FitSugar

Healthy Eating Tip: Freeze Overly Ripe Fruit For Smoothies

FitSugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:00:00 PDT

Summer, even as it's waning, puts me in the mood for fruit. I tend to overbuy or misjudge the appetites of my darling (read sometimes soooooo picky) daughters, so much of my tasty fruit tends to get overly ripe before I have a chance to eat it. If you can relate, save your about-to-spoil fruit by prewashing, peeling (if necessary), and dicing all your bananas, berries, peaches, kiwi, and melons. Place them in a plastic freezer bag so they're ready next time you want to make a smoothie for breakfast or a snack. Not only will this tip save you money and time, but it'll also encourage you to eat healthier. Plus, when fruit is frozen it tends to taste less sweet, but since overly ripe is extra sweet your smoothie will be as well.

Source

A Doctor Dishes: Which "Superfoods" Are Worth the Cost?

LearnVest — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:15:00 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Most people you speak to these days are trying to stretch every dollar as far as possible - even the ones they spend buying apples and oranges.

Food prices are expected to increase yet again this year, and food manufacturers are making portions smaller without reducing prices. Not surprisingly, a recent Rasmussen poll found that 93 percent of adults report paying more for groceries now than they did a year ago.

So how can we supercharge our grocery dollars and get them to do overtime for us?

Yes, some foods are obviously a better nutritional deal than others (think apples vs. potato chips), but there’s another class of foods that blows the rest of the field away in terms of nutrients and health-protecting qualities: superfoods.

Superfoods can help prevent diabetes and heart disease, repair damage to your body’s cells, and more. But before you go piling them into your cart, know that some superfoods are better nutritional bargains than others. As a doctor and a mom, I’ve sleuthed out which ones are worth the extra cost in terms of their long-term health benefits. Below is the scoop on which ones may help you age better, ward off cancer, and more.

What to Know Before Buying Superfoods

Before we dive into what to buy, there are a few important things to remember about consuming these foods:

Eating foods fresh and in their natural state, especially fruits and vegetables (rather than in pill or powder supplement form), usually allows us to absorb the greatest amount of their nutrients. The way a superfood is processed or cooked can significantly lower its antioxidant content.
If the superfood can’t be eaten fresh, look for easy and appetizing recipes containing it. No matter how “super” a superfood may be, if you don’t know how to cook it, you’ll probably let it go to waste.

Are Superfoods "Good Buys" If I’m Shopping on a Budget?

Read on to find out.

NurturMe's Caroline Freedman: An Easy Way to Get Lil Ones to Eat Their Fruits and Veggies!

Kate Stahl — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:02:14 PST

As a soon-to-be first-time mom, a pregnant Caroline Freedman was obsessed with all things baby (sound familiar?), including what she would eventually feed her new lil one once she advanced past breast milk and bottles. "I was shocked at how little innovation there had been since I was a baby. It was still Gerber jarred foods," says Austin, TX-based Freedman, now mom to a 3-year-old and a 4-month-old. "Considering how parents are eating a lot differently now, it seemed so out of sync."

Freedman, along with her business partner Lauren McCullough (a former culinary arts teacher) decided to do something about the discrepancy. The result: NurturMe, the first certified organic, all-natural, gluten-free baby food made from quick-dried fruits and veggies. If a dehydrated baby food isn't inventive enough - each pouch is light as a feather and makes about 2.5 ounces of baby food when mixed with water, breast milk, or formula - NurturMe has yet another selling point: it's also an easy way to sneak fruits and veggies into older tots' meals. Keep reading for more from our interview with Freedman.

Save! 6 Handy Tips For Packing Work Lunches

Emily Co — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:54:21 PST

Bringing lunch to work every day sure does save more than a few bucks and keeps you healthy at the same time. It's such an easy everyday saving trick, and it's a great option for those trying to cut costs on their daily expenses. Here are a few tips that get me through the week.

Mental Meal Plan: What do you want to eat for the rest of the week? Give it some thought before you make a trip to the grocery store to buy some ingredients. For inspiration, flip through Yum's list of delicious work lunches. While you're grocery shopping, read our savvy tricks for saving money at the supermarket.
Prep on Sunday: Buy all the ingredients you need on Sunday so that you won't have to desperately scramble around the night before. If you're planning on making one dish that you'll be eating all week (such as soup), you can either keep it refrigerated or, depending on what type of dish it is, you can also choose to freeze it in five ziploc packets that you can ration out throughout the week.
Keep It Separate: If you want to keep your lunch fresh, try to keep the pieces separate and assemble it right before you're having lunch. This works best for meals such as salads and sandwiches - soggy bread and vegetables are not appetizing!

