Healthy Gift Ideas

Posted: Dec. 1, 2004

Share the gift of health with your friends and loved ones this Christmas by giving gifts that promote healthy eating and an active lifestyle. Here is a list of ideas to get you started:

• Fill a basket with a variety of fresh fruit. Line the basket with a colorful kitchen towel. You can even add a small cutting board with a knife.
• Choose a festive tin and fill with flavored popcorn. Include a gift certificate for a movie rental.
• Fill a new salad bowl with low-fat salad dressings and flavored vinegars. Include your favorite salad recipes.
• Make a homemade salt-free seasoning mix and place it in antique or decorative jars.
• Load up a colander with various packaged pastas and include a pasta cookbook or several of your favorite pasta recipes.
• Wrap up a heart-healthy cookbook.
• Fill a straw hat with packets of herb seeds, a pair of garden gloves and a book on cooking with herbs.
• Give a gift certificate to a healthy class. Consider low-fat cooking classes as well as yoga, aerobics or belly dancing classes. Include yourself for this gift too!
• Combine several varieties of dry beans and lentils, such as pinto, northern, black-eyed peas and soybeans. Repackage them in decorative jars or tins. Supply your favorite recipes and seasonings. You can also add a wooden spoon.
• Pack a gym bag with exercise gear such as hand weights, a sweatband, a pedometer, an exercise video or a jump rope. Include a gift certificate to a store that sells athletic clothing.
• Fill a basket with cans of fat-free refried beans, whole-wheat tortillas, baked tortilla chips and a jar of salsa. Add a recipe for a healthy Mexican dish.
• Bake up a batch of low-fat muffins or a mini-loaf of your favorite quick bread. Place in an antique mixing bowl with a container of low-fat cream cheese.
• Make a batch of hot chocolate mix and place in a basket with two holiday mugs.
• Make a basket of assorted herbal teas. You also can include a mug and tea infuser.

Source: Columbia St. Mary’s, adapted from an article by Beth Fontenot, MS, LDN, RD in “Communicating Food for Health.”

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