Friday, November 2, 2012

Exercise Exercise Exercise!

It's holiday season again! Thanksgiving is a time of celebration for most people in America, and with that celebration comes a lot of delicious food. A lot of people ask how to eat healthier during the holiday season, and it's a good question! It's hard to navigate the pumpkin pies, the extra serving of turkey, or the creamy green bean casserole. It's also hard to give up or alter the food that means so much to us emotionally. But that doesn't mean your health has to be sacrificed for good taste.

Yes, there are ways to make traditional holiday food healthier, but if that's not your jam, this is my suggestion--exercise! Exercising can be forgotten about, especially for students who go home during the holidays. Simply not walking to classes every day can significantly decrease the amount of exercise you are getting. And while exercising will help your body burn extra calories consumed during the holidays it also has so many other benefits as well!

Exercising gives you energy, can help prevent certain diseases, puts you in a better mood, and decreases stress! All in addition to helping you manage your weight. Some simple ideas for incorporating more exercise into your day while away for the holidays are listed below:

  • Walk the dog
  • Park farther and walk more to get to the store
  • Clean your car
  • Play outside 
  • Go for a short jog or walk 
  • Go for a bike ride
  • Find a local trail to hike
  • Dance
  • Do an exercise video if it's too cold outside
  • Rake leaves
Come up with your own fun ideas for being more active! And involve friends and family so you have company and support during the season!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Alcohol and Diet

Alcohol consumption is considered part of our diet and can impact human systems in various ways. The first thing to consider with consuming alcohol is that it affects every system in our body! Even with the smallest amounts. But when you consider heavier drinking it can have even bigger impacts on our body including

  • Affecting the pathways our brain uses to process information
  • Causing liver problems such as inflammation and eventually liver disease
  • Heart beat irregularities
  • Certain types of cancers
Another consideration when consuming alcohol is the calorie content of drinks. On the most basic scale, alcohol contains 7 calories per gram. Thus providing calories without any nutrients. More practically, about 12-ounces of beer contains about 150 calories, 4-ounces of wine contains about 70 calories, and 1-ounce 80 proof liquor contains about 65 calories. If you are going to drink alcohol, realize that it does provide calories without providing other nutrients. So drink in moderation for calories sake to avoid extra calories. 

How much alcohol is too much alcohol? Our bodies can metabolize one drink per hour (on average). One drink is classified as 12-ounces of beer, 4-5 ounces of wine, and 1.5-ounces of 80 proof liquor. Keep this one drink rule in mind while consuming alcohol. Also, keep in mind that binge drinking is classified as having 4 or more drinks within 2 hours. Binge drinking can have even more serious consequences including more impaired judgement and health consequences such as alcohol poisoning.

So if deciding to drink, be smart about it. Fit it into your daily calorie requirements, plan ahead and make decisions about how much to drink before starting to drink, and remember that drinking impairs every body system including your judgment. 

Friday, October 19, 2012

Reliable Nutrition Information

Nutrition information is everywhere! Billboards, newspapers, websites, and just in our every day conversations. With so much information being thrown at us from so many different sources it can be difficult to determine what is good information and what may not be.

The best and easiest place to start finding reliable nutrition information is on the ChooseMyPlate.gov website. This website is published by the USDA and is based off of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans--a peer reviewed set of nutrition guidelines. The ChooseMyPlate website offers a variety of resources including healthy eating tips, tools for estimating food intake needs, and interactive tools like SuperTracker that allows you to input the foods you eat and assesses your diet. For more in depth nutrition information and to read why MyPlate makes the recommendations it does, you can also look at the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This report is updated and published every five years to reflect the most up-to-date nutrition information. To access the document follow this link.

Now these are just two resources you can use to find nutrition information. But what if you come across an article and want to know if it's valid? Well, there are a few things you can look for that will help you tell. First, you should look at the author who wrote the article. Do they have credentials to be giving nutrition advice? If they are a Registered Dietitian, they are likely to be sharing good, reliable information. You can tell this if you see R.D. next to their name (which stands for Registered Dietitian). If the author is not a Registered Dietitian, it's harder to tell. For example, if the article is written by a doctor, it may or may not be reliable. Doctors aren't actually required to have nutrition backgrounds, so it may not be reliable. Then again, this doctor may have extensive experience and knowledge on nutrition, thus making it a reliable source. See how it can get a little complicated? Your best bet is to stick with the information outlined on the ChooseMyPlate website, USDA websites, FDA websites, or to seek out community resources to answer your nutrition related questions.

