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08.01.07
Sometimes I like to share a wonderful product with everyone. This is one of those products.
Pomegranates have become quite popular and its juice produces high levels of polyphenols and ellagic acid which are protective antioxidants. Some say that its properties may be more powerful than green tea. Plus it tastes great. So all this good stuff and our juice bar won’t even be up and running for at least another week! August may be the month to make a special visit to Mäni’s on Fairfax. Our new menu will be out shortly, our new colors are gleaming, there’s new staff to meet and all those great products both in the restaurant and the bakery. So ENJOY and EAT WELL!
05.18.07
A few of our baked goods contain organic evaporated cane juice, but what is it? Evaporated cane juice is the dried or crystallized, unrefined juice of sugar cane and a healthy alternative to refined sugar.
While both evaporated cane juice and sugar are made from sugar cane, evaporated cane juice does not undergo the same degree of processing that refined sugar does. Therefore, it retains more of the nutrients found in sugar cane.
Compared with refined sugars which are about 99.9% pure, evaporated cane juice is about 96% sucrose and 4% minerals. In an amazing demonstration of the power of nutrition, studies have shown that, in comparison with white sugar, this scant 4% difference actually does slow down blood sugar changes at a statistically significant level.
So, if you must have your fix of our Strawberry Forever Cake, go ahead. Know that we, at Mäni’s, are looking out for you by providing you healthier, more nutritious, and delicious cakes, cookies, and pastries.
02.20.07
Denise’s comment to last weeks blog, Fiber Challenge Results, inquiring about my view on the minimum requirement of dietary fiber being 25 grams for women and 35 grams for men has motivated me to go on a quick rant about nutrition and life. To the best of my knowledge these are the most recent recommendations for daily dietary fiber intake… The minimum recommended dietary fiber intake for women up to age 50 is 25 grams per day and men up to age 50 is 38 grams per day. A lot of the time you will see the stat reported as a minimum requirement of 20 grams to 35 grams per day (this is lumping in all of the different sub groups that they classify for adults). The different adult groups are young women (women up to age 50), young men (men up to age 50), women older than 50, and men older than 50. Minimum recommended dietary fiber intake for women over 50 years of age is dropped down to 21 grams per day with men over 50 years of age requiring 30 grams per day. I have not found a definitive reason for the range of 20 to 35 instead of 21 to 38. I assume that they rounded off the numbers to make the numbers easier to remember (take note this is a complete assumption on my part). Now it is time for my brief rant about nutrition and life that I promised in the beginning. As Denise pointed out in her comment, these are minimum daily requirements (which by the way most Americans aren’t even getting close to). I want to focus on the word “minimum” because I feel that in our country a lot of people do not reach anywhere close to their potential in many different aspects of life. In my opinion, you should not be happy with just achieving the minimum or even average levels when it comes to your nutrition, profession, financially, spiritually, socially, etc. Who wants to be average? Not I! That is my pearl of wisdom for the day. Hope you do not mind me preaching for a few minutes. Denise’s comment inspired my little rant. If you feel so inspired, please add any pearls of wisdom you would like to share with the rest of us.
02.13.07
I pride myself on practicing what I preach. If I do not believe in something enough to commit myself to it, I would never suggest or expect anyone else to commit to that something. Here are my Fiber Challenge results… My total dietary fiber for yesterday (Monday, February 12th) was, pretty accurately, just over 63 grams. Where did all that fiber come from? The fiber containing foods that I ate yesterday were oatmeal, sweet potato, bell pepper, tomato, peanut butter, blackberries, spinach, acorn squash, onions, mushrooms, garlic, pear, garlic, a Myoplex RTD shake, some flax meal, and a cliff bar. That is not all that I ate for the day (animal flesh foods do not contain fiber), but those are all the items that I ate yesterday that contain dietary fiber. You might not know this, but Mäni’s menu is loaded with fiber. Anything that contains whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and other plant products is going to contain some fiber because Mani’s does not use refined ingredients. Maximizing your fiber intake at Mäni’s :
Breakfast - Include potatoes and/or fruit with your egg dish focusing on including as many vegetables to your scramble or omelet of choice. If you are not an egg person (and there are a few or you out there), you could do the same with the tofu scramble, go for either of the Mäni’s Homemade Granola or Açai and Granola Bowl, or try one of the multi-grain waffle choices.
