Nutritionally Speaking – Wholify

Have you been wanting to bake your own homemade bread but too intimidated by the amount of time and effort? Don’t be! Watch as I show you how to make my favorite whole wheat bread. It’s easy, tasty, and healthy–what more could you want? [divider] Homemade Bread Recipe Apart from using a bread machine, this recipe has to be one of the simplest, so you’ll have very little reason NOT to try it.  My friend learned it from her mother and passed it on to me, so I’m calling it: “Ely’s Oh-So-Good-For-You Bread” Ingredients: * 1¼ cup Warm Water * 2-3 Tbsp Honey (or other sweetener if desired or if you want to make this bread vegan) * 2 tsp Instant Yeast * 3 Tbsp Oil (canola or olive if you want to make a savory loaf) * 1 Tbsp Vital Wheat Gluten * 1½ tsp Salt * 3 cups Whole Wheat Flour * Optional Add-Ins: oats, flax, nuts/seeds, 9-grain cereal, wheat bran, oat bran, dried fruit, herbs, nutritional yeast, spices, etc. Note: I use a standing mixer to cut down on the time I have to knead the dough.  If you don’t have one, just knead the bread by hand for about 15 minutes total. Start by pre-heating your oven to 350°F.  Next, add the water to the bowl of your standing mixer.  Make sure the water feels slightly warm on your skin.  Add the honey (more for a sweeter loaf, less for a savory one) and mix it into the water.  Then add the yeast and stir.  Set it aside for about 10 minutes while you gather the other ingredients.  The yeast should start to bubble and form a layer of foam over the surface of the water. Once you can see a nice layer, add the remaining ingredients (oil through flour, plus any add-ins you’d like).  Start the mixer off on a slow speed so everything stays neatly in the bowl.  Then, gradually increase the speed to medium/medium-high so it kneads the dough fairly vigorously.  The dough should not stick to the bowl.  If it does, add more water a tablespoon at a time (a little goes a long way!).  If it’s too wet and squishes against the side of the bowl, add flour by the tablespoon until it firms up.  Let the machine do its work for about 10 minutes. Now flour a clean surface with the same whole wheat flour and knead the dough for about 5 minutes.  You could even get away with 3!  Roll it into the shape of a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan.  Let it rise on top of the oven for 30 minutes.  Once risen, put it directly in the oven to bake for approximately 30 minutes.  You can use the toothpick test to make sure it’s done. Let the loaf rest in the pan for another 5-10 minutes and then turn it out onto a cooling rack.  Serve warm with Earth Balance or pumpkin butter (or pretty much anything!).   I hope this makes homemade bread a regular addition to your table!  

Do you feel trapped in your genes and destined to be fat?  Does putting on your jeans in the morning exacerbate your worries and preoccupation with your weight?  Don’t let your genes (or your jeans) dictate your weight or your happiness! [divider] Transcript of Are Our Genes (or Our Jeans) Making Us Fat? Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking! I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.  Today I want to look at your genes/jeans and the effect they might have on your weight. There are lots of reasons why people weigh more than the tables and charts tell us we should.  It usually boils down to eating too many Calories, moving too little, using food to cope with life’s difficulties, eating mindlessly, and suffering from a hectic schedule with snacks from the vending machine and meals at the drive-thru (or a combination of the above).   Genes and Weight Another factor in our shape and size is our genes.  Yes, our genes do have some say in how much our body naturally “wants” to weigh—also known as our “set point”.  Of course we can change our set point through diet and exercise, but it would be wrong to ignore the stubbornness, if you will, of our body to stay at the weight range it’s most used to.  Studies comparing sets of twins show that the genetic component is so strong that it can outweigh the environmental factor in its effect on the twins’ weight.  Dr. Albert J. Stunkard compared the weights of both identical and fraternal twins being raised in the same or different households.  As expected, identical twins raised together had a similar Body Mass Index (BMI) as adults, but even when identical twins were reared apart, their BMI as adults was almost the same. In another of his studies, Dr. Stunkard found that adopted twins’ weight mimicked that of their biological parents, not their adoptive parents.  That’s right, regardless of whether they were raised in an “obesogenic” environment or whether their adoptive parents were of a healthy BMI, both of the twins weighed about the same as each other and their biological parents. Dr. Claude Bouchard also found that twins, when being overfed the same amount of Calories, gain almost the same amount weight and in the same places (i.e. the abdomen, buttocks, thighs). This goes to show that genes do have a lot of control over the number on the scale, but don’t let that make you think you’re destined to be overweight. Maintaining a lower weight may be more challenging than someone with different genes, but you are still in the driver’s seat when it comes to your health.   Jeans and Weight I want to take a look now at your other set of jeans–the ones you’re wearing or the ones in your closet.  What effect do these jeans have on you?  Though some people still choose to have a scale in their bathroom, many have tried to give up their focus on the exact number of pounds they weigh by tossing the scale.  This can definitely be a step in the right direction towards loving your body at any size and focusing on how you feel when you make healthier food choices and exercise rather than giving yourself a grade based on your weight.  Unfortunately, though, the scale has been replaced…with jeans.  Many people now have a pair of jeans or another piece of clothing, that they use to measure how “good” they have been lately, whether they deserve to eat, or if they need to lose more weight.  Once again, let me clarify that watching how your clothing fits is not inherently a bad thing.  It can give you an idea of whether you’re gaining or losing weight, how well your exercise routine is paying off, and can help spur you on to more mindful eating.  I am aware, however, that this pair of jeans can also keep you trapped and keep you fat.   Here’s an example of how this can play out: Let’s say that you wake up on a Friday after a long, stressful week.

