Posts Tagged ‘Sarah Earhart’

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Dinner Tonight: Almond Crusted Fish with Sauteed Vegetables and Corn

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Looking for an easy and tasty dinner idea? Here’s a meal to try:

Almond Crusted Fish (I know it sounds fancy and difficult to make but it really isn’t!) with Sauteed Garden Vegetables and Corn on the Cob

What you’ll need for the entire meal:

2-4 filets of fish (tilapia, cod, or other mild white fish)

Large handful of raw almonds, chopped into bite-sized pieces

Cooking spray

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Dash of Black Pepper

Dash of Paprika

2-4 ears of corn, husked

2 small to medium zucchini

1 small to medium yellow squash

1 small onion

12-16 small cherry tomatoes

Knife, Cutting Board, Bowl, Glass baking dish

What to do for the fish:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray glass baking dish with cooking spray. Pat fish dry with a paper towel and arrange in the baking dish. In a small bowl, combine almonds, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, black pepper, and paprika and stir. Evenly top fish with the mixture and place in the oven for 12-15 minutes.

What to do for the corn:

Fill a saucepan with water and place on stove top to boil. Place ears of corn in the boiling water and cover. Reduce heat to low.

What to do for the sautéed vegetables:

Wash all the vegetables. Slice the zucchini and yellow squash into small discs. Dice the onion. In a skillet pan, heat 1-2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil over medium heat. Once oil is hot add zucchini and yellow squash. Stir frequently and toss to coat with oil. Add the onion and tomatoes to the pan and cook until all is soft and translucent.

Arrange your healthy plate for dinner. Devote one-fourth of your plate to the fish, one-fourth to the corn, and the rest for your sauteed vegetables. Let us know if you try this recipe and what you thought by leaving a comment. Enjoy!

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The Truth About 6 Meals a Day for Weight Loss

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Wonder how many meals you should be eating every day? If so, this article from WebMD, may help you shed some light on the subject. Plus it offers some great ideas for healthy meals and snacks. Let me know what you think of this article by leaving a comment.

The Truth About 6 Meals a Day for Weight Loss.

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Eating Healthy: Pay Now, Save Later

Monday, June 28th, 2010

As a Registered Dietitian, my clients often tell me that it costs a lot more to eat healthy. I do not agree that it costs that much more to eat healthy, but if you think it is more expensive to eat healthy I would love to hear why, so send in a comment. It may just be the topic of a future blog post.

I want to be honest in telling you that my attitude towards my grocery budget is not one of frugality for today, but one of cost-savings for the future. Eating healthy now, getting the most nutrients in the foods I eat today, will save me and my family money in the long run. Consider that in 2007 the total cost of managing type 2 diabetes in the United States was $218 billion dollars. (Diabetes Statistics)  And, in that same year, approximately $1 in $10 health care dollars was attributable to diabetes. (The Cost of Diabetes) This is just one of the many chronic conditions that are largely preventable with a healthy diet. This is one of the reasons why I consider my grocery budget to be a factor in saving money later on. Pay a little more now, save a lot later.

That said; there are ways to eat healthy within one’s means. As a nation, we are consuming too many calories as it is. Does it not make sense that if we eat the appropriate portions, the amount of fuel that our bodies need, we would spend less money on food? If you have never added up how many calories you eat on any given day, I encourage you to do so. It is an eye-opening experience. There are many free resources available to you for tracking your intake online or for researching how many calories are in a particular food item. Some of my favorites are calorieking.com, sparkpeople.com, fitclick.com, fitday.com, and dailyburn.com. You can find out how many calories and servings you need from the different food groups by entering your height, weight, age, gender, and activity level at mypyramid.org. Compare your calorie intake with what’s recommended and see if there is some room to shave a few calories and save some dollars from your daily food budget.

I do not believe that I can answer this question completely in one blog post and do a good job of it, so I propose to tackle it a little bit at a time. My hope is that I will leave you with some new ideas for saving money and increasing your nutrition. If you have a specific topic you want addressed, let me know.

