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We are one week away from Christmas and what better way to celebrate with Dietetic Directions than by having a dynamic guest blogger!  I am excited to feature Chelsea Allen, Registered Dietitian from Chelsea’s Healthy Kitchen.  I was first drawn to Chelsea’s website by her flare for food with scrumptious, healthy recipes, along with her […]

Season’s Greetings, would you like to try one of our festive coffees?  This is what I imagine the wonderful woman at Starbucks saying to me; instead, she knows that I generally go with the same boring blend.  If you tend to stick with your usual brew, do you ever wonder if you are missing out […]

Canadians are encouraged to limit consumption of added sugar because of the link to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, cancer and cavities.  But is substituting real sugar for artificial sugar the key to better health? Artificial sweeteners do not contain calories and are approximately 200-600 times sweeter than regular sugar; this is bonus […]

Do you spend most of your waking hours sitting?  The sobering answer is that the vast majority of us spend more time sitting than we do sleeping!  It is safe to say that sitting long hours is the new norm.  Many of us have sedentary jobs; we sit commuting, we sit to eat and we sit […]

Each November brings another month of Diabetes Awareness (with World Diabetes Day taking place on November 14th).  To help us in celebrating, I am honoured to feature two dietitians, and friends of mine, from GetReal Gurls Nutrition.  April Saunders and Michelle Saraiva are both Certified Diabetes Educators who debunk nutrition myths, review products and provide […]

Halloween is a time where ghosts, goblins and children in funny or scary costumes roam the streets in search of candy, lots and lots of candy!  Trick-or-treaters are in luck since candy is looming practically everywhere.  Did you know that Halloween has more than double the chocolate sales than Valentine’s Day?  In total, $1.9 billion is […]

Did you know that the name pumpkin comes from the Greek word ‘pepon’, meaning ‘large melon’?  Similarly, pumpkins are technically a fruit because they contain seeds.  In fact, the average pumpkin contains about 500 seeds.  Today, let’s explore the outstanding nutritional profile of pumpkin seeds!   Truly a yearlong superfood! Pumpkin seeds, also known as pepitas, […]

Sweet potatoes and yams – are they the same? This question is not uncommon to overhear people deliberating. In fact, I have over-heard this exact conversation amongst colleagues in the lunchroom, on television and even in the yoga change room! So today, let’s discuss the difference between sweet potatoes and yams. This way, next time […]

Food is amazing!  Truly it is; if it weren’t for food we wouldn’t be alive today. Yet food (in general) is often met with mixed feelings that are not always positive.  Food is often categorized as either “bad” or “good” and often broken down to its chemical components like macro and micronutrients. Today, in honour […]

How Much Should We Be Consuming? Yesterday, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada issued a new position statement recommending adults and children limit the consumption of added sugars to no more than 10% of their daily calorie intake.  This recommendation equates to 12 teaspoons of added sugar daily, which is less than half of […]

The briskness in the air tells us that back-to-school time is fast approaching.  Parents are already finding me in anticipation of making these infamous lunches and expressing understandable concern that they are packing the right foods to meet the nutrition needed for their growing child.  Today, making healthy lunches will get a whole lot simpler […]

Today we will explore common questions I receive on the need for taking vitamin/mineral supplements versus getting your vitamins through your diet. Question 1: Are supplements as effective as foods when it comes to getting adequate nutrition? The benefit of receiving adequate nutrition from wholesome foods is that you also receive an abundance of other […]