Drink Up!

With summer and warm weather approaching soon, well hopefully, hydration becomes even more important for everyone. Don't get me wrong, you need to be hydrated all the time, but particularly in the summer, it gets harder for people to remain hydrated and feeling good. Dehydration cannot only make up feel sluggish or tired, but can also have negative effects on our bodies and its functions.

The Institute of Medicine suggests that women should consume about 91 ounces of water per day, or about 11 8oz glasses per day, and men should be drinking about 125 ounces, or 16 8oz glasses of water per day. Instead of counting all those ounces or glasses, your urine should be pale yellow (we learned this in my life cycle nutrition class). That seems like a lot of water, but you can get some of this water through the foods you eat! Vegetables and fruits are very high in water and are good sources of vitamins and minerals for our diet too. Especially fruits like watermelons and strawberries.

Our bodies are about 70% water, and many of the processes and reactions that happen in the body need water to occur. When we don't get enough water, we may feel dehydrated. This brings along symptoms like headaches, dry mouth, muscle cramps (especially in athletes), nausea and vomiting, heart palpitations, and lightheadedness. This is just the stuff we can feel, here is some of the stuff that happens in our bodies that we cannot always feel or know what is going on-problems with digesting foods, the inability to regulate body temperature, kidney problems, swelling and bloating, problems with blood flow, and constipation. All of these can really hurt someone's body if they do not get enough water. But just by filling up a water bottle and sipping on it, refilling it and repeating, can prevent all of these problem!

If you want to add some flavor to your water, add some crystal light or another flavoring. You still get all the water and its benefits, with a little added taste. So drink up!

There's that much sugar is that?!

I have fallen victim to the marketing of reduced fat or fat free food products as better for you. It wasn't until I came to college that I realized that I was making a wrong decision for my health.

Added sugar is everywhere. In foods like cereals, granola bars, yogurt, and especially in beverages. Added sugar can be what breaks someone's every day diet. When fat is taken out of something, like reduced or fat free ice cream, potato chips, prepared and packaged foods, something needs to be put back in to replace the flavor that is lost when the fat is reduced or taken out. Therefore, sugar is added in to make up for that loss in flavor. The same is the case for sodium. When fat is taken out or reduced, sugar and salt are put in to give back some flavor to the food.

All the added sugar in everything can be partially to blame for the increasing obesity epidemic. Especially in sodas. The added sugar makes us pack on the pounds, and can lead to illness and disease like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and obesity. But that sugar just tastes so good! And that's what the big companies want, for us to like the taste, and also associate drinking sugar drinks like soda with happy times and occasions. I did not drink too much soda when I was younger. It was always a treat in my house. We could have it at partys and on vacations, but other than that, it was not a popular drink to have.  I will occasionally have a soda now and again, but not on a regular basis.

Soft drink companies have tried to train the public to correlate drinking soda with feeling happy and doing things fun. This is how they get people to repeatedly buy it.
We watched a video this past week in my life cycle nutrition class that really caught my attention, and I want to share it with you. It is about the unhappy truth of soda and uses a similar marketing tool that Coca-Cola uses. Here is the link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myxwCEGcBYc


Also I wanted to share just how much sugar is in some of the most popular beverages and sodas

One can of Coke has 12 teaspoons of sugar

One can of Sprite has 9 teaspoons of sugar
 One bottle of mountain dew has 19 teaspoons of sugar

One can of an energy drink has 16 teaspoons of sugar
One bottle of Snapple has 11.5 teaspoons of sugar

One bottle of Orange Juice has 12 teaspoons of sugar
Lastly, One can of Arizona Iced tea has 18 grams of sugar


So next time you reach for a soda or sugar beverage, just remember how much sugar may be in there!

Protein Power

Protein is one of the 4 macronutrients, along with carbohydrates, fat and water, that are very vital to life and our ability to move and function. However, it is a problem for many people to get enough protein in their diets daily. The protein that we take in in our diet is important for  muscle development, building up bones and strength, producing antibodies to prevent illness and disease, and to promote growth of strong hair and nails. The average adult consuming 2000 calories a day, should be getting 10-25% of the daily calorie goal from protein. That translates to 200-500 calories, or 50g-124g of protein daily. 124 grams is a lot of protein. A smaller and more personalized protein goal can be found using a simple math equation. For example, lets use a 130lb individual. First, you must divide your weight by 2.2 to find out how many kilograms you are. So, for the example that would be 59kg. Then you will multiply 59kg x .8g/kg of protein, which equals 47 grams of  protein a day. Then, multiply 59kg x 1.1g/kg, which equals 65 grams of protein a day. 47-65grams of protein is a much smaller, and more personalized assessment of someone's protein needs.

Now that you have calculated what your proteins needs are, its time to decide what are the best food choices are to fulfill these needs! Here are a few ideas of protein rich snacks to incorporate into your day to make sure you are getting enough protein in your diet.

- One 8 oz glass of chocolate milk provides about 150 calories and 8 grams of protein per cup

- 1/4 cup of raw almonds providing about 150 calories, healthy fats and 5.4 grams of protein

- 6 oz of greek yogurt providing 130 calories and 16 grams of protein

- Two hard boiled eggs providing about 160 calories and 12 grams of protein (eggs are the most purest form of protein with the least amount of calories!)

- Two slices of roasted turkey deli meat providing 44 calories and 7.2 grams  of protein rolled with one slice of provolone  which is about 98 calories and  7.2 grams of protein equaling 142 calories, 14.4 grams protein total!

- 3/4 cup of cooked edamame providing 150 calories and 12 grams of protein!

- One Luna granola bar has about 180 calories and about 8-9 grams of protein

- 3 oz of tuna on whole grain crackers provides 165 calories and 16 grams of protein

Choose your snacks wisely and go for a high protein option keeping you fuller longer!

Portion Distortion Inforgraphic

For my nutrition education class and presentation I talked about in my last post, I had to make an infographic as part of the total project. Infographics are like pamphlets or news articles that talk about specific areas of interest, not just health related. So I did my infographic on portion distortion, what an actual portion size is and a little bit of obesity statistics! I used Canva, which is a free website where you can design presentation, posters, Facebook cover pictures and even blog stuff. Very easy to use and a lot of free content, as well as paid for content.  Here is the finished project!

Also, I am open to taking suggestions about future blog posts and areas of interest within nutrition. Just leave a comment on here or on facebook and I will look into it!