New Series - Healthy Food of the Week
Posted by leah on Jun 13, 2008
For the next couple months, my Food Friday posts will feature a different food and explain some of the health benefits of including that food in your diet.
I’ll start next week - and this week, just give you a healthy eating tip I heard recently: eat a lot of raw fruits and vegetables. Cooking them depletes some of the vitamins they contain, so if you can, snack on uncooked veggies like carrot sticks, or have a piece of fresh fruit. Heading into summer there is so much really good fresh fruit, this shouldn’t be too hard to do!
Here’s how I’m adding some raw fruits and veggies to my daily diet:
Once a week, I go to the farmers market. Most vendors have samples, so I only buy fruit that tastes really good. I buy enough for me and my husband to have a serving or two a day for about three days - if I buy more than that, it ends up getting wasted. The rest of the week, we’ll eat bananas or apples from the grocery store, fruits that keep longer than a few days in the fruit basket.
I also buy a head or two of lettuce each week - usually romaine because I like it best, but sometimes I try other kinds - and during the week I make entree salads (lettuce + a protein + other veggies makes a good lunch) or add a few pieces of lettuce to my salads.
Besides lettuce, I buy at least one other veggie that we don’t mind eating as a snack. Broccoli, cauliflower, raddishes, carrots, and celery all work for snacking, and I make sure to clean and prepare them in snack sizes (or buy the pre-cut and washed variety) so that it’s convenient.
Eating by Color
Posted by leah on May 23, 2008
An easy way to make sure you are getting a good variety of nutrients in your diet is to include several different colors of fruits and veggies in your diet. Dark leafy greens have different nutrients from yellow/orange citrus, or deep red/purple berries, or bright orange/red tomatoes. If you don’t want to directly track how much of each vitamin you get from your diet, varying the colors of your fruits and veggies is an easy way to get a variety of healthy vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants without thinking too hard about it.
Smoothies
Posted by leah on May 9, 2008
Smoothies are almost as good as ice cream, and can be a lot healthier depending on what you put in them. One of my favorite quick breakfasts is a smoothie made from a banana, some frozen berries, low-fat or non-fat milk, and a little orange juice. You get a couple servings of fruit, and a little protein and calcium from the milk, and it takes less than a minute to toss all the ingredients in a blender.
Note: smoothies are not a low calorie food, so they might not be the best thing for someone trying to lose weight, BUT made with the recipe above, they are low in fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Just make sure if you are counting calories that you add up everything you put in.