Snacking Profiles: Which One Are You?

As the nature and pace of our lives evolve, so do our eating habits. One kind of eating—snacking—is now more commonplace than ever before. IFIC’s 2024 Food and Health Survey found that 73% of Americans snack at least once a day. Despite snacking’s prevalence, it can be hard to know how to build a healthy snack—one that is appropriate for your budget, schedule and flavor preferences. Below we’ve created a few snacker profiles with relevant snacking suggestions. See which one/s you identify with! The Outdoor Enthusiast Snacks for the outdoor enthusiast should provide adequate nutrients to help you power through and recover from a long outdoor workout. Specific macronutrient ratios will differ depending on the type of exercises and level of intensity you’re seeking. Typically, for a pre-workout snack, foods with carbohydrates and protein are your best friends. When we eat carbohydrates, they break down into glucose and enter our muscles to give us fuel for our workouts. Additionally, protein helps repair the small tears in our muscle fibers that occur as we exert intense energy. It’s helpful to give yourself between 30 minutes and a few hours to digest your snack before you jump into exercising in order to avoid any GI discomfort. A few pre-workout snacks to consider include hard-boiled eggs and an apple; beef jerky and berries; or cottage cheese, almonds, and grapes. Likewise, don’t forget to refuel with carbs, protein and electrolytes after your workout is done. The Busy Parent Parenting is challenging enough on its own, and a busy schedule only complicates matters. Snacks for the busy parent should be healthy, portable and easy to eat with small hands (in case a little one gets hungry too!). Sliced fruits and veggies, cheese cubes, whole-grain crackers and dips such as nut butters or hummus are great options. On a related note, IFIC’s 2019 Food […]

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Protein and Muscle Synthesis with Douglas Paddon-Jones [PODCAST]

Protein is one of the three ways we get calories. But it’s much more than that, a fact that research continues to reveal. Among other things, eating enough protein help us feel full longer, and provides other essential vitamins and minerals that can support strong bones and a healthy immune system. On this edition of DataDish, we spoke with Douglas Paddon-Jones, PhD, to help us understand more ways that protein contributes to health. Dr. Paddon-Jones is a Distinguished Professor in Aging and Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where his research interests include muscle physiology, protein metabolism, sarcopenia (age-related loss of muscle mass) and physical inactivity. Some highlights: Do people eat enough protein? Minimum daily requirements are different from the amount we may need for optimal health or athletic performance, but what are those amounts? Dr. Paddon-Jones explains. How much protein can our body use from one meal? You may have heard that eating too much protein in one meal is a waste because our bodies have the ability to process only a certain amount. The truth is that there is a difference between the amount our bodies can process from one meal and the amount required to stimulate muscle growth. Does protein intake impact kidney health? Dr. Paddon-Jones clarifies this misconception about protein consumption in healthy people. Which source or protein is better: plant or animal? Protein comes from both plant and animal sources, so the choice is entirely up to you. Vegetarians can get plenty of protein, it just takes a little more planning to make sure they get all the necessary amino acids. What is the role of the funder in research? Dr. Paddon-Jones discusses transparency and the role of research funders to address basic science and practical issues. Enjoy the podcast! […]

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IFIC Study Serves Up Reality Check on Serving, Portion Sizes

