Foods to Avoid a Fracture

Transcript:

TERESA: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. Today, we are going to discuss what foods support strong and flexible bones, and also the foods that can cause weak and fragile bones. If this is the first time you have listened to Dishing Up Nutrition, we welcome you. While you're listening, you might be thinking to yourself, “Well this sounds like a nutrition class, but a very interesting nutrition class.” If you thought that well, we think that you're right. Today, it's a class about keeping your bones strong. We believe nutrition education should not be boring. So who knows? I might even tell a joke or two this morning. Now, that might be funny. I am Teresa Wagner. I work as a registered and licensed dietitian, but my real work is being a mother of three young children. Now that's a tough job.

For today's topic, we are going to discuss an issue that's generally seen as an older person's issue, but as we'll discuss later in the show, our current dietary habits are having an effect on our kid population too. So over the years I've had many clients who've had osteoporosis, and I know that real food can heal bones that are weak and fragile. After a bone density test, many people are told that they have either osteopenia or osteoporosis. So their doctor will usually recommend a bone building medication to strengthen their bones. As with any medication side effects can occur. So we have a healthier nutritional solution. Everyone knows it's important to keep your bones strong. But did you know your bones should also be flexible? Joining me today in studio is Brandy Buro, who is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian, and previously worked in nutrition research and nutrition education. Brandy, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you became interested in nutrition.

BRANDY: Well, thanks for that introduction, Teresa; really excited to be here today. So my path into nutrition started on a farm in North Dakota. That's where I grew up. And a lot of people assume that because I grew up on a farm, I grew up eating only the best grass fed meat and organic vegetables from the garden, but that really wasn't the case for me.

TERESA: No?

BRANDY: No, maybe it was for my great grandparents, but I had a totally different experience. When I was living on the farm, I ate a ton of processed foods. I started every morning with a big bowl of sugary cereal, or maybe a few Pop Tarts with frosting; so good. And then, you know, I'd snack on candy throughout my school day; maybe have a couple sodas. And then when I got home, I would gorge on chips; more candy. I was overweight my entire childhood, but I didn't realize that the way I looked and felt was connected to my diet. It wasn't until I was in high school that I started reading a little bit about nutrition. And I found out that when I cut out those sugary treats, like the soda, the cereal, the cookie, the cakes, I ended up losing weight. I actually lost over 50 pounds. Wow. That's impressive.

BRANDY: Yeah. I mean, it has a young teen, that's quite a bit of weight too.

TERESA: It is.

BRANDY: So when I lost the weight and I cleaned up my diet, another thing happened. I realized I had energy. I could actually move my body.

TERESA: You know, and I'm just wondering on that too, because when you're so young, what's your frame of reference? You know, for a lot of people as adults, they remember how much energy they had when they were a teenager.

BRANDY: Right.

TERESA: And so you were coming from a different perspective. So this must have been a really nice revelation.

BRANDY: Well, yeah. You know, as a kid, I was always the kid trying to get out of gym class. You know, it made me uncomfortable. I was like literally forging notes, trying, from my mom, trying to get out of gym class. But you know, the better I ate, the better I felt. And then eventually I started running and I really found a passion in that. And running is something that I still do almost every day. You know, I've trained for several marathons. Hopefully there's more. But you know, that, that's what keeps me here in nutrition. So it was my desire to lose weight that got me into nutrition, but now it's my desire to stay healthy and keep moving. And now at Nutritional Weight and Wellness, I get to help people do that. I get to help people with their weight loss goals and with their health.

TERESA: I think that's great. And Brandy, it is so great to have you on our team of dietitians and nutritionists. We all believe in eating real foods. So it's nice to be in a community of people who have the same focus and goals. You know, it's so often people think that nutrition is only about diet and weight loss. It has such a negative connotation a lot of times; restriction and only being able to let lettuce and, and things that maybe don't sound so desirable.

But nutrition is so much more than a number on the scale. Nutrition is involved in making every part of our body. You literally are what you eat. The foods that you eat become what your body is made out of. And that includes our bones as well. Our topic today is how nutrition affects our bones. If you have osteoporosis or osteopenia, where will the next year take you? Perhaps to a fracture and then maybe the hospital, or if you follow our bone building plan, we believe your bones will be stronger and you will not have to endure a fracture. The focus of this show is foods to avoid a fracture. Before we talk about sugar and refined oils, you know, the types that we should all avoid, we want to share some bone building recipes. So we asked Marianne Jurayj, our culinary educator to join us today and share some bone building food ideas. Welcome to the show Marianne. So tell us: how does the food we eat affect our bones?

