Whether coming home from a long day at work or a jam-packed day at home, preparing a nutritious meal can be challenging. But it doesn’t have to be. That’s why a well-stocked pantry is your ultimate dinner solution.  Having pantry-ready essentials on hand makes meal preparation a snap. While fresh foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are always healthful choices, there are plenty of other healthy options to choose from.

Shelf-stable foods, whether canned, jarred, or packaged, can be a safe and nutritious solution for quick and healthful meals. These methods of preservation have been used for decades helping maintain the nutritious benefits these foods offer. When choosing, opt for those with little to no added sugar or salt if possible.

To help you stock your pantry filled with nutritious foods, here’s a list of essential pantry items for putting together quick, healthy meals when time is running short:

Canned beans

Beans are at the top of my list for a must-have pantry staple. Convenient, economical, and no cooking time involved, canned beans are always a good bet for making a quick meal. Black, cannellini, kidney, pinto,  or chickpeas, all canned beans are an easy protein and fiber booster easily added to pasta dishes, rice, salads, soups, or tossed in Mexican entrees or added to scrambled eggs.

Vinegars

Vinegars are a must-have essential for enhancing meals. Their acidity helps bring out the flavors of food – garlic tastes more pungent, herbs more fresh, and spices more pronounced. Vinegars also are fat-free and with only a trace of sodium. Mix up your own salad dressing by combining extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, with a touch of salt, and you have a tantalizing mixture of healthy monounsaturated fat – from the oil – to add to your spinach salad. Best to keep on hand are balsamic, cider, red wine, rice, and white wine vinegar.

Canned fish

Canned fish should be in everyone’s pantry. If you’re intimidated by cooking fresh fish, canned fish is your answer. Whether salmon, tuna, or sardines, canned fish is not only inexpensive but is rich in protein and heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Both salmon and tuna can be added to salads or as sandwich filler, or made into fish cakes by combining with an egg, rice, lemon juice, and bread crumbs.

Inflammation – good or bad – is how your body responds to protect itself. Inflammation can be “good” such as when you body’s fighting off harmful microbes in response to irritation, an injury, or an infection. For example – you cut your finger. Immediately, your immune system sends in the “first responders” or white blood cells to the affected area, causing redness and swelling – inflammation. In this situation, inflammation is essential for safeguarding your finger from harmful microbes and for healing and repairing damaged tissue, restoring it back to health.

While acute cases of inflammation helping fight off infections are good, long-term or chronic inflammation is just the opposite. When the inflammatory response drags on for too long or occurs in places not needed, it can become problematic. This scenario of chronic or long term inflammation can ignite a long list of disorders, chipping away at the body’s healthy tissues. Chronic inflammation has been associated with triggering chronic diseases such as arthritis, asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, or even Alzheimer’s.

Foods to avoid causing inflammation

Certain foods may play a role and have been associated with increasing the risk for chronic diseases such as colon cancer. These same foods have also been associated with excess inflammation, a contributor to the development of other chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Here is a listing of pro-inflammatory foods to avoid or limit that may increase inflammation in the body:

• Refined carbohydrates such as white bread, white rice, and pastries
• French fries and other fried foods
• Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages
• High-fat red meat (burgers and steaks) and processed meat (hot dogs, bacon, sausage, bologna)
• Margarine, shortening, and lard
• Foods to adopt in an anti-inflammation diet

One way to combat chronic inflammation is by consuming an anti-inflammation diet. Healthy food choices are always a wise decision. When combined with other healthy lifestyle patterns such as exercise, adequate sleep, managing stress and refraining from smoking, food choice can help break the cycle of chronic inflammation, reducing your risk of chronic diseases.

Before we know how much of and how often anti-inflammatory foods should be eaten to successfully battle chronic inflammation, more research is needed. At this time, the best advice is to embrace eating a wide variety of health-promoting, anti-inflammatory foods.

