Archive for the ‘Kids Nutrition’ Category
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Listen to my QR77 Radio Program here
Every monday at 4:15pm on QR77 Radio join me and Angela Kokott host of Calgary Today with our segment “You are what you eat” to get the goods on healthy eating. If you missed my segments I will be archiving these audio discussions on my blog here.
Nutrition for time crunched families
- One of the most common things I hear is “I don’t have time to eat well”
- The amount of time we spend preparing food has changed.
- In the early 1900’s North Americans spent ~6 hours per day preparing food;
- in the year 2000 we spent (~45 minutes);
- what do you think the current estimate is? (~20 minutes).
- We make time for the things we prioritize.
- How big a priority is your health and your families health?
- How long do you take to prepare and eat your meals?
- While I certainly wouldn’t want to see us going back to spending 360 minutes per day preparing food like back in the 1900’s, ripping open a package and eating in 5 minutes isn’t a solution either.
- Replace saying “I don’t have time to eat well” with “how could I afford not to take the time to eat well”.
- Shift how you think about food preparation since ironically many of the ways we try to save time actually costs us time.
- Think making eggs takes too long for breakfast? It may actually take longer to make toast than eggs….try it
- Is it really faster to stand in line at starbucks or wait in a drive through line at Tim Hortons than make a coffee at home?
- What about eating out? I was working a family who were working parents that ate out in restaurants or picked up fast food sometimes five times per week. On restaurant days it took 2 hours to get everyone in the car, have a family feud about where to eat, order and wait – I challenged them to eat at home more often to save time which was one of their most precious resources. They saved time and their health.
- To save time this family needed to do 2 things: shop less and cook double.
- Time saving tips that don’t sacrifice nutrition: shop less and cook double.
- Shop less. The average Canadian shops twice per week – Aim for shopping 1X per week if you are time strapped. Shopping more often will cost you more time. It also costs you more money. Retailers know the more often you shop the more you will spend. Ever run into the store just for milk and ran out with $100 worth of groceries. The more often we shop the more likely we will also do impulse buys – which may include convenience junk foods.
- Cook double. It takes the same amount of time to cook double the quantity. Use these for lunch, for leftovers at dinner tomorrow, or freeze them for a day you are short on time.
- HATE leftovers? why not try “planned extras” instead – cooking a larger quantity of ONE part of the meal for tomorrow
- Eg. Rice to go with tonight’s BBQ meal and leftovers for tomorrows stir-fry. Alternatively freeze it.
- Eg. Baked potatoes the first night, pan fried the next night
- Eg. Extra grilled veggies from supper for a pasta salad in a few days
- Eg. Double the grilled chicken breast for quesadillas, salad, or stir-fry the next night
- Challenge the way you think about food preparation….cooking healthy doesn’t have to take you oodles of time.
Tags: family meals, grocery shopping, healthy eating, leftovers, meal planning, quick meals, time saving tips
Posted in Healthy Eating, Healthy Mindsets, Kids Nutrition, Media-TV-Radio, Our Radio Program "You are what you eat" | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Listen to my QR77 Radio Program here
Every monday at 4:15pm on QR77 Radio join me and Angela Kokott host of Calgary Today with our segment “You are what you eat” to get the goods on healthy eating. If you missed my segments I will be archiving these audio discussions on my blog here.
What should I eat? BMW – Balanced meals work
In this segment I will address the following questions. It might seem basic but many people are missing at least one of the three components of a balanced meal.
- What are the 3 parts to a balanced meal? examples?
- Review why we need veggies/fruit?
- Why do you need grains/starches ie/ carbs – some people think we should eliminate these for health/weight loss? What happens if you don’t get enough? Too much?
- Why do you need protein? What happens if you don’t get enough? Too much?
- What is wrong with just a salad with chicken for lunch?
- What is wrong with juice and toast for breakfast?
Listen to episode 4: April 2, 2012 here: BMW: Balanced meals work!
Tags: balances meals, breakfast, carbohydrates, carbs, fruits, grains, lunch, meal planning, protein, supper, vegetables
Posted in Healthy Eating, Healthy Mindsets, Kids Nutrition, Our Radio Program "You are what you eat", Weight Management | No Comments »
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
Suzanna, 49, hadn’t been a breakfast eater since she was a teenager. She was certainly not a morning person and never felt hungry until about lunchtime. As she was struggling with obesity and creeping blood sugars, her doctor warned her that without some significant changes she would end up with Type 2 diabetes similar to her dad. She knew she needed to make some changes to get her health on track, and this included tackling breakfast.
