We’ve told you all about how you can get a virtually free, personalized consultation with a MARTIN’S nutritionist… and we’ve even checked it out ourselves… but did you know MARTIN’S offers food tastings and nutrition classes as well?

If you’re working to get healthy this spring, check out these up coming events at MARTIN’s this month:

Gluten Free Sampling

Tuesday, April 21, 5:30 – 6:30pm
John Rolfe YMCA Multipurpose room located upstairs inside the John Rolfe MARTIN’S
FREE

Have you wanted to learn more about Celiac Disease and try samples of various Gluten Free foods before purchasing? This is a wonderful opportunity to do both! Join Valerie Pulley, RDN, in-store nutritionist, for a discussion on managing Celiac Disease/ Gluten Intolerance. Everyone will participate in a taste test panel of a variety of different Gluten Free items located throughout MARTIN’S! Adults & Teens, registration required. Call the John Rolfe Y at 360-8767 to register.

Stock Your Kitchen with Fresh Produce!

Thursday, April 23, 1-2pm
200 Charter Colony Parkway, Midlothian, VA
FREE

Do you know how to cut a mango? Have you ever seen the inside of a pomegranate? Join Caroline Roessler, in-store nutritionist, as she leads a grocery store tour through the produce section to discover Martin’s springtime produce selection. Learn about the nutrients that make these choices good for us, and discover new ways to pick, prep and enjoy produce! Meets in the nutritionist office. Adults only, registration required. Call (804) 794-7074.

Learn more here.
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The Gluten-Free Truth – Who, Why and How!

During the majority of my 24 years as a dietitian, the term “gluten-free” was not the buzzword it is today.  Even a decade ago, most people had never even heard of the word gluten. Now, I hear gluten-free discussed almost daily and can spot products throughout MARTIN’S Food Markets. While a gluten-free diet is not the best way for everyone to eat, it is important for an adult or child diagnosed with celiac disease or a gluten intolerance/sensitivity.

Celiac disease (gluten sensitive enteropathy/celiac sprue) is a chronic autoimmune disorder of the intestine which interferes with the body’s ability to digest/absorb specific proteins known as “gluten.” Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley as well as hybrids of these grains such as spelt, triticale or kamut. For those with celiac or a gluten intolerance/sensitivity, these proteins must be avoided through careful day-to-day dietary management. In children, the symptoms of these conditions can affect everything from their digestive system to their mood, which makes adhering to a gluten-free diet imperative for some children to thrive. For the millions of Americans suffering from these conditions, beginning a lifelong gluten-free diet can seem challenging. The good news is that your local MARTIN’S is here to help!

Helpful hints for going gluten-free:

• As a family, make a decision as to whether to go cold-turkey or ease into a gluten-free diet, as well as whether or not the whole family will be adhering to the diet or just the individual.
• Look for MARTIN’S gluten-free shelf tags throughout the store. These tags are displayed immediately below gluten-free products. Thousands of Own Brands and national brand products are identified as gluten-free throughout the perishable and non-perishable departments!
• If this diet is for a child, involve them in choosing and trying new gluten-free products by helping you spot the shelf-tag throughout the store. Once your family gets comfortable with a gluten-free diet, then you can start to be mindful about watching sugar content or looking for products with more fiber.
• Read the label every time.  Recipes, distributors or ingredient sources can change. If in doubt, go without! Avoid foods if there is no ingredient list or call the food manufacturer if you are unsure the food is gluten-free.
• Wheat-free is not necessarily gluten-free. Wheat-free products may contain rye, barley, spelt or other gluten-containing grains or gluten may be in hidden ingredients. Some naturally gluten-free grains such as oat or millet may be cross contaminated during growing, harvesting or processing.
• Avoid cross-contamination from gluten-containing foods. Be mindful of products from bulk bins or salad bars as most cannot be guaranteed gluten-free. Store all gluten-free products in separate, covered containers with labels. Use a separate cutting board for gluten-free foods and prepare foods in an area away from gluten-containing ingredients. Buy separate containers of peanut butter and jam and have a separate butter dish for gluten-free users. Use squeeze bottles of condiments and keep separate toasters. 

MARTIN’S in-store nutritionists are here as a resource for learning about a gluten-free diet and finding gluten-free foods that will provide the nutrients you need to stay healthy!  To schedule a consultation or store tour, call Valerie Pulley, RDN at 804-364-3644 or Caroline Roessler, MS, RDN at 804-794-7074. For more healthy tips, visit the MARTIN’S website.

