February 22, 2019 at 07:35AM by CWC Everyone and their Italian grandmother seem to be following the Mediterranean diet right now. (Before it was just the grandmas.) Unlike some other eating plans, this one is tried-and-true, beloved by doctors for its cardiovascular benefits. High in fruits and veggies, healthy fats, protein, the occasional glass of wine…it really does seem to have it all. The guidelines surrounding the Mediterranean diet emphasize foods high in omega-3s and healthy fats—and of course lots of fruits and vegetables. However, when you start Googling around for recipes, you’ll often be directed to ideas for grilled salmon, couscous with shrimp and veggies, or big salad bowls topped with chicken, olives, and feta cheese. Which all sounds great—unless you don’t eat meat. It’s enough to make you wonder if it’s possible to meet the requirements of the Mediterranean diet (and reap those health benefits) while sticking to a vegetarian or vegan diet? “Part of what makes the Mediterranean diet so great is that it’s so adaptable, so it’s actually an easy one to follow even if you don’t eat meat or animal products,” says registered dietitian Marisa Moore, RD. Here, she gives tips on how to get your fill of the Med diet, the vegan or vegetarian way. She also points out some common mistakes many non-meat eaters make when trying this eating plan for the first time. Keep reading for everything you need to know. Are there any Mediterranean diet-friendly proteins? “Regardless of what eating plan they’re
Category: Vegetarians
“I’m a registered dietitian and I would never, ever recommend the keto diet”
February 22, 2019 at 02:15AM by CWC Even though the Mediterranean diet is once again basking in the sunny spotlight, plenty of people are Team Keto. The low-carb/high-fat ketogenic diet was the buzziest eating plan of 2018, with advocates raving about how they experienced weight loss, fewer sugar cravings, and even reduced anxiety. Even brands have caught on, crowding the market with “keto-friendly” products that make sticking to the eating plan easier. Not among the legions of keto fans: registered dietitian Brigitte Zeitlin, MPH, RD, owner of BZ Nutrition. “The keto diet was created by doctors to help treat children with seizure disorders, like epilepsy, from whom medication was no longer working and it was monitored under medical supervision,” she says. “This diet was not intended for generally healthy people to use—and it wasn’t intended for weight loss. The fact that the children were under medical supervision is a pretty good indictor that this diet was not created for the general public to adapt. I was actually really surprised that this form of medical nutrition therapy has become the latest in fad dieting.” Yet here we all are. While many do say the keto diet has been beneficial for them, Zietlin is wary of anyone sticking to it long-term. Unlike the Mediterranean diet, for example, the ketogenic diet is so new (at least in terms of how people are using it as adults) that scientists haven’t been able to study what the effects are of keeping up with it for a longer period of time.
What “eating the rainbow” actually does for your body, color by color
February 21, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC When you sit down to enjoy a leafy-green salad, do you know specifically what each of the vividly hued fruits and veggies in the bowl are doing for your body? I know I don’t. The #eattherainbow lifestyle makes for vibrant sandwiches and top-notch crudité platters, but it does spark the question: What vitamins and minerals are actually packed into each section of ROYGBIV? In a recent Instagram post, functional medicine doctor Mark Hyman, MD, breaks down exactly how to interpret your red apples, orange carrots, yellow pineapples, and so on. “Vegetables and fruits use their colors to signal which beneficial substances they contain,” he wrote in the caption. “Color is the language of the plant kingdom, so be sure to incorporate an array of colorful plant foods into your diet!” Once you know which shades pack which nutritional gains, munching on an aesthetically pleasing cornucopia of colors will be all the more satisfying. You may find yourself saying things at brunch like, “Oh, this avocado? Yes, it’s yellow-greenness means it loaded with carotenoids, lutein, and zeaxanthin—all of which are believed to reduce the risk of cataracts!” (But, you know, in a cooler way.) Below, Dr. Hyman breaks down how to interpret the visible light spectrum…in produce staples. Keep reading for your ROYGBIV nutritional breakdown. View this post on Instagram Vegetables and fruits use their colors to signal which beneficial substances they contain. Some colors even work together synergistically to have a more powerful effect,
Great news: Pizza for breakfast is apparently healthier than cereal
February 21, 2019 at 10:53AM by CWC It only takes a quick stroll down the colorful cereal aisle of your supermarket to realize most of those boxes don’t contain anything worthy of starting your day with. Most options are basically candy in disguise. In fact, according to the Environmental Working Group, many favorites—including Froot Loops and Cap’n Crunch—are made up of nearly 50 percent sugar (yikes). But I have good news for you: A better way to start your day can actually be—wait for it—with pizza. Because pizza contains protein, carbs, and veggies—not to mention way less sugar!—word has been spreading that those drool-worthy slices typically thought of as junk food actually beat out most cereal options on store shelves in terms of nutrition. It might seem too good to be true to be able to devour a slice o’ pie to fulfill the so-called “most important meal of the day,” but it actually kinda checks out—if you choose the right ingredients, that is. “Comparing pizza and cereal really depends on which cereal and which pizza you’re looking at,” says Amy Gorin, MS, RDN, owner of Amy Gorin Nutrition in New York. “With breakfast cereals, some contain no sugar and some contain so much added sugar. Some are fortified with lots of vitamins and minerals, as well as protein-offering ingredients, while some do not. So if you’re talking about a veggie-loaded whole-grain pizza with plenty of protein and not a lot of saturated fat compared to a sugar-loaded, low-protein cereal,
Evidently there are a bunch of foods that can explode and spark in the microwave
