NBC Photo: Dave Bjerke

Hey, hey! Bernie Salazar here… I’m so excited to be working with Avocados from Mexico and share this video blog with you on one of my favorite foods I’ve been eating since losing 130 pounds on The Biggest Loser — The Amazing Avocado!

Watch me turn one of my old meals - burger and fries - into a delicious and nutritious Southwest Turkey Burger.

I love the creamy texture of avocados on my burger. Three slices have only 50 calories! Find out how else I incorporate avocados into my well-balanced eating plan in this video. Then, leave a comment and tell me how you like your avocado.

Twitter: @AmazingAvocado

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Web: Two chances to win!

Dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield on Fox 5 - Click to Play

Watch my interview for the 4-1-1 on acai, berries, what you should try and what you should avoid.

Watch this segment with “wellness makeover” client Shelley Kramm as we go over how she ditched her diet food and cleaned up her pantry.

1. We start with Shelley’s story about why she is ready now to change - and that we aren’t talking about weight here as the focus - it’s wellness.

2. We go into replacing diet foods with whole foods, including: cereals, yogurts, enjoying “regular” cheese, trashing those diet meals, and finally how to hydrate when you hate water.

3. We end with a message to women from Shelley “If you don’t take care of yourself, who will?”

Well said. Tune in next week for healthy grocery shopping tips.

Visit: www.elitenutritiondc.com/ltl for free resources

You don’t have to live by the sea in order to reap the rewards of a Mediterranean lifestyle. Fads come and go and that’s why they are not the answer for people who truly want to be healthy. The top Mediterranean foods are healthy and can be combined to make the most mouth-watering dishes. This heart-healthy diet has significant benefits, such as lowering LDL (bad cholesterol), reducing the risk for heart disease and it is credited to lowering risk for cancer. If you eat a variety of the Mediterranean foods in the right portions, you can lose weight the healthy way. So are you just dying to know what exactly is in the Mediterranean Diet?

Mediterranean Staples:

• Fruits & Vegetables
• Legumes
• Whole Grains
• Fish
• Olive oil & Nuts

In Moderation:

• Dairy Products
• Red Meat & Poultry
• Red Wine & Alcohol

Choice of fat is significant here. Eating Mediterranean means obtaining most fat from healthy sources. Olive oil is good for the digestive system, full of antioxidants that can prevent artery clogging, and contains monounsaturated rather than saturated fat. Saturated fat, found in animal products, is loaded with cholesterol and should be consumed in small doses. So don’t lather your bread with margerine or butter, rather dip it in heart-healthy olive oil. The other healthy fat is Omega-3 fatty acid. Fish are an excellent source, although some are richer on Omega-3’s than others. More on Omega-3 benefits and sources can be found here.

The Mediterranean diet is also about family. Many families spend every evening around the dinner table. It is important to create an experience around meal time. It is not just about the food, but the people we share it with. Pour yourself a glass of wine, visit, catch up from the day’s happenings, and enjoy a little relaxation. You can build mouth-watering meals around fruits and vegetables. There are so many ways to prepare vegetable dishes. If you find yourself in a rut check out recipes at EatingWell. Rather than featuring meat as the main entree, use small amounts of high quality cuts for flavoring, such as pancetta or proscutto. It is also very Mediterranean to season with herbs instead of salt, try fresh rosemary, thyme, basil.  And most importantly, allow yourself to feel indulgent. Sip wine and savor every bite. Living Mediterranean is not about deprivation. It is about pleasure.

For more on discovering the pleausures of healthy eating I recommend “Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too”.

Fiber is an extremely important part of our diet, resistant to digestion, it helps keep us feeling full longer, while also contributing to so many other health benefits. The recommended daily intake for fiber is 25 grams for women, 35 grams for men. Since most adults are lacking I thought it might might be good to highlight just a few of it’s star qualities. Here is a little fiber 101..

Soluble fiber is called so because it is water soluble. When eaten it swells, prolonging digestion and keeping you feeling fuller longer. Excellent sources of soluble fiber are oats, bran, barley, nuts, flax seed, carrots, oranges and apples. Because of it’s slow absorption fiber also prevents insulin from spiking, which is a huge plus, especially for diabetics. Soluble fiber also lowers cholesterol and risk for heart disease.

Insoluble fiber is more prominant in dark, leafy greens, fruit and root vegetable skins, whole-wheat products, and nuts. Moving food through the body’s GI helps prevent constipation, and by removing toxic waste can lower risk for certain cancers like colon cancer.

Tips for a fiber-ful diet:

• Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables
• Choose whole-wheat products and pass on processed, enriched wheat products
• Brown rice, quinoa
• Nuts & Legumes

Soluble, insolube, as long as your including the above foods in your daily diet you are should be getting plenty of each. Give your day a jump start by eating a fiber-full breakfast. A bowl of oats and a handful of nuts can do wonders for a Monday morning!

What to do if you need more fiber

Track your food intake for a few days and if fiber is less than 20 grams a day, you should take steps to get more. But don’t just jump from 10 grams to 30 grams a day. Your body needs to gradually adjust. Otherwise, you could feel pain, bloating, or constipation! Yuck… To avoid, increase your water intake and add about 5 grams a day until you reach your goal.

