Martha Jefferson Hospital

Happy Healthy New Year!!!

New Year’s Eve parties are going to be in full swing. Parties and gatherings usually feature special foods, and often they are made with rich, fatty, calorie-laden ingredients. How to survive without gaining weight or seeing your            blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol go off the charts? Moderation in everything is a pretty good rule of thumb.                                                                                              

Here are some holiday party survival tips to save calories:

• Drink calorie-free: water, seltzer water, diet sodas.
• Focus on munchies with fruits & veggies.
• Make dips w/ low-fat ingredients: sour cream, cream cheese, etc.                     
• Focus on the healthy fats such as olives, nuts, & fish (salmon spread, smoked salmon).
• Low-fat cheese & multi-grain crackers.
• Ground turkey breast meatballs.
• Turkey breast & deli ham roll-ups.

 New Year’s Eve parties are lots of fun, and you don’t want to spend your time fretting about your food intake. It is a special time with family and friends but you can maintain reasonable eating even at the merriest of gatherings.  Other tips:

• Plan to eat your usual meals & snacks on the day of the party so that you are not starved by party time.
• Add in an extra long walk on the day of the party.

Read more | Comments (0) | December 30, 2010

Lighten-Up to Save!

I seem to always talk about lightening-up your favorite recipes. With two major holidays still ahead, let’s review what this means. To lighten-up means you prepare the recipe to cut down on calories, fat, sugar and/or salt. Which ingredients you focus on will depend upon your health needs. For example, if you have diabetes, you might try to lower the sugar content or if you have high blood pressure, you will want to reduce the salty ingredients.  

Lower the Salt/Sodium:

• Eliminate salt & salt seasonings, bouillon cubes & salty broth
• YES: herbs & spices, flavorful vinegars, onions & garlic

 Lower the Fat:

• Reduced-fat dairy products
• Use PAM spray instead of shortening and grease
• Use pureed fruit to replace butter/oil

Lower the Sugar:

• Cut by 1/3
• Replace with calorie-free sugar substitute: Splenda, Stevia, etc.

 Many of your favorite recipes can have small ingredient adjustments but with a big health pay-off. Before you automatically make your holiday favorites the same ole way, glance  over the ingredient listing to see where you can lighten-up.

• In mashed potatoes can you use fat-free ½&½ cream rather than whole milk?
• Can you use the 98% fat-free cream of   mushroom soup and skim milk when you make green bean casserole?
• Can you have a one-crust pie rather than the higher calorie two-crust pie? 

 So many possible changes.

Read more | Comments (0) | December 24, 2010

SPRING CLEANING

Spring is here, and this is a great time to begin spring housecleaning. Start in the kitchen – it is a primary source of germs and bacteria. It needs a good once-over at least yearly.

Clean out the old. Throw away: Read the rest of this entry…

Read more | Comments (0) | April 10, 2010