(Washington, D.C.)—We’ve all seen “serving size” listed at the top of the Nutrition Facts label. But what exactly does that mean? What about the term “portion size”? The International Food Information Council (IFIC) has conducted a new survey to gauge how much consumers know — and, importantly, whether they know the difference. Portion Vs Serving Size: What’s the Difference?  The “Understanding Portion and Serving Sizes” survey of 1,000 U.S. adults first asked whether they had an understanding of the two terms. 91% said they had at least some understanding about “serving size,” while 90% said the same of “portion size.”  Respondents were then given a list of possible definitions that included the most accurate descriptions for both serving size and portion size and were asked to pick the two descriptions that best align with their understanding. (Serving size is based on a standardized amount of a food or beverage that people typically consume in one sitting, while portion size is the amount of food or beverage someone chooses to eat in one sitting.)  Among those claiming knowledge of serving sizes, about half (48%) picked the correct definition (the amount typically consumed) and/or thought it was defined by the company that created the product (46%). Fewer (39%) believed that the term was defined by dietitians and health professionals, while 33% thought it was defined by government agencies like the FDA, and 33% believed it was the amount one chooses to consume (i.e., the portion size).  But out of those claiming at least some understanding of portion sizes, the most popular definition (“a standardized amount typically consumed”) was the same as the serving size — identical at 48% — indicating that consumers essentially conflate the two terms. Slightly behind, 45% correctly identified it as the amount one chooses to consume, which was followed by “defined by dietitians and health professionals” (44%).   Defining the Difference: Consumer Trends  Respondents were then shown complete definitions of both terms. When asked how their understanding of portion and serving sizes had changed after reading the definitions, about one-third (34%) said they […]

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Essential Nutrients for Adult Women, in Each Decade of Life

While the principles of healthy eating remain constant over a woman’s lifespan, women’s bodies also go through changes in each decade of life that may require adjustments to the specific nutrients they need. For example, some vitamins and minerals are critical during a woman’s childbearing years, while others become especially important as aging begins to affect the female body’s nutrient absorption. Knowing which nutrients are key, and at what times, can help women feel their best throughout each decade of life. The 20s and 30s: Folate, Iron, and Calcium Folate and Folic Acid If a woman decides to have children, folate is crucial for a healthy pregnancy, as it helps protect against neural tube defects in a developing fetus. Folate also plays an important role in producing red blood cells in the bone marrow by working closely with vitamin B12. Food sources of folate include beef liver, lentils, asparagus, spinach, broccoli, avocados, and folate-enriched grain products such as bread, pasta, rice, and cereals. Iron Iron is an essential component of red blood cells that transfers oxygen from the lungs to all the body’s tissues. Iron also is necessary for physical growth, neurological development, cellular functioning, and the synthesis of certain hormones. For women in their 20s and 30s, low iron intake is common, and often is compounded through monthly losses via a woman’s menstrual cycle. Iron is found in two main forms in foods: heme iron (found only in meat, seafood, and poultry) and non-heme iron (found in meat, seafood, poultry, some plants, and iron-fortified foods). Calcium Calcium is necessary for bone health and proper functioning of the cardiovascular, muscular, and nervous systems, among many other significant roles. We don’t reach our peak bone mass until our late 20s, so it’s especially important to consume adequate amounts of calcium in […]

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Healthy Eating on Campus: 101

Imagine that the minivan is packed with fresh twin XL sheets and too many plastic drawers and bins to bother counting. You get to campus to unload and before you know it, your teary-eyed family drives away leaving you on your own. With this moment comes a new-found independence and the responsibility of making your own decisions for the first time- including decisions about what to eat! Dining on campus often involves buffet style dining with a wide variety of foods. Limited time, money, space, and cooking equipment also means you may have to adapt your normal routine to eat healthy on campus.  Below are tips and tricks that can help you navigate your way through the campus dining environment and create your own balanced meals to keep yourself healthy! 1. Get to know your options. When eating a la carte or buffet style in the dining hall, you may be faced with more options than you’re used to. Check out your school webpage or ask the campus dining staff where you can find the nutrition information of the foods served. Many campuses even offer students services from registered dietitians! 2. Tune in to your hunger cues. When you are busy, it can be tough to always remember to stop and eat. But remember that skipping meals may cause you to eat more than you need later. Establish a meal-time routine around your classes and extracurricular activities. Also, get to know your hunger and fullness cues with mindful eating. 3. Make your plate look like MyPlate. Aim to have three square meals per day using your meal plan. When selecting your food items, picture the MyPlate visual to help you create a well-rounded meal with proper serving sizes.  4. Save any extra servings or items rather than over eating. Instead of forcing down the […]

