Tips getting healthy foods

Experts agree the key to healthy eating is the time-tested advice of balance, variety and moderation. In short, that means eating a wide variety of foods without getting too many calories or too much of any one nutrient. These 5 tips can help you follow that advice while still enjoying the foods you eat.

1. Eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods. You need more than 40 different nutrients for good health, and no single food supplies them all. Your daily food selection should include bread and other whole-grain products; fruits; vegetables; dairy products; and meat, poultry, fish and other protein foods. How much you should eat depends on your calorie needs. Use the Food Guide Pyramid and the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels as handy references.
2. Enjoy plenty of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Surveys show most Americans don't eat enough of these foods. Do you eat 6-11 servings from the bread, rice, cereal and pasta group, 3 of which should be whole grains? Do you eat 2-4 servings of fruit and 3-5 servings of vegetables? If you don't enjoy some of these at first, give them another chance. Look through cookbooks for tasty ways to prepare unfamiliar foods.
3. Maintain a healthy weight. The weight that's right for you depends on many factors including your sex, height, age and heredity. Excess body fat increases your chances for high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, some types of cancer and other illnesses. But being too thin can increase your risk for osteoporosis, menstrual irregularities and other health problems. If you're constantly losing and regaining weight, a registered dietitian can help you develop sensible eating habits for successful weight management. Regular exercise is also important to maintaining a healthy weight.
4. Eat moderate portions. If you keep portion sizes reasonable, it's easier to eat the foods you want and stay healthy. Did you know the recommended serving of cooked meat is 3 ounces, similar in size to a deck of playing cards? A medium piece of fruit is 1 serving and a cup of pasta equals 2 servings. A pint of ice cream contains 4 servings. Refer to the Food Guide Pyramid for information on recommended serving sizes.
5. Eat regular meals. Skipping meals can lead to out-of-control hunger, often resulting in overeating. When you're very hungry, it's also tempting to forget about good nutrition. Snacking between meals can help curb hunger, but don't eat so much that your snack becomes an entire meal.

Benefits of broccoli for your healthy

Broccoli has been around for more than 2000 years, The name "broccoli" comes for the Latin word brachium, which means "branch," or "arm." Americans have grown it in their gardens for only about 200 years! The first commercially grown broccoli was grown and harvested in New York, then planted in the 1920's in California. A few crates were sent back East and by 1925 the broccoli market was off the ground.

Broccoli Varieties

Broccoli was first grown in the Italian province of Calabria and was given the name Calabrese. Today there are many varieties. In the United States, the most common type of broccoli is the Italian green or sprouting variety. Its green stalks are topped with umbrella-shaped clusters of purplish green florets.

Selecting Broccoli

Choose bunches that are dark green. Good color indicates high nutrient value. Florets that are dark green, purplish, or bluish green contain more beta carotene and vitamin C than paler or yellowing ones. Choose bunches with stalks that are very firm. Stalks that bend or seem rubbery are of poor quality. Avoid broccoli with open, flowering, discolored, or water-soaked bud clusters and tough, woody stems.

Storing Broccoli

Store broccoli unwashed, in an open plastic bag and place in the crisper drawer of refrigerator. It is best if used within a day or two after purchasing.

Fresh vs. Frozen Broccoli

Packaged frozen broccoli differs from fresh in its nutrient content. The flower buds or florets are richer in beta carotene than the stalks. Manufactures typically cut off most of the stalk before packaging it, so frozen broccoli may contain 35 percent more beta carotene by weight than fresh broccoli. The downside is that frozen broccoli has twice as much sodium as fresh (up to 68 mg per 10 oz. package), about half the calcium, and smaller amounts of iron, thiamin, riboflavin, and vitamin C.

Preparing and Cooking Broccoli

The best way to cook broccoli is to steam, cook in the microwave or stir-fry with a little broth or water. These methods are better than boiling. Some of the vitamin and mineral content are lost from the vegetable and end up in the cooking water when they are boiled. Cooked broccoli should be tender enough so that it can be pierced with a sharp knife, and still remain crisp and bright green in color.

