Eat Healthier in 2014

Now is the time to make those New Year's resolutions!  To follow through and achieve your goals requires action. I am offering a nutritional consultation package to allow you to take the steps you need to take in order to meet your goal of eating healthier in 2014. Take charge and make this be the year. Eating healthier will give you the energy you need to have a great year in 2014!

 

 

 

 

Potatoes: the forgotten vegetable

Potatoes are a vegetable!? I never really think of them as a vegetable because they are so starchy.  I treat them like other starches - noodles, rice, bread - and limit them to small amounts as a side to other, more nutritious foods. Potatoes are nutritionally quite similar to noodles and bread.  Potatoes have vitamin C, fibre, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B1 (thiamin), magnesium, iron and even some folate.

 

Yes, it should be forgotten as a vegetable but not forgotten all together. Potatoes are a nutritious source of starch (carbohydrates). Don't forget to have some vegetables with it and some meat or alternative (beans, nuts, lentils, poultry, soy) too!  Here is a great recipe that includes potatoes:

Curry Vegetable Stew

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 large onion
2 tbsp curry paste (Madras)
28 fl oz can of diced or whole tomatoes, including liquid
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 head cauliflower, chopped

2 cups butternut or acorn squash, cubed

2 cups potatoes (yellow or other variety), cubed

1/2 cup water

19 oz can of lentils, drained and rinsed
19 oz can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed

DIRECTIONS:

Chop cauliflower and squash into chunks. Coarsely chop onion. Add vegetable oil to large pot and set over medium heat.

When hot, add onion and saute for 3 minutes. Add curry paste, cook 1 minute. Add canned tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, cauliflower, squash, potatoes and water.

 

Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stir occasionally. Add garbanzo beans and lentils, cook for another 10 minutes.

 

Serve with naan bread and a dollop of plain yogurt.

 

 

 

 

Fish: Eating Ethically

If you are, or have been, members at the Vancouver Aquarium, or you have eaten at certain restaurants around Vancouver, then you have probably heard about Ocean Wise.  Ocean Wise is a label on seafood dishes that use sustainable seafood.  Sustainable seafood is that which is caught in a manner that does not damage the seafood habitat, does not cause overfishing of the seafood, and does not remove other species from the ocean that were not intended to be caught. If you would like to buy seafood that is harvested responsibly, here are some suggestions from Ocean Wise:

• Dungeness crab and King crab
• Greenland halibut
• Haddock caught with a line, not bottom trawl
• Pacific Halibut
• Lingcod (Buffalo cod, blue cod, white cod) from Alaska or British Columbia
• Pacific Mackerel
• Sablefish (Black cod, butterfish, skilfish)
• Salmon (all types) from British Columbia
• Humpback shrimp from British Columbia
• Spot prawn from British Columbia
• Striped bass
• Skipjack and Yellowfin tuna (if the product is canned, look for symbol to show it was caught in a responsible manner)

I hope that gets your tastebuds going! Enjoy some sustainable seafood this week! Not only is is good for the environment but it is also good for your body - seafood is rich in Vitamin D and Omega-3's.

Food Allergies in Infants

Ten years ago the rules seemed so clear: egg whites and peanut butter were not allowed for infants.
Now that has all changed. The thinking was that we could reduce the chance of becoming allergic to these foods if we delayed eating them as infants. But as researchers recorded the statistics, it seemed as if the opposite were actually true.  By delaying the introduction of these foods to  our children, more of our children were actually becoming allergic to these foods.  Dietitians of Canada has put into policy what the researchers have been recording for the last number of years. 

Dietitians of Canada: Waiting until your baby is older does not prevent food allergy.
(http://www.dietitians.ca/Downloadable-Content/Public/6-to-12-First-Foods.aspx)

Now, 6-12 month old infants are encouraged to have egg, peanut butter (in small bits or in recipes - it is still a choking hazard), berries, wheat and tomatoes.  All in the hopes that being introduced to these foods ealier will mean there will be a whole new generation of people that has less food allergies than the last generation.  I am hopeful.  My own children do not have allergies but I have counselled parents of children who do and it is limiting for the whole family. I love food and being able to have a wide variety of food is so enjoyable!