Nutrition Thursday

I apologize for this boring yet educational post today. I have decided to dedicate Thursday to all things nutrition. Since I  my parents spent all that money on getting me an education in Nutrition...why not share what I know, or claim to know, ha!

You may or may not know, but the USDA just released the 2010 edition of the Dietary Guidelines. I am not going to go in to too much detail. If your interested in reading the full release go here

Basically, in a nut shell the powers that be who decide the guidelines, realized our country is obese. You think? More than one-third of children and more than two-thirds of adults are considered overweight or obese. How sad are these statistics? For this reason, the USDA is focusing more on decreasing your number of calorie consumption and increasing physical activity. All I can say is...duh. Hasn't this whole mentality of eat less work out more been around for quite sometime? Maybe now that it is "official" people will actually get the memo. Lets hope.

If you go to the USDA website it will have a whole booklet that you can download and it will tell you what foods you should limit and what foods you should increase. The sodium intake did decrease from 2500mg to 2300mg. I know, I personally try to limit my sodium intake..who wants to fill all bloated and puffy anyway...so not attractive. If you follow a fairly healthy diet in the first place, then you are pretty much golden in terms of the new Dietary guidelines.

For example, if you consume more fruits and veggies, including a variety of veggies...like dark greens, red and orange colors ( basically colors of the rainbow as I like to say), choose whole grains over white and starchy, go for low-fat milk products, cheese's that are lower in fat and cholesterol or for us non-dairy peeps...soy milk (its actually not half bad), eat more proteins, like lean meat and chicken/turkey, eggs, legumes, nuts, soy, incorporate a little salmon or tuna for some Omega 3's and choose the good oils like olive oil, and incorporate more fiber in your diet...than you are set and on your way to a healthy lifestyle.

In other healthy news...did you know that February is American Heart month, go here to learn more about it.

90% of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease. If you are following the above diet guidelines above, than you are already taking one step in decreasing those odds.

Well, there you have it. I told you it would be quite boring. Next time, after the snow goes away and I can buy regular groceries and cook again...I will have some yummy nutritious recipes.