I’m sure many of you have had the experience where a song sticks in your head and you just can’t seem to shake it.  It happened to me just this weekend.  The song was Forget You, but the Glee version, not the Cee Lo Green version.

In the same way, an organization’s tagline has gotten stuck in my head, and I just can’t seem to shake it.  The tagline is to “make the healthy choice the easy choice,” and the organization is BLEND , a health coalition in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

As we head into the New Year, I’ve decided to make this the mantra in my personal life and in my family’s life.  How can we live our lives each day focused on making the healthy choice the easy choice?  Some ideas I’ve already compiled are:

• Planning social events and family time around active things.  Cross country skiing is our latest choice, but with kids there are a bazillion options to try – making snow forts in the yard, snow tubing, snow shoeing (okay, yes it’s winter in Minnesota!), la cross, exploring bike trails, family walks after dinner.
• Cleaning out the pantry and stocking it with healthier staples.  I always end up buying caramel corn from the Boy Scouts and with left over Christmas cookies.  Over the holiday break, we cleaned it all out.  We’re starting fresh with a pantry filled with whole wheat flour, unsalted nuts for snacking, cereals with better nutrition quality.
• With all the snow we’ve had this winter, my son Jack and I once joked that he could cross country ski to basketball practice.  But in all seriousness, we’re going to think more about walking or biking for local errands.

It’s just the start of the list at my house, but we’re on our way to living healthier lives in 2011.  Can you help make this a “movement,” adopting this mantra in your life?

Visit www.nuval.com for food choices that are the healthy choice.

While at my company’s headquarters in Braintree, MA (outside of Boston) recently, we got into a discussion of food traditions around the Christmas holiday.  It led to a discussion of the Italian “Feast of the Seven Fishes.”  As a person of Italian descent, I was surprised that I had never heard of this tradition.  Perhaps it was an East Coast Italian vs. Midwest Italian thing?

According to Wikipedia, the tradition started in Southern Italy (which explains why I never knew about it as my family is from Northern Italy).  The tradition of eating seafood on Christmas Eve was linked to the Catholic tradition of abstinence from meat or milk products on Fridays and holy days.  Observant Catholics would eat fish, typically fried in oil.  There is debate over where the number 7 comes from, and in fact, some Italians eat 9 or 13 at Christmas Eve dinner.

In my family, we eat two types of fish on Christmas Eve, but for a different reason.  My mom has always tried to blend the heritages of both my parents, and for this reason, we have linguine with anchovies (one of the “Seven” from the Italian tradition) and lutefisk (from her Norwegian heritage) for this holiday meal.  As far back as I can remember into my childhood, we have eaten these foods on Christmas Eve, and only on this one day.  These foods are part of my family tradition and our heritage.

This begs the point that food has many roles in our lives, and that it can’t simply be whittled down to a series of nutrients.  Where it’s the Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes or the Maggi Family Feast of the Two Fishes, there is power in coming together around a table with your family (however you define it) and sharing a meal, especially one deep in tradition.

At this holiday season, may you enjoy all your traditions.

It’s snowing today in Minnesota.  We’re expecting another 4-7 inches of snow, on top of the 20 or so inches we got just over a week ago.  When it rains, it pours, right?  It’s definitely a day to stay inside, at home, if possible, and odds are we’re all dining in tonight.

While weather may occasionally make us eat in instead of dining out, the trend towards eating at home has picked up across the board.  Of course, part of it is the economy.  According to the NPD Group’s National Eating Trends research, each of us now eats about 877 meals at home in a year compared to 861 meals in 2007, just before the economic downturn.   But what’s more significant in this data is that while we are eating more meals at home, we are not cooking more meals.  While in the 1980’s, 72% of main dishes were made at home, it’s been on a steady decline, and today, only 59% of main dishes are made at home.

We all know the reason, right?  Life is busy, life is hectic and convenience is king.  We all feel it.  The question is whether it’s possible for convenience and good nutrition to coincide, adding to the other benefits of meals at home.

This same study from the NPD Group offers some suggestions for finding the sweet spot between convenience and good nutrition.  Grill usage, as the study points out, has increased by 42% between 1998 and 2008, and is expected to keep on growing.  There’s nothing simpler, quicker, or more nutritious than cooking a lean protein (think skinless chicken breast, a salmon filet, ground turkey patty) on the grill.  At my house, the grill is hooked up to the main gasline of our house, so we never run out of propane and can grill all year long, even amidst the snow storms.  Slower cookers are definitely back in fashion, with their usage up by 36% in these same ten years.  Crock pots are a convenient way to get a main dish on the table the minute you walk in the door.  From meats to vegetables to soups to healthy lasagnas, the prep is done ahead of time, and dinner is served. 

Visit www.nuval.com to see a system that makes it more convenient to find the nutritious choices.

I’ve always been a bit of a trend watcher, looking to see when the “tipping point” will hit for an idea that we didn’t see coming.  In all honesty, I’m fascinated by tracking forward and backward, with a focus on taking a step back and assessing the landscape to see what will be next.

