Fruits and Veggies - Did I Eat Any Today?

Grow!

I just planted a BUNCH of broccoli and cabbage. Right about now is a good time to plant for a fall harvest in my neck of the woods. Growing your own fruits and veggies is a great frugal way to get more produce in the house and in your belly! But do you know how many servings of fruits and vegetables you should eat each day?

Why

These foods contain important vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, fiber and antioxidants and are usually low in calories.

Munching on more fruits and vegetables is advocated by The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society, The American Diabetes Association, is advocated in the blue zones for longevity and is supported by many diet programs like Jenny Craig for weight loss. In order to help promote longevity, stave off obesity, help prevent cancer, diabetes and heart disease - head to the produce department! One stop shopping to help prevent a number of concerns!

I even read an article the other day about some doctors turning to vegetable prescriptions to stave off diabetes and obesity - imagine that! Nutrition over prescription becoming a focus in the doctor's office! It's about time!

Recommendations
The standard recommendation is 5 half cup servings per day. The USDA has recently replaced the classic food pyramid with their MyPlate program for dietary recommendations. Now they recommend filling 1/2 your plate with fruits and veggies (but they also break down daily needs in terms of cups too). This makes it much easier!

The CDC has also specified how many cups of fruits and veggies an individual should have in a day, based on gender, age and activity. Check out their calculator here and see how much you should get. It says I personally need to eat about 1.5 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables throughout each day. Awesome. Now what does a cup look like on my plate??

What it looks like
Chow.com has a great visual pdf that I recommend you check out here. For me, a cup of fruit ends up being approximately how much I can completely cover/hold using both my hands. 2 plums, 8 strawberries, 1 bell pepper, 1 tomato, 1 ear of corn, a portion of cucumber the length of your smart phone, a couple medium carrots (they almost cover a $1 bill - for visualization). For cooked or chopped veggies at home, go ahead and pull out the measuring cups. It's not weird!

Put it into Action

Now the question is, how do I work that into my day?? It may or may not sound easy to add much fruits or vegetables to your daily diet but I have been surprised as to how often I can go without having had a single serving of fruit or vegetables in a day.

And though it's tempting to count it - I personally wouldn't make my count using deep fried veggies, veggies absolutely smothered in cheese or fruit totally coated in corn syrup.

Ideas that help me:

• Buy the individual cups of applesauce (natural style - no corn syrup please) to throw in your lunch bag, or to munch on with breakfast. Going frugal? Buy the larger economical container and portion into reusable containers ready for grab-and-go.
• When eating out, keep in mind which dishes contain more veggies as you make your decision. Plus you can often ask for steamed vegetables as a side instead of whatever comes with the dish you've chosen.
• Smoothies! My favorite is toss in 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt into the blender, then blend, baby blend!
• Sunsweet Ones prunes - individually wrapped so you can throw some in your bag and munch anytime. Just 5 = a serving!
• Add veggie purees to dishes you cook at home - see The Sneaky Chef - doing things like adding pureed carrots to the mac n cheese makes fitting in a few extra ounces of veggies delicious and kid approved!
• Juice! There is a slight debate over the nutrient quality of pasteurized juices vs. fresh-made juices, however I think that if you're just trying to get in the habit of having more fruits and vegetables throughout the day - convenience is key. Once it becomes second-nature to look for these nutrition jewels throughout the day, it could be time to consider the fresh juice option for yourself. Just make sure that when you get pre-made juice that it's 100% juice.
• Keep snack-sized fruit and veggies in a bowl at eye level in your fridge. That way when you're just looking for something to munch on, or maybe something sweet, those baby carrots or juicy strawberries might tempt you into another serving!
• Make one of your daily snacks a fruit
• Have a glass of 100% fruit or vegetable juice with a meal
• I love to make Virgin Mary drinks - tomato juice and celery with a few seasonings makes a delicious couple servings of veggies!
• Add 1/4 cup of dried fruit to your salad (which is already about a cup of veggies!) topped with light dressing or vinaigrette of course.

My personal thought is err on the side of more. If your wondering if that is enough steamed broccoli on your plate, grab another florette. Is that enough juice in my glass? Add another splash. Just do it. Your body will love you for it.

I'm always looking for great new recipes to try, looking for fun and unique meal ideas. However, in a pinch (one of those 'what do you want to eat?' 'I don't know, what do you want to eat?' kind of nights) our house tends to gravitate toward a meal of grilled meat, steamed vegetables and some rice/potato/pasta/whatever I can find. My favorite places to find great new vegetable recipes for free is either online or at the library. Search for vegetarian recipes and cookbooks, or search by food item to score a great recipe that features a particular vegetable!

