Whether you need music to fuel your workout or just to chill to, we’ve got you! Here’s this month’s mega hit mix featuring all the tunes you need to fill the soundtrack to you life.
Every year, the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim showcases the latest natural foods and products in the consumer packaged goods industry. By walking the expo, one can clearly get a sense for what the upcoming trends are in the health and wellness industry. This year, without a doubt, one of the biggest trends is the explosion of plant-based meat alternatives into the market. In fact, according to Grand View Research, Inc, the global plant-based meat market size is projected to reach $24.8 billion by 2030! This market is expected to rapidly grow exponentially through 2030 to meet the demand of meat-eaters shifting towards a plant-based, vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. It’s not just Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat dominating the market anymore. Oh no! A plethora of brands are all vying to get you to pick up their product in this very crowded market. You may be left wondering not only which products are worth spending your money on, but more importantly, which products actually are good for you.
Plant-based eating aims to maximize consumption of nutrient-dense, whole plant foods while minimizing processed foods, oils, and animal foods (including dairy products and eggs). Embracing a plant based lifestyle is an amazing step toward increasing the longevity of your life. Plant-based eating patterns are associated with a lower risk of heart disease, reduced systemic inflammation, improved insulin sensitivity, decreased insulin resistance (1). Additionally, research suggests that nutrient dense plant based eating patterns may be effective for weight management (2). Most importantly, plant-based dietary patterns have been shown to reduce global warming and environmental degradation by lessening greenhouse emission and land use (3).
Marketing The Juicy Un-BurgerVeggie burgers have been on the shelves for years – remember Morningstar Farms (founded in the mid 1970s), Bocca Burgers (founded in 1979), or GardenBurgers (founded in 1985)? These brands were primarily marketed to individuals who were already vegetarian or vegan. However, it hasn’t been until recently that brands have shifted marketing to reach omnivores by developing plant-based products that mimic the experience of eating real meat – think taste, texture, aroma. In fact, many of these products are marketed in a similar fashion to their animal counterparts.
Like Meat prominently features mouth watering burgers and saucy wings in their advertisements. While other brands have taken to likening themselves to a butcher shop, for example Abbot’s Butcher. In fact, another brand, Very Good Butchers, uses the slogan, “We Butcher Beans” for further tongue-in-cheek comparison.
Then there are others like Simulate who are matter-of-factly saying, ‘hey, we are a simulation of chicken’ and are going head-to-head against their animal-based counterparts. And of course there are the giants – Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat – which have gone so far as to make their burgers “bleed”.
Many of the original veggie burgers used vital wheat protein as their main ingredient and source of protein. Newer plant-based brands, including Daring, CHKN Not Chicken and Future Farm have products which contain either genetically engineered soy or pea protein. These ingredients provide the meat-like taste and texture, while additionally serving up protein content that can compete with beef and poultry gram for gram. Pea protein has the added benefit of having a complete amino acid profile, which is essential for vegetarians and vegans as most plant-based proteins are incomplete.
More good news for vegetarians and vegans is that some of these products are fortified with vitamins and minerals such as folate, vitamin B12, thiamine and iron (4). Since both of these eating patterns lack these nutrients, having them added helps to optimize nutrient intake.
Yet, another amazing fact is that many plant-based burgers contain significant amounts of fiber. The dietary fiber in plant-based meats makes up for 15% of the daily value, whereas beef has 0% of the daily value of fiber (4). The typical American eating pattern is lacking in dietary fiber, which has been shown to reduce risk of certain chronic diseases (5). Given that plants are natural sources of fiber, adopting a plant-based eating pattern that occasionally includes plant-based meats is an easy way to increase fiber intake.
Fat is a major component of these plant-based products, providing both flavor and mouthfeel. Unfortunately, some plant-based products are higher in saturated fat than their animal counterparts. Furthermore, some products also contain substantial amounts of sodium. Eating patterns high in saturated fat and sodium may increase risk of developing cardiovascular disease (6). For someone with high blood pressure, heart disease or kidney disease, some of these plant-based meats might not be suitable.
Plant-based doesn’t always mean nutritious. It’s important to read the nutrition facts label and make an educated choice based on your lifestyle and health goals. Look for products that are minimally processed, low in saturated fat and sodium and higher in fiber. It is also important to not rely on these products to be the sole source of protein if you are aiming to be predominantly plant-based. Aim for at least one plant-based meal per day focusing on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, seeds and nuts while simultaneously reducing your meat intake. If you truly have a craving for a burger there are amazing legume-based burgers from brands like Hilary’s and Dr. Pragers which are studded with seeds and whole grains, like brown rice and quinoa – which also happens to be a complete protein.
