tested a couple of Puerto Rican restaurants, considered our standard Cuban go to restaurant Portos, and then we spoke to Jackie Keller at NutriFit to see if they were able to cater such an event. She was happy to help us to arrange a menu in conjunction with her Chef, Chef Antonio. We worked with Jackie and Chef Antonio to produce a healthy, tasty Caribbean menu. The food so far exceeded our expectations-we and our guests were just blown away. Moreover Chef Antonio stayed to make sure that everything was just perfect. He served our 25 guests, was engaging, professional, and delightful. He explained the preparations for people who inquired (and most did), and stayed all the way through desert which came several hours after the initial appetizers were served. This was a cornerstone to an extremely successful party. I’d append all the lovely comments from our guests, but there are just to many to include.” Let us help you with your holiday parties this season. Call us today! 310.473.1989
I was relieved to read the article in the L.A. Times about the advent of hydrogen fuel cell technology! While I do see other cars at my hydrogen fill-up station (at Federal & Santa Monica Blvds. in west L.A.), people usually parked there because they think that the pump is unused!
Gotta say that while I relish standing out from the crowd by driving my Honda FCX Fuel Cell Clarity, I’d just as soon see tons of these fantastic cars on the road. I’m so excited at the prospect of a new model coming out in a year or two, and having 40 stations around to use for fueling up.
Read this article and get excited too! Advancing fuel cell and alternative technologies are not only good for the environment, they’re good for the economy. It’s time to get off gas for good!
If you’re like most people, trying to figure out the best eating regimen for your lifestyle can be far more perplexing than it seemingly should be. Simple answers to complex questions are rarely adequate, and when it comes to optimal diets, this is certainly true.
It’s a subject so widely debated you don’t have to go far to find warring expert opinions on vegan diets vs. carnivore diets vs. fasting diets – and the list goes on. What’s the answer? I turned to internationally recognized experts for opinions, people that I admire and consider leaders in the field. Peruse the quotes below!
Sports Nutritionist and Author of four books, Nancy Clark, RD, CSSD, says: “When people rave about the Paleo Diet, I ask what they were eating pre-Paleo. The answer tends to be “Junk.” So of course they feel better when they eat cleaner. There is nothing magic about Paleo. It is limiting, and a challenge to eat a balanced Paleo Diet that includes enough carbs and calcium. I vote for a modified Paleo — eating cleaner, closer to the earth (less processed foods), more whole grains, lots of fruit and veggies, lean proteins and low fat dairy or alternate sources of calcium. Just be sure you create an eating plan that you will enjoy maintaining for the rest of your life. Balanced and moderate diets tend to be sustainable in the long run. If you are doing Paleo, do you really never want to eat Thanksgiving stuffing or birthday cake ever again? That doesn’t sound very healthy to me.” Reading this carefully, what Nancy Clark is recommending, as confirmed in her recent blog post, is eating a wholesome variety of foods from all food groups. She consistently refrains from demonizing any particular food, which I find very refreshing. Clearly, some foods are not good for us, but setting up a meal plan that forbids foods simply sets the stage for people cheat or fall off the wagon. Most of my clients who follow regimens that remove whole categories of foods, without a medical need to do so, do report that they “break their diet”, and then binge.
Then there’s this article, a special feature printed in the prestigious Nutrition Action Newsletter, a publication of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Written by Marlene Zuk, professor of ecology, evolution and behavior at the University of Minnesota and author of the book, Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells us about Sex, Diet and How We Live. In this question and answer format article, the Paleo premise is explored in some detail. Here are some questions and answers:
In answer to the question,
Q: Is the Paleo diet our natural diet?
The problem is that it’s really a fantasy to try to construct what early humans were eating.
First of all, what do you mean by early humans? The word “Paleo” doesn’t mean much from a scientific perspective. Are you talking about the ancestors of the genus Homo, such as Australopithecus? Are you talking about other members of the genus Homo, like Homo erectus? Or do you mean humans in Africa before they migrated out of that continent? Or is it after they left Africa? Or are we talking about people who were living the way that contemporary hunter-gatherers do—people who forage and hunt but don’t use agriculture?
Q: What difference would that make?
A: Because so far as we can understand, the diets of all these different early humans were really different. What people were eating 10,000 years ago at the dawn of agriculture, for instance, was doubtless not what people were eating 100,000 years before that.
Q: Didn’t their diets also depend on where they were living?
A: Yes. Picking a specific place or time to say, “Oh yes, we should be eating like those people,” doesn’t make sense. Is seafood okay on a Paleo diet? I suppose it depends on whether you think Paleo people were living on the northwest coast of North America, or whether you think they were in central Africa, in which case
I don’t think there were a lot of shrimp available there. Take the ancestors of the Inuit First Americans living in the Arctic. They get a lot of attention from Paleo enthusiasts because they relied on meat and seafood for food since so few edible plants grow up there. But the fact that nothing grows there just means that people can adapt to living without a lot of plant food. It doesn’t mean that they should live that way if they have a choice.
Q: The Paleo diet shuns grains. Did early humans ever eat them?
A: The absence of starchy foods on a Paleo diet is really interesting because it’s based on a fantasy of what our ancestors ate. Over the last 10 years, after Paleo diets started to become popular, scientists have discovered traces of seeds and grains on the teeth of fossilized early humans. They’ve also found remnants of grains on stone cooking tools.
It’s looking like some early humans not only ate grain, but they also were grinding it into a crude flour and cooking that into a primitive form of pita bread.
There’s also good evidence now for a continued evolution in amylase genes. Amylase is an enzyme in our saliva and our small intestine that breaks down starches so we can absorb them. If you look at populations today that eat a lot of starch, they’ve evolved more copies of amylase genes than populations that don’t eat much starch. Extra copies make the digestion of starchy foods even easier.
The moral is that you’re really on shaky ground every time you try to set up a “this is how it was and that’s how we should be” standard. We’re always revising our ideas of what early humans were like, and that is a worthwhile endeavor. But we shouldn’t do it to find what we’re supposed to emulate.
Q: Does Paleo food exist today?
A: Not really. Even if you wanted to try to eat what people were eating a long time ago, the majority of those foods are simply not available. Early humans were not eating plants or animals that resembled very closely the plants or animals that we eat today.
Human beings have been influencing the foods they eat ever since there were people. For example, the ancestors of apples were nasty, horrible, little tiny bitter things that, really, why would one eat them?
The ancestor of corn that was used by peoples in the Americas for quite a long time was called teosinte. It looked like the head of a grass seed, which it basically was, and nothing like what people eat now.
The meat in the supermarket, even grass-fed beef, has also been modified from its ancestors by breeding. People underestimate the degree to which human beings have affected everything in their environment.
And finally, another of my go-to gurus, David Katz, MD, MPH, globally recognized expert in nutrition, weight management and chronic disease prevention. He is the President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine; Director, Yale Prevention Research Center; and Editor-In-Chief of Childhood Obesity journal.
Since many people who exercise using the CrossFit model are following the Paleo diet protocol, I share this from his article on the Eating Practices of the Best Endurance Athletes in the World:
Kenyan runners tend to eat a limited variety of foods, and that was certainly the case with these elite athletes. Most of their nutrients came from vegetable sources, and the “staple” edibles were bread, boiled rice, poached potatoes, boiled porridge, cabbage, kidney beans and ugali (a well-cooked, corn-meal paste that’s molded into balls and dipped into other foods for flavoring).
Meat (primarily beef) was eaten just four times a week in fairly small amounts (about 100 grams — 3.5 ounces a day). A fair amount of tea with milk and sugar was imbibed on a daily basis (more on this in a moment).
If you’re thinking about heading to a nutritional-supplement store to purchase some performance-enhancing supplements (or you already purchase on a regular basis), bear in mind that the Kenyan runners were not taking supplements of any kind. There were no vitamins, no minerals, no special formulations or miracle compounds, nada. The gold-medal-winning Kenyans adhered to the odd philosophy that regular foods could fuel their efforts quite nicely.
And there’s this quote, from his Huffington Post article, “I have long emphasized the relevance of adaptation to the dietary requirements of every species, and thus, presumably our own. This lends support to approximations of our native diet, popularized under the “Paleo” rubric. But I have also noted that mammoth is hard to find these days, that our Paleolithic ancestors got lots of exercise and consumed an estimated 100 grams of fiber daily, and that even they ate “mostly plants”. And he concludes, “whether about wheat or meat, sugar or starch, calories or carbohydrates, this fat or that fat, we seem to have an insatiable appetite for mere grains of truth about diet and health, rather than the complete recipe. Planting such seeds, we are reaping just what we are sowing: more heat than light, unending opportunities for food industry abuses, stunning lack of public health progress and the very kind of trees that make the forest impossible to see.
Back again, then, to Shakespeare, “Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?” I am merely collecting information, assembling facts and piecing together the puzzle. So far, the image is clear – all foods have their place in a healthy diet today. There is no one solution to the best diet dilemma, rather a collection of elements, that when taken together and as a whole, improve our chances for avoiding obesity and the diseases associated with it.
For coffee lovers like me, what could possible make this day better? How about chocolate cookies! Even better still… why not put some coffee IN your chocolate cookies. That’s right, coffee is one of the key secret ingredients in my Smiley’s Chocolate Cookies. This is a secret too deliciously healthy and tasty to keep. So in honor of National Coffee Day, here’s my recipe for Smiley’s Chocolate Cookies.
Smiley’s Chocolate Coffee Cookie Recipe*Recipe by Jackie Keller
Serving Size: 1 cookie
Servings: 48
Ingredients:
½ cup mini chocolate chips
½ cup baby food prunes or prune puree
½ cup reduced fat, plain yogurt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
¼ cup canola oil
1 spray Canola oil cooking spray
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
½ tsp. instant coffee granules
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup fat free egg substitute
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, or spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, prune puree, yogurt, oil, and egg substitute. In a separate bowl or extra large measuring cup, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and coffee, making sure it is well mixed. Using a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing until just blended.
3. Drop the dough by rounded teaspoons onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies about 2″ apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the tops spring back when touched lightly. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool. Freeze if not eaten on the same day as they are baked.
Making the Most of Family Meals…
Feeling guilty about not finding time to have dinner together as a family? Wondering if you’re ever going to be able get everyone to sit down at the same time? There are some significant benefits! In addition to the nutritional advantages, there are social and academic benefits. The dinner table can be a place where children can learn vocabulary-building words that help them read well, conversational skills, and problem-solving skills by listening to parents talk about work and world events.
Here are five family dinner tips to help you celebrate Family Day:
1. Start with whatever meals are possible for you now. If it’s breakfast together on the weekends, fine. Don’t worry about what you can’t do, plan for what you can.
2. Mealtime conversations can begin while you’re getting food ready, getting the table ready, and cleaning up. Involve the family in the whole process, and everyone will benefit not only from the conversation, but from the life skills that are learned as well.
3. Turn off the television and the radio. Unplug the phone or put on the answering machine. Don’t let interruptions disrupt this special time.
4. Try changing the location of the family meal once in awhile. How about an afternoon picnic, dinner on the patio or breakfast on the biggest bed? Laughter is the best mealtime music – keep the conversation light and avoid undue criticism.
5. Make the menu work for everyone- including family members in meal planning. Ask kids to help choose the meals you eat, include them in weekly meal & school lunch planning. They’ll enjoy the food that much more!
What’s in your child’s lunch box? Research from the University of Michigan Health System shows that more than one in three middle school students who regularly eat school lunches are obese or overweight! They’re also more likely to have high LDL “bad” cholesterol levels than kids who bring lunch from home. Each day, over 30 million children are provided with reduced-cost or free lunches as part of the National School Lunch Program. The NSLP requires that lunches meet nutritional guidelines established by the USDA, however, these lunches often contain processed foods full of sugar, carbohydrates and sodium (which there is no maximum amount mandated by the USDA). Instead of highly processed snacks, whole fat dairy, and sugary desserts, send your children with the best nutritional start in life by letting NutriFit Family Fare fill their lunch box! Lunch box items are now available on our Family Fare menu.
We love Pancakes! And to celebrate National Pancake Day, we’re sharing two of our favorite deliciously healthy Pancake Recipes!
Homemade Pumpkin Spice Pancakes*recipe by Jackie Keller
Servings: 5
Serving Size: 3 pancakes
Ingredients:
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 cup fat free milk
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 tbsp. canola oil
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup fat free egg substitute
Directions:
1. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves in a medium bowl: make a well in the center of the mixture
2. Combine the pumpkin puree, milk, egg substitute, and oil: add the mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
3. Preheat a nonstick griddle to 325 F. For each pancake, spoon about 1/4 cup of the batter onto a hot griddle, spread to a 5″ circle. Cook the pancakes until the tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked; flip the pancakes and cook the other side. Serve with applesauce or apple butter, if desired.
Zucchini Pancakes*recipe by Jackie Keller
Servings: 6
Serving Size: 4 pancakes
Ingredients:
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
spray Canola oil cooking spray
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 tsp. NutriFit Lemon Garden Salt & Sugar Free Spice Blend
1/2 cup fat free egg substitute
2 cups zucchini, coarsely shredded
Directions:
1. Place zucchini in a colander and press out as much moisture as possible
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix egg substitute, onion, and zucchini. Add dry ingredients and mix. Heat cooking spray on the griddle or skillet over medium heat.
3. Drop a scant tablespoon of a batter onto the hot griddle. Flatten, if desired, and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until brown and crisp.
Please share with your friends, and let us know if you try them out for yourself!
Start each day with a good breakfast.Study after study confirms that we eat less over the course of the day if we start with a good breakfast.
A balanced approach is generally best – meaning some lean protein (low or fat free dairy or eggs), with a reasonable portion of high fiber, complex carbohydrate (whole grain toast or cereal), and a serving of fruit or vegetable. And DRINK A GLASS of WATER with breakfast, even if you have coffee or tea. Your body is in a state of dehydration from the night of sleep.
