Helpful Hints and Tips for Better Nutrition
At The Grocery Store:
- Do a bit of label research while you're at the grocery store. Teach kids how to read the nutrition labels on their favorite foods and snacks. Teach them about the different types of sugars and fats that are found in packaged food. If you're not sure about the different types of sugars and fats yourself, Weight Concern, has an excellent webpage that explains them. They also provide a link to a pocket-sized guide which you can download and carry with you.
- Play a game to identify different vegetables and fruits. If you see a new fruit or vegetable and would like to learn more about it, check out Fruit and Veggie Guru, they have a great tool that will give you information about fruits and vegetables from around the world! Then go home and try to find a recipe that uses one of the new fruits or vegetables that you found.
- The deeper the color of your vegetables, the more vitamins, minerals and
antioxidants you are getting. For more information about vegetables
and their disease-fighting properties, click here.
- Have your child pick out the vegetables or fruits by color (red ones, green ones, etc), and then have them tell you what they are and why they are good to eat. Have them tell you two or three different ways the vegetables or fruits can be prepared.
At Home
- Vegetable Preparation for the Family - This is a wonderful resource for families filled with information about vegetables, their vitamin and nutrient content, and how to prepare them to retain their nutritional value. Click here for the downloadable PDF.
Eating Out
Here are some great tips from Sheila Weiss, RD
- Before heading out to eat, you can check the calorie count of over 70,000 foods and 500 food menus at Calorie Lab. And, you can check the calorie count by restaurant as well. Check to see if your favorite restaurant has their menu listed, or if they are in the 'Nondiscloser Hall of Shame'!
- The old standby: Order salad dressings on the side so that you can control how much you consume with each bite.
- Did you know that if you order pasta dishes with tomato sauce (versus cream-based sauces) that you are getting fewer calories and that the tomato sauce counts as a
vegetable exchange?
- Drink water, tea or coffee rather than soda or alcoholic beverages. This option saves calories and is better for you!
- Think "Half" - half an appetizer, half an entree, half a dessert. Share with a friend instead or take home for an extra meal later.
- Order steamed vegetables as a side dish. Steamed veggies keep more of their vitamins and nutritients.
- Instead of a full meal, order two appetizers or an appetizer and cup of soup instead.
- Order sandwiches with mustard instead of mayonnaise or the house 'special sauce'. Mustard adds great flavor and virtually no calories!
- Key to low calories: look for menu items that are: baked, grilled, dry-sauteed, broiled, poached, or steamed.
- Plain bread or yeast rolls are good, just watch the butter or oil you add to them, that's where the calories add up.
- Select entrees with fruits and vegetables as the main ingredients. They are a good source of dietary fiber, provide many of the needed daily vitamins and minerals and have wonderful flavor!
- Choose foods made with whole grains including brown rice, wild rice, quinoa and barley.
- Herbs add unique flavor to food dishes. Use fresh or dried, try a new one each week. Weber, (the grill people), have a great herb seasoning chart, and FoodFit has one too!
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