The Happiness in Health

FNCE Gave Me a Sore Back

Ω November 10th, 2010 Ω Tagged birthday, blogger meetup, Boston, Chobani, Colleen Thompson, dessert, Ellen Shanley, Fantasy Fudge cake, FNCE, Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, Fueling the Teen Machine, Greek yogurt, healthy aging, Jennifer G. Robinson, Jose Ordovas, larabar, Michael Holick, nutritional genomics, Ruth DeBusk, Stephen B. Kritchevsky, vitamin D Ω 25 Comments

Hi, everyone!  I’m back from my birthday weekend (Nov. 6) at the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) in Boston and I had a blast! I met so many interesting dietitians and other health professionals. I can’t wait to share with you what I’ve learned at the conference. But first, birthday celebrations! Peter’s aunt Laurel and her family very kindly invited me to their house for a birthday luncheon prior to my arrival at the conference. Feast your eyes on this!

My photography skills do not do this creamy carrot ‘n’ squash soup justice. The fresh dill and cheese chunks were savory additions.

Fresh grilled chicken sandwich:

The best part!

How beautiful is this cake?  The recipe is “Fantasy Fudge Cake with Fantasy Fudge Frosting”.  I think the title says it all.

I’m pretty sure I spit all over the cake as I was struggling to blow out the candles – thanks to Laurie and Co. for not making fun of me … and for a wonderful birthday meal! :D

So, why is my back sore from FNCE? Well, it’s not FNCE’s fault – my back hurts because of a little something called FREE STUFF.  Every booth in FNCE’s exhibition hall was giving out something – all of which I proceeded to load into not one, but TWO, bags – one swinging off each shoulder. I looked like some sort of pack mule. In a gray vest.

Free stuff, y’all!

How cool is this nut display?? You guys know I’m all about my portion sizes:

Check out this new Chobani product for kids:

This kid-friendly yogurt is packed with protein and comes in Very Berry, Strawnana, Honeynana, and Chocolate. You can bet I went back the next day to try the Honeynana!

Larabar has also come out with some new flavors this past July, including chocolate chip cookie dough (inhaled during an educational session):

The chocolate chips are a genius addition, although I would probably keep these new chip-studded flavors for an occasional treat.

I had heard good things about the robot in the picture below, including how it would address you by name (after your badge is scanned) and how it flirts with the ladies. I made a beeline to this booth on the second day, hoping to be flattered by an inanimate object amazed by the robot’s engineering, but sadly, it was not operational during my visit.

I also had the fortune to hang out with these two wonderful ladies:

Ellen Shanley and Colleen Thompson are two University of Connecticut professors who have written an informative book called “Fueling the Teen Machine“. The second edition of this teen-centered nutrition book was just published.

Stay tuned for a full review ASAP!

Just so you know, I didn’t just go to FNCE to collect free stuff: I also attended a number of (mostly) interesting educational sessions. Here are a few tidbits I picked up about the latest nutrition research (as reported by FNCE’s presenters, unverified by me):

Vitamin D (Dr. Michael Holick, presenter)
* Low blood levels have been associated with diabetes, metabolic syndrome, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, dementia, schizophrenia, muscle weakness, peritonitis, upper respiratory tract infections, low birth weight, and poor birth outcomes. Whew!
* 81% of newborns are vitamin D deficient (within Dr. Holick’s hospital)
* Night sweating is most common symptom of vitamin D deficiency (!)
* Mushrooms make vitamin D, and are a potentially rich food source of vitamin D. In fact, I visited one exhibitor at the FNCE expo giving information on mushrooms as a vitamin D source. Interesting!
* Dr. Holick suggests that osteomalacia (softening of the bones related to lack of vitamin D) can be masked as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.
* Getting vitamin D from sun exposure when young can help decrease lifetime cancer risk (obviously, Dr. Holick’s view on this topic is controversial).
* Oily fish (like salmon) contain vitamin D, but farmed salmon contains NO vitamin D.
* Obesity is associated with vitamin D deficiency. Because body fat stores vitamin D, people who are obese need 2-10x as much vitamin D.
* Dr. Holick’s recommends large dose vitamin D supplements (4000 – 6000 IU/day) to maintain vitamin D levels in the body. While his research points to the need for such supplements, especially for people who live at higher latitudes, I would recommend getting your vitamin D levels checked first (ask for a total 25(OH)D assay) before supplementing with vitamin D. Just be prudent.

