Furn El Sabaya - Savoring Every Bite!

I am finally going to tell you about my favorite place to eat at when having a long beach and bicycling day in the North of Lebanon: Furn El Sabaya. I pass by this place at least twice per month and I decided, just now especially that we are still revolting for real food (Food Revolution Day), that this place is too yum not to mention here!

Furn El Sabaya is not just another furn in Lebanon, it's different. It serves real clean delicious and best of it all, home-made food. The sabaya actually make their own kechek, harvest their own pumpkins, make their own thyme and harvest seasonal wild herbs for their pies. I had the chance to meet Lorenza, Martha and Lucy today, the 3 'sabaya' working there and asked them briefly about the history, concept, food offered and activities in their furn.

History and Concept - The ladies started the furn in Amchit (just after Byblos, Lebanon) 19 years ago because they craved to make their own bread, clean, real, authentic with whole wheat, and wanted to have actual control over the quality of the food they eat. Lorenza and Martha have 3 more sisters while Lucy is their cousin, hence the name 'Furn El Sabaya' in Arabic meaning 'The Ladies' Oven' in English.

Foods offered - As I said, this is no ordinary furn. This actually took me a while to write down as I asked the ladies what the place offered. They have a section for foods and pies

Cheese and thyme manakish!

commonly sold, No.1-asked-for meals section, a vegan one and a healthy sweets section.

• Commonly sold food - Manakish (thyme, cheese, labne, home-made keshek, minced meat), pizzas and pies
• 'No.1-asked-for meals' - Mouwaraqa, such a delicious sweet pastry with sugar and chopped walnuts and almonds (You really have to check the video to know what I'm talking about. I unfortunately inhaled the one I got today and forgot to take a photo!), sesame & sugar man2ouche, pumpkin kebbe, and egg-like quiche.
• The healthy/vegan section
  - Furn El Sabaya has a vegan section offered as both meals in their furn as well as raw & frozen for home use. The seitan meat, wheat-based vegan meat substitute, is cooked into shawarma meat strips, meat-like manakish (lahem b aajin) and sold as minced meat pies on site. Vegan kebbe, sambousek, burger patties, minced/cubed meats for stews and meat strips for shawarma or stroganoff meals are on the other hand frozen and can be bought for home use.
  - This section also has cold-pressed thyme mankouche done with no oil prior to baking to avoid the formation of the oils' free radicals once subjected to heat, then olive oil is added afterwards.
  - Vegan pizza with broccoli, sweet corn, bell pepper and tofu.
  - Vegan pumpkin (which they grow by the way) pies stuffed with spinach, chard and seasonal wild greens with chickpeas.
  - And last but not least, pies made with spinach, purslane, wild greens like 7omayda or qors aane, Swiss chard, and the list goes on varying with seasons!
  
  Best part of it that all dough is whole-wheat!
  Now the reason why this place has a vegan section is, yes, the ladies are vegetarian and so is the whole family. I mean I had to ask why they had this section given that it's not that common in the country. They first started by preparing their own vegetarian/vegan meals for home use, but Lorenza said that people loved the vegan food and asked for more so they simply started selling them!

Watching Martha as she prepares delicious purslane pies.

I'm definitely visiting Tuesday's Earth Market to try these!

Spinach pies and pumpkin kebbe

• The last section is their healthy sweets - This section is not available unless you pre-order it. All sweets are free of added sugars, free of sweeteners or sugar substitutes as well as free of dairy and eggs, you know, vegan! It includes molasses cake, carrot cake, apple cake, chocolate cupcake, maamoul (no butter with either dates, almonds or walnuts) and choco dates (chocolate chunks made out of cocoa and dates).

Last but not least, these ladies are active! They have catered brunches/lunches at their shop, seminars and conferences, they have taken part in food exhibitions done at Terra Madre day at AUB, Byblos International Festival, Biel's national food exhibition as well as they are part of Slow Food Beirut's weekly Earth Market. They always advocate healthy, authentic and real Lebanese food.

Long story short today we had pumpkin kebbe, vegan shawarma, vegan pizza with tofu & broccoli, kechek pies and mouwaraqa! And to be honest, I have really savored more than 75 % of the foods this place has to offer over few years, I am a real fan! Whenever I go to the beach, go bicycling, go road-trip-ing or I'm invited to a breakfast, I pass by this place to get some 'goodness'!

