Fall Into Health: Seasonal Flavors Amplified!

As the leaves turn and the days grow shorter, we dive into the complexities of seasonal eating and the joys of fall flavors. We are joined by Lisa Johnson, the corporate dietitian and menu manager for Homestyle Direct.

In this episode, we discuss how to enjoy those beloved caramel apples more healthily, explore creative alternatives like yogurt and nut butter dips, and tackle the challenge of portion control during family gatherings. 

Plus, Lisa shares her practical tips for cooking nutrient-rich seasonal vegetables—from sweet potatoes and pumpkins to cruciferous delights like Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Whether you're a fan of pumpkin spice lattes or looking for ways to incorporate more pomegranates into your meals, this episode is packed with delicious ideas and nutritional wisdom.

Join us as we celebrate the bounty of fall, explore healthy cooking tips, and discuss how to integrate nutrient-dense, seasonal foods into your diet for better health outcomes. Let's embrace this season with open arms and full plates!

 SeniorLivingGuide.com Podcast sponsored by TransMed Care Long Distance Medical Transportation

The background music is written, performed and produced exclusively by purple-planet.com.

https://www.purple-planet.com/

 *SeniorLivingGuide.com Webinars and Podcast represents the opinions and expertise of our guests. The content here is for informational and educational purposes. It does not necessarily represent the views, recommendations, opinions or advice of Fairfax Publishing/SeniorLivingGuide.com or its employees

Transcript

Darleen Mahoney [00:00:01]:

And today we have Lisa Johnson joining us. She is the corporate dietitian and menu manager for Homestyle Direct. Homestyle Direct is a fabulous company, sourcing remotely delivered meals throughout the United States based on the guidelines from the Older Americans act. One thing I love about Lisa is she loves cooking and is always looking for new ways to advance the art of eating, which I think is becoming like a thing now. The art of eating. She lives in Idaho, where fall is one of her favorite seasons, as it is one of mine, although I don't get those fall colors in the state of Florida. Hence, we're going to talk about a delicious, delightfully delicious topic today, embracing fall flavors and a guide to improving your nutrition this season. Thank you for joining us today, Lisa.

Lisa Johnson [00:00:52]:

Thanks for having me.

Darleen Mahoney [00:00:54]:

Yeah, absolutely. So this is one of my favorite subjects. I love fall. And even though in my area we don't get those little fall feelings unless you like, turn up your ac and light a candle. But the eating is so different in the fall time. I really feel like there's all these different flavors that come out and different things that you crave and make, and it just kind of makes it warm and toasty, no matter how warm your weather is outside or wherever you live. So let's kind of dig in. And I want to talk about, like, seasonal fruits and veggies because they are so amazing, but they're also better for your health.

Darleen Mahoney [00:01:32]:

So tell me a little bit about that.

Lisa Johnson [00:01:35]:

So fall is a really interesting time in that everything's kind of warm. I think warm is the way to describe it. So warm colors, oranges and yellows, deep reds and blushes and warm spices. Things like cinnamon, nutmeg, saffron, mulling spices. So it's just a time where you can incorporate things that look warm, feel warm, taste warm into your diet. High fiber. So lots of things like pumpkin, kale, things that add crunch and munch to your diethyde. Soups and stews are a good staple during this time of the year.

Lisa Johnson [00:02:20]:

It's just a really fun time to experiment with different spices and seasonings and try your hand at things that will fill your belly and make you feel full.

Darleen Mahoney [00:02:33]:

Yeah. So what are some things that you enjoy and some things that I know one of the things that is important to some of our listeners is cost, because food, the pricing of food at the grocery store is out of control. It's seriously out of control. So looking for those amazing flavors that are not going to break the bank, too, I think that's super important.

Lisa Johnson [00:02:56]:

So during the fall if you, and probably it's true of any season. But if you take advantage of seasonal fruits and vegetables, so things that are grown during the season that are readily available, you are going to get more nutrient dense foods because they ripen on the vine. So they have increased nutrition. Because that nutrition is in the fruit or the vegetable as it's growing, they tend to be grown locally. So you may be able to take advantage of price points because you're getting things, say, at a local farmers market, or you're getting things that are local in the grocery store. So they tend to be priced best if they are locally sourced items during the season, which will help with your pocketbook. Seasonal eating tends to be better for the environment in general, because you're reducing water use and land use and things like pollution, because you're getting things that are grown in your local area with your local season in mind. And finally, eating seasonal fruits and vegetables will tend to prevent flavor fatigue, if you will, in that you're experiencing more different and varied things that will keep you from getting bored with your diet.