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How I Saw A Nutritionist for Practically Free, What I Learned & Tips for When You Go

7 lessons I learned from going gluten free for one month

Tips on Going Gluten-Free

There is a lot of talk about the growing number of people with a sensitivity to gluten.  Gluten free diets have been said to reduce symptoms from skin and digestive issues to neurological disorders.  Having one child facing some difficulty in a handful of skills (focus being one of them) we decided to jump on the band wagon for one month and see if it helped. Here are 7 things I learned in our gluten free month.

(I’m a bad news first kinda girl, so lets start there)
The bad:

1. It’s expensive.  This one is kind of a no-brainer.  The cost of gluten-free versions of your favorite wheat-y foods or ingredients are twice (even three times) as much as your regular gluten-y stuff.
And it’s a crap shoot… almost every single gluten free version was met with outright rejection. Never try to trick a picky eater.  Thankfully, my oldest takes after me in that he eats like a goat and we could always give the rest of the box to him… but he wasn’t our problem. If I had to do it over again we’d skip most of the GF versions and focus with foods that were naturally gluten free. I don’t want to even consider the amount of money I wasted this month in gluten free products that tasted terrible. It would depress me… in fact, I’m getting depressed right now… so moving on.

2. It takes a lot of time. I embarked on this experiment with timing in mind. I’m still only working part time due to maternity leave.  I don’t think I could have done it otherwise. Things that were normally store bought, like cookies, muffins or pizza, I now made from scratch which took a lot more of my time. Because I had modified the recipes for cookies and muffins to contain a lot more vitamins (I’ll get to that) I wanted to have them on hand as a snack. At least once I found myself baking well after the kids had gone to bed (when I wanted to be in bed).

image source: rialtocafe.com

3. It’s not always a healthy diet. French fries, corn puffs, potato chips, rice cakes, corn chips… all “naturally gluten free” and kids love them. Frito-Lay has an extensive list of all of their gluten free options which include Ruffles, Fritos and Cheetos. Fabulous. Going out to eat you may find that the only gluten free option on the kids menu is a simple side of fries.  Having a gluten free label does not make it any less fattening or more nutritious.  Even Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour, my GF flour and pancake mix of choice, contains more fat, less protein and less fiber than whole wheat flour. So it’s easy for the GF diet to be just as, if not more, unhealthy than a diet containing wheat.

Now for the good:

4. We ate out less.  I wouldn’t say that we ate out a lot before, but between the limited options for kids (that my son would eat) and the money we were spending on groceries we ate at home almost every night. With a really busy household, it was nice to get back to family dinners.
 (Pssst… For a list of places where kids eat free in RVA check here)

5. I paid better attention to what my children ate.  Restricting something as predominant in our diet as wheat, I really had to pay close attention to what went into our meals and modern “convenience foods”.  I would love to say that I always paid as close attention… but I didn’t. Reading labels of foods brought to my attention the need for nutritional diversity in my children’s diet.  Which leads me to my next lesson…

6. I cooked more. Fridays became GF pizza night. We experimented with a new gluten free pizza dough each week.  Because I was now cooking many things from scratch instead of buying it at the store, I was able to modify our regular go-to’s to make them lower in saturated fat and more nutrient dense. For example, I was able to make our regular cheese pizza more nutritionally diverse by adding steamed sweet potato and carrot into the pizza sauce. Mr. Picky Eater actually licked the sauce off the crust one night (that week’s crust turned out to be a failure).  
And cooking together was kinda fun. I’ll admit, I found it terribly frustrating at first, because cooking with a 5 and 6 year old takes approximately 8,000x longer than doing it on your own, but once I gave myself a quick reminder to ‘let it go’ we had a pretty good time.

7. It helped– Maybe? At around day 10 we noticed a difference. In sensitivity towards my son, I’ll refrain from details, but we couldn’t help but see a marked difference in his behavior.  It was no miracle worker, but something changed.
 After considering it further it’s unclear whether or not this change was due to a gluten free diet, increased nutrition or simply coincidental.

We wont be sticking with a strict GF diet (to celebrate the end of our gluten-free month we ordered pizza) but that doesn’t mean we’re forgoing the diet all together.   The kids ate more fruit and veggies this past month than they ever did before. Since there were no goldfish or cheese-its to fill up on, the kids ate better at dinner time and even Mr. Picky tried some new foods.
We’ll probably stay gluten light, rather than gluten free. Though baking from scratch is more time consuming, it’s not that difficult, and I rather enjoyed finding creative ways to create healthier versions of our favorites – as well as discovering new favorites.

To find out more information about gluten free diet, Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity visit:
Mayoclinic
Celiac Disease Foundation