February 21, 2019 at 09:00AM by CWC I got a little lazy while making breakfast recently; instead of sautéing some sliced onions on the stove for my vegan omelet, I decided to cut down on dishes by popping them in the microwave. No harm in that, right? Wrong. The next thing I knew, it looked like fireworks in that little electric box. At first, I thought I was going crazy—could a raw vegetable really start a mini-fire in the microwave? Well. Let’s just say that after some digging, it became very clear that tinfoil isn’t the only thing that doesn’t belong in a microwave. Thankfully, I averted serious damage by pulling out the onions at the first sight of sparks, but research has taught me that other foods may lead to the same unwelcome Fourth of July sich in my kitchen. “Arcing,” according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, usually happens with foods that contain high amounts of minerals, including iron, magnesium, and selenium. Since those minerals act like “tiny pieces of metal,” microwaves bounce off them just like they would a fork, causing the sparking effect. The food is still edible after these incidents occur—it just doesn’t taste as good since it’s not cooked properly. Sparks aside, other foods—particularly those that are round or have skin—can actually explode in the microwave. It’s something past research has shown happens because the inside gets heated first, causing a buildup of steam. When all that pressure needs to escape, it does—with a boom. To make sure you don’t
What to know about phosphates, the food additive that’s in (almost) everything you eat
February 21, 2019 at 08:19AM by CWC At this point, most of us are pretty canny about shady food additives in our food (ahem, high-fructose corn syrup, much?). But there are still some sneaky ingredients that we as consumers often are still in the dark about, like phosphates. Did you hear crickets when reading that word? Don’t blame you. It’s a very common food additive, present in lots of packaged foods, but it’s been flying under the radar for years. Yet a growing number of studies link it to some pretty undesirable side effects, from heart disease to early death (gulp). It’s also hard to accurately determine just how much phosphorus you’re consuming. “It’s not a required nutrient listed on food and drink labels, so a lot of companies are not analyzing amounts of phosphates in food,” says Christy Brissette, R.D., President of 80 Twenty Nutrition. “It’s possible that we’re getting too much of it.” Before you start to panic, though, here’s what food experts want you to know about phosphates. What are phosphates, exactly? Backing up for a second: Phosphorus is a mineral that’s naturally found in protein-rich foods including dairy, fish, meat, and eggs—and your body needs it to help your kidneys, bones, and muscles function properly. “It’s part of pretty much every cell in our body,” says nutritionist Jessica Cording, R.D. Because phosphorus works with calcium to support strong bones, you’ll often see it added to calcium supplements. Phosphate, on the other hand, is an inorganic (read: not
Vegan “Tuna” Is Now Available At Whole Foods Market & It’s Actually Good
February 21, 2019 at 07:27AM A big win for vegan sushi lovers. Continue Reading… Author Emma Loewe | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue
A-ten-hut: You really, really should skip the military diet, say these dietitians
February 21, 2019 at 05:21AM by CWC So far, 2019 has been the year of #TBT eating plans. (Eating Mediterranean-style and going high-fiber are both on-trend once again.) But as for the military diet, which has recently resurfaced online…the two nutrition experts I spoke with say it just doesn’t deserve a “Backstreet’s back, alright!” moment. According to the plan’s official website, the requirements include following a certain menu (which can be adapted for vegans or vegetarians) three days out of the week. For example, one day of meals includes crackers and cheese for breakfast with one small apple; a hard-boiled egg and toast for lunch; and tuna, banana, and vanilla ice cream for dinner. During these days, your total calorie intake will be between 762 and 1,066 calories within each 24-hour period, reports CNN. Then, you get four days “off” the plan where you can eat 1,500 calories per day. It promises to help people lose up to 10 pounds in a week. (It should be noted that despite invoking the military in its name, the military diet doesn’t seem to have any real connection to any branches of the military.) If alarm bells are already sounding in your head, there’s a reason. Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, creator of BetterThanDieting.com and author of Read It Before You Eat It – Taking You from Label to Table and Brittany Michels, RD, registered dietician for The Vitamin Shoppe, say there are three major red flags with this plan. Below, they break them down. Red flag number one: The diet involves cutting calories
Mineral broth is the vegan alternative to bone broth you’ve been waiting for
February 20, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Bone broth is right up there with matcha and oat milk lattes when it comes to healthy, hot winter sips. Heralded as a healing beverage by many, healthy carnivores love bone broth for the magnesium, potassium, calcium, and of course, collagen. Which all sounds really great…except if you’re a vegetarian or vegan. Fortunately for plant eaters, bone broth isn’t the only nutrient-rich drink in town. There’s still a way to reap all the benefits of bone broth while relying solely on the power of veggies. (Minus the collagen, which, alas, is still extremely difficult to get from non-animal sources.) Oh, and major bonus: It’s less time-consuming and messy to make, too. Behold, mineral broth. What’s in it—and how it’s different than regular ‘ol vegetable broth In a nut shell, mineral broth is a combination of vegetables that are boiled for two hours. The water becomes enriched with the minerals from the veggies, leaving behind a nutrient-dense liquid meant for sipping and nourishing the body. (The veggies will be essentially mush at this point, so they are discarded and composted.) According to nutrition expert, professional chef, Healing Kitchens Institute founder, and author Rebecca Katz—whose mineral broth recipe has garnered a lot of attention—there’s two ingredients that really set it apart from other vegetable broths: sweet potato and kombu, a type of edible kelp. “You wouldn’t find them in regular broth, and they are very nutrient dense,” she says. Here’s what else you’ll find in her
This Chocolate Bark Takes 20 Minutes To Make & Will Satisfy Your Carb Cravings
February 20, 2019 at 03:03AM Plus it’s vegan! Continue Reading… Author Caroline Muggia | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue