Creating healthier food choices
The most popular page on my food blog, by far, is my no-salt, no-fat, no-sugar recipe page. People are hungry for healthy recipes and we do our best to supply them on that page. Check it out, we’ve just expanded it, adding a section of pandemic meals, recipes we’ve been trying during the pandemic when we’re all cooking more at home.
And we’ve also added a slide show of some of our favorite dishes. Enjoy and let us know what else you’d like to see on that page..
Trying to stay on a heart-healthy diet means giving up almost all of the foods I once enjoyed.
Salmon, thankfully, is not one of those, however. Current nutritional thinking is that salmon has “healthy” fats and so is fine to eat for everyone, regardless of health concerns. In our house, salmon really has come to replace beef several nights a week.
So I have a lot of salmon recipes on my recipe page. But you can never have enough.
So I was happy to read this piece on EatingWell.com 26 High-Protein Salmon Dinners for Weeknights. Some of these don’t appeal to me because they’re highly spiced, but others, like one-skillet salmon with fennel and sun-dried tomato couscous, sound intriguing.
A nice feature about these recipes is they include nutritional information so you can see if they’re truly healthy, i.e. low in salt, fat and sugar, or just claiming to be. Remember, never assume a recipe is healthy just because whoever posts it says so.
Being stuck at home during this pandemic has meant more take-out and more quick snacks for many people, I’ve written about the dangers of that before. But now a new warning about such eating habits comes from the website eatthis.com
“As we change the way we live, we have the risk of developing some very serious patterns that do real damage to our bodies and potentially put us in harm’s way,” the site notes.
The site asked nutritionists for advice. Among the recommendations — take care with what type of take-out foods you order, don’t keep junk food in plain sight around your house, and watch your salt intake, a constant challenge for most Americans.
As someone who decided to splurge on hot dogs and fries the past two weekends, I’m feeling this is written to me — and to all of you.
Supermarkets often supply recipes to encourage people to shop for the items they’ll need to make a given dish. These days, they will call a recipe “healthy” even if it’s still loaded with salt, fat and sugar. But one I received recently from my local Jewel store (owned by Albertson’s) actually might be healthy and tasty as well
It’s called one pan salmon. The ingredients list and my modifications and comments:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
20 cherry tomatoes
1 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken broth [I’d use the lowest sodium broth you can find here to cut salt]
1 lemon (sliced)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt [cut this, not really needed with all the other flavors here]
12 ounces linguine [go for whole wheat to address sugar concerns you may have]
4 (4 oz) Waterfront BISTRO® Salmon Fillets [note the branding here, as I said, they want you to buy this but any salmon will do]
Here’s more on preparation:
Preheat a 12-inch sauté pan to medium high heat. Add olive oil and onion, sautéing until onion is translucent.
Add tomatoes, stirring occasionally, giving tomatoes time to get slightly charred and then burst.
Add garlic and cook one minute.
Pour in wine, scraping the bottom of the pan to pick up the brown bits. Add broth, lemon & seasonings.
Add pasta and bring to a boil.
Place salmon filets in and cover pan.
Cook 7-9 minutes, until pasta is al dente, and salmon is pink. Top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and basil.
If you try this, let me know how it turns out.
Any list about healthy snacks always gets my attention because normally those words — healthy and snack — are a conflict in terms. Anything you want to snack, i.e. binge, on generally is not healthy because it contains high amounts of salt, fat or sugar, or perhaps all three.
That’s why a recent list of so-called healthy snacks at Trader Joe’s caught my attention with one list, crispy broccoli florets. I eat a lot of broccoli, but had never thought of it as a snack, or as crispy for that matter. So I bought a bag and gave them a try.
The result was mixed. Salt-wise, they’re ok with only 15 mg a bag. Fat content seems high at 20 grams, about half what I’m supposed to have every day on my heart-healthy diet. And there’s 5 grams of transfat, again about half what I can have.
Taste-wise, they taste like broccoli, but having that cold and crisped up somehow just didn’t seem right. The taste of them actually became less palatable the more I had. So I guess that would preclude binging on them.
So my search for healthy snacks goes on, sans broccoli.
Food company press releases flood my e-mail inbox every day. Most have little that interests me, but one came in today that got my attention — a West Coast spice company is working with the American Heart Association and the National Kidney Foundation to come up with new salt-free spice mixtures. And it’s inviting consumers to vote on its new creations.
“Spiceology invites the flavor obsessed to choose their salt-free favorites from 11 new options crafted by Spiceology’s team of chefs. The four winning flavors will join Spiceology’s existing salt-free collection and provide a perpetual revenue stream to both the NKF and AHA, helping each to further their missions,” the release from spice company Spiceology states.
You can click here to see what its created and pick your favorites, you get to select five. The comapny is even offering several prizes for those who vote. Voters will be entered into drawings for:
Have fun and good luck…and stay away from spice blends with salt in them.
If you’ve taken some comfort in this pandemic by eating more fried foods, it’s time to stop now before you do some real damage to yourself. Even a small portion of fried foods can increase risk of heart disease, study says, is the headline on a recent CNN report.
“People who ate the most fried food per week had a 28% higher risk of major cardiovascular events, a 22% greater risk of coronary heart disease and a 37% heightened risk of heart failure, according to the study published Monday in the journal Heart,” CNN reports.
The news gets grimmer:
“Each additional weekly serving of 114 grams or 4 ounces (½ cup) of fried foods increased the risk for heart attack and stroke by 3%, heart disease by 2% and heart failure by 12%,” according to results of the study. AS a point of reference, there are 117 grams in a medium McDonald’s french fry order. So eating that every week adds a 3% chance of heart attack or stroke.
As good as they are, put down the french fries. You want to live to see the end of this pandemic don’t you?
I’m approaching the end of one month without any sugary snacks, cakes, candy — in short I’m eating nothing that I enjoy. This was a challenge from my wife as she realized we’d been going a bit overboard with such treats during our Covid quarantine.
I’m now four days from the end of the challenge. I’ve lost six pounds and am constantly hungry. So I was intrigued by this headline, 5 Smart Swaps to Make the Next Time You’re Craving Sugar.
Sadly, the swaps left me disappointed, and still craving sugar. Here they are (or you can click on this link to read the full story).
That’s the best they have? I think I’ll wait for my sugar binge day February 1.
I’ve never been a believer in so-called “super foods,” items that someone or other decides will do amazing things for our bodies. Every body is different which is what makes giving nutrition advice so complex.
So when I see articles like Don’t Spend Your Money on These 25 “Superfoods”, Say Nutritionists in Men’s Health UK, I’m not surprised.
The story says such offerings as banana bread, a pandemic favorite, cauliflower, raw spinach, Himalayan salt and turkey bacon aren’t all that some have said they are.
It’s a good reminder, no one food is going to turn your life around. Find what works for you and stick with that.
The Food Network is predicting that 2021 will be a year of big breakfasts, cookies and easier ways to find “healthy” foods, although what healthy emans depends on who is using the term, as ever.
“The pandemic disrupted the usual breakfast routine for 80% of Americans. Less commuting to work and school meant more time for the most important meal of the day and food manufacturers are adapting. Look out for more convenient breakfast foods that are packed with functional ingredients like protein and fiber, such as Jimmy Dean Casserole Bites and Flourish Pancake Mix. Also expect familiar brands to up their breakfast game with tempting offers like Cinnabon’s CinnaBiscuit Chicken Sandwich,” Food Network reports in a piece entitled The Biggest Food Trends We’ll Be Talking About in 2021.
You can read all the predictions by clicking on this link.
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