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I Ate Pizza for Breakfast

5 Nutritional Travesties That Aren’t So Bad

Pizza at the sprints by Richard Jones, on Flickr

The thought pops into your head before you even stop chewing – this is a nutritional travesty. We know eating healthy food and loading up on colorful fruits and veggies is the path to feeling good and preventing disease, but navigating this nutritional war zone without tripping a mine occasionally isn’t realistic. Before you succumb to poor eating habits and start thinking of yourself a hopeless nutritional wreck, consider that some guilt may be unnecessary.

Not every indulgence has to be bad. If you’ve had a bad food day, letting go of the guilt may be warranted. Here are five healthy sins for which you can be forgiven.

1. I ate pizza for breakfast.

It happens. After an evening enjoying a pie, there’s usually some left over, which means in the morning you’re faced with that odd piece. It’s cold, it’s covered in congealed cheese, and it’s delicious. But pizza for breakfast doesn’t necessarily destroy your good health habits.

First, if you made it yourself you’re better off. You’ll be more in control of the salt and fat content. Second, tomatoes are high in nutrition. Best if made with fresh tomatoes, sauce has powerful lycopene which is known primarily for its cancer defense. Finally, filling up on non-traditional items for breakfast isn’t all bad. While calling Dominoes at 9 AM isn’t recommended, a single slice can provide protein and vegetables and the energy to get you to lunch—in fact, it’s better for you than many common breakfast options like giant muffins, “breakfast” pastries, or greasy drive-thru breakfast favorites that send you into a slump by mid-morning.

2. I had dessert.

It may be that you are celebrating. After all, April 28th is National Blueberry Pie Day. Is it a national holiday? You bet. Should it be? Who knows? Regardless, you don’t have to feel guilt for being pie-triotic. Pie can be a nutritional boon. Blueberries, particularly wild, are high in nutritional and antioxidant content, and even in a crust it counts as a serving. Jack Kerouac journeyed across the country and relied on diner pie for meals—it was cheap, delicious and provided the perfect compact nutrient delivery system. Try this nutritionally friendly Wild Blueberry Pie and hit the road.

If it was chocolate you indulged in, you can also be forgiven, especially if it was dark chocolate. While there is no official cutoff that defines “dark”, European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids, and cocoa percentages can go as high as 86% and even 99% depending on your tolerance. The good news is that it contains healthy flavonoids – just like those found in fruits and vegetables. Small portions of dark chocolate are credited with improved blood vessel flow and improved blood pressure. Moderation, of course, is the key to gaining the advantages and not suffering from the extra calories or replacing other healthy foods.

If neither pie nor chocolate is the source of your dessert guilt, you may be the victim of refined sugar, processed additives, and consequential blood sugar spikes. Take heart. Whole Food Resources offers some “remedies” for overindulgence in everything from sugar to fat to alcohol. They recommend reversing the negative effects of a sweet-fest by drinking ginger tea with soy sauce, or eating cured pickles.

3. I ate (guacamole, potatoes, eggs, wine).

Some foods that are considered bad for us are really food that is getting a bad rap. If these foods were part of a diet indulgence, you can start feeling better about yourself immediately upon understanding their potent nutritional benefits—or, you can start integrating them into your diet and leaving the guilt at the kitchen door.

Avocados. Guacamole lovers already know that while avocados are considered to be high in fat, they should be lauded as a strong dietary complement. They actually contain monsaturated fat that is good for your heart and compounds that could prevent cancer. This nut in veggie clothing is high in antioxidants, and it may help the body absorb the nutrients from other foods (like the lycopene in the tomato salsa that may have accompanied them.) Make guacamole yourself to get all the benefits and leave the additives behind.

Eggs. We go to a lot of trouble to avoid eggs and their evil yellow centers in an effort to lower cholesterol. In fact, eggs, yolks included, are a low-calorie, nutritionally-dense food that contains high quality protein, antioxidants and vital nutrients such as folate, B12 and choline. Those strictly watching cholesterol are smart to eliminate yolks, but most of us could do a lot worse than indulging in eggs on occasion, either as part of an omelet or a quiche or in a dish all on their own.

Potatoes. Perceived as a dietary killjoy, potatoes are actually a wonderful round package of nutrients – especially with the skin on, which contains 60 different types of phytochemicals and vitamins. Potatoes are also known to be high in potassium. They get no points for adding color to your plate, so they are often dismissed when it comes to nutrition, but it’s the frying and the butter that really does the damage. Russets in particular have huge nutritional benefits and high antioxidant content says this dailymail.com article on surprise superfoods. Even the calories are moderate, provided you hold the dollop of sour cream.

Red wine. It’s no secret that red wine has received the super-nutrient nod, thanks to reports that say moderate coiffing can protect against heart disease. Drinking up to two glasses of red wine a day has also been thought to improve brain power. Resveratrol, its powerful ingredient, has been discovered to be a dietary hero and that’s a much relied-upon fact in circulation any given night at a wine bar or dinner party. Increased consumption, however, does not mean increased benefit. Read more about Where We are with Red Wine Research.

4. I ate fast food.

It could be the most unforgivable food sin. Fast in synonymous with high calorie, high fat, and sky-high salt content. In fact, the typical fast food meal supplies about 1,150 calories – an entire day’s worth of calories for someone watching their intake, with most of the calories coming from fat. Even if you skip the burger, fast food chicken and fish is breaded and fried, and most fast-food meals lack complex carbohydrates and fiber. It can be a tough nutritional truth to swallow, especially after the dust settles and the eating is done.

But you can be redeemed from a fast food slip up.

According to nutritional experts, the damage to your health can be undone. Over the long run, we can reverse heart disease risk by following either a low-fat vegetarian regimen or a Mediterranean diet that’s rich in healthy fats, whole grains, and vegetables. According to Prevention.com, “As long as it took for you to get to an unhealthy state, that’s about how long it takes to become disease free.” In fact, reversing nutritional damage, particularly that which comes with age, has tremendous interest to researchers.

The late Dr. James Joseph, co-author of The Color Code, has reported that a diet of blueberries may improve motor skills and reverse the short-term memory loss that comes with aging such as Alzheimer’s. Dr. Barbara Shukitt-Hale, a USDA Staff Scientist in the Laboratory of Neuroscience, USDA-ARS, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, has done research that has had a significant impact on the world of nutrition and anti-aging by studying the effects of a diet supplemented with berries and finding that they could reverse functional age-related deficits in motor and cognitive behavior. It may be we can begin turning back the clock on poor health as soon as we come out of our fast food coma.

5. I just plain ate a lot – all day.

We all have days where we start eating, and we keep eating, regardless of the time of day, the nutritional content or the caloric intake. Must we go to the back of the nutritional line and start from scratch to meet our goals for good health and disease prevention? Or, can we recover from a high intake day?

We can.

