Oral History
This oral history project is in conjunction with our Collaborative Research project Kim Ostrander, Ashley Approvato, and Brittany did. The purpose of our Collaborative project is to expose food labels for what they really are, in hopes that people will take their lives into their own hands, and see the truth behind what they're eating. These oral histories serve as background for us about food labels, nutrition, and the importance of knowing what you're eating.
This interview was conducted with Jennifer Boucher. She was interviewed by Kim Ostrander. Jennifer was chosen for the interview because of her recent loss of weight, due to reading food labels. The goal of the interview was to find out the way she reads labels and how reading them affected her mind, body and self image.
Jennifer discusses what inspired her to begin her “lifestyle” change, typical day, daily meals and certain things she looks for in food. She also talks about things she looks for in food, the variety of foods she eats, and where she began her journey to weight loss.
She explains her need to be healthy and make good decisions regarding food. She explains where she began her experience. Jennifer discusses what she does when she goes out to eat to know what she is eating. She also gives some tricks to dieting.
Jennifer discusses things she stays away from on labels, how she plans to maintain her weight, the new labeling law in Philadelphia and some recommendations to individuals interested in a “reading labels” diet.
Below is an edited version of the 26 minute interview with Jennifer.
Below is an edited version of the 26 minute interview with Jennifer.
For our second interview Ashley Approvato interviews Meghan Locantora, Registered Dietitian at Shop Rite in Medford, New Jersey. Meghan works in the store and in the community, promoting healthy lifestyles and offering consultations to customers. In this interview, we talk about the nutritional fact labels and some of the problems involved with maintaining a healthy diet, and what it is to be healthy in general. Early on in the interview Meghan's phone rang and I had technical difficulties with recording, so the interview begins without an introduction.
Below is the transcript.
ML: ...Okay..the actual nutrition facts panel, or the things that you see on the package?
AA: Um, both like uh
ML: Uh, well you can first educate yourself and go to the FDa's website or USDA and just..find out what are actually approved labelling terms..
AA: Okay
ML: ..Um, some terms that you may see are not approved- uh not that they're not approved, but they're not backed by the FDA so certain terms like..heart healthyyy or low or is a rich souce of, there's actual definitions for those so you can see ya know, something that's low in a cetrain nutrient um, it has to be 5% daily value or less something that's highh in a certain nutrient is 20% daily value or more so you know, those are like, FDA backed claims that you'll see on food packaging.
AA: Okay
ML: As far as the food label goes, a lot of people know how to read it but they don't know how to interpret it, so you have to educate yourself on what ya know, "what is saturated fat" and you know "what is the percent daily value?" "what is..um.." you know.. what does everything mean people dont really know what it means when theyre reading it. So, you know, each and every nutrient on there is listed on the grams or milliigrams and then there's a percent daily value that's based off of the 2000 calorie diet. Um, so...from there you can look up the calories, you can look up the saturated fat you, you can look at the trans fat you also have to read the ingredient list, cause a lot of ppl say just, "well that has 10 grams of sugar, well thats a lot of sugar," welll is this a fruit product? Because if it's a fruit product it's gonna have natural sugar.
AA: Yeahh, have to see what kind of sugar it is..
ML: If this is a cereal and it has 10g then you know that that's a lot of added sugar, so you also have to read the ingrediants. Um
under the ingredients statement there's a lot of things that you know, it might just not list sugar, maybe it says honey, maybe it says brown rice syrup, maybe it says um..you know.. succanot. These are all different words for sugar, but without actually saying sugar. You know, these are all the ways companies get around sweetening their products and you know, there's dyhdrated cane juice is in ailse 5, which is, you know, the health and wellness aisle, well not the health wellness aisle, the organic and natural ailse. And people are like, "Well it's sweetened with dehydrated cane juice well.." Well, that is basically the same nutrition as sugar, it's just a different form of sugar. So, so nutritionally it's no different for you, but companies kind of trick you, well i don't wanna say they trick you, but they use these different natural products and you know, people are confused. They automatically think organic, natural, gluten free means more nutritious when that's not what it means at all. Um, organic, natural, and gluten free. Organic is how something is grown or raised. Natural is just something- there is a definition for natural...um... but it's just basically minimally processed. Um, no articfical dies or flavors. So does that mean more nutritious?
AA: Yeah..
ML: Maybe to some people it does, but nutrient wise, no. You can have organic potatoe chips, they're no different nutritionally from conventional potatoe chips.