Nutritional Genomics (Jose Ordovas, PhD & Ruth DeBusk, PhD, RD, presenters)
* Different areas of the world have varying levels of selenium in the soil, and thus different levels of selenium in crops (see my selenium post).
* Could out-of-sync biological clocks (like the internal clock that controls your sleep cycle) contribute to chronic disease?
* Starvation during fetal development affects newborns’ metabolisms – their bodies are programmed to “hold on” to every calorie they get, increasing future risk of overweight and obesity.
* Someday, RDs may be able to look at a person’s unique “genetic signature” to help design an individual diet and exercise plan to keep the person healthy and meet their unique needs. Cool, huh?

Healthy Aging (Stephen B. Kritchevsky, PhD & Jennifer G. Robinson, MD, MPH, presenters)
* “Lifespan” vs. “Healthspan”: our goal should be to extend the number of years of healthy life, not just the number of years of life, period.
* As people age, they tend to lose muscle and bone – but they also tend to gain weight! Where does that weight come from? (Hint: FAT). Resistance training as you age will help reduce the loss of muscle and the gain of fat.
* Loss of muscle in aging is related to the amount of protein in the diet (a.k.a. give your seniors plenty of protein!).
* BMI’s related to lowest mortality in adults ages 60-68 is 26.6 in men and 27.3 in women. These BMI’s are considered “overweight” according to the current BMI scale.
* Higher omega-3 fat levels are correlated with longer telomere lengths (telomeres are a measure of how fast you are aging – you want longer telomeres). Eat your fatty fish!

Breast Cancer: Diet, Physical Activity, and Genetics (Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD & Dr. Jennifer Ligibel, presenters)
* Women who gain weight later in life (regardless of whether they were lean or overweight in early life) are at a higher risk of breast cancer, possibly because of increased fat mass over lean mass (muscle and bone).
* The “Western diet” (higher in saturated fat, trans fat, sugar) is associated with a 2x higher risk of ALL-cause mortality.
* Plenty of exercise AFTER breast cancer diagnosis is linked to a better outcome, whereas women who gain weight after diagnosis increase risk of cancer mortality.

Overall, my first time at FNCE was a success! … Not least because I got to meet three wonderful bloggers! Do you know them?

Melinda (on right) blogs at Nutrition, Food, Travel, and More – you may remember her wonderful guest post on THIH when I was in China this past summer. I was so thrilled to meet Melinda, not only because I’m a great admirer of her blog, but also because she lives in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and I probably would never have met her if it wasn’t for FNCE! Lovely to meet you, Melinda!

In the middle is the gorgeous Kristen who blogs at EatingRD. Check out her blog for beautiful pictures and fun recipes :) It was so nice to meet you, Kristen!

Our final blogger buddy is one of my favorites: Kristen at Swanky Dietitian.

I loved chatting with you, Kristen! I feel like I’ve known you for a long time! FNCE has only whetted my appetite for blogger meetups – anyone coming to Connecticut any time soon? ;)

Q: Have you ever been to a blogger meetup?

and

What’s your favorite birthday dessert? See pictures 4-6 of this post for mine :D

Edited to add: The Happiness in Health is one of the featured “Best of the Web” blogs at this link – check it out!

» Filed under Life, Nutrition Info » 25 Comments

Sous-Vide and Nutrient Needs

Ω September 1st, 2010 Ω Tagged Cairn terrier, calcium, dogs, egg, lactose intolerance, Norfolk terrier, perfect egg, sous-vide, vampire, vampire dog, vegan, vegan diet, vegetarian, vegetarian diet, vitamin B12, vitamin D Ω 38 Comments

You can imagine my surprise when I walked into our bathroom recently and found this in our bathtub:

Peter!

Those of you who have been reading THIH for a while know that Peter has been experimenting with sous-vide cooking for several months. Sous-vide involves cooking food that has been vacuum-sealed in plastic in a tightly-controlled low-temperature water bath. The resulting food (carefully handled and cooked for food safety purposes, of course) is tender in texture and rich in flavor.

As sous-vide devices are quite expensive, Peter set out to make his own. His first attempt yielded a device that could control the tempy of the water bath to 1°F accuracy. Not bad! So far, he’s made salmon, lamb chops, and, of course, his “perfect” egg.