Here are five steps setting you on a wellness path towards reducing chronic inflammation while gaining better health:

Rates of obesity in the U.S. show little sign of slowing down. In 2017 and 2018, more than four in 10 American adults, or 42.4 percent had obesity, and more than 9 percent had severe obesity according to a report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. In 10 years, a 2019 study in the New England Journal of Medicine projects that nearly one of every two adults or roughly half of the U.S. will be obese. This continued increase of obesity rates is concerning as excess weight gain is associated with increasing many chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain forms of cancer, osteoarthritis, lower back pain, gout, sleep apnea, and complications in pregnancy and surgery, to name a few. At some point, change needs to happen if we are ever to reverse the current direction we continue to follow.

Meaningful changes take time. This statement is especially true when it comes to reaching a healthy body weight. It doesn’t happen overnight. But here is a bit of good news for those seeking weight loss – shedding just five percent of your body weight does a lot of good. That small tip of the scale can result in significant improvement in many health parameters. According to a small 2016 study in the journal Cell Metabolism, findings showed that a five percent weight loss can give you a large “bang for your buck” and an additional 10 to 15 percent weight loss continues to cause even more improvements in measures like blood pressure and blood lipids.

Whether obese or overweight, the thought of having to radically transform your body by losing lots of pounds can be extremely formidable. For many, knowing that they are expected to lose all of their excess weight to get healthier can lead to feelings of hopelessness that they will never be able to see major improvements in their health.

This thinking is actually wrong and for good reason. Research has shown that even if a person does not reach a weight or body mass index (BMI) that the charts consider to be optimal, one can still be successful at improving their health, reducing their risk of chronic diseases and their overall quality of life with a weight loss of just 5 percent.

This means for someone, for example, who weighs 250 pounds, a 5 percent body weight loss is around 12 pounds. This sounds like a much more doable, manageable, and achievable weight loss goal than to expect one to lose 50 pounds or more. By aiming for and achieving smaller target weight loss goals, this results in significant improvements to metabolic health and more importantly, opens up the door to continued weight loss.

One of the most fascinating organs in your body is your liver. But do you know how healthy it is? That’s a tough question to answer, yet all of us would be wise to protect and preserve this vital organ.

Next to your skin, the liver is the second largest organ in your body. Weighing about three pounds, roughly the size of a football, it’s one of the hardest working, multitasking organs of the digestive system, performing hundreds of jobs. For instance, everything you eat or drink passes through the liver, helping to manufacture substances your body needs. Other duties your liver does includes filtering blood, monitoring blood sugar, removing alcohol to be eliminated, detoxifying chemicals, producing proteins essential for blood clotting, getting rid of old, damaged cells, and metabolizing medications, all to keep your body safe from harm. It’s apparent that to achieve optimal health, protecting your liver is critical for your overall well-being.

The concern of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

There’s a growing public health issue due to the large increase in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Referred to as “silent liver disease,” NAFLD is when fat deposits accumulate in your liver. These deposits keep your liver from doing a good job of removing toxins from your blood. You may have heard of liver disease in people who drink too much alcohol, such as cirrhosis brought on by chronic alcoholism, and sometimes necessitating a liver transplant. But that is not the same as NAFLD.

NAFLD is more likely to develop in overweight to obese individuals or those who have diabetes, high cholesterol or high triglycerides. Rapid weight loss or anyone with poor eating habits are also candidates to develop NAFLD.

NAFLD is the most common chronic liver disease in adults with approximately one in three adults in the United States who have it. There has been a steady rise in NAFLD over the years, likely due to the progression of obesity, as it is directly associated with and proportional to the degree of obesity, particularly abdominal fat.

A concern with NAFLD is that in some cases, it could progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, an aggressive form of fatty liver disease and liver inflammation that increases the risk of advanced scarring (cirrhosis) and liver failure.

Just because cold temperatures have arrived doesn’t mean keeping hydrated should be an afterthought. In fact, hydration is just as important in cold winter months as it is during hot, humid summer days. Likely you’re not breaking out in a noticeable sweat on a frosty winter day, but drinking a sufficient amount of water still matters.

Since you do not store or make water, your body’s water needs must be replaced each day. The main sources of water losses from the body are urine and sweat, but water is also lost through bowel movements, and respiration and perspiration.  You likely could go for weeks without eating food but would last only a few days without water.

