September is Family Meals Month

Family meals have a lasting impact on mental, physical, and emotional health. Whether you work with children, teens, or adults, let them know that eating together as a family, however they define family, is important and do-able.

One way you can help families is to take the stress out of cooking at home. Teach them how to plan, shop for, and prepare healthy meals with our 25 Ingredients into 15 Fast Healthy Meals DVD/PowerPoint with handouts and leader guide.

  • Teach a class or series of classes for tweens, teens, or adults.
  • Offer a lunch-and-learn session for your employees.
  • Play the DVD in waiting areas and make handouts available.

Here are some tips to go along with teaching and promoting family meals:

  • Budget: Eating at home stretches your food dollars. The foods in 25 Ingredients into 15 Fast Healthy Meals are budget-friendly. Find more cost-cutting recipes at the Family Dinner Project.
  • Physical Health: Home-cooked family meals are linked to heart health and decreased obesity. Families get less sugar, fat, and sodium and more fruits, vegetables, and fiber.
  • Mental Health: Family meals are associated with lower rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse, and tobacco use. They give children more resilience and higher self-esteem.
    • Spread the word with these infographics from the Family Meals Movement and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
  • Time: Family meals mean less time in drive-thrus and more time talking, cooking together, and having fun.
  • Fun: Speaking of fun, get your kids talking with mealtime conversation starters from the American Heart Association and these resilience-building back to school questions.

Two more things to think about:

  1. It’s important to acknowledge that family mealtime isn’t easy for some people – there are lots of barriers, and low-income families are often the most vulnerable.
  2. Also, “family” means different things to different people. No matter how it’s defined, a family can benefit from dining together regularly.

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Sleep is Essential to Heart Health

Healthy sleep is the newest addition to the American Heart Association’s (AHA) checklist to measure cardiovascular health, which was recently released as Life’s Essential 8TM. Sleep joins seven other factors AHA says can help lower the risk for heart disease, stroke, and other major health problems.

You can spread the word about healthy sleep with our Sleep Right poster, which provides an introduction to the importance of sleep and how to get a good night’s sleep.

Whether you’re working with students in the classroom, educating your followers on social media, or counseling individuals, here are some ways to slip in some sleep education:

  • It’s never too early: incorporate healthy sleep tips when you’re talking to new parents, teachers, and kids.
  • What you do during the day counts: emphasize that a good night’s sleep doesn’t just happen. What you eat and drink and your activity level can help or hinder your sleep.
  • Measure your sleep: an activity tracker on your phone or watch isn’t reliable enough to diagnose sleep issues, but it can give you a general idea of how you’re sleeping. (A pen and paper sleep diary will do the job, too!)
  • You can get too much: we talk a lot about getting enough sleep, but excessive sleep is also related to heart disease and other health problems.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Menu Planning for Everyone!

Menu planning is key to a healthy dietary pattern, but many folks don’t give it much thought, think it’s too hard, or don’t know where to start.

The tools in our Heart Healthy Menu Planning theme can help you teach the basics of meal planning to just about anyone – students, parents, employees, or clients.

It starts with the Heart Healthy Menu Planning Dry-Erase Poster. Planning meals is a breeze when you have the steps right in front of you. Pick a heart healthy protein, vegetable, whole grain, fruit, and dairy product – voila!

Here’s a fun activity to do with groups or individuals:

  1. Review the basics of heart healthy menu planning using the poster, color handout, or Dry-Erase Wall Decal.
  2. Ask participants to think about days when eating healthfully is particularly challenging. Maybe it’s when they work late, haven’t been to the supermarket, or eat at a restaurant.
  3. Have them use the Heart Healthy Menu Planner to plan a day’s worth of meals and snacks (or just one meal), taking into account those challenging situations.
  4. Here are some examples of scenarios to get your audience thinking…
    • You’re dining at your favorite restaurant that night.
    • It’s meatless Monday (for all meals or just dinner).
    • You’re taking a road trip.
    • The power has gone out but you still need to eat.
    • You’re eating lunch in the school or work cafeteria that day.
    • You just don’t feel like cooking!
  5. Send everyone home with new ideas for planning heart healthy meals no matter what’s going on. The Heart Healthy Menu Planner color handout is perfect for this!