Here’s some simple deliciously healthy breakfast recipe you can make tonight for a Better Breakfast tomorrow Lavosh with Peanut Butter & Dried Fruit Recipe
Servings: 12
Serving Size: 3″ piece
Ingredients:
12 oz. extra firm lite tofu
2 pieces lavosh
1 1/8 cups reduced fat peanut butter
1 oz. dried cranberries
1 oz. raisins
1 oz. dates, chopped
Directions:
1. Combine the tofu and peanut butter in the carafe of a food processor and mix well.
2. Spread each piece of lavosh lightly with peanut butter mixture.
3. Arrange the mixed fruit evenly over the top.
4. Roll and cut each lavosh roll into 6 even pieces. 5. Serve immediately or wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Recipe by Jackie Keller, NutriFit
www.nutrifitonline.com
Visited the AltCar Expo on Saturday in Santa Monica. Excited to see the map of all the new hydrogen stations popping up! I definitely see more Clarity in my future ????
In honor of National Cheeseburger Day, here’s my recipe for a deliciously healthy Texas Beef BurgerNutriFit’s Texas Beef BurgerServing Size: 1 Patty
Servings: 4
Ingredients
1 pound extra lean ground beef
1/3 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs, toasted
1/4 cup fat free, cholesterol free egg substitute
3 oz. reduced fat cheddar cheese
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
Extra virgin olive oil spray
1 teaspoon NutriFit Calypso Salt & Sugar Free Spice blend, or salt free chili powder
Directions
1. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray with extra virgin olive oil spray. Add the onions, and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Let cool.
2. In a medium-size bowl, mix the egg substitute, bread crumbs, spices and onions; then lightly mix in the ground beef. Shape the ground beef mixture into 4 patties, each about 1/2 inch thick.
3. Spray a wide nonstick frying pan with extra virgin olive oil cooking spray. Place over medium-high heat; add the hamburger patties. Cook, turning once, until patties are lightly browned on both sides and juices run clear when knife is inserted in center (8 to 10 minutes). Top each burger with 1 slice of cheese and cook until cheese melts. Serve on sprouted wheat buns.
Please share with your friends, and let me know if you try the recipe!
Want to win at weight loss? Good news or bad news first? In this case, they’re the same!
In a study published today in JAMA, a meta-analysis of over 48 unique randomized trials (that included over 7,000 individuals) showed that both low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets produced nearly the same results at 6 months. Weight loss differences between individual diets were minimal. The conclusion of the researchers: the practice of recommending any diet that a patient can adhere to can produce weight loss results.
Healthy Ever After? Maybe your marriage IS working! According to the conclusions of the largest study of its kind, married people are less likely to suffer from heart disease, stroke and circulatory issues. In an analysis of data of health screenings done by a private company on more than 3.5 million Americans, average age 64, married people were 5% less likely to have cardiovascular problems than singles.
Will knowledge change behavior? Apparently not, when it comes to what we order when we eat out! New research published in the Journal of Community Health concluded (after a review of 31 studies) calorie levels don’t affect our choices when it comes to reducing the number of calories we order. Interestingly, women, those dieting and upper-income diners pay the most attention to what restaurants tell us about calorie counts on their menus, but overall – not a change-maker when it comes to impact! Maybe we just need to go back to red, yellow and green signal indicators???
This article from the L.A. Times today tells us that we truly need to get up and GO, if we want those to lose any weight! And while it suggests that we’re not necessarily overeating – many do. Read it and let me know what you think!
Read the entire article here:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-lack-of-exercise-linked-to-rise-in-obesity-20140707-story.html
A question I’m frequently asked by my Body After Baby clients is what are your top nutrition tips for new moms so I thought I would share my top 5. For more nutrition and exercise tips, as well as recipes and full meal plans – check out my book, Body After Baby – available on Amazon.com!
1). Be mindful when you eat. It’s important to eat regularly, adequately and
healthfully, and easy to slip into the habit of eating without thinking.
2). Keep fruit and vegetables handy and eat them often. It’s nearly
impossible to eat too much of either one.
3). Eat a good breakfast daily. No matter what, it’s important to anchor the
day with a healthful meal. It sets you up for success the whole day.
4). Keep a journal. It’s important to maintain some perspective on your
overall eating, drinking, and sleeping habits. Share it with someone if you
like, but record it for yourself.
5). Set realistic goals each week. Break down big goals into smaller steps
and set 3 specific activities each week that you think you really can
accomplish. Identifying obstacles to reaching your nutritional goals is half
of the problem – it’s usually what trips us up.
Green Bean & Corn Salad Recipe with Roasted Anaheim Peppers
Servings: 6 Serving Size: 1 cup
Ingredients:
1 large anaheim chile pepper, seeded and diced
2 cups green beans, trimmed, cut crosswise into thirds
2 cups corn kernels
2 cups fresh spinach, well washed and ribs removed
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
3 tbsp. green onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped
Directions:
1. Place chile on a foil-lined baking sheet, broil 10 minutes or until blackened, turning occasionally. Place in a zip-top plastic bag, seal. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel and cut in half lengthwise. Discard seeds and membranes, chop.
2. Steam green beans, covered, 5 minutes or until crisp-tender, grain. Rinse with cold water, drain well.
3. Combine chopped chile, beans, corn, chopped spinach and tomatoes. Toss with Lime vinaigrette-style dressing, green onions and fresh cilantro.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed and our international cooking
series. You know, when I was a teenager I wanted desperately to go to
France and attend Le Cordon Bleu. I’ve been fortunate during my life
to travel the world and of course I got to do it. I went to Le Cordon
Bleu in Paris and I studied at the Chef’s school there but while I was
there I had a lot of spare time, too to tell you the truth and I did a
lot of shopping around and looking for little, unique, interesting
food tools and gadgets and little markets and you know it’s amazing
what you can find when you go to another country and you really get
immersed in what their food culture is like.
France is a nation of food lovers and the food culture is enormous.
There are over 5,000 restaurants in Paris alone and of course now that
I’m a health coach I’m always interested in how people manage their
health and how they manage their weight and that French paradox, you
know those low rates of chronic heart disease, they’re still a mystery
for us. Despite the fact that the French have a high amount of
saturated fat in their diet, we still don’t really know how they
manage to stay so slender. Some attribute it to the consumption of red
wine and the French do love to drink their wine. The French style of
eating and the low incidence of obesity kind of don’t mesh. We still
don’t get it. The obesity rates are among the lowest in the entire
European Union and particularly French men have some of the lowest
obesity rates on the continent and France has the second lowest
obesity rates among women on the European continent.
So there you go. There are three or four main approaches to French
food. First is the classical French cooking and that traditionally
uses cream-based sauces. That’s the way I learned to cook at Le Cordon
Bleu. There was cream and butter, cream and butter and everything was
made with either one or the other or both. But there’s also what’s
called Haute Cuisine, which is the most sophisticated and extreme end
of the French cooking paradigm, with very elaborate and elegant
dishes, a strong emphasis on presentation and then there’s Nouvelle
Cuisine, which is simpler, lighter, smaller portions, more emphasis on
seasonal and simpler ingredients and more what we see today among the
younger people.
And finally, the Cuisine de Terrior, the rustic, local cuisine, the
local food traditions if you will, locally grown produce, locally
sourced meats, that’s a big thing right now in France. And joining me
today on Food Exposed is Inge Rouge. Inge is a Munich born citizen of
the world. She spent the past 34 years living in six different
countries with her great husband and her two fabulous sons. Inge,
welcome to Food Exposed.
Inge Rouge: Thank you very much.
Jackie Keller: Thank you for joining me, straight from Paris.
Inga: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Well? Ooh-la-la, I thought we’d do a little classic French
cuisine today, but Nouvelle style.
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: So emphasis again on those locally sourced ingredients,
the simple, fresh herbs, the things that I know you grow at Primrose,
your home outside of Paris. So, our beautiful flower arrangement today
is fresh rosemary and the rosemary of course, you like to store it
like you do flowers, in a vase, right?
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: Did I understand; you put the stems in water and put it in
a vase and that preserves it?
Inga: Yes, it does.
Jackie Keller: Do you have to refrigerate it after you do that or can you
leave it out like roses or carnations or something?
Inga: For a couple of days you can leave it like that.
Jackie Keller: Really?
Inga: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Wow. Well, we’re going to use this rosemary to make some
interesting chicken as I understand it, right? Using this handy dandy
herb stripper tool, it’s called an herb stripper. I’d never seen one
of these before. I understand that you find them in Paris fairly
frequently. So, show us how it works.
Inga: Okay. So this has to go. It had been off, but I put it back on to
make it look nicer.
Jackie Keller: Okay. So you just take your regular piece of rosemary?
Inga: You have a regular piece of rosemary. Here you have different sizes
and I think this one will do just fine. And while we pull it through
it will also measure.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
Inga: Sorry, I…
Jackie Keller: That was not a good one.
Inga: …ripped it off. It was not a good one.
Jackie Keller: Let’s try another one.
Inga: All right.
Jackie Keller: It measures the…
Inga: It measures the leaves already.
Jackie Keller: Oh, how cool. Well, you know cleaning fresh herbs like
this is so tedious. It takes forever to get the needles off of things.
So I see you don’t take it all the way off.
Inga: No. I think it looks really pretty if a little bit is still present.
Jackie Keller: And now what? We have some chicken here.
Inga: We have some chicken here and now I just…
Jackie Keller: We’re going to make chicken rosemary skewers.
Inga: Chicken rosemary skewers, yeah.
Jackie Keller: And these are popular in France, where people grow herbs
in their own gardens and in window boxes, I understand because not all
the French have their own…
Inga: Not in Paris, not in Paris.
Jackie Keller: …homes outside of the river or on the river like you do,
right?
Inga: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: So how much chicken do you put on the skewer? A couple of
pieces?
Inga: Maybe one more. A small one. This one. This is perfect.
Jackie Keller: And then would you marinate this or would you grill it?
Would you pan saute it? What would you do with this?
Inga: Every three possibilities are possible.
Jackie Keller: Okay. And would this be in France, if we were in France
when would we eat this?
Inga: You would eat that probably for dinner, because for lunch you are
out. Most of French people work and they would go out for lunch so it
would be dinner.
Jackie Keller: So brown-bagging is not the thing, huh?
Inga: Not really. Oh, no. They like going out to restaurants and to have
really, they don’t speak of work; they eat their three course meal and
have a glass of wine.
Jackie Keller: At lunch?
Inga: At lunch.
Jackie Keller: Oh my goodness. Wow. That sounds like my kind of place.
Inga: Think about it.
Jackie Keller: I don’t know how you go back to work after having a glass
of wine in a two hour lunch.
Inga: I know, I know.
Jackie Keller: So you set these things up, now I also have some basil.
Now this basil is on a very stiff stem. This is some that I grew in
our garden.
Inga: Ah, that would work nicely.
Jackie Keller: Should we try that zip stripper thingy with that?
Inga: Yeah.
Jackie Keller: Okay.
Inga: I’ll use this one here or this one.
Jackie Keller: Oh I see, there’s different sized holes.
Inga: Yeah. Right.
Jackie Keller: That’s so clever, those French.
Inga: Very clever. Look, it’s done.
Jackie Keller: Wow. Look at that. You know half the time, I’ll tell you
the truth. I don’t even cultivate this basil and use it in my food
because it’s so much work to get the leaves off. This thing is great.
Okay so we made some ahead of time and so this is what they look like
when they’re cooked, right?
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: And that is really a very pretty presentation, very
unique. And it tastes like rosemary?
Inga: It does.
Jackie Keller: It does? Shall we taste it?
Inga: Mm-hmm.
Jackie Keller: All right. Let’s see. I could be very gauche and just eat
it off the skewer.
Inga: Why don’t you?
Jackie Keller: Okay. All right. There you go. Here. Mmm. I love the taste
of rosemary. Wow. This is wonderful.
Inga: Very nice.
Jackie Keller: Very nice.
Inga: Fresh.
Jackie Keller: And just enough rosemary. Just enough rosemary, because
sometimes rosemary can be pretty overwhelming.
Inga: It can be overpowering. That’s true, yeah.
Jackie Keller: Lovely, lovely. Well thank you for showing us this zip
stripper. And then I think you can use the herbs for all kinds of
things.
Inga: For all kinds of things. Now you can chop them up and put them
wherever you want to.
Jackie Keller: Okay. Great. Well, I appreciate your joining me today for
Food Exposed.
Inga: My pleasure, again. Thank you very much.
Jackie Keller: And I hope you’ll tune in for another segment of our
international cooking series. If you’d like this recipe or any of the
others on our show, go to the Food Exposed page on EmpowerMe.TV. And
thank you for joining me today. For more Food Exposed check me out on
EmpowerMe.TV and until next week remember, make food your best friend
and exerciser companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed in our international cooking
series. You know, I love to travel. I’ve been lucky enough to visit
every continent multiple times, and I’ve lived and studied abroad
including a short tenure at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France. One thing
I always do when I travel is visit local markets and shops, and I’m
always surprised to find some interesting food tool, something unique,
something different to try out.
Well, in Danish cuisine there’s many similarities to other damp and cool
European continents, Northern European countries I should say. Danish
food does have some distinct characteristics including a heavy
reliance on butter, cheese, potatoes, pork, bread, pastries, and all
kinds of things. The Danes love to eat, and modern Danish cuisine has
undergone many changes in recent years due to a heavy influence by
France, Spain, and Italy. Lightening up traditional dishes is more
common among the younger generation, but family meals are generally
pretty hearty, and the breakfast is a pretty hearty meal as well.
Joining me today on Food Exposed is Inga Rush [SP],a Munich born citizen of
the world. Inga has spent the past 34 years living in six different
countries with her great husband and her two fabulous sons. A simple
Danish breakfast might be eggs, right?
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: And Danish butter, what else?
Inga: What else? Ham, roast beef, marinated herrings.
Jackie Keller: Wonderful, first thing in the morning, marinated?
Inga: First thing, yes. It actually tastes quite good.
Jackie Keller: Does it?
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Well, how about we just do an egg dish?
Inga: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Alright, so I know Danish butter is worlds renowned as
are Danish cheeses, but today we’re going to go healthy, so no butter.
Instead, we’ll use a healthy margarine. Inga, why don’t you get ready
and we’ll some of this in our skillet?
Inga: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Shall we? Is that probably more than we need?
Inga: Probably.
Jackie Keller: Probably, huh?
Inga: That’s okay.
Jackie Keller: Alright, and I’ll crack an egg. Okay. Now would you leave
that butter in there or you would take it out?
