If you’re looking for a super quick, delicious recipe for a cranberry sidedish to accompany your turkey - rather than using canned, sugar-filled cranberry sauce - give this salsa a try. It’s amazingly good, easy and packed with vitamin C and fiber.

Cranberry Salsa

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Fresh cranberries, 12 oz bag, cut berries in half or quarter

Oranges, 2, peel and slice into 1 inch pieces

Pears, 2, peel, core and dice into 1/2 inch pieces

Honey, 1/3 cup

Sugar, 1/4 cup

Orange zest, 1 tsp

Orange juice, 1/4 cup

Salt, pinch (to taste)

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours; serve.

Happy Turkey Day!

Tags: cranberries, fiber, recipe, Thanksgiving, vitamin C

I get this question all the time from just about everyone who learns I’m a dietitian.  My first response always is that if you’re replacing saturated fats from butter with a liquid vegetable oil or trans-free tub margarine, you’re already ahead of the game.  But, of course, you can take it a step further and ask which oils amongst the vegetable oils are best? Olive, canola, walnut, flax, peanut, corn, soybean, sunflower, safflower….  A new study is helping us get to the correct answer, especially when it comes to pregnant women. The study found that pregnant and lactating mice fed a diet rich in corn oil gave birth to female babies at a higher risk of developing breast tumors than those who ate a diet high in canola oil.  The difference may be due to a higher proportion of omega-3 fats in the canola oil vs corn oil. Keep in mind this is one animal study, says nothing about the other types of oils and there are lots of other studies that show benefits of many of the other oils.  So, how do I answer the question I am so frequently asked? I say ”I personally use canola oil in baking and other recipes where no flavor is desired and extra virgin olive oil in sauteeing, when I want the flavor to come through.  And if you choose to use flaxseed, walnut or any other oil in cooking to impart a particular flavor, those are good too.  Most importantly, remember that it is recommended that you stick to only 5-8 teaspoons of oil per day (this includes any added fats, in cooking, spread on, dipped in, etc). So, keeping portion size under control is the most important factor of all.”

Tags: breast tumors, butter, canola, corn, flaxseed, oil, olive, walnut

If you are trying to lose weight — go and buy a scale and a magazine.  Research shows that women who weigh themselves on a weekly basis and use supportive tools (such as magazines and websites) are more likely to lose weight.  In one study with 100 participants, those who weighed themselves every week were 11 times more likely to lose at least 5% of their weight.  The benefits continued over the next 6 months but slowed down at 12 months.  This particular study shows that using the scale can be a good jump start to your weight loss efforts.  Other supportive activities include subscribing to a health related magazine, some of my favorites are Prevention, Health and Self.  These magazines will keep you up to date on healthy eating and lifestyle news as well as give you easy tips to support your goals.  If you prefer the web, you can also check out their websites and sign up for their e-newsletters.  Be careful when choosing your supportive magazines (or websites) as many can sensationalize information and may give not-so-healthy information.  One of the ways to ensure you have found a solid source of information is to make sure that registered dietitians (typically written as RD after the name, i.e. Monica Bearden, RD) are either on the editorial board (found at the front of the magazine or in the “expert panel” section of the website), are writing the articles, or are interviewed in the articles.

Tags: baby fat diet, diet, Health magazine, healthy eating, lose weight, nutrition, Prevention magazine, Self magazine, weight loss

Tags: Add new tag, balanced diet, Uncategorized

A new study from the Journal of Neuroscience found that what you eat while pregnant can result in overeating and obesity in the child. The study was done on rats, however, it does seem to make sense that exposure to a high-fat diet in utero can lead to changes in brain development in the fetus, which create an appetite for fat. The offspring from those fed the high fat diet ate more throughout life, began puberty earlier (a common issue with overweight children as well) and weighed more as compared to those offspring from animals fed a balanced diet.
Bottomline eating a balanced, healthy diet during pregnancy offers advantages to you and your children:

• it will help you gain the right amount of weight so taking it off post-pregnancy is easier
• it helps to keep your child’s weight down and him healthy throughout his life

While I would be the last person to tell you not to enjoy a some indulgences during pregnancy - chocolate was part of my diet everyday for all of my pregnancies - just make sure you balance it out with lots of nutritious fruits, veggies and whole grains.

Tags: balanced diet, fat babies, high fat diet, pregnancy, weight gain

While losing weight is certainly a feat, keeping the pounds off seems to be a bigger challenge for most people. Why? As you lose weight your calorie needs decrease because you’re carrying around less mass and therefore, to keep losing weight or even to just stay at your present weight, you have to take in less and less calories over time or increase the number of calories you’re burning. Here are some proven tactics to keep those lost pounds, lost:

• Exercise. A new study found that exercise and not the type of diet you follow is the real key to keeping off the weight. Researchers found that regardless of which diet was followed, low-fat or moderate fat, some weight regain was inevitable; they say increasing exercise is a more effective approach.
• Eat breakfast. One study found that women who eat breakfast have lower BMIs, a measure of overweight, than women who skip breakfast. And you should include some milk or yogurt in that breakfast, too.
• Drink milk. A new study found that eating three servings of dairy each day helped people maintain weight loss while eating more calories than the people that only had one serving of dairy each day. Both groups successfully kept off the 10 percent of body weight they’d lost (for the 6 months of the study) however the 3-a-day dairy eaters had about 150 more calories each day than the 1-a-day. This suggests drinking milk or eating yogurt may allow someone trying to maintain weight loss to eat a little more and still keep all the weight off.

Tags: breakfast, dairy, exercise, milk, weight loss, weight maintenance

There’s a diet craze going on in Japan called the Morning Banana diet that’s been all over the TV and web sites. Check out this article on WebMD. Your first thought may be “why is there a diet craze in Japan? Aren’t they a pretty lean population?” It was my first reaction but I guess it’s a good indication that the issue of overweight has gone global.
Essentially the diet says that in the morning if you eat only bananas and water, have no dairy products, alcohol, or food after 8 PM then you will lose weight. It allows any food for lunch, dinner and snacks. Sound ridiculous? Well, much of it is - there’s nothing magical about bananas that make it a diet superfood moreso than any other fruit - but there are some principles in the plan that (when tweaked a bit) can help in losing weight and keeping it off which we talk about in the Baby Fat Diet.
1. They say: Drink only room temperature water. We say: Stick primarily to non caloric drinks; water is an excellent choice, but tea and coffee are okay too and have lots of disease-fighting antioxidants.
2. They say: Don’t eat after 8 PM. We say: Stop eating 2-3 hours before bed; late night eating is usually mindless munching of empty calories.
3. They say: Have only bananas and water for breakfast. We say: Eat a fiber-filled, well balanced breakfast. Have as many colorful fruits and vegetables as you can in your day, aiming for at least 5; they are filling for few calories and have tons of nutrients.
4. They say: Exercise only if you want to. We say: Incorporate movement into your day as much as possible by actively playing with your kids and make an effort to work up to 30 minutes a day of deliberate exercise; it’s very important to helping take the weight off, keep it off and keep you healthy for life.
As for the Japanese, they traditionally eat lots of fish, brown rice and vegetables, foods that are certainly healthful and relatively low in calories. I’m thinking just go back to that eating plan and overweight won’t be a problem.

Tags: baby fat diet, bananas, diet craze, fad diet, japan, japanese, morning banana diet