Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution kicked off last Friday with a focus on school lunch in Huntington, West Virginia.  I have been surprised by how little fan fare there has been about the show since its launch.  I’ve been fighting with whether to write about it or not.  Actually, several people have asked me to address school lunch in this blog, but I have been avoiding it as I’m a bit conflicted on the issue.  Why am I conflicted?  Many reasons, including. . .

• Schools are required by law to meet nutrition standards that comply with the Dietary Guidelines, and they have to do it on a shoestring budget.  The federal rate for reimbursement for school lunches is currently $2.68.  I don’t know that everyone understands this.  Schools have to buy the food, hire staff to prep the food and clean-up, pay for the plates and silverware all at this rate.
• Offer vs. serve.  Most schools offer a variety of foods that comply with these nutrition standards, and then kids are allowed to choose what they will take.  The reason for this is that if you “serve” the kids, giving them no choice, a lot of food gets wasted.  The last time I was at my son’s school for lunch, kids had a choice of seven different fruits and vegetables – steamed broccoli, cut up apples, grapes, salad, oranges, celery, cucumbers.  Yet there were kids that took no fruits or vegetables.  Is this the school’s fault?
• No one ever talks about the lunches that kids bring from home.  Are they more nutritious than school lunch?  When I visit my son’s school at lunch, I see donuts and chips and sandwiches on white bread coming from home in lunch boxes.
• If a child eats three meals a day for 365 days a year, there are a total of 1095 meals eating by a kid in a year.  Many kids eat 5 meals a week at school for roughly nine months out of the year, totaling 195 meals eaten at school in a year.  That’s 18% of a kid’s meals.  What about the other 82%?  It seems so easy to put all the pressure on schools instead of on home, doesn’t it?
• My sense is that we as parents expect our schools to do an awful lot.   Is it fair to expect them to get our kids the perfectly balanced meal at school with all the right foods and nutrients if we aren’t teaching our kids what this means at home?  School lunch has to be perfect so we can hit the McDonald’s drive thru before soccer practice?
• Where does personal responsibility fall into all of this?  There are books and articles written every day about the current generation of “helicopter” parents who want to be their kids’ friend not the parent.  Are we doing our absolute best at home to get our kids to eat the most nutritious foods?

I’m beginning to feel like I’m on a bit of a soap box here, and I probably am.  It’s just that this is a complex topic, intertwined with family eating habits more comprehensively, yet it feels like the finger keeps getting pointed at schools.

I’m not saying I have an answer or know all the complex details of all the facets of this issue.  That’s why I’m conflicted.

I’m curious. .. where do you stand on these issues?

Visit www.nuval.com to see a program that will be implemented in schools in Independence, MO in the Fall of 2010.

If you’ve read my bio or the mention on the left-hand side of my homepage, you know that I work for a company called NuVal LLC.  NuVal is a nutritional scoring system that scores foods from 1-100, the higher the score the better the nutrition.  One of the things I love most about this tool is the myths that it busts.  Today, I want to share a few of these busted myths with you.

It’s amazing and true all at the same time.  The “SnackWells Diet” – the phenomenon when people believed that as long as it was fat free you could eat as much of it as you wanted – happened in the 1980s, but this belief is still hanging on.  Case in point – pretzels and sorbet.  Neither of these product types score very well on the NuVal scale.  Most pretzels hover around a score of 11 and sorbets around a score of 2.  Not what you expected, right?

But this is the beauty of NuVal.  When you look at the full nutrition profile of pretzels, you’ll find that most are fat free.  Most don’t have sugar.  Most are somewhat manageable in calories.  But they also don’t have any positive nutrients – where’s the fiber, the good fats like omega-3s, poly- and mono-unsaturated fats, the calcium and vitamin D for strong bones. . . Essentially, most pretzels are enriched, white flour with some salt added.  Take sorbet.  The visual is of freshly pureed fruit, quickly frozen to preserve all that natural goodness.  In reality, most sorbets get 85-90% of their calories from sugar.  Yes, fat free, but all sugar.  Again, there are very few positive nutrients in sorbet.

Is the message that you should no longer include these foods in your eating habits?  No.  But I challenge you to think of more nutrient-dense foods that you could eat in their place.  Filling your body with foods that include a variety of all the nutrients it needs help in a host of ways, so focusing on nutrient-rich foods just makes more sense.

Visit www.nuval.com to find a myth about food that you can bust.

As you read this, I’m on vacation with my husband, Dan, and son, Jack. We’re doing Great American vacation, Part 2 – a trip to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Great American Vacation, Part 1 was the trip we took two years ago to the Badlands and Black Hills. When it comes to vacation and traveling, food and healthy lifestyle habits can definitely be a stress point for people, myself included. Hours at the airport and on planes, staying in hotels, eating all your meals out. It adds up and can be overwhelming.

