Personally, snacks have been one of the most difficult challenges in changing my lifestyle. I can swing a smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch, and let Orlando worry about dinner. That’s easy. But what do I do when its 5pm and i’m stuck in traffic and I know I’m not going to have dinner until at least 7pm. I’ll tell you what happens to me. First I feel the hunger…then I realize how long its going to be before I eat again…then I feel more hunger… then I see the bumper to bumper traffic in front of me…then I start thinking of bad food. Junk food. Fast food. Easy food. Anything I used to eat that would satisfy my current situation. By the time I get home and have been hungry for over an hour, I will eat almost anything I find. That’s not a good place to be. It leads to eating things you want to avoid and then later feeling guilty about it.

The solutions are slim to be completely honest!!!! But the key is to always be prepared and avoid getting to the point where you are starving.

I have done my homework, and have found that the easiest, cleanest, and most practical solution is to always have seeds and/or nuts in your office, purse, briefcase, or whatever it is you transport with you. You can prepackage them in little ziplock bags and take one every day with you.

Alton Brown once said you should have an ounce of raw almonds every single day.

NOTE: These are high-fat snacks, and although I promote eating whole foods that are high in good fats, moderation is the key to a healthy lifestyle! So govern yourself accordingly 🙂

There are all types of seeds you can find that are good for you:

• Sunflower seeds- my favorite (unsalted…sorry)
• hemp seeds
• chia seeds
• pumpkin seeds

Nuts are also great for you:

• Raw almonds
• Pistachios
• Cashews

The reason I choose raw almonds is because almonds can lose up to 15 percent of their own healthy oils, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz. Also, when roasted at high temperatures, chemicals can be formed in the the almonds that promote aging. Of course, roasted almonds are a better choice than a bag of chips, so we must take everything with a grain of salt!!! So when you can, buy raw.

Benefits of Nuts as described by Mayo Clinic:

• unsaturated fats. It’s not entirely clear why, but it’s thought that the “good” fats in nuts — both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — lower bad cholesterol levels.
• Omega-3 fatty acids. Many nuts are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are a healthy form of fatty acids that seem to help your heart by, among other things, preventing dangerous heart rhythms that can lead to heart attacks. Omega-3 fatty acids are also found in many kinds of fish, but nuts are one of the best plant-based sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
• Fiber. All nuts contain fiber, which helps lower your cholesterol. Fiber also makes you feel full, so you eat less. Fiber is also thought to play a role in preventing diabetes.
• Vitamin E. Vitamin E may help stop the development of plaques in your arteries, which can narrow them. Plaque development in your arteries can lead to chest pain, coronary artery disease or a heart attack.
• Plant sterols. Some nuts contain plant sterols, a substance that can help lower your cholesterol. Plant sterols are often added to products like margarine and orange juice for additional health benefits, but sterols occur naturally in nuts.
• L-arginine. Nuts are also a source of l-arginine, which is a substance that may help improve the health of your artery walls by making them more flexible and less prone to blood clots that can block blood flow.
• For the full article visit: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nuts/HB00085

When it comes to seeds and nuts, I believe that in order to really get the most healthy fats and true benefits of them you need to buy them in their original state. So look at the ingredients of what you’re buying and make sure you’re buying them as single ingredients instead of disguised with a million different additives.

Fun Fact: Raw almonds are great for heartburn!!!! So for the pregnant ladies, try popping a fee raw almonds before TUMS and see how you feel!!

Its happened to all of us. We read about eating healthy, we get inspired, we go to the grocery store and pile our grocery carts with all sorts of stuff we’re not familiar with, getting ready for our new life…and 2 weeks from now, we’re tossing rotten tomatoes, spoiled romaine lettuce, and the butternut squash is still sitting on the counter because we have no idea how to cut it open.

Eating healthy is not cheap and it becomes way more expensive and frustrating if we’re throwing our money in the trash with wasted food. Here are some tips to get you started this week, whether you’ve done your weekly groceries or not.

1. Don’t buy everything at once: You may read 3 different recipes you like and go out and buy all the ingredients for all of them. Chances are the way life is, things will come up during the week that will prevent you from making all the recipes you initially intended…and then you don’t know what to do with the ingredients. So they spoil. Avoid this common mistake. Buy ingredients for one recipe. Let’s say you want to make smoothies. Don’t buy kale, and collard greens and watercress. Simply buy a bunch of Kale. Buy some frozen berries, and check if you have any other fruits in your house that you could use, such as bananas or mangoes, or apples..etc.

2. Use your ingredients for different recipes. Start by trying the kale in the smoothies. You may also want to try Kale chips, or any other kale recipes to see if you like the vegetable cooked in different ways. Once you finished your bunch, you may opt to buy more for the next week or move on to your next option such as watercress or collard greens. Or if you bake sweet potatoes and have leftovers. In a couple of days make a sweet potato mash.

