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Americans don’t like to cook. They don’t want to spend the time it takes for food shopping, food preparation and clean up, especially when it’s so much easier to stop for a quick bite at a restaurant or drive-thru or bring home some take-out. Yet, experts are convinced that making home cooking fashionable again would be one of the most effective steps we could take to address the nation’s obesity crisis.

The United States ranks at the bottom of industrialized countries not only in terms of time spent on meal preparation but also on consumption, according to surveys conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international group that analyzes economic data worldwide. In other words, we not only don’t cook, we also don’t set much time aside to enjoy our food. Instead, more and more of us skip breakfast, work through lunch and sustain ourselves throughout the day by snacking.

The percentage of calories from snacks in the American diet has doubled since the 1970s, as more people have turned into all-day grazers while foregoing sitdown meals on most days, a study by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) found.

Over half of American adults say they have three or more snacks a day. Almost a third of children and adolescents eat chips, popcorn, pretzels and the likes on a daily basis. The amount of pizza eaten, both in restaurants and at home, has nearly tripled over the past thirty years. Meanwhile, the number of calories in pizzas has increased by 25 percent on average since the late 1970s. Over the same time period vegetable consumption has declined from 2.6 to just 1.9 servings per day – and that includes French fries.

The easiest way to turn these developments around would be to start preparing our meals from scratch again, says Mark Bittman, food writer and author of “Cooking Solves Everything: How Time in the Kitchen Can Save Your Health, Your Budget, and Even the Planet” (Kindle edition, 2011). Millions of Americans don’t ever cook. The rest cooks on occasion, often just microwaving. Many don’t bother with sitting down at the dinner table but rather eat in the car, at a counter, or in front of a screen. “And that’s a shame, because cooking is a basic essential, worthwhile and even enjoyable task,” he writes.

Bittman applauds others who are trying to get the message out about the many benefits of home cooking, like his fellow-book-author Michael Pollan who just published a new book on the same subject, titled, “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation” (Penguin Press, 2013). In a review on the then upcoming publication he writes: “Cooking is probably the most important thing you can do to improve your diet.”

The reasons are obvious. If you are in charge of the ingredients that go into your food, you already are going to eat better because you won’t include extra fat, salt, sugar, preservatives, dyes and other additives. You also won’t eat as many highly caloric items like French fries, which are cumbersome to make at home. The same goes for pizza (made from scratch, not the ones you just heat up).

One of the central problems with cooking is that we don’t value it enough any more. We are used to having tasks like these done for us by outside service providers. But unlike getting your car or computer fixed by someone else, cooking is much more intimate. It connects us with our bodies, nature and loved ones.

Michael Pollan even thinks that the experience of cooking brings us closer to the most basic elements that surround us: fire, water, air and earth and also tightens our social and ecological relationships. All that has deeply transformational characteristics that can change us on multiple levels, but all for the better.

That is much to hope for – perhaps too much. Still, it is a fact that an increasing number of people are looking for ways to eat more healthily and also reduce stress on the environment, e.g. by cutting back on meat consumption and buying more produce from local farms. A rediscovery of home cooking would fit squarely within these trends. Whether it will be enough to transform or currently predominant way of life remains doubtful.

If you liked this article, you may also enjoy reading “Home Cooking for Healthy Eating” and “Tips for Leaner Cooking Techniques“

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Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog and at amazon.com.  For more articles on nutrition, health and lifestyle, visit her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (www.timigustafson.com).

It’s a proven fact that most people change their eating habits and lifestyle choices only after a serious health scare such as a heart attack or a diabetes diagnosis. Still, in many cases that may not be enough. Old habits tend to die hard, but often there are also not many alternatives to what they’ve been doing in terms of eating right and taking care of themselves.

A recent study found that most consumers after being confronted with a major health crisis were still influenced in their choices by factors other than what’s good for their health. For example, people can find it difficult to change their long established eating habits, says Dr. Yu Ma, an economics professor at Alberta School of Business and author of the study. Another highly influential factor is price, he says. If they get a good deal on a particular item, they will go for it, and if it’s too expensive, they will stay away, no matter how much they would benefit healthwise.

