From the Kitchen Friday: Living Simply

Good morning everyone from my very own kitchen for this Friday post. I was reading a blog I was introduced to this week,fortheloveofahouse.blogspot.com, and the author was discussing a recent book she purchased, Ted Kennedy Watson’s, Style and Simplicity:  An A to Z Guide of Living a More Beautiful Life (for more information, please see his blog:tedkennedywatson.com). The author of the book says “Living in the moment, not in preparation of the moment, is my prevailing thought. Living creatively is not meant to be about money; rather it is about being creative with the choices that present themselves during the day.”  I couldn’t agree more.  Right now, the dawn is breaking and I decided to enjoy living in the moment with a few beautiful things in my life with a few of my favorite ways to start the day.

 

As I sit at my kitchen table, I am having my favorite tea out of my grandmother's china with a beautiful bouquet of flowers AND I am writing (insert purely blissful smile right here). This is what I call “living creatively with the choices that are presenting themselves to me.”  Today I am choosing to have this morning of quiet and peacefulness, while enjoying the beauty in my life, right here, right now. I can't remember the last time I drank my tea from her china. I feel lucky and humbled of all that is right in front of me.  Once in a while, it’s ok to blow your own mind.

 

Tea is the way I start out each day. Not only do I know it is healthy for me, but I do feel like it really is what gets all my neurons firing properly. There is a rise in tea popularity in the United States and I feel we are seeing a little shift from coffee to tea. Most Americans enjoy the beverage chilled versus warm and most like a flavored herbal versus a black tea. My favorite is Caribou Coffee’s Hot Cinnamon Tea, all year around. I do have green tea on occasion but this is my daily go-to. I wanted to share with you my wisdom of“why tea?”

 

Allergy Eraser

A substance in green tea stops the allergic response. Tea may be helpful against pet  dander, pollen and dust. If you suffer allergies, it is recommended you drink more tea.

 

Age Defier

Checking hair loss, age spots, the condition of skin around the eyes and other indicators of aging, scientists found that mice that were fed tea displayed fewer signs of aging than mice that were fed water, with oolong tea showing significantly better results than green tea.

 

Tummy Tamer

According to a new study, green tea appears to accelerate calorie burning -- including fat calories. Researchers suggest compounds in green tea called flavonoids may change how the body uses a hormone called norepinephrine, which then speeds the rate at which calories are burned.

 

Beauty Brew

Drinking two or three large cups a day of green tea helps bolster the body’s defenses, especially as you age. Tea has been named, China’s “Fountain of Youth”

 

Heart Disease Risk

Harvard researchers found that drinking at least one cup of black tea daily was associated with a 45% decrease in heart attacks.

 

Lower Cholesterol

Components of tea appear to reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood by interfering with the absorption of fat and cholesterol.

 

Reduce Stroke

A study done in the Netherlands showed that men who drank five cups of black tea daily reduced their stroke risk by 70%. Can’t drink five cups a day? Even two cups

daily can reduce your risk by a whopping 46%.

 

Fights Cancer

Tea appears to be good at fighting cancer, especially gastrointestinal tract cancers. Tea is very high in antioxidants which protect our body from cell-damaging free

radicals.

 

Hunger Helper

A series of Swiss studies found that tea can give your metabolism a boost and help you lose weight. Not a lot of weight, but maybe one to two pounds. Scientists suspect that the polyphenols in tea join forces with caffeine and help to unlock the body’s fat-burning process.

 

Magic Medicinal Cure

People who drink five cups of black tea a day for two weeks transform their immune system T-cells into “Hulk cells” that pump out 10 times more cold and flu virus-fighting substances.

 

For my final “From the Kitchen Friday” thought, another quote by Ted Kennedy Watson:  “Seeing the small details requires slowing down a bit and being aware of your surroundings.” I am so glad I am seeing the small details for the first time in a long time, surrounded by beauty and a flavorful cup of tea.

