To Your Health
August, 2009 (Vol. 03, Issue 08) |
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Healthy Eating on the Go
Strategies for ensuring balanced nutrition in a fast-food, processed world.
By Sara Tiner
We all know eating right can help us stay healthy and live longer. But it's been a busy day. You're beat. How can you get a healthy dinner on the table fast? You could hit the drive-thru and pick up food for the whole family, or stop by the grocery store for a frozen pizza or a prepackaged dinner. Sure, these might be the fastest options, but are they the healthiest? It may depend on what you choose and how often you choose it. Believe it or not, you can eat a balanced, healthy diet even when you're on the go - if you're willing to make your health a priority.
Unhealthy Choices
We all know unhealthy food generally contains a lot of added fat, sodium (salt), sugar, or chemicals. It's also tasty, cheap, and easy to get. In fact it's everywhere: at eye level in the supermarket, right around the corner, and even delivered piping hot to your door. The processed food industry knows we're busy and need convenient food options, and that these foods can be great in a pinch. Unfortunately, as we get busier, these products show up more frequently in our diet. Because processed food often contains a lot of unhealthy ingredients, we can end up eating in an unhealthy way.
One example of this is fast food. These restaurants specialize in inexpensive food that can be pretty unhealthy if we eat it too often. For example, a standard McDonald's Big Mac value meal (burger, fries, and a soft drink) is a whopping 1,130 calories, all for under $5. With a diet soda, the total dips a bit, but only to 920 calories. Either way, in one meal, we're eating about half our recommended daily calorie intake.
Additionally, serving size has increased dramatically over the years. Today's average cheeseburger is roughly 230 calories larger than a cheeseburger made 20 years ago. Because we're also more sedentary than our predecessors, these added calories are a big factor in our growing waistlines.
Fast food isn't the only culprit, though. Processed food manufacturers have muddied the waters by making health claims for a single item in their product, such as saying it contains all the calcium or fiber you'll need for the day. However, a product with one enhanced nutrient is often not as healthy as less processed, more balanced alternatives. In fact, the benefit we get from eating these types of processed foods (with that single beneficial ingredient) may be diluted by all the other ingredients that aren't healthy.
Making Health a Priority
Making healthy food choices is a compromise between our busy lifestyles and our health. We can do it if we make small but meaningful changes in the foods we select. These targeted changes can improve our overall nutrition without a huge cost in time or money.
