What New Yorker hasn’t used Fresh Direct’s convenient online grocery service? Those trucks with the ubiqitous orange cabs can be seen squeezing down even the narrowest city streets delivering sustenance to busy Manhattanites.

With the introduction of their FREE iPhone app, Fresh Direct has now made grocery shopping more convenient than ever, at least for iPhone users.

Aside from the time-saving convience, using an on-line grocer is a great way to eat smarter. People who plan out their meals and keep their kitchens stocked with healthy items tend to eat more healthfully. Fill your cart with a variety of fresh fruits and veggies, eggs, lean meats, low-fat dairy, whole grain bread, canned beans, nuts, and even chocolate. Stock up on some convenience foods as well because you know there will be nights when you get home and that take-out menu will tempt you with it’s burgers and fries. There are over twenty-five 4-Minute heat & serve meals available with 500 calories or less. Or order a fruit or veggie tray, and snack on it throughout the week.

If you’re daunted by meal planning and grocery shopping, you’re in luck. Book an appointment with Mental Kitchen, and allow me to design a customized 1-week meal plan, complete with 7 days of nutrient-packed breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack ideas. Based on your food preferences and the bounty of food items available from Fresh Direct®, I can fill your virtual shopping cart with healthy fare. All you have to do is schedule a delivery time.

You know fruits and veggies are good for you, but just how many fruits and vegetables do you need to eat each day to enjoy their health benefits?  The short answer is about 2 1/2  cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit.  Any combination of cooked, uncooked, fresh, frozen, canned (in natural juices), dried, whole or chopped will do.  The more variety, the better.

Both the National Cancer Institute and the Institute of Medicine, as well as a slew of other public health agencies, have long recommend 5-9 daily servings of fruits and vegetables, about 4-5 cups in total, to ensure adequate intakes of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and the antioxidants and phytochemicals concentrated in plants.

Most fruits and vegetables are naturally low in calories and provide essential nutrients and dietary fiber. They may also play a role in preventing certain chronic diseases. When compared to people who eat only small amounts of fruits and vegetables, those who eat more generous amounts, as part of a healthy diet, tend to have reduced risk of chronic diseases. These diseases include stroke, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and perhaps cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005. 6th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, January 2005.

If fruits and veggies are so good for us, why aren’t we eating more of them?   Lack of media exposure may be partly to blame, but unfortunately, these agencies don’t have the billion dollar marketing budgets that companies like Coke, McDonald’s, and Frito-Lay do.   Consumers are endlessly exposed to the lure of sugar-laden sodas, super-sized, super caloric value meals, and salty snack chips, while fresh fruits and veggies are quietly disappearing from most Americans’ diets.   What if the American Idol judges sat at a table set with lush tropical fruit and colorful crudites rather than large, red, plastic Coke cups?  Would Americans be more inclined to chose a healthy snack or beverage if their “idols” chose them?  Maybe I’m reaching, but you see my point.

All is not lost, and there are great resources available to help in your quest to eat smarter.  The CDC has launched it’s new Fruits and Veggies Matter More campaign offering tools and information to help you do just that. There’s a calculator to find out how many fruits and vegetables you need each day, based on  your age, gender, and physical activity level.   There are plenty of tips, recipes, and visuals to get you started.

Veggie Up!

In Part 1 of this salad series I cited a study that found that people who eat daily salads have increased levels of disease-fighting vitamins and antioxidants, specifically vitamin C, vitamin E, lycopene, and carotenoids.   Are cooked veggies as protective as raw salad veggies?

Of course!! The study likely looked only at salad and raw veggie intake because it was funded by The Association for Dressings and Sauces. Sell more salad, sell more salad dressing.  All fruits and vegetables are loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants unique to plant foods, and cooking even enhances the activity of some of these compounds, like the lycopene found in tomatoes.  While eating a salad-a-day is a great advice,  you will get plenty of health-promoting nutrients by eating a combination of fresh and cooked vegetables and fruits as well.

The best advice it so eat a variety of different fruits and veggies each week.  Take a peek at the chart produced by the Produce for Better Health Foundation, and you’ll notice that different colored fruits and veggies have different compounds.

