There are people in our lives who have an impact on us the first time we meet them.  Pam McCarthy, a colleague of mine, is one of those people.  The first time I met Pam, I was a young and inexperienced dietitian.  But she didn’t treat me that way.  She was interested in my ideas and opinions.  She engaged me in the topic at hand.  She treated me as her equal, despite the fact that I was young and inexperienced.

Fast forward to today, years later, and she is still an influential person in my life.  She challenges me to think differently about nutrition education, about what will really motivate individuals to live healthier lives.  I learn something from her every time we get together for coffee at Bread & Chocolate in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Here’s the most impactful lesson that I have learned from Pam:

People are feeling machines that think, not thinking machines that feel.

For years in nutrition education, the focus has been on logic.  You have high blood pressure, and lower salt intake can help, so of course you’ll eat low sodium foods.  You’ve kept on 20 pounds of baby weight, so of course you’ll exercise everyday and cut back on calories to make it melt away.  You’ll eat 5-9 fruits and vegetables every day because you know it will prevent cancer or a heart attack when you’re 60.  At the end of the day, consumers just feel guilty and unsuccessful in trying to live up to these expectations.

Plain and simple, as time (and the obesity statistics) have proven, this approach doesn’t work.

Health professionals need to get to know their clients and consumers to understand what really makes them tick.  They need to speak to their clients’ feelings and understand the beliefs and values that motivate their actions.  Find the emotional benefits consumer will gain from making a change to a healthier lifestyle (Suppose you sat back down here in a year and you were 20 pounds lighter.  How would you feel about that?).  Help clients feel empowered, powerful, intelligent, capable, and successful!

And as individuals, we need to find that spot in our hearts that really speaks to our hopes and our dreams, to what we wish for our kids and our spouses and ourselves.  We need to find that intangible benefit to living healthier lives that only we can define.  Then harness, garner it, let it drive our decisions.

Note:  If you’re a health professional interested in learning more about Pam’s work, visit:

http://www.innovationary.com/

http://www.touchingheartstouchingminds.com/

http://www.momcircle.com/

I’m torn. This is a topic I mull over constantly. It’s the struggle between my life as a nutrition professional and my life as a working parent in a busy household.

Build it and they will come:

Diet Coke. Millions of women drink it. There are also millions of women who suffer from osteoporosis (brittle bones), which is in part caused by a lack of calcium intake throughout women’s lives. Simple solution, right? Add calcium to Diet Coke. The women keep drinking Diet Coke and at the same time get more calcium. Problem solved.

This week, Sara Lee announced they are adding omega-3 fatty acids to some of their breads. This type of omega-3 fatty acids may help with brain development as well as provide protection against other diseases like heart disease. For parents, this seems like a great thing. After all, it appears easier to convince a child to eat bread than salmon, herring, anchovies and sardines, which are natural sources of these beneficial fats.

These are just two examples. This is done all the time. Single nutrients, which have health benefits, are added to foods, making it convenient for all of us to take advantage of the benefits of these nutrients.

The Other Hat:

But then I slip into my role as a dietitian. At the end of the day, what I want is for people – including those living in my household (okay, maybe not the guinea pig) – to eat and enjoy a variety of foods which are naturally loaded with beneficial nutrients. So I want my son Jack to drink milk and eat yogurt and cheese to get his calcium. I make banana bread with whole wheat flour to bump up the fiber. I want to become good at cooking seafood. As a health professional, I believe whole foods, those closest to nature are the right choice.

The struggle:

But what I want isn’t always reality. Jack still refuses to eat broccoli, despite my role modeling, my serving it in 10 different ways, my work to introduce it to him again and again and again. I travel some for work, and really, who knows exactly what my husband serves when I am gone. While health-minded, he will tend to take Jack out to eat or pick up a pizza for dinner when I am traveling. And like many of you, by Friday, the toll of the week has gotten to me, and a fresh dinner, with half my plate filled with beautiful vegetables accompanied by salmon cooked to perfection isn’t in the cards.

So what to do? What I do is try my best. I make rules (milk is served with every meal in my house), I take Jack to the local Farmers’ market so he can appreciate where food comes from, and I make sure there is plenty of healthy food is in my house. But I buy fortified foods, too, to round out what I might not be getting right. Even in my house, it’s a work in progress.

Visit www.nuval.com to trade up to foods with higher nutrition quality as a part of your work in progress.

My brother-in-law Mike died last April of a rare form of liver cancer.  I share this not to gain sympathy, but to point out a realization this has lead me to about food.

