Tasty Healthy Family Meals

Tasty Healthy Family Meals

From the NIH (National Institute of Health) February 4 press release

Nutritious and tasty meals can be easy to prepare for your family. Get some ideas and inspiration from a new NIH cookbook. Keep the Beat Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Family Meals has more than 40 kid-tested recipes featuring a variety of healthy entrees, side dishes and snacks that parents and children can enjoy together. The free cookbook also offers time-saving tips and helpful resources for busy families.

The recipes were developed by David Kamen, a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef/instructor and father of 2. The dishes are based on heart-healthy principles from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Recipes include nutrition analysis and provide guidance for preparing meals that are low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium and added sugars.

“With a healthy approach to cooking, families learn to enjoy the taste of heart-healthy meals that can help lower their risk of heart disease and other conditions,” says NHLBI Acting Director Dr. Susan B. Shurin.

The cookbook and individual recipes are available on the Keep the Beat: Deliciously Healthy Eating website athttp://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/healthyeating. Or call the NHLBI Health Information Center at 301-592-8573.

 

A few links to recipes at this Web site

• Oatmeal Pecan Waffles (or Pancakes)
• 20-minute Chicken Creole
• Edamame stew (vegetarian soybean based)
• Good for you cornbread
• Classic macaroni and cheese

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New USDA Dietary Guidelines (released January 31, 2011)

The US Dept of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion released Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010.

Some excerpts from the Introduction

The ultimate goal of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is to improve the health of our Nation’s current and future generations by facilitating and promoting healthy eatingand physical activity choices so that these behaviors become the norm among all individuals….

… The recommendations contained in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans traditionally have been intended for healthy Americans ages 2 years and older. However, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 is being released at a time of rising concern about the health of the American population. Its recommendations accommodate the reality that a large percentage of Americans are overweight or obese and/or at risk of various chronic diseases. Therefore,the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 is intended for Americans ages 2 years and older, includingthose who are at increased risk of chronic disease….

…Dietary Guidelines for Americans also recognizes that in recent years nearly 15 percent of American households have been unable to acquire adequate food to meet their needs because of insufficient money or other resources for food.10 This dietary guidance can help them maximize the nutritional content of their meals within their resource constraints….

Chapters include Balancing Calories to Lose Weight, Foods and Food Components to Reduce, Foods and Nutrients to Increase, Building Health Eating Patterns, and Helping Americans Make Health Choices.

In the coming days and weeks, links will be added here to related news items, commentaries, and additional informational resources.

Links a few media news items (the author does not endorse the views in these links, they are provided for informational purposes only)

 

 

• New Nutrition Guidelines: Read Between The Lines On Red Meat (NPR)
• USDA releases updatedguidelines (Supermarket Guru)
• USDA And HHS Announce New Dietary Guidelines To Help Americans Make Healthier Food Choices And Confront Obesity Epidemic(MediLexicon)
• Foodmakers at work on healthier fare (StarTribune.com)
• Steady Diet of Nothing New (Bostone Globe)
• New Dietary Guidelines Show Politics Still Trumps Science (Time)
• American Society of Nephrology statement in support of US Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010
• In the face of contradictory evidence: Report of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee
• Free healthy diet plans – USDA Food Pyramid has a statement from Sally Fallon, President of The Weston A. Price Foundation and author of Nourishing Traditions regarding the USDA Food Pyramid and the new 2010 Dietary Guidelines. She basically says the USDA guidelines are wrong in promoting grains and “demoting” necessary saturated fats.

• Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/31/new-dietary-guidelines-show-politics-still-trumps-science/#ixzz1Churur3x

Related articles

• Whole Grains Are Better, But Refined Grains Aren’t Bad (healthland.time.com)
• You: USDA food pyramid now a plate-shaped dietary guide (menafn.com)