Spring into Wellness with Healthy Eating

Samantha Barash of Tap Into Nutrition.  Photo by Samantha Barash

By Jenna Abroo

One of the only guarantees in life is that we all must eat! Food is our energy source and our sustenance. But food has never been just fuel. We use food to express culture and emotions, and as a bridge to connect with one another.

In today’s fast-paced world, we often find ourselves trading convenience for health. We buy fast food from a drive-through on the way home from work, prepare boxed meals from the grocery store for our families, and even get junk food from the local gas station when we feel the need for a pick-me-up. It’s no secret that all these things add up. We all tell ourselves that we’ll start our diets next week or the week after. With spring right around the corner, the new beginning, the season of rebirth, sounds like the perfect time to implement healthier lifestyle choices surrounding food. But where does one begin?

Local registered dietitian and business owner of Tap Into Nutrition, Samantha Barash, gave us some insight from her professional expertise. Barash says that eating “healthy” is subjective and individualized. “What might be ‘healthy eating’ for one person could be unhealthy for another,” says Barash. “As a dietitian, I encourage my clients to reframe ‘healthy’ to other languages such as, ‘nutritious,’ or ‘well balanced.’”

Karen Akouri’s Drench Dressing and Marinades are inspired by Greek, Asian, Mediterranean, Italian, and Mexican menus.

When asked if she follows any specific recipes in her routine, Barash mentions that she has each food group on her plate. “Emphasizing a grain, fruit or vegetable, and protein and remembering that all are important in a nutritious diet,” she explains. This is a habit that almost anyone can follow and while simple, is effective.

When asked about how to approach eating healthy when out at a restaurant, Barash offers the advice, “Calories don’t automatically equate to ‘unhealthy.’ Focus on what you can add to your meal while dining out. Is there a vegetable component? Could I add a protein? Remember that one meal doesn’t make or break your health!”

Barash summarizes by saying, “Nutrition should be fun and enjoyable. The more we restrict something, the more likely we are to want to eat it! Eating healthy doesn’t always have ‘a look’. Bodies are healthy in many different sizes and if we focus on eating a certain way just to lose weight, it can often backfire into having a complicated relationship with food and our bodies.”

Many parents want to feed their families healthy and nutritious meals, and it is not always easy to do. Owner of Drench Dressing and Marinades, Karen Binno Akouri, recalled that one day she was making what she thought was a healthy salad for her family to eat. She had run out of their usual store-bought dressing and was astounded when she read the nutrition label on the back trying to recreate it. It contained what she humorously calls a “science project of ingredients.”

The anger she felt about unknowingly feeding this to her family inspired her to create Drench Dressing in 2019, and the rest is history. Drench’s mission statement is that they are “dedicated to creating clean, natural dressings and marinades with ingredients you can trust. Free from seed oils and anything artificial, our dressings are so delicious, they are good enough to drink.”

The dressings are Kosher and non-GMO-Project verified. Akouri mentions that she loves our culture’s traditional Chaldean food. “Our Drench Mediterranean Lemon and Fattoush are the perfect dressings for our Chaldean salads. I love them on tabbouleh, fattoush, and cabbage salads.”

The website drenchitclean.com includes a variety of delicious and nutritious salad recipes to go with the dressings. The line includes 9 different dressings in a variety of flavors. Drench is sold online and in more than 3,500 stores nationwide including Meijer, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Fresh Thyme. Finding a company that provides the utmost quality products is a wonderful way to incorporate healthier habits into your lifestyle.

Local small business Health with Hope is owned by Certified Holistic Nutritionist Hope Sheena. Sheena offers her clients weekly meal prep, made (and door-delivered) with clean, organic ingredients and nutritional counseling.

Sheena defines healthy eating as, “eating in a way that nourishes your body, specific to your body.” She acknowledges the struggle of how busy our lives can be, and that it can be a huge barrier to eating healthy. She recommends spending a little extra on pre-washed and chopped salad ingredients. “After a long day,” says Sheena, “the last thing I want to do is wash and chop a bunch of ingredients!”

Sheena also sticks to a strict four-time a week exercise schedule but reiterates that any movement is movement. She mentions that she likes to, “eat the rainbow,” which includes including a lot of variety in her meals. Sheena cites the dish Rizza Maraca as, “a perfect mix of healthy anti-inflammatory spices, good carbs, protein, fiber, and fats all in one bowl.”

Sheena also emphasizes how beneficial it is to eat non-GMO and organic ingredients. While this is not financially feasible for everyone, she says the benefit of eating a diet rich in plants and whole foods outweighs the importance of whether it is organic or not, if one is not able to exclusively eat non-GMO/organic food. Sheena concludes by saying that while these habits are important for our overall health and wellness, “Life is short, and we do deserve to enjoy certain foods and splurge every once in a while, for celebrations.”

It is well-known that eating healthy consistently is not the easiest thing to do. It helps to be realistic with yourself, and to also stick to a variety of foods to represent all the food groups when you are cooking. While it is rare to eat “perfectly” every time we are at the dining room table, being mindful of how we nourish our bodies instead of focusing on a strict diet is a more sustainable way of eating better and taking care of ourselves.