THE END....Let's RECAP

As sad as it may be, this is the LAST blog post in nutrition.

Over the course of this blog, we have talked about all different kinds of topics that relate to nutrition.

The topics covered in this blog (in order) were:

- Smoothies
- Coffee
- What is YOUR favorite healthy food
-How to prepare a week's worth of healthy meals in one day
- Vegetables
-Fruits
- Weight gain
- Nuts
- How to combat bloating
- How to be your own nutritionist
-How to be healthy as a family
- Exercise
- A reflection
- Grocery shopping tips
- How to order the healthiest items at fast food chains
-Vitamins
- Sugar-free foods
- To eat or not to eat meat
- How to keep your kids eating healthy
- Calorie-labeling
- Sweet treats
- How to order healthy at restaurants
- Bread
-Recipes

and now it is time to say GOOD-BYE and I really hope you learned something worthwhile in my blog!

RECIPES, RECIPES, and more RECIPES

This blog is going to be full of AT LEAST one recipe from each food group. Isn't that fun??

Just in case you don't know, the food groups are as follows: Vegetables, Fruit, Grain, Meat, and Dairy

So let's start with GRAINS.
Here's 31 Easy Quick Bread Recipes that include Triple chocolate quick bread, sweet potato spice bread, Italian holiday bread, and so much more! 
AND 20-minute pasta recipes for those who are busy, busy, busy.

VEGETABLES.
50 Root Vegetable Side Dishes to go with your main course!
Top 10 Grilled Vegetable Recipes

FRUITS:
Fruit recipes for kids !
52 Quick and Easy Fruity Desserts.... YUM

PROTEIN (MEAT):
40 Ground Beef Recipes
3 Healthy Fish Recipes

DAIRY:
5 Healthy Breakfast Smoothies
Homemade HOT CHOCOLATE

 I hope you enjoyed this blog post and may you find many tasty recipes :)

BREAD

I am sure you've heard of a low-carb diet, and may have even tried it once or twice. But the fact is, bread is good for you and shouldn't be kept out of your diet. Bread provides you with dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Grain is healthy for your body.

If you want to try a healthier bread, go with whole-grain bread over white bread, because the whole-grain flour used in whole-grain bread is better for you.

BUT...there are many different kinds of bread besides white bread and whole-grain bread. There is "stone-ground flour," "sprouted wheat," "gluten free," "fermented" and "yeast" breads, and more. What exactly are those breads and are they good for you? Read this article by greatist.com to find out!

In an article on whyeatbread.com, it gives you a complete breakdown of bread. You can click on whatever you want to know about bread. You can find out how much bread to eat, fun facts about bread, fiber, complex carbohydrates, whole grains, white bread and buns, and gluten-free and celiac disease.

I am a person who LOVES fresh bread. I could eat bread all the time. However, if you eat too much you can gain weight. Bread is a carbohydrate, and it is easy to overeat it. So you should eat in moderation, and try not to eat any bread with another grain, such as rice or pasta.

FUN FACT! Bread is known as a universal sign of peace because it is the one food that is eaten by people of every race, culture and religion.

How to Order Healthy at Restaurants (fancy ones)

Chances are, if you are trying to eat healthy, you eat out at a nice restaurant every once in a while to give yourself a break from healthy eating. But I still feel the need to give you a few tips on how to order healthy at fancy restaurants.

We already discussed how to order healthy at fast food restaurants, but now we will address the fancy restaurants.

If you haven't noticed, most upscale restaurants specifically have healthy or low calorie options to choose from. But what do you do if you don't want the low calorie meals but still want to be mindful of your calories?

First of all, remember you can always ask the waiter/waitress. They should know about the different dishes served at the restaurant and be able to tell you the healthier choice. Second, you can always add vegetables as a side instead of french fries. This will surely cut calories. Third, you can AVOID all-you-can-eat buffets or steakhouses that serve big portions.
For more tips, read this article from Reader's Digest.

