Dietitians Saint Clair Shores MI

Fresh fruits and vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, packed with vitamins and minerals that are essential to good health, as well as phytochemicals and antioxidants that help fight chronic disease. How fresh produce is handled between when it is harvested and when it actually reaches your kitchen, has a great impact on how many of those important nutrients actually end up on your plate. Here's how to choose and use fresh fruits and vegetables to get the most nutrition and the best flavor possible.

• Eat deeply colored vegetables. Dark green, orange and red flesh and leaves are obvious signs of good nutrition. Choose the most colorful vegetables-broccoli, spinach and other leafy greens, carrots, peppers, butternut and other types of winter squash-and you know you're getting maximum nutrition for your money.

• Stay small. Bigger is not always better, especially in the plant kingdom. For the best flavor and highest concentration of nutrients, fruits and vegetables need to grow to maturity but not to jumbo size. Oversized produce may be past its prime.

• Eat sustainably. Though there may be other good reasons for choosing organic foods, most studies conclude that there is no significant difference in the nutritional value between organic and conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. Sustainably-grown fruits and vegetables, which are those that may be grown with synthetic fertilizers but few to no chemical pesticides, offer the health benefits of essential nutrients without the risk of harmful chemicals ending up in the soil,the food or your body.

• Don't peel. Many nutrients are concentrated close to the surface of fruits and vegetables, so whenever possible, leave the skin on. This is another good reason to choose organic produce but regardless, be sure to wash fresh fruits and vegetables carefully before cooking and eating.

• Cook healthily. Steaming, stir-frying, microwaving, broiling and high-temperature roasting are all quick cooking methods that preserve both flavor and nutrients in vegetables. For some vegetables, such as carrots and tomatoes, cooking is better than raw because heat breaks down the vegetable's cell walls, making vitamins and phytochemicals more easily available for absorption by the body.

• Eat locally. Take advantage of farmer's markets and look for locally grown produce in your supermarket.  The more time fruits and vegetables have to ripen naturally and the less time they spend traveling, the fresher and more nutritious they're likely to be.

• Use it up. Stored produce loses nutrients, so try to use up produce soon after purchase. For the same reason, leave fresh produce whole until you are ready to cook or eat them.

Sources:

Barrett, D. "Maximizing the Nutritional Value of Fruits and Vegetables."  University of California Davis Post-Harvest Technology Research & Information Center.  Web. 27 Aug 2010.

http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/datastorefiles/23...

Despite your best efforts to lose weight, hunger can strike at any time. For instance, do you end up snacking your way through the mornings and afternoons?  Or find yourself still dissatisfied after you've cleaned your plate?

Here, 5 reasons why people get so famished - and a foolproof plan from nutritionists to keep those hunger pangs away.

You eat the right foods at the wrong times. Eating at different times every day can make it difficult to tune in to your body's hunger signals. It can also throw your metabolism out of whack.

Try writing out a schedule that focuses on eating within two hours of waking up, and every three to five hours after that for the rest of the day.

You don't eat the right breakfast. The right breakfast foods will affect significantly how satisfied you feel the rest of the day. For example, a breakfast bar may seem like a good choice, but its mega-dose of simple sugars will have you rummaging through the 'fridge well before lunchtime.

Instead, build a morning meal with a healthy balance of protein and carbs - so you're not counting the seconds 'til noon.

Your diet has no flavor. If grilled chicken and steamed veggies are your mealtime staples, you'll get bored eventually - and this is when dangerous binges can occur. Get creative in the kitchen with spices galore, quick and guiltless ways to really add great flavor. Texture is also key. Aim for combinations of creamy, crunchy, and chewy - to keep your taste buds on their toes. Just keep in mind that "creamy," "crunchy" and "chewy" also can mean additional calories that your waistline doesn't need.

You stockpile your calories. Do you eat so sparingly during the day that you're famished by the time dinner rolls around? When you skip meals, it's harder to think straight, so you're less concerned about the implications of what you do eat.

Try limiting the size of your evening meal so you wake up eager for breakfast. And even if y...

Nutrition bars and low-fat cookies must be good for you, right? Well, just because something sounds healthy doesn't mean it actually is. Many of the products marketed as nutritious involve more hype than health. How can you weed through the claims to separate fact from fiction? Here, six "health foods" that really aren't that healthy after all.

1. Reduced-Fat Foods. Perhaps they should change the label to "Less fat than the original, which had tons of fat." According to a spokeswoman from the American Dietary Association (ADA), "Reduced-fat foods are heavily marketed, and the marketing works. You only think it's healthy." But the truth is, most reduced-fat products are still high in fat. For this reason, the ADA encourages consumers to read reduced-fat food labels very carefully.

2. Pretzels. What a great snack, right? Actually, pretzels are high in sodium and low in fiber, which is why people can eat a lot of them and still not feel satisfied. According to the ADA, pretzels serve as a filler, but they don't add anything nutritious to your diet. Instead, try replacing them with a sandwich, fruit, or raw vegetables-foods that curb hunger and add nutrients to the body.

3. Cheese Crackers. As with pretzels, people generally consider cheese-flavored crackers a fairly healthy snack. But they're generally low in fiber and high in sodium, according to the ADA. What's more, the cheesy flavor is almost always artificial.

4. Granola Bars. They seem so wholesome, but according to the ADA, their main ingredient is usually sugar. Oftentimes, these treats are also high in fat and coated in chocolate. For these reasons, the ADA recommends replacing them with lower-sugar options, like a bowl of cereal or a bag of trail mix.

5. Energy Bars. These power-packed treats might seem like a sensible snack or meal replacement, but the "energy" touted on the label usually means a whole lot of calories, along with artificial flavorings and preservatives. In some cases, t...