Sugar rush

Because I am just so good as sucking the fun out of everything, I thought I'd post the nutritional information from some of the more popular candy items seeing as how Halloween is tomorrow.

Fun Size skittles:

Calories60
Fat 0.67g
Carbs 13.67g
Protein 0g

Calorie breakdown: 10% fat, 90% carbs, 0% protein

Fun size original M&Ms:

Calories 150
Fat 7g
Carbs 21g
Protein 1g

Calorie breakdown: 42% fat, 56% carbs, 2% protein.

Mini Snickers Bar:

Calories 170
Fat 9g
Carbs 22g
Protein 3g

Calorie breakdown: 45% fat, 49% carbs, 6% protein

Midnight Chocolate Milky Way Mini:

Calories 180
Fat 7g
Carbs 29g
Protein 1g

Calorie breakdown: 34% fat, 63% carbs, 3% protein.

Milky Way Minis-regular:

Calories 190
 Fat 7g
Carbs 30g
Protein 2g

Calorie breakdown: 33% fat, 63% carbs, 4% protein.

 Smarties:

Calories 25
Fat 0g
Carbs 6g
Protein 0g

Calorie breakdown: 0% fat, 100% carbs, 0% protein.

Mini Twix:

Calories 50
 Fat 4g
Carbs 10g
Protein 1g

Calorie breakdown: 45% fat, 50% carbs, 5% protein.

To give you a reference, I've also included the facts for a piece for cheesecake:

Calories 300
Fat 21g
Carbs 24g
Protein 4g

Calorie breakdown: 63% fat, 32% carbs, 5% protein.

Yikes!

A couple of bags/pieces of candy and your already looking at the same amount of calories in a piece of cheesecake. If you think about it, you're probably not going to be eating just one or two pieces either. Bear in mind the average American should be eating around 2,000 kcalories a day,and as little as 10 extra calories a day can lead to a pound of weight gain a year. That's not to say you can't still have fun on Halloween though. A few tips? Try these out:


For you:

• If you have kids and are planning on taking them trick-or-treating, make sure you all eat first, that way you're not hungry and munching on candy rigth when you get back. 

• This one may sound  little silly but try it anyway. Chew on a piece of sweet flavored gum while you're trick-or-treating, or right after, or both. The sweet from the gum may satisfy your urge for sweet from the candy.If you're at a party or a place where there is candy out, try the gum thing too.

• If you'll be at home entertaining or handing out candy, avoid having candy out in dishes around the house. You'd be surprised how many pieces you will mindlessly eat without even realizing it!

• Pick out 2-3 favorites and limit yourself to those for the day. Store extra candy, kids candy or other treats out of sight so it's not as accessible.

For the kids:

• I thought this was such a great idea: try paying your kids for their candy. A couple dollars for a pound of candy is well worth it if you think of all those dentist bills you won't have to pay.

• Try making the day/night more about events than just getting candy. Games, crafts, family friendly costume parties, haunted houses and harvest festivals are all fun things you can do together that don't involve a diabetic coma.

Be safe and have a great Halloween!


I got the nutrition facts from Fatsecret.com.

  

Mangia a lotta

So after bombing a test, massacring my presentation and turning in the most remedial paper I had ever written in my life, I decided a little celebrating was in order. Since I miraculously did not have to spend my Friday night studying, Oscar and I decided to go to dinner. Actually, I was too lazy to cook and posed the idea of eating stale chips for dinner, or going out. As exhausted as we were from the week, the stale chip plan almost won, but we finally decided to attempt some form of social interaction and headed out. 

Deciding on a place to eat was near impossible. Oscar wanted tacos, I wanted wine. The problem with dating a Chicano is that average tacos are just not going to cut it. Being less than 10 minutes from the border of Mexico, you really would think finding a decent taco place would be easy, but you would be wrong. Well maybe I need to clarify here, a good taco shop is very easy to find; a good taco shop when neither one of you has any working brain cells left and can't communicate past a caveman grunt, is hard to come by. 

I finally texted my girlfriend who recommended an awesome place. We wound up at Il Postino  in North Park. Not exactly tacos as it's an Italian place, but seriously good food (bear in mind I've been eating the real deal for my entire life thanks to Grandma Flo being right off the boat). 

We had the calamari appetizer and an squid ink pasta with shrimp and scallops. Our slightly spastic waiter was not the best server, but he made up for it by giving us some free lemon cello at the end of dinner. Anyway, if you are in North Park and need a reasonably priced place with excellent food, give this place a shot. Mangia!

Well I tried

The official results of the antioxidant test are in and.....my beer didn't fair so well. It was below the various assortments of naked juice and green tea BUT, it did better than the two energy drinks and even a chai tea latte. I believe the beer had a TEAC ( a measure of antioxidant capacity) of less than .06 per mL, which isn't great, actually, it isn't even good. To give you an idea, I've included a table from a study done on antioxidants in drinks to give you a reference. So far, pomegranate juice is the standard and has the highest levels of most drinks. Well thanks a lot for embarrassing my beer, pomegranate juice.

Are there words?

A friend of mine told me about this site. I had no idea people really ate like this. But here is the proof. Seriously, ham and shrimp cake?? I have no words.

Drink it down

Okay so I am officially in the middle of my semester. This means two things: 1) the misery if half over 2) I have two midterms, a 10 page paper, and a twenty minute presentation all due on the same day. It also means I spent my Saturday night working on homework until 12:30 a.m. Oh well. Nothing a bottle of wine won't cure.

Onto something more positive: Antioxidants! Last week our whole class brought in a drink of which we tested the antioxidant capacity. Some people brought in tea, Naked Juice, energy drinks. I brought beer. I cleared it with my professor first and although it was a little strange to cart around a bottle of beer on campus all day, I am pretty excited to see the results. My selection? An oatmeal stout from Trader Joe's.

We get the results on Wednesday. I'll be sure to post them, unless my beer didn't come back full of antioxidants. Then I'll just say the results got lost.

Hello school? I'm calling in sick and tired

I can't believe I'm not even halfway through this semester and I'm already burned out. I am so, so sick of school. Sick of it. I'm sick of circling the parking lot like a shark circling its prey at 2 miles per hour for a parking spot. I'm sick of hauling my backpack around like a damn turtle shell attached to my back all the freakin' time. I'm sick of said backpack giving me back sweat. I'm sick of my butt going numb from sitting for hours on end and sick on holding my pee because I'm too terrified of pissing off my instructors to get up and leave class to use the restroom. I'm sick of eating my meals out of an insulated lunch bag or buying some soggy overpriced sandwich on campus. I'm sick of taking notes at warp speed on my lap top-I swear sometimes I can see smoke coming off my fingers. I'm sick of trying to read my awful notes afterwards too. In my haste to take down notes I don't even bother with spelling, AND I'm not a great typer which means come test time, I'm asking my friends to try and decipher what the hell I typed. I'm sick of taking four bags to school with me every morning: backpack, lunch bag, gym bag, purse. I'm sick of hauling 75 lbs around on my back all day. I'm sick of using the gym at school where I am constantly reminded I am only getting older. I'm sick of panicking on Mondays and Wednesdays because I think it's Tuesday or Thursday. I'm sick of panicking on Tuesday and Thursday because I think it's Monday or Wednesday. I'm sick of the fashion show at school. Can't we all just agree to look like crap? I'm sick of paying $200.00 for a book I will get maybe $25.00 for when I sell it back. I'm sick of my idea of a current event being the funny thing my professor said in class. I'm sick of being slave to my day planner and tests and papers and presentations. I'm sick of listening to the sound of my own voice while giving a presentation I know my classmates are praying will end soon so they can text or surf the web on their I-phones. I'm sick of listening to students try to outsmart each other in their presentations so they can impress the professor by including the name of a 45 syllable long chemical no one has ever heard of. But most of all, I'm sick of wearing myself out, spreading myself thin and working myself silly just so I can, at the end of it all, apply for an internship I probably won't get and IF I do, I will have to pay $14,000.00 for. I have to keep telling myself this is all going to be worth it in the end, but-and I'm not sure you caught this-I'm getting real sick and tired of being exhausted all the time and having no idea what is going on "out there". I love learning, and I do love being in school-usually. It's only one more year, and I'll make it through. But seriously, I want my life back, please.