Cancer is an insipid disease.  It starts at the cell level, impacting the structure of the cells, mutating them, preventing them from forming and functioning as a normal cell.  This change to the cell structure then leads to malformations called tumors which mess with the function of the organs of our bodies – whether it’s the liver or the lungs or the bone marrow.  Because cancer starts at such a microscopic level, it can take years to develop.  And then, cancer is discovered, and in what sometimes is a relatively short period of time (two months for my brother-in-law), loved ones pass away.  The cancer has caused the body to stop functioning as it should, and this tragedy started at the microscopic level.

Cells of our bodies are always regenerating.  Liver cells, red blood cells, bone cells – there’s a constant flux in our bodies of old cells dying and new cells forming.  This is, perhaps, the most important thing about health that we should remember because our daily habits – the choices we make each and every day – are impacting the formation and functioning of all these cells.

So now, when I think about food –  what I might have for breakfast today or whether I really need to run through Dairy Queen with my son – I think about those cells in my body.  Am I giving them all the nutrients they need to be formed in the best way possible, in a way that will keep me healthy for years and years to come?  Have I had a wide variety of nutrients today?  Am I feeding my bone cells with calcium and vitamin D?  Have I put anything into my body that might cause the malformation of cells?

With the busyness of daily life, it can be difficult to keep long term health top of mind.  I get that.  The results aren’t obvious right now.  You may not feel any different right now.  Life is busy.  But for me, losing a loved one to cancer has made me think long and hard about the options within my control to keep this body I live in functioning at optimal performance.

Visit www.nuval.com to choose high scoring foods that can fuel your health.

I ran into my neighbor Regina yesterday.  In the Facebook game of posting the celebrity you most look like, Regina posted Fergie (no, not from the Black Eyed Peas, the other Fergie, the Duchess of York).  Regina also owns her own business (www.redladder.com) and works out of her home like I do, so periodically we’ll go to lunch, and chat about what’s new in her world and what’s new in mine.  Often, her questions turn to nutrition, and her latest inquiry is a good one to blog about in light of the attention it’s getting these days.  The topic – sugar.

The question at hand is:  What do we really know about the impact of sugar on health?

From a science perspective, we know that eating high sugar foods causes cavities.  We know there is no direct relationship between high fructose corn syrup consumption and obesity (you can’t always believe the media hype: High Fructose Corn Syrup: Consumer Communications).  Preliminary research is suggesting a relationship for sugar consumption with inflammation and other risk factors for heart disease.

But what we also know is that Americans are eating more sugar than ever before.  Data suggests the typical person gets more than 22 teaspoons of added sugar each day.  That’s more than 350 calories just from sugar.  And while sugar might not directly cause weight gain and obesity, added calories do.

The problem with these calories is where they come from – regular soft drinks, candy and dessert items like cookies.  They’re “empty calories,” providing no nutrients, just calories.   Just the other night I was volunteering at concessions at a high school basketball game.  One girl in particular, who was indeed overweight, came on three separate occasions and got a Coke.  In the span of two hours, she consumed 450 calories straight from sugar.

For kids, these high sugar foods also tend to replace more nutrient-dense foods.  So instead of drinking milk with dinner, kids drink soda.  Employees hit the vending machine for a 3:00 candy bar snack instead of having a piece of fruit that contains fiber, vitamins, minerals and many other nutrients.  These empty calorie, high sugar foods impact our health by edging out healthier options.

While a direct impact of added sugar on health seems a bit elusive, it really isn’t.  So what can you do about it?  Here are some ideas:

For Kids

• As a parent, you set parameters around how much television your kids watch, how late they can stay up at night.  Set a similar rule about beverages – milk is always served at meals, plain water for everything in between.  Soda pop is a treat, to be enjoyed on special occasions only.
• Your kids look up to you.  Give them one more reason to look up to you by helping them have a healthy relationship with candy, desserts and treats.  Sometimes, one small bite is better than a whole bag (for example, treat one Starburst as a treat instead of an entire bag of Skittles).
• Role modeling has great impact on kids.  My coworker Rachel recommends cutting up an apple, sprinkling it with cinnamon, and serving this as apple pie.  Great snack, great dessert, heated or cold!  Fruit is a sweet treat, but has many other positive nutrients.
• When you bake, cut down the sugar in the recipe by 1/4^th.  It may by urban legend, put there’s word out there that recipes today contain much more sugar than recipes in the 1950s did.

For adults

• Often, when you think you’re hungry, you’re thirsty.  Drink a big glass of water whenever cravings for a sweet treat strike.
• Don’t keep sweets and treats in the house, at your desk at work, etc.  Out of sight, out of mind.
• Try sugar free gum, when you’re craving something sweet.
• Consider all the beverages you drink – soda pop, coffees at the coffee shop, juices – and the sugar they contain.  Is there a option with less sugar that you can trade up to?