Another issue is what he calls the “health halo effect.” Most people divide foods simply into two categories: healthy and unhealthy, he says. If something is considered healthful, e.g. a salad or a breakfast cereal, as opposed to a cheeseburger or a sugar-laden donut, people tend to overindulge in the “healthy” stuff without much further thought. We have seen that phenomenon when, for example, fat-free cookies came on the market and many believed they could consume those in almost unlimited quantities because of the absence of fat. Of course, eliminating the fat did not make those cookies less caloric, and the results became apparent soon thereafter.

Another study, this one on heart attack and stroke patients, showed that nearly 15 percent did not alter their eating and lifestyle habits after the incident, including poor diet choices, lack of exercise and smoking. Less than half of all participants in the study reported having made at least one change, and less than a third said they made several improvements. Only 4 percent claimed they did everything that was recommended to them to prevent further deterioration of their health.

Much of the unwillingness or inability to make healthier diet and lifestyle choices can be blamed on the widespread confusion among the public due to the ceaseless onslaught of sometimes contradictory messages in the media about health matters. In addition, many of the warnings issued by experts are hard to heed by consumers who are oftentimes ignorant, if not intentionally kept in the dark, about the nutritional quality of their food supply. For instance, recommendations to avoid high fat, salt and sugar content may be well-meaning, but they are by and large useless when ingredients lists are hard to decipher or when restaurants aren’t required to follow any dietary guidelines or to post nutritional information on their menus.

“I think people are interested in making changes and they are heeding the warnings,” said Dr. Sara Bleich, an associate professor of health policy at the John Hopkins School of Public Health to NBCNews. “But when it comes to food, it’s much more complicated. Cereal, for example, has a tremendous amount of added sugar. And not everyone understands that breakfast foods like muffins and pastry, things that people don’t consider to be a dessert or an indulgence, pack a lot of sugar.” Similar concerns apply to salt in countless processed foods, many of which don’t even taste salty, and certain types of fats, some of which are obscured by arbitrary serving descriptions on food labels.

Undoubtedly, more and more people want to be better informed about nutritional health and be empowered to make the right choices. With growing consumer demand for further regulation and protection, that may be feasible over time. But for now, it’s an ongoing uphill battle, and most of us have to fend for ourselves as well as we can.

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Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog and at amazon.com.  For more articles on nutrition, health and lifestyle, visit her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (www.timigustafson.com).

An apple a day used to keep the doctor away, at least according to folk wisdom. But not any more – unless it’s organically grown. Apples top the list of foods contaminated with pesticides, says the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental health research and advocacy organization, in its annual report called “The Dirty Dozen™.”

The listing of foods that may have toxic levels of pesticides is part of the group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticide in Produce, which draws its data from tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Even after washing, more than two thirds of the tens of thousands of food samples tested by the agencies showed pesticide residues. The most contaminated fruits were apples, strawberries, grapes, peaches and imported nectarines. Among vegetables, the most contaminated were celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and hot peppers.

The contamination levels varied significantly between different foods. Potatoes had a higher total weight of pesticides than any other food crop. A single grape tested for 15 different pesticides. So did sweet bell peppers.

Corn, which is widely used as an ingredient in processed foods, does not appear in the EWG’s guide because as such it’s no longer considered a fresh vegetable. Neither is soy. Still, concern over pesticide contamination should also include processed items.

In addition to its notorious “Dirty Dozen™” rating, the EWG also publishes a list of the least contaminated foods, called the “Clean Fifteen™.” These show the lowest levels of pesticide residues and are generally safe for consumption. They include pineapple, papaya, mango, kiwi, cantaloupe, grapefruit, corn, onion, avocado, frozen sweet peas, cabbage, asparagus, eggplant, sweet potatoes and mushrooms.

Pesticides have long been linked to a number of health concerns, particularly to developmental problems in young children. Some pesticides have been found to be carcinogenic, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

There are currently about 350 different pesticides registered with the government and permitted for use on food crops. Among the most toxic ones are organophosphate, a potent neurotoxin that can adversely affect brain development in children, even at low doses; and organochlorine, a once widely used pesticide that is now officially banned but still persists in the environment and continues to pollute plant foods grown in contaminated soil.

