Wednesday 7 December 2011

Spaghetti Squash

A lot of people really like pasta.  We also know that a lot of pasta isn't good for you.  It's an unhealthy carb.   Even though there are all sorts of alternatives to traditional bleached wheat pasta... kamut, quinoa, corn, rice etc... it's still not good to eat on a regular basis.

I have recently discovered Spaghetti Squash (Recently being a few months ago).  It's still a carb, and a lot of the calories come from sugar calories (so watch out if you're diabetic!) but it's a much better alternative to traditional pasta.

For about 1 cup it has 10gr of carbs, 1gr of protein and 0.4gr of fat.  Of those carbs about 4gr are sugars and 2.2 are fiber.

It's a decent source of Omega 3 and 6, a good source of Vitamin C, Manganese (which a lot of people don't really know a lot about but it helps your body absorb other important nutrients, it plays a role in synthesizing fatty acids, cholesterol and maintains healthy blood sugar levels.  It also plays a role in nervous system functioning and bone health), B3 and B6.

You can find all the nutrition information for it at: This Awesome Site.

The best thing is, it tastes great.  It tastes like pasta.  I've used it as traditional pasta (with pasta sauce), in stir fries, in thai recipes.  It stays tasting great.  If you like al dente you can cook it for less time, squishy pasta lovers can cook it for longer.

It's marvelous.

It's also fairly inexpensive (a couple of dollars for a large one).  It does take about 45mins to cook, but it can be stored in the fridge for a few days... I haven't tried to freeze it yet.

It's been touted as the "dieters" pasta.  Honestly though... it's just a healthy alternative.  You don't need to diet to be healthy, you just need to eat right :)

Stay Healthy,

Friday 25 November 2011

Where did it go?

Hey everyone,

You may have noticed that my website has been down.  I'm in the process of rebranding myself, and will be launching a new site in the new year.

I've also been slacking in the blogging department.  Working a lot for Christmas (and my birthday shopping spree to the US) has gotten in the way of my creative skills

I will tell you this-

I recently signed up for an Organic Box delivery.  I LOVE IT.  I pay $35/week (you can do biweekly, monthly, or whatever as well too), and I get a lovely box organic produce delivered to my house.  It's a lot cheaper than what I would have spent at the grocery store, and they try to keep it as local as they can (In winter that's a lot more difficult, so they do use imported organic produce as well).  I get about 7 different kinds of veggies and 3 kinds of fruit (I got 4 this week!) each week.  I'm not overly picky when it comes to food (they do have a Custom Box option which is $40 where you can tell them to never send you certain things, and sub out things you don't like).

I love it because I get to try, and cook with things I wouldn't normally ever buy (Celebration Squash last week- I'm a butternut and spaghetti squash kinda gal, but I loved the Celebration Squash.  I got celeriac this week, which I've never cooked with, but am looking up recipes!).

I highly recommend it if you are in the market for organic food.

The website for the company I love is http://www.lifeorganic.ca 

I promise to update again before the new year!

Stay Healthy!

Monday 19 September 2011

Get all the nutrition you'll ever need in this one pill!

Lose all the weight you want, get all the nutrition you'll ever need for life, be healthier than everyone else in the world, it will only cost you blah blah blah.

I hate nutritional products.... no scratch that, I hate fad diet products pretending to be nutritional products.

I am not a big fan of supplementation in general. It has it's place- if for whatever reason you can't get what you need from food, supplement!  I think everyone who lives in Canada should be supplementing with Vitamin D, because we don't get enough and the quality of what we get from our sun, isn't as much as it should be.  I'm okay with multivitamins to get your nutrition up, or for kids who sometimes don't eat as much as they should.

I hate all these companies trying to sell people on their health products that is "guaranteed" to help you get healthy, lose weight, and be happy!

If you want to lose weight, get healthy and be happy-  eat healthy foods you love, do exercises that you love, and be happy!

