Cooking with spices and herbs can be a great way to add a pop flavor to dishes without needing the added salt and fat.  In addition most herbs and spices contain antioxidants and many have other health benefits.  For example, garlic may help with blood pressure, ginger can help with nausea and many spices and herbs have anti-inflammatory properties.

While so many people seem to recognize how delicious dishes prepared with herbs and spices taste, they hesitate to use them at home because they don’t know much about them.   While experimenting is probably the best way to learn, I know that it can be difficult to know where to start.  While looking up some information about an herb, I came across a helpful website called spicesetc.com.

This website has some great tips for storing and using herbs.  Under the Spices & Herbs section, you can click on each herb/spice for a brief description of the flavor and the types of dishes that they are typically used in.  There are even a few recipes listed for each spice.  I personally think that experimenting with them is the best way to learn, but this website can give you a good place to start.  Enjoy!

Many times when people are trying to lose weight or eat healthy, they ask me if there are any books that I recommend.  One of my top picks would have to be “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think” by Brian Wansink.  The author of this book conducts some of the most well know research on the psychology of why we make certain food choices and how the environment influences not only the types of food we eat but also the quantities.

I love this book because it is not a “diet book” promising any quick fixes.  Rather it is a book that can help you to become more aware of your own eating patterns and recognize the things that frequently cause people to eat more food than they realize.  For example, you may already know that we tend to eat more when we are served larger portions and when we eat off larger plates and dishes, but did you know that the lighting in a restaurant and the label on a bottle of wine served with dinner can also affect how much we eat at a meal?

As a dietitian, I have done a lot of studying about eating patterns and the psychology of why we make certain food choice, and I think the author of this book did a great job of providing sound information in a fun and easy-to-read format.  There are so many great practical tips on how to create a healthy environment around you to minimize temptation so that you do not fall prey to mindless eating and the food industries’ marketing strategies.

For anyone trying to lose weight or create a healthier environment at home, this book is on my “must read” list.  It is also available in an audio version, which could be a good option if you don’t have much time to read (you could just pop it in during your commute to work or while you go on a walk).  I hope you enjoy!

I was reading an interesting article in one of my professional newsletters that listed key points from a seminar entitled “Your Brain Can Help You Eat Better” which was held at Harvard Medical School.  At this seminar researchers discussed how the brain influences our food choices and the following are some of the key points that I think are worth sharing:

• Imagined food consumption affects actual food consumption: Carey Morewedge, PhD of Marnegie Mellon Business School.
  • If we imagine eating a food, we eat less of it
  • If we watch TV while we eat, it takes longer to receive pleasure from food.  Therefore, we tend to eat more to feel satisfied.
    • My advise: Pause for a minute before you eat and think about the food you are going to be eating.  Pay attention to the food when you eat it, chew it, taste it, enjoy it and then move on.  You will get more pleasure from eating and require less food.

• Humans have limited resources when it comes to self-control: Kathleen Vohs, PhD of Univeristy of Minnesota.
  • “Self-control is taxing and reduces our control over eating.”  If you use more self-control throughout the day, you won’t have much left at the end of the day.
  • You can save up your self control by creating habits vs. making things choices.  For example, if you make exercise a habit you will be more likely to do it than if you make it a choice because it requires less self regulation.
  • People have to make 200 food decisions daily, which can deplete the ability to exert self-control.
    • My advice:  try to create a healthier environment so you don’t have to make so many difficult choices, that way you don’t have to use up as much of your self-control reserves.

• Food marketing affects our choices: Jennifer Harris, PhD, MBA of Yale Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
  • Food ads can lead to impulsive consumption.  Children who watched TV with 4 ads for food ate 45% more goldfish crackers (~100 calories) than kids who watched 4 ads for games.
  • When food marketers use a character (i.e. Superman) 52% of preschool children said the food tastes better.  Only 10% thought it tasted better without the character.  The remainder of the children didn’t perceive a difference in taste.
  • When Pepsi marketed more of its healthy products, sales of the unhealthy products dropped…stockholders complained.
    • My advice: marketing works, so try to limit your exposure to advertisements for food (especially if visual cues are a strong trigger for you).  You can do this by changing the channel or doing an alternate activity during advertisements (i.e. do a crossword puzzle or sort mail).  You could also DVR your shows and fast-forward through the ads or better yet, limit TV time.