So given that I inhaled my Mouwaraqa and forgot to take a photo of it,
this one was taken by Myculinaryjourneythroughlebanon.blogspot.com
I promise I will take my own when I visit the Earth Market.

So just in case you want to have some of the yummy food, they open from 7.30 am till 2 pm every single day in Amchit (Lebanon) sea side while on Tuesdays, one of the ladies visits the Earth Market in Hamra to sell the place's goodies!

Eating Healthy When You're On the Road

Whether you are on vacation or you are traveling for business, you know how hard it can be to eat well. One of the ways in which we take care of ourselves is to eat well, and though we think about staying safe and securing our belongings when we are on the road, we seldom think about what we are putting in our bodies. The food that you can get on the road is often full of fat, salt and sugar, leaving your body tired and weary and getting in the way of planned activities. Therefore, you need to be conscious in making right healthy decisions.

Be Wary of the Airports

Not only is airport food overpriced, but it is also terribly unhealthy for you. Airports rely

Pre-packed fast food at airports
Photo credit: Gabbyandlaird.com

on people being hungry, tired, in a rush and uninterested in worrying too much about the food choices in front of them. Most food choices are from fast food restaurants: packed, ready-to-eat, with large amounts of additives and preservatives. Make sure that you eat a healthy balanced meal before you head to the airport. Eat a full meal; just make sure that it is relatively light. A meal with a lot of vegetables and fruit will keep you in good shape while you are trying to make your flight! During connection flights, keep your intake of airport food moderate, ditch all greasy croissants, high cheese sandwiches, sugar-loaded coffees, creamy dips and deep-fried foods.

Choose Your Restaurant Carefully

When you are the road, make it a point to avoid places that serve a wide variety of fried food. Fried food is high in grease, and a single meal can run you up to a thousand calories if you are not careful. Look for menus that offer green salads/tossed greens with grilled white meats and meat alternatives. Fish restaurants, especially those offering steamed fish are a good choice. One strategy to use when you are looking at a menu is to look into appetizers, as they are portion controlled. Middle Eastern restaurants can be a good choice, especially if you are looking at hummus with pita and vegetables. In addition, sharing meals can be a good strategy to taste local cuisines while sparing the extra pounds. Try to have filling meals to decrease uncontrolled snacking during the day and when snacking, try new local fruits instead of high sugar/fat snacks.

A balanced meal: Hummus, pita and vegetables
Photo credit: Exclusivelyfood.com.au

Finding healthy hotels and restaurants can often be a difficult task, especially when you are in unfamiliar areas. I have found that reading reviews online from other experienced travelers is the best way to gain knowledge and find the right places for you. I most recently found a great site that listed reviews for Las Vegas hotels that not only had great reviews regarding the amenities and services offered, but also provided an abundance of reviews regarding the restaurants in the surrounding area. This made it so much easier to not only pick the right hotel for me, but to also plan out which restaurants that I could visit to eat both nutritiously and deliciously while in the buffet ridden Sin City.

Skip the Alcohol

When you are on vacation, it is easy to have a few extra drinks because you are having a great time. If you are on business, you may feel that you need to unwind at the end of a busy day. The problem is that alcohol, in cocktail or dry form, is full of empty calories and it adds up so quick! Alcohol also spares fat burning and leaves your body dehydrated, draining all your energy! Make sure that you refuse the key to the minibar in the room and that you skip the hotel bar. When you go out with people, stick with ginger ale or an intriguing exotic fresh fruit juice.

Cooking

If it is in your budget, think about choosing a hotel room that has a kitchen in it. If you are willing to cook while you are on the road, make sure that you take the time to shop at the supermarkets for healthy ingredients and snacks. Fruit, vegetables and low calorie snacks are best, such as cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, apples, bananas, soaked almonds or walnuts. Not only will this save you money, you will find that this can keep your calorie count low as you will feel full between meals. If you decide not to get a room with a kitchen, instead bring along a crock-pot or a toaster oven. This allows you to prepare hot food, which mitigates the need to go out and get restaurant food.

Take a moment to consider how you can stay healthy when you are traveling. It will sure pay off when you are full of energy during your trip and it only takes a little bit of consideration and conscious preparations.

This post is by the guest blogger, Cole Millen>> Blog: Colemill.blogspot.com

Cole Millen is an avid traveler and foodie who never forgets that life's best memories are made through real life apprehension of legitimate "experiences." Some people plan a trip to "get away," while others realize benefit of adding something greater to their current repertoire of knowledge, thought and emotion. Through his writings, Cole hopes to influence the earlier, and connect with the latter.