Bummer

So last week was the marathon I had been training for this summer. Well, guess who didn't run it? I spent last weekend training in the exercise physiology lab for some research project myself and another grad student are working on. And feeling sorry for myself. We ended up moving over the summer, then I went home for a couple weeks, then school started. Anyway, I tried to keep up on my training but my schedule wasn't allowing for 2-3 hours a weekend day for running.

So to make myself feel better, I've decided I'm going to run one in December or January. I really hate setting goals and not following through. I had the time off from work and was really looking forward to it. Oh well. I'm not going to dwell on it for too long, just kind of a bummer....

Plate size

The average plate size in 1950? 9 inches. Today-12 , and in some cases, even 14 inches. Knowing that we will usually eat more if more is present, and realizing if a plate is 25-35% bigger we will more than likely put more food on it-well you can see where I'm going with this. Portion control is a major issue when it comes to weight control.

Studies have shown that we humans will eat more if we are served food in larger plates and bowls. There was this really cool study that looked at how much soup a person would eat if the experimenters used a bowl which was continually being filled via a tube undetectable to the eater (while they were eating) versus someone who just had soup served in a single portion. The answer was ten times more!! Just goes to show if it's there, we'll usually eat it, unless you are one of those people with self control, and what fun is that??

There are all kinds of diets out there that proclaim the value of eating until you are full by recommending a number of chews per bite, thinking about your fullness level, I think one person had something where he recommends tapping these certain places on your body that cause some sort of cognitive recall. Of course I don't believe in diets, but I have to say there is some merit there. If instead of eating until "our plate is clear" or until we absolutely can't move, how about if we stop to think about that next bite. Do I really need it or am I eating it because it is there? I know I usually answer the latter, because I am a glutton, but if I asked myself if I really wanted more when I am already full, the answer would be no.

I'm not suggesting weight loss is as easy as eating on smaller flat ware but I also believe portions are out of control in this country and if we ate to our stomachs and not to our eyes, I believe at least a part of the battle would be easier.

Activia

One of the things that really irritates me about the food industry (or any industry for that matter) is their constant, blatant attempts to manipulate consumers. Activia has officially made my list of eye rollers starting in one of my food science classes last semester when we discussed how silly this stuff was.

We actually use Activia quite a bit in our hospital. Many physicians recommend it to our patients with digestive health issues. The idea behind Acitiva is that is contains Bifidus Regularis® (Bifidobacterium lactis DN 173 010), apparently Activia's very own probiotic bacteria. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that live in our large intestine (LI) that are associated with gut health. PRE-biotics are basically food for probiotics and are things like fiber and are different than probiotics. Dannon (the makers of Activia) have also claimed on their website that "Activia is shown in several clinical studies to help with slow intestinal transit when eaten every day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle." Anyhoo, the makers of Activia were obviously very convincing in their discovery/engineering of this amazing bifidus regularis (seriously on the name???) since even Jamie Lee freakin' Curits eats this stuff! And she's famous! So this stuff must be great! Jamie Lee Curtis loves it so much she accosts people in public parks demanding they try it for the commericals. 

And now....the truth. 

Any yogurt is going to contain  probiotics but Activia yogurt charges on average 30% more for their yogurt than their competitors. Interstinlgy, in 2008 Acitiva made Dannon a boatload of cash because of it's health claims-$100 million dollars to be exact. A quick comparison of one of my Brown Cow yogurts from my fridge and Activia turns up similar sugar, calories and fat  (gram per gram the differences were pretty much a wash  as Brown Cow's serving size is 170 grams and Acitiva was 113 grams). Also, Brown Cow yogurt contains 4 probiotic bacteria: S. thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidphilus and Bifidus. Activia yogurt contains L. Bulgaricus, S. thermophilus and their Bifidobacterium lactis DN 173 010. One ingredient noticeabley absent from Brown cow yogurt is gelatin. Even kosher geltain (which is made from fish as opposed to cow bones) is not vegetarian and is in Yoplait and Dannon products and poses a problem for us vegetarians. All in all, nutritionally, the yogurts are almost identicall and both contain lots of probiotic bacteria, Brown Cow actually having more. The trick is Dannon gave their own engineered bacteria it's own special name, making it seem like it's somehow different or better. And those clinical studies? I couldn't find them. Also, in order to be valid, clinical studies really need to follow some basic parameters, which-as I mentioned-I couldn't find the studies so I have no way of knowing how valid they were. Lastly, the claims made by Dannon are that people felt better after eating Acitiva who were also following a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. So, um, chances are the balanced diet and healthy lifestyle part could also be responsible for the overall better feeling of the participants but again, I have no way of knowing how they tested any of this.

Apparently I'm not the only one noticing the massive, unfounded claims made by Activia. In 2008, the same year Activia raked in $100 million dollars off the health claims made by their product, a lawsuit was filed against Dannon by the LA Federal Court. They claimed Dannon's claims about their yogurt were in fact NOT founded in sound research, The same research I couldn't find.

Bottom line: yogurts in general contain probiotics NOT just Activia yogurt. If you are vegetarian or have any concerns about hormone treated cows supplying the milk for yogurt, I wouldn't recommend Acitiva. Try a more economic choice for the exact same health benefits.

Coconut water

I love this stuff. We have a farmer's market on campus every Thursday and I always trot myself over to the Peace Pies booth to grab some. It's so refreshing and delicious. I needed the facts.

Coconut water is different that coconut milk. Water can only be found in the young, baby coconuts and is the liquid in the center. Coconut milk is the liquid which comes from an adult coconut's flesh. According to the ADA , one cup of coconut milk has 46 calories, less than .5 grams of fat, is a good source of fiber , magnesium, potassium and vitamin C. One cup also has 252 mg of sodium and 9 grams of carbohydrate.

The content of the electrolytes in coconut water is more than likely the reason it is marketed as a sports drink but with the frequency with which you can find it now, it looks like people are warming up to coconut water for all kinds of reasons.

Don't worry, you don't need to find yourself a baby coconut, drill and hole in the top and stick a straw in there to enjoy coconut water. It's fun, but it does look a little strange to be cruising around with a coconut in your hand. Coconut water is sold in cans, cartons and probably other clever packaging I'm not aware off. Since it's pasteurized, there is no need to worry about food borne illness, but it will go bad after a day or two in the fridge.

Anyone else noticing this stuff popping up more frequently in their neighborhood?

Only me

I'm going to use the blog today for something I try not to use blogging for, venting. But I've seriously had it today. So here I go....

Today was the first day of school for me at State. I'm actually looking forward to going back to class as I feel like lately my brain has decomposed into a useless pile of mush. Let me rephrase that last statement, I was looking forward to going back to school, until I got on campus today.


ust a quick back story, for anyone that knows me at all, you know I have a tendency to get yelled at by everyone, at any time, for no particular reason. I happen to think it's for one of two (or possibly a combination of both) reasons.

1) I am a girl. I know. Shocking but true. Half the people who yell at me would never talk to a man that way. I'm not trying to play the damsel in distress card here, I'm just saying if I were able to physically defend myself people would mess with me less. 2)I look young. I think people assume I'm a lot younger than I am and therefore that makes me...dumb? a door mat? Not sure, but that is the second part of my theory. Anyway,two weeks ago a lady yelled at me at the gas station because she felt I stole her pump, she was so out of control her boyfriend kept apologizing and finally stuffed her back in the car. A week before that a guy FREAKED out at me because I almost went out of turn at a four way stop. Repeat: almost. I stopped and let him go, I wasn't sure what was going on so I started going, yadda, yadda, stopped and let him go. But man oh man he was upset. He followed me for almost a mile yelling out his window all sorts of profanities I would reserve for someone who just ate my first born. A few months before that, a lady yelled at me on the trolley for biting my nails. She actually called me a bitch. For biting my nails. I can't make this stuff up. I could go on, but you get the idea. As mentioned in a previous post, I am a crap-magnet.

