Sandi Kaplan, MS, RD, Associate Director, Clinical Development and Support:   The holiday season can be challenging for even for those of us with the best of intentions. I am committed to prioritizing my health during the holiday season. It can be a stressful time so I need my balanced meals and snacks and my regular physical activity more than ever. So imagine my response when I opened a recent holiday gift – an enormous cheesecake. Well, actually it was a package of twelve slice... [More]

Jane Connell, MS, RD, Nutrition Coach:   Earlier in my career as a dietitian, I thought it would be really exciting if I could develop a magic pill which would assist my clients in losing weight. It would be so quick! And so easy! So well suited - a perfect fit - for our instant-gratification society. Just for fun, let us play out the magic pill scenario. What might that look like for you? You could eat whatever you want, however much you wished, whenever. You could do (or not do)... [More]

Erika Van Calcar, MS, RD, Nutrition Coach:   We have all been there, right? We’re curled up in front of the TV with a bowl of ice cream and suddenly we look down and are shocked to find that it’s all gone.  Someone else must have come along and helped themselves or perhaps it was a case of momentary possession; we think, “Certainly I could not have eaten all of that! Could I?” Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say, yes you can. Certain fats, specifically palm... [More]

Jane Connell, MS, RD, Nutrition Coach:   Among the many hats I wear, I’m a soccer coach. Last year at this time, our local newspaper ran an article I wrote called, “Sports Snacks: Food for Thought.” With childhood obesity and obesity-related diseases skyrocketing, I thought it made good sense to seriously look at our tradition of feeding our kids the overly-processed, “ginormous” post-game snack. For some reason, many of our children’s sports events have evolved into a “will play ... [More]

Sandi Kaplan, MS, RD, Associate Director, Clinical Development and Support:   My 4 ½-year-old son recently started preschool. He was so proud to go off with his lunchbox filled with goodies like beans and rice, cherry tomatoes, a nectarine and a couple of dried dates for a sweet treat. He helped to prepare his lunch and was especially excited that the tomatoes were ones he had picked in a friend’s garden. On the second day of school, he was equally happy about taking his lunch. Bu... [More]

Sandi Kaplan, MS, RD, Associate Director, Clinical Development and Support:   The Smart Choices Program is a great idea. A Smart Choice seal of approval, a big green check mark, is put on the front of any product that is a healthy option. You are in the grocery store and the check mark lets you know right away that the product is a great choice for your own health and the health of your family. It’s so easy and convenient to know which nutritious foods to choose. Unfortunately, th... [More]

Jennifer Lovejoy, Vice President, Clinical Development and Support:   “Processed food is gross, Mom,” said my 7th grade daughter the other day. She was prompted to make this statement by a book for kids called Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson. (Yes, she checked this book out of the library completely on her own without any maternal pressure!) Schlosser, who also wrote the book Fast Food Nation for adults, does a good job in making the scary side of fast food and process... [More]

Kara Linton, Mind & Body Coach   Recently PETA launched its “Save the Whales” campaign. Residents and tourists in Palm Beach, FL can’t help but notice the giant billboard featuring the back of an obese, bikini-clad woman with a slogan reading “Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber. Go Vegetarian.” A recent blog on PETA’s website states they are trying to remind residents and tourists that eating a vegetarian diets offers weight loss benefits, pointing to statistics showing vegetarians are 2... [More]

Jennifer Lovejoy, PhD, Vice President, Clinical Development and Support:   Recently, yet another study was released supporting the health benefits of chocolate. This time, researchers reported in the Journal of Internal Medicine that, in people who had previously had a heart attack, eating chocolate at least twice per week was associated with lower risk of dying of heart disease. Earlier research has shown that eating chocolate is associated with lower blood pressure, decreased risk of ... [More]

Jennifer Lovejoy, PhD, Vice President, Clinical Development and Support:   The issue of food and addiction has been getting a lot of attention lately following the publication of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s book, “The End of Overeating.” In his book, Dr. Kessler presents compelling evidence that sugar, fat and salt have addictive properties.  He refers to these foods as “hyper-palatable”- that is, they specifically stimulate our appetite to eat more of them.  And the appeti... [More]