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Healthy Eating
Posted: Nov. 1, 2007
Your body counts on you to give it the nourishment it needs. Here are tips to keep in mind.
Focus on fruits. Eat a variety of fruits – whether fresh, frozen, canned, or dried – rather than fruit juice for most of your fruit choices. For a 2,000-calorie diet, you will need 2 cups of fruit each day – like 1 small banana, 1 large orange, and 1/4 cup of dried apricots or peaches.
Vary your veggies. Eat more dark green veggies, such as broccoli, kale and other dark leafy greens; orange veggies, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and winter squash; and beans and peas, such as pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, split peas and lentils.
Get your calcium-rich foods. Get 3 cups of low-fat or fat-free milk – or an equivalent amount of low-fat yogurt and/or low-fat cheese every day (1 1/2 ounces of cheese equals 1 cup of milk). If you don’t or can’t consume milk, choose lactose-free milk products and/or calcium-fortified foods and drinks.
Make half your grains whole. Eat at least 3 ounces of whole-grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice or pasta every day. One ounce is about 1 slice of bread, 1 cup of breakfast cereal, or 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta. Look to see that grains such as wheat, rice, oats or corn are referred to as “whole” in the list of ingredients.
Go lean with protein. Choose lean meats and poultry. Bake it, broil it or grill it. Vary your protein choices with more fish, beans, peas, nuts and seeds.
Limit saturated fats. Get less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fatty acids. Most fats should come from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as fish, nuts and vegetable oils. When selecting and preparing meat, poultry, dry beans and milk or milk products, make choices that are lean, low fat or fat-free.
Limit salt. Check food labels for how much sodium is in a serving Even if you do not add salt to your food, you could be getting more than you want in your diet.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health
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