Top 10 Worst Kids' Meals

I love the Eat This, Not That information. I got the new book for Christmas. Is it weird that I get excited about that kind of gift? Check out the link below to help your kids steer clear of the worst kids meal food.

Top 10 Worst Kids' Meals

10 New Top Swaps

Have you noticed that I love the "Eat This, Not That" website? I should be getting a cut for how many people I send it's way. :) Check out 10 New Top Swaps for Weight Loss that will help you make better choices.

The Great Pumpkin

In celebration of the beautiful fall weather, I decided it was time to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (I know, not that healthy). I had left over pumpkin and thought that my two year old would like it. Sure enough he ate an entire bowl of pure pumpkin puree with a little cinnamon and loved it. Besides being full of antioxidants, pumpkins are also rich in many vitamins and minerals which make them a healthy fall food choice. With that being said, my main experience with pumpkin recipes include pumpkin chocolate chip bread and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I'm pretty sure the massive amounts of sugar and fat required for these -oh so tasty treats- negates the nutrition of the pumpkin so I decided to do some healthy pumpkin recipe research. Below are a couple of links I found.

Top 10 Low Fat Pumpkin Recipes
The banana pumpkin muffins look delish!

7 Surprising Pumpkin Recipes
Once again, I think I'm going to try the muffins. Yum!

I'd love to hear about your tasty recipes. Leave a comment or shoot me an email.
oklahomarunningmom@gmail.com

6 Rules of Good Nutrition

As you may have guessed, I love the Eat This, Not That website and book(s). Today I found the article, "6 Rules of Good Nutrition." I like it because the information is good and, more importantly, relatively easy to follow. Check it out and make some easy but important changes in your daily routine.

30 Saltiest Foods in America

This morning on our walk my friend and I were talking about how to avoid foods with sodium. (Aren't you jealous that you couldn't be a part of such an interesting conversation???) High blood pressure and exercise induced-asthma to name a few. As usual the Eat This, Not That people have shown us some foods we should avoid. Click on the link below to find out how to avoid excess sodium when you're out to eat.

30 Saltiest Foods in America

25 Foods You Should Never Eat!

This article was interesting/disturbing for me. I hate when I thinking I'm making an "okay" food choice and later find out it's really bad. Click on the link below to find out what you should avoid.

"25 Diet-Busting Foods You Should Never Eat"

S'mores

In case you can't tell, I'm kind of on a dessert kick lately. (Is it okay if I blame it on pregnancy?) S'mores are one of my favorite treats and compared to many other treats, they aren't that bad. Check out the info I discovered below.

Regular Sonic Milk Shake: 460 Calories, 26 Grams of Fat
Snickers Bar: 280 Calories, 14 Grams of Fat
One Serving of Chocolate Cake: 235 Calories, 10.5 Grams of Fat

(FYI: I found this info using the Calorie Counter Like on my sidebar.)

If you eat a S'more with one marshmallow, half a Hersey Bar and one gram cracker, you're eating approximately 180 calories and 8 grams of fat.

You're saving between 55 and 280 calories and 2.5 and 18 grams of fat (more if you eat bigger portions of those other snacks) if you choose a S'more over the other choices.

Obviously, it's always better to abstain from extra sugar all together but at least we can still have a really good treat without feeling super guilty. Plus, how can you resist a S'more in the summer time??? Happy Roasting!

9 Ways to Eat Healthy at the Burger Joint

Once again Eat This, Not That has provided me with some great information for today's blog post. Check this article out to learn how to make better choices at a Burger Joint. Don't worry...it doesn't tell you to order the veggie burger. :)

9 Ways to Eat Healthy at the Burger Joint

Toys and Obesity????

Okay, I know that I'm totally obnoxious about healthy eating and restaurants that offer foods with a disgusting amount of calories (i.e. the double down sandwich), but the article I read today about officials who are banning Happy Meal Toys seemed more than a little ridiculous to me. Below is an excerpt from the article: It's a Sad Day for Happy Meals in Santa Clara County.

"This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's' love of toys" to sell high-calorie, unhealthful food, said Supervisor Ken Yeager, who sponsored the measure. "This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes."

I personally don't think it's the toys linked with unhealthful foods that are responsible for obese children. It's the failure of parents to provide healthful foods to their children on a daily basis. When we get into the habit of counting on fast food multiple times a week to provide meals, our families won't be getting the proper nutrition they need. I'm grateful that my mom and dad both cooked my brothers and I meals all the time. I'm also grateful that we were able to indulge in the occasional happy meal and cheap toy (which seemed priceless to me at the time).

What do you think? Where is the line between regulation and personal responsibility when it comes to food?