Lunch and Dinner - You can’t really go wrong. Pick the salad that appeals to you (they are loaded with veggies and fruit). The sandwiches are made with unrefined flour so they are all good choices for fiber along with the veggies filling them up (same with the burgers). Soup and chili are packed with fiber in relation to the number of calories that they contain.
Bakery - Even the Mäni’s baked goods are going to contain more fiber than your ordinary baked goods because of the commitment to unrefined ingredients. Fiber is abundant at Mäni’s. Take the Fiber Challenge and let me know your results. If you find that you are falling short with your daily fiber intake; add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes or stop by Mäni’s and pick something up that contains these ingredients. Fiber is an amazing nutrient (more on fiber next week).
02.07.07
I, like so many, love chocolate. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, chocolate is on my mind (maybe that is because I don’t have a girlfriend to share Valentine’s Day with, but that is besides the point). Chocolate can be good for you… Scientists have reported preliminary evidence recently that cocoa and other chocolates may keep high blood pressure down, your blood flowing, and your heart healthy. Researchers attribute these health benefits to the compounds call flavonols, which are the flavonoids found in chocolate. Flavonoids are important because they possess a lot of antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are important from a health perspective because they protect our body from harmful reactions (free radicals) that take place inside of our bodies (more specifically at the cellular level). Excellent! Chocolate is good for me. Just don’t over do it. Remember that over indulging on even the healthiest food in the world would not be healthy. If you can keep it in moderation chocolate does not even just have to be an indulgence every once in a while, it can be a health addition to your normal nutrition (that could be a great subject for future blog conversations...what do you think?) Keep in mind that the darker the chocolate, the richer the flavonol concentration. You still want to stay away from milk chocolate with a lot of refined sugar added into it. What would you do without Mani’s supplying you with a great source of health benefiting chocolate choices without the refined sugar? Look at these great chocolate Valentine’s Day special treats (it’s making me hungry). Happy Valentine’s Day. Oh yeah, I want to know what your Valentine’s Day chocolate choice was?
01.30.07
How much dietary fiber do you eat a day? Do you know how much you should be eating each day? Current minimum recommendations for adult dietary fiber daily intake are 20-35 grams. Personally, 35 grams (in my opinion) is what a healthy adult should be shooting for. Here is something that most people don’t realize about dietary fiber. Your body can’t digest dietary fiber, so basically calories that you consume from dietary fiber won’t add to your waistline. Good Sources of Dietary Fiber:
1. Whole Grains
2. Vegetables
3. Fruits
4. Legumes I challenge you this week to tract your dietary fiber intake for a typical day of your life. How much dietary fiber do you consume in an average day? If you find your dietary fiber to fall short of 35 grams for you typical day and want to take the challenge another step further, increase your dietary fiber intake to 35 grams for one day this week. If you took the second step, what foods did you use to get to 35 grams? What did you learn from this process?
01.09.07
Mäni’s is one of the smaller companies that were far ahead of the trans fat free curve. A great trend is spreading through the restaurant/food service industry. Wendy’s, Starbucks, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are some of the big names that have gone “Trans Fat Free.” What a great idea. Oh wait; this really isn’t an innovative idea. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining and I think these are all great steps in the right direction. The big companies are all getting the press for abolishing the use of trans fat in their establishments, but these companies are just reacting to existing market demand. I am not trying to toot Mäni’s horn or imply that Mäni’s was the first on the scene to not use trans fats, but I do want to give notice to the fact that Mäni’s has been trans fat free for years. This should not be taken for granted. Mäni’s was way ahead of the curve on a very important current issue, kudos. Does it bother anyone else that companies knowingly used trans fat for the last couple of years knowing that it was legislated to be labeled starting at the beginning of this year, but once trans fat became a required listing on nutrition labels it suddenly disappeared from the ingredients? On top of this, these products are now marketed as trans fat free. Why weren’t they trans fat free before?
