Another Food Labeling Mess. Disappointing, But Don't Lose Faith.

GMO labeling has taken center stage in health headlines recently, and while actual laws are slow to get traction, heightened consumer awareness is pushing companies to make positive changes they wouldn't have had good business reason to do otherwise. See article about General Mills' decision to remove GMO's from Cheerios' yellow box variety. Progress!

And if you spend any time looking at food packaging these days, you'll see proud call-outs like "now with no high fructose corn syrup," "now with no artificial colors, flavors, dyes," "no trans fats," etc. This is good stuff. Sure, it can breed laziness: we see those call-outs and assume a product is healthy rather than spending quality time with the actual nutrition facts and ingredient lists which may expose otherwise. However, let's be optimists rather than cynics. Progress!

We're seeing more "antibiotics-free," "hormone-free," "fed no animal by-products" meats. More "pastured" and "grass-fed" options in standard grocery stores instead of just the fancier Whole Foods and natural food stores. Wild fish and organic milk is everywhere. Smuckers makes peanut butter you can feel good about buying for your kids. This all means healthier stuff is becoming more accessible to the masses, which means awareness rates have to be growing. And the more informed we are, the healthier we are. Right?

Well? Here's a head-scratcher for you: despite all of the above, and despite my optimistic blog post from last spring, recent data shows obesity rates in 2013 (27.2%) were higher than they've ever been, this after two years of declines seen in 2011 and 2012. What gives?

Could it be.... FRADULENT OLIVE OIL?

If you haven't heard about all of the incredible benefits of especially extra-virgin olive oil recently, you've likely been living under a rock. Its high concentration of mono-unsaturated (good) fat helps lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and decreases blood pressure. It has stronger concentrations of phytonutrients which have great anti-inflammatory effects on the body. Why is that important? Chronic inflammation wreaks havoc and leads to all sorts of nasty stuff like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

But what if that EVOO we've been pouring all over our salads, drizzling onto over our vitamin A-rich, toxins-removing baked sweet potatoes and brushing onto our deliciously simple grilled halibut isn't EVOO at all, but a mix of god-knows-what kinds of oils? Ones that could very well be genetically-engineered, produce LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase blood pressure?

No, I'm not suggesting that fake olive oil is the number one culprit increasing obesity rates (though I must admit I'm baffled and saddened by the 2013 data), but it's disconcerting to hear that what 70% of us think we're putting into our bodies is actually pretty much the opposite. This is far worse than brands not disclosing whether their products are made from GMO's, or ones who market themselves as "healthy" when their ingredient lists suggest otherwise. No, this olive oil thing (if true, because there's always that question) is a full-blown lie. Makes you wonder what other "good" things we're doing for ourselves that are actually bad.

Ah, screw it, let's just throw in the towel and reach for the Twinkies, right?

Nope, wrong answer. Health is a combination of factors, and just because a couple things we're doing may not be what we've intended or have been told, the (mostly?) good combo will always, always prevail. So read up on as much of this stuff as you can so you stay informed and adjust as you will based on what you conclude. But if you're on the beautiful, albeit sometimes bumpy road to health, DON'T LOSE FAITH.

Resolution Not Working? Try This Instead.

One of the most helpful concepts I learned in health coaching school was 'bio-individuality.' Sounds deeeeeeeeep. And complicated. But it's a simple premise that makes a whole lot of sense. And that's actually the case with a lot of stuff in the health and nutrition world - it's just that too many of the food companies, too much of the medical world and too many loosely termed "experts" have realized that in order to make a business out of health and nutrition, confusing consumers is job number one.

So what is bio-individuality anyway?

There’s no one-size-fits-all diet – each person is a unique individual with highly individualized nutritional requirements. Personal differences in anatomy, metabolism, body composition and cell structure all influence your overall health and the foods that make you feel your best. That’s why no single way of eating works for everyone. The food that is perfect for your unique body, age, and lifestyle may make another person gain weight and feel lethargic. 
- Joshua Rosenthal, Founder, Institute for Integrative Nutrition -

The health and nutrition world markets under the guise of simplicity: Just eat this one food and your belly fat will disappear! Follow these three simple tricks and you'll fit back into those jeans like that! Never eat another carb again and you'll shed those plus sizes forever! Okay, maybe those approaches worked for someone. But they won't work for the general public. 98% of all diets fail sooner or later. And since it's January, I'll throw this depressing statistic out at you as well: 90% of New Year Resolutions fail. So many of them health-related.