Particularly disconcerting is that pesticides have been found in processed baby food. For example, green beans used for baby food tested positive for five pesticides, including organophosphate, and pears showed more than twice as many.

While there is only so much consumers can do to protect themselves and their loved ones against the exposure to pesticides and other toxins in their food supply, it is important to have the information available that allows for better-informed choices. Buying organically grown produce may be the best option, but it’s not affordable for everyone. Mixing both organic and regular foods can be a workable compromise, thereby avoiding the worst offenders and limiting the damage to your budget with the rest.

In addition, you may also want to visit your local farmers market once in a while. Ask the farmers about their farming methods and whether they use pesticides. Some small farms may not be certified “organic” because of the costs involved but still adhere to eco-friendly procedures.

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Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog and at amazon.com.  For more articles on nutrition, health and lifestyle, visit her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (www.timigustafson.com).

I practice a special kind of meditation on an almost daily basis. Perhaps meditation isn’t the right word since it doesn’t require me to sit in silence with my eyes closed and legs crossed or anything like that. It’s more a form of taking stock of where my life is going at any particular time.

For this, I have five issues to consider: my physical health, my diet, my emotional state, my intellectual rigor and my social/relational life. These I think of as the pillars of my wellbeing. Each one matters greatly by itself, but each must also be in balance with all the others. If one goes missing, the rest will suffer as well.

Let me give an example. When I injured my shoulder in a tennis game a few years ago, I realized how much was taken away from me, not just because I had to give up playing for a while but also because a dear routine was interrupted with all sorts of consequences.

During my prolonged absence from the court, I lost my tennis buddies whose comradeship I had enjoyed tremendously. One of them, a university professor and a true intellectual, had not only been a great partner in doubles but also a stimulating presence in my life that gave me many insights in a vast variety of subjects. Due to the reduced physical activity, I felt less energetic and not as motivated in my work. And I had to watch my diet more carefully to prevent unwanted weight gain.

Needless to say, I was saddened about losing a part of my life that was more important to me than I had been aware of. In fact, it made me miserable for quite some time.

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said: “Health is not everything, but without it, nothing is anything.” I am a great believer in that. I know now that my physical health is the foundation of what I can do in life, whether it concerns work or leisurely activities. It also affects my state of mind, my interest and participation in the world around me, and my ability to relate to others. And it works both ways: The happier I am, the more fulfilled I feel, the easier it seems to stay healthy and fit.

Obviously, my little meditational routine is nothing original. If you are interested in taking up this kind of exercise, I can recommend using the so-called “Wellness Wheel”, which follows a similar pattern. As the name indicates, the different components of wellness relate to each other like spokes in a wheel. Each is necessary to hold the whole thing together, none is expendable.

Good nutrition, regular exercise, weight management as well as avoidance of smoking and alcohol and drug abuse are at the core. But so are stress management and getting enough sleep. Our emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs must be cared for. Having goals, a sense of purpose and satisfaction and fulfillment in what we do are all part of it, just like having good relationships with loved ones, colleagues and community.

Not all areas will always be at peak performance. And that’s not even necessary. We can focus on work and put our social life on the backburner for some time. We can take a break from our exercise routine for a day or two and make up for the missed time on the weekend. We can overindulge for a special occasion and then go right back to a healthy diet afterwards. What we can’t do is neglecting or sacrificing entire segments of our wellbeing because, sooner or later, it will affect the whole person.

If you liked this article, you may also enjoy reading “Creating a Health-Promoting Work Environment” and “Healthy Eating – A Never-Ending Learning Curve.”

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog and at amazon.com.  For more articles on nutrition, health and lifestyle, visit her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (www.timigustafson.com). You can follow Timi on Twitter, on Facebook and on Pinterest.

Much has been reported on changing food and nutrition trends in recent years and 2012 was no exception. Analysts agree: Americans want to eat more healthily. That includes healthier choices as well as smaller portion sizes. At the same time, convenience and efficiency are as important as ever, which calls for simple recipes and easy cooking techniques. Also, rising prices have made consumers more conscious of the value of quality food and they pay attention to what they’re buying and try to be less wasteful.

