So you may enjoy splurging on a steak every once in a while, but it shouldn’t be replacing the most important part of your diet! The decreasing consumption of fruits and vegetables have really taken a toll on our health. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans eat fewer servings of fruits and veggies today than they did at the start of the decade. Instead, Americans have increased their consumption of meat by more than 50%, which is more than twice the global average! Unfortunately, these new dieting practices have been strongly affecting the health of the planet as well as ourselves. One reason for this is the fact that livestock production generates almost a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. In hopes of educating the public on the problems that our “dangerous diet” causes, the CDC has issued a set of tips for incorporating more fruits and vegetables into the diet. Read the full article by CDC. A great way to increase your consumption of fruits and vegetables and avoid fattening and unhealthy meats is to make the commitment of buying local produce. Buying local gives you a variety of fruits and vegetables. The Hub City Farmer’s Market website also has a long list of healthy recipes that incorporate the season’s fruits and vegetables into them.

Since it has become increasingly important to save money and spend sparingly, it has become harder managing to eat healthy. Some people may think it is much easier to spend money on cheap, prepackaged foods and meals rather than finding healthy produce found at Hub City Farmers’ Market or other local produce markets. Luckily, there are several tips to keep in mind that allow you to stick to purchasing local foods while sticking to any budget. All it takes is a little effort, time, and nutrition knowledge.

Limit unnecessary spending. Making smart choices saves money. Think for a few minutes about what you generally spend your grocery money on. What items do you not actually need? How frequently are you eating out? Bottom line: cut out unnecessary spending. Some tips are as follows:

• Cut the crap: Try thinking about how much was spent on your last trip to the grocery store compared with the money spent on local produce. How much do you usually spend on on items such as sodas (regular and diet), juices, sweets, cookies, crackers, prepackaged (i.e. Hamburger Helper) and frozen meals, processed foods, etc. compared to local foods? Do your best to limit or cut out the unhealthy foods at grocery stores completely. Your wallet and your body will thank you!
• Don’t eat out as much: Reducing the number of times per week you go out to a restaurant or get take out to once or twice can cut off about $15-25 (or depending on the size of your family)! That’s 60-100 per week and, if you can stick to it, $720-1,200 per year!
• Purchase only what’s on the list: When shopping at the store- try writing out a grocery list prior to shopping helps to fully prepare you for what isles to walk through and what items to look for. This means less browsing and a lesser chance of picking out unnecessary items.
• Shop around the outside walls of the store first: The outside walls are filled with many common items, such as milk and eggs, that you may have forgotten you needed. Junk foods are usually in the middle isles of the store so you are able to avoid walking through them.
• Make enough for leftovers: To save time and energy, try cooking larger portions of meals. This way, the leftover food can be put into Tupperware and saved in the fridge for the days you just don’t feel like cooking. Instead of grabbing take out or going out to eat, there will always be leftovers of healthy meals that you can heat up and enjoy. Some examples of great items to save up are casseroles, soups, salads, fruits, and vegetables.
• Purchase local food: When it comes to fresh vegetables, leafy greens, and ripe fruits, farmers’ markets are the best places to find what you need. The Hub City Farmers’ Market in Spartanburg contains amazing organic, healthy, and locally grown food that will allow you to stick to your budget.

1. Some Diets are Completely Unreasonable 

Fad weight loss diets, such as the Cabbage Diet or the Hollywood Diet, use semi-starvation methods to promote weight loss which, if you didn’t already know, is completely ridiculous. Also, its pretty bad for you. Diets that restrict one or more of the necessary food groups should top your list of diets to avoid since you’ll be missing out on important nutrients found in fruits and vegetables and your weight loss will be temporary. Why waste your time? 

3. Some Diets Are Harmful 

Not all weight loss diets are unhealthy, but a lot of them urge us to cut out entire food groups in order to lose weight. You don’t need an expert to figure out that you need carbs, protein AND fat to be healthy. Diets too low in fat or calories aren’t healthy and, if a diet is too restrictive, you won’t follow it. 

4. Diets Don’t Always Fit Your Lifestyle 

A lot of diets don’t take into account individual preferences, lifestyle, time constraints and likes and dislikes. The problem with most weight loss diets is they’re too specific to fit our lives. Plus, they throw so much change at us that they’re nearly impossible to follow for a long period of time.  

Most of us are busy and don’t have time for the careful shopping, cooking and calorie-counting many weight loss diets require. So how long do you think you’ll be able to follow it? If you need a more structured dieting plan, try one that fits your lifestyle. Shopping at a local produce market makes this much easier since you are surrounded by a variety of healthy choices

5. Diets Are Too Strict 

 They tell you what to eat and how much, and are too demanding and complicated, so you’re almost guaranteed to fail. It helps to understand that tackling everything at once and changing your eating habits overnight will not work. Make small changes and take your time with weight loss. Give yourself time to change bad habits. If you are following a diet, choose one aspect of it to focus on until you’ve conquered it (e.g., work on eating a healthy breakfast and leave the other meals alone). Then move onto the next. 