If it is the extra weight from a day of indulgence that concerns you most, consider this: recent studies indicate that for some of us, the more we eat, the more we burn by unconsciously moving incrementally more, fidgeting, or taking the stairs and bustling about more doing everyday activities. Our bodies simply respond to the added caloric intake naturally.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for everyone. Some of us, alas, do not have this calorie-balancing metabolism. If you are one of these people, there are other reasons not to worry. Taking in a lot of calories can mean more energy for workouts, and it can often lead us to feel less hungry the following day to compensate. And, as many “cheat” diet enthusiasts will tell you, if a day or two of nutrition and diet denial keeps you on track in the long term, that’s the most important thing.

If it isn’t caloric value but nutrition you’ve eschewed, there are still reasons not to despair. Your health is a result of what you do over time, and our bodies respond immediately to resuming good health and nutritional habits. Eating poorly or overeating one day a week gives you a solid 86% rate on good eating habits. And, as we mentioned above, healthy food is such a powerful nutritional tool that it can reverse health woes associated with aging and poor health. So return to your colorful nutritional plates full of fruits and veggies with a clear conscience. You’ll be back in good health in the time it takes you to ask for seconds.

How Bad Are Your Health Vices? Check yourself at Prevention.com.

Lowering the Price of Healthy Eating

Is a truckload of veggies as desirable as a truckload of flat screen TVs?

Skyrocketing food prices, a difficult economy, and lifestyles that depends on good nutrition may have created a perfect atmosphere for these produce thieves who stole a truckload of tomatoes and cucumbers valued at $42,000. The veggie heist comes on the heels of a similar incident in Florida last month in which a $300,000 worth of vegetable and frozen meat was stolen.

Such high-nutrition hi jinx may be the result of yet another mixed societal message. As a country, we get the blame for eating poorly while at the same time we are virtually enclosed by a ring of processed food; we are urged to buy fresh, whole, organic food while living in a dire economic downturn where household budgets are continually squeezed. It’s no wonder a truckload of fresh food is a precious commodity.

The Costs of Poor Nutrition

If your slip at the supermarket register is telling you food prices are rising, you’re right. According to the U.S. government’s Consumer Price Index, food prices in January rose 1.8% from the prior year, which is the fastest pace since 2009. Basic commodities have risen in price, and average nationwide vegetable prices rose 9.8% in March compared to the same month in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Consumer Price Index reported this month.

At the same time, according to the USDA., the cost of food for the average U.S. household makes up a lower percentage of income than almost any other nation – just 6.9% of the average American household’s expenses. Generally speaking, even while food prices inch up, food is available to the majority of middle class Americans at low costs. But is it the right food? Why does food availability seem to parallel our poor eating habits?

Despite the ubiquity of low-priced drive-thrus and cheap bulk snack food, we can eat well for less money—we must. And in the long run, we can’t afford to do otherwise. The treatment of diseases preventable with good nutrition is raising health care costs and sabotaging our health and longevity. As American consumers, we must find a way to eat good food affordably.

Cut the Waste

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans waste about 20% of their food. It’s a statistic that speaks to our world of food plenty. Wasted food means we expend enormous amounts of manufacturing energy unnecessarily and watch nutrients and dollars go down the drain. A University of Arizona study estimates that the amount of waste from a typical household that shops for four adds up to $40 each week.

While bulk purchases can make budgetary sense, stocking up on perishables like fruit and vegetables is a recipe for filling the trash. How do we start cutting our waste? One European government has considering ridding labels of “best before” dates in order to curb our tossing habit. Websites like Allrecipes.com and the FoodNetwork.com can help us search out dishes based on the ingredients hanging around the house. We can shop with lists; we can organize our kitchens so we know what we have and use it. And, when we must throw out food, we can compost to give food trash a new use.

We can also loosen our standards of perfection when it comes to food. According to New York Times contributor Tara Parker Pope, the trouble with having plenty of food means we can often confuse spoilage for mere less-than-perfect. Brown spots on the lettuce? Cut it off. Not sure about that ice cream? It’s probably fine. Down to the end of that ketchup? Use it up before popping open a new bottle.

Stretch Your Food

As any good restaurant chef knows, the most efficient way to run a kitchen is to use up the food you have: yesterday’s entrée becomes tomorrow’s Soup of the Day. Start thinking like a restaurant chef and you’ll see food costs plummet. Using your ingredients takes a little creativity and a pinch of culinary acumen, but it’s a habit that will stick.

Use leftovers to make delicious soups or to fill a healthy burrito, and embrace foods like chili, shepherd’s pie and quiche to revisit ingredients and take a “stone soup” approach to make ingredients go further. This simplebites.com article called Eat Well, Spend Less offers up five frugal meals to stretch your dollar, including black bean burgers and crustless quiche that uses that scrap of ham and random cup of mushrooms and turns it into something to rave about.

Shop Locally

Supermarkets may have some price points licked, but local markets can come out on top for some important budget-busting items. Check out local Asian markets for good prices on produce and rice, and you’ll likely find budget-friendly spices, meats, cheeses and items like olive oil at your local Italian grocer. As Livestrong.com points out in Cheap Ways to Eat Healthy, shopping at the local farmer’s markets is no luxury—they provide cheap, fresh goods that cut out middleman costs, and allow you to choose amounts based on your needs, whether that’s 1 or 8.

Make Convenience the Enemy

The myth that fast food is easy on the wallet is just that – a myth. According to Michele Hiatt, a registered dietitian at St. John Medical Center, the least-processed foods are the least expensive as well as the healthiest. Yes, you can supersize your meal for a mere dollar, but convenience food is, in general, not good economics. Making food from real ingredients is better on the wallet and the calories, and eliminates unhealthy ingredients that go into processing like those unusually high sugars, salts, and fats.

It’s just that…convenience is so convenient. But a recently article in the Atlantic Monthly called the Joy of Not Cooking points out the irony that surrounds the age of food preoccupation. We obsess over the newest ceramic kitchen knife and spend big for a tricked-out high end stove, but for all its equipment, we actually spend less time in the kitchen than ever before. For example, women who work outside the home log an average of 5.5 hours per week in the kitchen—that’s food preparation and cleanup included. Compare that to our grandmothers, who either ran or grew up in households with women who spent 30 hours a week on food preparation. If it doesn’t motivate us to add a little more preparation time, it at least puts convenience into perspective.

Hiatt discusses her “Top 5 Food Savers” in a recent article and recommends a shopping list which targets fruits and veggies in season, dried beans/legumes, frozen produce on sale, potatoes, lean protein on sale, skim milk and yogurt, and store brand rice, pasta, oatmeal, barley and grits for budget stretching.

Tap into the Season

You can keep good food on your plate and pennies in your pocket by taking local to the next level. Growing your own vegetables at home is a budget-conscious strategy, not just a hobby. According to the National Gardening Association home gardens are up from 27 million households in 2005 to about 31 million households last year. The main reasons? Better tasting food, higher quality food and saving on the grocery bill. According to Michael Pollan, any amount of land will do to start a home garden. Even his own self-described postage-stamp-sized yard with three raised beds provides him with enough to add to dinner most nights, and the price is right.