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Getting to Know Barley

The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that all adults eat at least half their grains as whole grains – that’s at least 3 to 5 servings of whole grains every day. The average American eats less than one daily serving of whole grains, and some studies show that over 40% of us never eat any whole grains. So, I’ve been on a mission to try different whole grains to add variety to our meals.

One whole grain that tends to be forgotten by many is BARLEY.

As a kid, I remember loving those little white fluffy things floating in my canned vegetarian vegetable soup.  That’s the barley.  If you are like me, this is the extent of your experience with barley, you may be surprised to know that it is the world’s fourth most important cereal crop after wheat, rice, and corn.

Barley can be prepared in many ways in addition to soups and stews. It used as a hot side dish or served as a cold salad. Or eaten like oatmeal. Barley flour is used in bread, pancakes, muffins, and cookies. If you’ve never eaten barley plain, the flavor can be best described as “rich” with a mild sweetness.

Nutritionally ¾ cup cooked barley contains 160 calories, 8 grams fiber and 6 grams protein. It is an excellent source of manganese, selenium, and thiamin and a good source of magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and niacin. There has been enough research documenting barley’s role in protecting heart health that the U.S. FDA allows barley foods to claim that it reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.

I went looking for barley at my local store.  It’s in the section with the dry beans and rice. I had to look high up on the shelf and found “pearled barley.”  Barley has a particularly tough inedible hull that adheres to the grain kernel. This hull is difficult to remove without losing some of the bran. The easiest way to get this off is to scrape or “pearl” it. That’s why it’s called “pearled barley.”  This process does remove some of the bran. Thusly, “pearled” barley is not technically a whole grain.

I contacted Kelly Toups, Director of Nutrition at the Whole Grains Council about only being able to find “pearled” barley on the grocer’s shelves. She responded that this is not a big problem because barley is different than other grains because the fiber is distributed throughout the grain kernel, rather than being concentrated in the bran.  This means that even pearled barley has a rather impressive amount of fiber.  Barley has 17% fiber which is the highest of all the whole grains. Comparing it to other whole grain foods: brown rice contains 3.5% ?ber, corn about 7%, oats 10% and wheat about 12%.

Toups told me that “whole grain barley does offer higher levels of many essential nutrients when compared with pearled barley.  One 45-gram serving of hulled (whole grain) barley has approximately an additional gram of fiber and protein, and has about twice as much magnesium as pearled barley.”

If you want to get the entire whole grain goodness of barley look for hulled barley or hulless barley. If you can’t find it at your store’s whole-grain aisle, barley can be purchased online.

Tips for cooking barley:  combine one cup of dry uncooked barley with three cups of liquid. This will expand to about 3 ½ cups of cooked grain. Whole grain barley can take 45-60 minutes to cook when simmered slowly. It can be helpful to use a rice cooker since you can cook almost unattended.

Reference:  Oldways Whole Grain Council, https://wholegrainscouncil.org

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS
Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

 

Heart Healthy Cooking Demos Made Easy

The recently released 2019 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease recommends a healthy plant-based or Mediterranean-like diet high in vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, lean vegetable or animal protein (preferably fish), and vegetable fiber. Sound familiar?

No matter how much people know about heart-healthy eating, the hard part is putting it into practice. Show them how to remake their favorite dishes with a heart-healthy cooking demo.

Why cooking demos? Because we think there’s no better way to get the message across than with food. Show people how to cook, let them taste healthy food, and they’re more likely to try it at home.

