Why Iceberg Lettuce Deserves a Second Chance in Your Salad

Ever notice how nutritionists balk when you say you like iceberg lettuce? I had one audibly scoff at me once.

A pre-Covid Costco salad, now that was a salad worthy of the name. And it featured iceberg and other lettuces.

But a recent piece in USA Today says all lettuce is good for you, even the maligned iceberg.

Turns out it’s not as good as lettuce that more deeply green, and so higher in good things.

But “choosing darker, red-leaf varieties or mixing in baby greens or microgreens can really boost the nutritional value of your salads,” one nutrition expert tells USAToday.

So let the salads begin and enjoy the type of lettuce you enjoy.

February 23, 2026 0

New U.S. dietary guidelines mean you’re on your own finding healthy ways to eat

The U.S. food scene is in a world now where up is down and black is white — namely everything science tried to tell us the past half century or so about healthy eating just got stood on its head with new dietary guidelines backed by the non-scientist, non-doctor now in charge of America’s health.

Avoid high-fat foods? No, no, drink that whole milk again, the new guidelines say. Limit red meat intake? No, no protein is good, gobble that red meat down.

About the only point of agreement with the past is to avoid processed foods, although that term — along with others like highly processed and ultra-processed — remain undefined.

How others eat it, the steak normally comes covered in cheese, which I can no longer eat. — *Ready to eat steak covered in butter? New dietary guidelines promote eating fats, good luck with that.*

So how should you eat?

We’re in an age where you have to find your own way. Start by knowing your body and discussing your specifics with doctors, nutritionists, even friends and relatives searching for answers as well.

I know, for example, that consuming lots of salt sends my blood pressure higher.

I’ve seen it over and over again. So I am committed to a low-salt diet.

I also know that when I eat high-fat foods, I have heart attacks — I’ve had two, — that’s enough to keep me on a low-fat Mediterranean-like diet.

Continue reading →

January 20, 2026 0

Summer weight-loss tips

Summer can mean more trips to the local swimming pool or beach. And seeing ourselves in bathing suits could lead us tot think about dropping a few pounds. Here are seven tips on weight loss from LoseIt!, the food journaling app.

My new tiny oil and vinegar bottles for eating out. — *My tiny oil and vinegar bottles for eating out.*

At its core, losing weight can be fairly simple, eat less calories than your body burns every day. But the devil is in the details, or the Hostess cupcake wrappers in my case. So, these tips might help you.

Chief among them — eat more fiber, avoid sugary drinks and watch for, and hopefully avoid, all the calories in salad dressings and sauces. I carry my own olive oil and vinegar whenever I plan to eat a salad at a restaurant. I’m overweight now, but would be so much more so if I ate fat- and sugar-filled salad dressings every day.

Give the list a read and practice eating slowly, one of the tips. Give our brain a chance to know your stomach is full. Happy Summer!

June 20, 2025 0

Balsamic-Roasted Broccoli — try this for summer fare

I saw this recipe for balsamic-roasted and was shocked to discover I’ve never written about it on this blog. I did have a piece on roasting broccoli and cauliflower, but never just the broccoli.

Start with fresh broccoli, cut off the bulky stems and trim as you like — Broccoli often is on sale in the Chciago area where we live. Watch out for sales near you.

So here it is. Leave out the salt, obviously. The balsamic vinegar will give it plenty of flavor even without the salt.

Leave out the cheese too if you’re worried about salt and fat. OR search out low-fat or no-fat cheese to help a bit.

Recipe

Balsamic-Roasted Broccoli

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Yield: 2 side-dish servings

Ingredients

3 cups broccoli florets (about ¾ lb/350 g fresh broccoli)
1 small onion, peeled, halved, and thickly sliced
1½ tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon coarse salt
⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoon fresh grated Parmesan cheese, for topping (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425F.
Toss together all ingredients, then arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Roast until the broccoli is tender and browned in spots, about 18 to 22 minutes (depending how crispy you like your broccoli), tossing once halfway through.
Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top, if using, and serve immediately.

May 14, 2025 0

But I only had a salad — with a truckload of junk on it

“Oh, I’ll just get a salad,” is what people worried about gaining weight say when they eat out with friends. Salads are low-cal right?

That depends. Places like the Cheesecake Factory load salads with so many unhealthy things they soon become high-calorie, high-fat and high-salt.

*Opt for salads without much added to the lettuce.*

Indeed, salads made this list from AARP: 12 Foods That May Cause Unhealthy Weight Gain.

“Salads can be loaded with fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals—but what you put on them matters. Piling on cheese, bacon bits, croutons or creamy dressings can pack more calories than you expect.

“Tip: Keep your portions in check when using calorie-dense toppings and opt for a light vinaigrette instead of creamy dressings. For an even bigger nutritional boost, go for a variety of colorful veggies and lean proteins to keep you full,” says the AARP article.

Other items on the list, such as nuts which are often touted as healthy, may surprise you too.

Even olive oil, everyone’s favorite fat these days, made the list. Quantity matters is the lesson here.