If you are looking for home farming resources, start with Brett L. Markham’s Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on Acre, or reveal your green thumb by using it to thumb through Lisa Taylor’s Your Farm in the City, which provides a complete look at the trend of urban farming.

Other ways to take advantage of the season include picking your own fruits and veggies. Farms that offer this labor-intensive shopping experience can give you bulk produce for a low price: find farms at pickyourown.com. Find other ways to buy fresh on a budget on eHow.com.

Finally, Make Use of Frozen

Frozen is part of any discussion devoted to nutrition and stretching dollars. It can be your secret weapon when it comes to budget cutting. Frozen fruits and veggies offer economy because of their bulk sizes and because they eliminate costly waste that gnaws at the household food budget. There’s also no competing with frozen when it comes to off-season prices and availability. Besides, having at-the-ready daily servings is incentive enough to use frozen – accessible nutrition that is just a good as fresh is worth a truckload of flat screens to any family.

Go forth and eat healthy! You can’t put a price on good health, disease prevention and longevity, so don’t let a tightening budget squeeze the nutrition off your plate. You know fruits and vegetables are the best way to get the most from your dollar when it comes to nutrition – armed with a few dollar-stretching strategies you won’t have to sacrifice good health for their powerful nutritional value.

Not sure what’s in season? Coupons are fine for boxes and cans, but for produce, taking advantage of low prices means homing in on what’s inexpensive in any given time of year. About.com’s Frugal Living
section provides an easy month-to-month reference perfect for posting on the fridge. This month, go for pineapples and artichokes; in May head toward asparagus and okra.

Go Frugal! Forward this post to start a trend in saving money and preserving health!

Got the Message? How We Learn About Health & Nutrition

Lately, the American public has been looking at itself in the mirror. What we see before us is someone overweight or more likely obese; someone with unhealthy eating habits that include large portions, high fat, high sodium, and highly processed food; and someone who either has or will have a litany of preventable diseases. We aren’t just unhealthy, we are sick and costing the country a bundle in health care costs.

Last year, the USDA changed dietary guidelines for Americans. The new guidelines recommend focusing on a plant-based diet, limiting sugars and solid fats, and reducing sodium. Perhaps most importantly, while fruit and veggie serving recommendations themselves didn’t change, the USDA’s conclusion was that we consume too few of them.

This latest message is worth sending, but it had to make its way to consumers. It has had those in the food and nutrition industry asking: how can we increase the public consumption of fruits and vegetables? How can we cut portions and eliminate salt?

To further complicate matters, the challenge may not be solely in the message being heard. For instance, according to a study by Supermarket Guru, 42% of us try to follow the dietary guidelines. As they point out, “try” is no doubt the operative word. Even members of the public who got the message, know the message, and could recite the message like a beat cop reciting his Mirandas, may not know what to do with this information.

The result is a second, equally important question: how do we bridge the gap between what we aspire to do when it comes to healthy eating, and actually doing it? The issue has prompted us to look at a few of the pieces of the nutritional puzzle that work together (and apart) to influence the American consumer.

Suppliers: Heroes & Anti-heroes

Some brands profit from obfuscating their unhealthful ingredients and some proffer outright consumer deception. At the same time, some suppliers use positive messages to penetrate the market. Produce for Better Health Foundation along with the Fruits & Veggies More Matters, recently named their 15 Supplier Role Models and Supplier Champions for 2010. They are food suppliers that were recognized for their positive efforts toward the public health initiative that includes eating more fruits and veggies and less salt and fat. Suppliers like the Wild Blueberry Association, Welch’s, the Pear Bureau Northwest, and even McDonald’s were lauded for being positive role models when it comes helping get consumers the message and make it easier for them to eat healthy.

While these suppliers are mini gladiators in the amphitheater of changing America’s costly health and nutrition habits, we know that information can be both good and bad. One part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to continue efforts to understand the best way for consumers to get useful point-of-purchase nutrition information. Today, the value of prominent displays, clear labeling, and messages that connect clearly with the consumer are red hot topics that have stakeholders battling it out in the stadium.

Supermarkets: Passive Profiteer or Potential Partner?

Supermarkets can help us eat better, but as we all know, they can also sabotage our efforts. Our stores hold a lot of power, and they may also be holding a lot of untapped potential to connect with their shoppers. And yet, so much of the time we spend shopping for healthy food is still spent avoiding traps.

For example, we know products at eye level aren’t necessarily good for us – they are just those being given preferred placement. We know that the basics like eggs and milk are in the back, forcing shoppers to walk a gauntlet of temptation. We even know that new stores have adopted indirect aisle-planning strategies that serve to sabotage our efforts to shop for “perimeter” foods like produce and other whole foods.

Must the supermarkets we frequent to feed our families be our nutritional nemesis? In the same Supermarket Guru poll, almost half of consumers said they weren’t sure whether their supermarket made it easy to meet dietary guidelines. The resulting report wielded these challenges: Does your supermarket have a dietitian in the store? Does it offer substitution suggestions such as trying frozen yogurt over ice cream? Does it provide options for meeting guidelines that meet our requirements for good taste?

In short, are our supermarkets passive profiteers or nutritional partners? It seems clear that opportunities exist for stores to take a stronger role in health and wellness – if they are willing.

Messaging: Plain Talk for a New Century

When supermarkets and suppliers fail, we rely on the information around us to make our own good decisions. But messages about health haven’t always been effective. Studies indicate that consumers find it difficult to count calories as a way to keep their nutrition and servings in check; they do not connect with the old pyramid-style guidelines for eating; they fail to understand cryptic nutritional labels and ambiguous health claims on food packaging.

Fortunately, these messages and how they are communicated have begun to change for the better. New guidelines have become increasingly consumer-friendly. Rather than lots of numbers that include grams and calories and fractions, messages are getting straight to the heart of the matter by promoting things like simply eat less, filling plates with color, or changing lifestyle habits like cooking at home and eating fewer processed food.

In one example of the new and improved communication of the health and nutrition message, Fruit & Veggies More Matters conjured up the Half Your Plate concept. In an effort to make serving sizes easy to understand, they urge us to simply fill half our plates with fruits and veggies – that’s it. Even National Nutrition Month 2011, which is being recognized during the month of March, focuses on eating right with color – a message that’s easy to implement by merely looking down at your plate. Armed with these goals, we can make smarter decisions about what we buy at the store, despite all the possible pitfalls.

Programs: Nutrition from the Top Down & the Bottom Up

Improving health and wellness can sometimes be effective if it comes to us from the top down. Recently, the United States Agriculture Secretary announced that the USDA will fund the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, an effort from the USDA to help children change their eating habits and start new consumer habits. The previously mentioned Let’s Move! program launched by First Lady Michelle Obama aims to solve the problem of obesity within a single generation. Healthy People 2020 was created to establish national health objectives and give communities the tools they need to achieve them. These are just a few examples of top-down programs working to take on a true crisis in health and nutrition.

