Avoiding Food Waste

An overripe banana - a sad sight?

I was reading Food and Nutrition magazine (published by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) and saw an article about how to salvage pantry foods that have seen their best days. I love these kinds of articles as avoiding food waste is a subject I am passionate about. I find it sad that a lot of food is wasted (30% of all food in the world!) while so many people go hungry (1).

Interestingly, fruit and vegetables have the highest wastage rates (up to 45% (1)). This is also my biggest culprit as I often buy too much produce and am sometimes not able to use all of it before it gets too ripe or moldy. Thankfully, this doesn’t always mean the food is unusable.

Sautéing bananas

For example, if I have a few overripe bananas on my hands, I use them to make a yummy dessert, or put them into my oatmeal to provide some much-needed flavor: 

1. A very easy dessert is to sauté bananas in butter or ghee until the sugar in the banana caramelizes, and… that’s it! This is so delicious and the best part is that you don’t need to add any extra sugar. Butter/ghee can be substituted with mild tasting vegetable oil, if so desired.

2. You can also make truly delicious and healthy vegan ice “cream” with ripe bananas. Here is a recipe that we used for a food demo during my internship (2):

Ingredients

2 large ripe frozen bananas - sliced

2 tablespoons cocoa powder (100% pure cacao)

2 tablespoons creamy natural nut butter (almond, cashew or peanut)

½ teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt

Preparation

1.       Place all ingredients in a food processor or high-speed blender

2.       Slowly pulse, 15 seconds at a time, until mixture is smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides as you go.  Note: This process may take a couple minutes so be patient.

3.       Serve immediately or freeze in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

3. When making oatmeal, add the overripe banana into the pot or bowl with the oat flakes before starting to heat the porridge. Heat will again caramelize some of the sugar in the banana providing an amazing flavor to a breakfast that can otherwise taste rather bland. I use one banana for 1-2 portions of oatmeal. For other ideas on how to make oatmeal taste great, check out my very first blog: http://kooking1.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-love-oatmeal.html.

I know here in America people don’t really drink buttermilk like they do in Finland, but it is a common ingredient when making pancakes. I’m sure that often there is left-over buttermilk that ends up spoiling and being thrown away (maybe because people here don't drink it?). Well, because buttermilk is fermented and thus already full of healthy bacteria, bad bacteria are not as able to gain a footing there, thereby slowing spoilage. For buttermilk that is not the freshest anymore, but not truly spoiled, my mom bakes it into a cake or a pie. Here is a recipe that is perfect for the fall:

Maustekakku aka Spice cake

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup (3 dl) buttermilk

7 oz (200 g) melted butter (or non-hydrogenated margarine)

1 tsp baking soda

¾ cup (2 dl) sugar (I used brown sugar)

~ ½ cup (1 dl) maple syrup

2 tsp each: cloves, ground ginger, cardamom

2.5 cups (6 dl) all-purpose flour

Preparation:

1.      Mix dry and wet ingredients separately.

2.      Blend together until flour is barely incorporated.

3.      Bake in a pre-oiled pan for 1 hour, in a 350 F (175 C) oven.

(I like to cheat: I mix the dry ingredients first in the bowl, then add all of the wet ingredients on top of the dry and finally mix together – this is so quick, and produces fewer dirty dishes! I also like to flour the pan with cream of wheat, something my mom always does.)

Spice cake

I made this cake for a potluck recently and it was funny how a person from India chuckled at the name of the cake. They didn't think there was much spice there! Keep in mind that the Finns are not known for using a lot of spices in cooking or baking, so this is a legit a spice cake to us Finns! Feel free to increase the amount of the spices, or even try others, like allspice or nutmeg, in this recipe.

To add some more nutritional value into this cake, one can substitute up to half of the white flour with whole wheat. Some of the sugar can also be substituted with xylitol (though watch out for laxative effects!), or stevia. I also like to use maple syrup or agave syrup if I want ingredients that are less processed. Unfortunately, the flavor does change a bit with each change, which means that some experimentation to find the sweet spot between healthy and tasty may be in order. 

Side note: even though I have aimed to only provide recipes that are healthy in this blog, I am beginning to think that if one wants something sweet, it’s OK if it isn’t the healthiest food – the chances are that if you are eating a sweet that is somewhat healthier, you might feel tempted to eat a lot more of it than what you would if you knew that the sweet item in question had close to no health benefits. Eating more of something that is slightly “more healthy” might just end up giving you the same end result as if you ate less of something less healthy. On top of this, it is likely that the less healthy item is more delicious, and you might even enjoy it more!

Another item that can be salvaged is stale bread (not moldy). It’s amazing how quickly some breads that are so good when they are fresh are not so nice after a day or two! I wrote a blog post about turning these into a sweet breakfast or dessert item: http://kooking1.blogspot.com/2014/09/recycling-food.html.

Finally, a very effective way to reduce and avoid food waste is good planning. Don't buy foods on a whim, and plan your menu and shopping list ahead of time. Sometimes avoiding food waste also means to train your palate to be OK with eating the same food more than once or twice. This one may be tough, but it actually makes you feel like you did a good deed!  

If you have tricks (or treats) to prevent food waste, please share them!

Happy Halloween!

