Patricia Chuey

Food and Nutrition Expert | Recipe Developer

It feels like yesterday in many ways, yet 30 years ago I began studying food+nutrition and headed out on a communications journey trying to make sense of it for consumers.

In 2019, I was humbled to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at my alma mater, the University of Saskatchewan.

In 2014, I was honoured with a Fellowship and Alumni of Influence Award for work in encouraging Canadians to eat well and protect their well-being.

Three decades of immersion in consumer food concerns has provided very valuable perspective. I’ve seen good, bad and ugly health habits. I’ve studied what the healthiest people on the planet do. I've toured farms and food factories. From my kitchen office, I share simple thoughts with the goal of continuing to inspire guilt-free, genuine well-being and peace of mind with food – despite what might be hot in the news, on food labels, in the workplace, at the gym or tweeted on social media.

I was fortunate to have parents from farm families who were never on diets. Instead they grew a big vegetable garden, taught us to cook whole foods, to share meals, to minimize food waste and be grateful for the amazing access we have to good food. They were ‘trendy’ and didn’t even know it. 

I’ve worked with consumers on healthy living issues in many settings – their kitchens, the grocery store, farmer's markets, workplaces, professional sports team locker rooms,  food industry board rooms, restaurants,  school classrooms, prenatal classes, the news room, cooking show sets, fitness classes, marketing departments, magazine editorial meetings, and one-on-one chats.

It's time to officially rant share the important perspective this has provided. Thanks for your interest in reading! #ChueyOnThis

Finding is Better Than Losing: 10 healthy and fun ways for kids to ENJOY their Halloween candy!

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halloween-collage

Did anyone’s kids have fun finding candy last night simply by dressing in a cute costume and knocking on every door in the neighbourhood? Candy is the currency of childhood. An early business lesson in ‘do a little work by walking (or running, leaping and jumping with joy) around knocking on doors and get paid for it!‘ Not a bad learning opportunity! Does it mean your kid is ruined nutritionally for having a blissfully happy evening collecting and noshing on candy once a year? Absolutely not!  Were you allowed to trick or treat as a kid? How did you turn out? Do you still value healthy eating and an 80-20 approach to food choices?

What a huge, awful and memorable downer for the kids if ALL of that hard-earned candy is suddenly taken away. And, man, what a confusing message that would be! That said, I intimately recognize the concerns of parents when that pillow case sack of treats is dumped out for sorting and the collective mass of sugar is piled high for you to see all at once!

To help ‘handle’ it all, here are 10 ways for finding continued fun and at least a little nutrition with the candy instead of your child having to feel extreme disappointment while you lose your mind over all of that sugar:

