Eat well: Tips for Creating Healthy Meals

CEBU, Philippines - Mark Twain once quipped, is that the only way to keep your health, to “eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like and do what you’d rather not.” For once, Twain was wrong, because the hallmark of healthful eating is actually good taste and variety. Indeed, even the best diets have room for sweets, meats and other treats, when you:

Emphasize fruits, vegetables, and grains.

High in fiber; loaded with vitamins, low in fat and sodium, plant-based foods fill you up with nutrients without loading you down with fat and cholesterol. The fiber in fruits, vegetables, and grains helps speed toxins out of the body. Plants also contain a wealth of active compounds, called phytochemicals – phyto for plant – that boost the body’s cancer-fighting defenses. The more of these foods you eat, the healthier you’ll be.

Cut back on saturated fat.

All of us know that we should eat less fat – especially the big culprit, the saturated kind found in fatty meats, whole milk, ice cream, and cheese. Saturated fat raises cholesterol levels and increases the risk of heart disease. Reach for nonfat or low-fat milk, and also help yourself to smaller portions of beef, veal, lamb, pork, and ham. On your pasta, try a light tomato sauce instead of a heavy cream sauce. Instead of a rich dessert, reach for a piece of fruit.

Go easy on smoked, salt-cured and charbroiled foods. All contain high levels of nitrates, which have been linked to several forms of cancer. Enjoy them occasionally, if at all.

If you drink, go easy.

Alcohol in moderation – one drink a day for women, two a day for men – may have some health benefits. As a group, moderate drinkers have less risk of heart disease and seem to live longer than nondrinkers. If you don’t drink now, however; that news is no reason to start. You’d benefit far more by eating less saturated fat than adding alcohol.

What’s one drink? A bottle of beer (12 ounces), a glass of wine (5 ounces), or a jigger of liquor (1.5 ounces). — from Dr. Koop’s Self-Care Advisor by C Everett Koop, M.D. Medical Director, TIME LIFE MEDICAL (FREEMAN)