Because I’m a dietitian, people ask me for “diet” advice, especially this time of year when everyone seems to be trying extra hard to stay on a health track to keep up their new year resolution goals. Lately I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the paleo diet and whether or it’s a healthy regimen to follow.

What can you eat on the paleo diet? Here are the basics found on The Paleo Diet website:

EAT:

• Grass-produced meats
• Fish/seafood
• Fresh fruits and veggies
• Eggs
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthful oils (Olive, walnut, flaxseed, macadamia, avocado, coconut)

DON’T EAT:

• Cereal grains
• Legumes (including peanuts)
• Dairy
• Refined sugar
• Potatoes
• Processed foods
• Salt
• Refined vegetable oils

I am skeptical of any diet that says “Do” and “Don’t Eat” certain foods.

My best advice that I can give for anyone who wants to make positive changes to their eating habits is to listen to your body. If it doesn’t make you feel good than don’t eat it!

I feel fine when I eat grains, legumes and starchy vegetables, like pasta, beans and potatoes. They are very nutritious foods, packed with vitamins and minerals, and I don’t see any reason to avoid them completely.

Before starting any new diet regimen, consult your doctor. This is super important because if you have any medical conditions, pre-existing or ones you may not already know about, you need clearance to begin any sort of restrictive diet. Every “body” has different food needs!

Bottom line: why restrict what you eat when you don’t have to?

Feeling more than just the burn lately after your run or workout? Sesame seeds just might be the thing to help ease the ache.

I was a devoted runner for many years – on the blacktop. Ouch right? Despite warnings from more experienced distance runners, I just kept pounding the pavement. When I hit my 40’s I started to slack off, but I noticed that each time I re-upped, my knees would become painfully swollen. It began to dawn on me that I might not be able to keep on running, or that I needed to do something different. Thankfully I was able to keep active, but the damage was done. I moved more into riding, – then hiking but found that my knees were still giving me trouble. I started taking an ibuprofen now and then, O.K., – then once a day… then a couple times a day, and before long I was popping NSAIDs like candy. Something had to change. Really change. I managed to extricate myself from the pain reliever habit slowly but completely by moving into natural anti-inflammatory foods and supplements, but it’s still a challenge. Last week I did some hills that left me stiff in a way I had not been for a long time and I realized I needed to pay some more specific attention to what I was putting in my body. I came across and article from Green Med that touted sesame seeds as being, “Better than Tylenol” for knee pain, so I decided to investigate.

Here is the scoop – and its looking good!

According to an article by Seattle Organic Restaurants, “A new study published in the International Journal of Rheumatic Disease shows that sesame seed supplementation can significantly improve clinical signs and symptoms of patients with knee osteoarthritis. “A two month study showed that eating 4 tablespoons of Sesame Seeds (about 40 grams) was superior to 1000 mg of Tylenol for knee arthritis.” – With none of the adverse side effects, (like liver and kidney damage, asthma, heart attack, internal bleeding or death.)

So, here is a lovely Sesame Orange recipe from Green Kitchen to help us and our hard working knees stay fit for years to come.

http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/creamy-sesame-orange-smoothie/

Creamy Sesame & Orange Smoothie

Serves 4

• 1 cup (240 ml) sesame seeds (3/4 hulled and 1/4 unhulled), soaked for 6-8 hours
• 2 cups (480 ml) water
• 1 steel sieve (mesh strainer) for straining
• 2 large oranges, peeled and cut into smaller pieces
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon + extra for serving
• 8 fresh soft dates, pitted (if using dried, soak first)
• 1 pinch of sea salt
• 1 cup (240 ml) raspberries (thawed frozen are fine)

In the evening (or in the morning), place the sesame seeds and water in a jar and let soak for 6-8 hours. Drain the excess water and place sesame seeds and the 2 cups fresh water in a high speed blender. Blend until smooth. Pour the sesame mixture through a steel sieve (the cream is too thick to run through a nut milk bag). Rinse the blender. Place the strained cream back in the blender and add oranges, cinnamon, dates and sea salt. Blend until smooth and thick. Refrigerate until chilled (or add 2-3 ice cubes when you are blending it). Mash the raspberries and divide them equally between 4 glasses.