  1. Talk to your kids about the fun you can have later this Fall in baking homemade Christmas treats like gingerbread men or smartie-dotted oatmeal cookies. Ask them to tuck some candy in a freezer bag for that purpose later on. (Smarties and MandM’s are ideal as are crumbled bits of chocolate.) Kids have steel trap memories when it comes to candy. They won’t forget it’s in the freezer! Baking together on a blustery day later in November or December will be something you will all feel good about. (Note: I’m talking about Canadian Smarties, the chocolate kind, not Rockets which are known as Smarties in the USA. I don’t recommend saving those pure sugar, hard Rockets candy.)
  2. Have a fruit fondue for dessert. Ask your child to pick a bunch of the chocolate bars to melt into a dip for a colourful platter of fruit you can make together. It actually takes quite a few of those mini bars to make even a little dip.
  3. Make a veggie and dip snack platter. This looks attractive and appetizing if you have one of those 5 or 6 section platters. Ask the kids to put (use up) some of their chips or salty snacks into ONE section of the platter for sharing with the whole family along with a dominant, colourful selection of fresh vegetables.
  4. Have a Mexican night with wholesome ingredients – tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, avocados, cheese, lean ground meat or veggie ground round, whole grain tortillas… Encourage your kids to contribute some of their little Halloween tortilla chip packets for dipping into fresh cut salsa and/or homemade guacamole.
  5. Find fun opportunities for learning and discussion. Play age-appropriate, fairly challenging math games with your kids using the candy. Subtraction and division for example. For every question they get wrong, Mom or Dad gets the piece of candy. What you do with it, well, that’s up to you!
  6. For older kids, say age 8 on, allow them to find their tolerance level for the candy. I’ve heard from many parents who allow their kids to eat the candy without limits or rules. Those same parents have shared that it didn’t take long for their child to feel sick (tummy ache) from eating too much, thereby learning what happens when you overdo it. An important life lesson that doesn’t cause any permanent ‘damage’.
  7. Find balance. A little candy or chocolate as dessert to a well-balanced lunch or dinner is better than candy in place of the balanced meal. For highly active kids, a sweet treat after the meal isn’t going to ruin them while using up their Halloween stash. Just avoid continuing this beyond about a week or two. The dentists out there will be grateful.
  8. Use candy as the currency it truly is. Older kids can get together with friends to trade certain treats for others. One year, our then 9 year old traded about 20 of his small chocolate bars for one coveted full size bar. Mom was happy about that style of trade! (Tip: If your child is the youngest in the trading group, he/she will inevitably get rid of a lot of candy. 🙂 Candy can also be traded by kids with Mom and Dad to ‘buy’ a day off making their bed or other small task they might be craving a brief break from.
  9. Allow the kids to use up some of the candy in their creative play. For example, perhaps they set up a pretend store that sells healthy food and a little candy, make a mini carnival with a fun concession stand in the basement involving lots of energy expenditure, or design a vending machine from cardboard. The creative, memorable activities are worth it. (That’s our incredibly creative nephew dressed as a vending machine in the picture above. Not only is he a highly imaginative and talented actor, he’s brilliant with a roll of tape and cardboard. He designed this year’s costume so that it could actually accept a dollar coin yet not dispense any candy! Smart guy!) Speaking of currency and tape, parents of craft loving kids will know that duct tape and the many colours and designs it comes in is a highly coveted item. Perhaps there’s an opportunity to swap some candy for a brand new jazzy roll of tape or other craft supplies to have fun with on a rainy day???
  10. For little little ones, say age 7 and under, consider a visit from the Halloween Witch – that cousin of the tooth fairy. You know her. Have your child leave out as much candy as they want in exchange for found money from the witch the next morning. Discard or do what you like with that excess candy the Witch claimed. You can also sneak away a bit of it without them likely noticing. Either discard it or freeze and tuck a little bit of it into their Christmas stocking in a few weeks.

Bonus Tip: The first time you find a Halloween candy wrapper littered around the house, point it out to your child and have them discard it with a warning that the next or any consecutive such littering is discovered by you, it will be a 5 candy penalty. They will take you seriously! 🙂 (Adults, keeping a glass jar on the counter and tucking the wrapper from each candy YOU eat inside is a great mindful eating strategy to bring awareness to whether or not you may have exceeded any daily limits you may have set for yourself.)

It will all be alright after all.

Cheers!

There’s Not Much a Dose of Saskatchewan Can’t Fix: 10 Farm Facts to Reassure You That Your Food is Safe

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farm-collage

I always embrace any opportunity to visit my home province. In addition to getting back to see family a few times each year, every so often I’m fortunate that my work also takes me there.

I recently had the opportunity to attend an agricultural tour sponsored by Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan and a number of groups representing many of the main foods grown or raised in Saskatchewan including flax, pulses, lentils, mustard (and Frenchs), barley, canola, chicken, eggs, beef and pork along with tourism Saskatchewan and Crop Life Canada. This type of tour came at a very important point in my professional life in regularly facing questions and grave concerns from consumers about quality in the food supply. I wish I could have magically had every person whose ever asked me about organic, free range, hormones, steroids, animal welfare, genetic modification and related issues by my side as our group of food writers, media dietitians and chefs from North America met many farmers on their farms, toured an egg processing plant, visited agriculture and bioresource greenhouses and the University of Saskatchewan Grains Innovation Laboratory. (We toured a prairie brewery too!) But, having them all join me wasn’t possible.

Because I couldn’t do that, I want to share 10 thoughts from many critical conversations on the tour. I left feeling renewed and more confident than ever in the quality of the food our Canadian farmers provide to the marketplace. Although I still feel heavy-hearted for the many people I’ve met who feel completely confused about what to eat or to safely feed their family, in many ways I felt both ‘cured’ of mass confusion and energized to continue sharing the truth of what I witnessed. Our group also left very well fed and richer in spirit for having experienced the passion and commitment these food producers put into the food they feed their families and share with Canada and the world.

