Making Healthy Eating a Part

Healthy Eating

These talking points cover all of the key consumer behaviors and potential strategies for professionals in the Dietary Guidelines. Depending on time/participant questions, you may choose to cover just a few bullets under each heading.

Add More Fruits and Vegetables

Vegetables

   Make half your plate vegetables and fruits, especially nutrient- packed ones that are red, orange, and green.

• Include vegetables in meals and in snacks. Fresh, frozen, and canned vegetables all count. When eating canned vegetables, choose those labeled as reduced sodium or no-salt-added.

• Add dark green, red, and orange vegetables to soups, stews, casseroles, stir-fries, and other main and side dishes. Use dark leafy greens, such as romaine lettuce and spinach, to make salads.

• Focus on dietary fiber—beans and peas are a great source. Add beans or peas to salads (e.g., kidney or garbanzo beans), soups (e.g., split peas or lentils), and side dishes (e.g., baked beans or pinto beans), or serve as a main dish.

• Keep raw, cut-up vegetables handy for quick snacks. If serving with a dip, choose lower calorie options, such as yogurt-based dressings or hummus, instead of sour cream or cream cheese-based dips.

• When eating out, choose a vegetable as a side dish. With cooked vegetables, request that they be prepared with little or no fat and salt. With salads, ask for the dressing on the side so you can decide how much you use.

• When adding sauces, condiments, or dressings to vegetables, use small amounts and look for lower calorie options (e.g., reduced-fat cheese sauce or fat-free dressing). Sauces can make vegetables more appealing, but often add extra calories.

Fruits

• Use fruit as snacks, salads, or desserts.

• Instead of sugars, syrups, or other sweet toppings, use fruit to top foods such as cereal and pancakes.

• Enjoy a wide variety of fruits, and maximize taste and freshness by adapting your choices to what is in season.

• Keep rinsed and cut-up fruit handy for quick snacks.

• Use canned, frozen, and dried fruits, as well as fresh fruits. Unsweetened fruit or fruit canned in 100% juice is the better choice because light or heavy syrup adds sugar and calories.

• Select 100% fruit juice when choosing juices.

Bring on the Whole Grains

• Substitute whole-grain choices for refined grains in breakfast cereals, breads, crackers, rice, and pasta.

• For example, choose 100% whole-grain breads; whole-grain cereals such as oatmeal; whole-grain crackers and pasta; and brown rice. Check the ingredients list on product labels for the words “whole” or “whole-grain” before the grain ingredient’s name.

• Note that foods labeled with the words “multi-grain,” “stone-ground,” “100% wheat,” “cracked wheat,” “seven-grain,” or “bran” are usually not 100% whole-grain products, and may not contain any whole grains.

• Use the Nutrition Facts Label and the ingredients list to choose whole grains that are a good or excellent source of dietary fiber.

• Good sources of fiber contain 10–19% of the Daily Value per serving, and excellent sources of dietary fiber contain 20% or more.

Cut Back on Sodium and Salt

• Use the Nutrition Facts Label to choose foods lower in sodium.

• When purchasing canned foods, select those labeled as “reduced sodium,” “low sodium” or “no salt added.” Rinse regular canned foods to remove some sodium. Many packaged foods contain more sodium than their made-from-fresh counterparts.

• Use little or no salt when cooking or eating. Trade in your salt shaker for a pepper shaker. Spices, herbs, and lemon juice can be used as alternatives to salt to season foods with a variety of flavors.

• Gradually reduce the amount of sodium in your foods. Your taste for salt will change over time.

• Get more potassium in your diet. Food sources of potassium include potatoes, cantaloupe, bananas, beans, and yogurt.

Putting It All Together

• Start by making small changes and eating a variety of foods that your body needs for good health.