So today, I get up to campus and use the restroom. Brace yourself here this is going to get not only gross, but incredibly stupid. I exit my stall-post toilet flushing -and begin doing the typical girly thing in the mirror by messing with my hair. Some very angry woman comes in to the now crowded restroom and GRABS MY ARM to tell me "Hey, you need to flush your toilet. You didn't flush and I'm not using that stall until you flush."

Stop music.

My first reaction was that I wanted to punch her squarely in her hideous face. Who does this chic think she is for God's sakes?? Also, I am extremely embarrassed. And for the record folks, I did flush okay. The toilets are automatic flushers for one, and for another, I am a flusher!! The toilets at school-or some of them at least- are old and don't always get it all the down. So yes, remnants of my seat liner may have been corroding little miss toilet Nazis pristine bathroom going experience. But seriously? So back to the dialogue:

Me: "I did flush it. If you have a problem with it use another stall."
Stupid lady: "You're so disgusting. I'm not using that stall until you flush it."
At this point she is standing RIGHT behind me as I am fighting every urge to tell this woman where to go and how to get there.
Me:" Then don't use it. I really don't care."
So now another girl has entered the restroom and goes to walk into the stall in question when dummy says to her "Don't go in there, this gross person over here won't flush the toilet."
Me:"Excuse me why don't you take your crazy a$$ somewhere else? And I did flush," I say apologetically to the girl next to me, who is caught between being horrified and amused.
SL: "You're nasty, I can't believe you won't flush the toilet. You're so rude. You're SO RUDE!"
I am really trying to ignore her but now she is shouting. About a toilet. Not her toilet. Not my toilet. A toilet in a public restroom. And I am beyond humiliated because now everyone around me thinks I am an inconsiderate non-flusher and I have this woman literally breathing down my neck and yelling at me about something so ludicrous.

Me: Laughing"Lady, you are so crazy."
SL:"Nasty. You are so nasty. God you are so gross."
I am not going to repeat what I said before I stormed out and had to go find another restroom to go wash my hands.

The whole stupid thing ruined my day. Of course I spent the rest of my afternoon running through the zingers I should have said, which is not good at all for my little aura. The whole thing also sort of made me think, and I realize this may being a bit dramatic here, but honestly, what is the matter with people? What is wrong with people that they feel it's okay to just walk up and talk to someone like that? For no reason? Ordinarily I would laugh it off but today I'm just plain old annoyed. I hope that lady had not toilet paper. So there.

Maybe not a miracle, but still pretty cool

So when I first heard about miracle fruit, my thoughts were-"Here we go again, another hyped up super food that's going to cure everything from a hang nail to cancer." As is often the case, however, I was wrong.

I was reading a study conducted by another grad student on the subject and was surprised to discover miracle fruit is actually a berry native to West Africa which has been said to cause a sour food to taste sweet. Apparently the fruit contains a protein that has been named miraculin (duh) which binds to sweet receptors cells on the tongue. During times of a low pH in the mouth, the receptors get stimulated by the protein. The sour taste in sour foods is caused by hydrogen ions dropping the pH in the mouth and causing an acidic environment. The idea is to consume miracle fruit and then eat something sour and it will taste sweet instead. Miracle!

Although I've never had it myself, miracle fruit isn't supposed to have a taste, making it a possible option to explore in the way of sweeteners. In fact, the study I read was interested in miracle fruit to help those attempting to lose weight. The idea is that consuming miracle fruit before a low-calorie diet/sour food would increase the satisfaction of the food, thus lowering the desire for sweets and extra calories. I would love to reference the study, but it hasn't been published yet.

Exciting stuff! I'm sure we're going to be hearing a lot more about miracle fruit. However, I would like to change the name to something less bombastic. I mean making sour foods taste sweet isn't exactly a miracles. Maybe-that's-pretty-cool fruit, or confuse-the-hell-out-of-your-mouth fruit. But miracle fruit? Seems a little dramatic to me. By the way, anyone ever tried it? Just curious what people think of this outside of the study.

Clarification

So my good friend who lives in the UK was kind enough to inform me that the "Daily Mail" (which published the summary of that study on Calcium supplements and their linkage to heart issues) is not exactly the most reputable source of info in the UK....

This being said, there was an actual study that found this possible (I stress possible) side effect. I did post a hyperlink in the post on this subject so you can click on it to see what the scientists found in their research.

However- a few points here: One study doesn't mean much. Several studies usually need to corroborate a finding before it will be anything more than an interesting study. Also, don't believe everything you read!! If a study is cited-look for it and read the abstract for a condensed version of the research and its findings. However, the good points this study and its related article did illuminate were that over-supplemenation is not usually a good thing, and the best way for healthy individuals to get micro/macronutrients is through food.

Thanks Dana for calling out the Daily Mail as attention whores!

Lychees! (Not leeches)

A couple years ago a friend of mine introduced me to lychee martinis. If you have never had a lychee (pronounced lee-chee), you have to try one. I think they taste like a cross between a cherry and a peach. I ate them to the point of sickness in Thailand as they are all over the place there. I recently found them at Trader Joe's and have been stuffing my face ever since. One of the few things that is just as good without the alcohol.

Now I am just trying to find something else to do with them, besides put them in martinis or eat them raw. Any suggestions?

New info about Calcium supplements

So I heard a little blurb on the radio a month or so ago about negative side effects related to calcium supplements. After some digging, I was able to find the article I think may have been referenced for the news story.

According to the article on The Daily Mail.com, a British online news mag, women who supplement calcium intake with supplements could be facing a 30% higher risk of heart disease. The information comes from a study published by the British Medical Journal which looked at women consuming 500 mg or more of calcium supplements a day compared to those not taking them. The results, as mentioned, found these women were at a higher risk for heart attack due to the fact the calcium, when in supplement form, increases levels of calcium in the blood. This has a hardening effect on the arteries, which in turn leads to a higher heart attack risk. Calcium supplements artificially increase calcium in the blood and keeps them elevated for longer, whereas calcium from a dietary source does not, which explains why those consuming high levels of dietary calcium were not at risk.

The study DID exclude those also consuming Vitamin D supplements, which helps absorb calcium.

As one reader commented "The jury is still out on this one", which is very true. Calcium supplements for those suffering from osteoporosis or other degenerative bone conditions who are on supplements through a doctors order should of course continue to take them as prescribed. However, the BEST (and possibly safer) source of calcium is always through the diet by consuming dairy (milk and cheese products ) and dark, leafy green veggies. Over supplementing is generally not a good idea.

I believe I found the study here, if you would like to read it for yourself.

Vitamin A, good for eyes, bad for skin

There was an email sent out at the hospital I work at, and it had some pretty interesting/scary information about Vitamin A, an ingredient found in 41% of sunscreens.

The FDA found the retinyl palmitate (a form of Vitamin A) can be photocarcinogenic-meaning it may speed the development of skin tumors and lesions when used in the presence inf sunlight NTP 2009). Right after I read this, I went right to my medicine cabinet and checked the label on all our sunscreens-and living in Southern California, we go thought a ton of sunscreen. Turns out all of our Banana Boat sunscreens have retinyl palmitate in them, BUT, they also carry the Skin Cancer Foundation seal of recommendation and are found on their list of recommended sunscreens.

Granted the FDA research is preliminary, and was conducted on lab animals, nonetheless the Environmental Working Group took the liberty of coming up with their own list of recommended sunscreens-which do NOT contain vitamin A, and a separate list of those that do, but are still decent sunscreens.

Also, be wary of sunscreens with exaggerated SPF ratings, which can be ploy to get the consumer to spend more cash, and also provides a false sense of security. Check out this article for more info on sunscreens and their ratings. And of course, there's an app for that. You can download and app for EWG's list of sunscreens right to your I-phone.

Glutton for punishment

Since school has ended I have been searching for new ways to torture myself. I came up with two pretty good plans.