Why winter weather can cause dehydration

Here are ways cold winter weather can lead to loss of body water, making it vital to be aware of your hydration status during this time of year:

• Breathing in cold, dry air, and spending more time in dry, heated environments such as our homes or vehicles – both can lead to water loss.
• Exposure to cold air can reduce the body’s thirst sensation by up to 40 percent. Therefore, you tend to feel less thirsty, drinking less water, even though your body’s water needs have remained unchanged.
• You still perspire in cold winter weather but it is likely less noticeable than during hot summer months, when perspiring reminds you to drink more water.

How mild dehydration affects the body

Your body is made up of about two-thirds water and no matter what time of year it is, you still need a sufficient supply to prevent dehydration. Every cell, tissue, and organ in your body requires water to function properly. Water is necessary to rid your body of wastes and helps maintain body temperature, along with lubricating and cushioning joints.

During cold weather, we bundle up to keep warm and to conserve body heat. However, wearing long underwear, long sleeve shirts, hooded sweatshirts, and heavy coats makes your body work about 10 to 40 percent harder because of added weight. This leads to increased perspiration and sweat resulting in more fluid loss.

Decorate the house, buy gifts, wrap gifts, address holiday cards, make holiday treats, host a party, go to parties, attend children’s school holiday events – and the list goes on. Ever feel a bit stressed out this time of year?

Relax. We all do.

Yes, it’s a wonderful time of year but the pressure to make it memorable and fun can be overwhelming. When we place sky-high expectations on ourselves and others, it’s no wonder the holidays become stressful. Consider the fact, nothing changes during this time – we still have to get up, go to our jobs, tend to our families, fix meals, workout, just like we do all year long. What changes is the month long (or more) anticipation and buildup towards a beautiful celebration that shouldn’t cause us stress and yet it does.

How do we keep ourselves from stressing out during what is supposed to be a time of joy and celebratory exultation?

We can start by telling ourselves, “It’s okay not to be perfect.” None of us are. Is it possible to remove all stress? Don’t we wish! However, we can lessen the burden of stress making our lives feel more carefree, lighthearted, and even at times, happy-go-lucky. Here’s how:

Keep connected with family and friends. This can be a huge stressor if you feel disconnected from those you care about and love. Take time to reach out with a phone call, visit, text message, Facebook message, or whatever you feel comfortable doing. All of us feel special knowing someone carved out precious time to want to spend it with you.

Distance yourself from negative influences. At the same token, there are unfortunately those people in our lives who bring us down. Unless you are able to look past their negativity and chalk it up to a personality issue, it’s best to avoid contact with someone who will only raise your stress level.

Nurture creativity. Each of us has a creative side to us whether you believe it or not. Maybe you can’t carry a tune or can barely draw a stick figure, but you have a special way with animals. Or maybe you’re talents are in creating beautiful cakes, caring for the elderly or taking amazing sunset photos. Discover, nurture and then share your talents so others will be blessed with them. Whatever we are good at we tend to feel less stress when doing it.

Practice meditation. This may not be for everyone, but for those who do it regularly they swear it immensely diminishes stress. Meditation can be as easy as simply closing your eyes and visualizing a peaceful, calm scene that will quiet the stress demons filling your mind.

Take a deep breath. By the same token, practicing controlled breathing, similar to meditation, is another guaranteed stress buster. In a seated or lying down position in a quiet room, inhale deeply filling up your lungs while counting to 5 and then exhale pulling your abdomen to your spine to a steady count of 5 once again. Breathe this way for at least a couple of minutes or more and notice the immediate blanket of serenity enveloping you.

Beginning with Halloween candy and ending with a New Year’s Eve toast, the last months of the year can challenge even the most disciplined weight watcher. By the time the New Year arrives, you may feel heavier, yet in reality most people have not packed on as many pounds as they think.

The average American gains about one to two pounds during the six-week stretch between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. This doesn’t sound like much unless you gain that extra one to two pounds year after year, without losing it. Before you know it, in 10 years you could easily be 10 to 20 pounds heavier. Here’s the rub – this extra weight gain can be harmful to your waistline while increasing your risk for serious health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, or joint problems.

