Nutrition basics

my name is tatiana castellino dietitian here at pro-healthcare um i get to do about one of these a month so hopefully there are some familiar faces signed on today we are going to bring it very very very much back to the foundation of nutrition basics so you're probably going to hear a lot of stuff that you might already know today always good to have a refresher and hopefully walk away with at least one or two little new nuggets but sometimes it's good to just kind of wash away all the things that we can hear all

the noise the dr oz and the websites and the new fad diets and just really bring it back to square one what's in the food that we eat why is it important so that's really what we're going to be chatting about today my computer there we go um in terms of kind of the overview the things that we're going to be chatting about understanding calories where they come from nutrients in our foods a lot of times we can get food groups and nutrients like a little mixed up so it's great to separate those two and

understand how different nutrients fit into our food groups talk a little bit about hunger fullness i think this is a really important topic that gets missed we use a lot of external cues to drive our food choices what sounds good what looks good not always listening to those internal cues of i'm physically hungry i'm going to start eating too i'm physically full i'm going to stop eating and then we get these very very extreme hungers or the hangry as some people might know to be very very extreme full like the thanksgiving full which is uncomfortable

and really not the state that our body wants to be in we're going to touch on that a little bit about label readings specifically nutrition labels to make sure we just kind of cover overview there and then leave you with some simple strategies for grocery shopping as well as some recipe substitutions um to helpify them so first and foremost calories the foods that we eat provide us calories which are energy so think about this like gas for your car if you want your car to be able to get you to the grocery store or get

you from point a to point b you need to have gasoline in the tank calories are that for our body for the human body they provide us energy and we can get calories from our three macronutrients they're called macronutrients because we need them in larger quantities then we need our micronutrients which we need in much smaller quantities which i'll talk to you next there are three macronutrients that provide us calories or energy or carbohydrates proteins and fats these are specific nutrients within foods depending on the food it's going to have one two or all three

of these for example skinless chicken breast is going to be protein but if we look at peanut butter it's going to provide us carbs proteins and fats but it's really just a different mix and match but those are these three main headers that are going to give us energy now how much energy do we need that really depends on gender activity level chronic disease your height your weight really a lot of things go into consideration for how many calories or how much energy a particular person needs for example myself and a six foot five fifty

year old man we might not need the same amount of calories because our bodies just need a different energy store kind of think about it like different um fuel tank sizes i'm going to have a smaller gas tank than somebody that's 6'5 i'm only 5'4 a person just needs more fuel to be able to support all of their bodily functions so they just have a bigger gas tank you need to eat more or eat more calories to keep their weight stable and to make sure that they're meeting all of their needs so i did provide

a link down there at the bottom of this slide it's through the choose my plate website that asks you questions like your gender your age your activity level to take in some of those biggest factors that would dictate how much energy or how many calories you would individually need since it is so personalized so that's just an extra resource if you're curious about getting kind of a ballpark now diving into carbohydrates i specialize in diabetes so i get a lot of questions a lot of people coming in saying carbs are bad well our body needs

carbohydrates it is our main fuel source the brain cells that we have right in here they work exclusively on blood glucose that we get from consuming carbohydrate-based foods our body needs carbs it's just unfortunate that the standard american diet provides us more carbohydrates than our body generally needs and so we're over filling that gas tank that can get us into trouble but don't be afraid of carbs we just want to make sure we're eating the right amounts and the right types when we talk about carbohydrates that's an umbrella term that encompasses our three main types

of carbs you'll see there sugars starches and fibers so sugars are going to be white sugar brown sugar candy sodas starches are going to be potatoes grains popcorn things like that and then fibers you're going to get from let's say non-starchy vegetables broccoli asparagus lettuce greens all of those do fall under the header of carbs and you'll see in the bottom right of this slide each one of those types of carbs is going to respond differently in our body based on how it's digested sugar carbohydrates are very easily digested our body is really efficient at

taking them from the stomach and converting them into fuel or blood glucose and so if we struggle if we have diabetes or pre-diabetes we struggle to manage our blood sugar we might get a spike like you'll see in the blue there sugar just turns into blood sugar very quickly versus something like a starch-based food like a potato because starch is digested at a slower rate than sugar carbohydrates we do not make as many blood sugars as quickly and so we have that softer curve and then you'll see fiber in the yellow is the slowest and

the lowest curve and it's because dietary fiber is going to be the most complex of any of those carbs take the longest amount of time to break down and therefore convert into blood sugars so not all carbs are equal carbs are not bad for us our body needs them most people need at least or about 50 percent of their daily calories to be coming from carbohydrates and again these come from a whole host of different foods which we're going to talk a little bit about those food groups and we'll see where carbs fall in the

