Live Well. Eat Well. 2014

Every Thanksgiving celebration seems to be complete with way too many leftovers, usually the turkey, pies, and dinner rolls. And really, how many leftover turkey sandwiches can you eat!? This holiday season, mix things up with some new recipes using your dinner leftovers and extra ingredients. But...

Often a day of candy, treats, and sugar, a healthy Halloween might be an oxymoron. By focusing more on getting dressed up and the fun of playing games and tricks, you can focus less on food and celebrate the festivities with healthier options. Giving Out (Tricks or) Treats If you are...

September is Healthy Aging Month, and a great time to highlight nutrition needs of older adults. With advancing age, nutrient requirements change. Primarily, older adults need fewer calories but actually need more of many nutrients. Read on for a "Top 5" list of nutrition topics older adults need...

Summertime equals vacation time, and we want to enjoy it! But enjoying your vacation does not mean you have to forget about your health. Whether traveling by car or eating for days at the beach's hotel restaurant, try these tips to keep your health on track. Tips for Travel (car...

One tiny berry packs a nutritious and versatile punch as we celebrate the blueberry during National Blueberry Month. Starting in June and throughout the summer, look for subtly sweet blueberries growing locally in Illinois. Nutritionally, blueberries are like many fruits: low in calories,...

It's that time of year where fresh garden produce is more readily available. Whether from your own garden or the farmer's market down the street, that garden fresh taste is hard to beat. Unfortunately, most produce we find in the grocery store is harvested before it is ripe and transported many...

School is ending for the year and kids everywhere are excited to start their summers. Whatever the kids are doing, make sure they eat healthy lunches this summer. For kids who will be staying home alone or with siblings, will they need to make their own lunches? If so, be sure to stock kitchens...

Whenever I teach on food groups – to youth and adults – there are always a few foods I mention that overlap into two food groups. Not that we cannot put them into just one, but because foods have a lot of different nutrients, they might fit into more than one group. The current guide describing...

This March, Nutrition & Wellness Extension Educators across Illinois are excited to celebrate the start of the "Illinois Nutrition Edition" blog. We write this collaborative blog to be your source for information on issues and trends related to food, nutrition, and health. Nutrition is an ever...

Remember Chia Pets? What ever happened to those things? Nowadays chia is having a second life as a nutritional "it" item. Recently there has been a surge in cia products- Whole and ground chia seeds are being added to fruit drinks, snack foods and cereals; baked in cookies and sprinkled on yogurt...

This time of year finds families scrambling into the chaotic fall school sport schedules. In addition to making sure your young athletes have the necessary sport gear, it is also important that you make sure they are fueled up for their game or match. Many young athletes have nothing to eat from...

On this New Year's Eve, you're probably thinking about your resolutions for 2015. If they're the same as last year's (and maybe the year before), you might you say you failed in 2014. I disagree. The path to success is rarely a straight line. I'm confident that if you...

In our last post we discussed what to consider when cooking with herbs. Today, we will explore substituting dried herbs for fresh (and vice versa), provide examples of great pairings for herbs and vegetables, and share the nutritional benefits of seasoning your favorite dishes with vegetables....

Water; sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose), starch, fiber , amino acids (glutamic acid, aspartic acid, his-tidine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, arginine, valine, alanine, serine, glycine, threonine, isoleucine, proline, tryptophan, cysteine, tyrosine, methionine), fatty acids: palmitic...

Let's face it, eating healthy is tough. It can be expensive, time consuming, and it doesn't taste as good as eating junk food. There is no magical food that will help in this task, but smoothies might be the ticket to helping you with your healthy habits. Here are 8 reasons why you should add...

  What kind of fats and oils do you cook with? Do you reach for whatever you have on hand or do you take into consideration the smoke point, flavor, and method of cooking? One might think that as long as the oil does its job of keeping your food from sticking to the pan than you're good to go…...

If you are anything like me, you welcome the blazing sunny days of summer. Every chance I get, I am poolside soaking up the sun. What's better than a summe

I want to let you all in on a little secret: dietitians do not eat perfectly! I really do enjoy fresh, wholesome, colorful foods, but I also include a little bit of "junk." I have a huge sweet tooth-total chocolate addict! All shapes and forms! One being chocolate pudding! A super comfort food...

Would your Thanksgiving table be complete without sweet potato casserole? I know mine wouldn't! My grandma always made hers with canned sweet potatoes, loads of butter and sugar, plus a to-die-for topping of sugary spiced pecans. The taste is over-the-top, and so are the nutritional stats! I've...