Where to Start: How Much Should I Eat?

Do you wonder how much you should eat? Eating until you were full used to work when you were younger and before food became so processed. Recent studies have shown that in a world of quick to eat - shelf stable food, eating until you feel full no longer keeps you from eating more calories than your body needs. The extra salt, sugar and fat found in many foods we eat today interfere with our feeling full! Just for fun, take a few days and write down everything that you eat and drink. Click here for a printable food journal page. Choose at least 1 weekend day and 1 week day because diets vary on weekdays and weekend days. Use the food labels on the side of the packages of what you are eating to determine the number of servings you are eating or the grams/ounces and the number of calories for the amount you are eating. Click here to go to the FDA's website that explains how to understand and use the nutrition labels. (The DV values they refer to are OK for some diets and not OK for others so don't rely too heavily on them). If there is not a nutrition label, you can get this information on the internet at http://www.nutritiondata.com/ (you don't have to register or log in) or you can buy a calorie book or get one at the library. (You can also do this online at Sparkpeople.com -they make you do a free registration to access their information - or at Nutrition Data .)

Now that you know how many calories you are eating each day the question is are you eating too much or too little? The first step to finding this out should be to determine how many calories your body needs to function well based on how much you currently weight and how active you are. I have found a great website where you can get this information. Visit Ask the Dietitian Website at http://www.dietitian.com/calcbody.php fill in the questions it asks and put their Healthy Body Calculator to work for you. (If you don’t have a computer or don’t know how to use the internet, we can help you fill this information out at Kemper Drug). You will be provided with a printout of the total number of calories that you should be eating along with essential nutrients. This is important to know so that you make sure you are getting these nutrients during the day.

Be Healthy in 2010!

I recently heard the statistic that 50% of the medications that we dispense from our pharmacy treat diseases or illnesses that are a result of how people take care of themselves. My goal in starting this blog is to help our patients, and friends focus on the importance of taking care of their bodies and minds.

In Minnesota we have a lot of snow and cold. We are prepared for when it snows. We have shovels to clear our driveways and sidewalks. We have snow tires on our cars and good treads on our boots. We have warm clothes to keep our body heat in. We are practicing snow risk prevention. We don't want to deal with the hassle of sliding into the snowbank and risking injury to our cars or ourselves. We don't like feeling cold so we do something to prevent having to feel the worst of it.

Lets apply this being prepared approach to your health! We can help you use some tried and true prevention techniques to keep you healthier this winter.

• We are currently offering H1N1 and Seasonal Flu shots at Kemper Drug because we want our patients to stay healthy this winter.
• We can meet with you to discuss your medications and make sure that you are reaching your treatment goals.
• We can also sit down and discuss what the impact of making lifestyle changes can have on the numbers and types of medications you need to take and on your health in general.

Here is to a great 2010 together!
Wendy Simenson R.Ph