Soup for You!

This time, let’s talk about soup. We discussed different salad options in the previous post, so let’s look at the salad’s second cousin: soup. Like salads, soups are offered as part of a meal at many restaurants instead of a salad. There are many different options, such as chowders, Minestrone, chicken noodle, and so on. Soups can be warming to the soul, especially on a cold, winter day, but these can also have high fat and sodium contents, which is bad for our health.

Let’s look at chicken noodle soup for a moment. This is a classic soup for any age. Remember when your mother made homemade chicken noodle soup when you were sick? The feeling of the warm broth and the chicken just makes you feel better; however, due to the stocks that these soups are made of, the sodium content can be just as high as a large order of fries. Reducing sodium in this soup would be beneficial because it is enjoyed by people young and old, and by reducing the sodium content, it can be enjoyed without the feeling of being too salty for our bodies.

Now let’s talk chowder. These cream-based soups come in many different varieties, such as clam and chicken and corn. A soup like a New England Clam Chowder is a staple on the East coast, but it is also loaded with fat. The cream that makes the base of the soup is dairy, of course, and the fat content of that and the other ingredients makes it about half of our daily caloric intake. These soups have begun to have the fat content reduced, though they are still rich with calories. So when you think about having that chowder before your steak dinner, try going for a Minestrone instead. It’s a simple vegetarian classic and can be enjoyed by most anyone.

What do you prefer before your meal: Soup or salad? I, myself, prefer a salad before my meal, but if a restaurant has a unique soup that catches my attention, I wouldn’t mind straying from our leafy friends in a bowl for a hot bowl of soup. If you go to a restaurant within the next week, tell me if they offer a soup or salad before the meal. I want to know what you chose and why. Are you hungry for Mom’s chicken noodle soup yet?

Dressed-up Leafy Greens in a Bowl

The focus of this post is different salad options. There are many different variations out there—some are healthy, some are unhealthy. We all have different tastes and opinions when it comes to salads, so let’s discuss our leafy friends in a bowl.

Salads are usually served before a meal, especially in nicer restaurants where the salad is included in the price of the meal. Many restaurants offer options for these salads, such as a Caesar. We can also enjoy a salad as a main course, thanks to restaurants that offer salad bars as the main attraction, among other things; restaurants have come to offer many more salad options, whether big or small. Salads can be healthy for us, but it’s the little toppings and dressings that we douse them with that makes them unhealthy for us. When we use dressings like ranch, the caloric content increases thus making that healthy option unhealthy. Some of the healthier options are to use oil and vinegar, or just not use any dressing at all. That last option may seem boring, but that is how I eat many of my salads and the taste is much better, in my opinion.

Let’s look at toppings now. Croutons are a staple of many salads, along with bacon bits and chow-mein noodles. Many of these toppings are loaded with butter and/or fried, which makes them unhealthy for us in larger quantities; however, real bacon bits used in moderation can be a healthier option for a salad topping. If you really want to find a good crunch for salads, add some sunflower kernels in. What toppings do you like on your salads?

Try eating a salad without dressing and see how you like it. In addition, take a look at some of your salad dressings in the refrigerator. What are the nutrition facts for those dressings? If they are high in calories and fat, maybe think twice about using it and opting for the no-dressing option instead. Give it a shot!

Part Three: Combining Healthy and Unhealthy Snacking

We have arrived at Part Three: Combining healthy and unhealthy snacking without feeling guilty. How do you feel about healthy snacking? Unhealthy snacking? It is not impossible to combine the two into our daily lives because let’s face it—unhealthy snacks taste so much better! We will discuss some of the ways to balance the two, or create a yin and yang effect, so to speak.

Some of the things we can do to balance both types of snacking is to pick one unhealthy snack a day and have that be your indulgence. It can be buttered popcorn, cookies, or anything your heart desires. Pick that one unhealthy snack a day and go about your usual routine; one unhealthy snack a day shouldn’t hurt too many diets, especially if you keep them in check.

Another suggestion for balancing snacks even further is to have a list of your favorite unhealthy snacks, then choose one per week to be your indulging time. This will equal to four times a month, which would appeal to most health-conscious individuals that crave Oreos or chicken wings.

Speaking of chicken wings, they can be a good thing to eat because they come with carrots and celery, but be sure to ask for them on a separate plate because cold carrots and celery are much better than limp, soggy vegetables. One suggestion for chicken wings is to get them without sauces. Doing this can decrease the caloric intake and reduce the levels of sodium. Even though they are typically deep-fried, they can still be a good choice once in a while.

This concludes the three-part series on healthy and unhealthy snacking. Stay tuned for next week when we will discuss different salad options.

Part Two: Unhealthy Snacking

Now that we have talked about healthy snacking, let’s move on and talk about unhealthy snacking. This is something that many of us are guilty of, whether it’s eating those French fries or maybe that buttered popcorn at the movies. Nonetheless, we are all guilty of having those moods where we want something unhealthy for us. Overconsumption of these goodies, however, can lead to numerous health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, to name a few.

Looking at the various snacks that are available on the market, we have everything we could possibly want: chips, cookies, candy, and so on. These are snacks that have been around for generations, and snack-food companies make a good chunk of their profits off these products; this is why junk food has been pushed on us throughout the years because it is a moneymaker. To combat the healthy movement, snack food companies have begun producing healthier versions of their snacks to appeal to those who want to indulge.

The world of snacking has grown exponentially over the last few decades, and as mentioned before, is a huge moneymaking business worldwide. People are always going to want to have their snacks, whether they are healthy or unhealthy, and we will continue to spend our money on them. Many of the goodies that we enjoy will spoil appetites and diets, but it can be worth it, if kept in moderation. My challenge this time is to keep track of what snacks you like and how often you enjoy them. If you are on a diet, what are you doing to keep these snacks at a minimum? If you’re daring, post your results. Until then, chip’s ahoy!

