These chickpeas are delicious, simple, affordable and nutritious. This easy recipe uses only 5 ingredients and is budget approved at only $0.27 per serving. A smart snack providing 5 grams of protein and fiber is perfect to take to work, keep handy in your purse, or feed your kids after school.

Honey Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas:
Only 27 cents per serving with ingredients purchased at Walmart.

Ingredients

Makes four servings.

Disclosure: I work with the folks at Walmart.

Walmart’s New “Great For You” Icon

I’ve recently been given a very unique opportunity to help millions of Americans eat healthier foods at affordable prices and I’m very excited to share the news with all of you.

Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, launched a five-year healthy foods initiative in 2011. Walmart committed to helping American families put healthy, affordable food on the dinner table each night. Their commitment is grounded in the idea that no family should ever have to choose between food that is healthier for them and food they can afford.

The program builds on the success of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. Mrs. Obama has applauded Walmart’s commitment and recently visited a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri to celebrate the retailer’s progress in making food healthier, more affordable and available to consumers across the country.

During the first two years of Walmart’s commitment, the company has made it easier for customers to create healthier diets which ultimately helps them to live better lives.

Walmart’s healthier foods initiative has five key elements which include:

1. Improving the nutritional quality of Walmart’s Great Value brand and national brands by reducing sodium by 25%, added sugars by 10% and removing all industrially produced trans fats by the end of 2015.

Progress:

• Reduced sugars by more than 10% in items including dairy, sauces and fruit drinks.
• Reduced sodium by 9 percent in items including grain products, luncheon meats, and salad dressing. Partnering with the suppliers, Walmart has decreased sodium in the bread aisle by 13% by helping to eliminate more than 1.5 pounds of salt from the diets of Walmart shoppers, or 35 tractor trailer loads.
• The number of products containing industrially produced trans fats fell by 50%! Less than 10 percent of food and beverages sold at Walmart in 2011 contained industrially produced trans fats.

2. Create a front-of-package icon to help consumers easily and quickly identify healthier food options, such as whole grain cereal, whole wheat pasta, leans cuts of meat and low-fat milk.

Progress:

• Created Walmart’s “Great For You” icon which will appear on more than 1,300 Great Value and Marketside food and beverages in Walmart U.S. Stores.
• Evaluated more than 4,000 private brand products against the “Great For You” nutrition criteria with about 32% of fresh produce, meat and packaged items receiving the icon. Soon, the icon will be available to national brand products that meet the “Great For You” criteria and qualify for the icon.
• Developed rigorous nutrition criteria to back the “Great For You” icon using the latest nutrition science and authoritative guidance.

3. Save customers at least $1 billion a year on healthier food.

Progress:

• Walmart customers saved $1.2 billion on fresh fruits and vegetables in 2012.
• Combined with the $1.1 billion in savings in 2011, customers have saved $2.3 billion during the first two years of the program.

4. Increase Americans’ access to fresh, healthier and affordable food by opening between 275 and 300 new stores in urban and rural food desserts by the end of 2016.

Progress:

• Opened 86 new stores serving food deserts since 2011 to help serve customers in rural and urban areas.
• More than 264,000 people now have more options for fresh, healthier groceries.

5. Help all Americans better understand nutrition and healthier eating options by increasing charitable support for nutrition programs.

Progress:

• Since, 2011, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have provided more than $26 million in grants to nutrition education. 

Wow! I am super impressed by the progress Walmart has already made within the first two years of their pledge. Since Walmart sells more groceries than any other company in the US, as a nutrition expert, I feel confident this will help Americans eat healthier and positively impact the health of these families.

I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to partner with Walmart by helping customers learn exactly how they can eat delicious and nutritious foods at affordable prices. Walmart has already done a lot of the work, I will get to show you how you can use “Great For You” products by sharing simple recipes that are quick, easy, and affordable. As a working mom of two young daughters, I understand the challenges of feeding a busy family, healthy meals on a budget. I will also be sharing other nutrition information and some of my favorite healthy food finds at Walmart! This will be a lot of fun and since my passion is helping people get healthy and fit, this will allow me to help a lot of Americans!

