"Nutrition Expert Contribution to an article posted on www. SheKnows.com"

By the time 3 PM rolls around, do you find yourself craving a midday refill for your extra-large coffee mug? Before you drink another cup, stop and think about what your body is actually telling you. While one or two cups of coffee are a temporary and harmless morning pick-me-up, you shouldn’t need to rely on caffeine to get through the day. Here are some caffeine-free tips to boost your energy.

Caffeine-free tip #1: Check your food intake

“A 3 PM slump is not innate to us,” says Angela Pifer, MSN, certified nutritionist, founder of Nutrition Northwest Co. and in-house nutritionist for the International Ballet Theatre. “Since food gives us energy, it’s more of a problem with our blood sugar dropping.”

Pifer asks her patients to close their eyes and picture their food intake throughout the day. The line-up may include a small breakfast with coffee, a light lunch, maybe a snack, and dinner, but what Pifer finds is that most people consume the majority of their calories after 1 PM, when they should be consuming an equal amount of calories before and after 1 PM.

Caffeine-free tip #2: Eat more in the morning

By suppressing hunger and pushing it later in the day, you are fighting the natural drive to eat earlier and you set yourself up to take in more calories – perhaps too many – later on. According to Pifer, you need to even out your calories throughout the day to stop cravings and keep you moving and energized.

To stay alert throughout the day, she suggests eating small meals consistently throughout the day to prevent peaks and valleys with your blood sugar levels.

Caffeine-free tip #3: Snack smart

According in Pifer, a healthy snack contains 75 percent complex carbohydrate to 25 percent lean protein. This ratio will boost your energy and keep it up. Following are some smart snack suggestions.

Complex carbohydrates include:

• 1 piece of fruit
• 5 to 6 whole wheat crackers
• one-half a whole wheat pita
• 1 whole wheat piece of bread or toast
• one-fourth cup Go Lean Cereal
• one-fourth cup high fiber cereal
• 4 to 5 pieces of dried fruit
• 1 cup raw vegetables

Match any one of those carbs with one protein, like the following:

• 1 serving of nuts (9 almonds, 7 pecans, 3 walnuts, 1 macadamia
• 6 ounces of yogurt
• 2 teaspoons nut butter
• 2 tablespoons hummus
• 8 ounces milk or soy milk, nonfat or light
• 2 to 3 ounces meat or tuna
• 1 ounce cheese (harder cheese has less fat than soft)
• 1 egg (hardboiled or otherwise)

Caffeine-free tip #4: Sip a smoothie

Another great snack or light meal are healthy smoothies. Pifer suggests smoothies made with rice, almond, cashew, soy or regular dairy milk. To keep you satisfied and your blood sugar level on an even keel, add an additional protein source. For sustenance, add organic protein powder in the form of rice protein or you can omit the protein powder and use 1 tablespoon of flax meal or nut butter.

(Click for super smoothie recipes to boost your energy.)

Follow these caffeine-free tips and you’ll have energy all day long and won’t need to be tethered to the coffee bar counter.

ABOUT ANGELA PIFER, CERTIFIED NUTRITIONIST

Angela Pifer is a Certified Nutritionist, with a MS in nutrition from Bastyr University, in private practice, specializing in food sensitivities, emotional eating, digestive conditions & weight loss. She founded Nutrition Northwest Co in 2005; the premier provider of sound nutrition and wellness advice in the Northwest with offices in Seattle and Kirkland. Angela has a unique approach to helping her patients create new healthier habits: offering customized nutrition programs that inspire & educate along with a high degree of support & accountability to help them become fit & fabulous from the inside out.

If you have ever tried a cardboard-tasting energy bar, you know exactly where I am coming from. Although energy bars are a convenient way to fuel your body in and around your workouts, they should also meet one more criteria — gasp! — they should taste good! Fortunately for us, the energy bar makers been listening. Tastier whole foods-based bars are emerging to rave reviews. I might even go so far as to say that these new energy bars taste great! 

Ingredients matter! Made from raw, natural ingredients, the tastiest new finds in the energy bar aisle are those that taste like real food. Organic-based whole food bars (those with raw ingredients like fruits and nuts that aren’t processed and have no added sugar) are best, of course. Just be sure to check the label and complete a Bar Exam: Does your Energy Bar Pass The Test? Does the bar have adequate protein and fiber to fuel you through your workout? If you are looking for taste and a bar that will pass the exam, try the following great selections:

The List! I’ll start off with the best-tasting bar I’ve ever eaten…drum roll, please…Raw Organic bars! You can find these at Whole Foods Market. (If a Whole Foods store isn’t convenient for you, search online for this or any of the other bars listed here. Each bar’s website offers a store locater or will direct you to online purchasing.) Next, try Solo Bar (Whole Foods and GNC Stores), Balance Gold Bar, or PowerBar’s new Nut Naturals Bars. These four bars work beautifully as snacks. They have around 200 calories and provide a good balance of protein and fiber.

Also try 100% Organic and Raw Live Food Bars by Go Raw. These bars are made with only organic ingredients and are as natural and healthy as can be..

If you are a chocolate lover then you must try Larabar’s new Jocalat Pure Organic Chocolate Food Bar. These bars are fair-trade organic chocolate in its purest form! Harmonizing with fruits and nuts, each flavor contains no more than six simple ingredients and is 90% raw, as well as free from gluten, soy and added sugars. This bar comes in under 190 calories and contains at least 20% of the recommended daily value for fiber.

If you love trail mix but still want the convenience of a bar, try the hefty ProBar (Whole Foods or REI stores). It packs 15 whole foods (unprocessed ingredients) like fruits and nuts into its compact 3 ounces. This bar has 380 calories, so eat it with a piece of fruit or a yogurt for lunch and you have a complete meal.

Going for more fruit? Going for more fruit? The all-organic Nectar bar from Cliff Bar, gives you two servings of fruit and comes in at only 160 calories. The Lara Bar (Whole Foods, Trader Joes) offers 1.5 servings of fruit in each of eight flavors, including the newest, Pecan Pie. The Alpsnack bar (www.alpsnack.com), also made with whole foods, has a generous dose of omega 3 fatty acids from hemp nuts. These bars are healthy, but also dry and crumbly, making it tougher for them to be eaten on the go. (Try one crumbled over a yogurt for a healthy snack or as part of a well-balanced lunch).

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It’s time to put your guard up as saturated fats threaten an attack and make their way back into your diet.   How do you fight?  First and foremost, knowledge is your best contender.   Despite the recent entourage of new ‘reduced’ and ‘trans-fat-free’ products on the market, be warned that ‘fat-free’ may be anything but.

Trans fats are a type of mostly man-made fat that the food industry loves, but our hearts and blood vessels do not. In the late 19th century, chemists discovered that they could turn liquid vegetable oil into a solid or semi-solid by adding hydrogen atoms to the fat backbone. They did this by bubbling hydrogen gas through vegetable oil in the presence of a nickel catalyst. This was far more than a chemical curiosity. Partially hydrogenated oils don’t spoil as easily as non-hydrogenated fats. They can also withstand repeated heating without breaking down. These characteristics were attractive to food makers. Over time, partially hydrogenated oils became a mainstay in margarines, commercially baked goods, and snack foods.

The FDA once estimated that approximately 95% of prepared cookies, 100% of crackers, and 80% of frozen breakfast products contained trans fat. Now that trans fat must be listed on food labels, some companies are scrambling to remove them from their products. Many others have already succeeded in going ‘trans-fat’ free.

The shift follows the growing realization that trans fats are even worse for the
heart and blood vessels than saturated fats. Truth be told, there is an uprising in the food industry resulting in a trade-off of fats.  It is true that the labels will demonstrate a reduction in trans fat, however, this is often replaced with saturated fat found in tropical oils.  Though researchers announce that tropical oil fats, such as coconut, palm kernel oil, and palm oil, are safer than previously recorded, these newly found foods, actually result in more saturated fat content than the original formula. 

Trading fats is not the answer.

Saturated fats are generally solid at room temperature (butter is a good example.) They are most­ly found in animal fats, including meat and dairy products, as well as in certain tropical plant oils such as palm and coconut oils. The human body has the ability to produce sufficient saturated fat for its needs. Therefore, saturated fats are not considered essential. In fact, saturated fat should be limited as these fats can play a role in increasing cholesterol levels, which can lead to heart disease. Consumption of saturated fats has also been associated with an increased risk of obesity and certain forms of cancer. It is as important to look for ‘trans-fat free’ on the label as it is to choose foods that do not list ‘hydrogenated’ among the ingredients.

All is not lost; however.  Become aware of the healthy alternatives including ultra-low-linolenic soybean oil and high-oleic canola oil.  The healthier oils such as soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil, can be found in food favorites such as: Goldfish crackers, Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars, Bear Naked All Natural Granola, and Healthy Valley Chocolate Cookie Cremes.  One of the leading distributors of trans-fat-free oil, Asoyia, indicates that today’s demand is ten-fold from last year.

Power is knowledge and knowledge is power.  Trans-fat and tropical oil based saturated fats are still fattening.  Arm yourself with the knowledge that there are healthier alternative oils available to you. Of course FRESH is best and pre-packaged or processed foods should be eaten in limited quantities.  Therefore, ‘whole’ foods, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables should top the list of healthy picks.

Best Intentions: grocery store customer loads up basket with fresh vegetables only to discard them after a week because they’ve gone bad waiting to be prepared. Sound familiar? This may not be the literal definition, yet most can relate. To the rescue: a wide variety of frozen vegetables are just an isle away. 

Yes, it’s true, we should buy fresh, organic, local and seasonal when available. But we should also be open to using frozen vegetables throughout the rest of the year. Frozen vegetables offer convenience, cheaper pricing and often higher nutritional value than their fresh counterparts. While canned vegetables lose much of their water soluble nutrients during processing, frozen vegetables are often more nutrient dense than fresh isle supermarket counterparts.

How is this possible, you ask? Frozen vegetables are flash frozen at peak ripeness which locks in the nutrient rich state. Fresh produce that has been shipped in is often picked before it fully ripens. Because of this it will never develop the full range of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients as it would had it been left on the stock. It may appear ripe on the outside, but on the inside it will fall short of expectations.

Frozen vegetables are a fabulous way to deliver both nutritious and affordable food to your table. With prices of fresh produce on the rise many families are steering clear of the ten dollar bag of apples and moving towards lower priced convenience food. Families simply can’t afford to purchase produce with the chance that it may go bad over the week. Frozen vegetables are more affordable than their fresh counterparts because they can be purchased in bulk without the worry that they will go bad.

Here are eight beautiful reasons to eat your (frozen) vegetables!

1. Frozen vegetables often have greater nutrient density than fresh due to the fact that they are flash-frozen at peak ripeness.
2. They are almost always cheaper by the pound and you can buy them in bulk without the worry that they will go bad in the next week.
3. They end up being cheaper in the long run because they don’t go bad in a week.
4. They are less susceptible to seasonal price fluctuations.
5. Frozen tastes closer to fresh than canned.
6. Talk about convenience! Frozen vegetables are washed, prepped and ready to cook.
7. No need to defrost. Add frozen vegetables straight into your wok, pan or soup and start cooking!
8. Access to a greater variety of off-season vegetables is just a frozen isle away.