Inga: I would take it out because it’s enough for . . .
Jackie Keller: So we can put it there.
Inga: Yes, right.
Jackie Keller: And seasoning, what kind of seasoning would you
traditionally use?
Inga: Traditional salt and pepper.
Jackie Keller: Salt and pepper, alright.
Inga: They’re pretty straightforward without a lot of chi chi.
Jackie Keller: Okay and there it is. That’s probably a lot. Well, so
what? Here you go; a pinch of salt?
Inga: Yes, thank you. What service.
Jackie Keller: Okay, so now to our food tool, right? Our little handy
grater, this Eva grater which goes back a long ways, here you go.
Inga: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: I have some Danish cheese, of course, Danish Havarti
cheese. Show us how it works.
Inga: Okay.
Jackie Keller: Right over the top, wow. You get that egg done. Perfect.
Inga: This is pretty much it.
Jackie Keller: Then I noticed that the Danes also love their pork,
right?
Inga: Pork, yes, pork and bacon.
Jackie Keller: Pork is a big one. Do they have this all natural kind of
no sulfites, no additives, no preservatives?
Inga: Now they have it as well, yes.
Jackie Keller: Would you typically have that with a Danish breakfast egg
like this?
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Yes? Well it’s just about cooked. Let’s turn it over,
maybe not. I should have left the butter in, right?
Inga: Shall we put it back?
Jackie Keller: Alright, it’s going to be a sunny side up egg, I think.
Inga: Easy over.
Jackie Keller: Easy over? Okay, go easy over the egg.
Inga: I like it easy over.
Jackie Keller: I’ll add some bacon there to it.
Inga: They always have it easy over.
Jackie Keller: Do they? I think it’s scrambled to tell you the truth.
Well, the cheese is the thing, right?
Inga: The cheese it the thing.
Jackie Keller: Egge ke?
Inga: Kage, cake, kage.
Jackie Keller: Okay, alright, alright, shall we taste it?
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Alright aeg kage, here it is. It’s kind of a loose egg.
Inga: Where’s this pause thing? Clear, pause.
Jackie Keller: There you go. Alright.
Inga: Me again?
Jackie Keller: You again.
Inga: Would you like to try?
Jackie Keller: Okay, I’ll try. I like eggs.
Inga: Me too.
Jackie Keller: I love Havarti cheese.
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Delicious, thank you so much for joining me today.
Inga: You’re very welcome, my pleasure.
Jackie Keller: If you want this recipe or any other recipes in our
international cooking series visit me at empowerme.tv and check out
the Food Exposed page. I hope you’ll tune in for another segment of
our international cooking series where we explore what’s on your
plate. For more Food Exposed check me out on empowerme.tv, and until
next week remember make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed and our international cooking
series. I’ve been fortunate over the years to have visited many, many
different countries, and to travel the world. I’ve studied in
different countries on different continents, and I’ve been in a
million food stores, cooking stores, and little shops everywhere, and
I never get tired looking for unique, different food tools. It’s
amazing what you can find. And in Germany, the culture has long been
associated with food. Just remember the fairytale Hansel and Gretel
and the gingerbread house. But today when you think of German food,
what’s the first thing that comes to mind, all right, besides
Octoberfest? Now, you got it.
The different regions of the country have very different and distinct
styles of cooking. And there are many staples of German cuisine that
are found throughout the country, everywhere you go, like sausage, and
cold cuts, and seasonal vegetables, and white asparagus, which is keen
during the season; it’s on every table and every restaurant. But
styles of cooking have changed over the past 50 years in Germany.
Lighter mid-day meals are more common and more often the heavy meats,
the game, the pork, the things that are traditionally associated with
German cooking are less dominate. Mustard is always popular, and there
is a huge variety of mustards served on every table, and horseradish
is also commonly used as a condiment.
Joining me today on Food Exposed is Inga Rouse [SP], a Munich-born
citizen of the world. Inga has spent the last 34 years living in six
different countries with her great husband and her two fabulous sons.
She’s here for a short yearly visit from her magnificent 120 year old
home on the Rivers end, just outside of Paris, Inga, welcome to Food
Exposed.
Inga: Thank you for having me.
Jackie Keller: Thank you for joining me. Today we are going to make
something I think that’s sort of Nouvelle German, so preparing
vegetables, I think no matter where you are, it’s one of the hardest
parts of cooking. It’s one of the most time consuming, one of the most
burdensome, and I was so excited when you introduced me to this German
food tool called Spirelli. And it’s a spiral food cutter, that simple.
So it’s made by this company, GEFU, that makes these German food
tools. And today, we’re going to show our guests what we can do with
it. Are you ready?
Inga: I’m ready, yeah.
Jackie Keller: All right. I’ll let you be the Spirelli master.
Inga: The Spirelli master, okay.
Jackie Keller: And while you’re doing that I’ll whip up a little
dressing for our salad.
Inga: All right. Would you mind if I [inaudible 03:11]
Jackie Keller: Please. Spirelli away.
Inga: So this is how it works, it’s really easy.
Jackie Keller: Oh, look at that. That’s so pretty. They look like
noodles.
Inga: Like spaghetti.
Jackie Keller: That’s the whole point, right?
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: Wow. It doesn’t take much, huh?
Inga: No. It doesn’t.
Jackie Keller: Beautiful. So you’re starting with zucchini. And
zucchini, you find that in a German salad?
Inga: Yeah, nowadays, yes.
Jackie Keller: Tell me about Germans and German home gardens and that
whole movement?
Inga: Well now, it’s beautiful, isn’t it? It’s so colorful. If ever
possible, locals would grow their own salads, vegetables, and herbs.
My uncle who lives in Eunuch, even drives to a farm to make sure to
get well-fed and naturally raised chickens and cattle meat from
chickens. While he is out there, he gets his farm eggs; so things have
been rediscovered, old things.
Jackie Keller: And what about the vegetables? Now you’ve got these
beautiful carrots. So we’ve got probably a good amount of that to
bring some color to it. What other vegetables might you find in a
salad like this?
Inga: Well, always of course, the green leafy vegetables like Romaine. But
also, long-forgotten treasures like sugar-leaf salad for instance,
buttercup; there are many varieties. Asparagus you might find in
salads as well.
Jackie Keller: But with the Spirelli cutter?
Inga: The Spirelli cutter, turnips work nicely. And by the way, there is a
typical old, very old forgotten turnip which is [inaudible 05:16]
gourmet food that’s called [inaudible 05:20] turnip. And this you can
Spirelli away, too.
Jackie Keller: Well, you know, I’m going to make a very simple with
this, because I would guess that you don’t get too elaborate. And I
see we brought along some sun-dried tomatoes, so shall we put that in
as well for some color and some rich flavor?
Inga: That would be absolutely great.
Jackie Keller: And we have some sun-dried tomatoes packed in a little
olive oil. And it doesn’t take much to get that flavor. Shall we use
some of that olive oil flavor for our dressing as well?
Inga: Mm-hmm, and the radish.
Jackie Keller: Oh, look at that, it’s so pretty. Now what time of day
might Germans be having a salad like this?
Inga: Probably for lunch.
Jackie Keller: Lunch is the mid-day meal there?
Inga: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Yeah. So I’ve got some salt, a little bit of fresh
cracked pepper, and we’ve got some white balsamic vinegar here. I’ll
put that in, and I brought some fresh basil. That is so pretty.
Inga: I think that’s enough for showing.
Jackie Keller: Right. Do you want to pair some fresh basil leaves into
that? And I’ll whip together this with a little bit of more olive oil,
and what about protein? Protein here in the States, everybody is crazy
about protein. Everybody has to have protein in everything. We’re
eating a lot of protein these days. I brought some Mozzarella cheese.
What else might you find in this typically German kitchen?
Inga: In the typical German kitchen? Well, chicken for protein.
Jackie Keller: I know German cuisine, there is a lot of different
sausages.
Inga: A lot of, that’s true, yeah. Sausages, however, very often are not
so very healthy.
Jackie Keller: All right. So we have a little dressing here to go on our
salad. And let’s just pour a little bit on. I don’t want to overdress
it.
Inga: Right.
Jackie Keller: Just lightly drizzle, and…
Inga: That looks wonderful.
Jackie Keller: Here we go.
Inga: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: There you go. That is so pretty.
Inga: It’s pretty.
Jackie Keller: It’s very pretty. Now this is noodle salad, but there are
no noodles.
Inga: No noodles.
Jackie Keller: So in German, what would you call this?
Inga: [inaudible 08:05].
Jackie Keller: It’s a [inaudible 08:08]. All right, well, let’s taste
this [inaudible 08:15] salad, shall we?
Inga: Okay.
Jackie Keller: All right. So look at that. It’s so nice. Just like
spaghetti.
Inga: Exactly.
Jackie Keller: That’s fun. Are you going to be brave enough to try to
taste this thing?
Inga: Oh yes. It smells wonderful.
Jackie Keller: All right. You’re going to have to get a little cheese in
there, a little couple of cubes of mozzarella. All right, let me know.
So this could be a light lunch?
Inga: A light lunch, but for dinner as well. It’s really so versatile.
Jackie Keller: All right. How did we do? Oh, you are so delicate.
Inga: It’s delicious.
Jackie Keller: Good.
Inga: It’s really nice.
Jackie Keller: Great. [inaudible 09:05]
Inga: [inaudible 09:06]
Jackie Keller: Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I
hope you’ll join me again for some more international food tools. And
for this recipe, you can visit our website. You can come to Food
Exposed, and find the recipe and more tips about German cooking and
German foods. And of course, we hope you’ll tune into another segment
of our international food tools series, where we explore what’s on
your plate. For more Food Exposed, check me out on empowerme.tv. And
until next week, remember make food your best friend and exercise your
companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we take a close
look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller, and I’m the
founding director of NutriFit, Los Angeles leading healthy food
company. Let’s talking about eating out and the whole healthy food
movement; while they are not always synonymous, these two are becoming
increasingly paired in conversation, both written and verbal. So
exactly how popular are the healthy restaurant menus these days? And
I’m not talking about fast food. Well, my company NutriFit is a member
of the California Restaurant Association which is a part of the
National Restaurant Association.
I was looking at their reports and figured out that about 71 percent
of adults are trying to eat healthier at restaurants. In fact the top
restaurant culinary theme includes children’s nutrition, gluten-free
cuisine, and healthy nutrition. Other menu trends include local
sourcing, whole grain items, lower sodium, lower calorie items, and
people are even asking for restaurants to offer smaller or half-size
portions at a lower price. Today’s consumers seem to be more
interested than ever in what they eat, and where their food comes
from. And this is reflected in many trends. And that was a quote from
the National Restaurant Association’s Vice President. So this is
really good news since eating out continues to be on the rise.
According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, nearly half of every
dollar spent on food is spent on food away from home, home away from
food. So here are some interesting restaurant statistics. Nine out of
ten consumers say that they enjoy going out to a restaurant. Seven out
of ten say that restaurants provide taste sensations that aren’t
easily duplicated at home. And eight in ten look for their favorite
menu items. Nine in ten go out to restaurants for good service and
seven in ten go out to restaurants because they have a convenient
location. So how do we choose our restaurants? Ease of parking, decor,
atmosphere, some place new, and a place that serves food that they
haven’t tried before. These are all things that seem to factor into
choice.
Did you know that six out of ten are looking for eco-friendly
practices that restaurants use and locally sourced ingredients? Seven
out of ten are interested in having some healthier options on the
menu. So it’s really no surprise that I met my guest in a venue
dedicated to healthy lifestyles. Michael Epstein and Scott Schwimer
have taken on the food and hotel scene around the globe. They are
lovers of food, life, and each other, and they know more about luxury
hotels and the restaurant scene than any other couple I know. Michael
Epstein became the youngest jaguar dealer in the country at the age of
19 following his passion for automobiles, and today, he remains an
avid car collector. Michael founded System 800 International in 1986,
which went on to become the largest reseller of 800-phone line service
in the United States, and pioneered touch-tone technology for credit
card processing. After going public in 1988, the company merged with
Independent Entertainment Group, and produced pay per view events for
cable t.v.
A native Angelino, Scott E. Schwimer was appropriately born in the
year of the Monkey. He received his BA from Stanford University, and
his JD from Loyola Law School. He worked on Capitol Hill before
jumping into his career as an Entertainment Attorney for both
Television and Motion Pictures. Scott’s passions also include being an
artist, photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, producer and world-
traveler; and of course, he is passionate about eating and dining.
Michael and Scott have been collecting photography for over twenty-two
years. And they have one of the largest collections of glamour
photography archives in the world. They’re the publisher’s of George
Hurrell’s work, as well as Mel Roberts’, Henry Langdon’s and Ian
Wright’s photos. The Dining Duo travels the globe and takes on the
foodie scene in L.A. and other hot spots. Lovers of food and each
other, they know more about the restaurant scene. These two partners
who eat out at least 21 meals a week for about 26, 27 years together,
they have a world to share with us. Michael and Scott welcome to Food
Exposed. I’m so glad you could come today.
Michael Epstein: We’re glad to be here.
Scott Schwimer: Thank you for that intro.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much. Well it really is true. It is true,
you eat out meal?
Michael Epstein: We do.
Scott Schwimer: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Every single meal?
Scott Schwimer: It used to be an embarrassment to say something like
that, but now we get to gloat about it.
Jackie Keller: And we talked about a little bit earlier about how people
make choices for restaurants and what they look for. How do you guys
decide like where should we go? You’ve probably been to most every
place in LA?
Scott Schwimer: Well, we have in fact, but it’s not always going out to a
fancy restaurant. It’s not always about that. Sometimes we’ll choose
something that is, as you just said in your introduction, someplace
close to our home.
Michael Epstein: Easy to park.
Scott Schwimer: Easy to park. Healthy is a big consideration. And then
we, of course, do like to treat ourselves and go to really wonderful
places, unique restaurants, one of a kind type places. It’s just
really how we feel and how we’re doing that day.
Jackie Keller: Do restaurants let you know that they, are you on a list
to get a little special treatment in there?
