Healthful_Eating

A 30- year- old woman has had the same eating routine for the past 10 years. She wakes up in the morning and began to get her day started by showering and brushing her teeth. She never has time to cook her own breakfast, so she always stop at a fast food restaurant and order a sausage and bacon biscuit with grape jelly. She also orders a hash brown with ketchup and a fruit punch to drink. She proceeds her day and go to work. For lunch, she always dines with her friends. They usually visit restaurants that serve foods such as burgers and chilly dogs. Today, they ate at a pizza place, in which she ate three slices of pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. A couple hours later, while at work, she begin to feel a little hungry again so she gets a bag of chips and a soda from the snack machine. When she is done with work, she decides to have steak and loaded mashed potatoes for dinner. Right before bed, she always has a bowl of butter pecan ice cream. Although this young lady looks and feels healthy, she always has an annual examination. After her check up, her doctor told her that her cholesterol level was extremely high and she was at high- risk for a stroke or heart attack. Her doctor suggested some changes in her eating habits. Although this scenario is not exactly “worst case,” some people are not as lucky. Simple changes, such as understanding correct food portions, getting picky eaters to eat, substitution and satisfying cravings, are vital to healthful eating. Understanding Food Portions Many restaurants usually pile the food onto plates often making people feel as though they have to eat the entire serving. Also, at home, when preparing meals, we overload our plates with large food portions. In most cases, we don’t do this because we are greedy, we do it because we have not been educated on correct food portions and adequate serving sizes. The American Associations of Retired Persons (2007) stated, “The key to a healthy diet and weight management is portion control.” If we understood how much we should eat, weight loss would come easier. The American Associations of Retired Persons (2007) has organized a chart with what a single serving on various foods looks like. They have related them to familiar items. Grain Products What One Serving Looks Like 1 cup of cereal flakes The size of a fist 1 pancake A compact disc ½ cup of cooked rice, pasta, or potato ½ of a baseball 1 slice of bread A cassette tape Fruits and Veggies What One Serving Looks Like 1 cup of salad greens A baseball 1 medium fruit A baseball ½ cup of raisins A large egg Dairy and Cheese What One Serving Looks Like 1 ½ oz. cheese 4 stacked dice ½ cup of ice cream ½ baseball 1 cup serving of milk, yogurt, or fresh greens The size of a fist Meats and Alternatives What One Serving Looks Like 3 oz. meat, fish, and poultry Deck of cards 3 oz. grilled/baked fish Checkbook 2 Tbsp. peanut butter Ping pong ball Fats What One Serving Looks Like 1 teaspoon of oil The size of your thumb tip This chart uses everyday items, such as a deck of cards, a fist, and a baseball, and related them to food portion sizes to help keep the person familiarized with what the correct serving looks like. This chart is very useful and relevant to persons who are trying to maintain their weight and doing so by controlling their food portions. Getting picky eaters to eat is just as important as understanding food portions. Getting Picky Eaters to Eat Many parents know how hard it is to get their little picky eater to eat healthy foods. We try almost everything we can think of to get them to swallow their broccoli or drink their milk, but one of the most successful styles to doing this is to show them that we eat and drink it too. Pizans (2009) stated that, “One of the most important things to remember when trying to get children to eat healthier foods is that children learn by example.” We can’t possibly expect our children to eat their spinach while mother and father are enjoying a big, juicy cheeseburger! Although for some parents, eating healthy isn’t exactly on the top of the list, yet we still want what is best for our children, and what is best for our children is to maintain a healthy diet. So with that in mind, a major tip is to start eating more healthily around them and by showing them that we can eat healthy too. Another great tip is to allow them to help prepare dinner. Getting the child involved with cooking preparations, such as placing all the ingredients on the table or putting the vegetables inside the cooking pot, helps in this case. This technique gets the child excited about eating what he/she has helped prepare. Another great tip is to allow the child to build a connection with the food he/she is eating. This technique can be executed by growing a garden in the backyard. It allows the child to get involved with the harvest and build interest in the food that he/she is growing. If all else fails, we can always give our child a vitamin to make up for what he/she isn’t consuming. Another key component to eating healthy is to learn how to substitute those unhealthy foods with healthier foods. Substituting Unhealthy Foods with Healthy Foods It is always easy to stop at a fast food restaurant and order an unhealthy meal for our family, but it can be just as easy to make some small, but notable, changes to our eating habits. Many restaurants are latching onto the idea to serve various, healthier side options, such as sliced apples instead of french fries or a baked potato instead of fries. Ordering these sides instead of the fattening sides we usually order can cut our calorie intake by nearly half. There are many other substitutions that can be made such as baked salmon instead of fried chicken and whole wheat bread instead of white bread. Contrary to popular belief, choosing extra lean ground beef is a healthier choice than ground turkey (Fink 2009). With some of these substitutions, you wouldn’t even notice the difference or the meal taste so good, you actually forget that you are eating healthy! The final tip to eating healthier is to stop cravings. Ways to Satisfy Cravings Although we may be on our way to healthier eating habits, doesn’t stop us from craving unhealthy foods from time to time. This is one of the main reasons why people who are trying to watch what they eat healthy shun away from their healthy routine and fall back into the trap of unhealthy eating habits. One of the most important things to do is to eat a full breakfast. We all remember the saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, well it is true. Eating breakfast helps cut down on cravings. Another great idea is to keep healthy snacks, such as whole wheat crackers with cheese or dark chocolate bars, handy. This eliminates the idea of stopping at a snack machine or donut shop and getting an unhealthy snack. In some cases, having cravings on particular foods could mean a lot more. The American Chemical Society stated that, “Chocolate cravings may be linked to an iron or magnesium deficiency.” So cravings could also be our bodies’ way of telling us that something’s wrong. Which category do you fit in' Do you fit into the high cholesterol category' Or do you fit into the healthy eating and good cholesterol level category' Even if we are not “health nuts” or are committed to totally changing our eating lifestyles, we can little by little make a few adjustments to our eating routine. In this case, a little does go a long way. We can start by understanding great tasting, healthy foods for the picky eater, then by getting familiarized with correct food portions. Once we have mastered those two, we can learn how to beat those cravings and begin to practice substitution. Even if some of us are healthy with very good cholesterol levels, we should continue eating healthily. Incorporating these methods can be helpful for everyone. It is always important to incorporate healthful eating into our lifestyles. The results could be life changing!   Reference List American Associations of Retied Persons. (2007). Size Does Matter- Master Portion Control. Retrieved from http://www.aarp.org American Chemical Society. (2005). What you Cravings are Telling You. Retrieved from http://www.SciencMode.com Fink,L. (2009). Burgers—Turkey vs. Beef. Retrieved from http://www.weightwatchers.com Pizans. L. (2009). Getting Picky Eaters to Eat Healthier Foods. Implementing Healthy Foods Into Your Child’s Daily Diet. Retrieved from http://www.nutrition.suite101.com