6. Dietsing May Be Too Expensive 

Weight Loss diets are big business. Remember, the people who sell diet books have an agenda–to take your money and buy themselves a million-dollar mansion in Beverly Hills. Is anyone more interested in your health and happiness than you? No. So be skeptical of the infomercials and diet books out there. The ‘diet gurus’ don’t always have your best interests at heart. 

7. Diets Are Temporary 

Remember that weight loss is a lifetime thing. Lifetime health and fitness isn’t an option with some extreme weight loss diets. Even if you do manage to follow a diet, you’ll almost always give up on it when those cravings hit (and they will if you’re restricting your food too much). This means you’ll end up losing weight and gaining it right back which is a complete waste of your time. Don’t you have better things to do? 

8. Diets Sap Your Energy 

The reason you lose weight on diets is because you drastically reduce your calorie intake. You may think this is good, but too little food means fatigue, low energy and it can even stall weight loss. Your body needs fuel for weight loss and if you don’t get enough, your body will hoard every fat cell it can. Eat several small meals a day to stay satisfied and energetic. 

9. Diets Give Food a Bad Reputation 

Weight loss diets usually restrict the foods you love to eat. When told you can’t eat something, you become obsessed with not eating it-and that makes you crave it even more. Remember, foods aren’t good or bad and you can eat what you love as long as you only do it occasionally. Eating is one of the great pleasures in life and you can enjoy it without guilt when you allow yourself treats now and then. 

10. Diets Aren’t the Answer for Everyone 

For some people, weight loss diets offer great results, especially if they’ve found one that fits their lifestyle, budget and goals. However, weight loss diets aren’t for everyone. If you have trouble staying on a diet, that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you or that you’re doomed to fail. Consider other ways to cut calories or focus on changing one thing at a time, one day at a time. That approach may ease the pressure and allow you to ease your way into a new healthy lifestyle. 

Tips: 

Set personal goals- Small is the key word. Goals that too big and more difficult to achieve will only turn you away from the idea of changing your lifestyle. Since it may be hard to make any changes to what you’re used to, its best to achieve one small goal per week. This gives you plenty of time to get used to changes and makes it easier to remember. 

Stick to What You Can’t Be Without-If there are a few fattening foods that you just cannot stay away from, its better to eat those foods in small moderation than to avoid the foods and constantly crave them. 

Portion Sizes- Keep in mind that portion sizes have continued to grow. Actual portion sizes are as follows:                    

• Vegetables or fruit is about the size of your fist.
• Pasta is about the size of one scoop of ice cream.
• Meat, fish, or poultry is the size of a deck of cards or the size of your palm (minus the fingers).
• Snacks such as pretzels and chips is about the size of a cupped handful.
• Apple is the size of a baseball.
• Potato is the size of a computer mouse.
• Bagel is the size of a hockey puck.
• Pancake is the size of a compact disc.
• Steamed rice is the size of a cupcake wrapper.
• Cheese is the size of a pair of dice or the size of your whole thumb (from the tip to the base).

Sources:  http://exercise.about.com/od/nutrition/tp/diets.htm 

http://www.webmd.com/diet/control-portion-size 

We love this: rather than taking away the cookies and chocolate milk, a school in New York decided to rearrange the cafeteria by placing the healthy options in easily accessible areas and attractive bins. This same school was able to increase the consumption of salads by students by almost 300% by moving the salad bar from the wall to closer to the checkout line. Another school increased fruit sales to by 105% by changing the plain plastic bin holding apples and oranges to an attractive, well-lit bin. Read the entire article: How Smart Cafeterias Could Fight Childhood Obesity

With the rising rate of childhood obesity in Spartanburg and several other counties across the nation, there are concerns about children getting their annual sugar overload this Halloween. In fact: candy sales are estimated to increase 7% for 2010, which is around $2 billion! Althought it is nearly impossible to avoid the candy that is provided from neighbors, friends, school, etc, you can make a change in what types of goodies you hand out this year.

Try these healthy alternatives:
String cheese
Nutrigrain or oatmeal bar
Bagged pretzels
Microwave popcorn
Trail mix (a combination of raisins, peanuts, pretzels, marshmallows, or chex mix)
Teddy Grahams
Rice crispy treats
Sugar-free bubble gum
Decorated baggies of hot cocoa

Or, instead try giving out toys and little party favors:
Silly bands
Crayons
Temporary tattoos
Glow-in-the-dark bracelets
Stickers
Bubbles
Sidewalk Chalk

Sourches: Eatocracy on CNN.com

Childhood obesity has become a major issue and concern around the world particularly in the U.S. Most often, this is due to children getting less servings of the fresh fruits and vegetables that they need and eating more fast food. This is a great article we came across that describes some of McDonald’s tactics that increase their sales, but unfortunately increase the childhood obesity rates as well.

Is it alright to use toys and mascots to encourage kids to eat fast food meals that are high in fat and low in nutritional content? It seems to be a perfect marketing strategy for McDonald’s: attract children at a young age when they are easily influenced and habit-forming to ensure they are hooked early on.

