Is DIET is a 4-letter word?
It seems like I can’t turn on the television or open Facebook without a barrage of diet promotions jumping off the screen. From “healthy eating” plans that cut entire food groups to slurping only shakes, I struggle with the concept of harsh, short-term fixes. Isn’t eating about more than weight loss? What about overall health and wellbeing? Shouldn’t it be about helping our bodies and minds function at peak performance?
Think of your body like a car. A car cannot run optimally without proper fuel. Neither can a body. Let’s pretend you just received a very expensive gift. Imagine walking out to your driveway to find a shiny sports car with your name on it. Yes, with a big red bow. For you! You’ve dreamed of this car and the joy it would bring. You’ve imagined the wide-open road in front of you and the wind in your hair as you sit in the driver’s seat. Of course, you wouldn’t consider putting sub-grade fuel in this machine and then expect it to operate at peak performance. Likewise, you can’t put sub-grade fuel (junk food!) into your body and expect great results. Good nutrition is a choice you can make to take care of your body and to operate optimally.
Customize your D-I-E-T
I believe it’s more important to have plenty of healthy and delicious options instead of rigid rules that suck the fun out of food. Instead of fixating on a diet, how about intentionally adding new colors and flavors and textures to the meals you eat? Like a sports car, food can provide fun and enjoyment. By making healthier choices easier choices, we can improve our wellbeing one bite at a time and feel better in the process.
To be clear, I’m sharing this under the context of an average family with no underlying medical conditions. If you’re seeking medical treatment for a specific condition, that is a different situation. Your medical provider will guide your nutritional choices.
As a parent, you’ll likely know what dietary pattern works best for your family. You understand everybody’s likes and dislikes, personality quirks, and your family’s food heritage and culture. Plus, nobody cares more than you do about helping your children function optimally, and that includes through the foods they consume.
According to David Katz, M.D., Director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, there isn’t just one specific narrow diet that is known to be best for health. Rather, there is a broad theme of optimal eating that is best for health with lots of different variations on that theme.
What is that theme? Lots of vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and whole grains.
Incorporating these wholesome foods as constants within your family’s eating patterns is key to peak performance. You get to decide on the variation within that theme. Does your family prefer spicy foods, great! Vegetarian? No problem. Traditional meat and potatoes eaters? Just add more of the above listed foods. Crave Mediterranean flavors? Go for it!
How can you get the best fuel into your family while still prioritizing their preferences? Is there a tool out there that can help you buy a better bag of groceries? A “non-diet” option to help you make the healthy choice the easy choice? Yes! It’s called NuVal.
What is NuVal?
First, let me tell you what NuVal isn’t. It is NOT a diet. It is not the boss of you. It does not have you drinking only shakes or cutting out all grains. It is a tool to help you make better choices.
NuVal is a revolutionary nutrition scoring system that applies a number from 1 to 100 to food items throughout grocery stores. The higher the score, the higher the nutrition of that item. It’s a science-based nutrition system developed by Dr. Katz and a dozen of the world’s leading minds in health and nutrition.
How does NuVal Work?
The NuVal Nutrition Scoring System takes more than 30 different nutrients into account in developing a score through a complex algorithm. Boiled down to its simplest form, here’s how it works:
- Numerator: Nutrients with generally favorable effects on health are placed in the numerator, where higher values increase the NuVal score.
- Denominator: Nutrients with generally unfavorable effects on health are placed in the denominator, where higher values decrease the NuVal score.
- Numerator/Denominator = NuVal score
NuVal is perfect if you’re looking for a simple, easy way to find the most nutritious foods on our shelves. You’ll find NuVal scores on grocery products in all area Coborn’s stores – including meat, seafood, poultry, salty snacks, milk, yogurt, vegetables, cereal, bread, cookies, soft drinks, crackers, and more.
Using these scores to make informed decisions is as easy as 1-2-3:
- Look – It’s easy to incorporate NuVal scores into your shopping trip. Just look for the NuVal double-hexagon emblem and 1-100 food score on shelf tags next to the price.
- Compare – The NuVal score’s convenient location on the shelf tag lets you compare overall nutrition the same way you compare price. No more scouring nutrition labels. With NuVal scores, you can see and compare food’s nutritional value in a single number at a glance.
- Decide – NuVal scores make it easy to find more nutritious alternatives in nearly every department and aisle. Just look for foods with higher NuVal scores to make your shopping decisions quickly and easily.
Rev up your engine and head to your kitchen
Yes, it takes more effort to shop for and prepare nutrient-rich meals than it does to pull into a drive-thru window. But feeling better is worth it! You are worth it. Your family’s health is worth it. Choose to honor your body with wholesome foods that will keep your engine running at peak performance. Need some inspiration? Browse the BLEND Pinterest page or visit past Peek Into Kelly’s Kitchen blogs for recipes and tips to help you make the healthy choice the easy choice for you and your family.
Together, let’s enjoy the ride!
Kelly
This is a guest post by Kelly Radi. Passionate about food and nutrition, Kelly is a freelance writer, NuVal expert, former BLEND employee, and current BLEND advocate. A wife and mother of 2 teenagers, Kelly lives in Sartell where she is often spotted at Coborn’s scouring the shelves in search of the best NuVal scores. She enjoys cooking, playing tennis, and sitting down with a good book. She can be reached at radi.to.write@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this blog are the opinions of the writer and not the opinions of NuVal LLC, Coborn’s, Inc., BLEND, and the CentraCare Health Foundation. Read more “Peek Into Kelly’s Kitchen” blogs, here!
This is a guest post by Kelly Radi. Passionate about food and nutrition, Kelly is a freelance writer, NuVal expert, former BLEND employee, and current BLEND advocate. A wife and mother of 2 teenagers, Kelly lives in Sartell where she is often spotted at Coborn’s scouring the shelves in search of the best NuVal scores. She enjoys cooking, playing tennis, and sitting down with a good book. She can be reached at radi.to.write@gmail.com.
