Daniel Larson:
Hello and welcome to today's virtual program offered by the Brandeis University Alumni Association, How to Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Boost Your Health, presented by Sarah Rueven, Brandeis University class of 2009. Thank you for joining us today. There'll be an opportunity to submit questions to Sarah using the Zoom Q&A feature on your screen and we'll try to get to as many questions as we can. To introduce our speaker and open the event, we'll first hear from Courtney Suncar, Associate Director of Alumni Relations, overseeing alumni affinity groups. Courtney?
Courtney Suncar:
We are really pleased to be joined by dietician and wellness expert Sarah Rueven, who will share her tips on using quarantine as an opportunity to boost your health. Sarah is the founder of Rooted Wellness, a nutrition counseling practice dedicated to maternal and family health. In her practice, Sarah supports clients in areas such as preconception nutrition, fertility, PCOS, prenatal and postpartum health.
Courtney Suncar:
She received her master's degree in Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics at New York University. Beyond private counseling, she also provides wellness seminars, group education and is a nationally recognized contributor to media outlets such as Self magazine, Cosmopolitan magazine, New York Magazine, and Business Insider. She's the founding advisory board member of Robin, a maternal wellness resource. Thanks so much, Sarah, for joining us.
Sarah Rueven:
Thank you so much for having me, Courtney and I'm so excited to be speaking to Brandeis alums and parents and whoever else wanted to join today. It's really a full circle moment for me because I didn't really think that I would be able to have the opportunity to teach at Brandeis, because it's been such a wonderful place for me to learn. So it's really awesome that you guys are doing this and I really appreciate it, the opportunity.
Sarah Rueven:
So a little bit more about me. First of all, hi, and welcome to everyone who's joining us or getting started. I am a Brandeis '09er, and I got my master's in nutrition science at NYU. I also have two young kids, my son is four and my daughter is one, a little over one. Both me and my husband, we met at Brandeis also and we're both working full time. So we're both really in the thick of it in terms of feeling like we have very limited bandwidth.
Sarah Rueven:
So, keeping that in mind, I really understand a lot of the struggles that families and parents are going through right now in terms of maintaining good health. It's really, really difficult and I hope that this webinar can provide some tools and tips to help you to boost your health and also give you some new fresh ideas. So I want to launch the first poll. We're doing some polling today and this one is how are you feeling about your nutrition and wellness right now.
Sarah Rueven:
So while you're filling that out, just to get a gauge where everyone is on, it's a really weird time right now and it's okay to not feel great about your choices lately. We're all getting used to this new normal and today we're going to talk about tips to help you utilize your pantry and freezer ingredients to make healthy meal, learning basic components of a healthy meal and how to swap ingredients if you can't find them, because that's been a real issue as of late, talking about meal planning to reduce food waste and make eating healthier, easier, and talking about emotional stress eating and non food coping strategies.
Sarah Rueven:
So right now the poll results are at number two. So most people are enjoying comfort foods and rest more than normal but still sticking to a relatively healthy routine, which is where most of my clients are and too and we're going to be talking a lot about also stress reduction, maintaining a good exercise routine and also just answering any burning questions you have about nutrition.
Sarah Rueven:
This is really meant to be an interactive session as much as possible. I really don't like hearing myself speak for too long. So please send your questions in, and we'll try to get to all of them during this session. So first, I want to talk a little bit about healthy meal planning basics. I always say that 90% of healthy eating is really having a plan. It's hard to eat healthy if you are just doing everything last minute, even if you have healthy ingredients in your fridge.
Sarah Rueven:
So I really recommend doing a meal plan especially because right now it makes it even easier to go to the grocery store less, which is helpful in terms of keeping our social distancing up. So the first thing I want to say is, don't expect perfection. This is a very difficult time and you might not be able to find all the ingredients that you want, you might not be able to find whole milk, so do two percent. You might not be able to find chicken, so swap it out for tofu.
Sarah Rueven:
There are so many different ways that you can work with what you have and it's okay if you want to do mac and cheese from a box occasionally I get it. There definitely have been nights in our home where we both are just exhausted and giving our kids something easy is the way to go. If you have kids, I will say involve them as much as possible in the meal planning and cooking process.
Sarah Rueven:
I found that this is a great way also to kill an hour or two when I'm trying to keep them entertained, and also keep them interested in engaged in their food and where it comes from. I also found that kids are way more likely to eat and try new foods when they have a hand in cooking it. So it's also a great way to make it one of their daily activities, and if you have older kids who are less interested, you can get them involved in setting the table and cleaning and lots of other activities too, hopefully they will help with cleaning.
