Val Halloway, 4-time former caregiver, is the creator and host of Caregiver Tea Time. In this episode she shares the top 10 Nutrition Tips she feels will be most helpful to Caregivers.
Val studied nutrition and provided weight management counseling for over 30 years and feels it’s probably the most confusing subject there is. She sees it as a part time job to follow-through with a healthy way of eating that fits our budget, lifestyle, access to food, the preferences of people around us, and time spent cleaning up after the meal.
She shares the concept that nutrition plays a role in our genetics, contributing to factors that determine what genes turn off and on. She also shares that our genes are influenced by communication from our body's microbiome, the microscopic world that includes bacteria and fungi. She wishes there was strong evidence for specific nutrition recommendations around our microbiome, and hopes medical breakthroughs will be coming to teach us more.
In this episode Val share her Top 10 Nutrition Tips. They are based on her culture and core values that focus on the ability to enjoy what we eat and drink with the people we love.
2:36 Time stamp for Top 10 list:
3:55 Val goes into a deep dive for each one.
4:50 She suggests a way to make a rough estimate for how much fluid a person needs: round your weight up to the nearest 10 pounds, divide that weight by two and it will be the approximate number of ounces you need each day.
6:15 She provides a simple recipe for lemonade made with fresh lemon juice, real maple syrup, water, and a dash of cayenne pepper.
08:50 She provides a smoothie recipe called The 3 B's. It includes blueberries, beets, raw organic broccoli, honey, grass-fed milk, olive oil, and kiwi.
09:52 She suggests reading information about eating the building blocks of Nitric Oxide (something mentioned in Episode 3 from Season 2) from the University of Oregon Extension Service.
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/documents/8836/asay-no-disease-handout.pdf
This handout includes a recipe for Kale and Beet Salad.
11:40 She gathers together Tips 3,4 and 5 and in summary, suggests we develop a healthy relationship with sugar, fat, and sodium. Individually each nutrient is naturally occurring in food and plays a vital role to our health and enjoyment of the flavors of food. It is when they are combined into manufactured fast foods, they can quickly become a problem due to their effect on our brain that produces a huge surge of dopamine. Val recommends eating slowly and savoring each bite when food choices are limited and all we have to choose from are high sugar, high fat, and high salty foods.
13:30 Val addresses artificial sweeteners and states that they have not been shown to help with weight management or improving blood sugar levels and suggests those who consume them take time to find out if they are a benefit for them or undermining their efforts in this area of health.
15:25 Vals shares olive oil is her preference for salad dressing and cooking. She suggests ways to shop for olive oil and warns that heating olive oil to the smoke point is dangerous and very toxic. Oil that is heated to the point it smokes should be thrown away.
16:40 Vals explains the importance of salt to our body. She shared a simple approach to keeping salt intake at a healthy level in the diet by eliminating processed meats, limiting cheese, use gray sea salt or rock salt such as Himalayan pink salt. She suggests drinking mineral water and soaking in a epsom salt bath as a great way to absorb essential trace minerals in salts.
18:00 For Tips 6 and 7 Val suggests keeping a food diary for three days to learn about your appetite signals and food choices.
19:08 Val's tip number 8 explains that wearing clothes that fit and make us feel like we look our best is a motivator to make healthier food choices.
19:48 For tips 9 and 10 Val shares about the role of preparing food as an act of love. She suggests sharing eating with others and making the meal time pleasant by turning off the TV and playing soft music or the radio.
In conclusion, Val feels the two tips that will most help caregivers is to drink enough fluids and keep a 3-day food journal.
Val's special message: "A person can be healthy at any weight and unhealthy at any weight. I hope you will consider my journaling tip as a way for you to put into words what’s happening in your body, so you can make your food choices as healthy as possible."
Val's cheer: “I take care of my health and happiness! Cheers!"
Hello caregivers and friends! We are in Season 2 of Caregiver Tea Time and it's all about our physical body. Today's episode is about nutrition and it's going to be a long one, because there's so much I want to tell you.
I've been studying nutrition and providing weight management counseling for over 30 years and I would have to say it's probably the most confusing subject there is. Nothing about it is simple. I used to tell my patients that it's like a part -time job to follow through with the healthy way of eating that fits your budget, your lifestyle, access to food, the preferences of people around you, not to mention cleaning up the mess after you're done eating.
Your own unique genetics play a part too. The food you eat and your level of activity determine what genes turn on and off. Now add to that a microbiome, a microscopic world of bacteria and fungi living on our skin and in our mouth and in the entire intestinal tract.