AA: It's just how they're-
ML: Processed and grown.
AA: Okay...okay
ML: So,
AA: Now are there certain foods that you should eat organically?
ML: Uuuuum, I don't wana say that you should eat, um, choosing organic foods it's a lifestyle choice. We say um, it's your choice. Some people think there are higher pesticide residues in certain produce items that have more pests. For example strawberries, berries in general have more pests, so farmers wil have to use more pesticides to keep the pests away. um, do i buy organic? No. Um, but, a lot of ppl will do that just because that's they're choice. Nutritionally there's no difference. It's just basically, is organic farming better for our environment? Yes. But if you're choosing an organic apple or an organic avacado that comes from South America versus one that comes from the United States, is that really better for the environment, one that has to travel more miles that have to get to you versus one that's locally grown?
AA: Right so basically you have to grown your own vegetables?
ML: No, I mean, you can do - I say, "shop in season" you're gonna get the best price. Your food isn't gonna travel far um nutritionally, local grown food IS more nutritious because it's not losing nutrition in that time it takes to get to you.Rright
That's something that you can say, something that's locally grown, conventional, or organic.
AA: Okay, alright. I guess I just have some questions about your job, too. Um, can you define what you'r job is, and like, what people come to you for?
ML: Okay so, my role here, my title is, Retail Dietician. Um, there's retail dieticians about in I wanna say about 30 shoprites right now it's really growing, we all kind of have different roles, cause the stores are all individually owned and operated. So we all take on different roles depending what our owner wants us to do. Um, here, David Zallie wants me to have in-store counseling, in store events and seminars, he also wants me to have a role in the community to do speaking engagements, seminars, eduaction in the schools, um, as well as something for the associates here in our store to help bring down his medical costs for the company. And as well I also take part in the kitchen; Analyzing recipes, testing recipes, developing the wholesome choices line that we have here to make sure that we're on the up and up making sure we give the customers what they want. Health is, health is selling right now, people are interested in healthy things and you know, watching what they're eating.
People come to me about food allergies, to lose weight, diabetes, "hey, what do i do with this, what to make with this, you know, so being a dietician you kind of have to know, if you don't like to cook and you're a dieticianm, it's kind of..
AA: It's like an oxymoron
ML: It is an oxymoron, there's a lot of dieticians who don't cook and I'm like well how do you help people, how do you relate? Um, you have to like food, and you have to know what to do with it. so..
AA: What like, what do you consider being healthy?
ML: *sigh* um, being healthy to me is just, *sigh* you know having a variety of nutritious foods everyday. Um, enjoying all foods in moderation. You know, I'm human I like to have ice cream, but I do it right I have a small scoop and I load it up with berries. I don't have five scoops and load it up with whip cream and you know caramel sauce and things like that. it's balance of your food intake, um, varied nutrient rich diet with exerice.
AA: Um Soo..you can't really be healthy without exercizing you think?
ML: Diet and exercise go together, you know the food pyramid and dietary guidelines, the dietary guideline for americans recommends, you know, 30 minutes of exercise a day, or activity, um yeah. I wouldn't consider myself living a healthy lifestyle without activity and exercise.
AA: Okay
ML: Goes hand it hand
AA: I wanted to ask you about the food pyramid, too, um, I think, let's see..So um, if people want to educate themselves about, you know, what they should eat, should they go to the food pyramid first?
ML: Mypyrmid.gov is a really good website. Um it basically shows you, these are the food groups, this is how much you need of each one on a daily basis, this is about how many calories you need, you can put in your informatin it'll tell you how many calories you need. You can enter in your food intake it'll tell you what you're lacking, what you're having too much of, and it'll also tell you about exercise, so.
AA: Well, what do you think about, because you said there's all different types of sugars in the ingrediants, about like high fructose corn syrup?
ML: I haven't seen any research or studys that have shown that high fructose corn syrup causes the obesiety epidemic or any of the other things they say it causes. High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener. It has the same calories as sugar. Um, it's just cheaper for manufactors to use to sweeten their products other than natural table sugar, but I haven't seen anything... I'm not saying don't have any high fructose corn syrup in your diet I just say, have less sugar in your diet. Uum, i don't think the obesity epidemic was caused by high fructose corn syrup I think it was caused by our nations inactivity. We're less active and I think we eat too much. Period. We eat too many calories.
AA: Yeah, definitely.