next macronutrient that we can get calories from is protein protein is incredibly important for wound healing it's incredibly important to maintain our muscle mass our body needs protein thankfully in the standard american diet most people are not lacking in their daily needs for protein and we can get protein from a variety of foods you think of things like eggs and chicken and steak we can get protein from plant-based sources like beans nuts and seeds we get protein from dairy milk and cheese we can get protein from a lot of different foods within our food system

one recommendation that i have and we see this as we age generally our fuel tank gets smaller um i'm sure a lot of people that as we've gotten older we just can't eat as much i know i feel that way if i look at myself 10 years ago my appetite was a lot bigger than it is today i just get fuller faster so one thing to consider as we age and protein becomes a really important nutrient to just keep us healthy and safe is when you're at your meals consider eating your protein foods first don't

wait till the end and risk getting too full and not being able to finish your meal and then not eating that protein it does put you at risk for a protein deficiency or protein malnutrition so one little recommendation is eat your protein-based foods first at your meal to ensure that you're going to get that really vital nutrient in before you get full and might not be able to finish the rest of the meal then lastly fats fat does not make you fat for so many decades fat has been demonized and high fat foods have been

pushed aside and it's all low fat low fat low fat no fat no fat and fat is not the problem the problem is americans generally consume too much fat-based food so you'll see on that second bullet point there it's a very concentrated form of energy and energy we mean calories so if we look at a single tablespoon of peanut butter not a whole lot of food that is primarily made of fat peanuts or high fat food that one tablespoon of peanut butter is equivalent to 100 calories versus a medium banana significantly larger is primarily made

of carbohydrates might come in at about 100 calories so you're looking at two different types of nutrients fats versus carbs same amount of energy provided in those two but that fat-based food the peanut butter comes in a much smaller package because we can put a lot more calories into a smaller amount when we're talking about higher fat foods if that doesn't make us fat we need to make sure that we're watching how much fat we eat in our diet because those portions can get out of control a lot faster just because we're talking about much

smaller quantity and it really is most important that we focus on the types of fats which when we get into our food groups i'll dive into but overall we really want to be focusing our dietary fat becoming from plant-based sources while minimizing animal-based fat sources because research is showing that it's less about you know how much i'm eating and more about what kind of fat is it when i'm eating the right amount for my overall calorie need am i getting those fats those heart-healthy fats from primarily plant-based sources or are they coming from more of

the saturated fats are animal-based sources we think of things like butter lard and cheese okay also important to consume fats because certain vitamins a d e and k are considered fat soluble vitamins meaning that the body needs fat to be present not only to metabolize those but also to store them within the body so if we're eating a zero fat diet not eating any at all we're going to be putting ourselves at risk for not being able to or putting us at risk for those specific vitamin deficiencies of a d e and k so moving

into our micronutrients again those macronutrients we need them in larger quantities your carbs your proteins fats and we do need all three micronutrients are going to come in much smaller quantities so when we think of carbs we count them in grams when we think of sodium considered a micronutrient we're counting this in milligrams we need these in much smaller amounts but still they are essential because micronutrients you'll see some listed there your vitamins minerals sodium potassium calcium our body cannot produce those on their own we do need to be consuming micronutrients from the diet to

ensure that we are not at a deficiency for any of them we generally are going to get the widest variety or biggest kind of spectrum of micronutrients from our vitamin are from our fruits and vegetables because we think of rainbows of color we think of fruits and vegetables coming in every color of the rainbow each one of those different colors generally represents different micronutrients we really want to be eating the rainbow not from skittles but from our fruits and veggies um some other points to mention here about minerals sodium and potassium are both necessary in

our body the concern with sodium in the standard american diet is that we consume too much of it coupled with consuming too little potassium the standard american diet gives us about or more than twice the amount of sodium that our bodies need and half as much potassium as our bodies need when really it needs to be flip-flopped so keep that in mind and as we get to looking at nutrition labels i'll be able to highlight kind of where on the label we want to be looking at but um just keep that in mind that we

need to be reducing the sodium and increasing the potassium we don't need to remove the sodium because our body needs it it's just we can get to what we need very very quickly um it's about the equivalent of a teaspoon a day is more than enough and when we think about a teaspoon of salt and that might seem like a lot but when we do a lot of packaged goods processed foods things that are coming out of boxes bags and cans that sodium content can add up very very quickly water is another nutrient that our

body needs because our bodies are made up of primarily water i want you to think about our bodies like a sponge and the next time that you walk up to your kitchen sink and you attempt to wash your dishes without turning the water on and you're going to use a dry sponge to do it not going to go very well because that sponge needs to be well hydrated get fully sudsed up so that it can really do its thing human bodies work the exact same way we need to make sure that our sponges our bodies

are fully hydrated because most if not all of the enzymes and processes and blood flow that happen within our body happen in an aqueous or water-based solution so if we are dehydrated or we're not consuming enough water to keep everything free-flowing and to keep our sponge fully sudsed up it's going to be that much harder for the body to work just like it would be that much harder for you to effectively wash your dishes without turning that water on and being able to use that sponge and just because something is wet does not make it

