The Power of Fats

Eating locally has many opportunity and benefits to community health, but there are also challenges that come along with buying local foods. Many consumers claim that they would love to buy locally sources products, but there are too many obstacles that lead them back to the habit of purchasing unsustainable, non locally sourced food. 

The first most common challenge that people say prevent them from buying locally is the price. Local foods are known to be more expensive. As a poor college student, I can particularly relate to this challenge as well. Although it can be more expensive to purchase local foods, I believe it is important to be conscious about where our food is coming from and chose to support the local community and health of the environment. There are ways to make it more accessible including splitting the cost of a CSA share with friends and family. By splitting a CSA share, there will also be less food waste produced! Another way to save money on local food is by going to the farmers market and searching for the best prices and deals on veggies. By browsing around the farmers market you will also get the chance to meet your local farmers and connect with your community. One other thing to keep in mind while purchasing local food is the money that you’re spending, is helping support local farmers and staying within the community. 

Along with the pricing of local foods, another common challenge to buying locally is availability. First of all, it is important to research your local options in order to know where your local food is and when it is available. During the cold seasons, especially in Montana, fresh local vegetables are not always available because of the growing seasons. The most common local options in winter include winter vegetables, local creameries, meat and legumes. These are all delicious and nutritious local options you can incorporate into your diets during the colder seasons. While there is limited resources of vegetables in the winter, during the summer months there is often an abundance of vegetables that often go to waste. In order to reduce food waste and have available local food in winter, an awesome option is preserving your vegetables in fruits. You can do this by canning, freezing, fermenting or drying! 

Convenience is often another challenge for customers. Ways to make your local food more convenient include, CSA share delivery options. Many farmers give you the option of delivering your local produce, so you don’t have to make the trip to the farm. People also claim that they often get their local produce and don’t have the time to prepare the food. This can be solved by meal prep. By designating one day a week to plan and prepare food, it can be a huge time saver to help make cooking your locally sourced meals easy as pie. 

Resources: 

http://www.fooddowntheroad.ca/node/17

More days then not life is hectic and food is commonly put on the back burner. An article from fitness magazine.com gives the goods and bads if you have to eat out of a vending machine.

One of my favorite on the go snacks, the ever so good cheez-its were sadly towards the top of the bad list for they have 160 calories, 8g of fat and provide no fiber or protein. Another snack on the no list would be skittles the candy, they have 250 calories, 2.5 g of fat and said to have more calories and fat then the other popular candy Twizzlers.

Although on the other side of the coin Baked! Lays Potato Chips were in the top five list of snacks to pick, even though they have more calories then the cheeze-its at 230 calories they have 0g of trans fat and are full of fiber with 4g! looking into heather snack with lower calories Sun Chips Originals can be a good option they have 140 calories and 6g of fat, and 2g of fiber plus they are made of whole grains.

Another factor to put into mind is location. Taking about Montana State University’s campus in specific the vending machines have different options. When in the fieldhouse most options are empty calories and options high in sugar but if you travel a little ways to areas as the fitness center and Wilson hall they have healthy vending machines that contain snacks of the healthier variety, the “healthy” vending machines have protein bars, dried fruits, and protein drinks in them.

Bodybuilding. com has vending machine suggestions of their own, the number one suggestion are items containing nuts. Nuts are the number one suggestion because they are full of healthy fats, and some fiber. bodybuilding.com even says “Despite the calories nuts contain, a 2014 study by Harvard University researchers found that regular nut eaters were less likely to pack on the pudge over relatively long periods of time. If possible, opt for unsalted nuts to help keep your sodium intake in check.”

The number two choice for bodybuilding.com is the ever so prevalent granola bar. While they tend to be low protein and fairly high in sugar, granola bars often contain whole grains such as oats. Although not optimal at 200 calories in most cases, they’re a much better option than candy bars. Some vending machines you can even find healthier granola bars with ingredients as dried fruit, honey and seeds.

10 Healthy (and 10 Terrible!) Vending Machine Snacks. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2016, from http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/snacks/healthy/vending-machine-snacks/

“Yeah, yeah sourdough is okay, but I love ciabatta, don’t you?”