ML: We eat too many calories.
AA: Yeah especially with fast food and everything.
ML: Yeah..mhm
AA: Okay..um.. *humming* Now do you think substituting calories is unhealthy for you?Like, um, I guess if like, you don't get the nutrients that you're supposed to get, you're just meeting the calories that you need to meet- like you know how you can only have a certain amount of calories per day? like what? 2000? Like if you meet that calorie count, or you cut it down shorter, you're not really eating-
ML: Nutrient rich food?
AA: Yeah
ML: Yeah, that's sort of like weight watchers, you know they like recommend a certain calorie recommendation for the day and then they tell you to meet those point but they don't say anything about the quality of those points and the quality of those calories. I think it's really important for poeple to, you know, you can be on a 2000 calorie diet to maintain your weight. you may cut it down if you want to lose weight. Um, but you have to mke sure your choosing nutrient rich sources of food. Which, nutrient rich is, you know, is not a lot of calories but a lot of nutritien in the food so vitamins, minerals, fiber, whole grains, protein, calcium, etc you know and have the treats in moderation so you can only be eating 1200 calories per day, but you can be eating choclate cake all day. You know? So that's why I always tell people well make sure your points are good quality points.
AA: Right
ML: Um and I don't agree with people who don't eat the nutrition they should eat but they're maybe taking a supplement to get their vitamins and their minerals, it's not the same as eating the food.
AA: Okay, well what if you eat the proper nutrients and stuff but at the same time you're taking like a vitamin?
ML: That's fine. Actually the dietary guidlines that came out this year it's the first time they said a healthy individua,um,who is getting they nutritional daily value may not need to take a multivitamin everyday bc it might be too much. So, like, for me I'll take it every other day or once a week. Because I know I'm getting my vegetables everyday and i eat whole grain and I drink my milk so I don't wanna over due it.
AA: Okay
ML: So
AA: Okay... oh I wanted to ask you about like frozen foods? Are those bad should you stay away from them? Because like, I can't imagine like having frozen vegetables.
ML: What kinds of frozen foods? *phone rings* One second...
AA: Sure.
ML: Like the fozen dinners orr frozen vegetables.
Frozen vegetables are fine because they're just basically vegetables that been frozen, flash frozen, and they're picked at peak of freshness so they're comprable to fresh, and really processed meals and stuff like that are gonna be higher in sodium, it's not to say that you can't ever have them, but like i said, it's a once in a while thing because they are so high in sodium. If you had oatmeal for breakfast that has no sodium, and a salad for lunch that you know is pretty low in sodium as well, if you had a frozen dinner as well you can still be within the sodium recommendation for the day. It's just that you just have to look at the big picture, if you um do choose things that are higher in sodium, higher in fat, higher in sugar, rounded out for whole days intake or the whole week to make sure it fits.
AA:okay.
ML: Okay, no foods are off-limits it's just everything in moderation.
AA: Okay,um , so preservitives, like you shouldn't really worry too much about preservatives?
ML: Um, i- i have a hard enough time getting people to eat, you know, better, eat more vegetable eat more whole grains that i can't start preaching about preservatives. In a idealworld yeah, let's have natural, but it's not always doable. So, haha
AA: Like , my thing is, we watched food inc like, the documentary, about like the food indursty-
ML: Yeah I saw it-
AA: Yeah and now like, after that I tried being a vegetarian for 2 weeks then I had to stop but now i'm like scared to death of food.
ML: Yeah you shouldn't be, it's okay.
AA: I still am
ML: You can't let that bother you. I try not to let it bother me. If I had enough money would I buy all the right foods- it's not that they're right. I've been a conventional dairy farm and I was impressed. They make it seem like it's terrible. It's not, it was a really nice farm the cows were really well taken care of, the milk never touched human hands, so it really matters who's making the documentary. Preservative wise people may have problems with them, allergies and sensitivities, um, a lot, ya know, like I said, you shop the perimeter of the store. You grab your perishables- your fruits and vegetables, you're whole grains, your lean meat, your low fat dairy, your seafood, and you go into the grocery ailes as you need to so you can cut down on the amount of processed and prepared foods that are in your diet.
AA:Okay, yeah, that's a really good idea.
