Mexican Foods – Ready To Go
by Shereen Jegtvig
Mmmm…I love the flavors used in Mexican cooking, especially chiles and cilantro. And what about refried beans? They taste great and they’re good for you, right? Well, yes, beans are are great source of protein and fiber, however traditional refried beans are made with lard so they’re high in saturated fats and calories. But, no worries, you can find fat-free refried beans (or substitute black beans – just rinse and heat).
When you look for canned Mexican foods, or taco and fajita kits, be sure to choose the products with the least saturated fats and sodium. You can choose whole wheat tortillas instead of fried corn tortillas and make your own tortilla chips by baking them in the oven, or choosing baked chips instead of fried.
As with most canned or prepared foods, be sure to look over the ingredients list to hunt for MSG, unwanted preservatives and artificial colors. Here’s a look at Mexican – ready made meals & refried beans arranged by presence of flavor enhancers: Read more
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The Goodness of Grapes
by Shereen Jegtvig
According to the Journal of Nutrition, eating grapes and grape products may have some powerful health benefits. Grapes might help to prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes and tooth decay, plus eating grapes may help to keep your immune system strong, which is important as we head into flu season.
Grapes contain phytochemicals, which are natural chemical compounds that your body uses to protect your health, including the well-known resveratrol. You’ll get the health benefits from grapes when you eat them fresh (or frozen as a sweet treat) or if you drink the juice. Grape juice is naturally sweet, but that doesn’t mean some food manufacturers won’t water it down and add high fructose corn syrup. Be sure to read the labels to buy 100% juice. Read more
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Snacking on the Rise
by Shereen Jegtvig
According to a new report, Americans are snacking more often and that trend is going to increase. As it is, snacking isn’t good or bad, really, it depends on how you do it. Eating snacks can be bad if you choose foods high in calories with lots of sugar and unhealthy fats, or snacking can be good if you choose healthy snacks that can boost your daily nutritional intake. Of course, even with healthy snacking you’ll have to watch your calories if you need to maintain or lose weight. Adding a 250 calorie snack every day will also add about one extra pound of fat to your hips or belly every two weeks. If you snack, be sure to know how much you are eating and reduce the same number of calories from one of your regular meals.
Some people prefer to eat six or seven snacks every day instead of three full meals. Some people believe this practice helps keep blood sugar level because you avoid the natural rise of blood sugar due to eating carbohydrates and fall of blood sugar due to the increased production of insulin. Other people just feel it is easier to control their calorie intake if they just nibble snack size meals all day. The key is to not let small snacks turn into full meals, which will lead to too many calories and weight gain. Read more
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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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Food Tip – Choosing Canned Fruit
by Shereen Jegtvig
Fruits are sweet and delicious – and so good for you. Most fresh fruits offer lots of vitamins such as folate and vitamin C and minerals such as potassium. Unfortunately, fresh fruits aren’t always that convenient – they perish quickly – so many people prefer the ease of canned fruits.
There are a couple of things to think about when you’re buying cans of fruit. More nutrients are lost in canning as compared to freezing, especially vitamin C and folate, so you lose a bit of the nutrition. Canned fruits often contain added sweeteners, like high fructose corn syrup, and flavor enhancers and preservatives. These usually aren’t artificial enhancers and preservatives – usually pectins and vitamin C (ascorbic acid). 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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Tapping into the Bottled Water Debate
In the past thirty years, bottled water sales have grown faster than those of any other beverage worldwide. In 2008, US bottled water sales topped 8.6 billion gallons (about 29% of the total bottled beverages sold in the US). The year before, Americans spent over $15 billion on bottled water, with over 100 different brands available in the US (ISU, 2000; Finewaters.com, 2009; Lighter footstep, 2008). Why are we paying so much for something that, literally, falls out of the sky?
To start with, bottled water is convenient. Central to its success, however, are consumers’ worries about the quality of water from municipal or private supplies. Industrial by-products, agricultural chemicals and bacteria may make their way into water sources if proper care is not taken. Copper and lead were/are often used to make the pipes that carry water to our homes, and residues of both products may have toxic effects if consumed. In addition to health concerns, these factors can also affect the taste and color of our drinking water, making tap water a less appealing option (EPA, 2005).
So what’s the problem? If you can afford it, why shouldn’t you buy bottled water? Read more
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Bisphenol A (BPA): Tainting Our Food?
by Shereen Jegtvig
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical compound used to harden plastic that some experts fear may be hazardous. You’ll find BPA in some hard plastic baby bottles, water bottles, hard plastic microwavable cookware, plastic storage containers and lining aluminum cans. In large amounts, BPA is toxic and exposing those plastic items to heat increases the amount of BPA released. The BPA can be absorbed into the food and the liquids stored in the containers. Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration decided that the amount of BPA that we are normally exposed to every day is not enough to cause any harm.
Some experts have been concerned about the potential danger of this chemical because lab animals exposed to BPA develop health problems. The evidence supporting the notion that BPA is dangerous is mounting, but not all research in conclusive. A human study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a correlation between the amount of BPA found in the urine and the likelihood of also having heart disease and diabetes. The University of Cincinnati published an article entitled BPA May Cause Heart Disease in Women, Research Shows. But I think the title is a bit misleading, since the actual research had nothing to do with human females – the researchers exposed cells extracted from the hearts of female rats directly to BPA. Read more
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