Bone-building recipes and foods

MARIANNE: Thanks ladies. Thank you for inviting me to join you today. So we do know that healthy bones need adequate protein, lots of good beneficial fats, and those key nutrients from vegetables, those, those phytonutrients. And a good recipe that has all of those fantastic components is Beef and Wild Rice Meatloaf. And you can find that on the website, weightandwellness.com. So this is a great cold weather dish. It's cooling off out there. And it's great to serve it with some tender green beans, maybe in some butter or a little olive oil. And I like to pair it with a side of roasted sweet potatoes with a little rosemary; a perfect meal to build strong bones.

And I like to use beef from grass-fed hormone free animals. And you can switch up those proteins and use, say a good turkey or some ground lamb. And this recipe calls for wild rice, which fun fact is the official grain of Minnesota. Although it's not really grain. It's, true wild rice is actually a marsh grass and it is hand harvested in Northern Minnesota and Canada. And so you'll find the more expensive stuff is actually the hand harvested. The cultivated wild rice is commercially planted. And so it's a hybrid. And, but the good thing is wild rice contains 50% more fiber and protein than brown rice. And it's gluten-free.

TERESA: That's really interesting. And I think, you know, as you were saying, we know that bones need adequate protein and fats, but often we're given the impression that for healthy bones, all we need is calcium. But when we take a deeper look at what nutrients we need to build strong bones, we find that proteins and fats are critically important along with calcium and vitamin D and magnesium and the others.

BRANDY: Yeah, that's so true. I think a lot of those nutrients get overlooked when we're talking about bone health. But I'm, I'm glad we brought up wild rice. Because you know, it's just a really good option for something a little heartier, especially this time of year. I actually found some really nice hand harvested wild rice at the farmer's market last week. So I've been using, I've been starting to use that a little bit more. And I've actually suggested it to some of my clients lately because it is a really good gluten-free option. So Marianne, you said sauté vegetables in butter.

MARIANNE: Yes.

Healthy fats help build strong bones

BRANDY: That reminds me that, you know, we used to be told to steam vegetables and not to use any fat, but then the research found that we actually get more nutrients from those vegetables when we pair it with a healthy fat. And I think butter is the perfect choice for that because it has such a wonderful flavor. You know, and I think a lot of people have dismissed vegetables in the past because they were told to steam their vegetables. And I really don't blame them. I don't really think that's the most palatable way to get your veggies.

TERESA: Agreed.

BRANDY: But you know, butter makes everything taste better. And that fat is so important, not only because it adds flavor and helps us, you know, eat the veggies that we need, but it's a natural fat that helps build strong bones.

TERESA: Yeah. I think it's so interesting how fats are important for strong bones. Just for a little background information on osteoporosis before we get any further, there are 15 to 20 million people in the U.S. who suffer from osteoporosis. And according to the Natural Osteoporosis Foundation, 44 million Americans have low bone density.

BRANDY: Wow. Well, we have to ask then why do Americans have such a high rate of osteoporosis? Well, it's because we were told to follow a low fat, high carb diet, not realizing that those fats were essential to build strong and healthy bones. That's a huge reason why the rate of osteoporosis has gone up.

TERESA: On that note, it's time to take a break. You are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. Today, we will talk about food options that you can eat to avoid weak, fragile bones that can break easily.

BREAK

MARIANNE: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I'm Marianne Jurayj, a chef and culinary nutrition educator. And I have the distinct pleasure of teaching the cooking classes for Nutritional Weight and Wellness. Our goal is to bring everyone back into the kitchen and out of that fast food lane. In fact, I have some great virtual classes coming up here in November. We have Batch Cooking for Easy Dinners and I have an Instant Pot Basics for anyone who wants that equipment to be demystified. And because they're virtual, you can sit back, relax and watch from the comfort of your home. So I encourage you to sign up today and save a spot for you and maybe even a friend. Just give us a call: 651-699-3438.