The best resource for nutrition information is a Registered Dietitian. In order to be considered a Registered Dietitian, an individual must meet certain academic requirements (bachelor's degree in nutrition/dietetics), have 1200 hours practical experience, and pass a nationally certifying exam. These strict regulations ensure that Registered Dietitians are passing along reliable information. In contrast, a nutritionist does not have any standards to define that term. Anyone could consider themselves a nutritionist without any education. Just something to pay attention to.

There are other community resources that are reliable even if they don't come straight from a Registered Dietitian. Cooperative Extension agencies in each county have agents that focus on nutrition and health. The information that the agents share is also reliable. Likewise, information and resources coming from universities are also good sources of information based on academics.

If you're interested in contacting a dietitian on campus, Katherine Ingerson serves as the Registered Dietitian for UGA Foodservices. Her email is ingerson@uga.edu. You can also talk to one of the two Registered Dietitians at the University Health Center. Check out the website for more information!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Eating Out in Athens

Eating out can sometimes pose a challenge for eating healthy, but if you know some key things to look for, you can enjoy eating out while still making healthy food choices. The easiest way to make eating out healthier is to learn key words typically found on a menu. Look for foods cooked or described using the words below for the healthiest options:

  • Baked, grilled, steamed, or roasted items rather than fried
  • Items served without gravies or cream-based sauces
  • Light items or items specified on the menu as healthier or low-fat options
Besides looking for key words, use these other tips for making a meal healthier when eating out:
  • Order water instead of a higher-calorie beverage like soda or sweet tea
  •  Have salad dressing served on the side so you can control the amount used
  • Order an appetizer as an entree as the portions tend to be smaller
  • Package half of your meal to eat as leftovers the next day
  • Avoid adding extra butter or toppings to your food items
Eating out should be an enjoyable experience, and by using these tips you can help make it a healthy experience as well!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Eating Healthy during Stressful Times

Having stress can sometimes lead to unhealthy behaviors, especially this time of year during mid-terms. But stressful times don't have to mean unhealthy times. The healthier you can stay during stressful times, the better your body will function for that big mid-term or paper. But it's not always easy. One of the first things you can do is figure out the triggers that make you stressed out. Think for a second about some of the potential stressors you may encounter in the near future. Identifying stressors in your life will help you figure out how to avoid those, or if they're unavoidable, help you to better cope with them. Other ideas for ways to manage stress and stay healthy are listed below: 
  • Find a friend where you both will encourage each other to stay healthy and hold each other accountable. 
  • Try to only eat when you're hungry. If you find yourself wanting to eat when stressed try another activity like going for a walk, talking to a friend, journaling, drawing, exercising, listening to music, or playing with a pet.
  • Maintain healthy eating habits. The more unhealthy your diet becomes the less energy you will have and the worse you will make your body feel.
  • Try to get as much sleep as possible. Stressful times can leave you with little sleep, but without proper sleep your immune system could become impaired making you more susceptible to sickness.
  • Avoid overdosing on caffeine, especially if it's found in high sugar beverages. Both caffeine and sugar only provide short term energy highs, potentially leaving you more drained shortly afterwards.
These are just some generic ideas for managing stress. Think of other ways that you personally deal with stress and write those down some place you can reference. Then try incorporating these habits into your day if you're feeling stressed. 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Fad Diets

It seems like almost every day, there's a new diet out there claiming to be the answer to healthy eating. It can be hard sometimes to figure out which diets are healthy. Most diets have both positive and negative aspects, but unless the diets are overall healthy, you should stick to the dietary recommendations made by MyPlate or by a dietitian. Here are some red flags to look for when evaluating a new fad diet:

