Rethink your (alcoholic) drink!

So I'm back! I apologize for my little hiatus; I was completing my Medical Nutrition Therapy rotation at a long term care facility and taking an online history class while going home or to see my boyfriend in Connecticut on the weekends! It's been a very busy few weeks and I am hoping to get back completely in the swing of things on here.

In May, I turned 21 (yay!) and that means that I can now legally drink alcohol. Being that I am now legal, I thought I should do a post about choosing your drinks wisely (we actually learn about this in my nutrition classes and in sports nutrition). Did you know that 1 grams of alcohol contains 7 calories?! That's more than protein and carbohydrates and almost as much as fat! And that most alcohol is actually pretty heavy in carbohydrates? That's why after you drink you feel bloated and full.

But just how many calories and marconutrients are in my drink?

Lets take wine as an example

A 5 ounce serving of dry white wine will give you about 123 calories and about 4 grams of carbohydrates. The calories and carbohydrates increase with the sweetness of the wine, so a dry Chardonnay or Merlot will have the least calories and carbohydrates. Check out this infographic I found to give a little more details into each wine and it's nutrition.



Beers

When choosing your beer, light beers and lagers tend to have the lesser amounts of carbohydrates as well as calories compaired to heavier beers like IPAs. Light beers like Bud light, Miller light, Coors Light all are around 100-130 calories with about 5-10 grams of carbohydrates per 12 ounce serving. Having a few really add up calorie and carb wise! Ales, stouts and IPAs calories are about 150-200 calories per 12 ounce serving with around 15 grams of carbohydrates.

Hard Liquors

Hard liquors are all around the same range in calories, but what really packs the nutritional punch is what it is being mixed with. A shot of whiskey has 70 calories, vodka has 64, rum has 64, and tequila has 64. When looking for a mixer for your liquor, choose a calorie free option like seltzer water, diet soda, or club soda. If you're looking to make that fruity drink you love, go for the no sugar added mixers or low in sugar ones. The higher the sugar content the worse the hang over will be the next day!

Remember, for women it is acceptable to have 1 alcoholic drink a day and for men it is acceptable to have 2 alcoholic drinks a day and no you cannot save up all week to binge drink on the weekends!

Choose the healthier option.

Vegetable Noodles!

Vegetable noodles sound very weird, I'll admit it! When I first thought about them I thought it was actual pasta made with vegetables as one of the ingredients, but its not! It's far from that.Vegetable noodles are vegetables that are spiralized using a spiralizer, and flash cooked on the stove. 100% vegetables and nothing else. Vegetable noodles are great for those trying to lose weight, or have a better source of carbohydrates than having regular pasta. Here I made zucchini noodles with homemade pesto and grilled chicken. Good source of heart healthy fats, vitamins and minerals, protein, and antioxidants.

How to make the Pesto-

2 Cups of Fresh Basil
1 Cup of Arugula
1/2 Cup of Parmesan
1/4 Cup Pine Nuts
1/2 Cup Olive Oil

In a food processor, combine argulula, basil and olive. Blend until smooth. Add parmesan and pine nuts, blend. Enjoy!

Store in an air tight container to keep fresh, freeze within 5 days of making.

Snack Time!

I'm a huge fan of munchy snacks, especially ones with a little heat in them. Over spring break, I made a delicious and addicting snack mix that everyone in my house enjoyed. It was Buffalo Ranch Snack Mix!

Here's the recipe so you can become addicted too!

Buffalo Ranch Snack Mix


Ingredients-

4c Chex Rice Cereal
3c Reduced Fat cheese crackers (cheez-its)
3c mini pretzels
1c shelled salted peanuts
1/2c Franks Red Hot
4Tbsp unslated butter
2 1/2 tsp dried dill weed
1tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder


Directions-

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Combine rice cereal, crackers, pretzels and peanuts together in a large bowl.

Heat hot sauce and butter in a small pan over medium heat until butter mealts. Once melted, whisk in dill, parsley, and garlic. Pour hot sauce mixture over cereal mix. Toss until everything is coated.