• Insight on how to stop the overeating: David Kessler, MD of San Francisco Medical School.
  • Rats fed rat chow maintain a normal weight, but those fed a diet high in fat, sugar and salt ended up overweight.  Until these foods were taken away, the rats did not lose weight.
  • Fats and sugar also stimulate humans to eat more.  It is human nature to pick the most highly palatable food present.
    • My advice: Change your home environment.  If the candy bar is in the house, you will probably pick it over the apple.  As you can see, it is our human nature (not a lack of willpower).  Use these findings to set up a strategy for success, and minimize temptation.

Reference:  “Your Brain Can Help You Eat Better Conference Highlights” by Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD.  SCAN’s Pulse Newsletter: Winter, 2012 Vol. 31.

Peanut Butter and other nut butters not only taste great, but they are packed with good nutrition which can make them part of a healthy snack or meal.  Nut butters are a good source of plant-based proteins, and they are good for your heart health because they are rich in monounsaturated fats, they provide a good source of Niacin (Vitamin B3) and they contain some fiber.

Because nut butters do contain fat, protein and fiber, they tend to have a real lasting power.  For example, if you add a little peanut butter to an apple at snack time, it might hold you over longer than if you ate the apple alone.  However, it is important to keep in mind that nut butters are very high in calories because they are high in fat.  Therefore, portion control is essential for weight management.

For many people, portion control with nut butters can be a real challenge.  People often say that they can eat peanut butter by the spoonful and once they start eating peanut butter, it is hard to stop.  If you are someone who finds portion control a challenge, the individual serving packets may help.  A few companies now make “peanut butter on the go” packets.  Not only can these individual serving packets help with portion control, but it can also be very convenient if you need to throw something in your bag, if want to take something to keep at work or put in your child’s lunch box.

Reading the ingredients on the food label is the best way to choose a peanut butter.  Nutritionally, I recommend “natural” peanut butters because they do not contain hydrogenated fats or partially hydrogenated fats which are the “unhealthy fats” that are not good for heart health.  Ideally, it is good to pick nut butters that are 100% nuts, and do not contain added salt or sugar.  However, don’t despair if you prefer a nut butter that does have some added sugar or salt because many brands are still very low in sodium and sugars.

As for the on-the-go nut butters, the following are a few of the brands that make individual serving sizes:

Of these products, I would recommend Justin’s Nut Butters or Peanut Butter & Co. Peanut Butter because these brands are all-natural.  The nice thing about Justin’s Nut Butters is that they come in various sizes and flavors.  That way you can pick the calorie level and flavor that is appropriate to match your nutrition needs and personal taste preferences.  If it’s part of a snack, the o.5 ounce serving along with a piece of fruit would be a great choice.  If it’s part of a meal, perhaps the 1.15 ounce packet would be good on whole grain bread or an English Muffin.  You could also try a PB and Banana sandwich on whole wheat bread for a healthy and delicious spin on the standard PB&J.  Enjoy!

People ask me all the time about apps that can help them with their goals to achieve a healthier lifestyle, and in December, an impressive new app was launched that I am thrilled to be a part of and share with you.  CyberFit360 is a great app for both exercise and nutrition, and it sets itself apart from other apps in several ways.

The following are just a few of benefits of using this app:

• You get personalized exercise and nutrition plans developed by highly qualified professionals. There is also an option to have a Certified Personal Trainer and a Registered Dietitians monitor your progress, provide feedback and adapt your program based on your unique goals.
  • I am proud to be one of the dietitians who monitor the food journals, provide feedback to members and make suggestions on where to make improvements with eating.  If you want to use this app and have me as your personal dietitian, click here.

• The workouts change so you don’t get bored and you continue to see strength gains and improvements in overall fitness.

• You can watch a video of each exercise on your phone.  This will help you to learn the proper technique for each exercise and it serves as a reminder.  This is great because so many people work with a trainer 1 or 2 times and then forget the proper technique for an exercise when they try to do it on their own.