Healthy Ice Cream - Strawberry, Cashew or Chocolate Flavor?

I'm still munching on healthy snacks this may and this time it was ice cream time.

I looked up healthy ice cream recipes and found a one-ingredient ice cream only made from bananas! This was intriguing to try as it was totally healthy and I get to have my snack and fruit serving in the same time, win-win!

So the whole process is easy and it can be mixed up with different flavors, with one base of course - bananas. Therefore, I decided to have mine chocolate flavored, my sis wanted strawberry ice cream and my friend wanted his plain with cashews chops.

Ingredients
For 3 servings, each with a different flavor

• 6 medium bananas
• 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons liquid unsweetened milk (I went for unsweetened rice milk)
• 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 frozen strawberries
• 8 raw unsalted cashews

Instructions

Chop bananas into coins and freeze
those little babies

Banana ice cream base

• Start by chopping all the bananas into small coins and freeze them for few hours (I froze mine for 5 hours).
• When your bananas are frozen, toss the 6 of them into your food processor, add 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract, add 4 tablespoons of rice milk and blend till you get a smooth creamy texture. This should probably take just a few minutes!
  >> Now we have our ice cream base which I divided into 3, given that we each wanted a different flavor.

Cashew chops with plain
banana ice cream

For a plain ice cream with cashew chops

• Slightly grind the cashews into tiny chops.
• Mix them with 1 banana ice cream serving.
  * Any kind of nut/nut butter can be mixed with the banana ice cream: cashew, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, coconut flakes/chops - You name it! 

Strawberry banana flavor

For a strawberry flavored ice cream

• Get 6 fresh strawberries, wash, chop and freeze them for 2-3 hours.
• Once frozen, blend them pretty well with your base banana ice cream and garnish with some fresh strawberries.
  * Any kind of fruit can be tossed in here as well! Raspberry, blackberries, mango, kiwi, lemon, apricots - I mean summer is here and the fruit season is about to bloom.

And my favorite, chocolate!

For a chocolate flavored ice cream

• Mix the plain banana ice cream with 2 teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and that's it! This was my favorite by the way!
  * You can also mix your base with instant coffee powder or cinnamon as well.

And after preparing your flavored banana ice cream >> Freeze for few hours till solid. All flavors are easy, healthy and icy - perfect for a summer treat!

The 'Taste Lebanon' Project - Delicious Lebanon Revealed

First of May happens to be towards the very end of Mangroves-season, in which you can still harvest these tiny shrubs you see off the shores of Lebanon. We usually buy mangroves' pickled leaves, my dad seems to love them with everything and enjoy them with anything that includes lentils. So this year, I decided to go harvest those shrubs and pickle my own! We went off to the coastal shores of Amchit, North of Lebanon. Many seem to harvest the leaves as shrubs were harvested already, but we managed to find our own. There are different types of mangroves shrubs, we got lucky with some of the semi-immersed ones, those that tolerate salty tidal seawater twice per day.

Nevertheless, this post is not about my mangroves hunting, it's more about our after-harvesting part of the day. We passed by Furn El Sabaya in Amchit, which deserves its own post soon, and bumped into Bethany Kehdy with a small group of tourists. So you see this tiny post is about the amazing (and might I add fun) work Bethany is doing in giving an excellent image about the culinary & cultural life of Lebanon. I have followed Bethany on twitter, kept myself busy with her recipes on Dirty Kitchen Secrets and checked her updates on food blogging conferences, Food Blogger Connect, but the best part of it all is her Taste Lebanon project.

In case you're not familiar with what Taste Lebanon's aim is, this is it.

Bethany Kehdy cooking
Courtesy of MidEats

We were having some fatayer (Lebanese good spinach pies) when Bethany and 3 tourists came in. She introduced them to the place and ordered the place's specials. The group enthusiastically watched how food was prepared and took photos as Bethany explained the whole procedure, what ingredients went in, the way of cooking as well as the cultural background of the food, all in English.

>> That's what Bethany does in Taste Lebanon. She highlights the good, delicious side of Lebanon to tourists from all over the world. Bethany guides tourists on a 7-day culinary trip all over Lebanon. The tours are private, as you see the group we met were just 3. It's a combination of a fun, cultural and super delicious trip. 

