Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?

I'd like to start this post by thanking everyone for your comments on my last post. I knew it was an intense issue and I appreciated hearing all of your own thoughts and observations. You are all so wonderful! I would also like to thank The Candid Blogger for helping me upload my resume onto my blog!! Check out his blog, which presents another side to many of the stories we see on the news, including a lot of eye opening information about the health care debate.

Vitamin D, Are You are Getting Enough?

My mother, a registered nurse who works as a school nurse, is my inspiration for everything. She is also the one who taught me how to eat healthy and enjoy it. I've always considered my mother a healthy person, as she eats well, exercises regularly, and has no addictions (although I know I got my sweet tooth from her!). The other day I was surprised to find out her doctor had told her that her Vitamin D levels were low. I was shocked. After all, she drinks milk, eats yogurt, rides bikes and gardens outside (sun!), and takes a multivitamin. Right away I turned into her personal dietitian:

Me: "Mom, how often are you outside?"

Mom: "I'm outside a lot, but I always put sunscreen all over my body"

Me: "Mom, don't you take a vitamin, and a Viactiv everyday?"

Mom: "Umm, when I remember!"

Me: "Mom, don't you drink three glasses of milk, or eat yogurt everyday?"

Mom: "I use milk on my cereal, but that's about it, plus I am sick of yogurt and haven't really been eating much of it lately".

Me: "Ok, I get it, no wonder you are low in Vitamin D!"

Ever since I began to study nutrition I have learned more and more about Vitamin D and it seems as though it's the one vitamin that keeps proving to be more and more important. Heck, my mom's doctor measured her Vitamin D as a routine test! Why is Vitamin D so important? The following is from MSNBC.com:

"Patients with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D were about two times more likely to die from any cause during the next eight years than those with the highest levels, the study found. The link with heart-related deaths was particularly strong in those with low vitamin D levels."

Research suggests that Vitamin D might play a role in preventing and/or treating:

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes

Hypertension

Multiple Sclerosis

Glucose Intolerance (sort of like pre-diabetes)

Depression

Pain

Kidney Disease

Heart Disease

The following are some excerpts from an article from StatesmanJournal.com:

Where and How Do You Get Vitamin D?

"When it comes to getting D, the best source is the sun. Vitamin D can be synthesized when the sun hits our skin."

"an expanding number of clinical studies show that much of the American population is at risk for D deficiency and unable to gain enough sun exposure to cure the problem."

"Dermatologists admit most folks can handle 15 minutes a day of sunlight exposure needed to keep D stores up. But, vitamin D expert Dr. Michael Holick has documented the fact that most Americans don't get enough D this way. In Oregon, there's little guarantee we'll get enough sunny days for the sun to do its job."

From the Office of Dietary Supplements: "It has been suggested by some vitamin D researchers, for example, that approximately 5-30 minutes of sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM at least twice a week to the face, arms, legs, or back without sunscreen usually lead to sufficient vitamin D synthesis and that the moderate use of commercial tanning beds that emit 2-6% UVB radiation is also effective"

"Vitamin D is found in fortified milk products, fatty fish, liver and eggs. It's a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning fat is required for its absorption; it can accumulate and be stored in the body; and toxicity is an issue if you're mega dosing without medical monitoring. If you've latched onto low-fat eating, given up liver and onions along with eggs, rely on fat-free milk and live in Oregon, you may be at risk for D deficiency."

How Much Should You Consume?

Ages 14-18 men and women: 200 IU or 5 mcg, although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 400 IU, based on clinical studies.

Ages 19-50 men and women: 200 IU or 5 mcg

Ages 51-70 men and women (my mom!): 400 IU or 10 mcg

How Do I (Gina) Get My Vitamin D?

It's very hard to get too much Vitamin D, but it can happen, as it's fat soluble and is thus stored in the body. 2000 IU is too much, but you're likely never going to reach that number. Keep in mind most milks are fortified with Vitamin D, but if you are drinking fat free milk you need to make sure you are drinking it with something that has fat in it (like oatmeal with butter, or a granola cereal, or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich). Also, very few yogurts have Vitamin D in them, for a list of Vitamin D fortified yogurts, click here.