a hydrator so your gold standard is obviously going to be just freestanding clear water um you can infuse that water if you're a person that doesn't really like the taste meaning maybe you throw in some cucumber slices or you're going to throw in some basil and a cut up strawberry to kind of give it some natural flavor you can also consider seltzer waters those are becoming more and more and more popular out there you think bubbly polar lacroix that type of brand you can also consider decaffeinated teas and coffee keeping in mind that when we

consume caffeinated beverages they are a diuretic meaning they force our body to urinate out actually extra water we can't stay hydrated if we're peeing out all that water right we want to make sure that we're choosing those decaf options and be mindful of additives things that can get added to our water whether that be coloring artificial sweeteners these are things that we would want to minimize if we really want to focus on just the basics and getting enough water and staying well hydrated so moving into food groups so we talked about those nutrients depending on

what food we're eating we're going to be getting a combination of protein carbs and or fat and then within each of those foods we're going to be getting a combination of different vitamins and minerals and potentially different water content we think of something like grapes have a very high water content so that's going to be a nutrient that we can get from foods each one of those nutrients is going to be mixed and matched into each one of our food groups so we'll see our six main food groups listed there you've got fruits vegetables protein

as a whole grains or starches we think of these as primarily our carbohydrate-based foods got your dairy and your fats so again depending on the food group and the food within it there's going to be a mix and match of different nutrients within each one of them so we can't just say that all fruits are bad or all carbs are bad or all fats are bad making these really big general sweeping statements because it's really going to be a matter of what's the quantity how does it fit into the meal or the day right because

we're going to be eating these different food groups different quantities the first fruits and vegetables um i will put a little caveat out there that in the world of diabetes fruits and vegetables are not created equal fruits generally have more carbohydrates per serving than most vegetables do so they are going to provide us again that rainbow of color so that rainbow really wide spectrum of vitamins and minerals but depending on the specific fruit or the specific vegetable the carb content is going to vary and then again the type of carb so within fruits and vegetables

we think of fruits they're sweet they're going to have a higher sugar content we think of a starchy vegetable like a potato that's going to be made up of primarily starch-based carbs and then we think of non-starchy vegetables like broccoli those are going to be made up of primarily fiber-based carbs so blood sugars are going to respond differently depending on the specific fruit or vegetable but general recommendation is half of your plate really half of what you eat in a day is made up of fruits and veggies you're shooting for at least twice as many

vegetable servings in a day as fruit and keep in mind that when we talk about serving it's not just a hand fruit right so we think of a banana for example standard banana that you're going to find in the grocery store is actually considered two fruit servings or those big old honey crisp apples that we love to buy in the store those are easily two to two and a half fruit servings per apple so keep in mind that just because it's a one size doesn't necessarily make it one serving it could be multiple servings within

that one food and i have their fresh frozen and low sodium canned all count a lot of people say fresh is always better than frozen and that's not necessarily the case i'll use the example of blueberries in winter wisconsin where you don't have a whole lot of thriving blueberry bushes so you might be better off purchasing frozen blueberries because they have to be flash frozen within 24 hours of harvest from wherever they're being grown which could easily be thousands of miles away from here so when we lock in all that good nutrition within 24 hours

of them being picked and then we purchase them frozen we keep them frozen at home we're really locking in all of those vitamins and minerals and minimizing the risk of them kind of disintegrating or kind of dying off until we can consume them but be mindful about that seasonality and frozen can absolutely be just as if not more nutritious really chock full of those vitamins and minerals as your fresh varieties hands are very economical look for low sodium or at the very least make sure that you rinse and drain um everything that you're taking out

of cans you can reduce the postage sodium content by up to 40 whenever you can rinse and drain all that goop in that water that they were hanging out in that where a lot of that sodium's at next food group we have are proteins you can get protein primarily from your plant or animal-based sources you'll see your main plant-based sources of protein there beans lentils legumes we think of things like chickpeas black beans kidney beans these are a good source of plant-based protein as well as nuts seeds and nut butters peanut butter almond butter cashews

flax seeds that type of thing animal-based sources is what we generally think of probably first when we think of protein this is chicken steak pork eggs right these meats um you also have oily fish there i did specify oily fish because this is a one-two punch not only do you get a good source of protein from these oily fish you think of something like salmon but salmon is also going to provide us those good heart-healthy unsaturated fats so depending on the food we look at something like a chicken breast that's going to be made up

of primarily only protein but now we eat that chicken breast with the skin and now that's going to be protein and fat now we take that chicken and maybe we bread it and now you have protein fat and carbs all within this one food so it really does depend on how is it being prepared what part of the animal or what part of that food am i eating to really identify what type of nutrients am i getting from that particular food we've got our grains and starches so grains are going to be your traditional rice