Part One: Healthy Snacking

Greetings! After a small break away from the ol’ good food blog to concentrate on work, I am back at it now. As you can see from the title, this will be a three-part blog, ending on Sunday. What we will be discussing in each part is snacking, which is something virtually everyone loves to do, even if they don’t want to admit it; if you’d like to admit to snacking, it’s all good because I won’t tell anyone. This part will be about healthy snacking and what we can do to incorporate healthier snacks into our lives. The next two parts will be unhealthy snacking, finally ending with a combination of the two and how we can balance a little indulgence now and again.

When we think of healthy snacks, we tend to think of fruits and vegetables like apples and celery, but did you know you can also eat healthy chips? What?! Healthy chips?! Yes, healthy chips, such as chips that are baked, not fried. These are a great alternative to eating their greasy original counterparts, and they go great with sandwiches! There are many flavors and options to choose from, so there shouldn’t be a problem finding something that pleases the palate.

Speaking of fruits and vegetables, how often do you find yourself snacking on a bag of baby carrots or box of raisins? Eating fruits and vegetables as snacks is one of the best choices a person can make, as these are packed with essential vitamins and nutrients; did you know carrots are good for the eyes? That would be Beta-Carotene, which is why carrots are orange. Carrots and celery have always been two of my favorite vegetables to snack on, and there are so many different possibilities to make them more fun. It has probably been a long time since you’ve last had this, but ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins) is a fantastic snack! The combination of celery and peanut butter with raisins packs a vitamin and protein punch, essential parts of our daily diet. Even though it is a kid’s snack, it should be more popular among adults in the workplace, as many jobs are behind a desk and filled with unhealthy snacking (preview of tomorrow’s blog).

Go ahead and start incorporating more healthy snacking options into your daily diet, and your body will thank you tremendously. When we eat healthy, we feel healthy; when we eat unhealthy, we feel… Well, unhealthy. Next week, I challenge you to come up with your own ideas for healthy snack options and what you can do to make it more a part of your daily diet. We need to become a healthier America, and this is a great start to getting our country back on the path to healthy lives.

Is it Soda or is it Pop?

Is it soda or is it pop? Depends on what part of the country you reside in, but it is all the same thing: carbonated goodness in a can that comes in all flavors, and sizes. We all enjoy one of these bubbly and sinfully good beverages on occasion because the taste of an ice-cold soda (or pop) can really hit the spot. There are many different varieties out there to try, such as root beer, grape soda, and orange soda. However, even though these tasty testaments to sugar and syrup have a place in many people's lives, they have many effects on our bodies.

Drinking too many carbonated beverages isn't just bad for your skin; it is also damaging to the stomach over a long period of time, which can cause ulcers, among other things. Most sodas produced in the United States all have one common ingredient in them: High-fructose corn syrup. I'm sure most of you have read about this throughout the years and how it has made its way into many of the foods and beverages we consume daily, but the next time you drink a can of soda, take a look at the ingredients and what you will spot is high-fructose corn syrup, well-positioned as the second ingredient. This component of the soda is what helps its sweetness, which is also much cheaper to produce than actual sugar. There is a lot of corn produced in this country, and it is big business for farmers and other companies making the actual syrup, so most of our sodas will contain this questionable substitute for sugar for the foreseeable future.

(Going off subject of soda for a moment, I wanted to mention a challenge about high-fructose corn syrup. I challenge you to look at labels of what you eat and read the ingredients. Does it contain HFCS? If you eat Ritz crackers, you bet it does. Ketchup? Yes, indeed. Don't forget about that Italian dressing, either.)

There are no real healthy sodas out there, even though some claim to have zero calories. What this does is it means zero taste. The market is big for these kinds of products because people want to lose weight and eat healthy, but they don't want to cut certain things out of their lives. If anyone is going to drink a soda, make it the classic and keep it in moderation because we don't want to have a bad acne and ulcer problem, now, do we? If you're serious about not wanting HFCS, try a Mexican soda. They don't contain HFCS and are made from real sugar. It's a hot summer, so enjoy a soda once in a while; I won't tell anyone.

What Did You Eat This Week?

What did you eat this week? Was it something healthy, or was it mainly fast and unhealthy? I'll admit that I had a few unhealthy meals this week (pizza, burger and fries, chicken strip basket), but they were so good! Most of the other meals I had this week were mainly salads and plain turkey sandwiches on toasted wheat bread, since I am trying to eat more healthy meals and ditch a lot of the foods in the parentheses above, along with ditching sodas, which we will discuss in a later post.

Going back to salads, how do you like your salads? Do you use lots of dressing and other goodies, such as real bacon bits? What many people don't realize is that these extras on our salads make our leafy meals just as unhealthy, if not unhealthier, than eating that double-bacon cheeseburger with large fries and a soda! Salads weren't meant to be this way! We eat them to try and get some leafy vegetables incorporated into our diet, but since we are a society that craves fatty foods, we decide to throw extreme amounts of salad dressing on to make it taste better. What happened to appreciating the real taste of a vegetable? For me, all I put on salads are a sprinkling of bacon bits, a few croutons, and a sprinkling of chow mein noodles, if I have them around. No dressing for this guy, but if it's a caesar, I'll take the dressing but go light on it.

My challenge to you is to eat a salad once a day, and don't put any dressing on it! Eat it as it's intended to be: plain, but so healthy for you. Try it and you'll eventually be eating salads with every meal, and you'll be feeling better also!