By Anna Shlachter, MS, RD, LDN
January 27th, 2012
ENC is soliciting research fellowship proposals for the 2012 grant year. A letter of intent is due Friday, March 16, 2012 See the research section of the website for more details.
Below are ENC 2012 Research Priorities:
1. Nutrition in health and disease:
• Obesity: particular emphasis on childhood obesity.
• Heart disease: effect of eggs on lipoprotein or cholesterol metabolism.
2. Nutrition for a healthy lifestyle:
• Nutrient density: contribution of eggs to a healthy diet. Approaches may include diet modeling, evaluation of bioavailability, and synergistic effects of eggs with other foods.
• Protein: use of eggs at breakfast related to satiety, glycemic control, body composition, or inflammation.
3. Nutrition for special populations:
• Diabetes: relationship of eggs to onset or progression of type 2 diabetes.
• Nutrition for healthy aging: contributions of protein/eggs related to aging and nutrition.
4. Nutritional value of eggs or egg components:
• An interest in pilot studies to evaluate the potential to use components of eggs as value-added food ingredients; or potential to enrich the egg with at-risk nutrients.
By Anna Shlachter, MS, RD, LDN
January 23rd, 2012
Just checking in to see how your SMART Goals are going. We’re quickly approaching February. If you made more of a “resolution” and have already given up-no worries just change it into a SMART Goal and keep going!
Remember SMART Goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
Even if you have a hiccup with a SMART Goal, accept it and keep going!
Here are two of my personal goals:
I have logged 19 workout sessions this year so far (SMART Goal is to be active at least 6 days a week for improved health).
My hiccup- I ate out three times last week (goal is to eat out no more than 2 time per week), so I’ll continue to work on that one. Perhaps this one is not realistic for me and maybe I focus on the meal composition when I do dine out (which I am doing but perhaps a SMART goal would make me more accountable).
See goals do evolve and change! Keep up the good work and remember doing something for your health is better than doing nothing! Little steps count and turn into BIG achievements.
Tags: SMART goals
By Anna Shlachter, MS, RD, LDN
January 17th, 2012
An article from Latino Fox News discusses program that a New York school district (and those in St Louis and South Orange, N.J.) is implementing to combat obesity. They have purchased monitors that track heart rate, activity and even sleep. The students wear these and the information is uploaded for the teachers to use (for long term tracking). Do you think this make kids/parents more aware of the need for activity? Will having a tracking device make a difference in habits? What about eating habits?
Alone, I am not sure this tool will do much except show us that children do not get enough activity or sleep. If used as a teaching tool with math, science or nutrition curriculum, I could see it being beneficial for the students. It could really tie in the calories in/calories out as far as high calorie/low nutrient dense foods in fun way for students.
So thoughts?
Will this improve health of students?
Is it a matter or privacy (some groups feel so)?
Tags: childhood obesity, exercise
By Anna Shlachter, MS, RD, LDN
January 13th, 2012
What makes them incredible? Eggs are one of nature’s most nourishing creations and an Egg A Day is OK for everyone! Eggs are an affordable, convenient source of high quality protein with varying amounts of the 13 essential vitamins and minerals. To top it off they are only 70 calories, so it is considered a nutrient dense food meaning a high amount of nutrition compared to their calorie content. In addition, scientists often use egg protein as the standard against which they judge all other proteins. Based on the essential amino acids it provides, egg protein is second only to mother’s milk for human nutrition. All this great nutrition for only 15 cents an egg!
Where are the nutrients in an egg-the white or an egg yolk? Here are some highlights: 60 % of the protein is found in the white and 40 % of the protein is in the yolk. However, many of the other key vitamins and minerals are found primarily in the yolk-choline, vitamin D, selenium, riboflavin, phosphorus, B12 and more. Cholesterol is also found in the yolk, but more than 40 years of research has shown that healthy adults can eat eggs without significantly affecting their risk for heart disease. You can see this side by side comparison of the egg and egg white at http://www.enc-online.org/docs/Nutrient%20Content%20of%201%20Large%20Egg%202010.pdf
Happy Friday and check out the Facebook post from Incredible Edible Egg for a review of the lower cholesterol information as well as a recipe for mini breakfast pizzas.
Tags: 70 calories, AEB, B12, choline, eggs, phosphorus, riboflavin, selenium, vitamin D
By Anna Shlachter, MS, RD, LDN
January 12th, 2012
We hope you’ve enjoyed our blogs and found the information useful in your practices and even perhaps your own lives. Marcia mentioned some of the trends for 2011 in her blog post and I wanted to share some other exciting highlights.
- Obesity became a top search for our blog which was excellent! We’ll continue to blog about the obesity story as new research and information becomes available.
