I applied and was accepted to attend the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplement’s (ODS) Supplement Practicum. This is the third year the ODS had held the practicum. Here is what the ODS Practicum website states as the purpose/goals:

This 5-day intensive practicum will provide a thorough overview and grounding about issues, concepts, unknowns, and controversies about dietary supplements and supplement ingredients. It will also emphasize the importance of scientific investigations to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and value of these products for health promotion and disease prevention and treatment as well as how to carry out this type of research.

I’m excited to be on of 80 – 100 individuals selected to attend. It starts bright and early in the morning, and is held at the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD. Tomorrow will cover:

• Who takes what for why, and how do we know?
• Its the law: Rules and regulations

I’m interested in the discussion about the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) as well as the discussions about the different groups that regulate supplements. Did you know there are two groups that regulate supplements? The FDA and the FTC. I’m also interested in the last session about “supplement and label claims.”

I’ll post a bit each night about what we covered. I’ll also be tweeting about it, if you want to follow me on Twitter.

WOW! I got more responses about last week’s newsletter about Breakfast Bread Pudding than any other newsletter to date.  And, I’m still getting emails saying how much people like it and suggesting customizations.  This got me thinking about ways to customize the Breakfast Bread Pudding and Breakfast Cookie recipes.  Customize?  You bet!  Most recipes can be customized to suit your tastes.  Now, you do have to be careful with most baking (like cakes), but the Breakfast Bread Pudding and Breakfast Cookie are great for customizing.  One note – when you customize you do change the nutrition content a bit . . . depending on what you customize.

Here are some thoughts for customizing the Bread Pudding Omit the raisins and add one of the following:

• A chopped up an apple or two or some chunky applesauce
• Mashed up bananas and walnuts
• Chocolate chips
• Other dried fruit such as cranberries, blueberries

Or, in addition to the raisins (or other customization) add some chopped nuts – walnuts, pecans, etc.  Nuts will add some healthy fats as well as add some crunch.
Some of the same customizations can be made for the Breakfast Cookie Rather than raisins you can add another dried fruit and add chopped nuts.  You could also substitute chocolate chips for the raisins.  Another customization could be to add some PB2 (a powdered peanut butter which is good for cooking and smoothies) along with some chocolate chips instead of the raisins (I’d also leave out the cinnamon) to have a peanut butter-chocolate chip breakfast cookie.  You may need to add a little water or extra apple sauce to make up for the dryness of the PB2.

Another friend found a way to speed up the breakfast cookie preparation even more.  She puts all the dry ingredients in plastic baggies during the weekend.  Then, when she is ready to make her cookie, she puts the applesauce in the baggie and squishes it until it is mixed.  Then, she cuts out a corner of the baggie and squeezes the mix onto the parchment paper and bakes it.  Done with no dishes!  How cool is that?

Get inspired.  Think about what flavors you like and play around with the recipes.  You may need to make a few adjustments (like adding a little more of a wet ingredient to make up for adding more of a dry ingredient such as the PB2).  Some modifications will work, some may not.  But, it is fun to try!

Let me know how you customize your Bread Pudding and Breakfast Cookie!

Just about everyone I talk to is looking for quick and easy options for breakfast.  They need something that is “grab and go.”  Or, they just skip breakfast and use coffee to put off eating until lunch.

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day.  It gives your body the fuel it needs to make it until lunch.  Research has shown time and again that eating breakfast helps with weight maintenance and weight loss.  In fact, research is starting to turn our daily meals around with the idea that breakfast should be the largest meal of the day – not dinner.

Breakfast also seems to be a meal that people fall into a rut with – always having the same thing.  Why not spice it up a bit?  Like with bread pudding!  I hear you – “Bread pudding for breakfast?   She’s got to be kidding!  That’s dessert!”  Well, yes it is dessert, but you can use the idea of bread pudding to make an amazing breakfast that freezes well and is grab and go.   You can make a couple of batches in muffin tins, put one or two to a freezer bag and freeze them.  Then grab a bag as  you head out and they’ll be thawed by the time you get to work.  Or, pop into the oven for a few minutes and you’ve got a tasty, filling breakfast.  They also go great in combination with a low-fat yogurt.  I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but it came out of the Canyon Ranch Cooking cookbook.  Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups non-fat milk
• 2 tbsp corn oil margarine, melted
• 4 egg whites
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 12 slices whole-wheat bread, diced into ½ inch cubes
• 2/3 cup dark raisins

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350oF.
2. Lightly spray a 9×12-inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. (Can also be made into 12 sprayed muffin tins or custard cups.  Shorten cooking time by about 5 minutes.)
3. Combine all ingredients, except the bread and raisins, in a large bowl and mix well.  Stir in the bread and raisins and allow to soak for 5 minutes.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish and bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until firm and nicely browned.  Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares 3×4 inches in size.

Yield: 12 servings.

Calories: 143; Fat 3g; Sodium 195g; Carbohydrates: 25g; Protein 4g

Remember – make breakfast a part of you day!  Enjoy!

