If you’ve ever read the “About Me” section of this blog, you know I come from a big Italian family, and am the youngest of seven siblings.  Lately, my mom (85 years young!) has gotten us back in the habit of having family dinners on Sunday nights.  It’s a great way to connect and recharge for the week.  The conversation is always lively (last week a generational discussion as to whether Facebook was a good or bad thing for our culture) and I am always relaxed when I head home.

Most often on this blog, I talk about nutrition.  But in reality, there are many factors that contribute to living a long and healthy life.  Interestingly enough, connectedness is one of them.  Several years ago, a man named Dan Buettner wrote a book called The Blue Zones, which identified zones in the world where people have the greatest longevity.  According to Buettner’s work, Connect is one of the factors that contribute to your health, adding as much as four years to your life.  The three components of connect are Belong (create a healthy social network), Beliefs (spiritual or religious participation) and Your Tribe (make family a priority).

So Sunday dinners at my moms are about more than the nutrition.  In fact, I don’t even pay attention to what she’s serving.  But as I see it, my mom has two of these nailed – Your Tribe and Belong.  She is helping all of us – her kids, spouses, grandkids – Connect, making family a priority and creating a healthy social network.  Little does she realize, I imagine, this legacy she is leaving to us.

As we move into the Thanksgiving holiday, think of your time with family and loved ones as a way to Connect and add years to your life.

When you’re ready to work on Eat Wisely (add 8 years to your life!) from the Blue Zones, visit www.nuval.com.

This week, the National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance launched a new report, providing an update on how many of us get how close to eating enough fruits and vegetables.  Here are some key findings from the report.

·     While the amount of fruits kids eat has increased by 11% and vegetables by 3% over the past five years, 88% of kids don’t get enough fruit and 92% don’t get enough vegetables.

·     From 2005-2010, teens have actually decreased the amount of fruits and vegetables they get from a daily average of 1.84 cups to 1.76 cups.

·     Across the entire population, only 6% of us get the recommended number of vegetable servings and 8% get the recommended fruit servings on any given day.

·     Less than 1% of the $2 billion spent on food marketing to kids promotes fruits and vegetables.

This is definitely a situation where the statistics speak louder than anything I could possibly say.

But what I can do is to provide some idea as to what action you can take today or tomorrow or the next day to improve these statistics for you and your family.  To accomplish this, I reached out to some of my favorite dietitians who work with customers every day in their roles in the supermarket industry.  Here’s their advice:

Alicia M. Brown MS, RD, CSSD, LD, Health and Wellness Marketing Manager, United Supermarkets L.L.C.

“I encourage trying new fruits and vegetables as a family. Put the kids on a hunt to find a fruit or vegetable they’ve never tried. Make it an adventure. If they are old enough, have them look online for a recipe with the new ingredient. I’m a big proponent of getting the kids involved as it increases their likelihood of trying and actually liking new foods. The family together can try the new fruit or vegetable and each family member is allowed to like or dislike it. When kids are allowed to say no this frees them up to say yes. Younger kids get a kick out of making up a new name for the fruit or vegetable. On store tours we’ve even had kids make up a TV commercial about this new fruit or vegetable.”

Amey Herald, M.S., RD/LD, Kroger Dietitian

“One of the tips I give customers is to take advantage of the many frozen vegetable options. Keeping bags of frozen vegetables and microwave cookware on hand can be the answer to a quick side dish for rounding out a meal in a flash. Frozen vegetables packaged plain are nutritious and can be seasoned after cooking with a spritz of olive oil and spices. Also, shoppers like the idea of tossing frozen vegetables in with boiling pasta as a time saver meal tip, and an easy way to work more vegetables into a  pasta meal. Spaghetti and pasta sauce including a medley of cauliflower, carrots and broccoli is a tasty way to combine high scoring vegetables and a traditional family favorite!”

Carrie Taylor, RD, LDN, Lead Registered Dietitian, Big Y Foods, Inc.

“Here’s one trick of the trade in the world of fruits and vegetables- don’t eat without color! It’s that simple. When you’re building your plate for breakfast, lunch, dinner or even a snack, make the last step before you begin eating the simple question “Where is my color?” If you don’t see any, hurry up and add some to your plate!”

