UnDiet...Week 14

Lovely photo courtesy of my friend Melissa, The Bounty Hunter

Hello UnDieters!


It is time to introduce you to one of my favourite things...kale! Don't turn your nose up at me. Kale is good for you. 


Uh oh, did I just sound like my mother?


But kale IS good for you. And it is incredibly tasty too. Greens are really the mother of all vegetables. If I had to exist on only one vegetable (which isn't really a good idea but if I was forced to pick just one) I would choose kale. Incredibly high in vitamins A, K and C, kale also boasts folate, omega 3 fatty acids and iron. Not too shabby for a leaf normally relegated to lining the deli case. A true superfood, kale is chock full of antioxidants to help combative oxidative damage and calm inflammation. From flavonoids to lutein to I3C, antioxidants in kale help to support detoxification pathways in the body and combat chronic disease.


The key to kale is finding a way to cook it that you love. Some like to juice it (not for the novice juicer!) or shred it into salads; others to bake it into chips, saute it or toss it into soups. 


This week, get to know kale and eat it at least once. I hope you will like it so much that kale makes it into your weekly grocery list. There are a variety of different kales out there and the farmer's market is the perfect place to select your favourite. If the kale on your grocery store shelves looks moth eaten and tough, move on. You won't like it and you will blame the kale, not poor quality product. 


To help get you inspired, I will be featuring a post from my first guest blogger (drum roll please!!), Melissa Quantz, at www.thebountyhunter.ca . Melissa has created a delicious pasta dish for you which I will post this Sunday. 


Eat your greens,
Desiree

UnDiet...Week 13

If you must splurge...make it worth it. Thomas Haas macarons fit the bill.

It's week number 13 UnDieters!


The number has always been a lucky one for me...so let's hope this week is good for you too. We are going to do something that might sting a bit at first but it will make you feel better before long. It's about cutting down on sugar. 


We are living truly sugar laden lives. Not only do we eat more treats than ever before but our savoury staples are also being pumped full of the sweet stuff. I have typically never been much for sweets but I have found that since having E I have been worshipping at the syrup shack a bit too often for my liking. 


This month, my lovely friend Robyn Green at Kai Event Management has been observing Sugar Free March and I wrote a blog post to help her followers steer clear of the stuff. Give it a read for in depth information on how to spot hidden sugars in foods and for some ideas for great sugar free snacks.


For you, I am asking you to choose one food or beverage that you sweeten on a daily basis and keep it unsweetened. Just one! It is an experiment in weaning yourself off the sauce. Reason being, once you get used to the taste of things in their unsweetened state, you will start to like it. And then you might want to cut the sweet out of other foods in your life. It may take a week or two for you to get accustomed to the new taste of your food but eventually you will be able to appreciate the nuances of flavour that sugar had been bulldozing over with syrupy sweetness.


So choose your current poison: will it be your first morning cup of a coffee? A GREAT place to start. Or will you swap a sweetened yogurt for a plain version with some chopped fruit? Or maybe you will drop the afternoon granola bar and pick up some raw almonds instead. If you don't typically eat sweets, go after the savoury foods in your pantry like tomato sauces or breads that may be unexpectedly sugar filled.


Don't eat anything sweetened? At all? Good for you. Take the week off but go easy on all the other cranky, sugar deprived souls. 


Good luck and remember, you are all sweet enough as it is.
Desiree

UnDiet...Week Seven

Oh boy, am I ready for spring. The endless stream of root veggies, apples and pears, while lovely, are beginning to grow tired. I am ready for fresh green things. That being said, we still have to find a way to eat well until the weather warms and if we can do it in a sustainable way, all the better.


So this week, it is time for a major antioxidant boost in the form of blueberries. Yes, there are "fresh" blueberries showing up from the southern hemisphere these days but I would urge you to go for frozen blueberries instead. I often get asked if frozen is as healthy as fresh and in situations like these, the answer is a resounding, "Yes!". 


Picking fruits and vegetables at the peak of their ripeness also provides nutrients at their peak. When produce is grown far away, it must be picked earlier so that it can withstand the long journey, potentially stunting its nutrient content. In addition, many nutrients, such as vitamin C are incredibly delicate and start to degrade quickly after the produce is picked. So in the winter, when local options don't exist frozen produce can be a very nutritious option.


So starting this week, pick up a big bag of frozen blueberries (bonus points if they are locally grown!) and eat at least a 1/2 cup a day. Look for a product that is unsweetened and give the bag a squeeze: the blueberries should still be individually frozen, not frozen together in clumps which indicates that they have thawed and refrozen at least once. Frozen blueberries are perfect added directly to smoothies and baking. If you want to eat them as a snack, simply keep a small amount in the fridge thawed so they are ready to top cereal, yogurt or even throw them in a salad.


