The 2010 Healthy Living Summit is off to a great start! 
The HLS committee woke up bright and early to coordinate the last-minute details for the day.
At 8:00 AM on the dot, HLS registration started.
Once attendees checked-in, they enjoyed a healthy breakfast sponsored by Quaker, Stonyfield, and Thomas.
Quaker offered a wonderful oatmeal bar that everyone really seemed to enjoy.
I filled my bowl with oats and added fresh berries, granola, and almond butter.
The oatmeal was soooo creamy! Just the way I like it! 
I also had a dark chocolate Adora disk, a cup of coffee, and half of a carrot muffin with breakfast.
After breakfast, HLS attendees heard from the keynote speaker sponsored by Arnold and Oroweat. Registered Dietitian, Christine Palumbo, gave a presentation called, “Eating Well for Feeling Fabulous.” She addressed the latest health and wellness trends and their impact on what’s “hot” in food, the importance of healthy living and food laws/policy making, such as Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, and provided tips for healthy living.
Then, everyone split into smaller breakout groups.
The first session that I attended was called “Cooking Ethical Meals on the Cheap.” Evan of Food Makes Fun Fuel and Lin from Tea Time with Lin taught us all about how ethical eating can be easy, delicious, and affordable.
In their presentation, Evan and Lin discussed how “ethical” eating can be adapted to all types of lifestyles and budgets whether you choose to eat meat or not. Here are some of my favorite tips and ideas for ethical eating on a budget:
- When it comes to organic products look for store brands. Store brand organic milk and eggs, for instance, are often nutritionally equivalent to name brands, but a lot more affordable.
- Invest in your health. Healthy eating doesn’t need to be expensive, but organic products often cost more. Lin suggested prioritizing your budget, so you can spend a little extra on high quality foods. For example, if you nix your daily Starbucks habit, you’d have more money to spend on nutritious foods.
- Buy directly from farmers. If you buy directly from the source, it’s typically cheaper and more nutritious.
- Buy meat in bulk and freeze excess. Evan suggested buying a whole chicken and incorporating the meat into different dishes over the course of the week and/or freezing what you don’t use.
- Avoid the “choice” cuts (like chicken breasts) and instead use other cuts or ground meat in dishes. You get the same nutrition, but just in a different form.
More to come from the Healthy Living Summit! Stay tuned! 
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
chocolate for breakfast…looks good!
yay – so glad to see evan up there representing the male health bloggers!
The breakfast buffet looks fabulous – wish I was there!
An oatmeal bar sounds amazing!!
An oatmeal bar would be right up my alley
YUM!
small world! Christine Palumbo is one my family’s good friends! She was at my wedding a few months ago, and my husband was the videographer for her daughters wedding!
That breakfast spread sounds so good! Looks like you got off to a great start!
That oatmeal does look delicious!
One of the best “ethical” and budget friendly eating tips I’ve ever heard is to save money on organic produce and spend it instead on your organic animal products, meat especially. This is because all the bad stuff gets more concentrated the farther up the food chain you get.
I’ve been spending more money on organic, local, free range meat at my Farmer’s Market lately, and saving money on produce (my Farmer’s Market produce isn’t always the least expensive option).
I all looks so wonderful!
Great breakfast and fantastic guest speakers.
Totally agree with the buying local part….organic or conventional.
Oh how I wish I was there! That presentation sounds like it was great and informative!
“Cooking Ethical Meals on the Cheap” sounds like a fantastic session! So interesting. Thanks for sharing some highlights.
hope today goes smoothly! looks great so far!
Not to be a thorn but there is no scientific evidence and plenty of articles that just came out to negate the idea that buying local or organic food means you get more nutritious food. I would encourage more research to back up statements like that because it actually creates a perception that conventional food is less nutritious, which could hardly be the case.
There has been plenty of research on pesticides and soil depletion; the quality of the soil that vegetables are growing in absolutely has an effect on their nutritional content.
everything looks great so far!
Jillian, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Magazines and news articles just came out negating the idea that a conventional piece of fruit or veggie was any less nutritious than an organic one. Misinformation like that pushes people to not eat any fruits or veggies, which studies show is accurate, and simply eat cheaper food like fast food and foods full of preservatives. The website http://safefruitsandveggies.com/ is an excellent resource for questions like this and finding out more accurate information regarding fruits and veggies.
Thanks for the tips for ethical eating on a budget. Lately I have been on a pretty tight budget but I keep reminding myself that what I spend on quality food is disease prevention for now and for the future.
Ben, well actually there is evidence that buying local can provide you with more nutrients. Produce starts losing nutrients as soon as it’s picked and thus a tomato picked in California and shipped to me in West Virginia is less nutritious than one from the farmer’s market picket that morning (assuming that I eat it that week).
Im not surprised the oatmeal bar was a big hit, who doesn’t love oatmeal?
Great ethical eating tips, thanks for including them!
ethical eating is such an incredible thing to understand.
Those ethical eating on a budget tips are so pertinent to me right now – I’m just starting my PhD which means brokeness for the next few years! Thank you for sharing what you learn… if only you could share those raspberries too!
Hi Tina!
I’m glad you liked the presentation. I was so thankful that Evan was there! I hope I get to talk to you before HLS ends!
I like it
The eats look amazing!
i have to be the annoying vegetarian that points out one of the best ways to eat ethically is to stop eating meat altogether! what is done to animals in commercial food processing is scary and just so wrong. not to be debbie downer, but that certainly frees up a LOT of money for organic produce!