MyFitnessPal

Cost: Free

Category/Features: Food/exercise log. Log your food and exercise and set calorie goals. You can view various nutrients. The app allows you to log on the go.

Comments: Easy to use. The program divides the meals into breakfast, lunch and dinner and shows you how you can earn extra calories from exercise. However, the nutrients available for viewing are limited, and you are not able to customize the RDA or to add custom foods.

FitDay

Cost: Free

Category/Features: Food journal and exercise log. Allows you to customize foods and nutrition goals. A wide variety of graphics are available to view for nutrient content of diet. The app allows you to log on the go.

Comments: I prefer this program because I can customize the RDA for my clients and it allows you to see a variety of graphics to showing how your diet matches up against the recommendations. I don’t, however, like the fact that it does not separate out the simple sugars from total carbohydrates nor does it show trans fats.

Whole Foods

Cost: Free

Category/Features: Claims to have healthy and delicious recipes featuring the finest natural and organic foods. You can search recipes by ingredients and dietary preferences such as gluten-free, low-fat, and vegetarian. Nutritional information and cooking instructions are included. You can enter up to 3 items you have on hand to find recipes using those ingredients.

Comments: There are a number of good recipes which would pass my heart healthy criteria but many would fail the test. For example, do not pick the Herbed Prime Rib Roast: 900 calories per serving, with 660 calories from fat and 860 mg of sodium! Do pick the Sesame-Peanut Noodles: 420 calories per serving, 100 calories from fat and 260 mg of sodium.

Locavore

Cost: Free

Category/Features: Locates local farmers markets.

Comments: Easy way to find local, in-season food. Pinpoint nearby farmers markets and farms that sell the products you love. Great way to get the best tasting, most nutritious produce.

Smash Your Food

Cost: Free for iPad, not available for iPhone

Category/Features: Learning tool for kids but adults will be challenged too.

Comments: I love this educational nutrition tool/game. Learn about “commonly abused” foods that contribute to excessive calorie consumption. Amazing graphics that uses HD video and real sound effects. Fun to watch the oil ooze out of the French-Fries as they are smashed.

Grocery Gadget

Cost: Free, 4+ rating from over 4000 users

Category/Features: This app organizes your grocery list. It stores shopping lists that will sync with other phones, scan items as you buy them to be saved on future lists. It also uses pictures so you always get the correct product.

Comments: Clever but too time consuming for me. How about just using your phone to both list and take pictures of food items. However, I list it because it is worth trying.

Pedometer

Cost: Free, 4+ rating from over 1922 users. Upgrade: $2.99

Category/Features: Made for the real fitness enthusiast to keep track of their workout. Includes: count your steps, displays your pace, approximate distance, speed and calories burned. You can set a desired pace/speed and get notified when you need to speed up/slow down.

Comments: I ended up upgrading for $2.99 for GPS+. I did, however, experience bad GPS signals on a regular basis. So unless I’m doing something wrong, save your $2.99. Use the GPS recommended below (MapMyFitness).

Shop Well

Cost: Free

Category/Features: Shop Well is a grocery and nutrition advisor site that allows consumers to rate products based on their customized needs.

Comments: Great idea because you get to decide what your nutrition concerns may be and then scan the product bar code. The product is rated and recommendations are made that may be a better match for you. The down side is that it can be time consuming and your product information may not be in the system. Hundreds of new grocery items are introduced on a weekly basis and some leave the market. It may be hard for the app team to stay up to speed.

MapMyFitness

Cost: Free

Category/Features: The GPS technology allows you to use your iPhone to track your outdoor fitness activities. It will mark out your path along an interactive map and record duration, distance, pace, speed and elevation. The data can be saved and it automatically uploads to www.MapMyFitness.com. You can view your route, workout data, workout history, and share with others via email and Twitter.

Comments: This is great for finding out the true distance of your exercise route. No more guessing your distance (and in my case, underestimating). Caution: you may not want everyone using this app knowing your workout course. You can opt out sharing this information.

These turkey burgers are a delicious, healthy alternative to regular hamburgers. We guarantee you will love it!

