Dining Out Without 'Diet Cheating'

  Eating out occasionally can be a nice alternative to cooking at home, but it can also throw your healthy lifestyle for a loop. Restaurant food is often delicious, but can also have hidden health consequences. Here's the good news - there are healthier choices that you can make while eating out.

Whether you're trying to loose weight, manage high blood pressure or diabetes, follow these guidelines and your body will thank you later.

Go healthy...Most restaurants offer healthier, low salt alternatives on their menu. While most of us aren't willing to order a grilled chicken salad every time we eat out (me included), we can still make small, but important changes.

Order vegetables, like broccoli, as your side instead of french fries. Also, take a break from fried fish and choose the 'grilled' for a change. You get the picture? These small changes add up.

Eat less. Many restaurants serve fairly large portion sizes. Use this to your advantage and share a main dish with a friend or only eat half and take the rest home. A healthier choice, plus you'll save money at the same time.

Here's another strategy - Since it can be tempting to eat everything on your plate, divide the food in half before you ever begin eating. Just push one half to the side and you'll be ready when it's time to ask for a 'to go' box.

Savor your food. Eat small bites and pay attention to the taste and texture. Chew slowly and thoroughly and try putting your fork down for a while between bites. Staying focused on your food may help you feel satisfied while eating a smaller amount as well. If you find this challenging, make sure to have plenty of interesting conversation planned for dinner. It's difficult to eat and talk at the same time! This strategy has never let me down.

Say no to bread. It’s easy to scarf down multiple pieces of bread without even noticing, while you’re waiting for your meal. This can add many calories that you weren’t planning to consume. Want to avoid the temptation altogether? If it’s okay with your friends or family, ask the server not to bring bread to the table, or only to bring one piece for each person.

Fruits and veggies are your friends. Try to make fruits and vegetables a significant part of your meal. Choose a side salad as one of your sides (it's usually a choice). It will help satisfy your hunger, leaving you with leftovers and the yummy 'to go' box that I mentioned earlier (as well as a free lunch for the following day).

Final tip. Let's say that you can't help yourself and you pick the least healthy item on the menu every time. First of all, stop doing that...LOL. Secondly, how about making a deal with yourself to order steamed vegetables as a side. Oh, and not the ones that are sauteed in butter or covered with a heavy sauce. 

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to share it with my social icon 'sharing' buttons at the bottom of the page.

----------------- Sensational Seasonings is a gourmet seasonings company located in Johnson City, TN. Our healthy and delicious product line includes:  Cajun Blackening Seasoning, Chicken Seasoning, Jamaican Jerk Seasoning, Italian Seasoning and Pork Rub. Each of our seasoning blends is either salt-free or low-salt (meeting all guidelines of the FDA). Reducing the salt content in our seasonings allows you to get more flavor from all the herbs and spices we include, while allowing you take total control of your salt intake.  

Sources: Helpguide. “Healthy Fast Food: Tips for Making Healthier Fast Food Choices.” Accessed January 17, 2014. http://www.helpguide.org/life/fast_food_nutrition.htm Medical News Today. “How Many Calories Should I Eat?” Accessed January 17, 2014. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245588.php USDA Choose My Plate. “Tips for Eating Healthy When Eating Out.” Accessed January 17, 2014. http://www.choosemyplate.gov/healthy-eating-tips/tips-for-eating-out.html WebMD. “Estimated Calorie Requirements.” Accessed January 17, 2014. http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/estimated-calorie-requirement

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Top 15 foods to fight inflammation

If you're reading this, you are probably dealing with inflammation or you're doing your best to avoid it! I'm about to give you a list of the top 15 anti-inflammatory foods and herbs.

Since inflammation is a major cause of disease, you'll definitely want to incorporate these foods into your diet. In fact, heart disease is caused by the inflammation of your arteries, while arthritis is caused by inflammation in your joints. Even ulcerative colitis is caused by inflammation of your colon. Most disease today has an inflammatory component, even cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Top 15 -

 

• Leafy Greens! Green, leafy vegetables are high in vitamin K as well as chlorophyll which helps detoxify your body and lower levels of inflammation. Looking to change up your salads, try chard, dandelion greens, beet greens.  Spinach and kale are great as well in terms of their vitamin K, their calcium, magnesium. Those minerals to help lower inflammation in the body.

