Flu sea­son has offi­cial­ly begun. Tak­ing steps to pro­tect your­self is impor­tant, espe­cial­ly as the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic continues.

You might be jug­gling more than usu­al these days. From work to fam­i­ly to keep­ing up with the world’s events, your mind may be on overdrive.

If you’re strug­gling to move past your wor­ry­ing thoughts or find your­self over­whelmed, prac­tic­ing mind­ful­ness may help. Mind­ful­ness is described as being active­ly present in the moment, with­out apply­ing val­ue judgments.

March is Nation­al Nutri­tion Month, and this year our well­ness chef has a chal­lenge. Every year Nutri­tion Month has a theme, and this year is eat­ing healthy bite-by-bite. This can mean eat­ing one more piece of fruit a day, look­ing more close­ly at labels, or in this case, eat­ing out less fre­quent­ly. Prepar­ing foods at home can not only help us to have bet­ter vari­ety, but also to eat foods with less sodi­um and sat­u­rat­ed fats.

BMI is a tool but not the end-all-be-all defin­ing fac­tor of our lives. BMI or ​“body mass index” is a mea­sure of someone’s weight in kilo­grams divid­ed by their height in meters squared. The num­ber this gives us is used to gauge if some­one is poten­tial­ly car­ry­ing excess fat for their size. BMI alone does not take into account dai­ly habits, mus­cle mass, water reten­tion, or a vari­ety of oth­er fac­tors. At the end of the day, this num­ber is, well, just a num­ber. What­ev­er your BMI is should not keep you awake at night. Instead of stress­ing about your BMI, I rec­om­mend focus­ing on behav­iors that can improve mobil­i­ty, ener­gy lev­els, flex­i­bil­i­ty, or nutri­tion status.

Today, it is no secret that oats are a health­ful break­fast option. Oats area deli­cious and packed full of fiber, iron, phos­pho­rus, and more! This whole-grain is ver­sa­tile and can be used to make oat­meal, home-made gra­nola bars, ​“ener­gy bites”, stuff­ing, and overnight oats. How­ev­er, there are many dif­fer­ent types of oats in the gro­cery store, and this can be con­fus­ing for some­one who has nev­er used oats before. Here are some tips on how to choose which oat is best for you and your cook­ing needs.

Some foods nat­u­ral­ly con­tain sug­ar, which is okay! Foods like fruit and milk nat­u­ral­ly have sug­ars that give them the taste we love. The thing is, although some foods nat­u­ral­ly con­tain sug­ar, they also con­tain nutri­ents like Vit­a­min A, Vit­a­min C, cal­ci­um, and more depend­ing on the item. We get ben­e­fi­cial nutri­ents when we con­sume these foods that out­weigh the fact that they con­tain some sugar.

Plant-based diets are all the rage right now, but what does plant-based actu­al­ly mean? The basic def­i­n­i­tion of a plant-based diet is one that empha­sizes con­sump­tion of fruits, veg­eta­bles, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Based on that def­i­n­i­tion, this would include the Mediter­ranean, pescatar­i­an, veg­e­tar­i­an and veg­an diets. Each of these is dif­fer­ent, and since we’re all dif­fer­ent, it’s impor­tant to find one that fits YOU! Con­sid­er bud­get, cook­ing skills, shop­ping habits, and food pref­er­ences when select­ing a plant-based diet.

Veg­an and veg­e­tar­i­an diets specif­i­cal­ly are well researched and sug­gest­ed to decrease the risk of dia­betes, heart dis­ease, obe­si­ty, and cer­tain can­cers. Accord­ing to the Acad­e­my of Nutri­tion and Dietet­ics, an appro­pri­ate­ly planned veg­an or veg­e­tar­i­an diet is suit­able for all stages of life. The key word is appro­pri­ate­ly planned, mean­ing when you replace meat or ani­mal prod­ucts it’s what you replace it with that deter­mines how ben­e­fi­cial this lifestyle will be.

So what gives, why is this so pop­u­lar? There are many rea­sons some choose to fol­low these diets whether it be for health, envi­ron­men­tal issues or moti­vat­ed by ani­mal-rights con­cerns. This is not some club you can be kicked out of; you should nev­er feel guilty if you don’t per­fect­ly fit one diet.

Is Sug­ar in Fruit Bad?

Folic acid is a B vit­a­min. Get­ting 400 micro­grams (mcg) of folic acid every day at least a month before becom­ing preg­nant can help pre­vent seri­ous birth defects of the brain and spine. Here are three ways to get the rec­om­mend­ed dai­ly amount of this impor­tant nutrient:

Flu: Myths vs. Facts