About Roofresh

My name is Kelsey, not Roofresh, but Roo IS my nickname. I live in the Phoenix area with my husband and we are having fun being newlyweds and going on crazy adventures together. We like finding new hangouts, food, art, music and friends; so that's pretty much what my blog is about. You'll find a bit of fashion, design, nutrition and family sprinkled throughout my content, or anything else that catches my eye at the moment. My blog has changed a lot over the last year, but you'll see that it's really just a record of our lives together; our public journal.

The Blogroll

Friday, May 18, 2012

Recipes from this week

I posted some pictures of our meals this week on Instagram and Twitter and had a request for recipes, so here it goes! Let me know if you try them, and if you have an Instagram or Twitter I’ve created the hashtag “#healthyfoodhashtag” so post a picture if you try them!

Summer Corn Relish
3 whole ears of corn
1 ½ cup cherry tomatoes
3 small avocados
Juice from half of a lime (or a whole one depending on how ‘juicy’ it is)
Cilantro (to your liking)
This is super simple; you pretty much dice everything up and throw it in a bowl. I cook the corn on the stove for about five minutes and rinse it in cold water then cut it off of the cob. I like the cherry tomatoes halved, but do your thing with it. Also, you can make it as flavorful as you want by adding extra lime juice and cilantro.



Spicy Black Bean Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
½ onion
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
2 cloves of garlic
4 cans of black beans (drained)
1 can stewed tomatoes (I like the Trader Joes organic stewed tomatoes with green chilies
½ teaspoon cumin
Dash or two of oregano (dried or fresh)
¼ teaspoon Sriracha
¼ teaspoon sesame oil
¼ teaspoon ground mustard powder (optional)
32 ounces vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to your liking
Fat free Greek yogurt and cilantro for a garnish (optional)

Pour olive oil in a large pot and turn on medium heat. When the oil is shimmering add onions, celery and carrots. When the vegetables are tender add the garlic. After a minute add 3 of the cans of black beans and the tomatoes. Simmer for about five minutes or until the beans and tomatoes have warmed through. Pour broth into pot and add the cumin, oregano, Sriracha, sesame oil, mustard powder, salt and pepper. Bring soup to a simmer.

For this part I used my blender, but you can use a food processor or hand immersion blender. You will probably want to blend it in batches, because the soup will be HOT, and will flood out the top of the blender if you do too much at once.  It took me about four batches to puree it, but I only blended for about 20 seconds a batch. For safety I covered the top of my blender with a dishtowel protect my hand from any overflow.

Return the soup to the pot and add the last can of black beans. Simmer until the black beans are tender and warm.  I garnished with a little Greek yogurt and cilantro which was AMAZING, but if you want to keep the dish vegan you can garnish with avocado instead of yogurt. ENJOY!

Keep it real!

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Be Good or Gorge?

{Photos c/o Marthastewart.com}

If you are new to my blog, you may not know that I work for the Arizona Department of Education for their Health and Nutrition Services. Basically, I'm an auditor for the National School Lunch Program. Needless to say I'm constantly thinking about food, worrying about food, being judged for the food I eat, judging the food other people eat. Food is a BIG part of my life. I try to stay on top of current nutrition trends and diets, while still formulating an accurate professional and personal opinion on how we humans should treat our bodies nutritionally. I recently ran across this article http://food.unl.edu/web/fnh/superbowl written by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Nutrition Education Program. It goes over helpful tips on how to stay healthy on Superbowl Sunday. Hmmm.

Now I have a coworker who always says 'everything in moderation' anytime there is a debate over which lifestyle is the healthiest and what are the best principles in choosing which foods to eat. I love it because for the most part, it's pretty true, in all areas of life. So my question is, are the efforts of institutions like UNL and individual RD's and nutritionists futile when it comes to the subject of holiday's and events? Personally, I feel deprived if I don't get to eat goodies every once in a while like the ones in the pictures above. BUT that's the point, I have self control and moderation throughout the year, where as other people may not, they may need that control even on game day, to keep them from falling off of the wagon. Oh and I haven't mentioned vegetarians and vegans at this point. They obviously are going to modify everything to fit that part of their lifestyle, but that doesn't mean that a vegetarian can't smother everything in cheese (cheese is always my downfall). 