There were countless reminders of the conscientious commitment farmers make to providing safe food to consumers and the challenges they face from often misinformed, yet vocal, adversaries. Here are a few points I encourage thinking about:

  1. Less than 2% of Canadians are directly involved in farming to provide food for the remaining 98%. Typically, the more removed a person is from the farm, the more critical they are of farming. So unfortunate and a source of mass confusion and misinformation. It’s worth finding out the farm experience and background from the person who may be criticizing farming. Asking questions is great and very strongly encouraged. Unqualified folks scaring people about farm-raised food, isn’t.
  2. Canadian farmers are very open to talking about their operations and have nothing to hide. The industry is strictly regulated and uses the latest SAFE technology to produce food that is nutritious and affordable. Big corporations have NOT taken over Canadian farms. More than 97% of Canadian farms are family owned and operated.
  3. There is zero difference nutritionally between white and brown eggs. The difference lies in the feather colour of the hens they come from. Brown are perceived as healthier. What applies to brown bread or brown rice versus white with fibre content, is NOT relevant to eggs. If you buy free range or free run eggs and the shells happen to be brown, know that isn’t a characteristic indicating a free range egg, but simply a brown-feathered hen. Free range eggs also come in white shells. There’s actually more risk of contamination in free range eggs as the conditions in which the chickens are raised can’t be monitored quite as carefully as in indoor operations. Egg farmers are committed to providing a variety of egg choices in the marketplace in response to consumer demand. I suggested the egg producers start selling a dozen odd-shaped or non-uniform eggs if we really want to see “natural” eggs. Consumers want ‘natural’ yet also want 12 eggs that look the same. Go figure?! Maybe someday NUeggs (Non-uniform eggs) will be a thing! #HeardItHereFirst
  4. Egg yolk colour is determined by the type of feed a hen eats. Wheat-based diets produce pale yolks while corn or alfalfa-based produce darker yellow. Yolk colour is not an indication of freshness or nutritional value. Organic eggs are fed certified organic grains which cost more.
  5. It is ILLEGAL in Canada to use hormones or antibiotics in chickens. “Ads promoting hormone-free chicken are like adds promoting water that is wet”. NO pigs, chickens, turkeys or egg-laying hens in our country are fed hormones. It has been illegal for decades. And they’re not used in milk production in Canada either. Some beef farmers do use approved hormones in cattle. Hormone levels in beef from cattle treated with hormones are virtually the same as beef from untreated cattle once in the food system. Any hormones are administered to cattle in safe time before they are made available for food. Calves are immunized for the same reasons we immunize children – to keep them healthy.
  6. Why the heck don’t we eat even more lentils and other pulses? If we are truly serious about food sustainability let’s eat more of these affordable, nutritious legumes from our home country – the world’s largest EXPORTER of pulses!
  7. Farmers follow strict federal laws for humane animal treatment. A Canadian farmer is not keeping you out of his or her egg operation because anything controversial is going on, but rather for strict biosecurity to protect the chickens. Farmers are as shocked and enraged as everyone else, if not more so, when situations of animal cruelty happen. I chatted with passionate, professional egg farmers who are considering taking on the expense of having large viewing windows and video cameras in the next barns they build to reassure consumers. These kind of measures becoming standard will increase egg prices. (I don’t require a web cam on my dentist’s office or other professional I trust.)
  8. Farmers are the original active environmentalists. Their livelihood depends on healthy soil, water and air to grow crops and raise livestock. We met sixth generation farmers, farmers whose healthy 87 and 91 year old parents still live and work on the farm, rugged male farmers who tear up when talking about the damage misinformation is doing to food security in Canada, strong, young female farmers who wrangle cattle and much more. The common thread: a deep commitment to the environment, passion, hard work ethic and a safe, healthy food supply for all. We were humbled when the combine drivers actually stopped during active harvest to talk to us (VERY expensive to their operation to do so) and saddened to hear farmers say that MISINFORMATION IS MORE OF A THREAT and worry to today’s farmers than crop-destruction from pests or the weather conditions. Crazy and very disturbing. We should all be concerned about that.
  9. Canadians pay a mere 10% of their available income for food, one of the lowest percentages in the world yet for top quality domestic food. Without the use of APPROVED pesticides to prevent complete crop destruction we’d risk complete crop devastation and food shortages. If no approved, regulated pesticides and GMOs were ever used, Canadian farmers would need 37 million more acres to grow the same amount of food as today.
  10. There is more risk in food raised by people who “dabble” in farming as a sideline than food produced on regulated, inspected large farm operations. That said, farmers are very happy to share gardening tips and encourage us to use any available land to grow at least some of our own food.

