Sip and Snack Swaps

With holiday season soon upon us, the time for hot beverages, sweet/salty/crunchy snacks and cuddling up with a warm blanket in front of the TV has begun. The cold weather brings holiday drinks such as eggnog, hot chocolate, lattes and mochas and the parties bring sweet, salty and crunchy treats. It is important to be aware of these treats and drinks as they can pack a bunch of calories into a day. Many people are not aware of the amount of liquid calories consumed at the holiday time, but when a 16 oz. eggnog latte from Starbucks has 470 calories, it is something we need to start paying attention to. There is a place for beverages such as these in your diet. However, they should be consumed in smaller serving sizes and only occasionally. As well some of the traditional treats can be consumed but there are great alternatives out there to subdue the cravings for these snacks.

Try some of these alternative drinks this season when planning a party.

1. Fruity tea soda instead of a soft drink or flavored soda 

• To make this steep two tea bags of your favourite herbal tea in 3 cups of boiling water (we used Tetley's Mint Mojito - pictured above). Chill. Add 1 cup sparkling mineral or soda water. You will have an instant fizzy drink with close to no sugar

2. Citrus water instead of fruit juice 

• Mix a teaspoon of lemon or lime juice with 8 oz. of water to have a refreshing drink without the sugar and calories from fruit juice. Try using a water bowl instead of a punch bowl at the next party you host. 

3. Herbal tea instead of eggnog, hot chocolate, lattes and mochas.

• Consider picking up the holiday flavors of teas to have instead of having the sugar sweetened, high fat beverages. If you do go for the other beverages try a skinny version or get the drink with half the sweetness.

...more examples

Try some of these healthy snacks to curb the salty, crunchy or sweet cravings that come along with the holiday season:

• Cheesy Kale Chips - Tear kale leaves into large pieces and arrange on a baking sheet. Spritz with olive oil and bake in a 350°F oven until crisp. While still warm, sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan cheese (check out our past post and Today I Ate a Rainbow's video).
  
• Five-spice pumpkin seeds - Toss salted pumpkin seeds with sesame oil and Chinese five-spice powder; bake at 350°F until crisp.
  
• Buffalo popcorn - Toss air-popped popcorn with olive oil, chili powder, and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese (how to make your own microwave popcorn)
  
• Chickpea poppers - Drain and rinse canned chickpeas, then dry them with a paper towel. Spritz with extra-virgin olive oil, season with dried oregano and garlic powder, and roast at 400°F until crisp (read more).
  
• Banana cream pie - Spread graham crackers with vanilla fat-free Greek yogurt, then top with a handful of banana slices and a sprinkle of ground flaxseed. (Read the label to make sure you stick to one serving of graham crackers.)
  
• Grapefruit Brule - Transform a simple grapefruit into something decadent: Halve it; drizzle each half with a little dark honey (use concentrated sweets sparingly), and broil until bubbly.

...more examples of sweet, salty, crunchy treats

 

Remember, there will be temptations at every holiday party you go to. If you focus on good choices most of the year, treats at the holiday season can fit in to a balanced diet. Just spend more time choosing the better option and don’t over indulge when you do have some treats. Enjoy the holiday season and stay warm this winter!

Kaitlyn Kwasney, Dietetic Intern

for Stephanie Langdon, RD

something nutrishus counselling & coaching

www.nutrishus.com

A World of Flavours

One reason I love traveling is because you get to experience different cultures and their foods.  There may be similar ingredients, but perhaps they are used in different ways.  When I talk about mindful eating, that involves enjoying the many flavours of your food.  Whether you're cooking the food yourself or lucky enough to just get to eat it (I love cooking, don't get me wrong!), it's important to stop and savour the tastes - the sweetness of cinnamon, the 'meatiness' of cumin, the memories I have that I associate with mint.  We will all have preferences and familiar flavours, but I do enjoy cooking with different ingredients and spices and seeing/experiencing how other people flavour their food.

The smells are also very important when we think of taste and flavour.  My mom used to say to start sauteing onions and garlic to at least give the impression that the meal is on the way (even if you still have lots of prepping, you'll also have drooling guests).  I think I still need to work on my detection of different spices, but that just means I can continue to slow down and discuss my food with others and pick out the different flavours.  At my wedding shower, we played a 'guess the spice' game, which was a perfect game for a foodie bride, but the blends got me and I definitely wasn't the winner!

Many cities celebrate culture with a type of folk festival.  We just had ours in Saskatoon and I sampled great food and spent time with family and friends.  As we were leaving, my husband and I noticed some informational signs in the Caribbean pavilion, so I made sure to capture them to share with you.

They give some background on flavours used in Caribbean food and connections to Indian food (curry).  This reminded me of our cooking class in Thailand and how we noticed just a slight change in the ingredients meant a huge difference in the curry paste.

If you're like many people, you might have a cupboard full of spices, but you have your favourites (or the ones that you're comfortable using) and then you have ones that were in a rare recipe or that you don't know what to do with.  Spices can be a great ingredient to share with others since they may come in much larger portions than you need.  You can also start looking for new ways to spice up or flavour your meals.  Herbs and spices can be a great way to reduce salt, fat, and sugar in our diets, but still leave us feeling satisfied.

Dietitians of Canada has created a chart with suggested flavour enhancers to inspire your cooking efforts.  And if you're not sure what to do with that marjoram or cardamom, EatRight Ontario has brief descriptions and recipes for a variety of herbs and spices.  This may give you ideas for fresh herbs from your garden or local farmer's market as well.  There are also lots of infographics out there to help you create spice blends or determine which spices go best with which ingredients.

