Wellness Tips

Some Simple Nutritional Tips:
Sodium
Try to eat around 2000mg. per day. Many authorities say 1100 to 3300mg per day is healthy. (The human body requires as few as 200 to 500 mg. per day!)

Fat
Try to eat less than 60 grams per day.  25 to 40grams for a strict diet. Try to get no more than 10% of your calories from saturated fats.

Percentage of calories from fat
Less than 30% is a good rule.  10 to 15% for a strict diet. Remember, 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories.

Cholesterol
Try to eat less than 300mg per day, 100 to 150mg for a strict diet. Saturated fats do not have cholesterol in them, but they do cause the body to increase its own production of cholesterol

Meat
It's extremely important to trim the fat on all meats. Flank steak is most naturally low in fat, but if you trim almost any meat, you're in much better shape.

Poultry
Most of the fat in chicken and turkey is just under the skin, so remove the skin before cooking. Chicken has 2 to 3 times more fat than turkey. Actually, skinless turkey has almost NO fat! White meat has half the fat of dark meat. From the fattiest to the leanest: neck, wing, drumstick, breast.

Seafood
Fish is generally low in calories, saturated fat and cholesterol. It's also a good source of protein and several vitamins and minerals.  Some types of fish, particularly fatty, cold-water fish — such as salmon, mackerel and herring — are also high in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s appear to decrease the risk of coronary artery disease. They may also protect against irregular heartbeats and help lower blood pressure levels.

Pregnant women should watch their intake of shellfish & fish high on the food chain (such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish) as these may contain oceanic contaminants such as mercury and PCB’s.

Healthiest cooking methods
The healthiest methods are said to be baking, broiling, steaming, poaching, or grilling. Try to avoid deep fried foods.

Oil and broth
Our recipe nutritional information always assumes the use of broth instead of oil. We recommend using broth.  If you do use oil, the healthiest are said to be olive, canola, soybean, sesame, walnut, hazelnut, sunflower, corn and safflower. Try using non stick spray instead of oil when frying.

Chicken and beef broth are the most popular, but fish, vegetable and mushroom broths are excellent in many recipes. Chicken broth is easy to find in a low sodium form.  Beef broth is best in some recipes, but often difficult to find in a low sodium form. Try a vegetable juice like V-8®, tomato juice or even tomato soup as a cooking broth.