Follow me on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook to make sure you get the latest recipes and nutrition information! Also, feel free to share with me your favorite healthy food finds at Walmart and be on the lookout for the “Great For You” icon while shopping to make it easier for you to make healthy and affordable choices.

Learn more about Walmart’s healthy food commitments.

Digestion is not exactly a popular topic of conversation unless you happen to be an 8-year old. However, it is increasingly an area of concern for many people across the US. If you have looked at the laxative/anti-diarrheal section of a pharmacy lately, you can’t help but be amazed by the overwhelming variety of products on display.  Statistics from the US Dept. of Health and Human Services suggest there is indeed, an expansive market for these medications, revealing that approximately 60 to 70 million people in the states suffer from digestive diseases.  That’s about 20% of the population!

This is not only a problem of bloating and discomfort.  Intestinal health is critical to overall health as it impacts what is taken up and absorbed into the body and what is left for excretion in the digestive tract.  When healthy, the cells lining the digestive tract take up important nutrients, while leaving toxins and unwanted chemical compounds behind for removal.  This critical function makes the gut the most important and largest immune organ in the body.  Therefore, it should come as no surprise that it’s impairment may be causing a host of other problems aside from the well-known symptoms of constipation, gas and diarrhea.  Some studies suggest that poor digestive health may be playing a role in the rise of autoimmune disorders such as Celiac’s disease, IBS, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Unfortunately, many of these illnesses connected with digestion are not easily resolved and oftentimes become chronic.  Most OTC medications help with the symptoms of GI distress, but don’t actually fix the underlying issue.  Some even exacerbate the problem, bringing short-term relief, but a long-term reliance on the medicine itself.

The positive news is that many are finding relief through the use of probiotics.  Probiotics are supplements or food sources that contain healthy gut bacteria such as lactobacillus and L. acidophilus.  By taking in good gut bacteria, the ecology of the intestinal tract is improved as the good bacteria move in and crowd out the bad.  This is important as the health of the digestive tract relies on a sensitive balance between the different species gut flora.  The best thing that anyone can do for their digestive health is to make sure to include foods rich in probiotics in diet on a regular basis.

Here are the Top 6 Sources of Probiotics. Try to incorporate several in your diet on a regular basis to take full advantage of the health benefits of these friendly gut helpers.

1. Yogurt with live bacterial cultures
2. Aged cheese that has not been baked such as cheddar and blue cheese
3. Kefir, a yogurt beverage available in the health food section of most grocery stores
4. Sauerkraut, fermented cabbage (pictured above)
5. Kim Chi, a Korean fermented vegetable dish
6. Fermented Soy Beans such as Miso & Tempeh

Assistance provided by Allison van Camp

Inflammation is the body’s natural response to infection and injury. It is an important defense mechanism that helps our body heal by bringing nutrients and immune cells to the affected area.

As a busy working mom, days can be be a bit crazy trying to balance everything from taking my daughters to volleyball practice, meeting deadlines for my clients, and getting my workout in for the day. If you are a regular reader of my blog or have read the book I co-authored with NFL Future Hall-of-Famer, Tony Gonzalez then you know I also try to get families to eat clean ingredients as much as possible. Clean ingredients are those with no artificial additives or preservatives like sodium nitrate. Here are two of my favorite nitrate free foods that I feed to my own family.

Glee Club Sandwich

1. Applegate Deli Meats- in my family we love to eat these deli meats often. Their meats are real, worry-free and convenient. Families can read the Applegate ingredient labels without confusion or worry: no antibiotics, artificial ingredients or preservatives. Applegate deli meats make busy moms feel good about what they are feeding your children. These work great in sandwiches or as a snack with a Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge. Check out the Glee Club Sandwich Recipe!

2. Simply Snackin- these gourmet dried meat snacks are delicious and convenient with only 60 calories and packed with 10 grams of protein. Made with high quality ingredients, these are perfect protein snack to keep in your purse or travel bag. My daughter’s volleyball team also loves eating these between games.

Disclosure: Product samples were sent to me by Simply Snackin’ and Applegate.