Eating Healthy During the Economic Crisis

Registered Dietitian Offers Nutritional “Bailout” Plan

St. Charles, MO 10/16/2008 07:21 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)

Eating healthy is often determined to be too expensive for the average American. Fast food and foods loaded with fat and sugar tend to be inexpensive and always at hand.

Registered Dietitian Jayson Hunter has created some tips for healthy and affordable eating. He is calling it his Nutritional Bailout Plan.”Too many people think they can’t afford to eat healthy, especially during this Economic Crisis”, according to Hunter.

Detoxification

By Neil E. Levin, CCN, DANLA

The EPA tracks about 650 toxic chemicals used in 23,600 facilities in the US. The agency reports that about half of the 4.24 billion pounds of these toxic chemicals are annually released into the air, ground or water. These include chemicals from the mining, smelting and power generation industries, paper production, electronic equipment manufacturing, plastics, pesticides, etc. While the highest release of chemicals is associated with mining and power production, other industries release problematic chemicals into the environment on a daily basis, all over our country.

Certain groups are most at risk (e.g., children, pregnant and nursing women, the elderly).

It’s the time of year when we flock to annual fairs and festivals. The midway can be a mine field of high fat and high calorie offerings. If you’re trying to watch your weight or your cholesterol some tips are:
-Don’t go hungry. Plan on having a meal or at least a substantial snack before you head out.
-Keep it simple and small. Try and order smaller portions or skip the cheese or gravy that increase fat content and calories.
-Drink water or calorie-free beverages.
-Share your food with your kids, spouse, significant other or friend.
-Check out all the possibilities first.

If you’re trying to eat less red meat or have at least one vegetarian meal each week, give beans a try! The other night I pureed a rinsed can of pinto beans with a can of Rotel chopped tomatoes (the ones with cilantro and onions) and then stirred in a 2% shredded cheddar. I spread this on some whole wheat tortillas (5 grams of fiber and NO trans fat!), rolled them up like a burrito and then topped them with more of the canned chopped tomatoes and a bit more of the cheese.

I have already posted once about Jennie-O’s turkey bacon (Please see post 11/15/07.). But, I was recently on their website again looking at other products and was impressed once again. Their turkey burgers and sausages are pretty lean. Their burgers and sausages are reasonable low in fat and very low in saturated fat when comparing to pork sausage (A typical pork sausage can have up to an average of 30 grams of total fat and 10 grams of saturated fat per link.). Jennie-O’s turkey sausage has just 10 grams of total fat and 3 grams of saturated fat per link.

I know…I know I sound like a broken record. Last week I was at the Austin Diabetes Summit, a professional conference, and it was reiterated again that one particular diet doesn’t help people lose weight over the long-term.

Since it was a diabetes conference one could image that some of the speakers were talking about low-carbohydrate, low-fat diets, etc. The message that I got loud and clear, which comes to no surprise to me, is that there are several diets out there and maybe there is one that is right for you or maybe you have to make it up as you go…

The bottom line is to find an eating style that works for you over the long-term whether your hope is to control your blood sugars, lose weight, control cholesterol or just make peace with food.

This past weekend I went to the Austin Chocolate Festival (http://austinchocolatefestival.com/). Yes…I eat (and enjoy) chocolate. As a side note I believe that all foods can fit or be part of a healthy eating style…even chocolate. Everything in moderation.

The real neat thing is I found a few things that are specific for those with diabetes, high cholesterol, trying to lose weight or just want to eat healthier.

I learned that gelato is lower in calories and fat than most ice creams.

I don’t know whether it is a new product or if I am now just noticing…but either way I am pleased. HEB (http://www.heb.com) has there own line of reduced fat cheeses. The HEB location that I shop at usually carries a Colby Jack and Cheddar cheese that are lower in fat. So, if you have heart disease or high cholesterol, diabetes or trying to lose weight HEB low fat cheese is good choice.

I know that other brands make reduced fat cheeses, such as Kraft (http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf) , which is great…but they can be costly.

I found a gem of a website this past week that can help. It is a great resource to help individuals with diabetes, heart disease, those trying to lose weight or those who just want to eat healthier when eating out.

The Healthy Dining Program has a website called Healthy Dining Finder (www.healthydiningfinder.com )that reviews and provides nutritional analysis of menu items at a variety of restaurants. The Healthy Dining Program and its website healthydiningfinder.com was developed by the National Restaurant Association and is partially funded by the Center for Disease Control.