Sarah Rueven:
So what I recommend to all of my clients is to meal plan once a week. I usually recommend doing it on a Sunday because it's just tends to be a little bit more downtime, especially in the evening and schedule cooking time into your week like an appointment. So if you know that you have a half an hour block in your day, where you're not getting an exercise, you have a little free moment, use that time to prep ingredients.
Sarah Rueven:
So as I mentioned before, meal planning can really help with reducing food waste, and helps ensure you get the right groceries without overspending and less trips to the grocery store, so it's a win-win for everyone. I'm going to screen share right now, a little example of a chart that I've used in the past with meal planning, so bear with me. So this is just one example of a meal planning chart.
Sarah Rueven:
I definitely don't get this detail, but some people like this amount of structure, but I do like doing some sort of grid. This can be as simple as writing a note on your phone, honestly. So usually what I'll do is just say, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday through the week, and lunch and dinner are the big ones because breakfast is generally pretty easy to determine and figure out. Have your go tos and it's a lot easier to be healthier during breakfast as opposed to lunch and dinner, which are usually a little bit more up in the air.
Sarah Rueven:
So I like to say try to cook three times a week if you can, and it doesn't have to be something elaborate. It can be something as simple as a piece of roasted salmon, or picking up a rotisserie chicken and doing some sides. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. Just a little bit more of this meal plan. So make sure that you include, when you're thinking about meal planning for everyday, make sure to include some sort of a lean protein. So it could be a salmon, could be tofu, it could be some grass fed ground beef or lean ground turkey.
Sarah Rueven:
Include a healthy fat, so that could even be like the cooking oil that you use in your food. It could be some nuts thrown on top of a salad or avocado. Fats will keep you more satiated, so that the meal is actually more filling and sticking to your ribs. Think about also including some sort of whole grain or starch. So things like roasted sweet potato, or quinoa or Farro. Think about small portions of that because eating whole grains and starches actually will also help you stay full and we need carbs.
Sarah Rueven:
I'm not an anti carber. So enjoy your carbs in moderation. You heard it here first. Then all the non starchy veggies that you want. So really go to town. I've actually found that right now it's a lot easier to get fresh fruits and vegetables than it is to get more of the packaged foods and canned goods. So depending on where you are, you can really get a lot of that produce right now.
Sarah Rueven:
While we're at it, I want to also mention eating more, so one of the questions that I also get asked a lot, especially when it comes to the about different types of foods is what kinds of foods helps with immunity, because that's really what's on our minds right now. The bad news is that there's not a single food that will increase your immunity, because if there were, we all would be eating it right now and it'd be totally sold out at grocery stores.
Sarah Rueven:
The good news is that the same kind of diet that is nutrient rich and anti inflammatory, also promotes your immunity. So these types of foods inhibit the release of pro inflammatory cytokines. So you might have heard the word cytokine before. They're basically molecules that regulate inflammation levels in the body and a little bit of cytokine activity is good, but when it becomes overwhelming, it can be a bad thing.
Sarah Rueven:
So eating a wide variety of nutrient rich foods can help you optimize your cytokine activity and just generally optimize how your body is working. So it's really ideal right now. So, when you're thinking about meal planning, we already spoke about like the core tenants of a healthy diet. So we need protein, some sort of whole grain, all the fiber, non starchy veggies that you want and a healthy fat. Also, we should talk a little bit about what those foods are.
Sarah Rueven:
So, foods that you should be focusing on right now, the biggest thing that you can do is getting a wide variety of foods. I always say that, you can't out supplement a bad diet. So the best way to get all the vitamins and nutrients that you need is to eat a healthy varied diet. So thinking about lots of fresh colorful vegetables, thinking of a rainbow, in particular getting leafy greens. If you have trouble digesting certain greens, you might digest them better if they're cooked or prepared in a different way.
Sarah Rueven:
With fruits and vegetables, I really recommend eating them with a healthy fat because the fat helps to carry it to the rest of your body and helps your body to absorb those nutrients that are found in fruits and vegetables. Getting lots of fruits and berries, dark berries are particularly rich in antioxidants which help fight free radicals in the body. Getting things iron rich protein. Iron obviously helps keep your energy up among many other things and also helps with cellular repair.
Sarah Rueven:
So that's goes right into what we're talking about with optimizing how your body is working. So things like grass fed beef, bone broth, lamb, chicken, turkey, try to get lean cuts, if you can. If you can only find chicken dies at the grocery store, that's okay too, you can definitely make a healthy meal with more fattier cuts of protein too. A quick note about fatty fish like salmon, and getting different types of fish, if you're a fish eater. I usually do recommend in normal times to get wild as much as possible because there are higher levels of omega threes in wild caught fish.
Sarah Rueven:
However, these are unprecedented times and if you can't find wild, it's okay to go with farmed, you're still going to get omega three benefits. It's still going to be a really yummy lean protein that will help fuel your body, so that's okay too. I'm going to pause and see if there's any questions while I'm going. So we got a question from Priscilla.