My biggest problem with a lot of the products (shakes especially) is that they typically try to jam all your daily nutrients into one shake... why not just stab your liver and kidneys with a knife?  Your body isn't meant to get all it's nutrients in one dose, or one hour, or several hours... that's why people are supposed to eat small portions frequently throughout the day.   If you bombard your body all at ones, first of all you're not going to absorb the nutrients.  That's basic biology.   That's why most people have glowing pee after a multivitamin.  Bye bye nutrients!  You will absorb some of it, but the rest of it is just wasted.  Your body can only deal with so much at a time... not only deal, but use.   The rest of it, it has to get rid of- this puts unneeded stress on your body- your kidneys, liver and intestines especially.

Also shake or liquid dependent diets are screwing up your digestive system.  There's a reason we chew food- it releases enzymes, it sends signals to your vagus nerve that we should start digesting, it does a lot of great stuff!  People will tell you that shakes and juices are good for your body- it takes stress off your intestines, your gallbladder doesn't have to work as hard, etc etc... guess what?  Our bodies like to work, and while they don't like being over stressed, they also don't like having nothing to do.  Know the saying Use it or Lose it?  Our bodies take that seriously.   If you aren't using something, most of the time your body will divert it's energy into doing something else.  Not using that enzyme?  no more enzyme for you! (That's one of the reasons people who are vegetarians for years and years will get sick if they eat meat, or why Jewish people or Muslims will get very sick if they accidentally eat pork, they don't have the capability to digest it properly).

These diets are not nutrition based.  They are scams dressed up pretty that prey on people who want to be healthier.

Being healthy is free (plus the cost of food ;) ).

I went on a 2 hour walk today, it was lovely, it didn't cost me a dime.

(As a side note: I do pay $10/month for a gym membership, but there are even ways around that.  It's really just pure laziness on my part when it comes to strength training.  It's just easier to use the machines at the gym... although lifting babies and toddlers is a pretty good workout in itself!)

Fresh fruits and vegetables are CHEAP if you buy in season.  Farmers Markets are plentiful.  I spent $30 at the grocery store and have enough food for at least a week (and that included $6 for organic free range eggs), grains are cheap if you purchase from a bulk store, meat... yeah I can't help you there, but meat is something that you should spend money on to get good quality, if you eat it.  Better cuts of meat equal better nutrition.


Be cautious, be wary, everyone knows there's no such thing as a quick fix... so don't fall for things that promise it.  Even if you lose weight, it isn't healthy.


Stay Healthy!

Sunday 4 September 2011

The post where I blab about being a Nutritionist.

One of my favourite things about my job as a Nutritionist, is doing Vitamin and Mineral deficiency assessments.  It's just so cool.

It was my favourite part of my program to learn.  To be able to figure out what someone is likely deficient it, and why is just so interesting to me.

I fell in love with the fact that it's done through software, since bloodwork doesn't test for everything. It looks at what you are eating, any signs and symptoms you have, and compares the two against each other.   You then have to use your many hours of education to analyze the results and make recommendations.  I like seeing the trends though.   People with similar lifestyles tend to be deficient in the same things.

Stressed out, overworked people, need more Bs, Calcium and Magnesium usually.  Those are some of your biggest stress vitamins and minerals, so it makes sense, but seeing it on paper (or computer screen) just reinforces that.

I would say about 80% of people I see are deficient in Calcium, Magnesium or Potassium. Sometimes all 3!

Every time I analyze a teenager, I always wonder at their deficiencies.  It almost always contains at least one or two "weird" (or less common) minerals.   I think it's mostly because teenagers tend to eat a lot of the same things over and over again.  They know what they like... or more importantly, they know what they don't like.   I feel like a lot of adults will make some concessions to eat things that we don't necessarily like, but that we know are good for us.  (an adult will eat a tomato on a sandwich or burger, even if they don't like it, whereas a teenager or child wont let that tomato anywhere near their plate if they don't like them).

Some of it is the idea of the food too.  One of the boys I nanny for HATES, HATES, HATES tomatoes... but loves tomato sauce (pasta sauce, pizza sauce), or if it's chopped up inside of a quesadilla... pretty much he hates tomatoes... unless he doesn't know they are there.  I think it's more the idea of a tomato than the actual tomato (although he also hates ketchup so there's some consistency there. If you ask him if he wants ketchup, he looks at you as though you were offering him cyanide.)