Bad foods should be avoid

1. Artery Crust Judging by the label, Pepperidge Farm Roasted White Meat Chicken Premium Pot Pie has 510 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat. But look again. Those numbers are for half a pie. Eat the entire pie, as most people probably do, and you're talking more than 1,000 calories and 18 grams of sat fat.

2. Strip Tease McDonald's Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips sounds healthy. In fact, ounce for ounce, the Selects are no healthier than the chain's Chicken McNuggets. A standard, five-strip order has 630 calories and 11 grams of artery-clogging fat. That's about the same as a Big Mac, but the burger has 1,040 mg of sodium, while the Selects hit 1,550 mg — a whole day's worth — even without the salty dipping sauce.

3. Factory Reject Each slice of The Cheesecake Factory's 6 Carb Original Cheesecake has 610 calories — that's the same as you'd get from a slice of its Original Cheesecake. Think of it as an 8-ounce untrimmed prime rib for dessert — with 29 grams of saturated fat, a 1½-days' supply. The next time you step on the bathroom scale, you may never know that the carbs were missing.

4. Everlasting Dove Dove squeezes some 300 calories and an average of 11 grams of saturated fat (half a day's worth) into a tennis-ball size serving (half a cup) of its Dove Ice Cream. That puts it in the same ballpark as Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs. With names like "Unconditional Chocolate," Dove is trying to link chocolate with romance. A scoop of its ice cream will fill your heart all right … but not with love.

5. Starbucks on Steroids The Starbucks Venti (20 oz.) Caffè Mocha with whole milk and whipped cream is more than a mere cup of coffee. Think of it as a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in a cup. Few people have room in their diets for the 450 calories and 13 grams of bad fat that this hefty beverage supplies. But you can lose all the bad fat and all but 170 calories if you order a tall (12 oz.) with nonfat milk and no whipped cream.

6. Angioplasta “Fresh chicken and broccoli over pasta with Parmesan cream sauce,” says Ruby Tuesday's menu entry for its Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta. Some diners may know that the cheese and cream sauce add saturated fat, but how much harm could they really do? Enough to turn the dish into a 1,700-calorie megameal — that's like swallowing two one-pound orders of BBQ baby back ribs.

7. Stack Attack Unless you're suicidal, why on earth would you want to wolf down a Burger King Quad Stacker — 4 hamburger patties, 4 slices of cheese, 8 strips of bacon, plus sauce and a bun? That's half-a-day's calories (1,000), one-and-a-half-days' worth of saturated fat (30 grams), 3 grams of trans fat, and more than a day's sodium (1,800 mg). Urp!

8. Salt's On! Campbell's Chunky, Select, and red-and-white-label Condensed soups are brimming with salt: Half a can averages more than half of a person's daily quota of salt. Instead, try Campbell's Healthy Request soups, which have about half as much sodium.

9. Tortilla Terror Interested in a Chipotle Chicken Burrito (tortilla, rice, pinto beans, cheese, chicken, sour cream, and salsa)? Think of its 1,180 calories and 19 grams of saturated fat as three Subway Steak and Cheese 6-inch Subs. Plus, it has 2,900 mg of sodium! Getting the burrito with no cheese or sour cream cuts the saturated fat by two-thirds, but you still end up with 950 calories and 2,690 mg of sodium. Yikes!

10. Stone Cold Into the chocolate-dipped waffle bowl of a Cold Stone Creamery Gotta Have It Founder's Favorite goes, not just a 12-ounce, softball-sized mound of ice cream, but pecans, brownie pieces, fudge, and caramel. The tab: a startling 1,610 calories, 43 grams of saturated fat, and 3 grams of trans fat. That's roughly what you'd get if you polished off five single-scoop ice cream cones.