Need a healthy snack?

I know it is winter but I realized the best and healthy summer snack. I use to eat it as a kid all the time! Try frozen peas for a quick and chilled snack! They are great finger food. I am eating a bowl right now to eliminate that hunger crave I have. give it a try!

I do not recommend giving frozen peas to children under the age of 3 due to choking hazzards.

Work hard and never give up!

Sports Drinks

Sports Drinks

There is a fad that is going around that sports drinks are "healthy" for you because of all the electrolytes and they keep you more hydrated. Why wouldn't you think that? The athlete drink it all the time, it must be good.  As with everything that is good, there is always an underline.

What you don't realize is those athletes my be pouring in sweat like you should be after the gym but they did an extra three hours of work that you did not.This sports drink fad started with the all famous sports drink Gatorade (created in 1965 to help the Florida Gators replenish their electrolytes, see history here). After that there became an explosion of new sports drinks and energy drinks. There is basically a whole aisle in the grocery story just for sports drinks. When and where are the times to drink sports drinks?

The NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) recommends drinking sports drinks if you are doing vigorous workouts of activities for more than 60 minutes in heat. Usually if it is cool than water should be enough to replenish you needs. If you drink it casually or drink it after short workouts then you are consuming more calories than you just worked off. The whole point of a sports drink is to replenish your electrolytes. If you still have all your electrolytes after a workout then you are just paying for very expensive pee and an increase in blood sugar.

Alternatives for just water is have water and some lemon squeezed in. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association says that drinking water and eating after a workout should be enough to replenish any missing electrolytes after a strenuous workout. Therefore you don't even have to go buy the sports drink and use the extra money to get some delicious fresh vegetables. There are electrolyte drops found in natural food stores that has sodium and potassium with other micro nutrients in it. It does not have any extra sugar and does not change your drinks flavor.

All in all, the only time a sports drink is useful is if you are working in a very hot climate for an extended period of time and need your carbohydrates restored. Casual drinking of sports drinks is not recommended if you want to live a healthier lifestyle. Chose wisely and enjoy you water!

Controlling Children's Nutrition

Controlling Children's Nutrition

As many know I am a huge supporter of fighting childhood obesity. It is one of my biggest pet peeves to see an unhealthy child and it also hurts my heart. There are different ways foods are presented to our children, through our home, through school, and through friends. There are some we can control and some we can't. So how should we approach what we can control?

At Home:

When a kid comes home from school, if they are not rushing to their friends, they are rushing to the fridge. I know I did since I went a whole 3 hours without eating (in kid time that is light-years!). Kids want something fast and efficient so they can get to "doing homework" (aka playing video games, calling friends, or doing extracurricular activities). They also want something that taste good. So given something fast like an apple vs a bag of chips the kid is going for the chips. Also dinner and breakfast are parent’s responsibility. Honestly, most kids don't like vegetables so they won't eat them. So how do we keep our kids healthy at home

1.      Keep unhealthy fast snacks out of the house. 

a.       Honestly, a teenager will not go through the trouble to make brownies. The kids want to eat so they will go through some trouble to make food but nothing that takes more than 10 minutes. Carl (my hubby) use to go come home, grab apple slices, put cinnamon on them, microwave them and then munch. (I know, shocking my husband likes something besides pizza). It was fast and a habit which brings me to my next one.

2.      Get them in the habit of healthy eating.

a.       Get them into the habit of eating a snack at home that way when they go to their friends they won't snack unhealthily there.

3.      Find their favorite vegetable and make sure they have some available.

a.       My favorite veggies are peas and carrots.  I ate frozen peas as a snack and enjoyed a bowl of cooked carrots, butter and parsley when I was a teen. Mom made a lot of those since they were easy which worked because I would eat them. (NOTE: corn and mashed potatoes are not vegetables. They are starches and should be treated as bread.)

At School:

It was 4 years before my time when they stopped making homemade meals at school. I remember the rumors of the ice cream bar that would await me in jr high and the freshly made lasagna. Talk about a disappointment when I got to jr high to find processed food and day old pizza with no ice cream bar. It saved the school lots of money but it dramatically lowered the standards and quality of nutritional food to resort to processed and frozen foods. Plus kids do not know much about nutrition so the dippy little cheerleaders who survive on green salads lacking in protein wither away. (This is my theory of why cheerleaders have the reputation of being dumb, they have no carbs to fuel the brain.) What can you do about it?

