Take time to develop taste for nutrition

Capt. Stephanie Meyer
LRMC registered dietician


***image1***When was the last time you heard someone say, “If it tastes good it must not be healthy for me?” Perhaps you have even said this yourself. I challenge you to recall a time you ate a piece of watermelon, cantaloupe or honeydew melon that was terrible. How about a sirloin steak with a baked potato, broccoli and salad? All of these foods provide nutrients our bodies need, and they taste good.

March is National Nutrition Month – a time to think about how we eat and perhaps make some changes in our eating habits.  Why should we worry about what we eat? Unfortunately, heart disease is still the number one killer for men and women in this country, and extra weight and obesity are quickly catching up as health factors that are causing many health problems in our country.  These health concerns are directly related to our lifestyle, including our eating habits.

It is difficult as a consumer to know, what the “right” diet is when just about every week a new diet is advertised as the cure for all of our health problems.  I have a revolutionary diet plan that is sure to work, and it is easy to follow.  I call it the “healthy weigh” diet and on this diet you shop only the outside aisles of the grocery store. This means you choose foods you want from the produce aisle, the fresh meat section, the milk and dairy section, avoiding the heavily processed foods that provide little nutrition and generally a lot of calories and fat. If we eat the “healthy weigh” most of the time, assuming we keep our portions reasonable on the meats and dairy foods, we would likely see some weight loss and an improvement in heart health. 

I am not suggesting that you never enjoy your favorite snack food again; however, we all need to get serious about our health, and eating foods in their unprocessed form gives us more nutritional bang for our buck while limiting extra calories and fat that we do not need.

Think about these things when you are planning your next meal. See if you can “Get a Taste For Nutrition” and improve your health along the way.