Cooking demos are great for:

  • Employee lunch-and-learns
  • Community classes
  • Parent nights at school
  • Health fairs
  • Home school groups
  • Women’s shelters
  • Food pantries
  • Afterschool programs
  • Drug/alcohol rehab
  • Church groups
  • Senior centers

Cooking in front of a crowd may sound daunting, but our Cooking Demo Book and CD Kit will make you look like a Food Network Star. The 300+ page book contains more than 30 lessons plus PowerPoint shows on Recipe Modification and Menu Planning & Shopping Tips.

Each lesson includes:

  • Leader guide
  • Recipes (tested and simple, with easy-to-find, affordable ingredients)
  • Make-ahead & presentation tips
  • Shopping & equipment lists
  • Handouts

For heart-healthy eating, we suggest the lessons on:

  • High fiber
  • Fish
  • Fruits & veggies
  • Hypertension
  • Vegetarian cooking
  • Beans
  • Grains
  • Recipe modification
  • Heart healthy recipes
  • Meet MyPlate

For makeovers, it is always great to show these switches, featured in all of our cooking demo kits:

  • Whole milk to skim milk
  • Butter to olive oil
  • A little grated Parmesan cheese instead of a lot of grated regular cheese like mozzarella or cheddar
  • Adding more veggies for most recipes
  • Lean ground beef or turkey instead of regular ground beef
  • Using more beans instead of meat

You’ll also want to check out our MyPlate Cooking Demo Book & CD, Home Run Cooking Book and Demo Program, and Cooking Demo Toolkit.

Get 15% off all heart health education materials now through the end of March 2019!

New Product: Menu Planning Handouts

“When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Truer words were never spoken, especially when it comes to healthy eating! In fact, research shows that planning meals is associated with healthier diets and reduced rates of obesity (1).

Menu planning also helps you:

  • Make a shopping list.
  • Stick to a grocery budget.
  • Eat more meals at home.
  • Get out of the “same old” mealtime rut.
  • Enjoy mealtimes with less stress.

There’s no doubt about it — planning sets clients up for success. Our new Menu Planning Handouts make it easy! Healthy menu items are pictured and listed at the top. Choose from these to fill out the one-week menu planning chart at the bottom.

The Menu Planning Handouts are great for a class or one-on-one counseling. They’re printed on both sides, so clients can do one side as a group or with your help, then use the other side to plan on their own at home.

I like the idea of using the Menu Planning Handout as a menu planner AND a food diary all in one. Clients can use it to plan meals and snacks for the day or the week, then check off what they eat as they go.

Adding the matching dry-erase Menu Planning Poster or Wall Decal makes this the perfect system to help your clients plan to succeed in their healthy eating goals.

  1. Ducrot P, Mejean C, Aroumougame V, et al. Meal planning is associated with food variety, diet quality and body weight status in a large sample of French adults. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2017 Feb 2;14(1):12. DOI: 10.1186/s12966-017-0461-7.

Eat Eggs—No Yolking!

Earlier this year I posted an Egghead Quiz.  We love to hear from readers about our posts and this one got lots of responses. One reader indicated she wished I had also addressed eating egg whites vs the whole egg.  This got me thinking and doing some additional research in this area.

Like many of you, I’ve been teaching healthful living and nutrition-related topics for many years and the “bad guys” seem to come and go.  This is based on current research and longitudinal studies.  As I tell my students, as we learn more, we know more and things change.

Eggs (and specifically the yolks) used to be one of the “bad guys”. What we were talking about here was cholesterol and the belief that eating eggs and other foods containing dietary cholesterol increased the risk of heart attack and cardiovascular disease.  Early versions of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg per day.  This is no longer believed! 

The 2015 DGA do not contain this recommendation because research does not show a relationship between dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol.  Cholesterol is no longer considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.  The American Heart Association recommendations agree with this.

The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourage the consumption of healthy dietary patterns that contains all foods and beverages at an appropriate calorie level while limiting saturated fats, added sugars and sodium.

