Making Better Food Choices
By: NayNay Butler
We all spend countless hours walking down supermarket aisles deciding on what foods we should buy. For many years, I walked those aisles and picked most of the wrong foods to eat until I started being more conscious about what I eat. What caused me to become more aware was a couple of years ago when I ended up in the hospital with an episode of high blood pressure. Although high blood pressure runs in my family, I had never had a problem with it. The doctor told me I needed to change my diet and he put me on medication. Around the same time, my husband was diagnosed with Diabetes. These two incidences forced my husband and I to re-evaluate our food choices. The first thing it forced us to do was to read the nutrition labels when we went grocery shopping. It was really depressing at first because we thought the days of really good food was over for us. We only had bland and tasteless food to look forward to, but to our surprise this has not been the case at all. We have grown into pretty healthy eaters and we enjoy food as much as we ever have. In some ways it is a blessing that this happened because otherwise we would have continued to make all the wrong food choices and the consequences could have been much worse.
Reading nutrition labels is probably a good start to healthy eating. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, we should keep our %Daily Values (%DV) at 100% for each nutrient per day and this is based on a 2,000 calories per day diet. For instance, look at the example pictured above. The total fat is 12% for a one cup serving size. You are trying to keep your total fat at below 100%, so if you eat four cups you will have eaten 48% of your 100% of your daily value of total fat. The rest of the day you would have to cut back considerably on your fat intake. Remember when you are reading the labels that, 5% or less is low and 20% or more is high for any of the nutrients listed. These are just guidelines to give you some idea of how much of each nutrient you are eating.
The nutrients on the labels you should pay close attention to is total fat, sodium, cholesterol and sugar. These are the things that if eaten in large quantities can cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. All of those things can also lead to heart disease among other things. Fiber and calcium are nutrients you want to eat in greater quantities.
This nutritional guideline does not leave much room for fast food. You could exceed your 100% DV by eating one meal at a fast food restaurant. So if you do have to eat out, make better choices such as grilled meats and salads, but be careful with the added condiments (i.e. bacon, croutons, etc.) and salad dressing because those will be added to that 100% as well.
Another thing that can add to increased calories and sugar is soda and juices. These beverages are loaded with sugar and therefore, extra unwanted calories. You should try to stick to drinking water. Water is the best beverage to drink because it flushes your kidneys. For those of you that don't like water, buy some flavored sugar-free packets that you can add to your water for flavor.
If you have a sweet tooth like my husband and I do, you should consider using Splenda for your baked goods. Splenda now comes in granulated and brown sugar. You will be surprised at how many calories you can cut just by doing these few simple things.
One of the biggest health issues in our country right now is obesity and it is because we don't pay attention to what we are eating until we get an ailment that forces us to. Why not implement some of these things into our lives now before we are forced to do it. I am still a work in progress, struggling everyday to eat better and live better. It is not easy to change a lifestyle you have had your whole life, but take it one day at a time and continue to try to ease into making better food choices.
Reading nutrition labels is probably a good start to healthy eating. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, we should keep our %Daily Values (%DV) at 100% for each nutrient per day and this is based on a 2,000 calories per day diet. For instance, look at the example pictured above. The total fat is 12% for a one cup serving size. You are trying to keep your total fat at below 100%, so if you eat four cups you will have eaten 48% of your 100% of your daily value of total fat. The rest of the day you would have to cut back considerably on your fat intake. Remember when you are reading the labels that, 5% or less is low and 20% or more is high for any of the nutrients listed. These are just guidelines to give you some idea of how much of each nutrient you are eating.
The nutrients on the labels you should pay close attention to is total fat, sodium, cholesterol and sugar. These are the things that if eaten in large quantities can cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. All of those things can also lead to heart disease among other things. Fiber and calcium are nutrients you want to eat in greater quantities.
This nutritional guideline does not leave much room for fast food. You could exceed your 100% DV by eating one meal at a fast food restaurant. So if you do have to eat out, make better choices such as grilled meats and salads, but be careful with the added condiments (i.e. bacon, croutons, etc.) and salad dressing because those will be added to that 100% as well.
Another thing that can add to increased calories and sugar is soda and juices. These beverages are loaded with sugar and therefore, extra unwanted calories. You should try to stick to drinking water. Water is the best beverage to drink because it flushes your kidneys. For those of you that don't like water, buy some flavored sugar-free packets that you can add to your water for flavor.
If you have a sweet tooth like my husband and I do, you should consider using Splenda for your baked goods. Splenda now comes in granulated and brown sugar. You will be surprised at how many calories you can cut just by doing these few simple things.
One of the biggest health issues in our country right now is obesity and it is because we don't pay attention to what we are eating until we get an ailment that forces us to. Why not implement some of these things into our lives now before we are forced to do it. I am still a work in progress, struggling everyday to eat better and live better. It is not easy to change a lifestyle you have had your whole life, but take it one day at a time and continue to try to ease into making better food choices.
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