What's New in Natural Foods

In This Issue

Continuing Natural Foods Education
Good Nutrition in Practice

Hi Everyone,

I have an announcement to deliver with mixed feelings: this combined July/August issue of the newsletter will be my last—at least for the immediate future. There is a new development in my life that will require my time and focus, so I am reducing my business workload. Writing newsletters and articles will be a casualty of that reduction. My news is that I’ve been accepted into the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health to earn my Master’s degree in Community Health Education with a concentration in Public Health Policy.

So about those mixed feelings. I’m thrilled to have been accepted to the School of Public Health. My goal is to be able to affect health and nutrition on a wider and deeper scale than I have been able to this point. The not so thrilling part is putting many aspects of my current business on the back burner in order to prioritize concentrated study.

I’m honored to have had the opportunity to communicate to such a large audience about matters as important as our nutrition, health and food supply. I believe that discussion about such issues will continue to be critical as our country faces rising incidents of disease. I hope you’ll continue to read below about the business segments I plan to continue, and the two most important pieces of nutrition advice you can apply to your life.

Continuing Natural Foods Education

Jennette Turner, Natural Foods Educator, will continue to:

• Teach staff programs at Twin Cities area coops
• Conduct Workplace Education seminars as time permits
• Consult with a limited number of individual clients on their dietary concerns
• Write "What’s for Supper?," the in-store recipe collection for the Wedge Coop
• Operate "Dinner with Jennette—Meal Plans for Naturally Healthy Eating" until next summer
• Distribute Multi-Pure water filtration systems

Good Nutrition in Practice

My goal over these past 15 years of teaching and working with clients has been to help people improve their health by paying attention to what they eat. A well-nourished person has more energy, more resistance to disease, healthier moods, and feels better overall. With these results in mind, here are the two most important things you can do to improve your diet and your health:

1. Eat real food. This means whole, natural foods. What’s a natural food? Ask yourself "how many steps did it take to get this food?" During each step of processing a food, nutrients are lost. The more processed a food is, the less healthful it is. Avoidrefined foods, artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives. Food that is made in a lab isn’t real food!This goes for "health food" products such as soysage and sweetie munch cereal as well as more obvious "junk" foods. What to eat, then? Vegetables, meats, whole grains and their products, beans, natural fats (like butter and olive oil), full fat dairy products, nuts, eggs, fruit -- you know, food.

2. Consume balanced meals. A balanced meal consists of a protein, a fat and vegetables. Avoid meals that contain only carbohydrates. For example, oatmeal is perfectly healthful carbohydrate, but not by itself. Serve it with eggs, sausage, cheese or some other protein source to make it balanced.

A balanced meal is so important because it has a positive affect on blood sugar. Our bodies and brains are fueled by a simple sugar called glucose, which is made when the foods we eat are broken down during digestion. Carbohydrates digest quickly. Complex carbohydrates (whole grain bread, for instance) take longer to break down than refined carbs, but they’re still fast. Protein breaks down more slowly, and fats take the longest to digest.

The effect of too much glucose
If you eat a meal or snack that is only carbohydrate, or too high in carbohydrates, you will get a rush of glucose in your blood. Blood sugar shouldn’t be too high or too low (or death results), so your body releases the hormone insulin, which brings your blood sugar down to an acceptable level. One of the ways it does this is by telling your cells to open up and take in the glucose to store as fat. Can you see the connection to our country’s obesity epidemic here?

Here is the public health message: insulin is the fat storage hormone, and it is released in response to eating too many carbohydrates.

The deadly sugar roller-coaster
The higher your blood sugar gets, the more insulin your body needs to produce. Lots of insulin released at once has the unfortunate side effect of bringing your blood sugar down too low – which is called hypoglycemia. When you’re hypoglycemic yourbrain can’t function properly and you can experience fatigue, headaches, difficulty concentrating, intense food cravings, irritability and mood swings.

Most Americans are on an energy and mood roller coaster all day long – their blood sugar spikes after high-carbohydrate meals, then crashes, then spikes again after that soda or muffin, then crashes. In addition to the energy and mood problems this cycle causes, it’s bad news for our health: repeated spikes in insulin are what cause diabetes and obesity, and they are also one of the primary risk factors for heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

The bottom line
Eat balanced meals that won’t spike your insulin levels by including enough protein and fat at your meals. What is "enough?" That will differ person to person, but if you feel hungry and it has been less than 3-to-4 hours since your last meal, then you didn’t get enough protein and/or fat at that meal. As a rough guideline, aim for 20-25 grams of protein per meal, which is around 4 oz. of meat or 3 eggs. The good news is that eating balanced meals is really satisfying. Your mood, energy levels and weight stabilize. Cravings fade. Try it - you’ll see. Your heart and brain will benefit in the long run, too.

Meals for August

Think making balanced meals is difficult or uninteresting? Think again. The meal plans I create for Dinner with Jennette are all balanced, creative and easy to make.

These delicious August meals are all about enjoying the summer time: "Lamb Kebobs with Mint Pesto," "Cold Thai Noodles with Coconut Lime Sauce, "Grilled Fish with Avocado Cream Sauce," "Crab Cakes with Horseradish Mayo and Creamed Corn." The month’s 12 meals include lots of salads, lighter cooking, and colorful meals.

Thanks again, everyone, for your input over the years. "What’s New in Natural Foods?" is signing off.

To your good health,
Jennette