A Quickie in the Kitchen

I love to cook, but lately I haven't had much time for cooking. This bothers me to no end because food and healthy eating are my profession. Apparently, I need to listen to some of my own advice. We can all benefit from some quick suggestions for getting a healthy meal on the table. Here are some tips that help me to prepare healthy meals for my family in a hurry.

1. Plan Ahead: This means actually thinking about what you can make for the week.

• Find Recipes: I usually go to my favorite healthy eating website, Eating Well. There are many wonderful recipes here that can be made in less than an hour. This can be necessary if you're coming home after a long day. You can search for new, quick, healthy and delicious recipes to add to your grocery list or you can search for recipes with ingredients that you have on hand. I recently found a recipe for Spiced Eggplant-Lentil Salad when I searched for recipes using eggplant. Yes, I still have to go to the store for some fresh ingredients, but I'll be using up the eggplant that has been sitting in my refrigerator for the past week.
• Three Meal Rule: I usually plan to cook three new meals a week. This way I'm not overwhelmed by planning a whole week of meals. I make extra to have as another meal or to take leftovers for lunch. You can recycle leftover food and create new meals. Leftover meats and vegetables can be used to make casseroles, stir-fries, salads, stews and soups.
• Make a Grocery List: Part of the planning process is making a list. This helps you get through the store faster and can minimize less healthy impulse purchases.

2. Stock Your Pantry and Refrigerator/Freezer: Buy healthy staple foods that make it easy to prepare a quick meal. These are foods that you may eat more regularly and that you can use in recipes such as:

• Healthy breakfast cereals
• Low fat dairy and dairy substitutes (fortified soy, rice and almond milk and cheeses)
• Low fat and low sodium lunch meats
• Lean meats and meat substitutes
• 100% whole wheat bread
• Fresh and frozen fruits
• Fresh and frozen vegetables
• Canned tomato products
• Canned beans (legumes)
• Brown rice (quick cooking varieties are available)
• Whole wheat pasta
• Herbs and spices
• Olive and canola oil
• Vinegars
• Sauces (Many of these are high in sugar and sodium and should be used sparingly to enhance the flavor of meals. Some of my all time favorite sauces come from the Texas-based company D.L. Jardine's)
• Broths (chicken, beef, vegetable and no-chicken broth, which is a vegetarian broth that has a chicken broth flavor)

3. Shop: To make quick and healthy meals you need to have healthy foods on hand. This means that you have to go to the food market. I'm not as well organized as one of my nutrition mentors who only needs to shop once a month (now that's a well stocked kitchen!). I usually plan one large shopping trip a week (usually on a weekend or in the evening when the number of shoppers is less) and another smaller trip mid-week. A good rule to follow for mid-week shopping is to get only the things that you really need such as some fresh produce and milk. If I have to shop for more items after work, typically we'll be eating grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. I don't have time to shop and cook after work.

4. Learn How to Use a Knife/Food Processor: One of my jobs in my family as a kid was making salads. I dutifully cut vegetables using a paring knife as my mother instructed me. This was a chore and took longer than I wanted. I hated being asked to make a salad. It wasn't until I worked for a caterer in college that I learned how to correctly use a knife. What a difference choosing and using the correct knife makes! Cutting vegetables quickly and efficiently can actually be fun! This is probably the most important skill for cooking (remember to keep your knives sharp!). Food processors are also available for quickly cutting up vegetables. I tend to only use mine if I have a lot to chop as cleaning it is sometimes a bigger chore than chopping. And if you are really in a rush, you can use bagged chopped vegetables. It's always good to have options!

5. Utilize Your Kitchen Helpers: My mother was clearly doing this when she would ask me to make salads. Your kitchen helpers can set the table, wash dishes, and stir the pot for you. A great principle to follow is anyone who eats should help with meal preparation and clean up (thanks goes to one of my dietitian colleagues for suggesting this).

6. Clean as You Cook: My husband actually helped me learn this. His job in his family was clean up. Clean up is so much easier when you clean as you go. While I'm waiting for something to cook, I'll wash a few dishes. I'm a much happier cook when my cooking space is uncluttered and clean.

7. Minimize Distractions: When you're tired after a long day, distractions can make you lose your momentum and the next thing you know you'll be ordering out for pizza. Don't sit down at the computer, don't turn on the television and don't pour yourself a drink until you have a head start on your meal. You may need to delegate other household tasks to the denizens who share the house with you.

