In an attempt to save money, more and more people are cooking at home. And while this may be cheaper, are you certain that your food is more nutritious? Brian Wansink, author of “Mindless Eating” suggests that the nutrition gatekeeper of your house (the person who buys and prepares most of the food) influences more than 70% of the foods you eat. Wanksink queried 770 family cooks and was able to classify them into 5 distinct types. Take the quiz and determine what type of nutrition gatekeeper you make.

1) When I prepare a meal, I typically:
a) Rely on classic dishes my family has always enjoyed.
b) Follow a recipe step-by-step.
c) Substitute more healthful ingredients.
d) Go all out and try to impress my guests.
e) Rarely use recipes and like to experiment.

2) Some of my favorite ingredients are:
a) Lots of bread, starches and red meat.
b) Beef and chicken.
c) Fish and vegetables.
d) A trendy ingredient I saw on the Food Network.
e) Vegetables, spices and unusual ingredients.

3) In my free time I like to:
a) Visit with friends and family.
b) Organize the house.
c) Exercise or take a fitness class.
d) Be spontaneous and seek adventure.
e) Take part in creative or artistic pursuits.

4) My favorite things to cook are:
a) Home-baked goodies.
b) Casseroles.
c) Foods with fresh ingredients and herbs.
d) Anything that lets me fire up the grill.
e) Ethnic foods and wok dishes.
 
5) Other people describe me as:
a) Really friendly.
b) Diligent and methodical.
c) Health conscious.
d) Intense.
e) Curious.

There may be overlap in the answers you give, but is there one letter that you picked most often? Here’s what your answers say about your cooking style:

a) Giving: Friendly, well-liked and enthusiastic, giving cooks seldom experiment, love baking and like to serve tried-and-true family favorites, although that sometimes means serving less healthful foods.
b) Methodical: Talented cooks who rely heavily on recipes. The methodical cook has refined tastes and manners. Their creations always look exactly like the picture in the cookbook.
c) Healthy: Optimistic, book-loving, nature enthusiasts, healthy cooks experiment with fish, fresh produce and herbs. Health comes first, even if it means sometimes sacrificing taste.
d) Competitive: The Iron Chef of the neighborhood, competitive cooks have dominant personalities and are intense perfectionists who love to impress their guests.
e) Innovative: Creative and trend-setting, innovative cooks seldom use recipes and like to experiment with ingredients, cuisine styles and cooking methods.

I suppose I’ll start this blog post with a little self-disclosure. I don’t take a daily multi-vitamin. What can I say, I’m a registered dietitian and a huge proponent of getting nutrients from food. Plus, I can’t stand pills and can never seem to remember to take them. But during my relatively short career as an RD, I’m still taken aback when a client comes to see me and has a laundry list of daily supplements they take...only to be followed by an equally long list of problems which ail them.

Boy did I feel validated by a relatively recent article published in the New York Times. The first line states that “the best efforts of the scientific community to prove the health benefits of vitamins keeps falling short.” The rest of the article lists multiple supplement studies which failed to show benefits of supplement intake on the rates/treatment of various diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and bone health.

And the crazy thing is that despite these pathetic results, consumers are still willing to spend billions of dollars every year in hopes of a miracle! Yes, popping a pill is much easier than exercising and eating properly. Yes, the pills are relatively cheap. And yes, they are likely not doing you any harm.

Here’s what I have to say about supplements:
• The magical properties of nutritious food just cannot be replicated by a pill.
• For chronic disease prevention and optimal health, health behaviors such as walking 30 minutes a day and eating lots of fruits and vegetables is proven to be much more effective.
• There are some instances where a supplement may do you some good: 
    o 1,000 IU of Vitamin D per day for those living in areas of little sunlight (i.e. Boston) 
    o Calcium and Vitamin D for women 
    o Prenatal vitamins for women of child bearing age 
    o Omega-3s if you don’t eat them in your diet

So the next time you are looking to boost your health, consider peeling an orange rather than popping a pill.

So it’s been over a month since The Boston Globe published an article“BMI screening will begin this fall in Mass. schools.” This topic has weighed heavily on my mind (yikes, no pun intended) but I still seem to be combing through all of my thoughts on the topic.

The article states that starting this fall public schools will begin weighing and measuring 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th graders (parents can opt out) as a means to screen for overweight and obesity. The results, along with a report on how to deal with a child’s weight problem will be sent home to the parents. As I type, my blood is beginning to boil.

Here are a couple of thoughts:
1.) America has a pretty poor track record. As we’ve become more weight obsessed over the past several decades, the number of people that are overweight and obese has continued to climb.
2.) Research has shown that obesity prevention programs targeted to elementary and middle school children increased disordered eating behaviors.
3.) There is no utility in sending home a report card to a parent that says “your child is fat and at increased risk for Type II diabetes.” The article states that one of the recommendations for parents with overweight kids is to take them to their pediatrician. No offense to any pediatricians out there but I cannot help but laugh. I’d love to meet a physician that has the skills and more than 10 minutes solve their patient’s “weight problem.”

So rather than sending our children home with a report card, why don’t we start taking action that focuses on behaviors, not numbers. There is plenty of research to show that this is effective. Here are some ideas:
1.) Have students track the number of minutes they spend per day engaging in physical activity. And by all means, let’s stop cutting out recess and gym classes.
2.) Create a school garden. It will teach our children where food comes from, how to take stewardship over the earth, and supplement the pathetic meals they are served at school with more fruits and vegetables.
3.) Partner with local farms to facilitate work in exchange for reduced or free crops for low-income families.
There are a myriad of ways to promote healthy living. Sending report cards home is not one of them. With a Department of Health staffed with intelligent and capable people, I’d like to think we can do better than that. (Sorry for the rant, I do try to keep them to a minimum.)

A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from a Harvard journalism student looking to interview me for a nutrition-related article. He sent me a series of questions to answer via email along with a link to an article from the New York Times entitled “When Economy Sours, Tootsie Rolls Soothe Souls.” The content of the article was by no means shocking. The gist of the article stated that people seem to be eating more processed/cheap food like candy as a pick-me-up and pat on the back during these economic times. Sure, an 80 cent bag of skittles is a much more affordable reward than a trip to the spa when you are feeling run down or scored an “A” on a final exam. And a bag of skittles certainly won’t make or break your health…

BUT, I’d like to use this article as a platform to address a larger issue. In America we have become totally weight obsessed. And this obsession with weight has led to a wide variety of totally disordered eating patterns. One of the habits most of us have developed is eating for non-physical reasons. Food is a useful tool for procrastination, celebration, a cure for boredom, and even a sleep aid. But the consequences (weight gain) are often less than desirable.

So you may want to reflect on the role food is playing in your own life. Yes, food is absolutely meant to be enjoyed. I believe that full-heartedly. But food is meant to be fuel for our bodies. It is meant to solve a physical need for energy rather than satisfy our many emotional needs. Many people find an “80:20 rule” to be useful. Eat for physical reasons (i.e. hunger) 80% of the time and you should be just fine. So the next time you purchase a bag of skittles as a cheap pick-me-up, consider the “80:20 rule.” Your health just might thank you for it.