Cooking Classes

TERESA: And I know I'll be signing up for those classes because batch cooking is something that I do all the time, but I need new fresh ideas. And I have no idea how to work an Instant Pot.

MARIANNE: That would be, that'd be a good class for you then for sure. That's a great class.

BRANDY: Well, before we went on break, we were talking about how the low fat, high carb diet that we've all sort of been taught was best for us was actually doing a disservice to our bone health. So we're going to get back into that with Marianne.

MARIANNE: Yeah. My mother-in-law is actually is suffering from osteoporosis and she was a diehard soda drinker and she ate nothing but iceberg lettuce. So it has, you know, she's suffering now. So, so we know that all fats are not created equal. And when I talk about fats in my classes that build good strong bones, I suggest rich butter and heavy cream from pastured cows. I use unrefined coconut oil; good old fashioned lard if you can find that from a, from a healthy pig. Also, extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil. But if you still have soybean corn vegetable or canola oil in your pantry, I always tell my clients to throw them out. They are highly refined and denatured fats. And they can be found not only in fast food, but in most restaurant foods, especially in those deep fat fryers. And of course these oils are in much of the processed foods found in the center aisles in the grocery store and in the freezer section. So this is a big reason why we like to get people back into the kitchen where they are in control of what goes into their food.

TERESA: Yeah, I totally agree. And I have to say; I apologize for giggling at the thought of your mother-in-law or mother drinking diet soda and eating lettuce. I, by no means am laughing at her current situation, but it just kind of reminded me of how I used to think the lower the calorie, the lower the fat, the better.

MARIANNE: Absolutely. A lot of people felt that way.

TERESA: I don't think that she was intentionally doing something that was not serving her. You know, it, it really was, you know, maybe just following the, the dietary guidelines at the time. So in any case, I thought I should put that out there that I am not laughing at anybody in that situation.

MARIANNE: I think she's not alone in that message.

TERESA: No. No, we do need good, beneficial, natural fats to build bones. We do know that now. But I still find so many women like your mother-in-law that are afraid of fats. Or maybe your mother-in-law isn't currently, but you know, these women are still afraid of fats. They have this fear of fats. They have this fear that if they eat fat, they'll get fat. That low fat myth, the fat free myth is so locked into our brains. We often have to start by just introducing a little bit of fat at a time with our clients, you know, maybe a teaspoon of butter to a meal. And then maybe after a few sessions, they are ready to add another teaspoon of butter.

The biochemistry of bones

So switching gears here a little bit, I want to talk about the biochemistry of bones. Sometimes it's difficult to visualize that the bones are anything other than just a bone, right? But there are multiple layers to our bones and these bones need fat to make this mesh layer of the bone, to which all of the minerals that make them strong attach. That mesh layer is made up of saturated fats like butter, coconut oil, cream, cream cheese, or even the fat from fatty cuts of meat.

BRANDY: That is so interesting. I just don't think that fat is what comes to mind when you think bone health, strong bones.

TERESA: Agreed; yes.

BRANDY: But you know, knowing that I can see why and how one in three women in the United States have weak and fragile bones. So I want to tell you a little story about myself. You know, when I was a teen, I was thinking too, that the secret to losing weight was just to cut out the fat, get rid of the bacon, cut out the eggs. In fact, I would throw away the yolk of all my eggs.

TERESA: I did that too!

BRANDY: And I was, you know, getting rid of the peanut butter, all the things that I loved, but, but that's what all the diet programs told me to do. That's what they said I needed to do to lose weight. But in reality, it wasn't the fat. It wasn't the eggs or the bacon. It was the carbs. It was the, the bread, the candy, the chips, even air pop popcorn, something that I had just assumed was a wholesome snack.

But when I cut out the carbs, that's when I lost the weight. Even though every magazine article said to lose weight, you have to eat low fat, fat-free foods. So I was really confused. You know, it wasn't matching up to my experience. But eating low fat to lose weight was a myth. A lot of people believe that. And a lot of people still believe that. So here's what's happening: after all of these decades of eating a low fat, fat free diet, today, we have three-fourths of the American population that's overweight or obese.

