Mrs. Joan Starliper, Dietitian of WVU Medicine, paid a visit to DCI this Tuesday to help DCI consumers learn to make healthy food choices, whether eating out, eating at home, or choosing a snack. From her “bag of tricks”, she pulled out a number of visual aides to assist us. Mrs. Starliper started off speaking about potion sizes. “Today portion sizes are much larger than is healthy for us.” As an example she mentioned muffins. Who doesn’t enjoy a BIG muffin? That is generally what you get when ordering a muffin or purchasing one. However, in reality, a muffin should only be as large as the palm of your hand. In fact, using your palm and thumb are a good way to measure portions. Meat, bread, servings of other foods should really be no larger than your palm. Salad dressings, butter, peanut butter, etc. should measure about the size of your thumb, or a tablespoon.
Next, real food verses packages, pre-made, or box items. “They may be quick & easy, but if you read the ingredient list, who wants all those unpronounceable chemicals and dyes in their bodies?” She showed us cupcakes purchased some years ago. The cupcakes were still good, in that they had not gotten moldy, but they did smell pretty bad. What was in them to hold their shelf life? UGH! 
Reading the ingredient label is a good trick to deciding if a food is a good choice. We were surprised to learn that Doritos have at least 9 ingredients, including 4 dyes, whereas Fritos only has three. Then, soda! This topic caused a great deal of shock and laughter when we learned how much sugar and fat are in a month’s worth of soda! Everyone decided to be more pro-active in their food and beverage choices from now on.
Mrs. Starliper emphasized that plenty of plain water, fresh fruit and vegetables, enough sleep, and exercise will lead to maintaining a healthy body and mind.