Layered Green Smoothie, Christmas Style

What's a green smoothie, you ask?

A green smoothie is a blended drink of 40% greens like kale, spinach, collards, dandelion, romaine, etc. and 60% fruit like bananas, strawberries, kiwi, etc. You add a bit of water to get the consistency you like and voila! A yummy, healthy drink. The fruit flavour dominates and covers up the taste of the greens. Add a bit of protein powder, and you have the makings of a meal in a glass. It looks a bit like liquefied grass clippings but it tastes great.

You can find lots of recipes online but my favourite is kale, banana and mango. I add a tablespoon of hemp protein powder, especially if I've just finished working out.  My kids love green smoothies, although, if I send it to school with my older daughter, I need to add something to make it a little less green so no one looks at her strangely. I usually put in a bit of pureed beets or frozen berries and this does the trick.

My latest recipe is a layered Christmas smoothie.
I make the green part as usual, but layer it in a glass with vanilla yogurt and pureed fresh strawberries. Stirring it with a straw makes lovely and interesting designs that will fascinate kids and adults alike.

Green smoothies are a great way to get more leafy green vegetables into your diet. The nutrients are much easier to digest because the blender does all the chewing for you - in fact, your teeth couldn't do such a thorough job!
Try one today - you'll be surprised at how great a green smoothie tastes. If you decided to take the challenge, let me know how it goes, and share your fabulous greens and fruits combination.

Exercise and What to Eat

I am often asked about what to eat before and after exercising so I thought it might be a good idea to blog on this topic.  The following rules are guidelines only. If they don't seem to work for you, try something else (or make an appointment with a nutritionist!).

•  If your cardio workout is 30 minutes or less, you don't really have to eat anything beforehand, but drink some water.
• If your cardio workout is longer, it would be best to eat first, about an hour beforehand. 
• Always eat before doing weight training.
• Before a workout: eat a combination of protein and complex carbohydrates such as whole grain bread and nut butter, oatmeal with berries and milk or a protein shake with some healthy oil/fat.
• After a workout: protein and carbohydrates with little or no fat such as a smoothie with protein powder. It's important to eat within 45 minutes of finishing your workout to make the most of the protein's ability to help you recover and repair your muscles. It also helps you burn fat.
• Avoid sugar before and after a workout since this can dampen the fat burning and muscle building capacity of your exercise.

And of course, drink water before, during and after your workout.
Happy exercising!

Sugar Fast

Have you ever taken the time to read labels and see how much sugar is in many processed foods? You might be surprised.
Here is an interesting article about one family's week of avoiding sugar and what they learned:
The Sugar Fast

Would you be up to the challenge?

Book Review: Eat Your Way to Happiness

I just finished reading an interesting book called Eat Your Way To Happiness by Elizabeth Somer, a registered dietician. She discusses 10 diet and 1 lifestyle secrets to improve your mood, curb your cravings and maintain a healthy weight. The book also includes a 2 week menu plan with recipes.

Elizabeth offers a lifestyle, not a restrictive diet, that's basically about eating whole foods and limiting processed foods and sugar. She talks about how carbohydrates affect our mood and how eating the right kind of snack before bed can help with sleep, which helps with weight control, and mood. Carbohydrates, when eaten alone, have a calming and relaxing effect on your body which is great when you want to sleep, while combining carbohydrates with protein and water help to boost your mood and your energy which is best in the morning.

This book is filled with useful information including what to look for and avoid when buying pre-packaged foods, how to choose good quality carbs, how much sugar we can safely eat per day, which supplements can help with mood and why exercise is so important.

I agree with most of what Elizabeth has to say. However, she does recommend the use of Splenda in some of her recipes. Splenda is an artificial sweetener. Yes, it's made from sugar but... chlorine atoms are added to sucrose to make sucralose or Splenda. Most of the artificial sweetener goes through the digestive system unmetabolized, but there is some evidence which shows that Splenda does some damage on its way through by disrupting the bacteria balance in the intestines. This means fewer 'good bacteria' and more 'bad bacteria'. This can lead to a multitude of problems including food allergies and digestive problems.  So, I would suggest that you use a natural sweetener like honey, agave or sucanat, even though they are not calorie free. There are other natural, calorie free sweeteners such as Organic 0 or stevia that could be substituted.

Elizabeth also mentions that coconut oil is bad for you but there is lots of research to suggest that coconut oil is a healthy saturated fat, composed mainly of short and medium-chain saturated fat which is easily digested, is anti-inflammatory and may contribute to weight loss.

I am also a little confused about the snack ideas. Elizabeth talks about how carbohydrates, when eaten alone, help with sleep, but then she makes suggestions about all-carb snacks that can be eaten either before bed or in the afternoon. Based on what she is saying about carbohydrates, I wouldn't want to eat an all-carb snack in the afternoon when I still need to stay awake for several more hours!

Generally, I like the book and would recommend it to anyone struggling with issues related to weight, sleep, mood and energy levels.

Should you take wheat out of your diet?

Many people are sensitive to wheat and may not know it. 1 in 7 people are gluten (the protein in wheat) intolerant. You may experience symptoms such as:

• bloating, cramping, diarrhea, flatulence, constipation
• headache, memory loss, behavioural difficulties, depression
• resistance to infection, arthritis
• skin rashes, psoriasis, dry skin, eczema
• fatigue, lethargy, feeling unwell

The best way to determine if you're gluten intolerant, which is not the same as a gluten allergy, is to do an elimination diet. Gluten is found in grains such as wheat, spelt, barley, rye and kamut. It seems that oats may have gluten if they are processed in the same plant as gluten-containing grains. You need to stop eating any foods containing gluten for at least 1 week and notice any changes in how you feel. Then introduce a gluten-containing food for one day and see how you feel then.  Many people find that they feel great when they take gluten out of their diets, or at least reduce the gluten.