1. Pack them (or teach them to pack) a healthy snack. 

a.       In secondary education there are breaks between classes which allow them a chance to grab a celery stick. The schools can provide only so much; give them that extra something by providing that extra something. There is also time in recess for snacks. Ask teachers (especially in elementary) if snacks are allowed in the classroom.

2. Petition to eliminate unhealthy snacks from the vending machine if they are still there.

a.       I am honestly not against caffeinated sodas (mostly because I understand the need for the caffeine boost) but I am against things like chips and sugar candy in the vending machine. Sugar candies can result in a very quick boost and a very quick “bonk” especially if the kids are doing sports after school. Keep them out of the vending machines!

3. Pack them a lunch!

a.       Classic PB&J takes no time at all and honestly is one of the healthiest things you can have (If you use the right stuff of course). Make sure they are homemade so that there is a control of sugar, sodium and fat intake.

With Friends:

Honestly the hardest one to control. I only have one suggestion,

1.      Educate them

a.       An educated child will make the right choice. Teach them about drugs, sex and food choices. This is very important for growing children to understand things so that they can make the choice. If they make a mistake then they make a mistake (hopefully not a harmful one) and they will learn from the consequences. If the child has allergies, educate to them why they can not have the cake if they are allergic to eggs is VERY important. You can not just say, “You can’t have that cake you are allergic”, kids don’t exactly understand what that means until they suffer consequences and learn from them (allergic reaction, BIG consequence and BIG learning). By forcing the child to not eat healthy at a friend’s will back fire. Kids will rebel. It is what they do. By educating them about healthy eating will in most cases result in better outcomes.

 Really though, if you are freaking out because the kid went on a candy gorge at a friend’s house after Halloween, I think you should take a step back and understand kids are kids. They eat sweets, smell funny, can’t control their weird emotions, and tend to be crit’ed by stationary walls. We love them for it and can only control so much. Control your own home first. I have noticed that healthy parents have healthy kids around them. Do what you can with your schools including keeping sporting activates and recess. Nothing gets the in school jitters out like recess, don’t let them get rid of it! Help fight childhood obesity and eating disorders. Let our youth have a good start to the wretches that lay ahead of them.

Note these are my opinion and observations. If you disagree then by all means disagree, even on my page. I am up for good conversations to broaden my own horizons.

Getting Nutrients From the Raw

I use to think that I could get my nutrition needs out of just eating the processed form of fruits and vegetables as most people have. "I have a bowl of applesauce there is my fruit", or "I have a glass of juice I am good". I did some research on nutrition between raw and processed foods and would like to discuss my findings.

Over the years processing and packaging food have become easy therefor lowering the prices of that quick meal. This can be a negative and a positive. Having all of our nutrients come from a glass of murky green stuff is not appealing to me but to others who need a quick in and out of the door meal it is. The negative however is how much are we really sacrificing for that quick meal?

Here I have created two examples (by using the nutrition labels provided by caloriecounter.com and Nutrition and You by Joan Salge Blake) that show the real difference between frozen, raw, sauced and juice. Each represents one cup of each product. With blueberries you can see that there is a dramatic difference between the frozen/raw and juice, but little difference between frozen and raw. There are sugars and sodium added in the juice to create a better tasting and a better staying product without the benefits of the dietary carbs and even protein (which was not presented on the label). Apples follow a similar trend. However, with apple sauce you can see that you would need to eat 2+ cups more apple sauce to receive the benefits of one cup of apple slices.

There are many more benefits of eating something raw or even frozen. The skin of fruits are full of antioxidants and other things that help decrease your cholesterol and even increase your DHEA (anti-aging hormone). There is natural dietary fiber which help you digestive track stay healthy and strong. When the juice is squeezed out of the fruits it leaves the fruits behind and all the benefits with it. Why not squeeze your own fruits or make them into a smoothy? That way you get the benefits of the skin and the juices while still enjoying  nice drink in the hot summer days?

I personally am becoming more and more of a fan of raw foods. I have my little garden outside where I have been growing green beans, tomatoes, carrots, strawberries, cucumbers, and carrots. It honestly takes very little of my time to go and attend to my garden and they make for fantastic snacks just raw. I am already seeing a huge change in my body from doing this. I am already thinner in my legs and even though I am pregnant (YEAH!) I feel better physically than I have in a long time. I am blaming this positive on my new fondness of raw fruits and vegetables. Give it a try, go raw (or frozen) and stray away from those processed nasties.