This tiny world communicates with our genes too. It seems like what we know about the microbiome is just the tip of a huge iceberg. I mention it because I think it's fascinating, but unfortunately we don't know enough about it to make specific recommendations. I want you to be aware of it, though, because there's going to be medical breakthroughs coming anytime.
I do know many other things related to nutrition that I think can be helpful for you, so today I'm going to present the top 10 things I know about nutrition and eating that I'd like to share. And just to be completely transparent, what I've chosen to share is based on my culture and my core values. All in all, what I want for myself and everyone else is to enjoy what we eat and drink with the people we love.
I'm going to share my top 10 nutrition tips, and then we'll take a deep dive into each one. So #1. Drink fluids to keep yourself hydrated. #2. Eat vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices in abundance. There are Some delicious ways to drink them too. #3. Develop a healthy relationship with sugar. #4. Develop a healthy relationship with fat. #5. Develop a healthy relationship with salt.
#6. Learn about your appetite signals and what to do with them. #7. If you start to feel totally confused about what, when, or why to eat, keep a 3 -day food record. #8. Wear clothes that fit you, feel good, and make you feel like you look good in them.
#9. Consider that when you prepare food for a snack or a meal, it is an act of love. And #10. Eat in company with others whenever you can.
Okay, let's take that deep dive in.
I put drink fluids to keep yourself hydrated as number one because if you don't hear anything else on this podcast, you will have heard the most important thing to remember. Drinking a glass of water is so powerful it can calm your nerves. This is a good thing to remember next time you're around a toddler or anyone going through a meltdown. A glass of water for you and one for them.
You will know how important drinking fluid is to you when you're not drinking enough. Your throat and mouth will feel dry and your skin might get itchy. You might get a headache or muscle cramps or feel a bit dizzy or lightheaded when you're standing up. Dehydration can cause anxiety and, over time, lead to depression.
Often, when we think we feel hungry, what our body really needs is something to drink, not food. And to get a very rough estimate of how many ounces a fluid you need a day, round your weight up to the nearest 10 pounds and divide that by two. So someone who weighs 160 pounds will need about 80 ounces of fluid a day or 10 cups.
A cup is eight ounces and most mugs and glasses are more like 10, 16 or 20. So actually it's not as much as you think it might be. Everyone has their favorite beverages.
You should know by now that I enjoy tea and my daily morning coffee. I think of coffee and tea as providing fluid ounce for ounce, although some will say that you need to drink more fluid when you drink caffeinated beverages because caffeine is a diuretic, causing more urinary output. I keep in mind that the more caffeine I drink, the more likely it is to disrupt my sleep. So I don't drink enough that I think it makes a difference.
But I do know people who are drinking all their fluids as caffeinated beverages and so for them it would be important to look at symptoms of dehydration or add a cup of water in there for every two cups or so of beverages with caffeine.
I'd like to share with you one of my favorite beverage recipes. It's homemade lemonade, sweetened with maple syrup and spiked with a dash of cayenne pepper. Years ago I learned this recipe as a fasting beverage, something I could drink if I wanted to replace a meal because I was fasting for spiritual growth or limiting my calorie intake if I'd gained a few pounds. Actually, I just like the way it tastes and how good I feel when I drink it.
So it's a very simple recipe. I juice two fresh lemons with an old -fashioned hand juicer like my grandmother used to use. This makes about one -third cup. I pour the lemon juice into a quart jar or pitcher, add an equal amount of real maple syrup, the kind from a tree, not the maple flavored syrup we use for pancakes. You might think this is a tremendous amount of sugar, and I did at first. But it provides so much nutrition and health benefit that I think it's worth every calorie.
It contains minerals and vitamins, including manganese, zinc, calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, and vitamins B1 and 2. The total calories are around 270 and when you add water to make a quart each serving is about 90 calories.
I pour it over a big glass of ice and that's 90 calories of nutrients that my brain and body will put to good use. The minerals will help my body absorb the water quickly and the cayenne pepper helps with circulation and boosting my immunity. The lemon juice gives me vitamin C and helps with digestion as well. It's just so refreshing on a hot day or warmed up on a cold day.
Number two, eat lots of fruits and vegetables and herbs and spices. I like to divide fruits and vegetables into three groups by color. The dark, deep colors of orange, red, and blue are like berries and sweet potatoes, beets and carrots, fruits and vegetables that are white like pears, potatoes, and onions, and then the dark green ones like leafy greens and broccoli.
