Text Box: Laura Cipullo. LLC Nutrition Services Winter 2004 Newsletter Text Box: Strive To Wellness Text Box: Volume 1, Issue 1 Text Box: Laura Cipullo. LLC Nutrition Services Winter 2004 Newsletter By: Laura Cipullo, RD, CDE Text Box: The holidays are over. It is now time to renew your commitment to health and thus renew your diet. You have eaten the cookies, the pastries and other refined sugars. As a consequence, your hormones and blood sugar have soared and plummeted like a rollercoaster. When our hormones and blood sugar fluctuate mood swings are common. Refined sugars and other junk food can wreak havoc on our bodies and our emotions. Laura Cipullo. LLC Nutrition Services recomText Box: mends you rid the cupboards of the remaining cookies. Give away the leftover chocolates, refined sugar foods and start fresh. You can stabilize your diet, your cravings and thus your mood by simply consuming carbohydrates and proteins at all meals and snacks. The carbohydrate protein combination is broken down and absorbed more slowly then carbohydrates alone. If fat is added to the meal, the digestion process is even slower Text Box: and less likely to cause drastic hormone and or blood sugar fluctuations. Just be sure to choose high fiber carbohydrates, lean proteins and monounsaturated fats. Go ahead and start your day with natural peanut butter spread on warm whole wheat toast! Text Box: Prebiotics - Another Healthy Fiber Text Box: Stabilize Your Diet and Your Mood Stop The Junk Food In January Text Box: Special points of interest: Eat your spinach salad with orange slices for optimal iron absorption. Yogurt with the prebiotic, inulin, may enhance calcium absorption. Cooked tomatoes such as tomato sauce are high in lycopenes, a cancer fighting plant property. Text Box: Carbohydrates & Protein Oatmeal w/ almonds Fresh Fruit w/ Low Fat Cottage Cheese Raw Veggies w/ Hummus Oat Bran Pita Stuffed with Turkey and Peppers Whole Wheat Pasta w/Lean Turkey Meatballs Grilled Salmon w/ Roasted Red Potatoes and String Beans Lean Turkey Burger on a Whole Wheat Bun w/ Mesclun Salad Text Box: You may have noticed your yogurt, your vegetarian meatballs or even your grandmother’s protein supplement now have an ingredient know as a prebiotic. A prebiotic is a nondigestable ingredient that stimulates the growth of health promoting flora in our colon. Two Examples of prebiotics are inulin and fructose oligosacText Box: charides. These nondigestible fibers are found in foods such as onions, bananas, wheat and chicory. They are fermented in our colon and help to stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria like bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. Some studies show that prebiotics enhance the absorption of calcium in our colon, and other Text Box: studies suggest prebiotics may even have an anticancer effect on our colon. More research is needed, so be sure to educate yourself.