We have a WORLD CLASS food system that is envied around the world. We need to understand it, celebrate and support it. Absolutely learn and make informed decisions about crop spraying, GMOs, organic vs conventional and where food comes from but avoid information from unreliable, misinformed people that is negatively impacting the very food system that feeds us and many others on our planet. I remain 100% confident that it makes more sense to question unrecognizable ingredients in packaged food (even the organic ones) with lengthy ingredients lists and long shelf lives than the wholesome home grown WHOLE food from Canadian farms.

Thank you Saskatchewan!

(Sincere thanks also to the chefs and hosts at the Delta Bessborough, Wilbar Farms, Wilbar Cattle Company, Agar’s Corner, Riverside Country Club, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Boffins Public House and the University of Saskatchewan)

Reference: The Real Dirt on Farming

Garbage Food

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Garbage Food

Immersed in the food and nutrition profession, I’m always surveying the landscape and trying to come up with simple yet impactful messaging to encourage eating well and feeling great about it.

I continue to promote taking an 80-20 approach to healthy eating. Perfection is never the goal or the requirement in achieving optimal health. Where being mindful of the source and quality of what we eat is important, being meticulously “clean” about eating in every choice is also not necessary. Washing our hands before we eat is actually the most important and proven effective “clean eating” measure we can take in preventing illness. Cook at home and you’ll also be well on your way to mastering clean eating!

You’ve heard me speak about how doing diet math and precisely tracking each morsel you eat by using the numbers on the Nutrition Facts section of food labels isn’t the answer either. Instead, reading the Ingredients List and noting what the food is actually made of is useful. Many of the very best foods out there, think fruits and vegetables, have no labels at all and minimal packaging. They don’t have to try to convince us they’re good for us with bold  misleading claims about what they don’t contain. I’ve also encouraged choosing mostly food that rots if left on the counter for too long since foods with an eternal shelf life don’t typically provide the natural nourishment we require.

To all of these guiding principles and in an ongoing effort to make all of this even easier, I’m adding this latest rule of thumb for choosing great food:

Decent food doesn’t generate excess garbage.

Garbage food promotes both garbage as waste/litter and garbage behaviour.

Sadly, I’m reminded of this every time I head out on one of my regular running routes. I run up a rural-ish road that takes me past a lush green sports field and along a path leading to spectacular ocean and mountain vistas. The scenery is pristine, fresh and energizing. I can’t imagine throwing a speck of litter onto this sacred ground and the beauty that’s all around.

I think, or at least hope, it’s the minority, but every time I head out on this route I see garbage at various points on the side of the road. I never see salad bowls, nut butter jars, fish bones, vitamin bottles or paper bags from wholegrain bread strewn along the route. What is always there is pop cans, potato chip bags, chocolate bar wrappers, slurpee cups or fast food shrapnel – all litter from what can be considered unhealthy food we should eat less than 20% of the time, if at all. Note: Real ‘rock stars’ don’t litter. There are also always cigarette butts on the ground. A serious fire hazard in this wooded part of the country, I’ve always wondered how our beautiful earth can possibly be considered someone’s ashtray??? Sober or not when doing it, I wonder if some people aren’t even conscious of the fact they’re littering? That seemed to be the case in a news clip I saw where a local reporter interviewed a young couple who denied littering mere moments after throwing their McWaste out their car window – an action that was captured on film.

Perhaps the worst food I’ve ever come across for lack of nutrition along with over-packaging is those gimmicks marketed as a kid’s lunch or snack pack. As I ran along on a gorgeous blue sky day and saw a couple of those on the ground, all I could think about was how garbage food leads to garbage behaviour. I had to write this post because I suspect many of my nature-loving friends have also made this observation at one point or another and been baffled by it. If I see a trash bin nearby, I pick up the trash to discard properly. I then wash my hands while shaking my head in wonder. Then I reflect on the walking group I can start someday for earth-conscious nature-loving retired folk who value fresh air, getting outside for walks in the company of friends and doing something to keep the neighbourhood beautiful.

I know I’m speaking to the converted, but continue to respect your body and the earth by eating wholesome, low garbage-generating food. Ingesting quality, nourishing food also leads to clearer thinking and most likely the kind of thoughts that would prevent throwing garbage out your car window or anywhere you feel instead of in a proper recycling or trash bin. Also encourage kids to eat for their health and the health of their planet.

Free Yourself: 20 Things You Don’t Have to Do to Eat Healthy

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Run view 2

Regardless of what the latest great pretender is promoting as the “secret” to health and longevity, if science and evidence matter to you, you don’t have to do any of the following in your quest to stay strong, healthy and energized. So take a deep breath, enjoy the view this summer (and all year) and ONLY do these if they bring you tremendous joy and peace of mind…

  1. Analyze the Nutrition Facts table on food products. Do check the Ingredient List when you want to confirm that the food is made out of wholesome ingredients or to avoid allergens, but skip any marketing claims and the ‘diet math’ that reading Nutrition Facts tables can create. Many of the healthiest foods out there have no labels at all! Claims about what the food does not contain are in many cases less helpful than if the label said dirt-free or contains no hair. Assess what the food does have and what it will actually provide to your body. Even easier, just eat and enjoy it.
  2. Buy and consume only bottled water. (Unless you’re in a part of the world with an unclean, unsafe water source)
  3. Follow Canada’s Food Guide (or the American healthy plate or pyramid version) to the exact letter. These are general population educational tools that have a place. They were never intended to be used for customized, individual advice.
  4. Spend more money on vitamin pills than food each month.
  5. Buy only organic fruits and vegetables.
  6. Own and use protein powder or protein-based commercial ‘energy’ bars.
  7. Eat trendy ingredients in trendy ways unless you really want to and it makes you happy. If you don’t want to use chia seeds or eat your breakfast out of a mason jar, you don’t have to.
  8. Make perfect choices 100% of the time. Life is short. No single food will cure or kill you. Aim to eat right about 80% of the time and allow room for flexibility and the unstructured reality that life is all about.
  9. Follow a meal plan that lays out exactly what combination of foods to eat for each meal and snack. Although this can be helpful in the very short-term to get back on track or expand your repertoire of food ideas, learning and applying healthy eating concepts like making about half your plate vegetables in most meals, including foods with some protein as part of all or most meals and snacks, and staying well hydrated will do more in the long run than feeling locked into rigid structure.
  10. Avoid your favourite foods. (Remember, this is a list of 20 things to NOT do). There are no “Food Police”. You won’t be arrested and dragged out of your home in handcuffs for enjoying that amazing dessert or evening snack. Keep it all in the context of an overall healthy approach. Most of the time, do avoid eating empty, nutrient-free foods in place of what you require. When you indulge, make it worth it. Not with an excessive portion that leaves you uncomfortably stuffed, but with quality decadence that nails the craving perfectly. Happy satisfaction is the goal, not gastric distress and guilt.
  11. Eliminate sugar entirely. Do cut back if you’re into jumbo portions, too much pop, candy, sugary so-called kid’s cereals or cookies with an eternal shelf life. But don’t fear a bit of sugar in your wholesome home baking or an ice cream cone on a day at the beach.
  12. Eliminate salt entirely. 77% of the excess salt we eat comes from processed food, not salt we add at home. Reduce your intake of smoked foods, salty deli meats, salty condiments, excessively salted pickled foods, fast food burgers and fries but don’t fear using a little salt on your homemade egg breakfast or in the cooking water for your favourite Italian dish.
  13. Eliminate caffeine entirely. The general consensus from the research is that if we keep caffeine intake to a maximum of 400 mg/day, the equivalent of about 4 eight-ounce cups of coffee daily, it won’t be a problem for most people.
  14. Eliminate alcohol entirely. This one is tricky. If crazy portions and self-control around alcohol are issues for you, total avoidance might work better than moderation. For optimal health, it’s recommended to keep alcohol intake to 1 drink/day or less for women and 2 drinks/day or less for men.
  15. Go gluten-free. (Only do this if you are celiac or have a proven gluten intolerance or health issue that is alleviated on a gluten-free diet.)
  16. Use herbal supplements if you don’t like them, can’t afford them and/or don’t want to.
  17. Write down, weigh, measure or track every morsel you eat or every step you take on a permanent basis.
  18. Increase your food budget. Many healthy staples are the most affordable foods available: eggs, in- season vegetables and fruit, oatmeal, dried beans, peas and lentils, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic and more.
  19. Shop at specialty, natural food stores only. Pretty much everything you need for a healthy food intake, mainly a whole lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds and quality protein choices, can be found in a regular grocery store.
  20. Continuously read about nutrition in a quest for the latest healthy discovery or so-called superfood – unless it brings you great ideas and joy!

