As the spring weather struggles to make its way to summer warmth and sun here in Minnesota, I get the itch to clean – clean out the garage, putting away the cross country skis and taking out the bikes, clean up the yard, clean through Jack’s clothes to donate what he has outgrown.  I also get a spring “itch” to clean out the pantry and reassess what staples I am keeping in my house these days. 

• Pastas.  At my house, I love Dreamfields brand pastas as they are higher in fiber, and have low digestible carbs.  I also sometimes buy the whole wheat option with flax added for an omega-3 kick.  However, if my husband happens to grocery shop, he’ll buy the white regular pasta.  So it’s a good time to see what’s in the pantry, and provide a gentle reminder on future grocery lists.
• Peanut butter.  The best advice here is to choose the peanut butters that are typically in the refrigerated section, where you can see the oil separated from the peanut part.  Another healthy option, which I have now acclimated to the taste of, is almond butters.  Almonds have a better nutrition profile than peanuts, and unless a lot of sodium is added, so does the butter.
• Cereal.  While we’re all used to looking at the sugar content of cereals, we should also be looking at the sodium content as cereals can be a hidden source of sodium.  Jack tends to eat middle of the road cereals, so I may try and work on this one with him, getting him to try some options with more fiber and less sugar. 
• Fruits and vegetables.  If strawberries or blueberries start to go bad, I catch them just before they do.  I wash them and slice them (in the case of the strawberries) and toss them in the freezer.  Then I add them to oatmeal later on.  It’s an easy way to add a fruit to breakfast without wasting food that is just about to go bad.

Assessing the options that you stock your pantry (or your refrigerator or freezer for that matter) with can be a great way to consider if household staples are in line with your definition of a healthy lifestyle.  Keeping nutritious foods in the house is one of the best tricks for building healthier eating habits. 

What’s in your pantry that you think is worth trading up to a more nutritious option?

Visit www.nuval.com to assess nutrition quality scores on your pantry staples.

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.

Sometimes I wonder if we think enough about the changes in social structure that have occurred over the past 50 years and the impact it has on eating habits and health outcomes. 

Take a trip back to the 1950s, and think June Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver (if you’re too young to know the show, visit http://www.leaveittobeaver.org/).  Her days were spent managing her family.  This was her job.  It was most likely she didn’t have her own car.  Aprons were something she wore every day.  An afterschool snack was ready to go when the boys walked through the door at the end of the day as was a cocktail and dinner when her husband got home from work. 

Fast forward to today, where roughly 60% of women work (75% full-time, 25% part-time).   With the economy as it is, there is even more pressure on all employees, including women, to work longer hours and to do more with less in the office.  At the same time, mom is still the primary manager of the family and the household.  So while she’s headed out the door to work, her other duties have only dropped slightly in comparison to what June did 50 years ago. 

Do we really believe this doesn’t impact how often dinner gets put on the table, whether kids are eating breakfast before school, what gets put on the dinner plate, and whether there are fruits and vegetables in the house? 

Visit www.nuval.com to see a system that scores all foods, even convenience items that help today’s mom get dinner on the table.  Even June would have used NuVal.

As I talked about last week, I attended a fascinating education session at a conference talking about what’s most important to us as consumers in each of the meals we eat.

At breakfast we care about ROUTINE.

At lunch we’re looking for QUICK and EASY.

At dinner, it has to TASTE GOOD, be EASY TO PREPARE, and have EVERYONE LIKE IT.

As we’re making our way through the day’s meals, our stop today is at lunch.

Quick and easy – you can feel it, right?  When it comes to lunch, there are two main scenarios most of us deal with.

Scenario #1:  You’re in the midst of the madness of your day, juggling back-to-back meetings, trying to steal a minute to check in with daycare or schedule a checkup for one of your kids.  You have 25 unopened emails in your “in” box.  But you need to grab lunch.  By the way, you’d like it to be somewhat healthy.

Scenario #2:  You need to pack a lunch for your child.  You didn’t quite make it to the grocery store last night, so you’re scrounging to see what you have around as well as what you can put into a lunch that she will eat and that he won’t complain that he’s already had for lunch two days this week.  By the way, you’d like it to be somewhat healthy.

Whichever scenario hits you most often, there are some tips that might help you navigate this meal of the day and keep health as a focus.

