Rosanne Rust,MS,RDN

To have a zero waste kitchen, check your garbage can, pantry and refrigerator for items that could be contributing to food waste. Ensure that your kitchen is organized and food is stored properly to reduce the amount of food that is thrown away.
 
Transcript: "What are some zero waste kitchen tips? Alright, so when you're starting to embark on the idea of having a zero waste kitchen, I really want you to kind of back up and start by giving a little once over to your kitchen. First, look in your garbage can. What do you typically throw away that may be leftover food from a restaurant takeout or are you throwing away vegetables, fresh vegetables or fruits that you just never got around to eating? So take a look at that and take note. Next, head over to your pantry. Check out what's in there. You know, do you have enough food to feed an army? Are you stocking up as if you still have a large household and now there's only two of you? Or do you tend to just buy too much? That might lead to food waste. Third, check your refrigerator. What's going on in there? Is it organized? Do you have things just sort of willy nilly stored all over the place? Are there things in there that are outdated or starting to spoil? Can you see what's in there? It's really important to learn how to store your food properly in order to reduce the food that you throw away. So it sometimes can be a matter of having too much in your kitchen at once that you really can't use in the amount of time that it's before it goes bad and not really having it organized in a way or stored properly that's going to help reduce food waste. So there'll be more to come on this topic. Hope those tips help."

When looking at food labels, you want to limit your intake of saturated fat and avoid trans fats. You can usually assume that if the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are not listed, all the fat in the product is unsaturated. Coconut oil and palm oil are both saturated fats and should be avoided.
 
Transcript: "Are there healthy and unhealthy fats in the same category on food labels? And how can I know what fats to eat? All right, so you want to limit your saturated fat. Saturated fat is related to heart disease, cognitive decline, some forms of cancer. So when you look on a food label, you will see total fat. That's the total amount of fat. Underneath it, you will at least see saturated fat. So that gives you an idea. This food, these are some pistachio nuts, 13 grams of fat, only 1.5 of those is saturated fat. And then trans fats, you want to avoid those too. They're zero. Sometimes, like on this food label, it's backwards, it will include polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. But not every food will include that entire breakdown. Like this particular bar only includes the total fat and the saturated fat and then zero trans fats. Trans fats are banned. They put that on some labels, but we aren't allowed to use trans fats in food processing anymore anyway. Here are some crackers, 4.5 grams of total fat, but zero grams of saturated fat, zero grams of trans fat. So if there's no saturated fat and the polyunsaturated or the monounsaturated is not listed, then you can assume that all of the fat in that product is unsaturated. You want to limit saturated fats and unsaturated fats are your best choice. And one quick note about coconut oil. Coconut oil is saturated. Palm oil and coconut oil are both saturated fats. I personally do not recommend using them and try to avoid products with them."

The most important thing when it comes to educating and empowering clients to make healthy choices is to establish trust and rapport with them. Focus on small goals and progress, not perfection. Follow up regularly, and be patient with them as they learn and grow.
 
Transcript: "How do you work with clients to educate and Empower them to make healthy choices on their own? Well disclosure, I currently don't see clients. However, I have over by 35 year career seen a lot of clients most recently. I did some work doing online nutrition coaching. The first thing you have to do is establish Rapport and get some buy-in from the client. You listen you don't tell Tell them what to do, and clients have to be ready. They have to be at that stage of change where they're ready to take action and you have to meet them where they are, and there's going to have to be some follow-up. This is not a one-and-done, kind of deal. And you have to understand. It's hard to make healthy choices every day. So I like to focus on small goals, small steps, progress, not perfection,"

We don't know how genetics affect what we should consume yet, as nutrigenomics is a fairly new science. We do know that if you have a family history of certain diseases, then it's likely that you have a higher risk to develop those diseases as well. However, even if we did know what foods would be best for our genetic makeup, it would still come down to making the right food choices and changing our behaviors.
 
Transcript: "So, nutrigenomics is the study of how diet and nutrition affects gene expression. So the question is, how do genetics affect what we should consume? We don't really know yet. Nutrigenomics is a fairly new science and there are a lot of factors that may affect our gene expression, you know, environmental factors as well as genetic factors. So the answer is, we're not sure. We do know that if you have a family history of certain diseases, then it's likely that you have a higher risk to develop those diseases as well. But the science is just not there yet to firmly say, this is your genetic makeup and this is what you should eat. We're just not there yet. There is some testing that's out there and it may show how you metabolize different foods or, you know, someone may be a carbohydrate burner and someone else may have a more difficult time burning carbohydrate. Someone may metabolize caffeine faster or slower than another. So you know, that person that metabolizes caffeine quickly is the one who can drink a cup of coffee at four o'clock and not be affected. But we're just not there yet. And even if we did know, you know, what foods would be best for our genetic makeup, as humans, we would still have to change our behavior or make those food choices. And it all comes down to behavior. That's the tricky part. So the science just isn't there yet. And we don't really know."

All salt is 98% sodium chloride, but the size of the crystals and the amount of sodium per teaspoon varies. For example, kosher salt has about 100 mg less sodium than table salt. Iodized salt has iodine added to it for dietary needs. We can also get iodine from food sources like yogurt and eggs.
 
Transcript: "Salt. What are the differences in the various types of salt available such as table salt, sea salt, pink Himalayan salt, iodized salt, we could add kosher salt to this. Well, first off, they are all sodium chloride. They have to be 98% sodium chloride to be called a salt. As far as taste, they're going to have a slightly different flavor profile, but as I said, they're all sodium chloride. Things like the Himalayan salt or sea salt might have some trace minerals, but that's very insignificant. What is significant is the amount of sodium. A teaspoon of kosher salt has about 100 milligrams less sodium than a teaspoon of table salt, and that's simply the physical difference in the crystals. So you can use a little, if you want less sodium in your diet, we're only supposed to have 2,300 milligrams a day, using a little kosher salt in your cooking is one way to control your sodium intake. A quick note on iodized salt. Iodine is added to table salt when it's labeled iodized, and it does provide some of the iodine we need in our diets, but we also get iodine from fish and dairy products like yogurt and milk and also eggs."

Dairy is not inflammatory for everyone, but low-fat and probiotic dairy might have less of an inflammatory response.
 
Transcript: "Is dairy inflammatory for everyone. This is a great question because there's a lot of misinformation around the idea of foods being inflammatory, inflammation can be a good thing. Like when you cut yourself or you burn your tongue on on pizza, hot pizza, your body's response is inflammatory as part of the healing process. But what we're talking about here is chronic inflammation. We do know that saturated fat, which would be found in whole fat, dairy products, and higher amounts, can be inflammatory. But as far as dairy and particular, the evidence is simply inconclusive. We don't have enough evidence to show that Dairy affects everyone in the same way. Low-fat, Dairy, likely has a less inflammatory response. Yogurt might be anti-inflammatory due to the probiotics. The short answer is no."