VitaNews

Author: Ashley Wentworth

It’s back-to-school season which means many of us are fretting about what to send in our kids’ lunchboxes, myself included. Unless your child takes advantage of the school meal program for all of their school meals, planning and packing lunches can be daunting. It seems like a constant battle between sending foods that support them during their long school day, and ones they’ll actually eat.

Here are a few ideas to help make packing for lunchtime easier.

Pack Enough Food

My first tip is to pack enough food. Many schools have time for a snack/breakfast in the morning in addition to a normal lunch period. This basically means packing enough food for two meals, especially if your child has a small breakfast at home or doesn’t eat before school. 

Having enough food to eat supports their energy, concentration, learning, and growth. I know if I’m hungry I usually am not productive and have poor focus and concentration. Our kids are no different. Being hungry can also cause irritability (hello, hangry!) and is distracting. 

Use School Programs

Take advantage of your school’s snack and meal offerings. Some states have adopted universal free school breakfast and lunch meals which is a no-brainer to help with your budget. Look over the menu together with your student and pick out some items or meals for them to try.

Make It a Joint Effort

Include your child in the planning and packing process for their school meals. Have them help you come up with some items or meals they might like to have for the week or over the next few weeks. You can include these on your grocery list and then have them available. 

Some families have kids pack their own lunchbox each day. 

Offer Options

Pack plenty of food and a variety of options. This will give them some different things to choose from. I know I don’t know what I want for lunch right when I wake up in the morning. Include items from all of the food groups, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber, and fun foods can all be part of a school meal. 

Try to help your student explore which foods help keep them full and satisfied during their day. 

Kids go through phases of liking things and then not wanting them for a while, just like adults. If their tastes change, try to go with the flow and pick some new or different items to try. 

Make It Easy for Them

Kids often do not get a lot of time to eat lunch in school. Make it easier for them. For example, send oranges already peeled. Slice up apples. Have everything ready to eat so they don’t waste time peeling and cutting and end up with no time to actually eat.

Handy Lunchtime Tools

• Bento boxes are great with helping to include variety. There are many different compartments to have fun with. It also saves space to help include more food instead of containers using up the space.
• Small cooler/ice packs are great to help keep things that need to be refrigerated stay cold during the school day.
• We use our thermos a lot! We pack soup, macaroni and cheese, lasagna, shepherd’s pie, and more. 
• Cookie cutters can be used to make food items seem more fun and appealing. Cutting sandwiches, cheese, or anything into shapes automatically makes them more desirable to little ones. 
• I’m not sure about you, but I absolutely hate having a million plastic, zippered snack bags floating around the kitchen and the lunch box. We love our reusable snack bags! They certainly help save money as well. 

Ditch the Guilt 

When we think “processed” we usually think unhealthy, prepackaged food. But truth be told, most of the food we buy at the store is processed in some way. It’s ok to send processed convenience foods like dried or canned fruit for example. Fruits and vegetables don’t have to be fresh for every meal/snack. If your kids like them and eat them, it’s a win! 

Food Item Ideas

• Sandwiches!
• Wraps 
• Open-faced sandwiches 
• Pinwheels
• Sliders
• Fruits and vegetables, canned, cooked, fresh, dried, freeze-dried, or frozen 
• Write notes or draw pictures on bananas and oranges to make them fun
• Try different cuts to keep things exciting—sliced, cubed, or cut into fun shapes
• Send some kind of dip for fruits and vegetables if your child likes it better this way. We love mixing yogurt and peanut butter together for a quick fruit dip! Hummus, salad dressings, yogurt, or whatever your child enjoys.
• Leftovers from dinner
• Cheese—cubed, sliced, or string
• Popcorn
• Pretzels
• Crackers
• Nut butters if your school allows it, Sunbutter if not
• Deli meat and cheese rolls 
• Muffins or breads 
• Yogurt
• Homemade Lunchable style items

There are no rules when it comes to packing meals for your kids. Choose foods they like. If it seems like they are getting bored with things, try something new. Almost anything can be sent as a school meal—think outside the (lunch) box. Happy back-to-school!

