The Good Fat and Bad Fat Dilemma: the problem may just be too much food

 In a most recent food research study done by Martijn Katan ( Professor of Nutrition at the University of Amsterdam), suggests that saturated fat (fat found in meat, butter, and dairy) may not be as bad for your heath as you think. Of course, don’t go celebrating by eating a whole stick of butter. The whole purpose of the study was to challenge the idea that doctors have told us our whole lives to replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats, but after all the problem may not be the fat but how much we eat of it.  The problem with past studies is that they were unable to find the link between the bad fat (saturated fat) and the increase of cholesterol. Now, that both fats cause cholesterol to increase is beyond doubt. The study found that in the end the problem is not that fat itself, but how much we eat of it. Food is cheap and access to it is easy. Most of our important occasions or celebrations involve food. For many, food may even be used as a pastime. We are surrounded by food and tempted by it. That’s what is making us fat and our cholesterol high. So make the right choice and control your eating.

Here at Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we cook healthy and tasty meals. Quit going to restaurants every night. The amount of sodium that these places add to their food is in ridiculous amounts and they do that with reason. They must preserve the food and salt is the best way to do that. Here at Atlanta Personal Chef Service, our chefs go grocery shopping everyday in order to bring our clients fresh produce. We are here to help you maintain good heath without giving up on taste. Right now we serve cities around Atlanta including Marietta, Roswell, Buckhead, Dunwoody, Vinings, Brookhaven, and other cities surrounding Atlanta. We do weekly meals, dinner parties, cocktail parties, and more. So, contact us and find how we can help you eat right. Find us on Facebook.  

Three Simple steps to Keep/Maintain a Healthy Brain

The brain is the most important organ of the human body and of all animals as well. In fact, the brain is so important that Doctors only declare when someone is dead when their brains are no longer working or considered “dead.” The brain is the pilot. It’s where all commands takes place. A person can live with an arm or a leg, but no one can live without a brain. Being the most important of all human organs, it would be wise to treat the brain with such importance.

Atlanta Personal Chef Service is here once again to teach you simple steps, so that you can maintain a healthy brain now as we age.

1. Exercise: Exercise should be of no surprise. Every study about maintaining a great heath, exercising is always one the most important things anyone can do. According to Laura Baker (Associate Professor of Internal Medicine-geriatrics at the Wake Forest University of Medicine in North Caroline), “Most studies find a lower risk of dementia over time for people who exercise or are lifelong exercisers versus those who don’t. If you are sedentary, blood doesn’t get to the far reaches of those small vessels. These are the areas that support the kind of executive function that’s vulnerable to aging.” What is great about exercising is that it improves your heath in many levels, including stress, blood flow, cholesterol and many more.

2. Keep an eye on your blood pressure. People that have high blood pressure have higher risk of having strokes (when the blood supply gets cut off, thus affecting the levels of oxygen that reaches your brain, which causes brain tissue to die). A few ways to lower the blood pressure is by exercising, maintaining healthy diet and medication if necessary.

3. Use your brains: Many studies have shown that there is lower risk of Alzheimer’s symptoms and dementia in people that have higher education, read books, work on professional occupations, and are involved with activities that stimulate the brain (puzzles, playing games, attend classes).

Other steps that it’s proven to help, but researchers are not 100% yet: Sleep, eating fish, drinking coffee, berries, and Vitamin D.

Atlanta Personal Chef Service is to help you maintain healthy diet, while eating tasty foods. Everyday our private chefs are cooking meals around Atlanta, Buckhead, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Vinnings, and Roswell. We keep up with the latest in heath and always informing our clients. Try us out and I’m sure you will not regret it. Contact us!

What’s cooking this week at Atlanta Personal Chef Service?

It’s another busy week for Atlanta Personal Chef Service.  From Monday through Friday, our chefs are busy cooking for families and individuals around Atlanta, Marietta, Dunwoody, Buckhead, Sandy Springs, and Vinnings. One of our chefs is cooking the following menu this week:

Grilled BBQ Skirt Steak with Sweet Potato Puree,

Sauté cabbage, and Grilled Corn Salad

Wedge Salad Poached Tilapia in

Mussels Broth with Steam White Rice and Roasted Asparagus.

Baba Ghanoush Platter,

Thai Chicken Curry with Steam white rice and snap peas

Waldorf Salad,

Turkey Meatballs with Arrabiata sauce, roasted root vegetable puree and Sauté Zucchini.

Atlanta Personal Chef Service is here to help with your busy life. Our chefs cook fresh, delicious, and healthy meals every day. For more information about our services click here. Also, feel free to give us a call or send us an email by going to out “contact us” page. 

Why is it hard to maintain a healthy weight?