So, of course, I read with interest the article published in The Atlantic this week highlighting the 10 biggest food stories of 2010.   After all, looking at the past year can speak volumes about what’s coming next.  Here are the ten stories the journalist claims are the big hits from this past year:

1. Our obsession with meat
2. Frakenfish, the idea of GMO salmon
3. School food reform
4. New York City, and how they’re changing policy to make healthier food more readily available
5. The egg recall
6. Food trucks
7. Foraging for naturally grown foods like mushrooms
8. Passage of a new food safety bill
9. Italian food is “IN”
10. America’s foodie-in-chief, Michelle Obama

In looking at this list, the one that strikes most relevant for me is New York City.  In this year alone, the city has tried to prevent use of food stamps for sugar-sweetened beverages, launched an initiative to reduce the amount of sodium in the food supply, and seen national legislation to require labeling in restaurants, an initiative that NYC has been behind for quite some time.

While I’m not necessarily in agreement with everything that New York has done, what the city has proven is that projects and initiatives can start small, and turn into something bigger than life.  They have proven the point that what starts as a small health coalition can gain momentum in changing the landscape of health.  In essence, every individual can make a difference, especially when we come together around common goals.

It all reminds me of a quote I have hanging in my office:

Almost always, the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.

– Martin Luther King, JR

So as we look back at the past year and forward into the new year, it’s a good time to think about what change each of us can impact for improvement in our own health, the health of our loved ones, the health of our communities. . . and then, who knows where it will all go.

Visit www.nuval.com to use a system that’s all about making change for the better, one food choice at a time.

As taxpayers, we all groan when a levy comes up for vote or the property tax bill comes due or when we realize how much is taken out of our paychecks for taxes.  But last week was a week when I fully saw our tax dollars going to work for us, and in a good way as it relates to health and nutrition.

Consumers say that one of their biggest frustrations about nutrition is that it seems to be constantly changing.  One year, we say cutting back on fat will help you lose weight, than five years later, we tell you that you’re eating too many carbohydrates.  It’s confusing and frustrating.  I get it, and I agree.

But last week, a report came out of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that is trying to lessen the confusion.  In the media, you have likely heard much about vitamin D and calcium and potential benefit these nutrients may have for managing PMS, cancer, heart disease, etc.  But with the free information flow through the internet these days, you don’t know what to believe or not to believe.  This is why the IOM stepped in.  It’s their role to assess the most current scientific information and synthesize it into nutrition recommendations for consumers.  So what did they find?  After reviewing 1,000 articles, the recommendation for calcium stays the same.  For vitamin D, the recommendation has increased to 400-600 IU per day.  We all get some vitamin D from the sun hitting our skin, so the range accommodates how much sun exposure we all get (and likely the part of the country we live in, right?!).

Also reported last week was the fact that the House of Representatives passed a child nutrition bill (which had already been passed by the Senate), and have sent it off to the President’s desk for his signature.  Over the next ten years, the bill increases the spending on child nutrition programs, giving schools more dollars to improve the nutrition quality of the food they serve to today’s kids, with focus on more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins.  The bill also would require standards be set for food sold throughout the school environment, so vending machines couldn’t offer candy bars and soda pop, while the cafeteria food is required to comply with nutrition standards.  Today, the school lunch program feeds more than 31 million students, 62% of whom are eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch.  For many kids, this is the only real meal they get each day, and at the current rate of $2.72 per students, it’s hard for schools to provide a highly nutritious meal.

As a nutrition professional, I know there will be debate about both actions.  But from my perspective, I think it’s important to acknowledge that nutrition is a major part of the federal discussion.  We are finally in a mode where it is commonly understood that focus on prevention (through good nutrition, activity, smoking cessation and other lifestyle habits) costs much less than treating the major diseases that are currently driving our country into debt.

Visit www.nuval.com to see a system that includes both vitamin D and calcium in the scores, and that has the power to help schools bring more nutritious foods into school lunch.

What motivates you to make the food purchases you do – whether at the grocery store or in a restaurant or during lunch in your employer’s cafeteria?  For most of us, the top three factors affecting our food purchases are:

Taste, Price, and Nutrition

For some, it may appear that taste and good nutrition can’t go together.  It’s true that there are some foods that are so sinfully delicious, it’s hard to imagine that healthy foods could possibly taste that good.  But the great thing is that we live in a country with a reputation of being a melting point in a variety of cultural areas, including food.

The power of this is to take the flavors and essence of the food styles of our melting pot and combine them with core food ingredients bursting with good nutrition.  To help accomplish this, McCormick launched their Flavor Forecast 2011, which highlights new and compelling flavor combinations to try.  Some of their flavor recommendations and how you might combine them to get the best of both taste and nutrition are:

• Roasted Curry Powder and Wild Mushrooms. Undoubtedly you have a variety of vegetables somewhere in your refrigerator.  Pull out whatever you have – slice it, dice it, stir fry it (using a oil spray or the smallest amount of canola oil possible), add in any type of wild mushroom and a pinch of curry powder for a great side dish to any meal.
• Thyme and Stone Fruits. While stone fruits – peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries – aren’t in season right now, you can opt for the frozen version.  Chop and add a bit of thyme for a salsa to go with grilled shrimp or grill peach halves, sprinkle with thyme and serve with a bit of plain Greek yogurt for a satisfying, yet healthy, sweet treat.
• Cilantro and nut butters. Throw a combination of unsalted walnuts, almonds, and/or cashews into the blender, and then add the cilantro to make a great dipping sauce for grilled, skinless turkey breast.

What tricks do you use to find the right balance between healthy and delicious food?

Visit www.nuval.com to find nutritious ingredients to blend with your favorite flavors.