Limit Fat and Sugar with These Easy Tips

Fat and sugar are best enjoyed in moderation, but they're found in so many food that it can be very hard to avoid them.

If you want to take control of your diet, these simple tips from the NIH website can help you reduce the amount of fat and sugar your eat:

  • Just because a food is low-fat or fat-free doesn’t mean it’s also low in calories. Those foods can have a large amount of sugar, causing them to also have a large number of calories.
  • Many people don’t consider the added sugar in beverages like soda or juice, but these can also cause you to gain weight. Some studies show that people who cut these sugary drinks out of their diets noticed significantly reduced weight gain.
  • Sugars found naturally in foods like fruit or milk are beneficial to your body, and fresh fruit can make a healthy alternative to other sugary snacks.

You can find more tips about managing your fat and sugar intake on the NIH's website.

Healthy Eating Tips for Seniors

You’re in the prime of your life, and it’s more important than ever to maintain a healthy, balanced diet. If you want to manage your weight and start to feel active and energized, these simple tips from the USDA can help.

  • Make sure at least half of your grains are whole grains. When you go to the grocery store, look for breads, pastas, and rice are labeled “whole grain” or “whole wheat."
  • Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. The easiest way to ensure that you’re getting a good mixture is by buying them in a variety of different colors.
  • Eat seafood at least twice a week to get its beneficial protein and other nutrients.
  • Eat the proper calories for your lifestyle. Senior women need anywhere from 1,600 to 2,200 calories per day, while senior men need between 2,000 and 2,800 calories, depending on how active you are.
  • If foods start to taste different or irritate your stomach, talk to your doctor. Some medications diminish your sense of taste, but changing your dosage or your medication can usually help.

For more eating tips for seniors, visit the USDA website here.

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Find Recipes Online with These Websites

These days, finding and sharing recipes has become an online activity, with dozens of websites full of user submitted meals for lunch, dinner and even dessert. These helpful websites will help you with your own family’s meal planning, as well as connect you to other home chefs to trade tips and tricks.

All Recipes
All Recipes is one of the most popular online cooking resources, with an expansive recipe database for just about any meal or occasion. Search the archives by ingredient, watch video tutorials, view sample menus for the entire week, or even plan your holiday spread all on this simple, friendly website.

Epicurious
The ideal site for the passionate food lover, Epicurious is jam packed with creative, inspiring recipes in the form of traditional text, videos, and slideshows of mouth-watering photos. Epicurious also features a great online community where visitors can follow other members, post their favorite recipes, and discuss topics such as family meal solutions and home brewing techniques. 

FoodNetwork.com
The beloved television cooking channel has a corresponding website, and fans of shows like The Barefoot Contessa are sure to love it. FoodNetwork.com features cooking tips from top chefs and hosts, 30-minute meal recipes, a quick recipe finder with filters for ingredients and prep time, and even a blog full of articles that foodies will find fascinating.

Use Your Juicer With These Four Great Recipes

Enjoy the refreshing taste of fruit juice? You can use a juicer to create some delightful juices, right in your kitchen at Coventry Court Apartments.

Don't have a juicer? You can use a blender instead, taking care to blend the ingredients thoroughly to achieve the right consistency.

Ready to start? Here are four juice recipes worth trying:

Cucumber Watermelon Lime

Pineapple Apple Mint

Post-Workout Refueler

Orange Carrot Ginger

Daily Tips To Keep Your Heart Healthy

For a long and healthy life, it’s essential to consider your heart health. Below are some effective ways to address your heart health every day:

  1. Stop smoking! Quitting smoking is the number one thing you can do to boost your heart health. Did you know that the threat of heart attack for former smokers is the same as it is for non-smokers within three years of quitting?!If you’ve been putting it off, make it your goal to quit this year!
  2. Get Moving! The chance of heart disease increases significantly in sedentary people versus people who get regular physical activity. No need to run a marathon – moderate intensity exercise such as walking, swimming or biking are great choices. The key is to keep it regular, and make sure you move every day.
  3. Brush & Floss. Did you know that taking care of your teeth is an essential element of heart health? The risk of experiencing a heart attack or a stroke increases by 50% if you have gum disease.
  4. Eat Your Fruits & Veggies. Include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables in your daily diet. Be sure to enjoy foods that are low in saturated fat and cholesterol, and high in fiber. A healthy, balanced diet helps to prevent high blood cholesterol, and the less sodium you have in your diet, the better.
  5. Start Laughing! Laughing can be a great workout for your heart. Each time you chuckle, the blood flow in your heart increases for up to 45 minutes, which is an excellent way to promote heart health.

Feed Your Eyes With a Healthy Diet

To protect your vision, get your eyes checked once a year. But you can do more than that: simply eating a healthy, balanced diet will help ensure that your trip to the eye doctor is quick, painless and worry-free.

Start with orange juice and green vegetables. They are packed with vitamin C, which helps fight glaucoma, and the heavy dose of antioxidants will guard against macular degeneration.

While you’re at it, remember the color orange; carrots, sweet potatoes, and other orange fruits/vegetables are high in beta carotene, which is a building block for vitamin A. Vitamin A strengthens your corneas and helps prevent night blindness.

Salmon, flax seeds, walnuts, and avocado are good sources of Omega 3 fatty acids. Besides preventing dry eye syndrome, this beneficial fat helps heart and brain health!

You’re not limited to meals, either. Think of all the finger foods you can snack on throughout the day—citrus fruits, broccoli, peaches, mangoes, garlic, chickpeas . . . with every bite, your eyes get stronger. So get that annual eye exam, but “feed” your eyes every day. Bon appetit!

Save Some Green: Safely Skip Organic Versions of These Vegetables

With all of the hubbub about organic produce, the truth is that you don’t have to buy organic everything to eat healthfully. Organic growing methods make a big difference in some produce and virtually no difference in others. If you’re looking to save a little money, here are five vegetables that are safe and delicious when conventionally grown:

  • Onions are a bulb vegetable and they absorb very little pesticide through the growing process. In addition, growing onions organically is very expensive, as their stalks are vulnerable to a wide variety of insects.
  • Sweet corn is also very acceptable to purchase conventionally-grown. While there's a great deal of concern over genetically-modified corn in the open market, the majority of sweet corn is not GMO and can be consumed with confidence.
  • Avocados are also a food that grows better under conventional techniques. The thick skin of the fruit prevents contamination from airborne pesticides, and considering that the vast majority of avocados are grown abroad it’s difficult to find affordable organic options.
  • Sweet potatoes, unlike standard potatoes, are fine to eat conventionally-grown. The less starchy flesh is less likely to absorb toxins through the soil.
  • Cabbage has thickly-packed leaves don’t hold pesticides and chemicals like lettuces do.

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