Darleen Mahoney [00:04:17]:

Yeah, absolutely. So what are some of your favorite fall fruits and veggies?

Lisa Johnson [00:04:23]:

So, I love apples. I grew up in Seattle, grew up in the state of Washington. So apples were a mainstay for us. I love pumpkin and squashes, so things like butternut squash and just even trying new and different squashes. So a good example for something that would be a little bit higher fiber and maybe lower calorie and different for people would be using a spaghetti squash. And so making your typical spaghetti dish with maybe say, a turkey spaghetti, as opposed to a red meat spaghetti, using your spaghetti squash for that. So cutting down on the carbs, adding fiber in the diet. I love butternut squash.

Lisa Johnson [00:05:04]:

My favorite way to cook butternut squash, of course, is with butter and brown sugar, which is maybe not the most healthy way to have it. But a thing to remember about the fall season is just being mindful of your eating. So things like pumpkin pie, caramel apples, all those things are favorite foods, and no one's saying that you can't have them, but just limiting those and trying to include other healthy ways of eating those fruits and vegetables is good. Yeah, pomegranates is a favorite of mine. And then the cruciferous vegetables. So things like brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower.

Darleen Mahoney [00:05:46]:

Yeah, these are all. They all sound so yummy. I'm gonna have to go find something to eat after we finish our podcast today. So you were talking a little bit about not pumpkin, but kale no squash. I'm so sorry. I know you talked about so many things, but so squash. So tell me how you prepare that, because I think it's, I love getting tips on different ways that you can prepare things that maybe you didn't think about. So you said something about, while it's not the healthiest thing to eat, that's a treat to me.

Darleen Mahoney [00:06:23]:

That's something that is probably super easy to make, but it does have a lot of nutritional value on the background.

Lisa Johnson [00:06:31]:

Right. So in terms of just general preparation for squash, probably the easiest way to fix it is to cut your preferred squash, whichever kind youre. And we're talking like roasting squashes here. We're not talking zucchini, but cut your squash in half, take the seeds out. You can keep the seeds and you can roast those for later use. So you can eat pumpkin seeds, which we refer to as pepitas. But any other type of seed you could roast, and that's an extra source of omega three fatty acids and fiber. But take your seeds out, cut your squash in half, put it in a roasting pan with about a quarter of an inch of water.

Lisa Johnson [00:07:12]:

If you want to put butter and brown sugar on it, certainly can do that. But you can also just steam it with water, steam it till it's soft. So for most squashes, probably 45 minutes to an hour, 350 is going to steam that up nicely. And then you can take that squash meat and you can use it in almost anything. You can do a, like an avocado toast with squash and slather it with your squash. You can add some peanut butter to that. You can add some spices, so things like cinnamon or nutmeg to it. You can use it in a casserole.

Lisa Johnson [00:07:51]:

You can make a pasta sauce with your squashes. So make a nice butternut squash pureed butternut squash pasta sauce and use that over like portalini for regular pasta, spaghetti squash. What you're going to want to do is you're going to want to steam it and actually shred the innards. So where your seeds would be, you're going to shred that spaghetti out and it's going to be in long, thin pieces like spaghetti would be. And then you can serve it with any type of pasta sauce on top.

Darleen Mahoney [00:08:23]:

That sounds delicious. And I love the fact that you can take the seeds out and then there's no wasteland you're truly having. It's a two for one type of snack.

Lisa Johnson [00:08:33]:

Right. And the nice thing about squash that's kind of a go to for people is it can be either savory or sweet. You can go either way. You can do it with brown sugar and the butter or honey. You can flip it, and you can do something totally savory and use things like cumin or saffron or coriander and spice it up and make a savory main meal type center of plate dish.

Darleen Mahoney [00:09:00]:

No, I love that. Those are some really great tips. And that's one of my favorite things. You know, I tend to, like, go for the pumpkin, but squash is so close to pumpkin. I know that, you know, as soon as fall hits, I don't know about your area, but everyone's pumpkin everything. Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin this, pumpkin that. I mean, there's even pumpkin cheerios.