• You can swap out an exercise for an alternate exercise that works the same muscle group.  This is great because it offers variety, and it can be helpful if you don’t have access to certain piece of equipment.  I also think it’s a great option if you just don’t like a certain exercise.

• It is an affordable way to have access to qualified health professionals.  As I mentioned above, you can ask questions, be monitored and get regular feedback.

• Accountability is priceless. Many people do better when they have to answer to someone, and they know someone else is tracking their progress.  It is unusual for fitness/nutrition apps to be interactive like this.

• It is very easy to track food intakes.  I have tried out many websites for keeping food journals, and some of them are very difficult to use.  This one is very user friendly and makes tracking intakes very easy.

• You can try it for free for 14 days to see how you like it, so there is no risk to get started.

This is a great option for you if you would like to work with a personal trainer and/or a registered dietitian, and you:

• Just can’t afford the cost.
• Have an irregular schedule, and can’t commit to meeting with someone at a set time.
• Want to work-out in a setting where you don’t have access to health professionals (i.e. a gym at work, in your home or a budget gym that doesn’t employ trainers)
• You prefer to work-out by yourself, but you still want guidance

For more information about CyberFit360, click here.

January is the time for New Year’s Resolutions, and one of the most common resolutions is to lose weight.  Often people will set their goal to lose a certain amount of weight by a certain date.  For example, they will set their sights on losing 10, 20, 50 or 100 pounds by bathing suit season.  However, if the scale is the motivating factor or if expectations are unrealistic, you are setting yourself up for failure.  So how can you make 2012 the year that you stick with your New Year’s Resolution beyond   January?  The following are a few tips:

• Be realistic with your goals! I put this first because I believe this is the most important key to success.  If you didn’t exercise in 2011, don’t plan to exercise 1 hour everyday, 7-days-a-week in 2012.  You will get burned out and stop exercising all together.  Rather, set a goal to exercise 2 days each week for 30 minutes and gradually increase exercise over time.  Focus on one or two changes at a time instead of completely turning your diet/exercise patterns upside down.

• Set action goals, not weight loss goals. Instead of setting a goal to “lose 2 pounds per week”, set an action plan for what steps you will take to lose weight.  This takes the focus off of the scale and puts it onto the steps that are necessary to achieve success.  If you focus on what changes you want to make, the weight loss will take care of itself.  Some examples of action goals could be:
  • I will eat at least 1 fruit and 1 vegetable every day.
  • I will clean out my cabinets and get rid of the “junk food” that is tempting me to overeat.
  • I will eat breakfast at least 5 days this week.
  • I will walk for 15 minutes during my lunch break 3 days this week.

You can see that all of these goals are specific and measurable.  In other words, you should be able to look back at the week and know if you did or did not accomplish them.  Remember, tip number one….keep them realistic!

• Be accountable to someone. Hire a personal trainer, work with a dietitian or enlist a family member, friend or co-worker to be your health partner.  Let them know what your goals are and discuss your progress regularly.  When you let someone else know your goals, it can help to stay on track and gives you the support and encouragement you need to get you through the tough weeks.

• Forgive yourself if you slip. You are only human, and you are going to make mistakes in life.  Habits can be challenging to break, so don’t expect perfection.  If you mess up one day or one week, you don’t have to start from square one.  Just get yourself back on track and think “what is the next best thing I can do to achieve my goal”.  It could be starting with step one and two again, make sure your goals are realistic and you have an appropriate plan of action.

• Remember this…Just because you haven’t achieved your goal of losing weight or maintaining a weight loss in the past, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to do it in the future. Perhaps the timing wasn’t right or the plan was flawed.  Perhaps you need more nutrition education, support, or help with breaking down your personal barriers to weight loss.  Again, this may be an area where working with a dietitian and/or a personal trainer may help.

I hope you have a happy and healthy 2012!

You may have heard on the news that Medicare recently made a decision to cover “Intensive Behavioral Therapy for Obesity”.  At first, I was very excited when I heard the news because I felt like it could help people get access to the education and support they need to lose weight.  However, after reading more about it, I realized that there is one major problem- they have excluded dietitians from being covered providers.