Claim:“Kombucha contains active enzymes, viable probiotics, amino acids, antioxidants and polyphenols, which create an elixir that immediately works with the body to restore balance and vitality”.

What is interesting is that on the Kombucha website under the category “What are the health benefits?”, I find the information to be very ambiguous. Instead of listing scientifically proven, or research-based evidence on the health benefits of drinking this miracle tea, they want you to know who has been drinking it; Russians, Germans, Japanese. They boast that NBC’s Dateline recently reported that millions drink Kombucha. For further information on health benefits, the Kombucha website refers readers to search “google.com” or “yahoo.com”. Haven’t we all learned that you can’t believe everything you read on the web? When a company won’t promote their product on their own website, but refers you to do a search on it’s health benefits, that raises questions of concern for me.

Google search I did, and what I found was interesting. Kombucha Tea has not been FDA approved. It is classified as a dietary supplement and therefore, unlike drugs, does not have to be proven as safe or effective before being put on the market so long as they don’t claim to prevent, treat, or cure specific illnesses.  (For more information on the safety of dietary supplements read Beware of Contaminated Dietary Supplements). According to the American Cancer Society there is zero scientific evidence supporting health claims by Kombucha Tea. However there have been reports of serious side-effects, and even several deaths linked to Kombucha tea.

Now that we know health/nutrition beverages can be classified as dietary supplements and therefore bypass FDA approval, never take product labeling as the ultimate truth. Drinking raw, unpasteurized bacterial cultures is not advised, especially for the young, elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised. It’s important to do your homework on products claiming health benefits, or seek advice of a medical professional. Still thirsty? Drink water!

For more information visit:
American Cancer Society

As family and friends gather this Sunday to watch America’s favorite game many will consume more calories in one evening than most should consume in an entire weekend. It is perfectly okay to sample the ‘not so healthy’ foods, but imagine that you’re plate were divided in half, unhealthy nibbles should be limited to half of a  small plate. Fill the other half with fresh and healthy snacks that will keep you feeling satisfied without feeling lethargic. There are plenty of Superbowl snack options other than fat laden nachos. This year try something new.

Healthy Snacks:

• Raw Veggies. carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, green beans. Serve with hummus or black bean dip.
• Fresh Fruit. Sliced apples, pears, oranges, grapes, strawberries. Serve plain or with vanilla Greek yogurt.
• Natural Popcorn. Without all the salt and butter popcorn is an excellent snack; low-cal and high in fiber.
• Taco Bar.Corn tortillas with fresh fixins like black beans, pico de gallo, sweet corn, avocado, chicken, cilantro, low-fat sour cream.
• Pizza.Using a whole wheat dough, drizzle a little olive oil or marinara sauce over the crust and load it with healthy toppings like eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, chicken or turkey sausage, garlic, fresh basil. For cheese, try a skim mozzarella or ricotta.

As for beverages, beer may go hand-in-hand with football, but that doesn’t mean you can’t offer your guests as alternative. Remember that calories in alcohol can add up fast, and it is recommended that men do not exceed 2 alcoholic beverages a day, women 1 alcoholic beverage. So it is always good to have plenty of water on hand. You can also have a pitcher of iced tea, or jazz things up with your own spritzer.

Fruit Juice Spritzer
Sparking Mineral Water
100% Fruit Juice (pineapple, orange)
Instructions: Mix equal parts sparkling water and juice, serve over ice.

There may be some friendly competition in the house as we root for the Saints or Colts, but what brings people together better than great food? As with any special occasion, you want to enjoy good food and good company. Allow yourself little indulgences, keeping primarily to fresh, healthy snacks. With that, let the game begin!

If you were stranded on a desert island and you were allowed to only have ONE micronutrient, what would you choose? I am a highly indecisive individual, so in order for me to choose only one micronutrient, I would need to thoroughly examine the benefits of each. At the end of the day, you need a variety of micronutrients for health and wellness and you can get them from eating a variety of healthy foods. If you aren’t up to speed on your micronutrients, this post should help you.

Vitamin C
Many people might choose vitamin C, because of its supposed health benefits of aiding to fight off the “common cold”. Vitamin C has many health benefits, including being essential for collagen synthesis. Collagen is a protein responsible for the structure of hair, bones and skin. Without enough vitamin C, one can develop a condition known as scurvy. This condition will take a couple of months of being vitamin C deficient in order for it to occur.

Wow…I cannot imagine not being able to synthesize collagen! Some common symptoms are tender bleeding gums, internal bleeding and loss of teeth. That does not sound pleasant to me!

If you get stuck on a stranded island, look for citrus fruits to get your vitamin C. If you can find a red pepper, eat that! You can get a lot of vitamin C in just one red pepper.

Iron
Without sufficient consumption of iron, red blood cell production diminishes. Iron is required as part of the structure of a red blood cell. Red blood cells contain a structure called hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is responsible for transporting oxygen to cells throughout the body. With the diminished production of red blood cells, less hemoglobin and thus less oxygen is transported to cells throughout the body. If someone develops iron deficiency anemia, they will most certainly experience significant fatigue. That makes sense considering iron’s role in transporting oxygen (which is needed for energy metabolism) in the blood.