Carefully pour the smoothie over the raspberries, dust with cinnamon and enjoy.

Keeps for 3 days in the refrigerator.

Sesame seeds are more effective than Tylenol for improving knee arthritis-side effects of Tylenol

Sesame seeds for knee-pain

Peoples Pharmacy – Sesame seeds to ease knee pain

Effect of sesamin on joint pain

Often times when people think of organic products, they think of products that are more expensive than their conventional counterparts. However, there are multipurpose products that can help you save time and money – and are a healthy choice, too! You’ll be amazed how these versatile products can show you how to go organic on a budget!

Wild Oats Marketplace Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
There are so many things that you can do with a good organic coconut oil! You can cook with it, you can put some of it in your morning smoothie, and you can even use it on your skin to help nourish and protect. However, possibly the best way to use coconut oil is for oil pulling. This ancient tradition has helped people elevate their health in new ways and it is simple and inexpensive practice! Make sure to look for Wild Oats brand. A huge jar of Wild Oats Marketplace Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is under $12 (Compared to other brands that are more like $20).

Organic Peppermint Oil
Peppermint is a blend of spearmint and water mint (Mentha aquatica) and the active ingredients include menthol (35–45%) and menthone (10–30%). The possibilities are nearly endless on the many ways that you can use peppermint oil. People rub in on the temples to help with headache relief, it also can be simply inhaled to help clear sinuses and promote alertness. Also, it is a great tool for muscle therapy and can serve as a wonderful chest rub. If you are using it as a chest rub, you want to put a few drops in a carrier oil such as jojoba. Also, another interesting way to use peppermint oil is to lose weight! People have found that smelling it helps to curb their appetite for sweets!

Organic Green Tea
There are so many things that you can do with green tea besides drinking it. Green tea is rich in Catechins, which are antioxidants that help fight and prevent cell damage. Thus, you can bring the benefits to your face by making a simple, yet luxurious green tea facial cleanser. You can also bake some delicious and nutritious treats using green tea. You can even dye clothes with green tea to give your items a custom antique look!

No matter what time of year it is you can always count on finding the trusty banana most anywhere food is sold.

And Americans are always ready to enjoy them, eating, on average, 28 pounds per year, per person.

While you would probably never put a bunch in the fridge, bananas are a lot more delicate when it comes to cold temps than you might think. But surprisingly, under certain conditions refrigeration can be a banana’s best friend.

Tropical in temperament, bananas know no seasonal constraints. Grown year-round in Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, their famed flavor — and less-known health benefits — are readily available 24/7/365.

However, it’s the bananas’ attachment to the tropics that exposes their more delicate side: They simply hate the cold. From plantation to homefront unpeelings, even a momentary brush with frostiness can ruin the look, taste and nutrition of bananas. Farmers, shippers and handlers fully understand this temperature sensitivity. After harvesting, bananas are strictly maintained at between 56 and 58 degrees; the strictest temperature window of any fruit. Even the proper ripening temperature for bananas is a narrow 59- to 68-degree range.

Consumers should also be aware of the preferred temperature range. Refrigerating unripe bananas or even momentarily exposing them to a winter chill during transport from grocery to home can spell ruin. The skin on chill-damaged bananas will take on an odd greyish look. What’s more, the flesh within is no longer undergoing a ripening process, during which starches are converted to sugar.

As all consumers know, bananas can hit the shelves in full jungle greenness and hardness. This is often a sign that demand surpassed the banana industry’s preferred method of ripening bananas in warehouses — until they reach the more marketable look of yellow with green tips on the fruit.