12.19.06
Bell peppers (especially red bell peppers) are excellent sources of vitamins A and C. This time of year, these vitamins are supremely important for warding off cold, flu, and other infection. No one wants to be sick over the holidays, so take some preventative measures by grabbing some bell peppers from the vegetable platters at holiday parties and/or indulging at Mani’s with some of our items that feature these nutrition powerhouses. Mani’s items that feature bell peppers include the Veggie Scramble and Build Your Own Scramble items. Personally I like bell peppers with almost anything, so if you feel so inclined add them to other choice items
12.11.06
In a study by the “Journal of Food Chemistry,” it is being reported that Americans consume 30% of their diet through junk food, soft drinks, and alcohol while at the same time healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are only accounting for 10% of the U.S. diet. One red flag that this information shows is 30% of the typical American diet comes from empty calories (as defined by Wikipedia - an “empty calorie” has the same energy content of any other calorie but lacks accompanying micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, or amino acids as well as fiber). Certain kinds of alcohol are thought to have significant healthy benefits based on moderate consumption. Alcohol’s benefits, in my mind, are completely nullified when consumed in excess because of internal damage to your body and alcohol’s propensity to promoting weight gain (especially in the mid section, which is the area of weight gain with the most healthy implications). Did they say 10% from healthy food sources? Is that a joke? If it is, it is not funny at all. Just think about that for a minute. Fruits and vegetables are where our bodies get most of those micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) that I have been talking about recently. Just using my common sense, 10% of someone’s diet is not going to provide enough of these nutrients to promote a healthy body. These numbers are eye opening. I am not really surprised, but putting seeing numbers on the subject always makes it more real. Use this study as a learning experience. The Mani’s faithful do not eat the typical American diet (far from it), but most of us could still use some improvements to our daily nutrition.
09.12.06
If you haven’t already, I am encouraging you to investigate the nutrition labels of the items that you have stock piled in your pantries and cupboards. You might be surprised where you find partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup (Sandra, I know you have already started your homework). In my last weeks blog, “HFCS - The Jury is Still Out", I provided a great link to a list of common products that contain high fructose corn syrup (rather eye opening, if you ask me). Going through your personal items is even better because that is the actual foods that you will be eating. Take a few minutes and scour through your kitchen and report back with the items that surprised you the most. Everyone will benefit from some interaction here (just use the comment feature down at the bottom to include your findings). If you missed the beginning of this series, you can catch up by reading “Just Say No...", “Trans Fat", and “HFCS - The Jury is Still Out."
09.05.06
Unlike partially hydrogenated oils, hard evidence has not been compiled against high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). What is HFCS? HFCS is cornstarch that has been processed down to glucose and fructose molecules. This is exactly what sucrose (table sugar) is made up of, but differs from sucrose in the respect that the glucose and fructose molecules are not bond together when consumed. The health implications of this difference have not been conclusively determined, but there are many industry and non-industry individuals convinced that our increased consumption of HFCS over the past thirty plus years has been a major factor in the nations problematic increase of obesity and type 2 diabetes. One of the suspicions is that consumption of HFCS does not have the same effect of appetite suppression because of the different metabolic reaction that results from glucose and fructose not being bound together (unlike sucrose). What I can tell you for certain is that HFCS is not a natural ingredient (you can not go out in nature and find it). The bottom line is HFCS is a cheaper ingredient than sucrose for the manufacturers. HFCS is easier to blend into beverages, easier to transport, and adds more texture to baked goods than sucrose. You have to make your own decision about HFCS. Here at Mani’s we are not very high on refined sugar, so HFCS is definitely not on the top of our list. If you think about it, HFCS is more refined than refined sugar (interesting little thought). Regardless of your choice regarding HFCS, remember that USDA recommends no more than 10% of your daily calories come from added sugar. HFCS is only one form of added sugar that is found in our diets today. If you are interested, here is a list of items containing high fructose corn syrup. Take a look.
08.29.06
In last weeks blog entitled “Just Say No...”, I advised staying away from consuming high fructose corn syrup and trans fat (partially hydrogenated oils). That was a good introduction, but this issue is not as black and white as you may think. For simplicity reasons, I am going to take the liberty of characterizing trans fat into two categories. There are natural and unnatural trans fats out there for us to consume. The unnatural manmade trans fats are what you should be looking to eliminate from your diet. These are the partially hydrogenated oils that food manufacturers create from natural vegetable oils. The hydrogenation process takes these healthy oils and transforms their chemical structure to a form that not only takes their health benefits away but actually makes them very hazardous to your health. Natural trans fats are found in certain animal fat and milk (don’t be alarmed because these trans fats are found in such small quantities). Tests have shown that trans fats not only increase your bad (LDL) cholesterol but decrease your good (HDL) cholesterol. Because of these findings, the National Academy of Science has concluded there is no safe limit of trans fat consumption. Finally, as of January 2006, the FDA now requires that trans fat be included on every nutrition label, but there are a few details to be aware of. I still recommend scanning the ingredients list for partially hydrogenated oils for two main reasons:
1. Companies were allowed to petition the January 2006 deadline, so the trans fat line might still be missing on some nutrition labels (it seems to reason that the companies that need an extension are the ones that have something to hide)
2. Trans fat can be listed as zero as long as there is less than 0.5 grams per serving (this might not seem like a lot, but remember there is no safe limit for these unnatural trans fats) There is a little theme that I would like to point out to finish up. It seems like there is more and more evidence showing that natural usually is better than unnatural. This is very evident in nutrition, but it seems this rule can almost be applied universally. Just like partially hydrogenated oils (unnatural trans fats) are unnatural, so is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). We’ll have to explore the health implications of HFCS in a future post.