So I want to know how people feel about this. Do you feel like you are being preached at when someone says, you should make a healthier alternative to this, or are you grateful for the guidance? 

Keep it real,
Roo

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Monday, June 6, 2011

What's on Your Dinner Plate?


So I decided to break my blogging silence (not that I was really doing it on purpose) to talk about the new USDA 'food pyramid'. As you can see, it's no longer a pyramid but has been transformed into an interactive plate where you can click on each section to learn more about that portion of the plate. It is a drastic re-vamp of the pyramid, and they even changed the URL from 'mypyramid.gov' to 'choosemyplate.gov'.
What's the big deal?
Personally I'm not a big fan of the change. While I agree that Americans should know how their plate should look and what components make up a balanced meal, I've singled out a few points that I feel like cause confusion or hinder the usefulness of this 'guide'. 

1. Too simple = too vague.  Something that I liked about the old pyramid, and in all honesty the old-old pyramid as well, is that it showed the public an 'at-a-glance' snapshot of how your daily intake should be broken up. By all means, it wasn't perfect, but it at least showed which foods were included in each category without you having to dive further into it. Unfortunately, if an individual does not have access to the Internet, this new image will not take them very far. I remember being in elementary school when the old one came out and having my teacher explain it using nothing more than the diagram itself.

2. Three square meals is not always the answer.  I don't know about you, but when I saw this the first thought that popped into my mind was that this was a dinner plate. Now not everyone may make the same assumption that I did, but I think when people see the image of a plate, dinner is not a far off thought. So what does this mean? I have to have three meals a day that are set up exactly like this? I can't have some protein and fruit for breakfast and then dairy and veggies as a snack later? Do I have to eat fruit with dinner; what if I don't like to eat fruit with my dinner? My point is, compared to the old model, this new version may lead people to believe that they have to adhere to a strict structure of setting up every meal a certain way, instead of showing that you can get all of your needs met throughout the day, and that only your own creativity can hinder you. 

3. Sometimes change is hard; If it's not broke don't fix it.  Mypyramid.gov, how simple is that? Personally, I think it's a lot harder to remember ChooseMyPlate.gov and in the USDA's venture to simplify I feel like they ended up just making things more confusing. You will notice that if you type in the old URL it will still route you to the same site, but maybe the pyramid should have just stayed our symbol of nutritional guidance for the U.S., I mean what American hasn't heard of the food pyramid right?




So what do you think? Do you think taking the very heart of our battle, the dinner plate, and showing realistic portions will better the people who choose to use it as a reference, or did you like the old pyramid better? Maybe the USDA is on the right track with the plate, but they need to adjust it to make it more useful. The buzz is that they are still 'tweaking' the new model and that we should still expect some changes; if it was you, what would you keep, what would you change?

Keep it real,

Roo

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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

40-Minute-Meals {Best Salad EVER!}

So I'm on a real kick with this salad lately, it's really easy to make, and it probably wont take you 40 minutes to make.

Ingredients: 1 Large sweet potato, 1 cup arugula, 2 tbsp green onion, 1 tsp olive oil, a dash of sea salt and ground pepper, dressing of choice. 

I start by peeling and chopping a sweet potato. I don't like my chunks too big because then it takes longer to cook. I warm a saucepan with a little bit of olive oil in it and toss 'em in. While that cooks (lid on at med-low heat) I wash some arugula and toss it in my favorite dressing (I buy a special dressing from a restaurant in Mesa called Moki's, it's a little sweet and creamy, so I don't need to use a lot). Don't forget to stir your sweet potatoes often so that they don't burn; if the heat is too high and they aren't stirred enough, they will taste charred and kind of gross. Something to keep in mind is that the more you leave the lid on, the fast it will cook as well due to the steam. When the sweet potatoes start to get tender, add some chopped green onion, whites and greens, but wait till the potatoes are almost done so that they don't wilt too much. Right before the potatoes are done, add some fresh ground pepper and sea salt for flavor. If the potatoes start to stick to the pan a lot, you can add more olive oil, just be careful because the calories can start to add up (stir frequently to avoid sticking). Let the potatoes cool for 10-15 minutes and toss them in with the arugula....and you're done! 

