Let's Do It Healthy

January 19, 2005

The USDA's 5-A-Day initiative aims to get Americans to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. There are plenty of ways to do this. Pile veggies like cucumber slices, sprouts or carrot shavings on your sandwich. Enjoy fruit for breakfast. Add a banana to your cereal. Berries contain the most fiber and least calories of all fruit; have a handful. Broil half a grapefruit topped with cinnamon.

Inactive adults over age 30 lose about 3 - 5% of muscle tissue every 10 years; here's what you can do. Go to the weight room. Strength training prevents the reduction in muscle tissue that causes the body metabolism to slow and makes the bones more vulnerable to conditions like osteoporosis.

When yogurt's live active cultures colonize your digestive system, they draw a line in the sand against disease. The cultures -- especially acidophilus and bifida - muscle out potentially threatening bacteria. Low-fat or fat-free yogurt has a lot of other things going for it: It's easy to digest, especially for those who are lactose-intolerant and have difficulty digesting milk and many cheeses; it's an excellent source of calcium, protein, riboflavin (a B vitamin), vitamin B-12 (which may be low in vegetarian diets) and vitamin A; and provides selenium, potassium and magnesium.

Instead of a bagel with regular cream cheese in the morning, try a whole-wheat English muffin with a slice of low-fat cheese or peanut butter and save 300 calories. Do this every day for a year, and you can drop up to 30 pounds! If bagels are not your thing, then look for another way to shave 300 calories off your daily routine for a similar result.