In this edition
- Choosing Health Over Convenience
- Dietary Habits
- Physical Activities
- Making Healthy Choices: One Day at a Time Dinner
About the Newsletter
In honor of National Nutrition Month, we provide you with practical guidelines for a healthy lifestyle. Follow these simple dietary habits and physical activities to help prevent chronic disease. In addition, we will showcase a dinner recipe that is high in nutrients and can help boost immunity and overall health.
Choosing Health Over Convenience
By Angeline Jeyakumar, Ph.D.
National Nutrition month 2024 logo
The story of Elizabeth Grigsby sends one of the strongest messages of mindfulness over convenience. Elizabeth was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and the doctor suggested institutionalization. She would ‘not walk or talk,’ which was the reason for the recommendation. Her foster mother ‘consciously’ refused to put her in an institution. This mindful decision has worked as a great miracle. Today, Elizabeth can ‘talk,’ even though she cannot ‘walk.’ Even more, she serves as a Consumer Rights Advocate in California. This was achievable by the foster mother's thoughtful decision.
Regarding our personal lives, do we make mindful and conscious choices every day? Have we become advocates of comfort and ease, even in our homes? Has convenience become our lifestyle?
Choosing bakery products from a store, a fruit drink with sugar over the fruit, or meals away from home, are everyday examples of convenience in our lifestyle. Convenience as a choice, in the above story, could have been debilitating. So, too, with our lifestyle choices. Our diet, which is key to sustaining life, has become a choice of convenience in our busy lives.
The rising number of chronic conditions in households reflects our convenient lifestyle.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) highlights the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and being physically active to promote overall health and well-being.
Cigarette packs warn consumers of health hazards, while unhealthy foods lack such warnings. This emphasizes the importance of making mindful choices as consumers, reading nutrition labels, and avoiding foods high in salt, sugar, fat, and preservatives. A "healthy plate" is often emphasized in messages promoting healthy eating. Healthy eating begins with healthy buying and only requires a conscious effort.
On the next page are practical guidelines for a healthy lifestyle to prevent chronic conditions. They may not be as simple as they appear, but they are not impossible.
"Every great journey starts with a single step.” ~ Maya Angelou, 1993
In this National Nutrition Month, let us take conscious steps to choose health over convenience. Noting that some convenience items do fit in a healthy diet, especially if they ease the burden of food preparation (e.g., pre-chopped vegetables and fruit).
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ANGELINE JEYAKUMER
Dietary Habits
Healthy Eating Habits sign in front of fruit
- Choose water over sugar-sweetened beverages.
- Add fresh vegetables to your everyday diet and include a variety.
- Include fiber-rich whole-grain foods over processed cereals.
- Consume fresh fruits, and avoid the processed form (juices/jams).
- Add a variety of protein to the plate from animal and vegetarian sources.
- Choose low-fat or fat-free dairy to restrict saturated fats without altering the calcium intake.
LINK TO MYPLATE.
Physical Activity
Move Your Way Campaign logo
- With the help of an expert, plan an exercise schedule and stick to it.
- Invite a friend for a walk to adhere to the regime.
- Start Slowly and add time, frequency or intensity every week.
- Make physical activity part of your daily or weekly schedule.
- Move more and sit less throughout the day.
LINK TO learn more about Move Your Way
Making Healthy Choices: One Day at a Time Dinner
A dinner plate with oven-baked tilapia and vegetables with pasta
Last month, we showcased Breakfast and Lunch recipes – this month, we showcase Dinner!
Remember that small changes in our diets can offer more nutrient-dense food and beverage choices, providing foods that have high amounts of nutrients per calorie, including vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
These foods can help boost immunity, supporting our overall health and well-being. By making simple swaps in your favorite recipes, you can easily boost the nutrient density of your meals and snacks. The following dinner example, at 375 calories, shows us how we can make thoughtful choices that meet our food group needs, stay within our personal limits, and, most importantly, we can enjoy. Give it a try!
Dinner
Total calories: 375
- Oven-roasted tilapia and Vegetables with Pasta (510 calories)
- Tilapia (4 ounces)
- Broccoli (½ cup)
- Carrots (⅓ cup)
- Summer squash (⅓ cup)
- Pasta (¾ cup cooked)
- Garlic-herb oil (1 Tbsp)
- Orange (1 medium) 75 calories)
- Sparkling Water (8 ounces) (0 calories)
Visit DietaryGuidelines.gov. for more information from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025
An EEO/AA institution. This material was funded in part by the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