Saying that, where do eggs fit in?

They can be part of a well-balanced healthful diet. According to the USDA Nutrient Data Base one large (50 grams) hard-cooked egg contains 78 calories, 6 grams protein and 5 grams of fat (1.6 g is saturated, 2 g monounsaturated and .7 polyunsaturated) and varying amounts of 13 essential vitamins and minerals. While egg whites contain almost half of the egg’s protein along with riboflavin and selenium, the majority of the nutrients are found in the yolk.  If you break it down, the yolk contains all of the egg’s fat and 76% (59) of the calories, 42% (2.52 g) of the protein and all of vitamins A, D, and B6, zinc, iron and choline.  Egg yolks are one of the only foods that naturally contain vitamin D.

The biggest concern about eggs would be about in the area of saturated fats.  Animal products, including eggs, do contain saturated fat, which can raise blood cholesterol. Too much bad (LDL) cholesterol in the blood can contribute to formation of plaque and narrowing of the arteries. The DGA recommendation is that less than 10% of your total daily calories come from saturated fats. For someone eating 2000 calories a day that’s about 13 grams of saturated fats.

While the numbers are small, if you are concerned about saturated fats and calories you could choose to eat one whole egg plus two egg whites instead of two whole eggs. But, don’t skip the yolk altogether, it contains a lot of the “good guys”.

A calorie comparison shows that portion control is important so you eat a 2 egg equivalent instead of 4:

  • 4 egg whites (2 egg equivalent) = 68
  • 1 egg plus 2 egg whites (2 egg equivalent) = 112
  • 2 eggs = 156
  • 4 eggs = 312

Cost comparison shows real eggs are cheaper by 50%:

  • Egg substitute (nonfat) = .16 ounce or about .32 for one egg equivalent
  • Eggs .16 each average cost (averaging store brand and free range eggs at $2 per dozen)

The real issue with eggs may be the high-saturated-at additions often added to eggs and omelettes:

  • Cheese – just one ounce is 110 calories, 20 grams of fat and 6 grams of saturated fat
  • Butter – just one tablespoon is 111 calories, 11 grams of fat, and 7 grams of saturated fat
  • Whoa – this means a 4 egg omelette cooked in a tablespoon of butter with one ounce of cheese would rake in 533 calories and over 30 grams of fat.

Solution:

Go with a 2 egg equivalent and prepare them scrambled with a little cooking oil spray in a nonstick skillet or poached or hardboiled. Skip the butter and cheese.

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS

Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

 

References:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/pdfs/scientific-report-of-the-2015-dietary-guidelines-advisory-committee.pdf   Part D, Chapter #1, page 1

https://www.incredibleegg.org/egg-nutrition/cracking-the-cholesterol-myth/

http://www.eggnutritioncenter.org/science-education/health-professional/eggs-cholesterol-getting-heart-matter/

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/11/11/01.cir.0000437740.48606.d1 2013 American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association Guidelines on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/ USDA Food Composition Databases

http://peapod.com for cost comparisons

Want heart healthy teaching tools? You are in luck:

Eat More Oatmeal!

How are you doing with making small changes to your eating pattern that can make a difference in your health? One of the ideas in my New Year’s resolution article was to “eat more oatmeal.” Did you try it? How are you doing?

The concept behind that little goal is to have oatmeal instead of processed cereal. There are several things going on here: saving money by not buying expensive boxes of cereal, knowing exactly what you’re adding to the cereal, and knowing that oatmeal is good for you.

How good? Well, oatmeal is naturally low in fat and sodium and high in fiber. It’s also a good source of iron and provides protein, B vitamins, and other minerals. Oatmeal is an excellent source of whole grains too. Eating oats may even help protect against high blood cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity.

