Cheese is one of the things we think of giving up when we think of reducing our calories. There is good reason for this; a 1 oz chunk of cheddar cheese (which is approximately 1 inch squared) will run you 120 calories! Not a lot of bang for your buck if you ask me… So if you’re looking for a good alternative, I recommend giving the following low-fat cheeses a try: Allegro 4% MF skimmed milk cheese or Dama 12% MF light brie. Both of these cheeses can be found at stores such as IGA or SaveOn Foods and will only run you 50 to 60 calories for the same1 ounce serving.

A good rule of thumb for any cheese is to keep the percent milk fat (%MF) to 15% MF or less. Cheeses that fall into this category are: Low-fat feta, ricotta, low-fat bocconcini and partly skimmed mozzarella cheese. It is always a good idea to choose light cheeses even if you are choosing something like a cheddar or Havarti which will not fit into the 15% MF or less guideline even in the light form. So if you do go for these higher fat cheeses, make sure you choose the light version.  You will be saving yourself on calories and saturated fat without giving up cheese completely… bon appétit!

Even if the sun doesn’t seem like it’s here to stay, a good indication that summer is coming is all the yummy fresh fruit in the grocery store. Although fruit is an excellent source of nutrients, antioxidants, fibre and not to mention fun, you still need to be mindful of the calories. They don’t call it “nature’s candy” for nothing! So while one cup of blueberries or strawberries may only run you 60 calories, juicing up a whole 2 pound box might be giving you more calories than you bargained for!

A good rule of thumb for most fruits is to account for approximately 60-70 calories in each “serving”. By serving, I mean one cup of berries or one medium-size fruit like a pair or peach.  There are a couple of fruits however, that will give you more calories than you may have bargained for; Mangos, cherries, grapes and large bananas will all contribute about 100-150 calories to your daily total for the same serving size… just some food for thought.

And dessert tonight is…

Ahh dessert… that guilty little pleasure that we all love to hate to indulge in. But the simple fact is, we do indulge once in a while… and why shouldn’t we? So the next time you’re feeling guilty about indulging, try one of the following little yum yums: a no sugar added Kozy Shack pudding for 60 calories (found in the dairy case), A Cadbury’s ‘thins’ bar for 100 calories, a good old-fashioned Fudgsicle bar for 90 calories, A Vita Muffin chocolate muffin for 100 calories (found in the frozen aisle of your grocery store) or a Curves or Praventia granola bar for 100 calories.

There is something incredibly satisfying about actually finishing a dessert, which is exactly why the above desserts all come pre-packaged and perfectly contained to 100 calories or less – Guilt Free! So go ahead… have dessert! And have it every day. The only thing you’ll be missing… is the guilt 😉

We are very lucky in Canada that mercury levels in canned fish are tightly controlled. However, there still are some guidelines to help keep you safe. In general, the larger the fish the more mercury can accumulate within its flesh.  Albacore tuna is one of the bigger fish that is often found as a canned product. As such, health Canada recommends no more than four “servings” per week. What is a serving? Basically it’s half a can or 75 g.

What if you’re one of those folks who eat canned tuna every day… no worries! Other fish used in canned tuna such as skipjack generally tend to be much smaller than albacore tuna and therefore has not been given an upper limit on how much of this tuna you can consume in a week.  The size of this type of fish prevents it from accumulating more mercury than is considered safe for consumption, even at high intake levels.  Sometimes the type of fish is not specified on the label; the less expensive tuna labelled chunk, flaked, or light also falls under this category and can be safely consumed in larger quantities than four servings per week.

So, my recommendation is to go with a cheap stuff and enjoy this healthy food couple of times a week!

Is rice a whole grain? You bet! Rice as a grain contains many B-vitamins including thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6 and many essential minerals such as manganese, phosphorus and iron. Brown rice happens to contains more nutrients and fibre than its white rice counterpart because the bran and germ haven’t been removed (which is where many of the nutrients are found). It is incredible that the process of making rice white destroys 67% of the niacin, 80% thiamin, 90% of vitamin B6, half the manganese and phosphorus, 60% of the iron and almost all the dietary fibre and essential fatty acids. Um, wondering why we eat white rice at all….me too!

But brown rice isn’t the ‘be all end all’ either… compared to white rice, it looks amazingly rich in nutrients however any rice, whether it be white or brown does not contain a satisfactory amount of dietary fibre needed to meet our recommended fibre needs (25g per day for women and 38g per day for men).  One fourths of a cup (about a cup cooked) of brown rice, red rice, wild rice (which is actually a grass not a grain…) or other whole grain rice will only contain a maximum of 3 g fibre.  True, that’s more fibre than in white rice which is about 1g per cooked cup, but hardly worth celebrating over.

So what do I recommend?  Try a variety of different whole grains; quinoa, barley, buckwheat and millet all have more than 6 g of fibre per cooked cup and are more flavourful than your typical rice.  Barley is an especially good substitute for rice in dishes like curries and stir fry’s.  So mix it up a little and enjoy!

Still battling with the age old argument: Butter vs Margarine?

Believe it or not, the jury is NOT out on this topic.  Historically, margarine over took butter as the #1 choice for health because it was made with unsaturated oils which as we all know is the best choice for our heart health (think olive oil – or any oil that is fluid at room temperature).  And then…butter (which is made up of primarily saturated fat) was back in the spot light because science caught up with the fact that the original margarine, true, was made with unsaturated oil, but that unsaturated oil (remember fluid at room temperature) was turned into a solid fat through a process called hydrogenation.  Hydrogenated fat is TRANS FAT!  Which we now know is devastating for your heart health; literally 20x worse for your heart than saturated fat according to a literature review completed on the topic by the American Heart Association.  Trans fat not only increases your bad cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol which is the ‘fat bus’ that deposits cholesterol throughout our bodies and eventually to our hearts) but also decreases your good cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol which is the ‘fat bus’ that carries cholesterol back to our liver to be disposed of).  That’s even worse than the saturated fat found in butter because saturated fat only increases your bad cholesterol but doesn’t affect your good cholesterol!