Are you having trouble sticking to your health-related resolution?  
A different approach may be in order.

I just finished leading 21 women (and one man!) on a 7-Day "Resolution Jumpstart" Purification. The Purification is not about juicing or deprivation, neither of which is a long-term viable proposition. It's about eating whole, real (delicious, mind you) foods, and eliminating foods that either definitely are or could be inhibiting health-related progress including gluten, dairy, added sugar, caffeine, alcohol, soda, diet soda, juice, artificial anything and preservatives.

YIKES!

Let me tell you: that shit ain't easy. It took us - ALL of us (myself included) - a lot of energy and determination to do this. The intention is not for anyone to try to live like this forever. Instead, we cut out all of this stuff at once in order to create a clean slate. From there, we add stuff back in slowly and check how we're feeling. This way we'll know if there are certain types of foods that just don't sit well, and may be at the core of our issues including bloating, acne, low energy, poor sleep, eczema, intense cravings or weight gain. Many of my purifiers are discovering a few kinds of foods were really tripping them up: gluten for one (the source of chronic bloating); dairy for another (the source of chronic eczema); added sugar for still another (the source of intense cravings.) And many have enjoyed as much as five pounds in weight loss after just seven days! Likely the combination of everything.

But none of those specifics matter much if everyone goes back to their old ways once the week is over. The most valuable lesson (even the most miserable of) my purifiers take away from this seven day journey is awareness. Many of us go through our days mindlessly eating or doing this or that. There are no fingers to point here, it's just a reality of our crazed worlds. But for these seven days, each of us was ultra-aware of what we were eating, how we were sleeping, what kind of time we were making for exercise, how much TV we were watching, etc. And, importantly, how each of those things was making us feel.

We'll each decide what to DO with what we learned moving forward, but the practice of being more aware itself is really hard to shake (in a good way!), the positive momentum we've all created for ourselves forms the buildings blocks required for long-term change, and each of us will have our bio-individualistic learnings to fall back on, well, forever.

From one Resolution Jumpstart Purifier:

Last Sunday morning I was shoveling food in my mouth standing up and screaming at my daughter to get dressed for her skating lesson. This week I had oatmeal, have a smoothie and am drinking my unfinished tea out of my thermos. Totally different scene just a week later!

So if you're finding your health-related resolution isn't going so well, the reason might be that it just wasn't the right resolution fit for you. Because it was someone else's diet program, someone else's exercise regime, or it was simply unrealistic. Take just a week instead and practice the art of awareness: it's a real shortcut to some long-term answers. 

Embrace and Master the Art of Leftover-ing!

Just the thought of leftovers used to completely depress me. Maybe it's because of unappetizing definitions like this one from Wikipedia:

Leftovers: the uneaten remains of a meal.

But I blame Mom. Every afternoon when I came home from school I would ask, "What's for dinner?" And about once a week she'd respond, "Leftovers." As if these leftovers weren't worthy of being called the actual food that they were. "Leftovers" sometimes meant mac 'n cheese (a childhood favorite!), yet after being labeled "leftovers", I wasn't interested. Seems Mom would have benefitted from a Marketing 101 class.

My distaste of the "leftovers" concept trickled along into my twenties. But at this point, the depression stemmed from a heightened awareness of my economic status: leftovers made me feel poor. And I was poor, mind you, but I certainly didn't want to be reminded of that fact when I sat down for lunch or dinner! So, instead, more often than not, I made the wise choice of either ordering in or going out (declining the doggy bag), driving myself further into debt.