Mmmmmm, so good! AND HEALTHY! The sweet potatoes are packed with vitamins (as long as you don't over cook them) and you burn the same amount of calories by eating the arugula as are in it! 

TIP: Foods that have Vitamin A aka Beta-Carotene in it are processed better if heated slightly, if you over cook it, the food can lose nutrient value. 

I love this salad because it makes me feel fancy when I make it. I think it's sophistocated and you can impress your friends with it! If you try to make it, let me know what you think!

Keep it real,

Roo

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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Things that are Good for You {Fats}

So if you haven't been following along lately, I've been doing these little posts about, well, things that are good for you. I'm pretty straightforward. I like to start over with a little review: last time we talked about protein and the time before that it was carbs. Protein, carbs, and fat make up a little trifecta that we like to call Macronutrients.
Review:

Carbs: These should make up 45-65% of your diet. Complex carbs, whole wheat, grains, fruits, basically anything 'natural' should be what's in your diet. Eat things like pizza, ice cream, sweet breads, candy or other processed foods sparingly and in moderation, or find modified healthier versions of your favorite foods to incorporate them into your lifestyle.  Some examples of what I'm talking about; use whole wheat pasta or pizza dough instead of white (Trader Joe's sells whole wheat ready-made pizza dough), use brown rice instead of white, eat fruit as your dessert or add it to some Greek yogurt with honey. 

The important thing to remember about carbs, YOU NEED THEM! Don't cut them out, just use them right.

Protein: Protein is important, but really overused. A lot of people think that protein shakes, powders, bars etc. are great for them and great after a workout, and while they can be for some people they are often over used. A lifestyle of over consumption of protein can be hard on your kidneys and often times puts people over their daily needs for calories. When you over consume calories, good things like protein or carbs can be stored as fat (carbs can be stored in small amounts in your body for later use, however, protein is either used or stored as fat, you don't store protein as protein). 

Bottom line, keep protein in your diet in small amounts. A piece of chicken the size of a deck of cards, once a day or a small piece of fish in addition to the proteins that you will get out of other sources like whole wheat, veggies and dairy will help to get you what you need. Protein should make up 10-35% of your daily caloric intake.

Alright, this could be very confusing, so I'm going to try to simplify it as much as possible to just convey the important information that will help you day-to-day. Sometimes when I try to explain fats it gets very word-y, so if you have any questions after you're done reading, please comment and let me know.

Types of fats: You have probably heard of saturated fat, trans fats, cholesterol, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats....maybe you haven't, that's fine I'll explain. There's also omega-3's and omega-6 that you here a little about too. I could keep going with detail but we'll go over these for now.

I think the easiest way to explain fats is to break them down one at a time. Just as an overview, just like carbs and protein, you NEED fat in your body. You need it for many main building-block functions within cell growth, brain function and hormone production. Your diet should consist of 20-35% of its calories from fat. My diet should be about 1800 calories to maintain my weight (if you factor in activity) so I should be eating 360-630 calories from fat a day. Sounds like a lot huh? Totally normal!

Part 1
'Bad Fats'

Saturated fat: Quick chemistry lesson-a saturated fat is made up of triglycerides and has no double bonds and that's what makes it saturated. It's not really important for you to know that it has no double bonds, but it's called a saturated fat because it is saturated with hydrogen atoms whereas a double bond adds an extra carbon atom. 
{via}

Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. You can spot a saturated fat on a steak with a lot of marbling, bacon, lard, or any other kind of fat from an animal that is solid when it's not heated. It's also in other animal products like whole milk or yogurt or cheese that is not fat-free. 

Saturated fat causes clogging of arteries which can lead to heart attacks, increased body fat stores, and result in diabetes and really a whole host of other health problems. Our bodies are really good at making saturated fats on their own, so you don't really need a lot in your diet. You obviously do need them for bodily function or your body wouldn't assemble them on its own, but compared to what our natural 'hunter gatherer' lifestyle was intended to be, we get A LOT in our diets now-days. In fact, the American Heart Association recommends that you have less than 7% of your diet come from saturated fat....do you think you have less than 7% in your diet? 

