Redefining Your Health By Using Food As Medicine
March is nutrition month and the theme this year is unlocking the potential of food. Food has the power to heal, prevent, fuel, discover and bring us together.
When you think of foods that fit into this years nutrition theme, we can definitely turn to dried plums to discover their amazing health benefits. Dried plums may not be the first thing to come to mind when you think about unlocking the potential of food, but they should definitely be on your radar.
I hear it from clients all the time, “the gluten free diet is expensive.” And, while, there is certainly some truth to that for a minority of products, there are a multitude of ways to stay on budget, while still eating safely and I am excited to share them with you!
So, the first one we are going to cover today is gluten free cereal. Gluten free cereal is expensive, a processed food and does not need to be an ‘everyday’ food. Certainly, eating it once in a while, is no big deal. However, it shouldn’t be a staple food in the house as there are many other more nutritious GF options. Let’s explore the alternative options.
When I costed the ingredients below, I used a common breakfast cereal that I see frequently in client food journals. I purposefully left out the brand name.
As a general reference, when I am looking at the nutrition facts of a cereal, I commonly look at two things -fiber and added sources of sugar. So, if fiber is low, the rest of the nutrition facts of the product are typically not great. If sugar is high, the rest of the nutrition facts of the product are also, typically, not great.
Daily Goals for Fiber and Limits for Added Sugars:
GF Cereal Fiber Goals and Limit for Added Sugar:
All product costing below came from the Real Canadian Superstore, Amazon.ca, Well.ca, Prana.Bio and/or Walmart and made use of sales/coupons, if available.
Ever wonder what is in a celiac dietitian’s grocery cart? Well, now is your chance! These foods are always stocked in our house, making meals easy to throw together with the pantry staples I keep in our cupboard too (another post for another time).
Not only do the foods below make healthy, gluten free meals in a jiffy, but, many also contain key nutrients that celiacs need more of and/or tend to be deficient in.
With Valentine’s day right around the corner, I have a simple, gluten free, family friendly recipe that you can whip up in a jiffy.
Kids will especially love this recipe because the yogurt changes from white to pink, you can cut the fruit into cute, heart shapes or even make little fruit kabobs for dipping. Kids love to dip. So, pairing fruits and veggies with dips can be a helpful way to get more nutritious produce into those bellies!
In our house, smoothies are pretty much daily occurrences. We either have them for snacks or for quick, on the go, breakfasts all year long. It’s quite common in our house to make a big batch of smoothie in the morning so we have enough for leftovers to snack on throughout the next 24 hours or so. Leftover smoothies are good in the fridge for about 24-36 hours, I find. They just need a little shake to refresh and remix.