People want to eat “smaller” – not necessarily smaller as in less but smaller as in locally grown and as in fresh, as opposed to shipped in from far away, in big bulk and highly processed, explains Sharon Olson, executive director of Culinary Visions, a consumer research group. “Consumers want the food they buy demystified,” she said in an interview with USA Today. “They want to be able to pronounce the names of all the product ingredients. And they want to know where it comes from – ideally, locally. Nothing sells like pure and simple.”

Studies by the NPD Group, a consumer and market research enterprise, show that healthy eating is becoming a top priority, especially among aging baby boomers. Faced with multiple age- and lifestyle-related health threats, the boomers will continue their search for the fountain of youth, or at least will do whatever it takes to slow their decline. By 2015, this generation will be responsible for half of all the money spent on groceries in this country, and much of that will be on health food, the NPD Group predicts.

Transparency where our food comes from and what goes in it is very much part of that same equation, says Danielle Gould, founder of Food + Tech Connect, a research company that analyzes market trends. “Consumers read labels and select their foods more holistically based on all the food factors, including taste, ingredients, source and nutritional composition, as well as who is making their food,” she says.

Sustainability is also a growing concern. Too much food is being wasted, she warns. According to the National Resource Defense Council, about 40 percent of all the food available in the United States goes uneaten and has to be discarded. More Americans feel uncomfortable with that situation and want to see changes in the ways we deal with the overflowing supply, especially when millions of our fellow-citizen, including children, go hungry.

For food manufacturers and restaurant operators the demand for local fare, smaller servings and greater nutritional value may bring some serious challenges, and old business models, where more has always been considered better, will have to be realigned with the changing times. But they will eventually come around upon consumers’ insistence. As is so often the case, seemingly revolutionary ideas will become the new normal, and we will hardly remember why it took us so long to get there.

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.”, and at amazon.com. You can follow Timi on Twitter and on Facebook.

It’s a familiar picture: People eating while talking on the phone, reading e-mails, staring at computer screens, hurrying from appointment to appointment. Our hectic lifestyles rarely allow for lunch breaks exclusively dedicated to nourishment or sit-down dinners to reconnect with loved ones.

Nearly half of all adults in America now eat most of their meals alone, according to a new survey by the Hartman Group, a marketing research firm that specializes in consumer culture. “In fact, 46 percent of all adults eating occasions happen alone, with nobody else present; 40 percent of all adult meals (not just snacks) are eaten alone; and 51 percent of all adult snacking is done alone,” it says in the report.

The changes in eating habits are most obvious in the workplace where long, uninterrupted working hours have become the norm rather than the exception. But also hard-to-coordinate family schedules are impacting the way we used to have our meals at home, says Laurie Demeritt, the Hartman Group’s president.

Although it’s now more common than ever, the trend toward eating solo began a long time ago. As women joined the workforce in great numbers after World War II, preparing elaborate meals at home became less attractive, even as modern kitchen appliances eased the task. The ability to eat out or pick up frozen dinners offered much-welcomed relief.

Today, we have what Demeritt calls the “snackification of meals,” where frequent eating of snack items and smaller dishes has taken the place of the traditional three-meals-a-day pattern. Consumers are looking for flexible meal schedules that fit their demanding lifestyles. Oftentimes, this is only feasible when they eat by themselves.

While eating without company is not necessarily a bad thing and can from time to time be quite enjoyable, there are certain downsides. When you’re all by yourself, nobody will judge you, your table manners, your food choices or your portion sizes. You can focus on your meal or do a thousand other things at the same time. But that’s where it can get tricky, according to Brian Wansink, author of “Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think” (Bantam, 2006). If you are not paying attention or there is no one else to give you any cues about your eating behavior, you may end up overdoing it – and gain weight in the process, he says.

To be sure, not all snacking, even if it occurs frequently, is automatically unhealthy. The trick is to stay away from the salty, sugary and highly processed items that unfortunately dominate the snack food sections from supermarkets to gas stations. And as with all foods, moderation is key.

And what about the social interactions solitary eaters miss out on? “Some of us love eating alone,” says Diane Shipley who writes for the British paper, The Guardian. Eating alone should not make you feel awkward, not even as a women going on her own to a bar or a restaurant or when travelling, she says. “Spending time with someone whom you have little in common with can feel far more alienating than being alone.”