Trans fats: Occur naturally in animal products. A trans fat is a trans fat because of its chemical structure and bonds. I'm not going to explain that in detail, just know that it is not good to have high levels of trans fats in your body. Obviously, we are going to get trans fats in our diets because a lot of us eat animal products on a daily basis. Where trans fats get really dangerous is in processed foods. 


Trans fats are currently considered by most professionals to be the worst type of fat for you in terms of Americans diets. The American Heart Association recommends that you have less that 1% of your daily intake from trans fats, that's less than 20 calories from trans fats for most people. 

Cholesterol: I hate the terms, 'good cholesterol' and 'bad cholesterol' because it doesn't really exist. Have you ever heard of a food that is high in 'good cholesterol'? NO! It's because it's all about what your body does with it when it gets it. Your body produces cholesterol from its liver, so it's in your body regardless of what you eat. Some people are really good at producing it and some people not as good. In fact, for some people, they can go on a low-cholesterol diet and their cholesterol won't budge because their body adjusts and produces MORE due to the lack of it in their diet. Most of the time when health care professionals tell you to lower the cholesterol in your diet it's because foods that are high in cholesterol are typically higher in saturated fat as well, and it's that saturated fat that can really effect the LDL levels in your body.
LDL
This stands for Low-Density Lipoprotein. What is a Lipoprotein? It is the vessel by which your body carries fat through the blood stream. Fat does not mix with water, so in order for it to be carried throughout your blood stream, it needs a layer of protein to make it 'water soluble' or able to be in water. 
I won't go into too much detail, but when fat is brought into your body from your gut it travels through theses vessels. VLDL (VERY low-density lipoprotein) has a lot of triglycerides in it as well as cholesterol and eventually changes into IDL and then LDL. The LDL is bigger than the HDL because it has more fat inside of its protein chamber (for lack of a better word). Simply put, LDL carries fat to different parts of the body that need it to build cells, hormones and digestive juices. Most people eat too much fat and have too much LDL floating in their blood and it can end up sticking to arterial walls, causing heart attacks and strokes. (I'll talk about HDL when I talk about 'good fats'). 

Whew...do you have a headache yet? Well I do and it's time for bed. I will be following up with 'good fats' this weekend, so check back to see how you can improve your diet!

Keep it real,

Roo

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

FLT

This is technically the newest version of "40-Minute-Meals" but it takes less than 40 minutes...way less, so I didn't want to title it that. FLT is my version of a BLT but the 'F' stands for...

FIGS!!!

Figs are the superstar of this sandwich, but it's good for oh so many reasons. If you look closely at my picture, it does have some bacon in there, but the good thing is that this sandwich can take it or leave it. We just happened to have leftover jalapeño bacon so it was more out of being resourceful. I guess this should be called a BFLT, but that starts to sound like an acronym for a profanity. 

{Ingredients}
Whole wheat artisan bread (ours is from TJ's)
Goat cheese, mmmm
Arugula
Sliced tomato
Sliced, dried figs
Oil and vinegar dressing

{Directions}

It's pretty self explanatory, but here we go: 
1. Start by slicing your wheat bread and spreading the goat cheese on one side. 
2. Thinly slice your tomatoes and figs. 
3. Place them on the cheesy side of the sandwich. (I like to sauté the tomatoes quickly before putting them on the sandwich. 
4. If you choose to add meat you can put it on at this time as well and close your sandwich (my preferred meat of choice is a thin slice of prosciutto - YUM!) 
5. Let sauté on either side (I have a fancy panini pan that smooshes mine for me, but any pan will do. 
6. After toasted on both sides, pull top slice off again and add arugula and a very small amount of oil and vinegar, (less than a teaspoon). I like to make a vinaigrette with it and add a little sea salt and pepper to my homemade dressing.

We had this for dinner tonight, it was pretty satisfying! I will caution you to be careful on the 'fats' of this dish, the goat cheese and olive oil can add calories quickly so use them both sparingly. I am planning on doing my next 'Things that are Good for You' post this week, and guess what it's on? FATS! So stay tuned if you want to learn more about what kinds of fats should be in your diet.

