Marie spano

Is Organic Food Better for You (nutrition, fewer pesticides)?

September 14, 2016 / 2 minutes of reading

If you saw the recent press about organic food (MSNBC’s headline: “Organic food no more nutritious than non-organic”), you may be left wondering if conventional is best after all. But,  you’ll want to take a close look at this debate before making up your mind. A recent review of the published research on organic and non-organic foods (including veggies, fruit, meat, poultry, eggs and milk), out of Stanford University and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that organic …

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What to Feed Your Young Athlete

September 11, 2012 / 1 minute of reading

I get quite a few questions from parents who ask what they can feed their kids to keep them fueled for sports yet happy at mealtime. After all, no parent wants to hear their child complain at mealtime (or stubbornly sit at the table for hours like I did, refusing to eat my peas). So expert dietitian Leah Holcombe put together this fantastic document with several ideas for kid-friendly lunches. Healthy Lunches for Kids with kid-friendly lunch ideas. For other …

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Putting a Fork in Forks Over Knives

May 30, 2012 / 4 minutes of reading

The war over good food, bad food grew larger when Forks Over Knives hit the movie theaters in 2011. Forks Over Knives, which means “use a dinner fork instead of going under the knife (surgery for chronic diseases)” contained some good information, some misleading information and left a lot of gaps in the research. So here are my good and bad impressions of this documentary. The entire film was devoted to the supposed evils of animal based proteins. That’s right, …

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Tofu Veggie Stir Fry

April 21, 2012 / 1 minute of reading

This month’s Recipe Redux theme is asparagus. And, in my opinion there’s no better way to eat asparagus then stir fried in sesame oil. So, I literally threw together a bunch of vegetables and some tofu for this meatless meal. It’s quick, it’s healthy and it tastes good (and you can add a variety of other vegetables to a stir fry dish). Tofu Veggie Stir fry Makes 3 servings 1 green bell pepper bunch asparagus (cut into 2-3 inch pieces) …

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Effective Strategies for Weight Loss

April 19, 2012 / 4 minutes of reading

Last Friday I spoke at the NSCA’s Personal Trainers meeting in Las, Vegas. They put on one heck of a meeting and I love meeting NSCA members and learning from them as well as the speakers. And one thing I really liked about this meeting was the fact that several speakers challenged commonly held beliefs about nutrition and exercise. Here’s a condensed overview (not all points included) of my talk on Effective Strategies for Weight Loss: 1) Lift Weights or …

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Is Stress Making You Fat?

April 19, 2012 / 2 minutes of reading

Short-term stress is good and prepares our bodies to respond to physical, emotional and psychological stress. However, long-term chronic stress has many negative effects on our bodies. You may have heard that stress interrupts our sleep patterns, which is true. In addition to needing sleep so we feel refreshed and can think clearly, we need 7-9 hours of sound sleep a night to maintain a healthy weight. How? Sleep influences our body’s production of hormones, which influence our appetite (leptin …

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