Do you eat fast?  I do – unless I’m paying attention.  Last year I started timing how long it took me to eat and was surprised it was usually under 10 minutes.  Not good.  I’ve been working on slowing down when I eat and paying attention to my food – how it looks, smells, tastes and the texture.

Texture is a HUGE issue for a lot of people.  For example, sweet potatoes – people who do not like them usually say it is because of the “stringy” texture.  Some people do not like granola because it is “too crunchy.”  Breads are another area of contention.  Some people like white bread because of the texture and won’t touch a hearty 7 grain because it is “too dense.”  Textures can also lead to liking a food.  How about some nice cold, creamy ice cream on a hot day?

How often do you pay attention to the texture of the food you’re eating?  Thinking about the texture can help slow down your eating which can lead to eating less because you give your body time to register satisfaction or fullness.  You may find there are textures you like and do not like which can expand your food horizons.  Many chefs consider texture when planning a meal.  They do not want everything on the plate to be mushy – they want a variety of textures in addition to a variety of flavors.

Your challenge for the next week – at least once a day stop at a meal and pay attention to the textures of the food you are eating.  Let me know how it goes!

Its officially SUMMER!  For those of us in the Houston area, I think its been summer since about March.  Here, it went from pleasant to HOT in a matter of days without any time to acclimate to the change in temperature.  This means that our bodies don’t quite know what do to as far as sweating.  You’ll probably find that you sweat more than usual until your body gets used to it.

During the summer it is particularly important to pay attention to how much you are sweating when you are exercising outside or even working in your yard.  Studies have shown that as little as a 1 to 2% drop in body weight can impact your athletic performance.  Or, you can swing the other way and over-hydrate.  Studies have also shown that we can be pretty good at estimating how much we are drinking but we can’t estimate how much fluid we are losing through sweat.  Personally, when I’m doing triathlons I find that I tend to under-hydrate on the bike and over-hydrate on the run.  The result – a sloshy stomach accompanied by stomach cramps.  Not a fun way to do the run.

Most people are also spending time outdoors gardening, working on their house, etc.  Don’t forget the importance of hydrating when you are outside in the heat (regardless of activity type) for a period of time.

How can you monitor your hydration?  One of the easiest things you can do is to weigh yourself before and after you workout or before and after you work outside in the heat.  Both times you weigh, you should be nude (or in the same dry clothes) and dry (take a minute to towel off before stepping on the scale – don’t forget to towel off your hair, too).  For every pound you’ve lost, you should drink 16 – 24 oz of fluid over the next couple of hours.  Two pounds or so lost, I’m not concerned.  More than three pounds lost and I start to get concerned about dehydration.  Going in the other direction, if you find you are gaining weight, you could be running the risk of being over-hydrated and should consume a little less fluids.

For the athletes out there, you may have read that some studies have shown that high performance/professional runners are dehydrated when they finish a race.  I’ve heard people use this data to argue that you should finish a run dehydrated.  However, keep in mind that each person is different, but most people I know can tell a performance difference if they are dehydrated in the form of headache and/or just not feeling right.  To me, there is quite a difference between those professionals whose job is to run and those of us mere mortals who run/train in addition to our other jobs.  As people train, their bodies adapt to that training.  I’ve had the opportunity to run with Jeff Galloway a couple of times in 2000 and 2001.  I asked him about what he drinks before and during runs since he didn’t have any fluids with him.  At that time, he would drink a couple of cups of coffee before a long run and would be OK without other fluids on the run.  Now, how many marathons had Jeff run at that point?  More than I have fingers and toes I believe.  Therefore, for professionals and highly trained people (like Jeff), that may mean their bodies can handle performing in a dehydrated state.  For most others who are not training for hours every day, I’m not sure this is a good idea.

Finally, if you are exercising outdoors consistently, I’d recommend conducting a sweat trial every month or so.  A sweat trial can help you figure out how much you should be drinking and can help you figure out a starting point for salt/electrolyte intake. You want to do it on a shorter workout so you don’t have to also account for urine output. Here’s the steps (get out those calculators again):

1. Weigh yourself nude/dry before your workout
2. Weigh yourself nude/dry after your workout
3. Multiply the amount of weight you lost by both 16 and 24 (it takes about 16 – 24 oz, maybe more to replace every pound of fluid lost)
4. To the two numbers you got in #3, add the oz you drank (both water and sports drink). Again, you get two answers.
5. Divide the numbers you got in step 4 by the hours of your workout. This gives you an oz per hour to shoot for. Then, you can break this into 4, 15 minute or 6 10 minute drinking intervals.

Some people find that marking their water bottle every 2 to 4 oz helps them track how much they are drinking and when.  If the numbers you get are unrealistic (e.g. 80 oz per hour), then you need to determine how much you can realistically drink without negatively impacting your performance.

Second, is to look at electrolyte needs.  For every 4 cups (32 oz) the guideline is you need to take between 500 and 1000 milligrams of sodium. Some people need more, some less. This is a starting point. If you are crusty when you finish working out, you need to be on the higher end or perhaps even more.  You can and should get this during your workout through sports drink/salt tablets/etc.

Also, you should do sweat trials several times through out the year because we sweat differently in the spring than in the summer and fall.