Author: Ashley Wentworth

So in all honesty, that title basically reads “my favorite road trip snacks.” If you’re headed out on the road with the family or friends, car snacks are a must! Read on to find out my secrets to staying satisfied and avoiding hangry meltdowns when you’re away from home.

Whenever I leave the house, I bring snacks! If I’m only going to be gone a short time I’ll just take a granola bar. But if I’m going to be gone for a few hours, or going on a day trip or a long vacation, you best believe we’re loaded to the hilt with snacks—or even small meals. 

Funny story: I once got my carry-on bag searched at security at an airport because of all of my snacks—a lot of them had twist ties that must have looked suspicious in the x-ray machine. My bag was literally filled with food and a few books. 

You can still have balanced meals and snacks but, in my opinion, road trips and vacations are not the time to obsess over healthy food choices—it’s a time to enjoy with your friends or family, be in the moment, and make memories. Choose foods that help give you energy for your trip and let you have fun, too.

Bringing foods from home can also save you time and money (um, yes, please!). Planning ahead will help you avoid stopping sixteen thousand times at convenience stores or fast food restaurants because you’re all hungry at different times or can’t find what you want. 

Logistical snack secrets 

Here are my logistical snack secrets for your family’s next road trip.

Plan

We always go to the grocery store a day or two before we’re heading out with a list of snack items we want to bring. Having a plan helps us avoid forgetting someone’s favorite snack—and the impending meltdown.  

Bring things you know most everyone in the car will like. It’s great to bring healthy foods like fruits and vegetables—as long as they won’t go to waste. Packing foods you hope your family will eat—but know they probably won’t—just presents you with wasted space, food, and irritable people on your hands (no thanks!). So, if your family doesn’t usually enjoy grapes (or whatever) then, don’t bring grapes on your road trip.

Stick with What You Know

Road trips are not usually the best time to try new, healthy recipes or foods (hello, upset tummies—and frequent, inconvenient bathroom breaks). Bring your tried and true snacks and foods. You can always try new things on the road if you feel like it, just go easy to avoid “vacation belly.” 

Think Variety

Bring a variety of items. Include things from all food groups to keep people satisfied, including sweet treats. I never go on a road trip without chocolate of some type (Mom Tip: Keep the chocolate in a container that will catch any melted chocolate if it gets left in a hot car!).

By bringing a variety of foods, it also allows you to make small meals out of snack foods so you don’t have to stop as often to find somewhere to eat.

Stay Cool

Bring a cooler for things that need to stay chilled and bring a separate bag of shelf-stable items. We always take both! Letting things that need to be refrigerated stay at car temperature usually makes things not as tasty and can be dangerous—and another cause for upset tummies. Putting shelf-stable things in the cooler can cause them to be damp or get stale. I know it seems like a lot of space for food, but trust me on this one. 

I like to use freezer packs instead of ice in our coolers when possible. They are so much easier to deal with than having to worry about stopping for ice all the time and it keeps things clean and dry. If you don’t have a way to re-freeze the packs though, by all means stay safe and use ice.

Bottoms Up

Don’t forget your fluids! Pack plenty of water to avoid paying for overpriced bottled water at convenience stores. If you’ll be away overnight or longer, a 5 gallon water jug with a pump is a total life-saver. Plus, you’ll avoid all the space and waste of plastic water bottles. If it will be hot, consider using sports or electrolyte drinks to help with electrolyte replacement. Using electrolyte powders can help save on cargo room. 

Think Outside the Box

Just because foods you like aren’t considered “snack” food or road-worthy, doesn’t mean you can’t bring them! You could easily figure out a way to make oatmeal (thermoses are great!) or bring a bowl for cereal if those are things you enjoy. 

Also, don’t forget a trash bag of some sort for all the inevitable wrappers—they hopefully won’t get stuffed between the seats this way! 

Another tip—bring baby wipes, wet wipes, or something to clean off sticky fingers!

Bring On the Snack Ideas

Here are a few of my family’s favorite road-trip snacks to give you some ideas of what can be packed.

