The Parenting Biz: Healthy Eating Habits For Families

Feature Story By Jim Murphy Nutrition Month 2022

It’s Time To Make Healthy Food Choices For Your Family

Start a new tradition of healthy eating in March with your family during Nutrition Month and every month after! Reducing food waste, buying local, eating more plant-based foods are just some of the ways to eat more sustainably.

March is Nutrition Month as promoted by the Dietitians of Canada (Dietitians.ca).

The theme for 2022 is Ingredients for a Healthier Tomorrow and the organization is using their skills and expertise to create change for tomorrow.

Food security, food literacy, food sovereignty, sustainable food choices, nutrition care and prevention are all ingredients in a sustainable food system in which dietitians across Canada play an active and often leadership role.

NutritionMonth2022.ca is a special website featuring a recipe e-book with 15 recipes curated by dietitians; resources to help you find a dietitian and an activity/ideas guide with advice from dietitians such as Julie Stephenson

This is the 40th #NutritionMonth! This year’s theme considers how the food choices we make today influence our future health, the health of our communities and the planet. Learn more on: NutritionMonth2022.ca. #YourFutureIsHealthy Graphic courtesy of Dietitians of Canada. from BC who shares her insights into implementing a successful breakfast and lunch program for students under 18.

Dietitians help you make food decisions that are right for you by communicating trustworthy nutrition information, building confidence in your food skills, and working on the influences that impact your food decisions.

So let’s honour all they do on March 16, 2022, Dietitians Day!

To help raise awareness for Nutrition Month we start off with tips from a local dietitian, then feature several Windsor and Essex County businesses making eating healthy easy and convenient for your family, and wrap up with advice from an expert on food allergies and digestive issues.

BANA Dietitian Stresses The

Importance Of Intuitive Eating

Healthy well-balanced eating is important for more than just physical health. Unhealthy eating can lead to eating disorders like Anorexia and Bulimia.

For Nicole Boulanger, a Registered Dietitian at the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association (BANA), it is important to strive for, what she calls, normal, “intuitive eating.”

“Aim for regular balanced meals most of the time and include a variety of foods from all the food groups,” suggests Boulanger, the Eating Disorder Dietitian. “In addition to regular balanced meals, honouring your hunger and fullness is helpful in meeting your body’s energy needs and maintaining your body’s natural weight.”

Boulanger advises an individual balances his/her plate with complex carbohydrates (grains and starches), protein (beans, meat, fish, tofu, poultry, etc.), vegetables/fruit and fats (oil/margarine/butter, avocado, nuts, and salad dressing).

“There are foods we want to enjoy daily to meet our nutritional needs,” says Boulanger. “Then there are foods we want to include regularly — but not as often — more for pleasure. Both are important when it comes to normal balanced eating.”

Her advice also includes telling people they should avoid labelling foods as good or bad. This can lead to shame around eating and interferes with the enjoyment of foods. Instead, just refer to foods by what they are: dessert, fruit, bread, vegetables, chips, etcetera. Giving yourself permission to enjoy all foods will help prevent overeating.

“Young children are naturally intuitive eaters and are great at listening to their bodies,” Boulanger indicates. “Our job as parents is to provide them with regular balanced meals and snacks in a comfortable environment — preferably sitting at the table with others, while the child’s job is to decide how much to eat.”

Boulanger recommends you throw out the “finish your plate” rule. This rule disrupts the child’s natural ability to honour their body’s signals, which tells them when they have had enough. It also creates a negative relationship with food.

“Creating a positive eating environment and modelling normal intuitive eating will give your child the best head start in having a positive relationship with food and their bodies,” Boulanger states. “Make eating fun by finding new recipes together, exploring new foods and even growing your own food!”

She also strongly urges people to stop the vicious cycle of dieting.

“Not only is this a well-established damaging behaviour that is far too common, but I have seen the harmful effects of dieting on my numerous clients over the years,” Boulanger mentions. “The freedom they feel when finally releasing themselves from the burden of dieting by embracing the intuitive eating world, is so wonderful to witness.”

A Registered Dietitian for 10 years, Boulanger has worked with BANA for eight years. She specializes in eating disorders and has a background in diabetes.

“I have been interested in dietetics since I was in high school searching for a profession,” she recounts. “I’ve always been interested in a healthy active lifestyle and took an interest in nutrition as a way to help others. After high school I went into the nutrition program at Brescia at the University of Western Ontario.”

