June Challenge
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Ok so I will post for the challenge. The farmers market is on Saturday so I'm trying to decide what I will buy. I posted about my interest in boosting my potassium and iron intake and I will fallow up on that in just a min. First I was taking a look at my salad's and look at what I can do to improve their nutritional or nutrient impact on my diet.
Just to preface that I am putting down things that appeal to me taste wise so I might be leaving some things off. For my salad, I don't like bitter or spicy greens so I'm looking for nutrient dense salad greens that aren't bitter.
My salad already consists of:
Leaf Lettuce - Most often Red leaf lettuce
Spinach - I love baby spinach but fully grown is cheaper
I'll add Romaine lettuce to the mix as it's high in Vitamin K (107% for 94 grams), Vitamin A (174% for 100grams).
My Red Leaf Lettuce is a keeper, it has some of the highest antioxidant levels of all the loose lead lettuces. Great for the prevention of cell damage and certain diseases but the science is out on what role antioxidants play alone. I has high levels of vitamin A (149% for a 100grams), 33mg of calcium (per 100grams), 187mg of potassium, and 6% iron for 100grams.
Spinach is also a fantastic choice, and I should probably add more of it to my salad. Frankly I am happy to eat a salad of nothing but spinach. 100grams contains 558mg of potassium, 187% Vitamin A, 46% of Vitamin C, and 15% of my Iron.
Liver and even beluga whale are great sources of iron, but I think I will be passing.
Dried Apricots seem like a good choice. 100gram serving provides 33% of your daily value of potassium. 100grams of Raisins can provide 25%. You can also eat Prunes, Dates, dried Figs, & Avocado if you like them. Obviously Bananas.
White Beans, Lima Beans, Kidney beans and Potatoes are all high in iron and potassium.0 -
Ok friends, I went shopping a little earlier to pick up a few things at the store for lunch. The store closest to the house is too expensive to do all my grocery shopping but I needed a couple things to get me through till Mom takes me over to Walmart tonight. While I was in the produce section I was looking around to see what was available. I came upon the avocados and thought "what the heck, I'll give it a try." I sliced it and put a few slices on my turkey sandwich and I do have to say that it wasn't too bad. Will definitely buy a couple more to try different ways.0
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I found an app, actually a website for the moment but I think they are working on an app, that seems to compliment myfitnesspal fairly nicely. It's a automated meal planning system. http://www.eatthismuch.com/
You can tell it your daily net calorie goal, what macronutrient values you want and it generates a menu with portion sizes, recipes and a shopping list. It tells you the nutritional information for each meal and the cost. you can customize it to work for a certain type of diet, customize the food list, add or remove meals, even tell it your budget.
Sounds fairly cool, thought some of you would enjoy it. It's nice sometimes to not always have to be making decisions and planning.0 -
So i was looking for something new that would be a good source of iron that i would enjoy eating (sorry liver).
One of the foods on the list was dried apricots. I picked some up today and thought I would share with you what i found.
These are none sugar added. Sunridge Farms - Fancy Sweet Dried Apricots
One serving of 40grams or 5 pieces (thats 2.5 full apricots) contain 100cals or (~96.4). As usual it's a great source of vitamin A 30%, Calcium 2%, and Iron 6%. It has no fat, cholesterol or sodium, and is a good source of fiber.
Seems fitting as California is the largest dried fruit producer in the us and one of the largest in the world.
A lot of dried fruits keep the same nutritional value as when fresh. Depending in part on how they are made. Some have sugar added (the label will say this, as well as the ingredient list). Papaya, kiwi fruit and pineapple as they are technically candied fruits.
A great low sodium high fiber way to get your essential nutrients and your daily fruit needs. Plus it's like eating candy, whats not to love.0 -
Nice find Pat, personally I do not like any dried fruit though!
My recent try was a no salt seasoning shaker to add to food rather than salt itself. I still add small amounts to cooking and baking, but have cut out adding salt to my food. Potatoes, tomatoes in particular I did not like without salt. It is okay, it is not quite salt, but is close enough to keep my sodium down by quite a lot. If anyone else is trying to reduce their sodium and you add salt to your food at the table I recommend this.
So fat is better, sodium is better, fiber is better. Cannot work on protein till I have more money. Time to properly knuckle down and get water sorted.0 -
I'm not usually a huge fan either, but their are a few i like (apple, apricot, peach, raisins, pear). I'm not sure if i will keep them around because they sort of become a snacking food and I can do fine voiding snacking as long as i don't have any of those foods around. But the fiber helps.
Salt is always a pain. We changed out all the seasoning a while ago for no salt added and thats been good, but it's always the processed food. I will occasionally use it when cooking if a recipe requires it and i'll have some when having eggs but beyond that its all the processed foods. Even though I have cut a lot of them out the sheer amount of salt from just a little bit is scary. If i could cook all my meals all the time it may help but most weeks I have to use some processed products or I would spend all my time cooking.0 -
Yeah I am lucky, I am a stay at home mum, I just work a few hours a week from home typing up stuff, so I can spend time cooking meals from scratch and experimenting with lightened versions of stuff. Processed stuff is so crazy for salt.0
