Recipe News: Modify recipes and food preparation to promote health

"The link between diet and health is important. Food alone cannot make you healthy. Good eating habits, based on variety and moderation, can help keep you healthy and even improve your health. Good eating habits include knowing how to prepare and select foods that fit into the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which suggest that we eat less fat, sugar and salt and more complex carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables and fiber.
One way to help meet these recommendations is to modify our recipes and methods of food preparation. This is relatively easy because many recipes are higher in fat, sugar and salt than is needed for good flavor and quality.
To cut calories, identify which ingredients contribute the most calories. To cut fat, sugar or sodium, or to increase fiber, identify the ingredients that contain these components.
Fat is the most concentrated source of calories. Each gram of fat supplies nine calories, compared to four calories for each gram of protein or carbohydrate and seven calories for each gram of alcohol. Reducing the amount of fat in a recipe is the most effective way to cut calories.
Ingredients can be eliminated completely, reduced in amount, or replaced with a more nutritionally acceptable ingredient.
Not all recipes need modification."

Full article here.

November 9, 2006

Recipe News: Modify recipes and food preparation to promote health