As I matured into my thirties, leftovers no longer felt like the plague. Yet still, there were issues, boredom being one: my taste buds weren't interested in having the same dinner two nights in a row. And often, I wasn't even home two nights in a row. But then inevitably a few nights later, I'd take a look at my leftovers and wonder if they'd gone bad. I would decide they probably had, but as I was not sure, I'd leave them there. (Am I the only one here? Highly irrational!) And they'd then get pushed farther in the back of the fridge only to be discovered weeks later in a state I will not describe here.

But I am happy to report that, pushing 40, I have finally embraced and mastered the art of leftover-ing! In fact, I now strategically cook to ensure I have plenty of leftovers to choose from at all times. A big motto in my house is "cook once, eat twice." I'll admit this is much easier to do now that I'm home rather than at a corporate job (and that health coaching is my career focus!) but it's easier than you may think. Here is a handful of ideas:

- Roast a chicken on Sunday for dinner. Kids can have chicken again one or two nights that week. You can have it in your salads. Or make chicken noodle soup!
- Cook four pieces of salmon instead of two. Refrigerate the remaining two for lunch salads or make salmon breakfast omelets.
- Make more couscous, quinoa, brown rice than you need. Save for up to four days in the fridge and use as a side for any dinner during the week and/or sprinkle over salads. Or spice it up into a salad of its own like this tabbouleh!
- Make more black beans than you need. Use in the kids' dinner quesadillas the next night.
- Bake an additional sweet potato. Divide the flesh into ice cube trays, freeze them and then use a couple of cubes in each of your morning smoothies!

But all of that might feel like too much planning. So what about the stuff you just couldn't finish but know you shouldn't throw away? Odds and ends leftovers can still be made into something fabulously delicious. Check out this list of recipe ideas from Greatist. (And let me know if you decide to make the breakfast spaghetti. Dying to know if that's any good, but haven't gotten around to trying it myself.)

And as far as more "traditional" leftovers go - meaning, just heat them up and there's your meal - I happen to believe foods like pizza, meatballs and thai anything improve with age (okay, overnight.) Or even just remember the Friday after Thanksgiving. Isn't it all somehow more delicious the day after? Here's some actual science behind that.

During the holidays, more than any other time of the year, there are bound to be leftovers. Get creative. I bet you discover some yummy combinations!

Fun Fart Facts

Want to make the unavoidable potty talk in your young household somewhat educational? Or are you just interested in the digestive system? Read on for some fun fart facts.

Anything involving flatulence is a hit in the Kain home these days. Instead of reading the other night, Maggie asked if she could practice writing before she went to sleep. She started off asking how to spell our cat's name, and it went downhill from there as you can see from the picture here.

I cut off the exercise after the third mention of a bodily function as her giggling was becoming uncontrollable and my chances of getting her to go to sleep quickly were waning. But nice penmanship for a four year old, eh?

So anyway, on Sunday I was reading the paper and came across a quiz about digestion that I thought would be perfect to take to test out my health coaching knowledge. I have to admit: I got a perfect zero. Some obscure stuff here! (Take it and see how you do.) I wouldn't say it's the really important stuff to know, but it might help me in Trivial Pursuit some day, and my family found some of the results quite entertaining.

Did you know...

While it varies by diet, humans will toot about 22 times a day. The peak time for passing gas is five hours after lunch and five hours after dinner. These time periods are, in part, a result of manners: you hold it in at work and let the gas out on your way home. 
I had guessed 8, the lowest number I could check on the multiple choice quiz, and even that I had thought was extreme. Frank claimed he hadn't farted at all the day before. We decided that it must have all happened while he slept, though I didn't believe him for a second.

Flatulence in women has higher concentrations of stinky hydrogen sulfide than men.
I'm not sure why I decided to share this little gem with Frank as I've not heard the end of it since.
 
