Rosanne Rust,MS,RDN

Don't worry too much and don't force them to eat anything, your job is to show them the rainbow of fruits and vegetables that are out there. You can let them dip their veggies into ranch dressing or something like that. If that gets them to eat a little bowl of carrots, it's a winner. But the most important thing for consistency is offering them consistently. You can also add a bit of salt or fat to help absorption if the child has healthy kidneys.
 
Transcript: "What are your thoughts on adding salt or seasoning to veggies so your kids will eat them. Consistently. I love this question as a registered dietitian and a mother of three grown sons, who all have great eating habits and have individual preferences of their own, but they all eat their veggies now. So, my first piece of advice is, don't worry about it too much and don't force them to eat anything, your job as a parent is to offer the food. So your job is to show them the rainbow of fruits and vegetables that are out there. And you might try cutting them in different ways. Maybe they don't like big chunks, maybe they like a smaller dice. Maybe they like their apple or pear sliced and not eating it whole, so play around with those things. But as far as adding salt or seasoning to veggies, you know, it's okay if a child has healthy kidneys, the salt is not really going to be an issue for them to no need to overdo it. You can let them dip their veggies into ranch dressing or something like that. If that gets them to eat a little bowl of carrots, it's a winner. But the most important thing for consistency is offering them, consistently little salt and add fat to my oldest child was adventurous my youngest 80 vegetables until age 10 so it'll be okay. And that fat helps absorption."

The best ingredients for zero waste cooking are canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, canned fish and meats, beans, grains (rice, pasta), eggs, and multi-purpose ingredients such as plain yogurt. Fresh produce and bread products should also be used with a plan in mind - either using them or freezing them.
 
Transcript: "What types of ingredients are best for zero waste cooking? All right, fast list. Canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, they last longer. For protein sources, canned fish, canned meats like chicken and canned beans are also economical and stay on the shelf until they're great in a pinch. When you have fresh food foods around, you have to use them up. So your freezer is your friend when you're embarking on zero waste cooking. Other important ingredients are grains like rice, pasta. They both make a great platform to use up leftover bits of food, fresh food like fresh vegetables. Also eggs are another food waste hero because you can scramble some leftover veggies into an egg and use them up and you have a nutrient-rich meal. And multi-purpose ingredients like plain yogurt are great. You can use it to replace sour cream or you can enjoy it as a snack. Now that's not to say that fresh foods are not allowed in zero waste cooking. They certainly are. Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh meats, but you have to have a plan for them. So part of the zero waste cooking strategy is buying things when you know you can use them or having an alternative like freezing them. You can't freeze all fresh fruits and vegetables. Fresh produce and bread products are the top wasted foods in terms of overall foods wasted. So you want to have a plan for those foods. You certainly can freeze chicken, beef, pork, etc. and use it later. Zero waste cooking is about buying enough and having a plan for what you buy, either using it or storing it properly, freezing it, and wasting less food."

I wanted to start writing cookbooks because I love cooking and food, I have an Italian heritage, and I wanted to make it easier for people to eat nutritiously.
 
Transcript: "What made you want to start writing cookbooks? Well, as a registered dietitian, I realized, you know, partway through my career that no matter how effective of an educator I was, and or how good the advice I was giving to my clients to help them use food as part of the diet therapy for their newly diagnosed disease or their general health, no matter how good that advice was or how effective my communications were, they really want to know what to eat. And, you know, I'm mixing up a big bowl of meatballs right now. So I love to cook. I love to entertain. I love to feed people good food. I have an Italian heritage, so food was a central part of my life. My mother was an excellent cook. And today I'm making some lentils for the new year, along with some little mini meatballs, and I'm gonna saute that with cabbage. So food is more than just nutrition, and it also does support health. So I thought, I'm not a chef, but I grew up cooking and eating a lot of food, and I know some basic techniques. I like making things easy for people, and that's why I started to write cookbooks."

