How to Make Healthy Food Choices
People are struggling with maintaining healthy food choices. It is not surprising because they are constantly bombarded with conflicting information about whatâs healthy and whatâs not and they are also given numerous choices when it comes to food products. With all these choices and information, it is not inevitable that people will end up confused. You probably share the same confusion. Who can blame you?
If you would visit a local grocery store, you would find numerous aisles of different foods. If you would go to a restaurant, you would find pages after pages of menus. With so man food choices, you probably are finding it hard to stick to your âhealthy foods onlyâ diet. To make sure that you would go home with a bag full of healthy food choices, here are some tips that you should definitely take note of.
Shop Only When Youâre Not Hungry
Go to the grocery store only when your stomach is full. This does not need much explanation. Doing your grocery when your stomach is empty would definitely tempt you to buy anything that catches your fancy. Youâd be practically throwing your âhealthy food choicesâ list out of the window. It is best to do your grocery shopping after you have eaten your breakfast in the morning or your dinner in the evening.
Choose Canned or Bottled Products Carefully
First of all, if you are going to buy meat, vegetables and fruits, do not buy those that are packed with oil. If you need to buy these food products, make sure that you buy those that are packed in water. Chances are the water will likely reduce the calories in meat products. Do not buy products that are labeled âhydrogenatedâ. These products practically scream, âFats!â You need to have a discerning and careful eye when it comes to sneaky wordings in packages. This is one way to make sure that you only end up with healthy food choices.
You should also avoid products with high fructose or glucose content. Many products like juices and soft drinks are loaded with high fructose content. When you see these words âhigh fructoseâ in a grocery product, you should definitely stay away from it. These words basically mean that you would be drinking something with 100% pure sugar in it.
Many manufacturers add high fructose to their products in order to save money. Unfortunately, this causes obesity and diabetes. Examples of this are pancake corn syrups. This is why it is very important that you first check product labels before you buy anything. To be able to make healthy food choices, you need to make sure that you are making informed choices.
Buy Organic Meat and Poultry
When purchasing meat products like beef, pork and poultry, you should definitely consider opting for organic products. These are free from growth hormones, steroids and other chemicals. When buying poultry, you should look for free range chickens because they often tastes delicious than caged chickens. You should also get skinless chicken because bad cholesterols and calories in chickens are concentrated on their skin.
When buying organic foods, it is better to buy them locally. Not only will you help your communityâs economy, you will also save energy. This is the additional bonus you get from making healthy food choices.
Make Wise Grocery Product Choices
First of all, you should make sure that you opt for low sodium prepackaged foods. If you are too busy and you have to resort to buying frozen dinners and canned foods, make sure that you get packages with the lowest sodium count. Making these simple healthy food choices will ensure that you will avoid various illnesses like hypertension or cardiac problems.
If you are one of those people who would like to avoid dairy products, you can opt for food alternatives like broccoli. This vegetable is packed with calcium, so you would still be getting the nutrient despite the absence of milk or cheese in your diet.
When buying breads and cereals, you should opt for whole grain foods. Also, make sure that you always read the labels and get products that are low in fat or zero in fat. You can still give in to your sweet cravings without necessarily placing yourself at risk of developing diabetes.
Eating healthy involves making healthy food choices. You need to make sure that every food that gets into your grocery basket is healthy for you and your family.
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The Delicious Revolution Cookbook – Healthy Food For Busy People.
151 Page Cookbook With Over 100 Easy To Make Healthy Meals. Every Recipe Has A Gorgeous Full Color Photograph. This Is A Revolutionary Solution For How To Make & Prepare Deliciously Healthy Meals For Increased Energy And Weight Loss That’s Sure To Please.
The Delicious Revolution Cookbook – Healthy Food For Busy People.