Smaller-scale programs and bottom-up initiatives in schools, communities and businesses are also making it easier to make choices that help us and our families live better by virtue of being part of them. Many of them exist because someone dared to imagine that those just being born today could grow up in a very different, healthier world.

How did YOU get the message of health?

What message of health and nutrition resonated with you?

Was your mom your messenger? Your doctor? A great book or an inspiring TV personality? Whether it was calorie counting or colorful food, let us know what nutritional messages connected with you – leave us a comment!

January 28th is National Blueberry Pancake Day!

A day devoted to celebrating the blueberry pancake sounds delicious – but what is the origin of this auspicious occasion? Well, we’re not sure…but who cares? A party for the blueberry pancake is warranted.

It’s a traditional comfort food that delivers its maximum pleasure at breakfast but also makes an indulgent and easy dinner – an inspired idea when you’re short on entrée selections.

And, made with good, natural ingredients and sporting a nutritious helping of fruit, pancakes can be genuinely healthy. So celebrate! Blueberry pancakes are truly deserving.

In a previous post, A Passion for the Pancake, we extol some of the many virtues of all types of flapjacks. You’ll find the good the better and OMG when it comes to this celebrated dish. We’ve also got the last word on making the perfect pancake every time.

Give this dish festooned with healthy blues its due! Here’s why:

Tossing wild blueberries into your batter (or arranging them on the B side, a la Kenny Shopsin) gets you into the good habit of adding fruit to your meals.
Blueberries, best if wild, means you’re getting a serving of powerful antioxidants.
Breakfast is a recommended way to start the day, and with this dish you won’t be skipping.
They signal something special is in the air and delight kids and adults alike.
If those golden disks just aren’t for you, take heart—National Croissant Day is just around the corner!

Happy Blueberry Pancake Day. Here are some classic and deliciously uncommon ways to celebrate:

Woman’s Day has Low Fat Blueberry Pancakes.

The Examiner recommends Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes.

Buckwheat Banana Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce is from the Wild Blueberry Association.

Don’t Resolve. Rethink.

This week, most of the chatter about New Year’s resolutions is about how terrible we are at keeping them. But there’s another side to the failed resolution story.

While some eschew joining the resolution bandwagon altogether, still others are motivated by the promise of a new year and the change it can offer. And, while many resolutions do get broken, according to the American Psychological Association, people are 10 times more likely to succeed with their goal if they make a New Year’s resolution.

So, while experts maintain nearly 60% will quit their resolutions after six months, that means 40% succeed in achieving long term change.

Even if you are ardently anti-resolution, the new year begs for a review of what has passed and what is to come. Rather than run off to the gym and buy five pounds of leafy greens first thing, start off the year with a little reflection first. Begin with pen and paper:

What is working?
It’s easy to forget about healthful changes we’ve made and ignore positive habits we maintain. What have you been successful with in 2010? What efforts have proven fruitful over the past several months, regardless if those efforts were consistent? The new year is also an excellent time to review what invigorates and motivates us. Do you take particular joy in your noonday walk with co-workers? Feel nourished by the Sunday meals with family? What activities make you feel your best? Most productive? Most stress-free? Those are building blocks for future wellness.

What must change?
Often, we know we fall into behavior traps that erode our health and wellness, but it’s easier to enter into a state of bad habit denial. Articulating the behaviors, habits and outside stressors that wreak havoc on our life is the first step. Consider what part of your life is ripe for change, and where change can be most beneficial.

What’s doable?
Evaluate your resolution style and get real about what’s just lip service and what you are willing to achieve. Will you really turn into a body building maven this year? Will you make dinner for your family every night regardless of the challenges of your work day? Decide what changes you feel truly committed to and what changes will just lead down the road to disappointment.

Making Change in 2011: Our 5 Favorite Resolution Tips

1. Be Led By Your Left Brain.

To jump start a new healthy habit, leave your emotional self behind and follow the plan. Make a nightly salad or drive to the gym because that’s your new schedule—don’t get bogged down about whether it’s working. Try letting your intellect take over for the first few weeks, then evaluate your progress after those weeks are over to decide if your new habits are fruitful, rather than letting your emotions sabotage you.

2. Prove You Can.

Lose ten pounds by March! Run a marathon by February! If you have a track record of failure, remember it’s human nature to get excited about lofty goals and then fall into the trap of “I knew I couldn’t do this.” Instead, prove to yourself that you are not goal averse. Set them small and achievable, just for that reason. Eat one piece of fruit a day (not 10), workout two days a week (not 7) and you’ll be invigorated when you find you can be successful.

3. Think Zebra, Not Horse.

Sometimes tackling a problem straight on doesn’t get to the heart of the matter as well as coming at it sideways. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, don’t focus your resolution on what goes into your mouth. Instead, resolve to make January seed purchases for your vegetable garden, or resolve to buy more local foods. Did you know that each year, Americans waste an estimated 160 billion pounds of food? In your efforts to improve your diet, you might resolve to reduce the waste that comes out of your kitchen by eating more widely, meal planning, or buying frozen.

4. Use the 10% Rule.

Resolutions are always about going whole hog—that’s why they are notorious victims of early burn out. Confronted with daily workouts your body fails; you can’t meet your oversized goals. Instead, resolve to commit to incremental change. Increase your workload no more than 10% each week. Eat just 10% less this week, change what you eat just 10%. Then do it 10% the next week. This year, embrace a little change and piecemeal your way to success instead.

5. Eat Your Servings.

If you are going to make a single change this year, resolve to get your servings of fruits and vegetables. You can start with wild blueberries, not just because they are our favorite fruit, but because they cover the best of healthful eating: they provide color, potent antioxidants, low calorie fiber, and health benefits for your blood vessels, eyes, brain and skin, just for starters. And because they are sweet and delicious on so many foods, they serve as a perfect example of big change in a small package.

Learning to Cook in 2011? All You Need Are These Three Foods

According to the New York Times, those who cook spend only 6.8 minutes more preparing food than those who don’t. Author Mark Bittman contends that with three basics — chopped salad, rice and lentils, and stir fries — you can cook and eat healthy for a lifetime. They represent meals that are super fast, super easy, and inexpensive, and they can be made with accessible food (especially when you take advantage of frozen).

Groceries Online: The Key to Smart, Healthy Shopping

Have a love-hate relationship with your local grocery store?
You’re not alone. Shopping is the ultimate onerous errand when it comes to time consumption, and it’s riddled with temptations that sabotage our diet and budget. It’s nothing for most of us to hop online (we’re probably there anyway) to buy, connect, work and be entertained – yet we’re still in an analog world when it comes to grocery shopping.

You may have found yourself with a scrap-paper list and a squeaky grocery cart wheel and thought, Why don’t I get my groceries online?