Nicole Boulanger, a Registered Dietitian with the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association, holds up the Healthy Eating Plate for a balanced diet (1/2 vegetables/fruit, 1/4 starch, and 1/4 protein). Photo by Rod Denis.

BANA, founded in 1983, is a not-forprofit, registered charity, community-based organization, located at 1500 Ouellette Avenue, Suite 100 in Windsor. For more information on their services, visit the website: BANA.ca.

Macro Foods Inc. Reinforces

Healthy Habits For Better Living

Macro Foods Inc. specializes in healthy, gourmet, chef-prepared meals available through their retail locations or direct delivery right to your door, since 2015.

Whether your goal is to slim down, bulk up or just maintain, their meals are

Pictured is a collage of the large selection of healthy and delicious pre-made meals available from Macro Foods Inc. Photo courtesy of Gregory Edwards/Dark Roast Digital.

packed with all the necessary macro and micro nutrients you need.

“Eating healthily is a key pillar to living a long and happy life,” says Sara Ducharme, Co-Owner of Macro Foods along with Omar Abou-Said (with others owning specific locations). “When you feel good, a lot of other pieces in life fall into place. Investing in yourself and your health is the best investment you can make.”

Placing an order with Macro Foods is easy! Just select from a wide variety of signature created dishes, custom or specialty meal options and choose between in-store pickup or have the meals shipped to you all across Ontario.

Their staff of approximately 30 employees, carefully prepare, cook and package all meals to ensure they are fresh and ready to go. All meal containers are both microwave and oven safe so you can enjoy restaurant quality meals from the comfort of your own home!

You can order à la carte, or subscription services are available as well. Macro Foods takes into account your allergies, likes, dislikes and previous history to give you the best meal possible.

“As a previous body building competitor, I understand the importance of meal prepping, meal timing, portioning and eating appropriately to reach your goals,” Ducharme comments. “At the time I was working a full-time and part-time job, as well as training for my show three hours a day; Sundays were my only day off and I spent the day grocery shopping, cooking for the week and cleaning up. If there was a convenient service like this available, I would have used it; so essentially I founded it (the business) out of necessity.”

Visit Macro Foods at one of six brick and mortar locations in southwestern Ontario: Windsor (1389 Wyandotte Street East); LaSalle (6000 Malden Road); Tecumseh (23A-25 Amy Croft Drive); London (1422 Fanshawe Park Road West); Waterloo (C103-95 King Street South) and Chatham (611 Grand Avenue West); or check them out online at: MacroFoods.ca.

Say Cheese! The Vegan Gardiners

Plant-Based Deli Isn’t Full Of Bologna

Located at 998 Drouillard Road in Windsor, The Vegan Gardiners PlantBased Deli specializes in producing hand crafted, vegan alternatives to cheese, meat and other products in a traditional deli style — allowing you to select the quantity you want of any of the dozens of flavours of meat and cheese they offer.

Ryan and Amy Gardiner Upton,

Amy Gardiner Upton, Co-Owner of The Vegan Gardiners Plant-Based Deli holds up a muffin from Auntie Aldoo’s Kitchen, a local business whose products they stock and sell. Photo courtesy of The Vegan Gardiners.

Owners of the plant-based deli, began hand crafting vegan meats and cheeses in 2017. They found the available options for vegan cheese and meat in stores were full of preservatives and questionable ingredients.

Since opening their storefront in 2021, their staff of four strive to offer great tasting products with simple ingredients.

“Our goal is to offer high-quality handcrafted alternatives to food staples people consume in their everyday life, and bridge the gap for those transitioning to a new diet in a delicious and approachable way,” Amy says. “When you eat healthily, you are full of energy, awareness and it gives your body long-term physical benefits.”

Cheeses at their deli include smoked applewood cheddar, mild cheddar, sharp and smoky cheddar, rosemary olive asiago, sharp white cheddar, cracked black pepper asiago, truffle dill cheddar and more! Meats include shawarma shavings, Montreal steak spice cold cuts, ham cold cuts, maple-bacon smokies, and turkey cold cuts. Products also include charcuterie boards, along with meat and cheese tasting boxes.

For more information see their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram @thevegangardiners.