Well well. A common assumption among many people is that bread is bread. There are different flavors and textures of this floury creation, like sourdough, ciabatta, rye, cinnamon raisin, and pumpernickel. Similarly, there are different flavors of sides made from cabbage, such as coleslaw and sauerkraut. As any cabbage lover may know, coleslaw and sauerkraut are vastly different, and so are ciabatta and sourdough. The difference enlies in the process, and the bacterias within these foods. As stated in the introduction of the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz,“Microorganisms, are our ancestors and our allies…Certain microorganisms can manifest extraordinary culinary transformations. Tiny beings, invisible to us, bring us compelling and varied flavors. Fermentation gives us our most basic staples such as bread and cheese, and are most pleasurable treats including coffee, wine, and beer.”

Old fashioned sourdough and sauerkraut are examples of these culinary transformations with bacteria. Old fashioned sourdough bread is made from naturally occurring yeast in the air, referred to as wild yeast, whereas common store bought sourdough is made from brewer’s yeast, one type of yeast strain that is packaged and bought at the store. Since this naturally fermented sourdough is a much more time intensive process then yeasted sourdough, it’s not common in stores. I would suggest starting your “sourdough starter” today, if you want bread in about 7 to 8 days…

When a person does however, decide to produce this artisan bread and sell it, boy, is it sought after. A 1997 article discussing the results of a sourdough taste testing, explained that a bakery called La Brea, which had a very mature (old, and good) sourdough starter was rated the highest. This bread was so precious and sought after that the bread was made at La Brea bakery, and baked 80% the way through then flash frozen, and sold to markets that could finish baking the bread on site, so it was fresh. Read more here.

Since 1997 was quite a while ago, there are now more opportunities to buy naturally fermented bread. If one happens to find themselves in the San Diego, California area, they may want to head up to north county San Diego and find themselves Prager Brothers Bread. Click here for website.

If one alternatively happens to find themselves near Bozeman, Montana they could get some of this naturally fermented bread from Stella. In the summer, Stella comes to the farmers markets in Bozeman to sell her bread, and in the winter, you can order it online and pick it up or have it delivered in Bozeman. Click here for her website.

If one decides they want to tackle this beast on their own, starting today, then they must acquire some flour and water. Basically one must add flour and water to a jar, stir it, then let it sit, and add more flour and water to the jar the next day. The adding of flour and water to the previous mixture is called “feeding” Click here to read very in depth instructions on getting your sourdough starter going.

Good luck, happy feeding!

Eating after a race can sometimes be difficult, but it is very important to the recovery process of your body. Although you may feel excited about your great race or personal record, you haven’t truly crossed the finish line until your body is refueled. It is necessary to feed yourself after the race so that your body has the necessary materials to repair the micro tears in your muscles that formed from a particularly hard endurance race. Lets take a look at what and when to eat after a race.

What to eat:

Carbohydrates are key!

The classic pizza and beer post-race meal may not be the healthiest way to refuel, but in fact, it is not far off. Carbohydrates are the key to refueling your body after a long training run or endurance race. As shown in the graph, athletes who consumed high carbohydrate diets after each training bout of 2 hours had higher muscle glycogen levels the next day when they performed the same workout. The high carbohydrate diet lead to higher muscle glycogen levels, and high glycogen levels allow the body to perform at its best during exercise. On the contrary, the red line indicates athletes who do not consume a high carbohydrate diet after endurance exercise. As seen on the graph, the line does not go up very much at all after each workout, meaning that muscle glycogen was not restored adequately. As a result, these athletes found it more difficult to perform the workouts over the three days, and even impossible. Examples of high carbohydrate foods to eat after a race include fresh fruit, whole wheat breads, vegetables, and my favorite, chocolate!

Add some protein!

While carbohydrates are essential for refueling energy stores, protein is equally important. The role of protein in an athlete’s diet is to repair micro tears in the muscle that resulted from hard exercise. When the body runs out of carbohydrates during very long workouts/races, the body turns to fat and protein as fuel sources. During the chemical process called gluconeogenesis, amino acids (protein) are converted to glucose to be used as fuel. This process can leave you feeling sore and tired after a long race because your body is essentially breaking down your muscle to use as energy. To make up for this loss and repair micro tears, dietary protein is essential for your post race meal. Some great sources of protein are meats such as chicken, fish, eggs, nuts, and milk. My personal favorite post race snack is chocolate milk, which provides a great combination of both carbohydrates and protein.

When to eat:

Eat as soon as possible!