  • Cutting out any whole food group (i.e. carbohydrates, fats, protein, grains, dairy) is a red flag because that means you are cutting out a whole group of nutrients needed by your body.
  • If the fad diet is based on research, check the research the diet references. If the diet is based off of only a few limited studies this is a red flag because the diet lacks evidence.
  • Promising a quick fix is a huge red flag since the only way to lose weight is to simply burn more calories than consumed. 
  • Diets that require you to take supplements to meet nutrient needs. This is a red flag because our daily nutrient needs can be met by food unless under certain medical circumstances. 
These four red flags can help you spot a fad diet that might not be healthy or safe. A big key to always remember is that you lose weight when you burn more calories than you consume. So if you aren't either consuming less calories or exercising to burn more, weight loss will not happen. The best diet to follow is that recommended by MyPlate because it contains a variety of different foods to supply your daily nutrient needs. If you are exploring a new diet and have more specific questions, you may wish to speak to a dietitian who can help you evaluate the diet more in depth. 


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Choosing Healthy Snacks

Incorporating snacks into your diet can be a healthy way to keep from getting too hungry in between meals. And choosing those snacks wisely can help add nutrients to your diet, rather than just empty calories. Some ideas for healthy snacks include:

  • Whole pieces of fruit. Try to remember to grab an apple, banana, pear, or orange on your way out of the dining hall to have as a snack later.
  • Crackers or pretzels with peanut butter. The protein in the peanut butter will help you stay full longer, and both of these foods will store for long periods of time to just keep on hand when needed.
  • Applesauce cups can be an easy and tasty way to get in another serving of fruit as a snack. And you don't have to have a refrigerator to store applesauce if you buy the pre-packaged variety.
  • Dry cereal stores easily and for long periods of time as well. Cereal can also be a good source of whole grains and certain vitamins. Make sure to look for whole grain varieties when purchasing cereal. The ingredients should list "Whole grain" or "Whole Wheat" as one of the first ingredients.
  • Trail mix again is easy to store and is a great snack to keep you full until your next meal. The nuts found in trail mix contain healthy fats and many needed nutrients like vitamins and minerals. And if the trail mix contains dried fruit as well, that counts towards your daily fruit needs.
  • If you do have a refrigerator to store perishable items, keeping yogurt cups on hand is a good idea for snacking. Choose low-fat or fat-free options to cut down on extra saturated fat.
  • Carrots and hummus is another great snack idea if you have access to a refrigerator. The carrots will add vegetables to your diet and the hummus adds protein.
It's important to remember that snacking can fit into your daily requirements! A common misconception is that eating late at night can cause weight gain, which may prevent people from snacking after dinner. But it is not the timing of when we eat that causes weight gain, it's the balance of calories over the entire day that influences our weight. If snacking late at night causes you to consume more calories than needed, then weight  gain will occur. However, if you are hungry and haven't met your daily calorie needs, snacking will not cause weight gain. So if having a snack helps you focus on what you're working on later at night, then pick a healthy snack to have. Getting a sense of your daily needs and requirements will help you figure out if snacking can fit into your diet. As mentioned in an earlier post, try using the USDA's SuperTracker tool to track your calorie needs and balance your healthy snacks. 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Healthy Shopping

Shopping at the grocery store can be a confusing task if you don't know what to look for on food labels. Most food labels look very similar and are required by law to be included on packaged foods. Let's look at some of the basics of the Nutrition Facts label: the serving size, calories, and percentages as shown below.


Right under the Nutrition Facts label, and ingredient list will be included. The ingredients will be listed in decreasing order in the amount by weight found in the food item. Becoming familiar with certain ingredient items will help you identify healthier choices. For example, looking for the words "Whole Wheat" in the ingredients lists indicates that product contains whole grains. And the closer to the beginning the words "Whole Wheat" are listed, the better because that means there's more whole wheat flour than any other type of flour. Another key word to look for in the ingredients list includes "Partially hydrogenated oil." This term in the ingredients list indicates there is trans fat found in the food item, even if it is labeled as "Trans-fat free."

Which this brings up a confusing part of labeling. Labels can claim, "fat-free" or "trans-fat free" when that may not be the case. According to the FDA labeling law, if there is less than 0.5g fat (or trans fat) per serving, then the label can claim the term "fat-free." This is where you have to be careful about serving sizes. Because if an item has a small serving size, where you eat more than one serving, you have to remember you are adding up that fat that's not being listed less than 0.5g. For example, if a cookie has 0.49g fat per serving, which a serving size is one cookie. This item can be labeled as "fat-free." But now let's say you eat 3 cookies, you now have approximately 1.5g of fat intake So you have to be a smart consumer when you see on the label "fat-free." Look closer at the serving size and ingredients to really decode what's in the food.