Are we addicted to dieting? The history of fad diets goes back hundreds of years and is full of crazy methods to lose weight quickly (though not healthfully).  I am going to expose fad diets for what they really are, and empower you to jump off the diet bandwagon for good! [divider] Podcast Transcript – Fad Diets Debunked?   Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking! I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann. Today I’m going to tackle the huge list of fad diets out there without having to go through each one.  I will teach you how these diets work and why you don’t have to jump on the bandwagon every time a new book comes out promising you quick, effortless weight loss.   A brief history of fad diets I’d like to start off by giving you a brief history of fad diets.  Our generation is definitely not the first to be obsessed with crazy ways to lose weight quickly and easily. In 1820, Lord Byron made the vinegar diet popular.  He supposedly lost 60 pounds by dousing his food with vinegar, but some think this man actually suffered from an eating disorder. If you think the low-carb diet is new, you’re wrong.  It first appeared in the year 1825 in the book The Physiology of Taste, and was repeated later by Banting in 1963.  In fact, the name “Banting” became a popular term for dieting. In 1903, The “Great Masticator”, Horace Fletcher, promoted a very original term “Fletcherizing”, which means chewing your food 32 times (once for each tooth). Calorie counting was introduced way back in 1917 by Lulu Hunt Peters in her book Diet and Health with Key to Calories. Other crazy diets include the Cigarette diet of 1925, with its infamous motto “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet”, the Cabbage Soup and Grapefruit or Hollywood diet of 1950,  the Sleeping Beauty Diet (which involves being heavily sedated for days), and the Tapeworm diet (wherein you ingest a capsule that causes weight loss. The only side effect is the tapeworm roaming around your intestines).  Ok, I hope it’s clear now that we’ve been hooked on the silly idea of dieting for way too long! Our society seems attracted to these diet gimmicks.  We buy into the promise of rapid weight loss. We’re lured by rigid rules and food restrictions.  Maybe we even feel special when we follow a certain diet and use it as an excuse to restrict our food intake.  Are we addicted to dieting? Most assuredly!   Differences in Fad Diets In one respect, fad diets are not created equal. Some emphasize one food group over another or restrict a different macronutrient, but in general, all of these diets work by causing you to eat fewer Calories.  That’s right! There’s no secret in the intricately concocted food combinations, the ratio of fat to carbs to protein, or the recipe for the cleanse or detox of the week.  Anything that causes you to eat fewer Calories will cause you to lose weight. PERIOD. So, take the Atkins or Dukan diet (which is basically Atkins by another name).  By limiting carbohydrates (aka fruit, bread, rice, pasta, starchy vegetables, grains like quinoa, and the list goes on), a huge amount of the Calories you normally take in during the day are eliminated.  Sorry, no oatmeal for breakfast. Nope, no berries.  Uh uh, no grilled corn on the cob at your barbecue. Whole grain bread for your sandwich—no way! Do you have a problem with anything I just said? I hope so! All the foods I just mentioned that you CAN’T have (or can’t have much of) on a low-carbohydrate are good for you! What is inherently wrong with oatmeal, berries, corn or whole grain starches? Nothing! They are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals, and can be a healthy part of any eating pattern in moderation.  But when you cut out carbohydrates, you might eat more protein, but not enough to replace the Calories lost. Hence, the weight loss.

I’m sure you have heard of the Gluten-Free Diet or maybe you’ve considered trying it (or maybe you’re on it as we speak). It has become all the rage, with gluten-free products popping up in mainstream grocery stores, even Target! Restaurants are making sure to add gluten-free choices to their menus too. Listen in to learn more about this diet and decide if it’s for you! [divider] Podcast Transcript – Is Gluten-Free For You? Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking! I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.  On today’s episode, we are going to be discussing the Gluten-Free diet.  You will learn about why people may benefit from this diet, why most (many) people won’t, and what group you fall into. The Gluten-Free Diet is designed to help people who cannot tolerate gluten, the protein found in wheat (and its relatives like spelt), rye, and barley. Other foods, namely oats, can be “contaminated” with gluten if they are harvested and/or processed by the same machines that handle wheat, rye, and barley. The oats would get gluten on them, but don’t naturally contain gluten themselves. Gluten is actually a combination of glutenin and gliadin, two proteins with slightly different properties that act together to make dough that is chewy and springy.   What’s the problem with gluten? So, what’s the problem with gluten? There is no inherent problem with it.  The problem shows up when people’s bodies are unable to tolerate it.  This is the case with Celiac Disease, an autoimmune disease that is in the spotlight these days.  With this disease, the ingestion of gluten leads to an immune system response wherein the villi (which make up the thin, hair-/finger-like lining for the intestine) become inflamed and damaged or destroyed.  These villi are important in the process of absorption, so this disease inherently leads to malabsorption of nutrients and potential weight loss and malnutrition.  Common symptoms are mainly gastrointestinal, including constipation or diarrhea, cramping, and bloating—notice that these are common symptoms of other GI issues like irritable bowel syndrome or gastroenteritis.  Other symptoms may include weakness, bone pain, and changes in appetite.   Celiac disease Celiac disease is usually diagnosed by either taking a biopsy of the lining of the first segment of the small intestine (the duodenum) to look for flattened villi OR by testing for certain antibodies.  A stool sample can also be tested for steatorrhea, which is increased amounts of fat in the stool, a sign of fat malabsorption. To put this in perspective, a commonly quoted statistic is that 1 in 133 people, which translates to more than 2 million people in the US (or somewhere around .7% of the population) have been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, though many more are estimated to go undiagnosed.  Unfortunately, we’re not quite sure what causes this disease, but it is more common in people with other autoimmune disorders, with type 1 Diabetes being just one example.  There is also a genetic component, so in those who have a 1st-degree relative with the disease, the amount of diagnosed Celiac disease rises to 1 in 22.   A Gluten-Free Diet So, how do you treat Celiac Disease? With a gluten-free diet! By removing the offending gluten, the inflammation in the intestines will die down, and the villi will regenerate, allowing nutrients to be absorbed again (this can take some time, though!).  This can be very challenging at first, as it seems many foods (especially prepared and packaged foods) contain gluten.  Here is a short list of some other foods in addition to wheat, rye, and barley that need to be avoided due to their containing gluten: Bulgur, Durum, Farina, Graham flour, Semolina, Spelt, and Triticale (a cross between wheat and rye. Note that many commonly used processed foods like bouillon cubes, chips, sauces,