This graph may seem confusing at first, but lets take a closer look. Glycogen synthase is an enzyme that triggers muscle to store glycogen when carbohydrates are consumed. As we see in the graph, glycogen and glycogen synthase are indirectly related: as muscle glycogen increases, glycogen synthase decreases. The most pivotal point of this graph is the high level of glycogen synthase activity after the race. The high activity of glycogen synthase causes a high rate of glycogen storage in the muscle. Although the body takes several days to completely restore muscle glycogen, the most important time to eat after the race is as soon as possible, or within the first two hours, when glycogen synthase levels are highest. If you are too busy celebrating your great race during that time, thats okay! The entire first day after racing is an important time to refuel as well.

Source: 

There are 3 grams of dietary fiber from 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed which make up 11% of your daily fiber needs (from just 2 tablespoons of these amazing seeds!) as evidenced by the nutrition label included below. And just in case you were wondering, there is very little variation in contents between regular flax seed and golden flax seed other than their color differences. The fiber contained within the flax seed is both soluble and insoluble.

Soluble fiber is dissolvable in water while insoluble fiber doesn’t dissolve in water. The soluble fiber creates a substance that is very similar to gel. The Basic Research from Salt Lake City, UT performed a double-blind randomized crossover study on 17 individuals that concluded that the soluble fiber from flaxseeds in the form of a flax drink or flax bread lowered cholesterol levels as well as lowered glucose levels. Their conclusion is supported by other studies and I think is valid. The insoluble fiber within flax seeds helps bulk up stools and also increase the speed at which stools move through the digestive tract thereby making them an excellent food for digestive health. The insoluble fiber within them helps lower the chances of becoming constipated.  

Flax seed is a powerfully healthy seed. Cholesterol and glucose levels are maintained at healthy low levels, and digestive health is improved by bulking within the digestive track and speeding up the time food is within the digestive tract. In order to maximize these benefits from consuming flax seed there are some preparation that must occur. Whole seeds must be ground (in a small coffee mill or something similar) because the outer coating of the seed is difficult of the human body to breakdown and utilize the inside. Also, once the seeds are ground they begin to oxidize. Therefore, to maximize the benefits it is best to grind the whole seeds right before consumption or to store fresh ground seeds in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Now you are fully caught up on the health benefits of fiber from flax seeds and are ready to embark on your new, healthy journey! Below are some ways to consume flaxseed and a detailed banana flaxseed muffin recipe just for you:

· Add 2 tablespoon of ground flax seed to your hot or cold breakfast cereal.

· Add 2 teaspoons of ground flax seed to mayonnaise or mustard when making a sandwich.

· Mix 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed into an 8-ounce container of yogurt, your smoothie, or salad dressings.

· Bake ground flax seed into cookies, muffins, breads and other baked goods.

Banana flax seed muffins 

Canola oil spray ½ cup plus 3 Tbsp. of whole-wheat flour  1 cup all-purpose flour  ½ cup plus 1 Tbsp. ground flaxseed  ¾ cup “old-fashioned” oatmeal ½ cup brown sugar, packed  2 tsp. baking soda  1 tsp. baking powder  ¼ tsp. salt  2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. ground ginger 1-½ cups shredded carrots  ½ cup raisins  1 medium banana, mashed 3 eggs 1 cup skim milk  1 Tbsp. lemon juice 2 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce  2 Tbsp. canola oil 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F.  Coat muffin tins lightly with canola oil spray and set aside. In large bowl, mix flours, flaxseed, oatmeal, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger.  Stir in carrots, raisins and banana. In separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, lemon juice, applesauce, canola oil and vanilla.  Add liquids to dry ingredients and stir until moist.  Pour batter in tins, filling each cup ½-¾ full. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Makes 18 muffins.

https://www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/gfnd/gfhnrc/docs/news-2012/the-benefits-of-flaxseed/

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263405.php?page=2

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/flaxseed/faq-20058354

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3307491/

Hello, all! Today I am going to tell you about sugar and sugar alternatives in baking. Sugar is an incredibly integral part of baking. It flavors your product, and when a large amount of heat is applied to sugar, it caramelizes, which colors your product. When making products like cookies, it also contributes to the spread of your product. Sugar is hygroscopic, which means that it absorbs water molecules and holds them. This makes your product moist and tender, because the sugar keeps some of the water in the product instead of allowing it to evaporate and become steam.

However, ingesting excess amounts of sugar is very unhealthy for humans. Excessive sugar consumption can lead to complications such as increased weight gain, Type II Diabetes, and even heart disease. If a person eats large amounts of sugar, the extra sugar that isn’t needed by their body is turned into fat and stored in their body. High sugar intake can also lead to your body decreasing or even stopping its insulin production, which is how a person gets Type II Diabetes. Any substance that increases the amount of stored fat in your body also contributes to your risk of cardiovascular disease, because it inhibits blood flow from your heart to your body and back again to your heart.

