Halloween-the start of the holidays

Well the holidays are quickly approaching! I’m really excited because my favorite meal of all time is Thanksgiving! I love it so much that I had that for my high school graduation party. It was so good. But, before Thanksgiving is Halloween. I’ve thought of nutritional ideas for Halloween.  These are just some suggestions that I have been thinking about for the past week.

I think the best way to start off Halloween right is to eat a great dinner. The reason I say this is to keep people full for most of the night, so that people don’t pig out on candy. The best way would be making a healthy dinner that includes several of the food groups.

Another thing I think you should consider is what kind of treats you want to hand out to the kids. I know the typical thing is to hand out candy. But I think there are several nutritious options that you could pass out instead. Some options that would be good are like apples, yogurt covered or plain pretzels, granola bars, sugar-free candy and etc. Let me know if you have any other ideas. If you do decide that candy is the way to go, I suggest not buying a lot of it. That way you aren’t temped to eat the leftovers!

Also a good thing to do is go for a walk if you aren’t already walking with your little ones. Try to get some exercise for yourself and or kids.

My last nutritional tip is portion control. Kids usually want to eat their candy right away. This would be a great time to teach them portion control. Allow them to have a few pieces a day. Maybe pack a few pieces in their lunch. Try not to let them overload on candy.

Deficiencies

Okay so last week I wanted to talk about smoothies because it is a very healthy treat. This week I’m going backwards to talk about vitamin deficiencies. I found this perfect website that provides information on each deficiency on some of  the vitamins that I talked about, treatments for those deficiencies, more food sources of that provide each vitamin, and pictures of what the deficiency look like. This post is not to scare you but to inform you about vitamin deficiencies. Fair warning though the pictures for this deficiencies are gross!

So what is a vitamin deficiency? According to Dictionary reference, vitamin deficiency is “a lack or shortage of something essential to health; an insufficiency.” Basically it’s a shortage of a certain vitamin in the body. Remember from my previous post that vitamins are essential and only needed through tiny amounts in the diet. So if you eat the foods that provide these vitamins then you should have no problems with being vitamin deficient. Nonetheless, I want to talk about some of the deficiencies that can occur if intake is insufficient. All my information can be found at Deficiency Diseases.

Vitamin A-These are several stages involved with vitamin A, but they all have to do with eyesight.  The first stage is called night blindness and it causes you to have trouble seeing at night. So if you ever have a hard time seeing in the dark, I would try and see your doctor to make sure you aren’t vitamin A deficient. I only want to focus on the first stage of vitamin A, but you look at them yourself if you are interested in reading more. The website provides pictures of eyes that and how the lack of vitamin A deficiency affected them.

Vitamin D-There are two deficiency associated with this vitamin-rickets and osteomalacia. These deficiencies have to do with bones. Rickets occurs in children and it when the bones are not fully developed and they have a hard time with crawling, walking, or posture. It looks like they have saggy bones according to the pictures. Osteomalacia occurs in adults.

Vitamin E-Vitamin E deficiency has no name and is rare in humans.

Vitamin K-The deficiency causes uncontrolled bleeding and again has no name.

Vitamin C-Vitamin C deficiency is the funniest to me because it is called scurvy. I totally think of pirates and sailing on ships. This disease causes a lot of pain and swollenness in the joints and muscles of the body. It also causes bleeding gums and loose teeth.

Thiamin or B₁- is a deficiency known as beriberi. This deficiency has a lot of symptoms like, pain, swollenness, exhaustion, and others that eventually leads to heart failure.

Riboflavin or B₂- deficiency disease name is ariboflavinosis and causes problems with the mouth.

Niacin or B₃- Pellagra is the deficiency for niacin and is also known as the 3D’s. That’s because people who have pellagra have symptoms that go in the order of diarrhea, dermatitis, and dementia. Once you get to the point of dementia there is no treatment, so please don’t let it get that far!

Smoothies!

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite places to go for nutritional smoothies-Juice Stop! I really love this place because of the varitey of great tasting smoothies and how they are so involved in nutrition.  

On their website they have their menu for all the different kinds of smoothies that make and what ingredients are used. If you click on menu and go to nutrients, they also show a list of blends that they can add to your smoothie to help with different kinds of things. For example they have a blend to help speed up your metabolism, a blend to helps stimulate brain activity, and even a blend to help improvement your immune system when you’re sick!

They also have a nutritional breakdown of each kind of smoothie that make. My favorite smoothie is called the Knockout. It is a smoothie with strawberries, apples, and bananas in it. According to the nutritional breakdown from Juice Stop’s Website, there is 266 calories in a large knockout! The nutritional breakdown also provides fat, carbs, and protein values as well.

The smoothies at Juice Stop are very healthy. Plus they can make them even healthier if you ask for additional blends that provide extra vitamins. Smoothies are just another way to get in your fruits in for the day. I hope you will go check them out and try a great smoothie! In some Juice Stops, they have a big book with the nutritional values of each of their smoothies.

Here is the nearest  Juice Stop to Washburn in Topeka:

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Here is a funny video I found on the home page of the Juice Stop website! You don't have to watch, but I thought it was funny.

 

H20-You Know, Water

There are so many kinds of beverages that people can drink these days. Coffee, soda, alcohol, energy drinks, and juices just to name a few. With all these kinds of beverages out there, it is important to remember to drink water. Water seems like a very common thing that we use and see in our everyday lives. However, water is the most abundant substance in the human body and is essential for life. It is the most indispensable nutrient of all! Water makes up about sixty percent of a person’s body weight.  So let’s say you weight about a hundred and fifty pounds. That means that ninety pounds of you is water!

Because of the amount of water in your body, a change in body’s water content can bring a temporary in body weight. So just because you lose a pound, DOES NOT mean you have lost weight from fat. The body loses water through digestion, breathing, sweating, and urination. Drinks that contain caffeine are not effective substitutes for water!

According to Human Water Requirement Calculator, eight glasses of water is recommended each day. However, this website will calculate how much water you, personal should drink. My roommates and I share a Brita filter container to filter the water from the tap. I fill up my water bottles with this water to drink daily. I feel like this is an eco-friendly way to drink water than wasting a bunch of water bottles all the time.