It's time to raise our glasses in celebration!

“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.”

Clement Moore

It’s the time of year where indulging in hearty meals, rich chocolates and festive drinks is unavoidable. You keep asking: ‘What can I do to avoid the extra calories? And is there anything ‘natural’ for a hangover?’

I want to remind you that the holidays only come around once a year so enjoy them. Don’t spend your time consumed with what you’re consuming!


It’s time to raise our glasses in celebration and be thankful for the past year, those around us and the upcoming new year.

To ensure we all get through it with fond memories and not time spent sweating through stuffed bellies and painful hangovers here are some recommendations to cut calories and get through the headache, nausea, stomach discomfort, fatigue and dehydration experienced the morning after a few too many drinks.


Plan your day ahead:
• Keep your non-festive meals light. Enjoy some cottage cheese with a fruit or a green salad with freshly squeezed lemon dressing.
• More than likely starchy foods will be apart of your festive meal so leave them out of your other two meals.
• Avoid heavy creamy drinks or have as few as possible.
• Make sure to get your 8 glasses (8 oz = 1 glass) of water in! Drink some water before bed and the morning after to help clear out the extra salts consumed. Your best bet is to match each alcoholic drink you have with one glass of water while drinking and a glass of water every hour the day after.
• Eat slowly and stop when you’re full!


Too much to drink???
• For breakfast the next morning avoid acid-forming (greasy and fried!), fried eggs, bacon, black tea, coffee and white foods (bread). Choose foods that are lighter on the stomach and easier to digest such as brown rice, cooked vegetables, rice milk, nuts and seeds.
• Ginseng tea is found to clear alcohol from the liver, detoxify the system, reduce blood alcohol levels and take care of nausea.
• Alcohol tends to deplete B vitamins from the body. Replenishing these vitamins will help with your body’s recovery, fatigue and memory. B rich foods include sunflower seeds, bell peppers, cauliflower, spinach asparagus, lentils, salmon, green peas and whole grains.
• Alcohol tends to rid the body of antioxidants. Replenish by incorporating blueberries, pomegranates and oranges into your day.
• Extract of milk thistle can reduce the ‘morning after’ feeling. You can find this is capsule or tea form.
• Vitamin C helps strengthen the body and give you energy. You can get this through effervescent tablets in a glass of water. Incorporate vitamin C rich foods into your day.
• Alcohol dehydrates the body. Water! Water! Water!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!

I wish you all only the best of everything and may this New Year be filled with wonderful memories, laughter, love, joy and happiness!

May all your dreams & wishes come true…

Stay Healthy!

Are you a Label Reading Shopper or a Grab & Go Buyer?

At the grocery store today a woman with two children captured my attention...

Picture this:

The younger of the two children stood in the cart, holding a headless chocolate Santa in one hand and a bright red jelly candy in the other, stomping on a box of Fruit Loops crying, "No! No! NO!" The other child, also holding a poor headless Santa and a jelly candy, sang "la, la, la" while pushing packaged items off the shelves... Delightful, no?!?

What then caught my attention was what accompanied the squashed box of Fruit Loops in this woman's cart... Processed, high in sodium and high in sugar foods. She had absolutly no fruits, no vegatbles, no real food...

This made me think... Here I was a healthy woman without children spending time reading labels and thinking about my health. Does this woman know that excess salts and sugars link to high blood pressure, hyper-ness, moodiness and/or ADD and ADHD in both adults and children? Did she read food labels? Did she compare and contrast the nutrients of any products? I needed to know, the Nutritionista in me took over and I followed this 'delightful' little family into the next aisle...

To my horror, this woman read nothing and checked nothing... She was what I refer to as a Grab & Go Buyer. Look at the shelf and grab whatever appeals to you... Grab & Go!

I wanted to SCREAM:

"But that's full of sugar, and that's full of salt, and that one has artificial sweeteners in it, and that pretty bright red one...that's food colouring and the oily one MSG!!!!!"

On my drive home all I could think of was how, when health is so important and illness and disease so high, can people ignore their bodies? What about their childrens bodies?

Has life become too quick and too busy that our health has fallen down the priority list?

Are Label Reading Shoppers turning into Grab & Go Buyers?

Is salt really the new flavour of choice?

This made me think of a newspaper article I read earlier in the week, Cheesy, eggy and packed with 510 calories.  It discussed food labeling and the need for nutritional facts on restaurant menus. If clearly labelled packaged foods at grocery stores aren't being read will nutritional facts on menus make a difference?

I think when you consider calorie and sodium intake, nutritional facts and labeling start to climb up the priority list.

Let me highlight some NuMBeRs...

Calories
Women, inactive: 1,600 to 1,800 calories/day to maintain a healthy weight.
Men, inactive: 2,000 to 2,200 calories/day to maintain a healthy weight.

Sodium
Adults 19 to 50: 1,500 mg/day
Adults 51 to 70: 1,300 mg/day
Adults 71+:  1,200 mg/day

Here's the fun part:

A regular sized Greek Salad: 1,040 calories and 1,960 mg of sodium

That's 1/2 your daily calorie requirement and more than a day's worth of salt!

Breakfast Sandwich: 510 calories and 950 mg of sodium

Foot-long Meatball Marinara: 1,160 calories and 3,040 mg of sodium

Makes you think...

Let me rewind for a second...

Why is excess salt BAD for you?

High blood pressure is now an epidemic in our society

Premenstral symptoms may become more severe with too much salt

Water retention

children with high blood pressure are more likely to have learning/attention problems

What can YOU do?

Avoid High-Salt foods and look for Low Sodium and MSG Free foods:

• Salt from the shaker
• All smoked, salted meats, such as bacon, hot dogs, bologna and sausage
• Soy Sauce and MSG
• Brine-soaked foods, such as pickles and olives
• Canned and instant soups
• Salted and smoked fish and caviar
• Processed cheeses
• Condiments
• Ready-made gravies and sauces
• Snack foods such as chips, salted peanuts and popcorn, pretzels and crackers
• Any foods with added soda

You can also use online calorie counters and sodium food charts.

SO are you a Label Reading Shopper or a Grab & Go Buyer???