My first is to pick back up learning Spanish. This is actually more fun than torture-of course it may be torturous for those listening to my Spanish. My second plan is to start training for a marathon again. This is fun in a sadistic, painful sort of way but it's summer and a great time to get outside and exercise. I'm not implying everyone should go out and start sacrificing their weekends and obsessing over mile splits like I do but the warmer weather is a great excuse to get out and start moving. I put together a few tips that I make routine anytime I'm embarking on outdoor physical activity. Most of these come from the fact I have NOT done them at some point and ended up sunburned, dehydrated, in pain or a combo of all of any/all of the above.

1) Get some good shoes. I LOVE holabird sports shoe selection. They are so cheap and shipping is free. I prefer Saucony or Asics to run in but they have pretty much any shoe you could want and always for way less than you would pay at a retailer.

2) Sweatproof sunblock. Whenever I forget sunblock I end up looking like I tanned through a screen door because I freckle so easily but I used to forget it all the time. Living in San Diego has made me much better about applying it often. Seriously, who wants skin cancer??

3) Music. I don't know about you but I need tunes to distract me. I'm constantly updating my playlist.

4) Eat right. If you're going to be heading out for a long day of physical activity, you should start preparing the night before. Eat a diet of complex carbohydrate-whole wheat pasta, stir fry or meat/fish with brown rice- for dinner so you have a good glycogen reserve for the next day. If you're hiking, biking or something like that then pack some snacks to take with you. If you're running, I take a carbohydrate gel with me (I prefer GU gels) so I can replenish my glucose.

5) Water! Pretty much goes without saying but I can't tell you how many times I walk out of my house without my water bottle.

The marathon is September 18th. We'll see if these old bones have another race left in them. If not, look for me at the local cantina.

Sore no more

I'm going to deviate a bit today from my usual nutrition stuff to impart a bit of my exercise physiology knowledge upon you.

Sore muscles can be a real pain in the neck (get it)? We all know the feeling of overexerting ourselves and paying for it the next day. I call this workout remorse and sore muscles can really throw off your routine by rendering you worthless for a day or in some cases a few days.

What causes muscles to be sore? The answer is lactic acid build up in the muscles. Lactic acid is the by product of energy production in our bodies. Lactic acid can actually be used to produce more energy (or ATP) in our bodies via a process called the lactic acid shuttle but often what ends up happening is the acid settles in our muscles after a workout and causes us discomfort the next day.

Let me help you out a little here and give you two good tips to help get those legs, arms, abs, whatever back into the game. First-eat a banana or any food high in potassium. Potassium helps displace some of the lactic acid in the muscles and is an important electrolyte that gets lost during periods of intense activity. Second-move! I know the last thing you feel like doing when you can barely walk is, well walk, but just a small amount of movement-like a walk for 10 minutes or so-will get that lactic acid moving and will help relieve some of the soreness. After you've moved around a bit try some easy stretches and this will help as well.

To prevent sore muscles stretch before you work out but NEVER, ever stretch cold muscles. This can lead to injury very easily. First, walk a bit if you
are about to embark on a run, swim or bike ride and then stretch. If you are going to be engaging in strength training of some sort at the gym, warm up on the elliptical or treadmill, bike whatever and then do some light stretches. Don't bounce and don't stretch outside of your comfort zone.

Also remember to stretch after your workout-this part if extremely important. I'm as guilty as anyone of being glad to be finished working out and hitting the shower before I've stretched and I regret it every time. Again remember NO bouncing, hold each stretch for about 30 seconds, don't stretch beyond your comfort zone and remember to breathe. If you're going to be engaging in endurance training,give yourself time to cool down before your stretch. Walking at a brisk pace right after your endurance activity keeps that lactic acid in play for longer and will use more of it before it settles into muscles.

Stretching is really the key to preventing excessively sore muscles but keep in mind if you're beginning an exercise routine chances are you will be a little sore after since you'll be working muscles that may not be used to being worked-hey no one said getting in shape was painless!

For stretching ideas and guidelines, go here .

The debate continues....

Amongst my many dorky addictions is talk radio. While I'll admit to having more than a few pop songs on my i-pod for workout music (and I admit I heart Lady Gaga), I hardly find most of the drivel produced by the latest and greatest seventeen year old worth my time. I ask you, what does a kid who hasn't even graduated high school yet really know about unrequited love?

I mostly listen to sports and talk radio and National Public Radio is my favorite source for all things news. I really enjoyed their recent airing of a piece on organic farming which I found very interesting. I didn't have time to listen to the whole thing so I found it online and uploaded it to my i-pod.

Have a listen to the debate on organic food put on by Intelligence Squared. They put on many debates on a myriad of topics and I really like listening to the issues they cover. I find this debate well reasoned and think both sides make good, objective arguments and to my knowledge the information presented seemed to be factual. Did your opinions change after listening?

Cool Quinoa recipe

This recipe I pirated from my wellness website at work. Quinoa is a delicious little Incan grain taken from a reed. I would like to point out this recipe states quinoa contains "all eight essential amino acids" (amino acids you need to consume because your body does not make them). There are actually NINE essential amino acids and while quinoa contains all nine, it does not contain them in amounts that would make quinoa a complete protein. However, quinoa is still a delicious and nutritious food and incredibly versatile.

The Inca called quinoa the "mother grain," and North Americans are just beginning to explore its possibilities. The small, bead-shaped grains are high in protein and contain all eight essential amino acids. Look for quinoa at whole foods stores. If you like, add a little more sugar to the recipe to make a superb cold-weather dessert.

Takes Under 30 minutes
Makes 4 servings

INGREDIENTS
1 cup (7 oz/210 g) quinoa
2 cups (16 fl oz/480 ml) water
1 teaspoon natural cane sugar
1 pinch sea salt
1/3 cup (2 1/2 oz/75 g) dried cranberries
1/3 cup (2 1/2 oz/75 g) currants
1 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted
1 1/2 cups (12 fl oz/360 ml) 1% vanilla soy milk, warmed



PREPARATION

1. Rinse quinoa very well in a fine-mesh sieve and let drain.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the quinoa. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes more.
3. Gently toss the quinoa with the fruit and almonds. Serve with the warmed soy milk.

Source: Healthy Living Kitchens





NUTRITION BONUS
Contains at least 6.25 grams of soy protein per serving.





NUTRITIONAL INFO
PER SERVING
283 Calories
4.3g Fat
0.4g Saturated fat
8.0g Protein
55g Carbohydrate
4.0g Fiber
77mg Sodium

Ocean Beach Farmer's Market

If you have a farmer's market, I hope it is as awesome as the OB Farmer's Market. Last night I bought our whole dinner there:

freshly caught salmon
a bag of organic mixed greens including kale and Swiss chard
a box of strawberries
pumpkin seeds
lemons
hass avocados
tomatoes

I LOVE fresh tomatoes (I am attempting to grow some as we speak) and fresh produce in general and I love even more contributing to my local economy and farmers-these guys need us people! Food should always be bought and sold this way, in my opinion. Food should be local and fresh-not necessarily organic but hey if that's what you like, go for it. Food travels less distance (making it more nutritious) and is grown (or caught in my salmon's case) locally, making you a super amazing locavore by shopping at a farmer's market.

Check out your local chamber of commerce web page for a list of markets in your area.

Oh and a delish tip, I roasted the pumpkin seeds with olive oil and sea salt for a tasty and healthier alternative to croutons for our salads.

Tasty goodies:




Yummy salads:

20 worst drinks in America

I like the idea behind the book "Eat this, not that!" by David Zinczenko. Apparently Oprah endorses it too, and anyone who makes a doctor out of someone who is not actually a doctor certainly knows what they are talking about! Oprah's totally unmedically based opinion aside, however, I must say I like this guy's approach and there is also a handy-dandy eat this not that I-phone app as well for anyone more tech savvy than me,which is pretty much everyone.

The book doesn't seem to be a diet book as much as a lifestyle change book, which is the only way to see lasting results if you are trying to lose/maintain your weight. Fad diets are no bueno and often leave people feeling frustrated due to the hard work they put into losing weight and then gaining it back-this will happen 99% of the time with fad diets. I was especially impressed with his 20 worst drinks in America bit where he compares popular coffee, soda and energy drinks to their sugar equivalents in desserts. Check the list out to see if your favorite morning beverage may have you eating the equivalent of 9 apple pies from McDonald's!