Ditching the Cart

Some of us do. While online grocery stores such as the well-known home grocery shopping and delivery site Peapod took off in urban areas several years ago (and remains in business), the model proved impractical for less populated regions. But if you think online grocery shopping and delivery is so “year 2000”, consider this: according to MyWebGrocer, online grocery orders actually increased 24% during the week leading up to Thanksgiving this year. Convenience may be the draw, especially during the holidays, but some small studies even suggest shopping for groceries online can have health benefits.

Ami DeRienzo would agree. This past summer, she started MaineGroceryDelivery.com here in Maine in response to a need she identified in her delivery regions, which include Westbook, South Portland, Old Orchard Beach and surrounding areas. She views her business model as a natural outgrowth of a major trend toward online shopping – one not limited by age group or locale, and one that could help us all turn into smarter, healthier, more efficient shoppers.

“Oftentimes we eat unhealthily due to improper meal planning, or from grabbing that box of Twinkies on display at the grocery store because it catches our eye,” said DeRienzo. “With online shopping, customers take the time to think about what they will need and shop accordingly, allowing them to plan healthy meals for their week.” DeRienzo worked in management for a grocery store for approximately 18 years prior to opening her business, and she estimates that approximately 25% of the purchases made in a traditional grocery store are “impulse buys”. Eliminating these budget- and diet-devastating impulse buys – encouraged by stores stocking staples near the back and creating a maze of occasional racks – is one the biggest advantages of online grocery shopping and delivery.

But as MyWebGrocer points out, the grocer-consumer relationship is based on trust. Our retailer is a vital component in the quest for good health and nutrition. Can the consumer warm up to their online retailer the same way?

Just the Right Grapefruit

“Though one might think that ordering groceries online would be an impersonal experience, online shopping with MaineGroceryDelivery.com is actually a more personal experience than one would typically find in a grocery store,” said DeRienzo. As a small, independently owned company, her business is based exclusively upon developing relationships with customers. She says she knows them all, and equates her deliveries with the role that used to be played by the milk man, who in decades past would value-add his dairy drop with a cheerful morning greeting. “We provide that same type of personal experience and service,” she said.

Contrary to limiting product selection, often online grocery stores offer an enhanced selection, since they have access to products across different retailers and sources. These days, price shopping from store to store can be the best way to maximize a household food budget, but it’s simply unrealistic.

“The average consumer does not shop multiple locations on a weekly basis in order to capitalize on the best deals,” said DeRienzo, “but we do.” Her customers receive a regular weekly flyer that includes sale items from various stores in the area and additional sales available exclusively on the MaineGroceryDelivery.com site. By offering Maine products along with nationwide brands together, shoppers have a one-stop shopping experience that might not be possible from brick and mortar stores.

DeRienzo also said the majority of her customers seek local and organic foods in addition to standard household items, and she offers products from local food producers, including lobster from Cozy Harbor Seafood, meats from nearby Wolfe’s Neck Farm, and a section devoted specifically to organic products.

In fact, online shopping might have the advantage when it comes to opportunities to have fresh and local food. For MaineGroceryDelivery.com, delivering orders to customers in the summer months typically includes shopping for fresh produce at local farms. If eyeing the best veggie and feeling the fruit first hand is a must for you, DeRienzo capitulates. She said she’ll go the extra mile to provide quality just as a shopper might do in person. Shopping daily for fresh products that meet their standards of quality for her customers means scouring multiple locations, if that’s what it takes. “At times this has led to a two hour quest to find the right grapefruit,” she said.

Daily Servings – At Your Door

In some ways a conduit to a healthy bounty of fresh food, online grocery shopping and delivery can be a digital extension of the co-op model, depending on your location. When fruits and veggies are delivered directly to your door, you’ve seriously upped the ante on healthy eating. Spud, for instance, delivers organic food to the door to its clients in Canada. Door to Door Organics delivers fresh organic produce and groceries throughout Colorado, Kansas City, Michigan, and the Chicago area, changing selection weekly, based on the farms. Digitally merging the healthy eating movement with family grocery staples could prove invaluable in breathing needed new life into meal plans for American consumers, and saving the time it takes to do it.

The bottom line is we can trace our sustenance, our holiday cheer, our nutrition, and our disease prevention back to our grocery store. So any shopping experience that meets our needs is the best shopping experience. Every consumer’s goal is to be a smarter, more efficient shopper, and here, online grocery shopping shines.

10 Reasons to Shop for Groceries Online

1. It’s a personalized experience.
Online shoppers can revisit recurring orders, create multiple lists, and easily access deals and promotions that fit personal buying habits. You might even get the best grapefruit in the area, just as if you shopped for it yourself.

2. It can help you save.
While there are shipping charges or delivery charges to consider (MaineGroceryDelivery.com charges $10), in some cases, savings can cover convenience costs. Online grocery sites incentivize shoppers with site sales and “deals of the day” in addition to local store promotions. Weekly sales from MaineGroceryDelivery.com combine the best of what the two major local grocery chains offer individually. And, no impulse buys mean you can stick to your budget and your meal planning.

3. Selection, selection, selection.
Because online shopping sites offer brands across stores and producers, it means one-stop shopping but with the variety of multiple stores. For the best variety and options, find retail sites that offer local producers and organics are available side-by-side with popular brands. (You’ll be supporting local businesses.)

4. It’s healthy.
Eliminating impulse buying may be online grocery shopping’s biggest advantages. It can also help eliminate the desire to buy fattening foods because it means less browsing, and it can give you regular access to fresh produce.

5. You can shop when you want.
You can buy anytime online—day or night. And, logging on at holiday crunch time means no leaving work early to beat the rush. Sites like NetGrocer.com, for instance, an online grocery site that delivers via FedEx, is integrated with today’s social marketing – if you’re on Facebook or Twitter, shopping is just a click away.

6. You’ll beat the crowds.
At holiday time, it can be a challenge just to get from one end of the aisle to the other. Ordering online means no scuffles over the last pound of unsalted butter. It eliminates travel time and winter weather woes, and bulk buying doesn’t mean dragging large packages of toilet paper all around the store.

7. It’s great for vacationers.
The first day of vacation is always spent at the store. Having groceries arrive ahead means more time to enjoy the trip. That’s particularly desirable in Maine, when summer vacationers flock to rental homes with empty refrigerators.

8. It provides help for the housebound.
Says DeRienzo: “I have a customer who lives in Massachusetts who shops for groceries online for her mom in Biddeford.” For those experiencing illness, or for the elderly who find it hard to get out of the house, the service can be a lifeline – especially in the winter.

9. You’ll conquer the “list”.
Forget the scraps of paper – your list is now online. If you think of something during the day, add it, and create access for all family members.

10. It means relief for Mom.
DeRienzo says her customers with children have told her they enjoy some residual benefits from her service. “In order to occupy the kids while shopping they easily spend an extra $10 -$20 on ‘stuff’ to keep the kids entertained,” she says.

