Good and Bad Carbs

 

Do you know the difference between good and bad carbs? Read up! 

Fruit Stickers

Next time you pick out fruit be sure to remember this!

What to eat when

Do you know how often you should eat foods, or what you should completely eliminate? If your unsure, check this out. This picture provides a pretty simple guide of what you should consume daily, weekly, monthly, and what you should completely eliminate! 

Vitamins and Minerals

Today most people know that vitamins and minerals are an essential in maintaining a healthy diet. But what most people don't know what foods the vitamins come from. Here is a simple picture that showcases what food provides each vitamin/mineral. If you are lacking one, just look at this chart, and eat more of that specific food. Good luck on consuming your vitamins and minerals!

Healthy Pie

Next time you go to bake a pie, or in my case purchase a pie, read this. Looking at this picture it shows how much of each pie you can eat for 200 calories. If you love pie, and don't have a favorite, I would choose pumpkin:)

Foods to avoid

Certain junk foods are notorious for being high in calories, fat and sodium, but what many people forget is that the are other types of processed foods that are just as harmful to a person's health and waistline. Unlike candy, chips and cookies, some processed foods can be disguised as foods that are good for you. Many even claim to be a good addition to your diet when, in reality, they are providing poor nutrition and helping to create bad eating habits.

The first step to creating a healthier diet is to find out which processed foods are the worst for you and stay away from them whenever possible. The following are some of the top processed foods to avoid.

Margarine
Though it was once touted as a healthy alternative to butter, margarine isn't good for you by any means. Margarine has tons of hydrogenated oils and trans fat. Too much could increase triglycerides and raise your bad cholesterol levels. Use real butter instead (and try to do so sparingly). Even better, use olive oil whenever you can as a substitute.

Soda
Soda is one of the worst processed products out there because it offers almost no nutritional value. In addition, regular sodas are loaded with added sugar and can cause weight gain or even metabolic syndrome. Water is your best drink option. If you crave more flavor, have the occasional glass of juice or add some citrus or cucumber to your water.

Frozen Dinners
Frozen dinners may seem like a convenient and easy way to serve a meal, but the trade-off is that you'll be consuming lots of fats, especially trans fats. They also tend to contain MSG, which has been linked to health problems like Alzheimer's and mood swings. Use fresh foods to create meals instead whenever you can for better flavor and a healthier meal.

White Bread
Bread can be good for you -- if it's made from whole grains, that is. White bread (along with white flour, rice and pasta) is made with refined whole grains that have lost most of their nutrients. Buy products made from 100 percent whole grains instead.

Canned Soup
Some canned soups seem like a healthy choice, especially when they contain lots of veggies. However, most canned soups are loaded with sodium and have a high fat content, making them an unhealthy option for a meal or side. Instead, try making your own soups at home. You can easily make a large batch and then freeze extra servings for convenient use later on.

Processed Meats
Processed meats are one of those foods that can really seem like a healthy choice, at first, but in reality they are also bad for you. In fact, eating processed meats can increase your risk of certain types of cancer. They are also high In sodium, saturated fats and calories, which is bad news for blood pressure levels. Processed meats include hot dogs, sausage, ham, bologna and packaged lunch meats. Substitute processed deli meats with fresh cuts of meat from a deli or butcher whenever possible.

Potato Chips
Potato chips are one of the worst offenders for processed foods. They are bad for your health and may increase your risk of becoming obese. They're also a light, salty snack that people tend to overeat. Try unsalted nuts for a healthier snack, or at the very least choose baked varieties of chips rather than traditional potato chips.

Boxed Meal Mixes
Like frozen dinners, boxed meal mixes can seem like a great way to make a healthy meal more convenient to make. However, these boxed foods are also bad for your health because they lack many of the nutrients that fresh foods contain. In addition, most have added sodium and fat. Use fresh ingredients instead and learn to use herbs and spices to bring flavor to your meals naturally.

Canned Pasta
Canned spaghetti, ravioli and other pastas are not healthy for you. They're loaded with additives, sodium and fat, which doesn't compensate for their convenience. Make fresh whole-grain pasta instead. For an even healthier meal, make your own sauce from scratch.

Cookies
Most of the cookies, cakes and other sweet packaged snacks you'll find on the shelf are unhealthy. They have too much sugar and are made with refined flour. This is a no-brainer, but some people mistakenly believe that making their own at home with common flour is better. Unfortunately, common flour is also refined. To make healthier sweet snacks, bake cookies with whole-grain flour instead.

Keep in mind that not every processed food is a bad one. For example, some cereals and juices have added vitamins, minerals or fiber which helps to fill nutrition gaps in our diets. Just make sure that you pay attention to all of the ingredients and nutrition data information on any processed food you choose (a fiber-enriched cereal isn't great for you if it also contains tons of sugar). In moderation, certain "good" processed foods can be acceptable in a balanced diet.

Article Pulled from here.

Healthly smoothie

Have you always wanted to try and make a smoothie, but never knew exactly what to put in it? Here a guide that helps you generate a smoothie to your liking. 

Enjoy!