Sarah Rueven:
Do you recommend the non starchy veggies to be served cooked or raw? Is it true that veggies lose some of their nutrients when cooked? So yes, it is true that veggies lose some of their nutrients when cooked, but also there are certain veggies that are actually more well absorbed when cooked. So for example, eating a raw carrot versus a cooked carrot, you probably will get some more nutrients in the raw form but eating tomatoes cooked actually you absorb the lycopene in tomatoes more and usually your body can tolerate it better.
Sarah Rueven:
So I would say don't zap your vegetables to death in the microwave. Don't overcook them. Eat them out [Dante 00:14:44] if you can, but the amount of nutrients that you lose in cooking methods is negligible. So you're still going to get a wide variety of their benefits.
Sarah Rueven:
Okay, great. So I got another question. About are you going to list anti inflammatory foods or did you just do that when you mentioned leafy greens and berries? So I'm actually going to be sending out, this is a good time to mention that, you guys are going to get some goodies for being on this call today. I'll be sending out some of my helpful handouts after the call with more of an idea of specific foods because I can't talk about every single antioxidant that there is in every single food, so I want to make it easy for you.
Sarah Rueven:
While we're at it, definitely thinking about leafy greens, dark berries, getting in things like bell peppers and brightly colored oranges and just in general, every color of the rainbow in terms of fruits and vegetables has a different antioxidant in them. So that's why I say eat the rainbow because it really means that you're getting a wide variety of different antioxidants that address different free radicals in your body basically.
Sarah Rueven:
So moving right along, foods to focus on. Getting in healthy fats like avocado, extra virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds, that variety of food, some small portions of full fat dairy can be also counted as a healthy fat. Then thinking about moderate amounts of whole grains that are rich in fiber. Fiber also helps keep you regular and helps you be more satiated by your meals.
Sarah Rueven:
Then the last part I wanted to mention about specific foods is to make sure that you're trying to eat some foods that promote gut health. So what I'm talking about is yogurt or kefir. I'm always mispronounce that, I have no idea how to say that word, full disclosure. Kimchi, sauerkraut, all these foods help improve digestion and there's really more and more of the science is showing that there's a gut brain connection, that the gut can really help and have a huge impact on your mental health.
Sarah Rueven:
One quick question I got about the microwave and do I recommend using it. I use the microwave. I don't recommend not using it. I recommend don't overcook things but it's okay to use your microwave. I would say try to use a variety of different cooking methods. So stovetop, roasting things in the oven, not only will give you more variety and flavor, but your foods will get absorbed in a different way. So microwave is okay. Don't worry about killing your food. As long as you're not zapping it too much, you're okay.
Sarah Rueven:
Going back to meal planning, one of the things that I want to talk about his batch cooking because this has been a really helpful thing especially for my family in terms of making sure that we have plenty of food, that we don't have to cook every single night because who wants to do that? There's better things to do with our time. And just making sure that we are utilizing all of our food and not going crazy in the process. So a perfect example I would say, whenever possible, try the double recipes.
Sarah Rueven:
I know that even if I cook for four people that, I have a very hungry husband, and my two kids are great eaters, thank goodness, but four people is not going to last for another day. So I usually try to cook at least double the recipe. So for a great example, last night, we made turkey burgers with grated zucchini in them and I doubled the recipe and we have plenty left over for lunch today. I'll probably be able to free some so that I can use them for dinner next week or the week after.
Sarah Rueven:
So really finding ways to not have to cook twice by just cooking in larger quantities. You can't really do that unless you have a plan. So like, definitely, I would say when you're thinking about meal planning, think about cooking three nights a week, and creating leftovers that can then be repurposed. So great example, you make a veggie chili with beans and squash and delicious veggies.
Sarah Rueven:
Make extra, you can throw it over a sweet potato the next day for lunch and you can just reuse that, you can even put it in a taco or zucchini boat. There's lots of ways to repurpose different ingredients. If you have rotisserie chicken, you can use it in so many different things. That's a great one because you can also use it to make chicken salad, healthy of course. Lots of ways to repurpose it for several meals and it stays good in the fridge for a pretty long time.
Sarah Rueven:
Another one that I love to make is cauliflower rice stir fries. So a lot of people don't love the taste of cauliflower rice and what I recommend doing is actually combining it with brown rice. So it's not such a heavy cauliflower taste and then you can add different types of vegetables, you can throw in some tofu or chicken or salmon, all sorts of proteins and it's a really great way to use up your vegetables at the end of the week.
