Anne-Marie Davee

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What fits easily into a lunch box, tastes great, quenches your thirst, satisfies a sweet tooth and is low in calories? You guessed it fruit. Mother Nature has cleverly combined carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals and, best of all, sweetness, into one colorful package. Fruit consumption is on the rise and now, more than ever, is recognized as a fit food.

Research studies verify that a daily intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with a reduced risk for chronic diseases, such as heart disease, and may have a protective effect against certain types of cancers. As a result, the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans, from 2015, recommend that we focus on fruit, particularly whole fruit. These guidelines encourage us to eat a variety of fruit whether fresh, frozen, canned or dried. And, the MyPlate graphic shows us that half of our plate should be fruits and/or vegetables.

Some may describe fruit as filled with super powers because they provide nutrients that are vital for optimal health and maintenance of our bodies. Vitamin C is needed daily for growth and repair of all body tissues, to heal cuts and wounds and to keep our immune system strong. This vitamin helps our bodies fight viruses, including colds and flu particularly important during Maines winters. Vitamin C keeps our teeth and gums healthy while also boosting iron and calcium absorption. Fruits that are high in vitamin C include citrus fruits (oranges, clementines, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, limes), strawberries, pineapple and kiwi. Vitamin A, or beta-carotene, is another nutrient found in fruit and helps our vision. It acts as an anti-oxidant and may reduce the risk for cataracts. Fruits such as apricots, cantaloupe, red or pink grapefruit, papaya and mango are high in vitamin A. Potassium is an essential mineral, and it is found in bananas, prunes, dried apricots, cantaloupe and honeydew melon. It plays a critical role in maintaining the bodys fluid balance, in muscle relaxation and in controlling blood pressure.

Fruits are also high in a soluble fiber, called pectin. Pectin helps to lower blood cholesterol levels, assists in blood sugar control and makes you feel full longer. Fruits highest in this type fiber include apples, blackberries, raspberries and pears.

On the sweeter side, fruits are naturally high in two simple sugars; glucose and fructose. These natural sugars can help satisfy that end of a meal craving for a sweet dessert, without a calorie overload. Fruits are low in fat, low in sodium and relatively low in calories, so they can help maintain a healthy weight.

When shopping for fruits, think about the colors of the rainbow. Choose lots of different colors (red, orange, green and purple) to assure that you are getting a variety of nutrients that your body needs. Buying an assortment of fresh, frozen, canned and dried fruits will assure that fruit is always available for you and your family. Use the nutrition facts on food labels to check the calories, nutrient content and sugar as you shop. Buy fresh fruits in-season when they are at peak flavor and low in cost.

The amount of fruit you need depends upon your age, sex and level of physical activity. Two cups of fruit per day are recommended for an average healthy adult consuming a 2,000 calorie diet. A serving of fruit is equal to 1 cup or 1/2 cup of dried fruit or an average size piece of fruit equivalent to a baseball. For more information, go to choosemyplate.gov.

Here are some tips to make your diet a more fruitful one:

At breakfast, top your cereal with sliced bananas, blueberries, peaches or strawberries. Heat blueberries or strawberries and serve them over pancakes. Add fruit, such as applesauce, to muffins and cut the amount of sugar in half. Make a fruit parfait by layering low-fat plain yogurt with your favorite fruits. Create a smoothie by blending low-fat yogurt with frozen fruit.

At lunch, pack an orange, banana or grapes to energize you through the afternoon. Add fruit to cottage cheese for a refreshing salad.

At dinner, use fruit to tenderize meats and flavor entrees like chicken with apricots. Add fruit to salads like mandarin oranges on spinach salad and crushed pineapple with coleslaw. Try colorful fruit kabobs to add eye appeal to your barbecue. For dessert, try baked apples, poached pears or a fresh fruit salad.

Keep a bowl of whole fruit on the table, counter or in the refrigerator for healthy eating on the run. Dried fruit makes great, grab n go snacks, or spread apple slices with peanut butter.

March is National Nutrition Month, and this years theme is Put Your Best Fork Forward. Lets all put our forks into fruits. Fruits should be enjoyed as part of our daily diets they are sweet and swell for you.

Anne-Marie Davee, M.S., RDN, LD, a registered and licensed dietitian-nutritionist, is a nutrition faculty member at the University of New England. She also assists with coordination of the Maine SNAP-Ed Program.

Link:
Make your diet a fruitful one - Biddeford Journal Tribune

Over the past few years I've watched several friends jump from diet to diet: Paleo, South Beach, and Skinny Bitch to name a few. The common ground between all of them was deprivation. Cutting out carbs, foregoing alcohol, and even skipping meals and detoxes were often part of their "get healthy" plans.