I do vitamin and mineral deficiency assessments on myself every few months, because I change my eating habits every few months. It's always neat to see how my own needs fluctuate with the seasons.

I definitely recommend them to everyone.  It's important to make sure you are giving your body all the things it needs to be happy, and...


Stay Healthy.




Thursday 1 September 2011

Greenwashing

I am going to deviate a bit from Nutrition for a minute here, and talk about Greenwashing.

Natural Products are often geared towards people who eat well, since it's become a lifestyle for a lot of people.  One of my many jobs is working for a wonderful all natural laundry detergent company... and in doing so I have become more educated... and more angry about the so-called "Natural" product industry.

Greenwashing is when a company tells you their product is All Natural, or Green, but it still has harmful chemicals.

There is a very popular company in Canada (it's actually an international company) that likes to market their products as All Natural, Vegetarian, Ethical and environmentally-friendly.  I once got into an argument with a girl at said company because I politely declined to try one of their products.  When asked why, I (still polite at this point!) said it contained Parabens.  She replied by saying "Oh you're allergic to them?" in a slightly condescending way. When I went on to explain that I was against the use of Parabens in cosmetics because they are Xenoestrogens, she continued (much more condescending at this point) to say "Oh like blueberries".  I went on (at this point no longer polite and used a tone even more condescending than hers) to say "Uhh no, those are PHYTOestrogens, not Xenoestrogens).  The fact that she is trying to compare something that is potentially harmful to the body with something that is beneficial to the body, in order to sell a product pisses me of.

So lets talk about Xenoestrogens for a minute.   Xenoestrogens are foreign estrogens, usually industrial in nature.  Parabens, Phthalates (being phased out in Canada), BPA (Now banned in Canada), PCBs (Mostly banned due to their Toxicity classification and endocrine disruption).

Parabens are used as a preservative in cosmetics and beauty products.  They do a great job at preserving!  There are inconclusive studies about the effects Parabens on the reproductive system.  There are studies proving that Parabens have a estrogen activity, but whether or not they can be linked to things like cancer and endometriosis have not been proven... they also haven't been disproved either.  Women with reproductive cancers are typically told to avoid parabens and other xenoestrogens to be safe... To. Be. Safe.  So why isn't everyone avoiding them as a precaution?  A recent study in Texas showed paraben traces inside of breast tumours.  This study has launched additional research into what the link is between the two.

Health Canada says "Phthalates are a family of chemicals commonly used as plasticizers that have a large number of industrial and commercial applications."  and that "Research shows that phthalates may adversely affect reproduction and development.".  Health Canada is working to restrict CERTAIN phthalates.  Check out: Health Canada's Fact Sheet on Phthalates to see which ones they have declared health risks (then check your cosmetics, some of them are used in perfumes, nail polish, lipsticks etc.)

SLS/SLES:  sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and Sodium laureth sulfate/sodium lauryl ether sulfate( SLES).  There are studies going on about it's health risks.  Neither are currently classified as a carcinogenic.  Both are known irritants (So why would you put them on your skin... or in your mouth?)  SLS has also been shown to alter taste perception and cause Aphthous ulcers (Canker sores).   SLES is not classified as a carcinogenic but products with SLES are also shown to contain 1,4-Dioxane which is classified as a "Probable human carcinogenic".

So these all sound like chemical ingredients that should have no place in a NATURAL product right?

Parabens can apparently be found in natural sources... the internet gives me a list of various plants that contain minute amounts of parabens... none of them are sites I would call reputable and I can't find any studies on pubmed so I am not going to list any.  I will say blueberries come up on this list, so maybe the girl was right(ish) to compare xenoestrogens to blueberries.  Regardless of if the parabens are "natural" or synthetic, they are still parabens, and are obviously concentrated enough to call them parabens. Part of the reason blueberries are good for you are that it's low levels of natural estrogens,  Xenoestrogens are higher levels that your body can't deal with properly. If you take all those low levels and make them into a high level, you're going to give your body a rough time.