*Cook indoors using a grill on top of the stove or use your outdoor grill.

Makes: 6 Servings

1/4 cup cornmeal

2 Tbsp. onion, minced

1 Tbsp. cilantro, fresh

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dry mustard

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp. Brown Sugar Splenda Blend

1 lb. ground 99/1 turkey

2 Tbsp. BBQ sauce, divided

1/2 red onion, sliced into rings

6 slices Colby Jack cheese

6 whole wheat buns

1. In a small bowl, combine cornmeal, minced onion, cilantro, paprika, garlic powder, dry mustard, cayenne pepper and Brown Sugar Splenda. In a medium bowl, mix the ground turkey with 1 Tbsp. BBQ sauce. Mix the dry ingredients into the turkey until thoroughly combined.

2. Shape the turkey into six 4-ounce patties. Use a vegetable spray to spritz the grill to prevent sticking. Place burgers and onion slices on the preheated grill. Cook on one side for 5 minutes then flip to the other side. Brush the cooked side with remaining BBQ sauce and cook for 4 minutes. Flip again and brush remaining BBQ sauce on the burgers.

3. Place grilled onions on top of the burgers and top with the cheese. Allow the cheese to melt.

*Click the label to enlarge*

These burgers are so quick and easy to make and are sure to be a healthy hit!

The message that the overconsumption of calories and lack of exercise results in overweight, unhealthy people may be too simplistic.  Over the past 5 – 10 years 3 areas of research in particular have brought to light factors that may contribute to unwanted excess body fat and disease beyond the obvious.  Those factors include inappropriate sleep (too much or too little), sitting too much (even when you have a regular exercise program), and an inadequate intake of plant foods as part of a healthy diet.

Inappropriate Sleep and Weight Gain

Sleep deprivation or an excess of sleep has been associated with weight gain. Inadequate sleep is defined as less than 5 hours and excess is defined as greater than 9 hours.  In one study, recurrent sleep deprivation in men increased their preferences for high-calorie foods and their overall calorie intake. In another study, women who slept less than six hours a night or more than nine hours were more likely to gain 11 pounds compared with women who slept 7 hours a night. Other studies have found similar patterns in children and adolescents. It has been hypothesized that the hormones regulating hunger (ghrelin and leptin) are released when sleep is inappropriate resulting in increased appetite. Furthermore, fatigue often results in skipping exercise and excessive sleeping results in fewer calories burned.

Sitting around Adds up to More Fat

Researchers have discovered that sitting for extended periods of time contributes to increased body fat.  According to the research by Tel Aviv University, people that sit around for long periods of time put pressure on the preadipocyte cells, causing the body to produce 50% more fat than usual. Scientists believe that the precursors to fat cells turn into flab when subjected to prolonged periods of sitting down, otherwise known as “mechanical stretching loads”. Researchers found that when amounts of force extended is put upon a particular area in the body, fat tissue is encouraged to expand.

To investigate this further, scientist placed individual cells in a cell-stretching device, attaching them to a flexible, elastic substrate. The cells were stretched consistently, mimicking long periods of sitting down while other cells were left alone. Researchers found that after two weeks of stretching, the cells developed a significantly larger amount of fatty liquid droplets than those that weren’t stretched. By the time cells reached maturity, the stretched cells had 50% more fat than the normal cells.

“Obesity is more than just an imbalance of calories. Cells themselves are also responsive to their mechanical environment. Fat cells produce more triglycerides (the major form of fat stored in the body), and at a faster rate, when exposed to static stretching,” says Professor Anit Grefen from the study at Tel Aviv University . “There are various ways that cells can sense mechanical loading. It appears that long periods of static mechanical loading and stretching, due to the weight of the body when sitting or lying, has an impact on increasing lipid fat production.” The study, published in the American Journal of Physiology, warned that even those who took regular exercise were at risk of gaining weight if they spent a long period of time sitting down.