Something you may not know is that iron is better absorbed by the body if vitamin C is present. Iron (Fe) exists in most foods as Fe+3. Iron is absorbed as Fe+2. Vitamin C is able to convert iron from Fe+3 to Fe+2.

If you’re stranded on an island, look for wild animals and eat them to get your iron. If that’s not your thing, look for some beans and veggies like spinach.

Micronutrients Need Each Other

As I examine the rest of the micronutrients, I realize a common pattern. Each micronutrient, although it has a distinct function in the body, is reliant on another micronutrient in order to perform some of its functions. A deficiency in one micronutrient can often times lead to a deficiency in another micronutrient.

Calcium and Vitamin D - a perfect pair!

For instance, take calcium and vitamin D. Calcium is required for many functions, but most importantly for building strong bones. Vitamin D can act to increase the absorption of calcium from the small intestine as well as the re-absorption of calcium from the kidneys. Without sufficient vitamin D, bones become soft and brittle in adults. This is because not enough calcium is able to be absorbed from the diet. Calcium levels in the blood are the primary focus of the body to maintain. In order to do this the body through several processes is able to leech calcium out of the bones, thus causing soft, brittle bones.

If you’re stranded on a desert island, 15 minutes of sunshine should help you get the vitamin D you need. You can also get it from salmon (if you can catch one).

As I said in the opening, one micronutrient is not better than another. All of these nutrients play an integral role in some important process in the body. Together each nutrient depends on the other. Without needing a PhD, you can look at the big picture and eat a variety of foods each day, lots of veggies and fruits, some lean protein, and fat-free dairy will help you get what you need.

One of my clients told me today-”oh well, it’s going to snow two feet this weekend, can’t get to the gym, so I guess there is nothing else to do but sit inside and eat!” Not true!!  You CAN get in some kind of workout at home with little or no equipment! Most of us spend more time figuring out how many batteries, rolls of toilet paper, gallons of milk we need for the impending storm rather than how we will get in some type of activity while stuck inside.

I recommend spreading the activity out during the day into 3 workouts of 20 minutes so you don’t become too much of a lump and possibly prevent overreating. So in between movies, board games, naps fit this in and you will have an hour of exercise under your belt! Of course this can also work for a rainy day for those lucky souls who aren’t buried in snow!!

**Start each workout with 1 minute each of jumping jacks, jogging in place with high knees, and jumps from side to side (like you are skiing) . Modify to steps or marching if you can’t jump- just get your heart pumping!

Do one minute each of the following exercises with 30 second rest in between. First time-  write down how many repetitions you do of each exercise. Second time- challenge yourself to do atleast one more repetition than the first time. Third time- well, you get it. However, never sacrifice form for speed!

1.  Body weight squats- hold arms out in front, feet shoulder width apart, lower your body to 90 degrees, then press back up to standing!

2. Staggered push-ups- one hand on a phone book , other on floor- either on knees or toes -perform a push up.

3. Squat thrusts- stand with feet together , place hands of floor, legs in squat position- explosively push your legs back into pushup position, jump feet back between hands and stand back up- that’s one!

4. Dips- two chairs needed-place about 3 feet apart- put your heels in one and hands palms down in other gripping edge. Lower your body so it clears the chair and elbows at 90 degrees- keep your core tight!!

5. Inverted push-ups- place feet on a chair or sofa, hands out in front. Creep your hands back so that head is between hands, body in a “v” shape. Lower your arms to 90 degrees, press up until your arms are straight.

6. Jump lunges- stand in a lunge position, one leg if front of the other, bend knees and jump up and switch lead legs. Step and switch if you prefer.

7.Shadow Boxing - grab two soup cans and pretend to box- upper cuts , jabs whatever- each hit counts as one. Don’t forget to move your feet too!

8. Mountain climbers- get down in sprinters start, hands directly under shoulders, run in place, keeping hips down and low to work your core.

9. Oblique abs- sit with legs bent, lean back slightly to engage abs. Sweep one arm back behind you in half circular motion, return to start, switch arms.

10. Supermans- face down like superman flying- lift feet and hands (not head and neck) using your lower back muscles then lower back down .

11. Single leg pick ups- stand on one leg, place any object in front of you, bend knee and pick up object, stand up, then bend knee again and put object back down. 30 seconds on each leg!

12. Side bridges- on side , elbow on ground, feet stacked, lift and lower hip without touching ground. 30 seconds each side.

Of course , a 20 minute snowball fight could also count…Just get moving, you will feel better once you can dig out and back to reality!!!

Remember 4 of 6 risk factors for heart disease can be changed with healthy eating.

1. manage weight
2. prevent diabetes (related to above and healthy eating)
3. have a normal cholesterol (eating healthy and low saturated fat and cholesterol, with high fiber and soluble fiber)
4. keep blood pressure low (avoiding too much salt, which can be hard to do)

What are your heart healthy eating tips? Do you think my suggestions are manageable.