Try to eat as many as you can, at least one or two servings from each group a day and three to four servings or more of each group if you can.
You can also drink your fruits and vegetables. And here's a smoothie I made at breakfast this morning. I call it the 3 B's. I have a Ninja Smart Torque Blender, which is a bit loud, but I use it all the time.
In the blender cup, I put the three b's: one cup of frozen blueberries, two small peeled and steamed beets, and these I buy pre -package and shrink -wrapped, and 1 /2 cup fresh raw organic broccoli.
Then I drizzle a spoonful of honey and add 1 cup of whole organic or grass -fed cow's milk.
Finally, I add a shot glass of olive oil and then a fruit that's high in vitamin C like a peeled kiwi or orange. I screw on the blade and I hit the smoothie setting on my blender.
These ingredients pack an extra punch because they are excellent sources of nitrogen, which provide the building blocks for nitric oxide, something I mentioned in the exercise episode # 3 of this season. For more information on that, the University of Oregon Extension Service has provided a very informative brochure about preventing and reversing disease by generating nitric oxide molecules from whole foods.
Sometimes, I forget about using herbs and spices, but they can be a significant source of nutrients and something called phytochemicals or plant phenols that aid in keeping blood pressure and blood sugar in the healthy range and the immune system strong so it can prevent or fight cancer.
Examples of these would be parsley, cilantro, oregano, sage, cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, or turmeric, just to name a few. I think the best way to use them is to keep a few fresh herbs in the refrigerator, especially parsley and cilantro, and I also keep ground spices in my kitchen cabinet. I add the herbs and spices near the end of cooking or sprinkle them on top of foods like scrambled eggs, soups, meats, and stews, vegetables and salads. You can add spices to your oatmeal or warm to beverages.
If you aren't used to using spices in cooking, start with cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne and see what tastes good to you.
Okay, now on to numbers three, four, and five. Develop a healthy relationship with sugar, fat, and sodium. Individually, as naturally occurring in foods, these three nutrients are necessary and vital to our health, and they help us enjoy the flavors of foods in a healthy diet. But refine them, combine them, and turn them into manufactured fast foods, it can quickly become a problem. They taste so good, our brains respond to it like a pleasure drug. And there are times when it's all we can think about.
So here's what I do. I just enjoy and savor every bite. I start with a small portion, and I slow down when I eat these creamy or crunchy, sweet and salty foods. I give my body a chance to feel satisfied. This point of satisfaction is where I start to not care whether or not I eat another bite. I would only eat more because it's there or I paid for it or it was free and it just tastes too good.
So it's the portion sizes and how fast we eat them that makes it easy to control how much we can eat of these high sugar, high fat, high salty foods. When you're caring for someone in the midst of treatment and your choices of what to eat are limited, just find the most delicious thing you can, something smooth and creamy or crunchy or salty and something that brings back a good memory. Close your eyes and taste every bite and remember the good times.
And when you get the chance, go for the salads and the greens and the vegetables and the fruits. They will be there when you need them.
I do want to address artificial sweeteners because they're everywhere and they are not a free ride. They may have zero sugar or fewer calories, but they have not been shown to help people with weight management or benefit blood sugar levels in the long run.
The artificial sweeteners used today include aspartame or Nutrasweet, they're in the blue packets, saccharin in the pink packets, and sucralose or Splenda in the yellow packets.
And now we have green packets with sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit. They are plant -based and so sweet a person needs only a tiny amount to find a sweetness similar to sugar.
Manufacturers use acesulfame potassium known as ace-K, neotame, and adventame in beverages and yogurts. So if you really enjoy the taste of these sweeteners, then it's not for me to say they are bad for you. I only want to suggest that you take time to find out if they are of a real benefit to you. It's possible they could be undermining your efforts to have better control of your blood sugar and weight.
There's also a class of sweeteners called sugar alcohols that include mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, and erythritol. These are neither sugars nor alcohols. They can have fewer calories per gram than sugar while still tasting sweet, but consuming too much can definitely cause gastrointestinal side effects. So it'll be up to you to find out if they are a healthier alternative to sugar for you.
