A sheet of paper with Mindfulness written on it

Always Eating? Part 1: Nutrition

I have been a registered dietitian for 30 years and keep up to date on recently published literature so rest assured, my suggestions are evidence-based! Let’s evaluate a common situation that individuals encounter. “I can’t stop eating….I’m always eating.“ To really unpack this, we have to look at the interplay between nutrition, self-care and coping […]

Bowls of berries and cut up vegetables

Five Tips to Eat Smart When Working From Home

COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented times that have left many of us working from home for several weeks in a row. These unpredictable times have added anxiety and stress for many people and eating smart to stay healthy gets challenging in such situations. I have personally been struggling with staying on top of my healthy […]

Fruit in a grocery display

Shopping for Fruits and Vegetables During a Pandemic

When you have the luxury of going to the store often, shopping for fruits and vegetables is not that big of a deal, you just buy what you need for the next few days. But, what if you are trying to shop just once in a while and stay home as much as possible as […]

A metal water bottle with a blue and white pattern

Is your water bottle making you sick?

The “green” trend of folks having a refillable water bottle as opposed to drinking so many disposable bottles of water is great. Less plastic bottles in the landfill. However, I recently sat in a meeting beside a water table and watched people refill their bottles all day. I was horrified to count the number of […]

a child reaching up to get a strawberry off of the counter

Children Eating Healthy in NC

Convincing young children to try and eat fresh fruits and vegetables can be challenging. However, Kiddie Academy, a child care center in New Hanover County, has found a way to get its children and staff to not only try a variety of fruits and vegetables, but to expect and demand them at the breakfast and […]

HOW You Think About Stress Matters

We often consider stress as our enemy because we know that being stressful affects our body, our thoughts, feelings, and our moods. Unchecked stress is also known to cause chronic health conditions as high blood pressure, heart diseases, obesity, and diabetes. According to the health psychologist Kelly McGonical, how you think about stress matters; and […]

how to cook

5 Essential Rules of Cooking

Now that we have our new Dinah E. Gore Teaching and Research Kitchens on NC State Campus, I have been doing more culinary training including our Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes Cooking School. Working to help others be better cooks always makes me a better cook and helps me analyze what is important in […]

Cook More, Waste Less

Last summer, I challenged myself and my husband to add more fruits and vegetables to ALL our meals, not just dinner. This summer I challenged myself and my husband to try to not waste any of the vegetables or fruit we bought. This came after finding a particularly slimy cucumber in the back of our […]

An Instant Pot on a counter

Why the Instant Pot is My Favorite Kitchen Appliance

For many of us, Black Friday shopping is as much a part of our Thanksgiving tradition as the turkey is. Whether you are out at 5 AM shopping on Black Friday, or online shopping from home on Cyber Monday, take advantage of the sales and buy an Instant Pot! You may have heard of the […]

What We Can Learn From the Longest Living People in the World

There are several places in the world where living to be over 100, with a healthy body and mind is the norm. Deemed, the Blue Zones, these rare longevity hotspots around the world are located specifically in Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece), and Loma Linda, CA (US). National geographic journalist, Dan […]