Blueberries are a true superfood. Low in calories but packed with vital nutrition, blueberries are a fruit that will not raise blood sugars substantially making them a good choice for managing weight. Blueberries are rich in antioxidants, including anthocyanins, which help to protect the heart and entire circulatory system. The antioxidants in blueberries, including vitamin C, also contribute to healthy skin while decreasing inflammation, another indirect cause of skin concerns and premature aging. Some research has even pointed to the power of daily blueberries to protect your brain against cognitive decline. Wait...what was that last sentence? Can't remember? You need to eat more blueberries!


Cheers,
Desiree

UnDiet...Week Five

Hello UnDieters!


My apologies for the late post...another week, another little nutrition tweak. Let's talk yogurt. Specifically, you. Eating yogurt. Good yogurt. Not "yogurt": a vague dairy like substance with a pound of sugar and a bunch of stabilizers holding it together because the manufacturer cannot seem to make proper yogurt. 


Yogurt is a simple super food. Just milk mingling with your friendly neighbourhood bacteria to enormous benefit. Probiotic bacteria in yogurt help to colonize your gut with happy bacteria and compete with and crowd out the kind of bacteria that no one wants: bugs that cause localized inflammation and reduce the integrity of that all important gut barrier between the inner you and outer you. The extent to which gut health affects overall health and the role that regular yogurt, not standardized supplements, plays is still up for debate in the research community. To read more about the immune enhancing effects of yogurt, see my earlier blog post. 


Let the lab rats debate...food first, I always say...so belly up to the bar and enjoy 3/4 cup of plain organic yogurt every single day. Yes, plain. If you can't afford organic, stick to nonfat. The ingredients should read: milk and probiotic cultures. No gelatin, no sugar, no modified milk ingredients. If your sweet tooth can take the beautiful tang of yogurt au naturale, stir in a bit of honey or chopped fruit. 


In addition to probiotics, yogurt offers calcium, magnesium and protein which are three nutrients we all need more of. Here are 3 super quick ways to enjoy your daily yogurt:


1. For breakfast: with your bran cereal and a cup of chopped fruit and a drizzle of honey.
2. In a snack smoothie: blend yogurt with a bit of skim milk or not-from-concentrate berry juice, 1/2 cup frozen berries and half a banana.
3. For dessert: topped with a bit of good granola, a bit of honey and maybe a few dark chocolate chips.


For bonus points, check out Liberte Kefir, a traditional Russian drinking yogurt. Makes a nice healthy "cocktail" when mixed one-to-one with a not-from-concentrate juice like blueberry or pomegranate.


Healthy Dreams,
Desiree

To Eat...or Not to Eat...Seafood

Image from http://www.vanaqua.org/oceanwise/ocean-wise-heroes.html

Five weeks in, the sleepless nights are now starting to add up and my little bundle of joy is robbing my brain of valuable thinking time. Well, at least I tell myself that my thinking time is valuable...So my "baby brain" has to thank my friend Steve for all of the good blog post ideas he has been providing me of late. 


Surprisingly (or not, for any other health professionals out there), very few of my friends or family actually ask me for nutrition advice. What is even more humorous is the discussions that occur regarding health or nutrition in my presence without anyone even so much as glancing my way. I have gotten used to just shutting my trap when this occurs because I have learned that unsolicited advice is rarely accepted with a smile. Maybe that is why I started this blog in the first place...to spew out all the information held hostage in my brain.


My friend Steve, however, is one of the few exceptions to this rule and a few days ago he asked me about what kind of seafood he should be eating, other than salmon (which is all most nutrition literature talks about). At the bottom of the email, he casually mentioned that the topic would make a good blog post and since I was stumped on what to write about next...voila!


Seafood is an interesting discussion, both from a nutrition perspective and an environmental perspective; one topic which I can claim to have a decent background in...the other, not. Here in BC, we are pretty fortunate to have the king's ransom of seafood at our doorsteps but few of us venture outside of a handful of comfortable favourites: canned tuna, fish and chips, salmon and prawns. When it comes to seafood, there are really two categories to choose from - the "superfoods" and the "healthy options". Read on, Steve...read on...


The Superfoods 
You guessed it, these are the cold water, fatty fish such as herring, mackerel, sardines and salmon. If you were only to eat one serving of seafood a week, make one of these stars your choice. Why are these so good for you? It isn't just the omega 3 fats...but that's a start. 


Omega 3s Cold water oily fish such as salmon are rich in anti-inflammatory omega 3 fats and what makes them really special is the kind of omega 3 fats they contain. We get ALA from vegetable omega 3s like pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds but fish give us what are called the "long chain" or "preformed" omega 3 fats, EPA and DHA. EPA and DHA are not technically essential fats because in theory, our body can make EPA and DHA from ALA - but we suck at it. The most efficient of us turn about 20% of the ALA we eat into EPA and DHA, which are the potent omega 3s in the body; some of us can only convert 5%. So getting your EPA and DHA directly from fish makes a lot of sense, because we know that these two fats can help us soothe chronic inflammation, help us prevent chronic disease and even boost our brain function. In fact, EPA and DHA are so good for you that they are one of only two supplements I recommend everyone take, unless they eat 3 good sized servings of fatty fish a week. Wild fish is your best source; it used to be that it had far greater amounts of omega 3 fats than farmed but of course the farmers just started adding omega 3 to the feed to boost the level in the farmed fish. Nothing like "design your own" salmon...come on, people...eat wild! If your seafood does not specifically say "wild", it isn't.....so look for the label.