Michael Epstein: We like to go incognito, although, obviously, people know
who we are because of our names. But we choose restaurants that we
really enjoy, the food and the quality of food. In fact, one of our
favorites is right in this neighborhood, Providence, which is probably
the best restaurant in Los Angeles as far as we’re concerned, one of
the best anyway.
Scott Schwimer: And in fact, we’re all in Los Angeles very lucky, because
they open up for lunch on Fridays.
Michael Epstein: That’s a good point.
Jackie Keller: So how do your passion for art and cars intersect with
your love for food?
Michael Epstein: Well I think food is an art and Scott has been very adept
at photographing food now, and food has really become an art for him.
And it’s changed a lot over the last, I’m going to be 60 years old,
and I’ve seen so many changes, because I was raised with basically
some gourmet food at really fine restaurants. But the food was always
prepared beautifully, but now it has to be photographable so that has
certainly changed over the years. And as far as the cars go, you know
we like restaurants where we can park close and we can keep an eye on
our cars when we’re driving something special.
Scott Schwimer: And I noticed in the introduction that you had a picture
of our dog Triple, our beloved dog. And so oftentimes he will
accompany us in the car,
Jackie Keller: Oh, does he?
Scottt Schwimer: In the car.
Jackie Keller: Does he come into the restaurant.
Michael Epstein: No, he doesn’t.
Scott Schwimer: But we have to be able to keep an eye on him.
Michael Epstein: Well, if it’s a restaurant with an outside patio.
Scott Schwimer: And there are some restaurants that are quite animal
friendly. In fact we also live in the desert, and there are numerous
restaurants there that will allow you to bring your pet, and they
bring out bowls and all sorts of other things. So restaurants have
become quite friendly.
Jackie Keller: Interesting. So what do you see as the top trends in
restaurant menus, I mean what do you see?
Michael Epstein: Some of the things that you mentioned, Jackie. It’s about
locally-sourced ingredients more now than ever. Scott and I don’t
really get the gluten-free concept unless you have celiac disease. But
this is like the hot button as you know in this business, and every
restaurant we’re seeing now is popping up with gluten-free menus and
gluten-free items on the menu. Scott will tell you about our big
button recently which is sodium.
Scott Schwimer: Yes, well, we’ve discovered, I know you showed our
pictures a little earlier in the introduction, and we don’t quite look
like that anymore. But as we’ve been getting older, we realized that
when you get that horrible feeling, a lot of restaurants feel like
they have to create flavor by adding a high amount of sodium. And when
we wake up in the morning, we’re completely swollen; we realize it’s
swelling our organs on the inside and not just the outside. So we have
been instructing restaurants on low sodium usage. We find that they’re
starting to get a trend now.
Jackie Keller: That’s interesting.
Scott Schwimer: Yeah, so we hope that trend will continue, because we
really don’t need salt in order to enjoy the food.
Jackie Keller: Interesting. So is there a stigma attached to the word
healthy when you go to a restaurant and you ask for a lower sodium
option? You ask them to keep it on the healthy side?
Michael Epstein: No. I don’t think so at all. I think that is to be
expected nowadays.
Jackie Keller: Even in the finer restaurants? I know you guys go to some
pretty fancy places.
Scott Schwimer: I think especially in the finer restaurants. They’re a
lot more accustomed to accommodating a menu. We went to a new
restaurant that we tried out on this last week, and I asked for
something that was low sodium, and they just looked at me like a deer
in the headlights, because apparently, everything had high sodium. So
I think that as you go up to a more expensive and tailored experience,
then they are happy to accommodate you. And hopefully, the trend will
go in that direction with the other restaurants.
Jackie Keller: I think if consumers demand it, then you’re going to see
more of it.
Michael Epstein: Yeah, and you, Jackie, being in the food business, I’m
sure you noticed that pre-processed foods, I mean, we’re just in
amazement, 30, 40 percent sodium in products. It’s scary.
Jackie Keller: It is scary. And there’s a lot of learning that has to
take place, I think, at the consumer level in order to avoid ending up
with a saltier product than needs to happen. So when you’re on the
down low and you just want to go slumming, where do you go? Is it
Tommy’s? Is it Pings?
Scott Schwimer: That’s very funny. I can’t handle any of those. I
actually don’t eat red meat, probably for about…
Michael Epstein: Beef, you don’t eat beef.
Scott Schwimer: Beef, for about years now. I haven’t had a hamburger
since my sophomore year in college. Michael has joined suit because…
Michael Epstein: My cholesterol was a little high. I’m a big burger lover,
but I tend to switch to turkey burgers now. But if I am going to treat
myself to a beef burger, I go to Five Guys or to [inaudible 11:25].
Some of my favorites are the [inaudible 11:27] which are grass fed so
at least it’s somewhat healthy.
Scott Schwimer: And one of our favorite guilty pleasures is Motza, which
has the best pizza that we have found really anywhere and the best
chopped salad, and fantastic lemonade, and they have a fantastic
desert selection. I feel like I’m promoting Motza, but it is a really
a good guilty pleasure.
Jackie Keller: Well, I asked you, and it’s nice to know that there are
places out there that you can go and enjoy that are really good
quality food.
Scott Schwimer: And not spend a fortune.
Jackie Keller: And not spend a fortune. Well, I thought it would be fun
if we spend a few minutes creating something healthy and low sodium
and fun that you might find in a restaurant if you were looking for it
here today. Are you game?
Scott Schwimer: Sounds great.
Michael Epstein: Let’s do it.
Jackie Keller: You know, one of the things that I love most are salads.
I’m a big salad person, and it really annoys me when I get to a
restaurant and the salad is soggy or I can feel the greasy, and I
usually try to ask for everything on the side. But some things are
already mixed in, and you’re just stuck with it. And so I thought it
would be fun to show how good sesame chicken salad can be without
having it being loaded with oil, loaded with fat, and unhealthy. So I
got the ingredients together to make a really quick simple, this is
sort of, it’s not really Chinese chicken salad. It’s a sesame tahini
style, like a Middle Eastern chicken salad. So I thought we’d put it
together real quick and…
Scott Schwimer: It sounds great. You’re making me hungry.
Michael Epstein: Teach us something.
Jackie Keller: Who’s going to hold the whisk? You’re going to whisk, and
I’m going to make the dressing.
Michael Epstein: We eat out every meal…
Jackie Keller: So this is a little bit of sesame tahini paste. And this
is, of course, ground sesame seed, so it is high in oil, but it’s a
very healthy fat.
Scott Schwimer: How do you do that though? How do you grind the seeds?
Jackie Keller: You can even use a coffee grinder.
Scott Schwimer: Seriously?
Jackie Keller: And grind it to…
Michael Epstein: So what makes it liquidly?
Jackie Keller: The seeds eventually, it’s the oil in the seeds, right?
So I have some vinegar here. And this, by the way, is the sesame
tahini if you wanted to buy it and cheat. You don’t have to grind your
own seeds. You can just go to the Middle Eastern store and buy it.
Some of the better stock supermarkets will have it, but you can also
find it at the Middle Eastern market and get that.
Scott Schwimer: Smells wonderful.
Jackie Keller: So we’re going to add a little bit more liquid to that to
get it to thin out. So I’m adding a little white vinegar to it.
Michael Epstein: Are you taking notes?
Scott Schwimer: Yes, I’m taking notes.
Jackie Keller: And a little cayenne pepper. Now this is…
Michael Epstein: I love cayenne pepper.
Jackie Keller: I noticed that, Michael. I looked you up in our system
from the time that you got a couple of meals from us and I know that
you like it spicy.
Michael Epstein: I do like it spicy.
Scott Schwimer: He certainly does.
Jackie Keller: Now here is where we get into trouble in restaurants,
with the soy sauce. And so I have low sodium soy sauce. This is not a
fancy one, but if we put a little bit of this in, it will add just…
Scott Schwimer: Now where do you get low sodium?
Jackie Keller: Now that’s the sesame oil. This is the sodium.
Scott Schwimer: Okay.
Michael Epstein: How low is it, Jackie?
Jackie Keller: Well, Michael, you have your glasses on, and you can
[inaudible 15:17] I do.
Michael Epstein: Okay.
Jackie Keller: So yeah, you want to sit that down and keep it away from
that pretty shirt. Close that.
Michael Epstein: Okay, so it’s got 19 percent, so that’s not too terrible.
Jackie Keller: No, because we’re going to spread this out over multiple
servings, so that’s another thing to keep in mind, is that you can
dilute this by adding in just a little bit of water. And if you want,
or a little bit more of the vinegar to cut through the fat a little
bit, and to reduce the sodium. So that’s enough dressing for five
servings, easily.
Scott Schwimer: Jackie, or one serving for him.
Michael Epstein: I like dressing. But, Jackie, is this something that if I
am on your food program, this is something you serve?
Jackie Keller: Yeah, this in the NutriFit menu. We use the base of
romaine hearts for this, and then the chicken, which has just been
poached. Now, all I did was bring some water up to a boil. I added a
little bit of ginger, a little bit of lemon to the water, put the
chicken in, turned the heat off, and let the chicken poach for 20
minutes. That’s it, on very, very, very low heat and then we hand
shred the chicken, so this goes here.
Michael Epstein: Now, do you need to learn how to do that?
Scott Schwimer: I think it’s easier to just order it from you.
Jackie Keller: Well, first you have to taste it. So let’s put in some
green onion and a little bit of cilantro.
Michael Epstein: The cilantro, it looks great.
Jackie Keller: And now we’re going to get the dressing in, so…
Scott Schwimer: By the way, it smells amazing.
Michael Epstein: Doesn’t that smell amazing?
Jackie Keller: So let’s pour that in.
Scott Schwimer: Okay, here we go.
Michael Epstein: I think that is really what defines Jackie from other
food delivery services is that the food is really so tasty.
Jackie Keller: Thank you, Michael. That’s so sweet of you.
Scott Schwimmer: Well, we know. We’ve experienced it.
Michael Epstein: So we’re putting all of this in?
Jackie Keller: Yeah, we’re going to put all of this in because I know
this is multiple servings. And, of course, we have more lettuce, and
you can always add more lettuce. No. Bad. Have you been hanging out
with Triple too much?
Scott Schwimer: That’s our doggy.
Jackie Keller: All right, Michael. Do you want to just hand me that
plate, and we’ll just plate a little of this salad up, and you guys
can give it a taste. And remember we didn’t measure anything, so you
know, you’ll have to tell me.
Scott Schwimer: It looks delicious.
Jackie Keller: There you go.
Michael Epstein: It does look delicious, yum. Is it good?
Scott Schwimer: Sensational.
Jackie Keller: Sensational is a great word; you sweetie pie. Oh, thank
you. That makes me so happy.
Scott Schwimer: Too bad you guys aren’t getting any, because this is
amazing.
Michael Epstein: This is really tasty. And is it low calorie, Jackie?
Jackie Keller: Yes, it is. It’s low calorie. It’s healthy. It’s low in
fat. Of course, for you guys, it’s low in sodium.
Scott Schwimer: Fantastic, fantastic.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much.
Michael Epstein: Will that be enough for all of us?
Jackie Keller: We’ll have to take a take home..
Scott Schwimer: And this is really good.
Michael Epstein: It’s really tasty.
Jackie Keller: Thank you.
Scott Schwimer: Thanks so much for having us.
Jackie Keller: You’re welcome.
Michael Epstein: This was really fun.
Jackie Keller: I know that the audience wants to follow the Dining Duo.
Your site is so much fun. I know you’re big in Instagram as well, and
you post pictures constantly of places you’ve been. Some of them look
so fun. It’s fun to look vicariously. So if you could tell us how
people can find you.
Michael Epstein: Oh, thank you so much. Well, if you go to
www.thediningduo, and it’s really important to put in the t-h-e,
thediningduo.com, or follow up on face book. We have lots and lots of
visitors. We review all sorts of restaurants, all sorts of exclusive
hotels.
Scott Schwimer: Tell them where we’re off too.
Michael Epstein: And we’re off to Mexico City, because there is a huge
food scene explosion in Mexico City.
Jackie Keller: Oh my goodness.
Scott Schwimer: Everybody’s heading to Mexico City over the summer.
Michael Epstein: We’re leaving next week.
Jackie Keller: I’ve never been. Can I go in the suitcase or something?
Michael Epstein: Absolutely.
Jackie Keller: Just send me lots of pictures.
Michael Epstein: You know if you put a little tequila right in here, it
would be perfect.
Jackie Keller: Well, I wish you safe travels, healthy travels, and lots
of fun, and come back and visit us when you get back.
Michael Epstein: It’s been really fun. Thank you for having us.
Scott Schwimer: We’ll see you out in the restaurants.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, absolutely. One of my favorite parts of coaching
involves the use of metaphors. Just as a reminder, a metaphor is the
expression of an understanding of one concept by relating it to
another similar concept. And artists use metaphors all of the time as
do authors. So here is a metaphorical story that you might be able to
relate to. It’s called the tree. It was a warm sunny day in the
magical forest, and several rabbits frolicked by the side of the
forest pond as the gentle breeze rippled through the largest oak
overlooking the water making the leaves dance and tingle softly, the
unmistakable scent of wild lavender in the air. I can do a lot better
than this declared the largest branch on the tree. Soon I’m going to
branch out on my own. I’m almost as big as the entire tree now. I take
most of the light around here and absorb the food and catch most of
the rainfall.
On top of that, I provide the best shade for travelers in the summer and
the majority of acorns for future growth, food for the squirrels, and
rabbit population. I am supreme said the largest branch. The other
branches on the tree agreed. They had to accept what the big branch
said. He was indeed the most predominant in most ways. His only
failings being a lack of modesty in understanding that all parts of
the tree were one. The trunk of the tree in his usual manner said
nothing. Unnoticed, he just quietly kept on supporting the chattering
branches as he had done year in and year out since ancient times.
Late one year when the cold nights were drawing in and all of the golden
leaves had stumbled sleepily to the ground, a woodcutter appeared and
eyed the large branch. That’ll keep us warm for the winter, he said to
his apprentice. With no more ado, he sawed off that large branch and
dragged it away to his hut. The smaller branches were panic stricken
thinking that their turn was next. Your time is yet to come groaned
the trunk in a deep grumbling voice for his body ached where the big
branch had been chopped off. He felt not only had he lost an arm but a
son as well. Everyone’s turn will come, even mine. So be advised that
you can survive longer and be happier if you don’t get noticed or too
big for your boots like he did. So a tree is just one branch. The same
way as a branch without twigs and dancing leaves is barren neither is
a trunk alone a tree. I am but nothing without branches and roots, and
that’s the metaphor.