More on Online Grocery Shopping

Read about the Top Websites for Online Grocery Shopping at Suite101.

Consumer Reports offers tips for the most productive online grocery shopping for the holiday season.

New Heart Data “Scary & Disturbing”

Not meeting heart health criteria? Unfortunately, the chances are pretty good that you aren’t. Recent findings from the American Heart Association characterize the extent to which we are taking care of our hearts in pretty ugly terms. Following the presentation of the latest data at an annual meeting of the American Heart Association, an AHA spokesperson called the country’s success at meeting goals for heart health – goals that will save our lives – both scary and disturbing.

The AHA outlines seven steps to heart health (here from WebMD), and following most of these steps – the benchmark is six or seven – has shown in studies to decrease the risk of dying by 56%. These guidelines break it down into steps that help you get to know your digits – things like BMI, blood sugar and cholesterol – and get them into alignment for your heart’s sake. If you think you might be a grim statistic, now is not the time to be ashamed. Be motivated. Take a moment to get heavy on Life’s Simple Steps toward increasing your chances of living a longer, healthier life.

One the AHA’s seven steps toward protecting our heart is meeting requirements of a healthy diet. This important heart healthy step is broken down into these five components to make “healthy diet” a little less vague and more achievable:

Eat more than 4 1/2 cups of fruits and vegetables a day.
Have oily fish such as salmon, trout, and herring at least twice a week.
Eat sweets sparingly.
Have three or more servings of whole grains a day.
Eat fewer than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day.

The AHA recommendations include meeting four of five of these keys to fulfill healthy diet requirements.

Simple principles for some pretty serious stuff. But we know simple isn’t always easy. If you feel like you’ve got to start from scratch when it comes to your heart, seven steps can seem like a lot. But remember, there is no reason not to start with one: the AHA reminds us that for every step we take, we’ve decreased our risk of dying by 18%.

Canadians Count to Ten for Health

Canadian food guidelines have been published, and Canada isn’t off the hook when it comes to getting their fruits and veggies. Recommendations for the amount of fruits and vegetables that Canadians should consume come in at 7-10 for adults. It’s in alignment with American guidelines, which represents a departure from the previous 5-A-Day campaigns of the past.

Winter is the perfect time to keep fruit and vegetable servings in mind – even with great opportunities in frozen, it’s the time of year that presents the most challenges when it comes to recommended servings. It seems that when the ground is frozen, the produce that comes from it just isn’t on our mind like it is in the summer. But it’s a mind set that’s easy to change; winter presents plenty of options. As the Canadian recommendations remind us, a single serving is one half cup of fresh, frozen, or canned fruit or vegetables, or one half cup of 100% juice. A cup of raw leafy vegetables or salad counts as a single serving, as does a single piece of fruit.

If you’re from the States, you can take a lesson from those just slightly North, offered up by Canadian Red Seal chef Gordon Desormeaux – that’s Chef Dez to you.

Chef Dez has some helpful advice about how to achieve the recommended servings. Here’s a great one: Get it in your cart. He suggests buying the recommended serving amounts for each member of your family for the number of days you are shopping for. For example, a family of four will need 84 servings of fruit and vegetables combined, for the next three days, based on an average of seven servings each. He suggests buying them before proceeding to the other departments and aisles, and building meals based on those initial selections. Keep items like bulk frozen fruits (think wild blueberries) on your shopping list that can be used whenever you need them.

Here’s a sampling of some other F&V tips we love from the Great White North to slip in your back pocket. Thanks Chef Dez.

Serve every piece of chicken or fish on a bed of sautéed spinach leaves.
Have fresh lettuce, tomato, and onions on hand at all times to give an instant Mediterranean flair to your sandwiches.
Buy something completely new to your family at least once per month.

Take Off! You can consult the Canada Food Guide for more information, no matter where you hang your hat.

Shake Baby Shake – For Your Heart!

So you’ve decided the risk of dying from heart disease is not one you are willing to take. You’ve decided to attack these seven steps from the AHA with a vengeance. You know your blood pressure numbers, you’ve quit smoking, you’re getting your exercise, and now you’re focused on maintaining a healthy diet.

Start by getting your servings. There are loads of ways to integrate the F and the V into your life. Here’s one we just heard about especially for the tech savvy that can curb your instinct for grabbing a “bad” snack when a better one will do – just shake it! JuggleFit is an app for iPhone and iPad created to help people beat holiday weight gain and start eating better by focusing on the array of possible snacks your can enjoy when cravings hit.

Here are the basics: shake your phone, and it turns into a virtual slot machine which eventually lands on one of 200 snacks or “mini-meals” that use three basic ingredients. All focus on the simple and the mostly healthy, whether you choose something sweet or something savory. Shake it up to find Greek yogurt, wheat germ and blueberries, or maybe avocado, lemon and garlic (recipes and calorie counts are included). It’s worth a try – JuggleFit is free now through December 12, and surrounding yourself with options that motivate you can start the snowball rolling toward reducing your chances of dying from heart disease. Simple as that.

Top Soup Secrets: 5 Reasons To Pick Up a Spoon & Start Slurping

If you aren’t including soup in your meal planning, you could be missing out on one of the most comforting, healthy, versatile foods to ever grace your placemat. Soup will have your heart: its hidden gastronomic advantages can warm your insides and pique your taste buds like no other dish can.

To help you see the upside of udon and the benefit of bouillon, we’ve got the top five soup secrets that will have you yearning for whatever’s du jour – as well as a few hazards it will behoove you to dodge in your quest for the podge.

1. Stone Soup Works

The stone soup fable tells the tale of the glorious soup created seemingly by magic from just water and a stone. While hungry villagers willingly contributed carrots, potatoes, and herbs to help make the soup even better, before they knew it, a lovely meal had been created.

Feeling like all you have is a stone when it comes to mealtime? Soup is the answer. Soup is budget friendly, and its scalability can almost seem like magic. And, now that you know how to cook, you’ve done the job of stocking the basics. Use chicken, beef, or vegetable stock as your stone. Then, make like a hungry village and see what transpires.

2. Soup is Truly the Best of Both Worlds

Soup is the perfect culinary conundrum. It can be thrifty and decadent, healthy and indulgent. It loves a quick serve and a slow simmer. It’s sweet and it’s sour; it can be sipped from a cup or eaten with a fork. It’s light, but because it’s mostly liquid, it’s also filling, making it a hearty meal for even the hungriest person. It also fulfills the requirements for comfort food, especially when it’s piping hot and the air is cold.

Plus, soup is perfect for gatherings. It caters easily to vegetarians, it’s easy to make beforehand, and it serves endless amounts. Did we mention it’s a single pot meal? And it allows you to focus on some fun sides that can sometimes get short shrift.