Lisa Johnson [00:09:22]:

So, yeah, pumpkin pancakes. Yeah. Pumpkin is definitely the spice of this.

Darleen Mahoney [00:09:30]:

It definitely is. But then by the time Christmas hits, I think everyone's pretty much done with it. And then January is like a whole new, well, that's when you also decide, okay, I got to work off the pumpkin pies. So.

Lisa Johnson [00:09:42]:

Yeah, exactly.

Darleen Mahoney [00:09:43]:

It's a totally different season. So what is the healthiest fall choice that dieticians who are concerned about more the health side, what are some of their choices that would be good, and what are some great ways that are delish to kind of prepare them that you think well?

Lisa Johnson [00:10:05]:

So the interesting thing about fall is that almost any food that you would pick, whether it's pumpkin or it's for your fall greens or it's apples, you tend to have vitamin a rich foods because of the orange color. Almost everything touches somewhere on cancer fighting capabilities, on eye health, on rich vitamin a sources, on bone health, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. So any food that you would pick is going to give you some benefits with regards to that. Things like sweet potatoes are a good choice. The glycemic index. So the amount that that food causes your blood sugar to spike is much lower in, say, a sweet potato than it is in a white potato. So including more sweet potatoes in your diet are a good way and then looking for healthy ways to top them. So instead of putting, say, marshmallow cream sauce all over your sweet potato casserole, looking at things like yogurt or maybe going a savory side and doing things with, say, nuts or seeds would be a way.

Lisa Johnson [00:11:17]:

Fall greens like kale and spinach are great choices of getting vitamins a, c and k in your diet. Apples are an excellent source, and a for apple stands for antioxidants. So the nutrients there in an apple are going to reduce your risk of cancer and heart disease, they also have a flavonoid. So a flavonoid is just like the name kind of suggests. It's a flavor or a color in a fruit or vegetable that tends to one give it its color and to help it to be preventative in terms of antioxidants. And so apples have a flavonoid called quercetin, which helps to lower the digestion of carbohydrates. So apples are actually a really healthy, helpful fruit, if you will, for diabetics and blood sugar.

Darleen Mahoney [00:12:12]:

Yeah, that is a first for me. I have not heard that about apples ever before.

Lisa Johnson [00:12:18]:

And if you eat the whole apple, like my son, so he eats the core, the seeds, the apple, everything altogether. So if you eat the whole thing, you get that added fiber, which is also going to slow down the carbohydrates into your blood sugar. But probably one of the most interesting fruits and vegetables from the fall season that gets a lot of crust are pomegranates. So pomegranates have all kinds of benefits in terms of what they provide as a fruit. They have fiber, they have vitamin C, vitamin K, and folate. But they also have what are called polyphenols, which are anti inflammation properties within the fruit. So they help to decrease inflammation in the body eating them. There are some studies that show some reduction in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even some cancers.

Lisa Johnson [00:13:24]:

So with regards to pomegranates, they're a little difficult to eat. Not everyone's into, like, opening. So you, how I would eat a pomegranate, cut it in half, and you end up with, they're called ariels, which are the little pomegranate seeds inside of kind of, it reminds me of like, styrofoam. So you've got this meaty part inside with the little seeds in and you to pick the seeds out. Or you can go to Costco and you can get them pre picked. You can get a four pack of pomegranate or, and it's all done for you. But things like oatmeal would be good. Putting it on a yogurt, if you like, using it in various full dishes, using it with roasted veggies.

Lisa Johnson [00:14:11]:

All good.

Darleen Mahoney [00:14:11]:

Yeah. You know, even there's a store here called Publix that's in this area. And I think, I think they're fairly nationwide. They're very popular. But I'm sure Kroger or any of the other grocery stores in the vegetable section, in the produce section, I should say they do have little snack packs of the pomegranate seeds that you can buy, and I will snack on those. I love. One of the things I love about the pomegranate is it does have that crunch. It's sweet and sour at the same time, but not overpowering in either one.

Darleen Mahoney [00:14:43]:

And it does have that little crunch, and it's just such a great little snack. And I knew it was healthy, but I didn't know why. So I love the fact that I now have, like, inflammation. And honestly, inflammation is such a huge thing right now with a lot of people. So that's great.