Read on for more tips.

Stock Up: 5 Snacks to Pack For Holiday Shopping and Travel

Rebecca M Gruber — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:55:01 PST

You don't have to be a Boy Scout to be prepared. Whether simply stocking a bag for a trip to the grocery store, or packing for a cross-country flight, moms know a thing or two about preparing for the unexpected. And while mama's regular stash of goodies can tame a fussy and hungry tot on a good day, when airport delays and holiday shopping crowds are on the agenda, it's a good time to step it up a notch. Check out five snack-time picks that do more than occupy lil ones during the holiday madness!

Clif Mojo Dipped Bars ($15 for 12): Chocolate-covered peanuts? Yes, please! Available in a variety of flavor combinations, Clif's Mojo line of bars combine the sweet and salty by mixing fruits, nuts, and pretzels and then dipping them in sweet vanilla or chocolate. The kids will never know it isn't a candy bar!
Happy Baby Happy Munchies ($3): Happy Baby's allergy-free sticks are perfectly sized for toddler hands. Made with whole grain corn and packed with choline (to help with brain development), the snacks keep sodium to a minimum so your tot won't be begging for drinks as you try to pass through the airport security line!
Funky Monkey Snacks ($12 for 12): All-natural, freeze-dried fruit may sound boring, but with Funky Monkey's fun flavors (like Jivealime, a pineapple and lime combo), kids will love testing them out. Best of all, their satisfying crunch will have lil ones thinking they're eating chips!
That's It bars ($20 for 12): Made from just fruit, these bars are perfect pick-me-ups during a long day. They're nut-free, GMO-free, and just plain good!
Revolution Foods Fruit Shredz ($4): Think of these as the modern-day interpretation of the Fun Fruit. Made without high fructose corn syrup and glycerin, they're healthy, tasty, and unbelievably kid-friendly!

5 Diet Foods That Are Making You Fat

Prevention — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:10:41 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Improve your weight loss plan by avoiding these health diet disasters
By Alyssa Shaffer

Thanks to confusing labels and unearned reputations, it's difficult to know what's good for you. You might automatically reach for items with a "health halo," such as spaghetti sauce (love that lycopene!), or labels like reduced fat!, low sodium!, and whole grain! But unless you're a super savvy shopper, be warned: your diet may conceal some nasty surprises. That low-fat cottage cheese you love? It could be higher in sodium than potato chips. And the low-fat dressing you drizzle on your salad? It could contain nearly as much sugar as two chocolate chip cookies.

The truth is that no manufacturer wants to compromise on flavor, so even healthy-sounding products can contain appalling levels of sugar, salt, and bad fats. To save you time, we've flushed out some of the most surprising diet food offenders - and found some truly healthy alternatives.

5 Weight Loss Excuses You Can Overcome

Fast Food Chicken Caesar Salad
Culprit: McDonald's Premium Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken contains 890 mg of sodium - more than half the recommended daily limit. And that's without the Caesar dressing, which can pile on another 500 mg. (Select the low-fat Italian and it's even 30 percent higher!) In these ready-to-go salads, says Lona Sandon, RD, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, "the worst part is usually the chicken, which is often cooked in a high-sodium marinade for flavor and may also be injected with a sodium solution to keep the meat moist."

Smarter choice: Skip the entrée salad and go for the burger with a garden salad on the side. A McDonald's plain hamburger has 520 mg of sodium (250 calories, 9 g fat); add the side salad (20 calories, 0 g fat, 10 mg sodium) or snack-size fruit-and-walnut salad (210 calories, 8 g fat, 60 mg sodium).

Have you fallen prey to other "fake" diet foods? Keep reading to find out!

Halloween Sugar Overload? Get Back on Track With These Tips

Leta Shy — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:08:10 PDT

Even the healthiest among us can't help but get into the Halloween fun, and while everything's good in moderation, sometimes a night of temptation means we allow ourselves to go overboard. Whether you've snacked on trick-or-treating leftovers too much or are still recovering from the weekend, here are some ideas to get back on track for the rest of the week.

