by Joan O’Keefe, RD

The perfect diet – claims abound and you can travel from Sonoma to South Beach trying to stay slim for life, but what really works? Through the years, my clients have shed thousands of pounds without a single recipe, without a single calorie counted. My perfect recipe for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Two colors and a protein. That’s it. It’s the perfect meal plan and here is all you need to know.

• Breakfast – Choose two colorful vegetables or fruits (ex an orange vegetable and a green, blueberries and strawberries, etc) and a lean protein source.
• Lunch – Choose two colorful vegetables or fruits and a lean protein source.
• Dinner – You got, it – Choose two colors from vegetables or fruits and a lean protein source.

The perfect diet really is this simple. This morning I had three egg whites scrambled (use a bit of PAM or other cooking spray on the pan) with broccoli and red bell pepper. For lunch, I’ll mix together spinach, chopped veggies like cauliflower and broccoli (I buy the big bag of pre-cut veggies at Costco), some leftover grilled chicken from last night’s dinner, and a splash of olive oil and vinegar. Just like breakfast and lunch, dinner takes very little time to prepare. See my recipe below for tonight’s dinner at the O’Keefe home.

Tilapia with Caper-Parsley Sauce (fresh or frozen tilapia both work well)

4 tilapia fillets
1 cup white wine
3 TBSP Benecol margarine
2 TBSP Capers
¼ cup Chopped Parsley

Season tilapia fillets with a small amount of salt and pepper. Cook in olive oil over medium-high heat until cooked through, 2-3 minutes per side.

Sauce: In a saucepan, boil 1 cup white wine until reduced by half 2-3 minutes. Whisk in Benecol, capers, and parsley. Spoon over cooked tilapia. Serve with your choice of two colorful vegetables!

Pac-Man, Antioxidants, and Inflammation
by Joan O’Keefe, RD

When I think antioxidants, I think video games. Specifically, Pac-Man. It sounds odd, I know, but keep reading and you’ll soon be thinking about Pac-Man every time you eat!

I love spring color! From artichokes to asparagus to spinach and strawberries, spring fruits and vegetables are all great tasting and super affordable right now. The key to any healthy lifestyle is plenty of fruits and veggies. They’re full of fiber, vitamins and minerals and low in calories. They’ll whittle your waistline, but they’re also FULL of antioxidants; and antioxidants fight inflammation.

Oxidation in your body is like rust on a car. Antioxidants are fabulous little compounds found in abundance in colorful fruits and veggies. Just like the name implies, they fight oxidation, or “rusting” inside your body. I like to think of the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables like little Pac-men that spend their days gobbling up the bad guys. In this case, the bad guys are all the nasty, disease-causing free radicals, or oxidizers, inside your body. Free radicals cause inflammation and inflammation causes disease. The more of these “Pac-men” you put in your body, the more power you have to fight inflammation.