wheat i have some a lot of them listed down there you'll see corn buckwheat wheat berries oatmeal these are all going to fall under that grain or starch category these are going to be generally your highest carb foods aside from something like fruit or just sweets popcorn potatoes corn and peas also considered starches and grains so when i said earlier about those veggies something like a potato is primarily starch i generally don't consider potatoes corn or peas vegetables i like to put them under this grain category just because their nutritional makeup right those nutrients that

are within are more similar to our traditional grains than they are to something like your vegetables right so if we compare corn to wheat grain or corn to lettuce corn may technically be considered a vegetable but nutritionally what's in that corn is more similar to what we're gonna find in your wheat or your rice that type of thing so i like to put them under that same heading just because that makeup is more similar whenever we are choosing our grains and starches we want to try to eat them in their most whole form so when

we think of things like whole wheat pasta whole wheat bread whole grain crackers you'll see there on the right hand side when we talk about a whole grain it's generally comprised of three parts the bran on the outside the endosperm is the white starchy part on the inside and then the germ is like a little feed on on the inside of that that curdle and when we eat all three parts you ensure you get more well-balanced and varied nutrition you also increase the fiber and the protein content of that grain when we eat white or

processed grains you're only eating the endosperm so they strip away the bran they remove the germ which is where the fiber and the protein and a lot of nutrients are a lot of vitamins and minerals and then we're just eating that white starchy endosperm which is going to provide us just carbohydrates in the form of those starch carbs but when we can eat the entirety of the grain you're going to get more well-balanced varied nutrition and get all parts so it's not just the starch carbs we've got dairy so dairy is something that's going to

provide us carbohydrates fats and protein depending on which dairy product we have or we choose to eat so we think of something like cheddar cheese better cheese has very few carbs but it's going to be a source of protein and fat versus a glass of whole dairy milk well that's going to have fats carbs and protein so it really depends we got to make sure that we're reading the label and we're we're mindful um of which dairy product we're choosing this is where we get a good source of our calcium from in our diet um

but again that dairy is going to provide us a mix and match of carbs proteins and or fats depending on which one we're choosing general recommendation is that we do choose low or reduced fat dairy products just because the fat that we get from dairy is going to be primarily saturated fats right because it's an animal based fat and we would want to supplement more of our fat intake from plant-based sources so we think of nuts seeds flax seeds avocados olives olive oils those plant-based foods right did it grow out of the ground it's a

plant or is it an animal so when we choose our dairy something to keep in mind is choosing a reduced low or no fat option and then supplementing that meal with a more plant-based fat source so for example you decide to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast we would want to choose a whole grain brand-based cereal right that high fiber we might want to choose a skim or low fat milk so we're getting the protein from the milk we're reducing the saturated fat and maybe we add in some slivered almonds or some type of

chopped nut so that we add fat back in but we're getting it from that plant-based source of those heart-healthy options so we've talked about nutrients we've talked about our food groups depending on the food it's going to provide us any one or all of those nutrients right so we can't vilify one specific food group one specific nutrient because they are going to come in a whole host of foods and we really just want to focus on the most wholesome high nutrition options but we need to make sure that we're not overdoing it even the healthiest

food out there if we consume it out of an appropriate portion for our needs remember that gas tank we've got to make sure that we're putting right amount of gas in for our unique fuel tank size we need to be mindful of portions and so i thought that this was a funny little ditty here because it's very accurate when we look at the serving or portions for five decades ago versus today we have a lot of portion distortion in our country and when we look at um a soda or we look at a cookie or

we look at a bagel right we go to panera and we buy those bagels that one serving is actually four carb servings within one bagel whereas five decades ago the size of the bagel was now what we just we call mini bagels well they're not mini bagels that's one portion or one serving of bagel we've just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger same thing with a lot of our fruits so apples right when we go to the orchard and we go and snag an apple off a tree significantly smaller than those honeycrisp that we find

in the grocery store well it's not because those are genetically modified or that they are you know alien apples it's just that they are being bred larger because these breeders these uh farmers they know that the american consumer wants bigger food and so they make their apples they make their bananas they make their oranges you just breed them to be a larger size that doesn't mean that that is the correct portion for each one of our individual means we absolutely have to keep that in mind so a little mix and match see if we can

match them normally if we were all sitting in a room together i would call on somebody to ask but because we can't do that i'm just going to give you the answers i'll give you maybe 30 seconds and i won't say anything and we'll see if you can think about it yourself and then when i give you the answers you can self-check yourself alright so i'll be quiet for a couple seconds all right so let's see how well you did when we look at a portion of three ounces of lean meat that is going to

be equivalent to about the size of a smartphone now i have a smartphone right here when we say a smartphone it is a 3d right so it's not like oh i'm going to look down at my piece of chicken and it takes up this much space on my plate but it's four smartphones high now we're talking about a 3d thing another common one is a deck of cards is equivalent to about three ounces of chicken or steak again 3d so if you look down at your plate and you're looking at a little filet mignon steak