If you enjoyed this article, you may also be interested in “Despite of the Obesity Crisis, the Eating Habits of Most Americans Remain Unchanged.”

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.”, and at amazon.com. You can follow Timi on Twitter and on Facebook.

Although I grew up as a city girl, a memorable period of my childhood was spent in the English countryside. Of those days, I recall most fondly the harvest season. Because the local farmers couldn’t handle the workload by themselves (we are talking agriculture before heavy machinery came into use), all able bodies in the nearby villages, including young children, were enlisted to bring in the crops.

Harvesting then was a race against time and we all had a sense of urgency. Having enough food to get us safely through the winter was not to be taken for granted. Relying on imports from far-flung places around the world was not an option. “Locally grown” was not a slogan back then, it was all we had available to us.

Having successful harvests is a major concern in all societies, including ours. ‘Thanksgiving’ is one of our most celebrated holidays. Harvest festivals of all sorts are observed around the globe and they have a similar meaning, namely to commemorate the fact that survival is not guaranteed but depends on hard work as well as the cooperation of forces beyond our control. In a way, as joyful an event as it may be, this should be a rather humbling experience. It shows us that we are ultimately not in command of our fate, at least not at all times and in every regard.

When news broke last summer that record heat waves were devastating crops all over the country, dramatic increases in food prices were announced almost immediately. That put families on already tight food budgets further at risk of malnutrition and diet-related diseases. Widespread hunger, in the past only considered a persistent problem in developing countries, is becoming a reality here as well.

It is also a sad fact that hunger and obesity often go together, especially among poor children. The most affordable foods are typically highly processed and laden with refined carbohydrates, fat, salt and sugar, all ingredients known to cause weight gain while offering little nutritional value.

Buying locally grown fresh foods can offer a better alternative for everyone, including low-income families. “By focusing your diet on products grown and raised within 100 miles of your home, you will likely end up eating more fruits and vegetables as well,” says Tara Parker-Pope, a health and nutrition writer and frequent contributor to the New York Times/Well blog. She recommends that consumers shop as often as possible at local farmers markets, not only because of the higher food quality at lower cost but also to support food producers who practice more sustainable farming methods.

People need to understand that processed, pre-packaged foods like fast foods and frozen dinners may be convenient and readily available throughout the year, regardless of season or choice of ingredients – but they come at a steep price that is not reflected at the drive-through or checkout counter. To comprehend the real costs of our modern eating styles, we also have to consider the heavy dependency on fossil fuels for fertilizers and pesticides as well as long-distance transportation and refrigeration.

For these reasons and others, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend making buying locally grown and harvested foods a priority in every household. Eating nearby grown produce is not only healthier, according to the agency, it also helps the environment and climate by reducing the amounts of energy it takes to put dinner on the table.

So, when you and your loved ones get together this coming Thanksgiving to count your blessings, why not discuss some ideas how you can personally make a few smart diet and lifestyle changes. They eventually may add up to significant differences for both you and the world around you.

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.”, and at amazon.com. You can follow Timi on Twitter and on Facebook.

Despite or perhaps because of the ongoing obesity crisis, more Americans are taking an interest in improving their eating habits, from cutting back on meat consumption to buying more organic produce. The public outcry over “pink slime” and growing concerns over food contamination exemplify this trend.

But it is also true that switching to a healthier regimen is not a simple process. Many Americans are confused about what to do in the face of often contradictory messages they get from the government, health experts, advocacy groups and food manufacturers. Is a vegetarian diet preferable to an omnivore eating style? Is organic food worth the extra costs? Is it possible to eat better on a limited budget? Can snacking be part of a healthy lifestyle? There are no definite answers to questions like these.

“Whether you’ve been told that you need to lose weight by your doctor, have special medical concerns or just want to look and feel better, learning how to eat healthy meals is a life-long experience,” says Allen Smith, a health and fitness writer. Unless you have a specific plan you can follow and that works for you, trying to design a balanced diet can be an overwhelming task, he says.

You can start by consulting the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are periodically updated and reissued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). But they require heavy reading and are not without dispute. Or you can make your food choices according to the so-called glycemic index (GI), a rating system for carbohydrates with regards to their impact on blood sugar levels. But you must be a very detail-oriented person to engage in such calculations. For the rest of us, I believe it’s best to make small but effective changes that require less effort but have accumulative benefits over time.