Variety is truly the spice of life.  Incorporate a variety of colorful fruits and veggies into your diet and you’ll reap a variety of health benefits.  Need some ideas? Click here to download a list of 50 Ways To Add More Fruits and Veggies to Your Diet to your meals and snacks.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series to find out how many fruits and vegetables you need to eat each day to boost your levels of these important nutrients.

Could a “salad-a-day” keep the doctor away? There are no guarantees, but eating more veggies will give your body more disease-fighting nutrients vital to optimal health.

A UCLA/Louisiana State University study of dietary data on more than 17,500 men and women finds consumption of salad and raw vegetables correlates with higher concentrations of folic acid, vitamins C and E, lycopene and alpha and beta carotene in the bloodstream. The study is the first to examine the relationship between normal salad consumption and nutrient levels in the bloodstream, and also the first to examine the dietary adequacy of salad consumption using the latest nutritional guidelines of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Salad a Day.org –UCLA/LSU Study Details Nutritional Value of Salad.

Fruits and vegetables are concentrated sources of many vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (substances that prevent or repair cellular damage) that Americans simply do not consume enough of.  The study supports the notion that people who eat more vegetables, have more these disease-fighting nutrients coursing through their bloodstreams, such as:

Folate (Folic Acid): a vitamin that plays essential roles in making DNA and RNA and thus new cells, prevents anemia, protects against heart disease, and prevents certain birth defects of the spine. Best Sources: beans, nuts, spinach, leafy greens, avocado, and cereals and grains fortified with folic acid.
Vitamin C:  powerful antioxant, required for the healing of wounds and the growth and repair of tissues in all parts of the body, including skin, scar tissue, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. Best Sources: citrus fruits, strawberries, broccoli, collard greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, potatoes.
Vitamin E:  antioxidant that helps the body form red blood cells and use vitamin K, and its antioxidant activity may protect the heart and prevent certain cancers, heart disease, dementia, liver disease, and stroke. Best Sources: Salad oils (soybean, corn, safflower, and cottonseed), nuts, wheat germ, spinach & green leafy vegetables.
Caratenoids: antioxidant pigments found in plants that are converted into vitamin A, promote normal vision, and protect the skin and tissues of the mouth, stomach, intestines, lungs, and urinary tract from infection.  Best Sources: red, orange, and deep-yellow fruits and veggies, and dark green leafy veggies.  Think bell peppers, mangoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, and tomatoes.

Since the majority of people don’t eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, they don’t have optimal levels of these protective power-house nutrients.

But do you really need to eat a salad-a-day to get meet your vitamin quota? Are cooked veggies as protective as raw? How many fruits and vegetables do you need to eat to boost your levels of these important nutrients? Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of this blog post.

Sugar may be okay in moderation, but one person’s idea of moderation is different from another’s.  In fact, the average American consumes 22 to 30 teaspoons of added sugars a day.  That’s not moderation. Not even close according to current guidelines which suggest limiting added sugars to 6 1/2 teaspoons a day for women and 9 1/2  for men.

All of this excessive sugar in the American diet is a major contributor to the rising rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.  And the nation’s children, adolescents, and young adults are developing these chronic diseases at much younger ages than previous generations.

How to cut back on the sweet stuff?  Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Read labels & ingredient lists to find hidden sugar sources.
Added sugars would be any source of  sugar aside from those naturally occurring in whole fruit, milk, and plain yogurt.  Sugars have a variety of names, but all pack in around 45-60 calories per tablespoon.  Examples are agave syrup or nectar, apple or grape juice concentrate, brown rice syrup, brown sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, honey, jellies, jams, maple syrup, molasses, preserves, and of course, table, confectioner’s, baker’s, and powdered sugar. Basically, ingredients with the words juice, syrup, nectar, and words ending in “-ose” indicate sugar.  Even organic and natural sugars are still sugars and contribute extra calories to the diet.

2. Eat your fruit, don’t drink it.
The natural sugars in fruit don’t count towards the 6-9 1/2 teaspoon recommendation, but juices are more concentrated than fresh fruit, making them higher in calories, and many do have added sugars.  Fruit smoothies?  Don’t even go there.  One cup of fresh or frozen strawberries has less than 90 calories, but a strawberry smoothie can tip the scales at 500+ calories and can be loaded with added sugars.  Eat 2 cups of fresh fruit per day, and skip all other juices, fruit drinks, smoothies, juice bars, etc.