When home-ripening, a green banana greatly appreciates a mild, dark place to develop. It buddies up amazingly well with nearby apples or tomatoes, which spike the ripening process, as is explained at the website www.chiquita.com: “To ripen the banana faster, seal it in a brown paper bag with an apple or tomato overnight. This allows the natural gases in the fruits to speed up the ripening when combined in a dark place.”

Fully yellow bananas (small brown dots on the yellow skin are a sure sign of ultimate ripening) have not only reached the height of flavor, but have also hit the nutritional peak that qualifies the banana as a superfood.

While bananas are famed for their high potassium levels, they also contain carbohydrates that offer a quick energy boost and 1.5 grams of protein to help feed muscles. With approximately 120 calories and 16 grams of sugar, the average banana is a dieter’s delight as well.

One troubling habit of a bunch of bananas is that they usually all ripen at the same time, begging to be quickly eaten then and there. At this point, further ripening would be counterproductive. Enter, of all thing, coldness – this time to do a favor.

The best storage for soft, yellow bananas is their former bane — namely, the fridge.

Although refrigeration of ripe bananas takes away any skin-deep eye-appeal, as the peel will turn dark, the insides will be ripe and ready for many a recipe. Smoothies, nut breads, banana cakes, ice cream sundaes, even daiquiris and tropical drinks, all shine with the flesh of refrigerated bananas.

One banana eye-opener — and top taste-tempter – is a chocolate baked banana recipe, found at www.bbcgoodfood.com.

Heat oven to 375.

Ingredients: Bananas and a bag of chocolate chips!

Make a slit through the skin of your bananas along one side – making sure you don’t cut all the way through to the other side.

Poke in mini-chocolate chips along the cut. Put each banana onto a sheet of foil and crimp the edges together to seal into a parcel. Transfer to a baking sheet and cook for 25 minutes until the bananas have turned black (or pop straight into the BBQ embers for 15 minutes).

Serve with a scoop of ice cream and any melted chocolate that may have escaped!

Bon-ana appetit!

Diabetes is becoming a bigger and bigger problem, specifically Type 2 Diabetes! In America, 1 of every 10 people over the age of 20 have diabetes with 90 to 95% having Type 2.  Type 2 Diabetes carries all the major health issues as Type 1. The big difference between them … Type 2 is largely preventable!  Life style and dietary choices are directly related in developing Type 2.

As you can guess from the title of this post, adding a small amount of yogurt daily to our food choices can decrease our risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes by 18%!  18% is a huge benefit for something so easy.

This information came from a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health.  They followed 41,000 men in one 14 year study, 67,000 women from a 20 year study and another 86,000 women from a third 18 year study.  The studies looked at health status and disease development for all of these 194,000 people.  The results from all 3 studies showed that eating yogurt decreased the development of Type 2 Diabetes.  The researchers than reviewed the results of 14 other studies with a total of 460,000 participants that looked at total dairy per day intake and yogurt per day intake.  The results found that total dairy consumption or non-yogurt dairy products did not have any particular effect on the development of Type 2 Diabetes.  Yogurt, and only yogurt, decreased the risk of developing diabetes.  And, even just an ounce a day was enough to have that effect!

OK, that information is really clear  –  dairy doesn’t decrease your risk of developing type 2 diabetes unless the dairy product is yogurt!  Why yogurt?  Well, that Harvard study didn’t make any conclusions but you may have already guessed.  Yogurt contains probiotics! We’ve talked a lot about probiotics.  Probiotcs provide some of the healthy, friendly bacteria that resides inside our GI tract and doing tons of great things for our health.  So, the question is  … does the friendly bacteria decrease the risk of Type 2 Diabetes?  The answer … yes!

So, some yogurt daily will help decrease our risk of developing diabetes.  For those of use who are dairyfree,  just include other foods that provide probiotics, or take a probiotic supplement.  However we do it, we can decrease our risk significantly with simple strategies!  And … I kind of love yogurt anyway …