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Posted in Lifestyle, Nutrition | 3 Comments »

Two Days in a Row

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Today makes it two days in a row. Two days in a row that I have had clients at The Rite Bite tell me that it costs so much more to eat healthy. I know a lot of people feel this way, especially when they are making changes to their diet. I understand that it may seem like it costs so much more to buy those healthy foods that you planned into your weekly menus. But, if you added up all of your food expenses, from every fast food stop, to drug store candy, to vending machine snack, would the dollar amount really be all that different? Or does it just seem to be since one larger grocery bill to cover all those meals and snacks now becomes one lump sum paid out as opposed to several smaller payments throughout the week. If anybody wants to add it up and let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

For now, though, I do have one healthy and very affordable lunch option to share with you. It will take a little bit of work, but it is worth it! Last week, I made a delicious soup with fresh ingredients (mostly from the produce aisle). The recipe I used was from the cookbook, Mr. Food Every Day’s a Holiday Diabetic Cooking by Art Ginsburg. I made the Veggie Patch Soup recipe, but made a couple of small changes. I added cooked chicken breast for one thing and low-sodium chicken broth in place of the water. The recipe called for potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, onion, garlic, green bell peppers, and carrots. I used organic carrots and potatoes because I usually do not see organic potatoes and carrots at the grocery store, but on shopping day there they were. This recipe is very easy. All you do is add about 6-8 cups of low-sodium chicken broth to a large stockpot. Wash and chop up all the veggies and add to the water. Cook the chicken breasts separately, shred with a knife and fork and then add to the pot. Once everything is in the pot, bring it to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduce the heat to simmer for one hour.

I ate this soup for dinner and then stored the remaining in individual containers for lunches during the next week. I put 5 in the freezer and 5 in the fridge. It took a little bit of time to cook and prep all those veggies the first day, but the time I have saved since then is huge. Now, I just grab a cup of this soup from the fridge or freezer and off to work I go! For variety and added calcium, you can top the soup with reduced-fat parmesan or pepper jack cheese. Per cup (without cheese), this soup provides about 275 calories, 45 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fiber, 15 grams of protein, and 1 gram of fat. There are zero grams of saturated and trans fat (the types that hurt your heart). And, you’ll all like this: the cost per serving of this soup is $2.08. That is healthy eating that costs less than a fast-food meal!

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The Flaws and Frustrations of the Scale

Monday, May 17th, 2010

There are a lot of things that make up one’s weight. Off the top of my head I can think of a few structures that make up one’s weight; bones, muscles, blood, the food in the digestive tract, and the fluid in the bladder are some of the components of one’s weight. From this list, it is easy to see that the weight of many of these fluctuates up and down, and therefore so does one’s body weight. Let’s talk about a couple of them and how their weight changes.

Bones: Ok, maybe the weight of bones does not change very much, but if you have been doing some bone loading exercises such as jumping jacks or jogging, their strength and density will increase. This can result in an increased weight from healthy bone tissue.

Food in the digestive tract: This is where we are going to start to see some potentially huge fluctuations in weight. It can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for the entire process of digestion. If you ate a larger meal a couple of days ago, your weight may reflect this increase. If you weigh yourself daily, this change can have a frustrating impact. Especially, if you feel like you really monitored your calorie intake yesterday.

Fluid in the bladder: You have probably heard it is best to weigh-in at the same time of day, in the same clothes (or lack thereof), and after you have emptied your bladder. These suggestions are an attempt to reduce some of the variables that are inherent in measuring weight. Your bladder can hold up to 600 mL of fluid. This is 10 ounces or a little over one-half of a pound. On the scale, when you are counting every decimal, a .5 difference is enough to frustrate. The same is true for weighing yourself before or after a workout. Weight loss as a result of sweating is often visible on the scale. For many endurance athletes, they are told to weigh-in before their workout and after to see how much water they lost in sweat. This is then their guide to replacing water and staying hydrated. The common recommendation is to drink 16 ounces of water for every pound lost to stay hydrated. This recommendation may not be true for everybody.

Bottom line, when you are trying to lose weight, using the scale as your sole source of feedback on progress is a flawed and frustrating method. Consider adding a couple of other ways to monitor your progress in addition to the scale. Consider having your body fat measured with the calipers or bioelectrical impedance, consider fitness testing to see if your endurance and strength have increased, and consider measuring your waist circumference every 30 days (use your belly button as a landmark so you’ll be able to compare each time).