ML: That's what I usually recommend. shop the perimeter, go into sometimes there's a lot of really good things in there, you have your brown rice, whole grain pasta, whole grain cereals, beans, canned beans, peanut butter, those are all great nutrient rich foods but there's a lot of junk in there, too, so, but it's not to say that you can't have that but- it's once in a while, those are treats. Sorry if i'm rambling on
AA: No it's great, it's good. Do you think that food is addicting?
ML: Uumm....no- I mean, well I think if you have the type of personality to become addicted to something that it could be, um, they say that the more unhealthy foods you eat, like the more fat, sugar, and salt you get used to it, like, my husband really changed his eating habits before I met him and uh, cut out soda because he just didn't want to have that much sugar in his diet. And he had a glass of soda we were out somewhere and he said, well i'm gonna have a soda, and it actually hurt him. Ya know, I didn't think he was making it up why would he lie? He was like, "I-I can't even have that it's like burning" . So if you have the personality to let it get addicting it could, um but i don't think theres anything in it that makes it addicting in it unless its something like caffeine, you know?
AA: Do you think if people knew more about what they were eating? -Like how can we educate people more?
ML: I think, I mean honestly thats something that we like talk about all the time as dieticians especially Shop Rite dietitians and the things we have in the stores, um I think you know the government with a lot of the things the lets move campaign in school monthly to do education programs. I think it should be apart of the curriculum it's supposed to be in New Jersey but unfortunately they're not really getting a lot of it. I said in college like every freshman should be required to take a nutrition class. Um, you know, just like, just like personal finance. Hey, that's just as good to know as you own health and nutrition.
AA: thats true
ML: So I think that if it starts with kids in schools um, in places like this where you are reaching a lot of peopel. It's health professionals. It's our, it's our responsibility I think. And parents. you know, you are, you are a role model. So eat your vegetables because your child's watching.
AA: Yeah
ML: So
AA: Okay *more humming* ... So, okay, when we're reading the food labe - that's cute *points to picture drawn by girlscouts*- when we're reading the food labels, what should we really look for?
ML: Well it depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to maintain your weight and watch your weight I'd look at the calories. Always look at the serving size firsc because if your not eating the seving size then the numbers change. Calories. You want to look at the saturated fat because that's what's going to effect your cholestoral, you want it to be, you don't wanna comsume more than 10 percent of your total calories a day. um, also, uhh, i would look @ the ingrediants just to look at how much sugar, if it's added sugar as well.
AA: Okay, alright good
ML: Sodium. Sodium can't hurt to look at. But something ppl look at the numbers and say, "oh my goodness, this has 10mg of sodium this is high!" well it's really, not per serving. you know, you have to look at the percent daily value. So anything thay's under 5 % daily value of sodium would be considered low, anything that's over 20% would be considered high, but a lot of people, like i say, a lot of people can read the food label, they just don't know how to interpret it. so
AA: Okay
ML: Alright
AA: So, any last minute thoughts?
ML: Just small steps. One step at a time.
AA: Okay, you know. Would you be able to give me like a consultation? Like how long does that take?
ML: Uhhh, meetings with me, they're free now, are usually about 40-45 minutes.
AA: Oh that's too long
ML: Yeah I have to go to a perishable emtting, haha.
AA: Okay! well thank you so much!
ML: Your welcome!
AA: Um, both like uh
ML: Uh, well you can first educate yourself and go to the FDa's website or USDA and just..find out what are actually approved labelling terms..
AA: Okay
ML: ..Um, some terms that you may see are not approved- uh not that they're not approved, but they're not backed by the FDA so certain terms like..heart healthyyy or low or is a rich souce of, there's actual definitions for those so you can see ya know, something that's low in a cetrain nutrient um, it has to be 5% daily value or less something that's highh in a certain nutrient is 20% daily value or more so you know, those are like, FDA backed claims that you'll see on food packaging.
AA: Okay
ML: As far as the food label goes, a lot of people know how to read it but they don't know how to interpret it, so you have to educate yourself on what ya know, "what is saturated fat" and you know "what is the percent daily value?" "what is..um.." you know.. what does everything mean people dont really know what it means when theyre reading it. So, you know, each and every nutrient on there is listed on the grams or milliigrams and then there's a percent daily value that's based off of the 2000 calorie diet. Um, so...from there you can look up the calories, you can look up the saturated fat you, you can look at the trans fat you also have to read the ingredient list, cause a lot of ppl say just, "well that has 10 grams of sugar, well thats a lot of sugar," welll is this a fruit product? Because if it's a fruit product it's gonna have natural sugar.
