Monthly Archives: November 2014

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NCES and The Wellness Spot: The Place to Be for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Shopping

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The introduction of The Wellness Spot: Providing great tools to inspire a healthy life, couldn’t have come at a better time with holiday shopping season upon us! For Black Friday this year, we’re offering 20% off your entire purchase at ShopWellnessSpot.com, plus every order receives a free healthy living gift as well! This site features tons of great gift ideas for the health enthusiast in your life, including portion plates, advanced food scales, kitchen utensils and much more! Browse The Wellness Spot today and use code BlackFriday at checkout to save 20% off your entire order and receive your Free Gift!

For dietitians, we’ve setup Cyber Monday just for you! For almost 30 years, NCES has been the leading provider of health and nutrition education materials, including handouts, teaching aids, CEU’s, professional books and more! On Cyber Monday, receive Free Shipping on your entire order from NCEScatalog.com, plus receive a Free Gift as a Thank You from us for being a valued customer!

We appreciate all of you and want to show our appreciation by offering these great Black Friday and Cyber Monday savings! To stay current with NCES happenings, specials, new products and everything else we share, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter. If LinkedIn is your place, take a minute to connect with Chris Jackson, CEO of NCES, Inc.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at NCES! Cheer’s to a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

NCES Health and Nutrition Education Black Fridaycyber monday

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The Best Gift for Every Health Enthusiast in 2014

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Can you believe it? Thanksgiving is just over a week away! That means it’s already time to start getting your holiday shopping done. The Christmas season is all about giving, and many of us take this to heart as our shopping list grows and grows each year. As dietitians, I know that many of you like to use this as a time to thank your clients and encourage them through this season. For others, you may just have a health enthusiast in your life that you find it hard to buy for.

Whoever it is you’ve got in mind, we’ve created the best gift for every health enthusiast in 2014 that will be a perfect fit for them! Our Healthy Holiday Gift Boxes are packed with dietitian approved treats and snacks that will make the health nut in your life jump for joy! Plus, each box includes a few tips for enjoying a healthy holiday season. We’ve created them in two different sizes to make sure we can meet any budget and pre-filled them with some of our favorite snacks so you don’t even have to think about it. But, if you have some specific items you want included, we can customize your box to include any snacks you’d like. Simply email us at info@ncescatalog.com or give us a call at 877.623.7266 to customize your gift box today.

Whether you’re searching for the perfect teacher’s gift or for your dance instructor, personal trainer, or dietitian, these Healthy Holiday Gift Boxes are a great fit and make your holiday shopping just a little easier. They’re also great for employee, co-worker and bosses gifts.

Check them out today! You can have them shipped to you to give as gifts. Or, you can put your recipients mailing address in and we can ship directly to them.

To keep up with all the new products NCES has to offer, be sure to ‘Like’ us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Holiday Gift Boxes

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The Most Nutritious Measuring Cups I’ve Ever Used

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Up until now, you may have been under the impression that all measuring cups are created equal. I mean, a cup is a cup is a cup, right? The truth is that not all measuring cups are created equal. In fact, the ones we’ve been using offer more information on choosing healthy portions of body-fueling foods than most of us really ever thought was possible. Nutriportion Measuring Cups ™ are created from a flexible, easy-to-use material and highlight calories, carbohydrates and carb exchanges for many of your favorite foods based on the size of the cup you are using.

For the diabetes patient, Nutriportion Measuring Cups™ highlight the carbohydrates and carb exchanges for many of your favorite foods. Each of the four sides classify foods based on carbohydrate levels and group them together so you know how many carbs are in ¼, 1/3, ½ and 1 cup of each food, such as granola, rice or pasta.

For the health and nutrition conscious, Nutriportion Measuring Cups™ help you understand the calories in many of your favorite foods. With everyday foods like popcorn, beans, dried fruit and raw or cooked vegetables, monitoring and tracking your calorie intake is made simple with these measuring cups.

No matter your language, you’ll find Nutriportion Measuring Cups™ easy to read and understand. All of the helpful information on the measuring cups is in both English and Spanish. According to the CDC, Hispanic/Latino Americans are at a particularly high risk for Type 2 Diabetes. So, providing diabetes education and resources to this group within our population is particularly important.

Whether you are looking for a new set of measuring cups for your personal kitchen, or you’re a dietitian searching for the perfect resource for your patients, these measuring cups will not let you down. They’re the only ones I use in my kitchen for many reasons, including the ones listed above. Plus, they make great giveaways for your nutrition or diabetes programs. I can even say that I’ve been known to give these as gifts to friends and family members as well as door prizes at conferences and events. Wherever I’ve taken them, they’ve always been a hit!

NCES is proud to carry Nutriportion Measuring Cups™ online at NCEScatalog.com. For many years, these cups have flown off the shelves to individuals, as well as organizations purchasing them in large quantities. The video below offers a look at Nutriportion Measuring Cups™ in action and highlights what sets these outstanding measuring cups apart from the rest. Visit the Product Page to learn more and place your order today. Order now and you can still get them in plenty of time for your holiday shopping!

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The 5 Most Amazing Tools to Have in Every Healthy Kitchen

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We’ve all been there! We’re interested in preparing healthy snack and meals at home. But, we don’t have all the right tools. It seems like in order to get ourselves back in shape, we have to spend a lot of money getting our kitchens back in shape too. Based on the foods that wreak the most havoc on our waistlines, there are only a few essential items that you need in order to update your kitchen and lighten up your cooking.