Few of the places/food you'll get to experience touring Taste Lebanon [And I got these just by recapping FEW reviews on Taste Lebanon! You might wanna click on those links and check their latest youtube video for savory food!]

Pita bread making
By DKS

- Falafel making and tasting
- Touristic visits to Baalbeck ruins then heading back to mountain wineries
- Fish markets, seafood restaurants and of course, swimming!
- Beehives and honey making
- Saj bread preparation
- Lebanese sweets making (such as baklava, middle eastern pastries & mwaraqa)
- Wild-thyme farms (that I've never been to)
- Lunches with full Lebanese meze
- Authentic chicken and kebab lunches
- Breakfast options you can have in Lebanon >> labne, manakich, croissants, yum!
- Ice cream tasting
- Arak tasting
- Kaak making
- Maamoul making
- Pita bread making
- Orange flower water making
- Beef/lamb meat market / Sheep for dinner!
- Kibbe preparation (I'm sure by now you know you'll taste those too!)
- And the best of all, tours around old authentic Lebanese old souks and street markets!

If you love learning about and tasting good food, you will be drooling. I couldn't but link all those photos. You can check David Lebovitz posts on his latest tour with Bethany and many more here. I couldn't stop reading the tourists feedback about how easy it was to go around the whole country with Bethany while having all the amazing culinary experiences I haven't had in my own country, makes me want to re-organize my to-do list! Of course, there's a lot to do in such a short period of time so not all the culinary trips I mentioned can fit into one visit I guess. As Bethany explains, tours may differ from one time to another.
All I know is that if I were a tourist, I would want to have this delicious trip. So if you know similar (as cool & as delicious!!) trips around Europe or Asia, I beg thee to link me!

My Healthy Homemade Peanut Butter

I assume they mean something extraordinary,
especially that the brain creates new neural pathways with new experiences!
However, cooking new (easy) recipes and exploring the healthier side of snacks are on my to-do list.

Still 'revolting for food' with the Food Revolution Day coming up on the 17th of May, I'm creating my own homemade peanut butter for the first time! 

I love peanut butter, it's delicious, creamy, nutty and in the same time a healthy snack! Of course, it's caloric dense but in the same so rich in nutrients! Peanuts provide you with the good kinda fat, monounsaturated ones, along with minerals (copper, magnesium, manganese, iron), vitamins (E, B6, folate, niacin) and antioxidants (p-coumaric acid & resveratrol).

Sugar and hydrogenated vegetable
oil are major ingredients in
commercial peanut butter!

It has been a while since I last had peanut butter so I went shopping! Nevertheless while shopping for peanut butter, I couldn't help but notice most were super processed with hydrogenated fats and sugars. 

So I decided to make my own. Turns out, the 'recipe' is super easy. I got raw unsalted peanuts, dry roasted them in the oven, blended them and voila. It's really this simple! The whole process took around 20 minutes tops. 

Ingredients

• 400 grams raw peanuts (depending on how much you want to make)
• A pinch of salt, honey, molasses or unsweetened cocoa powder, if desired

Instructions

• Spread the raw peanuts evenly in a pan and roast in your oven for around 8 minutes. Stir the mix mid-way. You can make the butter with raw peanuts, but roasting really enhances the flavor!
• Blend the roasted nuts in your food processor (Steps 2 through 8) for 10 to 12 minutes.
  > Make sure not to blend them for straight 12 minutes, it might burn your food processor;s motor. 1-2 minutes per spin will do.
  > Don't worry about adding any extra oil. Once crushed, the peanuts release their own oils, softening the blend.
  > After every spin, briefly scrap down the mix with a spoon.
• I wanted mine crunchy so I took few tablespoons from step 3 and mixed them with the final peanut butter product (Step 9).
• I added a pinch of salt throughout the whole process. I don't like mine sweet so I didn't have to add any honey. So this depends on your taste buds!
• Place your healthy peanut butter in a container and refrigerate. Now note that given its natural peanut butter with no emulsifiers, you will notice that the oil will slightly separate to the top when stored. Just stir it a bit before use.

So my healthy May after-workout snack was peanut butter with bananas and crushed hazelnuts. Quick, easy, satisfies my cravings and healthy!

My next butter, probably next month, will be cashews butter, rich and creamy!

Easy Kiwi-Coconut Overnight Oatmeal with Homemade Coconut Milk!

