Topic: Lauren Slayton

10 Foods You Didn’t Know Contained Protein

10 Foods You Didn't Know Contained Protein

Recently, nutritionist and Foodtrainers founder Lauren Slayton has brought us 10 healthy-ish chocolate food products and 10 foods you think are healthy and nutritious but aren’t, and this week she’s back promoting protein in surprising places.

Most of us aren’t running around low on protein. If anything, most people’s systems have protein (and other things) to spare. But with Meatless Mondays and more and more people going vegan or quasi-vegan, it’s important to know there’s protein beyond poultry. For comparison’s sake, there are 19 grams of protein in three ounces of chicken, but the average female needs about 40-50 grams of protein per day. We can all benefit from eating less meat, and when you do, now you’ll know where your protein lives. So here’s our gallery of ten foods you didn’t know contained protein: More »

10 Healthy-ish Chocolate Food Products for Valentine’s Day

10 Healthy-ish Chocolate Food Products for Valentine's Day

Lauren Slayton, nutritionist, Foodtrainers founder, and Blisstree contributor, tapped her staff for their favorite healthy-ish chocolate choices for Valentine’s Day (and any other day), and kindly agreed to share them with us — and you. So here are their top ten picks. (If you like what you see, be sure to sign up for Foodtrainers’ terrific monthly newsletter.)

In honor of Valentine’s Day, our gift to you is Foodtrainers’ ten favorite chocolate products. Of course you already know that dark chocolate contains good antioxidants. (Phenylethylamine, a “feel-good” chemical, is also found in chocolate.) But bear in mind that we use the term “healthy” loosely — “healthy-ish” is more accurate. More »

Cleansing Diets For Health, Not Weight Loss — Blisstree’s Detox Basics, Part 1

Cleansing Diets For Health, Not Weight Loss â Blisstree's Detox Basics, Part 1

New to cleansing, or just want to learn more about the whole detox trend? This is the first in our series exploring the ins and outs of detox diets and cleanses, and all the juices, supplements, lemonades, and scary colon treatments that go along with them. Stay tuned for more in our Detox 101 series.

As someone who’s always been curious about alternative health and natural food, I’ve tried a cleanse or two in my time, with positive and negative results. I’ve flirted with the Master Cleanse, but lasted less than three days on a diet of maple and cayenne, vowing to never listen to friends and roommates who claimed it gave them “great energy” after day seven. But I’ve also tried cleanses I loved: Namely, ones where I’m allowed to eat. A positive experience with a reasonably-priced box of cleansing supplements and two-week diet of no dairy, meat, fish, caffeine, sugar, wheat, or processed foods made a cleansing fan out of me — by the end of the two weeks, with caffeine withdrawal and sugar cravings behind me, I felt fantastic; nothing like the deprived, irritable wreck the Master Cleanse made of me. That positive experience inspired my most recent adventure in the world of detox: An eight-day stint of nothing but raw foods and juices from New York’s popular Organic Avenue. More »

10 Foods You Think Are Healthy and Nutritious But Aren’t

10 Foods You Think Are Healthy and Nutritious But Aren't

Last week, nutritionist Lauren Slayton schooled us about 10 foods we didn’t know contained (so much) sugar, and this week she’s deconstructing ten allegedly healthy foods.

I’ll bet my nutrition credentials that broccoli will remain in the good-for-you food group for all eternity. Similarly, SPAM and Velveeta will always be unhealthy. And for those of you who claim “there are no bad foods,” you may reconsider after this post. Still, many foods aren’t solidly at either end of the health spectrum. And lots of foods that people assume are healthy really aren’t. (This means you, pretzels.) So, in the hopes of helping you to make smarter eating choices, here’s our gallery of ten foods you may think are healthy and nutritious, but the reality? Not so much. More »

10 Foods You Didn’t Know Contained (So Much) Sugar

10 Foods You Didn't Know Contained (So Much) Sugar

Last week, Lauren Slayton, Blisstree’s resident nutritionist, gave us 10 foods we didn’t know contained (so much) salt. Today she’s back, and she’s not sugar-coating anything:

I’m not anti-sugar. I’m staunchly pro-chocolate and I’m sipping coffee with agave nectar (which is pretty much sugar) as I blog. (Obviously, I’m also pro-Joe.) But we have a problem: Yes – you, me, all of us. We’re getting sugar from places we don’t necessarily realize. Though you may know why salt is bad (high blood pressure, bloat) or why pesticides are bad, you may not know why, for a healthy person, sugar is bad. Simply stated, sweet begets sweet. The more sugar you have (and that means sugar, honey, molasses, evaporated cane juice, sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, etc.), the more you’ll crave, which can lead to fatigue, obesity, diabetes, depression, heart disease, a suppressed immune system, and a host of other serious health problems. So you owe it to yourself to know where sugar lurks in order to do something about it. The American Heart Association suggests that women keep added sugar to 25 grams daily and men slightly more (unfair!) to 37.5 grams daily. Fine, but do you know how much a gram of sugar is in real terms? One teaspoon of sugar equals a little more than 4 grams. Here’s our gallery of ten places where sugar is lurking in your food (and drink). More »

10 Foods You Didn’t Know Contained (So Much) Salt

10 Foods You Didn't Know Contained (So Much) Salt

Last week, nutritionist and Foodtrainers founder Lauren Slayton gave us her New Year’s Detox Diet: 7-Day Food Cleanse. Today she’s back with ten foods (plus condiments and medications) that you didn’t know contained so much damn salt. If you liked our previous posts: 8 Foods You Didn’t Know Contained Meat and 5 Foods You Didn’t Know Contained Gluten, then you’ll want to read on.