AA: Yeahh, have to see what kind of sugar it is..
ML: If this is a cereal and it has 10g then you know that that's a lot of added sugar, so you also have to read the ingrediants. Um
under the ingredients statement there's a lot of things that you know, it might just not list sugar, maybe it says honey, maybe it says brown rice syrup, maybe it says um..you know.. succanot. These are all different words for sugar, but without actually saying sugar. You know, these are all the ways companies get around sweetening their products and you know, there's dyhdrated cane juice is in ailse 5, which is, you know, the health and wellness aisle, well not the health wellness aisle, the organic and natural ailse. And people are like, "Well it's sweetened with dehydrated cane juice well.." Well, that is basically the same nutrition as sugar, it's just a different form of sugar. So, so nutritionally it's no different for you, but companies kind of trick you, well i don't wanna say they trick you, but they use these different natural products and you know, people are confused. They automatically think organic, natural, gluten free means more nutritious when that's not what it means at all. Um, organic, natural, and gluten free. Organic is how something is grown or raised. Natural is just something- there is a definition for natural...um... but it's just basically minimally processed. Um, no articfical dies or flavors. So does that mean more nutritious?
AA: Yeah..
ML: Maybe to some people it does, but nutrient wise, no. You can have organic potatoe chips, they're no different nutritionally from conventional potatoe chips.
AA: It's just how they're-
ML: Processed and grown.
AA: Okay...okay
ML: So,
AA: Now are there certain foods that you should eat organically?
ML: Uuuuum, I don't wana say that you should eat, um, choosing organic foods it's a lifestyle choice. We say um, it's your choice. Some people think there are higher pesticide residues in certain produce items that have more pests. For example strawberries, berries in general have more pests, so farmers wil have to use more pesticides to keep the pests away. um, do i buy organic? No. Um, but, a lot of ppl will do that just because that's they're choice. Nutritionally there's no difference. It's just basically, is organic farming better for our environment? Yes. But if you're choosing an organic apple or an organic avacado that comes from South America versus one that comes from the United States, is that really better for the environment, one that has to travel more miles that have to get to you versus one that's locally grown?
AA: Right so basically you have to grown your own vegetables?
ML: No, I mean, you can do - I say, "shop in season" you're gonna get the best price. Your food isn't gonna travel far um nutritionally, local grown food IS more nutritious because it's not losing nutrition in that time it takes to get to you.Rright
That's something that you can say, something that's locally grown, conventional, or organic.
AA: Okay, alright. I guess I just have some questions about your job, too. Um, can you define what you'r job is, and like, what people come to you for?
ML: Okay so, my role here, my title is, Retail Dietician. Um, there's retail dieticians about in I wanna say about 30 shoprites right now it's really growing, we all kind of have different roles, cause the stores are all individually owned and operated. So we all take on different roles depending what our owner wants us to do. Um, here, David Zallie wants me to have in-store counseling, in store events and seminars, he also wants me to have a role in the community to do speaking engagements, seminars, eduaction in the schools, um, as well as something for the associates here in our store to help bring down his medical costs for the company. And as well I also take part in the kitchen; Analyzing recipes, testing recipes, developing the wholesome choices line that we have here to make sure that we're on the up and up making sure we give the customers what they want. Health is, health is selling right now, people are interested in healthy things and you know, watching what they're eating.
People come to me about food allergies, to lose weight, diabetes, "hey, what do i do with this, what to make with this, you know, so being a dietician you kind of have to know, if you don't like to cook and you're a dieticianm, it's kind of..
AA: It's like an oxymoron
ML: It is an oxymoron, there's a lot of dieticians who don't cook and I'm like well how do you help people, how do you relate? Um, you have to like food, and you have to know what to do with it. so..
AA: What like, what do you consider being healthy?
ML: *sigh* um, being healthy to me is just, *sigh* you know having a variety of nutritious foods everyday. Um, enjoying all foods in moderation. You know, I'm human I like to have ice cream, but I do it right I have a small scoop and I load it up with berries. I don't have five scoops and load it up with whip cream and you know caramel sauce and things like that. it's balance of your food intake, um, varied nutrient rich diet with exerice.
AA: Um Soo..you can't really be healthy without exercizing you think?
ML: Diet and exercise go together, you know the food pyramid and dietary guidelines, the dietary guideline for americans recommends, you know, 30 minutes of exercise a day, or activity, um yeah. I wouldn't consider myself living a healthy lifestyle without activity and exercise.