However, if you extract a phytochemical from a natural source and concentrate it to use in your product, you can apparently call it natural. (Why isn't Bayer marketing Asprin as natural if that's the case?  ASA was originally developed from willow bark.  Pharmaceuticals have better regulations, that's why).

SLS can be derived from coconut oil (you may also see coconut derived surfactants... that typically means SLS.... and even though it's from a natural source, it's still SLS with all it's health risks).

Just because it's natural, doesn't always mean it's healthy... Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy) is natural, I'm not about to bathe in it though.

Greenwashing is trying to market something as good for you, even though it contains products that are not good for you, just because those products may be derived from natural sources.

Do your research and make your own decisions.  I'd rather be safe than sorry, so I avoid as many potentially bad things as possible.

I still don't get why there are freaking skin irritants in beauty products... I don't care if they are cheap... they're freaking irritants.

Stay Healthy,

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Vacation of Foods

I recently went on a 2 and a half week road trip to the east coast (It was cut short by Hurricane Irene, so we didn't get a chance to go through the US or to Southern New Brunswick) but I encountered a lot of new foods on the trip, and I will now share them with you! (both healthy and unhealthy... I was on vacation ;) )

New Brunswick-  We discovered Donair Sauce.  This is a essentially a combination of evaporated milk, sugar, vinegar and garlic.  This combination sounded absolutely disgusting to me at first... milk vinegar and garlic?  BLEH!  But no... it is delicious.  Wikipedia tells me that Donairs were originally introduced to Halifax, NS in the 70s (it is all over the east coast now) when a Greek restaurant owner found that gyros were not selling well... so swapped out lamb for beef and tzatziki for sweet garlic (donair) sauce.
Not liking tzatziki is insanity in my mind, but get your garlic however you like it.    As a vegetarian I have discovered more inventive ways to eat it than on a slab of meat (I am sure it is great on beef though, if you eat beef, try it... in moderations because it is definitely on my Unhealthy In Large Amounts list).


Prince Edward Island- In Charlottetown we discovered a cute little cafe on Victoria Row that was selling Poffertjes (in fact all they had were Poffertjes and coffee and a few other beverages)  These are Dutch pancakes that are made from Buckwheat and yeast.  They are little, have a consistency similar to potato pancakes, are slathered with real PEI butter (for some reason PEI butter tastes better than everywhere else... so do their potatoes... all of the east coast potatoes taste better than Ontario and Quebec, but PEI is even more delicious... perhaps it's all the Iron in their red soil) and topped with icing sugar.... probably decently healthy without the butter and icing sugar... but amazing with it.


Charlottetown also has a store called Liquid Gold, which we originally thought was a bar or alcohol store... but it is a healthy heaven.  It also is in Halifax (the original one is in Halifax) but we only went to the Charlottetown one.  It's full name is Liquid Gold Tasting Bar and All Things Olive.  It is a tasting bar for olive oils (they have a few others like truffle and almond) and balsamic vinegars.  We probably were in there for a good 30mins trying everything.   All the olive oils as far as I know, are Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I didn't see any that were not EVOO but they may exist) and are infused with natural ingredients to give you flavours like lemon, chipotle, cilantro, buttery... and many more.  They also have various EVOOs from different olives that give it distinct flavours.  They have a really big selection of balsamic vinegears as well.  I walked out with a Peach White Balsamic and a Meyer Lemon Olive oil, that are pure heaven in my mouth when combined (Thank you employee who got me to try them together!)   I can't wait to eat them together over salad.  This is a picture of the inside of the store:


If you go to Charlottetown or Halifax, you have to go there, it's a great experience!

We also drank (virgin) Raspberry Cordials in Charlottetown because the friend I went with was a huge Anne of Green Gables fan.  They were pretty good... a little bit like cough syrup, but a good tasting cough syrup, like the ones usually reserved for children because adults aren't supposed to spit out gross tasting things, especially if it's medicinal.