So, how can you enjoy the holiday’s festivities and delicious food without sabotaging your waistline? Even though this time of year is filled with fatty and sugary treats, the truth is you can continue to make good food choices. Follow the expert tips below. They’ll point you in the right direction, allowing you to still revel in this beautiful season while avoiding holiday weight gain:

Practice the 90/10 rule – A simple trick to use year-round that can change how you eat forever. Ninety percent of the time, eat healthy along with exercise. But give yourself 10 percent wiggle room. Have a small indulgence here and there. No one can eat perfectly 100 percent of the time. It’s okay to enjoy and savor holiday treats, just make sure the majority of time you are focusing on healthy foods.

Prevent meal skipping – It may sound like a good idea to save your appetite for a holiday party later in the day but that plan can backfire. Likely by the time the party rolls around, you’re cranky and tired besides being ravenously hungry. Arriving at a party on an empty stomach only spells disaster – you’ll likely end up eating more calories than the ones you skipped earlier in the day. Instead, eat breakfast, a light lunch and before leaving the house, have a snack of fiber-filled foods. Fiber helps you feel full preventing you from overeating. Choose foods with minimal calories such as crisp, fresh vegetables, fruit, a small salad, nuts, or a small bowl of oatmeal.

Did you know your spice rack is really your medicine cabinet? One look and you’ll be staring at some of the most powerful and effective secret weapons known for fighting inflammation, heart disease, cancer, and more.

These aromatic substances used for flavoring food have an impressive array of health potential. Before automatically shaking salt or dabbing a dollop of butter onto food, stop. Consider how they contribute to heart disease and high blood pressure. Opt instead to use spices to flavor your food. Besides providing a unique, appetizing appeal to your meals, take advantage of their disease-fighting compounds as they protect your body’s health.

While there are more than 100 spices used in cooking throughout the world, there’s no need to go on an exotic hunt. Your local grocery store will carry some of the best spices you need and here are five good examples to begin using in your meals:

1. Tumeric for fighting inflammation

Popular in Indian curry dishes, turmeric has become a trendy super food for its ability to reduce inflammation. A starring component of turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory substance called curcumin. Research has shown curcumin to be effective for reducing pain and swelling in people with arthritis. This same compound has also been found to inhibit growth of certain breast cancer cells while other research suggests it may also protect against stomach and pancreatic cancers.

How to use it: Try turmeric on vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, on brown rice or quinoa, or sprinkle onto chicken noodle soup.

As a nation, we are aging – fast. So fast that it is predicted that the number of Americans age 65 and older is projected to nearly double from 52 million in 2018 to 95 million by 2060, and the 65-and-older age group’s share of the total population will rise from 16 percent to 23 percent.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to prioritize vision-protective nutrients and foods. In fact, the American Optometric Association has emphasized that consuming food rich in vitamin C can reduce and slow the progression of certain eye conditions and loss of visual acuity. One such nutrient having direct beneficial effects promoting eye health is vitamin C.

About Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a busy vitamin. This water-soluble vitamin, which our body does not store, has many functions keeping our body healthy. From promoting healthy capillaries, gums, teeth, and cartilage to enhancing the absorption of iron, almost all cells of the body depend on this nutrient also known as ascorbic acid.

Before it was discovered, vitamin C has an interesting and rich history. Back in the early eighteenth century, seafarers who traveled for months at a time over the ocean knew that fresh vegetables and fruits – especially citrus fruits – could cure scurvy, which is the deficiency disease of vitamin C.

Today, we now know far more about this vitamin and the vital role it plays in maintaining our body. One part of our body that clearly cannot do without this precious vitamin is our eyes. Vitamin C plays an important role in supporting the health of blood vessels leading to our eyes and is critical for maintaining good eye health.

There are two conditions affecting our eyes in which vitamin C can help reduce at least the progression if not possibly preventing them from occurring. One is age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the other is cataracts.