The DASH Diet recommends four to five servings of fruit and vegetables a day, two to three servings of low-fat dairy products, small portions of lean meats, nuts and seeds three to four times a week, and unsaturated fats for cooking.
 
Transcript: "What foods are recommended on the DASH diet? Well, let's look at food groups. The recommendation is four to five servings of fruit a day, four to five servings of vegetables a day. So that's eight to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables, and I'll get back to that. Two to three servings of low-fat dairy products, and then you want to limit your overall sodium intake. You want to choose lean meats, meaning meats that are low in fat and small portions of meat. So about three to four ounces of cooked meat per day. You want to include nuts and seeds in your diet, about three or four times a week, up to five times a week in small portions. And you want to choose unsaturated fats. So cooking oils like olive oil, avocado oil, canola oil, peanut oil, corn oil are all low in saturated fat. So this is a dietary approach that is mostly based on whole foods. Packaged foods tend to be high in sodium, fat, or sugar. And overall, you want to limit the amount of high-fat, high-sugar foods in the diet, you know, maybe five or less per week. So that's those treat foods. So back to the fruits and vegetables. Eight to 10 servings sounds like a lot, and it may be if you're not a fruit and vegetable eater, but it's the potassium and the fiber and all the phytochemicals in those foods that are so important to health. A half a cup is a serving. One banana is two servings. If you enjoy a typical side salad, that's two servings. So it's not as hard as you think to reach that eight to 10 serving goal. Be sure to check out the other questions I answered about Dash."

I wrote a book called Zero Waste Cooking For Dummies which has 100 recipes, but the key to zero waste cooking is learning how to make small substitutions in recipes and use the recipe as a guide. Don't be afraid to experiment with different vegetables, herbs, spices, and protein sources to create dishes that you like.
 
Transcript: "Are there any recipes that focus on zero waste cooking? There certainly are. I wrote a whole book, Zero Waste Cooking for Dummies, and there are a hundred recipes in there. But, and people like recipes, and that's why I'm happy to provide them. However, I think that an important part of zero waste cooking is learning how to not depend on a recipe all of the time. To start picking a few things that you like to make on a regular basis that everyone in your household enjoys and learning how to make small substitutions in recipes and use the recipe as a guide. You don't always have to purchase every ingredient. That's what leads to waste. You want to cook what you like to eat because you're going to consume it and use ingredients that you have on hand. So that might be substituting an herb for a different herb or a spice. Maybe you have plain yogurt and you don't have sour cream. You can make that substitution. A great thing to always Google is what can I substitute this for that with and you'll find answers. But yeah, I wrote a book, Zero Waste Cooking for Dummies. There's lots of recipes in there and it's about using what you have, getting a little creative, not being afraid to experiment a little. You know, when those basic cooking techniques are there, you can substitute different vegetables, herbs, spices, you know, even protein sources into different recipes based on what you have. Don't run to the store every time you read a recipe and literally think you need everything on that list."

The only potential risks associated with the DASH diet are if a person has been instructed to reduce their potassium intake or if they are taking an anticoagulant drug that requires them to keep their diet consistent. It is important to speak to your physician or registered dietitian about any concerns.
 
Transcript: "Are there any risks associated with the DASH diet? Are there any health risks? Not really. The only potential risk would be if a person had some sort of disease, perhaps some severe kidney disease, in which their physician instructed them to reduce the potassium in their diet. DASH diet is a high potassium diet to lower blood pressure. So if you have been told to limit your potassium, then that could be an issue. Another issue, if a person with known heart disease may be on a blood thinner, that requires them to modify foods that are high in vitamin K. Those tend to be leafy greens, also some vegetables. But because it's not really a diet low in vitamin K, the situation there is when a person's prescribed that medication that is an anticoagulant drug, they need to keep their diet consistent so that your physician can maintain the correct dose for that medication. So you should talk to your physician or a registered dietitian about that if you're on a blood thinner. Otherwise, there's really no risk to DASH diet."