Grab A Meal To Go From

The Meal Prep Company

Finding the time to prepare delicious, healthy meals can be difficult. The Meal Prep Company (MPCO), located at 3850 Dougall Avenue, Unit 110 in Windsor, can help alleviate this difficulty by providing delicious, healthy portioned meals to go!

All you have to do is choose from more

Katie Bastien, Owner of The Meal Prep Company, 3850 Dougall Avenue, Unit 110, in Windsor, offers convenient meals for busy individuals, who want healthy options, but have no time to prepare. They use premium fresh products and have meal choices for almost every diet such as vegan, gluten-free, pescatarian and more! Photo by Rod Denis.

than 40 healthy, ready-to-eat meals-togo, including caprese stuffed balsamic chicken, whole wheat spaghetti with pesto sauce and chicken parm bites; then place an order online or by phone. You can pick up your meals any day of the week or have them delivered on Sundays and Tuesdays.

The MPCO also has a variety of packages catering to different dietary restrictions and dietary goals, including vegan,

gluten free, weight gainer, weight loss, keto, pescatarian (a person who does not eat meat, but does eat fish) and a top picks package. Everything is prepared in-house by their staff of five. You can also grab one of their delicious smoothies and protein pancake mixes.

“I think eating healthily is so important to our physical and mental health,” believes Katie Bastien, Owner of The Meal Prep Company since it opened in 2018. “We all know the sayings — ‘if you eat better you feel better’ and ‘you are what you eat’ — they are so true! Having a healthy lifestyle and diet will improve every aspect of your life. This is why at The Meal Prep Company we feel it’s so important to promote healthy eating, as well as make it more easily accessible to our community.”

For more information on meals, view their website: TheMPCO.ca.

Veg Out With Healthy Mama

Located at 152 Lesperance Road, Suite 2, in Tecumseh, since 2016 Healthy Mama has served homemade, raw, mostly organic, plant-based, gluten free (GF), vegan food. Everything is made in-house, from their desserts down to dips and sauces.

Healthy Mama is both a retail shoppe and a GF (gluten free) and vegan eatery. The restaurant offers indoor dining and curbside pickup is available Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Delivery is also offered.

Menu items include bowls (ie nacho, sushi, Mediterranean), soups, salads, burgers and sandwiches, mac n’ cheese, smoothies, desserts, iced drinks, cozy drinks, coffee and tea, kombucha, juice, coconut water, oat beverages, sparkling water and a variety of alcoholic beverages.

The retail shoppe includes refrigerated items, frozen items, snacks, diet and nutrition products, pantry items, Healthy Mama bulk items, baked goods, desserts, coffee, tea and elixirs, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, along with home essentials.

“Eating healthily is just the surface level,” indicates Nicole Hanson, Owner of Healthy Mama who took over the business in September 2021 from Tatjana Roksandic. “Eating a plant-based meal that is as locally-sourced as possible and made with intention, will feed the mind, body and soul.”

Hanson believes that eating purposefully helps reduce disease and infection, along with providing one with the nutrition and all the good things our bodies were designed to take in.

“Food is medicine,” she states. “It has true intention to serve every single cell exactly what it needs to stay in a harmonious state and is therefore the food we are intended to eat. After all, if you are getting food through your car window, what are you really getting?”

For more information on products to purchase, and the restaurant menu, visit: Healthy-Mama.com.

Quick, Plant-Based Wholesome

Food From The Plant Base Inc.

The Plant Base Inc., located at 126 Richmond Street, Unit B, in Amherstburg, is an eatery and specialty health food store.

Opened in February 2019, Owner Danielle Girard and her helpful staff of two make everything from scratch using mostly organic ingredients free of refined sugars, dairy and gluten.

“I got into the field when I lived above a vegan café where I would eat lunch,” Girard recalls. “I was there so often that I was offered a job. After learning how to create their amazing dishes, using natural ingredients, there was no going back!”

Products you can enjoy from The Plant

Shown here is the service counter inside The Plant Base Inc., Amherstburg’s first eatery where they strive to be eco-conscious and sustainable while guaranteeing quick, plant-based wholesome food ready for pick up. Photo courtesy of Taylor Lanoie.

Base include buddha bowls, soups, garden veggie burgers, mac n’ cheese, grilled cheese, peanut butter cups, dill pickle hummus, chia seed pudding, cabbage rolls, Italian meatballs, salad dressings, drinks (kombucha, lavender lemonade, smoothies, sparkling water, hot chocolate) and more!