There is hope though! There are many natural sweeteners that you can use as an alternative to the regular granulated sugar that you normally use. When doing research for this post, I looked at quite a few websites to get ideas, and almost every single one had raw honey in the number one spot for alternative sweeteners. Honey is still high in sugar, but it has many health benefits. When used in baking, honey works fairly well. However, I would recommend utilizing a mix of honey and sugar in your baked goods. This will cut out some of the sugar content and give you the natural health benefits of the honey, but your product won’t have the overwhelming honey flavor and the decreased rise that it would have if you only used honey.

Stevia is also a great alternative to sugar. It doesn’t affect blood sugar levels and is calorie-free. I have not personally used stevia in baking, but from what I have learned, it seems that the best way to incorporate it into baking is to substitute a much smaller amount of stevia for the amount of sugar that is called for then use a liquid filler to make up the volume difference. Stevia is much sweeter than sugar, so you will have to use much less stevia than sugar. To make up the volume difference, applesauce, yogurt, fruit juice, egg whites or water will all work as fillers.

Other great sugar alternatives that you can use are date sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup, and molasses. I have never used date or coconut sugar, so I do not have first-hand knowledge of baking with them. However, I have used maple syrup and molasses. Both have very strong, distinct flavors that are hard to cover up. When used in moderation, they work very well as sugar alternatives.

http://bodyunburdened.com/6-healthy-sweeteners-all-natural-sugar-substitutes/

All of us have heard that too much fat can cause many unwanted health problems such as cardiovascular health problems and weight gain. In reality, people especially Americans are consuming added sugars to their diet which in turn is causing many of these health problems. Added sugars are non-nutritive which provide empty calories providing no other nutritional benefits such as vitamins and minerals. These can be found in common products such as fruit juices, sport drinks, pastries, desserts and candy to name a few. It has been seen that the average American gets 10% of their calories from added sugars and 1 in 10 Americans get 25% of their calories from added sugars. This is a staggering amount of extra calories and sugar that is our body and over time can cause raises in blood sugar, weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. Although natural sugar is a major contributor of blame for our health, artificial sugars can also contribute to these health risks.  

To get one thing straight, I am not saying that sugar is bad for us and that we should stop eating it immediately. I am stating the fact that TOO MUCH sugar consumption can cause many health problems stated earlier. Glucose is one of the main fuel sources that we use and is readily available when entered into the blood stream. Glucose is used in every living cell and if we do not consume it, we will make it. When we consume fructose on the other hand, there is actually no biological need for this sugar. Fructose can only be broken down by the liver. When metabolized by the liver, the fructose can be converted to glycogen, another fuel source. Often times what happen is that the liver is overloaded with glycogen and the fructose will be turned into fat. This is why fructose often has a bad reputation. 

Excess sugars can also lead to insulin resistance and in turn lead to developing type 2 diabetes. Insulin is a hormone that is produced by the beta cells of the pancreas. When we eat, insulin is released in response to increased glucose levels. The insulin allows the glucose to enter the blood stream and be readily available as energy. When we consume too much sugar, glucose is constantly in our system and our cells become resistant to insulin. Insulin and glucose act as a key and lock mechanism which allows the glucose to enter cells needed as an energy source. This insulin resistance leads to the development of type 2 diabetes. 

Sugar consumption is also linked to addiction to sugar filled foods. Eating sugar has been found to increase levels of dopamine which activates the reward centers in our brain. This pattern of approval will lead to the consumption of more sugar and cause weight gain, cardiovascular problems, etc. This is the same about artificial sugars and sweeteners. Because artificial sweeteners are sweeter than natural sugar, they retrain the taste buds to indulge in sweet foods. This leads to us craving and wanting sweet food and consuming more of it. This will also contribute to weight gain and other metabolic issues. It has also been seen that artificial sweeteners because they are low calorie, mimic a starvation state. This will allow us to seek more energy and eat more.

The dangers of artificial sweeteners mostly interact with changing our brain chemistry and receptors. It has been seen that these sugars increase our sensitivity to sugar, driving us to eat more sugar. They can also reek many metabolic changes. There is also evidence to many of these artificial sugars to cause unwanted side effects such as headaches, dizziness and changes in mood. Some others have been attributed to nausea, gastrointestinal problems and even cancer.