Eating For Health

As school gets underway this fall, it is important to remember to feed kids breakfast every day.   Also, important for parents to eat breakfast every day.   Many have said, “Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day”.    More and more research is demonstrating how important breakfast is to our overall health.   Yet, surveys show less than half of us are eating breakfast every day.   What is so important about breakfast? Nutrients – breakfast is a great time to get calcium, vitamin C from orange juice, potassium from orange juice, bananas or other fruit, some protein from milk or yogurt.   All to boost your energy and brain power throughout the morning.   Healthier eaters throughout the day – those who eat breakfast eat healthier foods throughout the day.   Maybe because they aren’t hitting the snack machine for candy bars or other sustenance around 10 AM when hunger strikes and reminds them they haven’t eaten breakfast. Better blood glucose control – skip breakfast and

School has started or will soon be starting across the land.   How can you pack lunches that are not only healthy but contain some super foods?    Kaiser Permanente recently published, 8 Superfoods to Pack in Your Child's Lunch .   Why are these Super Foods?   For one, these foods are loaded with nutrients.   Thus, even a small serving packs a big nutrition boost.    Second, since they are packed with nutrients these foods fuel your child’s body and their brains.   So what are the 8 Super Foods?                      1.  Berries – all berries are super healthy foods.   They are full of vitamins like vitamin C which can help fight off infections and they have a lot of antioxidants.   Serve berries at breakfast by adding them to oatmeal, dry cereal, a smoothie. Pack in a lunch box with some yogurt or in a container for your child to add to yogurt, a salad or to eat a handful with their lunch.          2. Eggs –   a great source of protein, the egg yolk provides iron and

Everyone is watching the Olympics.   What do Olympic athletes eat to stay in shape and have the energy to compete?   WebMD had a recent article, Eat Like an Olympian:   5 Nutrition Essentials .    How can you “eat like an Olympian”? Hydration – Olympic athletes stay hydrated.   A dehydrated body does not perform well.   One of the ways any athlete can improve performance is to stay hydrated.   A rule that WebMD recommends is to fill up with fluids equal to half your weight.   Thus, if you weigh 160 pounds, you want to take in 80 ounces of fluid.   Since there are 8 ounces in a cup, 80 ounces would be 10 cups of liquids a day.   But all liquids count – a glass of milk, a glass of ice tea and of course, water. Seafood – many health experts recommend eating seafood at least twice a week.   How does seafood help athletic performance?   Seafood has the omega-3 healthy fats including   EPA and DHA.        Omega-3 fats are important to athletes because they fight inflammation, aid in

We all know people who have been slim for life.   Those who never seem to pile on the pounds, never seem to gain the extra weight as they age.   So is it just genetics or do slim people have habits that we can learn from?   Many of you have read the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People .   So what are the highly effective habits of slim people ?   To find out researchers at Cornell University have asked those who have been slim all their lives to volunteer to register at:   http://healthyweightregistry.org/ .   Cornell is compiling a registry of slim people to find out what are their habits that help keep them slim?   You can go to this registry to read more about what they have found out to date.   And if you are one of those people who have been slim for life, then you may be interested in volunteering to join this registry and participate in this research study.   What do they ask these slim people?   They ask them about food preferences, dining habits, hobbies to se