Getting five servings of vegetables a day is easier if you start at breakfast. And this super simple vegetable frittata is a delicious way to start the day. (It’s also a great way to use up leftover vegetables.)
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Six Free Apps That Will Make Meal-Prep Easier
Though applications are supposed to make your life easier, sometimes finding the right app can be a challenge. A “meal planning” search in the App Store yields pages of tools that claim to help you conquer the grocery store, step up your lunchbox game and make peace with your plate, but how can you know which apps are actually effective? After lots of downloading and deleting, I’ve put together a list of six free apps that have allowed me to spend more time enjoying my food rather than preparing it. These apps are available for both iPhone and Android users.
#1. Instacart: Best for buying groceries when you don’t have time to shop
As a nutrition coach in University of Maryland’s Health Center, I’ve found that my clients who grocery shop regularly are more likely to meet their nutritional goals compared to those who do not. This makes sense, as it’s pretty hard to eat healthfully if you lack nutritious foods in your home. With the Instacart app, you can have fresh produce delivered to your home with the literal flick of your finger. Not having time to make it to the grocery store will no longer be an excuse for not eating healthfully.
After typing your zip code into Instacart, a list of stores in your area will come up on your screen. After selecting a store, you can use the search bar to quickly find and order specific items, or, for a more authentic grocery store experience, you can add items to your cart as you peruse the different categories. You can also access Instacart online. Though the Instacart app is free, the order must be at least $10 to be eligible for delivery, and there is a $3.99 delivery fee (some of this money goes toward tipping the driver). You can subscribe to Instacart Express ($9.99/month or $99/year) to avoid this fee on orders above $35. Have fun portable grocery shopping!
Continue reading “Six Free Apps That Will Make Meal-Prep Easier”
Quick Guide to Complementary Protein Sources
In this week’s Nutrition Diva podcast, I talk with protein researcher Douglas Paddon Jones about whether or not there’s any benefit to combining complementary plant-based protein sources at the same meal.
Contrary to a lot of the conventional wisdom, which claims that it’s sufficient to get all of the essential amino acids over the course of a single day, Dr. Paddon Jones argues that a meal-based approach to protein nutrition will enhance the ability to build and maintain lean muscle tissue.
This doesn’t mean you have to tally up and micro-manage each individual amino acid. The following chart shows how to choose meal components that will ensure complete proteins at a meal.
If you consume only plant-based proteins, you may also want to increase your total protein intake by 10-20% to compensate for the lower digestibility of these plant-based protein.
The Recommended Daily Allowance for protein is 0.8 g per kg of body weight (or 0.36 g per pound). Strict vegetarians may want to aim for a minimum of 1 g per kg (or 0.45 g per pound).
These are these are minimum recommended intakes. Research suggests that there may be benefits to higher protein diets, especially for athletes, the elderly, those recovering from surgery or illness, or during weight loss. If you’re in any of these groups, you might want to aim for something closer to twice the recommended minimum.
Banana “Nice” Cream Recipe
What are the best and worst kinds of fruit?
In this week’s Nutrition Diva podcast, I debunked the myth that you should avoid certain types of fruit, either because they are higher in sugar or higher in fructose.
All fruit can be part of a healthy diet–especially if you are eating fruit in place of other less healthy choices.
But if you’re curious to see how various types of fruit stack up in terms of total sugar content as well as fructose and glucose content, here’s a chart of some common fruits. You can click on any column to sort by that value.