So at this point, the world is back on to butter as the healthy, ‘natural’ choice for spreadable fats in this debate.  BUT, now that the science has caught up, margarines now-a-days are actually made with non-hydrogenated oils and therefore are a whole lot better for your heart than butter ever was.  The unsaturated fats found in today’s margarine have actually been shown in hundreds of studies to impact your cholesterol levels favorably.  So the jury has spoken: margarine made from NON-HYDROGENATED oil is the way to go. You can also buy ‘light’ margarine which usually contains about ½ the calories as regular margarine; this will save you big time when you’re trying to lose weight!  So, give margarine a chance again – your heart will thank you!

Buyer beware: margarine’s can still be purchased that are made with hydrogenated fat (think Parkay) so always be sure to check the label before buying a margarine and choose one (like Becel) that states ‘non-hydrogenated’ on the package.

For some, drinking regular old cow’s milks may pose some problems: especially if you have an allergy to dairy, are intolerant of lactose (the sugar found in milk) or just don’t like the taste of it! So how do you get nutrients like riboflavin, calcium and vitamin D normally found in milk that your body needs?

Why not explore other options we have in the market: soy milk, almond milk, rice milk and even hemp milk are all considered milk alternatives. All come in different flavors and varying fat content and do not contain cholesterol, dairy or lactose so may be more suitable for some folks.

But beware, in order to choose a true ‘milk alternative’ you have to choose wisely; here are some tips to help you choose a milk alternate:

#1. Almond and rice milk do not contain an equivalent amount of protein compared to cow’s milk so if you’re using these products, be sure you’ve got another source of protein included in your meal.

#2. ‘Natural’ milk alternatives may not be fortified.  Even cow’s milk has nutrients added (think vitamin D) and so be sure that your milk alternative clearly states that it is ‘fortified’ on its packaging.  If it does not the product is not a true ‘milk alternative’ and you should consider a different product.

#3. Soy milk naturally contains fibre and more riboflavin and folate than cow’s milk because soy milk is made from beans! Not a bad gig especially if you’re pregnant – you’ll need more of all these nutrients.

The next time you’re out shopping, why not check out some of these products: two cups per day will provide you with the nutrients you need and help to make your life a lot easier!

The next time you find yourself in a place like Starbucks, have a look at all the sugar substitute options you have to sweeten your coffee: Splenda (yellow package), Sweet’N Low (pink package), Equal (blue package)…but are these sweeteners safe for consumption?

So…are frozen fruits and veggies just as nutritious as fresh?  The short answer is, likely.  This isn’t a hard and fast rule per say, but most fruits and veggies produced for freezing are grown and processed in relative close proximity.  This means that the fruits and veggies you would normally find in a frozen bag from the grocery store are picked fresh and flash frozen straight away.

When fruits and vegetables are allowed to ripen naturally before being harvested, their nutrient content is undoubtedly higher than if the same fruit or veggie was picked ‘green’ as is often the case with fresh fruits and veggies that are shipped long distances before consumption.

The downside is of course that the freezing process and storage does zap some of the nutrient content from its recipients…about 11% in fact.

Now where does that leave consumers you ask?  The long of the short is this; frozen fruits and vegetables can be just as nutritious as fresh.  So the next time you’re stuck for time or feeling the lack of variety the winter months can bring – keeping frozen fruits or vegetables on hand can save your bacon.  Better to include frozen fruits or veggies in your meal rather than skip them altogether for lack of time!

And…as a shameless plug for all those local growers and farmers markets out there, buying fresh when locally sourced and in season is still your best bet for optimizing nutrition 😉

Chia is one of those new ‘superfoods’ gaining a lot of notoriety these days.  If you don’t know what chia is, think chia pet – it’s actually the same stuff!  You may have also heard it called by the brand name its most commonly sold under: Salba.

Among the many purported benefits of chia seed is its ability to produce weight loss.  Unfortunately, there is insufficient evidence to support this claim.  Click here to read an article that discusses a study which found no real connection between chia seed and weight loss.

All hope is not lost for chia however!  Chia seed does happened to be high in omega-3, soluble fibre and calcium (which is not usually found in abundance in grains).  Soluble fibre, among other things, can aide in weight loss if used as part of an appropriately designed weight loss plan as it can help you stay fuller longer.  It can also help control blood sugars, keep you regular and eliminate excess dietary cholesterol.  Soluble fibre works by forming a gel like substance in your stomach which slows down how fast food empties from your stomach into your intestine.  If you want to see this process in action, try our Chia pudding recipe (found in our recipes sections) you’ll watch the seeds turn into gel right before your eyes!  (It actually tastes good too ;).

So it seems that this ‘superfood’ actually does have some benefits but like all things, too much is too much.  Because of the high omega-3 content of these seeds, the literature recommends consuming NO MORE than 37g per day.  More than that can lead to less than optimal blood clotting.

I therefore recommend adding a tablespoon of chia to your morning cereal or having 1/3 cup of the pudding as a snack to help your meal or snack last you longer, eliminate additional cholesterol, help control your blood sugars, keep you regular and contribute to your overall daily calcium intake. Enjoy!