How to avoid processed foods

Avoid Boxes, Bags and Cans

Obviously, if something comes pre-packaged, it has been touched. Commonly, food manufacturers dehydrate, bleach, enrich salt, sweeten, and fatten food to compensate for the nutrition lost during the process it took to put the food into the box. Though boxed, canned and frozen foods are very convenient, they're not healthy for you in the long run.

For example, white bread barely contains any natural nutrition. The vitamins found in it, as well as the sugar and salt, are added back after they are stripped during processing.
A better solution is to purchase whole-wheat bakery bread that is made fresh at the store—it's more likely to be made from natural products.

Stay Away From Anything White

What does white bread, white rice and white all have in common? Bleached and enriched wheat flour or grain. These are some of the most highly processed foods on the planet. Though naturally white things like potatoes and eggs are fine, the food manufacturers really modify wheat flour and rice in these products.

To create the white appearance, the flour or grain (rice) is bleached. This process strips all of the fiber and nutrients from the grain, and thus the taste.  In order to make the food product "nutritious", the manufacturer adds fiber and vitamins, most of which your body will not absorb because they're not naturally occurring. A lot of sugar, salt and trans fats are also added to bring back the flavor.
Your best bet is to buy products that are whole-grain, and contain unbleached, unenriched grains like whole wheat, brown rice, oats or quinoa.

Shop on the Outside Edge of the Store

One of the easiest places to find unprocessed, healthy, whole foods is to purchase most of your groceries on the outside edge of the store. The edges are where you'll find produce, meat, eggs, dairy and seafood. These items are not processed, or if they are, they're minimally processed.
Of course, you will need to go into the center isles for some things, but staying on the outside of the store for most of your shopping will keep your cart full of nutrient-dense foods.

Don't Buy It If...

If the Label has More Than Five Ingredients

The more ingredients the food has in it, the more it has been processed. For example, look at Quaker Oats, their oatmeal in 1910 only had one ingredient—oats. By 2008, Quaker Oats had added sugars, unnatural fiber (guar gum), flavors, salt and trans fats to their Instant Oatmeal in an attempt to keep up with the flavorful times.

Though both are oatmeal, the 1910 version is far more nutritious than the 2008. It contains natural carbohydrates (not sugar), natural fiber (not synthetic), and needs no preservatives (instead of salt). The one ingredient is only oats, and you can still find the 1910 Oatmeal on shelves in stores today.

If Any of the First Three Ingredients End in "Ose"

 "Ose"  stands for sugar. Many sugars used in the food industry are highly processed, high in calories and are really bad for you. Sugar is added back into foods when the food is processed so much that the flavor is removed. One of the easiest ways to add flavor is to add sugar. A natural and unprocessed food like fruit or oatmeal (the slow-cooked kind) should hold their natural flavor and not need added sugars.

If the Food Label Is Not Clear

What language is the food label written in? Are they real foods or chemical descriptions? Are you eating a color? This is a big question to ask yourself when you read the food label. Healthy, whole-food is just that, food. If you have to ask yourself what is actually in the food you are eating, it's mainly man-made.

If You Have a Coupon

Cheap food is just that—cheap. If it doesn't cost much to make the food, it does not cost much to buy the food. Most likely there is not much nutritional quality to the food because it doesn't have quality ingredients, like whole grains or natural meats.

Article found here.

Frozen Banana Desserts

Who needs ice cream when you can have frozen bananas?

• 2 bananas
• Fage Total 0% Greek Yogurt
• chopped almonds
• cinnamon

1. Line a tray with parchment paper.
2. Mix the Greek yogurt and cinnamon together.
3. Peel the bananas.
4. Cut off an end from each banana, then insert the popsicle sticks.
5. Coat the bananas in Greek yogurt and almonds.
6. Lay the bananas on the parchment paper and freeze for 45-55 minutes. The bananas will be creamy and firm, but not completely frozen.

          Easy Banana Bites

•  bananas
• Peanut Butter 

                     1. Slice bananas
                     2. Smear peanut butter on one side of slice, and put piece on top.
                     3. Put on parchment paper and freeze
                     4. Enjoy when you need a healthy snack or dessert!

I'm not a fan of bananas... but these sound really good and super easy! Try them!

Junk Food Rules

Next time you go to the store keep this in mind:

1. The longer an item is able to last on the shelf, the worse it is for you
2. NEVER eat any item that has hydrogenated or partly hydrogenated oils/fats in the  ingredients!
3. Avoid refined sugars and high-fructose corn syrup at ALL costs!
4. NEVER eat foods that are enriched. FYI generally white breads are!

Water Intake Facts

 

All the great reasons you should be drinking water daily! 

Ever wonder about the shelf life of food?

 

This is soooo helpful!

Portion Control

Next time you go to eat, think of this when you put your food on your plate. When I first saw this I was shocked by the portion sizes, I don't really think many people follow this, that maybe why there is such an obesity problem today. Sometimes when someone has weight problems it could be something as simple as portion sizing. I know that it's not easy to change your portions instantly, but changing this little by little you could get right where you want to be with your weight!

Snack Time!

Are you one of those types of people who need some kind of snack to keep them going through out the day? I am! check out these snack ideas that are actually healthy! Let me know what you think!