The Food Pyramid has an interesting history, with its roots going back to 1917 with the first USDA food guide. [divider] “How to Select Foods” was written by a nutritionist and was based on 5 groups: * milk and meat * cereals * vegetables and fruit * fats and fatty foods * sugars and sugary foods. Crazy, huh?   As we learned more about nutrition, the pyramid developed into what people are most familiar with–the 1992 USDA Food Pyramid. This was updated in 2005 and renamed MyPyramid. But the pyramid came tumbling down and was replaced by a…Plate! Listen to this episode to learn more about the new MyPlate!   Transcript of From Pyramid to Plate Hi and welcome back to Nutritionally Speaking! I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.  Sorry for the little hiatus.  I got married recently and moved into a new city and new house, so my life has been a little busier than usual.  Glad to be back with you all!   MyPlate vs. Food Pyramid I want to discuss the new MyPlate that replaced the long-established Food Pyramid.  This icon is supposed to be a clearer depiction of healthy eating and may help the American people to eat more balanced meals and portion sizes.  One of the main issues people had with the Pyramid was the issue of serving sizes. To dietitians and people with Diabetes who are familiar with carbohydrate counting, serving sizes are like multiplication tables.  We know that 1/3 a cup of rice is a serving or ¼ of a bagel.  Unfortunately, this kind of knowledge doesn’t come naturally and can take a lot of time to learn.  So, instead of trying to somehow implant this information in millions of people’s brains, we changed the icon to the familiar plate.  I mean, most everyone eats off a plate.  Sure, it’s kinda cool to have square plates or differently shaped servingware, but the plate is pretty much universal. The place-setting includes 5 food groups: fruit, vegetables, protein, grain, and dairy. Added oils and sugars that used to be the tip of the old pyramid are gone, which I’m assuming means to use sparingly, just like the old recommendation.  Besides, fats and sugars tend to be incorporated into foods themselves, though they are sometimes served on the side, like butter for bread or sugar for coffee. The now-deemed “protein” group was previously labeled just “meat and beans”.  I’m glad someone realized that other foods like fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, tempeh, seitan are also high in protein.  This group is a little more vegetarian-friendly.  The website goes into more detail on how to make wise choices in this category, basically choosing lean meats and lower saturated-fat options. There is also a lesser emphasis on grains and starches and a more balanced approach to the inclusion of these foods spaced out with every meal.  It’s not a good idea to have a gigantic stack of mega-pancakes for breakfast and get all your starches at once.  Better to have a small pancake, waffle, whatever in addition to a small piece of fruit, glass of milk or milk substitute, lean protein and veggies.  Yes, veggies for breakfast is an awesome idea!!!! Vegetables are regularly eaten for breakfast in many Asian countries, but for some reason the West didn’t catch on to this healthful habit. Eating fruit with every meal is also a great way to make sure you are getting your three servings/day.  If you find this difficult to do, you can always have it as a snack with some form of protein (like almond butter, low-fat cheese, etc.) to keep your blood sugar stable and to keep you full longer. I think a quarter of a plate for vegetables is not quite enough.  When I give diabetic diet educations, I tell my patients to fill HALF their plate with non-starchy vegetables, which is pretty much everything except corn, peas, and potatoes.

Since 1980, National Nutrition Month has been an important time of the year to promote nutrition education and healthy eating habits.  This year’s theme is “Eat Right with Color” and this episode will delve into the benefits of each of the colors of the rainbow.  After listening, you just might want to raid the produce section of your grocery store! [divider] Eat Right with Color – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann. March is National Nutrition Month and the theme for this year is “Eat Right With Color”. Variety in the colors of the foods we eat is more important than we might think.  By making sure to include all the colors of the rainbow into our diet, we are benefiting from the different vitamins, minerals, and other compounds these foods contain.  Let’s take a look at each of the different colors and how they can contribute to a healthy body.   Red – Eat Right with Color Red is a color that many of us don’t have a problem getting enough of.  We eat lots of fresh tomatoes or pasta sauces, red onions and bell peppers, and strawberries.  But just to show that there is always room for improvement or at least exploration, how many of us eat beets regularly? Or how about radishes? I hope that this month’s theme inspires you to try new fruits and veggies.  So, what is so good about these red foods? One main word comes to mind—Lycopene!  Lycopene has been made famous for its role in prostate health, and men have been making a special effort to eat watermelon and tomatoes.  Please make note of this! The lycopene in raw tomatoes will not be absorbed as well as that of cooked tomatoes.  So try to eat more cooked tomatoes in the form of tomato sauces, stewed tomatoes, and the like to get the most bang for your buck! Rasberries and strawberries, in addition to being loaded with vitamin C, are an excellent source of manganese, which functions as both a constituent of multiple enzymes and an enzyme activator.  These enzymes play roles in metabolism, bone development, wound healing, and can also act as antioxidants.  Now if you need some motivation to eat beets, here it is!  Beets contain antioxidant plant pigments called betanin and vulgoxanthin as well as two types of carotenoids, llutein and zeaxanthin specifically.  This veggie is also a good source of folate and magnesium.  I know beets just made it onto your grocery list! Try roasting them in the oven at 350 and putting them in a salad.  By the way, did you know that tart cherries contain a significant amount of melatonin? Unlike the sweet Bing or Rainier varieties, the sour Montmorency and Balaton cherries may act as a natural sleep aid.  So if you’re having trouble falling asleep at night, try popping some cherries instead of sleeping pills.   Orange and yellow – Eat Right with Color Orange and yellow are another popular color group.  So many amazing fruits fall under this category like mangoes, papayas, apricots, persimmons, oranges, peaches, and nectarines.  If you’re looking to add more vegetables from this group, go for butternut or other yellow squash, carrots, pumpkin, and yellow peppers.  These foods are an amazing source of Vitamin A, also known as carotenoids, with beta-carotene being the most active and most well-known.  This vitamin plays a crucial role in vision, growth, and skin health (aka the retinol in your skin cream).  On top of that, it functions as an antioxidant.  Vitamin C is also abundant in this group.  Most of you have taken a vitamin C supplement when trying to fend off a cold, so you know that it acts as both an antioxidant and an immunity booster.  It can also help with absorption of iron and helps with would healing as it contributes to the formation of collagen.  The last major vitamin for the orange and yellow fruits and vegetables is potassium.