The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals
- ISBN13: 9780762430758
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Parents will do almost anything to get their kids to eat healthier, but unfortunately, they’ve found that begging, pleading, threatening, and bribing don’t work. With their patience wearing thin, parents will “give in” for the sake of family peace, and reach for “kiddie” favorites–often nutritionally inferior choices such as fried fish sticks, mac n’ cheese, Pop-sicles, and cookies. Missy Chase Lapine, former publisher of Eating Well magazine, faced the same challenges with her tw
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Review by Amazon Shopper for The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals
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This book is truly amazing. I have two children who won’t eat a mini-carrot between them, and they are now downing veggie after veggie without suspecting a thing!! Here is the funny thing- it works on my husband too! He claims he doesn’t like sweet potatoes, but he has eaten them in so many things now- I just wait and tell him afterwards (haha, guess what you just ate?!). Do I feel guilty about sneaking veggies? Not at all! Whatever I can do to help my family be healthier, I would do in a heartbeat. I have a couple of hints- first of all, buy all of your veggies at once and spend about 3 hours one afternoon once per month making the five most common veggie purees. Pour them into individual serving size freezer bags and then put all of the little bags into a gallon bag (one per type of puree), label them, and you are good to go! This is much easier than trying to puree veggies for each meal, it would become so time-consuming that you would be tempted to change your mind at the last minute and make something easier (and less healthy). I grab a bag out of the freezer, quickly defrost and then stir it in with the kids mac n’ cheese, chocolate pudding, and all sorts of other “treat food” that all of a sudden become vitamin-rich dishes. I also pre-make some of the breading and flour mix too, and keep them vacuum-packed…it really simplifies things at dinnertime. Likewise, I make the breakfast cookies in a triple recipe, and save them and freeze them for a quick, easy and healthy breakfast. The meat recipes in this book are also excellent- the sloppy joes, meatballs, and the meatloaf- as well as the baked ziti and the pizza- are especially fabulous. This is the first book that I have felt compelled to write a review about, but I felt I absolutely had to do it! We have been eating almost exclusively on recipes from this book for a month now and we all feel so much healthier. Kudos to Missy Chase Lapine! Thank you!
Review by Michele Richard for The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals
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Let me first say I like this book and I am glad I purchased it. I echo other reviewers who question the idea of hiding foods instead of teaching your children to enjoy them. However, this is certainly a way to sneak some in while you are attempting the teaching.
My kids are not THAT picky, but they are children after all so of course they would prefer nothing but cookies for the rest of their lives.
I have made all the purees so far and have tried many of the recipes. I have also used the concept in my own recipes with great success.
Like other reviewers, I am also wondering how much nutrition is left in the food once you boil it down to nothing. In some cases, I have added the water I boiled the veggies in to recipes in other ways. Don’t know if that helps anything, but it made me feel better about it.
Now for my disappointment about the book…the recipes don’t have nutritional values listed. yes, there is a list of nutrients provided by the sneaked in foods, but no real nutrional value – ie calories, fat, fiber, etc. My next project will be to calculate nutritional value based on my old recipes versus adding the new recipes. I am not certain how much I am actually changing the value – in other words, am I doing a fair amount of work for little improvement? The sneaked in foods seem to be in such small amount sometimes I am just not sure that there is a real value in it. I guess something is better than nothing, but since my kids already eat fairly well, I am not convinced that it is worth all my extra effort.
I should say for the record that I have 4 children -infant, 2,4 and 13. The overall concept is not THAT much work, but I decided to go gung ho and made every puree over a couple of days – many tiny containers in my freezer now with 1/4 cup dollops of purees. Also, I have a managerial job where I work 50-60 hours weekly away from home. I cook meals ahead of time and leave them for stay-at-home husband to put in the oven. He is NOT in on the sneaking (just for fun). I have included my 13 year old in the plan b/c she is a very healthy and adventurous eater -so this is our little joke on the rest of the family. As I mentioned before, I have been able to incorporate the concepts into my own recipes and have had no problems so far. I usually cook large quantities in advance – ie 4 gallons of chili or meat sauce – then separate and freeze for quicker meals later. The purees figure quite well into that plan because I can whip up a batch and add the entire amount to my stock pot instead of measuring out these tiny amounts for later. AND I have not had any problems with my frozen dinners. I can tell no difference from before I began adding the purees.
My last concern about the book is that (much like me in this post) she spends almost the first half of the book going on and on about how great it is before ever starting to tell me what to do. Also, the recipes are certainly not difficult or gourmet quality, but they do require a little bit of cooking knowledge. Sometimes they act like I haven’t a clue about the kitchen “makes about 1 cup of puree…double the recipe if you want more” (gee, never would have thought of that). Other times they can be a bit ambigous “makes 8 large muffins…scale quantities for smaller muffins” – well “large” turned out to mean the normal size muffins, not the larger muffins I had hoped (not a big deal, you just have to figure out what they mean).
Overall, useful book…gave me several ideas I had not thought of before. I have been able to use the recipes in the book as well as incorporate the concepts into my recipes. After several weeks and many recipes, we have had great success…no flops, and no one has suspected a thing.
Review by gourmetmamma for The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals
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I wanted to serve one meal to everyone in our family and quit playing short order chef. I never have wanted food to become a battleground for my kids. And, I wanted to incorporate more veggies and fiber in to all of our diets. This book has some fantastic ideas on how to alter my cooking to accomplish my goals.