08.22.06
There are two ingredients that I advise people to omit from their diet when they are shopping at the grocery store. When you are scanning down the ingredients list on your food items (yes, you should be reading those labels), two very common ingredients that I want you to avoid are partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. We’re watching out for you here at Mäni’s. You won’t find those nasty man made ingredients in our food. But unless you are eating all your meals with us at Mani’s(which we would not object to), you need to take an active role in at least limiting your consumption of trans fats and HFCS to a bare minimum. Take the time to check the food labels in your kitchen right now. Without a conscious effort to purchase groceries without these two ingredients, you will be amazed at how many items you have right now that these two killers reside in.
08.09.06
I have suggested that you figure out how many calories your body uses each day. Now that you have figured this out, what does it really mean? What is a calorie? The scientific definition for a calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree Celsius. More simply, a calorie is just a measurement of energy that your body either burns or stores. For appearance and health reasons, we want to minimize the amount of calories that our body stores. Look at it this way. If you are caring more body fat than you would like right now, it is nothing more than stored up energy. All you need to do is force your body to use up that extra energy. You can accomplish this by increasing your activity level and decreasing your calorie consumption. Review Weight Management Lesson #1-4:
Weight Management Lesson #1
Weight Management Lesson #2
Weight Management Lesson #3
Weight Management Lesson #4
for a more detailed explanation of how to achieve your bodyweight goal.
08.08.06
Have you tried any of the 400 Calorie Menu items we introduced in June? We’d love to get your feedback! What’s your favorite item? Has the introduction of these healthy meals changed the way you think about portion size? Do you find the portions satisfactory? Is there anything you’d like to see changed or added to the menu?
Your feedback is important to us. Please click on the Comments link below to share your experience, ideas and feedback with us.
08.01.06
Lets wrap up “Weight Management Lesson #1.” Depending on your weight management goal, choose the following option that fits your goal. Weight Management Options: 1. If your goal is to lose weight, you need to consume up to 500 fewer calories throughout the day than you burn (restricting your consumption by more than 500 calories per day below your daily caloric expenditure could result in unwanted muscle loss).
2. If your goal is to gain weight, you need to consume up to 500 more calories throughout the day than you burn (consuming more than 500 calories per day above your daily caloric expenditure could result in an unwanted gain of body fat).
3. If your goal is to maintain your weight, you need to keep an equal balance between the number of calories that you consume and burn throughout the day. Most people do not realize their bodyweight goals because there is not a quick fix method for changing your bodyweight in a healthy manner. You’re level of commitment and determination will be the only limiting factors on your potential to obtain whatever your goals are for your bodyweight and life.
07.25.06
Now that you possess both your daily caloric expenditure and your daily caloric consumption, the last step in Lesson #1 is pretty elementary. You have to compare the two numbers that you have calculated to one another, and this will show you why you have been gaining, losing, or maintaining your weight. Possible scenarios:
1. When daily caloric consumption exceeds your daily caloric expenditure your bodyweight will increase
2. When daily caloric consumption equals your daily caloric expenditure your bodyweight will remain the same
3. When daily caloric consumption is less than your daily caloric expenditure your bodyweight will decrease When we wrap up Weight Management Lesson #1, in Part 4, I will show you how you can manipulate your daily caloric expenditure and consumption to effectively work towards your goal bodyweight.