Have you read the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010? If not, that’s why I’m here! These are very important goals and recommendations for the way we eat, but the practical application is not always clear. Once again, I’m here for you! [divider] The Dietary Guidelines and You – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking! I’m your host Michaela Ballmann.  To kick off National Nutrition Month I am going to be talking about the New Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 that were released on January 31st of this year.  The Dietary Guidelines have been jointly published by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) every 5 years since 1980. These guidelines are based on research and data of the country’s population as well as previous recommendations, and are formulated to help the American people have better health and quality of life through healthy diet and nutrition. They are also the basis for Federal food and nutrition education programs. Ok, I’m sure you’re saying “That’s enough background info! Can you please get to the point!” I’d be glad to! The two primary concepts of this edition of the Dietary Guidelines are: (1) Maintain calorie balance over time to achieve and sustain a healthy weight; and (2) Focus on consuming nutrient-dense foods and beverages. In order to make the first statement a reality, the majority of people need to exercise more and reduce their calorie intake, which ties into the second statement.  If Americans eat less calorie dense foods (typically refined and high in fat, sugar, and salt) and replace these foods with nutrient-dense foods (like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat dairy, and lean meat and meat substitutes), our calorie intake will drop as a result and we will attain and maintain a healthy weight.   The Dietary Guidelines Key Recommendations Besides these overarching principles, the Dietary Guidelines come with some key recommendations.  As expected, sodium was targeted as a main dietary component to reduce.  For about half the population, the amount of Na has remained stable at 2300mg or less, but for the other half, who are 51 years of age or older and those of any age who are African American or have HTN, DM, or chronic kidney disease, it is recommended that Na intake is reduced to 1500 mg per day.  That is quite a significant drop!  Like previous years, we are to continue to aim for <10% of kcals from saturated fat, <300mg dietary cholesterol, as little as possible trans fats, and limited amounts of solid fats, added sugar and refined grains.  When they say “solid fats” they are talking about fats that are solid at room temperature—saturated fat (lard, butter), and trans fats (partially hydrogenated margarines and such).  It’s much better to use oils, which in contrast are mono-or poly- Unsaturated and liquid at room temperature. Enough about what we can’t eat! Ok, I’ve saved the best for last.  Now I get to tell you about all the vegetables that you can eat, the yummy olive oil that can replace butter, the low-fat or fat-free greek yogurt with berries, and those lean cuts of meat or eggs with whole wheat toast.  Isn’t it great all the wonderful things that the Guidelines would like you to eat? I’m not feeling deprived! A very important recommendation that I don’t want to overlook is that of developing a healthy eating pattern.  To quote from the guidelines directly, “Select an eating pattern that meets nutrient needs over time at an appropriate calorie level”; it continues by saying “Account for all foods and beverages consumed and assess how they fit within a total healthy eating pattern”.  In other words, make healthy eating your lifestyle.  It needs to fuel your day, whether that means fueling a day of work at a desk or fueling a day moving about a factory, or whatever it may be.

Forget the fad diets and restrictive weight loss regimens!  This year, approach your health in a new, better way–mindfully.  Mindful eating will help you to savor your food and enjoy it more so you will eat what and how much your body needs.  Listen as we cover some useful mindfulness practices that you can do at home from the book “Eating the Moment”. [divider] Mindful Eating for the New Year – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to nutritionally speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann. That time is here again—the time when everyone seems to be focused on the new year and their resolutions to get organized, learn a new language, eat healthier, and lose weight.  As you can expect, in this episode, I’m going to focus specifically on nutrition and diet-related resolutions. Though I’ve never been a big fan of such resolutions, I do see that they can be valuable for some people if they’re done right.  Now some may want to know why I’m not fond of resolutions.  Here’s why: most people make crazy resolutions that they are never going to be able to keep and then suffer from discouragement and disappointment when they can’t meet their expectations of themselves.  Many people also choose resolutions that are temporary in nature.  For example, a diet is definitely temporary—someone will GO ON a diet to lose a certain amount of weight, and then after they have lost that weight they will go back to eating the way they like.  Lifestyle changes, on the other hand, are more permanent in nature.  Resolutions can also result in extreme behaviors.  Someone will resolve him/herself to eat healthy foods ONLY and then they may go overboard and develop what is known as orthorexia when the person is obsessed with eating healthfully and won’t even go out with friends for lunch because they fear there won’t be anything healthy enough to eat.  I’m sure you all know someone who has made a resolution that has one of these aspects in it. So, now that you know why resolutions can fail early in the year,   Mindful Eating Practices Here are some tips for making new year’s resolutions that you can keep for the whole of 2010, not just the first couple months:   Make it realistic, please.  Don’t promise yourself that you will never eat a piece of chocolate again.  Not going to happen!  This also can be a trigger for you to binge on chocolate or any other food in the future because you have been restricting your consumption of that food.  It’s part psychological, part physical, so be careful. Think mindful eating. Keep it healthy.  Going on a very extreme diet, say a fat free diet, or becoming a fruitarian is NOT healthy.  You need a balance of all foods, yes that includes carbs and fats, in your daily diet.  A diet that includes foods from all food groups in moderation is much better than an Atkins diet or a raw food diet. Make it a lifestyle.  Pick something that you can change that can be part of your life forever, like eating three fruits a day, or switching from butter to a non-hydrogenated margarine, or making one new recipe a month.  It doesn’t have to be a huge thing like losing fifty pounds, getting rid of all sugar or salt, or something like that.  You can keep it small and simple; that may even work better. Learn about Intuitive Eating!   Tips for implementing Mindful Eating I’ve already given you a few hints at some good, realistic, healthy lifestyle changes for the new year, but I have some more up my sleeve, so I’ll share them too: How about going to a farmer’s market near you and buying some local produce?  If you like it, you can go more often. How about baking your own bread once a month?  Again, if you like it and want to make the time for it, you can do it more often. Also, try a new vegetable.

