Eating For Health

Who doesn’t like pizza?   Is pizza healthy?    How can you make healthier choices and still enjoy pizza?   Many people, including some nutritionists, ban pizza thinking it is unhealthy.   But we enjoy pizza at least once a week.   We make modifications to our pizza to make it healthier and we add some healthy sides.   Consumer Reports had a great article on the Best Frozen Pizza .      They taste tested 26 frozen pizzas and found some that are reasonably healthy.   Yes, ordering out and having that pizza delivered is great.   But many of us enjoy a frozen pizza a couple of times a month.   If you do, what are some of the highly rated frozen pizzas and how can you “doctor” them up to be healthier? What are some healthier options in frozen pizza? Frozen pizza would probably not be considered a “health food” but there are healthier options.   Choose a plain cheese pizza or a veggie pizza if you want a healthier ...

What are some easy nutrition tips to eat healthier?     Eat This Not That   has some easy nutrition tips to follow:   Out of Sight, Out of Mind - Hide the junk food and make healthier food more visible.   A study at Google noted that people ate less M & M’s if put in an opaque container.   They ate more fruit and nuts when these were displayed prominently.   In fact, staff ate 3.1 million less calories of M & M’s in an opaque container in seven weeks’ time. The 1 in 10 Rule :     Look at the nutrient label and for every 10 grams of carbs, look for at least one gram of fiber or 10 carbs:1 fiber.     Why is this important?   You want to have whole grains in your diet and this is the ratio of carbs to fiber in whole grains.   A study in the Public Health Nutrition journal found that carbs with the 10:1 ratio had less sodium, less sugar and less trans fats. Cut calories by boosting flavor :   in the nut...

Not too much attention is paid to the nutritional contribution herbs and spices  make to our diets.   Many people have no idea if they are healthy or not, but they know they can help make food taste better.    In the nutrition class I teach, I ask students to modify a lasagna recipe to make it healthier.   One group of students took out every herb and spice – no garlic, no oregano.    When I asked why, they thought this would make the recipe healthier.    However, the opposite is true.   We want herbs and spices in our food as they not only add flavor but also nutritional value.     So what is healthy about herbs and spices?   It actually depends on which one you are referring to because different herbs and spices offer different nutritional benefits.    A recent article in Tufts Health and Nutrition Newsletter (August 2013) outlined the health and nutritional benefits of many herbs and spices such as: ...

Most of us know that filling our plates with fruits and vegetables is a healthy thing to do.   Why, because fruits and vegetables not only provide vitamins, minerals, fiber but also phytonutrients.   It is these phytonutrients that are especially helpful in reducing our risk of many chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.   So is our food supply being engineered to maximize the phytonutrient content or are these nutrients being bred out of our food supply? The New York Times had an interesting article on Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food .   Researchers compared the phytonutrient content of wild plants to the produce we buy in our supermarkets.   Dandelions – used to be a food source for Native Americans.   Researchers found dandeliions have 7 times the phytonutrient content of spinach.   Potatoes – the purple potato native to Peru has 28 time more of the anthocyanins than the russet potatoes we eat in th...