The foods that cause the most foul-smelling gas are red meat, cruciferous vegetables, garlic, dried fruits and beer.
Well, hmmmm..., except for the dried fruit, these are all pretty much staples in our household. If you're eating healthfully, it seems you won't be able to avoid gas. Cut out the red meat, beer and dried fruits if you so choose (though grass-fed red meat once a week is fine for most and some bodies actually need more, dried fruits are yummy in moderation chopped into granola, and cutting out beer is a crime as far as I'm concerned) but cruciferous veggies and garlic should be consumed a-plenty. Cruciferous (cabbage family) vegetables are incredibly nutritious, containing all the normal vitamins, minerals and fiber of other veggies, but they also uniquely include certain phytochemical compounds which play a major role in the body's natural detoxification process. And garlic is an allium vegetable (basically an edible bulb) that can transform a blah meal into something totally delicious with no guilt whatsoever. The sulfides in garlic (and onions, leeks, scallions and shallots) have also been linked to decreased risk of many diseases. So bring on the gas, folks!

If these fun little tidbits haven't gotten a rise out of at least someone in your family, share this little gem: your stomach actually digests itself! Our stomach linings have evolved to regenerate themselves completely every few days. Find it hard to wrap your head around this? Take a moment to think about your body in general. It's a machine that works 24/7. The fuel you provide it with daily through food, drink, exercise, mental state, etc. is constantly replacing yesterday's fuel. While percentages vary, experts agree that many cases of chronic diseases like heart disease, the leading cause of death in this country, are not only preventable, but reversible... this constantly replenished fuel is the reason. Change how you treat your body and what you put into it and you could cure it without drugs. But I digress... back to gas.

We learn very early on to hold in our gas, mostly because it's embarrassing not to (rarely because we're being considerate.) Some say it's really bad for our health to do so, but I think I'm with Dr. Oz on this one: Holding in gas isn't dangerous to your health, but Dr. Oz says it can cause unnecessary stomach cramps and pain. "You shouldn't bother holding it in," he says. "Let it come out when it's supposed to come out. Be smart about it. Do it in a place that's airy enough that you're not going to hurt your family and friends." (His use of the word "hurt" here makes me laugh.)

Okay, just one last thing: a little freebie holiday tip. Whoopie Cushions make great stocking stuffers for just about any age. They'll be in my kids' stockings again this year, though I'm unsure why I'm deciding to perpetuate the flatulence fascination. Buy them at the nearest dollar store to save some money. They inevitably pop on Christmas Day from over-use and abuse anyway.

The Holidays: Good or Bad For Our Health?

 Maintaining a healthy diet is especially difficult at this time of year given the inescapable abundance of food and drinks. But here's a little secret: embracing this enviornment is healthier than trying to fight it and then beating yourelf up about it when you can't. Because food and drinks are fun. And lucky for us, fun is good for our health!

Did you know... 

• laughter can ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers.
• laughter stimulates circulation and aids in muscle relaxation.
• positivity can release neuropeptides into your body that help fight stress and improve your immune system.

Conversely, negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that invite more stress and decrease immunity.

But despite the inherent goodness of the holidays, we are all guilty of allowing stress to compromise them to some degree, be it self-inflicted, or brought on by friends, family or the commercialization that companies rely on to make their numbers at the end of the year.

My best advice? Try to reduce that stress by focusing your energy on maintaining good mental health, and everything else will have a much better chance of falling into place.

Be content with how much you can do and what gets put off.

"I just have too much to do. There's no way I'm getting it all done!" Sound familiar? Call me a pessimist, but the likelihood of all of it getting done is non-existent. Rather than accept this reality, many of us choose to rob ourselves of sleep to try to make it all happen. What you might not realize is that sleep deprivation stimulates the hunger hormone, gherlin. So our brain tells us to eat even if we really don't need to. What's worse, sleep deprivation increases activity in areas of the brain that seek pleasure, so we crave unhealthier and higher-calorie foods (of which there is no shortage this time of year.) And without proper sleep to aid in better decision-making, those are likely the ones we'll reach for. It's like a quadruple whammy! So don't try to be superwoman (or man). Prioritize the stuff that absolutely has to happen, and cut yourself some slack as far as what can wait.

Be content with how much you have and what you can give. 

 

"Keeping up with the Jones'" is never a more relevant phrase than during the holidays. But everyone's reality is different, so comparisons are silly. You might not be able to afford everything on everyone's list, but the family next door can. So what? Be content with what you can give and believe that it's enough. You'll find it quite freeing.