“Eating healthily is so essential for so many reasons that I could probably write a novel about it,” comments Girard. “It’s important for longevity, healthy hair, teeth, skin, bones and muscles! It boots immunity and lowers the risk of chronic illness along with promoting good gut health and helping the digestive system function.”

You along with your family, or perhaps a few friends, can either eat-in, while your dish is made to order at The Plant Base,

or you can pick up a healthy meal already prepared at your convenience.

“At The Plant Base we strive to be eco-conscious and sustainable,” Girard expresses. “We are here to support your dietary needs, restrictions, and sensitivities, as we can provide quality dishes that are soy-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and refined sugar free.”

Catering services and custom orders are also available. Learn more on the website: ThePlantBaseInc.ca.

Get On The Right Track With

Wright Health Centre Inc.

Wright Health Centre Inc., located in the St. Clair Shores Plaza at Manning and E.C. Row in Tecumseh, has been treating digestive issues and hay fever using Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET) for 15 years.

NAET was discovered by Dr. Devi S. Nambudripad in 1983. His technique is a non-invasive, drug free, natural solution to alleviate allergies of all types and intensities using a blend of selective energy balancing, testing and treatment procedures from acupuncture/acupressure.

“We treat one allergen at a time,” says Sandy Wright, Owner of Wright Health Centre Inc., who is a Registered

Sandy Wright, Owner of Wright Health Centre Inc, can help alleviate allergies of all kinds using Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques. Photo courtesy of Reginald St. Louis.

Acupuncturist and Advanced NAET Practitioner. “If you are not severely immune deficient, you may need just one treatment to desensitize one allergen. A person with a mild to moderate amount of allergies may take about 15 to 20 office visits to desensitize 15 to 20 food and environmental allergens.”

Wright tells Biz X that basic essential nutrients are treated during the first few visits. After that they work on eliminating food and environmental sensitivities. It may take several office visits to desensitize a severe allergen.

“I started out as a medial photographer working in teaching hospitals like St. Michael’s in Toronto and the National Guard Hospital in Saudi Arabia,” states Wright, who has been practicing holistic alternative treatments for 27 years. “That’s when I became interested in other modalities of healing. I was called to study acupuncture in Sri Lanka and then moved to British Columbia to study homeopathy; personal reasons brought me back to my hometown of Windsor where I took a position at an allergy elimination centre and learned about NAET.”

When it comes to allergies, what you eat plays a big part.

“My best advice for staying healthy is to cut out refined sugar, dairy, wheat and processed foods, which are the most inflammatory foods and cause the most issues with health,” Wright informs Biz X. “Clean eating is the key.”

Wright believes our bodies are like software and are designed to fix themselves. Unfortunately, no one

ever presses the re-start button, so glitches accumulate until the body can no longer compensate. In her opinion, what they do with their treatments is like pressing the re-start button while they are in contact with the “offending item” (i.e. dairy, etc).

The centre can be found at 25 Amy Croft Drive, Unit 10 in Lakeshore, and for further details on this business please refer to: WrightHealthCentre.com.

Healthy Food, Healthy Life

Nutrition Month (March) is the perfect time for your family to make some lifestyle changes and start eating healthily.

The Dietitians of Canada Recipe e-book found on: NutritionMonth2022.ca is an ideal place to start with plenty of delicious, healthy recipes to try.

And as always, lots of local businesses can assist you with finding all the right ingredients you need!

There are plenty of wonderful delivery services and markets in the area, stocked with fresh local produce and healthy food items.

But if cooking isn’t your thing, Biz X already has you covered with all the great ready-to-eat or take-out meal options discussed in this feature story, plus some fantastic health food restaurants for indoor dining too. Eat well, live well, be well!

Have you downloaded the free Nutrition Month 2022 recipe e-book? It includes 15 deliciously nutritious recipes, hand-picked by dietitians. For example one recipe is for the Mediterranean-Inspired Power Bowl (left) with quinoa, tomatoes, cucumbers, salmon or tuna, cheese and more. Another great recipe for desserts is a Dark Chocolate and Cherry Bread Pudding (right) with toasted almonds and brown sugar. Share your favourite with @DietitiansCAN. Find more recipes on: NutritionMonth2022.ca. #NutritionMonth #YourFutureIsHealthy Photos courtesy of Dietitians of Canada.