I’d like to introduce you to Sarah Waybright, registered dietitian and founder of WhyFoodWorks. I first learned about WhyFoodWorks a few months ago because Sarah offers in-home cooking classes and dinner parties, both of which happen to work really well for people and families with food allergies/sensitivities—you get a chance to try lots of delicious new recipes with the added bonus of minimal contamination risk! Talk about a win-win!!! If you’d like to hear more about my personal experience with Sarah, let me know in the comments below.
I asked Sarah to partner with us because she genuinely loves food and she is an expert at using real food to make our bodies work better. So much of gluten-free living revolves around how food makes us sick or the need to deprive ourselves of enjoyable food to stay healthy—let’s turn the conversation around and talk about all the ways to use nutrient-dense real food to help us feel strong, healthy, and excited about eating again!
Take it away, Sarah!
My love of food is what drew me into dietetics. Some people think of dietitians and nutritionists as the scolding, policing types who are constantly trying to steer you away from junk and sweets…but my approach is to steer people towards foods that are delicious, satisfying, and nourishing. I believe that your body will guide you if you listen to it, and that exposure to new and different flavors will constantly allow your appreciation of food to grow, and your tastes to shift. The true measure of how healthy a food is should be nutrient density (the amount of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals a food contains per calorie) – and how you feel after eating it.
Understanding why and how your body processes food also helps to guide food choices and determine how much of a food you should eat! There is no better definition of “health” – in any part of life – than “balance,” so that is what I focus on helping people to find.
During my master’s degree in human nutrition (from Drexel University), I started developing the idea of balance around some specific guidelines. Of course, there are many guidelines that do the same (the USDA’s MyPlate; the American Heart Association’s DASH diet, to name only a few), but what I came up with can fit into any eating pattern (vegan to paleo) and focuses on the nutrients and concepts that address the biggest problems with the typical American diet. I call it – the 3 P’s:
- Protein & Fiber: Aim for 30-40g of protein in a meal, and 8-10 in a snack. For fiber, try to get 8-10g in a meal and 3-4g in a snack.
- Plenty of Produce: You should have a serving (~1 cup) of fruit or vegetable at every eating occasion – 3 meals and 2 snacks gets you to 5 a day; optimum would be 7-9!
- Portion: All foods are both beneficial and toxic – the key lies in the amount. Recalibrate your sense of portions by carefully measuring when cooking for just a week – you’ll be able to estimate after that how much restaurants are serving you.
It’s virtually impossible to account for those 3 things and not have a healthy dish in front of you! Beth got a taste (literally!) of the 3 P’s during a cooking class we did at her place a few weeks ago, and I’m excited to partner with Positively Free to do a series of monthly blog articles that focus on delicious recipes full of nutrients we need more of and to answer questions you may have!
You can visit me directly at WhyFoodWorks, LLC where I provide nutrition education through food in Washington, DC via dinner parties and individual cooking classes. You can see a dinner party here here, and find me on Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram to get food tips and nutrition information – and of course healthy recipes!
One more thing you should know about me – I LOVE dessert, and my most popular recipes are desserts with a twist that makes them healthy enough to eat for breakfast. I created a cheesefake that fits the bill of being both a no-bake, creamy dessert and having a great balance of protein, fiber, and lots of berries!
Get Sarah’s cheesefake recipe here.
If you try it out, be sure to post a picture to me on IG or Twitter. I’m looking forward to connecting with you more!
To ask Sarah a question or request a topic for a future blog post,
please leave a comment on any GF Nutrition post
or email me with the subject “Gluten-Free Nutrition.”
PS – That cheesefake is seriously amazing!
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The post Gluten-Free Nutrition: Meet Sarah! {recipe} appeared first on Positively Free.