What will you be doing to 'Revolt for Food'?
www.jamiesfoodrevolution.com

I'm in this phase where all my snacks should be additive-free, colorants-free, sugar substitutes-free, dairy-free, trans/hydrogenated fat free, with no added refined sugars, minimally processed, seriously healthy and yum! So I decided to challenge myself in making 100% healthier snacks this May, especially that on the 17th, it's Food Revolution Day! I'll be making my own homemade healthy snacks every weekend this month - all from scratch!

My first snack can be a filling breakfast or a good afternoon snack, my Kiwi-Coconut Overnight Oatmeal.

So given that I decided to blend kiwi with coconut in this snack, I can't use any nut milk, it

must be coconut coconut milk, but alas, all were canned with added stabilizers and emulsifiers. I'm not really familiar with coconut milk, but I've heard it's really good in desserts, hence I had no idea we did not have any non-canned, non-processed versions in this country. With the no processed food policy, I decided to make my own. This was pretty easy and took 10 minutes tops! I got unsweetened dried finely shredded coconut, pulsed them in my blender with warm-boiling water (to make sure the fats are extracted from the coconut shreds) and squeezed drained the coconut milk in a nut-milk bag! You can add pure vanilla extract, berries, cinnamon or coconut powder to the milk, but I wanted mine plain. Pretty easy & I got the 'how' part from Perry's Plate!

So now back to the overnight oatmeal. The whole concept behind overnight oatmeal is dedicated to people in a rush especially in the morning. They are usually prepared one day ahead & they're fluffier, thicker (because the oats and milk soak together overnight) and served cold.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned or rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 medium kiwi
• 1 tsp unsweetened dried shredded coconut
• 6 soaked almonds

Instructions

• The whole concept is to stir in all ingredients together and refrigerate overnight. However, my sister wanted a different 'flavor', so I only mixed the rolled oats with the coconut milk together and refrigerated them.
• The next morning I mixed mine with kiwi slices, soaked almonds (just because I like how crunchy these are) and shredded coconut while my sister mixed hers with blackberries, bananas and raw cashews.

You can actually check lots of good overnight oatmeal recipes here, the base is kind of the same, oats with your choice of milk/yogurt but the rest differs! How to 'garnish' overnight oatmeal options is infinite between adding pure vanilla extract, cinnamon, chia seeds, flaxseeds, ginger, nutmeg, cocoa nibs, unsweetened cocoa powder, almonds, walnuts, cashews, peanut butter, macademia or dried shredded coconut with your choice of in-season dried or fresh fruit. Easy, quick, icy, healthy and delicious!

So what will you do to get involved in the upcoming Food Revolution Day??

Cheese Burgers Fight Cancer - Yeah Right!

I went into a burger store yesterday, only to find them hanging this cut magazine article beautifully framed on their wall!

At first, you would be like YEY! But NO.

So what the writers of this article did is:

• They linked a study that showed that Menaquinone, a type of vitamin K, can aid the body in preventing tumor development and decrease 28 % of cancer mortality. 
• Then they continued to suggest that since menaquinone is found in red meat (as well as frankfurters, salami, pepperoni, pork meat, cream cheese, chicken, corndogs, KFC chicken and so forth)
  >> THEN consequently your burger is "your weapon of choice" against cancer!
• They continue to advise that you can have their lovely red wine to help 'steer' your body against cancer

These simply are incomplete scientific facts.

It's like suggesting that because chocolate contains cocoa [which has antioxidant capacity] then you can go for chocolate to fight off unwanted cell mutations and cancer!

So let's state some "Red meat VS. Cancer" updates:

• Consumption of red meat is association with an increased risk of mortality, cardiovascular diseases and cancer - JAMA International Medicine
• Having red meat [like beef, pork, lamb and hamburgers] increased the chances of premature death by 13 % - Harvard Health Publications
• Dietary proteins and dietary iron in red meat are linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer - Science Daily
• Consumption of processed meats increased premature death by 44 % - Medlineplus
• Eating lots of red meat will increase the risk of kidney cancer - Reuters
• Increased risk of prostate cancer as well - Oxford Journals [Red meat is on a roll here!]
• Ovarian and Uterine Cancer as well - American Cancer Society
• Another increase in 12-17% of colorectal cancer! - CEBP Journals and another study shows an increase of 20 % of colon cancer - Harvard Health Publications
• And a possible increase in Stroke and CVD on another note - American Heart Association Journals

And yet the meat industry, particularly Janet Riley from the American Meat Institute, suggests that all these studies are just "statistical noise". The "Meat and Livestock Association" also believe that all this fuss about meat is unnecessary. It's weird how consistent this noise seems to be! 