Here are a few tips for a small-steps approach:

• Do not look at your dietary improvements as a form of punishment for your former “sins.” If you feel deprived of your favorite foods, whether they are bad for your health or not, you will not be able to maintain your efforts in the long run, no matter how beneficial they may be.

• For similar reasons, I recommend that you try making simple modifications first. Despite of what you may have heard or read in the media or as part of a commercial weight loss program, you should not clean out your refrigerator and pantry all at once. Leave something in there that you love and can enjoy once in a while when the going gets a little tough or you just experience a momentary craving. It’s also a good way to learn how to exercise moderation and test your willpower.

• Make small changes to your typical dinner plate. Increase your vegetable and fruit servings while reducing the size of your meat portions. Do it gradually. If you cut back on something that’s less healthy, double the effect by adding something more nutritious. For example, if you can’t live without that juicy burger, make it from scratch at home (as opposed to buying one from the fast food joint or the frozen meat department at the store) with extra-lean (preferably organic) meat. Leave out the cheese and add more tomatoes and lettuce instead. Forget about the French fries or, if you can’t, make them yourself (from fresh potatoes) and bake them in the oven. What matters most is that you eventually gain more control over what and how much you eat.

• Understand the importance of meal times. Eat breakfast. It will give you the energy you need to start your day and will keep you from becoming too hungry and tempted to overindulge later on. Take a real lunch break (no munching while working). Have something light but highly nutritious, so you don’t feel sluggish in the afternoon. If you need a snack, choose healthy options like fruit or yogurt. Back home, sit down for dinner, preferably with your family. Make a point of shutting off TVs, computers and cell phones. Savor your meals and enjoy your company. Both contribute enormously to better eating habits.

• Become a savvy shopper. Understand the layout of your grocery store or supermarket. Spend most of your money in the produce department. If it’s within your budget, buy organic fruits and vegetables to reduce your exposure to pesticides and other contaminants, which is the main reason why you should consider switching to organic foods. Learn to decipher Nutrition Facts and ingredients labels (not an easy feat). Cut down on fat, salt (sodium) and sugar whenever possible. If you buy processed food items, compare brands and choose the ones with the lowest amount of these.

• Don’t be too hard on yourself (and those around you). You only set yourself up for failure. Healthy eating is not like an event that has a beginning and an end. Especially dieters for weight loss tend to think that once the pounds are gone, it’s again a free-for-all. Wrong! Eating right is part of a lifestyle that you hopefully will keep pursuing for as long as you live. Once you reach that goal, there is no longer a struggle, a weakness or a tendency you must guard against. It’s just who you are. If you still feel tempted to stray once in a while, take it in stride. As human beings, we are always on a learning curve.

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a clinical dietitian and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (http://www.timigustafson.com), and at amazon.com. You can follow Timi on Twitter and on Facebook.

Most diet programs for weight loss are mainly focused on managing calories. Of course, there is good reason for that. A surplus of calorie intake versus expenditure eventually leads to weight gain. Only about 500 additional calories a day can result in an extra pound of body weight per week – and, of course, the opposite applies just as much. However, it is also important to know where those calories come from, a fact that is not always communicated as well.

According to the laws of physics, calories are all the same. Thus, in theory, it shouldn’t matter whether you drink sugary sodas or eat apples as long as both have the same calorie count. So, the kind of diet you choose – e.g. high-protein/low-carb, high-carb/low-fat, or anything in between – shouldn’t matter either, provided more calories are burned off than consumed. Still the discussion over the effectiveness of different weight loss approaches continues. But is this even the right conversation to have?

Obesity is undoubtedly one of the most pressing health problems of our time. But so is – paradoxically – malnutrition. “Americans are overfed and undernourished,” says Dr. Mark Hyman, author of the “Blood Sugar Solution – The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now!” (Little, Brown, 2012). In fact, he says, “most obese children and adults in the country are also the most nutritionally deficient.”

The so-called “Standard American Diet” (SAD) is notoriously caloric but too often nutrient poor, lacking many essential vitamins and minerals. People who eat large amounts of highly processed foods and ingest lots of sugar, refined grains and hydrogenated fats (trans-fats) may gain weight but remain hungry because their nutritional needs are not met. But instead of altering their food choices, they simply keep munching on more of the same.