3. Leave those fancy coffees alone.
Drink coffee or lattes with skim milk and only 1 pump or packet of sugar.  Coffee itself only has 5-10 calories per cup, but fancy coffee drinks are major sources of excessive sugar (flavor syrups, chocolate, caramel, etc) and can range anywhere from 250-600 calories. Plus they’re expensive–switching from $5 lattes to $2 cups of coffee will save you hundreds of dollars and thousands of calories per year. Use that savings to buy a new clothes to show off that slimmer figure.

4. Limit the variety of sweets & candy in the home or work space.
Studies show that people will eat more if there’s a variety to chose from.  For example, if there’s ice cream, candy kisses, and chocolate chip cookies laying around, you will eat more than if just one is available.  Why do we do this?  Perhaps it was our ancestors’ way of ensuring a balanced diet: a variety of food increased the variety of nutrients.  But this behavior is not helpful when is comes to sweets.

5. Sharing makes life sweeter.
Split desserts, cookies, cupcakes, pastries, muffins, and donuts with a fellow diner or co-worker.  Very few of us have room in our diets for regular 500-700 calorie treats, but the occasional 250-350 calorie indulgence is much more manageable.

If you want to make room for more sugar in your diet, you’ll have to burn more calories through daily physical activity.  For example, the average woman would need to run (not jog) for about 45-75 minutes to burn off a 400-700 calorie cupcake from Crumbs or a full hour for a 500-calorie frappucino from Starbucks.  Lace up those running shoes!

Healthy snacking is a great strategy to keep your metabolism buzzing and add tons of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to your daily diet. A mid-morning and late afternoon snack will hold hunger at bay and prevent lunchtime and evening pig-outs. Try to include 2 or more food groups per snack, aiming for a mix of fruits, veggies, nuts, beans, whole grains, and lowfat dairy throughout the week.

Portion size is key; if the snack is too large, then guess what? It’s not a snack; it’s a meal.  Two hundred calories for women and 300 for men is a realistic snack size.  The following snacks are around 200 calories and packed with a balance of carbohydrate, protein, and fat to keep you energized throughout the day.

1. Whole wheat English muffin spread with 1 Tablespoon peanut, cashew, or almond butter.
2. 2 dried figs, 1 oz goat cheese, 2 slices of prosciutto
3. 1-2 cups tomato, veggie, or lentil soup
4. Celery sticks spread with 1/4 cup cottage cheese and tart, dried cherries
5. 8 cashews (1/2 oz), 3-4 Hershey kisses
6. 4-6 dried apricots, 12 almonds (1/2 oz)
7. 1 cup edamame pods with a dash of soy sauce
8. 2-3 Tablespoons hummus and raw veggies for dipping. Try carrots, celery, broccolini, radish, grape tomatoes, and snow peas.
9. 1 packet instant oatmeal, 7 walnuts (1/2 oz), 1 tsp honey
10. 1 apple or pear sliced and dipped in lowfat strawberry yogurt
11. 1 packet hot chocolate mix make with 8oz low-fat or non-fat milk
12. 1 small whole wheat tortilla wrapped around 1/2 banana and 2 tsp peanut butter
13. Smoothie made with 1 cup each of frozen peaches and raspberries, 1/2 c fatfree Greek yogurt (try Fage), squirt of lime juice
14. 3 Ryvita dark rye crispbreads topped with 1/4 avocado and cucumber slices
15. 1 small whole wheat pita stuffed with cold, shredded chicken breast, grape halves, and celery, and a squirt each of honey and Dijon mustard

Have some favorite snacks of your own? Share them with MentalKitchen readers!

I was flipping through an issue of Real Simple this evening at the gym and came across a blurb about Good Food Near You, a website that helps you locate healthy menu options at various eating establishments in your immediate vicinity.  I checked it out when I got home and think the site can help you eat smarter when you’re out and about in unfamiliar surroundings and in need of sustenance.

