The Whole Body Nutrition Concept.

The Whole Body Nutrition concept encourages a healthy body, mind and spirit. We encourage you to learn and experiment with different ways to eat and live a healthier life, no matter what dietary path you are following.

With that said these 5 criteria will get you on your way:

1. Live Foods

Choose foods that are real, natural, fresh, seasonal and unprocessed.

Eliminate refined starches such as white flour, sugar and artificial drinks.

Limit canned foods, boxed or frozen meals as often as possible

2. Plant Base

Plant base foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes (peas, beans) seeds and whole grains are essential for a healthy, low fat, and nutrient rich diet.

When choosing plants choose a variety of color, more color means a wider range of nutrients.

Support local farmers markets. Fruits and vegetables are often fresher and cheaper when purchased from local farmers market.

3. Low Fat

Get your fats from lean meats such as fish, chicken, turkey lean beef, nuts, and low fat dairy products.

Avoid margarine and foods made with hydrogenated oils (trans-fat)

Substitute a plant base protein such as seitan (high protein wheat gluten), Tofu, vegetable burgers beans or peas for a meat occasionally

Limit fried and process foods.

4. Nutrient Dense (Nutrition Rich)

Choose foods with high nutrient content. Nutrients are the vitamins and minerals that the foods we eat provide. They are important for growth and development in children and maintenance of our health as we get older. Nutrients such as calcium, iron, vitamin c, and vitamin d just to name a few are essential to our wellbeing.
Eat natural fresh foods they have fewer calories and are rich in nutrients.
Use food labels to guide you when trying to improve your nutrient intake.

5. Live Active

Having an active lifestyle will keep you in shape, prevent excessive weight gain and help you feel better overall.

Whether it’s exercising, or doing one of your favorites activities such as bowling, dancing, skating being active is not just good for your body it’s also great for your mind.

New Year, New You!

Did you make a resolution to eat better, and live better this year? If not what are you waiting for.

It’s a new year, re-invent a new you. Resolutions are great if we stick to them and see them through. New Year’s resolutions should always be simple, realistic and attainable. Let’s resolve to stick it out and see our resolutions through for 2011.

If your resolution is to lose weight, eat healthier, increase fiber or start a workout regiment start by establishing simple goals. For instance weight loss can begin with an increase in activity or healthier eating. Goals such planning a workout 3 days of the week on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays before or after work is a great start. Establishing days and time will help get you organized and keep you motivated. Healthier eating can begin with simple steps such as eating out less, taking a healthy lunch to work twice a week, adding a vegetable to at least one of your meals, snacking on fruits or limiting sugar intake by giving up sodas or replacing current whole calorie drinks with a low cal version.

Remember to stay focus and keep goals to a minimum until they have been mastered. Document your healthy new start in a journal. Outline 10 significant, realistic lifestyle changes you would like to achieve and set at least 2 goals to accomplish each change. Take at least a month to work on your goals; once you have integrated that change into your daily routine, you are now ready to move on to the next item on your list.

You can achieve a healthier lifestyle in 2011, by just remembering to never give up. Stay motivated; share your success and even your failures. Remain positive and surround yourself with positive individuals.

Your Holiday Guide to healthy eating.

What will you do to stay healthy this holiday season?

It is the season of Christmas parties whether at work or at home and of course ringing in the new years. All of these events are usually accompanied with great food, great friends, family and alcohol. If the thought of all the drinking and eating of the holiday season stresses you out, don't let it. Hopefully by now we have all started a healthy routine that will carry us not just through the holidays but through the rest of the year as well. If you have not started a healthy regiment there is no time like the present. Healthy lifestyle practices should not be abandoned or forgotten because we get caught up in the spirit of the holiday season. In fact it should be revisited and renewed. Look at what you are doing or not doing now and set some realistic goals in place for the coming year.

For the most part we know what to do to improve our health: eat more fruits and vegetables, eat less processed products, drink plenty of water, and limit sugary drinks and sodas and exercise. With countless number of treats and our hectic holiday schedule, this can become challenging during the holiday season.

Do not despair. Follow these simple tips to continue eating healthy, get some physical activity in and reduce extra stress.

1. Do not show up to any event hungry, if you are attending a holiday party it is wise to eat a small well balance meal prior to arrival. Hunger leads to over-indulging.

2. Drink wine and other alcoholic beverages in small amounts. We all know alcohol is loaded with calories so limit your intake.

3. Replace traditional ingredients like white sugar with more natural ingredients like raw cane sugar (brown sugar), honey, maple or brown rice syrup or use apple sauce, bananas, and even 100% natural juices to add flavor to treats without the sugar.

4. Nix the margarine, and the butter use natural oils such as olive, sunflower, canola or another vegetable variety in moderation.

5. Try new and healthier recipes for your main courses and treats. Visit websites like: www.bhg.com/recipes/ , www.foodandwine.com/cooking_guides/healthy or www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating.

6. Take advantage of winter activities such as ice skating, sledding, building a snowman with children or other family members or taking a walk in the brisk air.

7. Indulgence in small amounts is fine. Savor every meal and every treat in moderation.

8. Remember what the holiday is all about, sharing with family and friends don’t let the stress of hectic schedules, and counting calories make you lose sight of all the things you have to celebrate and be thankful for.