| Fruit (1 cup serving) | Total Sugars (g) | Fructose (g) | Glucose (g) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raisins | 108 | 57 | 50 |
| Dates, medjool | 86 | 42 | 44 |
| Figs, dried | 71 | 34 | 37 |
| Apricots, dried | 69 | 16 | 43 |
| Plums, dried (prunes) | 66 | 22 | 44 |
| Bananas | 28 | 11 | 11 |
| Grapes | 23 | 12 | 11 |
| Mangos | 23 | 8 | 3 |
| Tangerines | 21 | 5 | 4 |
| Cherries | 18 | 7 | 9 |
| Plums | 16 | 5 | 8 |
| Pineapple | 16 | 4 | 3 |
| Kiwi | 16 | 8 | 7 |
| Grapefruit | 16 | 4 | 4 |
| Blueberries | 15 | 7 | 7 |
| Apricots, fresh | 14 | 1 | 4 |
| Oranges | 14 | 4 | 3 |
| Cantaloupe | 14 | 3 | 3 |
| Honeydew | 14 | 5 | 5 |
| Pears | 14 | 9 | 4 |
| Peaches | 13 | 2 | 3 |
| Papaya | 11 | 5 | 6 |
| Apples | 11 | 6 | 2 |
| Nectarines | 11 | 2 | 2 |
| Watermelon | 10 | 5 | 2 |
| Strawberries | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Blackberries | 7 | 3 | 3 |
| Raspberries | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Cranberries | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| Source: USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference |
How Much Fat Can You Lose?
The other day, I was browsing nutrition headlines when I came across a summary of some new research on exercise and fat loss, which concluded that “it is not possible to lose more than 1 kilogram of fat per month.” (A kilogram is just over 2 pounds).
Not possible to lose more than 2 pounds of fat per month? Most diets promise that you’ll lose that much every week!
This article is also available as a podcast. Click to listen.
Intrigued, I pulled up the actual study, which was published last month in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, and read the whole thing. Weirdly, however, the study said absolutely nothing about the amount of fat that can be lost per month. The researchers were looking at the amount of fat that can be oxidized during a single exercise session.
So, I tracked down the researcher, Dr. Juan del Coso Garrigós, who lives and works in Madrid, Spain. He explained that his comment about it being impossible to lose more than 1 kilogram of fat per month in fact had nothing to do with his recent study. Apparently, it was taken out of context from a different part of the interview, which was also translated from Spanish. It just goes to show you how easy it is for bad information to get into widespread circulation.
As long as I had him, though, I took the opportunity to ask him more about his research. Dr. del Coso Garrigós explained that, when conditions are just right, well-trained athletes can burn about three-quarters of a gram of fat per minute during moderate intensity exercise. The rest of us seem to max out at about a half a gram of fat per minute or 30 g of fat per hour.
How Much Fat Can You Burn with Exercise?
At that rate, it’ll take most of us about 15 hours of moderate intensity exercise to burn a pound of body fat. Exercise for one hour a day, and you can hope to lose about 2 pounds (or about 1 kilogram) of fat per month. Exercise for longer than 60 minutes a day and you could hope to lose more. You can also get your body to oxidize fat by eating less, which forces your body to convert some of its fat stores into energy.
As Dr. del Coso Garrigós confirmed, it is theoretically possible to lose more than a kilogram of fat per month. That said, he and I both agree that losing more than a couple of pounds of body fat per month is both difficult and rare.
Of course, most diets promise that you’ll lose 8-10 pounds a month or more. And if you follow any of those diets faithfully, you probably will. But how much of that weight loss is actually fat loss? Probably no more than 25%. The rest is water and muscle tissue, which is the last thing you want to be losing. In fact, the faster you are losing weight, the smaller the percentage of actual fat loss is likely to be. And the harder it will be to sustain that weight loss over time.
I think the reason that a majority of dieters regain the weight that they’ve lost is that they lose weight too quickly. Instead of trying to lose 1-2 pounds a week, we should aim to lose 1-2 pounds a month. When we lose weight slowly, we preserve more muscle tissue and keep our metabolism from slowing down. We also are more likely to develop long-term habits and behaviors that will support long-term success. We avoid the yo-yo dieting cycle that sabotages both our health and our self-esteem.
Of course, when you’re losing weight very slowly, it’s hard to see the results on the scale, especially because your weight can fluctuate by several pounds from day to day without reflecting actual fat loss or gain. That’s why I recommend tracking your weight using a moving average, as described in my episode on Weight Fluctuation (#199).
How to Lose Two Pounds a Month
So, what would it take to lose 1 to 2 pounds a month? The good news is that it doesn’t require anything nearly as drastic or unpleasant as it takes to lose 2 pounds a week! Small changes in your daily routine will do the trick. You just need to be consistent and patient.
