Meal Planning Made Easy
Meal Planning Made Easy
by Debbie Judd, RN
One of the best investments in our future is to feed our kids right. The next best investment—feed yourself right. Understanding how eating choices affect health, quality of life and future is analogous to financial planners' simple view of investing—contribute now and you'll reap the benefits long term.
Our "fast food" and hectic lifestyle supports eating on the go but they do not support health. A recent national magazine brought this point to heart. Americans are collectively more than 5 billion pounds overweight with nearly 70% of our population overweight or obese. Eating for health does not mean driving up to a fast-food window, having your brown bag meal within minutes, gulping it down while driving and talking on your cell phone, hoping you'll make it to the kids' game on time. Sound familiar? What it does mean is taking the time to plan, prepare, and savor the benefits of your knowledge and investment, and focus on food and the act of eating as a fundamental aspect of well-being.
The first step in providing healthy meals for you and your family is making the process simple and easy. The days of reading through cookbooks for fresh meal ideas or experimenting with new recipes are foreign to most of us—we are just too busy. The focus should be on the balance and variety of proper nutrients that will support our busy and stressful lifestyles and promote optimal health.
Planning healthy meals involves a few basic rules that everyone in the family should learn. Considerations should include the amount of time available for meal planning and preparation, family likes and dislikes, and choosing from a variety of foods to meet your family's nutritional needs. For those time-crunched families, DineWise offers all of the basics along with a friendly staff to help you meet your family's needs.
Make a list of meals for the week. These should include some family favorites but don't get locked into the same routine. Eating the same foods over and over means you are missing nutrients from foods not eaten. Focus on a variety of protein sources for each meal. I tell my clients to build a meal using protein as the cornerstone. If using the "eyeball" method, protein should take up one-quarter of your plate.
Next—carbohydrates. These include foods from the vegetable, fruit and grain list. In counseling my patients, we use the 40/20/20/20 rule. Of all the carbohydrates consumed at a meal, 40% of them should come from the non-starchy vegetables. These foods may include broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, lettuces, cabbage, etc. I call these the "rabbit foods." The 20% carbohydrates include starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peas, legumes; 20% from fruits and 20% from whole grain-based foods.
Other considerations should include color, texture and temperature of the foods served. Pick colors from the rainbow—blues as in blueberries, eggplant, and purple cabbage; reds as in peppers, strawberries, radishes, beets, and tomatoes; orange as in cantaloupe, carrots, apricots and oranges; green as in lettuces, greens, peppers, broccoli, asparagus, green beans; yellow as in peppers and melons. Textures should be varied from smooth to crunchy and crisp to tender for added interest and pleasure for the palate. Variations between hot, room temp and cold foods should be considered. If your plate is full of color, then you can be assured that it has a balance of nutrients.
Friendly fats as part of your meals include the omega-3s from fish, raw nuts and seeds, and natural nut butters such as peanut and almond butter. Oils should be unrefined, cold pressed and stored in the refrigerator. As important as including these friendly fats is, excluding the unhealthy sources from fast food and processed sources is equally as important.
Meal planning doesn't have to be overwhelming and something foreign to us or our children. Learning, and teaching our children the role food plays in our health, is one of the greatest contributions you can make in their investment for health. If you need help, let DineWise be your nutrition planner and investor in the health of your family and our nation. |
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