Vegetarian Star

NBC Universal has launched “Healthy Week” at Healthy at NBCU, a week long initiative from June 21st through June 26th that encourages viewers to take steps to improve wellness and nutrition.

The Healthy at NBCU website contains articles about diet and health, inspirational stories about others overcoming obstacles to achieve better health and recipes, including one for vegetarian stuffed peppers.

During the week, various television programs will feature health related segments, from Al Roker mentioning his favorite healthy foods and snacks on “Wake Up With Al,” to White House Chef Sam Kass on Bravo’s Top Chef attempting to show schools how to feed children on a tight budget.

As part of the week long celebration, several celebrities have given their lifestyle tips to Tonic.

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Jillian Michaels has given USA Today readers some advice on eating healthy on the go.

“Order the vegan meal on the plane because it’s usually cleaner than all the other foods. Bring snacks with you when you’re on the road — things you can grab and go — whether it’s a healthy protein bar or dry-roasted nuts.”

Most major airlines, like Continental, United and American offer vegetarian and vegan meals for passengers, but it’s always best to contact the company in advance. In fact, American Airlines suggests you order at least 24 hours ahead of your flight for their items like penne pasta with artichokes or triple pepper bean medley.

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Jillian Michaels told Monster and Critics she often goes easy on the butter when making baked goods, substituting it for plant based alternatives like vegetable oil.

“My brownies had, you know, applesauce, yogurt and olive oil and like unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder instead of, you know, white sugar, white flour, tons and tons of butter,” Michaels said.

Although non dairy and vegan butters exist, there are plenty of non oil substitutes to use in baked recipes, which can cut even more fat from the finished product.

Fruit spreads, fruit purees and even baby food can add moisture to brownies.

A registered dietitian at Calorie Count recommends for every 1/2 cup of fruit puree, add 1-4 tablespoons of olive and cut back on sugar.

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Holly Madison "Adopt Don't Shop PSA for Last Chance For Animals

Holly Madison is one of several celebrities to star in a series of PSAs about animal welfare issues for the group Last Chance For Animals.

Holly’s “Adopt Don’t Shop” ad is one of several featured by LCA, joined by similar PSAs from celebrities like Pamela Anderson, Jillian Michaels, “Mini Me” Verne Troyer and others on fur, adoption, horses and dog fighting, to name a few.

All PSAs are available to download from the group’s website and new PSAs will be created each month and may be seen in various advertising mediums, such as billboards.

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Jillian Michaels "The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook"

Jillian Michael‘s new cookbook, the follow up to last year’s diet and health book, Master Your Metabolism, has just been released.

The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook is filled with 125 recipes and The Biggest Loser coach’s pumpkin cranberry muffins are vegan.

The muffins are sweetened with maple syrup and use coconut and olive oils in place of butter.

Because of its higher saturated fat content, coconut oil was once thought of as the black sheep of vegetable oils.

While partially hydrogenated or processed coconut oil should be avoided, unprocessed varieties in moderate amounts are beneficial, as they’ve been shown to both treat hypothyrodism and boost the immune system.

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Jillian Michaels "Master Your Metabolism"

Jillian Michaels, one of the coaches from The Biggest Loser, has a diet and health book, Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body!

The three themes for the book are Remove, Restore, and Rebalance, which reference to changing the foods that go into your mouth in order to achieve a healthier system (metabolism) that will enable you to lose weight.

Along with resources like shopping lists, tips for eating out and how to eat on a budget, Master Your Metabolism contains recipes.

This is an entire chapter featuring vegetarian main dishes, which is a plus, but it’s a little disappointing that Jillian didn’t choose to make these the focus of the recipes in her book, as she’s a pescatarian who will only eat sustainable seafood.

Most of the foods on her top 10 recommended list, however, are vegetarian–nuts, seeds, legumes, organic dairy, whole grains, fruits and dark, leafy vegetables.

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Jillian Michaels may scream, berate and boss people around on NBC’s The Biggest Loser, but she insists that’s not the way you should treat your kids if you’re trying to get them in shape.

“The Biggest Loser is about life-or-death confrontations. Last ditch attempts to get people back on track. Kids need positive reinforcement only,” Jillian explained to Parent Dish.

Getting kids involved with physical activities can be combined with nutrition, such as planting and growing your own vegetables in a backyard garden, suggests the pescatarian.

“Teach them about healthy goods to help them become a healthy grownup. Don’t make it about pounds or calorie counting. Involve them in the food. Let them start a little vegetable garden so they are invested. Challenge them to find fruits and veggies in their favorite colors and so on. This helps to keep health fun and make them feel in control of their choices.”

We can totally see the garden thing as a competitive, but positive experience for kids.

Team blue gets the green beans. Team red gets tomatoes.

Who can harvest more at the end of the season?

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On a recent episode of The Biggest Loser, coach Jillian Michaels congratulated a contestant for a job well done when he ditched the vending machine snacks and opted for a veggie sub sandwich at Subway instead.

Biggest Loser contestants have some great support on the show.

Michaels is a pescatarian, while Bob Harper is totally veg!

Harper pitches a vegetarian diet to the contestants on the show, or at least one that’s primarily plant based.

“I always bring up the option of a vegetable-based diet, which I call Diet A, and talk about the many easy ways to get protein, such as from beans, tofu, broccoli, and quinoa,” he said. “For the contestants who insists they need their meat, I have Diet B, which is still very heavy on veggies.”

Diet A sounds like the best way to be the biggest winner!

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