Many foods are advertised as being “healthy” but in reality they offer little nutritional benefit and may be filled with calories or fat.  I often have patients say they picked a certain brand of cereal because it was advertised as being “heart healthy”, yet they can’t seem to lose weight.  Most cereals are composed of refined grains, some of which are GMO (genetically modified organism) and a large proportion of corn products.  The next time you are walking in the grocery aisle, try to find a cereal that does not have any corn products (e.g. corn syrup).  It’s a difficult challenge!   I recommend picking a cereal where you can recognize the individual grains (barley, flax seeds, oats) and not overly processed flakes, donut shapes, or multicolored cartoon shapes with marshmallows.

Don’t depend on the government to police the food manufacturers on their incorrect labelling.  The FDA currently has, in my opinion, very loose definitions of what can be considered “healthy” or “organic” or “low fat”.  They also are slow to enforce any violators.  In fact, a popular chocolate-hazelnut spread was reprimanded after over 6 months of a successful TV commercial campaign that said it could be a healthy addition to breakfast.  (BTW, 2 tablespoons of the said chocolate-hazelnut spread has 200 calories, 21 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of fat!)  I can only imagine how much weight was gained by people following this misinformation!

What can you trust?  Make sure you read all nutrition information on all foods that you eat.  Pay close attention to calories per serving, and the number of servings per package.  Some food manufacturers like to use extremely small, unrealistic serving sizes to show that they are “low in calories”.  When was the last time you split a granola bar into 4 pieces and just ate one of them?

Use your common sense.  If something tastes extremely sweet and is not made of artificial sugar, it is likely high in calories.  I used to buy small Greek yogurt cups with 0% fat and fruit.  However, I noticed the “fruit on the bottom” was almost like jam and sickeningly sweet.  Lo and behold, while the yogurt is fat free, the fruit jam was full of sugars.  I replaced them immediately.  Now, I buy plain 0% fat Greek yogurt in a large tub size.  Then I take fresh fruit or unsweetened frozen berries and I place them at the bottom of small reusable containers about the same size of a yogurt cup and add the yogurt on top.  Every Sunday, I create 7 of these “parfaits” for each day of the week and keep them in the fridge.  I also add a teaspoon each of chia seeds, flax seeds and 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil as part of the Mediterranean Diet.  When you create your own food, you know what is going into your food and what is NOT going into your food.  Yes, it may take more work, but at the end of the day you will feel healthier.

The body is in many ways similar to a bank when it comes to calories.  When you eat something, your body extracts the calories from food much like making a cash deposit in your bank.  You will either burn them off doing physical activities or store them in the form of fat.  Calories never “disappear” on their own without being used in some way.

You need to be mindful of your caloric intake.  Just like many banks have apps where you can see your debits and credits, there are apps that can track your calories.  I recommend the myfitnesspal.com app.  It is available for many different smart phones and tablets.  When you set up the app, it calculates your estimated calorie needs.  Then comes the fun part.  You enter each food into the app as you are eating them.  The myfitnesspal app has a huge selection of food and you can even choose the items by brand name.  For example, I ate a Chobani Fat Free Greek Yogurt with Blueberries this morning, and the app posted the exact calories (130) into my food diary and subtracted them from my daily calories.   This eliminates the extra step of reading the nutrition labels each time you eat something.  As you check the app throughout the day, you can see how many calories you have left in the day before you “accumulate debt” and start storing extra calories.  The goal is to end up with “0” or if you have a weight loss goal “negative” for the day.  I have been using this app and I find it extremely helpful to find out lower calorie alternatives to the food I’m eating.  For example, if you wanted to splurge and eat a full size bag of m&m’s, you would first realize it is a lot of calories, but myfitnesspal will also show you foods that are similar and you can pick a lower calorie alternative.  For example, a snack size bag of m&m’s would be half the calories.  This allows you to learn new healthier options so that in the future you can make wiser food choices.

Another aspect of this app that helpful is the ability to add in exercise.  It give a rough estimate of how many calories you burned.  For example, if you ran on the treadmill, you can enter the time and the distance and it will take those calories burned and add to your daily allotment of calories.  You learn pretty quickly that its difficult to burn off calories even though you’ve been huffing and puffing for half an hour on the treadmill!  Was that slice of chocolate cake last night worth it?  These are realizations that come about with tracking your calories.  Try the app for at least two weeks and you will learn more about what you are eating and get motivated to exercise.  If you are looking to lose weight, this is one effective way to get started.