Jessica Gourley, RD, Registered Dietitian, Food City

“My best advice is to make fruits & vegetables convenient.  If you already have them cut up and placed in strategic places, like the front of the refrigerator or on the countertop, then kids and adults alike are more likely to pick them up and eat them if there is not a lot of work involved such as cutting the fruit & vegetables up.  This way, you are more likely to consume them with meals and snacks instead of something less healthy.”

Visit www.nuval.com to see a system where fruits and vegetables are the highest scoring categories (as they should be).

When you take a step back and look at the big picture of our food environment, one of the things you notice is that food is everywhere.  At the gas station, in vending machines on every floor of office buildings, at every sporting event.  It can make it difficult to manage the amount of food we eat and the total calories we consume, especially as most of the food offered in this venues isn’t at the top of the nutrition scale.  Last Friday, The New York Times reported on a food addition to yet one more location – Walgreens.  Now drug stores are selling food?  But this addition may turn out to be a really good thing. 

“Food deserts” is a fairly new term in the food world, and refers to geographic locations where there are few to no grocery stores offering healthy foods (think produce) and many convenience stores and fast food restaurants offering salty snacks and foods with little positive nutrition.  Food deserts often exist in economically depressed areas. 

This is where Walgreens comes in.  As you know, these stores are everywhere.  It’s part of their marketing genius and success.  They’re in local neighborhoods making it convenient to get those prescriptions filled when you need to.  The convenience of the stores makes them ideal for offering fresh and healthy food products in food deserts.  Walgreens is currently testing selling food in ten stores in food deserts in Chicago, the city where the company got its start.

While for many of us it may be difficult to image no access to foods like fruits, vegetables and skim milk, there are growing areas of the country where this is a problem.  Making more nutritious food options readily available is a powerful step towards positively changing the environment and making it easier to make the healthy choice.   So kudos to Walgreens for pursuing a business model that may prove to be good for their company’s health as well as their customers’ health. 

Walgreens, if you’re reading, I recommend you visit www.nuval.com to choose the most nutritious food options to offer in your stores.

Earlier this week, I spent 3+ days at the Food and Nutrition Conference Expo put on every year by the American Dietetic Association.  While there is much to learn in the educational sessions presented at the conference, I often learn more in the conversations I have with colleagues outside of the sessions.

The biggest topic of conversation at the show was definitely about how we are missing the forest for the trees when it comes to nutrition.  We are so focused on the minutia – reducing sodium levels in all foods, taking trans fat out of restaurant foods – that we are missing the big picture.  There is always a demon nutrient of the year;  this year it is sodium, last year it was trans fat.  At the same time, there is a revered nutrient, one we believe will cure everything.  Right now that nutrient is definitely vitamin D.  Ah, the trees. . . .

A colleague mentioned a slide he had seen during a presentation, showing that the increase of two-income households over the past 50 years is correlated with the rise in the obesity rates.  This is part of the forest.  Another colleague mentioned that in the United States, we don’t have our own distinct food culture.  This, too, is part of the forest.  Young adults, gen Xers, do not know how to cook.  Again, the forest.

Food is an integral part of our culture.  The study of sociology and anthropology consider food.  Nutritional content is only one part of food.  And somewhere along the way we have lost this perspective.

The question is has someone left a trail of breadcrumbs to get us back to where we need to be?

Visit www.nuval.com to learn about a system that lives both in the forest and in the trees.

While not my strongest suit, I do try and keep up on reading professional journals.  It’s tough as in my downtime, I’d rather read for pleasure.  But on the treadmill or on airplanes, I do try and stay caught up on the latest and greatest science.

While on a plane on Saturday, I read an article that caught my eye titled “Lose Weight the High Protein Way” in the February 2010 issue of Today’s Dietitian (okay, so I’m a few months behind!).  The article focused on whether eating plans with higher protein amounts (think skinless chicken breast, fish, plain Greek yogurt) are more effective at helping people lose weight and maintain the loss. 

Nearly every month in every journal there is an article such as this focused on whether a particular eating plan will help consumers lose weight.  We all know there are a plethora of plans out there – Atkins and other low carb options, vegan options, Weight Watchers, SlimGenics, and many more.  Every program has success stories used in their marketing and advertising.  Jared, after all, became a household name by losing eight eating Subway sandwiches every day. 

What’s the point?  The point is we may be missing the point by continually analyzing the individual “diets” and whether they work or not.  In reality, some people are successful at all of these programs and some people fail with all of these programs.  Weight loss is, after all, a fairly simple equation:  calories out > calories in.  Weight management is also a basic math problem:  calories in = calories out. 

