The Fruits of Our Labor; Day One of Butternut Squash Fest!

First let's take a look at some nutrition and health news from the week.

Questions About Soy
(This article talks about the myth that only fermented soy foods are good for us. It provides a very unbiased view of soy and its benefits).

Restaurants Will Have to Dish On Nutrition
(Starting next year you will see calories listed next to your favorite restaurant foods!)



The Healthy Skeptic: The ABCs of Restaurant Grades
(Read at your own risk. Seriously, sometimes I don't enjoy reading about pathogens and viruses being spread in restaurants, but it's a good reminder to be careful when you choose your restaurants. This was also a good review for me because I'm taking my ServeSafe exam soon!)



Is Everything In Moderation a Farce?!
(This was a blog post by Ashley at Good Taste, Healthy Me. I found it very interesting and I left my opinion in the comment section.)

Should All Obese People Lose Weight?
(When are we going to just get rid of BMIs, for good?!)



College Students Not Getting Enough Fruits and Vegetables
(Quote from article: Even after considering the meals the students skipped, researchers found they were not even getting one serving of fruits and vegetables per day on average.
Yikes.)

And the best news of the week.....

We picked out first tomatoes and butternut squash from our garden!


These were the first of about 35. No joke.



My goal for the rest of summer/fall/winter is to come up with a new way to use butternut squash, every week. So far, we've used it two ways;

After baking for an hour at 400 degrees...


I cut up some of the squash and threw it on top of my salad (with fresh tomatoes, avocado, spring mix, lean ground beef, and blueberry balsamic vinegar).

So delicious.

And Nick likes to be boring so his first butternut squash dish was simple; roasted and then cut into chunks and thrown in a bowl with butter and brown sugar. Equally as delicious, I'm sure.


QUESTION: Do you have any simple butternut squash recipes?? PLEASE send them my way! I will try to fit it into my squash schedule!

Yes You CAN Eat More Fruits and Veggies!

Before I get to today's post I want to thank you for all of your wonderful comments on my last post after my first biathlon! I'm still sore, actually, but I really can't wait to to it again. It won't be anytime soon, but I'm more motivated to stay in shape and push myself even harder when I do my workouts, everyday. I seriously needed that motivation because I was getting extremely bored and tired of my workouts. Now I have a goal in mind and that is to eventually do a triathlon..... :)

Today I'm going to talk about how to get more fruits and vegetables in your diet. A while ago a friend ask me for some tips on this very subject. Starting today you will no longer be able to make excuses for not getting enough fruits and vegetables in your diet. Here are my tips for consuming 5-9 servings of vegetables and fruits each day.

• Don't believe that canned and frozen fruits and veggies are less healthy. Sure, canned fruits have more sugar and canned vegetables have more sodium, but that's why we have strainers and water to rinse them off (you can omit about 40% of the sugar and sodium by straining and rinsing). And frozen? They are often loaded with even more nutrients than their fresh counterparts.

• Don't force yourself to like certain fruits and vegetables because of something lame you've heard on TV or in a magazine. All fruits and vegetables are good for you, period. Keep the ones you do like around all the time. Brussel sprouts may be incredibly healthy, but if you don't like them, don't force yourself to eat them! Broccoli, cabbage, kale and cauliflower are just as good for you.

• Create your favorite dishes, but just make them a bit healthier by adding extra vegetables and/or fruits (afterall, many nutrients aren't absorbed without the help of some fat!)

Example 1: Loaded sweet potato fries with black beans, red pepper, avocado, and cheese. That's about three whole servings of vegetable!

Example 2; Turkey meatballs, with spinach

Example 3; pizza with lots of extra veggies (the right side was Nick's. Ahem....he doesn't always take my advice)

• Fruits and vegetables are perfect foods to eat when you are full but you still want something to munch on. Find something you like, and eat it!

Examples; carrots and celery with hummus, cucumbers with salsa, oranges, apples and dessert hummus (beans, my friends!), dried fruits, or these delicious vegetable chips below (HINT: if you want the benefits of vegetables in a chip, look for veggie chips that are actually made from veggies, not veggie powders)

• Remember, the ChooseMyPlate logo is just a guideline. Be creative in making half your plate fruits and vegetables. Mix your foods together for a combination of protein, grains, dairy (or dairy alternatives) and veggies/fruits!