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The Science of Taste

Confucius said, “Everyone eats and drinks, but few appreciate taste.” When you understand a bit about the science of taste, you may join the few who appreciate it. In fact, the science of taste is amazing. The human sensory systems allow us to distinguish about 100,000 different flavors.  Flavors emanate from our bodies’ ability to discern one taste from another.  And, according to the 2017 Food & Health Survey, taste reigns with 84 percent of Americans confirming it as “a top driver of [food] purchases.”  What’s the difference between taste and flavor? If you hold your nose, close your eyes and eat chocolate, you may not know what you are eating. Without your sense of smell, chocolate just tastes sweet or bitter. If you have ever tried to enjoy a meal with a head cold, you know how much your sense of smell adds to flavor. Flavor is more than just odor and taste. It also includes texture and temperature. It even includes the sense of pain, which is what you get from capsaicin in chili peppers. Put it all together and you have the ability to discern 100,000 different flavors. How did our sense of taste evolve? Over millions of years, our sense of taste evolved to help us choose which foods to eat. Choosing the wrong food could mean wasted energy, poor nutrition or poisoning from eating something that can do harm to our bodies. According to Current Biology Perspective on Food and Human Taste, humans relied on fruit and other plant-based foods and eventually developed a strong sense for the natural bitter taste in plants and leaves. As time progressed, we retained these early taste preferences and acquired newer ones. We like the taste of sweet because it signifies a source of sugar, which means energy. We […]

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What You Need to Know About Climate Change and Our Food

Many of us have heard the term “climate change” and may wonder what exactly it means and if it could impact the world’s food supply. Certainly, the term itself implies a change in weather patterns, so it seems logical that such changes could lead to changes in farming practices—an aspect of food production that depends heavily on weather patterns. To learn more about climate change and how it may affect food production, we caught up with Dr. Michael P. Hoffmann, executive director of the Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions (part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University). What exactly is climate change? How long has it been happening, and why? Climate change has been occurring and is observed over decades. Since about the time of the Industrial Revolution (the late 1800s) humans began burning more and more fossil fuels to power factories and warm homes, and for the transportation of people and goods. This increase in fossil-fuel use led to an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mainly carbon dioxide. Today, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is over 40 percent higher than it should be. Notably, a large majority of environmental scientific experts agree that climate change is happening and that humans are the cause. Greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere because they absorb heat radiating off the Earth’s surface. Imagine the heat radiating off a paved dark road on a hot sunny summer day. Some of that heat is absorbed by greenhouse gases and then re-radiated in all directions, essentially warming the atmosphere. Now, with these increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, there are resultant increased temperatures globally—about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The warming of the atmosphere is called “global warming” and because of a warmer […]

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The Little Guys of Regenerative Agriculture

Many of us loved making mud pies as kids—it may have been our favorite thing to do outside. But as kids, we likely never thought much about whether or not the soil that made those pies was healthy or if it could be used to grow a garden. We had no idea that healthy dirt was a “thing,” but most of us were not then—and are not now— farmers! Regenerative agriculture consists of farming practices that enhance the health of agricultural soil—the soil that grows crops in our food system. Soil composition and health can be altered by environmental stressors including harsh climate conditions, physical disturbances and chemical contaminants. But the overall health of soil depends largely on its carbon concentration. The element carbon is a building block of all animal and plant cells and is ubiquitous in our environment. Because carbon is a primary component of agricultural soil, careful carbon management is one of the most important aspects of growing sustainable plants in our food system. Our last regenerative ag post talked about practices that many farms are utilizing to support carbon management, including no-till farming; composting unused, biodegradable plant products; and planting perennial crops. Now let’s take a deeper dive into our agricultural soil and look at the “little guys”—including worms, bacteria, and viruses—that support carbon sequestration and soil health. As we’ll see, these tiny helpers work right alongside farmers to bring us healthy and renewable crops each year. Down to Earth There’s more to soil than just dirt. Soil contains an ecosystem that is abundant in various types of animals, food sources, nutrients and waste. All the elements in the soil ecosystem, both living and nonliving, work to create an ecological balance. And one major balance-keeper is earthworms. Many of us remember digging up these little guys […]

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