Sarah Rueven:
So I usually do like a cauliflower rice stir fry night on like Saturday or Sunday just to use up any leftover vegetables from that week. Another great way to do that is for brunch making a big frittata. You could throw a little cheese in there, throw any veggies you have, cook it in the oven, it makes plenty so you'll have a lot for lunch and you can eat it for another meal or freeze. So that's a really great way of using your leftovers and making sure that you're not having any food waste. So I'm going to take another question.
Sarah Rueven:
I like tofu but I have difficulty making it at home because I find it hard to layer flavors on it. What are your ideas for a beginner to get more comfortable making tofu dishes? So I'm also still learning the best ways to cook tofu because it is hard to layer flavors into it. I find that actually baking tofu, first of all, you want to make sure that you're drying it up.
Sarah Rueven:
So even half an hour before you cook, make sure that you drain the tofu, wrap it in some paper towels or a dish towel for half an hour and really try to get the moisture out. What I've been doing lately is I'll bake it in the oven at 400 but before I bake it, I'll throw some soy sauce or tamari, a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and then I'll throw either cornstarch or arrow root powder and that really helps to crisp up tofu and make it super yummy and that golden brown flavor.
Sarah Rueven:
Then I'll just throw it in the oven for 30 minutes and you can take it out and you can add basically whatever sauce you want, but it tastes delicious and that's been a really fail-proof way of cooking recently. Awesome. So one other thing I wanted to mention with meal planning is some families find it really helpful to do themed days especially if you have younger kids. So things like Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Pizza Thursday, even one day having it be the kids' choice, within reason, no ice cream for dinner, but that's also a fun way to make meal planning a little bit more fun.
Sarah Rueven:
So I'm going to see if there's any other questions before we move right along. All right, so I wanted to throw up a second poll. So this poll is, what's your favorite pantry staple? So, I'm throwing this up because you guys are going a little treat at the end in your post session email. The winner of the poll, the pantry staple that's most popular, I will send out one of my favorite recipes with that ingredient. So fill it out, enjoy and then we can talk a little bit more about specific foods to include in your quarantine kitchen.
Sarah Rueven:
So it's a tie right now between beans, lagoons and holy pasta. So I guess you guys are getting two recipes. Lucky you. Awesome. So moving right along. I wanted to talk a little bit about great foods to keep in your pantry, to keep in your freezer that make for really quick meals. So, I really like to use my pantry and freezer as that because you can put as much as you want basically.
Sarah Rueven:
I really like to keep a well stocked pantry and freezer. That being said, do what you can, do what works for you. If you don't have a ton of freezer space, use it wisely but here are a couple of things that I like to keep in. Definitely lots of frozen ground turkey or ground beef, frozen wild salmon, frozen chicken breast, frozen ground chicken. These are all really great lean proteins to just take out and make sure when you're de-thawing, either leave it in the fridge for 24 to 48 hours before you use it or if you're in a pinch, especially with fish, it's easier, but you can put it in cold water for 30 minutes and just make sure to refresh the cold water at least once and it'll de-thaw pretty easily.
Sarah Rueven:
Do not put frozen meat or fish in hot water, it'll actually cook the protein. I've made that mistake too many times and it will destroy your food, so don't do that. Another thing to think about is keeping lots of variety of beans and legumes, canned tuna and canned salmon. Tuna and salmon are so easy to use in so many different types of recipes. I made the other night a great recipe with salmon cakes. So that was a really great way to utilize that and you're getting a lot of those omega three benefits and it's not expensive, which is also a great reason to invest in those foods.
Sarah Rueven:
Having a wide variety of dry whole grains, so quinoa, whole-wheat pasta. You can even do an alternative pasta like Banza which is made of chickpeas, oatmeal, precooked brown rice or just regular brown rice. I personally like the precooked because I'm lazy, so I like to just put in the microwave and let it be. I don't have patience for 40 minutes of cooking time unfortunately, most of the time. Then things to think about in your freezer, lots of frozen fruits and veggies.
Sarah Rueven:
I've gotten this question a lot amongst my clients but frozen fruits and vegetables have the same amount nutrient content as fresh and even sometimes more because they're frozen at the peak of their ripeness. So that means that they are the most ripe, they're most full of their nutrients and vitamins and it's a great way to incorporate that in your diet easily and not have that food waste that we sometimes get with fresh produce. As I mentioned before, I really love my frozen cauliflower rice, and then things like frozen veggie burgers or veggie bites.
Sarah Rueven:
A couple brands I like, I love Dr. Praeger's you can get that over at a lot of different stores. There's also a veggie burger that I like called Hilary's, which is made with a lot of natural ingredients. Just make sure if you're getting veggie burgers, read your ingredients. If there's tons of ingredients that sound really weird, it's probably processed and I would avoid it. So I got a question on, what is your opinion about using organic foods? For example, my wife insists on using organic oatmeal and I use the regular oatmeal.
