Nutrition Trends that Have to Go in 2019

Nutrition trends that you need to ditch in 2019

A couple weeks ago, my boyfriend returned from a weekend at home with a huge bottle of apple cider vinegar

He asked me what I thought about it, if it would help him lose weight and burn fat

We contemplated it, researched it and tasted it.

Well it smells, it’s hard to drink and tolerate and can cause an upset stomach but people swear by it for weight loss

However, don’t fall for this and others nutrition trends!

Apple Cider Vinegar shots! claim to help burn fat and increase calorie burn by drinking a shot every day. When in reality, it’s been scientifically proven it does not do that at all. There are no weight loss properties, it doesn’t increase the burn. However, it can be an easy way to add some probiotics. Let’s ditch this one though

gluten free diets for people who don’t have celiac or aren’t gluten sensitive. When you cut out gluten or go to gluten free products, you’re actually putting yourself at risk for vitamin and mineral deficiencies gluten free products aren’t enriched with vitamins during their processing. There’s no need to go gluten free or eat only gluten free products to lose weight, they don’t kick start weight loss or aid in weight loss

Tea detoxes and cleanses got to go. You’re spending money for a laxative tea that claims to “cleanse you”. Don’t waste your money. Instead, increase your fruit and vegetable intake and trust your kidneys and liver (they naturally detox you)!

Bone Broth everything. Drinking it, adding it to everything and living by it. It claims to aid in immunity and increase the amount of vitamins and minerals, however, bones are known to hold on to lead, a harmful micronutrient that can cause anemia, weakness and brain and kidney damage! There’s also no evidence showing that consuming the amino acids and minerals you may be getting from the broth is better than other sources, and it’s actually a poor source of vitamins and minerals unless you add fruits and vegetables to it too!

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You're probably paying too much for your groceries

There's one expense that we cannot avoid, its the grocery bill. Whether you do your shopping once a month (I wish I could only go once a month!), every other week, once a week or every day, you're probably paying more than you need to be! There are a few simple ways to reduce the cost of your bill starting today.

Shop with coupons

Maybe you've seen the TLC show Extreme Couponing, where people spend over 20 hours a week scouting out coupons, trimming them, and organizing them to get the best deal. Some of the people on the show walk out with thousands of dollars in groceries and only pay a few dollars. You don't have to go that insane to save a few bucks. Pick up your local Sunday Newspaper and skim through the coupon ads. You'll start to recognize that even the manufacturers have certain times of the year that they post coupons for particular items. Right around Christmas/New Years you'll see diet products go on sale, back to school time normally has hygiene and beauty items on sale, and in the spring, cleaning supply coupons are everywhere. If you don't want to get the paper, go on to the grocery store website and see if they have any digit coupons that you can clip and tie to your shopper's saving card. And don't forget to sign up for the saving cards, they are free and can save you more than you think! Last week at Price Chopper, I had over $20 in savings from using my Advantage Card and got money off gas too!

Skip the ready prepared items

You know those packages of chopped or spiralized vegetables that look all pretty sitting in the case waiting for you to buy them? They are often 3-4 times more expensive than the whole item. Instead of spending $5 on a bag of chopped romaine lettuce, pick up a head of romaine for $1.99 and clean it and chop it yourself. Not only will you be saving money, but you'll also have a longer shelf life than the pre-packaged ones because often those aren't as fresh as the whole product. Instead of buying a pound of spiralized zucchini for $10, you can get a few pounds of zucchini and a personal spiralizer for your home for under $10!

Buy in larger sizes

There are certain items that actually get cheaper if you buy more of it. Milk is one of those things. Rather than buying a quart for $1.59, buy the whole gallon for $1.69. If you're nervous that it may go bad before you drink it all, look for the cartons with the sell-by date furthest from today and remember that the sell-by date is not the use by date. There is typically another 5-7 days after the sell-by date that the product will still be good. Eggs is another item that you can buy in larger quantities; as long as they are refrigerated, you can keep eggs in the fridge for 3-4 weeks without them going bad.

Buy the store brand

You may be weary that the store brand is not as good as a national brand but I am here to set the record straight; whatever national brand the store brand is sitting next to is usually the same exact product. Stores pay national brands to package their products in the store packaging. This is true for peanut butter, most cereals, pastas,dips, cheese, breads, chips, jellies, vegetables and crackers. The national brand will always be more expensive than the store brand, so why pay more for the brand name if you're getting the same product. 