Of course, typical Peter doesn’t want just 1°F accuracy – he wants 0.1°F accuracy. Go figure. So, a few weeks ago, he set out to make the perfect sous-vide device, following directions on this website and adding his own improvements (such as separating the heating device and thermometer from the control box). Here is the result:

This box is the temperature control for the water bath in the bathtub. It does seem a bit overkill to use the huge basin to cook two eggs, but Peter wanted to test the temperature control in a large vat of water.

And here is our perfect egg!

What? Bonnie, you want some of dat?

One of my favorite ways to eat soft-boiled eggs is to break them over a big bowl of veggies and enjoy it like dressing.

With all the wonderful stuff in eggs, this dressing is one of which you can be proud (if you eat eggs, of course :) ). Stay tuned to see more of Peter sous-vide creations!

*Griiiiiiind*

Hear that? That’s me shifting gears.

… My lovely German friend Sandi sent me this question recently:

I’ve been meaning to ask you if you have any advice for people who live vegan? I’ve been vegetarian for 15 years but I’ve always liked dairy products. But for a while now I’ve been getting sick after eating dairy, even milk chocolate bars and ice cream :( I’ve been to the doctor to check it and he agrees that I might be lactose intolerant. So is there any advice you could give me for my diet? Are there even vegan sources for all nutrients, for example vitamin D?

Great questions, Sandi! I’m glad that you check with your doctor, as he can help you determine the degree to which you may be lactose intolerant (and check for other reasons why you may be getting sick). In general, lactose intolerance is common, especially in adulthood, with some ethnic groups more affected than others (African American, Asian, American Indian, for example). People vary tremendously on just how lactose-intolerant they are, with some people able to handle a cup of milk 2x a day, while others cannot handle low-lactose cheese. Your doctor and/or registered dietitian can help you determine what you can handle.

Some foods tend to contain more lactose than others: for example, hard cheese and yogurt tend to have less lactose per serving than milk. Also, full fat milk tends to have less lactose per serving than low fat and nonfat milk (although I would not condone regular consumption of full fat dairy due to the high amount of saturated fat!). With your doctor’s supervision, you can experiment to see just how much dairy you can handle.

Why am I pushing dairy so much? Some people choose not to include dairy in their diet, which is A-OK. However, for someone who DOES wish to include dairy in their diet, dairy is the easiest source of calcium. Of course, if any dairy makes you feel sick or you choose not to include dairy in your diet, there are some great vegan sources of calcium. The best is spinach and other leafy green vegetables, followed by beans, peas, nuts, and orange juice and cereal that’s been fortified with calcium (I’m not sure if Germany has these!). Try to eat several servings of these calcium-rich foods per day, and maybe consider a calcium supplement.

As for vitamin D, the best way to get vitamin D is to expose your skin to the sun – ALERT!! – but I don’t advise too much sun, because that can damage your skin! In the U.S., the best (and easiest!) food source for vitamin D is fortified milk, which I’m not sure you have in Germany. Some foods, like liver, sardines, and eggs, have a little bit of vitamin D, but it’s hard to get enough from just those foods (especially if you choose not to include them in your diet). I actually take vitamin D pills (they’re the only supplement I take, besides the occasional omega fatty acid supplement), because research is showing that vitamin D is very important, and even with milk I’m not getting enough in my diet. The literature on vitamin D is too rich to get into at this point – maybe I’ll devote a post to it later.

Lastly, sometimes vegetarians and vegans have trouble getting enough vitamin B12 in their diets because the best sources are meat, eggs, and dairy.  I know you said you don’t like eggs, Sandi, so those are out.  There aren’t really any plant sources of B12, unless you eat cereals or other foods that have been fortified with vitamin B12. B12 is really important, so if you’re not eating any dairy or eggs, it might be good to take a multivitamin, if you can. Nutritional yeast is another possible source of vitamin B12, but you MUST be sure that the label says the yeast has been fortified with B12 – not all of them have it!

A few good resources for a vegetarian or vegan diet are here and here.

(… You may be wondering why I interspersed my discussion of nutrients with pictures of Bonnie. Well, I thought about finding some generic pictures of milk or yogurt to break up the text, but I figured that was boring. This way, I can show off our adorable doggies. Goodness know I never exploit their cuteness. Case in point:

That would be my vampiric little Maddles, with Gussie in the background. What, you don’t believe me about the vampire thing? Look at this closeup, my friends:

Q.E.D. )

Q: What should Peter cook next in his sous-vide device? If I like your suggestion, we may try it!

» Filed under Nutrition Info » 38 Comments