May 11, 2025 0

Asparagus — how to buy it, why to eat it

Asparagus always seemed like something only posh people ate when I was a grubby blue-collar kid growing up in Brooklyn. These days, I must be posh because I regularly eat asparagus and have come to love them. I recently read This Is the No. 1 Thing to Look for When Buying Asparagus which answered a question I’ve always had about them.

*Asparagus and zucchini ready for my backyard grill. I use these disposable grilling sheets to keep my main grill clean*.

Ever see asparagus sitting in a tray of water in your supermarket? That always looks messy to me. But it turns out that’s a must, according to the Food & Wine article. the water helps keep asparagus fresh.

Other tips — look for firm stalks, dry buds and know when it’s asparagus season. My tips include smelling it, old asparagus has a distinctively bad smell. Also decide whether you like very thin stalks or thicker ones. I normally go small, I love the more delicate flavor.

On the health side, asparagus is high in nutrients but low in calories, according to 7 Reasons You Should Eat More Asparagus

With summer coming to northern climes, my favorite way to prepare asparagus is grilled on my backyard grill. Simply wash them, then lay them out in a disposable aluminum pan, spray with olive oil, season with a salt-free Italian spice mixture and grill them for 8-10 minutes depending on your grill. Here’s one quick recipe I found on Hey Grill Hey.

You’ll find more tips in this piece I wrote as well, just click here.

April 9, 2025 0

Better eating can seem like a mountain to climb, but here are some small steps to start the journey

We’re into April now, past the time most people give up on New Year’s resolutions like, “this year, I’m going to eat healthier.”

Stuck at a fast food outlet? Try to find one still offering salads like this one at Buona Beef in Chicago.

Eating healthy in a society drenched in high-fat, high-salt, high-calorie, high-sugar foods can seem like an impossible mountain to climb. If you’re like me, you’ve climbed it many times, only to slide back down when you hear the siren songs of your favorite junk foods.

But don’t give up, here’s an interesting piece called 13 Small Changes You Can Make to Eat Healthier Forever that may help.

The steps really are small, like start your day with a glass of water or eat a vegetable with every meal, but they can add up.

Some, like focusing on fiber and adding more omega-3s (found in such fish as salmon), I’m already doing. Others, like thinking about food as a friend rather than an enemy or getting enough sleep, I still struggle with.

Healthier eating is a journey, not a destination for most of us. Keep walking.

April 8, 2025 0

5 tips to make sandwiches healthier, a guest post

Sandwiches can be really sneaky. Often, they seem like they have all the potential for making a healthy lunch.

Afterall, they’re mostly always some combo of veggies and meat, right? And they have the added benefit of being highly portable.

But sandwiches sometimes are secret saboteurs of a healthy diet.

Here are five reasons sandwiches aren’t always the healthiest and what you can do about it.

Continue reading →

April 28, 2023 0

Healthy eating 2023 — keep it simply

We’re approaching mid-February, usually the time of year all those positive New Year’s resolutions start to fade away. How many of you promised to eat healthier this year, making all sorts of elaborate plans on how you’d do that? And now?

Put the trimmed broccoli in the steamer basket, cover and set the timer to the recommended cooking time. — *Want to eat healthier? Start with small steps, like steaming more veggies for nightly meals.*

Maybe you went about it all wrong, reports the Washington Post. “The science of building healthy habits consistently shows that the easier we make something, the more likely we are to succeed,” notes this Post piece. Why do we overthink our plans?

“There’s a value we place in our society in exerting self-control and being in charge,” Wendy Wood, a research psychologist at the University of Southern California and author of “Good Habits, Bad Habits,” told the Post. “Sometimes the easier something feels, it feels like you’re less in control, and it’s less appealing somehow.’’

Some advice for taking the simple approach:

Continue reading →

February 10, 2023 0

Sadly no surprise here, people pin healthy recipes but cook unhealthy ones

The road to healthy eating is paved with good intentions, at least when it comes to Pinterest. A new study by George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services found people are pinning healthy recipes on Pinterest. But when it comes to what they’re actually cooking and eating, unhealthy recipes win out.

“It’s an interesting discrepancy between what pinners posted/liked and how users actually consumed the information,” said Hong Xue, PhD, who led the study.

“Pinners are more likely to post recipes that are socially rewarded with likes and repins. They are more likely to adhere to an elite social norm set by celebrities and influencers promoting healthier, low-calorie, clean eating. But when it comes to the recipes users are more interested in making food high in fat, sugar, and high calories. We see a very different picture. They’re commenting on and posting finished dish photos of the less healthy recipes.”

This disconnect might have shocked naïve university students, but those of us who have been writing about food a long time are not surprised. People talk a good game when it comes to healthy eating but few actually carry through on it consistently.

Take a look at our slide show and tell me which dishes appeal more to you, the healthy ones or the fried, unhealthy ones?

My Hawaiian chicken skewers.
Pasta portions are smaller in Italy, thankfully.
Beware the fried foods you may ve eating more of these days.
My Chinese birthday dinner, egg rolls, crab rangoon, Mongolian beef. Not shown was the fried rice.
Here’s one more reason not to eat fried foods.