AA: Okay
ML: Goes hand it hand
AA: I wanted to ask you about the food pyramid, too, um, I think, let's see..So um, if people want to educate themselves about, you know, what they should eat, should they go to the food pyramid first?
ML: Mypyrmid.gov is a really good website. Um it basically shows you, these are the food groups, this is how much you need of each one on a daily basis, this is about how many calories you need, you can put in your informatin it'll tell you how many calories you need. You can enter in your food intake it'll tell you what you're lacking, what you're having too much of, and it'll also tell you about exercise, so.
AA: Well, what do you think about, because you said there's all different types of sugars in the ingrediants, about like high fructose corn syrup?
ML: I haven't seen any research or studys that have shown that high fructose corn syrup causes the obesiety epidemic or any of the other things they say it causes. High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener. It has the same calories as sugar. Um, it's just cheaper for manufactors to use to sweeten their products other than natural table sugar, but I haven't seen anything... I'm not saying don't have any high fructose corn syrup in your diet I just say, have less sugar in your diet. Uum, i don't think the obesity epidemic was caused by high fructose corn syrup I think it was caused by our nations inactivity. We're less active and I think we eat too much. Period. We eat too many calories.
AA: Yeah, definitely.
ML: We eat too many calories.
AA: Yeah especially with fast food and everything.
ML: Yeah..mhm
AA: Okay..um.. *humming* Now do you think substituting calories is unhealthy for you?Like, um, I guess if like, you don't get the nutrients that you're supposed to get, you're just meeting the calories that you need to meet- like you know how you can only have a certain amount of calories per day? like what? 2000? Like if you meet that calorie count, or you cut it down shorter, you're not really eating-
ML: Nutrient rich food?
AA: Yeah
ML: Yeah, that's sort of like weight watchers, you know they like recommend a certain calorie recommendation for the day and then they tell you to meet those point but they don't say anything about the quality of those points and the quality of those calories. I think it's really important for poeple to, you know, you can be on a 2000 calorie diet to maintain your weight. you may cut it down if you want to lose weight. Um, but you have to mke sure your choosing nutrient rich sources of food. Which, nutrient rich is, you know, is not a lot of calories but a lot of nutritien in the food so vitamins, minerals, fiber, whole grains, protein, calcium, etc you know and have the treats in moderation so you can only be eating 1200 calories per day, but you can be eating choclate cake all day. You know? So that's why I always tell people well make sure your points are good quality points.
AA: Right
ML: Um and I don't agree with people who don't eat the nutrition they should eat but they're maybe taking a supplement to get their vitamins and their minerals, it's not the same as eating the food.
AA: Okay, well what if you eat the proper nutrients and stuff but at the same time you're taking like a vitamin?
ML: That's fine. Actually the dietary guidlines that came out this year it's the first time they said a healthy individua,um,who is getting they nutritional daily value may not need to take a multivitamin everyday bc it might be too much. So, like, for me I'll take it every other day or once a week. Because I know I'm getting my vegetables everyday and i eat whole grain and I drink my milk so I don't wanna over due it.
AA: Okay
ML: So
AA: Okay... oh I wanted to ask you about like frozen foods? Are those bad should you stay away from them? Because like, I can't imagine like having frozen vegetables.
ML: What kinds of frozen foods? *phone rings* One second...
AA: Sure.
ML: Like the fozen dinners orr frozen vegetables.
Frozen vegetables are fine because they're just basically vegetables that been frozen, flash frozen, and they're picked at peak of freshness so they're comprable to fresh, and really processed meals and stuff like that are gonna be higher in sodium, it's not to say that you can't ever have them, but like i said, it's a once in a while thing because they are so high in sodium. If you had oatmeal for breakfast that has no sodium, and a salad for lunch that you know is pretty low in sodium as well, if you had a frozen dinner as well you can still be within the sodium recommendation for the day. It's just that you just have to look at the big picture, if you um do choose things that are higher in sodium, higher in fat, higher in sugar, rounded out for whole days intake or the whole week to make sure it fits.
AA:okay.
ML: Okay, no foods are off-limits it's just everything in moderation.
AA: Okay,um , so preservitives, like you shouldn't really worry too much about preservatives?