Plant-based meats can be an excellent alternative to consuming animal proteins. Many products on the market are high in protein, contain fiber and are fortified with micronutrients such as vitamin B12. Be sure to review the nutrition facts label for saturated fat and sodium. High levels of these nutrients may increase risk of developing certain chronic diseases and wouldn’t be suitable for those already with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes mellitus. Overall, many of these plant-based meats can be added to current eating patterns consisting of whole, nutrient dense plant foods including non-starchy vegetables, beans and legumes, seeds and nuts, fruits and whole grains.
Whether you need music to fuel your workout or just to chill to, we’ve got you! Here’s this month’s mega hit mix featuring all the tunes you need to fill the soundtrack to you life.
Easy to do anywhere and safe for injured backs, this hamstring stretch is great if you’re really tight.
Benefits: Stretches back, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.
This stretch targets both hamstrings as well as the lower back.
Here’s a relaxing way to stretch one hamstring at a time.
This pose is perfect for tight hips because it stretches the hip rotators (the buttocks area) and the hip flexors (the long muscles that run along the front of your thighs and pelvis).
This can be performed in either standing, or laying on your front.
Benefits: Hip opener, stretches hamstrings and hips, strengthens core, improves balance.
Improve mobility and posture through your lower back with this spinal stretch
Daily stretching through splits will help to deeply stretch the thighs and open up both the hamstrings and quadriceps.
Big thank you to my models and my friends…
Emily Devine @goldemstateofmind
Jean Schroeder @jeanschroeder
Devin Holliman @dev.insta.gram
Maintaining a healthy gastrointestinal (GI) system helps your body properly digest and absorb the nutrients from the food and drinks you consume. Regular consumption of probiotics can be beneficial in maintaining a healthy, functioning digestive system. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines probiotics as live beneficial bacteria and yeasts, which confer a health benefit when consumed.
Your GI tract is home to the human microbiome, the genome of all our microbes. The human microbiome is composed of a community of bacteria that serves a critical function in developing immunity, defense against pathogens, production of short-chain fatty acids essential in energy metabolism, and synthesis of vitamins and fat storage. The microbiome is considered an essential organ of the body, without which we could not function correctly.
It’s important to note that not all probiotics are created equal! Each probiotic strain has its own effectiveness level; this effective dose is determined by clinical research. It would be wise to consult with a registered dietitian or your PCP before choosing a probiotic supplement. Looking for a more convenient option? Yogurts and kefirs contain probiotic strains that are dairy-free probiotic yogurt – which I love. And because gut health is so important, we used @califiafarms dairy-free yogurt, a probiotic powerhouse w/ only 1g of sugar per serving. The base of this bowl is pretty simple, so boost the nutrient power of the smoothie by heaping on toppings like hemp, chia, and flax seeds, extra blueberries, and crushed pistachios— blueberries contain antioxidants, chia seeds and oats are packed with fiber, and flax seeds are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids.
Don’t forget the granola to get fierce with fiber! Yup, we’ve got you covered with our “Damn It’s So Good!” Homemade Granola.
Did you know Americans only average 15g of fiber per day, when the recommended daily amount for women and men is 25-38g, respectively? One cup of raw oats contains approximately 8 grams of fiber, making it an excellent fiber source, including the powerful fiber beta-glucan, a soluble fiber. Both soluble and insoluble fiber help bulk up your stools and can be used as a food source for good bacteria in your large intestine. A 2017 study found that fiber’s importance is intimately tied with the importance of our gut microbes.
So what are you waiting for? Add this probiotic-packed, fiber-fierce smoothie bowl to your meal prep schedule and boost your gut health! #LiveNourished
Nutrient Spotlight
Probiotics are the good live bacteria that support the gastrointestinal system and provide a health benefit to the body. There are over a 100 trillion good bacteria, and over 1,000 different species. Probiotics help the body extract nutrients from food, improve the body’s immune function, and support the intestinal wall’s integrity. Probiotics are commonly found in yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi.
#Sponsored | Fiber plays an important role in maintaining a healthy digestive system by fueling healthy gut microbiota and helping regulate bowel movements, keeping them soft and regular. Sadly enough, 95% of Americans fail to meet the daily recommended target of 25g of fiber for women and 35g for men and for men and women over the age of 50, its 21g and 30g respectively (PMID: 30202317).
ICYDK, dietary fiber is the part of plant foods that mostly passes through your digestive system without breaking down or being digested. There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble fiber.
Soluble fiber is the main type of fiber found in grains, legumes, nuts & seeds, fruits & vegetables. When digested it pulls in and absorbs water, partially dissolving into a gel-like substance, which may help slow down digestion to help provide a slower supply of blood glucose.
Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water, and passes through the digestive tract pretty much intact, adding bulk to our stool. Insoluble fiber can help improve various digestive symptoms associated with irregular bowel movements.
