Give Brown Bag Lunches A Nutritious Makeover
There's no reason to rely on the same old brown bag lunch every day. Create simple, wholesome recipes and "out of the box" lunches to help beat brown bag lunch boredom and give you and your kids more nutritious choices.Let's face it, the main staple of most brown bag lunches is a sandwich made with lunch meat. In fact, according to ACNielsen research, lunch meat is purchased by 85 percent of U.S. households.… more
Developing Healthy Eating Habits Amongst Kids
It is quite natural for any child to dislike new kind of food right away. It may take 10 or more tries getting a child to accept a new food. It is essential for parents to behave patiently if you want your child to eat right and healthy. For overall growth and development, parents should offer kids foods from each of the food group.Some ways to develop your child's healthy approach towards eating-… more
Cereal For Dinner: Is That “Normal”
What's for dinner tonight? I bet it's not Raisin Bran or Grape Nuts, but why not? Research shows that whole-grain cereal is an excellent source of vitamins and fiber, and is low in calories and saturated fat. But in America, cereal is supposed to be eaten for breakfast. It's not supposed to be eaten for dinner. We can't do that. Says who? The advertisers, that's who. What if Kelloggs launched a "dinner… more
An Overview of the B5 Vitamin
The B5 vitamin is also known as Pantothenic Acid. The B5 vitamin is the most prolific of all the vitamins and is found in every type of food. In fact, it is impossible for a person to consume less B5 vitamin than they need. That means that there is no little possibility that a person can have a B5 vitamin deficiency. For this reason, there is actually no recommended daily amount that health professionals… more
Read Nutrition Labels For Better Health
In today's hurried, harried world of food shopping, many people take the claims on the fronts of food packages -"healthy," "low carb" or "low fat" - as the final word on nutrition. But by failing to read the small print, particularly the "Nutrition Facts" panel and the ingredients list, consumers may not be aware of what else they are getting, namely added sugars and trans fats. For example, did you… more
Sources of Vitamins When D Is What the Doctor Ordered
Getting enough Vitamin D is much typically not a huge issue for most people today, but it was just a few years ago that a lack of this vitamin was a serious health issue. As recently as the early 1900s, many children suffered from rickets, a severe malformation of legs caused by a lack of Vitamin D.
Vitamin D is vital to the formation of strong bones. When both children and adults don’t get enough Vitamin D, they may have a tendency toward skeletal problems, such as osteomalacia, rickets and weak bones. This is also one of the vitamins that can help regulate growth, making it very important for children in their formative years.
You may think that milk is a natural source of Vitamin D, but milk is actually fortified with several vitamins, including Vitamin D. The practice began in direct response to the high number of rickets cases that hit the United States in the early 1900s. While milk is a good source of Vitamin D because it’s fortified with this vitamin, it’s not a natural source.
Some fish are high in Vitamin D and make excellent sources of this vitamin during a typically daily intake. Two of the more common are tuna and salmon. That means that a tuna sandwich for lunch each day can provide a significant start on the amount of Vitamin D needed to maintain healthy bones. Mackerel, sardines and cod are also sources of Vitamin D – which means those doses of cod liver oil had some serious health benefits for the pioneers who had access to few real medicines. Read the rest of this entry »
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Do we get enough nutrients from our diets?
First of all let’s look at what ‘enough’ is. Everyone has heard of the Recommended Daily Allowance or RDA. You find these listed as percent RDA on the back of all foods that you buy. What does that mean? The RDA was developed in the 1920′s as a minimum requirement to avoid malnutrition. It was later improved in the 1950′s to include the amounts of vitamins and minerals needed for ‘normal growth’. Today’s scientific studies show that this is very different than the amounts that are probably needed to reduce the risk of chronic illnesses. The amounts of many vitamins (not all) that are needed for most people to stay healthy in their adult years are likely to be much higher than the RDA. The fact is, we don’t really know what the exact optimal amounts of nutrients are and they certainly vary for different people. But the bottom line is that the vast majority of us don’t get enough from our food. Studies have shown that most people who think they are eating a healthy diet are not even meeting the RDA levels for all nutrients and most people are deficient in at least one if not several key vitamins. Read the rest of this entry »
Give Brown Bag Lunches A Nutritious Makeover
There’s no reason to rely on the same old brown bag lunch every day. Create simple, wholesome recipes and “out of the box” lunches to help beat brown bag lunch boredom and give you and your kids more nutritious choices.
Let’s face it, the main staple of most brown bag lunches is a sandwich made with lunch meat. In fact, according to ACNielsen research, lunch meat is purchased by 85 percent of U.S. households. With the new, great tasting sandwich meats on the market and some fun and interesting recipes and a few additions, you can easily take the boredom out of brown bag lunches.
Jackie Newgent, RD, CDN, recommends the following simple tips to give the brown bag lunch a nutritious makeover:
• Use bread alternatives. Prepare sandwiches using a different type of bread each day of the week. Try a flour tortilla, French baguette, flatbread or sesame seed bun. Use alternatives to bread, such as lettuce wraps. Or skip the sandwich or wrap idea altogether and make meat and cheese kabobs on toothpicks or small bamboo skewers. Read the rest of this entry »