Thanks for joining me today on Food Exposed. Make sure to tune in next week
for another close look at what’s on your plate. And if you have
questions or comments, reach out to me at empowerme.tv/foodexposed.
For more Food Exposed, check me out on empowerme.tv and until next
week, remember, make food your best friend and exercise your companion
for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we take a close
look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller and I’m the
Founding Director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading healthy food
company. Today we’re taking a closer look at the second deadliest
disease plaguing our modern world – cancer. First, some good news on
the cancer front; death rates for all cancers combined and for the
leading cancers among men are declining. For women, those rates have
stabilized. According to the National Cancer Institute, this is true
across the fifteen most common cancers for all races and all
ethnicities combined. Still it is estimated that 35% of all cancers
are tied to our nutrition habits. We hear a lot about that these days
and how much fat is good for you. What kind of fat is good for you?
What we should be worried about. Here’s a quote that I want to share
with you. “Obesity-related cancer is now an official definition used
by both the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute,
but this does not mean that other cancers are not related to obesity;
only that there is currently not enough evidence because the cancer is
not well-studied or rare. Only lung cancer so far has not been linked
to obesity probably because of its strong association with smoking and
low air quality status. As recently as April 9th, just a few days ago,
a large published study of over 330 thousand women living in ten
European countries were followed for over 11 years. That study
concluded that high saturated fat and high total fat intake were
associated with a higher risk of breast cancer.
So it all comes down to basics. What should we be eating to provide
the best opportunity to lower our risk of cancer? Eating seven or more
portions of fruits and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death
from cancer at any point in time by 25% compared to eating less than
one portion, according to a new study that was published in London in
March of this year; eating three to five portions of fruit and
vegetables daily decreased death risk by 19%. A new study published in
the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who ate a daily
serving of nuts were significantly less likely to die from any cause
as opposed to those who never ate any nuts at all. The message is
clear. Eating healthily, plenty of fruits and vegetables, all of which
are rich in antioxidants, moderate amounts of saturated fat, not
having too much meat or full-fat dairy and having modest servings of
healthy nuts and monounsaturated fats, that will give your body the
best ammunition possible to fight cancer.
Most of us know someone that has been touched by cancer. My own mom
died from cancer and this has driven a lot of my energy and purpose.
Every time I think of purpose, I think of OnPurposeMagazine.com. It’s
an online publication that I write blog posts for and that I interact
with. My next guest is the founder of this wonderful publication. JW
Najarian spent the first 35 years of his career as a computer engineer
and a project manager before he changed to a career in commercial real
estate. He started the Commercial Real Estate Professionals Investors
Group in 2006 and then began working actively in philanthropy for
Humanities Unites Brilliance and Feed 333. A proud veteran, JW also
built a LinkedIn group of over 40 thousand U.S. veterans use the
resources of the group to connect and help each other. Since then, On
Purpose Magazine has flourished and it’s dedicated to helping people
find comfort and hope in today’s complex world; JW, welcome to Food
Exposed.
JW Najarian: Thank you for having me here.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much for coming.
JW Najarian: We’ve talked so many times and it’s really great that we
finally get to meet in person.
Jackie Keller: I’m delighted.
JW Najarian: I’m just delighted to be on your show.
Jackie Keller: Well, thank you. Thank you. Do you like to report on
nutrition for On Purpose Magazine? Tell us about that?
JW Najarian: As we talked about in the interview that I did with you,
it has kind of been a hobby of mine over the years. I actually went to
Naturopathy School for a very short time because I thought it was my
calling to be a Naturopath and talk to people about nutrition and
things like that, but I found it was more of a hobby. I got tired of
it and got into other things, but I still really am interested in
nutrition and I do report on it quite a lot. You were just talking
about cancer. I’m a cancer patient right now.
Jackie Keller: Wow.
JW Najarian: I went from burgers and my new friend is kale.
Jackie Keller: Good. Good. You’ve met kale.
JW Najarian: I’ve met kale.
Jackie Keller: Yes. Kale is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
JW Najarian: Yes. I’ve learned I’m a nut eater, I’m a kale eater and
I’m learning how to make kale taste good and how to eat vegetables and
stay away from sugars and salts. There has been a major change in my
diet. So I’m really excited today to talk about it.
Jackie Keller: Good. Good. What about the fitness side? Do you report on
fitness too in On Purpose or is more nutrition-oriented? Tell us a
little bit about that.
JW Najarian: First of all, On Purpose Magazine is a magazine that we
put together mainly to put out some really… There’s a lot of content
on the internet as you know, but we wanted to put out some really good
content on the internet. Just really helpful stuff, there’s a lot of
garbage out there. So we started by talking to celebrities because
celebrities bring eyeballs. They bring people to you. So talk to them
about their cause and their foundations and the good things that are
going on. I love to talk to authors. They have great stories. I talk
to authors, especially the ones that are talk about self-help and
personal development and things like that. That’s how I got into
talking to authors about nutrition like yourself and fitness and
working out. I workout, I go to the Y every day.
Jackie Keller: Good.
JW Najarian: I’m learning about stretching after as opposed to before.
One of the things you learn… I spent this last year pretty much in
bed a lot of the time because I had spine surgery from tumors in my
spine as I had stage 4 cancer. One of the things you find out is that
you lose muscle mass… I’m on Androgen Deprivation Therapy also.
That’s taking all of the testosterone out of my body which means I
lose muscle mass very, very quickly. I have to go to the gym. I have
to be a gym rat in the morning and workout really hard; harder than a
lot of people. You’ll notice right now I’m sweating a lot because I’m
going through, what women would call, their personal summer of
menopause because I don’t have any testosterone left in my body and
that’s one of the treatments I have to go through. Working out is
really essentially… You’ll notice most people say, “You have cancer.
You haven’t lost your hair and you’re overweight.”
Jackie Keller: You look great. No, but you look great.
JW Najarian: Well, thank you. I haven’t had to do the chemo therapy
that makes you lose weight or lose your hair. Not at this point.
Jackie Keller: You have to be on a special diet though.
JW Najarian: Yes. They don’t make you. Nobody comes to your door. The
cancer doesn’t come to your door and give you a hard time, but the
numbers that you talked about. They are real. You have to beat the
odds. The odds are not good for all cancers. In order to beat those
odds, you have to do the right things. That has a lot to do with
nutrition, but also mindset. It’s not easy to pass up my favorite
burger place.
Jackie Keller: Right.
JW Najarian: When you’re out with your friends and they’re eating a
bunch of fries, it’s not easy to say no.
Jackie Keller: When you think about the magazine, do you have a favorite
type of article that you like to do? Do you have a favorite type of
interview? Is it about causes and things that revolve around those
issues? What do you enjoy the most?
JW Najarian: We do highlight causes a lot of times. I came up with the
name On Purpose because I wanted to do articles with purpose, on
purpose, if that makes any sense. That means that the articles I do
mean something and teach something. They are hopefully intriguing and
educational. They make you think. They teach you something. That’s why
I love your articles. They have great recipes that you put in our
magazine and also great articles on all kinds of things for wellness
and health. Those are the things we look for. My personal favorites
are authors because of the stories that they tell.
Jackie Keller: You have celebrities that do shout-outs to the vets and to
various things.
JW Najarian: That’s my favorite thing. Every time I get a vet on, I try
to get them to do a U.S. veteran shout-out. One of my favorites was
when I was a kid I loved space and the whole Apollo thing so I’ve had
Buzz Aldrin to yell out to the vets for me.
Jackie Keller: That’s cool. That’s cool. What about authors and up and
coming authors? How do you help them out?
JW Najarian: The magazine actually makes no money. It’s just out there.
It was my outlet to put out good information and good content. I was
doing a lot of stuff in commercial real estate where I was putting out
content about the economy. I was talking to world economists and
things about finances for the commercial real estate industry, which
is a little boring. So I moved over to celebrities because it was more
fun.
Jackie Keller: Right.
JW Najarian: The question again was? I’m sorry.
Jackie Keller: How do you help up and coming authors?
JW Najarian: Oh, authors. Yes. What I’m trying to do is move to a model
where I… Because I talk to a lot of best-selling authors and one of
the things I do in the last ten or fifteen minutes of the interview is
I talk to them about their journey that they’ve taken writing the
book. Why they decided to publish a certain way? Who they published
with? What is their writing cycle like? All of those kinds of things,
this is very interesting to authors. We’re trying to move over now to
a monetization phase, where maybe we can help some authors out; up and
coming authors who don’t know how to get their books out and how to
promote their books. Nobody’s calling them up to promote their books.
Maybe if they’ve got any interviews [inaudible 11:19] in Kenosha,
Wisconsin it’s not on a site like mine that gets a lot of attention.
So we’re working on something now to put something together that will
cost a little money, but we’re going to try to make it fair where we
can help you promote your book.
Jackie Keller: That’s great. Do you ever discuss religion or politics? Do
you get into controversy?
JW Najarian: No. We really stay away from those kinds of things because
they are non-academic subjects to us. We don’t want to really… It’s
hard to talk about those. We are going to start something called “Talk
Summit”. That’s coming up, watch for TalkSummit.com. That’s going to
be a blog/talk radio show with me and a couple of my friends. We’re
going to pretty much tear it up.
Jackie Keller: That sounds great.
JW Najarian: We’re going to let loose.
Jackie Keller: Alright.
JW Najarian: It should be fun.
Jackie Keller: Well, we’ll watch for that. In the meantime, I thought we
might spend a couple of minutes in the kitchen together cooking up
some great antioxidant-rich cancer protective foods. What do you
think?
JW Najarian: I think that’s a great idea.
Jackie Keller: Alright. Well, let’s cook.
JW Najarian: Alright.
Jackie Keller: OK, JW we’re ready to cook and I thought it would be good
to structure a recipe that anybody can make at home; something very
simple, something very nutritious and something very appropriate for
guys with cancer, or guys that want to protect their prostate because
I know that we have a high incidence of prostate cancer, it’s a very
common one. We also know a little bit about how healthy it is for guys
to have tomato products. Particularly, cooked tomato products because
tomatoes…
JW Najarian: The lycopene or something?
Jackie Keller: Exactly. Tomatoes have a lot of lycopene and when you cook
the tomatoes, the little cells in the tomatoes burst and more lycopene
is released, so that is a very cancer protective element and we want
to get more of that in our diets. So here’s a great simple vegetable
casserole that is designed with guys in mind.
JW Najarian: Wonderful. Perfect.
Jackie Keller: Are you ready?
JW Najarian: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Simply, we’re going to take out a warm skillet and I’m
going to spray it with just enough oil so that we don’t burn our
vegetables. I’ll start with some of the harder vegetables first. I
have some zucchini here and we’re just going to get that in so that it
has a little bit of time to soften up before we add in some other
stuff. You’ll notice that I did start with some healthy oil, but I
don’t want to add more to it because we talked a little bit about
healthy fat and obesity and the fact that so many cancers are tied to
obesity. So we want to let the vegetables kind of get started. Whoops.
I confused it. We’re going to let the vegetables get started this way.
JW Najarian: When you were talking about fats and cancers, the fats and
cancers, were you talking about omega-3 fats too, just as much?
Jackie Keller: Omega-3 is…
JW Najarian: Or just saturated fats?
Jackie Keller: It is really more saturated fats that contribute to a
higher incidence of cancer. There have been studies that have shown
that the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are very healthy,
helpful fats, but a lot of people don’t know when you’re eating out,
particularly what kind of fat is the restaurant using? A lot of
restaurants use highly saturated fats. You want to make sure that when
you’re cooking at home, you’re cooking with either an extra virgin
olive oil, or you’re cooking with canola oil that you know is not GMO,
which is high in polyunsaturated fat. A little bit of coconut oil is
considered very healthy. There are a lot of organic coconut oils out
there right now. I started with the zucchini, but now I’ve added the
tomatoes because I want to get that tomato base.
JW Najarian: It’s starting to smell good already.
Jackie Keller: We know those tomato based dishes are so good. Smell is so
important. It really has to smell right; otherwise you don’t want to
eat it, right? It has to look pretty and smell right. We’re going to
add in some color now with some cauliflower and broccoli. These
vegetables are very high in [inaudible 15:23] which are a chemical
that is contained in vegetables…
JW Najarian: Easy for you to say.
Jackie Keller: Vegetables from the cruciferous family. They all have this
chemical in common and chemical properties in common. These are very
cancer protective. They are very high in antioxidants which combat the
free radicals that attack our bodies internal systems, disrupt us and
become carcinogenic, some green peas. This is a vegetarian dish, so we
want to be concerned about protein because do want to have protein in
our dish. Of course, peas are part of our legume family and everything
in the legume family has protein. So we add the peas in, not just
because they’re colorful and they’re pretty, but because they have a
protein element; some carrots as well, I just love that panoply of
color.
JW Najarian: I can’t help it because I’m an interviewer at heart.
Jackie Keller: Sure.
JW Najarian: I have a couple of questions.
Jackie Keller: Ask me. Yes.
JW Najarian: First of all, you’ve heard the talk now about antioxidants
causing cancer? Have you heard any word on that?
Jackie Keller: I have not found anything in my research that
substantiates that.
JW Najarian: I just heard it on this on the news just recently that too
many can cause cancer too. I’ll have to send you that one.
Jackie Keller: You send me that one because that I’m not familiar with.
JW Najarian: The other thing is, I notice that what I hear all the time
is colors.
Jackie Keller: Mm-hmm.
JW Najarian: All the colors. I see every color in there.
Jackie Keller: Every color I can find. The more color, usually the higher
the vitamin and mineral content. This isn’t always true because you’ll
notice we put in cauliflower. That’s white. It’s not a whole lot of
color, but cauliflower is loaded with calcium and loaded with vitamin
C, so poor little cauliflower gets left out a lot because it doesn’t
have that deep rich color. Yes. Generally speaking, you want to eat
from every color of the rainbow and you want to put in your dishes as
many colors as possible. That’s always a good indication. Now for
seasoning, I’m going to use one of my salt and sugar-free spice
blends. This is a Mediterranean blend because this is kind of a
Mediterranean style casserole, but you can use basil or oregano or
whatever herbs and spices you have in your cabinet that you love the
most. I love the Mediterranean seasonings so we’re going to get some
of that in there to get some flavor going. Then I’m also going to add
in… This will surprise you maybe because it surprises some people,
but I’m going to add in some other tomato. Again, we are trying for
maximum lycopene here.