So what did you think? Would you try it? I'm pretty sure next time I want to put a little sliver of prosciutto on mine. Prosciutto is the reason why I'm currently not a vegetarian, I think it's my favorite meat! Ha ha. Would you alter this recipe at your house, or keep it the same? Would you try it with jalapeño bacon?

Keep it real,

Roo

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Goals...Dun Dun Duuuun!

I've never done a "goals" post, but that's probably because I know that I'll be held accountable if I publish them...well there's a first time for everything...Wait, I did kind of do a goal post, and I totally failed. Dang! Okay, so here's my new set, hopefully making them public will help me to reach some of them!

Short Term

1. Go to bed by 10:30pm on "school nights"
2. Exercise 5-6 days a week: minimum 30 minutes and not the same exercise two days in a row.
3. Decrease my portion sizes and monitor fat intake...for being a nutritionist, I really don't take my own advise sometimes! I REALLY like cheese though. :)
4. Cook meals at home 90% of the time...If I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner that's 21 meals, that means I need to only eat out twice a week!
5. Drink 64oz of water a day (can be included in teas).
6. Visit a farmer's market twice a month and buy locally grown food.
7. Try one new recipe a week.
8. Try only sitting at work when I'm with a client. While making phone calls, or on the computer, stand or squat.
9. Read one new book by the end of March. OMG I can't remember the last time I finished a book that I started.
10. Do one thing a day that I know my husband will appreciate and will make him feel loved, (AND IT CAN'T BE THE SAME THING EVERY DAY).

Long Term (10-15years)

1. Start a personal business that is self sustaining.
2. Live in a certified energy efficient house.
3. Be debt free including house and car.
4. Live close enough to my work that I can ride my bike there and back, daily.
5. Have a baby! Or 2!

Plan

I feel that the best way to achieve a goal is to have a plan of attack. I think I will do some follow up blog posts to explain how I plan on executing some of my goals. We always tell people during nutrition counseling that the more specific you are, the more likely you are going to succeed in achieving your goal. My plan is to have one goal mastered before I work on the next so that I have habits created and it is easy to sustain my goals.

1. Go to bed by 10:30pm on "school nights" - my boss does a little thing where she will give herself a 'treat' for each goal that she accomplishes. I don't think that food should be a reward in most cases, but I'm going to make one exception: I LOVE Dutch Brother's coffee, a franchise we have here in Arizona, and for every Sunday-Thursday that I go to bed on time I will allow myself the purchase of a DUTCH BROS coffee on Friday morning. Woo Hoo! Oh and make someone OTHER than my husband or mom keep me accountable. Any volunteers? It's already 10:37 here! Lets see how this goes...

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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Things that are Good for You {Protein}

It's that time again. Forget about the post I just did on delicious hamburgers and think "healthy." Again, everything in moderation; I'm a firm believer in not depriving yourself from an occasional treat, but make sure that you fill your life with great healthy foods that don't make you feel like you are being deprived all of the time to do so.

If you didn't catch it, I did a post a couple of weeks ago called "Things that are Good for You" which focused mainly on the importance of healthy carbs in your diet. I recommend that you read that post as well to ensure that you are somewhat educated on all of the macronutrients, because they are all ESSENTIAL for life. That's right, if you don't have them eventually you will deprive your body of what you need for LIFE.

Keep in mind that I do have a BS in nutrition and am currently working in the nutrition field, however, I do not claim to be an expert and encourage you to do research on your own from RELIABLE sources. If you're not sure what a reliable source is, please ask.

Review:
What is a Macronutrient? Simple, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. YOU MUST HAVE THEM ALL IN YOUR DIET. Please don't try to drop a few pounds by cutting any of them out of your diet, it's really not safe and you will gain your weight back eventually when you incorporate them back into your diet. Last time we talked about CARBS. Carbs are great for you, healthy, give you energy and provide a ton of vitamins and other nutrients to your diet if used correctly. Your daily carb intake should consist of 45-65% of you calories or energy for the day. What does this mean? If you eat a diet that consists of 2000 calories a day, 900-1300 of your calories should be coming from carbs (roughly 225-325g). That sounds like a lot, but if you are eating brown rice, quinoa, 100% whole wheat bread, or oatmeal instead of mac and cheese, brownies and ice cream, you'll notice that it's not that hard. For more info on whole grains, please visit http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/grains.html. If you are a lady, smaller build or are not very active, you probably do not need a 2000 calorie diet. I would reach out to a professional or check out the Mypyramid site to find out what your daily needs are.