The problem with a diet is, if you go on one, you eventually go off one.

I'm not talking about specific dietary necessities. Avoiding gluten because of an allergy is different from believing avoiding it will lead you to a smaller dress size.

We live in a society where we're (especially as women) pulled in 80 different directions...daily. And, we try to balance work, family, kids, and our own needs.

There's an ebb and flow to life's balance, but it seems like the scale is the only place we beat ourselves up over it.

If only I weighed... If I just dropped... I shouldn't have eaten...

Why do we associate our behaviors with food as "bad?" I've never heard another woman say, "I was so bad this weekend, I didn't vacuum the whole house."

We can enjoy time with our girlfriends, we can delight in 15 minutes of quiet to read a magazine, but we have to rationalize for savoring a slice of cake.

I don't get it.

Across the spectrum of life we can always do more.

I could live greener if I composted (my allergy to bees ended that one) or wore a Diva Cup (sorry, it's not going to happen).

I could be stronger if I went to the gym everyday (right now walking my dog and playing catch with my kids works for me).

One day I swore I was going to clean the shower (my most dreaded chore) everyday. It lasted 4 days.

Maybe one day these choices will work for my lifestyle, but now isn't that time. I'm doing what I can, today.

Most people don't decide that they want to "get healthy" for only two weeks. But lifestyle changes take time.

So, how about the "Cut yourself some slack non-diet lifestyle change."

You currently eat dinner out 7 nights a week? Try cooking at home once or twice a week to start.

Craving chocolate cake? Pick up a slice of your decadent favorite (not a processed, chemical-laden imitation) and share...or not...with a friend.

Want to start exercising after a few weeks- ahem, years- hiatus? Take the dog for an extra lap or two around the block. Don't have a dog? Walk with a friend who does!

Life happens. Sometimes the floors don't get swept, the laundry has to run an extra cycle (or two), or extra work hours means more take-out for a few days. That's ok.

Cut yourself some slack.

Physiologically, guilt = stress = the body's fight/flight response = decrease in digestion and metabolism.

So, what's the best diet plan? The one that works for you...today. The plan where we can teach our kids that it's ok to share laughter with ice cream and wishes with cake.

The lifestyle plan where riding a bike to the park is just as valuable as "spinning" for an hour.

Moderation. Balance. Laughter.**

**originally posted 9/16/13 on my old blog: FTE Daily Green

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HEALTHY CHOICES: Cambrooke Therapeutics co-founder Lynn Paolella with low-protein hamburger buns produced at the company's Ayer plant. See video at sentinelandenterprise.com. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN LOVE

Sentinel and Enterprise staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

AYER -- A marvelous thing happened after a jeweler, her architect husband and her businessman brother put their heads together.

"We made a difference," Lynn Paolella said. "It really started with an inspiration to feed my kids."

Lynn and her husband David have three children. The two youngest, Cameron and Brooke, were born with a rare disease, phenylketonuria, or PKU.

The only way to manage the disease that can cause intellectual disability and other health problems is a diet that minimizes exposure to phenylalanine, an amino acid in protein, yet provides enough protein for the body.

The amino acid is present in many foods, even things like potatoes. It is also a main ingredient of the sweetener Aspartame.

Sentinel and Enterprise staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

Until 2009, the accepted treatment for the disease was based on synthetic protein without phenylalanine. "They protected our kids' brains," David Paolella said, but the diet was unpalatable.

Lynn set to work, developing recipes that her children would want to eat. "I love to cook and I absolutely loved the challenge of this low-protein diet," she said.

In 2000, those early attempts led to a new business, Cambrooke Therapeutics. It started out as a family business with just the Paolellas and Lynn's brother, Don Patterson. They developed the food, outsourced manufacturing and made connections all around the world.

Now, the Ayer-based medical food manufacturer is increasingly automated with clients across the globe.

Development of PKU treatment is covered under the Orphan Drug Act, David Paolella said. The act covers drugs and treatment for diseases affecting small numbers of people.

PKU, an inborn error of metabolism, occurs in about one in every 10,000 births in the United States. When caught at birth and managed successfully, the children can thrive. If left untreated, mental retardation results.

Sentinel and Enterprise staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

The disease is easy to catch in newborns. The screening test for was developed by a Massachusetts doctor, Robert Guthrie, in the 1960s. His photo is on the wall of the ground floor conference room in Ayer.

Cambrooke is at the cutting edge of medical nutrition. In 2009, the University of Wisconsin Madison developed a way to make a protein without phenylalanine from whey, a cheese-making byproduct.

"They approached us," Lynn Paolella said.

The protein tasted better than the synthetic product. Cambrooke licensed the technology. A peer-reviewed study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, proved the safety and effectiveness of the protein.