• The next one is Bok Choy, part of that cabbage family which is  very high in something called vitamin U. Vitamin U is known to support glutathione levels in the body which helps lower inflammation and helps support the liver. So bok choy, another incredible super food with anti-inflammatory properties.

• Celery is another unique super food for reducing inflammation (and especially celery juice). Celery is very high in electrolytes and also a trace mineral called silica. It's high in potassium and overall works in a unique way to help flush toxins out of our bodies. It helps with something called "fluid exchange" of intracellular and extracellular fluids.

  Celery is also great for gout. If somebody has uric acid buildup in their body and they would have a sore elbow or certain joints, celery helps with flushing out uric acid out of your system. So overall, an incredible vegetable for its anti-inflammatory benefits.

• Beets is next on the list (though one that you'll want to be careful with if you're watching your sugar levels). Beets actually boost something in your body called nitric oxide, which is known to increase your body's red blood cells and your overall circulation. This is why endurance athletes supplement with nitric oxide.

  Many eat beets because of its ability to help support red blood cell production and the overall health of the blood. Nitric oxide also helps reduce inflammation in the body. So beet's an incredible super food for building your blood, improving endurance, improving energy but also for supporting the heart health and reducing inflammation!

• Broccoli, which is very unique in many ways! It actually has high levels of chromium which is really good for your blood sugar levels ( and great for diabetics). Broccoli is actually one of the most nutrient-dense of all foods out there including its high level of vitamin C - another natural anti-inflammatory. I actually eat broccoli several times a week!

• Here's a tasty health food that almost everyone loves...Blueberries! Now, blueberries are powerhouse when it comes to antioxidants as they contain resveratrol, flavonoids and vitamin C.  Blueberries and certain antioxidants actually help eat up oxidative stress.

• Next up...Pineapple which has the highest levels of a nutrient called bromelain (in the core). Bromelain is a proteolytic enzyme that helps reduce inflammation. In fact, a lot of athletes are now doing beet juice before they go and work out and then pineapple juice after since bromelain reduces inflammation the naturals sugars in pineapple help with the recovery after exercise.

• Here's one you probably didn't expect...Bone Broth! If you knew this, you get bonus points. Bone broth is very high in collagen-producing amino acids such as proline and glycine and hydroxyproline. This is what helps us anti-age and makes our skin tighter.And also, bone broth is very high in three unique nutrients: hyaluronic acid, glucosamine, and chondroitin. When preparing soup with a broth, try to use one which is low salt, especially considering most Americans consume too much salt. A bowl of soup sounds good right about now!

• Fatty fish. This includes Salmon, mackerel, sardines, anchovies and cod. These and others are high in healthy fats. Salmon is continues to gain in popularity because it is very high in omega-3s, the fatty acids EPA and DHA. Those reduce inflammation and helps the heart health. It's good for your skin, hair and even your eyes!

• Next up...Walnuts, which are another omega-3 supplement, though walnuts contain different types of omega-3 fats than fatty fish like salmon. Walnuts contain ALA, alpha-linolenic acid. Those omegas and some of the minerals they have are known to help support brain health as well as inflammation.

• The next one has become controversial lately - Coconut oil. Here's where the controversy exists...some evidence has shown that the saturated fats in coconut oil are actually good for your cells and reduce inflammation. However, at the same time, it is labeled by the American Heart Association as an unhealthy fat.Do your research on this one or talk to your physician - for now, I personally continue to use coconut oil in my diet, but only in moderation.

• Cha-cha-cha-Chia Seeds. Like walnuts, they are high in ALA. Chia seeds are probably the highest omega-3 fatty rich food on the planet. Chia seeds also create what's called mucilaginous fiber. In fact, if you put them in water, they become very gelatinous which is very good for cleaning out your colon (just like jello is). As a bonus, chia seeds are also know to increase energy (and NOT in a caffiene kind of way). Overall, it's a great energy-boosting seed as well as anti-inflammatory because of its great fiber and its omega-3 content.