I made macaroni and cheese last night and watched both my boys (2 and 3) devour sweet potatoes and carrots without a complaint. This stuff works. I cooked more carrots and sweet potatoes that I needed for the puree, and served some of the chunks on our plates. I enjoyed the cooked carrots, and my kids didn’t throw the chunks of veggies off their plate onto the floor. One of them actually licked the carrot in curiousity. I’ll continue to serve sneaky nutrition AND undisguised versions on the plate. Eventually, my kids will eat the undisguised versions.
What works for me is to plan on preparing ONE puree a day, preferably when it is quiet. I freeze the puree in ice cubes by the tablespoon, and then can add them as needed to recipes. I can rotate thru the purees and not feel overwhelmed. And if I skip a day or two, I have frozen reserves to fall back on. That also lets me make the purees using on-sale produce.
Review by Sleep Doctor for The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals
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We dont care who did it first, the Sneaky Chef is the one that works.,
Sleep Doctor “Dr. Mom, MD” (Los Angeles, CA) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food (Spiral-bound)
This weekend 7 friends and I got together to compare recipes from The Sneaky Chef(TSC) and Deceptively Delicious(DD). Our primary loyalty is to our kids and getting good food into them. We don’t really care who did it first, just what works. We’ve been successfully sneaking for months and need more recipes now, so we were eagerly awaiting the release of Deceptively Delicious.
We chose six duplicate recipes from each book (12 total) and did double-blind (where neither the server nor the child knows which is which-only the cook keeps track) side by side taste tests. The whole process took all day Sunday. We chose to make mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, peanut butter & jelly muffins, brownies, chicken nuggets and meat loaf.
Summary: For one reason or another, kids clearly preferred the recipes from TSC. The main reasons seemed to be that DD’s were too sophisticated in flavors and the textures were off. The cooks felt that TSC was more geared towards kids’ tastes, especially where picky eaters are concerned, and addressed the needs of the cook better. Roughly half of the recipes in Deceptively Delicious are the same as in The Sneaky Chef, which was disappointing since we’re starved ; ) for new recipes at this point.
The following are the detailed results:
Mashed Potatoes: Kids’ preference: TSC. Main reason: “Creamier.” DD was called “watery” by most kids. Cooks found both recipes easy to make and would do so regularly.
Mac n cheese: Kids’ unanimous preference: TSC. Main reason: “the same as they’re used to.” Kids rejected DD version as “adult food” and would not eat it. Cooks’ also preferred TSC. Reasons: DD has too many ingredients, is too expensive and time consuming to make regularly.
Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins: Kids’ preference: none. A clear tie. This was probably due to the dominating peanut butter flavor in both recipes. Kids did prefer the appearance of DD, though, as the jelly was visible on top of the muffin and TSC is hidden inside.
Brownies: Kids’ unanimous preference: TSC. Main reason: DD had a slightly bitter to some kids but all found the texture “too pasty.” Cooks found both recipes easy to make and would do so regularly.
Chicken Nuggets: Kids preferred TSC overall. Main objection to DD: “too spicy and mushy.” Cooks’ also preferred TSC. Reasons: DD has too many ingredients and the flax meal contributed to the too-soft texture.
Meat Loaf: Kids unanimously preferred TSC. Unanimous objection to DD: “too spicy and mushy.” Cooks’ unanimously preferred TSC for texture and flavor.
Note: The layout in DD is more clear and concise, and having the photos next to the recipes is also very helpful. TSC would take a lesson here.
Finally, we hope that many more authors get on this sneaky bandwagon-we need more recipes
Review by Dionne M. Sloan for The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals
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This cookbook gives you excellent suggestions on how to get more nutrition into your children by adding it to their favorite foods. But let’s face it…there are sometimes when I really can’t stand looking at another vegetable on my own plate and don’t even get me started on my husband’s eating habits. Enter this book with it’s easy to make kid friendly recipes for the kid in all of us. I was able to find all the ingredients at my regular grocery store..a major plus. So far I’ve only tried a few of the recipes-breakfast cookies (made with wheat germ,whole wheat flour and total cereal), sneaky strawberry smoothies (this has avocado in it but you can’t taste it!) mac and cheese (this hides cauliflower, zucchini, yams and carrots) and they are excellent! My teenager has even requested the breakfast cookies for her midmorning snack. My toddler who is an EXTREMELY picky eater has eaten everything that’s been given to him and wanted more. Mrs. Lapine has even included suggestions for improving the nutrition of exsiting food like oatmeal and applesauce in addition to suggesting what baby foods to use if you just don’t have time to make the purees. This book got me thinking of ways I could boost the nutrition in our family favorites as well. An excellent resource.