Here are my tips for maintaining some consistency around a healthy lifestyle while on vacation:

• Start off with some healthy snacks in your carry-on bag. I always pack a few apples and some mixed nuts (unsalted). They both travel well, are filling, and are liked by all members of my family.
• Choose a hotel that has a refrigerator in it, no matter how small. This gives you the flexibility of storing some fruits and vegetables, leftovers from a meal out (so you don’t feel compelled to eat the entire entrée at the restaurant), and bottled waters.
• Choose a hotel that has a fitness center and/or pool. Jack is a swimmer. He simply loves the water. While he’s in the pool, I can swim some laps or do some exercises in the pool to maintain my usual workout routine.
• Share restaurant meals. With three of us, we can easily just order two items off the menu to cut down portion sizes. Or we order appetizers instead of entrees. I try and always order salads at lunch – filled with veggies and lean meats.
• Build activity into your vacation. On Great American Vacation, Part 1,we spent a day hiking in the Badlands of South Dakota. The purpose was to experience the Badlands. The side benefit was all the exercise. During Great American vacation, Part 2, we’re seeing all the historic sites of D.C. Again, while not the primary intent, definitely a bonus.
• Finally, allow yourself to indulge. From my perspective, indulging is part of vacation. At my house, we’re big fans of the show Top Chef. One of last season’s contestants happens to work at 10 Arts in Philly. So we’re heading there, and will definitely indulge.

How do you manage your healthy lifestyle while on vacation?

Visit www.nuval.com to fill your carry-on with high scoring foods.

In my husband’s extended family, there is an Aunt Roanne.  Yes, Roanne, named after her parents’ neighbor’s girlfriend.  We sometimes refer to her as “Crazy Aunt Ro.” The reason?  She is always the life of the party, has a personality bigger than life and impossible to resist, introduces her third husband John as her “current husband” despite the fact they’ve been married for almost 20 years, brings her dogs to every family gathering, and shows up for a week at the cabin with enough food to feed 20 people instead of the two people she brought.  She’s a gem.

As a reader of this blog, Ro asked me to talk about food cravings.  Tricky topic.  Some people crave sweet, some salty.  Are cravings related to monthly hormonal changes in women?  Are they real or a factor of boredom, anxiousness or nervousness?

No matter the answer to any of these questions, the trick for Roanne and for all of us is learning how to manage these cravings so they don’t sabotage our eating habits on a regular basis.  Here are some ideas to do just that:

1. You’ve heard it before, but I’ll say it again.  Drink water.  If you’re feeling hungry or are caving something, you may actually be thirsty.
2. Don’t underestimate the power of sugar-free gum, especially if your craving is a sweet one.  Sometimes just giving your jaw and mouth something to do will make the craving subside.
3. Give in to the craving, but in moderation.  My favorite candy is Dots.  When I’m craving them, I don’t eat the whole box.  I eat one of each color, and my craving is satisfied.
4. Analyze the craving. Food is a complex issue.  We eat when we’re nervous, bored or worried.  So before giving in to the craving, seek to understand it and then determine what will really help.
5. Journal about it.  Tracking what you eat is one of the most effective ways to manage your eating habits.  By journaling your cravings – time of day, type of food, what happened prior to the craving – you can more effectively manage it.
6. About 3:00 pm every afternoon, I crave something sweet.  Since I know this about myself, I plan it into my day.  To satisfy this afternoon craving, I choose a sweet fruit like blueberries, a calorie-controlled protein bar, or a warm coffee with sugar-free flavoring.  This way, I’m not adding a bunch of calories into my day.

Do you have ideas for managing cravings you can share with my Aunt Ro?

Visit www.nuval.com to discover the most nutritious products to feed your cravings.

Spring has arrived in Minnesota –  at least temporarily.  You can just never tell with the weather here.  All the snow has melted off my yard, and it hit 60 degrees this weekend.  But on the turn of a dime, we could get snow again.  Such is the weather in my part of the country. . .

But I choose to have a “cup is half full” attitude when it comes to weather in the springtime.   I want to be outdoors all the time, planning what I’ll do with my yard this spring, cleaning the garage out, checking in with the neighbors I haven’t seen all winter long.

This time of year also revives my motivation to strengthen my healthy lifestyle habits.  Here’s what I’ve done just over the past few days:

–Took an outdoor run.  All winter I’m on the treadmill, and nothing bores me more.  I love the chance to get out and hit the pavement.  Now that all the ice and snow are melted, I took the opportunity to run outdoors.

–Took my dog for a walk.  Diesel is an English bulldog, a breed not much for walking.  But I made him take a turn around the block.  He and I both benefit!

–Fired up the grill.  Lean meats and grilled veggies – nothing tastes better than grillables the first time of the season!

–Went online to see when the St. Paul Farmers’ Market opens for the year.  April 24 is the day.  I love the market.  It’s a great opportunity to help my son learn where food comes from as well as engages him in all the healthy fruits and vegetables that are grown right here (the St. Paul Farmers’  Market requires that all products sold be produced or grown within 50 miles of the market).

