Healthy Eating: Piece of Cake!
Every day we receive messages about weight loss and what we should and shouldn't be eating. Whether you see an ad online for a diet or an article on the obeseity epidemic, we're constantly being debriefed on food and weight. How do we know what's the right message? I am not a dietitian, but I can tell you about simple nutrition. I will be posting informative articles, tips, and links to help folks realize that eating healthy can be a piece of cake.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
NEW SITE!!!!!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Health halo effect: Don't judge a food by its organic label
A common misconception folks have about food labels. Just because it says Organic, doesn't mean it has less calories. People tend to do this with "Vegan" labels too. Just because there is no milk or egg in that cookie doesn't mean it's not loaded with table sugar and empty calories ...
America Runs on Dunkin'
I ordered the Old Fashion donuts with an ice coffee with skim milk. My favorite Dunkin' order. I had read somewhere before that those donuts have less saturated fat and less calories. Today I went onto the Dunkin Donuts nutrition website to look up exactly what was in these cakes. And was I way off on my assumption.
The Old Fashion has 320 calories (I thought it had 150-200), 25 grams of Fat (34 % of DV) and 10 grams of Saturated Fat (50% of DV). I scrolled through the other donuts and discovered that the Chocolate Donut had only 240 calories, 11 grams of Fat (23% of DV) and 4.5 grams of Saturated Fat (11% DV). I never would have guessed the chocolate one would have been a better choice..
Are either of these great nutrition breakfeast choices? No. But I only do it 4-5x a year. I also paired the donuts with a cup of strawberries and I had a 15 minute walk to DD and back. Point is I knew it wasn't the best choice in the world when I was doing it, but I wish I had selected the donut that was only 25% of my DV for Saturated Fat and not 50%. Just goes to show that you need to look this information up and be fully aware of the food choices you're making.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Weight Report Cards
Athletes & Carbo-loading
What is Carbo-Loading?
It’s a term used to describe an increased intake of complex carbohydrates one or two days before an endurance event. By storing carbohydrates in your body, you’re storing glucose/glycogen, which is what your body uses for energy. The goal is to store energy in your body so that you extra fuel to get you through your endurance event.
Why does this work?
Our bodies rely on glycogen for energy. Glycogen comes from sugars and starches within our diet. When you're running/cycling/swimming/climbing, etc for a long distance your body burns up it’s initial glycogen and it looks to stored glycogen for more energy. Your body will pull energy from the stored glycogen. Your body can pull energy from stored fats, but it’s not as as easy to access, and your body is more efficient when it uses energy from glycogen.
How to Do It?
It’s pretty simple! The day before your event (or two days before if your stomach prefers) eat your normal caloric intake of food. Replace fruits, fats, dairy, vegetables, and proteins with complex carbohydrates. You don’t need to solely eat starches, you can add in the other food groups so that it’s enjoyable. A good example of this would be to swap a spinach salad for a
wheat pasta salad for lunch.
Common Misconceptions
1. Over Eating - You don’t need to binge on pasta. Eat the normal amount of calories you would eat, just increase the complex carbohydrates and swap them for other food groups.
2. Eating Table Sugar - Your body won’t be able to use the sugars from a piece of cake the night before a marathon. The only time your body can use simple sugars for energy is when you consume them during the race/training run. Dean Karno famously describes doing this during some of his all-night-long-ultra runs.
3. Using Protein for Energy - Your body doesn’t want to use protein for energy. It wants glycogen. Furthermore, you can’t store protein. Your body needs a certain amount of protein every day, any protein consumed over that amount is stored as fat. Which is another area that your body dislikes getting energy from.
4. Carbo-Loading for Any Activity - You really only need to carb up for activities that require at least 90 minutes of cardiovascular activity.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Cake is Getting a Make Over!
Proteins/Fats/Carbs:
What they are, where we find them, how much we need, why we need them. Proteins: Incomplete & Complete - what we need, what they are, how we need, and you can’t store protein. Types of Fiber, Types of Fat, etc.
Athletes: Hydration, Eating & Refueling, Carboloading, Post Work Out Snack
Changing Your Eating: Easy ones to make, the steps, grocery shopping, planning your meals. How to plan nutrition/eating for traveling Eating out for Dinner - healthy options Eating by the Clock, Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full Hollywood Stereotype Ideals vs Eating Healthy Do it on a budget
Diets & Quacks: Explain a fad diet & why it fails, how to tell what a fad diet is, explain false credentials, how to decipher news. We'd like to have a weekly fad diet article as well.
Nutrition Related Illness: Diabetes, CVD, Obeseity, Eating Disorders, What can Impact your Eating & Health?
Food Groups & Food Servings: what are the food groups, how many servings do we need, and what a serving size looks like
Definitions: terms that often come up in articles, or will come up here that might be helpful for people to do a quick look up.
We hope to have the new site up and running by next week. Stay Tuned!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Portion Control vs Serving Size

Portion Amounts & Serving Sizes are hot topics in weight loss, nutrition, and foodies. What’s the difference?
A serving is the recommended amount/size of food that the My Pyramid & American Dietitic Association set forth for us.
A Portion is the actual amount on our plate. Typically restaurants will over serve, and you may be consuming 2-3x the amount of food you may actually need.
How can you tell what a portion looks like? Look below at some guidelines.
2-3 oz of meat = the size of a deck of cards
1 Baked Potato = the size of a computer mouse
1 Pancake = 1 CD
1 piece of fruit (Apple, Organge) = A woman’s fist
3 oz serving of Fish = Check Book
Important to Keep in Mind!!! If you look at the Nutrition Label on the back of your Food, it will tell you HOW MANY SERVINGS are in that package of food. Use this a guide for portion sizes.
Example: Cheese
If you bought a block of cheese, you will most likely see that it has 8 servings in that block. If you were to divide the block into 8 equal slices, one of those slices will equal 1 serving.