Now that we are all caught up, lets talk about protein. How much protein do you need? I'm afraid that protein is something that is over-used in our country. Fitness magazines, body building, gyms and supplement stores, all pound into our brains that WE NEED PROTEIN! The thing is, you are probably over consuming it at that point, substituting some of your carb calories for extra protein, or you are trying to squeeze in both and are getting TOO many calories (which will just be converted to fat if they're not used). 

I know the ladies out there caught that last part...when your body has unused calories at the end of the day, THEY WILL BE CONVERTED TO FAT AND STORED IN YOUR BUTT, THIGHS, OR HIPS! It can actually be stored anywhere that your body prefers, mine just happen to be in those spots ha ha. Something else that is a serious problem with over consumption of protein is that it is REALLY HARD ON YOUR KIDNEYS. Your body uses protein for so much more than your muscles. It uses it for your immune system, digestive tract, lymph system, circulatory system...well you get the point, EVERY system in your body needs protein to function, and we can't designate how our body uses it.  So when I talk about your body converting protein to fat, or even when it converts it to use for your other systems, it all goes through your kidneys; when you eat 2 or 3 times what you should be, your kidneys go into hyper-drive and get worn down really fast. Trust me, you do not want to have kidney problems when you are older.

So how much is the right amount? 10-30% of your calories or about 200-600 calories a day based on a 2000 calorie diet (if you are eating 2000 calories/day). If you like grams better, that is 50-175 grams.

I get nervous putting grams and calories or any actual numbers on here. I'm worried that you all will take me literally and start looking at the label of everything that you eat, counting to the nearest gram what you are eating. DON'T DO THAT. The reason that we have percentages is so that you can guesstimate. If you were to see that I put 175 grams of protein on here, then weighed out all of your chicken and looked at all of your packaging, you would probably be eating too much. Wanna know my protein needs? I've done fancy math skills that I won't bore you with now, but for my size, I should ONLY be consuming 43 grams of protein a day. Now do I do that? No, but how much is that? According to the CDC one small piece of meat (3oz), for example a small chicken breast (or piece of fish), can have around 21 grams of protein. 
{via}
When was the last time you bought a package of chicken that had 4 breasts in it, and was less than a pound. Those chicken breasts are already almost meeting the needs for most people's protein intake ALL DAY. So what about all of that extra protein that you are getting from bread, from beans, from cheese, yogurt, noodles, rice, soymacronutrients that you need, and if all of that extra protein puts you over your needs...it turns into fat. The CDC has a great "basics" page that will give you a general idea of how much protein you need based on your age and sex here, but again it's not tailored to you, so don't get crazy with checking out labels. 
{via}
Are you still with me? Almost done, don't give up on me now!

So what is okay for protein? Well, lean proteins are the best. An occasional steak or hamburger is okay for you, but some cultures encourage red meat to be eaten once a month or not at all. I personally like it, so every once in a while I have a hamburger. :) Lean meats consist of fish and poultry, with any fat cut off of it. If you bake it or broil it, some of the fat can be eliminated as well, but frying can often add a lot of that fat right back into it. If you're not a meat eater, there are PLENTY of veggie-friendly protein options (great for every one's diet!) Beans, nuts, seeds, dairy products, eggs, and tofu! I think my favorite non-meat protein option are beans; they are packed with protein and have great fiber in them too! I always remind people to be careful with beans though, if they are refried, most of the time they have fat or lard added to them, so try to avoid that and get whole beans whenever there is the option. 