If you have found your way to my blog, you probably already recognize that dietitians are the professionals that are most qualified to provide nutrition counseling.  Most dietitians have a 4 year undergraduate degree in nutrition and dietetics and then have gone on to do a dietetic internship after college.  Some dietitians, like me, have also gone on to receive a Certification in Adult Weight Management from the American Dietetic Association.  So excluding dietitians from providing nutrition counseling for weight management is like Medicare deciding to offer coverage for physical therapy treatment but not by a qualified physical therapist.

Perhaps you’re asking, if not registered dietitians, than who? Primary care physicians and nurses in the primary care setting are the ones approved to provide nutrition counseling. While there are some MDs that are knowledgeable about nutrition, a recent survey of primary-care physicians showed that 78 percent said they had no prior training on weight-related issues.  Many of them have just had 1 or 2 nutrition classes in school.  Also, many doctors do not have the time to spend with their patients educating them on weight management.  In fact, some studies have shown that the average doctor spends 7 minutes with a patient.  Not to mention, this would take a physicians’ time away from treating patients for other medical conditions.

So, what can you do to help?

There is currently a petition going around from the American Dietetic Association to have dietitians added to the list of reimbursable providers.  If they get enough signatures by January 7th, we may be able to have dietitians included on the bill.

It only takes a minute to sign the petition.  So, if you agree that dietitians should be allowed to counsel Medicare patients on weight management, please go to the following link:

http://wh.gov/DWX

This season is such a challenging time because of all the extra holiday food that is around.  For those with a sweet tooth, the leftover cakes and pies from thanksgiving can be a challenge, for others the Christmas cookies are the biggest temptation.  While you may not be able to control your environment at work or at holiday gatherings, you can control your environment at home.

So what can you do with the extra sweet treats?  I usually recommend removing them from the house by giving them to a friend or neighbor, taking them to work or even throwing them out.  (No, eating the remainder of the cake will not help starving children in another country).  However, if you have trouble getting rid of food, another option is to freeze it and save it for later.

The following are some tips for freezing cakes and cookies:

Cakes:

• Frosted Cakes:
  • Freeze well for 2-3 months
  • Will thaw in 2 hours at room temperature
  • Creamy-type frostings freeze best, fluffy or whipped cream frostings don’t freeze as well.
  • Frostings tend to stick to packaging.  To avoid this, freeze the cake unwrapped, once it is firmed, place waxed paper over the iced portion and then wrap the entire cake in freezer plastic wrap and seal it.  It can be sealed in an airtight container or you could use foil or a freezer ziplock bag.

• Unfrosted Cakes:
  • Freeze well for 4-6 months
  • Will thaw in 1 hour
  • Wrap the entire thing in freezer plastic wrap and seal it (see above).

• Cakes with fruit or custard filling:
  • Do not freeze well because the filling will make the cake soggy when it defrosts

Baked Cookies:

• Most cookies freeze well
• For the best quality they should be eaten within 1-2 months.  However, frosted cookies can last 2-3 months and unfrosted cookies can last 6-12 months
• Freeze cookies with a layer of waxed or parchment paper in between each layer and then wrap them in plastic wrap before putting them in a ziplock freezer bag or other airtight container.
• Cookies can thaw in the refrigerator overnight, at room temperature or you can put them in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes if you would like to serve them warm.

Baked Pies:

• Do not freeze baked cream pies, custard pies or pies with meringue
• Pumpkin pie lasts 1-2 months
• Fruit pies last 2-4 months
• Wrap in freezer plastic wrap and then seal in air tight container or ziplock freezer bag

These frozen treats can are handy to have on hand for when you are serving dessert to guests or when you need to bring a dessert to another get together.

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and this is typically the time of year that people put their health and good nutrition on the backburner.  Often, people go into the holiday season thinking that they will enjoy the holidays, indulge in the seasonal foods and then go on a diet in January to take off the weight they gained.  However, this plan often backfires.  The following are a few reasons not to wait until January first:

• According to statistics, the average person never losses the weight they put on during the holiday season.

