Put your best fork forward
Eating healthier doesn’t mean changing your entire eating pattern overnight. Small changes, made over time, can add up. For National Nutrition Month 2017, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics urges everyone to start small — one forkful at a time and “Put Your Best Fork Forward.”
Each March, the Academy encourages everyone to focus on healthful eating through National Nutrition Month. Whether you’re planning meals to prepare at home or making selections when dining out, always “put your best fork forward” to help you find your healthy eating style. How much we eat is just as important as what we eat, which is why this year’s National Nutrition Month theme inspires us to start with small changes in our eating habits.
The Academy strives to communicate healthful eating messages that emphasize balancing food and beverages within an individual’s energy needs, rather than focusing on any one specific food or meal. To this end, it is the Academy’s position that improving overall wellbeing requires a lifelong commitment to healthful lifestyle behaviors, emphasizing lasting and enjoyable eating practices and daily physical activity. It is important to balance individualized eating plans that include a variety of your favorite, nutritious foods with physical activity most days of the week.
Evidence shows that making dietary and lifestyle changes can prevent diseases before they occur. Sometimes we view this as restricting various foods in our diet. Sometimes if you take a different approach and try to include more of the better choices, you may not feel as deprived or hungry. Try to eat more of these foods:
• Vegetables, including dark green, red and orange
• Fruits, especially whole fruits
• Whole grains
• Fat-free or low-fat dairy including milk, yogurt, cheese and fortified soy beverages
• Protein foods including lean meats, fish, poultry, nuts, soy products, beans and peas
• Oils including canola, corn, olive, peanut, sunflower and soy
It’s easier to eat more of the healthy foods when they taste great too! I recently got a flat of fresh strawberries from the Fruit Club that had just been picked and delivered from Florida to Minnesota. Wow — were they ever good. It is easy to find ways to incorporate them into my menus — add them to cereal in the morning, put them in my salad for lunch, put them in a smoothie for a snack, have a few for a bedtime snack while I watch the news. I also sliced some into one cup portions and put them in the freezer so that I have some ready to go for the future too! They are so tasty; it makes me ready for spring and summer when our gardens are back in action.
Following is a simple and light dessert recipe for another tasty way to use fresh strawberries:
Strawberry Pretzel Squares
1 1/2 cups finely crushed pretzels
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1 1/2 pkg (8 oz each) low fat cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp skim milk
1 cup thawed, fat-free whipped topping
2 cups boiling water
1 pkg (0.6 oz) strawberry flavor, sugar-free gelatin
1 1/5 cups cold water
4 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix pretzel crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar and margarine; press onto bottom of 9×13″ pan. Bake 10 minutes. Cool. Beat cream cheese, remaining sugar and milk until blended. Stir in whipped topping; spread onto cooled crust. Refrigerate to cool. Add boiling water to gelatin mix in large bowl; stir two minutes until completely dissolved. Stir in cold water. Refrigerate 1 1/2 hours or until thickened. Stir in berries; spoon over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate three hours or until firm. Cut into squares to serve.
Cheryl Rude is a registered dietitian at Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center.
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