The answer to this question lies in the history of mankind. Long ago when human being used to live in caves, it was essential for them to eat as much they could, so they could store energy (fat) in order to survive. They never knew when or what their next meal would be. They had to spend a lot of time hunting (exercising) and going after their next meal. So, to eat a lot and get fat was a survival tactic, especially during the winter months when food was scarce. Also, most of what our ancestors ate was a diet based of protein (meat and nuts), vegetables, seeds, and fruits. A much better diet than what most people usually have today. 

Once humans learned about agriculture, they spent less time running or working for their food. Still, agriculture was a very hard job. Today, most of our jobs are not physically demanded and food is everywhere with easy access. We no longer need store energy during the winter months in order to survive, but still our biology has not changed since the Stone Age. Our bodies still wants to store fat because it was made that way to survive, but we don’t spend enough energy anymore running after food (exercising) in order to keep a stable balance diet. People that live in big cities such as,  Atlanta and the cities surrounding, such as Marietta, Kennesaw, Dunwoody, Buckhead, Vinings, Brookhaven, Decatur and Alpharetta, they are always in a hurry eating fast food or big proportion restaurant meals. With easy access to food and less exercise we are bound to increase our weight.  

So, what should we do then? Essentially, we should try to live like our ancestors did. Eat a balance diet and exercise. Our bodies were made for survival. It wants to store fat and that is normal. It is part of our nature. We just need to make sure we put in our exercise as well. To maintain a healthy weight it is not rocket science, it is a change of habit. This habit should not be hard to change because we did it throughout most of our existence, only in the past one-hundred-fifty years that it has changed. Atlanta Personal Chef Service is also here to help. We provide healthy delicious meals to our clients in the right proportions. We can’t do the exercise for you, but we sure can help you in the eating healthy part. Give us a try and we will prove to you how delicious meals can be healthy and desirable.  

Personal Chefs Speak: Tricks to Help you Eat Less

In a country where food is cheap, plentiful, and the choices are many, it’s very hard for Americans to control their eating habits. It’s like running on the treadmill while you watch the seconds passing by. The time seems to pass so slowly and thirty minutes never seems to end. So, what do you do? Put a towel over the timer and listen to music, which makes the brain focus on the music thus helping the time go by much “faster.”

The brain behaves the same with eating less. We just need to trick it or “put a towel over it” to make it seem that we don’t need as much food as the brain thinks we do. Atlanta Personal Chef Service is here to give three simple pieces of advice to help you eat less or lose weight without you even noticing you are doing so.

First, decrease the size of your plates. Research shows that people are prone to eat more (28% more) when using a larger plate. Why? Because they simply put more food on their plate and don’t want to throw it out due to the starving children in Africa. Also, if you use smaller cooking dishes, you will also cook less, thus not having to feel bad for the starving children and actually do something about it. You can save money by spending less on food then donate what you saved to charitable organizations that help starving children in Africa.

Second, change the name of a “normal” portion to a “large.” It will help you to take less on your plate and eat less, because your brain will think that eating a large portion is too much. Most people defer to the normal portion while picking a meal or drink because they think that small is too small and big is too big. Our society’s “normal” has been increasing and it differs for each restaurant, so who is to say what is regular and what is large? Drink and eat less by always sticking with small.

Third, rearrange the way you stock fruits and vegetables in your fridge. Research shows that people are more prone to eat their fruits and vegetables when they put them in places that are visible, such as the center shelf. This will help you to acknowledge that the food you bought is still there and you don’t want to throw money away. Filling up on healthy food will help you decrease the amount of unhealthy food you eat.

Atlanta Personal Chef Service is here to help you live a healthy life without giving up the taste of great food. We have personal chefs in Buckhead, Marietta, Dunwoody, Vinings, Roswell, Alpharetta and other cities in Georgia. Keep following our blog and continue getting great tips about food and heath. For more information, check out our website at: www.AtlantaPersonalChefService.com.

The Truth About Multivitamins

Recently articles from the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune warned its readers about taking multivitamins pills. Those articles were based on the trend of people who take their vitamins as a substitute to fruits and vegetables. Some people even believe that taking those vitamins might prevent them from getting a heart attack, cancer, and other diseases. “In the Physicians’ Health Study II, we found no evidence overall that taking a multivitamin for more than a decade prevented heart attacks or strokes or any more than taking a placebo, but it didn’t increase risk, either,” says Howard Sesso, a Harvard epidemiologist who conducted the study.