Lisa Johnson [00:14:58]:

Well, and pomegranates, great because you can, like, throw your little snack cup. You could throw in, like, a spinach salad. And so then you've got the plus of the spinach or the kale with the ad addition of your pomegranate seeds.

Darleen Mahoney [00:15:12]:

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I love that. These are amazing tips. I'm so excited. I'm gonna actually go get some pomegranate seeds later today. Now I really, now I really want some. So, um, yeah, so you talked about, um, the apples, which is really informative as well.

Darleen Mahoney [00:15:27]:

I know apples I eat on occasion, but I really had no idea that they had so much punch to them, especially on slowing down those carbohydrates. We all eat so many more carbohydrates than our body probably really needs, because I don't know if, I don't know if other folks were like me, but if someone were to give me a filet mignon or a really great loaf of baked bread, I would do bread all day long before I would go for that meat. It's just, it's just my thing. So it's just we, I know we all eat so much of it. So Brussels sprouts and other veggies. So we've talked, you know, a little bit about, like, some of the sweet things. These are a little bit more on the green side.

Lisa Johnson [00:16:13]:

Yeah. So there's a whole array, if you will, of what I would call savory vegetables that are great choices. So there's a category of vegetables called cruciferous, which is your gas forming vegetables. So things like Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, fall in that group. And then there's a whole, you know, there's a whole other group of what I would call root vegetables. So things like turnips and rutabagas and your potatoes and sweet potatoes and those types of things, all of which are great choices. In the fall, they're going to have additional fiber, Brussels sprouts. Are one of the trendy, I guess, vegetables these days, all the rage.

Lisa Johnson [00:17:08]:

You can go to restaurants and you can get, like, shaved Brussels sprouts with, say, salt pork. Or I have a restaurant up here in Stanley that does a shaved Brussels sprout salad. So it's got shaved Brussels sprouts, it's got some other greens in it, and then they do candied pecans and a really good kind of vinaigrette type sauce, and put a little bit of crushed red pepper in it so it has a little bite to it. And so there are a bunch of different ways that you can fix gas forming or cruciferous vegetables that both take away from it being nuthenness, standard steamed, kind of stinky, plain vegetable, and you spice it up with other seasonings or make it more sweet, if you will, with something.

Darleen Mahoney [00:18:06]:

Yeah, I know Brussels sprouts. A lot of times in restaurants have some kind of sweet vinegar sauce or something of that nature on top of them, which is not my thing. I don't love that. If I get an appetizer and it has that on there, I usually take the sauce off of it. Other people totally enjoy it. But one of my favorite ways to cook Brussels sprouts, and I do, you are right, they are very trendy. It's not something I thought I would ever really like, and I didn't like them as a kid, and so I don't know when I switched up the script on that one, but I just get them and I put them in a bowl, and I put olive oil and sea salt on them, shake them up, stick them in the oven for 30 minutes, and they're delicious. And it's so easy that.

Lisa Johnson [00:18:47]:

Yeah, that is an excellent way to prepare almost anything, whether it's Brussels sprouts or it's like a potato medley. I like to get different fingerling potatoes, so getting pink and purple and white and slice them up in quarters, put a little olive oil on, put some salt and pepper, throw them in the oven and roast them. That is an excellent way to prepare food.

Darleen Mahoney [00:19:12]:

Yeah. And I even use, like, little, teeny, tiny potatoes, and I just do the whole potato so I don't even have to cut it up because Darlene is a very lazy. Right. Is a lazy cook. So if I can find a shortcut, I will find it. So that's what I do on the potatoes.

Lisa Johnson [00:19:28]:

Yeah. That's an excellent way to do it.

Darleen Mahoney [00:19:30]:

Yeah. It's funny because I actually had a conversation in the produce section with a family that was there, and they were looking over, and I was grabbing them, and she said, well, what do you do with those? And I told her, and she said, score. And so she picked up a couple bags, and I'm like, see, there you go. I don't even, I'm not even a great cook or a nutritionist or anything. And I sold somebody a vegetable. So I was pretty, I was pretty proud of myself, for sure. So I know we talked about sweet potatoes and some different things like that. What is something with a sweet potato that would be helpful health wise? Because I will tell you, I do the sweet potatoes, and like I said, I'm very lazy.