If you're looking to lose a little weight, but aren't sure where to start, my personal recommendation is to start looking at the quality of what you eat - before you start thinking about cutting out entire food groups or heading for 'diet' box meal items. A great start is to see how much produce you really are squeezing into every meal. They aren't always calorie free, but they are usually more worth the calories they do provide plus they are loaded with nutrients!

Stay tuned to see how, or if, my garden grows!

Diane

Taste Test Thursday!

So as you may or may not know, I love foods with good, quality ingredients. Today I had the opportunity to try a new natural product called Svelte by CalNaturale. This beverage is a protein/sustained energy drink, and if you wanted to compare it to another familiar product - think of a shake in a can kind of thing. But I really wouldn’t compare it to another product because it stands alone.

If you’re like me, you’re an ingredients list reader. I know I get red flags flying over ingredients when I hear anything could be in the ‘diet’ section, but let me tell you, this is a different animal. If you look at this ingredient list, you’ll notice the word ‘organic’ many times over (it’s certified organic), including organic soymilk, organic dried cane syrup, organic coffee, sea salt and stevia extract (the better non-sugar sweetener). And one thing to note if you still dare to compare, there’s no canola oil or other hydrogenated oils in it.

Plus the packaging process makes these drinks shelf stable for a year! So you could even throw it in your desk drawer for one of those days when you can’t grab lunch like you thought you would before another last-minute deadline crossed your desk and then got called into a meeting! (yeah, I’ve been there before…)

These beverages are dairy-free and gluten-free (which means Diane friendly! J ) Each flavor has 16 grams of organic protein, complex carbs for sustained energy, is cholesterol-free and is tested to be low-glycemic with only 9 grams of sugar per full bottle. The soy protein helps you feel full longer, includes dietary fiber, high quality protein, iron, essential fatty acids and other important nutrients. Plus they are packaged in environment-friendly packaging! Score!

They currently have 4 delicious flavors – french vanilla, cappuccino, chocolate and spiced chai and let me tell you, they are great! My personal fave is the cappuccino with spiced chai in at second. It totally passed the husband test too! Plus, on each bottle there is a comment balloon with comments like ‘looking good’ and ‘hello beautiful’ – what girl doesn’t want to be told that?? Nice!

The company is expanding the locations at which you can purchase these, but in the mean time, check out their website sveltebrand.com to find a retail location near you!

 P.S. All opinions are my own based on my tasty personal experience

Media and our health

Media Mondays

Today I am joining Women Living Well for Media Monday. A series which dives deeper into the effects of social media and the amount of time we spend online using it.

Health Online

Social media and the online world in general have so many benefits – health wise. We now have so much information at our fingertips at a moment’s notice. Want a great healthy dinner recipe? How about a new workout routine? Curious about that cough? What’s my favorite health blog saying today? Web seach!

Yet at the same time, in most situations when we are engaged in the online community, we are on our rumps. I don’t know about you, but I have plenty of sit-time at work. But when I come home, what do I gravitate toward? The computer. I guess it’s as they say – a body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest…or perhaps it’s an addiction.

Of course having so many answers thru the online community may be making us lean toward becoming hypochondriacs. Search for symptoms and get every possible disease or condition that has that symptom – hmm…maybe I do have typhoid fever…it’s possible!

Hypochondriasis aside, I think we need to be focused more on what we are doing as we are at our computers.

The Science

Msnbc.com recently posted an article showing that even exercise doesn’t entirely un-do what all that sitting does throughout the day. The American Cancer Society (ACS) conducted a study of 123,216 participants showing that women and men who both sat more and were less physically active were 94% and 48% more likely to die during the study period, respectively, compared with those who reported sitting the least and being most active. The association remained virtually unchanged after adjusting for physical activity level with the biggest concern being cardiovascular disease. Alpa Patel, a researcher at ACS said "Prolonged time spent sitting, independent of physical activity, has been shown to have important metabolic consequences, and may influence things like triglycerides, high density lipoprotein, cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, resting blood pressure, and leptin, which are biomarkers of obesity and cardiovascular and other chronic diseases."

Ack! I gotta stand up!

Get Moving!

As human beings we need more movement than our society typically gets. Our bodies were designed to lift, walk, run, move, dig – anything! Sitting is supposed to be for resting and eating. I am very guilty of too much rump time myself! My desk job asks that I sit at my computer for the better part of my work day, commute 1 ½ hours roundtrip and then I come home to read blogs, facebook, anything I can on a computer.

At one point in time it was a good idea to move the treadmill/elliptical/exercise bike in front of the tv. But now many individuals (like me) can burn up the evening in their desk chairs at the computer. Which is why I am considering the option of getting a tablet or at least a very small laptop to strap to my treadmill. That way, if I want to check my emails, read some blogs or just peruse facebook – I’m forced to exercise at least a little as I do it.

See if it’s possible to set up your computer so that you can stand while using it. Set it on a counter or place some blocks under the monitor, keyboard and mouse to raise them up. Have a stability ball? Use it as your chair – it’s tough to stay still sitting on one of those things as you balance (I usually end up feeling compelled to bounce)!

Clare from Peak 313 Fitness also has some great tips to boosting health when at your desk for extended periods of time at Courtney’s Women Living Well blog. My favorite tip is to set a timer so that every 30 minutes I’ll be reminded to get up and at least walk across the office to get the blood moving.

Feeling Good!

To move is to keep your body in good health! I have a feeling that somewhere in the hypothetical owner’s manual for our bodies, it says ‘use it or loose it!’

I challenge you to find more ways to work movement into your day, what will you do?

Diane

‘Fairly’ Healthy

It seems as though we are at the high point of summer activity, part of which includes fun fairs and festivals! But for individuals looking to loose weight or keep their health on track, it may cause an inner-dilemma. (For others the only dilemma may be deciding between the corndog or the burger!)

If you happen to be one of those looking to navigate concessions row without feeling like you over-did it – read on!

I recently wrote a list of some healthy options for the county fair I currently work at, though due to some restraints I wasn’t able to share the entirety of this. (FYI I work in marketing, not the carnival)

Working for the fair means that once a year I am surrounded by fair food. All day. Every day. For 10 days straight. It’s not always easy, but I do feel better when I make better choices.

The calories, fats and sodium in these fried foods can lead to cancer, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity, stroke, inflammation, free radicals (which can lead to premature aging – no!) and feeling way too full!

As some of you might be saying right now, “But it’s only once a year! I gotta have my fair food fix!” And you’re right! If you look forward to getting that delicious corndog at the once-a-year fair or festival in your area – great! A once a year fix is a treat, and when you keep that in mind at the event, you can stave off other temptations. Keep your goal food in mind and savor every bite!

Another idea on the indulgent side is to split it. Pick a gotta-have-it dish and split it with a friend, or two, or three. I don’t know about you, but after finishing a whole funnel cake by myself, I don’t feel as good as it tasted! Pick a dish and split it in order to keep calorie, fat and sodium counts a bit lower, while still getting the flavor.

Or, perhaps you head to the fair for other reasons than food (or are really strong willed) avoid the concession stands. To best be armed for this potential battle, make sure you fill up on a healthy meal before heading down to the event. If the fair allows bringing in food or drink, bring a bottled water or a healthy snack like trail mix.

But for the happy medium, I suggest scouting out all the booths for potential healthy (or at least fairly healthy) items to feast upon. My favorite is the mouth watering corn on the cob! (but I ask for ½ the amount of butter they usually put on) FYI it’s also gluten free! ;)

Some other great items I’ve spotted that are ‘good,’ ‘decent’ or ‘just straddling the fence of over-indulgence’ are:

• Tacos or nachos topped with lots of veggies and light on the cheese
• Smoothies with fresh fruit
• Yummy BBQ chicken (don’t eat all the skin)
• Burgers loaded with veggies
• Chocolate-dipped bananas or strawberries
• Caramel or candy apples (hey, there’s a whole fruit in there!)
• Gyros with extra veggies light sauce
• Kabobs over rice
• Asian broccoli beef with steamed rice (sauce on the side if possible)
• Fresh brewed iced tea (sans sugar please)
• Salad with light dressing (if your lucky enough to find a stand offering this beauty)
• Grilled fish tacos or tacos al pastor
• Mini funnel cake (3” cake gives you a taste of the good stuff without over indulging!)
• Popcorn
• Peanuts
• Glass of low-fat milk (we have a fantastic 4-H run milk bar at our fair!)
• Turkey sub sandwich with lots of veggies, light on mayo and cheese
• Shrimp cocktail!

Yum!

Get moving!

With so much to do and see at the fair, you are sure to get plenty of healthy movement in!

• Shoot some hoops in the carnival (and maybe even win a prize for it!)
• Climb the rock wall
• Dance to one of the concerts (dancing for just 20 minutes can burn up to 120 calories!)
• Walk thru the exhibit buildings or through all the vendor stands – maximize your festival experience and net more steps
• Climb the stairs a couple of times in the grandstands or bleachers
• Standing in line for a midway ride burns 1-2 calories per minute!

And ladies, the fair is no place for stilettos. Grab the sneakers and get moving!

Above all, fairs and festivals strive to offer a family-friendly and fun experience, so get out and enjoy yourself!

In the end you will hopefully not feel overloaded with grease, will be less likely to loose your lunch in the midway and will feel successful at staying healthy while still enjoying a great summer-time event!