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And if you are a member of GNYDA or join for this event, Natural Gourmet Institute is offering a 15% discount for public classes and Friday night dinners!

SPE Certified and Darrow's Farm Fresh Takeout hosted a panel of culinary, marketing, and operations experts discussing how they successfully emphasize both health and sustainability in their work. Watch as these three unique perspectives shed light on how to realistically and successfully incorporate actions that promote a healthier more environmentally sustainable food system and how to communicate these to foster transparency across an operation.

Some of the questions addressed include:

• What is the most effective way to communicate your operation’s commitments to the consumer?
• How can an operation stay ahead of the curve instead of just reacting to consumer demand? 
• How do you successfully manage daily operations such as supply, food & labor cost, and execution while staying true to the philosophical priorities of the brand?

Senior Culinary Nutritionist Kristy Del Coro will be attending this exciting conversation about healthier food and a more sustainable food system.  If you can't make it, here's a link for the live stream:

Traditional Super Bowl foods are definite crowd-pleasers, but can be some of the worst foods for your health. Super Bowl Sunday is not an official holiday, but we tend to eat and drink as if it were!

According to research from the Calorie Control Council and the Snack Food Association, Super Bowl Sunday is America’s second biggest food consumption day of the year, after Thanksgiving. The average football fan eats about a day’s worth of calories during the game, and the U.S. Calorie Control Council estimates that Americans pack away 11 million pounds of chips. That’s approximately 1200 calories just on snacks such as chips and nachos!

According to BusinessWeek, snack companies step up production of tortilla chips by about 10 million pounds nationwide before the Super Bowl to meet demand. However, with some simple swaps, you can make your favorite Super Bowl snacks waistline-friendly:

Wings

Store-bought wings or your local chain restaurant wings are typically deep-fried and then drenched in oil, butter and sodium-laden sauce. This recipe for crispy baked buffalo chicken wings with chunky blue cheese dressing is a delicious, healthy alternative for your game night.

Dips

Creamy dips are usually loaded with fat and calories. By using fat-free Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, you can maintain the creaminess and flavor without packing on calories and fat. You can also skip creamy dips altogether and opt for fresh salsa or guacamole (or this delicious turkey chili!). Although avocado is high in calories, it contains heart-healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. Additionally, serving fresh vegetables such as carrots, snow peas, celery and jicama slices instead of tortilla chips can significantly cut calorie intake.

Beer

When snacking on healthier Super Bowl snacks, don’t forget about liquid calories. A 12-ounce serving of beer contains about 150 calories -- these can add up very quickly. By choosing a light beer, you can cut down on your liquid calories by around 40%.

You don’t have to give up on your New Year’s resolutions to enjoy Super Bowl Sunday. By making a few simple swaps, you can enjoy your favorite Super Bowl foods -- guilt-free!

Let us know about your favorite healthy game day snacks in the comments below.

Last week our Executive Chef Anthony Moraes, Senior Culinary Nutritionist Andrea Canada and I embarked on a 10-day cruise aboard Celebrity Cruises’ Reflection to witness the launch of SPE Certified’s healthy and delicious offerings in both the Opus Restaurant (the ship’s main dining room or MDR) and Aqua Spa Cafe (ASC). Since none of us has been on a cruise before, we didn’t know what to expect in terms of the overall luxury cruise experience. To our surprise, we found a plethora of impressive, upscale cuisine with an extensive wine list and luscious cocktails to match!

Above: John Suley, Celebrity Cruises’ Director of Culinary Operations, adds a pinch of salt to one of his dishes.

We were awestruck by the elegance of the MDR -- a beautiful, Adam Tihany-designed setting that could be mistaken for a fine-dining restaurant in NYC. As of April 6^th, Celebrity Cruises, the MDR offers SPE-certified menu choices at every meal for every course – from Salmon Tartare (pictured above) to Chocolate Lava Cake – each and every one healthy and delicious!

We’re thrilled to report that we’ve been receiving some great feedback from the guests. Celebrity guest Maryann from Nova Scotia told me she has eaten mainly SPE dishes “…and was blown away. The flavors are just amazing!”

A favorite so far among Celebrity’s guests has been the Seared Branzino. Served over a creamy parsnip purée, this healthy dish contains 820mg of omega-3 fatty acids. These healthy fats are found in both the fish itself as well as the pumpkin seed oil used during cooking. The Seared Branzino also provides 70% of the recommended daily value of selenium and contains just 3g of saturated fat, making for a dish that is packed with nutrients rather than calories! Be sure to check out a full nutritional analysis of the dish here.

Many guests aboard Reflection told us when it comes to food, they were far more interested in quality over quantity and were grateful to be given the option of eating healthy food without sacrificing taste. Every day I’ve made my way to the gorgeous fitness center and found it packed – sometimes even finding it difficult to secure a treadmill! These cruisers were definitely a health- and fitness-conscious crowd.

What pleased us almost as much as the guests’ attitude towards the SPE-certified dishes was how the staff embraced our philosophy for great-tasting, nutritious cuisine. We’ve all had a great time on board Reflection so far, and are looking forward to rolling out SPE-certified cuisine to the rest of Celebrity Cruises’ fleet later this year!

Over 50 New York restaurants, vendors, breweries and wineries descended upon the Altman Building in Chelsea for this year’s event.