Sarah Rueven:
So I would say especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables, that I recommend trying to do organic whenever possible. The Environmental Working Group, EWG produces a list of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15 every year. The Dirty Dozen is basically the fruits and veggies that are most likely to have pesticides in them when you ingest them and it's better off buying those foods as organic and the Clean 15 are foods that are more likely to not have as much pesticide residue when you purchase them.
Sarah Rueven:
So usually foods that are okay to buy non organic are ones with a thick peel. So things like a banana or an avocado, things that you have to actually take the peel off, so the food inside is actually a little bit protected from pesticides. I would say try to do organic whenever possible, but it's also what works for you and your family. Organic foods are expensive, which is frustrating and trying to do grass fed beef and wild salmon and wild fish whenever possible, but you're still going to get nutrient benefits from eating fresh veggies and lean proteins.
Sarah Rueven:
You're still going to get those benefits. It's not that the organic food somehow has more nutrients because the studies on that have been really mixed and truthfully, the differences are really negligible. So one thing I also wanted to mention when we're talking about meal planning just to wrap it up a little bit with this section is investing in fresh veggies that can stay longer, that can last longer. So I find that bananas turn brown really quickly, avocados turn mushy, it's been really worthwhile to think about foods that can last a long time just to reduce food waste.
Sarah Rueven:
So things like apples, especially if you store them in the fridge, carrots, onions, potatoes, citrus fruit if you put it in the fridge it will last for a pretty long time. Butternut squash and other winter squashes and cabbage are all examples of foods that will last a pretty long time. So you have more likelihood of being able to use them. Then don't forget snacks. So I love a good healthy snack, you should definitely plan it as part of your day, especially in the afternoon, my energy starts to dip.
Sarah Rueven:
So things like hummus and carrots, seeded crackers with any type of dip, like I like guacamole, string cheese, popcorn, these are all things that will keep for a long time too. The last part of this section, I want to talk about being able to source things. So as I mentioned previously, it's become more difficult for people to find things in grocery stores and it's getting a little bit easier as time goes by as everyone gets out of the initial panic mode of COVID-19, but it has become more difficult to source your food.
Sarah Rueven:
There's no denying that so What I recommend is utilize your grocery store delivery as much as possible. If you can do Amazon delivery from your grocery store or Instacart, do it. Try to avoid going to the grocery store if you can, but also, I would recommend looking into your local CSAs. I really like supporting local, your food is fresher, there's more nutrients in it and you're also supporting small businesses which is so needed right now.
Sarah Rueven:
Many CSAs are doing curbside pickup or actually just sending boxes to you. You can do a weekly CSA and get lots of seasonal fruits and veggies and some CSAs even offer poultry meat, fish, eggs, that sort of thing. Awesome. So if you're having trouble with meal planning, I'm actually going to shamelessly plug my company. We are offering a new program and it's called the Rooted Cooking Club and basically, it's a weekly meal planning service.
Sarah Rueven:
So we provide weekly meal plans and shopping lists designed to feed a family of four, while using pantry staples, and easy to source ingredients. So all the recipes are easy and designed to provide leftover so you're not slaving away in the kitchen all the time, and you can get more information on my website, which we'll send out after this session. So excuse the shameless plugging, but I do want to mention it because I think it's going to be helpful to a lot of people on this chat.
Sarah Rueven:
So moving right along. I want to talk a little bit about emotional and stress eating and different non food coping strategies because this has also become a huge issue right now and being at home, being near your kitchen constantly, it's made it much more difficult to regulate your own hunger and your own internal hunger cues. It's also a super stressful time and let's face it, food can be very comforting. There's no denying that, from the time that we're kids to adults, there's no change in the fact that eating junkier foods can be more comforting and we need that comfort right now.
Sarah Rueven:
I'm not recommending eating junk food, but uncertainty of this period can really make you feel out of control. What I like to recommend is kind of a two pronged approach when it comes to stress eating. So, the first step is to identify the feelings you're feeling. So am I actually hungry? Am I stressed out? Did something just happen at work that really upset me or with my family? Did I watch the news recently? That's been a big one, and really kind of delving deep in into what is out actually the trigger that's making me feel like I want to reach for the bag of chips. Am I really hungry? Am I bored? Boredom is a big one right now, am I lonely? Do I feel sad or anxious or overwhelmed?
Sarah Rueven:
If you're hungry, make a nourishing meal or snack. Easy. If you're bored, there are lots of different things that you can do. I recommend if this is a real struggle for you to make a list, you can even put it on your fridge or freezer of alternative activities to eating. So things like going for a walk or going outdoors, doing a guided meditation, taking a nap, calling a friend, reading a book, drinking some tea or watching your favorite trashy TV show or listening to a webinar.
