Put Your Best Fork Forward!

Anjou pears on a tree in a sunny orchard with a dirt road

Happy National Nutrition Month! Every year, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics encourages getting back to the basics of a healthful diet, and moving toward healthful habits can be as simple as changing the next bite. Lately, I have been hearing of more nutrition and food fads and myths than usual. It seems the internet has made everyone a nutrition expert. (Insert a shrug and a sigh.) My personal pet peeve is the use of the phrases good food and bad food. Unfortunately, nutrition isn’t black and white unless you’re eating a hot fudge sundae. When I was an obese teen, I’d come home after school and cram my mouth full of snack cakes, potato chips, whatever packaged food I could find in our overstuffed pantry. These, of course, were not nutrient-dense choices and I don’t ever recommend eating this Continue reading

Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day!

March is National Nutrition Month, a nutrition education campaign to support sound food and activity choices from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Here’s the scoop: there is no such thing as a perfect diet! We each have likes, dislikes, and traditions. Humans are social eaters: breaking bread is building community and part of the foundation of cultures, traditions, family, and living life to its fullest. Certain foods have important emotional ties and yes, food provides some happiness. For instance, I have Irish roots and when I was growing up my mother always made Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day. I carry on this tradition and relive very happy memories each time I do. Food nourishes the body and the soul. Teaching nutrition in a culinary college has opened my eyes to just how exciting and creative a healthful Continue reading