Visit www.nuval.com to see what products’ scores get dragged down because of their sugar content.

It happens to Al Gore all the time.  He publicly talks about “green” companies that he thinks are doing things the right way, and gets questioned as to whether he is promoting those companies because he has money invested in them.  Gore’s answer is that his critics have it backwards — he is putting his money where his mouth is by investing in companies he believes are making a difference in the environment.

The analogy can be drawn to the work that both Dr. David Katz and I do with NuVal LLC.  He is a medical doctor, but also the inventor of the algorithm that fuels the NuVal scores.  I’m a dietitian, a trained nutrition expert, but my views related to the world of nutrition guidance systems are always suspect in light of who signs my paycheck.  The suggestion is always there that Dr. Katz and my opinions are not valid because we are biased.

But isn’t it just possible that, like with Al Gore, the egg comes before the chicken?  Is it unrealistic to believe that before taking my job with NuVal, I did my homework, studied the landscape, and decided NuVal was the best tool out there with the potential to change consumers’ lives, and that I wanted to be a part of making this a reality?

In my professional opinion and my opinion as a consumer, a shopper, a mom who sometimes struggles to get healthy food on the table like all of you, NuVal is the best – the best system, the best guidance, the best tool.  And that’s true no matter who signs my paycheck.

Visit Guidance on Nutrition Guidance to read Dr. David’s Katz’s views on the topic, and check out www.nuval.com to see how this system can change your life.

Which do you prefer – negative feedback or positive feedback?  Obviously, you don’t need to answer.  It’s a rhetorical question.  But an important one to think about as it comes to eating habits in our country.

After all, when was the last time you heard a positive food message?  Cut out fat, trans fat will kill you, salt is evil, carbohydrates are making us fat. . .the list of negative messages goes on and on when in reality there are plenty of positive messages we could be talking and thinking about with food.

For example, if you focused on really getting the recommended 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, the rest of your eating habits might just fall into place nicely.  Think of all the options – glorious berries, juicy tomatoes, crunchy fresh green beans.

Another positive mantra you might choose to live by is focusing on getting 25-35 grams of fiber every day, and again the rest might just work its way out.  Think bean and avocado burritos in a whole wheat tortilla, think breakfast cereal loaded with fiber that you can really sink your teeth into.

Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?

Visit www.nuval.com to see a program that honors the positive benefits of fruits and vegetables as well as foods that dare to be high in fiber.

Last week my friend Tina posed a question as to whether it was really possible to get the full benefit of fruits and vegetables by drinking a beverage claiming to have equal nutrition to seven fruits and vegetables.  I saw Tina later that night, and she told me she knew my answers was going to be what it was.

But I left the blog as a “to be continued. . .” and today’s message is the continuation.  Tina is not alone.  Many of us, myself included, struggle to get in enough fruits and vegetables each day.  We work, we have kids to get to and from school, to and from activities, through their homework, dogs to walk, dinner to make, laundry to do, bills to pay. .. the list of what we need to accomplish and to worry about in a day goes on and on.  Fitting in healthy eating isn’t always first on the list.

So today, I’m launching a new feature on my blog:  Real Advice from Real People.  I’ll post some ideas for Tina to get more fruits and vegetables into her days, but I ask you to comment with your ideas as well.  Let’s see if we can get 50 ideas for Tina to try.

Here are my top ideas:

1. Always get a fruit in at breakfast (whole fruit, not juice).  My favorite options are kiwi or raspberries stirred into non-fat Greek yogurt (with one Equal).
2. Cut up veggies on the weekends and put them in little bags so you can grab them on your way out the door to work in the morning as a ready-made snack for later in the day.
3. Try roasting veggies for a different taste.  I love to cut up peppers, Brussel sprouts, onions, and zucchini and throw them on a cookie sheet with a drizzle of canola oil.
4. Always put veggies on sandwiches – tomatoes, basil, peppers, onions, cucumbers.
5. I really dislike cutting up cauliflower and broccoli, but I like eating both.  So I always buy the precut ones.  The convenience makes me more likely to eat them.  I can eat them raw with a bit of dip as an afternoon snack or steam them at dinner time.
6. To get my son to eat more nutritious veggie options, I sometimes mash sweet potatoes or rutabegas half-and-half with potatoes.
7. Asparagus in scrambled eggs is delicious.

Now it’s your turn to submit your ideas as a part of this Real Advice from Real People feature.

Then, Tina, it’s up to you.  You have to share what options you’ll try, what’s working, etc.  We can’t wait to hear from you.