07.18.06
Now, you need to calculate the number of calories that you consume on a daily basis. By the end of this blog, you will have the information needed to attain your weight management goal (you will still need to do the work, though). This will take a little work, but not as much as you think. Here’s what you need to do: When you eat something just write down exactly what you ate (with as much detail as possible concerning quantity of items and time consumed). To account for variation between different days, I recommend that you perform this process for at least 3 days (the more days that you collect information, the better you will understand your eating habits). Be honest because the only person that you are deceiving is yourself. Once you have your daily menu recorded (most importantly quantity of items), an easy way to figure out how many calories each item contains is to look them up at CalorieKing. To figure out your average number of calories consumed daily, add up the calories for each day and divide them by the number of days you documented (remember 3 days should be the minimum number of days recorded). In Part 3, we will compare your daily caloric expenditure to your daily calorie consumption. This will show you why you are not losing the weight, gaining the weight, or maintaining the weight you desire.
06.29.06
Anyone who isn’t a millionaire likes to get the most bang for their hard earned dollars (even most millionaires enjoy a good deal). I am not blogging about money here, though. If you are trying to lose weight, it might help for you to think of calories as dollars (every calorie you consume is viewed as a dollar coming out of your pocket). Okay, but why is this going to help me? If you have kept up with my previous blogs, you know that if you want to lose weight you have to consume less calories than your body burns. You probably didn’t even need me to tell you this the first time. Your body requires a certain amount of vitamins and minerals regardless of how many calories you are consuming. This means that if you reduce your daily calorie consumption, you are going to have to get more vitamins and minerals for every calorie that you consume. Now I want you to use the calorie/dollar analogy. For every calorie/dollar that you spend, you want to get the most vitamins and minerals for those calories/dollars. This is important because a vitamin and/or mineral deficiency will at the least cause sub optimal performance (whether physically or mentally). With Mani’s using organic produce and all natural ingredients, we are helping you the best we know how to achieve this calorie/dollar bargain. The debate is on going, but some studies have shown vitamin and mineral densities to be higher in organic produce than non-organic produce. More importantly, consumption of organic ingredients instead of non-organic ingredients will reduce some of those unnatural and possibly toxic chemicals that are used in some 21st century farming. If you are interested: Vitamin and Mineral Chart
06.20.06
The new 400 calorie menu is a real easy way to learn how to take control of your body weight. We, at Mäni’s Bakery, have done the hard and sometimes tedious work out of the equation for you by providing you with already structured meals. All you need to do is give it a try. What exactly will I learn? Well, that is completely up to you. Your answer will depend on how you decide to incorporate the new 400 calorie menu items into your Mäni’s dining experience and daily eating plan. The full learning experience will come from incorporating the concept of eating 4 to 5 smaller meals throughout your day. By using the items that Mäni’s is providing, you don’t have to worry about measuring or cooking anything while trying to initially incorporate this new eating style. All you will have to worry about is spacing your meals 3 to 4 hours apart. How long you decide to commit to this kind of regiment is completely up to you. Regardless if you just experiment with these structured items or this way of eating becomes a complete lifestyle change for you, there are a number of things you can learn about your individual needs. First, when eating so frequently throughout the day your stomach should never feel full or hungry. There is a difference between wanting to eat because you are hungry and because your mind wants to eat. Recognizing this difference will become invaluable when starting to eat smaller more frequent meals during your day. Second, you will learn pretty quickly how much you really need to eat daily. You can only learn this if you keep structured to eating every 3 to 4 hours. If you can’t manage to eat every 4 hours because you are too full, 400 calories at every meal is too much for you (in this situation every meal should be followed up with a snack that equals 1/2 a meal). If you are getting hungry (physically not mentally) before 3 hours has elasped, then you need to eat more every 3 hours or move your meals to every 2 1/2 hours. Once you have learned the schedule that works for your individual needs (remember that no two persons on this planet are exactly the same), you have really learned something valuable. What have you really learned? Think about it. Even though you haven’t been preparing and measuring your food, you now have a pretty good idea of how much you should be eating and when you should be eating that food. These two simple aspects of nutrition is where I see almost everyone fail when they are trying to manage their weight. I don’t expect people to measure everything that they eat. Just by eating controlled portions for as little as a few weeks, your eye will have a recognition for how much you need and how much is too much. This is what I like to call portion control. Portion control and eating intervals are the key to proper nutrition. Now you have a simple way to learn for your own individual needs both of these. Take control of what most Americans think is almost rocket science. It really isn’t that complicated, at all. It will be even easier with the new 400 calorie menu. Enjoy!!!
06.16.06
 As many of you already know, Mäni’s has used many organic ingredients in our products for years, such as organically grown flours in our fresh baked breads and desserts, pure maple syrup for our multi-grain pancakes, organic palm oil in our baking, organic coffees and teas and other select organic ingredients. But now we’re making a significant committment to using certified organic fruits and vegetables.
So starting next Wednesday, June 21st, the first day of summer, we’ll be launching our new menu and new summer promotion, It’s All About Summer, with organic fruits and vegetables. Your soups, salads, sandwiches and wraps will have all kinds of organic produce and vegetables like arugula, onions, peppers, potatos, zucchini, tomatos, cilantro, collard greens, parsely, lettuce, mushrooms, beets, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, mangos, apples, avocados, bananas, strawberries, spinach, peaches, melons, oranges, papayas, asparagus, kiwi and more! So log back on here next week and we’ll have some promotion to get you started on our new It’s All About Summer theme!!
06.14.06
Incorporating any new change into your life takes a little bit of work. In the beginning it will take a little bit of planning, but before you know it your new eating schedule will become a habit. Because most of us are beings of routine, it won’t take long before eating four to five times a day will be second nature to you. You are going to have to take the initiative to plan atleast some of your meals for the day. This doesn’t mean that you have to physically prepare all or any of your food, but it does mean that you have to be prepared with healthy options. You can pick easy items up at the grocery store, you can take leftovers from dinner the night before, you can buy already prepared meals, etc. Whatever you choose, it is your responsibility to take the few minutes to always have something nutritious available for you to eat. This way you won’t find yourself at the mercy of poor options when it comes time for you to refuel your body. My number one suggestion would be to have a pretty consistent schedule day in and day out for when you eat. This way your eating times will become routine. If you have a consistent time that you eat lunch everyday, it would probably be best to schedule the rest of your meals and snacks around this time. For instance, lets say you eat lunch everyday around 1 o’clock. If this is so, then you are going to want to have a snack around 10 am (3 hrs. before) and have breakfast between 6 and 7 am (3-4 hrs. before your snack). You would do the same thing for your afternoon meals, as well. Since you ate lunch at 1 pm, your mid day snack would ideally be between 4 to 5 pm (this snack is going to be even more important for those individuals that decide to workout in the evening after work) and dinner would be no later than 8 pm. Some people see eating 4 to 5 times throughout the day as an inconvenience. I bet some of these same people don’t have any problem taking 5, 10, or even 15 breaks to smoke a cigarette during the day. Personally, the more times I get to eat during the day the happier I am and the better I feel. Remember that eating more times doesn’t mean eating more food. You have to prioritize what is really important to you. If you are interested in improving your eating habits, incorporating smaller more frequent meals into your day is a pretty small inconvenience (and I am only saying inconvenience because we are talking about just starting this routine, after it becomes routine it will be second nature) for the results it will yield.
06.11.06
The most fundamental aspect of weight management (whether your goal is weight loss, weight gain, or weight maintenance) is understanding how many calories your body burns daily (daily caloric expenditure) and how many calories you consume daily. Knowing your daily caloric expenditure provides you with one of two most important pieces of information for you to work towards your weight management goal. The following link will help you estimate your daily caloric expenditure. Now, in Part 2, I am going to help show you how to calculate the number of calories you consume on a daily basis.
06.07.06
Eat more frequently while increasing your metabolism. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? It is scientifically proven, but people seem to ignore or not believe that it is true. Just think about it for a second, I am telling you that you should be eating at least four if not five times during your day. Yes, you can eat more often while burning more calories without any extra exercise (just imagine what the combination of regular exercise and eating smaller more frequent meals will do to your metabolism). You have to forget the motto of eating three square meals a day. First, you have to understand the food you eat is what provides you with the energy that your body needs to function. Your nutrition is what fuels your body. If you want to function optimally, you need to fuel your body to function optimally. By eating four to five smaller meals every three to four hours throughout the day, your body receives a steady flow of energy that it can run on. The human body is amazingly smart. If your body knows that it is going to be fed every three to four hours, it can keep your metabolism burning in high gear because it is at most four hours from being refueled. The complete opposite happens when your body is used to being fed less frequently. If your body knows that it is not going to be refueled for five or six hours or even longer, it keeps your metabolism on slow to protect against running out of fuel before the next meal. If you go really long between meals, your body will actually turn your metabolism as far down as it can and also store as much of the food away for use later. Storing away energy means one thing, more body fat. Yuck! Why does your body do this? Basically, this is the way that your body protects itself from starvation (the human body has worked this way for thousands of years). All you need to do is take the normal amount of food that you eat everyday and spread it out over four to five feedings. This alone will cause your body to burn more calories over the course of a day. Just remember you are reallocating the same amount of calories that you usually eat throughout the day, not more.