• Continuing the theme, Flax Seeds, which are also high in omega-3s. Flax seeds contain really unique compounds that support balancing out estrogen in the body and if your inflammatory condition is related to gut health, flax seeds can also help. Your next decision, whole versus ground.

• This next one is greatly known for it health benefits as well as its great flavor...Turmeric. Using Turmeric as a spice for cooking is a great way to add flavor to your food as part of a low salt diet. Turmeric contains two really unique compounds. In powder form, it's very high in curcumin. Thousands of studies have been done on turmeric and curcumin and its benefit to fight cancer, heart disease and to reduce inflammation.

  Also, turmeric contains a compound especially in its essential oil form.If you buy turmeric oil, it's called turmerone which has been shown to help support your body in tissue regeneration and producing more of its own stem cells to help heal herniated discs, torn ligaments or any type of tissue damage in the body. Turmeric is probably the ultimate anti-inflammatory herb, followed closely by Ginger.

• Ginger contains gingerols as well as zingibain. Zingibain is a proteolytic enzyme that really helps reduce inflammation at the cellular level. Gingerols work similar to some of those compounds in turmeric at reducing inflammation. It's great for reducing inflammation of the digestive system and the joints.  As a bonus, it's really good for helping any type of issue related to tissue in the brain.

If you found this article helpful, please share it with your friends. At Sensational Seasonings we are 'all about' making the lives better. We look forward to sharing other health tips as well as healthy recipes with you!

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Sensational Seasonings is a gourmet seasonings company located in Johnson City, TN. Our healthy and delicious product line includes:  Cajun Blackening Seasoning, Chicken Seasoning, Jamaican Jerk Seasoning, Italian Seasoning and Pork Rub. Each of our seasoning blends are either salt-free or low-salt (meeting all guidelines of the FDA). Reducing the salt content of our seasonings allows you to get more flavor from all the herbs and spices we include while allowing you take total control of your salt use. 

 

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Salt...Breaking a Bad Habit

Eating a diet that is low in whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds and fish oils and high in salt raises the risk of an early death, according to the huge and ongoing study Global Burden of Disease.

Too little fruit kills nearly five million people every year, and too much salt kills four million. There are three things we can do to lower our salt intake.

First...

Don’t add salt at the table. A third of us add salt to our food before even tasting it!

 

Second...

Stop adding salt when cooking. At first the food will taste bland. Two to four weeks later, however, as the sensitivity of the salt taste receptors in the mouth become more sensitive to the taste of salt in the usual concentrations. Believe it or not, after two weeks you may actually prefer the taste of food with less salt.

Finally...

Avoid processed foods that have salt added. Even if we completely stop adding salt in the kitchen and dining room but still eat processed foods with salt, it will only bring our down salt intake a small fraction (because of the high salt content in processed foods).

If you do buy processed foods, select foods that have fewer milligrams of sodium than there are calories. For example here the sodium is 720; calories are 260. 720 is greater than 260, so this has too much sodium. The reason it works is because most people get about 2,200 calories a day, so if everything you ate had more calories than sodium you’d at least get under 2,300 milligrams of sodium upper limit for healthy people under age 50.

What to use for flavor...

Some of the flavorings you can use instead of salt include pepper, onion, garlic, tomato, sweet peppers, basil, parsley, thyme, celery, lime, chilli, nettle, rosemary, smoke flavor, curry, coriander, and lemon.

Of course, the healthiest foods have no labels at all. We should also try to buy as much fresh food as we can, as it is almost impossible to come up with a diet consisting of unprocessed natural food that exceeds the strict American Heart Association guidelines for sodium reduction.

Sensational Seasonings include Pork Rub, Chicken Seasoning & Jamaican Jerk Seasoning. Our Pork Rub is completely salt -free (this comes in handy when brining, so you don't "double salt" or if you are restricted to a salt-free diet). Our Chicken Seasoning is a 'low-salt' seasonings while our Jamaican Jerk Seasoning is 'very low-salt'. These seasonings meet FDA guidelines for salt-free, low-salt and very low-salt classifications. Reducing the salt content of our seasonings allows you to get more flavoring from the seasonings without over-salting and lets you control your salt use.

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