The event itself was spectacular -- a celebration of delicious local food bites complemented by a number of seasonal brews, juices and fine wines. As proud event sponsors, SPE Certified was present with our healthy, nutritious and delicious pork fried rice! SPE Certified Executive Chef Anthony Moraes and Culinary Nutritionist Natalia Hancock reprised their healthy update of a New York City staple from July’s event at Eataly, and served it in compostable, mini takeout boxes from the SPE Certified table (try to spot them in the video above!).

Natalia sets the table before the doors open

Pork fried rice is served!

Any event with great food also requires great music

I took some time to visit Rouge Tomate's table, where I found a beautifully-plated salad of baby beet, apple, radish, housemade ricotta, honey elixir, hazelnut crumble, and wild arugula.

Natalia and Anthony manage to find a little time to pose for the camera

Although the event is over for this year, you can still help to support Just Food by bidding on one of the donated auction items, which remains open until October 16th. And if you like the sound of having a 5-course SPE-certified tasting menu cooked by Anthony and Natalia in the comfort of your own home, check out our auction item here!

Every year, thousands of dietitians, nutrition students and other health professionals descend upon a city for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ (AND) annual Food and Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE). The 4-day conference includes relevant lectures, cooking demonstrations, presentations of research, and a bustling expo of both established and new nutrition- and food-related companies.

During my dietetic internship I had the opportunity to attend my first FNCE and as an idealistic, nutrition intern, I was surprised to see the extent of large corporate sponsorships at the event. Huge banners at the entrance to the conference announce the sponsorship of a number of large beverage, pharmaceutical and other large food manufacturers; attendees walk around with conference bags to collect loot from the expo displaying their logos, and the companies have quite elaborate displays. It was curious to me as I walked through the expo that along with samples of whole foods, I was bombarded with many foods and beverages that were heavily-processed or fortified in bizarre ways.

This year, SPE Certified was able to send our five dietitians to the conference in Philadelphia. Again, this year’s major sponsors include sugar-sweetened beverage manufacturers (among other large food companies).  I can appreciate that for most of us, sugar-sweetened beverages or processed foods in limited quantities can be part of a balanced diet. And I agree there is a place for these food companies at the FNCE since they are currently a significant part of the American diet, and dietitians need to stay in touch with what Americans are eating.

However, given the obesity epidemic in this country and the overwhelming availability of heavily-processed foods, I am frustrated that their presence is disproportionately large compared to companies representing fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other whole foods at the event. I am happy to see a growing presence in the expo of whole or minimally-processed foods and would like to see this trend continue. And I understand that sponsorship is required for large conferences such as this. However, are there not other creative ways in which these "behemoth" sponsors could support the conference without grabbing the spotlight from companies promoting less processed and naturally nutrient-dense foods?

First off, we needed an intimate setting in which we could comfortably serve a three-course dinner to 30 people and give a small cooking demonstration. We chose La Scuola di Eataly, a venue perfect for the task on 23^rd St. and 5^th Ave.

As we set the tables and prepared for the guests to arrive, Natalia and Anthony set to work on the hors d’oeuvres as special guest chef James DiStefano (Rouge Tomate) prepared the dessert. The evening was moderated by David Eisenberg of the SPE Advisory Board, who introduced our guests to the concept of SPE’ s health-driven philosophy before screening the “What is SPE?” video.

The menu at the event was, of course, fully SPE-certified. No butter or cream was used, and no frying or grilling was involved. Our menu was as follows:

Hors d’Oeuvres

Mini Burger: Teton Waters Grass-Fed Beef with Avocado and Salsa Verde.

Sweetcorn Panna Cotta: Santa Barbara Sea Urchin, Maryland Crab and Cilantro.

Beet Canneloni: Vermont Buratta, Hazelnut and Minus 8 Vinegar

Appetizer

Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho: Bell Pepper, Fennel, Cumin and Cucumber.

Entrée

Pork Fried Rice: Shiitake Mushroom, Ginger and Pork Loin.

Dessert

Chilled Local Blueberry Soup: Meadow Creek Yogurt Panna Cotta with Lemon Shortbread and Chamomile.

During the meal, our guests were treated to a short cooking demonstration by Chef Anthony Moraes and Culinary Nutritionist Natalia Hancock. As our team prepared the entrée, the diners were briefed on how specific ingredients and cooking techniques can boost the nutritional value of a dish. Naturally, it’s not easy to believe that something like pork fried rice can be made into a healthy dish without compromising on taste, so we brought along some of our SPE Scientific Committee and Advisors to explain a little bit of the science behind the food.

As Jeffrey B. Blumberg and Eric Rimm of the SPE Scientific Committee spoke of the research and the “magic” behind making healthy food taste great, SPE Advisors Pamela Peeke and Arlin Wasserman also commented on the sustainability and health benefits of eating SPE-certified dishes.

Founder and CEO Emmanuel Verstraeten and COO Nil Sonmez also addressed the audience, sharing with them the inspiration behind the SPE movement and the desire to make a change. The truth is that diners simply don't have enough healthy options when they're eating out, and healthy food is often perceived as tasting bland and being unimaginative. We're proving that's not the case when a dish is SPE-certified.

With 6 restaurants in the process of being certified and more on the way, we’re hoping to bring healthy and delicious food to as many people as possible. Now that we’ve demonstrated the power of SPE to New York’s media elite, our next step is to bring SPE certification to a restaurant near you.