Spead mix onto a cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour stirring every 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Colorful Lunch to Brighten Your Day

It's amazing what a great, healthy and tasty lunch can do to your day. Last week was such a rainy and dreary week and it called for a colorful lunch to brighten everything up. I got to thinking of what I haven't had in a while that would taste good and I immediately thought of Stuffed Peppers! Taco stuffed peppers actually, but they were very tasty and filling. A stuffed pepper can be made a variety of ways, taco style or Italian style, with lots of options for fillings too! These ones has rice, ground turkey, taco seasoning, tomatoes with chiles and cheese! They had something from every food group, how could you go wrong? They are also good because they portion themselves out. All I had to do in the mornings was grab one and put it in a microwaveable contained to be heated later.


The recipe is super easy and doesn't take much time at all. They can be made for dinner tonight or meal prep for the whole week!

Ingredients

• 5 - 6 medium to large bell peppers
• sea or kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 pound groung turkey
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• 1 can (11 ounces) Ro-tel diced tomatoes & green chiles
• 1 cup uncooked white Minute Rice or 1 + ¾ cups cooked rice
• 2 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
• shredded lettuce, for serving
• sour cream, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Slice the tops off the peppers and clean out the seeds.
2. Stand the peppers up in a casserole dish and sprinkle the insides with salt and pepper.
3. Cover them with aluminum foil and bake 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make the filling:
5. In a large frying pan over medium heat brown the ground turkey, breaking it apart as it cooks. Drain off the grease.
6. Add the taco seasonings and follow the directions on the package.
7. Once the taco meat is ready mix in the Ro-tel with the juices and the rice. Simmer 5 minutes, stirring often.
8. Stir in the cheese. Fill the peppers.
9. Bake 25 minutes - uncovered.
10. Serve over shredded lettuce with a dollop of sour cream.

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist vs Nutritionist

So I have been running my blog now for over a year and have been talking about nutrition, health tips and sharing recipes, but I have not explained the difference between a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and a Nutritionist. To many people, these titles are interchangeable and mean the same thing. However, that is not the case at all! There is a huge difference between what an RDN and a nutritionist is. So, I made up a handy chart to explain the differences and help you to better understand who you can trust with your nutrition advice and those who you cannot.

Here is a detailed descrition of the difference between RDNs and Nutritionists!

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Nutritionist

-Has a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics (bachelors or masters) from ASCEND accredited institution- the accrediting body of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics -Completed a mandatory internship of 1200 hours from an ACEND accredited internship program -Has passed the national licensing exam in     order to achieve the credential of RDN -Must maintain credential status by ongoing learning credits -Considered a nutritional professional -Is trained in and licensed to perform Medical Nutrition Therapy (an essential, cost-effective, component of the comprehensive nutrition care of medical diseases and conditions) -Provides food, nutrition and related services -Protects the public, community and populations from wrong information -Enhances the wellbeing of patients/clients -Delivers quality products programs and services, including Medical Nutrition Therapy across all focuses -Assesses and Diagnoses nutrition related health problems, plans an Intervention to correct the problem and Monitors and Evaluates the patients/clients outcomes -Can work in hospitals, assisted living homes, acute care facilities, schools, food service, private practice, sports, institutions, corporate venues, etc -Follows Standards of Practice, a Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice set in place by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

-No qualifications or classes or degree needed to be called a nutritionist -Self-proclaimed title- anyone can call themselves nutritionists due to not needing a credential or license -Not legally considered a nutritional professional -Not legally able to make sound nutrition advice due to the lack of appropriate training

Gut Health and Dairy!

Last week I attended a seminar put on by the American Dairy Association North East at my university. Every year they sponsor a speaker to come and talk about hot nutrition topics and how dairy is tied in with them as well. Topics in years past have been Sports Nutrition and Farming and Agriculture. This year's topic was Gut Health and Dairy. Before attending this seminar, I knew very little about the microbiome, probiotics and prebiotics; but after this session my knowledge and interest has grown exponentially. So, this week I decided that I wanted to share a little bit of this new knowledge with you!