Sentinel and Enterprise staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

Along the journey, the company worked with the Small Business Development Center at Clark University in Worcester.

They moved into a former electronics plant in Ayer, drawn to the area by the other beverage and food companies. The building required a multi-million dollar makeover to become a sterile place to manufacture and package beverages.

Food is made from scratch in Brockton, Lynn Paolella said.

The liquids products are put into sterile packaging, David Paolella said. The product will not spoil at room temperature. Nutrients in the liquid will degrade over time.

Their equipment is the only setup in the county that can turn out cost-effective, sterile packages in small batches of 20 to 30 cases, he said. Most beverage manufacturers will produce the same product for days before changing.

Cambrooke makes food products for other inborn error of metabolism diseases. They also make high-fat food that can manage and sometimes even cure intractable epilepsy that is not controlled by drugs.

The products allow people who must follow strict diets in order to remain healthy the chance to live a life just like everyone else.

"In essence, we're a grocery store of products they can eat," David Paolella said. Some want flour to make cookies, others would rather have cookie dough to bake and some want packages of cookies.

When Cameron and Brooke, now 24 and 19, their older brother Bryce, 26, sit down to eat with the family, everyone might eat Cambrooke products.Or maybe not. (The PKU diet is vegetarian; mom and dad like their meat.)

Three hospitals where families are sent when after receiving a diagnoses of a disease that can be treated by diet are in Massachusetts. They go home with information about Cambrooke after their first visit.

Working with the Massachusetts Export Center and the U.S. State Department, Cambrooke established overseas markets. The incidence of PKU is higher in other countries.

They just met with a Chinese mother, who began manufacturing PKU-friendly food after her child was diagnosed. Until recently, if a child in China had PKU, there was no government help. Babies were left by the side of the road to die, Lynn Paolella said.

An export deal could be in the works. The market would be huge. The disease is more common there than it is in the U.S., she said.

The test kitchen, with two sinks, large ovens and seating for a crowd, sees everyone from groups of dieticians to families learning to deal with the restrictive diet. A playroom upstairs keeps little ones busy while older folks learn.

Enabling people and families to live with the diagnoses is another challenge Cambrooke took on.

Some of the diseases treated by diet must require lifelong management. An iPhone app helps patients keep track of their nutrition.

Cambrooke can bill insurers directly, making it easier for their clients.

Schools are required to supply special diets when needed. The school lunch program Lynn Paolella developed is used in about 400 schools, the closest one in Groton.

The meals need to be heated up and the child with a restricted diet can eat with friends.

Health-care benefits are not consistent across the country, David said. Some states do not even require newborn testing for PKU. The test might be sent out of state to be read. If the lab will includes PKU results, out-of-state health-care providers might not give them to parents.

Lynn went to Washington, D.C., to advocate for the Medical Food Equity Act, requiring insurance plans to cover formula and low-protein foods. The act died in committee.

The business remains a family business at heart. Bryce Paolella helped with developing a new product.

Lynn and David Paolella are the founders and work with the company daily.

Don Patterson is the vice president of operations.

Lynn and Don's mother gives the products her own blessing. Marilyn Patterson helps out with packaging; she plants a kiss and a prayer of goodwill in each box she prepares.

Follow Anne O'Connor on Twitter and Tout @a1oconnor.

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For lives at risk, the perfect recipe - Sentinel & Enterprise

Does eating fat make you fat? Thats the question nutritionists asked and answered in the 1970s. The determination was yes, fat clogs your arteries, and for the last 50 years, USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans have reflected this belief.

Over and over again, Americans were told to reduce their consumption of saturated fats and increase their intake of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Yet, Americans today are sicker, fatter and unhappier now than ever before.

Were the experts wrong? Its becoming increasingly clear that they were, but you wont hear them admit it anytime soon. After all, careers and reputations are at stake, so lets stick to the course, drumming the same nutritional mantra in the hope that Americans will finally just eat less and lose the weight.

That same old advice has become tiresome, and it looks like beef may soon return as a hero to the center of the dinner plate.

A recent article featured on the Observer titled,Health authorities continue to fail us, writer Pete Ross explains how consumers are ditching 50-year-old nutritional advice that was based on faulty science and are opting for a diet that includes plenty of saturated fats from meat.

Ross writes, Research conducted over the last 30 or so years reveals there is no evidence the consumption of saturated fats causes heart attacks or strokes; cholesterols role in developing heart disease is actually much more complex than weve beenled to believe. In fact, despite constant protests from nutritionists and government authorities, the research actually shows that low carb diets are significantly more effective than low fat diets. And yet, the governments dietary recommendations have changed very little.