Darleen Mahoney [00:20:12]:

They're pre packaged. They're in plastic. You stick them in the microwave for x amount of minutes, and you're, you're good to go. And I don't put anything on it. I eat it plain Jane. I put no, no butter, no anything because I love the taste of it.

Lisa Johnson [00:20:26]:

Yeah. So you can roast a sweet potato just like you would a baked potato. So you can wrap it in foil and cook it in the oven, probably about 400 degrees for an hour, hour and a half, and just do a roasted baked potato. And then you can put whatever sides or sauces or seasonings you would do in your regular baked potato. I like to sliver mine in either wedges or chunks, and then I stir frying on the top. Yeah. And so you can do that either as a savory dish with, like, a lunch or a dinner meal. You could do that as sweet potato chips with a breakfast, if you will.

Lisa Johnson [00:21:16]:

Another way that we serve them, actually, with some of our meals is we do the chunk diced potatoes and we do them with, like, black beans and corn. And so create kind of a sweet potato hash. So we're putting, like, diced red peppers and black beans and corn in with that to create sort of a savory meal side dish. You can, an option is to do, like, a sweet potato casserole where you put either a marshmallow cream or some type of topping on top of that and cook it. But the sky's the limit. You can use them in stir fry if you want, but the healthier the toppings and accompaniments that you do with sweet potatoes, the more likely you are going to have what I would classify as a healthy meal versus something that's a little bit more of a special treat.

Darleen Mahoney [00:22:10]:

I like the flavors of sweet potato and rosemary together for some reason that screams Thanksgiving and fall and toasty warm. I just love that combination.

Lisa Johnson [00:22:24]:

Sweet potatoes are that perfect starch, if you will. That can go either way. It can go sweet or it can go savory, and it seems to do fine either way. The other nice thing about sweet potatoes is that in addition to the low glycemic index, they're a significant source of magnesium. And magnesium is something, it's called, we refer to it as the relaxing mineral. So it is really helpful in blood pressure and blood sugar control. And so it is a good thing, especially for diabetics and people with heart disease, to include in the.

Darleen Mahoney [00:23:02]:

Yeah. Does magnesium also help with sleep?

Lisa Johnson [00:23:06]:

It can. It can. Okay.

Darleen Mahoney [00:23:10]:

All right. Yeah. Because that's something I had heard.

Lisa Johnson [00:23:12]:

And the other m mineral, I guess, if you will, that's in sweet potatoes, is manganese. And manganese is important for bone health. So especially as we age and we have more problems with osteoporosis, including a wider array of other potatoes besides white potatoes is helpful with regards to that.

Darleen Mahoney [00:23:32]:

Yeah, I will say one of the things that I do in the fall as well is I like to make, and they're usually super simple, and I can get all these amazing recipes. Even here in Florida, I love to do soups, and sometimes I can do that in a crock pot, and it's just easy for my work day. But honestly, like, on a Sunday evening, I love to do a really nice, hearty, delicious soup.

Lisa Johnson [00:23:56]:

Yeah. And so soups and stews, including things like rutabagas and turnips, including your potatoes, going with a vegetarian option. So maybe not even having a meatless meal, topping it with your pepitas or some of your seeds from your squashes is a great way to boost that and give you a little extra protein in your soups or stew. If you set it up in a crock pot where you can cook it all day while you're gone, that's an excellent way to prepare those meals as well.

Darleen Mahoney [00:24:29]:

Yeah. Such a great time of year for that. I just love it. So, yeah, I'm always digging around for recipes for something here or there. So tell me a little bit about, like, spices and seasonings, kind of what that lends to. I know we've talked about all these different ones that can go on to our food, our fruits and veggies, but do those offer any kind of nutritional value at all?

Lisa Johnson [00:24:55]:

Yeah. So as far as our spices go, fall tends to be what I would consider warm spices. So things like cinnamon, nutmeg, club, cloves, things that. Yeah, I mean, think of the spices that you would, say put in a pumpkin pie if you were making it. Cinnamon has been linked to blood sugar control. So increasing cinnamon in your diet may be actually helpful for diabetes management. Sage, which is something that we generally include in our Thanksgiving meal. So when you, when you go to the grocery and you're getting ready to get your Thanksgiving fixins, one of the pre packaged spice mixes that you may get has sage in it.