To start off the new year on the right foot and get a head start on your goals for better health and wellbeing, listen to this episode! We’ll be discussing the second half of the NEWSTART principles: Temperance, Air, Rest, and Trust in Divine Power. [divider] NEWSTART PART 2: Temperance, Air, Rest, Trust in Divine Power – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host Michaela Ballmann.  I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and that you enjoyed good food in moderation.  It’s a new year which always brings a newfound energy and desire for good things, like health!  So let’s continue on the topic of NEWSTART.  We will be talking about the last 4 aspects of this wonderful approach to overall health.  As a review, the first four components were nutrition, exercise, water, and sunlight.   Temperance – NEWSTART The T following sunlight stands for temperance.  Temperance basically means moderation.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that is easier to either get too much or too little of everything—sleep, food, exercise.  During the workweek you may subsist on just 5 hours of sleep, and by the time the weekend comes your body requires 10 or more hours per night.  Why is it so hard to just get 8 hours per night every night? The same goes for food.  Many follow a restrictive diet plan during the week only to splurge on the weekends either as a reward or with a “last supper” mentality.  Wouldn’t it be better to just eat everything, including desserts and what people label off-limit foods, in moderation?  Then there is no physical or psychological urge to binge.  Exercise also doesn’t seem to remain steady and constant.  One may go weeks or months without a regular exercise program and then decide to train for a marathon, overwork the body or become discouraged and return to a more sedentary lifestyle.  Moderation in exercise is a better choice.  30-60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise is great! Starting from nothing, 15 minutes is worthy of applause!  Approaching things like food and exercise with a healthy viewpoint will give you more reason to want to maintain a steady, healthy lifestyle through the week, months, and year.  Forget the yo-yo-ing of dieting and exercising.  Moderation is key!   Air – NEWSTART A stands for Air.  Both breathing and fresh air are key components of good health.  Have you ever spent some time in the mountains away from pollution, noise, and building-saturated cities and realized how much more peaceful your mind and body feel? Spending a beautiful summer’s day inside in front of the television or cooped up at an office desk is nothing compared to being outside in a park or soaking up some vitamin D at the beach.  In fact, there is even a name given to time spent in green spaces—“vitamin G” and kids who get this may have lower stress levels and greater success in school.  Nature may even cause us to exercise and socialize more.  Other health benefits may involve improved immunity, blood pressure, and mental activity. These are some really good reasons to get fresh air.  So, the next time you have the opportunity, take your lunch break outside, or spend a weekend gardening.  Take a run or walk outside instead of on a treadmill in a gym.  Your body and mind will notice the difference!   Rest – NEWSTART The R in NEWSTART is for rest.  We touched briefly upon sleep earlier in the episode, but let’s delve into it a little more.  A lack of sleep doesn’t only make you feel groggy and function at a lower level, but it also affects your hunger level and how much you eat.  That’s right! Getting too little sleep can cause your ghrelin levels to increase, which means that you will feel more hungrier, and hence, eat more!  That’s not too nice for your waist line, is it?!  But that’s not even the worst of it.  The nurses’ health study by Harvard University found that a lack of...