Question: Are you getting enough Vitamin D? Are you surprised by all of the benefits of Vitamin D?

Thanks for reading!

Meat Alternatives; Which are the Best?

So if it's not already obvious to everyone, I go to the grocery store about 2 to 3 times a week. Isn't that how they do it in Europe? I always need fresh produce (usually bananas for Nick's lunch), or more yogurt, or bread. So yesterday I headed out for two things; yogurt and bananas.

I decided to try Chobani Greek yogurt, since I've never tried it before.

This is another product I've seen many bloggers rave about. I've been partial to the Stoneyfield Oikos Greek yogurt, but this was on sale so I figured I'd give it a try. Compared to the Oikos, this tasted basically the same. Upon looking at the label, I noticed this was a 6 ounce container, whereas the Oikos containers are 5.3 ounces. Other than that, they were the exact same product! I'm glad I finally got to taste the Chobani, even if it was the same :) My only problem with the Greek yogurts is that they don't provide any Vitamin D. I think soon all yogurts will be fortified with Vitamin D (more on that to come in a post soon).

Of course, I also purchased some Oikos, since I had one more free coupon left! They really taste the same, so if you are at the store and one is cheaper, buy it.

Meat Alternatives; Are They Better For Me?

The American Dietetic Association publishes their ADA Times about every other month, which is filled with nutrition updates and other fun food and nutrition information. The last ADA Times I received had an entire section devoted to veggie burgers and hot dogs. I figured since many of you are vegetarian, or vegan, or just enjoy veggie products for their health benefits, I would share some of the information that was provided.

Nutritional Advantages of Veggie Burgers:

- 3 times less total fat and 7 times less saturated fat than the average beef burger or turkey burger.

- Usually contain 3-4 grams of fiber, compared to zero in real meat products.

- Some (not all) veggie burgers contain many types of healthy, antioxidant-rich vegetables, and soy, compared to zero veggies and soy in real meat products.

Nutritional Disadvantages:

- Veggie burgers typically contain 5 times more sodium than unseasoned beef or turkey burgers (sodium range is about 250-500 mg, so stick with the lower range).

- Veggie burgers typically contain 2 times less protein than beef or turkey burgers, with the average protein amount being around 11 grams (choose veggie burgers with soy protein and/or wheat gluten if you think you need more protein)

** Keep in mind, these comparisons are made against typical burgers, which are 80% lean and 20% fat meat. This (below) is a burger made with Laura's Lean ground beef, which has much less fat than typical burgers (usually 6% fat and 94% lean), contains 7 grams protein per ounce, and is low in sodium. There are also companies that make lean/very lean ground turkey.


** Veggie hot dogs only have advantages, because on average they have fewer calories, less fat, less sodium, and more protein than their beef counterparts. However, if you're like me you eat the turkey hot dogs, which are a much better alternative than beef!

Veggie Burgers and Hot Dogs, Who Wins the Prize?!

No, not these...this is just what I had in my freezer :)

The ADATimes invited a group of taste testers (including both vegetarians AND meat eaters) to report which of the veggie products they liked best. Here are the results:

Veggie Burger:

#1 Amy's (All American Style)
#2 Boca (All American Classic)
#3 Boca (Original Vegan)

Veggie Hot Dog:
#1 Lightlife (Smart Dog)
#2 MorningStar Farms (Veggie Dog)
#3 Yves (Good Dog)

Question: What is your favorite "meatless meat alternative"? Personally I do not eat veggie burgers very often, but when I do I really enjoy Morning Star's Black Bean Burger. I also love Morning Star's Chik Nuggets! I fed then to Nick once and he had no idea (I'm so mean!). The Gardenburger products, which is pictured above, are also very good in my opinion.

So what is my plan for the day? After I finish reading blogs and enjoying my delicious cereal, I am working out, relaxing outside with my book, then running some errands. This afternoon I am enjoying happy hour with a good friend from school!
Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

The Best Day Ever

Hello, my name is Gina, and I am a registered dietitian with a master's degree in Science, specializing in Human Nutrition! Nice to meet you :)

YEAH!