- Research and trends regarding satiety, nutrient density, protein, choline, vitamin D, lutein and zeaxanthin, cholesterol, and other key topics were the highlight of many of our blogs.
- We had several blogs about cholesterol- including Mythbusters- trying to spread the word that over 40 years of research shows that the same results- EGGS are A-OK!
- Breakfast was among a top trend although eggs can be enjoyed anytime!
- We introduced you to some great new programs such as SuperTracker, Healthy Dining Finder, Kids Live Well and more.
- New MyPlate materials are available for purchasing or downloading!
- As Marcia pointed out, recipes are very popular and right now we have two sets of recipes- MyPlate Recipe Booklet and Egg-A-Day Recipe Cards. You can always visit www.aeb.org for more recipes.
- We highlighted our health professional audiences with blogs from professional meetings and exhibits we attended.
So now I am asking you, our readers: What do you want to know more about in 2012?
Tags: anniversary, breakfast, choline, eggs, obesity, protein
By Marcia Greenblum, MS, RD
January 11th, 2012
Turning the page on the calendar and starting a new year makes one pause and think about all that seemed so important in the prior year. Nutrition is an evolving science. We often feel sure that eating according to the currently accepted guidance will help us maintain good health, until research contradicts that guidance the following year.
In 2011, Nutrition Unscrambled began the discussion of how to incorporate the 10 most healthful foods into your diet and continued with that theme throughout the year. More and more the research appears to show that adding protein at breakfast and spacing protein intake throughout the day is the secret to improving your body composition and maintaining a healthy weight.
Throughout the year we shared recipes and tips to use eggs for building a healthy diet. Nutrition Unscrambled continued a focus on how eggs can be included in healthy meal patterns and shared these messages at health professional conferences, at family mealtime and when refueling after exercise.
In 2012, Nutrition Unscrambled will continue to provide informative discussions about trends in nutrition and healthy meal planning. We hope to bring more research driven discussions, more varied perspectives on nutrition from experts who practice in different health professions and more insights into how to inform and motivate the public about healthy eating.
Thanks again to all our readers!
Tags: anniversary, eggs, protein
By Anna Shlachter, MS, RD, LDN
January 9th, 2012
Enjoy your food, but eat less-Here are my top 5 things to “eat less” to achieve better health
1.Restaurant food (uniformed choices): Dining out is common, but even registered dietitians cannot always tell how many calories are in the food and what has been added. Many people rely on dining out for a variety of reasons, but they can ask for menu modifications. Also, the best thing to do would to be to check out the menu ahead of time and plan ahead! Most restaurants have websites with nutrition information listed as well as this great tool Healthy Dining. If you don’t have time before arriving to the restaurant, feel free to ask for nutrition information with your menu! Please know I am not saying you cannot have your favorite pizza or burger, but consider having them less often! Most importantly-educate yourself on what you are eating!
2. Refined foods: Foods being stripped of their vitamins and minerals and having to be “fortified” back in and long ingredient lists are just the beginning of the problems with refined foods. Foods from MyPlate and simple recipes can help with this! Scrambled eggs with veggies with a slice of whole wheat toast and a cup of skim milk to start your day- easy and healthy. You can also replace “snack foods” crackers, chips cookies, etc with less refined options like a hardboiled eggs, fruits, veggies, and many more “whole” food options.
3. Sugar: I’m not saying give it up, but research shows we eat too much. Consider limiting soda, juices, and sweetened beverages, sugar filled cereals, desserts and more. Sugar might be hiding places you do not expect it (high fructose corn syrup), so watch the amount you know you are drinking and eating. Also, sometimes these are loaded with saturated and trans fats (baked goods), so eat less of these and you’ll get a double benefit!
4. Sodium: Most of us are unaware of the amount of sodium we actually consume each day! The more processed foods we eat, the more sodium we get in our diet. Try to not use the salt shaker and consider using other spices to flavor food. A good rule of thumb for label reading is to look for no more than one milligram of sodium per one calorie of food (you’ll quickly see how sodium adds up). Refer back to number 2 and have more whole foods-you’ll automatically end up with less sodium in your diet.
5. Alcohol: Like food, many of us do not know how many calories we consume when we drink alcohol. The calories add up quickly (and even more quickly for mixed drinks). Also, along with alcohol consumption comes the likelihood of overeating or mindless eating.
So those are my 5 tips for eating less. Another thing to do overall is decrease the portions and you’ll decrease many of these anyway! See my previous blog post on the SuperTracker on how to learn portion sizes.
By Anna Shlachter, MS, RD, LDN
January 3rd, 2012
I posted about myth busters a couple months back and just read this great post by RD David Grotto.
Tell us, what are five healthy foods you plan to keep in 2012?
Tags: diet plan, eggs, healthy, new year
