It’s Time To Make Healthy Food Choices For Your Family
March is Nutrition Month as promoted by the Dietitians of Canada.
The theme for 2022 is Ingredients for a Healthier Tomorrow and the organization is using their skills and expertise to create change for tomorrow.
Food security, food literacy, food sovereignty, sustainable food choices, nutrition care and prevention are all ingredients in a sustainable food system in which dietitians across Canada play an active and often leadership role.
NutritionMonth2022.ca is a special website featuring a recipe e-book with 15 recipes curated by dietitians; resources to help you find a dietitian and an activity/ideas guide with advice from dietitians such as Julie Stephenson from BC who shares her insights into implementing a successful breakfast and lunch program for students under 18.
Dietitians help you make food decisions that are right for you by communicating trustworthy nutrition information, building confidence in your food skills, and working on the influences that impact your food decisions.
So let’s honour all they do on March 16, 2022, Dietitians Day!
To help raise awareness for Nutrition Month we start off with tips from a local dietitian, then feature several Windsor and Essex County businesses making eating healthy easy and convenient for your family, and wrap up with advice from an expert on food allergies and digestive issues.
BANA Dietitian Stresses The Importance Of Intuitive Eating
Healthy well-balanced eating is important for more than just physical health. Unhealthy eating can lead to eating disorders like Anorexia and Bulimia.
For Nicole Boulanger, a Registered Dietitian at the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association (BANA), it is important to strive for, what she calls, normal, “intuitive eating.”
“Aim for regular balanced meals most of the time and include a variety of foods from all the food groups,” suggests Boulanger, the Eating Disorder Dietitian. “In addition to regular balanced meals, honouring your hunger and fullness is helpful in meeting your body’s energy needs and maintaining your body’s natural weight.”
Boulanger advises an individual balances his/her plate with complex carbohydrates (grains and starches), protein (beans, meat, fish, tofu, poultry, etc.), vegetables/fruit and fats (oil/margarine/butter, avocado, nuts, and salad dressing).
“There are foods we want to enjoy daily to meet our nutritional needs,” says Boulanger. “Then there are foods we want to include regularly — but not as often — more for pleasure. Both are important when it comes to normal balanced eating.”
Her advice also includes telling people they should avoid labelling foods as good or bad. This can lead to shame around eating and interferes with the enjoyment of foods. Instead, just refer to foods by what they are: dessert, fruit, bread, vegetables, chips, etcetera. Giving yourself permission to enjoy all foods will help prevent overeating.
“Young children are naturally intuitive eaters and are great at listening to their bodies,” Boulanger indicates. “Our job as parents is to provide them with regular balanced meals and snacks in a comfortable environment — preferably sitting at the table with others, while the child’s job is to decide how much to eat.”
Boulanger recommends you throw out the “finish your plate” rule. This rule disrupts the child’s natural ability to honour their body’s signals, which tells them when they have had enough. It also creates a negative relationship with food.
“Creating a positive eating environment and modelling normal intuitive eating will give your child the best head start in having a positive relationship with food and their bodies,” Boulanger states. “Make eating fun by finding new recipes together, exploring new foods and even growing your own food!”
She also strongly urges people to stop the vicious cycle of dieting.
“Not only is this a well-established damaging behaviour that is far too common, but I have seen the harmful effects of dieting on my numerous clients over the years,” Boulanger mentions. “The freedom they feel when finally releasing themselves from the burden of dieting by embracing the intuitive eating world, is so wonderful to witness.”
A Registered Dietitian for 10 years, Boulanger has worked with BANA for eight years. She specializes in eating disorders and has a background in diabetes.
“I have been interested in dietetics since I was in high school searching for a profession,” she recounts. “I’ve always been interested in a healthy active lifestyle and took an interest in nutrition as a way to help others. After high school I went into the nutrition program at Brescia at the University of Western Ontario.”
BANA, founded in 1983, is a not-for-profit, registered charity, community-based organization, located at 1500 Ouellette Avenue, Suite 100 in Windsor.
Macro Foods Inc. Reinforces Healthy Habits For Better Living
Macro Foods Inc. specializes in healthy, gourmet, chef-prepared meals available through their retail locations or direct delivery right to your door, since 2015.
Whether your goal is to slim down, bulk up or just maintain, their meals are packed with all the necessary macro and micro nutrients you need.
“Eating healthily is a key pillar to living a long and happy life,” says Sara Ducharme, Co-Owner of Macro Foods along with Omar Abou-Said (with others owning specific locations). “When you feel good, a lot of other pieces in life fall into place. Investing in yourself and your health is the best investment you can make.”
Placing an order with Macro Foods is easy! Just select from a wide variety of signature created dishes, custom or specialty meal options and choose between in-store pickup or have the meals shipped to you all across Ontario.
Their staff of approximately 30 employees, carefully prepare, cook and package all meals to ensure they are fresh and ready to go. All meal containers are both microwave and oven safe so you can enjoy restaurant quality meals from the comfort of your own home!
You can order a la carte, or subscription services are available as well. Macro Foods takes into account your allergies, likes, dislikes and previous history to give you the best meal possible.
“As a previous body building competitor, I understand the importance of meal prepping, meal timing, portioning and eating appropriately to reach your goals,” Ducharme comments. “At the time I was working a full-time and part-time job, as well as training for my show three hours a day; Sundays were my only day off and I spent the day grocery shopping, cooking for the week and cleaning up. If there was a convenient service like this available, I would have used it; so essentially I founded it (the business) out of necessity.”
Visit Macro Foods at one of six brick and mortar locations in southwestern Ontario: Windsor (1389 Wyandotte Street East); LaSalle (6000 Malden Road); Tecumseh (23A-25 Amy Croft Drive); London (1422 Fanshawe Park Road West); Waterloo (C103-95 King Street South) and Chatham (611 Grand Avenue West).
Say Cheese! The Vegan Gardiners Plant-Based Deli Isn’t Full Of Bologna
Located at 998 Drouillard Road in Windsor, The Vegan Gardiners Plant-Based Deli specializes in producing hand crafted, vegan alternatives to cheese, meat and other products in a traditional deli style — allowing you to select the quantity you want of any of the dozens of flavours of meat and cheese they offer.
Ryan and Amy Gardiner Upton, Owners of the plant-based deli, began hand crafting vegan meats and cheeses in 2017. They found the available options for vegan cheese and meat in stores were full of preservatives and questionable ingredients.
Since opening their storefront in 2021, their staff of four strive to offer great tasting products with simple ingredients.
“Our goal is to offer high-quality hand-crafted alternatives to food staples people consume in their everyday life, and bridge the gap for those transitioning to a new diet in a delicious and approachable way,” Amy says. “When you eat healthily, you are full of energy, awareness and it gives your body long-term physical benefits.”
Cheeses at their deli include smoked applewood cheddar, mild cheddar, sharp and smoky cheddar, rosemary olive asiago, sharp white cheddar, cracked black pepper asiago, truffle dill cheddar and more! Meats include shawarma shavings, Montreal steak spice cold cuts, ham cold cuts, maple-bacon smokies, and turkey cold cuts. Products also include charcuterie boards, along with meat and cheese tasting boxes.
For more information see their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram @thevegangardiners.
