Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Health Tips for October 21

Health Tip: Choose Meats Wisely

Love to eat meat? As with any food group, there are good choices and bad.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers these suggestions on which meats to choose, and how:

  • Select for low-fat meats and chicken, and avoid eating high-fat ground beef or chicken with the skin.
  • Don't forget to count the fat and calories in cooking additives. For example, if you cook chicken in shortening, add the extra calories to your count.
  • Include fish in your diet, especially those high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, trout and herring.
  • Avoid organ meats such as liver, which are high in cholesterol.
  • Also avoid processed meats such as hot dogs, ham, sausage and lunch meats, which can be very high in sodium and other additives.
Health Tip: Eating a Brain-Healthy Diet

What you eat can go a long way toward keeping your brain sharp and efficient.

AARP.org offers these brain-healthy nutritional suggestions:

  • Vegetables -- Eat as many as you can, of all different colors, shapes and varieties.
  • Antioxidants -- Found in vitamins C, E and beta carotene, you should get plenty of these substances. They occur naturally in many fruits and vegetables.
  • Omega-3 fatty acids -- They are found in fatty fish such as mackerel, herring, sardines, anchovies, whitefish, tuna and sablefish.
  • A B vitamin -- Take one daily.
  • A multivitamin -- Also take one daily, but never exceed recommended dose. Taking more vitamins doesn't make it healthier -- doing so could be dangerous.

No comments: