From Our Dietitians: Stock These Items to Eat Healthy
Nutrition
Keeping your kitchen stocked with healthy, relatively shelf-stable basics ensures you’ll always have what you need to whip up a delicious, good-for-you meal for your family in no time. Here’s what we recommend: Pantry Whole grains (quinoa, barley, farro, wheat berries, oats, brown rice, whole-grain crackers, whole-grain pasta) Shelf-stable veggies (onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, winter squash) Sunflower seed butter or soy butter, seeds Canned low-mercury tuna (aka “light tuna”) Dried or canned beans (lentils, garbanzos, black beans) Low- or...
On Our Shelves: Michael Pollan’s Food Rules
Nutrition
Now that we are in the new year, we’re yet again bombarded with fad diets and smart scales, made to feel equally guilty about the extra butter we use and the gym memberships we don’t. All of this negativity in the service of so-called self-improvement quickly turns into self-criticism and self-doubt. But at SAGE, we’re all about real self-improvement—the kind that grows from sustainable healthy habits and an underlying sense of respect for yourself and the world around you. You...
One-on-One with a SAGE Dietitian: Sarah Wechsler
Nutrition, One-on-One
Meet Home Office Dietitian Sarah Wechsler, who’s celebrating her ninth year with SAGE this month. Sarah shares her thoughts on staying satisfied at work, getting your fruits and veggies, and finding reputable sources for nutrition info. How did you get into the field of nutrition? I went to college for biology, but two things happened. One, I became a vegan and then ran a marathon, so I got really interested in nutrition. Two, I did an internship at an animal...
From Our Dietitians: Nutritional Remedies for Illness
Nutrition
We’ve all been there. You’re coming down with something fast, and even though you’ve heard all the old wives’ tales—start the BRAT Diet; starve a fever, feed a cold; make Grandma Rosa’s chicken noodle soup; pick up some Emergen-C®; chug a gallon of orange juice—you’re still at a loss for the right remedy. There’s so much conflicting advice because there are so few scientific studies dedicated to determining what’s true. Some folk remedies have been investigated, but conclusions have been...
From Our Dietitians: Trending Oils
Nutrition
Fat is back! After decades of low-fat and no-fat hype, most dietitians agree that healthy fats have a place in our diet. After all, fat adds flavor, provides energy, helps you feel full, and promotes healthy neurological function and homeostasis. There are three main types of fatty acid—saturated, unsaturated, and trans—that compose any macromolecular “fat” that we can see or consume. Saturated and trans fats have tight bonds that tend to make them solid at room temperature, whereas unsaturated fats...
Keeping Students Safe: How SAGE Handles Food Allergies
Nutrition, Allergies, Menu Builder, Online Menu
SAGE’s first priority is keeping our students safe and healthy. For this reason, food allergies need to be considered just as seriously as any other threat. SAGE’s research of its client population found that 1 in 12 students has a food allergy. For students with food allergies, meals can bring uncertainty and fear. We alleviate that fear through our allergy management program. Since peanut allergies are the most common and severe, SAGE doesn’t serve peanut or tree nut products (*unless...
Good Nutrient Sources for Plant-Based Eaters
Nutrition
Plant-based eaters need to be vigilant about incorporating nutrients of concern for underconsumption into their diets, including: iodine, zinc, calcium, protein, iron, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamins A, B12, and D. Milk, eggs, poultry, meat, and seafood are naturally rich in many of these nutrients—so if you’re excluding any of these from your diet, use this chart as a guide to ensure that your plant-based eating habits are healthy and nutritionally complete. Read more about the motivations, benefits, and habits...
Easy Nutritional Guidance: Understanding the SAGE Spotlight Program®
Nutrition, Spotlight Program
Eating well is a lifelong skill that’s difficult to learn in a world filled with persuasive food packaging, marketing and advertising, and fad diets. Enter SAGE’s Spotlight Program, a nutritional program designed to guide students of all ages in making healthy choices. The SAGE philosophy is that no foods are bad—everything has a place when you practice the principles of variety, balance, and moderation. We’re updating our established Spotlight program according to the most recent USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans...