Mother's Advice

This may not be the best way to educate someone, but perhaps
we've all felt this way at one time.
Sometimes it even ends up being true :)

After celebrating Mother's Day yesterday, it got me thinking about my own Mom's advice on eating. It may be similar to your Mother's too. Though I went through the nothing-green phase, the no-fat phase, and I drank diet coke for a while, my Mom tried to teach me how to eat healthier. She would still make or buy me things I enjoyed during those crazy phases, but the message stayed the same.

This list is a compilation of things from my Mom and my husband's Mom:

• Eat your veggies (and especially greens)
• Skip the pancakes and eat foods that "stick to your bones" (we later realized that meant foods with fiber and protein)
• People need to eat some fat (that was during my awful no-fat phase, luckily I was in my 20s and rebounded!)
• Try at least one bite of everything on your plate
• Drink milk (i.e. something good for you... not soda)*
• Fruit is delicious
• Eat home-cooked meals rather than eating out (saves money too!)
• Eat sweets and snacks only occasionally and if made at home
• Drink coffee when you're old enough (coffee... not a coffee-shop specialty drink that barely resembles coffee)
• Buy from local farmers or farmers markets
• Plan meals ahead and freeze them for busy evenings

Is your list similar? Now think about your children or other family members. What are you teaching them with your cooking or food purchasing decisions? Are you giving them the basics like our Moms gave us - some by telling and others just through their actions. People will make their own decisions at times, and many wrong ones, but everyone needs to know the basic principles of healthy eating. Sadly, numerous people today do not because of the ever-present fast and convenience foods and accompanying advertisements that inundate our lives.

*Since some of you might be working on the Week 2 mini-pledge to only drink REAL beverages, I've included some articles below to help.

Today, add berries or lemons to a pitcher of water, place it in the fridge to chill. Voila, tasty fresh healthy water.

 

Action Item: Eat Right. Share that knowledge with your loved ones. When you serve carrots, tell your child why carrots or good or how they grow. Get them interested! Better yet, if you grow a garden with your child, he is more likely to eat the vegetables he has helped grow! If you don't have children, you can still grow a garden and actually it might be easier to talk another adult into helping you than a child :)

For Further Reading: Water is Essential For Health, Six Reasons to Drink Water, Why Coffee is Good For You, and 10 Reasons Why You Should Drink More Water

Start today!

I have been inspired by several people recently who are making big changes in their lives. Some through exercise. Some through cleaner eating. Then I saw a graphic similar to this posted by a friend on facebook:

It reminded me of friends and family members who are struggling with getting healthy. And, there's changes we can all make that we usually put off until tomorrow or a Monday or until better weather arrives...

My rant today is to encourage you - especially if you are someone who has been resisting change -- to start TODAY!

Take a 7-day or a 30-day healthier-you challenge.

Stop waiting.

And start your changes today.

 

If you choose, for example, to cut high fructose corn syrup out of your diet for 30 days, I'm guaranteeing you that you will feel better and healthier. Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables per day - you'll feel better. Stop consuming so many processed foods TODAY. Eat whole-grains. Take this challenge that I posted in March. Whatever you've been putting off, start the CHANGE today. Right now.

 

Write it down and tape it to your wall, your mirror or your refrigerator. While you're at it, write down these sayings too. Put them where you can see them! Tell your friends that they will soon be seeing a healthier you and that you might need their help!

 

 

Let me know if you're having trouble getting started or deciding what change to make. Or go back and read my very first entry on January 1 (that's a great idea!) I'd love to talk over ideas and help you get started. And did I mention... TODAY?

Reduce Your Risk of Death

I had other ideas for today's post, but after reading this research article from Science Daily I definitely think it is worth sharing. It's a long read today, but worth it. The text from the article is on this page just below my comments or you go click the link to read the story and supporting info.

This article makes me say (again)... Eat your vegetables and fruit! Fueling your body with natural foods leaves less room for the chemicals and additives and sodium and sugar that make you unhealthy, sick, give you pains and deplete your energy. If this article doesn't cause you to take a second or third look at your eating habits, then I'm not sure what will. YOU, for the most part, have control over how you feel, how your body functions and how likely you are to end up with heart disease or certain types of cancers. This is also a sad reminder that many people in the US do not even have access to fresh fruit and vegetables, thus leading to poor health and the snowball events that follow. Let's me grateful that most of us can choose healthy foods. Take charge and choose health!

As a reminder, these are results from one study. Add this to your growing knowledge of healthy eating and let it guide you in making good eating choices.

Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death by 42 percent

Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death at any point in time by 42% compared to eating less than one portion, reports a new University College London study.