Easy tips for protein:
1. Consider a cut of cooked meat the size of a deck of cards a serving size. That is 3oz and usually 50-60% of what most people need all day.
2. Try to eat meat only once during the day and get the rest of your protein through other sources like beans or peas, low fat cheese, or nuts. 
3. Avoid expensive protein drinks or protein powders, instead drink one 8oz cup of 1% chocolate milk to get the correct ratio of protein, carbs and fat after a workout. (Don't go crazy with this one). 
4. If you are very active or an athlete, protein shakes or extra protein may be needed in your diet. If you are serious about your workout and being healthy, I would consult a Registered Dietitian or health professional, instead of a trainer at the gym or sales-person at the supplement store who stands to make a profit off of your purchase. 

Question time! Don't be afraid to hit me up, if I don't know the answer I will find it for you!

Keep it real, 

Roo

ps. If you are wondering about amino acids, I am just focusing on the macronutrients for now, but will go into greater detail in the future if readers desire it. 

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Things that are Good for You

I feel that articles on nutrition can be very controversial, and in all honesty, it kind of scares me to write this. If you don't know me personally you may not know that I have my BS in Nutrition (Dietetics specifically). Now I do NOT have the same credentials an RD (Registered Dietitian), but I do have the same degree and have worked in the nutrition field for the last three years. I've worked in a clinical setting and currently work for WIC as a nutritionist counseling moms. With all of that said, what I write to you are humble bits of advice and tips for healthy living.

I start this new post "Things that are Good for You" with a basic breakdown of macronutrients.

If you've never heard this science-y word before, that's okay. There are three things that can be classified as a macronutrient: Carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Guess what?!? You need ALL THREE on a daily basis to live. You can temporarily cut one of them out, but eventually you will have to add them back to your diet or you could have both short term and long term effects that are no fun. I'm going to break each one down for you over then next few weeks. (One thing I will say is that I enjoyed learning about nutrition not just for career purposes, but I personally like knowing about what goes into my body). 

That's right I said "CARBS" not crabs. I think that carbs get a bad rap, ever since that Atkins guy showed up, everyone thinks that carbs are from the devil and make you fat. WRONG! Using anything without moderation is a bad idea, same with carbohydrates. 

Here are some examples of how to use carbs wrong:
(oh how I do love this pastry from Pugly Pixel though)

Let me put a little disclaimer out there-I like cupcakes, pizza, and doughnuts, I love them, but it's pretty obvious that you should not eat them everyday, or even every week. 

FACT:You need 130 grams of carbs a day just to keep your brain functioning. 

In fact, 60% of your daily needs should be from carbs...that's right, more than half. I know that seems like a lot, and trust me, I still get a little nervous thinking about it because it sounds like indulging. It's not, not if you do it right.

Examples of good carbs:
Quinoa
(There is a lovely "how-to" from Danielle on this one)
Fruit
Whole grains in general

With that said, these are my "tips" regarding carbs:

1. Avoid refined sugars and try to eat only complex carbohydrates. If you don't know what a complex carb is, try to eat foods that are processed very little and look like they came from the ground the same way.

2. Avoid hidden carbs. My favorite example of hidden carbs is juice. While juice still has great nutrients in it, a lot of the time it ends up giving you more calories and less nutrients than the actual fruit itself would. Same goes for sports drinks, soda, and many tea or coffee drinks...don't drink your carbs away. My rec? No more than 4oz a day and not every day unless you work out on a daily basis or are very active.

3. Eat whole grains. Foods like quinoa, brown rice, bulgur, and barley are also higher in protein, fiber and B vitamins (among many others). 

Important things to know:

If you are consuming MORE carbs than you need, or an amount which exceeds or pushes you over your daily calorie needs, your body will store it as fat. PORTION SIZES are important. Here is a link to Mypyramid.gov which gives great examples of portion sizes. 

Your body's preferred source of energy that is readily used is from carbs. Every wonder why athletes and long distance runners load up on pasta before they perform? It's because your body changes ANY form of starch or sugar to glucose to be used for energy. So wait....doesn't that mean it will just change my candy bar and soda into glucose? Yes, but those foods are higher in calories, fat and very low in nutrients that your body craves...

ALRIGHT! Any questions?

Keep it real,

Roo

ps. Most of the material talked about above is based off of memory and knowledge that I have from my previous education, therefore no sources are listed. You can click on all photos for a link to the original site, but for any further information on nutrition topics I recommend Eatright.org, or Mypyramid.gov.

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