Let's move on to fat. I prefer to use olive oil for salad dressing and in cooking. I always choose extra virgin olive oil from a cold pressed method. This maintains the flavors and the health benefits. I avoid the olive oils labeled light, pure, or just plain virgin. To determine the freshness of the olive oil, I check for a harvest date, not a best buy date. I only buy olive oil in dark glass bottles, as olive oil can be corrosive to plastic and it gets rancid when exposed to light.
One more very important fact I want to share about cooking with oils. Never heat the oil to the point that it starts to smoke. Both the fumes from the heated oil and the products formed when the oil breaks down from the heat are very toxic to our health. And I want to repeat that, they're very toxic. If this happens to you, as it has happened to me, just throw it away. Wipe down your pan, wash it clean and start again.
In regards to salt, think of it as a trace mineral your body needs in small amounts. It is these minerals in combination that water that help our body remove toxins and get rid of waste. These minerals are an important part of enzymes and how our body uses energy.
I recently read the simple approach to keeping salt at a healthy level. #1 Eliminate processed meats. #2 Limit cheese intake. And #3 Use gray sea salt and rock salt like Himalayan pink salt.
Water is the best delivery method for mineral intake, so you can drink it or bathe in it. In other words, drinking mineral water and soaking in an epsom salt bath or foot soak are two great ways to increase our absorption of magnesium and calcium salts and other trace minerals.
If you are under a doctor's care and have been told to restrict salt intake because of medicines you take or treatment you receive, it's vital to follow what your doctor recommends.
Number six and seven, learning about your appetite signals and what to do with them and using a food diary can help you. Our bodies have hormones that let us know when it's time to eat and hormones that tell us when to slow down or stop eating when we feel satisfied.
However, there are different genetics behind how food tastes, whether we feel satisfied after a meal, and how low our blood sugar levels dip after eating. All of these factors can contribute to a person eating more calories over the course of a day than people with different genetic signals. If weight is a concern for you, the best way to figure out what to do is to keep a food diary for three days and learn about what signals you to eat and what kind of food choices you make when you have different moods.
Knowledge is power and learning about yourself through keeping a food journal can help you make the healthiest food choices for you.
Okay, we're at number eight.
Wear clothes that fit, feel good and make you feel like you look your best. Okay, caregivers, I think we all have clothing in our closet that doesn't fit. We think we will eventually lose those pounds and get back to that size. Well, I've realized that my body shifts with age and that means I need to let my wardrobe shift with it. Clothes that don't fit well can add to stress and discomfort. And clothes that do fit well help us to feel better about ourselves, and that is a motivator to make healthier food choices.
Now for number nine and ten. Look at preparing food for a snack or meal as an act of love, and eat in community with others as often as you can.
As I said earlier, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning up after a meal... it takes the time of a part -time job. It's a job we can enjoy or dread. As a caregiver, we're often responsible for providing food for our loved one as well as ourselves. So we have lots of opportunity to add loving energy and prayers as we bring food to the table. We can add flowers as a centerpiece to make our eating space beautiful. We can turn off the TV and play the radio or soft music in the background. We could make a quick phone call that brings happy conversation before sitting down to concentrate on the food in front of us.
From my experience, the people I cared for had distinct likes and dislikes and strong opinions about food. At one point, enjoyment of food and mealtime became another loss as a result of taste changes from cancer and cancer treatment. There were times when all the food needed was a lot of ketchup and hot sauce to make it palatable.
Other times, I had lots of leftovers. I tried not to take it personally or give up. I wanted to provide the most nutritious foods I could that was in alignment with the likes and dislikes of my loved one.
In this situation, it's up to them whether or not they eat and how much they eat. It's up to me to do the best I can to take care of myself.
I just provided a lot of information.
I hope you will take your time and listen to what I've shared. And if something feels right to you, give it a try. And if not, let the rest go.
Here's my special message:
A person can be healthy at any weight and unhealthy at any weight.
I hope you will consider my journaling tip as a way for you to put into words what's happening in your body so you can make the food choices as healthy as possible.
For our cheer, let's get back to our first cheer at the start of Season 1 of Caregiver Tea Time. "I take care of my health and happiness." Are you ready?
One, two, three. "I take care of my health and happiness! Cheers! "
(upbeat music) ♪ Nothing but the good things ♪ ♪ Nothing but the good things ♪ ♪ In this world living in my heart.
Nothing but the good things, nothing but the good things in this world. Living in my heart.
Living in my ♪ Living in my heart ♪ - "Caregiver Tea Time" was recorded at the Koop Studio, Irvington, New York, engineered by Sammy Wags and produced by Bianca Groves.