Sarah Rueven:
I usually recommend something that's fun, not related to whatever work you do. So trying to delve deep at why you're feeling the way you're feeling and why your cravings are popping up is really the best way to address them, and really using that intuition and using that intuitive eating to guide how you eat and snack. So, as I mentioned before, there are definitely lots of components to creating satiating meals. I'm going to mention again getting some sort of lean protein, fiber in the form of fruits or veggies, healthy fats, and whole grains or starches at most meals.
Sarah Rueven:
One thing I should also mention is starting your day with, there have been several studies that show that starting your day with a protein pack breakfast can reduce hunger throughout the day, so you're less likely to feel that craving or that dip in energy that makes you want to reach for the chocolate. So eggs, nut butters, chia, flax seed, hemp hearts are a few ways to add protein to your morning meal. So, you could put some almond butter or peanut butter in your morning oatmeal and a little bit of flax or chia seeds or hemp hearts and that's a really great way to also get healthy fats.
Sarah Rueven:
Don't skip your meals, please. I think that has become way more common right now as we're kind of all thrown off of our schedules, but as much as you can maintain some semblance of a routine, and get in three square meals and one or two snacks a day, do it. It's really going to help you stay on a good schedule also and maintain that routine. Also avoid these stress eating traps. Then the other thing I want to mention is, make sure you're getting enough high quality sleep at night.
Sarah Rueven:
So lack of sleep can really alter and mess up your hunger and satiety cues and actually leads us often to eat more junk the next day, especially after a really bad night's sleep. So definitely, definitely try to sleep as much as possible. I recommend going to bed at the same time every night if you can, and waking up at the same time each morning. Try to turn off your phone or your TV, I would say they recommend an hour before bed, but realistically I think like half an hour, at minimum is what I recommend.
Sarah Rueven:
Then practice mindfulness when you're eating, and actually starting a meditation practice right now can also be really helpful in terms of being able to tune in to your own hunger cues. One thing that I'll also mention is that it's okay to indulge on occasion and you should and it's part of living a happy and stress free life and guilt free life. Definitely, if you want to have a big glass of wine or a big piece of dark chocolate at the end of the day, do it, but do it mindfully. Don't craze, put it on a plate or a napkin and enjoy it. So I'm going to pause and see if there's any other questions while I'm moving right along. Awesome.
Courtney Suncar:
Sarah, we have some questions actually in the Q&A. Just a few. What about vitamins and supplements? Do they make a difference and what types are best for immunity?
Sarah Rueven:
Awesome. So, vitamins and supplements. As I mentioned at the beginning of this session, you can up supplement a bad diet. I really do recommend trying to get a varied diet and you will absorb nutrients and vitamins better through food than you would through a supplement. That being said, if you have any kind of alternative diet like you're vegetarian or you're vegan, you definitely want to consider taking a B vitamin complex. So getting in more B-12. You might want to consider an iron supplement if you have trouble getting plant based protein in.
Sarah Rueven:
B-12 is really the big one though, for vegans and vegetarians because often your body doesn't recognize when you become deficient, like symptoms don't show up till much later when the deficiency has become a problem. I usually say look at your lab tests. So the last time you got blood work done, was your vitamin D low? If you live in a northern climate, it's likely that during the winter months, your vitamin D is low and I would recommend taking a vitamin D supplement in addition to eating more fatty fish, eggs, mushrooms.
Sarah Rueven:
Vitamin D is actually one of the vitamins is a little bit more difficult to find in our food supply. So that's one that I recommend for most of my clients, especially now because there's such a connection to immunity and vitamin D, and you can't really overdose on vitamin D. Other than that, I would say really try to get in those fresh fruits and veggies as much as possible and getting in a big variety is the best way to make sure you're getting in all those vitamins and nutrients.
Courtney Suncar:
Great. Another question, Is there such a thing as too much healthy fat?
Sarah Rueven:
Absolutely, absolutely. So like with everything, I really want to stress, everything in moderation, including healthy fat. Healthy fat is very nutrient rich and nutrient dense. So eating too much of it can definitely lead to weight gain, which is not a desirable outcome for most people and you don't need that much to feel its effects. So usually like a quarter or a third of an avocado and a salad is enough, or a tablespoon or two of nuts.
Sarah Rueven:
Actually, if you're snacking on nuts, good rule of thumb is to use your palm as a guide. So a flat palm and about an ounce of nuts, which is what we recommend in one serving will fit on your flat palm usually.
Courtney Suncar:
Great. What about egg whites versus the whole egg?
Sarah Rueven:
I really prefer the whole egg. There have been a lot of confusing studies recently about cholesterol, but the bottom line is that your cholesterol is not going to be affected by eating too many eggs. It really isn't. It's more about looking at the general picture of, if you're getting lots of processed meat in your diet in general and what other things that you're eating that are raising your cholesterol. I really recommend doing the whole egg because the majority of the nutrients are found in the egg yolk and there's more, as you mentioned before healthy fat in the egg yolk that will keep you full.