05.29.06
As we get into summer, we will be releasing a new section on our menu. This section of the menu will focus on people who want to monitor their caloric and/or macronutrient intake. What are macronutrients? The short story on macronutrients is simple: they are proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. These special menu items will be around 400 calories with a macronutrient breakdown of 40-50% carbohydrate, 30-40% protein, and 20% fat. The menu is designed around the concept of eating smaller, and more frequent meals: it will encourage eating four or five times throughout the day, divided between main meals and snacks. In addition to eating 4 to 5 smaller meals, it is also encouraged to eat every 3-4 hours. Why? The goal in this type of menu is to keep the blood sugar stable throughout the course of the day.
Benefits to stabilizing your blood sugar
* better concentration throughout the day
* body stores less fat
* increased energy
* less food cravings
* less likely to over-eat
* increased metabolism What would be your goal in this type of plan? There are, for many people, exterior physical goals. Our intention, however, is really to provide a pathway through which our customers live a more balanced life. The new menu will offer a convenient way for you to take control of your health in a fast paced and high-pressure society by taking the guesswork out of restaurant eating. You will not only feel in control of your nutrition, but these items will provide guilt free choices that will taste like indulgences.
01.10.06
In a recent tip on RealAge.com there’s information about Capsaicin, the stuff in chili peppers that gives them heat. Here’s what RealAge.com has to say: Capsaicin, the compound in chili peppers that gives them their heat, may help protect against liver cancer, according to a recent study in which capsaicin helped kill cancerous liver cells. Use hot salsa made with chili peppers to flavor your favorite foods, such as omelets, mixed vegetable dishes, and burritos. It’s the white flesh around the seeds where the heat resides. Read more about capsaicin here.
11.30.05
A tip from RealAge.com stresses once again the benefits of winter squash. Winter squashes such as acorn squash and butternut squash are high in potassium, a mineral your body needs to support cardiovascular, bone, and kidney health.
You can meet your potassium requirements with Mäni's soups this week: Wednesday: SQUASH AND LENTIL Ingredients:
Vegetable Stock, green lentils, Olive Oil, onions, tamari, chili powder, cumin, Kabocha squash, butternut squash, salt, black pepper. Thursday: HOLIDAY SQUASH BISQUE Ingredients:
Vegetable stock, onions, yams, butternut squash, anise star, salt, nutmeg.
08.16.05
If you've been keeping up with all the talk about artificial sweeteners lately, you may have thought of switching to sugar... after all it's natural! You may even be one of those Mäni's customers who - noticing our occasional use of organic evaporated cane juice - commented, saying ..."it's still sugar." "Sugar is sugar!" Have you ever really thought about the process of refining sugar? Most people think it's just about making the sugar whiter by some probably simple process. Well, get ready to catch your jaw as it drops. There's more than you think to the process of sugar refining. So, before you save money and go back to "natural", better read on...
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08.03.05
This week we heard that the Atkins diet company aka Atkins Nutritionals has filed for bankruptcy protection after losing popularity in the low carb diet category. It seems like just yesterday everyone would pass on bread, desserts, pasta, etc in order to be on a low carb diet. Some customers asked us if we would have low carb cookies, cakes and meals. We respectfully declined to be involved in any regimented diet that didn't consist of a well balanced diet from all four food groups: protein, carbs, vegetables/fruit and fat. Because that's what Mäni's is all about. Healthy food, whole grains when possible, less refined ingredients. Carb are important, especially complex carbohydrates. They give us the energy and stimina we need for our active lifestyles. In the mid 90s (yes, we've been doing what people like for 15 years!) there was a low fat craze. It was very similar to the low carb fad, but that's exactly what it was, a fad. Here at Mäni's we've never been too interested in fads or diets, except for one. That's a healthy well balanced diet. Our foods need to be natural, wholesome and nutritious. Often we are asked for nutritional contents, which is understandable. But since we're a small from scratch bakery/restaurant we don't have lab analysis budgets. Our ingredients are always available. And we don't claim them to be part of any special diet. So when people want a healthier meal or bakery item, Mäni's is often the place. Soon there will be another 'in' diet, but we won't cater to that, but we'll be here doing what we do best: Serving up food and baked goods that's good and good for you. Larry
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