Healthy Habits, - Healthy Life

Healthy Habits,

Brought to you by the Clark County Health Department. Your source for trusted information on various health, wellness, and safety topics!

By Katie Cook, BSN, RN

The Clark County Health Department is happy to promote health and wellness to our county residents. In this twice-monthly column, we hope to provide readers with reliable health information. This series will be on heart health, including what it is, protective factors against heart disease, and habits to keep us happy and healthy.

Hello again! I hope you are all doing well as you are reading this. This week’s topic is nutrition!

I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. I love to cook, but I hate cleaning up after myself. In our go-go lifestyle, sometimes it is easy to fall back on fast food, restaurants, or quick meals that lack nutrition.

Meals eaten at a restaurant are also typically larger than what we need to feel full, and we may overeat or not pay attention to our portions. According to Time magazine, a recent study states that one meal at a restaurant can average about 1,200 calories or more, which is roughly half, if not more than half, of our recommended daily caloric intake (depending on your sex, age, activity level, etc.). And this is just a meal; what if we order appetizers too?

Food in restaurant meals often contain high amounts of fat, as most things are cooked in butter or grease. Foods high in fats can cause a buildup of plaque in our blood vessels, leading to narrowing, and eventually, heart disease.

Restaurant and fast foods are usually heavily seasoned with salt. Salt causes our bodies to hold on to excess water, leading to more fluid the heart needs to pump around the body. The heart must then work harder, and this leads to higher blood pressure. That is the skinny version. Again, I won’t bore you with more details.

So, the more often we eat at fast food and sit-down restaurants, the more likely that weight gain, high blood pressure, and plaque buildup will result. I am not telling you not to eat the cake, so to speak; just make sure you are conscious of how often!

Now, here are some quick tips to make eating at home easier and more sustainable. Buy ingredients that can make a quick meal. This includes whole wheat breads, eggs, and canned fruits and veggies. Things like Greek yogurt also make a good breakfast base (be sure to be wary of the sugar some of the flavors have snuck into their ingredients).

Prepare your meals ahead of time! You can make things like muffins, egg bites, and casseroles ahead of time, or make a double batch of your meal and freeze half for another night you know you won’t have time to cook.

If you need healthy meal and snack ideas, the American Heart Association is a great resource. They have options for snacks, meals, and how to make changes to benefit your overall health.

The Nutrition Facts label can help you make healthier choices. Here’s what to look for:

Start with serving information.

This will tell you the size of a single serving and how many servings are in the package.

Check total calories.

Do the math to know how many calories you’re getting if you eat the whole package.

Limit certain nutrients.

Compare labels when possible and choose options with lower amounts of added sugars, sodium, saturated fat, and trans fat.

Get enough of beneficial nutrients.

Eat foods with nutrients your body needs, including calcium, dietary fiber, iron, potassium, and vitamin D.

Understand % Daily Value

• The % Daily Value (DV) tells you the percentage of each nutrient in a single serving in terms of the daily recommended amount.

• To consume less of a nutrient (such as saturated fat or sodium), choose foods with a lower % DV (5% or less).

• To consume more of a nutrient (such as fiber or potassium), choose foods with a higher % DV (20% or more).