Organic-that's Greek to me!

Organic. 100% organic. Made with organic ingredients. Cage free. Hormone free. Happy cows. Thanks for further complicating my life, food industry. Just when I finally got a grip on health care reform and now there is whole new slew of food jargon for me to figure out.

Not to worry. Super Nutrition Student is here to save your confusing grocery trip with a break down on the lingo; but before I do, I would like to point out that there has been NO evidence to support the fact that organic foods are any better for us than the stuff grown the old-fashioned way. And by old-fashioned, I mean using genetically modified seeds to grow crops protected by toxic pesticides picked before maturity, then gassed and transported to the grocery store which is usually thosuands of miles away.

"Organic" does not mean better for you. What it does mean is that the farming practices used are within a certain set of standards outlined by the USDA. Amongst other things, the crops cannot be grown on soil that has been treated with pesticides in the last 3 years, water is recycled, crops are rotated, no conventional fertilizers, pesticides, biotechnology or irradiation is used. As stated by the National Organic Standards Board “Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, and enhance ecological harmony". Animals raised on an organic farm can have no antibiotic residue either. If the animal gets sick and needs them, they must be treated but then the animal is no longer organic. Sound strict? It is. It's also expensive, which is why we end up paying more for organic food at the consumer level. I'll save my advice on which foods you should actually buy organic for the next post on this subject, but suffice to say it's my opinion you don't need everything organic.

So back to those terms.... Now that we've defined what organic means, let's define how the food industry is using the term to grab our grocery dollars.

Organic fruits and vegetables: Grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or sewage sludge and have not been genetically engineered or irradiated.

Organic beef and chicken: animals were not the offspring of cloned animals. They were fed 100% organic feed, never given growth hormones, antibiotics or other drugs and meat was never irradiated.

Organic milk: for the last 12 months, these animals had 100% organic feed and were not given antibiotics or growth hormones.

Organic eggs: hens had 100% organic feed and never had growth hormones or antibiotics.
.
Organic seafood/fish: Ha! doesn't exist. USDA hasn't defined it.

Cage-free eggs: hens were not confined to cages. Doesn't necessarily mean organic and doesn't necessarily mean they had access to the outdoors.

Free-range/free-roaming poultry: had access to outdoors for but who knows for how long. Free range could mean they went outside for 30 seconds.

Cage free poultry: doesn't mean a thing, most chickens are grown indoors but outside of a cage, at least until they get caged up before their beheading.

No hormones administered: means and animal was raised without hormones- not to be confused with hormone FREE-which is illegal-all animals produce their own hormones!

No antibiotics added:animals were raised without antibiotics.

Natural or all-natural: these should contain no artificial ingredients and are minimally processed. This term is almost impossible to define.

Access to outdoors: organic animals are all supposed to have it but the rules on this are pretty vague and many people charge that big organic operations aren't allowing their animals enough time outside.

100% organic:all ingredients are completely organic (except salt and water, which are exempt)

Organic:95% of ingredients are organic

Made with organic ingredients: at least 70% of ingredients are organic

So there yo have it. Muddy organic waters cleared a bit, I hope.

Vitamin D, not just your average vitamin.

Hello there! Man does it feel good to be done with finals! My hard work paid off and now I am figuring out how to piece back together my broken friendships that I neglected for the last four months and attempt to enter back into the world of current events. I've heard something about an oil spill??....

Anyway, one of my favorite topics we covered recently in class was vitamins. Vitamins (and minerals) are micro nutrients for our bodies meaning we need them in far less quantities than we need macro nutrients-carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water. Vitamins are-for the most part-not made in our bodies. An exception to this are Vitamin K, Vitamin A, niacin, biotin and wonderful, wonderful vitamin D.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that means unlike water soluble vitamins (which get peed out in high quantities) this guy gets stored in our liver. The Daily Recommended Intake (DRI) for vitamin D is about 200 IUs a day. You can find this stuff in things like fish liver, fatty fish (salmon), eggs, butter, fortified milk and margarine. Pretty much everyone knows you can get vitamin D from the sun, well acutally you make vitamin D from UV light which triggers a series of reactions below the skin and Vitamin D is synthesized. We need vitamin D to help maintain calcium levels in our bodies and also to absorb calcium. What some people don't know about vitamin D is that is has also been investigated lately-with some strong scientific evidence, I may add-that says vitamin D may also prevent some types of cancer.

Now there are a few different theories on how vitamin D actually does this (and I quite honestly don't fully understand all of them) but it does appear to play a role in cancer prevention. One theory indicates that a hormone called calcitriol (the active form of vitamin D) gets produced by macrophages. A quick immunology note here-macrophages are the "pac-mans" of our immune system which eat up all the bad guys in our bodies. Since macrophages produce calcitriol, it got some attention. It looks like vitamin D might kick our immune system into high gear and also inhibit production of those nasty inflammatory agents which have been known to cause cancer. I'm oversimplifying all this, of course, but I should mention there is some astounding evidence-and lots of it-to support this notion. Well I had better correct myself, perhaps not this exact theory, but the fact that vitamin D does indeed help prevent cancer. In a particularly convincing presentation, evidence suggested that higher levels of vitamin D were effective in preventing colorectal, renal and breast cancer-especially breast cancer. The studies which were presented showed that the higher a person's level of serum calcium was, the lower their risk for cancer. Even more interesting was a series of studies which showed that high serum levels also actually helped cancer patients remain cancer free for longer. The best results were for those that had high levels of calcium AND vitamin D. The studies also showed that in all cases where patients had cancer and did not remain cancer free, vitamin D levels were low.

Vitamin D has also been reported to have a role in regulating blood pressure and preventing autoimmune disorders (Crohn's, MS, Type 1 diabetes). Now I know it seems pretty crazy that with the DRI being just 200 IUs that you could reap all these amazing benefits. That is because at these levels, you probably will not. The fact is, the current DRI is way too low. An article I read at the hospital recently-which was taken down before I could get the citation information for it so you will just have to take my word for this-said vitamin D was actually the vitamin found to be the most inadequate in people. They attribute this in part to the increased use of sunscreen but most people in the nutrition field agree, vitamin D requirements need some updating.

As I mentioned earlier, fat soluble vitamins get stored, which makes them potentially toxic. Vitamin D has been said to be highly toxic BUT that claim has come under quite a bit of scrutiny as well. It's beginning to look like it may not be as toxic as we thought and the fact that it can be stored can work to the benefit of those choosing to supplement since it can be stored for a week you can take a week's worth in a day. A fellow student does this with the oral supplement drops and claims this works for her, which doesn't necessarily mean it will work for everyone. An RD in my class says she recommends about 75 IU/per kg/per day. To give you an idea of how much that is, for my body weight (which will remain anonymous-sort of) that would be 3,750 IUs a day-18 times the current DRI! This may be a tad extreme, but you get the idea that the current DRI is pretty ridiculous and professionals in the field are comfortable with recommending quite a bit more than that.

How much vitamin D is safe and effective for cancer prevention will probably be in debate for awhile and I am in no way pretending to understand the complex processes behind vitamin D's obvious beneficial mechanisms, however, I will say the current DRI is entirely too low. About 15 minutes of unsuncreened sun love a day is supposed to be adequate but for those of you not living in San Diego or for some elderly folks, supplementation appears to be quite safe and possibly extremely beneficial even for those able to get daily dose from food and sun.

Drowning...

In a 20 page manuscript due tomorrow, finals and group projects. Stay tuned I've been compiling all sorts of neato stuff! Check back!

Juice Plus Supplements=A whole lotta hype

I really love the supplement industry. I mean think about it, where else can you package a product with no requirements or standards for labeling (other than it adhere to the GRAS-generally recognized as safe-principles outlined by the FDA)and sell it at exorbitant prices with no obligation to your consumer that your product ACTUALLY does what it says it will do? I could package and sell a tub of sugar as an energy supplement and be perfectly within my rights as a supplement seller. And boy oh boy do Americans love their supplements. According to the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , 6 out of 10 Americans report using supplements in some form. This scientific journal-along with dozens of others-acknowledge the tremendous issues of enforcing nutritional claims and quality control within this industry.