Anna-Kaisa

References:

1.       Key facts on food loss and waste you should know! Retrieved October 30, 2017, from http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/

2.       Chocolate Nutty Butter Banana "Ice Cream". Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center. University of California, San Francisco. Retrieved October 30, 2017, from http://cancer.ucsf.edu/support/crc/recipes/2016/09/12/chocolate-nutty-butter-banana-ice-cream.7876

Finding nutrition... through weight loss

Looking back on all the years of hard work now after reaching my goal of becoming a dietitian reminds me of why I started on this path in the first place. My passion for nutrition sprung from being able to shed quite a few pounds, which gave me the first glimpse of all the good that proper nutrition can do.

When I was a teenager, I was playing volleyball and exercising a lot, which kept me in shape. When I went to college, the “freshman ten” became an unfortunate reality. I had moved out and started eating a lot more, especially sweet things, because now no one was watching. I did continue to play volleyball, but much less than before.

A young exchange student right before starting
to lose weight

One day it hit me: I saw a picture of myself and noticed these rolls around my waist that shocked me and made me decide on that moment to change my habits. I started counting calories and began to understand the differences between different foods. I realized that vegetables had almost no calories at all, and I could fill my stomach with those instead of mashed potatoes or macaroni. Not only did I lose weight, but also started feeling better! All those vegetables made a huge difference and induced a sense of well-being I hadn’t felt before. To this day, I have lost a total of 20 lbs and have successfully maintained my lower weight for years.

This story makes it sound like it was really easy for me to shed those pounds. This is not the case however – I have always had a sweet tooth and I did yo-yo a little bit between eating too little and eating too much. I do know what it takes to make a big lifestyle change, and can relate to anyone who is attempting to do the same.

A few years later after
weight loss - you can see it in
the cheeks!

There were a few key reasons why I think I was successful: firstly, and most importantly, I felt very motivated. I admit that in the beginning I was motivated by wanting to look better, which sounds quite shallow, but I now believe that it doesn’t matter what motivates you when the endpoint is something positive. Secondly, I had a friend who was losing weight, too, and together we were able to help each other out. Together we also pigged out a number of times, which brings me to my third key to successful weight loss: not becoming discouraged when you slip and backtrack, even back to square one. Every time I had too much ice cream and popcorn and candy (this is what we liked to eat the most), I would also feel physically bad afterward. That bad feeling put me right back on track, and in fact, it motivated me to work harder. Fourthly, I have been able to keep my weight stable through making actual lifestyle changes, and not thinking that I could succeed with crash diets or short-term changes. It took me a while to understand this (hence the yo-yo effect early on), but once I realized this, it has become much easier to stay at a certain weight.

Interestingly, a systematic review from 2015 (1) identified motivation as one of the best predictors of successful weight loss. The other two were self-efficacy (believing that you can do it), and self-regulation ability; the former I had, and the latter I developed through motivation.

During my internship I had a chance to work at the weight loss clinic. My preceptor there said that most people that come there do not lose weight, and in fact, more than 85% of these people are not successful. This, I think, is not because we physically can’t lose weight, but because people often don’t have the motivation to make the necessary changes. Yes, it is hard, but not impossible: find a friend to help you and support you, write down what you eat, and if you can, show your food diary to a dietitian, who can also help you develop self-efficacy. Most importantly, find your motivation, and remind yourself of that every day, and every time you are about to give up. This doesn't apply only to weight loss, but to any change you are trying to make in your life. You will succeed!

Joyfully,

Anna-Kaisa

References: 

(1) Teixeira, P. J. et al. Successful behavior change in obesity interventions in adults: a systematic review of self-regulation methods. BMC Med. 2015; 13: 84. Doi: 10.1186/s12916-015-0323-6.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408562/

I made it!

UCSF Medical Center Dietetic Intern

It appears to have been quite a while since I wrote a blog post. I can tell you that when you are a dietetic intern working full time with homework on top of that, there isn’t much more one can do other than sleep, eat and perhaps get a workout in every here and there. Although I did somehow have the time to create a video series called "Life of DI" (DI = dietetic intern). These videos shed light on what it is like to be an intern at UCSF Medical Center specifically, but can give you an idea of what a dietetic internship can look like. You can check the video series out at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_eNO0lWAHWdnfJXh7_Mu8A/videos.

 

The internship was very challenging, but it created a solid foundation in clinical dietetics that will help me succeed as an entry level dietitian. And I say dietitian, because I recently passed my registration examination for dietitians and am proud to say that I am now officially a registered dietitian (RD)! It took almost seven years to get to this point and I can’t even begin to express my gratitude to all of those who believed in me and supported me throughout the years. To those who are not familiar with dietetics, you need to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in nutritional sciences, finish a dietetic internship and pass the registration examination for dietitians in order to become a registered dietitian.

I passed!

Reaching a milestone such as this inspired me to renew my blog, too - I hope you enjoy the new name! I aim to continue to provide you with useful nutrition-related information, and in fact, would like to hear your suggestions for topics to write about. Also, if you are considering a career in dietetics, or would like tips on how to land an internship or ace your exam, don’t hesitate to connect! Any questions and comments are always welcome.

Thanks for reading!


Joyfully,

Anna-Kaisa