**If you have kids or babies, I’ve learned that there are a ton of ways to give them the same meal. If you make a soup for example, they can eat the soup the day you make it. Then with the left overs you can puree the soup and give it to them as a puree, and then another day make a puree and put it on a bed of germinated brown rice or quinoa. Or keep it as a soup and pour it over some zucchini pasta. Your options are endless!!!!

3. Eat what spoils quickest first. You’re dealing with perishables now, so its important you understand that there is timing involved when preparing your meals. If you buy apples, blueberries, butternut squash and mushrooms as an example…take the time to learn what spoils first. In this example, the blueberries and mushrooms will spoil the fastest so make sure you include them in your meals during the earlier part of the week. Squash will keep for a while so you can keep that for when you’re out of other vegetables.

4. Keep a running list on your refrigerator. Sometimes the fridge is so full of stuff, we forget what we have. Especially when you have a household full of people to feed and you routinely store leftovers. Whether its a magic board or a piece of paper taped to your refrigerator, As you start stacking the fridge with all the delicious things you bought, take the time to write the items down on the board or paper in a list format.

Example: 8/6/12

• blueberries
• strawberries
• cantaloupe
• pineapple
• asparagus
• sweet potatoes
• kale
• spinach

When you’re done with the blueberries scratch it off, etc.

Do the same with leftovers. If you make cabbage soup, Add it to your list with the date next to it.

This practice is excellent for choosing what you’re going to cook during the week, what snacks you have available and what leftovers you can take for lunch that week.

5. If its going bad, use it or freeze it right away. If you notice your bananas are turning black, you can either put them in your smoothie that morning or simply take the peel off, put them in a ziplock baggie and freeze them. You can use them later instead of throwing them away. Or if you use half a pear in your smoothie this morning and tomorrow the other half is sitting in the fridge turning brown, slice it up and put it in your salad.

Because you are committed to buying less boxed items and more perishable items, it is important that you learn to work with these kinds of foods. The goal is to buy less but use more.

Do you have any tips you can offer our community to maximize our healthy eating???? Please reply in the comment box and let us know!

Have a wonderful Monday!

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I had a conversation with a fellow healthy eater who is having a difficult time feeding her 3 year old. Most of us know that under the age of 2 you can usually get your kid to eat almost anything, but once the independence kicks in, so does the rejection of food. Some kids are always picky, but this pattern is the most common scenario.

That got me thinking and I felt compelled to write my thoughts on this because I feel quite strongly about it. I separated my thoughts into 3 main points.

1. We have a very simple but hard-line rule in my house:

YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIKE IT, AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO EAT IT, BUT YOU HAVE TO TRY IT. 

I have implemented this rule since my kids started eating solids, but I saw it emphasized in a book I read, Bringing Up Bebe, and realized how important this rule is. (I don’t agree with everything in this book by any stretch of the imagination, but on the issue of food…I think she’s makes good points)

This is powerful for a couple of reasons.

1. Tastebuds change. They change as we grow, as we explore, and as we age. We tend to attach one negative experience with food to a lifetime of choices. I don’t want my children to fall into that trap because it would really limit them from a culinary perspective.

I had an interesting experience with my 3 year old when he was sick. He got some sort of virus/cold and just wasn’t feeling well. I made him carrot/ginger/orange juice thinking it would boost his immune system and make him feel better. He tasted it and hated it so much that he actually started crying. Needless to say he didn’t drink the juice. 2 days later he was feeling better and I made him the juice again. He started crying when he saw it. He begged me not to give it to him. He told me that he had tried it once before and it was awful and he never wanted to taste it again. But my rules are my rules. I insisted he try it again. It took me some discussion, some crying, some time…but after about half an hour, I finally convinced him that he needed to try it once again. I reiterated my point…Orly, you don’t have to drink this whole cup, but you have to try it. If you don’t like it I promise you that I’ll give you some water to wash away the taste and you don’t have to drink anymore. He frowned, squinted his nose, and reluctantly put the cup to his mouth showing his disgust for the juice. All of a sudden, his frown turned into a smile and he started to laugh hysterically. I asked him why he was laughing and he responded…”Mami, you tricked me!!!!! This juice tastes good.” Not only did he have that sip, but he had the whole cup and asked me to make him more. My point is that my son didn’t dislike carrot/ginger/orange juice…he was sick and his body was out of whack and nothing new would have tasted good at that point. If I had not made him confront that juice again, and the next time someone offered him that juice, said “oh no, orly doesn’t like that kind of juice,” he might turn into a 30 year old man who hated carrot/ginger/orange juice one day.

2. Foods taste different based on how they are prepared. A person may dislike the way tomatoes taste on a cheeseburger, but love tomatoes and mozzarella drizzled in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Or they may enjoy roasted butternut squash but dislike a butternut squash soup. This does not mean that this person doesn’t like tomatoes, or butternut squash, it might be a texture issue or cold versus hot….there are many different factors. I personally think canned green beans are disgusting, yet a roasted green bean, or even lightly boiled is delicious to me.

2. My other rule is that there are certain things my kids do not choose: specifically when they sleep and what they are served to eat in our home.