Buy in season products

This more so applies to fruits and vegetables, but it carries a lot of weight. You want to buy the produce that is currently in season to ensure you get the best price, the best flavor, and the highest nutrient content. Don't look for fresh apples in the spring thinking that your local orchard is already selling them, most stores will store the previous season's fruit in a climate controlled area to try and hold it at fresh, but then charge you more for it. By buying local blueberries when they are in season you will know that they didn't travel across country to sit in the store and that you won't be paying extra for them to be brought across the country. 

Shop smart and save money!

As a Whole, We Aren't Active Enough...

As a Whole, We Aren't Active Enough...

It pains me to say it, but it's true, we really aren't active enough. I started to realize this a few years ago when I got my first FitBit, the step goal was 10,000 steps, and I was walking about 8,000 steps a day. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. After being aware that I wasn't moving as much as I thought I was, I took initiative to start moving more and started to hit the 10,000 steps goal.

But then, there was an update from the FitBit app on my phone that the new step goal FitBit was setting for everyone was 8,000 steps a day, that's about 1.5 miles less a day that they were encouraging people to get moving. 8,000 steps is equal to about 3.5 miles a day, which still sounds like a lot, but you can reach it and exceed it easily if you make a few simple changes.

Why do we need to get more active?

With obesity rates on the rise and the Center's for Disease Control predicting that by 2030, 33% of all American's will have diabetes. That number is staggering for a health professional like myself, but for anyone that has a loved one with Type II Diabetes in particular. Type II Diabetes is a lifestyle related disease who's risks can be cut with more activity and better nutrition. Type II Diabetes results when not enough insulin is produced by the Beta cells of the pancreas or our own cells have a decreased sensitivity to the insulin that is being secreted. Insulin is the car that transports the sugar in the blood into the cells. The more excess bodyweight we have, the greater the risks are. Most other diseases that occur and develop later on in life are a result of our health and nutrition choices. Heart Disease, Stroke, and Cancer are just some among many who's risks can be reduced with greater physical activity and nutrition. 

How can we get more active?

Most of the time, you don't need to throw on your gym clothes and buy new sneakers to get more active, I like to take my dog on walks to increase activity.  There are simple changes that you can make to your daily life to increase movement and activity. First, stop taking the elevator and seek out the stairs. You burn 5 times more calories taking the stairs than riding in an elevator, not to mention, work more muscles in your legs and butt than riding the elevator. 

You know that trip to the coffee shop you take every morning on your way into work? Stop going through the drive-thru. Most of the time, the line for the drive-thru is a lot longer than the line in-store, and those extra 200 steps you take add up! 

Park farther away from your destination. I don't mean park blocks away from the office, mall or store, but take one of the farther away parking spots and sacrifice the extra 30 seconds it takes to walk in as an excuse to get more steps in. It also lessens the chance of someone hitting your car with a cart or their car door!

If you're about to send an email to a coworker in your office, step away from the computer and go walk to their desk and talk in person. Not only will it give you excuse to step away from the computer to rest your eyes and refresh, but you'll also get extra steps in and you can get an immediate response from the person rather than waiting for a response!

Lastly, sacrifice a little bit of your lunch hour and go for a walk. It can be around the building, up and down the stairs, or a loop you mapped out around work. This is something I try to do every day. There's a mile loop around the building that I walk every lunch time, it takes 30 minutes for me to walk the mile and I burn about 160 calories; a lot more than what I would burn just sitting at my desk. 

Try to integrate these easy changes into your daily life and help yourself reduce the  risk of chronic disease.

Why Nutrition Matters

We were all told when we were younger to eat our peas and beans to grow big and strong; and our families were right! Nutrition is not just something that should be focused upon as we age, but all throughout our lives. The rates of lifestyle related disease are on the rise while infections and viruses are slowly dropping. This means that now, more than ever, your nutritional choices matter. The risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and kidney diseases are all influenced by our lifestyle habits. Therefore, if you aren’t active, or you choose not to keep in mind health while making your food choices, your chances of lifestyle related diseases is higher. But why should you make more health conscious decisions? The better your health is, the lower your insurance cost is, the less sick days you need to take from work and the more energy you have to do things you want to, rather than spend that time in a doctor’s office.