• Cheese: string, sliced, cubed, etc. 
• Pretzels, chips, tortilla chips, crackers, etc.
• Dry cereal
• Peanut butter crackers
• Pre-popped popcorn
• Granola bars, protein bars, etc.
• Nuts
• Trail or snack mixes
• Nut butters
• Hummus or other dips
• Yogurt
• Salsa
• Fruit: fresh, canned, freeze-dried, and/or dried
• Sliced veggies
• Hard boiled eggs
• Cottage cheese
• Bread and things to make sandwiches like deli meats or nut butter and jelly
• Meat jerky 
• Chocolate and other treats you and your family enjoy. Choose packages that are individually wrapped or small portions to make them last longer. 
• Chocolate covered nuts and pretzels are some of my favorites

Bottom Line

There are no rules! Bring whatever you like. Make sandwiches ahead, make pasta salads, etc. Choose what fits your likes, wants, and needs. Snacks are one of the best parts of a road trip—have fun with them!

Author: Ashley Wentworth

This is one of my favorite holidays! I practice No Diet Day every single day but this holiday gives me an extra chance to shout from the rooftops about how harmful diets actually are and that all bodies deserve respect.

Diets have been around for a long time. Some of the first diets were recorded as early as the 1700’s. I won’t bore you with all of them but here are a few of note:

• 1724 Physician George Cheyne published “An Essay of Health and Long Life”. This was the first record of someone pushing their own nutrition regimen that resulted in weight loss. 
• 1863 William Banting found that restricting carbohydrates induced weight loss.
• 1930 Dr. Stoll’s Diet Aid was one of the first meal replacement drinks. 

We have not evolved much since then. Despite decades of advances and innovation in  medicine, science, and technology, we are no closer to finding safe, effective, long-term weight loss methods. Most current day diet plans include some sort of restriction, usually peddled by someone who has had initial weight loss with the plan. Restriction and dieting remain harmful to our physical, mental, and emotional health.

The Truth about Long-Term Weight Loss

A myriad of research tells us that there is no long-term weight loss solution. Many studies show that there is initial weight loss when embarking on a new diet or nutrition plan, but they often do not follow participants long term (>3-5 years). Following participants for such a short amount of time, usually somewhere between six weeks to one year, does not give us an accurate picture of how these methods play out in real life. 

Dieting also wreaks damage on our health. Since diets and intentional weight loss do not work long-term, most people turn to diets off and on throughout their lives. One survey found that the average person tries about 126 diets over their lifetime. That’s a lot of diets! For an average person that roughly equates to about two diets per year. 

The same survey also suggested that participants were confused about food, nutrition, and health. Here are some findings:

• Over half of the respondents (52%) said they are “really confused” about which fad diets are sustainable over long periods of time and which are intended for more short-term periods.
• One in five respondents said that they have no idea where to go for reliable dietary information
• More than half are “baffled” regarding which foods should and shouldn’t be cut out of their eating habits.

Another interesting note from this survey is that many people stopped dieting due to side effects like fatigue, weakness, and headaches. This should come as no surprise when dieting as these are all common side effects of not eating enough. 

What Happens When You Diet On and Off

Dieting on and off, or yo-yo dieting, causes us to start a cycle of losing weight during the diet and then gaining weight back after the diet. This is also known as weight cycling. This happens to 95% of the population according to a hallmark study done in 1959 by Albert Stunkard. There has been research done since this study, of course, but we still do not have any better answers. 

Here are some of the effects of weight cycling on our physical, mental, and emotional health:

• Higher risk of binge eating 
• Weight gain
• Increased risk of death
• Loss of muscle tissue
• Chronic inflammation
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Higher risk of osteoporotic fractures
• Greater emotional distress
• Diabetes

These are all things we are trying to solve or manage when we embark on improving our health. Why, then, do we keep turning to diets to help us solve these problems when they just make them worse?

Despite all of this research and evidence, most of us still believe that losing weight will definitively improve our health. But according to a 2014 review in the Journal of Obesity, “body weight is defended by a power biological system that reacts to a negative energy balance by lowering metabolism and increasing hunger, food preoccupation, and hedonic responses to food.” 