Plant Foods Protect Our Health

We innately crave the taste of sugar, fat, and salt and convenience foods make an excessive consumption of this problematic trio too easy.   Foods eaten raw or minimally processed have taken a back seat to fast-releasing sugar, causing our blood sugar to remain high most of the day. Additionally, the lack of adequate plant foods in our diet means we lose the protection of important antioxidants and phytochemicals that help prevent damaging chronic inflammation caused by excessive sugar (some studies show a higher consumption of high-sugar beverages, and foods is associated with evidence of increased inflammation and oxidative stress).

Free radicals exist naturally inside the body. They are a product of oxidation, a process involved with respiration and other chemical reactions such as metabolism, digestion, energy production and consumption. The more we use oxygen, the more we are likely to produce free radicals. In other words, just the basic actions of living life will create free radicals in your body: breathing, digesting food, exercising, and exposure to sunlight.

Damage to healthy cells signals the immune system for additional help and while inflammation is a necessary part of the immune process, a continuous autoimmune response promotes chronic inflammation and tissue damage, commonly referred to as oxidative stress. The results may be diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

There is a connection between inflammation, obesity, and diabetes.  Preventing obesity with more of a plant-based diet like the Mediterranean Diet is recommended by registered dietitians.

Put the Three Keys to Wellness on Your Key Chain

A healthy body weight for a lifetime is possible when you get adequate rest, stay active throughout the day and eat a plant-based diet.  Eating more plant foods, which are rich in substances called phytochemicals, seems to prevent oxidative stress in the body, a process associated with obesity and the onset of disease. Fill at least half your plate with colorful, low-calorie, varied-texture foods derived from plants. Save a quarter of your plate space for a whole grain and the other quarter for fish, beans, or poultry with red meat only twice weekly.  Nuts and seeds can be on the plate or part of a snack. Plant oils like Olive oil or Canola oil can be used for sautéing.  This lifelong eating plan will help ensure that you get the variety of protective, disease-fighting phytochemicals you need while helping you keep a healthy body weight. A Mediterranean-style diet is much higher in fiber and provides a feeling of satiety while eliminating sugary processed foods that raise blood sugar and cause dangerous belly fat.

CSL nutritional services can help you achieve your wellness goals. Come see us and join our recipe of the month club to get your “Mediterranean-Style” diet in place: http://cslnutritionalservices.com/shop/
                       

Did you know that the populations around the world who have the highest number of healthy Centurions share 3 things in common:  they eat more of a plant-based diet than most of us, are more active with their day-to-day activities, and tend to have a deep respect and appreciation for the elderly.  Al; this in more was presented by Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zone.

A highlight for me was presenting the 2012 Excellence in Practice Award to my good friend and colleague, Karen Collins, MS, RD, CDN

Karen Collins is a winner

Delicious Berry Lemon Cheesecake, you can have your cake (or in this case pie) & eat it too while eating healthy!!!

Salmon with Spinach Salad

For our salmon, you will need Dijon Mustard, whole wheat bread crumbs and pepper. Next you coat the salmon with a layer of the Dijon Mustard, and top with breadcrumbs and pepper.

You will cook the salmon for about 15 minutes or until the fish is flakes and is cooked all the way through. While the fish is cooking you will get out your ingredients to make the spinach salad. You will need baby spinach and sliced red onion, olive oil, lemon juice and black pepper.

Mix together all of the ingredients and toss it to coat the spinach and onion completely. Next, you will go ahead and plate the salad which will be a bed for the fish.

Finally, when the fish is cooked all the way through, place it on top of the spinach salad and you are ready to serve!

Potato Squash Casserole

The Potato Squash Casserole is also quite easy to make. You need a potato, zucchini, yellow squash, tomato, onion,and cheese. The potato, zucchini, yellow squash and tomato all need to be sliced and the onion needs to be chopped. Mix together the cheese and the chopped onion. Layer the potato, zucchini, yellow squash and tomato in any order but adding a layer of cheese in between each ingredient. Top with the last remaining bit of cheese and bake until vegetables are tender.

Applesauce Carrot Bread

Carol’s Applesauce Carrot Bread is so easy to make and is delicious! This quick recipe is on our Muffins, Breads, and Desserts Recipe Ring! Be sure to pick up your copies today!