Get fierce with fiber by including fiber containing foods such as complex carbohydrates and fruits into your morning meal. Certain @PepsiCo products can help people incorporate fiber into their diet while helping support their digestive system.
Quaker Old Fashioned Oats contain beta-glucan, a type of soluble fiber, which can help slow the absorption of glucose. Given its viscosity-producing properties, beta-glucan from a bowl of oatmeal also helps promote satiety by slowing the rate that food leaves the stomach to increase feelings of fullness (PMID: 22187640).
Level up your bowl of oatmeal, while also increasing your fiber intake with these Chewy Oat Bites. These delicious bites can be made in a snap, and consumed at any time throughout the day. Enjoy!
#LiveNourished #PepsicoNutritionScience
Nutrient Spotlight
The soluble fiber in oatmeal is associated with various health benefits, as it may help lower blood cholesterol levels to support heart health*. It also may help slow digestion and the release of blood glucose into the bloodstream. *3 grams of soluble fiber from oatmeal daily in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce this risk of heart disease. This cereal has 2 grams per serving.
So you’ve finally decided to make some positive lifestyle shifts by eating better, exercising more, and taking care of your mental health. Excellent! These long-term behavior changes may help improve your health and increase your longevity, especially if you can make these behaviors part of a regular and consistent routine.
Maybe your new routine looks something like this:
You start by stocking your fridge with nutrient dense foods and start meal prepping and cooking daily. Then you decide to join your local run club, put up some serious cash for those fancy sneakers and start putting on those miles. Finally you decide to manage your stress with daily meditation and breathing techniques.
Despite your best efforts (and fierce determination) you find yourself slipping into bad habits – grabbing last minute take out for dinner, skipping your morning run club meet-ups, and letting stress get the better of you more often than not. Not long after you’ve started, maybe a couple of weeks, you fully give in to your old ways and resolve to start again next week.
So what gives? Why can’t we stick to healthy lifestyle behaviors?
To answer this question, let’s first look at how habits are formed.
Habits are defined as actions that are triggered automatically in response to contextual cues that have been associated with their performance (1). In other words, new behaviors should be repeated with the same context (think, location, time of day, etc.) until they become routine/automatic.
For example, if you are trying to start a new workout routine, you’ll want to start by deciding what type of workout you want to do and what time of day you want to do it. So you set a goal to take a 30-minute cycling class, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 am. This S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) goal provides an opportunity for this behavior to become automatic, if you can stay consistent with the behavior.
Habits are formed in three phases: initiation, learning and stability phases (1).
In the initiation phase new behaviors are chosen (e.g., meal prepping and batch cooking). Initiation requires that you figure out what motivates you to perform these new behaviors. It’s important that you are sufficiently motivated to begin a habit-formation attempt. During this phase you will select the context in which these new behaviors will be completed – event or time of day/week (every Sunday).
In the learning phase, driven repetition of this behavior facilitates automaticity – [noun]: working by itself with little or no direct human control. Repetition reinforces and establishes the association in the memory to perform the new desired behavior.
Create healthy habits by repeating a chosen behavior with the same context until it becomes automatic and effortless.
Habit formation culminates in the stability phase. In the above example, meal prepping and batch cooking every Sunday will eventually lead to this behavior being triggered automatically, without awareness, conscious control, mental effort, or deliberation. Behavior performed in consistent settings tends to persist even in the face of motivational shifts.
Building a solid foundation of healthy habits will help in avoiding pitfalls and making you more resistant to lapses. Eating behaviors, physical activity, and daily self-care all have a habitual component. Employing a habit formation approach to health behavior change would be conducive to increasing success in making such lifestyle change permanent.
Habits become hard to break because they are deeply wired, by constant repetition, into our brains. Because habits are patterns of behaviors, breaking the patterns is key to breaking the habit itself. An obvious way to break unwanted habitual behavior is to remove yourself from the environment where the cues (trigger) exists by changing the larger pattern.
On your way to work you pass by a patisserie with the most yummy tasting pastries. You’ve been told by your endocrinologist that you are pre-diabetic and need to monitor your blood sugar levels by eating more nutrient dense foods. The route you typically take to work passes by a patissiere and prior to your diagnosis, it was a frequent stop on your way to work. You built a habit around stopping into this patisserie before work everyday. One way to break this habit… take another route to work. In other words, remove the trigger.
Another approach is to attach the negative unwanted cue-response to new behavior. This solution is more about substituting rather than stopping the behavior. Let’s go back to the example above. On your way to work, you still have a morning ‘treat,’ however, this treat is one that you prepare at home. Maybe you prepare chewy oat bites which are sweetened with applesauce and also a good source of fiber. This new behavior replaces the cue-response to the unwanted behavior. The key here is mapping this out before that triggers have a chance to kick in.