TERESA: Right. And, you know, just to note on how this is affecting the kid population: a study in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research from the Mayo Clinic found that in the last 30 years, forearm fractures have increased by 32% in boys and 56% in girls. My three children are very active. They are involved in sports and other extracurricular activities. They also jump on our trampoline and climb the trees in our backyard. But I think that they have a much better chance not to get a shoulder, elbow or forearm injury because I encourage them to eat protein, vegetables, and fat at every meal. Of course they say, “Why does my mom have to be a dumb dietitian?” That's like the common, dietitian is not a phrase on its own. It is always preceded by… you know, so my kids, as many kids would just prefer to live on a diet of pasta and pizza.

But this research found that these injuries are coming up more and more often. Another research study found that shoulder and elbow injuries were up 500% in baseball and softball players.

BRANDY: Wow.

TERESA: To make strong, but flexible bones, the body needs adequate dietary fats. Most people do well with somewhere around seven tablespoons of fat daily. It's not only the adults that need the adequate protein and fat, but it's also our young people. And I actually was talking to a coach who's also a parent of kids who, who coaches youth football. And he was saying to me, he said, “I don't know what's going on with the kids these days, but he's like every other week I'm having a kid be out because they broke their wrist or a finger.” So these aren't research studies, but it's just more anecdotal of what's going on currently with some of these kids too, that we really have to look at what we're doing as far as what we're feeding our kids.

BRANDY: Right. That's so true. But it makes sense because you know, kids are still growing. They're still building that skeleton. So, you know, the adequate nutrition to build those bones is so important at this stage. So what if your child started their day with a breakfast like I used to? A big bowl of sugary cereal, maybe some skim milk, tall glass of orange juice. Well, that classic breakfast: it contains over 20 teaspoons of sugar.

TERESA: That's a lot of sugar.

BRANDY: That is a ton of sugar. And it's, it's actually enough sugar to actually pull some of the minerals from your bones, which sets us all up for a fracture. And a lot of people think that the orange juice that's fortified with calcium is good for bone density, but they don't realize that that orange juice is super high in sugar.

TERESA: Yeah. And also most of the orange juice that is fortified with calcium is fortified with calcium carbonate. And we know, but not everybody does, that calcium carbonate just is a very poorly absorbed calcium. So how much of that calcium is actually getting into the bone? Probably not very much of it.

BRANDY: That it is so true. So you're not even really getting the benefit from that calcium that you think you're getting. And I think it's important to realize that our bones are living tissue. They need fat to build that fatty acid mesh that you were talking about. And that is what the minerals like calcium, magnesium, and zinc attach to to build those healthy bones.

TERESA: Right, and I think I just want to underscore what you were saying there is that bones are living tissue. They're not this static solid formation inside our bodies. It is constantly breaking down and regrowing and breaking down and regrowing. And although it's slow, it's a slow process, it is happening constantly. And we really want to, with our kids, we want to foster the development of their skeletal system. And as adults, what we want to do is encourage the maintenance of those bones.

BRANDY: Absolutely.

TERESA: You are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. A favorite bone building supplement we recommend to clients with osteopenia or osteoporosis is Key Osteo Plus. This supplement is both a multivitamin and contains bone building minerals all in one. Key Osteo Plus features two forms of calcium for maximum absorption, plus many other key minerals, such as magnesium and zinc. In addition, it includes 1500 IUs of vitamin D3 plus vitamin K2, which are both essential for the absorption of calcium into the bone.

BREAK

BRANDY: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I have a question for you. Are you at risk for developing osteoporosis? If you answer yes to one or all of these questions, osteoporosis might be something you should start thinking about. Do you drink more than one soda per week? Not one soda a day; one soda a week. Do you smoke? Do you follow a low fat diet? For instance, if I looked in your fridge, would I find skim milk or low fat yogurt, or maybe I'd find that low fat dressing. Or maybe you take seizure medications, acid reflux meds, antibiotics, or maybe you're on chemotherapy medication. If so you may need a very specific bone building nutrition program. I suggest giving us a call at (651) 699-3438 to make an appointment with one of our Nutritional Weight and Wellness dietitians or nutritionists.

Nutrition Counseling

TERESA: So before break, we were talking about how important it is to have fat in our diet and how important it is for our kids and for adults and how we want to support the, the stickiness of the bones for those minerals to attach to. And then we were getting into how bone is a living tissue, and that we want to continue to support its growth and maintenance as we age. And one way we do that is by cooking really great healthy meals. And we're so lucky to have Marianne with us today, so she can share her expertise with us on that note and how we get this done.