There used to only be a couple different types of oatmeal available, but now the choices are many. All this variety can get a little confusing, so let me clear some things up. All types of oatmeal start with oat groats, which are oat grains without the hulls. Choose your oatmeal based on the time you have to prepare it, the texture you prefer, and any added ingredients you may or may not want.

  • Scotch or Irish oats have been cut but not rolled. They have a hearty texture with a nutty flavor. The traditional version can take up to 30 minutes to cook, though there are quicker-cooking options.
  • Steel-cut oats are whole oat groats that have been sliced into pieces. These cook in about 20 minutes with a chewy, coarse texture.
  • Rolled or old-fashioned oats are whole oat groats that are steamed and rolled to flatten them; they cook in about five to ten minutes.
  • Quick oats are rolled oats that have been cut into even smaller pieces. These cook in about one to five minutes.
  • Instant oats are whole oat groats that are rolled thinner and cut finer than the others. Since they’re also pre-cooked, you can just add boiling water or heat them in the microwave for about 90 seconds.

According the USDA Nutrient Database, all plain oatmeal types are about the same when it comes to nutrients. One cup of cooked (with water and no salt) old-fashioned or quick oats has 166 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, no sodium, 4 grams of dietary fiber, and less than a gram of sugar. Watch out for instant oatmeal packets, since most of them have added flavors which usually add calories, sodium, and sugars. To steer clear of these, keep an eye on the ingredients list and Nutrition Facts label.

You can make oatmeal in the microwave as quickly as you can pour a bowl of cereal and milk.

To try it for yourself, don’t miss this edition of one of Chef Judy’s recipes:

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Place all ingredients in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. The big key here is to make sure you have a large bowl, so that it won’t overflow! I like to make it in a 1 quart measuring cup and then just eat out of the cup. Voilà! Only one dish to clean.
  2. Add your own skim milk, fruit, nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, and spices to the cooked oatmeal — you are in control. To save even more time in the morning, make your own little “instant oatmeal” packs, adding spices or dried fruits. That way, all you’ll need to do in the morning is add water, microwave, and eat!

And what if you don’t think that you have time to make oatmeal every day? My solution is to make a large batch of oatmeal over the weekend and reheat single servings quickly in the microwave. That way, you’ll have a speedy meal without losing any of its nutritional benefits. Cooked oatmeal will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week and makes a quick and healthful breakfast.

By Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS, Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University

Here are a few of the other top breakfast resources, just for you!

Quick Quiz: What is This?

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Quick Quiz: What food is blue/grey and bumpy on the outside, bright orange in the middle, and full of vitamin A?

On a recent visit to a local farmers’ market, I found this item in an outside bin with lots of others of various sizes.  It was on sale for half its regular price and it seemed that there weren’t many people buying whatever it was.

I carried one around while I was shopping and several people asked me what it was. Others asked if it was blue on the inside and what was I planning on doing with it.

Quiz Answer: This mystery veggie is a Blue Hubbard Squash!

It turned out that my mystery gourd was a Blue Hubbard Squash. However, when I asked the clerk what people do with it and how to cook it, she said she didn’t know.

Always inquisitive about food,  I bought it.

(Fortunately it was sold by the piece and not by the pound because the one I picked up weighed 13 pounds)!

When I got home, the squash remained a curiosity. My husband had fun asking about the “monster Smurf gourd,” while visiting neighbors were quick to google it. This veggie was definitely a conversation starter!

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So now let’s talk about the Blue Hubbard Squash. This winter squash is known for its ability to be stored in a cool, dry place for long time. Seed catalogs describe it as sweet, dry, and fine-grain. Some people consider this one of the “heirloom” varieties of winter squash, since it was first introduced in the early 1900s.

I admit that the hardest part was cutting into the hard outer shell of the squash.  I “cheated” a little by washing it completely on the outside and putting it whole in the microwave for 10 minutes. This softened the outside enough to allow me to cut into it.  After cutting it in half and cleaning out the seeds and strings, I experimented by baking part of it in the oven and then putting another part in the microwave. Both were equally good, though baking allowed for more caramelization of the natural sugars in the squash.

