In this Q&A session, Chef Sky Hanka, MS, NBC-HWC expands on healthy eating practices, discussing food labels, eating seasonally, and how to utilize your local farmer’s market.
About the expert: Chef Sky Hanka, MS, NBC-HWC
As an integrative chef and culinary nutritionist, Skyler Hanka, MS, NBC-HWC, embodies a profound dedication to empowering individuals on their wellness journeys through the art of culinary education and the science of nutrition and functional health. With an impressive foundation in culinary arts trained at the Culinary Institute of America backed by an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in nutrition and Integrative Health, coupled with national board certification as a health and wellness coach, Skyler Hanka brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the field of culinary nutrition and culinary medicine.
Q&A with Chef Sky Hanka, MS, NBC-HCW
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Q: Can you comment on what a consumer should know about food labels and how to use them and where to go in terms of making healthy choices?
Chef Hanka: Yeah, of course, when it comes to food labels, this is kind of a tricky subject because how we label our food in the US is based off daily values and dietary guidelines that we’re currently revisiting to determine what nutrients are more important than others. So, my first go to when looking at a food label is usually the less words and ingredients on the label, the better. If it has more than, you know, 5 to 10 ingredients, usually ten is my cut off. That’s kind of where I draw a line of, well, this is probably a little bit over processed. I want to look for something that’s usually ten or less great, five or less amazing.
The other thing I look for is the first word in the ingredient list is usually going to be the most prominent ingredient within that item. So, if I see sugar, dextrose, anything with ‘ose’, that’s going to be a sugar containing food that might not be as beneficial of a choice as others. If the first is wheat or flour, I usually look for like unprocessed, unbleached, whole grain is another good term to look for.
So definitely look at the amount of ingredients first and then what ingredient is on that first list. And then from there, I look at the servings and calories, because you might look at something and say, oh, you know, this has 100 calories in it. This must be a great choice. But then if you look at the servings in the package, it’s 4 to 5 servings in the package. And most of us, like myself, are going to buy a bag of chips and probably eat more than the ten chips per serving on the bag. So, definitely kind of take a glance at that next.
The next one I would look at is the amount of fiber. If you are going to purchase something that is processed, getting above five grams of fiber is like my minimum bar, if you can get over ten grams, amazing. But the more fiber the better. Then look at your added sugars. We always want to keep those minimal in terms of processed foods on the food label.
So, when I say minimal of course under ten grams, amazing. Anything less than that, even better. I also look at trans fats and saturated fats. Obviously, you want to go for zero trans fats and then minimal saturated fats as well. Overall, though, I think getting into the nuances of all of the numbers on the food label, I just like to stick with the ingredient list.
If it’s less than those five ingredients and I feel good about the choice that I’m making, then usually it’s all right choice, there.
Q: How do we understand calories on a food label?
Chef Hanka: Yeah, that’s a great question. So, most food labels are based on a 2000 calorie a day diet, meaning that we’re using that food in reference to that 2000 calorie day diet, which for every individual, the amount of calories we need is going to differ. So, you know, typically when I look at calories, I’ll look at servings to help determine if the amount of servings is worth the calories, if that makes sense.
A lot of the times, if you’re using like a food log to help you track, you can see if that makes sense in your calorie distribution. But overall, it’s a little hard to say whether or not, it’s applicable for everyone. It’s usually not on the other end. But yeah, that’s a great question.
Q: The other issue is the issue of protein that many are interested in. How do you think about protein intake? Is plant-based protein really okay? What do you think about that?
Chef Hanka: So, to go to your point, it’s like we always used to say the phrase “you are what you eat” or “we are what we eat”. That’s very common place. But now we’re shifting in the scientific and nutrition world to you are what you absorb. And that kind of reflects the, you know, maybe not 100% accuracy of calories and everything depicted on food labels when it comes to protein. Most of the time, most of the protein that is shown on a food label is the crude protein, which is actually measured through the amount of nitrogen present within the food. Because every amino acid has a nitrogen attached to it and no carbs, fats aren’t like that. So scientifically, we can look at the nitrogen within the food and correlate that to the amount of protein within the food. And that’s how we’re actually getting it.