 

~Crazy

 

From the Kitchen Friday: Kids Eat Right

August is a busy month of getting in last minute vacations, shopping for school supplies, and enjoying the last days of summer.  It is also the month celebrating Kids Eating Right. Kids Eat Right is a national campaign starting in 2010 offering resources and information to the public to encourage nutritious and healthful eating amoung children and families. This campaign is near and dear to my heart because it's helps everyone eat healthier but in a creative and delicious way. 

We all love kids and we all want them to be healthy and happy. But many of us just don't where to start when getting creative in the kitchen, finding easy recipes and inexpensive ways to shop for these kinds of foods. This campaign helps with all of these things. I will use a lot of the great recipes from the website on this blog and I hope you check out this great resource: 

http://www.eatright.org/kids/

 

You really do not have to spend a lot of money and you don't have to spend hours in the kitchen to have foods kiddos enjoy. Another thing to get kids interested  in the foods they eat, is to get them in the kitchen and cooking!  Have a day where your kids help make dinner every week. Have a day each weekend that the kids are involved in family snack time. And it can be all ages. Young children can help you stir or pour and older kids can be your sous chef. 

Cool and I love to do cooking classes for all ages. Look for our monthly cooking class starting this fall, bring your kids and start eating right! Get the kids into the kitchen and whip up this delicious and easy recipe this weekend:  

Easy Fruit Pizzas

1 package of Blueberry Belvita Cookies

1 6-ounce vanilla Greek yogurt

20 fresh blueberries

1/4 cup low-fat granola (I like Bare Fit Vanilla Almond)

Evenly distribute yogurt onto the 4 cookies. Place 5 blueberries on each cookie and then sprinkle with granola. 

Yum. Have a great weekend!

-Crazy 

From the Kitchen Friday: Are All Calories the Same?

T

We have heard a million times that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. And while Cool and I were in the kitchen today, we had a discussion about an article in Time Magazine about this topic. 

http://time.com/#2988142/you-asked-are-all-calories-created-equal/

 

Now being a dietitian, I have never thought all calories were the same and Cool agreed. If it was true, you could eat all your calories a day in candy bars and potato chips, while maintaining your healthy weight and adequate health in all your other body systems (heavens no candy bars would never cause heart or blood sugar problems). 

No, not all calories are created equal. Refer back to one of our previous post about beverages for example. Yes, there is as much sugar in a number of Oreos as a green drink, but if you had to choose between the two, of course the green drink would be a better choice. Just for the added nutrients: vitamins, minerals and fiber, all things Oreos lack. 

Think of your calories as money. You don't spend money frivolously. Each calorie is a dollar. If you are allowed to spend $1600 dollars a day, you would buy some amazing things. Why not spend your calories the same way?  Make your calories count, get the most bang for your buck. Choose the green drink over the Oreos. Choose a homemade burger versus a fast-food burger. And if you're going to spend your calories on something, make sure it is the most delicious thing you have ever eaten, or it's really not worth it. 

-Crazy

From the Kitchen Friday: Rethinking What You're Drinking

Less than 2 years ago, I was a diet soda junkie. I could not get enough and the more I drank, the more I wanted. It was diet so it was ok right?   Now I am completely on the wagon and my beverages are pretty lame:  water and hot cinnamon tea. 

We hear a lot about how soda is bad for us, both full-leaded and unleaded as my Dad would say. Yes, I do believe soda is not the healthiest thing to drink, but many of us swap out soda for another beverage thinking it is healthier. This is not always true. 

I was inspired by this article from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/02/health/gallery/sugar-sweetened-beverages/) to write this post and show you some comparisons along with a healthier alternative. Diet does not always mean healthier. Choosing water is always best, but yes, I understand that is not always what you want. 

Here are a few of beverages I see people picking up and also throw in my suggestion for a healthier option. I decided to compare the sugar in each beverage with the amount of sugar in  Oreo cookies. Some of these might surprise you and have you rethink what you drink! 

Yes, I drink tea but the unsweetened kind. If you have a sweetened bottle of tea you are consuming the same amount of sugar in 10 1/2 Oreos. But wait you say, green tea is good for me right? Again, look for unsweetened. This particular green tea has the same amount of sugar as 7 1/2 Oreos. 