JW Najarian: Right.
Jackie Keller: Ketchup. I know people think of ketchup and think high
fructose, corn syrup, bad, bad, bad, bad, condiment, and bad sugar,
whatever. You can add find now, very reasonably priced organic ketchup
that is not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. It has natural
cane sugar in it, but it’s lower sugar, lower salt and of course it’s
pure tomato.
JW Najarian: I’m on a low salt, low sugar diet.
Jackie Keller: So you want to be sensitive to that. This is a really
great product. You could use a little tomato paste instead of a little
bit of ketchup if you wanted. I kind of like the idea that there are
healthy ketchups out there and that it’s a product, if you know what
to look for, you can find it and still enjoy something as kind of old
fashioned and homemade as ketchup. If you were using tomato paste, you
might want to adjust the seasonings a little bit because ketchup does
bring more to it than just tomato paste.
JW Najarian: It makes it more exciting because I used to like to put
ketchup on everything.
Jackie Keller: Were you one of those kids?
JW Najarian: Yes.
Jackie Keller: Ketchup on everything?
JW Najarian: Oh yes.
Jackie Keller: Now, who cooks at home for you?
JW Najarian: Me. I’m the cook.
Jackie Keller: You’re the cook in the house. Well this is an easy, easy,
easy dish. This has grown as you’ve seen. You start with a little bit
of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of what’s in your
refrigerator and before you know it, you have a very full sauce pan of
absolute pure health here.
JW Najarian: I love this idea because one of the biggest problems I
have is that I go out to the store and I get all these vegetables and
they all look really good. Then I put them in the fridge and I mean
well, but about three days later I’m like, “I haven’t cooked any of
the carrots. I haven’t cooked any of the peas. What am I going to do?”
Jackie Keller: Right. This is what you do. If you get to the end of the
week and you have all of these vegetables and you still haven’t made
your casserole or used them up in a salad, you make soup.
JW Najarian: Oh yeah.
Jackie Keller: That’s another you can do which is a very useful, creative
way of doing all of this. We’re cooking it in a frying pan as though
it was a vegetable casserole, but we could have used a stockpot and
made a tomato based soup out of it and we would have called it mock
minestrone instead of vegetable casserole. So there you go. It’s that
simple. I also brought just a little bit of brown rice because again,
we want this to be perceived as a complete meal, so we want a complex
carbohydrate with it other than just what’s in our vegetables; so a
little bit of cooked brown rice along with the peas. Now follow me on
this. When you combine a grain and a legume, a whole grain and a
legume in the same dish or same meal, a complete vegetarian protein is
formed. All of the amino acids are present so you don’t need meat. By
adding the grain of brown rice in with our peas which was our legume,
remember, we’ve created a complete vegetarian protein in this dish.
JW Najarian: Wow.
Jackie Keller: So good to know because saturated fat of course is found
in foods of animal origin predominantly. You want more plant-based
meals in your diet. You don’t want to sacrifice your protein, so it’s
good to know about the rules of combining so that you can make
complete vegetarian proteins out of your meals. It is just that easy.
JW Najarian: That’s why I love talking to you. When we interviewed you
the first time, I had some really wrong information about, if you
recall because I listened to the interview again today, I had wrong
information about whole grains.
Jackie Keller: Right.
JW Najarian: How we could take them out of our diet and we would be
fine because of the paleo thing. You set me straight and thank
goodness because it really has rounded out my diet to add some good
whole grains.
Jackie Keller: Yes. You should have it. In fact, would you like to try
this one?
JW Najarian: Yes. It smells amazing.
Jackie Keller: OK. Well, let’s grab a plate.
JW Najarian: OK.
Jackie Keller: I’ll dish up something that’s maybe not too big of a piece
so you can actually get to it. It’s a little hot and of course if you
have a little bit more time, you can let it cook and it will just get
softer. You do it according to your taste.
JW Najarian: Another thing on my bucket list. I’ve watched all of the
cooking shows and never been able to taste until now.
Jackie Keller: Oh. OK. Hot? It’s alright?
JW Najarian: Mm. That’s so good.
Jackie Keller: Oh. Thank you.
JW Najarian: The texture makes a really big difference.
Jackie Keller: Yes. It’s just that little bit. Well I hope you’re not too
busy to tell people how to follow you. Everybody will want to find On
Purpose and want to follow all of the various things you’re doing and
that talk radio show that’s coming out. It all sounds so exciting.
What’s the best way for them to find you?
JW Najarian: Thank you so much, Jackie. What you can do is go to
www.OnPurposeMagazine.com. You can find me there. On Facebook at
JWNajarian and you can find me on LinkedIn or Twitter all the same
address. On Twitter we have OnPurposeMag and my name at twitter. Just
go to On Purpose Magazine. You’ll find all of the links there. Watch
for Talk Summit coming up. TalkSummit.com.
Jackie Keller: Great. Great. Thank you for joining me today. I hope
you’ll come back and visit us again. Good luck with your cancer
treatment. You look like you’re doing great.
JW Najarian: Thank you.
Jackie Keller: Keep up the good fight.
JW Najarian: Thank you. Thank you.
Jackie Keller: What five goals do you believe will lead you to lasting
happiness? In her book, “Creating Your Best Life”, Caroline Adams
Miller describes research tested happiness boosters and techniques for
building self-efficacy. The book collects and integrates studies and
research on relationships, passion, self-regulation, positive
emotions, flow, strengths, exercise, values, savoring and grit as they
relate creating an ideal life. When I did this exercise, my goals were
to number one, savor. This means slowing down some which is really
hard for me to do. Number two, to strengthen, in my world, that means
physically strengthen, which I do daily to emphasize the positive, as
in looking at a glass half full instead of half empty and to develop
my personal relationships which means taking more time for people. To
be more mindful in the moment was my fifth goal and this means being
less distracted, but to accomplish these goals and most others it is
important to remember that goals need to be smart, specific,
measurable, action-oriented, realistic and timed, but they also have
to be value-driven. They have to be intrinsic and they have to be
enveloping. They need to be exciting for you. If you can make sure
that your goals are approach goals, not avoidance goals, your value-
driven goals will compel you. They’ll have a better likelihood of
being pursued. Goals that foster independence and empower will help
you to create a life that is filled with vitality. If you want to
share your goals with me, contact me at empowerme.tv/foodexposed.
Thank you for joining me today. I hope you’ll tune in next week for a
closer look at what’s on your plate? For more Food Exposed, check me
out on empowerme.tv and until next week remember make food your best
friend and exercise your companion for life.
Jackie Keller: Welcome to Food Exposed, where each week we take an inside
look at what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller, and I’m the
founding director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading healthy food
company. We’ve been hearing a lot about gluten free foods these days,
a whole lot. It seems that everyone is trying this new style of
eating, for a variety of reasons.
Today, I’d like to focus on Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity,
which when diagnosed, dictate the need to follow a gluten-free diet.
While many people are eating gluten-free for other reasons, like
following a fad, thinking that’s it’s going to be a magical weight
loss cure, curing bad habits in general by eliminating gluten is
another reason people are doing this, the autoimmune disorder that is
Celiac is a serious condition. It’s estimated that nearly 1 in 100
may have it. It’s the condition in which the absorptive surface of
the small intestine is damaged by gluten, and this results in the
body’s inability to absorb nutrients. No fat, no protein, no
carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, which are all necessary for good
health, are not well absorbed. According to the science, anything
above 20 parts-per-million of gluten can cause damage to a person with
Celiac disease. An additional three to five percent of the population
suffers from a condition known as non-Celiac gluten sensitivity, which
is not an autoimmune disease like Celiac, but it has similar
gastrointestinal symptoms and requires the same gluten free diet.
What is gluten, anyway? Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and
barley. It helps bread and other baked goods bind and prevents
crumbling. As a result, gluten is widely used in the production of
many packaged and processed foods. Gluten-containing flours and
starches are also used as thickeners, and they are present in many
soups and sauces. In fact, gluten in present in so much of our food
supply that following this specific dietary platform is really
challenging. For those not afflicted but looking for a way to
improve their diet in general, simply eliminating foods with highly
processed or refined products and emphasizing a diet rich in fruits,
vegetables, wholesome lean proteins, dairy, and fat will help.
Common symptoms of Celiac disease are anemia, chronic diarrhea, weight
loss, fatigue, cramps, bloating, and in some individuals, itching and
burning rashes. Still others present overt symptoms at all, but none
the less, they suffer the intestinal damage. The wide spectrum of
potential symptoms has historically made Celiac very difficult to
diagnose. It’s frequently misdiagnosed as Irritable Bowel Syndrome,
lactose intolerance, Crohn’s Disease, or other conditions. About 10%
of individuals with Type I Diabetes also have Celiac Disease, and
Celiac Disease, especially when untreated is also associated with
osteoporosis, liver and thyroid diseases, and Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a
whole host of things.
My guest today knows all about getting diagnosed and living with
Celiac Disease. We met under circumstances completely unrelated to
this condition, but definitely related to healthy food. John Volturo
is best known for his avant-garde marketing tactics and is behind some
of the biggest aspirational consumer brands in the marketplace today.
As the former Senior Vice President for Marketing for Guthy-Renker,
John spearheaded business development and marketing strategies for the
the direct marketing conglomerate and it’s world-renown products like
Chaz Dean’s Wen, Anthony Robbins, Winsor Pilates, and Sheer Cover.
Formerly the CMO of BeachMint, silicon beaches most recognized
startup. John was a primary in the company’s genesis and early
growth. Last November, in 2013, John founded Scriball, a platform
that connects brands and consumers through interactive, immersive
social storytelling. Scriball uses multimedia and sequenced content
to inspire creativity and build brand-to-consumer or consumer-to-
consumer based content and conversations.
John received his MBA with a concentration in Marketing, Marketing
Management from Drexel University and his Bachelor’s in Communication
from Temple University. He’s a strong supporter of the LGBT community
here in Los Angeles and PTSD recovery organizations. John and his
husband, Adam Christian, live in Los Angeles, California, with their
twin daughters. John, welcome to Food Exposed. It’s so nice to have
you here. I know it’s hard for you to get away, and I’m so delighted
that you could join us. Let’s start with the newest child in your
life, your new venture, Scriball. Tell me more about it.
John Volturo: As you were saying, the whole idea behind Scriball is
really about communities. I started thinking about communities a lot
when I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease because there wasn’t a lot of
information out there back in 2009. Really, my community was you, was
Jackie Keller. Jackie, I was lucky enough to have feed me and she
delivered my meals and experimented on me and helped me figure out
what worked and what didn’t work. I slowly started realizing that
food actually was changing the way I felt. Everything from headaches
to the rashes that Jackie mentioned earlier, to just no feeling
bloated all the time. Suddenly, I felt like a different person.
I started seeking out communities, and I realized that across the
country there were these micro-communities formed around certain
areas. Here on the west coast we were lucky; some places in Florida.
When I started talking to these people, I realized that a movement was
starting. To Jackie’s point earlier, it really wasn’t about a fad,
per se, but there were a lot of people who were actually suffering
illnesses. I was lucky enough to find out early for me. Out of that
whole idea of community grew this idea that communities are really
starting to fragment off Facebook and Twitter. People are starting to
have conversations, but the problem with Facebook and Twitter that I
saw as somebody who was actually running a social commerce company was
that didn’t let people actually have a narrative. The narrative kind
of escaped our daily life. For me that was really exciting because as
a storyteller at heart, because I worked in television for eight years
building out infomercials, 30-minute commercials, the story was the
king.
You told the story about somebody, a passionate developer like Jackie
Keller, and you told this story about how they became who they were,
and you convinced the person to buy a product through the passion and
the fact that this is authenticity. All those communities started to
disappear, and the whole narrative started to disappear. I got this
idea, shouldn’t there be a narrative in the story online. I decided
to leave my company that I was at, BeachMint, and start Scriball. The
idea behind Scriball is that it enables all of these small
communities, or large communities, or brands, to have a conversation
with each other, but collaboratively so people can build stories
together. In the case of what you’re doing with your work, Jackie,
the way I see the stories, all these people that you help have stories
to tell. Not just testimonials, but stories that they want to tell
about the way you’ve impacted their life. The other part of the whole
community is that it’s fun, it’s gaming. If you want to have recipe
competitions, like who’s made the best gluten-free recipe, or which
ingredient causes this bread to rise better. I’ve actually done that
and seen the power of the communities when they’re together; they just
make it a much more rich experience. That’s what Scriball’s all
about.
Jackie Keller: I know you mentioned community and you mentioned Adam and
the other new children in your life. Your twin daughters, and now
they’re about three years old. What’s it like to become an instant
parent, John?
John Volturo: It was exhausting.
Jackie Keller: You didn’t have to breastfeed.
John Volturo: No, I didn’t have to breastfeed, thankfully, and I didn’t
have to carry them, thankfully. We were really lucky to have a
surrogate here in Los Angeles, so we got the whole experience from the
beginning to end. All of the sudden you go from being a married
couple to having two kids in your house within three days of them
being born. Your life gets turned upside-down, and you realize how
small the world is. You realize that community, again, going back to
that, is so important.
In Los Angeles we’re really lucky there are organizations like Parents
of Multiples, and we’ve joined a lot of organizations just to get
close to communities because you go through a major life change. On
top of it, being a Celiac, I don’t like to label things of course, but
being a Celiac I started thinking about the impact that the food that
my kids were eating and what types of formula. We did have our
surrogate actually breastfeed, not breastfeed but pumping milk. She
started eating food with gluten in it, and one of my daughters became
ill almost immediately. It was really interesting because I was
actually introducing this to my doctor. When we brought it to the
doctor she was surprised that it happened so early, but we pulled back
all of the gluten. It was very hard to do that with someone that was
doing us a big favor by pumping milk, but only one of our daughter’s
ended up with breast milk; the other one ended up on formula because
of the gluten intolerance.