Salad dressings are one of the most commonly overused foods. If we’re eating a salad, it’s healthy, no matter what we top it with, right? The truth is that salad dressings hide a lot of empty calories. So, limiting the amount used on a salad is a great way to cut back on overall calorie intake. Reusable dressing lids that measure portions make it super easy to watch portions and still enjoy your favorite dressings. This tool is also great for kids as they learn how much dressing they should be using on their salads.

NCES Healthy Step Pasta BasketI don’t know about you, but in my house pasta is a staple in many of our meals. It offers a great base for many vegetables and proteins. The key with pasta, like with any other food, is to keep an eye on your portions. The Healthy Steps Pasta Basket is perfectly sized for an individual portion. Plus, it hangs on the side of your pot of boiling water for easy draining when the pasta is done and collapses flat for easy storage after use. Truly, it doesn’t get much easier than that!

The Perfect Portions Food Scale also makes keeping an eye on portions easier. Not only will it weigh your foods before you add them to your favorite recipes, it will also give you the nutrition information for that food, including calories, fat grams, protein and much more. It’s like having your own personalized nutrition label for any amount of any food!

The best way to add flavor to any dish is by using fresh herbs. Cooked in to your favorite recipe or cut fresh on top of a salad, herbs are a great low (or no) calorie addition. If you don’t use them quickly enough though, they tend to go bad. The Herb Savor Pod stores them neatly and also helps to keep them fresher longer, prolonging their life by up to 3 weeks.

And, finally, no healthy kitchen is complete without this hands-free countertop tool, the iPrep iPad Holder. As technology changes, printed cookbooks are quickly becoming ‘so 1995’. In their place are online recipes, meal planning sites and digital cookbooks. What’s better to access them from than an iPad? But, those mini computers aren’t cheap so you don’t want it setting on your counter with all of your ingredients while you’re cooking. Instead, have it safe and secure in the iPrep holder for easy recipe viewing. It also comes with a stylus so you don’t have to touch the screen with dirty, meal prepping hands. It’s basically the cookbook holder of 2014!

Cooking healthy meals can be a lot of work. However, with the right tools, you can really simplify the process. The Wellness Spot, backed by NCES, offers an entire line of products just like you’ve seen in this blog. We chose these five as essentials for every healthy kitchen, but there are many more available to browse through by category. If you have any ideas for healthy products that should be featured on The Wellness Spot, send them in and we’ll see about getting them added. We hope you enjoy your new tools and your healthier kitchen!

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Let’s Get Cooking to #StopDiabetes for American Diabetes Month 2014

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Stop Diabetes American Diabetes Month NCES

Happy American Diabetes Month! Every November, we all join forces to raise awareness of diabetes. We’re excited to join the American Diabetes Association this year to further their vision of “a life free of diabetes and all its burdens”. By raising awareness and providing education, we can help to make this vision of the future happen today! We know that many of you, our customers, fans and blog readers are diabetes educators. Thank you for everything that you do, day in and day out, to prevent diabetes through preemptive education and help those living with diabetes through lifestyle education. This year’s American Diabetes Month theme is “America Gets Cooking to Stop Diabetes”. In the next few steps, we want to provide a few ways that we can all get cooking in a way that prevents diabetes and also helps those living with diabetes enjoy their meals without the ingredients that their bodies can’t process.

  1. Utilize cooking spray or small amounts of olive oil rather than butter when sautéing in a pan. Butter contains saturated fats, which raise blood cholesterol levels and is a risk factor for heart disease. A Tabletop Oil Mister allows you to create your own blend of oils, herbs and spices and use it sparingly across many types of foods.
  2. Steam your vegetables in water or broil them in the oven versus cooking them in butter or another source of fat. Many vegetables have a fantastic flavor that can be accentuated through the use of the right herbs and spices.
  3. Use fresh herbs or spices to add flavor to your foods rather than salt. Although salt packs a big punch, you’ll find that you won’t even want it after freshening up your favorite meals with some fresh herbs and the right spices. Fresh herbs always taste best, so a tool like the Herb Savor Pod help keep them that way. Plus, it’s just pretty cool looking! Herb Shears are also a great kitchen addition if you plan to cook with a lot of fresh herbs.
  4. Be sure to trim any visible fat off your meat before you cook. Many times, some fat will be left on the meat that you purchase at the grocery store in order to add some weight or leave ‘flavor’ on the meat. Be sure to inspect the meat and remove this excess fat. There are plenty of other ways to add flavor and don’t need this extra fat.
  5. If you have diabetes, it’s very important to measure your carbohydrate portions to make sure you’re staying within your daily allowance. There are many resource guides available to help measure your carbohydrate servings and exchanges. Our favorites are the Nutriportion Measuring Cups because carbohydrates in many common foods are listed around the sides of the measuring cups. No need to look anywhere else!
  6. Avoid high sugar and processed foods at all costs. When it comes to both preventing diabetes and managing it if you’ve been diagnosed, sugary and processed foods can be your worst enemy. Instead, opt for foods with natural sugars such as fresh or frozen fruits.

This November, we’ll be doing everything we can to fulfill the vision of the American Diabetes Association, a life free of diabetes and all its burdens. We hope you’ll join us as we blog, Facebook, Tweet and even create a video to help stop diabetes through prevention, education and useful diabetes tools. Are you involved in the fight against diabetes? Share how you’ll be celebrating American Diabetes Month with us. We’d love to see what you’re doing too!