8. Experiment: Try making up your own recipes. With practice you will figure out flavor combinations that you enjoy. You'll be surprised at some of the great meals you come up with. You'll also make a few duds, but don't worry, you won't poison anyone. I've had the experience of not liking some of my own creations, but my family seems to eat them anyway, and sometimes they like them even when I don't. I've probably instilled enough guilt in them to simply appreciate the fact that I am cooking for them. I think I'd appreciate an underwhelming meal if someone prepared it for me too.

9. Lighten Up: Sometimes it's OK to eat grilled cheese. You can make a healthy meal using all kinds of shortcuts as long as you balance it with fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

10. Enjoy: Sometimes we need little reminders about how to make quick work of meal preparation so that we can have more time to enjoy other things in life. Who knows, maybe you'll even be able to enjoy the process of meal preparation more, which will make you a happier person overall. Hopefully, you'll free up time to enjoy the other rooms of your house too.

A World of Oats

Guest blog post by Laura Williams

Oats are a gluten-free cereal grain and are the third leading cereal crop produced in the United States (after wheat and corn) and the fourth most important crop worldwide. They were once considered a weed, but are now a popular staple of the British Isles like Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The grain was introduced into the Americas in 1602 by a sea captain who planted them in one of the islands off the coast of Massachusetts. Today, nearly half of the world's oat crop--more than 4 billion bushels a year--is grown in the United States and Canada. Oat kernels look very much like wheat in structure with an outer covering of bran, which protects the starchy endosperm and the germ that sits at the bottom of the grain. Whole grain oats contain seven B vitamins, vitamin E, and nine minerals, including iron, magnesium, selenium, manganese, phosphorous and calcium. Oats are very high in protein, containing about twice the protein of wheat or corn. But the most important nutritional advantages of oats are the soluble fiber and the GLA (gamma linoleic acid), an essential fatty acid. The soluble fiber is what gives oatmeal its gummy texture; it also has many beneficial effects on health. Regular use of oats in the diet can be helpful for managing several medical conditions. They have been shown to help control blood sugar levels, which is beneficial for people with both type 1 and 2 diabetes; to reduce cholesterol levels, which may help prevent heart disease; and to reduce plaque build up in the arteries which may help prevent atherosclerosis.



Different forms of oats:

• Oat groats: This is the whole oat grain, with only the outer hull removed. Oat groats are extremely nutritious, but they need to be soaked and cooked a long time. Oat groats are usually processed into one of the other forms below.

• Steel-cut oats: Produced by running groats through steel cutters, chopping the groats into smaller pieces and creating a chewy texture. Steel-cut oats still contain the whole grain and oat bran, and are also very nutritious.

• Rolled oats or old-fashioned oats: Steaming groats and then flattening them with a roller makes rolled oats.

• Quick-cooking oats: Steaming and flattening steel-cut oats makes quick-cooking oats.

• Instant oatmeal: Produced by rolling more thinly and steaming longer or partially cooking the oats. Instant oatmeal will also have salt, sugar, and in some cases artificial sweeteners added to it.



You can also grind rolled oats yourself to make oat flour.



Oats can be included in the diet in the form of oatmeal, cold cereals, baked products, granola bars, etc. Any way you include oats in your diet, you will still receive their beneficial effects.

Some recipes to try using oats include:



Muesli

Ingredients:

2 cups oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

2 cups apple juice or apricot nectar

1-1/2 cups sliced fresh fruit (any combination of banana, peaches, nectarines or strawberries)

8 oz vanilla low-fat yogurt

2 T chopped nuts* (optional)

1 T ground flax seeds* (optional)



Preparation: Combine all ingredients except nuts and fruit; mix well.

Cover; refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

Serve cold; add fruit and sprinkle with nuts, if desired. Refrigerate in airtight container up to 4 days

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup flour

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 cup honey or maple syrup

¾ cup softened butter

½ tsp vanilla

1 egg

½ cup raisins


Preparation: Preheat oven to 375 F. lightly coat cookie sheet with vegetable oil. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Mix honey/syrup, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Add egg. Blend in dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Stir in raisins. Place rounded spoonfuls of blended ingredients onto cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Makes 50 cookies.


I made three batches of these cookies each using a different sweetener (1 each with honey, maple syrup, and sugar) and would definitely recommend using maple syrup.