To find out what IS worth doing to be a healthy eater, read on.

Have a wonderful and delicious summer! (she says with that Platter’s song in her head dedicated to ALL of the imposters who are working so hard to make eating a bizarre, mathematical, obsessively clean, precisely planned process instead of simply nourishing a happy life. “Too real is this feeling of make believe…oh yes…the great pretender”.  (Mom and Dad’s collection – the only records we had when we were kids. Sigh.)

For Kids and Adults: Happy Eating is Healthy Eating

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Happy Kids Food

Soooo done with “nutritionism” and the efforts of often quasi-qualified folks spreading misconceptions like an exact number of radishes to eat to treat breast cancer or the amount of turmeric needed to reduce prostate cancer risk (actual things I’ve seen on recent lifestyle TV programs), I felt compelled to share these 10 thoughts in my continued effort to support healthy, happy, enjoyable, guilt-free eating. Stay encouraged in the fact that looking at the WHOLE PICTURE will ALWAYS be the answer to optimal health.

  1. On its own, all the good, clean eating in the world won’t make up for a disaster on other fronts such as excessive drinking, drug abuse, chronic sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, bitterness, deep hatred of one’s job, unhealthy relationships, etc. Eating is often the first area tackled when improvements in health need to be made. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, without ultimately addressing the other issues, no matter how expensive, fancy and uber-healthy your food choices, you’ll still hate your job, if that is the underlying cause of your stress and exhaustion. Hard as it can be to make eating changes, it’s often the easiest step to take in comparison to quitting one’s job or finding time to exercise more. It’s also embraced in society as something that’s socially acceptable to talk about. “I need more energy so I’m eating more vegetables” is a lot easier to talk about than “I need more energy so I’m leaving my draining, disastrous marriage”, for example. This applies to kids too. Sometimes their tummy aches are truly due to food and there’s room to fine-tune things or remove allergens. Sometimes, the tummy aches have nothing to do with food.
  2. Eating foods you strongly dislike or can’t really afford simply because you’ve heard they’re healthy is crazy. Enjoyment in eating is an important part of a healthy, happy life. An 80-20 approach (trying to make good choices about 80% of the time, leaving room for flexibility) always produces more lasting improvements compared to cleansing, going raw for a month or being on and off of a series of diet trend bandwagons over several decades.
  3. No single food will supply all of the nutrients needed for great health – nor will the newest supplement products despite ads stating that they contain “100% of the daily requirement for every vitamin and mineral”. I’m worried about the number of people I see out there fueling their day with a ‘calorie-free’ supersized coffee, one or two organic ‘energy’ bars and now vitamin pills promising 100% of what they need! That is NUTS and dangerously unhealthy! (Congratulations are in order for the savvy marketers.) Grow food if you have any available space. Shop for food. Cook food. Happily and gratefully enjoy food. Avoid wasting food. Share food with others. We have teeth. We’re supposed to use them and not simply drink protein shakes and swallow vitamin pills. (I’d only suggest doing that if your jaw was temporarily wired shut for some kind of surgery. Even then, I’d recommend using real food to make quality, delicious smoothies instead of powdered mixes that have an eternal shelf life – regardless of whether they’re GMO-free or not.)
  4. Science has already confirmed many (if not all) of the fundamentals of healthy eating and healthy living overall. For example, make half your plate vegetables in most meals, eat mainly a plant-based diet, keep portions of meat small, go easy on salt and sugar (total avoidance is not necessary), be active, breathe fresh air. Live these actions and don’t wait for a new, “definitive” study showing oddly novel results like ‘less exercise may be better’ or ‘a specific fruit may hold the secret to longevity‘. Avoiding gimmicks that aren’t evidence-based is VERY important. Ignoring common sense while waiting for science to ‘prove’ why we should engage in healthy behaviours is is just plain silly if not dangerously unhealthy.