Vitamin D The next reason that these fish are so good for you is vitamin D, the other of the two supplements I recommend every man, woman and child consume. You can see my post on vitamin D here. There are very few natural food sources of vitamin D, which is critical for our immune function and likely helps us to prevent cancer. Salmon is the star here, with the most vitamin D: a wild Sockeye Salmon steak can have as much as 900 IU of vitamin D (which is 90% of the 1000IU that many experts are now recommending as a daily dose). Nothing else in nature comes close to this level.


Antioxidants Again, gorgeous wild salmon is the star here (remember, colour equals antioxidant pigments) and in salmon, it is the pigment astaxanthin that is responsible for the lovely colour. Same old story with farmed salmon...that pink colour is added via feed manipulation. A unique member of the carotenoid (like beta carotene) family, astaxanthin does not convert to vitamin A in our bodies but the significance of this is not really known. Astaxanthin is being studied for its potential role in reducing inflammation, protecting our skin from sun damage and preventing cancer.


The Healthy Choices
This is the category I will lump most other seafood into. Fish and seafood stand out for being beautifully lean sources of protein, making them a great addition to the diet. White fish and shellfish are low in fat and calories and nutritious: scallops are rich in heart healthy magnesium and anti-oxidant selenium; oysters excel for blood building iron and skin loving zinc and sablefish boasts the electrolyte potassium for healthy blood pressure. I generally recommend that (non-vegetarian) folks divide their daily protein choices between vegetarian sources, poultry and fish throughout the week for better health and choose red meats only occasionally.


There is one health caveat with shellfish and that is the cholesterol in foods like shrimp and lobster. However, these foods contribute very little cholesterol to our diets in comparison with red meats and cheese. In addition, unless you have a significant cholesterol problem, it is the saturated fat in our diet that we worry about with regards to our blood cholesterol levels than our dietary cholesterol intake so feel free to enjoy shrimp every once in a while, guilt free!


Mercury and other Contaminants
The biggest health risk that seafood poses is that of the neurotoxic contaminants, mercury and PCB. When it comes to seafood and contaminants, think to yourself: "Good things come in small packages." Women who are or can become pregnant and children are most vulnerable to dietary exposure to mercury and should take care to avoid highly contaminated species of fish. 


Since contaminants like PCBs and Mercury are not excreted, they accumulate as you move up the food chain - yes, that goes for us too! All the fish we eat (if we are eating highly contaminated species) deposit these nasty toxins into our own system where they stay put and wreak havoc with our health. The superfood fish are all low in contaminants because they are small fish. Stay away from the "big game" fish like swordfish, marlin, shark and fresh tuna. When buying canned tuna, choose light tuna over white tuna, which comes from smaller tuna species. 


Which fish are best for you when it comes to contaminant levels? Rather than have me reinvent the wheel, read this Health Canada article which lays it all out on the line...pun intended.


Sustainability
Now for the larger question...is it sustainable to eat seafood at all? This is a far more complex issue. With the best Sockeye Salmon run we have seen in BC in years, this little voice might get pushed to the back of our minds as we clammer down the dock to buy this delicacy by the bushel load. As news of the health benefits of eating fish grew, our appetite (and therefore demand) for seafood, salmon in particular, grew alongside. And what the affluent Western world wants, it gets - to the detriment of less affluent nations that used to rely on seafood as the main source of protein in their diets.


As our love for seafood grew, we learned to choose wild over farmed, line caught over trawled and local over exotic. These changes went a long way towards "greening" our seafood choices. However, some experts argue that we should refrain from eating seafood at all as even stocks of typically "sustainable" sardines and mackerel in South America and Scandinavia are at risk of overfishing (some say that we are already there) to supply us with fish meal used to fatten up farmed salmon. Others, like the pioneering chef Frank Pabst at Blue Water Cafe believe in introducing us to less favoured items like sea urchin and jellyfish. 


I will stop there or risk exposing my lack of depth when it comes to exploring this topic. Where you stand on this issue is a personal choice but there are some great resources to help you make your decisions. Home grown Ocean Wise is an education program from the Vancouver Aquarium which guides you towards local businesses providing sustainable seafood options, designated by the Ocean Wise logo. The website also provides a list of more sustainable species. The Monterrey Bay Aquarium has its own program called Seafood Watch, where you can print off a handy little pocket guide that I like because it organizes itself with a stoplight system to categorize sustainable choices and also alerts you to high mercury choices so you can avoid them. If you have an iPhone, you can even download an app to keep at your side as you shop and dine. 


In good health,
Desiree