When I ask my patients if they are getting five servings of fruits or vegetables per day, many of them say “Yes, I drink plenty of fruit juice.”  I know many of us have been taught from an early age through TV commercials and the old “Food Pyramid” that drinking fruit juice is equivalent to eating a serving of fruit, but I disagree.  This may not be the healthiest option, and could be the reason why you can’t seem to lose weight.  While it is true that fruit juice does contain vitamins, you are getting way too many calories.  A typical 8 ounce glass of juice has about 180 calories, the same amount as your typical can of soda!  That means that if you normally drink 2 glasses of juice per day and replaced them with water, you could lose 1 pound every two weeks!

Still not convinced?  Think back to the last time you made orange juice by hand.  You would need about 8-10 oranges.  If I gave you 8 oranges, set them on a plate and told you to eat all of them, could you finish them all in 5 minutes?  Probably not. That’s exactly what you are doing when you drink juice.  In fact, we usually give orange juice to diabetics when their sugar is dangerously low because the body is able to absorb it quicker.  Liquids are digested much faster manner than solids.  When you eat a whole orange, the fiber (aka the stuff that gets stuck in your teeth) prevents you from extracting 100% of the calories from the orange.  Fiber also expands in our stomach and lets us know that we are full.  Our bodies are not able to break down most fiber in foods, which is why fiber is helpful to treat and prevent constipation.

The next time you have a craving for juice, think of it as drinking the same amount of soda.  As an alternative, eat the actual fruit.  You will get so much more fiber and less sugar.  Also, you will be guaranteed that the vitamins in whole fresh fruit will be much better for you than from a plastic bottle of processed juice that has been sitting on a store shelf for 6 months or more.  Many vitamins degrade rapidly when they are taken out of foods.  If you still must have juice, a good rule of thumb is make it yourself with fresh fruits (I’m sure you won’t be adding preservatives and coloring at home) and dilute it with equal amounts of water.  This way, you will drink half the amount of calories per serving.

Another option is to make fruit-infused water.  Take some cut fruit and put it in a pitcher, preferably one with a strainer at the spout.  Add water and a touch of lemon or a sprig of mint.  Leave it in the fridge overnight.  The flavors of the fruit will add subtle taste to the water without the calories.  This is a refreshing summer drink that won’t add to your waistline!

Eating out at a restaurant can be a fun activity.  Trying new foods, meeting with friends, and a sense of freedom from not having to cook and clean are all part of the experience.  However, eating out can mean trouble if you are trying to lose weight or maintain a low cholesterol level as I have discussed in my previous blogpost.  Here are some tips you can consider trying at your next outing.

• Order an additional appetizer instead of an entree.  Many restaurants make sizable appetizers that are filling enough.  If you think you may be hungry, order a vegetable side with that appetizer.
• If you are having dinner with others, consider eating “family style”.  Order one less entree than people in your party.  Again, most portions are very generous at restaurants and I can almost guarantee that you will feel full.
• Create multiple small courses.  In the Mediterranean region, people eat small portions of food but with many courses.  When you spread the meal out like that, you actually feel full gradually, rather than suddenly feeling too full.  The stomach was not meant to become stuffed within a few minutes.  Indigestion, esophageal reflux (GERD) and gastritis (inflammation of the stomach) can all become worsened by eating too quickly.
• Order less food than you think will make you full. If you need more food, you can always order a side of vegetables.  Over-ordering almost always results in over-eating.  We have been taught to “finish what’s on our plates”.  If you are dining in a new place and the portions are much larger than you normally would eat, ask the waiter to wrap up half your meal, BEFORE you start eating.  It’s always much more difficult to stop eating after you’ve started.
• Skip the bread basket.  Ask the waiter to take back the bread basket and butter.  These are excess carbs and fat that can increase the calories of your meal.
• Always order a vegetable or salad as an appetizer.
• Drink plenty of water.  Water helps with digestion and helps to fill your stomach.
• Ask for dressings and sauces to be placed on the side.  This allows you to control how much you add to your food.
• Bring a friend and talk to him/her throughout dinner.  Having conversations slows down the speed of your eating and increases your enjoyment.

Guest Author:  Amy Hager, Registered Dietitian, Nutritionist, Certified Diabetes Educator and Wellness Coach

More nutrition & health information is available at her website: www.beehappylife.com

Since ancient times, honey, aka “Liquid Gold” has done more than just sweeten our palates. It is considered the oldest food found on the planet and has a reputation for natural healing that has stood the test of time.  I will outline some of the health benefits and ways you can use it more often.