Too Good to be True

Lately I've been thinking a lot about fad diets and weight loss supplements that promise quick results. They kind of...no REALLY drive me crazy. I hate that people are getting tricked into believing that they can obtain optimal health without proper diet and exercise. I don't think loosing weight and making healthy choices has to be frustrating, exhausting and difficult, but I know that there are no short cuts. I also know that many if not most of these diets can actually make it harder for you to maintain and loose weight in the future. There's a website that I really like called "The Fight for Fitness" and the author often discusses this issue. Today I found a link on his blog about the HCG Diet and another about detox diets. I don't think all diets are bad but I think it's important to remember that, just like with any other thing in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

In other news, I attended Strollin' Moms this morning at Fleet Feet and it was tons of fun. Join us on Thursday at 9am.

Food Comparison Guide

My mom found a great comparison slide show about making healthful food choices. Check it out!

Lunch Food Face-Off

Are You Kidding Me KFC??

I admit that I often come across a little self righteous about eating nutritionally so I will confess that as I write this blog I'm eating a cookie (okay...you caught me...I'm eating two cookies). I really don't think it's a big deal to splurge every once in a while. With that being said, I was completely disgusted when I saw a commercial for this new KFC Sandwich. In my opinion, this goes way beyond a "splurge." In case you can't see the fine print, this sandwich includes multiple slices of cheese and bacon between two pieces of fried chicken. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? It's no wonder that the rate of obesity is rising so quickly. I looked up the nutritional information for the sandwich. Check out the results below. (FYI: This doesn't include the potato wedges and soda that come in the combo.)

Calories: 540

Fat Grams: 32 (10 saturated and 0.5 transfat)

Sodium: 1380mg (you should only be getting a max of 2300mg/day)

The potato wedges add 260 calories, 13 fat grams and 740mg of sodium.

A diet Pepsi wouldn't add calories or fat but does up the sodium intake by 65mg.

Grand Total for entire meal:

Calories: 800

Fat Grams: 45

Sodium: 2,185

Once again, I'm not against a splurge every once in a while but I think this is something we should stay away from entirely.

(Just to give you some perspective, the amount of fat in this meal is equivalent to 5 pieces of Papa John's 10in Pepperoni Pizza.)

Eat This, Not That BBQ

For me, good BBQ is an essential part of spring and summer (confession: I could eat it all year long). Read "10 Ways to Eat Healthily at the BBQ Shack" to navigate your next BBQ dinner.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

I'm so glad that Bek talked about high fructose corn syrup. It's really hard to be informed about everything and always make good choices. For me, it helps when I hear others' stories because I see that it is possible to make better choices. I just read an article about a new study at Princeton that showed the effects of high fructose corn syrup verses sugar. Very interesting!!

"A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain"

PS I ran the Wish Lemons 5K today and it was tons of fun. Check back Monday to get details.

Changes

First of all, this is Bek, not Em. :) My husband is in medical school and last semester took a biochemistry class that went into nutrition in detail. He came home one day and announced he wanted me to stop buying any food that contained trans fats or high fructose corn syrup. I already tried to avoid things with trans fats, but the high fructose corn syrup was new to me. Almost all my classes in college went over and over why to avoid trans fats so I already knew about those. They're the fats that go straight to the walls of the arteries and clog them, increasing the risk for heart disease an stroke. Trans fats are found in fatty meats, most fried foods, and really processed junk food. My husband educated me on high fructose corn syrup and I read up on it a little bit and here's the basic gist of why it's bad for our bodies: unless your body is in need of glucose (sugar), which most of of don't need because we eat it so often in so many different forms, high fructose corn syrup turns right into fat. Unless your body's been in a fasting mode for more than about 3 or 4 hours, all those soft drinks (especially the ones you drink with a meal) are going straight to your hips! Because so many foods have high fructose corn syrup in them, they really are a huge contributing factor to America's obesity and diabetes problems. Well, that was enough for me to make the change and quit the stuff. However, buying food that doesn't have either the trans fats or the syrup is really difficult. A lot of snack foods have one or both of the two. I've found myself reading every nutrition label at the grocery store. But, to me, it's worth the investment of time to reduce my family's risk for top killers in America-heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer. Don't get me wrong, we're still have some of both every now and then, but we're definitely reducing our intake. If you want to read more, here's a website that has some AWESOME resources for eating better: theculpritandthecure.com. I have all three of Dr. Aldana's book and use them often. Good luck with making the change!
Bek

Eat This, Not That

I'm totally obsessed with the information from the books and website "Eat This, Not That." Among many other reasons, I like the information because it gives realistic alternatives to unhealthy foods and opens your eyes to what you're really eating. Because of this, I'm going to have a weekly "Eat This, Not That" post, and because I'm eating ice cream as I write this, I thought I'd do some ice cream research. According to the information on the "Eat This, Not That" website, Edy's Slow Churned Rocky Road is the most healthful grocery store ice cream choice. See what they had to say below or check the site out yourself. "Supermarket Ice Cream: Edy's Slow Churned Rocky Road½ cup120 calories4 g fat (2 g saturated fat)12 g sugars"

"Edy's Slow Churned produces one of the safest ice creams at the supermarket. For an extra health boost, go for Rocky Road, which contains real nuts."