MARIANNE: Absolutely. Absolutely. So we're going to talk about a sheet pan recipe and, and I was going to go back to those healthy fats; the coconut oil, the, the butter, the olive oil and bacon fat. How yummy is everything made in bacon? I'm going to say I've turned people onto Brussels sprouts just by cooking them in bacon fat.

TERESA: I can see that.

BRANDY: That’s a good idea.

More bone-building recipes and tips from a chef

MARIANNE: Yeah, it is. So it's, especially the shaved Brussels sprouts. They're lovely. So, so everything tastes better when it's cooked in bacon fat. And this sheet pan recipe is Autumn Chicken with Squash and Apples. So it's very, it's very fall-like. It's got those smells and those flavors and all those great ingredients that you can find at the farmer's market. All the squash and the apples, the different varieties of apples are, are in your farmer's market right now. So I encourage you to support those farmers. But you can also find them in your local grocery store. They probably got them showcased right now because that's the season. And this is a great weeknight dinner because you only have to use one pan and it's a super easy cleanup. And I'm going to wager that most people don't like to cook because it's the cleanup. It's not actually the cooking part.

BRANDY: Right.

MARIANNE: It's the cleaning part. So, but this recipe uses delicata squash, one of my favorite kinds of squash.

TERESA: Yes. And it's really interesting because I have said this multiple times on this radio show. I love this recipe, but I always would use butternut squash because I didn't really know what a delicata squash was. So if you don't know what it is, it's more of a, well, I don't know. Marianne, how would you describe how the delicata of squash looks?

MARIANNE: So it's a longer, it's smaller and longer. It's got green stripes, so it's yellow and it's got green stripes and it is a very, it has a delicate skin. And the skin is absolutely edible. In fact, most squash has edible skin. And I'm going to encourage you all to not peel your squash because there's so many nutrients right under that peeling.

TERESA: And this is something that I just learned from Marianne too. So I knew with the delicata squash that we can make use, use the whole thing. And I was like, okay, this is so simple because usually I use butternut, which is more difficult. And I was telling her, then you got to peel it and you got to cut it. And it's so hard. And she's like, “Well, why are you peeling it?” And I said, well, I don't know another way. What else do you do?

MARIANNE: You don't have to peel it, which is nice. Now, if you were going to blend it in a soup, obviously you're, you're going to want to, but you can do that in a slow cooker, just throw the whole squash right in the slow cooker. And then you don't even have to, you don't have to do that. So you can just scoop it out and it makes a puree. But in this case, we are slicing up the delicata squash. You're, you're taking the seeds out. You’re adding those crisp apples, a little bit of rosemary, which smells fantastic. And then a hint of maple syrup. And it's going to fill your house full of those fabulous smells. And I typically use bone in, skin on chicken. And I almost always do that with chicken, because that, that skin it's got that fat right underneath it, and it keeps the meat really moist tender. And, you can crisp up that skin, but, but keep it on. If you don't want to eat it, give it a, give it to somebody else at the table, but definitely cook your chicken on this, with the skin on. And you can also find this recipe on the website, weightandwellness.com.

TERESA: You know, it's really interesting about this recipe too, is that you can pre-make it. So if you have the night before, you have a little bit of time, you can get all of this stuff set on the sheet pan and then cover it with another sheet pan; which another thing I learned from Marianne. I was like, well, I don't like to use Saran Wrap, but she's like just use another sheet pan. I'm always like hitting, slapping myself in the head like, duh. Okay. So I love working with Marianne because I get such great tips. But you can have it all preset. It will last in your refrigerator. And because you are cooking these apples, you don't have to worry about them browning because of the air exposure, because they're going to brown in the, in the oven as you cook them. So…

MARIANNE: Exactly. And I'll tell you another thing. Because you are putting the oil on everything, that oil is also going to keep those apples from oxidizing. So that's a perfect thing. If you've got the room in your fridge, do that in advance. You could also double, triple this batch and put your chicken on one sheet pan, all the vegetables on another, and now you are feeding a crew and that's the way to go.