Here's to delicious food!
Steph Langdon, RD
something nutrishus counselling & coaching
www.nutrishus.com

Do I Need More Salt When I’m Active?

Athletes can get confused about recommendations around sodium/salt.  Yes, some endurance athletes (ultra endurance athletes in particular) need additional salt to account for their high losses, but most athletes get more than enough in their typical diet.  The concern is that high intakes of sodium can lead to high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and/or kidney disease. 

Most Canadians are getting more than enough sodium without even trying.  Canadians are currently averaging 3400 mg of sodium per day.  The recommended intake is only 1500 mg and the upper limit is 2300 mg.  The Sodium Working Group has a goal of reducing Canadian intakes to 2300 mg per day by 2016.

During activity sodium helps stimulate thirst to encourage hydration, helps maintain our fluid and electrolyte balances, and helps us retain fluid.  An athlete experiencing low sodium may experience muscle cramping, bloating, stomach upset, and the inability to rehydrate after exercise.

In sweat, people lose water and electrolytes.  Salt is the main electrolyte lost in sweat, but the losses are very individual and you will lose far more water than sodium.  A heavy and/or salty sweater will have more losses to replace, but these are often easily met by typical food choices. 

Fact: Most of the foods we eat contain too much sodium.

• Over 75% of the sodium we eat comes from processed foods such as cheese, deli meats, pizza, sauces and soups.

• Packaged and ready-to-eat foods, fast foods and restaurant meals are often high in sodium.

• Breads, breakfast cereals and bakery products also contain sodium even though they may not taste salty.

The sport food industry wants you to buy their products, but sodium replacement is easier than the ads suggest.  There is a time and a place for different products, foods, and beverages.

Stephanie Wheler, RD
Something Nutrishus Counselling & Coaching
www.nutrishus.com

Sources:

Sodium Facts for Athletes, coach.ca, Nov. 2010

Sodium Reduction Messages and Tips, Dietitians of Canada, Oct. 2011

Treating Yourself to the Movies

We went out to a show last night, and no matter how often I go, I am always surprised that almost everyone has popcorn, and/or a drink, and/or other candy. I know we see it as a treat, so again as I always say: MODERATION, VARIETY, and BALANCE. If this is an occasional thing for you it can likely fit into your eating pattern. The thing that concerns me is that people may be choosing the popcorn as a 'healthy' option.

I love popcorn, but the way I love it is at home from my airpopper with a little dash (like 1 tsp) of melted margarine. In this situation, it can be considered a healthy snack - Canada's Food Guide counts 2 cups of plain popcorn as a whole grain choice! It's when we go out and have it covered in fat and salt that the nutritional value goes way down.

I found a great video from ctv from Feb. 2011 with some research results on 3 different theartre's popcorn. They show the calories, fat, and sodium for a size large with and without topping. In comparison, that 2 cups of airpopped popcorn at home has about 62 Calories, 0.7g of fat, and 1mg sodium (caloriecount.about.com). Again, I'm not saying you can never have it, but not too often, or get the small, or share with your partner. When we sit in front of the big screen our attention is on the movie, not how much we're eating, so help yourself out with portion control by getting a smaller size!

Steph Wheler
www.nutrishus.com

Soaking and Cooking Dried Beans/Legumes

If you've always used canned beans/legumes, or even if you are just starting to consider adding these meat alternatives to your diet - you may not know what to do with the dried varieties. Dried beans/legumes are a great budget friendly, shelf stable vegetarian protein. Beans/legumes are typically low in fat, contain no cholesterol, and are high in folate, potassium, iron and magnesium. They also contain beneficial fats and soluble and insoluble fiber. Canned items can be high in salt/sodium which is part of the reason I first tried dried beans/legumes.

I found a good guide on the site The Veggie Table which I have followed to learn about different soaking times and how to cook the beans once they've been rehydrated. I don't often soak overnight because I often use the beans/legumes to create supper. Instead I soak them while I work all day so they are ready when I need them that evening. I do test them throughout the cooking time until they reach the consistency I want. I use my rice cooker to get my brown rice done while I chop and saute a variety of vegetables, then I mix everything together in a skillet and season accordingly. I'm not a vegetarian, but I like having variety and moderation in my diet and dried beans/legumes allow me to do that!

If you're not sure where to start, the Mayo Clinic has a list of some beans/legumes and their common uses.

Steph Wheler
www.nutrishus.com

Warm up with some Lentil Soup

It's been so cold lately that it makes me want soup. I tried this recipe from about.com a little while ago because I had some dried lentils around the house. I had never made lentil soup and I thought it was pretty good. I also like it because it includes simple ingredients which most people can find in their own cupboards on a regular basis. I am conscious of the high salt/sodium in most soups available today, so when I made it I used fairly dilute chicken stock (I used 1.5 oxo cubes for 4 cups of water). Try it out to get some meat alternatives into your day!

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot sliced
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• dash salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation:

In a large pot, sautee the onions and carrot in the vegetable oil for 3-5 minutes until onions turn clear.

Add the vegetable broth, lentils, pepper, thyme, bay leaves and salt.

Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until lentils are soft, about 45 minutes. Remove bay leaves and stir in lemon juice before serving. Makes 4 servings of lentil soup.

Steph Wheler

www.nutrishus.com