Fooling with Foods
Ever thought of starting your day with calcium-fortified drink to boost up your bone bank and a piece of toast covered with a pine tree extract that lowers your cholesterol? Or how about a lunch of vegetable soup spiked with St. John’s wort to help cure that down under feeling you’ve been having, accompanied by a glass of apple juice with Echinacea to help ward off those sniffles? We are faced with a future in which foods will turn into natural health products, drugs, or somewhere in between. Research is identifying potential benefits of certain herbs, vitamins and minerals, now known as functional components of foods. Come to this workshop to find out which functional foods may indeed benefit your health.

Making Sense of the Foods You Eat
First we’re told that we can’t eat eggs because they are too high in cholesterol then we are told that omega 3 eggs are healthy for your heart; heart health experts say drink wine to your heart’s health but grape juice makers say that there are more health benefits in their grape juice than in the wines made from the same grapes; and a daily caffeine jolt in the morning is a supposedly bad but research now says that regular coffee drinkers are healthier than those that don’t drink coffee at all…..are you tired of all the conflicting messages about what you should eat or drink for your health?. Learn how to “Rate Your Plate” and choose the best foods to fit in with a heart healthy nutrition lifestyle!

Learning Labels
Check the fine print on your “Cranberry Nectar’s” ingredient list and you discover that it’s got more apple and grape juice than cranberry juice. Read the Nutrition Facts panel on your “cholesterol free” hydrogenated vegetable oil shortening and you quickly realize that this shortening is light on nutrition and heavy on cholesterol raising fats. This workshop will teach you how to make the best nutrition decisions in the grocery store, how to read a label and how to separate out fact from fiction in your favourite foods.

Vegetarian Vitality
Some of our best athletes (Martina Navratilova - tennis, Dave Scott - Ironman, Carl Lewis -Track and Field) have followed vegetarian diets as their eating plan of choice – giving them energy to push their performance to the limit! A vegetarian style diet is high in plant foods like fruits and vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, breads and cereals. If you are thinking of starting to follow a vegetarian style of eating there are a few things to be aware of to make sure that your diet provides all the nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy and fit. This workshop will cover the basics of following a “more plant than meat based diet”.