You’ll have to employ some self-regulation here. Start to build awareness around the cues which trigger unwanted responses. Begin to self-monitor behavior to reveal those situations where unwanted habitual behaviors exist. In other words, start to understand yourself and recognize your triggers.
Allow yourself some grace as you navigate this change in behavior; in other words, go easy on yourself if you have a setback. You didn’t develop these behaviors overnight, so it may take twice as long to unlearn or break these habits.
It’s important to aim for small behavior changes initially. Setting a goal to run a marathon when you’ve never run a long distance before can be daunting. A more realistic goal to begin with is to jog three times a week for 15 minutes to build endurance, strength and stamina. When achieving success within small behavior changes, you increase self-efficacy and increase confidence for working toward other health promoting habits.
#LiveNourished
References:
Lally, P., & Gardner, B. (2013). Promoting habit formation. Health Psychology Review, 7(SUPPL1), S137-S158. DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2011.603640
Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of “habit-formation” and general practice. The British Journal of General Practice, 62(605), 664–666. http://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X659466
Looking to become plant-based, but don’t know where to start? Embracing plant-based can be as easy as incorporating one plant-based meal into your day. A plant-based diet can help reduce your risk of a list of body ailments and increase your stamina, energy levels and metabolism. Start with replacing one meal a week with a plant-based dish. You will be amazed by how good you feel.
Listen, you do not have to be vegetarian or vegan to live a healthy life. In fact, both of those eating patterns take some work to ensure you are getting all of the nutrients you need (vegans have to be mindful of protein, vitamin B-12, iron, vitamin D, choline, zinc and calcium levels). It’s important to know, you don’t have to restrict what you love in order to be healthy.
We know many of you love meat and are not entirely wanting to give it up. If you love meat, then continue to eat what you enjoy. However, try to purchase wild-caught seafood, organic poultry and grass-fed beef. Animals fed more grains tend to have higher fat levels and reduce omega-3 content than some organic meat and poultry.
Mushrooms are known to be swapped out for steak and chicken because of the tender and moist texture. The Balsamic Portobello Mushroom Burger will have you shocked by how good the mushrooms taste. Start with this inspired mushroom burger and experience the multiple flavors of a plant-based burger. It has a sweet and savory taste. The balsamic vinegar adds a velvety texture and explodes with tantalizing aromas. This vegan burger will leave you wanting more and is a great introduction to plant-based foods.
#LiveNourished
Nutrient Spotlight
Mushrooms can benefit the body by providing B vitamins, riboflavin, niacin, iron and pantothenic acid. They are known to protect heart health, contribute to a healthy digestive system and the iron content helps to enhance the formation of red blood cells.
With the fall season in full swing, it is a great time to take advantage of all the vegetables and fruits this season provides. In fact, the fall season is full of fruits and vegetables that are considered superfoods.
What are superfoods, really? Although the term ‘superfood’ is not defined within the field of nutritional science, Merriam-Webster defines the term as “a food (such as salmon, broccoli, or blueberries) that is rich in compounds (such as antioxidants, fiber, or fatty acids) considered beneficial to a person’s health.”
The term is readily used by the billion-dollar health and wellness industry to market any popular or trendy health food – typically these foods have been ‘forgotten’ and are thrust back into the spotlight as the new ‘it’ food of the moment. While it’s nice to want to eat foods that are ‘super,’ remember that there are numerous foods that are bursting with nutrient density.
This Fall Superfood Salad is packed with some of these ‘superfood’ players, which also have to be in season. Let’s rundown the lineup:
Sweet potatoes (often sold as “yams”) are available year-round from local sources in warmer climates and from late summer through winter in other areas. They possess anti-inflammatory benefits and are an excellent source of vitamin A and a good source of iron.
Brussels sprouts are typically available year round, with the peak season occurring between September and mid-February. Brussels sprouts are full of phytonutrients (natural plant compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties) and are a very good source of vitamins A and C, potassium, folate, iron and fiber.
Pomegranates only ripen in warmer climates are available from October through December. The seeds and arils of the pomegranate are bursting with antioxidants called punicalagins. Pomegranates have potent anti-inflammatory properties, which are largely mediated by the antioxidant properties of the punicalagins.
Pumpkin Seeds – pumpkins are the most common winter squash and come into season in September in most areas. Pumpkin seeds are an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, minerals and a small amount of omega-3 fats.
Embrace plant-based with this salad and enjoy all the amazing superfoods Fall has to offer!
Nutrient Spotlight
Plant based meals are packed with phytonutrients which may improve your health! Phytonutrients are natural chemicals produced by plants which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that can help support a healthy human body.
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