3. Soup Packs a Serious Nutritional Punch

Soup is a perfect way to get intense nutrition into your diet. Full servings of vegetables are perfect for soup – try tubers, greens, or popular winter vegetables such as parsnips, carrots, rutabagas and cabbage, which are all full of vitamins and minerals. You can easily get your fiber from beans or brown rice, and because it’s rich in beneficial lycopene, Classic Tomato Soup is doubly satisfying. Also, proteins go further in soups—use less to cut down on your meat intake, or try leaner cuts.

4. It Features Veggies AND Fruits

Veggies are a natural for soups, of course, but soup can showcase fruit with equal aplomb. It offers some wonderfully appealing ways to get your fruit servings. Chilled Melon Champagne Soup sound appetizing? Perhaps a Maine Wild Blueberry Soup, with its simple blend of blueberries, Pinot Noir, and honey will satisfy your desire for the soup-perb.

5. It’s a Creative’s Dream

If you are making soup, it’s time for your inner Jackson Pollock to shine. Whether your preference is for yin or for yang, you can’t go wrong—soup allows for mid-course taste corrections and is a virtual canvas of favorite herbs and spices. A sprinkle of cilantro? A dust of Parmesan? A plop of cream fraîche? Soup is a garnisher’s delight. Soup welcomes a myriad of protein substitutions, a multitude of herbs, veggies and food combinations such as roasted butternut squash with sage, broccolini and spinach, crab and mushroom and garbanzos and low-fat sour cream.

And of course, there’s always chicken and noodle, the most reliable soup combination of all. It’s healing, delicious, and never outshined.

…Caveat Souptor (Slurper Beware)

Soup, as satisfying as it is, can hide some shadowy secrets within its broth if you aren’t paying attention. Here’s how not to let your luscious liquid leak into health’s danger zone:

Beware of dairy.
When you move into bisque, chowder and other creamy soup territory, cream can kill your calorie count. Consider the benefits of choosing milk over cream and lower fat dairies over whole milk. WebMD breaks it down here.

Rein in the carbs.
Who can resist a Crown Pilot cracker with their chowder or a few Saltines with their tomato soup? Make sure your crunching is done in moderation. Carbs help make soup more satisfying and that’s fine—but don’t get up from the table and realize you just had bread and butter for dinner, washed down with a dribble of consommé.

Ease up on salt & butter.
High sodium soups can sabotage your health. Making soup yourself is the best way to avoid the high sodium in packaged and canned soups. Look for low sodium stocks – salt to taste on the table and let those veggies, herbs and spices shine through instead. Also, be careful not to overindulge in butter. Sauté veggies in olive oil if sautéing is required, and remember that butter additions requested by recipes can usually be eliminated.

With just a soupçon of imagination you’ll be getting more mileage out of your healthy foods and filling your tank with nature’s least chewable delights. Ladle on!

These sites will help you get your soup on:

The Organic Authority has Unique Soup Ideas.

Get Low Fat Soup Recipes and tips from WebMD.

Martha comes through with Winter Soups.

Metabolic Disorders: Coming to a Store Near You?

A quick visit to Metabolictyping.com will shine a light on a new wave in eating. “The ‘diet debate’ is over,” it asserts, and “The ‘diet wars’ have ended.” Now, it states, the only diet that we should be on is the one that fits our metabolic type.

Has the marketing of metabolic syndrome and metabolic disorders begun?

In previous posts, we’ve talked about the clusters of factors responsible for a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome refers to a group of risk factors including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol levels and belly fat that increases risk of heart disease and diabetes. Dangerously high increases in the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome have been attributed to our nation’s growing abdomens and climbing blood pressure, and its increase is expected to parallel a health-threatening rise in type 2 diabetes.

According to consumer trends organization The Lempert Report, metabolic syndrome is poised to be the health fad of the coming year. Quite a distinction! But its fad status could help usher in new thinking about diet and health, in part because it could dictate the brands we see on shelves and the information disseminated by the stores themselves. The publicity that surrounds the syndrome and its satellite diseases seems to have caught the interest of food advertisers who are urging the shift away from old-school “diet”, “low fat” and “low carb” thinking to a modern-day healthy eating craze that incorporates broader solutions: solutions that focus on improving overall health.

Your Grocery Store, Your Health

You may not consider your grocery store as a your primary source for health information. But perhaps it should be. Consumers are demanding more from their local groceries, including better, less expensive options for healthy food and more robust health and nutrition information and guidance.

Catalina Marketing, which conducts research about shopper-driven marketing, recently conducted a consumer study that presents some information about our buying habits and behavior when it comes to food purchasing at the grocery store. The results show that the minority of shoppers – only 36% – believe the supermarket helps them manage or reduce their risk of specific health concerns; just 38% felt their stores provided foods and beverages that helped them do it themselves. Still fewer – 25% – felt that employees were knowledgeable about nutrition. The study also indicated that shoppers wanted fresh, healthy meals – they want healthier options, less expensive foods and more help in planning healthy meals. They are looking toward their grocery for help, and they are finding it lacking.

In fact, supermarkets held their place as the most frequented channel for 56% of shoppers, unchanged from 2009, according to a 2010 Food Marketing Institute Trends report. It’s the first time in five years that supermarket share has not declined. FMI President and CEO, Leslie G. Sarasin, said the study indicates that shoppers believe the food they eat at home is healthier than the food they eat out. “It is clear supermarkets are positioned to help their customers save money and help them make healthier choices when it comes to food,” she said.

With grocery stores in an influencing position when it comes to what we eat, should they be responsible for merely stocking the shelves, or should they take a leading role in our health in an effort to fill some of these health holes that we encounter everyday?

Is Your Corner Grocery in Your Corner?

Because the grocery stores in our neighborhoods (provided we have an accessible grocery store in our neighborhood) is where we get our food, their role in our eating habits can’t be underestimated. Grocery stores stock the foods that stem from the latest health preoccupations. This new thinking about health and diet presents a new opportunity in advertising that focuses on metabolic syndrome and overall health rather than singular issues.

Some stores have stepped up to take a more prominent role in public health. Some have worked specifically to combat food deserts – those areas where underserved populations have little or no access to fresh, healthy foods. Consider New York’s Green Cart program, the FRESH (Food Retail Expansion to Support Health) program, or Los Angeles’ Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores, all programs working to bring fresh food and produce to those living in food deserts. This past week, Shop N Save announced the launch of a comprehensive, whole-store health and wellness program called “living healthy with my diabetes.” Just in time for a month focusing on diabetes awareness, the program offers education and screening opportunities, and nutrition information focused on tamping down growing diabetes numbers.

Proactive actions on the part of groceries should continue, urges The Lemport Report. In addition to “packaging the metabolic health story” they urge supermarkets to offer classes on metabolic health, offer workshops with professionals in the area of nutrition, and even provide “aisle-by-aisle metabolic nutrition store tours.”

These efforts could turn your local grocery into a virtual health center where metabolic syndrome and related diseases are in the spotlight.

Postscript: What is Metabolic Typing?