• Always put a fruit and/or vegetable in a lunch.  I keep a lot of “grab and go” options at my house just for lunches:  apples, oranges, bananas, baby carrots, etc.  These are easy to put into a lunch without any prep.  With my son Jack, we have to pack lunches all summer.  I tend to put both a fruit and a vegetable in as when he’s hungry (which he is from spending the morning at a basketball camp or swimming for two hours), he’s more likely to eat whatever is in his lunch bag.
• Frozen entrees tend to be a mainstay for adult lunches.  I have many co-workers who just bring five of them to work on Monday, plunk them in the freezer and then know they’ll have a ready lunch for each day.  If you choose the brands positioned as “healthy” like Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers and Kashi, these are great for helping with calorie and portion control.  But, even within these brands, the overall nutrition quality can vary.  Using NuVal as the guide, a week’s worth of top options for overall nutrition are:
  • Amy’s Brown Rice and Vegetable Bowl with Tofu (NuVal Score: 50)
  • Amy’s Black Bean and Vegetable Enchilada (NuVal Score: 44)
  • Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera (44)
  • Lean Cuisine Roasted Turkey and Vegetables (42)
  • Kashi Southwest Chicken (40)
• Build the perfect sandwich.  My friend Darcy’s mom was a master at making the best sandwiches ever when we were kids.  Ever since then, I have been a fan of a good sandwich.  Even this mainstay, which is quick and easy, can be made nutritious by thinking through each component of it.  What kind of bread?  What’s the best meat option?  Cheese or no cheese?  Sandwiches are a great opportunity to sneak in veggies – a slice of tomato, a few slices of cucumber – they all add up over time. More recently, I’ve experimented with using some different options as spreads to add great flavor to sandwiches.  Roasted red pepper hummus, for example, adds a great punch to a sandwich (it adds a bit of nutrition, too).  Guacamole is another option or try some pesto.
• Pending allergies in your in your household or allergy policies at schools, nuts are a great addition to any lunch.  The most nutritious choices are walnuts and almonds – unsalted, of course.  Just a handful is all you need to help fill you up.
• I know many parents like to add chips and/or cookies into the lunch bag, but as I mentioned in my blog, I recommend you re-evaluate whether there’s room in you or your child’s eating habits for these foods which have limited nutritional value.

How do you live and breathe “quick and easy” at lunch?

Visit www.nuval.com to consider your next best lunch option.

At a recent conference, I attended a session put on by the Coca Cola Retailing Research Council called Seizing the Mealtime Moment.  The session focused on what matters most to us consumers at each meal of the day.

At breakfast we care about ROUTINE. 

At lunch we’re looking for QUICK and EASY.

At dinner, it has to TASTE GOOD, be EASY TO PREPARE, and have EVERYONE LIKE IT.  Even more interesting about dinner is that the number one reason we don’t fix dinner at home is because we’re too tired (I can totally relate!).

It feels like each of these topics is worthy of a discussion all its own, so I thought today we’d start with the B – breakfast. 

Routine in the morning is definitely the key for me.  In addition to a frosty cold Diet Mt. Dew (dietitians have vices, too.), the three options I tend to rotate are:

• 2 scrambled eggs, sometimes with asparagus and shredded cheese added (One of my mom’s favorites when I was growing up.  Great use for left over asparagus.)
• Yoplait Greek Yogurt, plain, fat free (NuVal score of 98!) with one Equal packet and some kind of fruit mixed in (my favorite is kiwi, with a NuVal score of 100)
• Kashi GoLean Truly Vanilla Instant Hot Cereal (NuVal score of 46!).  I love this cereal.  It’s got protein, fiber and omega-3s, so it’s a great way to start my day.

How can you build a healthy routine into your breakfast?  Some ideas are:

• Create a “breakfast” section of your pantry and refrigerator so your family can easily grab options.  Load these sections with fruit, low fat dairy, high fiber, whole grains, and lean protein.
• Find three or four healthy options that you like to eat, and stick to them.  Because we’re all driven against routine at breakfast, it’s a great place to build highly nutritious foods into your eating habits. 
• Post a “Breakfast Equation” chart on your refrigerator.  Something like:

     Shredded Wheat + skim milk + fruit in the fridge = a power packed breakfast

     Plain fat free yogurt + fruit in the fridge + a sprinkle of flax meal = the way to start my day

     Fortified egg substitute + leftover veggies + any cheese = hot stuff

What’s your breakfast routine?

Visit www.nuval.com to maximize nutrition in your breakfast routine.