Of course, adapting an unhealthy lifestyle is a major factor in cancer and premature death risk. Having a "Western" lifestyle, junk food, processed food, refined sugar, high intake of alcohol, low intake of fruits, veggies and fiber along with detrimental behavioral factors like low physical activity, smoking and obesity will definitely affect your cancer risk.

Bottom Line: 

Swapping red meat with another source of protein is best advised to reduce your risk of early death - Cancer Research UK! You can check here what the American Cancer Society advises to cut down your cancer risk for red meat is ONE factor among many - but still a controllable & changeable risk factor for that matter given that 43 % of deaths associated with red meat can be prevented by cutting it down!
If you wish to have your red meat burger once in a while, make sure the meat is not fried, even pan-fried, nor chargrilled. Broiling, baking or poaching meats is the safest!

So, having more red-meat free days is a must! Have plant based protein sources like beans, legumes, & nuts as well as fish, chicken and low fat dairy would still be a better bet for you than any red meat [beef, pork, lamb] and processed meat! - Harvard Health Publications

Money TALKS - When Food Companies Dictate What "Healthy" Is!!

Almost all what we learn as dietitians in Lebanon is based on books, studies, courses and articles all funded/made by the USA. And consequently almost all LDs [Licensed Dietitians, what we are called after we complete our BS, internship & colloquium exam held at the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health] in Lebanon are "taught" to look up to RDs [Registered Dietitians, what American/Canadian dietitians are called after they complete their BS, internship & register in the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics] - you know, given that AND & the USDA decide what we are "taught" is healthy or not.

Well, Michele Simon - Public Health attorney & president of Eat, Drink, Politics  - has hit AND with an eye-opening report just this month: And Now a Word from Our Sponsors: Are America’s Nutrition Professionals in the Pocket of Big Food?

AND's loyal sponsors
Source: Michele Simon's report

What is intriguing is AND's sponsors who may influence AND's 74,000 members [RDs], hence the message they spread about health!
Among AND's sponsors are [just to name a few]

• National Dairy Council
• National Cattleman's Beef Association
• ConAgra
• General Mills
• Kellogg's
• Coca-Cola
• Pepsi Co.
• Nestle
• Mars
• Abbott
• Hershey's
• Krafts Foods 

And yes, all are approved companies to give continuing education courses to AND members! Page 12 in the report gives you a small glimpse on how continuing education courses offered by Coca-Cola 'professionals' convey that sugar is harmless to kids!

What's even more interesting is that in Lebanon, we do the same!
MONEY TALKS! Oldways, Coca-Cola and Abbott have sponsored the very 3 last conferences held by the the Lebanese Association for Nutrition and Food Sciences [LANFS, soon to be renamed to LAND, Lebanese Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics - the only association for Licensed Dietitians in Lebanon]

Back in April 2011 for instance, Oldways ["A nonprofit food and nutrition education organization, with a mission to guide people to good health through heritage" as their website notes], hosted a conference in association with the LANFS and the American University of Beirut about " Basics of Balanced and Sensible Nutrition".

I remember Coca-Cola had few talks in this conference concerning how their drinks could be incorporated in a healthy diet to ensure proper hydration, that their caramelized added colors are non-cancerous and that sugar does not contribute to obesity! Everybody who attended was frustrated for days afterwards, thank god for some critical thinking!
I was able to retrieve the conference's program from AUB's website, and cropped Coca-Cola's talks!

Now the LANFS makes sure that sponsoring companies do not interfere with the content of the speakers it invites, yet succumbs to the sponsors' talks. Advertising that sodas could contribute to one's usual hydration is not OK, but this false message was direct & attendees found it easy to detect the marketing techniques. But what about hidden messages that most of us dietitians are programmed not to detect! It's pathetic to let big food companies influence what healthy recommendations are! Huge companies influence huge health associations like AND which influence everything we are taught to teach! We are being taught what to convey to the public by what US gigantic food companies require us to market! Most dietitians here let their clients have diets sodas in their diets (Coca-Cola/PepsiCo.), preach to have 3 servings of dairy products per day (as per the Dairy Council's advise of course/ although more studies are decreasing this recommendation to a maximum of 1 serving/day post coming soon) & require them to have lean red meat as a good source of protein (Beef Council) - just to name a few!