NEWSTART is a fabulous program that works to reverse chronic diseases, but it is also a great guide to healthy living for everyone.  This episode will cover the first 4 principles: Nutrition, Exercise, Water, and Sunlight.  Interested in better overall health? Listen in! [divider] Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.  On today’s episode, I am going to talk about a program called NEWSTART.  This program has worked to reverse many chronic diseases and pretty much encompasses all the aspects of good health.  I’m going to split this topic into 2 episodes since there is so much good information that I want to share with you.   Nutrition – NEWSTART The first principle is Nutrition.  The well-known phrase “you are what you eat” is not far off.  What you put into your body affects how you feel, how long you will live, and whether you will get certain diseases.  To not only prevent disease, but also reach for optimal nutritional health, there are a few basic tips.  I’m sure you are familiar with them, since they are incorporated into the Food Guide Pyramid and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Eat whole grains—as much as possible, replace white, refined grains with whole.  That means eating less white bread, white rice, and commercial cakes, cookies and pastries, and eating more whole grain bread, brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, and home-made baked goods with whole wheat flour. Next, eat fruits and vegetables—you probably need more than you’re currently eating if you’re like most people. You need about 2 cups of fruit and 2 ½ cups of vegetables if you’re at a 2000 daily kcal intake level.  Try to get a rainbow of colors in your diet.  Try reds and oranges, yellows, purples, and why not try a new veggie every week? Switch it up to get a variety of nutrients and phytochemicals. Drink milk.  3 cups a day of low-fat or fat-free milk or fortified milk alternatives like soymilk will provide your calcium for the day and promote good bone health. Choose good fats.  Saturated and trans fats are definitely out; mono- and poly-unsaturated fats are in.  Eat less red meat, products made with partially hydrogenated oil, and packaged, processed foods. Eat more avocado, fish, walnuts, olive and canola oil.  Beans and legumes can also be a good alternative if you’re trying to reduce your meat intake.  They’re easy to cook and oh-so good for you! Lastly, make sure to practice food safety.  Wash your produce well and prevent cross-contamination when dealing with raw meats and other foods.   Exercise – NEWSTART The next letter is E, which stands for exercise.  Exercise can boost your mood, help you maintain or lose weight, and can reduce the risk of high blood pressure and a long list of diseases.  You don’t have to become a marathon runner overnight.  Start slow and work up your endurance.  Try walking, biking, swimming, sports, or any of the various cardio machines at the gym.  The surgeon general recommends getting 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity most days of the week.  And remember to do what you like!  If you don’t enjoy walking on the treadmill, go out and play some tennis or take an aerobics class.  Find something that you enjoy doing so you will want to stick to it!  Along with aerobic exercise, weight-lifting is important for everyone, especially women who are more prone to osteoporosis.  Lifting weights also helps increase your lean body mass, which means that at rest you will be burning more Calories than before.  Flexibility is another component of physical fitness.  Make sure to stretch after you exercise and try to get a larger range of motion.  Touching your toes never felt so good!   Water – NEWSTART W is for water.  Are you drinking enough water?  There is some debate over the “8- 8oz glasses of water per day”,

Are you tired of trying diet after diet with no lasting success? Do you dislike or even hate your body?  Would you like a healthy way of relating to food and eating?  Then, you won’t want to miss this episode! [divider] Intuitive Eating – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann. On today’s episode, I am going to be talking to you about one of my favorite books in the whole world, “Intuitive Eating” by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.  No, this isn’t an advertisement or a marketing ploy.  This is an amazing book that offers a healthy way to relate to food and eating.   Weight loss regimens (also known as diets) don’t work I think it’s pretty clear that weight loss regimens (also known as diets) don’t work.  People get pumped when they see a new diet book with promises to drop pound after pound easily in a short period of time.  They buy the book, clean out the fridge, get a gym membership, and vow that this is their last diet.  Of course, the night before might be a grand binge because they must say a fond farewell to food.  They do lose weight, at first, but after a few weeks or months of eating few calories and little to no carbs, they realize that they can’t live like this.  There is no way that they want to be deprived of so many good foods for the rest of their life or go to bed hungry or be a slave to a diet regimen.  Then, the weight slowly comes back and they might even end up weighing more than they did before—a phenomenon often called “yo yo dieting”. A large percentage of Americans are stuck in this dreadful cycle with a strong desire for weight loss coupled with a magical cure gone wrong!  Others just have a bad relationship with food.  They are scared of it, feel out of control around it, and either restrict or overeat, maybe even both.  Guilt and shame around food are not uncommon and eating disorders can wreak havoc in people’s lives.  People are taught to loathe their bodies if they are not a certain size and hate the skin they live in. Now that I’ve provided ample evidence for the fact that many of us have an unhealthy relationship with food and eating & our bodies, wouldn’t you like to know about a great solution to this problem?   Why Intuitive Eating is Different Intuitive eating recognizes that there are different eating styles that people generally fall into.  They include the careful eater, who, though appearing to be healthy and fit, obsesses about each piece of food that they let enter their body.  The unconscious eater is distracted while they eat, and therefore never is fully aware that they are eating or how much.  Unconscious eaters can be chaotic (eating on the road), refuse-not (vulnerable to food lying around), waste-not (clean the plate and eat at good value buffets), and emotional (eating when alone and stressed).  Other styles include the professional dieter who is basically always on a diet, and the intuitive eater who listens to their biological hunger, chooses foods without bringing guilt or ethics into it, and actually enjoys eating.  Where do you fit?  Are you an intuitive eater or a mindful eater?   Intuitive Eating Principles If not, let me tell you more!  Intuitive eating is based off of several main principles.  The first is to reject the diet mentality.  To be an intuitive eater, you must give up dieting, and both the emotional highs and lows that accompany it.  Understanding how diets set you up for failure and don’t fulfill the hope they initially give, can allow you to leave them by the wayside.  Second, honor your hunger.  Don’t starve your body, either of calories or carbohydrates.  Doing so can actually trigger overeating.  I’m sure you’ve tried eating very little and found yourself so fami...