Honey is no ordinary sweetener. It contains additional minerals such as magnesium, potassium, sulphur and iron as well as several B-vitamins. While I don’t encourage the intake of excess sugar in any form, I feel that honey could readily serve as healthy alternative to all other types of sugar and artificial sweeteners, as long as these sweets are consumed in small, infrequent amounts. But like all good things, it’s important to know where the balance is. It’s good to remember that honey is also a concentrated form of sugar, mainly fructose. When consumed in excess, fructose can cause a number of problems in the body, including fatty liver, elevated triglycerides, insulin resistance and obesity. This scenario is most likely to occur when calories are eaten in excess. So in other words, if you are maintaining a normal weight or losing weight, the amount of honey you eat can be more liberal. But if you are overweight or gaining weight, evenly slowly, the more fructose or honey you consume, the more likely it can lead to poor health consequences.

 The other thing that is tricky about honey (and sweeteners in general) is that it overrides our natural ability to know when to stop eating. If we have a sweet treat, whether it’s sweetened with honey or any other type of sugar, we are at greater risk for overeating. This can lead to an accumulation of excess calories and cause weight gain. This behavior will put you back into the unfavorable scenario described above.

 So what’s the right amount? One tablespoon of honey provides 17g of sugar and about 70 calories. For the average person who is not dealing with blood sugar issues or struggling to lose weight, a tablespoon a day is completely reasonable amount that should be well tolerated, especially if you’re only using a teaspoon at a time in your coffee or tea. If you are having trouble losing weight, adding 70 calories of sugar a day is not recommended. If you have diabetes or other difficulty metabolizing sugar, you would not want to consume a large portion of honey by itself. Instead, eat a smaller amount (a teaspoon) divided throughout the day (ideally with meals) to minimize the blood sugar response.

Unprocessed honey will contain traces of the regional pollen. This gives it a unique profile, both in flavor as well as in it’s active properties. It has been shown in a study that those who ate local honey suffered 60% reduction in their usual allergy symptoms. The best strategy is to find honey that is local to your area (within 20 miles) and start to consume 1-2 teaspoons per day as the spring season starts to bloom.

One of the most interesting characteristics of honey is that it’s anti-microbial. It has been used as an effective and affordable way to treat wounds in areas of the world without access to medicine or money to buy antibiotics. Manuka honey is one type in particular known for being very potent. This study is showing great promise for Manuka honey to be effective against the antibiotic resistant bacteria known as MRSA. For your next skinned knee- speed healing naturally by adding honey instead of antibiotic ointments before you put on the band-aid.

Honey is humectant, meaning it attracts and holds water. This is what you need if you are plagued with dry skin and why you see it as an added ingredient in many skin care products. The good news is that you can save money by just adding the straight stuff into your regimen: 

• Add 1 cup of honey to your bath for instantly soft and silk skin
• Combine 2 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil for facial moisturizer
• After a long day in the sun, mix together equal parts of honey and aloe vera gel
• Make a body scrub with equal parts olive oil, honey and coarse salt- scent with you choice of essential oils for a spa-like experience

Because honey has natural antibiotic properties, it’s suited well for treating symptoms of cold and flu. Many mothers throughout the ages have used a teaspoon of honey in warm liquid to help soothe a sore throat of an ill child. In addition to providing relief from throat irritation, a recent study has shown that honey can be just as effective as over-the-counter medicines for suppressing coughs in children. Honey can be taken straight off the spoon, as needed or mixed in a hot tea or milk before bed.

Consuming readily available carbohydrates during exercise can help boost performance by delaying muscle fatigue. One easy way to achieve this is to add a couple of tablespoons of honey to your water bottle. Another popular way athletes get their fast carbs is by using specially designed sports gels. When you compare the nutrition facts for a brand name sports gel, the nutritional profile is so similar to honey, that it makes sense to save a few dollars (and reap the other health benefits) with a reusable container by making your own blend.

DIY Sports Gel Recipe:

7 tablespoons honey

3 Tablespoons cocoa powder (or use cinnamon if you’re not a chocolate lover)

1 pinch of salt

Make your own energy bars that require no baking!

1 cup of whole almonds

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup dried cranberries

3 tablespoons dried coconut

6 pitted dates

Combine all together in a high powered blender or food processor. Spread and pack well into an 8×8 baking dish and cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Slice into squares after bars are firm.

In order to eat honey we are dependent on the small honey bee to collect nectar and pollen and work their magic to make this medicinal food. But honey making is not the only job of the bees. About one third of the human diet is dependent on pollination and honey bees are responsible for 80% of this work. In recent years, honey bees have been dying off mysteriously, threatening the future of our food. But recent research has been suggesting that it may be the widespread use of pesticides that are causing this die off. You can actually become involved in the success of bee survival by supporting local beekeepers, permitting urban beekeeping and demanding natural raw honey for your health.