If you’re at work, driving in your car, or traveling for business or pleasure, dining options may be limited, making smart dining decisions difficult.  Enter your zip code, and Good Food Near You lists the lowest calorie item at 25 dining places near your location, including fast food and popular restaurants, and grocery and convenience stores. Select a search result to see the full nutrition information for that menu item, access a map to the location, and view the restaurant’s entire menu content. Search results can be sorted by distance, lowest calories, lowest carbohydrate, or lowest fat.  iPhone and Blackberry apps are available.

Features of Good Food Near You:
- Search for restaurant menu and food options near any U.S. location
- Auto-detect your location to use GPS to search for food near you
- Manually enter your zip code to search for food near you
- Search over 36,000 restaurant menu items
- Search over 250,000 U.S. restaurant locations
- Sort restaurant menus and food by lowest fat, lowest calories or lowest carbohydrates
- Select a menu item to bring up detailed nutritional information including sodium, fiber, protein, sugars and cholesterol
- Map the restaurant to locate good food near you

The concept of the website is great and could be even more useful if independently-owned cafes and restaurants can eventually submit nutritional data for their menu items as well.

If you’re like me, you love all things food.  Cooking it, eating it, and talking about it. Check out this community of over 6,000 Foodie blogs covering every food niche you can fathom. These blogs are chock full of great recipes (simple to gourmet), cooking tips (microwaving to baking), photos, reviews of restaurants, wine, and travel, and so much more!

Trying to eat smarter?  Start with a search of blogs with the popular tags: healthy, nutrition, and (yes!) vegetables.

I hope all of my readers enjoyed the holidays and have kicked 2010 off to a great start!

My favorite Christmas gift: an Apple iPhone.

Thousands of iPhone applications (a.k.a. apps) focus on food, nutrition, and healthy eating habits. There are apps for cooking just about anything, in any fashion; apps for searching nutrient and recipe databases, apps for making grocery lists and budgets; apps for tracking calories, carbohydrate and fat grams; apps for planning meals and weekly menus; apps for finding local farmers markets, choosing sustainable fish, tasting new wines or cheeses; essentially apps for everything food.  The iPhone even has a built-in timer for use in lieu of a kitchen timer.

Since many of these apps can help you eat smarter, and since eating smarter is my great passion, I am excited to tell you that I will be testing some of these apps and reporting my favorites to my readers.

Today, I installed Whole Foods Market Recipes, a fabulous app that let’s you search for recipes by category or specific dietary preference.  Categories include  family friendly, one pot meals, portable, and quick and easy, and special diets offer low fat, sugar conscious, high fiber, gluten-free, and vegetarian fare. Not only is there a comprehensive variety of recipes to choose from, but once you make your selection, the ingredients are automatically added to your shopping list, in the exact amounts called for.  Who hasn’t arrived home after a well-intended trip to the grocer to realize one or another ingredient was forgotten?  No more!

Rank recipes as Favorites, and you have a complete, portable recipe box to refer to when shopping or meal planning, nutritional information included.

Another useful feature, On Hand, lets you enter foods items you already have but don’t necessarily know what to do with.  The app lists recipes using those items, meaning new meal ideas and less food waste. Better bang for your food buck!

Don’t have an iPhone?  You can find the same, great recipes on www.wholefoodsmarket.com.

When it comes to burgers, bigger is definitely not better. Eat This, Not That! author David Zinczenko outs the worst fast-food burgers and tells you what to choose instead.

The worst offenders:  

Wendy’s Double with Everything and Cheese:
700 calories & 40g fat 
Five Guys Cheeseburger (plain):
840 calories & 55g fat
Carl’s Jr. Six Dollar Burger: 890 calories & 54 g fat
Hardee’s Original Thickburger (1/3 lb):
910 calories & 64g fat
Burger King Triple Whopper Sandwich w/ Cheese & Mayo:
1,250 calories & 84g fat

Eat This Instead!

Wendy’s Double Stack with Small Chili:
550 calories & 24g fat
Five Guys Little Bacon Burger with Sauteed Mushrooms and A1 Steak Sauce:
575 calories & 33g fat
Carl’s Jr Big Hamburger:
460 calories & 17g fat
Burger King Tendergrill Chicken Sandwich with Mayo:
490 calories & 21 g fat

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