More tips include always making sure you know where you are going to eat so you are never without a healthy option on the menu and DON'T eat too much healthy food. Here is a guide to make your life easier!

Sweet Treats...YUM

If you are like me, you are obsessed with all things sweet. I am a chocoholic (guilty.)

We talked a little bit about sugar and artificial sweeteners in a past blog, but now I want to direct the attention to all things sweet.

If you want to continue to eat sweets, but want to make those sweets healthier, this is how you do it.

First, you can use different kinds of flour. You can use wheat flour or almond flour in place of regular flour. I have tried this before and in my opinion it is difficult using a different kind of flour, because some flours make the consistency a little bit different than regular flour. It takes practice for sure. BUT it is healthier for you!

Second, you can use dark chocolate instead of regular milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is healthier for you. If you don't particularly like dark chocolate, I say still use a darker chocolate, just don't put quite as much in your recipe.

Another trick you can try to make your sweets healthier is using coconut oil instead of butter. This will help eliminate some of the sodium in your sweets that comes in butter.

If you want to read about more tips for making your sweets healthier, read this. 

I found an article by fitness magazine that goes into depth and specifics on how to create desserts that taste the same but have less calories. They talk about how to make healthy brownies, low calorie cream cheese icing, healthy pies, and so much more. Check it out! 

Of course this post could not be complete without a whole bunch of healthy dessert recipes for you! 50 healthy dessert recipes to be exact. Go dessert crazy!

Here's a kid friendly healthy dessert as an added bonus!

Calorie Labeling

I'm sure you've seen more and more fast-food and restaurants put the number of calories under each of the items on their menus.

Do you like the fact that they do this, or not?

Do you know why they started to do this?
Some places voluntarily started doing this because they felt like people wanted to know how many calories they were consuming. 

Well according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, they have now administered regulations requiring calorie information on restaurant menus and menu boards and on vending machines.
If you want to read more information about this, click on this article.

I also saw an article that talked about the benefits of calorie labeling in restaurants. Besides allowing people to choose healthier meals, other benefits include prompting the restaurants to make changes to their menus, and raising awareness about foods that are healthier and less calories than others. For example, once McDonald's had to put the calorie intakes on their menu, they were prompted to put more healthy food on their menu. That is when they decided to put more salads on their menu.

Here is a video on restaurants offering healthier choices because of nutrition labeling rules.

How to Keep Your Kids Eating Healthy

I met a woman yesterday that has a one year old. We were talking about parenting and our childrens' eating habits. She gave me a personal piece of advice. She said that the secret to making sure your kid or kids eat healthy is to introduce healthy foods to them as early as you can, and try not to thrive off of feeding them things such as fries and chicken nuggets.

Even though fries and chicken nuggets are easy meals that you can just throw in the oven, it is not healthy for your children (or even you) to eat meals like that all of the time.

If you cannot afford to go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of healthy food (like me) try to incorporate healthy foods into the easy oven or microwave meals. For example, instead of feeding your child fries and chicken nuggets, try vegetables and chicken nuggets. You can get packs of frozen vegetables that you just stick in the microwave that are cheap and last a long time.

This was a really good piece of advice, because it makes sense that if your children grow up eating fast food or unhealthy food, this is all they will want to eat when they get older.

There are many other tips to keep your child eating healthy meals.

Here are some articles from other moms or sources that give you information or tips.

http://www.parents.com/kids/nutrition/healthy-eating/get-your-kids-to-eat-better/
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/healthy-food-for-kids.htm
http://www.pbs.org/parents/food-and-fitness/eat-smart/encourage-kids-to-eat-healthy-food/

To Eat or Not to Eat Meat

There is always debate about whether or not meat, or certain types of meat, are safe to eat. Many people also wonder what types of meat are healthy and which are not. 

Readers Digest recommends you choose lean cuts when you eat meat, as opposed to meats that contain a lot of salt and fat (processed meats) such as bacon, sausage, bologna, or anything preserved with salt, curing, or chemicals. A study shows that "Americans who eat lean beef get more protein, zinc, potassium, and B vitamins then people who don't." Lean beef accounts for 15 percent of the nation's protein but only 4 percent of fat. Read the full article here.