but it's sitting five cards high that's not a portion we gotta be mindful the whole thing all right so we're looking at about the size of a smartphone a small baked potato is about the size of a computer mouse now i also have a computer mouse here my computer mouse is quite large and this is not a standard computer mouse size this would be about a small to about a medium potato so again when we go out and we buy those big old russets just because it comes in one size doesn't make it one portion

or one serving um when we think about something like a texas roadhouse load of baked potatoes those big mamajamas that's easily four servings of carbohydrates within that single potato all right so kind of keep that in mind we look at the size of a medium banana that's going to be the length of about a pencil and a medium banana again counts as two fruit servings not one just because it's coming in one package one cup of vegetables generally we're thinking about them raw or not cooked the raw would be about the size of a baseball

and if they were cooked since we know things can cook down we're going to be looking at more of like a tennis ball or about a half cup size and then lastly we have a quarter cup of nuts a serving of nuts for some people this might be one handful it's going to be about the size of a golf ball just because we can put in there and grab five or six handfuls doesn't mean that that's the correct portion that again goes back to that idea that that doesn't make us fat it's the amount of

food that we consume from those fat based foods again a quarter cup of nuts could be anywhere from 100 to 150 calories versus that medium banana it's about 100 to 120 calories two very different sizes right they take up different size on our plates but they're giving us the same amount of fuel or the same amount of energy to fill up our tank they're just taking up more or less space we do need to be mindful about our portions i also have a more extensive list here um again that baseball is about the size of

one cup a light bulb is about the size of half a cup um a golf ball is equivalent to two tablespoons or one ounce we think about scooping peanut butter out of the jar we're looking at no more than about a golf ball size poker chip is equivalent to one tablespoon so if we're going to put a little bit of oil in the pan let's say we're looking for about a poker chip size we don't need to coat the entire thing and now we're talking about a quarter or more cup of oil those calories can

just add up faster than we might anticipate um again the poultry or meat we're looking at a deck of cards or a smartphone um for fish it's uh going to be a little bit larger we're going to look at about the size of a checkbook and that's just because the density of fish or fish fillet is less than that of meat or poultry meaning that there's more air and water within the meat it's less dense so it's just going to take up more space on the plate an ounce of lunch meat is about the size

of a compact disc i know we don't use those as much anymore but i think you can all visualize a single compact disc and then for cheese we're talking about the size of a lipstick tube or about three dice right stacked on top of each other but when we get that block of cheese be mindful that there are eight servings generally in a block of cheese when we can eat half of that block in one sitting that doesn't make for one portion that's four portions that we're eating so we just need to be very mindful

of that making sure that whenever possible we are going to be reading the nutrition label so that we can see what that is moving into hunger fullness like i said at the beginning of this i think that this is a very important topic that a lot of times is not discussed we use a lot of external cues to drive our food choices what diet am i trying this week what foods are good what foods are bad um what do what have i always eaten right um at 20 years old this is what my plate looked

like 80 well this is just always what i've done so this is what i'm going to continue to do even as our internal body starts to communicate a different message of i'm getting hungrier sooner or i'm getting fuller sooner and really being able to listen to those internal cues to drive what we eat when we eat and how much we eat so i have my hunger fullness scale here listed and you'll see it goes from zero to ten zero is think about i'm so hungry i could eat the cow ten is i'm so full i

feel like the cow and then we have everything in between right five being completely neutral not hungry not full not really feeling anything from our stomach it's not communicating a message it's content the way it is generally we want to start eating by the time we get to about a three right we don't want to get down to a zero one um or even sometimes a two when we do it can be harder to slow down and to eat at a rate where we allow our body to feel full before we've gone well past full

um so if we are very very hungry boom boom boom i need to eat i need to eat and then by the time we're done 10 minutes later you're like oh my goodness i ate way too much my body like lagged behind i didn't give it enough time to feel that full before i finish and then on the flip side we generally want to stop eating by the time we get to an eight we do not want to get to a nine or a ten this is us over filling our tank we do not want

to put more gas in our tank than it can hold this is generally when we start to see weight gain you'll feel physically uncomfortable right it's when you have to like unbutton your pants or that thanksgiving meal full we should not be feeling that really ever so kind of living between a three and an h and knowing that it's normal to ebb and flow between that on this scale throughout the day you might wake up in the morning and be at a three first thing after breakfast you get to an eight two three four hours

later you might be hanging at a three or four now it's lunch time after lunch you've gotten to a seven eight maybe a couple hours later you're out of four but you know dinner is not for three hours after this would be the time to honor that hunger and have a small snack maybe we get to a six or a seven that ties us over to get to dinner i'm back down to a three four after dinner i'm at eight and we just ebb and flow ebb and flow so if this is not something that

