Eating For Health

School has started in many areas or will be soon.   So many moms and dads will be packing a lunch for their kids.   On school lunch duty, I observed a lot of kid’s lunches.   One girl opened her lunch to a sandwich always cut into a shape, a heart one day, a diamond the next.   She always had 2 servings of fruits or vegetables in her lunch.   She bought milk and had quite a healthy lunch every day.   Another student had braces.   His mom packed him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day.   And every day he threw away the sandwich, not even one bite taken.   I asked him why and he said he didn’t want the peanut butter to get stuck in his braces.   But he never told his mom this.   So, every day she packed the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and every day he threw it away.   The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics at eatright.org has some good suggestions for parents when packing that school lunch. Q:   What if my kid doesn’t eat the lunch I pack? Ask your kid what they

New Food Labels Now Appearing on Food Packages:   new food labels were proposed by the Food and Drug Administration with an implementation date of July 2018.   While this date has been postponed to allow manufacturers more time to comply, many manufacturers are already changing their food labels.   Look at the packages of food you eat for these new labels.   Some companies are early adopters including Nabisco, PepsiCo, and KIND.   So, you will see the new food labels on Wheat Thins, KIND bars, Lay’s Chips, Fritos and Cheetos.   What are some of the things to look for on these new food labels? Added Sugars –One of the most important changes is the addition of “added sugar” to the label.   Food labels already include “sugars” but this is of little value as the label didn’t tell you if the “sugars” were added or naturally present in the food.   For example, milk naturally has the sugar, lactose, in it.   So, “sugars” are listed on the milk carton of plain white milk, yet no

Do you enjoy eating cheese?   I do.   Is cheese healthy?   Are some cheeses healthier than others?   Should someone who wants to “eat healthier” keep eating cheese?   It is always amazing that some people who are interested in “eating healthier” want to give up on healthy foods.   Cheese is quite healthy and offers a lot of important nutrients.   What are some things you should know about cheese? Cheese Facts How much cheese do we eat?   Americans love their cheese.   Mostly because of pizza and all the cheese we consume when we enjoy our pizza.   Or those grilled cheese sandwiches.    According to Marketplace , Americans ate over 34 pounds of cheese in 2015.   And that is a whole lot more cheese than we used to eat.    How much fat is in cheese? Most cheese we buy is full-fat cheese.   This means it is made with whole milk that contains about 3.5% fat .   Some cheeses, like mozzarella, are made with 2% fat milk.   If you read the label on some Mozzarella cheese, some S