Important Questions, Answered

Remember I wanted to know if my kids were getting enough milk...no they are not!  Janet Macon our Hyvee dietitian is reviewing our food journals. "Charley and Alexis for example, are falling short on their calcium-rich dairy. More than half of Charley's dairy is coming from cheese, a relatively low-quality choice. They need 3 servings a day with only one serving from cheese. "She suggests aiming for milk and yogurt for the other 2 servings.


Tonight they each got a glass of milk with dinner (we have classically been water drinkers with meals).  I have my first batch of homemade Greek yogurt in the crock pot now, I hope they like it! Making it myself will really impact the grocery bill. Greek yogurt even on sale is close to $1 per 6 oz. serving. I was saving that expense for my breakfast. A colleague of mine shared the recipe with me. It was published in The Radish. I love that publication!


Another question I posed was the value of chia?

Steve likes it and adds it to fruit smoothies or did earlier this year when trying an herbalife weight loss plan. Janet's response was quite interesting. "Chia is a great source of fiber and plant omega-3's (ALA), but is an expensive source. She suggests milled flax seed, not chia because the omega and fiber contents are almost identical and flax costs less than half what chia costs less per pound.

Next I wondered about tuna. Should I buy it in oil or water?I thought I had read that tuna packed in oil was higher in Omega-3's.

She replied "Tuna packed in oil actually tends to be lower in omega-3 – at least the edible portion.  The tunas natural oils will leach into the substrate – the added oil – and be drained off when you drain the tuna.  Tuna packed in water delivers more omega-3 because, of course, oil and water don’t mix.  A couple of published studies have found that water packed tuna delivers about 1/3 more omega-3 per 100 g (3.5 ounces) that oil-packed.  Albacore and bluefish have much higher omega-3 than light tuna, though it also tends to be higher in mercury.  Albacore is the variety of tuna that is limited (to 6 ounces per week) for pregnant women."

Lastly I have noticed the salad dressing aisle does not contain decent NuVal scores. What might she recommend? 

Because we don’t’ tend to get many nutrients from salad dressing anyhow, she recommends we choose the dressing with the lowest amount of unhealthy fat (saturated) that we and the kids like, then monitor how much of it we use.  See if you can find a high monounsaturated fat dressing (olive oil-based) that we like.  Otherwise, just limit how much we are using.

We  sure are learning a lot of tips through this challenge!