Why did you choose 1600 calories as a target range for menu planning?
Depending on your physical activity, you can generally get along on 20 percent less than the average daily requirement of 2,000 calories set by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the National Academies Institute of Medicine, who are responsible for developing the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) https://www.nationalacademies.org/projects/HMD-FNB-18-P-120
If you’re Erling Haaland you need 6,000 calories a day, but you’re probably not playing in the World Cup soccer finals.
NIH research is even more supportive that a moderate calorie reduction — such as 20 percent — can be beneficial for muscle health, metabolic function, and healthy aging, provided it’s done in a balanced, sustainable way National Institute on Aging+1.
One has to wonder if the 2,000 calorie-a-day recommended “daily value” is an inflated figure, given the overall obesity of the American public.
Why are there so many canned and packaged products in your recipes?
We all need to be prepared for a loss of electricity. My neighbors and I are on an old, early 20th-century grid that surges, which can ignite fires at the base of power-line poles that are difficult to put out. A thick canopy of trees shadow these power lines, and the tree branches crack and fall down on the lines during our ever-more-violent storms. Data centers are coming and will draw down significantly on the grid. For these reasons it is important to have as many groceries as possible in the pantry, not the fridge. That’s why you see an emphasis on long shelf-life products in my recipes. But not exclusively. Fresh is always best.
You add some unusual things to recipes…why?
One of my biggest pet peeves with food blog recipes is that they only add ingredients for taste, not nutrition. Taste is important, but I believe nutrition is even more important. There are so many small additions that reap big nutrition benefits. For example, a few tablespoons of ground sunflower and pumpkin seeds blend happily into pesto on pasta, and they add 5 more grams of protein to your meal. Protein is the hardest macronutrient to get into your diet. This will become starkly apparent to you when you sit down to budget your own menu plan. Sign up for the FREE REPORT on how to do this in the sidebar.