Avocados are delicious and filling.  Whether eaten plain or used in a guacomole dip, they have a rich creamy texture that is, undoubtedly, appealing.  Avocados are not necessarily a low calorie food.  One half of an average avocado contains approximately 125 calories.

One cup of pureed avocado contains 384 calories and 297 of those calories is from fat.  That fact sounds unhealthy but it is not.  Avocados have zero cholesterol.  A one cup serving of pureed avocado provides 63 % or 16 g. of dietary fiber.  It also provides 5 g. of protein, 7% of the RDA for vitamin A, 34% for vitamin C, 3% for calcium and 8% of iron.

Avocados, ounce for ounce, are a very nutrient rich food.  The calories in an avocado contribute nearly 20 vitamins and minerals and healthy plant compounds to your nutritional intake.  While avocados seemingly have a high fat content, 75% of the fat is unsaturated.  Avocados contain the good kind of fat.

Avocados also contain lutein which is a carotenoid that may help to maintain eye health as we age.  Another bonus to selecting avocados as part of a healthy diet is that they naturally have a low sugar content.  A one ounce serving of an avocado has less than 1 g. of sugar.

Avocados can help individuals stay within the Heart Association’s recommendations of limiting sodium and eating 4 1/ 2 cups of fruits and vegetables per day.  Also, avocados can help you to concentrate on monounsaturated fats.

Avocados are sodium, cholesterol and trans fat free.  Monounsaturated fats can help to lower bad cholesterol levels.  For people trying to maintain healthy eating habits, avocados can be used to substitute for butter or mayonnaise on sandwiches.  The creamy texture can add moisture and flavor to sandwiches and be a healthy addition with zero cholesterol.

For dips, the use of avocados in place of the more fattening, cholesterol laden choices such as sour cream or cheese bases, can reduce your cholesterol intake dramatically.  Avocados are a good choice for anyone who needs to address weight management, diabetes control or cholesterol control.

Avocados can be an excellent choice for baby foods. Because of it’s creamy texture and mild taste, it could be one of baby’s first fruits to enjoy.  In addition to this use, avocados can be used in salads and recipes with chicken and guacomole.

When choosing an avocado at the market, look for a ripe one.  A ripe, ready to eat avocado will yield to gentle pressure, but will not feel mushy.  Make sure you only gently squeeze the avocado since the avocado may bruise if you apply too much pressure.

If you pick a ripe avocado, you will need to eat it in a day or two.  You can select a firm green avocado if you want one to eat in about 5 days.  Just store the firm avocado at room temperature.  If you need to slow the ripening, store your avocado in the refrigerator.

Just wanted to take this time to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Remember, today is a day to indulge and THEN get right back on track the next day. None of this two month long indulgence streak this year, promise!?  At least that’s what I like to tell myself….

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I’ve come to the conclusion that eating an apple a day plays a big role in keeping me within my weight range that I most prefer. Every time I stop eating apples, I notice that I eat more junk food. Apples supply me with filling fiber, and they really help me to maintain my regularity. I’m the type of person who isn’t easily regular like some people.

I get easily constipated, and therefore need a steady dose of healthy fiber in my diet to maintain it.  I also have to avoid a lot of cheese and dairy, which can be binding agents and prevent you from staying on the regularity track.

Pectin is a fiber that the apple contains that has numerous health benefits.  It fills you up and creates a feeling of satiety that is pretty potent for the mere 60-80 calories an apple contains.  I only eat organic apples too. Not only do they taste worlds better, but I know I’m not eating poison when I eat the skin (which is the healthiest part of the apple if you ask me).

The saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” definitely is rooted firmly in the truth.

Apples that are sprayed with insectides and other pesticides really retain these poisons because they actually grow with them. They are usually repeatedly sprayed. I also don’t like the food wax that is put on non organic apples. Non organic apples actually taste different to me. They seem much mealier, with not as much rich flavor.