ML: Um, i- i have a hard enough time getting people to eat, you know, better, eat more vegetable eat more whole grains that i can't start preaching about preservatives. In a idealworld yeah, let's have natural, but it's not always doable. So, haha
AA: Like , my thing is, we watched food inc like, the documentary, about like the food indursty-
ML: Yeah I saw it-
AA: Yeah and now like, after that I tried being a vegetarian for 2 weeks then I had to stop but now i'm like scared to death of food.
ML: Yeah you shouldn't be, it's okay.
AA: I still am
ML: You can't let that bother you. I try not to let it bother me. If I had enough money would I buy all the right foods- it's not that they're right. I've been a conventional dairy farm and I was impressed. They make it seem like it's terrible. It's not, it was a really nice farm the cows were really well taken care of, the milk never touched human hands, so it really matters who's making the documentary. Preservative wise people may have problems with them, allergies and sensitivities, um, a lot, ya know, like I said, you shop the perimeter of the store. You grab your perishables- your fruits and vegetables, you're whole grains, your lean meat, your low fat dairy, your seafood, and you go into the grocery ailes as you need to so you can cut down on the amount of processed and prepared foods that are in your diet.
AA:Okay, yeah, that's a really good idea.
ML: That's what I usually recommend. shop the perimeter, go into sometimes there's a lot of really good things in there, you have your brown rice, whole grain pasta, whole grain cereals, beans, canned beans, peanut butter, those are all great nutrient rich foods but there's a lot of junk in there, too, so, but it's not to say that you can't have that but- it's once in a while, those are treats. Sorry if i'm rambling on
AA: No it's great, it's good. Do you think that food is addicting?
ML: Uumm....no- I mean, well I think if you have the type of personality to become addicted to something that it could be, um, they say that the more unhealthy foods you eat, like the more fat, sugar, and salt you get used to it, like, my husband really changed his eating habits before I met him and uh, cut out soda because he just didn't want to have that much sugar in his diet. And he had a glass of soda we were out somewhere and he said, well i'm gonna have a soda, and it actually hurt him. Ya know, I didn't think he was making it up why would he lie? He was like, "I-I can't even have that it's like burning" . So if you have the personality to let it get addicting it could, um but i don't think theres anything in it that makes it addicting in it unless its something like caffeine, you know?
AA: Do you think if people knew more about what they were eating? -Like how can we educate people more?
ML: I think, I mean honestly thats something that we like talk about all the time as dieticians especially Shop Rite dietitians and the things we have in the stores, um I think you know the government with a lot of the things the lets move campaign in school monthly to do education programs. I think it should be apart of the curriculum it's supposed to be in New Jersey but unfortunately they're not really getting a lot of it. I said in college like every freshman should be required to take a nutrition class. Um, you know, just like, just like personal finance. Hey, that's just as good to know as you own health and nutrition.
AA: thats true
ML: So I think that if it starts with kids in schools um, in places like this where you are reaching a lot of peopel. It's health professionals. It's our, it's our responsibility I think. And parents. you know, you are, you are a role model. So eat your vegetables because your child's watching.
AA: Yeah
ML: So
AA: Okay *more humming* ... So, okay, when we're reading the food labe - that's cute *points to picture drawn by girlscouts*- when we're reading the food labels, what should we really look for?
ML: Well it depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to maintain your weight and watch your weight I'd look at the calories. Always look at the serving size firsc because if your not eating the seving size then the numbers change. Calories. You want to look at the saturated fat because that's what's going to effect your cholestoral, you want it to be, you don't wanna comsume more than 10 percent of your total calories a day. um, also, uhh, i would look @ the ingrediants just to look at how much sugar, if it's added sugar as well.
AA: Okay, alright good
ML: Sodium. Sodium can't hurt to look at. But something ppl look at the numbers and say, "oh my goodness, this has 10mg of sodium this is high!" well it's really, not per serving. you know, you have to look at the percent daily value. So anything thay's under 5 % daily value of sodium would be considered low, anything that's over 20% would be considered high, but a lot of people, like i say, a lot of people can read the food label, they just don't know how to interpret it. so
AA: Okay
ML: Alright
AA: So, any last minute thoughts?
ML: Just small steps. One step at a time.
AA: Okay, you know. Would you be able to give me like a consultation? Like how long does that take?
ML: Uhhh, meetings with me, they're free now, are usually about 40-45 minutes.
AA: Oh that's too long
ML: Yeah I have to go to a perishable emtting, haha.
AA: Okay! well thank you so much!
ML: Your welcome!