• It is much easier to prevent weight gain than it is to shed the added pounds.  For every pound you put on, you need to create a 3,500 calorie deficit over time to lose it.  If you try to do that with exercise alone, a 150-pound person would have to walk or run 35 miles!

• Once you create a fat cell, you can never lose it.  Fat cells shrink, but they never decrease in number.  Once your fat cells get filled up to a maximum level, your body creates new cells to store fat.  However, when you lose weight, they only decrease in size, not number.  There are theories that once a fat cell is created, it always wants to be filled up.

• Get the maximum out of your insurance benefits.  Many plans cover a specific number of nutrition counseling sessions per calendar year with a dietitian.  If you do not use the sessions this year, you lose them.

• You can still enjoy your favorite foods during the holidays. A healthy eating plan does not mean you have to give up stuffing at Thanksgiving or your favorite holiday cookies.  Rather, it is learning how to balance them into a healthy lifestyle.  Proper nutrition is not about being perfect, it is about making small incremental improvements.

With a little focus, it is very possible to maintain weight or even lose a few pounds this holiday season, which will give you a head start for 2012.

This week there was an interesting article entitled “Fatty Foods as addictive as Cocaine in Growing Body of Science” in Bloomburg Businessweek.  The article sites research from several studies that have found that foods high in fat, sugar and high fructose corn syrup seem to have addictive properties, and they can elicit a response in the brain that is similar to the response people get from addictive drugs, such as cocaine.

A few interesting points in the article that jumped out at me are:

• “Constant stimulation with tasty, calorie- laden foods may desensitize the brain’s circuitry, causing people to consume greater quantities of junk food to maintain a constant state of pleasure”.
• Rats that had access to high-fat or high-sugar foods for 1 hour per day started binge eating even though they had access to healthy foods all day.  Rats that had access to high-fat or high-sugar foods all day became obese.  Eating these high-fat or high-sugar foods produced the same brain pattern that occurs with escalating intake of cocaine.
• Women were given an MRI scan as they sipped a milkshake, and then the MRI scans were repeated 6 months later.  The women who gained weight during that 6-month period showed reduced activity in the part of the brain that registers reward when they were given the milkshake the second time.  This may indicate that continued overeating decreases the feeling of pleasure which causes people to feel the need to eat more to get the pleasure response they are looking for.
• Rats fed a sugar water solution (the same concentration of sugar in sodas) occasionally showed no signs of addictive behavior.  However, those fed the sugar water every day began to drink “more and more and ate less of their usual diet”.

After reading this article, I thought it would be interesting to see what other researchers are finding regarding food additions.  The following are links to the summaries from just a few of the many articles published on this topic:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21999689

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19223127

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20042860

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15256343

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22016109

While food addition is still a topic of debate, it does seem that more and more research supports the theory that there are addictive properties to certain types of foods.  In my experience working with people to help improve their diets, this is very true.  The more fat, sugar or salt people eat, the more they want.  This can be a very vicious cycle which often leads to feelings of being out-of-control or guilt after eating.

However, I have seen many people overcome the urge to eat these foods as well.  As people “wean” themselves off of these foods, taste buds seem to change (and perhaps the chemical response in the brain is changing as well).  People often “crave” these foods less and less.  I have had many people tell me that after they get away from eating these foods on a regular basis and only eat them on occasion as “treat foods”, that these foods are “not as good as they once believed them to be” and find them to be “too sweet” or “too fatty” or “too salty”.

Currently, many researchers are using this information to try to develop medications to treat food addiction.  While there may be some promise in this area in the future, it will likely take a long time (if at all) until they find a medication that works without producing negative side effects.  In the mean time, it would be wise to recognize that some of these calorie-laden foods likely do have addictive properties and treat them as such.  These foods can absolutely fit into a healthy diet without causing people to feel “addicted”, but consider them to be “treats” instead of a daily staple in the diet.  Recognize that if you start to eat them on a daily basis there is a possibility that you will start to want, crave or “need” them more.  Also recognize that this cycle can be stopped (just like with cigarettes or alcohol) but it does take some effort, especially in the beginning.  It may be helpful to ask for support from friends, family or work with a professional (i.e. dietitian and/or psychologist) if you feel “addicted” to certain foods or sugary beverages.