you're currently considering is that internal cue of how hungry am i how full am i getting this would be a really helpful tool to start to use and the best way to do it is to ask yourself before you start eating fifty percent of the way through the meal and then after the meal what number would you put yourself on that scale did you start at a three were you out of five fifty percent of the way through did you get to an eight when you were finished awesome did you start at a three and

fifty percent of the way through you're already at a seven well now you have data to say i don't need to finish what's on my plate because if i do i'm gonna get up to a nine or a ten and that's going to be more than my body nutrition labels um i hope everyone on the webinar today is very familiar with labels reading these when you're going to the grocery store i do have two different formats posted up there reason being we're currently going through a transition through the fda to go from the label on

the left to the label on the right but you are going to be seeing both of these styles still out in the stores because that conversion has not fully happened yet and so the label on the left is the one that we've had since about the year 1990 um the label on the right is the one that they are enacting now making some adjustments to better match the current landscape in america in terms of nutrients of concern and just making it maybe a little bit easier to read some of those big changes that i'll highlight

for the one on the right they've made serving size larger so you'll see it posted on both the left and the right but they have made the size itself or that font bigger so easier to see keep in mind that that 55 little g about 55 grams that's in the parentheses next to the two-thirds cup is the weight of the serving so if you were to have a food scale at home and you want the most accurate serving you would put whatever this food is on that food scale until you got to it weighing 55

grams and that would be the accurate serving most of us though you're just going to be using that common household measure the two-thirds cup that's listed and all the numbers below represent what nutrition you're going to be consuming if you eat two-thirds cup of whatever this food is now if you eat 2 servings 2 2 3 cups you're going to double all of the numbers below it so the calories would no longer be 230 they would be 460 because you're consuming twice a serving you will see that they've made calories significantly larger rationale here is

with america having an obesity epidemic and struggling with excess weight knowing that too many calories can contribute to excess weight the idea was let's make that number bigger easier to read so it's easier for the consumer to really see and understand the impact of their choice one thing that you will see out there which i think is pretty cool is the idea of a dual label or two label and this will be on packages where a consumer can easily consume the entire package for example a pint of ice cream technically a serving of a pint

of ice cream is now two-thirds cup so you have about three servings in a pint but a standard american could easily sit down and eat the entire pint in one sitting so there's going to be two labels you'll see the label on the left will be per serving the label on the right they will have done the math for you to see what is the nutritional impact if and when i eat the entire serving or the entire pint so we think of something like ben jerry's chunky monkey i happen to love this ice cream if

i were to sit down and eat the whole pint of ice cream they're going to tell me that it's about 1200 calories well that might help me to change my mind to say that's almost my entire day's worth of energy i don't want to only eat one pint of ice cream today and max out my fuel tank so maybe i do measure out that half or two-thirds some other changes or things that are staying the same you still have fat you still have cholesterol you still have sodium you still have carbs you still have fiber

you still have sugars but you will see that they added in an additional line item right down there it says includes 10 grams of added sugars this has been confusing for some of my clients just to clarify this is not in addition to the 12 grams of total this is not in addition to the 37 grams of carbs this is just an extra layer of transparency to understand where are sugars coming from so in this example 37 total carbs 4 of the 37 come from fiber 12 of the 37 are coming from sugar carbs but

10 of the 12 of those sugar carbs have been added by the food manufacturer meaning that two or the remaining two grams of sugars were naturally occurring in the food so an example here is going to be flavored yogurt because we know that dairy milk has carbs when we eat even plain yogurt you're going to see listed on the label it does have carbs and it does have sugar this is coming from lactose lactose is the milk sugar well that's naturally occurring no one's adding that in it's already there but when we purchase blueberry flavored

yogurt and they add the blueberry goo at the bottom and it's sweet and delicious those are now considered added sugars so they would have that listed there to say how much came strictly from the milk and how much did you play for example add into the product okay so we want to keep those added sugars as low as possible but just know it's an extra layer of transparency you do not need to be doing any adding yourself they're just telling you where some of it's coming from and then at the bottom you'll see vitamin d

calcium iron and potassium they have made a change here if you look at the left to the right you'll see that vitamin a and vitamin c used to be on our old label are no longer present on the new label this is because these two nutrients micronutrients have are no longer a nutrient of concern most americans are getting plenty of vitamin a and vitamin c in the diet versus the addition of vitamin d and potassium these are nutrients of concern meaning that a lot of americans are at a deficiency or not getting enough in their

daily or weekly intake so they've added this onto the nutrition facts label and that little pointer that i made earlier about the potassium sodium mix because you don't have any renal considerations you're not on dialysis any type of special diet general recommendation would say compare the potassium amount to the sodium amount on that same label and really try to be purchasing foods where the potassium number is larger if it can be twice as large awesome so in this example we see that there are 235 milligrams of potassium per serving compared to 160 milligrams of sodium