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The Proven and Easy Way to Lower your Triglycerides and Improve your Health

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I just read an article that discusses taxing sugary beverages. You can find that article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06brod.html?ref=health. The article provided many startling statistics about sugary drinks and their effect on health. I found the report from the Harvard study very interesting. They reported that heart disease risk increased by 20% in the women that drank 2 or more sugary sodas in a day compared to those women that drank one or less sugary drinks in a month. This study had a pretty big sample size (88,000 women) and lasted an extensive period of time (24 years) making these results fairly strong.

You may be thinking, well of course sugary drinks are not good for you. Who doesn’t know that? I’m sure that message has been drilled into your heads already. But, the reason I bring it up is that because of the effect these carbohydrates have on your body’s fat stores and triglyceride levels. Your refined carbohydrate intake has a big impact on your triglyceride levels.

Triglycerides are fats that travel in the bloodstream. I always think of triglycerides as the vehicle that transports unused energy to the energy storage facility, that is, your body fat. Your body can store an unlimited supply of reserve energy in your fat stores.

Anytime you eat carbohydrates, your digestive system breaks them down into sugars. There are six different kinds of sugars; Glucose, Fructose, Lactose, Galactose, Maltose, and Sucrose. Notice that they all end in “ose”.  After the digestive system breaks down the carbohydrates into one of these six sugars, these sugars are then shuttled to the liver. Once in the liver, the liver decides how to use them. They may be stored for later use or they may be shuttled out to the bloodstream to provide energy to the other organs and muscles of the body (blood glucose). If your body does not need any energy at the moment, because you are working at a sedentary job or you are sitting and watching television, your body will take these sugars and make triglycerides with them.

If you want to reduce your body fat and triglyceride levels consider switching your sweets. Opt for calorie-free beverages like water or unsweetened iced tea to satisfy your thirst in place of sugary sodas or fruit juices. Consider adding fruit for dessert in place of candy. The reduced intake of refined sugars and calories will help you reduce your triglyceride levels and lower your body fat.

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Happy Registered Dietitian’s Day!

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

The American Dietetic Association has declared today the third  annual Registered Dietitian’s Day! Eatright.org states, “As the nation’s food and nutrition experts, registered dietitians are committed to improving the health of their patients and community. Registered Dietitian Day commemorates the dedication of Registered Dietitians as advocates for advancing the nutritional status of Americans and people around the world. There are over 70,000 registered dietitian members.”

I love being a dietitian and having the opportunity to share my love of nutrition and food with my clients. Since it’s National Nutrition Month, I wanted to point out a couple of things. First, we (as in The Rite Bite) are tweeting nutrition tips of the day. You can follow us on Twitter or just visit our home page to read a new nutrition tip each day. Second, I thought this blog on eatright.org (http://www.eatright.org/Media/Blog.aspx?id=4294968185&blogid=269) with its 31 tips and tricks was a great way to bring even more nutritional health to your National Nutrition Month.

We want to know what you’re doing. What are your tips for healthy eating this month? Leave a comment and let us know. And, to all you Registered Dietitians today, Happy Registered Dietitian’s Day!

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Defining the Terms “Functional Food” and “Functional Cooking”

Monday, February 8th, 2010

February is American Heart Month and in its honor, this week’s blog post focuses on the concepts of “functional food” and “functional cooking”; two concepts that may help in the fight against heart disease.

In the nutrition world, the terms “functional food” and “functional cooking” have been circulating for some time now. As these words begin to circulate not only in the nutrition arena, but to the general public, the question is often asked; “What do these fancy buzz words mean?”

The term “functional food” is a marketing term that refers to a food that has been enriched or enhanced to promote health in some way. One example is Iodized Salt. The body needs iodine to make thyroid hormone. The body cannot make iodine and therefore must get this mineral from the diet. Iodine deficiency may lead to an enlarged thyroid, also known as a goiter. Salt does not naturally contain iodine, but since the addition of iodine began there has been a decreased incidence of iodine deficiency.

Many food companies have taken to adding ingredients to improve the nutrition and health of their products. Benecol® spread is one example of a food product (butter-type spread) that has added plant stanols and sterols. These plant ingredients have been clinically proven to help lower cholesterol. The only caveat is that the clinical benefits were seen with a dose of at least 2 grams of the spread per day in combination with a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol. The cost of the spread and the amount you would need to eat to see results, may lead you to ask yourself if the benefits are worth the price.