Hubbard is just one of many winter squash varieties that are readily available now. These vegetables contain fiber and are low in fat. Plus, squash with yellow-orange flesh are rich in vitamin A, which in turn is vital for healthy eyes, skin, and fighting infections. Diets rich in vitamin A may even help reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer.

Winter squash are also a good source of vitamin C. These squash get their name from their ability to last through the winter in a cool dry place (not the refrigerator). Other varieties of winter squash include banana, delicata, turban, butternut, spaghetti, and acorn.

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We’ve gotten several meals from this huge Blue Hubbard. At first we just ate it as a vegetable on the side. Then I made some into a soup with apples (it was so sweet, no added sugar was needed). Finally, I added some to brown rice for a risotto-like meal and also put three packs of cooked squash into the freezer for use later.

Don’t want to bother with the cutting and cleaning? Many companies are now doing the work for you by selling raw winter squash already cut and ready-to-use. Here’s a food safety tip: once cut, the squash they should be kept refrigerated and used within a week.

Technically — or should I say botanically — squash are fruits, since the fruit is the part of the plant that develops from the flower and contains seeds. But we usually consider squash a vegetable because it’s more savory in flavor.

Finding a new (or old in this case) variety of squash can increase interest and perhaps add a few more items onto that list of foods you like. How will you incorporate new fruits and vegetables into your eating pattern?

By Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS, Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University

As a bonus, here’s a free handout that features fun facts about the Blue Hubbard Squash!

blue-hubbard-squash

And here are a few great fruit and vegetable resources…

It’s National High Blood Pressure Education Month!

It’s National High Blood Pressure Education Month!

Help educate your audience about hypertension with these free slides, which are excerpted from the top-selling presentation Blood Pressure 101, available now in the Nutrition Education Store.

BloodPressure101 Slide 1

This little preview will also include the speaker’s notes for each slide, so welcome to today’s show! At this presentation, we’ll discuss what blood pressure is and how to measure it. We’ll also cover the effects of hypertension and how you can lower your health risks.

Blood Pressure101 Slide 2

First let’s talk vocabulary. Blood pressure measures the way your blood presses against the walls of your arteries. To measure it, first a doctor will measure the pressure on your arteries during each heartbeat. Then that doctor will measure the pressure on your arteries between each heartbeat.

When you measure pressure on the arteries during each heartbeat, it’s called taking the systolic pressure. When you measure pressure on the arteries between each heartbeat, it’s called taking the diastolic pressure. As you age, your diastolic pressure generally decreases and you should pay more attention to systolic blood pressure. However, you should never ignore your diastolic blood pressure. In fact, when you’re young, that’s the number you really want to watch.

A doctor generally looks at both your systolic and diastolic numbers when determining whether or not you have high blood pressure. How the two factors interact is important, as is the level of each. High blood pressure is also called hypertension.

BloodPressure101 Slide 3

Now let’s take a look at how to interpret blood pressure results. Normal blood pressure is 119/79 or less. If your blood pressure is between 120/80 and 139/89, then you have prehypertension. If your blood pressure is 140/90 or more, then you have hypertension.

BloodPressure101 Slide 4

Ah! It’s time for a quiz. Now, If a person has a systolic reading of 118 and a diastolic reading of 78, what is that person’s blood pressure? The correct answer is 118/78.

Let’s move on to the next question. True or false? High blood pressure is also called hypertension. That answer is true!

The PowerPoint goes on to explore the health effects of high blood pressure, how to test blood pressure and interpret the results, and how to treat and even prevent hypertension. The presentation is peppered with quick quizzes to test knowledge and promote participant engagement too. If you like what you see, consider getting the whole show!

And of course, here are PDF copies of the slides we featured today. What will you do with yours?

BloodPressure101 Collection

And here are some more materials for High Blood Pressure Education Month!