Retrofit Your Recipes

Cooking at home is an important part of any healthy eating plan. It allows you to not only save money but to control what and how much you eat. Restaurant food can be filled with enormous amounts of saturated fat and sodium—and is expensive. Plus, huge portions are not uncommon. The good news is that with some small changes to your full fat recipes, you can eat your favorite foods more often.

Fat is probably one of the most undesirable ingredients in many recipes. Some of the more obvious changes you can make are to exchange full fat cheese with reduced fat cheese, or regular salad dressing with a reduced fat version. Always look for reduced fat or low fat versions of high fat ingredients.

Here are some other ways to decrease the fat in your recipes:

For 1 oz of baking chocolate exchange 3 Tbsp of cocoa powder; 1 cup of heavy cream exchange 1 cup evaporated fat free milk; 1 whole egg exchange 2 egg whites; 1 cup of any type of fat (such as butter) exchange 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce or some other type of fruit puree, such as plum puree (This is especially good in brownies); 1 cup sour cream exchange 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt.

Healthy Action Step: Try one or more of these substitutions in your favorite recipe.

Fill Up On Fiber

Fiber is the indigestible part of the fruits, vegetables and whole grains we eat. It is an important component of a healthy diet and digestive tract. These rigid plant walls help increase the transit time of food through the digestive system which helps to reduce the risk of dangerous intestinal blockages. It keeps our digestive system working smoothly and keeps us balanced and feeling full. It is recommended that adults get 25-35 grams of fiber a day. Most Americans get only 10-15 grams a day. The best sources of fiber are apples, pears, sweet potatoes, broccoli and whole grain breads and cereals.

There are two types of fiber, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber (such as Psyllium) dissolves in the blood and is recommended for people with high cholesterol since it carries away the LDL (bad) cholesterol out of the blood. Good sources of this type of fiber are oatmeal, oat bran, and pearled barley. Insoluble fiber does NOT dissolve in the blood. It stays intact and this helps increase transit time in the large intestine and prevent constipation. Good sources of this fiber are bran, fruit peels and vegetable skins.

Getting more fiber is easy to do. To begin added more fiber to your diet start slowly. Eating too much all at once can cause bloating and gas. Be sure to drink enough water (6-8 glasses a day) to help with transit time. By consuming the recommended amount of fruits (with the peel left on) and vegetables you can get 25-35 grams of fiber a day.

Healthy Action Step: Increase your fiber intake by eating a piece of fruit at lunch and a side of vegetables, such a broccoli, for dinner.