so this would be something to consider because that potassium value is higher than the sodium and our physical human bodies need more potassium than they do sodium now if those two numbers were switched meaning there was more sodium than potassium we might want to look for another option in terms of grocery shopping so hopefully we're all going to be reading labels knowing what we're purchasing being educated consumers couple other strategies make sure that you go in with a list make sure you go in with a plan and it's even better you write out your list

in the organization or in the way that you shop your store so that as you're going through your produce your meat your dairy your internal aisles whatever that looks like kind of keep your list in order to just make it easier it also helps to prevent needing to run back to the other side of the store and then you might have an impulse purchaser ooh that end cap looks good and then things start jumping in the cart and we just don't want so know what you have at home make that list put it in order

chop the perimeter is a very common recommendation uh the rationale there is when we think of the perimeter or the outside of our grocery store this is where a lot of those fresh or perishable foods are so this is going to be our fresh produce this is going to be our fresh meats seafood bakery dairy frozen options these are things that don't always or we find don't come in hands packages boxes bags things that can generally be more processed doesn't mean you can't find processed foods on the perimeter but that's where that rationale comes from

and that's not to say that we don't have a reason to go into those internal aisles we think of things like beans black beans those are going to be in those internal aisles nuts and seeds those are going to be on those internal aisles it's not to say we can't go in just be very mindful about which aisles we do go into generally something like the soda aisle something that we might be able to pass over completely there's not going to be a whole lot of redeemable high quality foods in there keep that in mind

focus on one ingredient foods so this goes back to that idea of the whole grain we want to be purchasing full things we want to be purchasing a whole avocado we want to purchase just whole wheat berries we want to purchase fresh meats right one ingredient food an egg it doesn't need an ingredient list because an egg is just an egg and when we purchase those one ingredient foods you are ensuring that as much if not all of the nutrition that we can get from that particular food is present once we start to process a

food or adulterate it in some way we can start to strip away some of the really good nutrients whether they be those macronutrients in the form of fiber do micronutrients iron vitamins minerals that type of thing so focus on those one ingredient foods and if and when we are going to be purchasing foods that have multiple ingredients not only to read the nutrition facts label but also be mindful to look at the ingredient list what is in the product that i'm purchasing and you really want the first um ingredient that's listed to be what you

think it should be so for example this would be something like ketchup the first ingredient in ketchup should be tomatoes it's not always sometimes the first ingredient is sugar so that's where we can identify a higher quality food because that first ingredient listed is what makes up the primary bulk of that that food make sure you check your expiration date so that you do not waste your food money um do know that there's a little bit of wiggle room with our expiration dates um for example eggs most of the time you can go four to

five weeks past what's posted on there there is a difference between a used buy a sell buy and a lot of times those expiration dates aren't necessarily from a food safety perspective as much as food quality and that the food manufacturer or the grocery store wants to ensure that they are moving product when it is at its peak and going to be the freshest just the best feast own brand versus brand name so this is what we think of for store brands a lot of times a store brand or store label so pick and save

the the own brand or the scorpion there are kroger brand a lot of times the things that are in those products actually come from the the name brands but you get to purchase them at a lower cost because you're not paying for marketing so when we think of starkist tuna and he's out there dancing on a commercial telling you to buy his brand well the price is going to be basically paying for that marketing versus own brands or whatever store you're shopping at a lot of times they don't have a marketing budget for those things

and so you're going to see a lower price point it doesn't mean that the quality is any lesser and a lot of those own brands do offer 100 guarantee so if you get home and you say hey i'm going to try this new own brand and you are not satisfied there will be a phone number on the back of the package more often than not you can call their customer service and they'll refund your money choosing seasonally ensures that we are getting the best quality uh highest nutrient value so again going back to those blueberries

in winter this is not a seasonal fruit in wisconsin that would be a thing to be purchasing frozen versus in the summer time when we do have access to more seasonal produce those would be things that we would be purchasing fresh and i like to put this on here just because you have a coupon doesn't mean you need to use it let's get real a lot of those coupon books are for things like oreos and chips and cookies and soda and things that we know are very highly processed aren't going to provide us that big

nutritional you know bang for your buck just because you have a coupon really ask yourself is this a food that is high quality does it have those nutrients that my body needs or does it have what we call empty calories doesn't have fiber doesn't have protein doesn't have vitamins and minerals it's just let's say a lot of sugar or starch so be really discerning because you know once it's in the house a lot easier to end up going down the trap versus if it's not in the house it takes a lot of effort to go

out at eight o'clock at night get in the car go and buy something but if it's just in your freezer or just in your pantry much easier to start lunch so my computer there we go recipe substitutions so this i hope is a handout that you received um i am going to share i want to stop sharing this and i'm gonna share my handout so that we can all see it bear with me here chair here it is this one and everybody see that now we're looking at a different screen hopefully thumbs up yes okay