“Functional cooking” refers to the addition of nutritional ingredients to a recipe to improve the health of a particular food or meal. Many of us do this without even realizing it. For example, cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil in place of vegetable oil or butter is considered functional cooking. Did you know that Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the first pressing of the olives, hence the term virgin? This first pressing means that you get more antioxidants, phenols, and Vitamin E with Extra Virgin Olive Oil compared to oils collected from later olive pressings and compared to other types of cooking fats (i.e. butter or margarine). That is why adding it to a recipe is considered “functional cooking”. It may promote heart health.

Bottom line, the terms “functional food” and “functional cooking” are used to describe foods and recipes that have been boosted nutritionally. Choosing “functional foods” and cooking “functionally” may help lower risk of stroke, heart attack, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer, and when combined with a calorie appropriate diet may help with weight management. When deciding whether or not to purchase  functional foods, ask yourself if the price tag is worth the benefit. In some cases, like iodized salt, you may already be a “functional food” consumer. Happy Heart Month!

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Good Nutrition to Prevent Birth Defects

Monday, January 25th, 2010

As January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month, what better time than now to discuss the importance of nutrition and good health during pregnancy.

One nutrient, folic acid or folate, is especially important when it comes to preventing birth defects. Folic acid is needed for the development of a baby’s spinal cord and brain. Neural Tube Defects (i.e. spina bifida and anencephaly) have been linked to inadequate folic acid levels in mom.

As a result, women of childbearing age need 400 micrograms (600 micrograms if you are pregnant) to help reduce the risk of Neural Tube Defects.  You can find folic acid naturally in foods such as citrus fruits, dark-green leafy vegetables, nuts, and liver. Folic acid is also fortified in foods such as grains, breads, cereals, pastas, and supplements.

In addition to folic acid, a healthy diet for pregnancy will also provide healthy amounts of calcium and iron, and eliminate alcohol. In pregnancy, calcium needs are 1,000 milligrams per day (1,300 mg/day if you are 14-18 years of age) and iron needs are 27 mg per day.  Good sources of calcium include milk, yogurt, cheese, and foods supplemented with calcium such as calcium-fortified juices. Good sources of iron include red meat, fish, and poultry, spinach and leafy greens, oatmeal, and fortified breakfast cereals and iron supplements. A Registered Dietitian (RD) can help if you are not sure if you are meeting your nutrient needs for pregnancy.

For a healthy baby, avoiding toxic substances such as tobacco, cleaning solvents, lead, and mercury is also considered healthy practice for moms-to-be. Another danger is toxoplasmosis, a type of bacteria that can cause an infection and possibly harm your baby’s eyes, nervous system, skin, and ears. To prevent coming in contact with this bacteria wear gloves when working in the garden, and avoid eating undercooked meat and handling cat litter.

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Weight Loss Tips

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Carrying excess fat is hard on the body.  The body’s organs and joints are placed under added stress and energy levels drop. There are many great reasons to lose weight, these tips may help.

  • Keep a food journal. Research shows that writing down everything you eat and drink increases awareness of portion sizes and frequency of meals and snacks. In turn, you eat fewer calories and you lose weight.
  • Cut 100 empty calories every day. To lose one pound, you need to burn 3500 calories. If you cut out 100 calories from your daily intake every day, in one year’s time you would lose 10 pounds.
  • Fill up on fruits and veggies. These are packed with nutrition, low in calories, and taste delicious. The current recommendation is to eat 5 to 9 servings per day.
  • Drink water, black coffee, or tea in place of soda, juices, and flavored coffees to keep liquid calories low.
  • Read labels and choose foods that are lower in fat and sugars. Choose high-fat and high-sugar foods rarely or on occasion. They are packed with calories and will impede your weight loss progress.
  • Eat or drink something every 5 hours. This will prevent you from getting too hungry and overeating.

Let these ideas guide your goal-setting. For example, you could set a goal to write down everything you eat for 4 days of the next week. If you do, you will likely notice your eating habits are much different on the days when you write down your intake. Be sure to plan healthy rewards for when you reach your goals. My favorite healthy reward is buying a new pair of earrings. What’s yours? (more…)

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