But that doesn't stop people from buying them up at crazy high prices. A quick peruse of the GNC website turned up supplements for as much a $100.00!! I think I am in the wrong industry. All this ranting leads me to a particular, and tasty I might add, supplement I came across this weekend. A few of my friends from school and I volunteered for the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure where we came across the "Juice Plus" tent. The very patient (they really handled being quizzed by two Master's of Nutrition students well)and nice ladies were very well informed about their supplements they were selling and were generous enough to even give us a few samples. I have to say they were quite yummy, they tasted like those little gummy fruits snacks and I kept wanting to ask her for more under the pretext of being interested in purchasing some, but I held it together. Instead we began drilling these poor ladies on the effects of Juice Plus and what exactly it is supposed to accomplish.

Juice Plus is a nutritional supplement and it comes in two forms: The option I had sampled was the chewable form and it comes in "fruit" and "vegetable" packs, they recommend you take 4 of each a day. The other option is a capsule form with fruit, veggie and the orchard blend-suggested dosage is 2 of each a day. Juice Plus retails for about $42 dollars a month. To be fair, they do not promote the use of Juice Plus instead of fruits and vegetables, but rather in addition to a healthy diet and exercise.

And guess what? There is just all kinds of scientific evidence to promote the effectiveness of these little gems. Study after double blind study shows that these supplements can prevent disease and boost your immune system. Well where do I sign up??

Not so fast. I began questioning Diane Sears, your local Juice Plus rep, about the product. She informed me the reason Juice Plus was so effective was because "all the water is removed from fruits and vegetables, leaving the antioxidants and fiber and removing the sugar and calories!" I was confused. "Water doesn't contain sugar or calories", I explained to a clearly misinformed Diane. "Yes but they take the sugar and calories out as well though". Oh okay. That makes sense. Especially when I read the ingredients on the label and find dextrose (another word for glucose) and organic cane syrup (also sugar)and only 1 gram of fiber per 4 chews-an apple contains on average 3 grams of fiber. I ask Dian Sears about this. Well the actual aim, I am told, of Juice Plus is to provide a variety of phytochemicals in one serving. I don't think anyone ever told Diane that the effectiveness of antioxidants is not well understood at all. The reason their effectiveness is difficult to duplicate is because they are known to work synergictically, fiber being a huge component part of this effect and as I have mentioned, just about all the fiber has been removed.

Furthermore, the addition of dextrose and can syrup means more sugar than what was actually in the fruit in the first place has been added. An interesting side note here is that fruit sugar is mainly fructose, which is metabolized slower than glucose so has been a preferred form of sugar for diabetics. However, Juice Plus replaces the natural fructose in the fruit with dextrose and a refined cane syrup. Peculiar.

And all that scientific evidence? Well I went through all those studies and while a few were from some pretty good journals, not one study was published by the American Dietetic Association, and all acknowledge the overall benefit from a healthy, balanced diet containing a large variety of fruits, vegetable and whole grains. The studies do show that Juice Plus was effective in improving artery plasticity even after high fat meal but any diet high in fruits and vegetable will do that.

Last comes the cost. At $42 a month for a year, a consumer would spend about $504 dollars a year on these supplements, which don't actually replace anything in your diet, so your not saving that money, this is in addition to your grocery bill. A little more math and I figured out that works out to about $1.40 a day. For that money, you could purchase a half a box of strawberries ($.50)a banana ($.20) and an orange ($.60), eat them all and get at least ten times the benefit of eating those little gummy things or taking a pill you may only absorb half of.

The bottom line

Juice Plus is a multi-level marketing plan designed to make money. I don't doubt the reps have good intentions when they sell their products but don't spend your money on nutritional supplements. It's a complete waste of resources and remember your best bet is ALWAYS to get your nutrients from food first. Supplement only when necessary (pregnancy, menopause, disease states, etc.,). Chances are if you can eat a little gummy chew you are just as capable of buying and eating fruit and vegetables in some form and these purchases are a much smarter and better choice for your money.

The travelling history lesson

Last week was spring break for Oscar and I. Seeing as how Spring "Break" really means Spring "I'm going to attempt to dig myself out of my assignment hole I've spent all semester getting myself into", we didn't really get too much of a break. We were able to sneak away for a quick wine tasting adventure up the coast and into Santa Barbara.

Now travelling with Oscar is a bit like travelling with a giant game of Trivial Pursuit, with you getting all the questions wrong. Whenever we travel in California, Oscar inundates me with random history facts-which I truly do love by the way-and when we travel in Utah, I am reminded of how little I reaped from my overpriced private education, namely my Utah history classes. What little I do know he loves to recite and it really does rekindle my love of history, which I am ashamed to admit I am terrible at.

Currently, Oscar is reading up on the California missions so this little adventure was peppered with various mission tidbits-a little side note here- missions are basically structures embodying all the horrible and demoralizing things the Spaniards did to the Natives here. However, one little fun rather nutrition related factoid Oscar dropped on me this trip was the origins of guacamole. Yep, guacamole.

The word avocado comes from the Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) word ahuacatl, which means 'testicle', an obvious reference to the shape of the avocado. Turns out women were pissed at their men even back in the olden days and they would smash the ahuacatls in effigy and there you have guacamole!Thank goodness for domestic disputes. Gustavo Arellano (a great Chicano author and writer of the "Ask a Mexican" column) spoke about this traditon recently and so Oscar relayed the story to me, and I in turn will share it with you. Enjoy with chips!

Our website is up!

Well sort of. Health Guard Fitness has it's official home page set up. Not much is there yet but it's starting to get so exciting!! Check back often for updates on the site. We're so happy it's starting to come together!

Food Revolution tonight!

Have you always wanted to participate in a revolution but just can't find the time? Have you felt the need to be the voice of dissent when it concerns the school lunch system but weren't sure how to organize your radical thoughts and actions? Do you like to watch TV? If you answered yes to any of these questions, check out Food Revolution tonight. Jamie Oliver has an English accent which makes him smarter than Americans and better equipped to handle our obesity issue. He has come to the "unhealthiest city in America" to see how effective he can be at replacing the unhealthy menu items at the school lunch with better options for the kids. Watch Jamie and his cool hair take on the children of West Chester, Va. tonight!!

The new kid at shool

So I must say that making the decision to go back to school in your thirties is not an easy one.

There is much more life re-arranging now than in my twenties. I tried to do the part time waitress full time student gig like I did during my undergrad but ended up feeling like a drug addict. I would get off at such god awful hours (3-4 a.m.) drive home in that eerie pre-dawn with that strange feeling of having been awake all night, sleep until 11, squeeze a work out and some homework in before either going to class or work again. Now none of this had been an issue before. Actually, it worked out quite well. I waited tables all through college while getting my undergrad, breezed through school with a mighty fine GPA and still had plenty of time for friends, boyfriends, being awesome, etc., But things are veeeery different now.

And by different I mean exhausting.

Working and going to school is an interesting mix at any age and requires lots of juggling. However, now most of my friends are already leading their grown up lives (having gotten a degree that was useful and working up in a career that was fulfilling)and find it strange when I can't go wine tasting for a weekend because I "have a big test on Monday". Most people my age are way past any of this and I envy their put together, well thought out, direct path-in-life lives.

Another super fun aspect of returning to school is the new role of "the older student" I find myself playing. I take notes on a lap top. I told four girls behind me to shut up last semester. I wear ear plugs in the library. I sit in the front row. I am upset with myself whenever I don't get an "A". I have morphed into the annoying student I rolled my eyes at all through my undergrad. I just adore people's reactions when they discover my age, also. "WOW" my lab partner last spring said in Microbiology, "I never would have thought you were so OLD!" I was half flattered of course, to not look 32, but half irritated. I told her thanks, but really I was thinking "You know, when you're 32, you may not think it's so old!!" Or take for example the lab partner love birds in my chemistry class who REFUSED to stop holding hands even for one moment durding lab. They lit their Bunsen burners, titrated acids, measured volatile chemicals, all with 2 hands between two people. I wanted to shout at them "Not to worry you two. Pretty sure no one in the class wants to date either one of you!! Now please let go of each others hands before you blow something up for cryingout loud!!" Yeesh, I am turning into the super serious, overly focused career college student.