A board of supervisors in San Francisco concerned with the issue of childhood obesity have stepped up to the plate to do something about this: check out the full article and let us know what you think!

With the explosion of interest in eating healthy, consumers are now searching for healthy choices of products, labels, and ways to shop. Decisions on food choices can be overwhelming, and changing where and how we shop can be stressful. The benefits of purchasing local sources of fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, help make the decision a no-brainer.

Higher levels of nutrients. The less time that passes between farm and table, the fewer nutrients fresh produce will lose. Locally grown fruits and vegetables contain more nutrients because they are picked at their peak freshness, transported shorter distances and sold directly to the consumer. In a weeklong delay, sugars turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce loses its vitality. It tastes better because it is fresher and has been grown or created with the consumer in mind.

Travels fewer miles to land on your plate. Local food is typically grown within a 100-mile radius, whereas food from further away is shipped an average of 1,500 miles before being sold (and that’s only U.S. grown products!). The further it travels, whether by truck or plane, the more energy and gas is used. Also, the food is older, is jostled around in the shipping process, and has sat in warehouses and supermarket shelves before it finally gets on your plate. Local food saves energy costs and valuable non-renewable resources.

Stays fresh longer. Since the produce was picked one to two days before, it will last longer in your refrigerator. Retail produce is typically harvested 4-5 days before the shipping process.

Safer. Local farmers are non-anonymous and they take their responsibility to the consumer seriously. The risk for major E. coli outbreaks will be slim to none with locally-grown produce.

Preserves genetic diversity. While conventional farming practices mono-cropping with limited plant varieties, smaller local farms often grown many different varieties and rotate their crops to provide a long harvest season with an array of different colors and flavors.

Benefits the environment and wildlife. Well-managed farms conserve fertile soil and clean water in our communities. Since local food is often organic, you are able to get the delicious taste without the pesticides and preservatives (not only is this healthy for you, but for the soil, water, and wildlife).

Supports local farm families. Fewer than 1 million people claim farming as their primary occupation (less than 1%). Farming is a vanishing lifestyle. The farmer today gets less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar. Local farmers who sell directly to consumers cut out all of the middlemen and get full retail price for their food- which means farm families can afford to stay on the farm, doing the work they love.

Sources: sustainabletable.org

health unit.org

localharvest.org

The sayings “Like mother, like daughter” is so true when it comes to eating habits!

How do you get your children to eat more fruits and vegetables? Simple. Eat more plant foods yourself!

According to a study conducted by researchers from the St. Louis University School of Public Health, when children make choices on what types of foods to eat, they choose what their parents would typically eat. The study included 1,306 parents enrolled in the national “Parents As Teachers” program. Just under half of the parents participated in the “High 5 for Kids” Program, whose goal is to increase education for both parents and children on proper nutrition. Methods taught included having the parent eat fruits and vegetables in front of their child, and then allowing the child to make a decision among several different fruit and vegetable options.

It was later found that the parents who participated in the program increased their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables considerably compared to those who did not. Also, the amount by which the parents increased their consumption directly correlated itself with how much their child’s intake increased. For every extra fruit or vegetable serving per day that the parent ate, their child ate an extra half serving!

The same effect didn’t occur for the overweight children, however. This is most likely due to being exposed to sweet, salty foods early on and getting used to the taste of these foods.

Since parents have complete control over their children’s food environment, it is important to expose them early on to a variety of healthy food choices. A great way to expose them to healthier options is to bring them along on your next trip to the Hub City Farmer’s Market! You could try making the trip to the market on Saturdays a family tradition that brings you closer and teaches your children a heatlhy way to purchase your groceries.

Full article found at Natural News

Top Eight Cancer-Fighting Foods

1. Dark, Leafy Greens- this includes collards, spinach, kale, and any greens that contain lutein and beta-carotene (vitamin A)
2. Green Tea- the polyphenols in green tea are powerful antioxidants that help prevent breast, prostate, colon, stomach, and skin cancer
3. Tomatoes- tomatoes, or the products of, including canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, tomato soup, and ketchup, all contain lycopene, which is an antioxidant that protects against prostate, breast, lung, and stomach cancer
4. Cruciferous vegetables- cruciferous veggies are from the cabbage family and include: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and mustard greens. The antioxidants in these help to reduce the risk of several cancers
5. Red wine- red wine contains antioxidants (called reservatrol) that help to prevent prostate, skin, and breast cancer. One 5-oz glass for women and two glasses for men is recommended
6. Nuts- cashews, almonds, walnuts, chestnuts, and pistachios all contain vitamin E, which is an antioxidant protecting against cancer
7. Garlic- There are several components in garlic that are thought to help prevent stomach, colon, esophageal, pancreas, skin, lung, and breast cancer. The components are formed when the garlic is chopped, crushed, or minced
8. Citrus- oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit all contain vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps prevent against cancer-causing cell damage. Not a fan of these fruits? Tomatoes, potatoes, and bell peppers also contain vitamin C.

By Food Network Magazine