With more research being published on the health benefits of coffee, many believe that their addiction is justified.  After all, with each sip their risk of disease fades away, right?  Let’s look at the benefits (and risks) of coffee and caffeine. [divider] Coffee: A Healthy Addiction? – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host Michaela Ballmann.  On today’s episode, we’re going to be discussing the ever-popular coffee and its possible health benefits. Coffee is prepared from coffee beans, which are the roasted seeds of the coffee plant.  As of 2009, the largest producer of coffee is Brazil followed by Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia.  Due more to its caffeine content than its taste, coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world.  Some like to have a cup with their breakfast; others require it to wake up; and others still consume cups and cups throughout the day.  So, is your coffee addiction good?    The Caffeine Factor Let’s start with the caffeine factor.  The amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee first depends on what you call a cup.  Some use a mega-mug for their coffee (which probably starts at around 11 ounces and goes on up), some use a traditional tea cup which hold 6 ounces.  The amount of caffeine also depends on the type of coffee.  8 oz (which is an exact cup) of brewed coffee can range from about 100-200 mg of caffeine.  Compare this to tea.  Other than herbal tea and other caffeine-free teas, the caffeine content can range from about 20-100mg per 8 oz.  Sodas hover around 30-50mg per 12 ounce soda can.  As you can see, coffee has much more caffeine than other common beverages. So what does caffeine do?  Caffeine falls under the category of central nervous system stimulants.  That is why people feel more alert and awake after having a cup of joe. Above 4 cups a day, though, and some unpleasant side effects kick in.  These include anxiety, headaches, restlessness, insomnia, and a fast or irregular heartbeat, among others.  What’s worse is when people get into a cycle of losing sleep, using caffeine to stay awake, and then getting further sleep disturbances and disruptions of the deep REM sleep.   Caffeine can also increase your blood pressure Caffeine can also increase your blood pressure (both the systolic and the diastolic), through several purported mechanisms. This varies according to how each person’s body handles it, the level of tolerance built up, and how sensitive the person is to the effects of caffeine.  If you have a blood pressure monitor, go ahead and check your blood pressure before you drink your coffee and then shortly after you finish a cup.  This can help determine whether you need to keep your caffeine intake below 200mg to prevent a rise in blood pressure. Now to the effects of coffee.  Note that there are two main ways of brewing coffee—with or without a filter OR basically using a coffee machine with a paper filter or a French press.  The French press and others that do not use paper filters do NOT remove the diterpenes which have been associated with slightly higher LDL cholesterol levels and therefore the use of paper filters is recommended.  Depending on how and how fast your body metabolizes coffee, there also may be an increased risk for heart disease, though the risk is not as high as we once thought.   Good aspects to coffee There are some good aspects to coffee, though.  Coffee is a major source of anti-oxidants and research is showing that it reduces the risk of Parkinson’s, colon cancer, gallstones, liver cirrhosis, and even type 2 diabetes!  Interestingly, though some of this protective effect is inherent in the coffee itself, some of it is due to the caffeine! We don’t yet know the exact mechanisms for why all this occurs so more research is sure to come on this topic. So,

Omega 3 Fatty Acids have been in the limelight for some time now due to their heart-healthy benefits.  Many have decided to eat more fish or take fish oil pills.  Others see the value in eating walnuts and flaxseed.  Isn’t there a difference between these sources?  Doesn’t the mercury in fish cancel out its benefits? What is the best way to get this healthy fat? [divider] Omega 3 Fatty Acids – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to nutritionally speaking.  I’m your host Michaela Ballmann.  Today we are going to be talking about omega 3 fatty acids, a very popular topic these days and one of the most popular supplements.  What are the health claims of omega 3’s and what is the best source of this healthy fat? Omega 3’s are a type of essential fatty acid that is now famous for being heart-healthy.  The American Heart Association recommends eating fatty fish at least two times a week, which translates into eating a 3.5 ounce serving of salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines or other fatty fish at least twice a week.  Some are deterred by the term fatty fish and would rather eat something lean, but omega 3’s are a type of fat, so to get the benefits from them, you need to eat a food high in this type of fat.  Don’t worry, it’s a good fat! SO what makes it a good fat?  Omega threes have been shown to decrease triglyceride levels while increasing HDL levels; decrease already high blood pressure; prevent blood clots, and decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimers.  It may also aid with depression, arthritis and skin problems.  No wonder it is so popular!   Not all omega 3 fatty acids are created equal It is important to note that not all omega threes are created equal.  There are three main forms of omega 3’s—ALA (alpha linolenic acid), EPA (eicosapentanoic acid), and DHA (docosahexanoic acid).  ALA is found primarily in walnuts, flaxseed, and canola oil, all vegetarian sources.  EPA and DHA, on the other hand, are mainly found in fish and fish oil.  So what’s the difference?  The most powerful beneficial effects of omega 3’s are from EPA and DHA, leading people to believe that they are the only good type of omega 3.  ALA can be converted into the longer-chain EPA and DHA but the conversion is inefficient.  There are ways to increase the efficiency, however.  One of the main problems of the western diet is the type of fat used.  Though omega-6 fatty acids also have health benefits, we consume too much of them.  Omega 6’s are found in corn, safflower, and sunflower oil, nuts and seeds other than walnuts, eggs and meat.  The average western diet has a ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 of 10:1 or even up to 20:1.  The ratio needs to be reduced to about 3:1 by decreasing the amount of omega 6 and increasing the amount of omega 3 in the diet.  This is important because such a high ratio can promote inflammation, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and a poor conversion of ALA to EPA/DHA.  Reducing the ratio can help protect against these diseases and can help vegetarians and others who choose to get their omega 3’s from a non-marine source be better able to convert to the more potent type of omega-3 within their body.  Just an FYI, an ounce of walnuts (or about 14 halves) contains 2.5 grams of omega 3’s.   Omega 3 fatty acids and mercury Another issue that people have with fish is the mercury.  Mercury levels are lowest in salmon at .01 parts per million, halibut checks in at .26, and mackerel reaches up to .73.  If the American Heart Association guidelines are followed, the mercury content should not be large enough to worry about, but if large amounts of high mercury-containing fish is eaten daily, I would be more concerned about the type of fish and the frequency of its consumption. In fact, do you know how fish are such a great source of omega 3’s?  It’s because they eat microalgae.