Research shows that the benefits of taking time to eat a balanced breakfast are worthwhile for all ages. Breakfast gives your brain the essential energy it needs for a full day ahead, and breakfast eaters tend to struggle with their weight less than breakfast skippers. A large number of observational research studies also show that people who regularly eat breakfast also may have higher intakes of fibre, vitamins, calcium and other minerals, as well as lower intakes of fat and total calories. And there’s more.
A May 2012 article published by Mekary and colleagues in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that simply eating breakfast may also decrease disease risk. The researchers reviewed the eating patterns of more than 29,000 men that were followed for 16 years. Skipping breakfast resulted in a 20 to 25 per cent increased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.
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Tags: breakfast, diabetes, eggs, hot cereal, oatmeal, recipes, weight loss, weight management, yogurt parfait
Posted in Calgary Herald, Health Concerns, Healthy Eating, Healthy Mindsets, Kids Nutrition, Media-TV-Radio, Weight Management | No Comments »
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
Anne was a devoted stay-at-home mother of two healthy, beautiful girls ages four and seven. For two decades, Anne had tried just about everything to lose weight. But, over the years, the liquid-shake programs, low-carb plans and starvation diets eventually manifested into bingeing and purging.
She hid her bulimia from family and friends, too depressed and ashamed to reach out for help.
Because she was still overweight, her feelings of shame were amplified.
Anne will never forget the day her seven-year-old daughter asked, “Mom, am I fat?”
As overweight parents and those with eating disorders will attest to, they want nothing more than for their children to be free of the pain and obsessions they have lived with. They want their children to grow and develop healthily and to have a better relationship with food and their bodies than they do.
Why then, despite a parent’s instinct to protect their children from their pain, do children of parents with eating disorders often struggle with food and body image?
As Anne learned, you may think you are hiding your dieting habits or eating disorder from your children, but children learn what they live. Perhaps they are picking up subtle messages about how you classify food as good or bad, or how you eat diet foods while they are told to eat something else.
Maybe it is because they have watched you stuff or starve your-self to numb uncomfortable emotions. It may also be because you skip eating their birthday cake or sit on the side of the swimming pool fully clothed rather than participating. The little things are big things.
The good news is that it is never too late to get things on track and redefine healthy relationships with food, body image and your family.
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Tags: anorexia, binging, body image, bulimia, eating disorders, kids nutrition, parents, purging, weight loss, weight management
Posted in Calgary Herald, Health Concerns, Healthy Eating, Healthy Mindsets, Kids Nutrition, Media-TV-Radio, Weight Management | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Children four and under should move more, sit less and avoid screens
Canada’s first-ever physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines for the early years released
CALGARY (ALBERTA) March 27, 2012 – Children aged four and under should move more and sit less every day as recommended by the first-ever Canadian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for the Early Years. All children aged one to four should accumulate at least 180 minutes of physical activity throughout the day, and children under the age of one should be physically active several times daily. Parents and caregivers should also limit prolonged sitting for more than one hour at a time and excessive screen time.
The Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for the Early Years (ages 0-4 years) are Canada’s first systematic evidence-based physical activity guidelines and the world’s first standalone sedentary behaviour guidelines for this age group, which puts Canada at the forefront of the emerging body of sedentary research. They are presented by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) and ParticipACTION, with support from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (CHEO-HALO).
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Tags: andrea holwegner, children and activity, CSEP, day care nutrition, health stand nutrition consulting inc., kids, kids fitness, participaction, physical activity, registered dietitian, screen time, toddlers activity
Posted in Health Concerns, Kids Nutrition, Sports Nutrition, Weight Management | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
After a 20-year struggle to lose weight, Marjorie was diagnosed with diabetes. Despite attending a group diabetes education session, she found it hard to put the dietary theory into practice, and so her doctor referred her for customized one-on-one advice.
Marjorie was encountering two key issues. The first was how much carbohydrate to consume at a meal without causing her blood sugars to soar. The second was how to read a label and interpret the list of numbers and words displayed on a food package.
Understanding what is relevant on a food label for your own unique nutrition needs is a key step in managing your health. But that’s hard to do, thanks to marketing messages, a long list of numbers to decipher and complex scientific words in the ingredient list.
A 2006 article published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine by Russell Rothman and colleagues found that label reading is confusing for a large number of people. In fact, only 37 per cent of people could calculate the number of carbohydrates in a 20-ounce bottle that contained two-and-a-half servings.
To help guide you through a typical label, here are the three major parts of a food label that reveal ingredients, nutrition facts and health claims.