Newfoundland-  Oh you Newfies and your mix of insanely unhealthy and deliciously good for you items.   Let's start with Toutons.  We were told that this was THE thing you had to try in Newfoundland and that everyone eats it... no one bothered to tell us how HARD it is to find because everyone makes their own.    We found a place up in St Anthony that had it (all the local restaurants we went to did not... it was a chain restaurant that did.  Weird.)  Toutons are deep fried dough that is served with blackstrap molasses.  As healthy as Blackstrap is for you... I can not choke it down.  The Toutons were amazing in a you-know-your-arteries-are-clogging-as-you-eat-it kind of way, that is easier to justify on vacation.

Bakeapple- after repeatedly thinking that this was Baked Apples misspelled... I finally asked someone what kind of apples Bakeapple was... only to find out it isn't an apple... it's a berry.  It's also called Cloudberry (it looks like an orange cloud).  It is high in vitamin C and has B1, B2, B3 and Vitamin A in it as well.  Bakeapple jam is easy to find all over Newfoundland.  We had Bakeapple tea at a little cafe and it was delicious.  I regret not buying it now.  It is really hard to describe the flavour because it doesn't taste similar to anything else.  They make wine and vinegar out of it as well.

Partridgeberry-  also known as Lingonberry. Apparently this is the berry that a lot of Newfies love... I think it's gross on it's own.  It's decent as a jam, and I've been told it's really good as a wine (I don't drink wine).  It gets coolness points for keeping its leaves all winter- even in extreme cold.  Some of the phytochemicals in it are thought to be good for Urinary Tract Infections (In a similar way that Cranberries are).

Rhubarb Pickle- We bought Dark Tickle's Rhubarb Pickle (Which is just fun to say!) and freaked out the locals by eating it weirdly (really good on bread or toast with a bit of butter, I also had it on a cheese and apple panini)  APPARENTLY it is supposed to be eaten with ham.... or meat... and that's it.  It is delicious with cheese and crackers as well.  I bought 2 jars for myself.... we finished one of the jars before the trip was even over.   It has a flavour similar to carmelized onions... but much tastier.

Fun fact- all the water in Newfoundland is tinted brownish.  Toilet water, tap water, well water...

We also ate a chunk of iceberg... 10,000 year old water delightfulness.



Nova Scotia-  We were only in Nova Scotia briefly as we wanted to get the heck out of there before the hurricane hit.  Two things I learnt while there are:  Fresh sea salt is amazingly delicious, and I do not like scotch (bleh)... even expensive scotch (which I kind of think is worse than the cheap stuff).



Quebec- We didn't stay in Quebec, but had to drive through it for a good 5 hours each way (Since we didn't come back through the USA).  We did pick up tortillon cheese a few times.  It is the REAL string cheese and is packed with salty goodness. 50g has about 600mg of sodium  (That's 1/4 of your Recommended Daily Intake for those who are keeping score) so it's definitely more of a "treat".  We had prepackaged ones from a gas station, as well as fresh ones from a Fromagerie. (The Fromagerie definitely was better)


We did a ton of other stuff besides eating, but all these new experiences in food felt blog-worthy to me.  I always think it's cool to try new things.  If you're somewhere new, don't be afraid to try local fare, hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised... and if not.. well, at least you know to avoid it.

Stay healthy!

Sunday 7 August 2011

Cult Vegans

I don't like anyone who thinks that they are better than everyone else because of a choice they have made... I especially don't like people who try to force their beliefs upon other people and try to take away peoples right to choice...

... and that brings us to Cult Vegans.