Researchers used the Health Survey for England to study the eating habits of 65,226 people representative of the English population between 2001 and 2013, and found that the more fruit and vegetables they ate, the less likely they were to die at any age. Eating seven or more portions reduces the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25% and 31% respectively. The research also showed that vegetables have significantly higher health benefits than fruit.

This is the first study to link fruit and vegetable consumption with all-cause, cancer and heart disease deaths in a nationally-representative population, the first to quantify health benefits per-portion, and the first to identify the types of fruit and vegetable with the most benefit.

Compared to eating less than one portion of fruit and vegetables, the risk of death by any cause is reduced by 14% by eating one to three portions, 29% for three to five portions, 36% for five to seven portions and 42% for seven or more. These figures are adjusted for sex, age, cigarette smoking, social class, Body Mass Index, education, physical activity and alcohol intake, and exclude deaths within a year of the food survey.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found that fresh vegetables had the strongest protective effect, with each daily portion reducing overall risk of death by 16%. Salad contributed to a 13% risk reduction per portion, and each portion of fresh fruit was associated with a smaller but still significant 4% reduction.

"We all know that eating fruit and vegetables is healthy, but the size of the effect is staggering," says Dr Oyinlola Oyebode of UCL's Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, lead author of the study." The clear message here is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to die at any age. Vegetables have a larger effect than fruit, but fruit still makes a real difference. If you're happy to snack on carrots or other vegetables, then that is a great choice but if you fancy something sweeter, a banana or any fruit will also do you good."

The findings lend support to the Australian government's 'Go for 2 + 5' guidelines, which recommend eating two portions of fruit and five of vegetables. The UK Department of Health recommends '5 a day', while 'Fruit and Veggies -- More Matters' is the key message in the USA.

"Our study shows that people following Australia's 'Go for 2 + 5' advice will reap huge health benefits," says Dr Oyebode. "However, people shouldn't feel daunted by a big target like seven. Whatever your starting point, it is always worth eating more fruit and vegetables. In our study even those eating one to three portions had a significantly lower risk than those eating less than one"

The researchers found no evidence of significant benefit from fruit juice, and canned and frozen fruit appeared to increase risk of death by 17% per portion. The survey did not distinguish between canned and frozen fruit so this finding is difficult to interpret. Canned fruit products are almost four times more popular than frozen fruit in Europe*, so it is likely that canned fruit dominated this effect.

"Most canned fruit contains high sugar levels and cheaper varieties are packed in syrup rather than fruit juice," explains Dr Oyebode. "The negative health impacts of the sugar may well outweigh any benefits. Another possibility is that there are confounding factors that we could not control for, such as poor access to fresh groceries among people who have pre-existing health conditions, hectic lifestyles or who live in deprived areas."


Action Item: Count your vegetable and fruit servings daily for a week. How are you doing?

For Further Reading: Fruit & Veggies: More Matters and Serving Sizes

Nutri Ventures

If you have a cartoon-watching child, introduce them to Nutri Ventures. At the moment, it's our son's favorite show and the only one he has watched since being introduced to it. He watches it on Hulu Kids.

Here's the story:

The heroes of the story, Theo, Lena, Ben and little Nina, live in a grey city, where food doesn’t exist. 30 years ago, Alex Grand, the terrible villain, ordered his army of G-Squads to destroy all the foods so his people would be forced to eat only Genex-100, a high calorie compound manufactured at the Grand Corporation of which he is the owner.

Before Alex could wipe out all the foods, Nexus, a wise nutritionist, told his seven most trusted scientists to escape, with the help of their Gugas, to a faraway place so that they could each preserve a food group. They became the Nutri- Guardians. Up until now they have lived in isolation in their far-off kingdoms where they have conserved the foods they were entrusted with.

Theo, Lena, Ben and Nina have the exciting mission of discovering these fantastic kingdoms and returning to the world the food variety which Alex had destroyed. During their adventures they will taste unknown foods, experience their incredible Nutri-Powers and engage in hard-won battles, always accompanied by their Guga!

Nutri Ventures Corp., which produces the series, has entered into partnerships with ministries of education and health around the world, as well as with the World Health Organization, with which it offers educational content for free to public education systems.

Parents can learn more, without watching all the episodes, at the website listed below. The Kingdoms do include meat and dairy, so this show may not work for everyone.


Action Item: If this interests you, let your child give it a try on Hulu Kids.  I'm not saying this is the perfect series (partly because I haven't watched them all), but we definitely appreciate the focus on healthy eating and the effort to teach children in a fun way. Nutri Ventures is an excellent alternative to the many mind-numbing cartoons that abound!

For Further Reading: http://www.nutri-ventures.com/pais/en/parents/