All of that to say, our bodies choose a weight range they like to hang out in, where they feel healthy and comfortable—and it’s not based on weight charts, ideal body weight, or BMI. Once we start doing things that bring our bodies out of this range, our security alert system goes off (Warning! Warning!) and our bodies do everything they can to keep us from starving to death, including:

• Increasing our hunger cues so we will go find food
• Lowering our metabolism so we don’t need as much fuel for the same activity levels
• Increasing our thoughts about food so we will search out food
• Increasing satisfaction and pleasure of eating food so we will keep eating for adequate nutrition 

The truth is, our bodies don’t know the difference between starving (not having enough food) and dieting (purposely restricting food) and it has a very powerful system in place to keep us eating enough. 

How Did No Diet Day Begin?

In the 1980’s and 90’s diet programs ran rampant—Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, Oprah’s journey with Optifast, and more. After hearing about the lengths people were going for the pursuit of weight loss (like stomach stapling) and the detriments of anti-fat bias (suicide), Mary Evans Young decided that enough was enough. 

Young knew that dieting and pursuing weight loss was unattainable for most people and she understood the pressure of feeling the need to try anyways. Like many others, she had a history of an eating disorder, and experienced bullying, as well as body image issues. 

Young wanted to spread awareness and education to prevent more people from being harmed by the diet industry. So, in 1992 she created “No Diet Day” to “celebrate the importance of body acceptance, diversity, and respect for all body shapes and sizes.” No Diet Day is now celebrated internationally each year on May 6th.

A few other organizations and movements with similar missions started to emerge around the same time including

• Council on Size & Weight Discrimination
• Health At Every Size ® approach (now supported by the Association for Size Diversity and Health)

How Can I Celebrate No Diet Day?

There are so many ways to celebrate! Choose what seems right for you. Here are a few ideas.

Enjoy Your Food

I mean, really savor it. Choose your favorite meals and fun foods today and more often in general. It doesn’t have to be a “cheat” meal. You don’t need to feel shame or guilt for enjoying your food. Eating is supposed to be fun! Try to bring some joy back into your nutrition. You don’t have to stick to having only “healthy” foods at all of your meals and snacks. 

Share on Social Media to Spread Awareness

Share how you’re celebrating No Diet Day! The more people that know about the holiday and what it stands for, the better. We all deserve more than a lifetime of dieting—126 diets is too many.

Not sure what to post? The National Eating Disorder Association has some social media graphics to share. 

Show Your Body Gratitude and Respect

Even if you don’t love or even like your body, you can still take care of it in ways that feel good to you. The more you show your body respect the more you may come to appreciate it. You don’t have to intentionally lose weight to do the things you want and enjoy—stop “weighting!” 

Recognize That All Bodies:

• are good bodies, no matter what they look like.  
• deserve kindness and respect. 
• deserve access to quality healthcare. 
• can have different health levels—and you cannot tell someone’s health status by looking at them. 

Reflect and Evaluate Your Relationship with Food

• Does the thought of food and eating stress you out most of the time? 
• Do you feel out of control around food?
• Do you have to track things like calories, macros, etc.?
• Do you feel like you need to exercise to “burn off” your food?
• Do you weigh or measure all of your food?

If any of these statements sound like you, it may be time to check in on your nutrition and health goals. These thoughts and behaviors are examples of disordered eating. They may seem “normal” because many of us do these things, but this is only because disordered eating has become normalized in our culture. 

Dieting takes up so much of our time, energy, thoughts, and money. As Mary Evans Young said, “What do you think would happen if you spent as much time and energy on your careers as you do on your diets?” This statement can be applied to anything in your life, not just your career.

Dieting has proven to fail us—but makes us feel like we are the failures. This makes us feel shame, have low confidence, and lose self-trust in our bodies. It’s time to try something different and get our lives back! Happy No Diet Day!

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Author: Ashley Wentworth

National Nutrition Month ® was created by the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics as a way to learn more about nutrition and incorporate healthful habits into our lifestyles. Each March the Academy chooses a theme for National Nutrition Month ® and provides information and helpful tips related to the theme.