I have encountered a lot of them in the past few weeks.  What are they?  They are Vegans who think that anyone who does not practice Veganism is going straight to hell.   I want to know when Veganism became a religion?  A scary, scary one at that.   I am a realist in that I know the world will never be vegan... unless all of the animals in the world suddenly die... and really, I think there's a large population of people who would rather eat people than never eat meat again ;).... so really... vegans who think no one should eat animals are advocating cannibalism :D

The biggest peeve off for me is the ones who say that no one needs to eat meat...  there are actually a good portion of people who have a really hard time absorbing certain vitamins and minerals (Iron and B12 are the main 2) who would benefit from a meat eating diet.  I recently spoke... okay... argued with a vegan who tried to say that vegans get more B12 than Meat Eaters... That's a big fat outright lie.  Know what the greatest source of B12 is?  MEAT.  The average person needs about 2mcg of B12 per day, up to 3mcg for pregnant women.  B12 is great because it can be stored in your body for up to 7 years before you run out... but you actually have to give your body B12 if you want it to store it.  Out of the top 5 best sources, 4 of them are meat, and 1 is red star nutritional yeast (I still don't know how vegans think yeast is vegan... it's a living organism but I digress).

 I often see Cult Vegans twist nutrition to make themselves seem better than everyone else, and it peeves me off (I haven't decided yet if I'm actually going to swear in this blog).   You will hear them say Vegan Children are Healthier than Omnivore Children... that's a mistruth.  Children who eat a wide range of foods including plenty of fruits, vegetables and grains are more healthy than children who live on McDonalds and candy.  An Omnivore child who eats a wide variety of protein, fats, carbs, fruits and vegetables can be equally healthy as a vegan child... in the same respect that a Vegan Child who lives on the same foods, lacks variety and isn't getting enough protein can be as unhealthy as a child who lives on McDs and crap.   Cult Vegans need to be better educated.

I am a vegetarian, partly by choice, partly because my body decided when I was young that it didn't want to digest animal proteins anymore.  I believe that we should treat animals ethically, believe in ethical farming and free range products.  Partly because animals are living creatures and partly because if we're going to eat them, they should be as healthy as possible for us.  There's a reason we took antibiotics and hormones out of our cows in Canada... it was impacting the health of humans.

If you want to eat vegan because you want to save the animals, or the environment, or you think it's healthier or for whatever reason, good for you!

If you want to eat meat because you like it, it tastes good, you eat ethically treated organic meat, or you just don't care,  then good for you!

Everyone is entitled to chose their own paths in life... and their own food in life (be thankful that we live in a society where we have plenty of food and you are even ABLE to decide what you want to eat or don't want to eat)

I will leave you with a Ron White joke:

Why are you a vegetarian?' I asked him. And it wasn't even because meat is bad for you. He said that raising cattle was bad for the planet -- with cow flatulence in the ozone and the clearing of land for the raising of cattle. 'What are you doing to help the environment?' he asked... 'I'm eating the cow.'

Introduction

So I finally decided to start a blog.  I have been toying with the idea for several months.

My name is Elyse.  I am a Certified Nutritionist. I have also studied Western Herbalism, Chinese Nutrition and Chinese Herbalism.  In Fall of 2012 I will be pursuing a degree in Nutraceuticals.  I love the science of nutrition.  I love how all vitamins and minerals play an important role in our bodies and am excited to go more in depth in my studies.  I work as a Regional Sales Representative for an all natural laundry detergent company.  I am also a nanny for 2 vegetarian boys and work in a pharmacy.  My wide array of jobs have lead me to encounter many diverse experiences when it comes to nutrition and health.

My biggest annoyance in life is people who seem to think that nutrition has no importance, even though science will tell you otherwise.  My other biggest annoyance is people who treat nutrition and natural health care as a cult.   You will likely hear some rants about that....   Keep your "Drink The Grape Kool aid" away from my nutrition! (it was technically Flavor-Aid not Kool Aid... both of them are gross though)

I am a big believer of better safe than sorry... If there have been clinical studies to show that something is bad, and clinical studies that show it's inconclusive... I air on the side of caution and avoid them.  I will share this information with you.

All the opinions expressed in this blog are my own, most are based on science, some are based on people driving me crazy, and some are based on really cool things I have come across.   Anything I mention isn't meant as an endorsement of a product, or a boycotting of a product to anyone else... (so don't sue me!)

I am also definitely willing to answer any questions people have!  My specialization was in vitamin and mineral deficiencies, as well as psychosomatic disorders, but I have a fairly broad range of knowledge.

I guess this is the end of my intro post... stay tuned for more interesting updates!