 Meat is safer to eat today than ever. We have companies like Food and Drug Administration and United States Department of Agriculture that help regulate and watch the food that is being distributed to the public to make sure that everything is safe to eat. Many experts believe that meat is actually safer today than it ever has been. There are many interviews that have been done where experts have talked statistics and the way meat is produced and how safe it is. If you would like to read those interviews, read this article.

Livestrong.com wrote an article that clearly explains and breaks down of the nutritional value of meats. They tell you the vitamin content of meats, protein content of meats, mineral content, unsaturated fat content, and saturated fat content.

Sugar- free foods....good or bad?

When you see something that has a "sugar-free" on it, do you think healthy?

Normally, that's what I think....

WRONG.

In the beginning, I wrote a blog on sugar. We talked about natural sugar, which is found in things such as fruit and milk. Natural sugars are not bad for you, although too much sugar is bad for you no matter what kind. It is best for your body to consume those kinds of sugars. But what about items that are considered "sugar-free?"

First of all, it is important for people to realize that just because something says sugar-free, doesn't mean it is. An example of this is Sugar-free Oreos. In this article by "Eat This, Not That!" it says although most of the sweetness of the sugar-free Oreos comes from alternate sources of sugars like artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes, they also contain sources of sugar such as milk. Therefore, the sugar-free Oreos still technically contain sugar.

When it comes to artificial sweeteners, be careful. They are tricky. Your body responds differently to artificial sweeteners and they also alter the taste of food. If you are someone who eats foods with artificial sweeteners often, then this might cause you to want to avoid more sweet foods, such as fruits, and absolutely hate unsweet foods, such as vegetables. As a result, you may loose out on the nutrients in those foods because you won't want to eat them. If you need more explanation, click on this article.

There are certain artificial sweeteners that companies are okay to use from the FDA, and some that are not. You can find a list here.

Vitamins....why do we need them?

I've always been told that I need to take vitamins, but I've never been told why. So I decided to find out.

The best and simplest answer I found was this:
"Our bodies cannot produce all of the nutrients we need to function properly, so we have to eat them."


There are many reasons to take a multivitamin, including these:
- support healthy aging. As we grow older, our body needs the vitamins more and more
- boost energy levels
- improve your skin
- improve sexual function

Even though it is ideal for everyone to take vitamins, there are certain foods that can help give your body the vitamins that it needs.
Spinach, blueberries, oats, sweet potatoes, are just a few that will help you get the nutrients you need without taking vitamins.

You can always talk to your doctor about the type of vitamin your body may need the most. For example, I am anemic. My body may need a different type of vitamin to get the nutrients that I need.

How to order the healthiest items possible at fast food chains

The reason that fast-food places are so successful is because they are convenient and cheap. You can grab food on-the-go without breaking the bank. But if you are trying to eat healthy, or you are on a budget, and you don't have time to cook, how do you eat fast food?

Now, of course you can't really eat healthy at fast-food places, but there are items you can order that are "healthier" than other items.

I found a great article that tells you the healthiest food at every major fast-food restaurant.

You can read the article here, but these are some examples:
- Sonic: Grilled Chicken Wrap and Small Fries
- Taco Bell: Two fresco soft tacos with steak and black beans and rice
- Culvers: Garden Fresco with grilled chicken salad and raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Here are some tips for eating healthier at fast-food places:
- Be Cautious about Condiments- some will cost you more calories than others!
- Watch What You Drink- opt for milk, juice, un-sweet tea, or water instead of soda or sweet tea!
- Watch Out for Side Dishes- opt for side salad or fruit cups instead of fries or onion rings!

More tips available here.

If you are a youtube-er, here is a video that includes menu hacks and calorie-saving tips for fast food places.

So ENJOY your fast-food without feeling so guilty about it!