Courtney Suncar:
Okay, and another question. Did you say whole fat dairy? I've always been told to use the lesser fat dairy. Can you say a few words about that?
Sarah Rueven:
Absolutely. So the thinking around fat free and low fat has really changed over the years, as we're finding more and more that actually using fat free can be detrimental to your health because it's stripped of all those healthy fats that are going to keep you fall and it can affect your hormones. When they strip the fat, there's actually usually more of a presence of different sex hormones that are found in milk. That can actually, especially from a fertility, prenatal postnatal perspective, which is where I come from, and just family health in general, when you strip milk of the fat, you can have an effect on your sex hormones.
Sarah Rueven:
Not to mention that it's kind of an old school way of looking at diets to eat super-duper low fat, to go fat free and 2% for everything. What we're learning more and more is that smaller portions of the full fat is going to be way more satiating and more full of those nutrients and help you absorb vitamins and nutrients way better.
Courtney Suncar:
Great. A question about, I believe it's kombucha, the fermented tea. Do you find that that's worthwhile? Is it helpful or is it hype in your opinion?
Sarah Rueven:
This is a tricky one because it does have probiotics in it. Every kombucha is different. So it's produced differently. So there'll be different levels of probiotic in kombucha, but it's also there's can be varying levels of sugar in kombucha, and you're not getting any fiber attached to that sugar like you would when you eat an apple for one example. So why is fiber important to eat when you're eating a sugar? Fiber helps slow digestion so your blood sugar doesn't spike and you absorb those sugars more slowly and you have a slower insulin response.
Sarah Rueven:
Not only will this affect your energy, but it can also potentially affect your insulin regulation over time. Going back to the fad of kombucha, I would say if you want to do once a week, that's fine. I wouldn't try to do it every single day because it's really empty calories in a lot of cases. So you're better off doing a yogurt or kefir or sauerkraut and mixing in lots of different types of high probiotic foods and if you don't eat dairy, you might want to consider taking a probiotic too.
Courtney Suncar:
A couple questions about vitamin D. Is it really true that you can't overdose on vitamin D? What vitamin D level do you recommend? There seems to be a wide acceptable range.
Sarah Rueven:
There is a very wide acceptable range. I don't want to say that I recommend a specific level because everyone is very different. I would say 1,000 to 4,000 IUs of vitamin D are usually tolerated by most people. They've given people doses of vitamin D up to like 50,000 IUs which, that's for people who are extremely deficient but there have not been many studies that show that you can overdose on that vitamin. So that's why I say that for the average supplement that you'd be taking, you'd be really, unless you had the whole pill bottle of vitamin D, it'd be really hard to get to the 50,000 or 100,000 IUs vitamin D. I would say between 1,000 and 4,000 is usually like an acceptable range.
Courtney Suncar:
Sarah, what spices are especially good for you? What spices do you use?
Sarah Rueven:
All. Spices are so great and so good for you. There's so many different benefits. So I love cinnamon, garlic powder we use in a lot of things, onion powder, sage, oregano, basil, you can use them all. They're also a really great way of giving flavor to food and keeping things interesting without adding a ton of calories and empty calories in that way. Actually, spices can be very high in antioxidants as well. That's a great question and use whatever you like. So if you like turmeric, go for it but try to do a wide variety. Really utilize your spice store.
Courtney Suncar:
Great, and a couple questions about milk. Can you speak about lactose free milk? Another question, if you want to become a vegan and need calcium, what type of milk would you recommend?
Sarah Rueven:
So if you're vegan, the best milk that would be highest and calcium is probably soy milk. It's also going to be higher in protein. It's closer to that range of healthy fat and protein that we like. As far as lactose free, if you have a lactose intolerance, go for it. It's not less healthy than regular milk. So that's really my stance. There's not any studies that show that lactose free milk is not healthy and good for you.
Courtney Suncar:
About portion size, Amy writes, if I double the recipe, we often eat more than necessary. So do you have any suggestions for portion size control?
Sarah Rueven:
So if you double the recipe, what I like to recommend is, put half. If portions are something that you know you're going to struggle with, put half in a Tupperware, set it aside and then eat what you have set out as the portion for that evening as much as possible. So you can definitely find ways to put that food away so it's not as tempting and that way you're kind of able to regulate a little bit more.
Sarah Rueven:
I would also say that if portions are challenging for you, one way to help fill up on a meal is also to have a big leafy green salad before you go for the main event. That way you're filling up on fruits and vegetables that are higher in fiber before you dig into the main meal and it can fill you up a little bit more.