Determining what one’s individual metabolism requires and creating individualized diet guidelines – called metabolic typing – has actually been around for years. It has been promoted to address the health needs of individuals at a fundamental metabolic level. Such diet prescriptions catering to type are purported to balance the many aspects of metabolism, allowing for increased energy, weight loss and disease resistance. It has even been used as an alternative medicine for those diagnosed with cancer. Now, with today’s concerns surrounding metabolic disorders, metabolic typing may be shifting to the mainstream.

Metabolic typing is based on the idea that the same diet can have a drastically different effect on different people. It’s something you many have observed yourself in your own diet: eating certain foods can make your co-worker feel energized while it makes you feel lethargic. Creating a diet of specific foods and food combinations that work best for your type can have a positive effect on metabolism, and that can result in a better health and well-being.

Three metabolic types, originally identified by William Wolcott in his book “The Metabolic Typing Diet” breaks down into three groups. Protein types tends to have strong appetites. They think about food often and crave fatty, salty foods. Eating sugary foods can exacerbate their cravings, and getting food satisfaction is a constant challenge. The Carb type is a generally characterized by having a lighter appetite, and a penchant for salads and veggies. They tend to tolerate skipped meals or fasting well. Mixed Types, not surprisingly, have characteristics of both.

Determining our type can determine recommended foods and food combinations that could serve our health. For example, Protein types would eat higher amounts of protein and lower amounts of carbs, and higher amounts of fat, whereas Carb types would eat more carbs and less fat and slightly less protein for optimum health.

While typing may be back on the radar, generally speaking, dietary guidelines for preventing metabolic disorders and treating those who have metabolic syndrome include combining exercise and weight control with a diet that incorporates moderate levels of carbohydrates, and , usually, increased amounts complex carbs, fiber and healthy fats, type notwithstanding. (You can find out more about the details of Metabolic types and their impact on health at Metabolictyping.com.)

Find out more about Metabolic Syndrome research. Metabolic syndrome may be the syndrome of the year, and prevention is of great interest to researchers and scientists. Research continues into the effect of phytochemicals, specifically those found in blueberries, on metabolic syndrome. You can read more about the work of Mary Ann Lila and the Plant Institute and the importance of the nutritional elements of blueberries on today’s captivating diet phenomenon.

This Blog’s No Good For You

Why It’s Finally Time to Learn A Crucial Food Lesson

Blogger Pooja Mottl made a pointed observation about our collective health recently in the Huffington Post. Mottl says that despite supermarket recipe cards and countless blogs and articles about food and food preparation, “it’s not happening — we aren’t getting this ‘healthy food’ into our mouths.” Why? Simple, she says. We don’t know how to cook.

It seems like a bizarre assertion that with the last decade’s renaissance of food TV and food-themed media, Americans would still not be cooking. Could it be that many of us are involved in a grand food delusion in which we know the names of all the celebrity chefs but don’t ever pick up a spatula? Could it be that all of this food information is sliding right past us like the egg off of a McMuffin?

It could. The decline in cooking for ourselves continues despite rumblings that the recession has brought some families back to the kitchen. The fact is, everyone is working, and food companies are selling the antidote to our time-crunched lives. And it seems those food shows may be doing very little to actually help our skills – they just serve as more passive entertainment. Restaurant food sales continue to soar and packaged food companies thrive, and no one is donning an apron to pass down those valuable cooking skills to the next generation.

As Mottl points out, the consequence of not knowing basic cooking skills is relying on others to do our cooking for us. When our meals come from restaurants, prepared food shelves, and grocery store buffets, it heightens our intake of fat, salt and calories. The bottom line is that we can read this blog or any other blog, we can read articles or magazine tip lists about the benefits of wild blueberries and leafy greens, or the disease preventing properties of fruits and vegetables, or how to incorporate omega-3s into our diet. We can watch top chefs battle it out using fresh, exotic ingredients. None of this will help our health if we aren’t cooking for ourselves.

It’s Time: Learn How to Cook

Yes, Chef, cooking is power, and it’s time we rouse ourselves from the learned helplessness that is nurtured by the prepared food options that orbit around us. It’s time to learn the fundamentals of cooking our own food. Here’s why:

Cooking is an expression of creativity.
Cooking will give you a feeling of satisfaction.
Cooking will save you money.
If you cook, your kids will learn good habits.
Cooking means you’ll have control over what your kids eat.
If you cook, you and your family will be healthier, have fewer diseases, and live longer.

Here’s how to begin.

Buy some tools.
Stock up on some staples. Do you have a good knife? A saucepan? Getting the tools of the trade is an inspiring and necessary first step. Go on a culinary shopping spree, or collect them little at a time. If you are still using your grandmother’s rusty old baking pan, replace it for something new. You can always keep the old one – for posterity.

Make space in the kitchen.
Tell the microwave to shove over and find your go-to space to set up your mise en place. If you’re struggling space-wise, consider investing in a moveable cooking counter. Or install shelves to move some of what’s on the counter up.

Stock the basics.
If there are no new edibles making their way into your house tonight, you’ll need to make something out of nothing, and that requires having the basics. Stock up on necessary spices. Keep rice and stock in the cupboard. Store frozen wild blueberries in the fridge. Can you make a family-sized frittata with nothing but eggs and a few random leftovers? Then you’ve arrived.

Learn the moves.
There is alchemy to food, and having the basic cooking techniques under your belt is a skill that will serve you beyond the recipe card. Know how to sauté, bake, braise, brown, chop, and mince. Learn from a friend, a book, a video or a class. Call your mom, or call your co-worker who’s a whiz with a spatula—they’ll be charmed by the compliment.

Save time to shop.
Cooking begins with groceries. Buying fresh daily may become an enjoyable new habit, but you know your schedule—if evenings disappear in a puff of Ramen noodle smoke, planning ahead is crucial.

Make cooking a ritual.
It’s not always possible to spend hours cooking a meal every night, and chopping onions may be Martha Stewart’s idea of relaxing, not yours. But if cooking is part of your life, the preparation that precedes it is part of the ritual of eating. Talk to the kids, catch up on the news…this is your life, and cooking is part of it. Enjoy.

Buy a book, subscribe to a magazine, or take a class.
You don’t have to cook your way though Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. If you love pasta, start with a book about pasta. Stir fry sound like fun? Start with a book about Asian cooking. Or, subscribe to a real cooking periodical so the new ideas keep coming to your doorstep. If classes sound like too much of a time investment, cooking classes are available online.

Share the love.
It’s a brand new day—and everyone can share in the glories of cooking. Take the burden off you and put it on another family member at least once a week, kids included.

Take it on the road.
Put your cooking to the test with a cooking group. Invite a family, some neighbors, or your yoga buddies over once a month and put your skills to work. Then, reciprocate by heading to their house the next month, where all you have to do is taste.

Create your own cooking “Couch to 5K”.
Call it the McChicken to Chicken Stew—give yourself six weeks to become someone who cooks. Create a schedule, walk before you run, and meet your goals. Your family and your body will thank you.

You will thank you.