  5. If a novel new discovery or claim is made like “craft beer may be as healthy as red wine”, avoid looking at it as a green light to overindulge. Drink craft beer or red wine because you love it, it brings you pleasure and is part of your overall healthy, happy way of living – not because it might have a few trace minerals. Portion control will always matter whether with healthy foods and drinks or those high in salt, sugar, bad fats, caffeine, or alcohol. The ‘nutritional benefits’ of any beverage containing alcohol are pretty hard to argue for, given the presence of, well, the alcohol itself and its impacts on the liver.
  6. No one wants to hear about your cleanse, your on and off gluten-free diet, why you never bake cookies for your kids that contain sugar, the supplements you take to ensure you get a beach body, etc. Please wait until they ask you about it and then share if they seem interested. These may be choices you genuinely believe in, value and have found great results with. That’s wonderful. When your friends and family show real interest, definitely share. Otherwise, know that it isn’t making us happy to hear about it. And unhappiness isn’t healthy.
  7. Buying groceries at the stores that fit for your family and budget is important. Confidently source the food that works for you. (That’s confidently, not confidentially). There’s no need to feel like you have to put a bag over your head if picking things up at Walmart for example versus Whole Foods or the Farmer’s Market. Wearing where you shop or the food values you have as a badge is highly annoying and unhealthy. It makes others unhappy. Shop where and eat what works for you. Be happy and at peace with those choices.
  8. Enjoy great food – whether grilled salmon and veggies on the BBQ with a nice crisp glass of wine OR a beer and burger night out with friends at the pub. No single meal will be the cure all or the devil that destroys your health. Most people want to talk about what’s going on, how you’re actually doing and what you’ve been up to. Not what you’ve been eating and why you feel superior (or inferior) for those choices. No one (other than during a paid, professional consultation appointment) is interested in interviewing you about your eating habits. Two-way dialogue on mutually interesting topics promotes happiness, satisfaction and health.
  9. Avoid commenting on how other people eat. As a culinary dietitian in the public eye I’ve faced occasional criticism for such “unbelievably terrible and irresponsible” actions as encouraging a family to bake a batch of wholesome homemade muffins using oats, fresh berries and, wait for it….real sugar, instead of agave nectar. Sheesh! It’s a sad day for our world when we so readily dish out hurtful comments and feel such intense anger about how a batch of muffins is made instead of looking at the total experience of being in the kitchen with the kids, living life, making memories and being happy – along with eating something that tastes delicious!
  10. Remember how you ate as a kid. What made you happy and kept you healthy? Did you get to enjoy an ice cream cone when out at a summer festival? Did your Mom lecture you on how much sugar it contains or how much hiking you’d have to do to make up for it? Hopefully not. Were your eating habits as an 8-year old as varied, clean and pure as your parents’ habits? You still turned out great and have healthy values. Keep the kids well nourished, follow the 80-20 rule but let them live and be happy. Keep the judging and endless schooling about food out of it for them.

Joy, laughter, fun, feeling connected, sharing meaningful times with others…are all part of the whole picture of factors that contribute to well-being. Avoid micro-managing food as a way of making up for or not dealing with deep frustration in other areas of life. I’m for continuing to eat, drink AND be merry! Diet math, badge-wearing and guilt aren’t part of how I define a healthy life.

Cheers!

Meet Patricia

Eating well is just one spoke in the wheel of health. An active life...

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