Having recently quit my job, I can't give what I normally do this year. A couple of months ago, the thought of this kept me up at night. But once I made peace with it, I realized I can give things like homemade kick-ass quinoa granola that my friends might decide is a wonderful, permanent replacement for the bagel they normally have in the morning. A far more meaningful gift than a tenth pair of Cosabellas!

Be content with who you are and what you look like.

Many of us have a distorted image of our body. We talk to ourselves in ways we would never speak to another. Imagine speaking to a child the way you speak to yourself. It would devastate and squelch them. It affects you similarly, causing stress that makes maintaining or improving your health even more difficult. So give yourself a break! Especially at this time of year! Give the holidays their opportunity to do all the wonderfully soul-enriching things for you they are intended to do. That piece of pie won't kill you, but feeling unnecessary guilt about it can do damage. (And, hey, there's always January for resolutions!)

Lastly... Eat Sweet Potatoes!

Sweet potatoes are a root vegetable, which means they grow under the ground. So eating them provides a wonderful grounding effect that helps fight stress. As their name suggests, sweet potatoes are also sweet-tasting so they can help reduce cravings for sugary treats. But unlike the jolt delivered by simple refined carbs, sweet potatoes elevate blood sugar gently so there's no energy crash after you eat them. Much higher in nutrients than white potatoes and especially rich in vitamin A, they are healing to the stomach, spleen, pancreas and reproductive organs and help to remove toxins from the body. They can even increase the quantity of milk in lactating women and lessen cramps and premenstrual symptoms!

My favorite way to eat them is plain old baked. (This recipe calls for S&P and butter but try them first without. You may just agree with me they're delicious naked!)

Or if you're feeling more adventurous, make sweet potato fries, skillet sweet potatoes (follow just the first part of the recipe, or have the steak too!), sweet potato dip, sweet potato pancakes (be patient with the flipping), or sweet potato soup!

Your body is your home. Make it the best place to be. 

Find Yourself a Workout Buddy or Buddies!

If I didn't have them, I wouldn't have gotten out of bed at 5:35am on this frigid and windy morning.

I'm talking about my My Body My Home Boot Camp buddies. Three women in my apartment building meet me for a workout every weekday morning from 5:45am-6:30am, and have been since mid-September. When we began, I didn't think it was going to continue. It's cold. It's dark. It's really easy to hit snooze. But I underestimated them. Everyone has remained committed to this now cherished 45 minutes of peace and sweat before the crazy and lazy ones (we have seven children and four husbands between us) even begin to stir.

As mentioned in previous posts, I quit my corporate job back in early October. It seems a little odd to, well, everyone, that I now get up earlier than I did when I worked full time. But I do it because my Boot Camp buddies need to be on the subway by 7:30am, so if we started Boot Camp any later, it wouldn't work for them. They rely on me, so if it doesn't work for them, it doesn't work for me. But here's what I realized a couple of weeks ago: I rely on them too.

Throughout high school and college, I played organized sports. After graduating, I had to find the self-discipline to keep in shape on my own, and I've done a pretty good job over the past 17 years. I worked out in the morning because I could never guarantee I'd get out of work in time to do so in the evening (or that I'd have the willpower to say no to after-work drinks!) And then the babies came. I couldn't have my boobs at the gym if the 6-month-old needed to eat. And what warm-hearted first-time mom can roll out of bed for spin class when her 18-month-old is cuddled up against her? And then we moved from being a couple blocks away from Central Park to across from Prospect Park. A "run around the park" went from being 6.2 miles to 3.3 miles. It's still a run around the park, right?! Needless to say, things became a little lax. If I let all that happen, it would have been easy to work out after the kids were at school once I quit my job: more sleep + warmer + lighter. Oh so appealing! But without even realizing what they were doing, Olivia, Jessica and Christina didn't let that happen. The Sunday night they first asked me if they could join me for my workout the following morning, they changed my everything for the better:

1. They force me out of bed. On time. Every weekday morning for the past 10 weeks.
2. They have me back to my apartment before anyone gets up, so I don't miss a minute with my family.
3. They've given me the gift of an extra hour to focus on growing my new business when the kids are in school.
4. They make me look forward to every workout I do, because I truly love their company. 
5. They make me look forward to every workout I do, because I make it different each time to keep it interesting. 
6. They've made me more creative. I've devised three different Boot Camp workouts we rotate through addition to running and yoga. And I'm in the middle of creating a fourth. 
7. They've forced me to cross-train rather than run every morning. This is better on my nearing-40 bones and joints, and it's made me stronger and my muscles more defined.

I could think of three more to make this a perfect ten, but seven happens to be my lucky number so I'll leave it there.

I think they think I'm doing them a favor by donating my workout time to helping them get and stay in shape. But they've done me an even bigger one. And the benefits of exercise go far beyond the obvious physical ones: better sleep, better mood, better sex to name a few. Those sound kinda nice, huh?

As winter descends upon us, I highly recommend you find yourself a buddy (or buddies) too.

Let's Get Kids To Encourage Kids To "Eat Your Veggies!"

I used to work in advertising. And some day, I'll probably go back. But I got bit by the nutrition bug about a year and a half ago and decided a few months ago I needed to pursue it whole hog for at least a little while. So that's what I'm doing. But I love it when my old world and my new world collide, as they did in this recent NYT article: Broccoli's Extreme Makeover.

I often felt bad about working in advertising because doing a good job typically meant I was helping sell products that people either didn't need (or worse, were actually bad for them) or couldn't afford. In fact, no product or service I ever marketed was one that people BOTH needed AND could afford.

But maybe if I'd been hired to market broccoli?

These are the kinds of assignments advertising agencies rarely get to work on because, as this article describes, there's little money in real food. Government subsidies go to the likes of corn and soy - not the corn on the cob you eat at a summer barbecue, or the edamame you munch on before your sushi - but the kind you find hidden in strange ingredient names in the majority of processed food and animal feed, which is the far bigger business. And while this unfortunate reality is getting more and more publicity as of late, I don't expect anything to change any time soon.

That said, three years ago a bunch of carrot growers got together and pitched in what amounted to millions to market baby carrots via Bolthouse Farms, the second largest supplier of carrots in the country. Bolthouse Farms' CEO is an ex-Coke exec so knows a thing or two about how to market snacks. They hired one of the best agencies in the business to come up with the campaign and it was a great success. So... it is possible to get people to eat better. But their approach, which was to market baby carrots as if it were junk food rather than a healthy alternative to junk food (a brilliant flip), tells us a lot about the American consumer.

Unfortunately, these success stories are few and far between. And it all goes back to my earlier point that there is little money in the real food business and therefore little incentive for anyone to put much energy (financial or otherwise) behind it. But the broccoli makeover article inspired me...

I am co-chair of the Green & Healthy committee at Frank's elementary school. It is a year-long initiative but there is a special focus on it in January, for obvious reasons. As such, my co-chair and I are encouraging teachers to incorporate Green & Healthy activities into their January curriculum, and are providing some suggestions to get them thinking. Suggestion #1:

Have your students pick a vegetable and then create an advertising campaign (depending on the grade, that could mean just a print ad or a bigger campaign) for that vegetable that would get kids their age to want to eat it. 

A few years ago, I balked at the crowdsourcing agencies popping up everywhere taking revenue from the traditional agencies. But when I realized they weren't going away, I found ways to use them that strengthened my client offering vs threatened it. And now, I'm embracing the crowdsourcing model even further. If every teacher chooses to do this activity with their students, we will have 1500 ideas on how to get kids to "eat their veggies!"

I've been in the business for too long to believe even 1500 5-10 year olds will come up with something as good as Crispin did for baby carrots, but if this exercise can at least change the way some of the kids at PS321 feel about a few different vegetables, I'll call that success!

(If you're feeling inspired yourself, the NYT blog has a call for entries for new slogans to sell beets, cabbage cauliflower, turnips or peas.)