Laura is a senior at Syracuse University majoring in dietetics and minoring in hospitality management. She hopes to become a Registered Dietitian. Laura has a passion for cooking and baking.

Diabetes From a Personal Point of View

The dates of some experiences can be imprinted on one’s memory for a long time. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the day that my son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 8 years of age. He had been excessively thirsty for a few days, and was drinking a lot of water. A couple days prior to his diagnosis, I remember him coming home from school and telling me in amazement that he went to the bathroom twenty times that day! My husband and I scoured the internet looking for any other explanation than the one that we knew was most obvious. In medicine, they have a saying: If you hear hoof beats it’s probably a horse, not a zebra. This means that what is most obvious is most likely. In our case it was a horse, type 1 diabetes.




When I was a nutrition student learning about diabetes, I struggled to get my mind around all that was necessary to manage the disease. Diet, medication and physical activity are all very important in controlling diabetes, and none of it is simple. I am still learning how complex diabetes management is every day. My son is now a 15 year old athlete. He has risen to the challenges of diabetes better than many adults would have. He knows how important physical activity is for his blood sugar management, and after trying several different sports he found a sport that he loves, rowing. Diabetics used to be discouraged from participating in sports because of the risk of low blood sugar. Now, we view physical activity and athletics as an important part of keeping a diabetic person healthy throughout life. The advent of the insulin pump has allowed us to fine tune the delivery of insulin such that athletics is not considered as dangerous as it used to be.



Since my son has been diagnosed with diabetes on March 16, 2004 he has had several seizures related to low blood sugar, all of them occurring during sleep. He’s always recovered relatively quickly from them, and was alert enough to drink juice to bring his blood sugar back up. His most recent seizure on July 7, 2010 was different. By now, my other children are well versed in their brother’s diabetes management. My 13 year old daughter has helped me administer juice to her brother and witnessed the multiple daily finger pricks to check blood sugar and injections of insulin. On this warm day in July, she frantically called us at work to let us know that our son was having a seizure. I left for home grateful that she would be there to give him juice. While I was en route she tested his blood sugar and administered glucagon, a quick acting sugar to help raise blood sugar in unresponsive diabetics. When I arrived the situation had not improved. Another injection of glucagon failed to bring him around. I was relieved when my husband, a physician, arrived home to help, but nothing that we did brought our son back to his normal mental status. We called 911.



I’m happy to say that my son has made a full recovery and the only lasing effect from this day was his inability to train athletically for about a week due to headaches from a lumbar puncture that was part of his hospital evaluation. We replay the events leading up to this day and try to figure out what contributed to it. I never expected my son to have a seizure that we couldn’t bring him out of. I now wonder if we should have been better prepared to understand how different the needs of a diabetic athlete are compare to other athletes and other non-athlete diabetics. I’ve since learned that to correct for a low blood sugar, a diabetic athlete can require twice as much carbohydrate as a non-athlete diabetic. I’ve also learned that dehydration can impact a diabetic athlete differently than a non-diabetic athlete. I never wanted to understand as much about diabetes as I do now. My experiences with my son have motivated me to learn as much as I can about this disease to help him and other diabetics, athlete and non-athlete alike, to take control of their lives!

No Free Refills!

I'm often asked by people if they can eat all they want of a certain food. Perhaps vegetables or fruit? What about diet soda? You're not going to like what I have to say, but there are no free refills when it comes to healthy eating. In fact the notion of "free refills" perpetuates mindless eating. There is and should be a limit to what we consume. By eating all that we want, we tend to overeat (think about the last time you ate at a buffet). Shouldn't we stop and evaluate our level of hunger before eating more?

Hara hachi bu is an Okinawan expression that means eat until you are 80% full. This was traditionally practiced by the Okinawans who were among some of the longest lived people on the earth. Their diet consisted mostly of  vegetables, whole grains, fruits, legumes including soy foods, fish and very little amounts of meat. Sadly, younger generations of Okinawans may not live as long as their elders because they seem to prefer a more western diet, with a nice helping of western diseases to boot.