Another term that labels will list, but doesn't have much meaning include "natural." The term natural isn't regulated, and doesn't carry much meaning on a label for a consumer who knows what to look for. So if granola bars says 100% natural, those granola bars can still contain preservatives and dyes, just so long as they fit into the vague category of "natural." There is no real regulation of this term, so again, be a smart consumer when you see the term "natural" on a label. Look closer at the ingredients to see what you're actually consuming next time.

Other simple tools to make a shopping trip at the grocery store healthier include:

  • Making a list beforehand to help decrease purchases bought on a whim. If you plan to buy a set list of food and stick to it, you won't be inclined to indulge in unneeded purchases
  • Shop the perimeter of the store when possible. The food found on the perimeter is in general fresher or less processed than the food found within the center isles.
  • Don't shop for food while hungry.
So my challenge to you is the next time you go shopping for food, take a second to look at the label of a food item before you purchase it. Maybe even compare two different brands of the same item and see if you can find a difference. And follow as many of the above simple tools for your next shopping trip and see if that makes your shopping trip healthier.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Dietary Guidelines Decoded


            Have you ever wondered where nutrition recommendations come from in the United States? And who changed the famous Food Pyramid into the plate we see now? The answer to both of those questions can be summed up by looking at the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 

      The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are published every 5 years by a diverse faculty of scholars and contains the most up to date nutrition recommendations. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans contains recommendations ranging from serving sizes of foods to alcohol consumption to vegetarian diets. If you're interested in looking at the full document, here's the link!! It is 112 pages though, so let's look more closely at some important information and tools that will be helpful to you when trying to make healthy food choices.

      The Dietary Guidelines for Americans contains recommendations for the amount of calories and amounts of each food group you should consume. Let's define those two things. The calories you require each day will tell you how many total calories you should consume from foods to maintain your current weight. Consuming the correct amount of calories is important because you need calories to do things like walking around town, playing tennis, or cooking a meal. You also need calories for your body to perform it's basic functions: like for your heart to beat and your stomach to churn. Too many calories though can cause unwanted weight gain, which if you gain too much extra weight, can be a risk factor for diseases. The other definition to talk about is the amounts of each food group you should consume. Based off of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, there are 5 different food groups: grains, vegetables, fruits, protein, and dairy. Based off your measures, the recommendations will give you how many servings of each food group you should have.
     
      So here's how to personalize the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to your measures. The easiest way if you have internet access is to go to USDA's website called Daily Food Plan. Input your personal measures into the web page and click submit. The following page should summarize your daily calorie needs and specific servings of each food group (colorful chart). If you get good at estimating servings sizes after looking at the chart below, you can use this colorful chart to help guide your choices. If this is your first exposure to food groups, there's an even easier way to help you estimate your food intake. 
    
      The same MyPlate website also has a tool called SuperTracker that does all the calculations for you. Go to the SuperTracker website. Create a profile for free in order to input your age, sex, weight, etc. like you did before. Then under the Food Tracker section, add the foods that you've eaten that day. It will prompt you to enter a meal and amount of food eaten. When you've entered all your food for that day, SuperTracker will summarize the food you've eaten into easy-to-ready information. See the information below to help decode what SuperTracker tells you about your food intake that day.


      The last piece of information that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans helps us with is choosing correct serving sizes of each food. Determining serving sizes is a difficult task, especially considering that most portions served at restaurants or fast food locations can be multiple servings. To learn specifically about each food group's serving sizes, choose a food group on the website and click on the tab called "What Counts as a Cup?" or "What Counts as an Ounce?" That is a lot of information to memorize every serving size for all 5 food groups, so use this helpful chart from Web MD to give you practical ways to estimate serving sizes.
      There are a lot of nutrition resources online, and the MyPlate and SuperTracker resources explored in this post are both reliable sources of nutrition information. I challenge you this week to look at both of those websites, and for one day this week enter the food you eat into SuperTracker. Being able to see where your diet lacks or is sufficient in each of the food groups can help you make better decisions when choosing foods.
    
