Nutrition Beat Blog
By Registered Dietitian, Susannah Baldock, MS, MPH, RD, LDN
The public health messages we receive about improving our health and lowering our risk for disease, include recommendations to eat more plant-based foods and/or, depending on the entity giving the recommendation, maybe only eating plant-based foods.
How do we figure out what the best approach is for our lives? Let's explore all of the different types of plant-based diets, so you can decide what the best fit is for you.
Last Saturday, while scouting around at a local farmers market, I found an abundance of basil plants that looked and smelled absolutely magnificent!
Fresh basil can be used in a variety of ways in our daily lives, whether we are plucking it straight off of the plant to add to our pizza or salad, drying it for later use, freezing it to quickly add to any sauce, or cooking and baking with it today.
Wow! I had no idea that strawberries are part of the rose family!
Mmmmmm, the thought of biting into a beautiful red ripe strawberry that I just brought home from the farmers market makes my mouth start to water. When eaten at the perfect time, I think they taste better than candy and completely forget about all of the great nutritional benefits that are packed into them.
This week in northern Illinois we should be able to find some good looking rhubarb. In the U.S., rhubarb is traditionally featured in pies, jams, crumbles, breads, and other sweet foods.
THERE ARE MANY SWEET AND SAVORY WAYS TO PREPARE RHUBARB AND, NUMEROUS REASONS TO FIT RHUBARB INTO YOUR DAILY EATING PATTERN AS A “FUNCTIONAL FOOD.”
Unfortunately, dried fruit often gets a bad, and incorrect, rap as not being good for you because it contains too much sugar, food additives/preservatives, and can make you gain weight.
In reality, properly dried and prepared fruit can be an excellent part of any eating pattern.
The trick is to know how to choose the healthiest dried fruit products, or how to make your own dried fruit, and how much a serving size really is.
