Eating For Health

Vegetables, just say this word and people have some strong reactions.   Some people love vegetables and others not so much.   Last week I wrote about bananas, such a healthy fruit (See:   Enjoy bananas for good health ).   I always have a banana a day and even bring bananas with us on road trips to be sure I can eat a banana.   What about vegetables?   Some of my nutrition students ate few or no vegetables.   When they did their diet recalls, their “vegetable” was often a slice of lettuce on a burger.   Recently I was in Subway and watching a woman order subs for her kids.   She ordered a 12-foot sub with meat and cheese and a lot of mayonnaise.   When it came time for the vegetables to put on the sub, she stated her son didn’t like vegetables.   Not a one, not even a few slices of lettuce.   Pretty sad as Subway actually offers quite a choice of veggies to put on a sub.   When I go to Subway, I ask for just about every...

As the weather turns colder, who doesn’t like a hot bowl of soup?   Is soup healthy?   What nutritional value does soup have?   Actually, soup can be a healthy addition to your diet.   What are some health benefits of enjoying that bowl of soup on a cold day? Vegetables – many soups are either loaded with vegetables or the base of the soup is made from vegetables.   Many Americans are low on veggies and soup is an easy way to add some veggies to your day.   If you have a toddler who is fussy about eating vegetables, that toddler may eat the smaller pieces of the soft vegetables in vegetable soup. Even kids who won’t eat tomatoes might enjoy a bowl of tomato soup.   And as I have noted before, cooking some vegetables actually makes them healthier.   The lycopene in tomato soup is better absorbed than the lycopene in a raw tomato.   Enjoy some split pea soup and you added veggies and beta carotene (vitamin A) to your day.   As noted i...