I’m not sure exactly why this would be, but I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that they are irradiated. Irradiation is a process by which the fruit is exposed to radiation so that the fruit may travel longer distances and last longer without spoiling. Nice, eh?

Organic produce is so much healthier in so many ways. It’s a shame that in some areas it can cost as much as double normal produce. It’s also a shame that it is not readily available in many areas. Unfortunately, non organic, pesticide and insecticide laden produce is easier to buy and more easily accessible.

Sure, it’s still better to eat fruits and vegetables rather than none no matter what, but the benefits of organic are truly amazing when you consider the guidelines organic farmers have to follow vs. non organic farmers.

Eating healthy is definitely a great thing. It IS all it’s cracked up to be.  You can think better, perform better physically, your mood is better, and your energy levels are higher when you are fueling your body with the right foods, and the right combinations of foods.

However, some say that it’s hard to eat right not only because it requires discipline, but also because it tends to be more expensive than eating – well, to put it bluntly – crap food.

I would tend to agree with those that say eating a healthier, more balanced diet is more expensive than eating cheaply made, processed, and less expensive foods.  When I go to the grocery store and compare the higher quality foods that are free of things like MSG, too much sodium, a lot of fat and sugar, I see that it is harder to eat a healthier diet.

When we load up on lean, healthy organically grown meats and organic, fresh veggies and fruits, it is sometimes even double the prices of the cheaper, frozen and more processed options. But that’s just how it’s set up right now. People are relegated to spending more money if they want to eat fresher, more high quality foods.

It is backwards, that much I’ll admit!  However, there are some foods that are naturally cheaper that are pretty good for you too – and filling.  Take quinoa for instance. It’s a relatively cheap staple to keep in you cupboard. If you buy it out of a bulk bin, you’re looking at about $3-4 for a pound of it, depending on who you’re buying it from.

This cooks up into a lot of filling, fiber filled, protein filled goodness.  Same thing goes for whole brown rice. This is another cheap staple. Of course, as its health benefits have caught on, so has its prices gone up. However, it’s still even cheaper than quinoa to keep around in your house.

It can be easily spruced up with some steamed veggies and a little bit of omega 3 rich olive oil too.  Olive oils and canola oil can be a relatively cheap staple as well. I do prefer to buy organic in my cooking oil, so when I buy healthy cooking oil, I do reach for the organic stuff. I just buy smaller amounts to keep the cost down, and to keep it fresher as I use it.

Coconut oil is another great, relatively inexpensive cooking oil to keep around. When you see how far a little bit goes, you realize that you really get a lot of bang for your buck with some of the healthier foods. It just costs more initially on the grocery bill.

So I told you about two weeks ago that I had purchased some Dreamfields low carb pasta and was anxious to try it. Dreamfields is a company that makes pastas that are supposed to have a lower glycemic impact – significantly lower – than normal pasta.

The product says it does this by sort of wrapping the pasta in a protective carb blocker shell, so that the carbs do not release into the blood stream quickly like they do with normal pasta, and they do not make the blood sugar go sky high right away.

In order to gain this benefit though, you must not overcook this pasta. You must only cook it for the time allowed on the packaging, and also not reheat it the next day, or apparently the technology that allows it to be low carb does not work.

So I cooked it the nine or ten minutes it said to cook it, and my husband and I enjoyed it with a stir fry – an asian type dish with a peanut sauce and veggies. 

The pasta tasted just like any other spaghetti pasta I’ve tried. It was good, what can I say!  It filled us both up and we thought we’d have a new product to use that would conform to our somewhat low carb living style.

However, about 6 hours after we ate it, we both go gas really bad. It wasn’t even the kind that stinks, it was just really uncomfortable and felt like we were really having trouble digesting something.

We were both surprised, because it didn’t occur until several hours after we ate the Dreamfields spaghetti pasta – when we would have thought we were home free from any side effects it may have, as many other low carb foods do.

I really liked the taste though, and would encourage anyone to try it and see if it was just us that had the gassy aftermath. Maybe that doesn’t happen to everyone. I wish it would have worked for us