Source: ChooseMyPlate.gov

=

=

• Pack raw veggies and fruits for snacks at work, or look for the fruit-based snack bars (HINT: Larabars are a great example, but there are many others out there too. Look for real fruit, not just fruit juice concentrate, in the ingredient list)

• SMOOTHIES are a perfect way to get at least three servings of fruits and vegetables into your diet.

Example: This smoothie has almost three full servings of fruits/veggies; banana, blueberry, sweet potato, orange pulp and spinach/dark greens. And did you notice that this smoothie includes all the different colors of produce?!

• Be creative! Who says you can't have pumpkin or sweet potato with your oats?

And who says you can't add spinach, kale, sweet potato or pumpkin to your smoothie, like the above photo?


Who says you can't eat the pulp leftover from making orange juice?

Who says you can't put broccoli in a quesadilla?

Who says you can't add spinach to polenta, even if the recipe doesn't call for it?

• Last, but not least, enjoy the fresh produce that is bountiful this summer. It's almost a sin to ignore it.
  

QUESTION: What are some of your tips for including more fruits and veggies in your diet?

Salad in a Pill?

The other day I met someone who was eager to share his diet with me. He quickly whipped out a sheet from his pocket, which listed all of the fruits and vegetables he consumed on that particular day. I was so excited! The list included several cups of cantaloupe, a couple handfuls of spinach, some tomato and broccoli. Considering some of the diets I've seen during my time as an RD, I was immensely impressed. Soon afterwards I realized he was actually showing me what was "in his multivitamin". He was taking something that claimed to provide the equivalent amount of nutrients as all of those fruits and veggies in one pill. Yikes.

Source: iStock Photo

I didn't really know what to say....but a lot went through my mind:

1) Wouldn't you rather eat those foods?! They are so delicious! Ok, so maybe I'm biased because I'm an RD and I happen to love all fruits and vegetables, but come on, the thought of taking all of that good food in the form of a pill is like taking a dose of caffeine instead of drinking a delicious cup of coffee....it just doesn't make sense!

2) There is a reason why RDs and other health professionals recommend that you space your meals out and not consume too many calories in one sitting. Our bodies just can't absorb all of those nutrients at once. While it probably won't harm him, he's likely wasting his money (although he could be spacing out his multivitamin dose, I didn't ask).

3) Most supplements or other foods, which claim to provide an amount of nutrients that are equivalent to fruits and vegetables, are forgetting something very important; FIBER! Now I can't speak for all supplements, because I haven't researched all of them, but thus far I have yet to find a similar supplement that claims to contain "XYZ fruits and veggies" and which actually has the equivalent amount of fiber (unless it's something like maltodextrin or polydextrose, which in my opinion just isn't the same).

Source: iStock Photo

4) Did you know that there are thousands of health-promoting plant compounds that are lurking in our produce, which have yet to be discovered? Do you really think that scientists have found each and every nutrient that plays a role in protecting our body from disease? Do you really think that the makers of such supplements have included every tiny nutrient that is in broccoli, melon, spinach, etc. into their product? My point is that there is a synergy that exists among the thousands of nutrients (many still unknown) found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other foods. They work together in a way that increases their effectiveness and makes them do their job even better! Does that synergy exist in products like these? Likely not.

5) In a recent article from Nutrition Action Healthletter, the concept of taking a lycopene pill to prevent prostate cancer was discussed. It was concluded that while the lycopene pill won't necessarily hurt you, it will not benefit you to take these pills instead of eating tomatoes. Once again, there are unknown compounds in tomatoes that are likely working with the lycopene to provide their protective benefits.

Bottom Line: Use supplements as they are intended to be used; to supplement the diet, and fill in the gaps. Do not use them to make up for an unhealthy diet, because it just won't work. Are products, such as the one this guy was taking, harmful? No, but they could indirectly be harmful if you are neglecting fruits and vegetables because of them.

Source: iStock Photo

QUESTION: Have you enjoyed any farmer's markets yet this season? What about any locally-grown produce in your supermarket?