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a sweetener whose use has become controversial due to the hypothesis that it may cause obesity.   For this reason, many are avoiding products sweetened with HFCS and are choosing sucrose- (table sugar) containing products instead.  What is the evidence to back this claim?  What does current science tell us?  Should we all join together in the ban against High Fructose Corn Syrup?  Let’s play the detective and see where the evidence leads us! [divider] High Fructose Corn Syrup – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking, I am your host, Michaela Ballmann.  On today’s episode we are going to be discussing the controversial sweetener High Fructose Corn Syrup.  HFCS has been the center of much discussion due to its proposed role in the current epidemic of obesity. We’ll talk about this hypothesis and the research it spurred later in today’s episode.   Brief background on High Fructose Corn Syrup How did HFCS come to be a major sweetener in the United States compared to other countries.  Why are corn-based sweeteners so prevalent here?  Well, there have been extensive government subsidies of corn farmers and a plethora of US farm policies focused on promoting an increased production of inexpensive corn.  The result of this is that the price that consumers, like you and me, pay for both corn and its byproducts has stayed less than production cost.  In other words, we are paying much less than we should be for these products because the government is taking care of some of the cost. Having a lower cost has allowed for larger serving sizes that only cost slightly more money for the consumer.  That is how we can “super-size” our meal for just cents more and get a lot more food and calories.  So that is in a nutshell why high-fructose corn syrup (and lots of it) plays a key role in many food products. Now that we know why HFCSHigh Fructose Corn Syrupis made, it’s natural to ask HOW is it made?  High Fructose Corn Syrup is made by enzymatic isomerization of glucose to fructose, where basically one molecule is transformed into another molecule that has the exact same atoms, but the atoms and bonds are rearranged.  Through this process, the starch in corn can be converted to glucose and then to various amounts of fructose.  The most common formulations are HFCS 55 which contains 55% fructose and 45% glucose, and HFCS 45 which is the opposite, 45% fructose and 55% glucose.   High Fructose Corn Syrup and Sucrose So, you’re probably thinking, what is the composition of table sugar otherwise known as sucrose?  Sucrose is made up of 50% fructose and 50% glucose.  What?!  I thought that they would be really different?  Nope, they are in fact very similar in composition.  This is important to remember because we’ll be coming back to this point later in this episode. Now back to the hypothesis that I briefly mentioned earlier. The hypothesis that HFCS caused and is continuing to cause obesity was based on the observation that High Fructose Corn Syrup began to replace sucrose in soft drinks at about the same time that obesity rates in the United States began to rise sharply. It also relies on the notion that HFCS-sweetened beverages especially lack satiating power even more than other caloric beverages.  This stemmed from many studies done on pure, as in 100% Fructose, which showed that fructose doesn’t stimulate satiety factors, but none of this research was on HFCS.  Since then much research has been done comparing HFCS to sucrose (or table sugar which used to sweeten sodas in the US).  We’ll look at this research shortly.   Weight Gain and High Fructose Corn Syrup But Before we do, let’s go a little more in depth into the purported mechanism through which HFCS may cause obesity or weight gain.  The hypothesized mechanism by which this occurs is through a lack of satiating pow...

Lately more and more people have been jumping on the vegetarian bandwagon and for good reason!  There are plenty of benefits to going veggie, but there are also some very common concerns.  We’ll explore the pros and cons of a vegetarian diet and provide some helpful tips for those who want to give it a try. [divider] Going Vegetarian – Podcast Transcript Hi and welcome to Nutritionally speaking. I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann There are many different diets that people follow, and when I say diet, I don’t mean a weight loss regimen, but more of a lifestyle.  Some people eat only raw foods, others avoid all animal products, some eat most everything except red meat, others eschew anything in a bag/box/or package.  Today I’m going to talk about the Vegetarian diet or “lifestyle”, and later I’ll include some tips about how to go “Veggie”.   Vegetarian diets Vegetarian diets are becoming very popular these days, with people having various reasons for falling off the meat wagon.  Whether choosing to stop eating meat for health, animal rights, religious, or other reasons, a vegetarian diet is a healthy alternative to a traditional western diet. There are many different types of vegetarian diet.  The most common is “Lacto-ovo vegetarian” in which meat is avoided, but eggs, milk, cheese, and other dairy products are included.  There are also Lacto-vegetarians who eat milk and dairy but no eggs, and Ovo-vegetarians who eat eggs but no dairy.  Another type is Vegan, also known as “total vegetarian” in which all animal products including eggs and dairy are avoided; people vary in how strict they are in their diet and other areas of life.  For example, some don’t eat honey or buy leather or any other product made out of an animal or tested on animals—there are vegan cosmetics, shoes, clothes, and much, much more!  There are other hybrids of vegetarian diets like the pescatarian diet in which the person is basically vegetarian but eats fish too.  This person usually doesn’t eat other types of meat, whether beef, chicken, turkey, or any other kind. For the remainder of the podcast, when I say ‘vegetarian” I will be referring to vegetarian diets that exclude meat like Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian and vegans.   Going Vegetarian for health One of the most common reasons why people become vegetarian is for health.  With new and old research showing the benefits of a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, vegetable protein and fats, there have been more people converting to vegetarianism.  So, what exactly are the health benefits of a vegetarian diet? First, the vegetarian diet is usually lower in saturated and trans fat.  Saturated fat is usually in animal products like meat, cheese, and full-fat dairy products.  By avoiding these products or eating them in smaller quantities, one can reduce the dangerous effects of this fat, which include increasing the risk for heart disease, atherosclerosis, and strokes.  The same is true for trans fat; trans fat naturally occurs only in animal products, but also is man-made in the form of partially-hydrogenated oils in products like margarine or shortening, so in addition to meat, a huge source of trans fat is commercial baked products like cakes and cookies.  Trans fat is even worse than saturated fat in increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease/ heart disease and other diseases,   Going Vegetarian for longevity Second, the vegetarian diet is associated with longevity—meaning studies have shown that in general vegetarians live longer than meat eaters! You can also save money by eating vegetarian.  It’s amazing how cheap it can be to eat a warm bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, a nice salad and avocado sandwich for lunch, veggie chili and brown rice for dinner, fresh fruit throughout the day—it is so economical and makes you feel so good inside too! ?