Due to the nature of the degrees I'm obtaining, I am taking undergrad classes simultaneously with grad classes. So on the one hand, I am the older, let's get this over with you little twerps student, but in my grad classes, I'm the "Holy crap please don't ask me what I'm doing my manuscript on or what projects I'm conducting research for because I'm embarrassed to say I have no idea". Take my geriatric nutrition class, my first grad class ever. I am lucky enough to be in all my classes with 3 of the raddest girls on campus. We affectionately refer to the women in our geriatric class as "the hens" because whenever you ask a question, they all begin clucking at once and find that they (not the professor) more than likely have the best answer. This may be true, but you will never be able to find out due to the fact everyone talks at once and over each other and is trying so hard to look smarter than the other person that the question or comment you made will never really be resolved.We usually just end up googling it on some one's I-phone and so I suppose I should be sending my tuition check to Wikipedia instead.

All these grievances aside, I so love being back in school. I'm learning so much and it is a good lesson in humility for me. Also, I feel so hip hanging around these youngsters and picking up on their lingo. I can't believe I just used the word hip. In a blog. Good Lord I really am old.

A handy measuring method

I am the girl who you never want to ask to "guesstimate" anything. I have zero sense of direction and no ability to visualize size or distance. Once when training for a race I accidentally ran 32 miles. Let's not get into how I did this, just know it was not pretty. I threw up in front of a group of people in Pacific Beach and had to have my roommate bring me a Gatorade in the shower while attempting to get myself together to attend her birthday dinner that night. All through the getting ready process she kept asking me, "Well I mean didn't you begin to think it seemed a little long?" The answer was, no I didn't. I just sort of knew I was running a long distance that day and it never occured to me it was waaaaaaaaaay too long.

These helpful tips listed below are perfect for the measurement challenged person such as myself.They make it much easier to estimate portions. Use the props suggested at home to get an idea for the size and put them into practice when you're eating out or when trying to figure out your fruit and veggie intake for the day; it's easier then you think when you figure a large salad is easily two cups of veggies. Another good tip that I use at home is measuring out 1 cup of cereal, fruit, etc., placing it in a bowl and then continue to use the same bowl and you can eyeball it every time.

Props Used to Estimate Food Portions
The Grain Group
1/2 cooked cup rice ---- tennis ball
1 pancake (1 ounce or 5") ---- compact disc (CD)
1 piece of cornbread (2 ounces) ---- bar of soap
1 slice of bread (1 ounce) ---- audiocassette tape
1 cup of pasta/spaghetti (2 ounces) ---- a fist
1 cup of cereal flakes (1 ounce) ---- a fist

The Vegetable Group
1 cup green salad ---- baseball or a fist
1 medium baked potato (1 cup) ---- computer mouse or a fist- Smaller than the standard potato!!
1/2 cup cooked broccoli ---- light bulb
1/2 cup serving ---- 6 asparagus spears; 7 or 8 baby carrots; 1 ear of corn on the cob

The Fruit Group
1/2 cup of grapes (15 grapes) ---- light bulb
1/2 cup of fresh fruit ---- 7 cotton balls
1 medium size fruit ---- tennis ball or a fist
1 cup of cut-up fruit ---- baseball or a fist
1/4 cup raisins ---- large egg

The Milk Group
1 1/2 ounces hard cheese ---- 9-volt battery or your index and middle fingers
1 ounce of processed cheese ---- your thumb
1 cup of ice cream ---- baseball

The Meat and Beans Group
2 tablespoons peanut butter (= 2 oz. meat) ---- ping-pong ball
1 teaspoon peanut butter (= 1/3 oz. meat) ---- fingertip
1 tablespoon peanut butter (= 1 oz. meat) ---- thumb tip
3 ounces grilled/baked fish or chicken ---- checkbook
3 ounces cooked meat, fish, poultry ---- your palm, a deck of cards or a cassette tape

Discretionary Calories

Fats, Sugars and Sodium
teaspoon butter, margarine ---- stamp, the thickness of your finger or knuckle to thumb tip
tablespoons regular salad dressing ping-pong ball

Snack Foods
1 ounce of nuts or small candies ---- one handful
1 ounce of pretzels ---- two handfuls
1/2 cup of popcorn ---- one man's handful
1/3 cup of popcorn ---- one woman's handful

Serving Dishes/Utensils
1/2 cup ---- custard cup or mashed potato scoop
1 1/2 cups ---- large cereal/soup bowl
1 1/2 cups of pasta, noodles ---- dinner plate, not heaped
1/2 cup of pasta, noodles ---- custard cup or mashed potato scoop

I got these ideas from the website
calorie count .

The Frustrated Cowboys

So I realize it has been awhile since I've posted...what can I say, I'm busy, overwhelmed, blah, blah, blah.

My good friends Jeff and Tara (owner's of Dexterity Salon) came to visit me last week. They brought along their friends Stephen and Stefanie and we just had a grand ol' time. It was so great to hang out with them, I don't get as many visitors as I would think I would living in sunny SoCal, but Utah is a pretty cool place too, so I guess I'm not too insulted. Unfortunately our weather was complete crap but we ended up making the best of things.

They stayed up in Del Mar (about 20 minutes north of us) and they came across this shop up there called "The Frustrated Cowboy"; for obvious reasons this quickly became a running joke. What a name.

Below is a pic of us at Miso Harney sushi in Old Town, miss those cowboys already:(

Brown rice is better

With all the processing that goes on in our food system, we should always be looking for things that are less refined and closer to their natural state. The easiest way to do this is (usually) for opting for things that are brown instead of white. We should be getting about 6 ounces of grains a day and at least half of these should be whole grains. The average American, by the way, gets one serving of whole grains in a day.

When a raw rice grain is refined into white rice, you lose pretty much all the nutrients: 67% of vitamin B3, 80% of vitamin B1, 90% of vitamin B6, 50% of manganese and phosphorus, 60% of iron (a nutrient most of us are deficient in) and all the fiber and essential fatty acids-to be exact. Why would anyone in their right mind do this to such a lovely plant? White rice has traditionally been viewed as the rice that the wealthy consumed since they could afford to pay the higher price that came from the processing. Peasants and working class consumed the brown rice and so brown rice became associated with lower socio-economic status. Undoing years of stigma attached to the different types is a work in progress.

In addition to all those nutrients lost in processing, brown rice also contains antioxidants which neutralize free radicals (or reactive oxygen species) in our bodies. What you say? Is there more? Why yes there is.

Being a whole grain and all, brown rice can help lower your cholesterol (it binds to it), keeps you fuller longer (can help you with weight loss), improves gut health (makes a bulky stool, or as my advanced nutrition professor refers to it- "fluffy poo"), and controls blood sugar levels for diabetics.

Amazing. And you can get instant brown rice or Uncle Ben's even makes it in those microwaveable packs. Top it with fish or add in a stir fry and you have a very healthy alternative to white rice.

They say furlough we say hell no.

Okay sorry I am a little excited today.

My friends and I participated in a walk out today on campus to rally against our tuition increases, professor pay cuts, lay offs, class reduction and furlough days. It was so great to be able to vent our frustrations on campus and with so many other people!!

It is so unfair that our school system suffers while San Diego City employees are getting pay raises and while we remain engaged in a billion dollar war abroad. Ever since Proposition 13 making property taxes capped at 2% was passed in California in the 70s, education funding has steadily decreased because this was a huge contributor to funding the school system here. Now, as wealthy property owners enjoy a tax that has not changed since 1978, our UCs and State schools are laying off amazing professors, shutting their doors to in state students, furloughing 9 days a SEMESTER and cutting pay for professors. All this is happening while we pay 32% more in tuition while receiving less and less aid and less and less education.

