What is a safe salad dressing?

June is National Safety month and so in that spirit, I’ll discuss food safety tips for the next four Mondays. I won’t be talking how long you can keep food unrefrigerated but more tips and articles on how to eat safely for your body.

This month my food focus is also salads and last Friday, I posted a fabulous dressing recipe. Tying this all together is being aware of dressings and salads pitched as health food when in fact, many salads are unhealthy meals piled upon lettuce and dressings are loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, sugar and bad oils.

Salads used to get a bad wrap as “diet food”. Nowadays, capitalizing on American’s health obsession craze (despite being one of the most unhealthiest nations), food companies and restaurants market junk food as all sorts of salads and dressings, along with thousands of poor quality ingredients and calories.

Here are some guidelines for keeping salads dressings safe for your body:

1. Make your own dressing when possible. Most take no more than five minutes and a blender. Check out the Lemon Mint Dressing recipe I posted last Friday and more dressing recipes to come this month.

2. Scan store-bought brands for these ingredients: high-fructose corn syrup, anything ending in -ose, more than 1 g of sugar per serving, soybean, canola or any hydrogenated oils.  Annie’s is a decent brand.

3. When at a restaurant, assume all dressings contain the ingredients in number 2. Opt for unrefined, cold-pressed olive oil and balsamic or red wine vinegar.

4. Or if you order a different dressing, do the old stand-by and ask for it on the side.

Feeling Reborn With the Power of Smoothies

As of today, I am one month sugar-free. Or to be exact, refined sugar free. Regardless, I feel wonderful.

As a Health Counselor, one of the most common things I support my clients on is getting off sugar. It’s in everything so it can take time to help people convert their eating habits. I find that they don’t think the process is nearly as difficult as they thought with one exception: the night time treat.

This has always been my challenge. I do eat a whole foods, home cooked diet 95% of the time and know what foods work for me so my sweet cravings are minimal. What has always been the challenge for me is having something sweet after dinner. It’s my time to exhale from the day and relax.

Many people also find this time challenging because they too are living busy lives and  come home exhausted, to an empty home or more work so a sugar snack provides something to look forward to.

So the reason that this is one of the more challenging sugar habits to break is because it’s not about eating differently, it’s about living differently. It involves slowing down, doing less and being more, finding more joy and learning how to remain calm in the midst of chaos.

After the detox Carlos and I did a month ago, we felt amazing. And we also knew that we had done detoxes before, felt amazing and then went back to our old habits (which really aren’t bad but one can always improve). So we decided to focus on one thing each that we would change and hold each other accountable. His was giving up coffee and me sugar. At the time I said this, I said I’d have to be allowed to have it at least once or twice a week because as a former binge eater, I know if I have too tight restrictions, I’m going to want that food even more.

But what has happened has shocked even me. I haven’t touched sugar once. I’ve had  some home made things with agave or maple syrup in them but no chocolate or anything sweet enough to wipe out this clean feeling I’m experiencing. I’m sleeping less, feeling optimistic and been able to handle the stress (good and bad) of life magically.

I’m still in amazement what a minor tweak like this can do. I say minor not because getting of sugar is minor, which it is not (I’ve been working on this for two years!) but what eliminating the night time snack can do.

What has helped are fruit smoothies (and I’ve committed myself to four days of yoga to help with staying calm). They are my magic bullet. Carlos is the smoothie master. I’ll post the simple recipe on Wednesday so you can try and see if this helps you too. I bet it will. If I was wanting something sweet, we’d have one of these after dinner. It was enough to knock any cravings out…and really healthy at the same time.

This reminds me of three things: First, how helpful it is to have support – whether it be from a boyfriend, partner, friend or Health Counselor. Second, the power of making gradual, simple changes. I do it everyday with my clients and see miraculous results but sometimes forget the power in simplicity. And third, that we can achieve powerful levels of health if we continue to try,  even if we cannot imagine ever getting there. We will if we keep on, keepin’ on.