Let’s start with what many Americans over consume each day – excess sodium, unhealthy fats, and an abundance of overly sugary carbohydrates. This barrage of overabundance over time can be a major detriment to our health. But what about nutrients we under consume, also setting the stage for future health problems? Scientists with the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey* have identified five top nutrients many of us are lacking or what they refer to as “shortfall nutrients.” Let’s take a look at these five nutrients and how a few dietary changes can help make up some of the nutrient shortages:

Calcium – Calcium has the distinction of being the most abundant mineral in our body. It’s necessary for strong bones and teeth, lowers risk of osteoporosis and colon cancer, and may aid in weight loss. Despite the mineral’s importance in the body, many people fall short of the 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams of calcium they need daily. In fact, the average woman consumes only slightly more than half of her daily requirement.

Top tips for boosting intake – Each day, include two to three servings of dairy (cow’s milk, cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt) or calcium-fortified non-dairy beverages. Dark green leafy vegetables are also high in calcium. However, the human body absorbs more calcium from dairy foods than plant-based foods. Also, more calcium is absorbed from kale and broccoli than from spinach because they have less oxalate. Oxalate is an organic compound found in foods such as spinach that can bind with minerals like calcium carrying it on out the body, preventing some of it from being absorbed.

Fiber – Fiber has a multitude of important roles in our health. It prevents constipation, improves gut and heart health, and may lower the risk of colon cancer. Yet, few Americans are anywhere near meeting the recommended daily allowance. The average person in the U.S. gets about 15-16 grams of fiber daily. Ideally, men should strive for between 30-38 grams of fiber a day while women require between 25-30 grams per day.

Top tips for boosting intake – Begin by replacing white bread with 100 percent whole wheat bread. Have a fruit or vegetable at every meal and snack. Speaking of snacks, choose nuts and seeds for a fiber boost. Add dried or canned beans to soups, stews, taco meat, or to a pasta dish.

Summer is almost over with a new school year about to begin. You’ve bought new book bags, shoes, and school supplies to start your child’s school year off right.  But there’s one other important component enhancing your child’s school success and health – healthy after-school snacks.

The importance of after-school snacks

Who doesn’t remember coming home from school hungry and looking for something to eat? Children of today are no different. Keeping nutritious after-school snacks on hand allows kids of all ages the perfect opportunity to enrich their growth and nutritional needs.

As parents, we are responsible for forming our kids’ snack habits.  Think of the after-school snack as a mini-meal.  Healthy, nutritious snacks are a far smarter way to fill them up instead of offering overly-refined foods such as chips or Cheetos. Smart snack choices can provide key nutrients like fiber, iron, and protein that may otherwise be lacking in some kids’ diets.

The idea is to fuel your kids’ brains providing an energy boost while satisfying their hunger cravings helping them achieve academic success. For those participating in sports, busy student athletes will be wise to choose nutritious snacks supporting energy for growth and athletic performance. When smart snack choices are frequently made, this not only develops good eating habits, but also enjoyment of wholesome foods.

Results from your annual physical were not the best – high cholesterol, elevated blood sugar, high blood pressure – should you be concerned? Yes. You may have a condition called metabolic syndrome that can erupt into multiple health worries. The good news is making lifestyle changes can significantly blunt the advancement of this health problem. But what is metabolic syndrome and how would you know if you have it?

Understanding metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions significantly increasing your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. If you have this condition, it’s not a matter of if you will have a heart attack or stroke; it’s a matter of when.

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, there are five conditions considered to be risk facts for metabolic syndrome: high blood pressure, high fasting blood sugar, abnormally high triglyceride levels, a low HDL cholesterol level (good cholesterol), and excess body fat around the waist (waist measurement or circumference). Below are the criteria for each of these conditions indicating if you are at risk:

• Blood pressure – equal to or greater than 130/85 mmHg.
• Fasting blood sugar – greater than 100 mg/dl.
• Triglycerides – equal to or greater than 150 mg/dl.
• HDL cholesterol – equal to or less than 50 mg/dl for women or equal to or less than 40 mg/dl for men.
• Waist circumference – equal to or greater than 35 inches for women or equal to or greater than 40 inches for men.

Anyone with at least three or more of the risk factors has metabolic syndrome. Currently, a whopping 34 percent of American adults have metabolic syndrome, up from 25 percent two decades ago. And just recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has found that the gains made in improving death rates from heart disease and strokes have stalled, which is driving down life expectancy in the U.S. This is after decades when Americans could expect to live longer than the generation before them.