As a 15 year old athlete, my son has a healthy appetite. I'm fortunate that he likes most foods and with a dietitian for a mother, he gets more than his fair share of vegetables, whole grains and legumes. He often desires second or third helpings. I'll ask him if he's still hungry before digging in a second time. His reply has often been, "well, I'm not full." I don't believe that fullness should be the gauge that we have had enough to eat, but rather absence of hunger. Fullness is the gauge that we have overeaten. This is food for thought in a world of overabundance. It takes real discipline to practice hara hachi bu when we are being bombarded by food advertisements that make us want to eat more with excessive portion sizes on every street corner. A mere 100-200 hundred calories a day extra can prevent us from obtaining weight loss, and over time promote weight gain. It's something to think about when you want to eat more because something tastes good, but you are no longer hungry.

To those who question why we shouldn't eat as many vegetables as we want, after all they are low in calories; I say sure, eat plenty of vegetables. Most people don't eat enough. But no food should be eaten unchecked. A recent article in the New York Times told of an 88-year-old woman who developed life threatening hypothyroidism from eating two to three pounds of raw bok choy daily for several months. She believed that it would help control her diabetes. Instead it suppressed her thyroid. This is an extreme example, but it shows that you can get too much of a good thing.

My challenge to you, try practicing hara hachi bu for a week. Be mindful about the food that you eat and stop eating when you are no longer hungry, but not full.

Diets Don’t Work? …Really?

Have you ever noticed how an idea gains popularity but the idea may not be true? Drinking eight cups of water a day is one such concept. It seems like a good idea, but there are many people who do fine drinking less and many people who need more. Another such idea is that diets don’t work. This is a common idea circulating within the nutrition community and one that I’m sure many “dieters” have also heard. The purpose of this idea is to move people away from the “dieting” mentality to encourage them to engage in healthy eating and lifestyle habits, and to become more aware of their bodily need for food. It also, unwittingly lays blame with the “diet promoting” community for the failure of dieting efforts.




As a practicing dietitian for 20 years I have to say that diets DO work! I’ve been witness to many people achieving their goals by following a specific dietary plan. The problem is that people can be limited by their ability to follow recommendations consistently. There are all sorts of reasons for this, too numerous to describe, but here are a few: emotional eating related to the need for comfort, lack of time to prepare meals due to social pressures, and medical problems (and medications) that change the body’s response to food.



Perhaps the first myth to dispel is that "diet" is a four letter word. It depends on how you look at it. The word “diet” as a noun describes a way of eating. All living creatures have a diet, ranging from the worms and bugs that birds eat to the broad variety of items my dogs eat – dog food supplemented with small rocks, twigs, shoes, undergarments and broccoli. Change diet into “dieting” and viola—it becomes a verb. This is how many of us are most familiar with the word. Dieting implies that we are doing something to change our eating regimen—not necessarily a bad idea. But when one “goes on a diet” they inevitable must “go off a diet” abandoning all the good changes that they previously made. It seems best to focus on the word diet as a noun to grasp the long term nature of what our commitment should be to a healthy diet. As long as we are living and eating, our commitment shouldn’t end.



Research conducted by the National Weight Control Registry showed that people can lose weight on ANY diet plan. So weight loss doesn’t seem to be the problem as much as weight maintenance. And weight is not maintained when the permanence of an eating regimen is not considered. As is the case with weight loss, there are many diets that are successful in improving other aspects of health. The Mediterranean diet is heart-healthy. The DASH diet lowers blood pressure, and has recently been shown to help prevent kidney stones. And there are many different diet manipulations that can improve intestinal function, reduce the risk of cancer, lower cholesterol levels and control blood sugar. Diets do work!



I agree with my colleagues who espouse the non-dieting approach, but don’t say that diets don’t work. Let’s go back to looking at the word “diet” as a noun and encourage each individual to choose the best diet to achieve and maintain their health.

Can Vitamin D Protect You From the Flu?

Vitamin D, termed the sunshine vitamin because it is produced by skin exposed to sunlight, has been in the news a lot recently. We are well familiar with the need for vitamin D to develop strong bones, but a rash of recent studies show that vitamin D also functions as an important regulator of immunity. Vitamin D deficiency is seen in many immune-mediated diseases such as Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. Vitamin D deficient states have also been theorized to increase susceptibility to infections. Because vitamin D is mostly obtained from sunlight, blood concentrations of vitamin D decrease in the winter months, a time when influenza infections become more widespread.



