We all know eating more fruits and veggies is smart advice for our health and waistlines, but what about those pesky pesticide residues?

According to the Environmental Working Group, both U.S. and international government agencies acknowledge that pesticides have been linked with a variety of toxic effects on the nervous and hormone systems, as well as skin, eye, and lung irritation, and various cancers. Yikes! What can you do to minimize your exposure to these nasty compounds?

For starters, switch to organic produce, meats, and dairy. I know shopping for organics can get pretty pricely. Luckily, the EWG has tested numerous fruits and vegetables for pesticide residues and conveniently ranked them from best to worst.

If you’re not quite ready to make an all-out switch to organics, start with the “Dirty Dozen.” By shopping for organic versions of the twelve worst pesticide offenders, you’ll dramatically cut your exposure:

Buy Organic: 

Peaches
Apples
Sweet Bell Peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Kale
Lettuce
Grapes (imported from outside U.S.)
Carrots
Pears

Need a reminder when you hit the produce aisle? Download the pocket size Shopper’s Guide To Pesticides or EWG’s free app Dirty Produce.

Stay tuned for recipes featuring “The Clean 15,” the fifteen foods that are still safe to buy conventionally.

Saturated fats, the kind found in animal products, clog blood vessels, raise cholesterol, and contribute to heart disease.  Think butter, ice cream, whole milk, cheese, various cuts of beef and pork, poultry skin, baked goods, etc.  Swapping in heart healthy plant fats for some of the animal fats in your diet can decrease your risk of future heart attacks and strokes.  Plant fats include olive and vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, olives, and the brilliant avocado.

Although there are dozens of avocado varieties, California-grown Haas avocados are among the most popular and readily available in the US. Loaded with fiber, an array of vitamins and minerals, and heart-healthy fats, this fancy fruit should star in more dishes than guacamole. Check out this chart to compare avocado with other common dips and spreads, and you’ll see that ounce-for-ounce, avocados are lower in calories, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium than butter, cheese, or mayo.  But keep in mind that although they are uber-healthy, avocados remain a concentrated fat source, and the calories can add up quickly if you’re not paying attention to portions.  So, stick to a 1-2 oz serving per day; the equivalent of 1/5 -1/4 of a medium avocado.

Aside from spreads and dips, avocados are delicious sliced and drizzled with lime-scented olive oil , tossed into salads, corn salsas, or black beans, paired with fish, or as a garnish to omelets and scrambled eggs. The possibilities are endless, but here are a few easy tips to get you started:

Breakfast Spreads Rather than butter or cream cheese, spread 1/5 of a ripe avocado on whole grain toast or an English muffin for an easy, heart-healthy breakfast.

Sandwich Toppers Swap the cheese out for a few slices of avocado on a roast turkey wrap or sandwich. Add squirts of honey and Dijon mustard, for a surprising flavor boost.  Use mashed avocado instead of mayo in tuna or chicken salad; mix with 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds, freshly chopped cilantro, and a dusting of chili powder.

Snack On It Avocado is great on crackers with a few cucumber or red pepper slices or stuffed into mini pita pockets with a few chickpeas. Or try it cubed with fresh mango, strawberry slices, and a squeeze of lime juice as a refreshing mid-day snack.

Check out the California Avocado Commission to find hundreds of recipes, from creative takes on guacamole to avocado daiquiris, plus tips for selecting and storing this mighty fruit.

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!

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

Sign up for Eat This, Not That! online newsletters to get great tips like these delivered straight to your inbox!

Many of you want to make informed food choices and develop healthy eating and physical activity habits, but finding accurate information online isn’t easy.   Registered dietitians are committed to assisting the public in it’s quest to “eat right.” The ADA is one of their valued sources of  food and nutrition information and answers, as well as commentary on important dietary topics and trends.

Check out the newly re-vamped for the public section.  The disease management and prevention section discusses the various claims between diet and  diseases such as diabetes, autism, and irritable bowel syndrome.  The media constantly claims links between this diet and that disease, but many of these assertions are overstated or outright false.  The ADA can  help you separate sound medical information from media hype.

Check it out!

Research suggests that people who keep food and activity journals lose more weight and maintain a healthier weight than people who don’t keep records. Sound tedious? Not with the DailyBurn’s easy, interactive, diet and fitness website. There’s even an iphone app for all you smartphone users out there. And the basic level is free.

A fundamental lesson in human metabolism and a favorite phrase of many dietitians is “calories in, calories out.” Take in more calories than you burn, and you will gain weight. Burn more calories than you consume, and you will lose weight. Unlike other web tools that focus on either exercise or calorie counts alone, DailyBurn incorporates both fitness and dietary tracking into one program, allowing the user to compare what they consume with what they burn.

The website offers much more than data entry. You can browse hundreds of exercises, create your own workouts, join challenges, and find accountability partners. Track distance, heart rate, reps, and sets, and (gulp!) weight and body measurements, and view your progress over time (weeks or months) in multiple interactive charts and graphs.

DailyBurn has a database of 170,000 foods and recipes. You can also add your own foods and recipes. Aside from calories, carbohydrate, protein, and fat intakes are available as well. One problem I have with the dietary portion of the site is that the default recommendation for dietary composition is 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 30% fat. More moderate, and perhaps healthier, goal ranges would be more in line with 50-65% carbohydrate, 15-20% protein, and 20-30% fat. But you can easily customize these settings.

Want to “burn fat, lose weight, and gain muscle?” DailyBurn might just be the site for you. Need a motivator or want to see what this dietitian eats and does to stay fit? Then join me, cc mayes, on the DailyBurn.

Happy Snacking!