Taste Life Blog

Don’t eat this food and don’t eat that…but what can you eat?  This week I was in Philadelphia attending a Nutrition Conference and Expo by the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

It is the largest annual gathering of Registered Dietitians in the country. My RD sister and I wait all year to attend and see what foods taste great and help us live healthier. Here are three great food finds:

Healthy Choice  

Challenge:

People are busy and are looking for easy, super quick healthy ideas for their lunch. And, sadly many Americans do not love the number on their scale and would be happy losing some weight.

Tasty Solution:

A recent study¹ found that people who ate a portion-controlled frozen Healthy Choice meal in place of their typical restaurant or cafeteria lunch, without changing anything else about their normal diet or exercise routine, lost weight and improved their diet quality at the end of 30 days.  Replacing lunch with a Healthy Choice meal led to decreases in total fat, saturated fat, trans fat and sodium in the participants’ overall diets.

Action:

If you want to decrease your daily caloric intake, improve your diet and lose weight check out the portion-controlled frozen Healthy Choice and pack one for your lunch tomorrow.

Orville Redenbacher’s:

Challenge:

2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend three ounces of whole grains a day, yet only 20% of Americans are eating this amount change to yet less than 5 percent of Americans meet this recommendation

Tasty Solution: 

Results of a recent study² show that popcorn, a popular 100% whole grain snack, can help people to increase their consumption of whole grains People in the study ate a daily snack of 100 calories of popcorn for three months without being asked to change anything else about their diets. At the end of the three month period, those who ate popcorn as a snack increased their consumption of whole grains while also decreasing their consumption of refined grains.

What is a serving of whole grain?

• One ounce of whole grains equals
• 1 slice of whole wheat bread,
• A serving of whole grain breakfast cereal equal to the size of a baseball
• A serving of cooked whole grain rice/pasta equal to a baseball cut in half

Action:

If you want permission to snack grab your Orville Redenbacher’s and feel great that you are increasing your whole grains and in doing so will probably reduce your refined grains.

Hunt’s:

Challenge:

Americans are not eating enough antioxidant rich fruits and veggies and many people think it is too inconvenient to eat them.

Tasty Solution:

A study³ looked at the most common non-starchy vegetables in Americans’ diets to determine the vegetable that provides the highest level of antioxidants based on total consumption and antioxidant capacity. They found that canned tomato products provide the greatest amount of antioxidants to Americans’ diets over any other commonly consumed vegetable. Canned tomatoes are American’s favorite non-starchy vegetable making eating more vegetables much easier.

Action:

If you want to increase your antioxidants and veggie consumption while decreasing your risk of cancer and heart disease, cook with canned tomatoes. The food possibilities with canned tomatoes are endless and get ready to save time and money too.

¹Reimers, K., et al: Frozen Single Serve Meals at Lunch Result in Improved Diet Quality. Nutrition, ConAgra Foods, Inc. Omaha NE, Rippe Lifestyle Inst. Celebration, FL.

²Reimers, K., et al: A Daily Popcorn Snack Increases Whole Grain Intake Without Changing Consumption of Other Food Groups, Nutrition, ConAgra Foods, Inc. Omaha, NE, Rippe Lifestyle Inst. Celebration, FL, Health Professions, Univ of Central Florida, Orlando, FL.

³Andron, M., et al: Antioxidant Availability of Commonly Used Vegetables in the U.S. Food Supply, Nutrition, ConAgra Foods, Inc. Omaha, NE.

Disclosure: I was compensated for writing this blog post by ConAgra Foods.