A study released ahead of publication in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is one of the first clinical trials to report that vitamin D supplementation in school-aged children can decrease the incidence of influenza A. In this study, a randomized group of 334 children in Japan were given either 1200 IUs of vitamin D or a placebo over a four month period (December 2008 trough March 2008). The study showed a significant decrease in influenza A infection in the children who took vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D increases the production of antimicrobial proteins that inhibit some forms of the influenza virus, and vitamin D’s anti-inflammatory properties may also lessen flu symptoms.


Some of the study results were not as distinctly positive. A decrease in incidence of influenza B was not seen in this study. Various strains of flu have different mechanisms of infection within the body, and some may be more resistant to the effects of vitamin D. Children with asthma did not show a decrease in the occurrence of flu, but it is thought that asthma suffers are more prone to infection overall. Interestingly, the study showed that there were significantly less asthma attacks in the vitamin D supplemented group. Flu incidence was not decreased in the first month of supplementation; previous studies have shown that vitamin D supplements need to be taken for three months before blood concentrations reach a steady value. Therefore the optimal time to begin vitamin D supplementation would seem to be before the start of flu season. The skin loses its ability to make vitamin D from sunlight beginning in mid fall. Flu season typically peaks in November and April. Thus it has been recommended to supplement vitamin D from October through April.


Clearly, more research needs to be done to determine whether or not vitamin D supplementation can prevent the flu in larger, more diverse populations. We know that senior adults are more susceptible to influenza. Vitamin D requirements are also increased in this population as older skin is less efficient at making vitamin D. Overweight or obese individuals have also been shown to have low levels of vitamin D; one study showed that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men were deficient in vitamin D. Though it has not yet been definitively determined that vitamin D supplementation prevents the flu, supplementation with up to 2000 IUs of vitamin D has been shown to be safe, and emerging evidence suggests that it may indeed help to prevent infection with some strains of the virus.

National Nutrition Month® 2010: Nutrition from the Ground Up

This March celebrates the thirtieth year of National Nutrition Month® whose purpose is to focus attention on healthy eating and physical activity habits to promote health and wellbeing in the American population. It’s difficult to compete in the current food environment with the message of health. You most likely won’t see any TV commercials or advertisements online or in print. But the message for this year resonates; “Nutrition from the Ground Up.”


I asked my family what this meant to them. This year’s theme brings to mind acres of plants growing in the sunshine with various shades of green and gold as far as the eye can see. My six year old daughter thought of butterflies. My mind met hers in a field of strawberry blossoms in May with butterflies fluttering in the air. The thought of foods grown using sustainable practices that are good for the environment and good for us comes to mind. Such practices encourage the butterflies and the bees to pollinate the plants, which then allow the fruits and vegetables to develop. The ground provides the nutrients for growth. So “Nutrition from the Ground Up” means caring for the earth that produces an abundant harvest to nourish us.

Another concept for this theme is the idea of gathering or foraging for food. Mushrooms, nuts, legumes, and wild berries are gathered in forests, groves and meadows and can often be found near the ground (nuts historically were collected on the ground after falling from trees). The nutrients these foods provide are varied with myriad health benefits. Although we are not gathering and foraging for these foods ourselves anymore, we should include them in our diets routinely to reap the health benefits that they provide. A variety of nuts provide heart-healthy fats to prevent heart disease and stroke; they range from omega-three polyunsaturated fats in walnuts to monounsaturated fats in cashews, almonds and peanuts. Legumes (peas, beans, lentils, and soybeans) are a wonderful combination of soluble and insoluble fiber with a good dose of protein; they help to manage blood sugar levels, which can help in the management of diabetes. Foraging for food also includes a level of physical activity. This physical activity used to be our way of life, but is now so greatly lacking on any given day. We should wander the ground again in our pursuit of health and vitality.

Perhaps the deepest issue here deals with something that is hidden under the ground. Like an iceberg, there is so much more to discover underneath. The iceberg analogy is one that I commonly use when describing the science of nutrition: what we currently understand about the interplay of nutrients on our health is only a small part of the story. Most of it is vast and hidden from view, despite all of our science. Dedication and patience is required to learn about the wonders yet undiscovered, just the same as the dedication and patience we must have in the pursuit of our health goals, whether they involve weight loss or disease management. “Nutrition from the Ground Up” speaks of discovery; finding a carrot buried deep within the ground, discovering how nutrients impact our health, and finding that healthier and happier person within ourselves.

Ask what “Nutrition from the Ground Up” means to you and your family.