Lisa Johnson [00:25:37]:

Sage has been shown to improve brain function and memory, which obviously would be helpful in an older population. Peppermint can relieve IB's and reduce nausea. So peppermint's one of those go to's. Oftentimes your ob will tell you if you're pregnant to drink peppermint tea because it tends to reduce nausea.

Darleen Mahoney [00:26:03]:

Yeah, I feel like peppermint also can help with headaches, not necessarily eating them, but the smell of them.

Lisa Johnson [00:26:10]:

Right, right. And turmeric has curcumin, which is an antioxidant. So things like, including what I would call the warm palate, so things with orange and yellows, so curry powder, saffron, all of those things are helpful in terms of antioxidants. So what we know about spices is that the benefits that they provide will probably be retained in a greater way if you do moist cooking. So things like your soups and stews simmering is going to increase the levels of those properties in a spice as opposed to frying or grilling, right?

Darleen Mahoney [00:26:58]:

Yeah, no, I can. And I can. Absolutely. So when in baking, as far as if you were to bake something in the oven, do you, is that considered something that would break the quality of the nutritional value of that spice down?

Lisa Johnson [00:27:12]:

No, baking should be fine because generally when we're baking, like in a pumpkin pie, we're putting those spices in the pumpkin. And so the moisture in the pumpkin is retaining that. The other thing is making a spice bag. So if you want to make, say, a cider or you want to even just have the smells in your house, making mulling bags are going to be ways to get that scent and that spice into your, into your overall day.

Darleen Mahoney [00:27:42]:

Yeah. I love a good spiced cider. My dad used to make some amazing cider for Thanksgiving and the holidays. Oh, my gosh. So yummy. He did a great job on that. So I think kind of we've talked about so many of the amazing foods for the fall and it's easy to see all the nutritional values, but sometimes you can still have too much of a good thing.

Lisa Johnson [00:28:04]:

Sure. Sure. And thinking about. So my favorite, my favorite thing or one of my favorite things, I guess I, is a good caramel apple. And so one just being mindful that that is at the higher end of caloric intake for your fall favorites. So just trying to limit maybe how often you have it. But the other way to kind of help to kind of balance that out would be as opposed to like, slathering your caramel apple and making it, cutting the apple up and having the dipping sauce separate. And so just like you would with a salad where you're dipping your lettuce into the dressing instead of point of dressing all over, keeping your caramel sauce or your toppings separate and you're dipping the apple slices into.

Lisa Johnson [00:28:52]:

That is one way to help reduce the amount of calories and sugar that you're getting and then trying to balance it out. You know, maybe not everything is a caramel apple. Maybe we do yogurt dipping. Maybe we do, you know, do a nut butter, do those type types of things so that you're balancing that. But you do need to be mindful about overindulging in the heavy, sweet, high calorie and the fall flavors.

Darleen Mahoney [00:29:23]:

Yeah. And it's so hard because this is a time where we do gather as families and friends and have meals together and everybody brings something. So it is this. We are going into the time where it is harder to say no to something. But I do think, you know, it's so much portion control. One of the things that I learned a long time ago is that, you know, we have these plates here in the United States that we have our dinner plates. They're quite large. We don't have to fill them.

Darleen Mahoney [00:29:51]:

So maybe taking more of a luncheon size plate and knowing that what you can fit on there is probably more appropriate than a big size plate where, you know, you're, I call it strapping on the feed bag and you're getting more than you actually need. So it really can just be, you know, mindful of, you know, how much you're putting on your plate.

Lisa Johnson [00:30:12]:

Right. And even in terms of preparation, you know, maybe slivers of pie, you know, so that you aren't eating an 8th of a pie. And maybe you get to taste both the apple pie and the pumpkin pie and or cutting things into bite size. So having bites as opposed to a whole four by four brownie type serving are helpful ways to balance out how much you're eating.

Darleen Mahoney [00:30:46]:

Yeah, because a lot of times I really do just want a bite. I want to taste it. I don't have to eat the whole thing. Now there are some things that's really hard for me. Pumpkin pie is my favorite. Favorite. I will eat that all day long. But if someone else brings or does a different type of dessert, I just want to taste it.