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Tags: andrea holwegner, diabetes, eating out, food, food ingredient list, food label, grocery shopping, health and wellness, health claims, healthy eating, label reading, nutrient claims, nutrition, nutrition facts table, registered dietitian, snacks, the chocoholic dietitian, weight loss, weight management
Posted in Calgary Herald, Health Concerns, Healthy Eating, Healthy Mindsets, Kids Nutrition, Sports Nutrition, Weight Management | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 6th, 2012
Listen to my audio interview with QR77 Radio host Angela Kokott:
QR77 radio – Feb 2, 2012 should pop be banned for kids under 18?
Tags: andrea holwegner, day care nutrition, eating out, energy drinks, food, health and wellness, health stand nutrition consulting inc., healthy eating, kids, lunch, nutrition, registered dietitian, snacks, soda pop, sugar, teenager, the chocoholic dietitian, weight loss, weight management
Posted in Health Concerns, Healthy Eating, Healthy Mindsets, Kids Nutrition, Media-TV-Radio, Weight Management | No Comments »
Monday, February 6th, 2012
By Andrea Holwegner BSc, RD www.healthstandnutrition.com Twitter: @chocoholicRD
My niece Zoe Meier and her tomato crop
Teresa was a healthy, active five-year old, but a classic picky eater. She had a handful of foods she liked for lunch, including cheese sandwiches, dry cereal, and crackers and cheese.
She liked a few select fruits, but her parents struggled to get her to eat enough veggies.
Like many well-intentioned parents, they offered good-sized portions of Teresa’s favourite foods since they didn’t want her to go hungry.
Little did they know this might be further hindering Teresa’s ability to eat more veggies and fruit.
An article published in the February 2012 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Jennifer Savage and colleagues reported that serving smaller entree portions to kids ages three to five is one way to increase fruit and vegetable intake.
If you offer your child a half portion of macaroni and cheese or half of a sandwich, they will likely have room to eat the raw veggies and dip or fruit salad you prepared.
This study also found kids eat fewer overall calories, which could be an important strategy if your child is overweight.
How much does my child need per day? (more…)
Tags: andrea holwegner, day care nutrition, food, health and wellness, health stand nutrition consulting inc., healthy eating, kids, lunch, nutrition, registered dietitian, snacks, teenager, the chocoholic dietitian, vegetables
Posted in Calgary Herald, Health Concerns, Healthy Eating, Healthy Mindsets, Kids Nutrition | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Me and Saul enjoying a great summer day at the lake
By Andrea Holwegner, For The Calgary Herald October 6, 2011
I wanted it all: a rewarding career, a great husband and to be an exceptional mom. I’m learning that juggling these roles and still finding time for myself is the hardest thing I have ever done.
Being truly connected when I am with my son Saul and not worrying about work is harder than it seems. Similarly, being fully present at work and not feeling guilty about missing out on time with Saul is a dance I am still trying to learn.
The book Good Enough is the New Perfect; Finding Happiness and Success in Modern Motherhood, by Becky Beaupre Gillespie and Hollee Schwartz Temple (Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 2011, $19.95), is proving very helpful.
What I love about this book is that it is not about settling or getting everything you sort-of-kind-of want. I am starting to understand that you can do anything, but this doesn’t mean you have to do everything.
Many of the reflections in this book are also parallel principles when it comes to taking care of your personal wellness and family nutrition.
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Tags: andrea holwegner, food, health and wellness, health stand nutrition consulting inc., healthy eating, kids, nutrition, registered dietitian, supper, the chocoholic dietitian
Posted in Calgary Herald, Healthy Eating, Healthy Mindsets, Kids Nutrition, Media-TV-Radio | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
By Andrea Holwegner, For the Calgary Herald October 1, 2011
Eight-year-old Martin was a picky eater, especially when it came to lunch.His lunch often came home uneaten and his parents struggled to figure out what to pack, since peanut butter sandwiches were his favourite, but not permitted at school.
The 2004 Lunchroom Monitor Survey, which polled more than 1,000 moms and 1,000 kids (age eight to 12) revealed kids are trashing (73 per cent) and trading (36 per cent) parts of their school lunch at least once a week.
The survey revealed that taste and fun were the two things kids are looking for when it comes to enjoying lunch.
With that in mind, here are a few solutions for some common lunch dilemmas.
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Tags: andrea holwegner, day care nutrition, food, health and wellness, health stand nutrition consulting inc., healthy eating, kids, lunch, nutrition, registered dietitian, teenager, the chocoholic dietitian, weight loss, weight management
Posted in Calgary Herald, Healthy Eating, Kids Nutrition | No Comments »