Oh Gatorade! Anyone who walks 1/2 block feels their electrolytes have been depleted and a Gatorade is in order. Newsflash!  If you do strenuous exercise (I mean like sprinting for an hour), you MAY need to replace your electrolytes. If you are an average exerciser or your child had a basketball game, water takes care of it just fine! A 32-ounce bottle of Gatorade has the same amount of sugar of 12 1/2 Oreos while the water on the right has the same electrolytes, no sugar or added sugar-free sweeteners. 

What about smoothies and produce drinks?  Just because there is fruit and vegetables in it doesn't make it a healthy option. Sugar is sugar. This is a sneaky one, there are 2 servings in this bottle, so watch this when you are choosing one. You would think these are healthy because there is spinach and other vegetables. Daily greens has the sugar of 7 Oreos and Green Goddess has that of 12 Oreos. 

And my final favorite, energy drinks. We really should be high on life! Most of us are just deprived of sleep, proper nutrition and physical activity, so we mask our massive fatigue with energy drinks. Energy drinks do provide caffeine but most of the energy benefits come from B vitamins. You can find B vitamins in whole grains and also low-calorie waters. These are a couple of my picks because they use stevia as a more natural sweetener (whereas sugar-free Red Bull does not). Red Bull is touting the sugar of 8 1/2 Oreos. 

Please don't drink your calories, you will still be hungry and you will still not have lasting energy. Grab yourself some good old H20 and find out how good you really feel when you are hydrated. 

-Crazy

From the Kitchen Friday: Weight Loss Myths

Welcome to our next weekly feature, "From the Kitchen Friday." Stacey and I spend time each week preparing food but we also enjoy discussing food and health related hot topics we encounter during the week over a nice hot cup of tea. As a chef and dietitian we LOVE food. As human beings, we LOVE food and also LOVE our pants to fit. 

As a registered dietitian, the nutrition expert, I like to tackle anything related to my profession that helps individuals obtain the truth and live a healthy life. There is not a one-size-fits-all and I am a dietitian who is real.  Every day, hundreds of articles and televised health information is released and it's hard to decipher what is truthful. 

This is why Stacey and I will "weigh-in" from the kitchen on these topics, in a real human way. We do not want to take anything away from you or tell you what not to eat. Our mantra is anything in moderation, as long as we still fit in our pants (and we are not talking yoga pants, we are talking legit pants with buttons and a zipper). We want you to happily fit into your pants as well! 

Which brings us to an article we read today from ABC News on 8 Weight Loss Myths to Lose Today:  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/weight-loss-myths-lose-today/story?id=24302880#

Weight loss always catches a readers eye because there is over 1 billion people in the world that are obese. A few of the "myths" really caught our attention. The first one that was interesting was never to weigh yourself. Don't get me wrong, I wish we lived in a world that we didn't need to weigh ourselves, but we do. Get yourself on the scale, at least once a week, because the scale doesn't lie. The more honest you are with yourself, the easier it is to keep your health in check. 

The other myth that caught our eyes was blaming your genes for your ability to lose or not lose weight. As a dietitian, I hear this quite often and I do believe genes play a role, but they are not to blame. You either feed those genes or you control those genes. Genes are 10% of the puzzle, physical activity is 10% and food is 80%. You are what you eat, no matter what ma and pa gave you. 

The other myth we had some conversation about was losing weight slowly and using fad diets. Sometimes we just need a little motivation and a confidence booster and fad diets do this. I am a firm believer that "whatever it takes" to get you going, is just fine. If you find something that helps you lose a few pounds fast and encourages you, go for it! But we both agree, it's not a long term fix. Fad diets are hard to maintain so it is still important to find something that works for a lifetime (yes I said lifetime, no one wants to buy 10 different sizes of pants, are you sensing our theme yet?)

Well, it's time to finish our tea and start our day...looking forward to our next "From the Kitchen Friday" chat. Have a great weekend!

-Crazy