Much of the nutrition research occurring even now is still muddying the waters. For example, we hear so often thatred meat is bad, but it is almost always studied alongside processed meats and the results extrapolated for both. Look at any study and the actual line is red and processed meats. On what planet is it reasonable to consider a piece of salami, cured with nitrates and other preservatives, in the same category as unadulterated, grass-fed steak?

The media certainly has their place in our current predicament as well. When it comes to nutrition, they dont care what data and research is reliablethey care about whats going to give them a great headline and arouse emotion in readers. Who could forget in late 2015, when the WHO announced bacon and other processed meats as a level-one carcinogen in the same category as cigarettes?

The news immediately broke everywhere that bacon was as bad for you as cigarettes, when the reality is that 50g of bacon a day is going to increase the absolute risk of cancer by a 0.01 percenthardly something to get worked up over. Unfortunately, the headline, Bacon isnt too great for you as we all suspected, so dont eat it too often, isnt as good as, Bacon is in the same category of carcinogen as cigarettes, so eating it gives you cancer!

Theres an undercurrent of change happening in nutritionists circles, and Im very excited about the opportunities this presents for U.S. beef producers. With some effort, we could soon see ribeye steaks touted as a health food. And no longer would the consumer have to feel guilty about consuming a juicy cheeseburger. Athletes will be grabbing beef jerky as their preferred workout fuel. And pot roasts will be the go-to healthy diet meal for busy families.

We have a serious opportunity to capitalize on this growing momentum, but its going to require some strategic rebranding and a fundamental change in consumer thinking. Its time for our industry to get to work;our consumer is seeking this information. Are we ready to give it to them?

The opinions of Amanda Radke are not necessarily those of beefmagazine.com or Penton Agriculture.

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Case for beef in a healthy diet gains momentum - Beef Magazine

Our immune system functions throughout our body. It is composed of specialized cells that prevent or limit infection in our bodies. Immune cells recognize substances that enter our bodies and attempt to remove them if the substance appears to be harmful to us.

Consuming a healthy diet is one of the best strategies for having a healthy immune system. Research has shown some nutrients; including protein, and certain vitamins and minerals, have specific roles in immune health. If we lack any of these nutrients, our ability to fight infection can decrease.

Protein is found in every cell, tissue and organ in our bodies. When we don't get enough protein, our bodies may produce less certain immune cells and increase our susceptibility to infections of the respiratory, gastrointestinal and urinary tract. Protein foods include chicken, beef, fish, pork, eggs, peanut butter, milk, beans, seeds and nuts. Adult women should get about 46 grams of protein per day. Men should get about 56 grams.

Vitamin A keeps skin and tissues of mouth, stomach, intestines and respiratory system healthy. These tissues serve as our first line of defense against infections. Good sources are carrots, apricots, sweet potatoes, kale, spinach, red bell peppers and eggs.

Vitamin C helps the formation of antibodies and the production of certain immune health. Food sources include citrus fruit, papaya, strawberries, kiwi, tomatoes, and foods such as cereals fortified with Vitamin C.

Vitamin E protects cell membranes in the body. For vitamin E you can eat sunflower seeds, almonds and oils such as sunflower and safflower oil.

Selenium deficiencies have been shown to decrease immune cells' disease fighting power. It is a mineral found in the soil. You can get selenium for the animals and plants that we eat.

Vitamin D is important to fight off infection and disease. The best way to get vitamin D is to absorb it from the sun. Adults need 600 IU of Vitamin D each day. Good sources include milk, oily fish such as tuna, mushrooms, breads, orange juice and yogurt.

Vitamin B6 is important for immune cell growth. You can get it from tuna, turkey, beef, chicken, salmon, sweet potatoes, sunflower seeds and bananas.

Iron deficiency has been associated with reduced immunity in human and animal studies. Our bodies absorb it better when it is paired with foods high in vitamin C. Food sources include: red meat, pork, poultry, beans, spinach, iron fortified breads, cereals and pastas.

Zinc deficiency can affect how certain immune cells function. Eat lean meat, poultry, seafood, milk, whole grain products, beans and nuts.

To have a healthy immune system, we need to focus on getting healthy overall. Here are a few lifestyle factors that can impact your immune system.

Exercise Participate in regular physical activity. It allows your immune system to work properly.

Manage stress Certain types of stress weaken the immune system, and make it harder to fight infection.

Get enough sleep Sleep deprivation can depress the immune system's disease fighting power by reducing the production of T cells.

Limit alcohol It is one substance that can suppress our immune system. If you drink, drink in moderation.

Take steps to fight infection Wash hands often. Practice good food safety. Wash fruits and vegetables before eating. Thaw foods safely. Cook meat and seafood thoroughly and keep raw and cooked foods separate.

Source: North Dakota State University Extension Service

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Health for your immune system - Weatherford Democrat