It's about time we think for ourselves & check different schools than "those funded by food companies"!  The report is a must read for all dietitians, for most of us recommend BLINDLY what the USDA & AND dictate. There's no major research done in Lebanon, and those done are funded by Mama Food Companies like Nestle & Coca-Cola. So we base our studies on AND's work which are apparently taking their OK from bigger Mama companies. The chain seems corrupted. So research more for yourself & look up different schools. There's no harm in knowing the 2 sides of this major story and THEN decide for yourself - with critical thinking - what real food and healthy is!

A magic pill exists after all!

If you want to decrease your risk of

• Arthritis by 47 %
• Dementia and Alzheimer's by 50 %
• Diabetes by 58 %
• 41 % of hip fracture if you're post-menopausal
• Anxiety by 48 %
• Depression by 30-47 %
• 23 % of death
• Fatigue
• Cancer

Watch Dr. Mike Evan's 10-minute awesome video to get your magic pill!

References: 

CBC News

Winter Exercising, the right way!

Nancy Clark is a complete sports nutrition genius [most of the times]! So I'm reading a lot of her work, articles & books lately!

When the temperature drops outside, the last thing we want to do is get detached from the warmth of our homes; however, given that I vowed to increase my physical activity this year and that I prefer exercising outside as opposed to the gym, learning 'how' to exercise in the cold is a must!! 

Hiking in Barouk, Chouf - Lebanon
Shot by Bassam ZeinEddine

Winter Hydration - To start with, keep in mind that cold reduces the thirst mechanism; you will feel less thirsty and may not think to drink more often even if you are sweating. This actually happens with me all the time so whenever I am exercising outside during winter – whether bicycling, hiking, running or skiing, I am doing my best to consciously consume fluids to replace what is lost from sweat as well as water vapour exhaled when breathing. Nancy also suggests not to drink icy water, one that is kept in your backpack or on your bike. Instead, keep an insulated bottle of water filled with lukewarm/hot water to avoid any chills! Some choose to skip fluid breaks to minimize the need to urinate (yes, this is true!), but dehydration hurts one's performance so remember to drink!

Winter Food – Fuel up on food before you start any exercise with a high carb, medium protein, low fat meal. Not only does food provide you with fuel to pump up your exercise, but it also generates 10% extra body heart, aka thermogenesis for warmth, just 30-60 minutes after you eat!

For example, I am having 3 hours before my workout:

- peanut butter & toast with an apple/banana
- yogurt with fruit & almonds
- sandwich of thyme & oil/cheese/labne with cucumber

Or an apple/banana/grapes before 30 minutes to an hour before my workout!

Now in your backpack, always keep a source of quick sugars, preferably fruits or dried fruits, but chocolate and energy bars can come in handy as emergency foods! I also tend to keep raw nuts, but I rarely eat them while hiking, it's right after I finish that I have my fruit &/or nuts. Now during winter, your energy needs do not increase per say; however when your body temperature decrease, you will start involuntarily moving to generate heat, which burns extra calories. In case your temperature further drops, you will start shivering which can burn up to 400 calories/hr depleting muscle glycogen, this is why emergency food is needed, especially if you are injured or get lost in the cold. Keep them in your backpack either way!

Dress for the weather – Hats, scarves, waterproof shoes, and lots of layers! Experts suggest that the 1^st layer (closest to your skin) should be made of a synthetic material (like polypropylene), not cotton, in order to minimize sweat contact. Fleece or wool is good as an insulating 2^nd layer, and a 3^rd top layer should ideally be made of a waterproof and breathable cloth. Lose heavy jackets for they will overheat you! Keep an extra dry layer in your backpack, you never know! Nancy suggests to lose layers as we become warmer, but this still depends on the weather outside.

Winter Recovery Foods – No cold/frozen food and fluids for they will definitely chill your body no matter how hot you think you are. Instead, have warm fluids, soups and food to replenish what you have burned. Carbs & proteins are both needed so you can go for oatmeal with nuts, lentils soup, pasta with meat red sauce, toast and eggs, or cheese & turkey heated sandwich!

Make sure to protect your skin from the sun, especially on higher altitudes! Winter is not a good excuse to dump your outdoor activities, after all, summer bodies are earned during winter!

Reference The Athlete's Kitchen