Hi Everybody! The story goes like this: earlier this year I started a website called Nutrish and Delish and had all these grand plans of blogging along with my then new found passion for Instagram-ing all the nutritious and delicious things in my life. It worked really well for a few months. Then reality struck where friend, family and work obligations always came first and blog posts got shelved. So with full intentions of resuming my original plans, this spring I shut the website down to make sure I didn't lead anyone on and to regroup my ideas.
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All last month I was swamped (but very happily swamped) with work for National Nutrition Month. On top of the full-time job at the hospital, I was creating and presenting lectures to students ranging from kindergartners to high school seniors and teaching them about healthy eating habits and the importance of starting now. I LOVE teaching! Opening minds to new ideas and getting people to really think about how ‘you are what you eat’ is very rewarding and also hopeful that the newer and current generations will start making smarter choices and rates of obesity and related health conditions will start to decline. February was National Heart Month and March is both National Nutrition Month AND National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, so eeeeeverybody is talking about fiber fiber fiber! But why??? Because most of us are lacking it in our diets! It’s recommended that women get at least 25 gm per day and men at least 38 gm per day (a bit less for both if you’re over 50 years of age), however, the average American diet only includes about 15 gm of fiber per day (1). People who know me know that I LOVE snow and any snow sports, however, don't mistake that for loving cold weather!! It has been freezing in the East and all I could think of today when I woke up was simulating something spring and summer like. Success: Tropical Mango Coconut Smoothie. While drinking it I day dreamed I was back on the beach during our Puerto Morales, Mexico vacation...ahh, the memories... This smoothie is fruity, creamy and naturally tasty with no added refined sugar, and best of all packed with antioxidants, numerous vitamins (A, B's, C, K) and minerals (copper, iron, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium...and more) needed for all sorts of brain and body functions, and loads and loads of fiber to help keep you full and help prevent heart disease! Now time to stop typing and put the mittens back on...Brrrrr!! ;) February is American Heart Month, raising awareness about heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and woman: 1 out of 4 deaths (1)! Heart disease includes conditions such as atherosclerosis (when arteries become clogged due to plaque build-up) that can result in coronary artery disease and ultimately cause heart attacks, heart failure and strokes by obstructing the flow of oxygen and blood to the rest of your body (1,2). What causes plaque build up? It’s mainly low-density lipoprotein (aka LDL aka ‘bad’ cholesterol) mixed with fat, calcium and other miscellaneous materials found in your blood (1,3,4). |
Maxine Yeung
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