Jackie Keller: She’s nearly three now, two-and-a-half, right?
John Volturo: They’re both two-and-a-half.
Jackie Keller: Does she have Celiac Disease? Can you tell at this point?
John Volturo: We can’t tell. It’s interesting that you ask because when
she does have a piece of bread or a cracker, I can tell her stomach
gets a little distended. That was the way I felt initially when I
started to discover that I might have Celiac Disease. I actually
didn’t even know Celiac Disease existed until I was diagnosed with it.
I think the things that she feels, I can tell physically are similar
to what I went through. She gets a bloated looking stomach and then
she’ll cry in the middle of the night. I used to wake up in the
middle of the night. Her form of expression is crying; mine was ouch,
my stomach is hurting, why is that happening.
Jackie Keller: Come on, I know you cried.
John Volturo: I cried, I cried. I cried at work because I was tired. I
think she may have an insensitivity. I hope she doesn’t have the full-
blown Celiac disease. We haven’t had her tested. We feel like it’s a
little bit too early. We just want to try to see if we can maybe diet
her.
Jackie Keller: Now, because you have this relatively recent diagnosis,
how big of a challenge has it been for you to convert your whole way
of eating? I know you’re a pasta guy, you come from a good Italian,
pasta thing. That’s just one of the examples I know that you’ve had
to eliminate from your diet.
John Volturo: I’m glad to asked about that, because I will tell you,
back in 2009 when I was first diagnosed the biggest problem I had was
figuring out what to eat. Luckily, like I said, we were working
together, but I love to go out to dinner; it was part of my job as a
matter of fact. Talking to talent, going to speak, having dinners,
and cocktail parties, all of the sudden you start realizing that
gluten is everywhere. Wheat is in soy. Wheat is everywhere you can
possibly imagine, even in oatmeal. There’s certain oatmeal’s that you
can’t even have because it’s grown on the same fields that… It
became a really difficult thing for me to do. For the first month I
lost a lot of weight because I was just afraid to eat. Right after
that I started thinking about all of the things that I wanted, and we
started experimenting at home. Adam was a baker, so in addition to
all of the cookies and desserts that you were making for us, he
started baking bread. All of the sudden I gained weight, and I became
more heavy than I ever was before because I started thinking about the
things I was not able to have, and I started eating them. You get to
that balance, where all of the sudden you figure it out. Fast forward
to today where it’s 2014 and everybody seems to have a gluten-free
recipe, which is great. Even most recently, now I can go to
supermarkets that are on every corner and buy gluten-free pasta if I
want to eat it.
Jackie Keller: How can people who face similar challenges use Scriball to
get more information about not only Celiac but I know you’re also
dairy-free if I remember correctly.
John Volturo: I’m a little difficult.
Jackie Keller: You’re a little difficult. I would guess that your
community helps with that.
John Volturo: We haven’t actually set up a Celiac Scriball, but we
should. I was actually thinking what I wanted to do for you was set
up a community for you for all of your folks, because I think you’re
able to reach a group of folks who have been transformed by all of the
different recipes you’ve created for them. I think you’re right, we
should set up a Scriball community for Celiac Disease, because people
are constantly trying to figure out ways to improve upon what they
eat. What I’ve discovered is that recipe searching is the most
important thing. When I’m at home on a Sunday, and I want to cook a
big Italian dinner for my family because I’m Italian and I grew up
that way in New York City, it’s really hard for me to go online and
find a really great recipe. If there was a community of people
talking about the recipes that work for them, that would be great, and
that’s what Scriball is really about, that micro-community of people
figuring out what’s best and working together to get things done.
Jackie Keller: Let’s do that together.
John Volturo: I would love to do that together.
Jackie Keller: Should we start with a recipe right now?
John Volturo: Yeah, let’s do it.
Jackie Keller: Alright, let’s cook. All right, John, time to cook. I
thought today we would make something that is gluten-free, dairy free,
and for you soy free, and still nutritious, delicious, doable, nothing
fancy, nothing foreign or weird, nothing exotic, and just show people
how easy it is to put together something without a whole lot of effort
that meets all of those criteria, and is nutritious as well. We’re
going to make a quinoa-based dish. As you know, quinoa is a gluten-
free grain, and it’s loaded with protein so this will take care of the
fact… This is actually a vegan protein dish. A little bit of extra-
virgin olive oil, and of course some onions and bell peppers, which I
know you like.
John Volturo: Already smells delicious.
Jackie Keller: Maybe you can give that a stir while I get the rest of it
going. We’re just going to allow, maybe, 30 seconds for this to take
on some color and flavor. I cheated a little bit, because…
John Volturo: No cheating.
Jackie Keller: I cheat all the time. A little bit of collard greens. I
pre-blanched them because collard greens do take a couple of minutes
to cook, and I knew we would be a little short on time. You’re going
to want to spread those out. If you’re starting with raw collard
greens in the recipe, you’re going to want to either blanch them or
allow for enough time for the collards to cook. Unlike spinach or
chard, which you could use in this recipe, collards are a little
stiffer. The good thing about collards is they are so, so high in
Vitamin K and in fiber.
John Volturo: I love collards. I do love them.
Jackie Keller: It’s not a common vegetable for some of us. I didn’t grow
up with collard greens. I didn’t know anything about them.
John Volturo: We started to grow them in our backyard.
Jackie Keller: How nice.
John Volturo: Yeah, we do.
Jackie Keller: We have a farm now. NutriFit has a farm and we are going
collards.
John Volturo: Farm-to-table.
Jackie Keller: Literally, in our case it’s literal. For our clients,
they’re getting things that we grow on the farm and bring in and put
in their plates. Collards are one of the easiest things to grow,
which is really nice. I’m going to add a little bit of vegetarian
vegetable broth. Here would be an instance where we would need to
look and see, does this have gluten. I don’t have my glasses on.
John Volturo: I don’t have mine on either, but I can tell that this is
gluten-free because it doesn’t have any soy in it, and it does not
have anything related to wheat or modified starches. That tells me
right away that it’s probably gluten-free, even though it doesn’t…
It actually says it on the front.
Jackie Keller: Shows you what you can see when you can read, but in other
times or with other products you may not be able to see that it’s
gluten-free on the front.
John Volturo: A lot of products still don’t have it on there.
Jackie Keller: Right, because it’s not necessarily what people are
looking for. Although, I think we are going to see more and more
things labeled gluten-free that never have gluten to begin with, but
this is a product like a broth, sauce, or something pre-made like this
where you would have to read the label carefully.
John Volturo: You really do have to be careful because brown gravies,
like you were saying before, have a lot of gluten in them.
Jackie Keller: We’ve got some vegetable broth in there. Now I’m going to
add some black lentils to this. If you didn’t have these black
lentils, which aren’t that exotic or hard to find, you could use
regular lentils. I kind of like something a little different.
They’re smaller; they have a little better texture for this dish
because they’re not going to get really mushy on me. Of course, by
adding in the lentils, we’re adding in fiber, folate, and a lot of
protein.
John Volturo: A nice crunch too.
Jackie Keller: Yeah, they’re good. I’ll add in some of our salt and
sugar-free lemon-garden blend because I know what’s in it. Again,
another circumstance where it could be a filler or something added in
it that could create a reaction.
John Volturo: If you haven’t tried Jackie’s spices, they’re amazing.
Jackie Keller: That’s sweet of you, thank you. You just earned yourself
a bottle to take home.
John Volturo: That’s why I said it.
Jackie Keller: Give that a stir here while we get the quinoa in there.
This is red quinoa. You don’t have to have red quinoa; you don’t have
to have black quinoa; you don’t have to have tri-colored quinoa; you
can have just plain old quinoa. This is organic, and I like this
product because, again, I want something that looks a little unique.
I want something that contrasts with the dish and really creates
something interesting. We’re going to add in this pre-cooked quinoa.
You know you have to rinse quinoa before you cook it because it has
that bitter outer coating. When you just rinse it in a colander that
outer coating is rinsed off, then you just put in in a pot with some
water, bring it up to a boil. Of course, the recipe for this dish is
on empowerme.tv. It’s also on my health blog, so you don’t have to
worry about writing it down.
John Volturo: It smells delicious.
Jackie Keller: We’re going to top it off with a little bit of meyer lemon
zest and meyer lemon juice. This is another thing we’re trying to
grow up on our farm, meyer lemons. We have a regular lemon tree,
which is prolific. The meyer lemons are harder to grow and a little
bit more delicate, but they have a much sweeter flavor, so we’re
experimenting. We’re not farmers by trade.
John Volturo: It’s not Green Acres.
Jackie Keller: It’s not Green Acres, no, it’s not Green Acres. Well,
part of the acres are green, thank God. If we could just get more
rain we’d be in good shape. I love the smell of lemon zest.
John Volturo: I can smell it from here; it smells great.
Jackie Keller: Then we’ll take some of the juice out as well. You just
keep stirring there. Pretty soon we will have our dish. Can you hand
me one of those forks. I’m going to spear this guy and take the juice
out just like that. Who needs a fancy juicer when you have a good old-
fashioned fork? Maybe a little bit more. I think there’s a seed or
two in there so I have to be a little bit careful. We’re just about
done. It’s really that simple.
John Volturo: This was fast, yeah.
Jackie Keller: Of course, I pre-cooked a couple of things, but nothing
took more than 15 minutes to pre-cook.
John Volturo: You could do while you do other things as well.
Jackie Keller: A nice salad with this, or something like that would be
done for the day. You’ve got protein, fiber, fat, healthy vitamins,
minerals, everything you need.
John Volturo: I think I’m going to go home and make this for dinner
tonight. This smells delicious. You might have to give this to me.
Jackie Keller: You might have to taste it first, what do you think, ready
to do that? Let’s do this. Let’s turn it down because it’s pretty
hot. Why don’t you dish yourself up a little bit, and I’m going to
have you take a taste. I think you have a fork right there. Let me
know what you think. Hot, I know. Is it good?
John Volturo: As good as I thought it would be. I did get that one
seed.
Jackie Keller: That tiny seed found you.
John Volturo: It’s very good.
Jackie Keller: This is a base. Obviously, you could modify it. If you
didn’t have collards you could use something else; make it your own,
but I’m glad we came up with something. If you did want to make this,
and it wasn’t for John, and you wanted to add some soy nuts to it, you
could for a little additional crunch, some roasted soy nuts on the
top. It’s good without it as well.
John Volturo: Or you could put pine nuts, if you’re me.
Jackie Keller: There you go, and pine nuts would be a lovely addition to
that. John, thank you so much for joining me today.
John Volturo: Glad to me here. I’ll have to give you a hug. I love
this woman.
Jackie Keller: I know that everybody wants to stay connected to you
personally, and they also will be interested in Scriball, so please
tell our audience how they can find you.
John Volturo: You can find me at JohnVolturo.com, thank you.
Jackie Keller: We’ll stay connected.
John Volturo: Yes.
Jackie Keller: We’ll stay in touch.
John Volturo: I’d love to do that.
Jackie Keller: We’ll do this again.
John Volturo: Yes, let’s do it again.
Jackie Keller: Thank you so much. Think for a minute about the most
important relationships in your life. What are the characteristics of
the people to whom you feel closest? Happy couples describe their
partners as interested and responsive. Besides existing
relationships, curious people act in certain ways with strangers that
allow relationships to develop more easily. Research shows that
curious people ask questions and take an interest in learning about
partners and intentionally try to keep interactions interesting and
playful.
Here are a couple of things we now know about social relationships.
In a recent blog in Scientific American magazine, Ingrid Wickelgren
writes, “People who are part of a group are also far better equipped
to conquer an internal foe, the threat of bad health. In one of the
recent studies, the health benefits of social relationships published
earlier this year, researchers provided evidence that social ties and
increased contact with family and friends are also associated with the
lower risk in death in young women with breast cancer. Another study
presented a similar conclusion with respect to surviving heart
surgery. What’s more, a 2010 meta-analysis of 148 other studies
showed that social connection doesn’t just help us survive health
problems, but lack of it causes them.”
She goes on, “Many languages have expressions such as hurt feelings
that compare the pain of social rejection to the pain of physical
injury. We now know that those are more than just metaphors. There
are two components to physical pain, an unpleasant emotional feeling
and a feeling of sensory distress. They’re both associated with
different structures in the brain, and social pain is also associated
with a particular brain structure. This connection between physical
and social pain reflects the tie between social connection and the
psychological processes of the body.” The health message is clear.
Reach out socially, you’ll engage your curious self, you’ll minimize
the pain of social isolation, and live more fully.
As John Lennon wrote so poetically, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but
I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world
will live as one.” That’s our show today. I hope you’ll join me next
week for another episode of Food Exposed, where we’ll take a close
look at what’s on your plate. For more Food Exposed, check me out on
empowerme.tv, and until next week, remember, make food your best
friend and exercise your companion for life.
Jackie: Welcome to Food Exposed where each week we take a close look at
what’s on your plate. My name is Jackie Keller and I’m the
founding Director of NutriFit, Los Angeles’ leading food
company. You know during the course of my work I’ve had the
privilege of working with people from all walks of life from all
over this country and all over the world. I’ve been able to
travel to every continent and have traveled through most of the
United States as well and during the course of this I’ve heard
great stories about getting healthy and staying healthy.
There’s a general perception that almost no one succeeds in the
maintenance of long term — long term maintenance weight loss.
However, research has shown that about 20 percent of overweight
individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined
as losing at least ten percent of initial body weight and
maintaining the loss for at least one year.
The National Weight Control Registry provides information about the
strategies used by successful weight loss maintainers to achieve
and maintain long-term weight loss. The National Weight Control
Registry members have lost an average of 72 pounds and
maintained the loss for more than five years.
Many registry members follow these basic strategies. Rule number one
they never cheat. They don’t give themselves break not even on
holidays, not on weekends. Rule number two they eat breakfast.
The National Weight Control Registry shows that one of the most
common traits of those who succeed in keeping those pounds off
once and for all. And rule number three they get on the scale
every day. They don’t let the pounds creep up.