Courtney Suncar:
Do you worry about excessive soy consumption for boys and men? It seems like there's soy in so many foods, especially in processed foods.
Sarah Rueven:
Yeah. There have been a lot of mixed studies on soy consumption in children. The current thinking is that the estrogen, because it's really the estrogen that we're talking about in soy, will not have a huge impact on male and female development. I would put that with an asterisk. So if you're doing soy milk three times a day for your infant, or for your toddler, I would really try to cut back on some of the other soy foods that you're taking because as I said at the beginning, I really do think moderation in all things and the studies are still mixed.
Sarah Rueven:
So we're still learning about it and until we have a definitive answer, because it's really hard to do testing on live subjects in general, which is why so much of the nutrition science can be a little bit wishy washy and confusing, because we're constantly learning. Nutrition as a science is only 50 years old, and a lot of that science is based on men too.
Sarah Rueven:
So a lot of the female science is catching up or information with female health, but in terms of sex hormones, the jury's still out. So I would say if you're vegetarian and vegan, don't be afraid of including soy foods in your diet, but definitely try to get a variety of different types of proteins. So getting beans and legumes in. If you're vegetarian getting some dairy and if you eat that are also great ways to get your protein in.
Courtney Suncar:
A question. Any suggestions for postmenopausal women with recently acquired belly fat to reduce the belly fat?
Sarah Rueven:
So I will say that postmenopausal is not my line of work. I really do focus on the pre and postnatal. I will say our bodies do change a lot as we age and one way that some of my clients have found to be effective, especially if you feel like belly fat is accumulating is to switch up your workouts. So first of all, make sure that you are working out because that's a really great way for your body to utilize fat stores better and for your metabolism to work at its optimal level, but also try mixing it up and doing weight bearing exercises which can help boost your metabolism in general.
Courtney Suncar:
Sarah, what about apple cider vinegar? Do you have any thoughts on using that?
Sarah Rueven:
So, there have been some studies that show that it has like a mild boost in your metabolism, but it's pretty negligible. I think it's mostly hype honestly. Apple cider vinegar can help occasionally with like, if you put a little bit in it can help with your gut health and especially if you have heartburn after meals, putting a little bit in like a salad dressing or even like a splash in your teeth, but I don't love the idea of gulping down apple cider vinegar and drinks that contain apple cider vinegar. It's not some sort of amazing health food.
Courtney Suncar:
Great. In terms of food storage, is glass better than plastic containers? Do you have any tips on freezing foods?
Sarah Rueven:
So I would say try to do glass whenever possible. It definitely is better than doing a plastic container, but if you do have plastic containers, try to make sure that you're getting BPA free ones. If you do store in plastic containers, make sure that your food has cold old enough that you're not putting hot food into plastic containers because the plastic will leach into your food a little bit. As far as freezing foods, it depends on the food, I would say. If you're freezing a banana, what I try to do, and with most we've tried to get as much air out as possible before you freeze it, because it'll just stay longer and there'll be less freezer burn and that's a win-win for all of us.
Courtney Suncar:
Great. Sarah, how has Brandeis influenced your journey as a wellness expert?
Sarah Rueven:
So originally, I actually wanted to be a teacher, and I did education studies at Brandeis in addition to majoring in history. I credit history with helping me meet my husband, so that was a win-win but I also love studying history still and I still consider myself a history nerd as a hobby. It became really clear to me, actually, I was on an observation in a public school as part of education studies with a bunch of young kids, and I think they were either in first or second grade.
Sarah Rueven:
I noticed in the morning, they kept on giving them Frosted Flakes, and lots of sugary cereals. By the afternoon, these kids were complete toast, and really just their energy was fried. They were listless, like, I was able to see what a direct connection there was between what foods they were being fed, and how their energy and behavior was. From then on, I really took a much greater interest in nutrition and after I left Brandeis, it really became a passion of mine and I will say that a lot of what I get to do is education.
Sarah Rueven:
So I have really felt my degree has been put to good use it in a lot of respects even though the history part, less so but I really credit Brandeis with starting that wheel turning for me.
Courtney Suncar:
Thank you so much, Sarah. Lots of really great information on how to get organized and boost wellness during this time of quarantine. We appreciate it so much. Thank you. Do you have any last thoughts to share or maybe a way people can get in touch with you if they have more questions?
Sarah Rueven:
So we'll be sending out a post session email and my email address will be in there. So feel free to email me if you want to get more personalized advice. I am taking virtual clients right now. So feel free to email me there, and any questions you have and my last thought is, really just to take care of yourself. Try not to stress. Try to get some rest and eat healthy meals when you can and just let the rest be water under the bridge.
Courtney Suncar:
Thank you so much, Sarah.
Sarah Rueven:
Thank you so much. This was so great.