There are simple changes you can make every day to help reduce your risk of chronic disease. One easy change you can make today is to stop salting your foods before you eat them. I have seen it so often, the meal is served and someone immediately grabs the salt shaker and pours it on without even trying their food beforehand. Put down the salt shaker, taste the food, and then decide if it needs salt.

Vegetables and fruits are your friend, the saying that “An Apple a day keeps the doctor away” isn’t false at all! Fruits and vegetables have a high water content, which aids in hydration. Eating the skins of the fruits and vegetables will add fiber to your diet and help with digestion. Fiber adds bulk to the intestines and digested food, and makes it move along faster. They are also a great source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which are important in preventing chronic, lifestyle diseases. Micronutrient deficiencies can lead to illness, like osteoporosis from Vitamin D and Calcium deficiency, or inflammation of the skin from a niacin deficiency. The antioxidants in fruits and vegetables fight off free radicals in the body that can cause disease as well. They aren’t called super foods for nothing!

Hydration is key! When you are not properly hydrated, you can feel tired, sluggish, unable to focus, lethargic, and can put you at risk for urinary tract infections as well. Decreased water intake means there is less being held in your bladder, which allows bad bacteria to grow and not be flushed out. So, by drinking enough water, you can prevent UTIs! When you’re active, you should be drinking about 8oz of water every 15 minutes to prevent dehydration. Weigh yourself before and after working out, for every pound lost, you should be drinking 16oz of water. Lastly, if you feel like you’re thirsty, then you’re already on the path to being dehydrated!

These are only a few small things you can do every day to advance your health, but even the small things add up and count.

No longer on the road...

Yes, you read the title right! I am no longer on the road to being an RD. That's because, I am an RD!!!! YAY!!!

So whats next you may ask? Well, I am working as the RD/Clinical Dietitian for a Nursing home here in upstate NY, I am in my second term of my Master's degree studies, and I am about to launch nutrition counseling programs with Dynamic Health and Fitness of Liverpool NY. I pitched the idea to the owner back in the winter, and it has been a work in the process over the past few months with building nutrition counseling programs that can be done in person and online. They are launching this month and I could not be more excited than to be starting to work more in the sports nutrition world. I will be the gym's only Registered Dietitian and be able to work with people of all ages and health goals. 

I will continue to run my Instagram page @emilys.nutrition.bite and still run this blog as well. Hopefully in the future I will switch this over from being on the blogspot platform and move into my own website, but I've got a lot going on right now to hop into doing that too. 

So long story short, I am busy. Although my exam studying has come to an end, I am still working hard and will continue to bring recipes and education to your fingertips!

Podcast Appearances You Should Listen To!

Podcasts I've Appear on and One's You Should Listen to!

Through my instagram (@emilys.nutrition.bite) I've had the great opportunity to be a guest on a health and fitness podcast. I've actually appeared on the podcast 4 times! We've talked about the difference between a Registered Dietitian and a Nutritionist, the benefits of dairy, Sports Nutrition, and general nutrition suggestions. I believe it's best to educate yourself to aid in making decisions for your health and future, and that has been my aim with appearing on this great platform.
Also, join my email list to get the latest information on health and nutrition!
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http://fitarmadillo.com/how-to-eat-healthy-diet-ep-66/




Sports Nutrition 101- http://fitarmadillo.com/sports-nutrition-101-ep-67/



Registered Dietitian vs Nutritionist- http://fitarmadillo.com/nutritionists-vs-registered-dietitians-ep-3/




Dive into Dairy- http://fitarmadillo.com/cows-milk-bad-for-you-dairy-milk-ep-25/

White Bean Salad

I featured this salad today on my instagram, @emilys.nutrition.bite,  with a step by step video on how to make this easy White Bean Salad, but thought I would bring it to the blog too for everyone to enjoy!

White Bean Salad

Ingredients

- 2 cans Great White Beans (Cannelloni Beans)

- 1/4c Olive Oil

- 1/4c Grated Parmesan 

- 2 Cloves Minced Garlic

- Pepper to Taste

Instructions

Rinse the cans of beans in a strainer in the sink. Rinsing the beans will reduce the sodium content up to 40%. Pour into dish. Measure and pour Olive Oil over beans. Add Grated Parmesan, and 2 cloves Minced Garlic. Mix together and chill for 4-6 hours before serving. Add Pepper to taste and serve. 

This salad is great on its own, but can also be put on burgers or a green salad to add protein and fiber!