What healthy habits have the signs of spring motivated you to revitalize?

Visit www.nuval.com for high-scoring foods that fit into your healthy lifestyle no matter the season.

March 10 is Registered Dietitian Day and in general, I’m not a fan of fabricated days such as this whether they’re created by Hallmark or someone else.  My thought is that the work people do, the accomplishments professions make collectively should stand for themselves.  And if it doesn’t, it just means that we’re not doing our job well enough.

But I’ve changed my mind on this subject, and here’s why.

We are in what a colleague of mine coined as the “age of amateurism.” With the rapid expansion of the internet, there is an abundance of opinion available on every possible topic.  You want to sheet rock and mud and tape the interior of your garage? Just google it and you’ll get more than 7 million hits.  Seriously, I checked.  You want great hotel suggestions in Maui.  Just tweet your request.  Sitting at the bar playing trivia and you don’t know Lady Gaga’s real name?  Just go to Wiki.

What we’ve lost in this information age is the filter, the test of whether the information is accurate and true.

While this might be okay in the bar trivia game or in sheetrocking your garage (afterall, you can redo it if it doesn’t go well the first time), when it comes to your health, you may want to reconsider who you consider your source of information, guidance and advice.

After all, would you want the Golden Gate Bridge to be built based on a blueprint found by searching on the internet?  Would you want the airplane your family is traveling on for vacation to be repaired by someone who started the job yesterday after 20 years working as a stock broker?

When it comes to health, seek the advice of trained, credentialed health professionals, and when it comes to advice on nutrition, seek the advice of trained, credentialed nutritionists, namely registered dietitians.  After all, you have one life to live, one shot at this.  So do it the right way, the first around.

This is the reason I now support Registered Dietitian Day and National Nutrition Month – because it reminds consumers to look to the professional for accurate, reliable advice.

Visit www.nuval.com to experience a system built by trained, credentialed nutrition and medical professionals that helps you choose more nutritious foods.

I have to admit it, nutrition books aren’t always at the top of my reading list.  As a nutrition professional, they probably should be so I know what’s new, what’s good, what would be useful for consumers. . .but also to warn consumers about some of the crap that’s out there. . . But in the limited time I have to read, I tend to read for enjoyment and relaxation.  In fact, I just finished The Help.  What a great read.

But I digress. . .

A nutrition book – well really a combined nutrition-recipe book – that just crossed my desk which I love is The Full Plate Diet.  Here’s why:

• The entire book is about what you CAN eat.  All POSITIVE messages.
• The authors understand real consumers.  Many of the options and ideas presented use convenience items and bump up their nutrition with easy additions.
• The photography is beautiful.  It just reaches off the page, and makes you want to try the recipes.
• It’s presented in soundbites of information.  I can pick up one tip in five minutes, without having to read pages and pages of text.  This fits into consumers’ lifestyles.

Overall, a great tool for building healthier eating habits.  Practical, doable solutions.  I love it.

Visit www.nuval.com to fill your plate with high scoring foods.

There are people in the world of nutrition and food who are pioneers, trailblazers, rebels.  My friend Anna’s dad was one of these people, and all in a good way.  As the owner of Natural Ovens Bakery, Paul Stitt was putting flax seed meal into his products long before it was trendy.  His reason?  Flax seeds provide omega-3 fatty acids.  He made whole grain breads and bagels (the real deal, here, folks) long before anyone else.

His latest passion?  For the past several years and prior to his death last year, Paul was all about vitamin D.  Not only for its known impact on maintaining healthy bones, but in light of emerging research that suggest vitamin D may have a role in heart disease prevention, immune disorders and inflammation.  He also knew that experts now believe the original recommendations on the amount of vitamin D we all need weren’t high enough.

What has always fascinated me about vitamin D is how we get it – through our skin.  Yes, that’s right, through our skin.  Ultraviolet rays hit the skin, which triggers vitamin D synthesis.  Pretty cool, right?  Your skin makes vitamin D.  This isn’t, of course, the only way we get vitamin D.  We also get it in foods we eat.

But the trick is that today, many of us aren’t getting enough vitamin D, which is needed for the body to adsorb calcium.   Public health announcements have worked so effectively that parents now slather their kids with sunscreen every time they walk out the door.  (Sunscreen prevents the UV rays from trigger vitamin D synthesis.)  Many urban areas are no longer safe enough for kids to go outside and play, limiting the amount of sun they get.  Other beverages are being chosen instead of milk (which has vitamin D).

So what can you do?  Simple things.  Drink milk.  Skip the sunscreen if you’re outside for short bursts of time.  Focus on getting a variety of foods to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients your body needs, including vitamin D.

Visit www.nuval.com to see a food scoring system which factors in many nutrients that have an impact on your health, including vitamin D.