Food Tip – Herbs and Spices
by Shereen Jegtvig
Using herbs and spices is a great way to add zest and flavor to your meals without adding sodium, fat or calories. Herbs and spices may have added health benefits too. You can use fresh herbs (or even grow your own herbs in a garden or in a flower pot on your kitchen window). Stock your kitchen with dried herbs and spices too – such as cinnamon, garlic powder, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, basil and any other favorites you may have.
If you’re not sure how to use herbs and spices in your cooking, you can choose seasoning blends that already contain the seasonings in the right amounts. You can find blends for Italian seasoning, Southwest cooking, Asian combinations and curry powder. One of the ingredients in curry powder is curcumin, which may help to keep your arteries clear and keep your heart healthy. Read more
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Flavored Coffee – Flavored The Natural Way!
by Shereen Jegtvig
I enjoy coffee. Actually, I can’t imagine a morning without a cup of coffee and breakfast. And coffee is simple. It’s just coffee – no artificial anything and no preservatives. Of course you don’t want to go overboard on the caffeine that can leave you feeling jittery all day, but a cup or two of coffee each day is fine for most of us.
But sometimes it’s fun to go for something with a little different – like a flavored coffee. There are a couple of easy ways to do that at home; just pour some flavored substance into your coffee, or use a flavored instant coffee powder. You can choose a variety of flavors – some low fat and some sugar free, but what are the nutritional consequences of choosing these flavored coffees?
Most of the time you’re going to get a dose of artificial flavors, although some brands use natural flavorings and you’re adding fat, sugar or artificial sweeteners to your diet too. There’s usually plenty of preservatives and other additives that you may not want and even a bit of trans fat lurks in many brands as partially hydrogenated oils (don’t let the label fool you – they can claim zero trans fat as long as there is less than half gram per serving). Read more
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Reading Food Labels for Better Nutrition
by Shereen Jegtvig
An interesting food label survey conducted by an ingredient manufacturer Tate & Lyle shows 60% of consumers use food labels when they shop. The researchers also looked at the different ways consumers use food labels, like perusing the food label of a new product to decide if it’s worth trying or figuring out the validity packaging claims by gleaning more information from the Nutrient Facts label. A lot of people also use food labels to see if the food they’re looking at fits into their particular diet.
If you’re a regular reader of FoodEssentials.com, and you use our FoodEssentials tool, you already know how important food labels are, but let me give you a few tips to keep in mind when you are shopping: Read more
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Choosing a Pasta Sauce
by Shereen Jegtvig
Many of us enjoy the convenience of opening a can or jar of pasta sauce compared the hours it might take to make a pasta sauce from scratch. And some of us like to take that jar of pasta sauce and add a few extra fresh ingredients to boost the flavor (and if you add tomatoes, spinach, garlic, or mushrooms, you can boost the nutrition and health benefits too).
There are a lot of different brands and varieties of pasta sauces, some made with tomatoes and some white sauces. How do they stack up nutritionally? In general, pasta sauce made from tomatoes are lower in fat and calories than the white cream sauces, and the red sauces are rich in a phytonutrient called lycopene that is good for your heart and for men’s prostates. This is one of those times when a processed food is better than raw – you’ll get more lycopene from tomato sauce than you will from raw fresh tomatoes. Of course there’s a drawback; cooking the tomatoes cuts out part of the vitamin C. Read more
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