9. Plan ahead. Planning will help avoid unnecessary stress, which can lead to overeating and indulging in unhealthy foods.

10. Hydrate every day with water, dehydration can cause headaches, and tiredness. Drinking up to 8 glasses will keep you energized and focus on all your holiday activities.

Whole Body Nutrition wishes everyone a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

Whole Body Nutrition: The Turkey Edition

It’s that time of year again! The time when we look forward to seeing friends, family and loved ones we haven’t seen in a while. The time of year when turkey carving becomes an art form and all we think about is how good everything looks and how good it will all taste.  It’s Thanksgiving.  The holidays are one of my favorite times of year but for some it could be a very stressful time and we all know stress either makes us eat too much or not at all.  This Thanksgiving my best advice is to take it easy, relax and enjoy your time with your loved ones.  Eat what you shall, drink as you will and be merry.  This is all possible if we remember to eat small portions. Choosing a smaller portion at the dinner table this Thanksgiving will leave room for the foods that really make our mouths water.  There is no need to suffer yourself and eat only the salad or the vegetables enjoy everything you desire on the table by not overdoing it. 

The majority of the foods we eat this Thanksgiving will be loaded with calories, candied yams, apple and pumpkin pie, stuffing, cranberry sauce, I could go on but we all know what a Thanksgiving feast looks like.  Don’t take away from your holiday experience by stressing over calories and putting on a few extra pounds because of all the foods you will eat.  This is not the time to count calories a process that could prove to be very stressful at this point, practice restraint instead.  There will be lots of leftover for seconds so don’t try to eat everything at the first sitting.  Another great way to not be consumed with guilt after a Thanksgiving meal is to take a walk. Gather the loved ones or the children after everyone is done eating and go for a stroll. This time of year is beautiful. Weather is brisk and perfect for a short walk. I know most of us will plop on the chair in front of the television but challenge yourself to do something different with your family this year. It could be as simple as turning on the music and dancing together.

Remember change starts with us, and the more we get use to the idea of challenging and changing the norm the better we become at managing our daily lifestyles and habits.

If all else fails and none of this advice seems logical with a 20lb roasted turkey in front of you, remember you have 5 weeks to prepare for the Christmas holiday where this scene may be repeated again, so hit the tracks or the treadmill running. Start a workout regiment to take you through the holidays and continue to practice healthy eating habits by eating smaller portions, eating rich, sugary and fatty foods in moderation and keep a positive attitude.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is not sugar.

I saw a commercial on television promoting high fructose corn syrup as sugar, no different from regular cane sugar. I thought for a moment "Hey that's not what I learned in experimental foods."


High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is basically corn that has been processed into cornstarch which is then used to produce syrup that is cheaper and sweeter than regular table sugar. Regular cane sugar is essentially pure sucrose a combination of glucose and fructose. HFCS is pure glucose there is no naturally occurring fructose in corn. To produce HFCS the glucose is broken down to produce fructose by adding various enzymes, a bit too technical to explain. The main point is after the glucose in HFCS is broken down it yields a 90% fructose level....a lot more concentrated sweetness than that of regular table sugar.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is used in food production instead of regular table sugar because it is cheaper, easier to process, dissolves better than regular table sugar, it’s a lot sweeter and it acts as a preservative extending the shelf life of processed foods. Major health concerns associated with the use of high fructose corn syrup are obesity and mercury. High fructose corn syrup has been linked to the rise in obesity and rightfully so. It is virtually impossible to limit the consumption of this ingredient because it is found in just about everything these days. Traces of mercury found in products made with high fructose corn syrup may be a result of the sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid used to manufacture high fructose corn syrup according to researchers.

What does this all means to you?

High Fructose Corn Syrup is a main staple in processed foods, soft drinks, artificially flavored juices, snack and even foods we eat at restaurants. HFCS is a problem for consumers because of how much of it we are consuming. Because of its high sugar content once we ingest it the sugar our bodies don't use often get stored as fat. Stored fat leads to obesity, as well as fatty livers. The ones in favor of HFCS will try to tell you that there is no difference between it and regular table sugar. Though they are comparable chemically once ingested the way our bodies process them are different. Researchers at Princeton University found that there is a correlation between HFCS and fat deposits in the liver of mice. The beverage industry however counters that by saying there is no major difference and using regular table sugar will yield the same results.
The problem is we do not use regular table sugar as often as high fructose corn syrup and regular table sugar is not found in essentially 80-90% of the foods we eat.

What you can do to limit your intake of High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Limit intake of process foods, soft drinks, and other artificially flavored juices and foods.

Cook using natural ingredients. Make natural juices and teas sweetened with brown sugar or regular table sugar. Drink more water to limit intake of juices and soft drinks. Read your foods labels and choose foods containing natural ingredients. Keep in mind that what is natural to the food industry may not be natural to you. If you are a parent avoid giving children soft drinks and other high sugar beverages. It will be challenging trying to eliminate high fructose corn syrup from your diet because it is in practically everything. You can however limit the amount consumed daily by just being more aware of what you are eating and avoiding those foods with High Fructose Corn Syrup in its list of ingredients.