Carlos is still coffee free. He’s also gradually phasing gluten out of his diet after he saw how much his “allergies”, lower back pain and morning alertness were affected by gluten.

So onward and upward. I know I’m never not going to eat refined sugar again but I’ve had this experience long enough to know I’m never going back to where I was, even though it wasn’t that bad. This is better!

Recipe for Radiant Skin

Stop wasting your money on ineffective skin products and get to the root of the problem. Skin issues are a sign of an internal imbalance. Making a few tweaks to the foods you eat can clear up your skin and that drug store habit.

Learn how with my Recipe for Radian Skin on NBC.

Sugar Shock!

Ali knows nutrition. The sugar information was shocking. I learned a great deal and enjoyed Ali’s great energy and enthusiasm in presenting the information in an enjoyable way.

~ Miles Hunter, London

Eating for Energy Workshop

I thought the Eating for Energy workshop was fun and informative. I liked that Ali’s focus was on sugar rather than calories and fat, because I do believe that sugar is the evil in our food these days. Ali was very upbeat and seemed to have a practical approach as well as the more scientific outlook. And those energy balls were delicious!

~ Debbie Gilmore, Philadelphia

“Eating for Energy” Group Workshop

The “Eating for Energy” workshop was engaging and brought to light a lot of facts that we didn’t know. Ali’s focus on sugar rather than on fat and calories was interesting and different from most of the nutritional information that is widely publicized. People were very intrigued and were asking Ali lots of questions during and after the workshop. From the very health conscious to the not so health conscious, all of the attendees in our office really enjoyed the workshop, and I think that everyone learned something new.

Ali brings a new perspective and awareness to nutrition, and talked about how simple changes in eating habits can have profound effects on the way one feels throughout the day. I have tried to incorporate many of her suggestions into my daily life and have definitely noticed a difference in my energy levels and overall well being.

~ Julie Martina, KPMG

“Eating for a New & Younger You” Group Workshop

Thank you so much for the wonderful seminar “How to Eat for a New and Younger You” that you presented to my team members.  You were so knowledgeable and helpful, and the information that you presented was easily understood by everyone.  All of the employees really enjoyed learning about the different foods that have hidden sugars, and many have implemented your suggestions.

With health care costs rising, it was refreshing to have such an important topic that was of interest to so many of my employees.  You made a big impact on the focus of healthy eating for our hotel.

Melissa Kerchner
Sofitel – Philadelphia
Director of Human Resources

Delena’s Story: Evolving into a Foodie

I went into nutritional counseling to try to break my refined carbohydrate addiction and lose a few pounds. My focus was quite narrow originally, but after speaking with Ali that first time, I realized that I had some pretty poor eating habits overall.

My decision to embark on the six-month program was based on the realization that just quitting sugar wasn’t going to be enough. Ali’s step-by-step approach opened my eyes to the other aspects of my diet that needed to be adjusted. I had my doubts about whether I would be able to change my routine but Ali was extremely helpful in pushing me towards better choices that fit within my lifestyle. Her holistic approach, asking questions about other aspects of my life, enabled her to find ways to help me make small adjustments that would become habits. From my first session, which was all about sugar, to where I am today, has been a real epiphany. Although I am now local and organic foods centric, Ali helped me stay in the “real world” by educating me on how to fit better nutrition into my life without alienating my friends with my new-found dogma!

For me to be able to go from evening packaged cookie binges to buying fresh produce at farmer’s markets and drinking raw milk is quite a lifestyle change in six months. Along the way I also found that the ingredients in what I eat are important to me so I seek out and support locally produced foods and responsibly farmed meats and eggs. The difference in how I feel is amazing and I’ve never looked better.

If you are serious about changing your life through what you consume, I cannot recommend Ali’s program highly enough. She’s extremely creative and supportive in coming up with ways of helping you achieve your goals and through the process, greatly improving your life. There really is a synergy between food and mood and getting away from processed foods is incredibly empowering! Thanks so much, Ali!

~ Delena Parsons, Philadelphia