The problems is that the majority of people who take multivitamins believe they don’t need to eat as many vegetables or fruits, since they are consuming their vitamins through supplements. Also, they believe that the supplements will prevent diseases. These people are obviously wrong. Its common sense that eating healthy, balanced meals with fruits and vegetables and exercising is the best way to be healthy, but people are lazy and always trying to find that magic pill so they don’t need to worry about their heath. It does not exist. There’s plenty of research that has already been proved that eating healthy and exercising is the best way to prevent diseases. There are many health components in fruits and vegetables (many that we still don’t know about it) that a multivitamin pill does not have.  The fact is that taking a multivitamin pill can be good, only if taken as supplement to a healthy diet and not as a substitute for one. Unfortunately for many lazy people out there, eating healthy and exercising is still the best way to be healthy and no amount of supplements can substitute that, at least for now.

At Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we know the value of eating healthy, well-rounded meals, and we help families make this a part of their regular routine.  Clients have told us that they feel better and more energized after eating our meals.  Most people are fully capable of eating healthy, but they don’t have the time or energy to devote to shopping, cooking, and cleaning.  We love cooking for families and share a sense of enthusiasm about helping families eat healthy, wholesome, great tasting foods.  For more information about our weekly dinner service, visit our web page here.  We serve families in Buckhead, Vinings, Midtown, Marietta, Dunwoody, Decatur, and more.

Seasonal Menus at Atlanta Personal Chef Service

The fall is here and the Atlanta Personal Chef Service team is excited for a busy season of holiday parties, special occasion dinner parties, corporate events, and romantic dinners for two. We bring excellent dishes to dinner tables around Atlanta and the surrounding areas, including Buckhead, Marietta, Dunwoody, Vinings, Brookhaven, Decatur and Alpharetta. In the state of Georgia, fall offers seasonal ingredients such as apples, corn, eggplant, field peas, peppers, squashes, Vidalia onions, cabbage, pecans, sweet potatoes, arugula, beets and kale.  We update our menus each season to bring the freshest, healthiest, tastiest dishes to your dining room.  Contact us today to find out about our dinner parties and see our sample fall menu. Also, don’t forget to check out our Facebook page!

Sample Seasonal Starters:

Maple Bacon wrapped Shrimp with Butternut Squash Purée garnished with Fried Edamame

Goat Cheese Tart with oven roasted Tomatoes and Caramelized Sweet Onions garnished with Arugula tossed in Lemon Vinaigrette

Picking Ingredients at Season's Peak

Atlanta Personal Chef Service - Fresh Avocado Salad over Seasonal Greens

Atlanta Personal Chef Service always uses the freshest ingredients available for the highest quality and best tasting dinners. Everyday our chefs go to grocery stores around Atlanta and the surrounding areas, such as Buckhead, Marietta, Dunwoody, Roswell and Alpharetta, to stores including Publix, WholeFoods, Harry's, and the Buford and Dekalb Farmers Markets. We always integrate seasonal ingredients into our menus, so we provide Atlanta Personal Chef Service’s clients dishes that taste great and are as fresh as can be. Summer in the state of Georgia offers seasonal ingredients such as blueberries, corn, cucumbers, field peas, melon, peaches, peppers, tomatoes, Vidalia onions, and summer squashes. Close to Atlanta is Florida, with their seasonal ingredients of avocados, cantaloupe, mangoes, peppers, and watermelon. Apricots, celery, cherries, gooseberries, nectarines, peas, rhubarb, strawberries, and tomatoes come in from Tennessee. Our chefs are always striving to cook the best and freshest food of the season. To see more pictures of our freshly prepared foods, visit our website (www.AtlantaPersonalChefService.com) or Facebook page.

Use a Personal Chef for a Truly Unique Proposal

Proposal season has arrived! Grooms-to-be all over Atlanta and Buckhead are thinking up crafty ways to pop that question to their significant other. Some are reserving seats in fancy Buckhead restaurants planning to propose to their girlfriends, while others are planning a surprise in the park. But why not try something different that is more romantic and less crowded? For those of you who live around the Perimeter area of Atlanta (Marietta, Buckhead, Dunwoody, Midtown, Vinings), Atlanta Personal Chef Service would be happy to help you plan a special evening for the big proposal. Have an intimate dinner in the coziness of your home or condo, while our chefs cook and serve a menu tailored just for you. All of our chefs have experience in high end restaurants and know how to make a memorable evening with great food. Atlanta Personal Chef Service will work with you to customize your perfect menu. We will gladly show you some samples menus, which you are encouraged to customize as you like. For example, if you have gone to Buckhead Diner or any other restaurant and had a dish you really enjoyed, we will gladly cook a similar (and better!) dish for you. We are a professional service dedicated to planning and executing a wonderful dinner that you and your future bride will always remember. Atlanta Personal Chef Service serves Atlanta, Buckhead, Marietta, Dunwoody, Midtown and other areas around the perimeter with tasty dinners and wonderful memories. Find out more about our dinner service here.