As we’ve talked about before on this blog, it feels like this is another area where we’re focused on the “how” instead of the “why.”  What is it that motivates those people who are successful at maintaining a weight loss and/or a healthy body weight over the long haul?  Why are some successful at any and all of these programs and others aren’t?  It seems these are the real questions we should be analyzing about weight loss programs.

When you’ve figured out the “why,” visit www.nuval.com to explore foods with better overall nutrition quality – part of the “how.”

I am fortunate as a part of my job to work with Dr. David Katz.   If you’ve ever met him or heard him speak, you know what I mean when I say I’m fortunate to work with him.  I have a quote on my work desk that describes perfectly one of the reasons I have such respect for David.  The quote is from William Yeats and reads “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”   This is David– brilliant indeed, and just as important, brilliant and passionate in communicating his health message.

Dr. Katz is a master of analogies, and one of my favorites is about sandbags.  As we all know, one sandbag isn’t enough to save a town from a river that is cresting.  But individual sandbags lined up next to each other, on top of each other and side by side can save a town from a flood.

In the same way, as David often points out, one simple action added to another simple action piled on top of another simple action can protect our health as individuals.

So I challenge you today to think about one sandbag you can put in place for good health – whether it’s a 10-minute walk through your neighborhood, leaving half your entrée on the plate while out to lunch, getting an extra hour of sleep, laughing with your child, partner or pet, meditating, or parking your car far from the grocery store entrance.  Then tomorrow think about one sandbag you can put in place – whether it’s drinking water instead of pop, sitting down to dinner with your family, signing up for a yoga class, or trying a veggie burger instead of a burger burger.  The the day after tomorrow. . .

Before you know it, you’ll have built a dam against heart disease, added weight, diabetes, ungraceful aging and all the rest.

Visit www.nuval.com to see a nutrition guidance system invented by Dr. David Katz.

Chelsea Clinton made headlines this summer when she ordered a gluten free cake for her wedding.  Gwyneth Paltrow and a host of other celebrities follow gluten free eating plans even though they don’t have celiac disease (gluten intolerance).  My niece Angi, who has been test for gluten intolerance still avoids this food component even though the test indicated she doesn’t have the disorder.  She, like the celebrities (except for Clinton who is gluten intolerant), just feels better eating gluten free.

So what’s the word on gluten free?

First, the basics.  Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley.  Some people can’t tolerate gluten.  The disease, celiac disease, is not an allergic reaction, but is an autoimmune disorder.  People with celiac disease have unpleasant intestinal problems (that’s as graphic as I’m willing to get!) if they eat foods with gluten.  There are many people in the U.S. – about 2.1 million – who don’t realize they have celiac disease even though they suffer with some of the symptoms.

But this alone doesn’t get to the craze we’re seeing today with gluten free.  As I mentioned, celebrities just say they feel better avoiding gluten, some use it for weight loss as avoiding gluten can be similar to a low carb diet, and concerned parents sometimes try gluten free eating plans for kids with autism.  The Mintel Global New Products Database indicates there have been more than 27,000 new gluten-free food products introduced in the past four years, and a report from Datamonitor predicts gluten-free food sales over the next five years will total more than $4.30 billion.  What was once a “diet” for managing a disease has now become a common eating plan.

Historically, people with celiac disease had a hard time finding typical wheat products – bread, cakes, muffins, cereals, etc – in gluten-free versions.  But the craze around gluten has now made gluten-free products more readily available, which is great for those who truly are intolerant.  They have more options and more variety to add to their eating habits.

If you’re one of the people who avoid gluten for other reasons, the question is whether this eating habit is jeopardizing your health and overall nutrient intake.  There are nutrients that wheat, barley and rye contribute to eating plans including fiber, iron, folate, calcium and other vitamins and minerals.  Some of the other flours, like potato and rice, used to replace wheat flour may not have these nutrients.  So it’s important to think about the nutrients that you are missing out on if you choose gluten-free foods, and make sure you are getting them from other foods.

More importantly, though, is if you have discomfort when eating foods made from wheat, rye and barley, it’s important to get tested.  The reason?  Celiac disease is a disorder involving your immune system, and if you have it, you may be at higher risk for other diseases such as diabetes, certain cancers and thyroid problems.

Visit www.nuval.com to see a system that can guide you to gluten-free foods that can meet your nutrition needs.