Let's start with the Microbiome
- There are 10-100 trillion microbial cells in the skin, gut, mouth and feces. These cells have differ from person to person, and can vary depending on what environment we live in, as well as what type of environment the cells live in. Cells that live in the gut and are constantly exposed to gastric acids and juices are different from those that live on the skin or in the mouth. We actually get some of these  microbial cells from our mothers when we are born, and there are 3 points within our lives in which the microbiome changes. First, when we start being breast fed, second is when we first develop a sickness that requires an antibiotic, and lastly is when we begin to eat solid foods. Some other things that can effect the gut microbiome is diet, exercise, stress, where you live, gender, age, and whether or not if you have a pet.

Microbiome and Health
- Studies have been able to show a connection between obesity, cognitive function, immune health, autoimmune disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, and the microbiome. One study showed that those who are obese have a significantly smaller amount of microbiomes in the gut than those who are at a healthy weight. They put the overweight people on a diet high in fiber and probiotics and saw that they experienced a loss of weight, as well as a more diverse microbiome. Another point I found interesting was that a study was done with children who were genetically at risk for developing Type 1 Diabetes. The researcher followed these children for 3 years and tested their mircobiome weekly for changes. After 3 years, 4 of the 33 children followed developed Type 1 Diabetes. The researcher saw a trend in the children that developed diabetes, they saw that one year before the onset of diabetes, there was a significant change in the microbiome which could help them predict the development of diabetes.

What are Probiotics?
- Probiotics are live cultures intended to have health benefits. Probiotics are part of the microbiome which can help with digestion, inflammation and disease prevention, by eating foods with probiotics we can make our microbiome more diverse.

What are Prebiotics?
- Prebiotics feed probiotics. They have been shown to be able to reduce inflammation, reduce diarrhea associated with antibiotic use, and lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Where can we get prebiotics and probiotics?
- Dairy is a great source of pre and probiotics, yogurt being one of the best of them. Kefir (shown above), which is a cultured milk product also is a great source of probiotics (shown to have 150-950 billion different probiotics) . It produced fewer symptoms of lactose intolerance than normal milk does, while containing the same amount of lactose. This is because Kefir contains cultures with the lactase enzyme in them. Some other sources of pre and probiotics are fermented foods, fruits and vegetables, kimchi, saurerkraut, miso, kombucha and tempeh


Next time you're at the grocery store in the dairy aisle, check the yogurt container and see if it says "Contains live cultures", if so, you're helping to increase and diversify your microbiome!

Myth Busting-Dark Chocolate

Chocolate has always been known as a rich and decadent treat that we should not overly indulge in. But what if I told you that chocolate, specifically dark chocolate, has some benefits to you and your health. Here are some dark chocolate facts I bet you didn't know!

1. Dark chocolate has more cocoa and less sugar that milk chocolate and white chocolate, making it the more nutritious choice than the rest. Excess sugar in the diet can be stored as fat.

2. Dark chocolate has a large amount of antioxidants in it. Antioxidants prevent free radicals from forming in the body which can help us to prevent diseases like cancer and other cardiovascular diseases.

3. Dark chocolate is full of heart healthy fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which can aid in the reduction in the rish of cardiovascular disease.

4. Dark chocolate has a high amount of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. When we have an adequate amount of amino acids in our body, the easier it is for our bodies to build new muscle.

5. Dark Chocolate contains dopamine, a neurotransmitter. When dopamine reaches the brain, the pleasure centers are stimulated causing you to feel good. Thats why some people get a wash of good feelings after eating chocolate

Next time you're reaching into the pantry for chocolate, grab the dark chocolate for a tasty treat that has nutritional benefits as well. Just remember, everything in moderation! Eating a whole bag of Dark Chocolate morsels doesn't mean you will wipe out your risk of heart disease and cancer! You will probably just get a really bad stomach ache!