Rule number four they put in the equivalent of a four mile walk seven
days a week. Number five they watch less than half as much TV
as the overall population. Rule six they eat 50 to 300 calories
per day less than most people; moreover, weight control gets
easier over time and after individuals have successfully
maintained their weight loss for two to five years the chance of
longer term success greatly increases.
Continued adherence to diet and exercise strategies, low levels of
depression and disinhibition and medical triggers for weight
loss are also associated with long term success. Many registry
members say that these behaviors are common traits but not
something they necessarily do all the time.
Well, my guest today is a woman whose story could be in the National
Weight Loss Registry instead it’s in her book “Tipping the
Scales in Your Favor”. Dian Thomas, author and self-published
the book in 2011 losing amazing 120 pounds. Dian hails from the
beautiful mountains of southern Utah where she grew up in the
family of boys as the daughter of a forest ranger. She
developed wonderful camping skills including a host of
activities centered around outdoor cooking and after completing
her master’s thesis Dian published her first book “Roughing It
Easy” which made The New York Times best seller list and landed
her on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from that came
contact with the Home Show, Good Morning America, and now you
can catch her own Hallmark’s Home and Family Show.
I met Dian ten years ago and at that time she weighed 326 pounds,
I’ll let her tell the rest of the story to you. Dian, welcome
to Food Exposed.
Dian: Thank you.
Jackie: Thank you so much for coming down from Utah. You know I know
people are really captivated by weight loss stories but yours is
unique. What motivated you to lose weight?
Dian: Well, I was here in Santa Monica speaking because I had been on
television for so long. I was speaking about how to do publicity
and how to do performances and I was all finished and all
gathering up and I remember this wonderful woman came and said
you know I went to my car and I decided I should come back and
here’s my card and I can help you lose weight and that was you.
I have been grateful ever since because it gave me hope.
I think one of the big things is and I haven’t done it perfect as you
know but one of the best things is you stay on the track and
even if you slip a little bit, you keep staying on the track and
you stay on the track. Pretty much at whole I’ve conquered it
but I still am challenged a little more when I travel and that’s
a hard one for me.
I’ll still work on that. I’m not going to giving it up but I
remember in the beginning I said to myself I’ve got to find an
activity that I love and if I don’t, I’m not going to stick with
it and so I think that was a huge, huge key and that was riding
my bike and that’s opened up the gate. In fact, this year I’m
riding my bike down the Rhine River and through the tulips in
[inaudible 00:05:38]
Jackie: Wow.
Dian: . . . and in Paris. So it still is a passion for me.
Jackie: That’s great. So what changed in your life because you lost
the weight?
Dian: Oh, I have a new life. It’s totally new. I love traveling and
I was always really active. As you mentioned, I’m from the
forest, and my dad was a ranger, we went out camping and all of
that. So I had a really active upbringing and also I traveled
the country doing promotion, promoting books, but pretty soon
when you get so heavy you’re just looking for the next chair to
sit down and your life totally changes. And it’s kind of like
you go downhill and then coming back up is really difficult.
I remember I used to ride my bike. That was really my main exercise.
I used to ride it for two hours in the morning at home. I would
be so exhausted some days that I couldn’t do much the rest of
the day and I still, I did, the highlight for me was when I rode
across to Iowa two years ago and rode every mile.
So one of the things we do is called RAGBRAI. Some of you may know
especially if you are in the middle part of the country but
15,000 bike riders come to Iowa towards the end of July and Iowa
is bordered by the Missouri River on the West and the
Mississippi on the East and so we start riding our bikes, we
back our back tire into the Missouri River and then you ride
across the state and each day you ride about 60 to 80 miles.
And then in the next day you get another 60 to 80 miles and so
there’s about 25,000 people. So some of the towns that you stay
in are only 3,000 people so here’s all these bike riders, so I
think associating with people who work out and do healthy living
things also is a big help for me.
Jackie: And you have a new career I think in there as I . . . tell us
about it.
Dian: Which one?
Jackie: Well you mentioned like riding your bike down the Rhine River
and tulips in Holland. I think you’ve had a few other trips
that are pretty exciting since you’ve lost the weight.
Dian: Absolutely. What happened, to be honest with you Jackie, is
when I lost the weight I rode my bike so much that everybody
knew I was riding my bike. Every day I was on my bike and a
friend of mine told the travel agent in Salt Lake about that and
they called me when I was in California and said would you come
and do a bike tour to China? I go that’s a no brainer. I mean
of course I would do a bike trip to China.
And so I went in, met with them, and they never got enough people to
go to China for the bike ride but all of sudden I found myself
in China. He said just go take tours for me, go take tours, so
I had been China to 16 times and I also stay in China and I ride
my bike which is pretty dangerous. It’s not like riding in LA
because they don’t anticipate you. It’s like they have rules in
China but nobody follows them so people are coming from all
directions.
So I decided Europe is where I’m going to go because they have bike
lanes and they actually have that in China but so I started
doing tours to China and then next one was to Peru to Machu
Picchu which I’m going back again in a couple of weeks. And this
last I just got home two weeks ago from South Africa where I
went to Kruger Park to see the animals and next year I’m going
back and take people on a camping trip in South Africa.
Jackie: Now would that have been possible at 326 pounds?
Dian: No, none of it would have been possible and so it’s really
thrilling and that’s one thing that keeps me going. Like I
said, one of my challenges is when I travel. But you just keep
working on it. I mean a lot of people the thing about weight
which you could have told me is it’s a long-term effort and just
because you fall off the wagon what I used to do is, “Well I
fell off the wagon. I’ll just eat for a week, and then I’ll go
back on.”
But no you get up the next morning and you start and then your own
way again so I think losing weight is a challenge. Our country
is as you know we have a challenge with that and that’s why it’s
so good to have people like you who lead the way and show us. I
have a background in home economics but it’s not just knowing
the information. It’s really applying the information.
Jackie: So how valuable was it to have a coach through this process?
Dian: I don’t think I would have done it. I have told many of my
friends I don’t think I would because it’s a long term you have
to just keep doing it. And again in my suitcase I brought down
some more books to work on tonight to make a plan and I think
eventually I’ll get a plan.
But one of the things I think plagues is we need fast food. Not fast
food in the terms of McDonalds and all of those but when you get
ready to eat. You’re tired, you’re back from the office, you
need to be able to fix it fast and so that’s been my challenge
is learning how to set my kitchen up so that when I go in there
I can make something really fast and is healthy. That’s the
key.
I tell people I can fix . . . this is my kind of mantra. I go
shopping on Saturdays, come home, and if I can set it up like
even pre-measure all of the stuff. Last night as I’m getting
ready to come here I just bought some turkey hamburger and when
I buy it I get about four pounds or so. So I measured it all
out, made the hamburger patties, and put them in the freezer,
and then they are all ready to go. I just take them to the
freezer up, put them in a pan, turn it over, and then turn up
the heat, go into work, and then when I come back out, I need to
steam some vegetables or something like that, and I have a meal.
So it’s fast.
Jackie: Well about doing some fast cooking with me today?
Dian: I would love to.
Jackie: So let’s join me in the kitchen.
Dian: I always love watching your stuff. It gives me ideas to do so.
Jackie: Let’s do it together.
All right, Dian. We are ready to cook.
Dian: I’m excited.
Jackie: I know you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. In fact, you do
a lot of your cooking at home. You can do that when you are
home, but do you do that all of the time?
Dian: All of my cooking. Yeah.
Jackie: So I thought that I would give you a couple of another ideas
to take home.
Dian: Yes, I would love that.
Jackie: These are really easy and they are very quick and they are down
your alley because I know you love vegetables. You tell me all
the time you go to the farmer’s market, you pick up what’s
special, what’s seasonal, what’s fresh, what just and then you
come home and create.
Dian: Exactly.
Jackie: And that’s sort of the way this recipe evolved. It’s very
simple pasta dish so its base of carbohydrate is whole grain
pasta, and for protein we are using white beans, and for fiber
we are using kale. So vegetarian pasta dish with just a little
bit of feta cheese at the end, which of course is optional. You
know you don’t have to do it that way but I think that kind of
rounds it out.
So let me get started with some extra virgin oil. As you know the
extra virgin means that it has the best flavor and the highest
purity so we need the least amount because every drop is going
to contribute just a little bit more flavor benefit so just
enough that we don’t burn the bottom of the pan.
Dian: Good.
Jackie: And of course we love to start all of these dishes with some
garlic.
Dian: Oh yeah.
Jackie: And you know we like to start with something that people are
familiar with because when you don’t do a pasta dish that has
meat or something like that, sometimes your guests are “okay
like well something is missing.” “You know like this more like
an appetizer than an entree,” but the truth is that you don’t
need the meat. What you need is something that smells good and
looks good.
Dian: It really smells good.
Jackie: Yeah, it’s very fragrant so.
Dian: So this is the kale?
Jackie: This is some fresh kale. Now we steamed it a little just to get
ahead start.
Dian: So that’s the big leaf.
Jackie: That’s the big leaf kale. You can use baby kale, you can use
red kale or blue kale or any kind of kale you can get your hands
on but I like the dark rich green color of this. And since I
don’t want to add anymore oil and I don’t want to burn the
bottom of the pan, I’m going to add in a little organic
vegetable broth, and that’s just enough to give it some juice
and keep that garlic from burning and the vegetables can
continue to cook a little bit and now.
Dian: Did you blend the garlic? That’s one thing I noticed right off
the top.
Jackie: I did not. That is fresh garlic, that we minced, mince, mince,
mince. We set it up like you talked about setting up your meals
in containers. We set up our ingredients in these little
containers, food safe containers designed for food to keep in
the refrigerator and that way you don’t have to start completely
from scratch. You know you are starting with something, some of
the harder stuff already done. The beans, I pre-cooked the
beans and these are just white beans. Now you could use
cannellini beans, black beans, red beans.
Dian: You could freeze this ahead of time, couldn’t you? So I got
two great ideas from you today already. Chopped up garlic and
you could do that so you can just put more in.
Jackie: You can do that at the start of week and have it all week long
and the beans…
Dian: The beans could be frozen.
Jackie: Put them in an eight ounce containers or two cup containers and
you are good for the week.
Dian: Good.
Jackie: And then the same beans can be used in many different ways.
Dian: So now I think that’s the key to that because doing it ahead of time
is easy. This is fast food, really good fast food.
Jackie: This is fast food, yeah. And you mentioned that’s really been
one of the challenges, right?
Dian: Yeah, that’s the key.
Jackie: And then another not so secret secret is of course is to have
these salt and sugar free spices available. This is one of ours
it’s Mediterranean but you know you don’t have to have ours to
make this recipe work you can do your own and this is a brand
new bottle so I’m going to do another little trick that I like
to do which is to crush the seasoning and really releases all of
the flavor in the dried herbs.
Dian: That’s nice.
Jackie: Now I’ll let you stir for me here while I clean my hands.
Dian: Looks nice.
Jackie: And I love the smell on my hands of those seasonings but I also
appreciate having something to kind clean of my hands and add a
little more flavor to it. I’m going to take some lemon and go
right into that with some fresh Meijer lemon and I’m going to
clean my hands too. So my hands now smell like lemon which I
love.
Dian: So you could use lemon or lime?
Jackie: Lemon or lime either one. And you just want a little bit just
to because we are not making a tomato base sauce here. We are
making a vegetable based sauce so I’m going to go ahead and add
in now some pre-cooked. I pre-cooked a little bit of vegetable
penne, whole wheat penne. And again you don’t need much.
Dian: Could you freeze this as well, couldn’t you?
Jackie: You can, pasta will lose a little bit of texture in the
freezer. So when it comes out what you could do with this which
would take care of the texture issue we are going to serve it
just fresh out of the skillet but let’s say you had frozen the
p
Summer is right around the corner and we want to make sure you are in the best shape for bikini season. Whether you are trying to lose weight, or just tone your body up, the Fit in Five program will work for you. Combined with your custom-built 5-week diet plan and our expert knowledge of nutrition, we will make sure that that you reach your goals safely, efficiently, and in great condition.
With our Fit in Five package, all the hard work is gone from your diet. We custom-build a 5-week “Get Fit” diet plan based on your goals, then ship it straight to your door for every week. We don’t draw on some template that was designed for someone else – every meal is carefully thought out and put together with your needs, goals, and tastes in mind.
All-in, including delivery anywhere in the continental U.S, it’s only $399* per week for five weeks. That’s less than $5 per meal. Try getting dinner that’s tailored to your fitness goals anywhere for $5. 
Servings: 2
Serving Size: 3 berries
Thanksgiving is here and I am reminded of a friend of mine, born and raised abroad, telling me years ago why he had fully embraced this great American holiday.
“Food, Family and Football!”
“But in all seriousness, Thanksgiving is the perfect American holiday” he continued. “Non-denominational, embraced by every creed and celebrated by every wave of immigrant to have graced these shores. Thanksgiving transcends class, religion, money and everything else to be about, simply, Gratitude.” Well sure, what better reason for a holiday than that? And it turns out, being thankful is also good for your health. Noted below are some fascinating facts I found recently at the Body Works exhibition.
People who are grateful in their daily lives have healthier levels of key body chemicals than those who say they are not. These individuals have been found to have lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone linked to type two diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. They also have lower counts of fibrinogen, an essential blood clotting protein that in high doses is an indicator of future heart disease. People who are grateful respond differently to their environment and cut their risk of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Grateful people also report higher levels of optimism and, those who think of the glass as half full are less likely to die of heart disease than pessimists. To believe that the worst will happen is more significant than age, weight or heart condition in increasing your risk of dying from heart disease.
So, enjoy the Holidays with your family, try to eat healthily and mindfully, and remember the gratitude you feel is good for you too!
Lavosh with Peanut Butter & Dried Fruit Recipe
Servings: 12
Serving Size: 3″ piece
Ingredients:
12 oz. extra firm lite tofu
2 pieces lavosh
1 1/8 cups reduced fat peanut butter
1 oz. dried cranberries
1 oz. raisins
1 oz. dates, chopped
Directions:
1. Combine the tofu and peanut butter in the carafe of a food processor and mix well.
2. Spread each piece of lavosh lightly with peanut butter mixture.
3. Arrange the mixed fruit evenly over the top.
4. Roll and cut each lavosh roll into 6 even pieces. 5. Serve immediately or wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Recipe by Jackie Keller, NutriFit