Fuel for the Future

This March, the focus is “Fuel for the Future.” According to the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, this theme “highlights the importance of fuelling our bodies at every age and eating with the environment in mind.”

As a Registered Dietitian, I am enjoying this pick. It reminds us to focus on getting enough food to nourish ourselves, something I find most people struggle with. A lot of messaging around nutrition is confusing, rigid, or proclaims, “The less, the better!” This can leave us hungry, irritable, hyper focused on food, and can erode our relationship with food and trust in our bodies. Adequate nutrition is a great step towards a healthful lifestyle.

Sustainability

The sustainability aspect of this theme is a great sentiment as well, encouraging us to leave our environment better than we found it. Prioritizing sustainability can be great for some, but can create a hyperfocus on food choices and can also be expensive and inaccessible for many of us. Making intentional, sustainable food choices often requires financial resources, time, and energy. Many of us do not have the capacity to participate in these options as resources are limited, we do not have many options for food shopping, and we need to choose low cost foods to maximize the volume of food we can buy—especially with the current increase in costs of living. We can also get too wrapped up in these practices as well. If you are only allowing yourself to eat sustainable options you may risk inadequate nutrition and obsessive food thoughts and behaviors.

The Academy also provides some tips to try out during the month to help us apply the theme to our everyday lives:

Top tips

Each of these tips can make a big difference in your budget, time, food choices, and relationship with food. I personally use every one of these suggestions in my nutrition choices and planning, as well as in nutrition counseling with my clients.

If you’d like to start implementing any of these tips:

• Start slow! Choose 1-2 at a time to practice.
• Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to “stick to it”. It’s new and will take time to adjust.
• If it doesn’t make things easier for you, it might not work for you. That’s okay!
• Be patient. Improving health and nutrition takes time and often does not look or feel the way we see in media.
• Focus on how these changes are making you feel, and celebrate these wins!
• Physically - do you have more energy?
• Mentally - are you fueling enough and having less irritability? Are you less stressed about food choices?
• Emotionally - are you having more fun in the kitchen? Are you enjoying food and meals more?

National Nutrition Month® also aims to bring awareness to the role of Registered Dietitians.

Registered Dietitians (RD), also called Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN), are food and nutrition experts. Registered Dietitians have completed a specific, accredited curriculum for an undergraduate degree, completed a supervised practice/internship, and passed a national registration examination. We also must maintain continuing education requirements throughout our career.

This extensive training allows us to work in many different fields to:

• Make personalized, evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle recommendations based on your past medical history, budget, schedule, preferences, allergies, etc. 
• Plan, implement, and help people access community food and nutrition programs.
• Develop recipes and food products. 
• Provide nutrition care and interventions in clinical settings like hospitals and long-term care facilities.
• Develop and implement nutritionally adequate menus for schools, hospitals, and other facilities.
• Perform health, food, and nutrition research.
• Manage food service operations.
• Provide reliable health and nutrition information in public health campaigns.

What’s the difference between a Registered Dietitian and a Nutritionist?

Registered Dietitians are credentialed practitioners that have met certain qualifications, and participate in required continuing education to maintain their credentials. Per the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, “A credential is a professional qualification — like MD for doctors or physicians — that lets the public know that the practitioner is a trained expert. In nutrition and dietetics, the credentials for trained experts is RDN and NDTR.”

The “Nutritionist” title is not credentialed, meaning that there are no qualifications to meet to acquire this title, so in essence, anyone can call themselves a Nutritionist.

Note: All Registered Dietitians are Nutritionists, but not all Nutritionists are Registered Dietitians. Be sure to get health and nutrition information from a credentialed source. Much of the current nutrition information in the media is anecdotal and not based on scientific evidence.

I hope these nutrition tips were helpful! Enjoy National Nutrition Month®!

Ashley

Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This special day is observed on February 11th each year to raise awareness for gender equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM. Despite the needle moving forward in regard to gender equality in the STEM fields, the presence of women is still severely lacking.

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