I’m all about giving my children independence and an opportunity to express themselves. In fact, I let them choose things like what they wear (even if it doesn’t match), but sleep and food are non-negotiable.

Here are my reasons why:

I believe it is my responsibility as a parent to protect my children and do what’s best for their health and development. I happen to believe that sleep and food affect children’s well-being and development. As a result,  if I allow them to make decisions on their own behalf that I don’t agree with, I am not protecting them. I am allowing them to make decisions for themselves before they have the capacity to make educated decisions for themselves. When my son can present a reasonable, educated, supported argument that a lolipop is better for him at dinnertime than broccoli, then I will consider it. Until then, broccoli it is. That being said, within these rules, they have choices. For example, they don’t get to choose what I serve for dinner. So they can’t see a plate of lentil soup and say “no mommy, please make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” (well, they can and have said it, but they will not get the desired result) BUT as long as they taste every item on the plate, they do have the choice NOT to eat the plate. There are obvious consequences attached to that decision, the most obvious one being they would go to bed hungry. But I allow them to make that choice because I know that going to bed hungry one night will not affect their health and development. Eating junkfood all the time WILL . The other consequence is that I offer them a dessert after dinner every night. This could range from fruit with homemade whip cream to a piece of dark chocolate or if someone gave them a lolipop that day I may say you can save it for dessert. If they choose not to eat their meal, they don’t get their dessert. This is only because I don’t want to allow them to fill their tummies with the dessert part which defeats the purpose of going to bed hungry.

3. As parents we must lead by example.

If we want our kids to eat healthy, balanced meals and we want them to be open to new foods, new tastes, and new experiences…we, ourselves, have a duty to be an example to them. If I refuse to try seafood, then its not unreasonable for my children to refuse it also. Or maybe they don’t refuse seafood, but instead refuse vegetables. We can always use the argument of you must do as I say but not as I do, but I simply don’t find that to be an effective technique.

My husband, for example, doesn’t like pickles. He simply doesn’t like them. But to his credit, every time pickles are served with his meal the man takes a bite of the pickle. When he realizes that he still doesn’t like it, he sets the rest of the pickle aside. Maybe he’ll never like pickles, but maybe one day, someone will prepare a pickle and he will enjoy it. Who knows, he’ll never stop trying!!!!! So when he says to his son, you have to try these oysters…he can say it with authority, because he walks his talk!

We may have been blessed with good eaters or maybe it has to do with our rules and our parenting, but our kids do eat almost everything. Of course I’ve been put in the position of saying at a restaurant, my son loves vegetables, and having him spit them out and only want fries. And no matter how much healthy food I offer them at home, they will kill for a cupcake or candy at a party. The bad stuff tastes good and kids love bad stuff and thats OK!!!! But the goal is to always PLANT THE SEED. Continue offering the good stuff in hopes that when they can make their own decisions, those decisions will be good ones. And maybe, if we’re lucky they won’t have to re-learn everything they know about food when they’re 34 years old because they’re sick or overweight. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll thank us for this one day!!!!

• Beets are a unique source of phytonutrients called betalains. Betanin and vulgaxanthin are the two best-studied betalains from beets, and both have been shown to provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support. The detox support provided by betalains includes support of some especially important Phase 2 detox steps involving glutathione. Although you can see these betalain pigments in other foods (like the stems of chard or rhubarb), the concentration of betalains in the peel and flesh of beets gives you an unexpectedly great opportunity for these health benefits.
• Unlike some other food pigments, betalains undergo very steady loss from food as the length of cooking time is increased. For example, one recent study has shown the red betalain pigments in beets to be far less heat stable than red anthocyanin pigments in red cabbage. The difference between 15 minutes of steaming versus 25 minutes of steaming, or 60 minutes of roasting versus 90 minutes of roasting can be significant in terms of betalain damage. For these reasons, we recommend that you keep beet steaming times to 15 minutes or less, and roasting times under an hour.
• An estimated 10-15% of all U.S. adults experience beeturia (a reddening of the urine) after consumption of beets in everyday amounts. While this phenomenon is not considered harmful in and of itself, it may be a possible indicator of the need for healthcare guidance in one particular set of circumstances involving problems with iron metabolism. Individuals with iron deficiency, iron excess, or specific problems with iron metabolism are much more likely to experience beeturia than individuals with healthy iron metabolism. For this reason, if you experience beeturia and have any reason to suspect iron-related problems, we recommend a healthcare consult to follow up on possible issues related to iron status.
• In recent lab studies on human tumor cells, betanin pigments from beets have been shown to lessen tumor cell growth through a number of mechanisms, including inhibition of pro-inflammatory enzymes (specifically, cyclooxygenase enzymes). The tumor cell types tested in these studies include tumor cells from colon, stomach, nerve, lung, breast, prostate and testicular tissue. While lab studies by themselves are not proof of beets’ anti-cancer benefits, the results of these studies are encouraging researchers to look more closely than ever at the value of betanins and other betalains in beets for both prevention and treatment of certain cancer types. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=49