Tara Stark's blog

It is no secret that well nourished children learn better, behave better, and feel better about themselves. Here are some tips to pack your child a nutritious lunch that won’t come home in his back pack.

The most important thing to remember when packing your child’s lunch is that children are often rushed at lunch time and that the school eating environment is full of distractions. The best lunches contain a variety of kid approved nutrient dense choices that are easy to eat.

Kids love cereal and adults love quick easy and no fuss meals for their kids. Served with milk, or a milk alternate like fortified soy milk, cereal is a great way to get calcium and vitamin D. Choose a nutritious cereal, and it can also be a good source of fibre as well as vitamins and minerals like B vitamins, iron and zinc.

Unfortunately the least nutritious cereals on the market have the most nutrition claims, and are heavily marketed to kids. Even the ‘healthy looking’ cereals can be high in added sugar and salt, so it is important to read labels and choose wisely.

Moving toward a vegetarian diet is the most powerful food choice we can make to reduce climate change. It is estimated that livestock production creates more greenhouse gasses than all forms of transport combined.

Nutritionally, eating a plant based diet is good for us too. Plant based protein sources include beans and legumes, nuts, and seeds and grains. Vegetarians and vegans have lower rates of many diseases including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and hypertension.

Iron needs vary throughout a woman’s lifespan, but from the onset of menstruation, until menopause, women’s iron needs are significantly higher than men’s. Female endurance athletes, pregnant women, vegetarian women and vegetarian adolescents have the highest iron needs of all, and are at the highest risk for iron deficiency.

Iron is needed for the body to produce hemoglobin, a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen. Iron deficiency can leave people feeling tired and weak.

According to the American Heart Association, the amount of sugar in just one can of Coke is more sugar than an average man or woman should ingest in a day.

A coke has 10 teaspoons of sugar in it. A teaspoon of sugar has 4 grams of sugar in it, so a coke has about 40 grams of sugar in it. Added sugar is associated with obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Do you work hard to pack a healthy lunch only to arrive at work to find doughnuts in the staff room? You have plenty of food in your lunch, you don’t need to grab a doughnut but every time you walk by the door, there they are, calling to you with their delicious frosted tops.

Need a good nutrition boost to keep you energized during these drab days? Go get yourself some sprouts. Pile them into your favorite sandwich or on top of a salad; these little nutrient powerhouses are available locally year-round, are fresh and delicious and are brimming with nutrients.

Sprouts are seeds that have been soaked and rinsed a number of times until they germinate, or sprout. Some sprouts are eaten as soon as they germinate and others are best once they have grown a little plant.

Many vitamins and minerals play a role in the body’s immune response, so eating a varied nutrient dense diet can be a good line of defense against getting sick. But what should you eat if you get the flu? Most of the time, people’s appetite lessens when they have a flu, especially if they experience fever and nausea. This may be where the expression “feed a cold and starve a fever” came from.

This holiday season, start new traditions that honor the importance of the season as well the health and wellness of your family. Keep in mind that warm feelings, seasonal colours, smells and décor are what make holiday gatherings so special.

Serve up an abundance of rich colours and flavours with a beautiful array of seasonal vegetable dishes. Vegetables and fruits are a welcome respite from the rich cheeses and meats that are the backbone of most holiday parties, and the cookies and other baked goods that adorn coffee tables at family gatherings.

If you are concerned about your blood pressure, your heart health, diabetes, or you are a general health enthusiast, you have likely heard of the food chia, also referred to as Salba®. Salba® is a patented brand name for white chia seeds which are touted as having a higher nutritional value than their black counterparts. Salba® is being heavily marketed as the next superfood that will protect us from all illness.