Lauren says: “We all have a friend or family member who, like my husband, often reaches for the salt shaker even before tasting their food. Perhaps this person is chided for their overzealous shaking; perhaps not. But the truth is that even the most serious salt-lover isn’t in danger of approaching the recommended one-teaspoon-a-day of salt from that habit. Instead, have you ever considered criticizing the amount of spaghetti sauce someone uses? Maybe you should.” Here’s our gallery of ten sneaky salt sources lurking in your food: More »

Dannon’s Activia Now Does…Dessert?

Dannon's Activia Now Does...Dessert?

Dannon, you can’t be serious. Just a few weeks ago, in mid-December, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission busted you to the tune of $21 million for falsely claiming that just one daily serving of your Activia yogurt can relieve consumers of digestive irregularities. (You also erroneously claimed that your DanActive can prevent the common cold, but that’s another made-up story.)

Now you have the gall to introduce Activia Dessert, which is bascially junk food. That is, four-packs of Dannon yogurt in sickly sweet dessert flavors: Blueberry Cheesecake, Peach Cobbler, Vanilla Bean, and Strawberry Cheesecake. It’s a cute gimmick, but frankly, one that leaves a distinctly sour taste in our mouths. More »

5 New Year’s Resolutions Not to Make

5 New Year's Resolutions Not to Make

If you poll ten people about New Year’s resolutions you’ll probably find five who make them every year and five who think they’re silly or pointless. I’m in the former group. I rejoice in resolutions and encourage my clients do the same. But there’s a method to resolution-making: You need to make resolutions that are realistic – not revolutionary. Here are my five resolutions not to make, and what to do instead: More »

Holiday Gift Guide: 10 Food and Fitness Presents From Our Nutritionist

Holiday Gift Guide: 10 Food and Fitness Presents From Our Nutritionist

Christmas shopping for a health and fitness buff can be challenging, so we asked our resident nutritionist, Lauren Slayton of Foodtrainers, to design her own personal holiday gift guide for us. So here’s her gallery of 10 healthful food- and fitness-related presents, plus her message to you:

“As we approach Christmas and New Year’s, don’t forget to put yourself on your gift list. That may mean ordering an extra Vitamix for yourself, or just giving yourself the gift of time.” More »

Gallery: 5 Winter Fruits to Fight Bad Holiday Food Habits

Gallery: 5 Winter Fruits to Fight Bad Holiday Food Habits

Foodtrainers founder and nutritionist Lauren Slayton returns to Blisstree with more sound advice on how to eat your way through the holidays without looking like Santa.

“Limit, avoid, skip, pass on, reduce, monitor” and other semi-restrictive terms precede most holiday eating advice, often with good reason. But with these types of tips comes the inevitable backlash against restraint. So here’s some good news for those of you who don’t want to watch what you eat over the holidays: I’m here with a different sort of plea. I want you to eat more. More of the foods that can improve your skin, energy level, and immune system. Winter gets a bum rap, and many associate cold weather with hearty, creamy, or meaty foods and a dearth of desirable produce. But the truth is that there are many great produce picks around this time of year. These foods will stop constipation in its tracks and send you the message that, despite the revelry that goes on during those holiday parties, you actually are taking care of yourself. Try to eat two of the following fruits each day in December: More »

I’d like you to think of December 22 or 28. These days aren’t Hanukkah or Christmas or Kwanzaa. You’re not likely to attend a holiday party or family gathering every single day. And please don’t tell me about birthdays or the early Christmas you have planned. My point is that there are many days during the “eating season” that are actually “regular” December days. Keep them slightly spartan. Skip the sweets and the carbs and work out for an hour instead. If you insist on a couple of these days per week, you’ll balance out that egg nog and won’t get mistaken for Santa Claus. (Okay, maybe work out for 90 minutes.)

– Blisstree contributor, nutritionist, and Foodtrainers founder Lauren Slayton, from her post: Christmas and Hanukkah: ‘Tis the Season for (Over)Eating (and How Not To)

Christmas and Hanukkah: ‘Tis the Season for (Over)Eating (and How Not to)

Christmas and Hanukkah: 'Tis the Season for (Over)Eating (and How Not to)

No Christmas Conspiracy

Yesterday I was reading a blog that referred to the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas as “The Eating Season.” I hadn’t heard this specific phrase before, but in my line of work, I certainly can’t escape talk of festive foods and highly caloric holiday treats during this time of year. Clients are fearful that they’ll indulge and backslide, and the media is full of strategies and tips (some coming from yours truly) to allegedly improve habits and quell this fear. I say “allegedly,” because I often feel like all this treat-talk and holiday help may be doing more harm than good.

As a nutritionist, I would argue that there are multiple “eating seasons.” Today we’re thinking latkes, Christmas cookies, and chocolate Santas, but pretty soon it’s chocolates for Valentine’s Day, macaroons for Passover, candy on Easter, and — before you know it — time for some hot dogs and at least a few margaritas. More »

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