TERESA: Yes. I love this recipe. I've got to tell you if you haven't tried it, give it a try.

BRANDY: Yeah. I haven't tried that one yet. I'm really excited to give it a go though. But I love that idea of prepping in advance. I, you know, I do a lot of like prepping ahead with like getting my vegetables ready, just making sure I've got the marinade ready, but I never thought of like assembling it ready for the oven. So that's a really good tip. I love that.

TERESA: Yep. All you have to do is preheat your oven and then throw it in the oven and you've got it all.

BRANDY: Perfect. So if you're sitting at home and you're saying to yourself, “I don't want to cook. I'm tired.”

TERESA: I've said that.

BRANDY: “I just want to eat some cheese and crackers and maybe a brownie; top it off with a Diet Coke.”

TERESA: Or a glass of wine with that cheese and crackers.

BRANDY: Even better. Well, I hate to break it to you, but that meal, that is not a good meal for your bones. And it's really not a good meal for your weight. Generally, it's just not a good meal for you. And if that is something that you've been doing lately, you better pay attention. But maybe you're thinking, well, then what can I do? What can I do to get enough protein, some vegetables and a healthy fat? Something that's not complicated, fast, easy, delicious. Well, we've got lots of ideas for you.

Healthy, easy meal prep ideas

TERESA: Right. And like we said, we can make that sheet pan, any sheet pan meal, but the one that Marianne just told us about. And then if we're thinking about breakfast, an idea I have that I give to my clients who don't want to cook for breakfast: I encourage them to hard boil eight or so eggs and peel them and store them in the refrigerator. So in the morning they're all set and ready to go. And my personal favorite way of eating hard boiled eggs is to just cut them in half lengthwise and then add a half, or maybe even a whole mashed avocado, just depending on the size of the avocado to the top of that and sprinkling it with salt and some “Everything but the Bagel Seasoning”. And I just eat it with a fork and I absolutely love it.

And so that gives you protein from the eggs. It gives you fat from the avocado. And then for a little bit of carb, I like to add just some, you know, brain boosting, bone supporting fruits or vegetables. A lot of times if I'm doing this just to be quick, I'll grab, you know, just a small dish of blueberries or maybe a clementine or something on the side. But like I said, the eggs have the protein to build that bone structure and there's fat in the avocado. And there's some fat in that yolk too, to make that mesh for the minerals to adhere to.

MARIANNE: That's great. Yeah. And here is a tip for those hard boiled eggs. And I'm sure we've all struggled with trying to get that peel off. So the trick is to always put your eggs into water that is boiling. So bring your water up to a nice gentle boil, and then put your eggs on a spoon and gently set them into the boiling water. And then let it go for about nine minutes. Or you can steam your eggs, put them in a steamer basket, let them steam for about 18 minutes. And I'm going to tell you that the shell is going to peel right off. That protein membrane between the shell and the egg is not going to stick to that shell. And you'll be able to have a nice, smooth egg. You can make those deviled eggs. They look really nice. And, so that's, that's the trick. You've got to put it into hot. Don't put it into cold water and bring it up to a boil or they will stick for sure.

BRANDY: Well, I have to say this is literally blowing my mind because I have struggled with this for so many years trying to get the peel to just come off cleanly. Honestly, it's like the top reason I hate making deviled eggs. It’s always so hard to get the peel off. So I'm going to try this trick. I've always been, you know, I start with the water cold and bring it up to the boil, but I'm going to try this.

TERESA: Right. Cause I feel like that's what every recipe says, right? It says to put it in cold water and then bring it up to temperature. So, very interesting. Well, when we come back, we'll talk about some more tips. But you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. If the stress from COVID-19 had you going back and forth to the cupboard for candy treats and chips or to the fridge for, you know, just a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream that maybe turned into that whole pint, we invite you to tune in next Saturday to listen to Cassie and Kara talk about ways to get off sweets and back on track.

BREAK

BRANDY: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you are struggling with a few extra pounds and want to get back to real nutrition, well, we're offering a Nutrition for Weight loss series starting November 2nd, at 6:30 PM, to help you get through the holidays feeling great. This is a 12 week class series taught virtually through Zoom with two very experienced nutrition educators. To save yourself a spot, call us at (651) 699-3438.

Nutrition 4 Weight Loss program

Well, before break, we were just talking about a few ideas to get in some balanced nutrition that's fast, easy and tastes good. So I'm going to share a little trick that I suggest for my clients. I ask them to make a protein shake. I get them started with a scoop of quality protein powder, add a scoop of Key Collagen and then mix in a couple of tablespoons of healthy fat. Maybe that's heavy cream or maybe some canned coconut milk. Again, it's the saturated fats in that shake that helps make the bone mesh. And then the protein powder that helps build the strong bone structure. And this collagen: that's what actually allows the bones to be somewhat flexible, which helps prevent those bones from breaking. Without the collagen, the calcium and other minerals can't combine to form strong bone. So think of it this way: the collagen gets the calcium to stick to the bone.

TERESA: Right. And one thing I would say about collagen too is that it's great in a protein shake, and you can add that along with your other protein powders, whether it's whey or beef based. But you can also add collagen into your coffee and it just dissolves seamlessly into your coffee. And so that you can be doing some bone supporting while you're drinking that coffee. And I would suggest if you have osteoporosis or osteopenia, really considering limiting coffee to eight ounces a day, just because we do know that there is some leaching that happens when we drink too much coffee. But you can offset that a little bit by adding the collagen; maybe adding a little bit of heavy cream, some good fats to that coffee to make it less likely to leech those minerals out of, out of your bones.

Batch cooking tips

MARIANNE: That's a great idea. I like that. And I actually put some in my tea. I'm a tea drinker. It tastes good in tea; green tea. It's lovely. So, as you may have guessed, I actually love being in the kitchen, but for those of you who don't want to spend the entire day preparing food, doing those dishes, I suggest cooking once and eating many times, and this is an economy of motion. It's fantastic. It's, it's the way that you can be your own food processor, so to speak. So, so make a double batch of that chili or that soup, that protein, those, those sheet pan meals. And so with soups and chilis, I actually freeze them in a muffin tin. So, you know, the bigger muffin tins that have six slots, not the eight slots or 12? I freeze everything that has liquid, so soups, chilis. And then I have them in a portion size. I, I take them out of the muffin tin. I put them in a bag. They're in my freezer. I can, you know, heat one up in no time. My husband eats egg bites that way all the time. It's a great way to make breakfast.

TERESA: And those are silicone, right? So that you can just kind of push them through?

MARIANNE: You just invert it. And, and they just go right into a bag and it's the simplest thing ever. So I encourage everybody to, to freeze things in smaller portions, because then you don't have this big block of chili or soup. And you're, you feel like you have to thaw out that whole thing for your next meal.

TERESA: You’re committed.

MARIANNE: You are committed. So, so do it in portions and it, it makes it so much easier. And likewise, when you are heating up that oven, so you're preheating that oven, let's fill it up. If you've got three racks in your oven, let's put a sheet pan of veggies and one of protein, and then you're going to have, you'll have protein for lunches. You can throw it into your salads, your soups, your stews. You'll have it already. I actually also freeze my meat in muffin tins. So shredded chicken, pulled pork. They freeze beautifully.

TERESA: I suppose, things like sloppy joes or taco meat; that kind of stuff would work.

MARIANNE: Absolutely; yeah. So think about how easy that would be for you. And if you have a hard time digesting beans in that chili, I usually will substitute a sweet potato, which works really well.

TERESA: Oh, that reminds me. Yeah, because there are people where beans can be inflammatory for them. So, so beans in chili, or maybe even like hummus or something like that, which can maybe also be inflammatory for some people; because that base of hummus is blended chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans. And, you know, oftentimes when you buy it pre-made, it contains refined oils such as soybean oil instead of the pure olive oil that it was originally made with from, I think it originates from the Middle East. So they would use really good olive oil in their hummus. So it probably didn't have that sort of inflammatory effect.

You know, there are so many nutrition myths about foods that are healthy and those that are not, but for those of you who do get an inflammatory response to hummus, a good fatty replacement, that would be bone supporting could be Olive Tapenade. It's high in fat because it's made from olives and it's absolutely one of my favorite party dips that I put out. It just seems, it doesn't seem like it's healthy. You know, I don't want everybody to think that when they come to my house, all I'm going to have are salads or I don't know.

MARIANNE: It’s indulgent. I think, I feel like a lot of people like olives. I love them.

