The Nutrition Babes* and I had the opportunity to meet in Philadelphia at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics annual conference in October, 2012. Kathy Siegel, RD, CDN and Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RD are registered dietitian nutritionists passionate about better health through balanced nutrition, exercise, and cleaner living.
I wanted to ask their thoughts on detox diets. And as I suspected we were on the same page. To watch the video scroll to bottom of page or click here.
| Kathy: | Yes, I am sure we are on the same page with this one. This been going on a little longer than I would have liked with the trend on detox. It just keeps evolving and changing but basically we have a different take on detox. You really want to aim towards whole foods. If you want to detox, you want to eliminate the processed foods, the things with a very long list of ingredients. You want to consume foods that come from the ground, items that do not have labels. It can be a higher protein source that’s also a grain. You can look for quinoa. There are a lot of different items that we think we can consume that are healthier and by taking out the processed foods, you’re having a healthy detox. High fiber is going to help eliminate a lot of the waste that these people talk about. |
| Neily: | You mean we don’t have a lot of sludge sitting inside our GI tract? |
| Lauren: | Haha…..our bodies, our livers—that’s what they are meant to do. They are meant to detoxify things. Because the truth is we have a lot of chemicals in our diet and in our environment. If you want to detox yourself, blend up your own fruits and vegetables and make your own juices or smoothies. Do it in a high-powered blender and not in a juicer so you actually get to keep the pulp and fiber instead of only extracting the sugar. Don’t add sugar to foods in your diet if you really want to do a little detox. Eat whole foods, whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, no added sugar. You’ll feel much better; you’ll feel like you detoxed yourself. It’s really a great way to go. Your body doesn’t need these really expensive, trendy drinks at all. You can do it all by yourself and you need to learn to read the labels too. It’s not like you can’t have anything in a package but you need to understand that when you want a cracker that has some whole grain and a little bit of oil and a little bit of salt, that’s all you need in a cracker. It doesn’t need a paragraph (on the label). It doesn’t need food dyes. You need to look for words that your grandma would not have known and that your third grader can’t read. You really just want very simple labels. |
| Kathy: | The shorter, the better. And go back to the kitchen. You don’t have to buy all the food already prepared. It can be just as quick to make some rice in a rice cooker and saute—have a stir fry with vegetables and lean meat on your stovetop. Just as quick then as putting it in the oven for 45 minutes. |
| Neily: | You’ve got some great ideas on your website (www.nutritionbabes.com) |
| Kathy: | We have some great recipes on our website. We have a lot of meatless meals that are always great. We have a Nutrition Babes Lasagna that is fantastic. We have a lot of crockpot recipes because we know everyone is busy and they think this is more time consuming (to have whole foods), so we have lots of ideas to get dinner on your table very quickly. |
| Neily: | So remember, healthy detox—fruits and vegetables and whole grains, lean protein and forget those faddish type things. |
| Kathy: | You’ve got it. |
| Neily: | Thank you so much! Thanks for watching Neily on Nutrition and we’ll see you in the next video. |
*From the Nutrition Babes website:
We’ve enjoyed sharing our nutrition and healthy lifestyle tips with all of you! We have moved on to bigger and better things. Learn about our new endeavors at:
Lauren Harris-Pincus:
http://www.NutritionStarringYOU.com
@LaurenPincusRD
Kathy Siegel:
http://www.KathySiegel.com
@KathySiegelRDN
Boo. Didn’t get to see your face on this video. The gals did a good job.