so this is a recipe substitution tip not everything on this is going to be applicable to you know are you going to want to use it and that is totally fine but there's lots of suggestions so hopefully one or two of them stand out to you a couple things i want to call out for here um the first one for total fat and lowering calories baking reducing the butter or the oil content and using things like pureed apple sauce or pureed prunes or pureed bananas we're going to be able to cut the fat and calories

and still keep things just as moist please be mindful though that those uh pureed prunes i know it sounds weird you can buy them in the baby food aisle you don't even taste them but make sure that you're using them in a chocolate or a dark-based baked good not like vanilla cake because you're going to have a little weird coloring in it that might be somewhere that you want to use the applesauce with bananas just so the colors match and generally for something like oil it's a one to one so if your brownie recipe calls

for one cup of oil you can do one cup of unsweetened applesauce easy switch um i also doubt have down here in terms of eggs when we talk about eggs um sometimes the biggest concern for p for folks is going to be cholesterol and saturated fat which is present only in the yolk so the egg white is all water and protein you can do two egg whites for one egg in a recipe so let's say that brownie recipe calls for two whole eggs you could do four whites and cut out all the cholesterol and saturated

fat from those eggs because the white don't have them for folks that don't like to waste food and aka throw away yolks one product that's out there is 100 liquid egg whites you would find these right next to your egg beaters but when we compare the ingredient list between egg whites and egg beaters you're going to see that liquid egg whites have a single ingredient egg whites versus those egg beaters might have 20 or 30 ingredients different colors different seasonings because they're trying to make an egg product as close to the real thing as possible

i'm a big fan of those liquid egg whites moving down to reducing sodium please know that the majority of sodium that americans consume is coming from packaged processed and restaurant-based foods it's not always the salt shaker at home but if you do have a salt shaker at home you're using it in your cooking please look for no salt seasoning blends you can get a lot of flavor from herbs and spices that do not require salt so i have that right there those salt free seasonings and spice mixes mrs dash is a very common and popular

brand kenzie's has a whole line of salt-free seasoning delicious and awesome great but do keep in mind that a lot of times it's coming from our box packaged goods so always reading those nutrition labels for that post-sodium content keeping that as low as possible little uh rule of thumb a low sodium food is going to have a hundred and forty milligrams or less of sodium per serving so for your canned goods your chicken broth your soups your crackers whatever it might be try to keep that sodium at or below 140 milligrams per serving moving on

to the next page ways that we can reduce sugar one of my favorite ones here for that fruit flavored yogurt that they know they can add in a lot of sugar is to make your own the best way to do this is to purchase plain yogurt and your favorite frozen fruit mix a half cup of your favorite frozen fruit into your yogurt the night before let it thaw in the fridge overnight when you go to have it for breakfast or snack the next day that frozen fruit will have thawed released all of its natural juices

and now when you mix up those thawed blueberries into that plain yogurt the yogurt is going to turn blue but it's coming from blueberry juice not blue number five all right and now we're talking about again single ingredient foods blueberries plain yogurt we're not looking at an ingredient list that's 10 15 20 things deep um one thing i want to call out here about sugar-free varieties for folks that are carb-conscious or that you have diabetes or pre-diabetes and need to be counting their carbs please know that sugar-free food does not mean it is a carb-free

food think about something like sugar-free or no sugar added ice cream well what is ice cream made of milk does milk have carbs yes so just because they may not be adding in any new sugars it doesn't mean that there wasn't sugar or carbs present to begin with so again please please please read those labels know that the front of food packages in your grocery stores are food manufacturers mini billboards it's a way to draw a consumer's eye to have them pick up that food be interested in it oh this looks great and put it

in the cart and buy it before it jumps into the cart please make sure that you turn it around upside down really look for that nutrition facts label or ingredient list and be very mindful about what am i truly buying not what does this food manufacturer want me to think that i'm buying and then down here ways to increase fiber this is a nutrient of concern in america standard american consumes about 15 grams of fiber a day most folks need 30 grams or more plus so this is something that we definitely need to be mindful

of and you're going to see they're choosing those whole grains or that whole product that's going to have the bran and the germ present so you're really going to be getting the fiber versus just the endosperm which is 100 just going to be that starch really good recommendation here in any of your baked goods or any of your recipes you can generally substitute up to about half of any all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour or almond flour or something that's going to provide a lot more fiber you could do a whole one for one just

know that the final product is going to be a lot denser and heavier just because that whole wheat does have again that brand and germ and it provides that protein and fiber but adding maybe you start with a quarter cup if it calls for one cup of all-purpose do three-quarter cups all-purpose and a quarter cup of whole wheat see what the end game is and if you can't really taste it next time bump it up to a half cup just really trying to add in more and more fiber because most americans don't get enough