Know Your Food
No Bones About It: Calcium is Essential to Your Health
Many American diets are deficient in calcium, one of the most important minerals for optimum health impacting your bones, muscle and nerve function, and more.
While most of us think of dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt when we think of calcium, you’ll also find healthy amounts in foods such as dried beans and lentils, broccoli, spinach and other green leafy vegetables, and tofu.
There is some debate over how much calcium we should consume daily. The National Academy of Sciences recently stated that for adults 19 – 50, 1000 milligrams a day is a good target. Here are a few ideas to get the calcium you need, easily and deliciously:
- Grilled cheese sandwiches. Experiment with different smooth-melting cheeses such as provolone, Swiss or Havarti in place of the American we’re apt to use.
- Shredded cheese added to just about anything. Add some shredded cheese to eggs and salads and atop soups, casseroles and pasta dishes.
- Cheesy snacks. Cubed cheese makes a great pop-it-in-your-mouth snack. Kids love it, too.
- More ideas. Make a latté with half coffee and half low-fat milk. Make a veggie dip with low-fat plain yogurt, or dip cut-up fruit in fruit yogurt. Add spinach leaves to your salads.
Source: www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource (Harvard School of Public Health)
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How to Read a Nutrition Label
When you’re shopping for “better for you” products at the grocery store, it’s essential that you read—and understand—the nutrition labels on the items you’re considering buying. Luckily the government has designed a universal system for how nutrition information must appear on food packaging. But how many of us really know how to interpret that chart on the side of the cereal box or on the back of a soup can?
The information here should help you understand this information, allowing you to make the smartest choices possible as you load up your shopping cart!
How to Read a Nutrition Label
General label claims
The Food and Drug Administration regulates the claims products can make. Here’s how to interpret some of them:
- Low Calorie means that one serving has less than 5 calories.
- Sugar Free means one serving contains less than 0.5 grams of sugar.
- Fat Free means one serving has less than 0.5 grams of fat
- Low Fat means one serving has 3 grams or less of fat.
- Reduced Fat or “Less Fat” means one serving is at least 25% less fat than the “regular” version of the product.
- Low in saturated fat means one serving has 1 gram of saturated fat or less and no more than 15% of calories come from saturated fat.
- Lean means one serving has less than 10 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, and 95 milligrams cholesterol.
- Extra Lean means one serving has less than 5 grams of fat; 2 grams of saturated fat; and 95 milligrams of cholesterol per serving.
- Light or Lite means the product contains at least a third less calories, and no more than half the fat, of the regular product OR no more than half the sodium of the regular product.
- Cholesterol Free means less than 2 milligrams of cholesterol and 2 or less grams of saturated fat per serving.
- Low cholesterol means 20 or fewer milligrams of cholesterol, and 2 grams or less of saturated fat per serving.
- Reduced Cholesterol means at least 25% less cholesterol than the regular product, and 2 grams or less of saturated fat per serving.
- Sodium Free or No Sodium means less than 5 milligrams of sodium and no sodium chloride included in one serving.
- Very Low Sodium means 35 milligrams of sodium or less per serving.
- Low Sodium means 140 milligrams or less of sodium per serving.
- Reduced or Less Sodium means at least 25% less sodium than the regular product.
- High Fiber means 5 grams or more of fiber per serving.
- Good Source of Fiber means 2.5 to 4.9 grams of fiber per serving.
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