Whew! That was a rant I know. BUT, if we don't' say anything we will continue to be taken advantage of. I hope our rally today made a difference!!

walk out news coverage

Wedding pictures

These are some older pictures of my friend Jason's wedding. Jason and I have been friends since and he married a really adorable girl named Liz. Like all friends, we lost touch a little after high school but it was so gret to see him and my other friends. He seems genuinely happy:) Congrats to him and his wife.

Only me...

There are certain things that only happen to me. This is one of them.

Monday after school I had to unload a bunch of boxes from my car. I parked in the alley behind our apartment building and had to take them upstairs one by one so I left the hatchback to my car open. Anyway, finished unloading everything and came back down shut the hatchback. End of story.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I go for a run, come back and my neighbor knocks on my door. She is a nurse and had just gotten back from work.

Neighbor: "Hey Anjee, did you know there is a cat in your car?"
Me: "A CAT??" (I thought she said hat)
Neighbor:" Ya a cat. I just parked next to you and it looked at me from inside your backseat. "

So I go to my car, and sure enough, the resident alley cat is perched (literally) on my backseat. Just hanging out. HE must have hopped in there the previous night during my unloading and spent the night in my car. I open the door and try to scoot him out but he is pretty excited to be in there.

Me: "Do they like poop or pee or anything?"
Neighbor: "Ya but you would be able to smell it right away."

Now I know I may offend some cat people, but I am not cat fan. Of all the cars for this thing to have a sleepover in, it had to choose mine.

Now I am late for school, so I hop in my car and am racing to campus. I am on the lookout for fleas because of course every animal living in an alley would have them. And then I notice it. The little puddle on my passenger seat. Cat pee. Awesome.

After school I spent $60 to get my seats and carpets shampooed. Luckily I have seat covers and was able to wash them. I really hope it doesn't' smell. On the bright side, my interior looks awesome. On the not so bright side, this experience has deepened my distaste for the feline species.

The Cubans have it

Many people find it hard to believe I am entering the field of nutrition after they have eaten a meal with me. I have the appetite of a twelve year old boy and am a sucker for desserts. I can't tell you how many people have said "I didn't think dietitians ate desserts!!" But we do. lots of them. Anyone majoring in nutrition is obsessed with food, and not always in a good way...so it's best to follow what is called the 80/20 rule. Eat healthy 80% of the time, 20% of the time, splurge on a dessert or french fries. You need to enjoy life to live it to it's fullest which is why God created a little place called Azucar....

Azucar web site


It is the most wonderful Cuban style Patisserie across the street from our apartment. Oscar and I love their pasteillto de guava y queso. I have to control myself and only get their treats once a month but they are SO good. And the coffee is only a buck and supposedly very delish but I wouldn't know so we'll have to take the local's word on that one....

This will change your life

Okay maybe not really, but maybe really!!

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Please watch this movie. It's so interesting, and funny in places too-keep you ears peeled for when the organic farmers meet the buyers from Wal-Mart. But if nothing else, it may change your mind about a few things and you can sound super smart by dropping sound bytes from it at cocktail parties.

Other cool things to make you sound informed:

• Food travels and average of 1,300 miles before it gets to you...even organic! Those "fresh" tomatoes we buy, not so fresh. They're picked green so they can be transported (all the while soaking up awesome and nutritious fumes and chemicals from gasoline) and then gassed so they turn red and then coated with an edible film, YUM!


• In the US, Canada and UK, we feed over 50% of our grain to our LIVESTOCK. Tell the hungry people in your community to go ask the cattle rancher if his cows would be willing to share their dinner.


• China is the number one exporter of organic foods. Pretty sure China is kind of far away.

What can we do? Buy local! Shop at farmer's markets and try to buy foods that come from 100-150 mile radius of where you live.

Buy foods that are in season! This way you know they came from your area.

Support local agribusiness! Join a CSA (community supported agriculture). The money stays in your community and supports your local economy.

The low carbon diet

This is exciting news...a diet that works AND saves the planet!!


Here are a few snippets from an article in the September 2008 issue of Today's Dietitian:


About 22% of GHG emissions in the United States come from the food sector, explains Marissa Cloutier, MS, RD, a biology and nutrition instructor at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. “The beef industry is the biggest contributor, with dairy running in second,” she says.

Bon Appétit Management Company, an on-site restaurant company that offers foodservice management to corporations and universities, is hoping to change consumers’ perception while curbing its own bad environmental habits. On Earth Day last year, the company launched a national campaign to not only reduce its own GHG emissions but also help its guests do the same.With 400 cafés nationwide, Bon Appétit is increasing the environmental awareness of both chefs and diners by creating its version of the low-carbon diet, which involves buying foods that have a lower environmental impact on our planet.

The main ideas of the diet:

Decrease beef consumption by 25%: first cut back on portions, then on the number of times consumed per week, then ease out such foods as much as possible while substituting other foods, such as chicken and poultry-switching to poultry is also a great way to reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease.

Buy seasonal and local: Examples of so-called high-carbon foods are out-of-season perishable food items, such as berries in winter or “fresh” fish. “Also, avoid produce grown in hothouses during winter (unless the hothouses are powered by renewable energy). This practice is extremely carbon intensive. The easiest way to tell where foods are coming from is to buy directly from the source: local farmers. And farmers’ markets could be the easiest recommendation for consumers looking to eat for a healthier planet. Subscribing to a community-supported agriculture (CSA) produce box, if it’s available in your area, is another way to enjoy fresh produce that’s in season.

Decrease food waste: Try to buy items without a lot of packaging. Buy only what you will eat and use and compost.

Use common sense: the more processed a food item, the more energy intensive. Go for foods with minimal ingredients and as close to the original as possible—that is, apples instead of apple fruit roll ups. Choosing to eat to sustain the environment includes many considerations. Focusing only on GHG in terms of environmental impact is like only focusing on vitamin C when it comes to nutrition.

Bon Appétit Management Company’s Low Carbon Diet Calculator is a fun and interactive Web-based tool that reveals the relative carbon impacts of specific foods and is based on best-available science. By dragging and dropping menu items, ingredients, or suggested meals onto the virtual skillet, users can see which of their food choices are contributing more to climate change. For more information, visit http://www.eatlowcarbon.org.

Reference:

September 2008 Issue
The Low-Carbon Diet: A Protection Plan for the PlanetBy Juliann SchaefferToday’s DietitianVol. 10 No. 9 P. 42

That's Amore

One of my very close friends moved to Italy for a few months a couple weeks ago. We never really got to see each other all the time because she travels a ton for work, (I know rough life-living in Italy, travelling all over the world for work), but every time we saw each other we just picked up where we left off. It was never awkward or weird. Anyway, I really miss her and in her honor I'm going to post a recipe I made up for a delish pasta dish. Very healthy and fresh. I want to get out to Italy before she leaves but I'm eyeballs deep in school stuff, so until then, I'll celebrate my half Italian side and a good friendship with this tasty recipe:








Many of these measurements are approximate:
1/2 box thick spaghetti or linguine noodles
16 oz. bag small bay scallops, thawed
olive oil
2 tbsp. chopped fresh or 1.5 tbsp. dried parsley
Juice from 1 large lemon
1 red bell pepper julienned
garlic salt, salt and pepper

Boil pot of water with 1/2 tbsp. olive oil. Add noddles and reduce heat to medium high. Rinse scallops in colander and pat dry in paper towels. Season with salt and pepper. Saute in separate pan with 2 tbsp. olive oil until opaque, season lightly with garlic salt, DO NOT DRAIN, set aside. Test pasta for doneness, when al dente, strain noodles, toss with scallops and liquid from cooking, lemon juice, parsley, red bell peppers, add a little garlic salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a little shredded Parmesan cheese if desired, but that will add to the calories....

Nutrition facts for this dish are:
Total calories: 1440 (800 for pasta, 600n for scallops, 40 for bell pepper)
10 grams of fat total

Don't get freaked out by the calories, you will be able to eat at most 1/4 of this dish (350 calories) and have plenty for leftovers.