Community Healthy Weight Challenge Home Page
Eat Less of the Nutrient-Poor Foods
It's not a good idea to use your daily allotment of calories on a few high-calorie foods and beverages that don't provide the nutrients your body needs. Follow these recommendations as you develop an overall healthy eating plan.
Limit how much saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol you eat. These fats are usually found in meat and dairy foods and products that are commercially baked and fried. Cutting back on these foods can reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease by lowering "bad" LDL cholesterol in your blood. Choose lean meats and poultry without skin and prepare them without added saturated and trans fat.
- Cuts of red meat and pork labeled ‘loin’ and ‘round’ usually have the least amount of fat.
- Remove all visible fat from meat and poultry before cooking.
- Remove skin from poultry before cooking eating.
- Choose white meat most often when eating poultry.
- Grill, bake or broil meats and poultry fish.
- Cut back or eliminate on processed meats that are high in saturated fat and sodium.
Select fat-free, 1 percent fat, and low-fat dairy products.
- Minimize your intake of whole-fat dairy products such as butter and whole milk or full-fat dairy products (yogurt, cheeses).
- If you drink whole or 2 percent milk, or use full-fat dairy products, gradually switch to fat-free, low-fat or reduced-fat dairy products.
Cut back on foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet.
- Use liquid vegetable oils and soft margarines in place of hard margarine or shortening.
- Limit cakes, cookies, crackers, pastries, pies, muffins, doughnuts and French fries made with partially hydrogenated or saturated fats.
Cut back on foods high in dietary cholesterol.
- Try to eat less than 300 mg of cholesterol each day.
- Some commonly eaten cholesterol-containing foods include eggs (about 200 mg per yolk), shellfish (50 to 100 mg per ½ cup), “organ” meats such as liver (375 mg per 3 oz), and whole milk (30 mg per cup).
Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars.
Many snack foods and beverages have added sugar.
Cut back on added sugars to lower your total calorie intake. These foods tend to be low in vitamins and minerals and the calories add up quickly. Also, drinking calorie-containing beverages may not make you feel full. This could tempt you to eat and drink more than you need and gain weight.
- Examples of added sugars are sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, corn syrups, high-fructose corn syrup, concentrated fruit juice and honey.
- Read the ingredient list. Choose items that don’t have added sugars in their first four listed ingredients.
Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt.
Foods low in salt lower your risk for high blood pressure and may help you control it.
- Compare the sodium content of similar products (for example, different brands of tomato sauce) and choose the products with less sodium.
- Choose frozen foods, soups, cereals, baked goods and other processed foods that are labeled “reduced-sodium.”
- Limit high-sodium condiments and foods such as soy sauce, steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, flavored seasoning salts, pickles and olives.
- Replace salt with herbs and spices or some of the salt-free seasoning mixes. Use lemon juice, citrus zest or hot chiles to add flavor.
- Try rinsing certain foods, such as canned tuna and salmon, feta cheese and capers, to remove some of the sodium.
- Aim to eat less than 2,300 mg of salt per day.