Break the sugar addiction: Spent the holiday eating way too many fun-size treats? Eating a lot of sugar will only make you crave it more, so your Monday of celebration may be leading to mindless reaching for your candy stash the rest of the week. If you're craving sweets, take celebrity trainer Jackie Warner's advice: take five days to wean yourself off sugar and refined carbs by eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies instead. If forgoing sugar altogether seems impossible (especially in light of leftover holiday treats), check out our tips for reducing your sugar cravings.

Stop the hangover: If you overdid it with a multinight costumed celebration, now's the time for post-Halloween hangover remedies. Get back on track by helping your overpartied body. Here are five morning-after fixes to help cure your hangover.

Read more healthy post-Halloween tips after the break.

Bizarre Home Cures That Work

Prevention — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 03:13:50 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Ease pesky health issues with vodka, duct tape — more
From the Editors of Prevention

Of course there are some health staples you should never be without - bandages or OTC pain relievers come to mind. But you can treat or cure a surprising number of minor ailments with these unexpected household objects and foods.

Home cure: Vodka
Use it for: Foot odor
If your feet smell less than swell, wipe them down with a vodka-soaked washcloth to get rid of the stench. It's the same principle as rubbing alcohol (which works equally well if you'd rather drink your Grey Goose). Vodka contains alcohol, which is antiseptic and drying, so it destroys odor-causing fungus and bacteria and dries out the moisture that lets these organisms grow.

Surprising Reasons Why You Smell

Home cure: Licorice
Use it for: Calluses and corns
"Licorice contains estrogen-like substances that soften the hard skin of calluses and corns," says Georgianna Donadio, PhD, director of the National Institute of Whole Health. Make this homemade licorice paste: grind up a few licorice sticks, mix them with 1/2 teaspoon of petroleum jelly, and rub the mixture into the rough areas of your feet.

How to Get Soft and Sexy Feet

Home cure: Baking soda
Use it for: Urinary tract infections
At the first sign of symptoms, drink a solution made with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda mixed in eight ounces of water. Continue this once a day until you can get a culture done at a doctor's office and start antibiotics. Baking soda makes the bladder environment more alkaline, which reduces bacteria's ability to multiply, says Larrian Gillespie, MD, a retired assistant clinical professor of urology and urogynecology in Los Angeles.

Keep reading for more home cures.

Freeze Fruits and Veggies Before They Spoil

FitSugar — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:14 PST

In the morning I always make a breakfast smoothie using fresh produce. But sometimes our household goes a little overboard in the amount of produce we buy. Instead of throwing out spoiled fruits and veggies, we freeze our produce to preserve its nutritional content and halt the ripening process. Freezing produce is also a good way to stock up on fruits and veggies that are on sale or going out of season.

If there's an abundant amount of produce in our house, we estimate how much we'll need to last the rest of the week and then freeze the rest. Produce is best frozen when it's perfectly ripe, and it can last in the freezer for up to a year.

To find out how to freeze produce at home,

Save Money on Groceries Without Coupons

Kiplinger — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:00:14 PDT

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

I usually spend less than $100 a week buying groceries for my family of four. And I don't use coupons - ever.
Yes, there are some extreme couponers out there who manage to spend next to nothing at the grocery store. But I don't have the time it takes to be that sort of coupon pro - nor would I benefit from the effort because coupons usually aren't available for the items I regularly buy.

So I've found other ways to keep my grocery costs under control. One reason I'm able to keep my weekly spending low is because I don't live in a large metropolitan area, where prices are higher. However, these ten tips should help you score savings wherever you live.

Choose the right store. The bulk of my savings come from shopping at Walmart rather than Kroger (the main options where I live). On average, my grocery bill is 20% less when I shop at Walmart. I compared the prices at both stores on 15 items I regularly buy and found that I paid $10 more at Kroger ($53.87 versus $43.50). The bigger the shopping list, the greater the savings. Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine writers conducted a similar experiment and spent nearly $20 less on the same basket of items at Trader Joe's than at Whole Foods (Get the Best, Spend Less).

It might seem a little time-consuming to actually run this experiment yourself. But you only have to do it once - and the savings could be substantial. Think of it this way: If you were buying a big-ticket item, such as a TV, you'd probably invest some time to shop around and research prices. Although your weekly grocery bill may not seem like a major expenditure, you're shelling out $10,400 a year if you're spending $200 a week. That's a lot more than most TVs - which you could easily afford to buy if you cut your weekly grocery bill in half.

Read on for more tips.