A nutritionist can help you through this process and give you meal ideas to help you get through the elimination diet.

Here is a link to a recent CBC article about wheat: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/10/15/f-gluten-free-parents.html

Treats for Tots

We are entering the TREAT SEASON from now through to Easter.  Kids are bombarded with sugary treats during this time.

Why do we need to limit sugar intake?

• Sugar significantly impairs the immune system.  2tsp reduces immune function by 25% for 4-5 hours.
• Sugar can lead to heart disease by raising triglyceride levels in the blood
• Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating and crankiness in children
• Sugar leads to mineral deficiencies, especially chromium, copper, calcium, and magnesium
• Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein
• Sugar is linked to tooth decay, arthritis, asthma and diabetes
• Sugar can increase cholesterol
• Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis by taking calcium from bones
• Sugar can lead to premature aging through free radical damage and loss of tissue elasticity and function
• Sugar can lead to obesity
• Sugar can cause food allergies

       Not so long ago, candy and other sugary foods were occasional treats. Now, kids are bombarded with sugar in most of the processed foods we eat including breakfast cereals, some breads, juice, ketchup, deli meats, peanut butter, etc. Some of these foods have only a small amount of added sugar but when you tally it all up, do you then want to introduce more sugar in the form of candy and other treats? Kids are influenced by television ads to get their parents to buy these unhealthy foods, and some teachers regularly give candy to their students as rewards. Once in a while is fine, but the point I’m trying to get across is that most kids get added sugar in their regular daily diets so the treats should be occasional indulgences.

     There is no recommended daily allowance for sugar but some experts suggest that kids have no more that 4-5 tsp of added sugar per day. The average child consumes far more than this (30 tsp or more!) just by eating processed foods throughout the day. Adding candy and other sweets foods pushes this number even higher.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT – be sure to feed your kids a healthy supper and make sure they take the time to eat enough. This may help to reduce the amount of candy they eat tonight.

Halloween Candy Alternatives

1.       Juice boxes – make sure they’re 100% juice

2.       Cheese sticks or Baby bell cheese

3.       Gum – xylitol, or other natural sweetener

4.       Fruit sticks – 100% fruit

5.       Good quality chocolate – better for teeth and antioxidants

6.       Home-made treats for neighbours who know and trust you

7.       Non-food items such as Halloween trinkets, glow sticks, rubber stamps, bubbles

8.       Combination – one candy and one trinket

Alternatives to Trick-or-Treating

Most kids love this tradition so it may be difficult to get rid of it altogether. 

·         An option would be to allow a limited amount of trick-or-treating (say 10 houses) and then a party afterwards, either with friends or just family.  Let the kids eat their candy and get it over with. Watch a movie.

·         If you have enough neighbours who share your desire to reduce the candy load, you could plan ahead and each of you make healthy treats that you will give to each other’s kids. Then you could get together for a party afterwards. 

·         Again, with like-minded neighbours, you could do a rotating party. The children could travel together and make extended stops at each neighbour’s home where they will take part in a Halloween craft or in making a healthier Halloween treat such as strawberry ghosts, decorating cookies, etc. The kids will feel like they are trick-or-treating but as they spend time with each neighbour, they are spending less time gathering candy.

Visit my website to find out how to get an information package with more ideas including:

• How to deal with Halloween candy overload

• How to get your child to eat less junk food

• Healthier homemade treats such as banana ice dream (tastes like real ice cream but it's much healthier!) including lots of recipes

• My picks for healthier store-bought treats

• What to look for when reading food labels - what to avoid

Happy Halloween! 

P.S.  Please let me know if you see any strange formatting symbols in this blog - I've been having some issues! thanks

Sleep to lose weight

In a recent study, it was found that dieters who slept 8.5 hours a night lost twice as much fat and held on to nearly twice as much muscle as those who slept only 5-1/2 hours. While everybody lost the same amount of weight (in pounds), the well-rested group looked slimmer and lost more inches, because lean muscle looks far sleeker than fat. In addition, the more muscle you have, the better, since muscle is a metabolic engine that burns more calories round the clock. And that makes it easier for you to keep the weight off.

Fact: By the end of the study, the long sleepers were burning an extra 114 calories a day (that’s about 10 pounds a year).

When you’re on a diet, a good night’s sleep works with the muscle-strengthening exercises you’re doing. Getting enough sleep also keeps the hunger hormone ghrelin in check, so you’re less tempted to cheat and eat that junk food you've stashed in the cupboard.

One more tip: interval training seems to be the best way to build lean muscle. Twenty five minutes of interval training (alternating high and low intensity intervals) is more effective than 45 minutes of high intensity alone. Also, eating protein along with complex carbohydrates soon after strength training (within 45 minutes of finishing) will help you build that lean muscle and boost metabolism.

So, make sleep a priority and add interval training to your arsenal of weight-loss tools!

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I am new to blogging so please be patient as I figure this out!
I'm excited to share my nutrition and wellness ideas but I'd like to know what YOU are interested in. Let me know what nutrition topics you'd like me to blog about. I have a few ideas: healthy eating in Oxford County, Ontario, daily nutrition tips, daily 'try this food' ideas... the list is endless!
Let me know your thoughts!