     Sources: 
    USDA. Daily Food Plans. ChooseMyPlate.gov. Retrieved from http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
    USDA. Supertracker. ChooseMyPlate.gov Retrieved from http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
    Zelman, K. Portion Control and Size Guide WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/diet/printable/portion-control-size-guide


Sunday, September 2, 2012

Navigating the Dining Halls



Eating healthy at college is important and completely possible while on meal plan. Eating in the dining halls can be overwhelming at first, but use this information to help you learn about healthy options offered at each of the four dining halls.

Use the symbols found in the dining hall to help you make healthy food choices. These are the four symbols you may come across in the dining halls and what they mean:



These symbols are a great tool you can easily use every day in the dining halls. You can also find menus in the lobby at each dining hall or on UGA Food Service's website (foodservice.uga.edu). The menus will list all the foods to be served and will include the symbols for foods as well.

There are also foods that you can choose during the day that will make a meal healthier.
For breakfast:

  • Choose whole-grain cereals, whole grain breads or bagels, oatmeal, or plain grits. Check the labels at  for the cereals and breads and make sure the first ingredient is "Whole Wheat Flour." This ensures that the product is whole grain.
  • Choose fresh fruit or fruit juice that lists 100% juice on the label
  • Have an omelette made at the egg station. You can choose from olive oil, cooking spray, and even the butter is soybean oil flavored with butter to be healthier. Choose from whole shelled eggs, egg whites, or egg beaters. Add in vegetables to help meet your daily vegetable needs.
For lunch/dinner:

  • Choose fresh vegetables from the salad bar. If having a salad choose low-calorie dressings or use oil and vinegar as a dressing.
  • At the deli, choose Swiss cheese which is reduced fat and whole grain breads or wraps.
  • Choose the vegetarian pizza at Snelling which is made on a whole grain crust.
  • The pasta bar is open for lunch and dinner and will always include a whole grain pasta choice as well as low-fat marinara/homestyle sauces.
  • The "Eating Smart" line at Bolton has baked chicken, baked fish, steamed vegetables, and a low-fat entree. 
  • Use microwaves to steam fresh vegetables from the salad bar. Just make sure there's a little water and cover the bowl with another upside-down bowl. Microwave for about a minute.
  • Choose low-fat yogurt and low-fat cottage cheese which is always available. 
  • Veggie dogs and veggie burgers can be lower fat alternatives to regular hot dogs or burgers.
  • Choose from various low-fat and vegetarian soups
  • Choose baked potatoes and baked sweet potatoes for vegetables.
  • A bean of the day and brown rice is available every day.
Desserts can be incorporated into a healthy diet when eaten in moderation. No one has to give up desserts to be healthy, but the availability of desserts found at the dining halls every day can be tempting. So here are some other ideas to make your dessert choices healthier:
  • Smoothies at Village Summit.
  • Have fruit topped with whipped topping.
  • Low-fat and sugar free puddings, Jell-O, or fat-free frozen yogurt are all healthier choices.
These suggestions at each meal will give you an idea of some options that will be healthier to choose. You can also look up the nutrition information of each food on the UGA Food Service's website. Go to foodservice.uga.edu and click on the "Nutrition" tab to download the Food Fact Finder for each dining hall.


Another service offered by UGA Food Service's is a dietitian that you can see for free while on meal plan. Katherine Ingerson is the Food Service's dietitian and she can be contacted at 706-542-7313. The dietitian can answer specific nutrition questions you may have, can help you set nutrition goals, or help with food allergies. Katherine also teaches an Eating Smart Course that lasts for 8 weeks and is also free for students on meal plan. Sign up for the course is first-come first-serve. See the table tents at the beginning of the semester in the dining halls to sign up.

Another challenge that eating at the dining halls can present is the influence eating with friends can have on your own food choices. For example, if your friends get dessert at every meal, that may make you eat more dessert. But this also works the other way around too. If your friends eat healthy at every meal, that may make you eat healthier as well. So be aware of who you're eating with and how that influences your choices. One challenge you can do this week is to talk with your friends about wanting to eat healthier and to be good influences on each other while eating at the dining halls.

Eating healthy in the dining hall can be a challenge, but is possible if you know what to choose and if you enjoy foods in moderation. I challenge you this week to choose healthier options while in the dining halls and to use the four health symbols when making choices this week.