Eating Healthy

          Food Preparation

Increase your vegetables and whole grains, and decrease the fat, salt and sugar. If you're really serious about changing your family's diet, write reminders to eat healthy and post it on your refrigerator as a daily reminder for everyone.  (Circle the ones that are right for you) 

Increasing Vegetables and Fruits

1.  Learn to properly steam vegetables. This helps keep more of the nutrients in the vegetable.

2.  Avoid canned food as much as possible and increase fresh food. Fresh food has life force and enzymes that support the body's health.

3. For Stews and Casseroles: Decrease the meat and increase the vegetables.

4. For Chili and meatloaf: Add grated carrots, zucchini or cabbage.

5. Add finely grated carrots, pumpkin, or zucchini to baked breads and cakes.

6. Eat at least two servings of fresh fruit every day.

7. Include two servings of vegetables with lunch and dinner.In particular, focus on vegetables high in Vitamin A (beta-carotene) and Vitamin C. Carrots, squash, sweet potato, tomatoes, spinach, kale, collard greens, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, onions, leeks, avocado.

8. Add Fruit to your meals. In particular those high in Vitamin C, like blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, peaches, mango, cantaloupe melon, and apples. Also for iron, include dried fruits like apricots and peaches 

9.  Do you dislike fruits and vegetables? There are no substitutions. If you do, try a new approach: 

• Make homemade soup. Ideally, use a small amount of lean meat and lots of vegetables, season to taste but go light on the salt.    
• Try blender recipes for vegetables drinks or dishes   
• Make fresh orange juice. Many people won't eat 3 whole oranges every day. But they will drink the juice!   
• Add fruit to your salads  
• Make blended fruit drinks (smoothies) Use 1 cup of fresh fruit plus 1 cup fruit juice. For creaminess add a little fat-free yogurt.    

  Increase Whole Grains

1.        Substitute whole-wheat flour for bleached white flour when you bake.  

2.        Top casseroles with wheat germ or whole-wheat bread crumbs.  

3.        Serve bran-based cereals, or those made from shredded wheat. You can also use in other meals. 

4.        Eat crackers and corn chips containing whole grains.  

Reducing Fat   

1.        Cut your fat intake in half. That means half as much margarine or butter on toast, vegetables and your morning English muffin; half the mayonnaise on your noontime sandwich; and half the oil in the pan when you sauté foods.  

2.   Eat Bagels, wholegrain/bran muffins, or whole grain toast instead of pastries or doughnuts  

3.   Skip the smear of cream cheese on a plain bagel and try a hot, flavored bagel, like cinnamon-raisin   

4.   When making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, be skimpy.  

5.   Use light mayo in tuna, chicken and pasta salads.   

6.   Switch to lean meats. Avoid highly marbled beef, high fat pork ribs and chops, regular ground beef and other fatty cuts.   

7.        Use lean ground beef (you can substitute ground turkey for ground beef), pork tenderloin and flank steak in your recipes, and white breast meat of poultry 

8.   Get into the habit of trimming all the fat off all your meat, preferably before cooking.   

9.   Remove skin and fat off any poultry before cooking.  

10.   Remove the skin from chicken when eating when dining out.   

11.   Eat fish once or twice a week or shellfish (Do not fry or batter).   

12.   Switch to lower fat dairy products. This can really influence your calorie and fat intake by switching to lower fat milk, cottage cheese, cheese, sour cream and other products.   

13.   Find a couple of lower fat salad dressings that you enjoy use for salad or dips.   

14.  Broil, roast or steam meats on a rack and keep the meat from cooking in its own grease.  

15.  Eat at least one or two meatless lunch and dinner each week to reduce fat, increase fiber, and get yourself into the habit of building meals around whole grains, beans and vegetables.  

16.  Cook with less fat by using non-stick skillets.  

17.  Avoid fried foods. Bake or broil instead.  

18.  Use coconut or canola oil instead of other oils 

19.  Add a spoon of water or broth as needed instead of more fat when sautéing onions and vegetables. 

20.  Make up a batch of brownies with applesauce instead of oil or shortening.    

Reduce Salt  Intake  

1.        Substitute lemon juice or herbs for salt and other spices when cooking or gradually reduce the amount you use to where you don't need it at all. 

2.        Use Celtic sea salt instead of regular table salt 

3.        Avoid cooking with soy or Worcestershire sauce.  

4.        Substitute garlic or onion powder for garlic or onion salt.  

5.        Avoid using products that contain monosodium glutamate.  

6.        Use unsalted or low-salt vegetable broths and products.  

High Sodium Foods
Foods high in sodium (salty foods), include processed frozen entrees and processed cold cuts, many canned foods, ketchups, package sauce mixes, processed cheese, margarine, butter and salted snacks like nuts.   

Reducing Sugar   

1.   Replace white sugar with brown sugar, honey or molasses  

2.        Choose canned fruits packed in juices instead of heavy syrup.  

3.        Use only fresh-frozen fruit without added sugar if fresh is unavailable.  

4.        Cut the sugar called for in most recipes by one-third to one-half.  

5.        Sweeten waffles and quick breads with cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla or almond extracts.  

6.        Add pureed banana to baked goods and reduce the sugar. 

7.   Have fresh or lite canned fruit, juice or fruit bars, or have regular or frozen fat-free frozen yogurt instead of ice cream.   

Other Items to Reduce or Eliminate 

1.   If you drink, limit Alcohol. 1-2 glasses of red wine may be beneficial to promoting a healthy heart. Drink lots of water, diluted fruit juice, vegetable juice, fat-free milk, and green tea.  

2.   Your intake of refined carb foods which are also high in fat and sugar, like cakes, cookies, pastries, muffins, donuts, ice-cream, candy.   

3.    Your intake of dairy products dairy alternatives. Dairy food is very mucus forming and also tends to hold weight on people. Simply cutting out dairy products will help some people lose weight in itself. Plus many people have problems digesting dairy products and don't even know it. You can use soy, rice, almond milk substitutes.  

4.        Commercial Sweet cereals. This includes anything in a box with the word "crunchy" on it. Read the ingredients. If you find more than five grams of sugar, put it down. Know that ingesting 5 grams of sugar depresses your immune system for 5 hours. Non-instant oatmeal is not in this category.  

5. Limit High Cholesterol Foods and High Fat Foods including egg yolks, shrimp, and liver and other organ meats… Particularly high in saturated fat are products like red meat, meat products like sausage, salami, hot dogs, hamburgers, smoked meats and full-fat dairy products. 

6.        Your intake of pasta and most breads, unless it is certified, authenticated whole-grain bread. Even then, limit it to one to two slices a day. If you use pasta, switch to a whole grain variety. Go for the healthier whole grains in breads, pasta, tortillas, and cereals. Also, eat brown rice instead of white.