When they eventually decide to go on a diet, they may starve themselves, but all they often do is deprive their body further by cutting back on (empty) calories without replacing them with more and better nutrients, which is what a healthy diet (for weight loss or otherwise) should be all about.

Nutrition experts have long known that one of the best ways to achieve and maintain a healthy weight range is to focus on nutritional quality first. Yes, portion sizes do matter, but they become less important as you switch from empty calories to nutrient-dense ones. An extra helping of fresh fruit or vegetables is harmless by comparison to a supersized cheeseburger, pizza slice or order of French fries. The same goes for snack foods. While potato chips, candy bars and cookies may give you some instant gratification, they will not satisfy you for long (that’s why you keep reaching for them). Healthy snacks, on the other hand, like apples, citrus fruits, bananas or berries, will do the job much better, and the health benefits are of course much greater.

The bottom line is that single strategies like counting calories won’t work if they don’t go hand in hand with a health-conscious change of eating habits and food choices. Part of that process is educating yourself about nutritionally superior foods and the many advantages they can provide, not just for managing body weight but, more importantly, for all-around good health.

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a clinical dietitian and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (http://www.timigustafson.com), and at amazon.com. You can follow Timi on Twitter and on Facebook.

Working parents may have a harder time to put healthy food on the table than those who are part-time employed or stay at home, a recent study found. While parental employment provides many important benefits for families, work-related stress can negatively affect eating habits at home.

“An increasing number of studies have observed associations between mothers’ full-time employment and less healthful food environments,” wrote Dr. Katherine Bauer, a researcher and assistant professor of public health at Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education and one of the authors of the study report.

The results of this study showed that full-time employed parents tended to prepare fewer family meals. They also encouraged their children less often to eat a healthy diet compared to parents who had more time to spend at home. Families with both parents working had also an overall lower intake of nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables.

Full-time employed fathers spent even less time on food preparation than working mothers. Work-related stress among both parents often lead to less than ideal eating habits at home, including less frequent sit-down meals and higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverage and fast food by both children and parents.

For the study, Dr. Bauer and her team analyzed data of over 3,700 parents of adolescents living in a Midwestern metropolitan area. The report was published in the journal Social Science & Medicine (August 2012).

Although the study’s focus on work-related stress and its effects on families’ diets was somewhat unique, its findings should hardly come as a surprise. Parents who try to balance work and child-rearing have to be as efficient as possible when it comes to chores like food-shopping and throwing dinner together in a hurry. Naturally, there is the temptation to cut corners once in a while. Things can become problematic when the easy choices such as a quick stop at the fast food place or pizzeria on the way home develop into a regular routine. Unfortunately that happens all too often.

Especially because of their high stress levels, working parents need to take care of their nutritional needs as best as they can. “Stress increases your need for nutrients,” says Cindy Heroux, a registered dietitian and author of “The Manual That Should Have Come with Your Body.” “The more malnourished you become, the more severely stress will impact both your body and your mind.” In times of physical and mental exhaustion, it is crucial to add essential nutrients such as B-complex vitamins, antioxidants, as well as calcium and magnesium because the body is less able to store these during stress responses and becomes easily depleted. The best sources are whole foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and low-fat dairy.

What applies to the parents, applies to the children as well, perhaps even more so. A poor diet diminishes their ability to perform at school and may inhibit their growth and development.

Obviously, many time-strapped parents won’t be able to make a lot of changes in their lifestyle over night. However, there are a few steps they can take to make things less cumbersome after a long workday. For example, older children can help in the kitchen and prepare simple but healthy meals like salads on their own. If there is no time for frequent trips to the grocery store, frozen vegetables and lean sources of protein, such as chicken or seafood, can be stored in the freezer for later use.

What matters most is a good understanding of the importance of a balanced diet, especially in times of stress. The last thing families can afford is getting sick because they’re run down and in dire need of replenishing their resources. Sometimes, it may be just a matter of resetting priorities.

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a clinical dietitian and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (http://www.timigustafson.com), and at amazon.com. You can follow Timi on Twitter and on Facebook.