Darleen Mahoney [00:31:00]:

I typically don't want to have like the entire thing unless it's as yummy as pumpkin pie. But, you know, it's just it. So it really is just kind of saying, hey, I can have a bite and I'm good to go. I don't have to have like the whole thing. So. Yeah, I agree with that. Do you think that the shorter days, because I know we're getting ready to go into a time change, and I be honest with you, I'm not a fan. I don't like it when it gets dark early because I feel like my days are just completely gone.

Darleen Mahoney [00:31:27]:

But do you think that affects the way that people eat or the way that nutrition is seen differently?

Lisa Johnson [00:31:35]:

I'm sure that it does affect the way you eat and even above and beyond that, it affects the way you feel. We all have definite opinions and feelings about shorter days and longer nights and that type of thing. Above and beyond that, it affects your body. So the shorter the daylight time, whether it's, you know, that it's starting earlier and ending earlier, the less vitamin D you're going to get. Because vitamin D is a sunlight vitamin. So the less time you spend in the sunlight, the more time or the less vitamin D you're going to have. There are specific nutrients that you're at more risk of having deficiencies of during the winter months. Vitamin D is the big one, vitamin C, which tends to be kind of our immunity vitamin.

Lisa Johnson [00:32:30]:

And so if we're not mindful about extra vitamin C sources during the winter, we may be more susceptible to things like respiratory illnesses, coughs and colds, that type of thing. Iron, because we tend to, once we get past, past fall and get into straight up winter, we tend to have less grown in the ground type vegetable sources, maybe. I mean, iron is in a lot of your leafy greens, also in your red meats, and is a big source in liver. And so, I mean, I don't like liver. A lot of population doesn't eat liver. And so you may be less likely to get good sources of iron and fatty acids and fibers just because we tend to eat more canned fruits and vegetables during the wintertime. And so those are things to be mindful of because regardless of, is it because of daylight savings time or not, it's just a reality that those things are going to be more likely to be less prevalent in our wintertime diets and our activities less. So.

Darleen Mahoney [00:33:42]:

Yes, yes, yes. Because by the, it's so weird because literally by, like 5530 if it's really dark outside, you just don't even want to go outside. I feel like you just, you'll camp at home versus getting out and about even so. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we covered so much stuff today. Is there anything that we missed that you want to share? Anything that is like one of your favorites or anything like that that we didn't already chat about?

Lisa Johnson [00:34:07]:

No. I mark my, so I mark my calendar for the first day that Starbucks offers pumpkin spice lattes.

Darleen Mahoney [00:34:16]:

Oh, my goodness. A little secret about you.

Lisa Johnson [00:34:19]:

Yeah. That's the true sign in the start of the season, so. But, and it isn't just Starbucks. Everybody does it. But I really do enjoy the flavors that, especially the coffee flavors that come up in the fall. And that's another thing to, you know, coffee, excessive coffee drinks are, can be a sugar, a sugar hole that you need to be mindful of as well.

Darleen Mahoney [00:34:46]:

Oh, 100%. If you ever look at the calories that are in some of those delicious Starbucks drinks, it's like half your intake for the day if you're watching it and you're just going, oh, am I going to eat later?

Lisa Johnson [00:34:59]:

Yeah, exactly.

Darleen Mahoney [00:35:01]:

Yeah, exactly. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I had so much fun talking with you today, Lisa. I love your tips and I'm excited to make some of the things that you talked about. I really do want to do this roasted squash that you talked about. I think that that's going to be on my list here.

Lisa Johnson [00:35:14]:

Oh, I love squash. Squash is my favorite. It's a go to. My kids don't really. It's funny, you know, I fed them all those things when they were young, probably because they were in a high chair and had no choice, you know, so, so they ate all the puree squash and broccoli and all of that. But, but squash is not a go to with them.

Darleen Mahoney [00:35:37]:

No, I don't think it is with my kiddos either. So. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, well, this was a fabulous conversation. I enjoyed talking to you. I hope everyone that's listening was able to get a few nutritional nuggets that will enhance their fall season. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please join us for our other podcasts.

Darleen Mahoney [00:35:57]:

We have over 80 podcasts available anywhere. You listen to podcasts such as Spotify, Apple podcasts, and more. Thank you for listening.