Healthy Eating in an Imperfect World

Eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Choose whole-grain, nonfat, or low-fat foods. Be physically active daily. Watch calories. Limit the fat. Get enough calcium.

We live in a world with a dizzying amount of scientific research pointing to foods and habits that make for good health. In an ideal universe, that's good news. If we exercise and eat right, we give our bodies essential nourishment and movement to work at their best.

Yet our world is far from ideal. There are responsibilities, deadlines, and food or lifestyle preferences that get in the way of healthy eating. Real life happens, and in the rush to satisfy daily hunger and desires, we may succumb to less-than-healthy choices.

It doesn't always have to be that way. No matter what our lives are like, there's always room for improvement. "There is always something positive that can be done for our health," says a spokeswoman from the American Dietetic Association (ADA). "Maybe it's eating an extra fruit a day, maybe it's cooking a food a different way, or maybe it's (trying) a new food that's out that we didn't know much about because of all the ethnic influences."

Making an effort to eat healthy does not mean abandoning our lives. Find a few minutes to think about a small nutrition goal, how you think you can reach it, and what can prevent you from success. Then devise a plan.

Without this vital planning stage, all good intentions can be for naught. "People need to spend just a little bit of effort planning ahead so that they just don't wait until the last minute until they're ravenously hungry and then make poor choices," says a spokeswoman for the ADA.

The solution isn't to find more time, but to work with the schedule you do have. The minutes spent perusing fast-food or vending machine options could be used toward time to visit the grocery store, where you can pick up prepared salads, sandwiches, and meats, pre-washed and cut fruits and vegetables, canned soups, low-calorie and low-fat frozen meals, yogurt, string cheese, and cereals.

Here are some more healthy tips for busy bees:

• Cook a bigger batch of food on the weekends, and refrigerate or freeze for weekday consumption.
• Set an alarm for mealtimes. Even if you're buried in a project, don't skip meals; designate a time to eat.
• Try not to do anything else while eating. Mindless consumption prevents the enjoyment of food. When that happens, people tend to eat more and eat unhealthy alternatives.
• Put fresh or dried fruit where you can see it to remind yourself of your goal to eat healthy. Bananas, grapes, and apples make handy and nutritious snack items.
• If at a restaurant, turn down the supersize option, and choose baked and broiled instead of fried.
• Order the lunch portion at dinnertime, and hold off on fatty condiments.
• Keep handy snacks around, such as fruits, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, trail mix, carrot or celery sticks, wraps, and sandwiches.

Ready to get started? Here are 4 healthy cooking tricks that can help you be just as comfortable in the kitchen as you are on the couch.


Healthy Cooking Tip #1: Stock your kitchen.

Healthy cooking starts with filling your cupboards. Keep these basics on hand, and you’ll be able to whip up delicious meals in less than the time it takes for pizza to be delivered.

Basic healthy cooking tools:

• good set of pots and pans
• vegetable steamer/rice cooker
• soup pot
• food processor
• grill
• crock pot
• good utensils

Basic healthy cooking ingredients:

• fresh fruits and vegetables (just an amount you’ll be able to use before spoilage)
• frozen vegetables (They’re fairly equal to fresh veggies in terms of vitamin levels, says Lola O'Rourke, a Seattle-based dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.)
• yogurt
• cheese
• eggs
• low-fat cuts of meat such as chicken breast or pork tenderloin (both fresh and frozen)
• rice (brown, red, black and mixed rice varieties)
• pasta (preferably whole grain)
• whole grain bread and/or pita
• beans (pinto, black, white, etc., both dried and canned)
• canned chopped tomatoes
• salsa (fresh, if available)
• vegetable or chicken stock
• garlic
• onion
• olive oil
• vinegar
• herbs and spices (fresh, if possible)

Healthy Cooking Tip #2: Plan ahead.

• Simplify dinnertime prep by making as much as possible ahead of time, O’Rourke suggests. Make double or triple the amount the recipe calls for, and freeze the extra for future use. (Be sure to label and date each item). Minestrone soup is a great example of something that freezes well and thaws into an instant healthy meal.

Healthy Cooking Tip #3: Keep it simple, sweetheart!

Using just these basic healthy cooking tools, ingredients, and pre-made foods, you can make any of the following healthy meals in minutes:

• Stir fry Fix quick-cooking rice or use a rice cooker (some can even be set to start on a timer, just like your trusty coffee pot), and serve with stir fry made with your pre-prepped chicken and vegetables and your favorite spices.
• Pasta Cook whole wheat pasta and serve with pre-made marinara sauce. Round out the meal with a salad of pre-washed and prepped greens. Sandwiches. Grill chicken breast and serve on a pita or whole grain sandwich, again using pre-prepped chicken and veggies.
• Beans and rice Cook black or pinto beans, and eat with rice, salsa and a salad.
• Soup Here are two quick recipes from Carol and Bob Hildebrand.

Healthy Cooking Tip 4: Fold in flavor.

Garlic and onion add flavor depth to any dish, Hildebrand says, and you can up the ante even more with spices like basil, oregano and cilantro--fresh, if possible. A sprinkle of chopped cilantro over black bean soup, for example, adds punch to the entire dish, she says. And salt, when used judiciously, brings out flavor like nothing else.

To save on fat and calories, use low-fat plain yogurt in place of sour cream or mayonnaise, and buy low-fat cheese and milk instead of full-fat versions, says O’Rourke. Add flavor to vegetables with low-fat cheese, nuts, salad dressing or margarine with no trans fat; then add herbs and spices. Blatner suggests an Italian blend on green beans, curry on cauliflower, cumin on sauteed bell peppers, and lemon pepper on broccoli.

And there you have it: 4 healthy cooking tricks for a lifetime of good taste. Bon appetit!

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