I passed. Enough said. It was the best day of my life. Would you like to see how it went?

Morning Brain Power

About 4 months ago Cocoa from Balance, Joy, and Delicias recommended steel cut oats as a replacement for oatmeal, in an effort to seek a more satiating breakfast. I purchased steel cut oats from Trader Joe's at about that time, but have yet to try them. Yesterday morning I knew I needed a good, hearty breakfast so I chose the steel cut oats over my favorite breakfast, cold cereal.

At first I measured out 1/2 cup, since that is a serving of regular oatmeal. After the oats were cooking for a while (you have to cook them on a stove, no microwaves aloud) I realized they were expanding much more than I had thought they would. After about 15 minutes I had about 3 cups of oats! I took another look on the container and saw that one serving was 1/4 cup dry oats, oops. I gave Nick half, he enjoyed it very much.

Like the steam in the picture?? I like my oatmeal really hot. Here is what I added:

Cooked the oats in Almond Milk
Frozen blackberries
Purevia (1/2 t)
Brown sugar (2 t)
Honey (2 t)

It was delicious.


Morning Love

Nick bought me roses. I love it when he buys me flowers (but sometimes I wish he wouldn't always buy roses!) I may have told him that.....I'm brutally honest. But they are so gorgeous either way! He's so good to me.

And the Big Moment Is Here

For those of you wondering what my research was all about, here is it!

Basically I wanted to find out the predictors of whether or not a registered dietitian (RD) will teach their clients and patients about fresh vegetable food safety. What did I find out?

1) The more confidence the RD has about their knowledge of fresh vegetable food safety, the more likely they are to teach it.
2) The belief that other people think you (the RD) should be teaching fresh vegetable food safety, has a significant effect on whether or not they teach fresh vegetable food safety (RDs who are more socially influenced are more likely to teach FVFS).
3) RDs who don't think it will take a lot of time to teach fresh vegetable food safety are more liekly to teach it.

There were many more findings in this research, but these were the ones that I felt were most important. Overall, we need to start teaching dietitians that there are some very simple tips that you can teach your clients/patients about fresh vegetable food safety that are easy to learn, and understand, and that will not take much time to teach. What are they?

Don't buy bruised fresh produce
Cut off any brown spots
Always rinse your fresh produce, and do so in lukewarm water
Make sure to dry your produce completely before putting in the refrigerator
Always refrigerate produce that has been pre-cut

Smiling before my big defense.

Explaining my research, intensely (why didn't anyone tell me I had a bump on the right side of my hair?!!)

After defending my thesis, and sitting through an hour of questions proposed by my committee members, I went home and celebrated! Nick and I went to the driving range and hit balls for about an hour (yeah, I can't believe I enjoy this now!!), then we went out do dinner later at night.
On our way into the restaurant, I was happy :)

And my parents were proud of me.

I ordered a pitcher of Sangria for my mom and I, which was EXCELLENT!

I was craving a burger, so I ordered one. I don't eat burgers often, but I deserved this juicy creation. I like my burgers plain, with LTO and sauteed mushrooms, plus mustard and ketchup on the side. Delicious.


I did manage to sneak in a healthy treat, fruit instead of fries.

But the healthy treat was trumped by our dessert :) Dessert was banana cream pudding, topped with fresh whipped cream and chocolate (really they should have called this whipped cream, with some banana pudding).

And then my choice, the peanut butter pie with Oreo crust and chocolate ganache on top!

This day, overall, deserved a rating of 10 out of 10. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Now I have about 3 weeks to finish my thesis (yeah, I'm not TOTALLY done, my committee had some changes for me to make to my thesis). Oh, and today I have an interview that I will tell you about if I get the job (I want this job SO SO SO BAD!!!)

Question: Did you know that fresh vegetables were to prone to contamination by pathogens???

Question: Which do you prefer, banana pudding or peanut butter pie?