TERESA: Yeah. And the, the recipe is on our website. And my trick, because, you know, as I think you're getting from this conversation is I like things to be easy and fast, because we're just busy; not because we're lazy, but just because we're busy. So when you're making this, it does make a pretty large amount of the olive tapenade. So you use the entire drained can; eight and a half ounce of black olives and the whole jar of the Kalamata olives and the whole jar of the green olives with the pimentos. And I think those jars are about 10 ounces. So if you're using with the pimentos, you could skip those, those peppers that it calls for. If you want, you can always add those in too. But then it's just done. It's just a dump recipe. You put in your food processor, and then you just like, you just pulse it. You don't want to spin it because then it’ll turn it into mush, but you just pulse it. And it makes three cups and it freezes beautifully. And, so you can have, you know, a cup for now, and you can have a couple of cups that you have frozen in your freezer to use later. So like Marianne says you cook or prep once and you eat multiple times.

MARIANNE: These are all pitted olives for sure.

TERESA: Yeah.

MARIANNE: We don’t want pits in those olives. You don't want to blend those for sure.

TERESA: Right.

BRANDY: Well I've been really digging that recipe lately, too. I've actually been putting it on my salads sort of as a substitute for salad dressing.

TERESA: Interesting.

MARIANNE: Good idea.

BRANDY: Yeah. Really good in my lunch box for snacks with a couple cucumbers or carrot sticks; use it as a veggie dip.

TERESA: Yeah. Especially if you get, like, if you slice your carrots wide, so they're a bigger scoop.

BRANDY: Yeah, exactly. When I heard you talking, I'm thinking that's a really good recipe. You could class it up for like a holiday party or something.

TERESA: Yeah. And maybe even a hostess gift. I don't know.

MARIANNE: Oh for sure. Put it in a nice little Mason jar with a ribbon. I love it.

BRANDY: That's a really good idea. Well, you know, and I love to cook. I just love entertaining and cooking, but sometimes I can get a little burned out. And I think that is a lot of people's experience. And we understand that here. We get it, that you're getting tired of cooking sometimes. So that's why we started offering some cooking classes; some classes to get you inspired; give you a little more support. And really, if you are trying to improve your bone health, you really do need to put a little more effort in the kitchen. You need to cook for yourself, or you need to get a little help from your partner. Or if you're really lucky, maybe you have a personal chef roll through the kitchen.

Cooking Classes

TERESA: That would be so great.

BRANDY: But really the best chefs, the best restaurants, they're only using the best ingredients, even healthy, real fats. And when we're talking, when we're talking about improving bone health, we really just need to dial it back, get back to basics and talk real food. We need to get rid of the processed foods. We need to get rid of the refined carbohydrates and really give us the nutrition that's going to support strong bones.

High sugar foods steal nutrients from the bones

TERESA: Right. And I think, you know, part of that too, is we're talking about foods that are nutrient dense that will give us all the nutrients we need to support the health of the bones. But on the flip side, when we're talking about processed foods or high sugar foods, we need to think about, well, what is the effect that those are having on the body? And because they're processed, they tend to be nutrient poor. So when you eat them, they don't give you any nutrients. And also because they tend to be high in carbohydrates and high in sugar, they actually use the nutrients that you have, or that you have stored in your body in order to metabolize those foods. So not only are they not giving you any minerals and vitamins, but they're also using up your stores of them; which puts your bones in a compromised position.

So we like to just eat the foods that are going to help fill those nutrient gaps if we have them, and, and try to stay away from as much as possible, those processed refined foods. So just to recap for today, bones need about 10 to 14 ounces of animal protein, nutrients from vegetables, and about seven tablespoons of natural fats, such as avocados, olives, olive oil, coconut oil, butter, cream, cheese, or even bacon grease. To keep bones strong and healthy, they need those nutrients every day. We have many clients who are able to restore their bones by changing their eating to real food and taking a few key supplements. They went from osteoporosis to osteopenia and then to normal strong bones.

And this is a slow process. I would say, make sure you give yourself about two years for this to happen. To build strong bones it takes work and support, but it can be done. Our goal at Nutritional Weight and Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple yet powerful message. Eating real food is life-changing. Thank you for joining us today and have a wonderful day.