Guest Post: Amy’s 8 Great Food Tips Worth Knowing

My good friend Amy put together a list of food tips: “The Great 8” to keep in your kitchen. And it really was so great that I want to share it with you (along with my commentary, of course ;)) Take it away, Amy!

1. The number of calories you should eat per day depends on your age, height, and weight.  Click here to find out how many calories you should be eating per day to maintain your weight or to lose weight.  http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
2. A true meat portion serving size is about 3-4 ounces.  The size of meat you eat for every meal should be about the size of your cell phone (iPhone or blackberry). (Hmmm, I wonder what Siri thinks about this…)
   
3. Fish is one of the healthiest possible proteins we can eat.  Farm raised or wild caught?  Which fish have high mercury?  I carry this pocket guide with me to determine what I should buy and eat based on where I live: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx (I personally always go for the wild caught.)
4.  Here are the top foods that are most worthwhile to buy organic:
   • Meat
   • Dairy-especially milk for your children
   • Eggs
   • Coffee (especially if the coffee was grown abroad, and most coffee is)
   • Certain fruits: peaches, apples, strawberries, cherries, grapes
   • Certain veggies: any peppers, celery, green beans, tomatoes
   • Leafy greens: spinach, lettuce, kale, collard greens, mustard greens
   • Baby food: toxins found in pesticides can affect a baby’s nervous system
   • Anything you or your kids eat a lot of: the same type of chips, the same snack every day, etc.  For example, since I eat oatmeal almost every day for breakfast, I buy whole wheat organic oatmeal. (I buy the BEST organic grapes from Trader Joe’s. But if you’re looking for them, they aren’t in the produce aisle – they are inside of their bottles of red wine. Weird, I know.)
5. For portion control, start paying attention to the Nutrition Facts label and look at what a serving size really is.  For example, who knew that a serving size for oatmeal was only ¼ cup?  How many people are really only eating 4 ounces of meat or an ice cream scoop full of pasta? (I have a specialty pasta scoop that they sell in Home Depot, in the “shovel” aisle)
6. My favorite healthy dessert so far is a medley of the following served on a dessert plate: 1 serving of non-fat vanilla yogurt with blueberries and ½ a banana on top, 1 tbsp. of almond butter on the side, and 1 Pepperidge Farm Milano cookie on the side.
7. Most women who lose their post-pregnancy weight 3 months or sooner after giving birth do so by breastfeeding, eating a 1200 calorie a day diet, and exercising 3-5 days a week.  (Often times they have a nanny and prepared meals from a cook.) (Amy, I have to ask – who are these people???)
8. “Superfoods” provide multiple disease-fighting nutrients and fill you up for very few calories in return.  Some superfoods include:
   • Yogurt
   • Eggs
   • Nuts
   • Kiwi
   • Quinoa (a personal YUM)
   • Beans
   • Salmon
   • Broccoli
   • Sweet potatoes
   • Berries