Here are some of my favorite slow weight loss strategies:
- Avoid eating in front of the television or computer.
- Cut back on alcoholic beverages
- Eat more vegetables and fewer starches.
- Use smaller dinner plates
- Decide what you’re going to eat ahead of time
- Drink water or tea instead of sweetened or artificially sweetened beverages
- After losing some weight, take a break before losing any more.
You don’t need to do all of these at once. Start with a couple that seem easy and one that seems like a bit more of a challenge. Add more as you get the hang of it.
Don’t think of it as dieting. Think of it as right-sizing. And, please, let me know how it’s going.
This article was originally published at QuickandDirtyTips.com
Which Appliances are Worth the Counter Space?
In my house, kitchen appliances live in one of two places: in the kitchen or in the basement. The ones in the kitchen are the ones that I use constantly. The ones in the basement are the ones that only come out once in a while.
My Constant Favorites
Blender
This lives right on the kitchen counter because I use it almost every day. I have a Vitamix which is no small investment, but this workhorse has served me well for years. I’m actually on my second Vitamix. After 15 years, I decided to retire my original, and Vitamix has a trade-in program that gave me a discount on my new purchase. There are less expensive options, such as the NutriBullet Blender–and the Vitamix is more power than you’d need for smoothies. However, its heavy duty parts and high powered motor can also turn whole wheat into flour, nuts into nut butter, and other tasks that might cause a lesser motor to wheeze.
Instant Pot Electronic Pressure Cooker
I hesitated before jumping on this particular bandwagon because I’d never used a pressure cooker before and didn’t particularly miss it. Turns out that was just because I didn’t know what I was missing. Instant Pot fans tend to be a bit cult-like, but I’ve totally drunk the Koolaid. I use it to hard-boil eggs (perfect every time!), make stock in 30 minutes instead of two hours, cook hard beans and steel cut oats to tender (but not mushy) perfection in 15 minutes, and countless soups, stews, and one-pot meals. There are many sites, cookbooks, and Instagram feeds dedicated to Instant Pot recipes, so inspiration and instruction is never more than a click away. Easily the best kitchen purchase I’ve made in ten years.
Listen to my podcast episode: 4 Reasons You Need a Pressure Cooker. Continue reading “Which Appliances are Worth the Counter Space?”
This Probiotic Cereal Doesn’t Make Me Happy Inside
Probiotic foods continue to be one of the hottest food and nutrition trends. And now Kellogg’s has jumped on the bandwagon with a new probiotic cereal called Happy Inside. While this new offering is certainly on trend, I think they’ve missed the mark in a number of ways:
1. “Yogurty probiotic pieces” that are neither yogurty nor probiotic.
Don’t be fooled by the mention of “yogurt,” these are pieces of candy. They’re made of unnecessary ingredients like sugar, palm kernel oil, and Greek Yogurt Powder (which is heat-treated, killing any beneficial bacteria.)
2. Four kinds of added sugar, totaling 9 grams per serving
I’ve certainly seen worse, but it reminds me of General Mill’s “healthy” fail a few years ago with their high protein Cheerios, which added only a modest amount of protein but a whole lot of sugar. (What were they thinking?)
3. A single strain of probiotic bacteria
When it comes to live and active cultures, it’s just one lonely strain (Bifidobacterium lactis HN019) with a limited amount of research to back it up. Although HN019 may enhance immune function in the elderly, the strain otherwise has a small portfolio of effectiveness.
4. Plenty of marketing gloss
The cereal calls itself a 3-in-1 product because it contains fiber, prebiotics, and probiotics. However, “prebiotic” and “fiber” are just two ways of saying the same thing.
The Bottom Line on Happy Inside
Rather than spending big bucks on this highly processed food, you can get more pre- and probiotic benefit at a lower cost with higher nutritional value. For example, stir 1/3 cup of Swiss Muesli (I like this no-added-sugar brand from Familla) into 2/3 cup unsweetened kefir and refrigerate overnight for a gut-friendly breakfast without all the junk.