Also, most food labels should be tweaking their protein. Amounts based on PDCAAS, which is protein digestibility, which is kind of this new concept that’s been around for the past, I don’t know, decade. And when I say new, it’s because we don’t have a lot of information on a lot of varieties of food. We have a very small window of foods that we can actually do this mathematics with, which is basically taking that crude protein within the food, multiplying it by this percentage. That gives us roughly the amount of protein that would be available for our bodies to actually absorb and process.
When it comes to protein sources, I don’t think you can necessarily say that one is better than the other in terms of plant and meat, because we’re all individual people, and we’re all going to be processing that protein differently, breaking it down into amino acids and then reconfiguring it for what we need.
I think in terms of getting good quality protein, it’s going to come back to that variety in your diet. So maybe if you are vegan or vegetarian, try to get nuts and seeds and maybe look for tofu or pumpkin tofu for that protein variety. Also, plants have protein in them in small amounts. So all your dark leafy greens, all your cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, all your beans too, that’s a great way to look at it.
If you’re not vegan or vegetarian, you can definitely get your protein from fish and meat and just different sources like that and kind of pair it throughout the week.
Q: Can you explain why eating seasonally is important both to an individual for their health, but also for the health of the world?
Chef Sky: Yeah, of course, I think for your individual health, eating locally, kind of like I mentioned in my lecture, will help you diversify eating seasonally, which means you’re going to eat foods that are seasonal and higher in nutrients that your body probably needs during the season.
So today we’re going to be cooking butternut squash, which is a fall vegetable, which has, a higher amount of vitamin A and vitamin C and vitamin K, which boost your immunity. So, you can think of it individually, as eating with the seasons translates to probably getting more of the nutrients that I’m going to need to support my body. It also gets you moving. It gets you out of the house, whether you’re walking to the farmer’s market or driving there and then walking around, you’re probably going to spend a good 30 minutes moving your body. So that’s another individual benefit of taking the time to go out there.
The community aspect of it is very beautiful as well. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone just blow through the farmer’s market without at least stopping to talk to one person or ask a question about a vegetable or fruit. So, getting that little human interaction in there, especially after we’ve all been inside for so long, it’s very beautiful and beneficial thing.
In terms of like the agricultural side of it and the agricultural industry, developing that relationship with the farmers market or any market between yourself, and those communities benefits them monetarily. So financially you’re going to help support local farmers and small farmers. That may be, I’m having trouble staying afloat, especially because if you didn’t know, the process to become an organic farmer in the US is actually quite costly. And even if you can make enough money as a farmer to pay for that, and then you’ll be able to sell your produce for more on the long run.
Most, you know, locally owned community farms won’t have that kind of income to do that. And that doesn’t mean that their vegetables and produce and resources are less nutritious than the organic labeled ones. So, I think the financial benefit and the supporting your local community and building those different avenues of connection can be very beneficial to everyone in the long run.
Q: For people who go to that farmer’s market and walk in and think, well, everything here is healthy. What do you want to say about that? You know, the kind of the debate of do I buy organic or not? And then the financial burdens that come with those decisions as well.
Chef Sky: Yeah. Of course. I mean, I’d like to say that everything in a farmer’s market is healthy. But farmer’s markets have become just markets in general now. So, you find a lot of bakeries, you find a lot of restaurants bringing their food, and not to say their food isn’t healthy, but when we think of that term, like you said, we’re going to look for the whole food options.
So, if I’m going to my farmer’s market in terms of making better food choices or increasing nutrient density in my diet, I’m going to stray away from maybe those market vendors and go towards the farmers and go towards the produce stands. And, you know, the organic versus non-organic. I always like to tell people, if you can develop a relationship with your food grower, you don’t necessarily need to buy organic. You can go to some of the other farms and maybe inquire about their farming practices and be like, ‘hey Joe, what kind of farming practices do you all use? Do you use any pesticides or herbicides?’ And they’ll usually be pretty open about telling you. So that’s kind of a good way because buying organic can be quite costly and you don’t really need to spend the extra money. Usually, most farmers markets are good about vetting the sources and the vendors and farmers that they’re coming into their market and selling locally.
About the Author
