Are You Really Eating Healthy?

Lots of lettuce greens, tomato, cucumber, avocado – salads have got to be good for you right? Well, by themselves they are but it’s not always as simple as it seems. Choosing a Caesar salad is not a healthy option. The creamy ranch dressing, cheese, bacon and fried croutons add a huge amount of fat and calories. A Caesar salad can have 75g of fat and over 800 calories!   

Keep your salads healthy by choosing a lite French dressing or low fat mayo over high fat creamy dressings; and skip the high fat extras like bacon and croutons. That way you’ll keep your salads healthy.

 

Dairy foods have had their fair share of bad press. However, dairy foods are a very important source of calcium in our diet. Most NZ women do not get enough calcium, risking developing brittle bones later in life. Dairy foods can be high in saturated fat, but shifting to low fat varieties will spare you this. Chose trim milk and Edam cheese to keep your fat intake down. If you don’t use milk, try a calcium enriched soy milk to ensure you get enough calcium and include other sources of calcium in your diet such as canned salmon with bones, leafy green vegetables and almonds. Two to three serves of dairy foods will provide you with your daily calcium requirements.

 

If you are drinking lots of juice to get your daily vitamin C, stop! While juice is a good source of vitamin C, you’ll get enough vitamin C just by eating your daily fruit and vegetables. A glass of juice contains up to six oranges – which provides a lot of sugar, but none of the fibre in oranges. Skip the glass of juice for an orange and a glass of water, and you’ll get fibre and vitamin C but much less sugar.