Healthy eating tip:Limit sugar, salt and refined grains

If you succeed in planning your diet around fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and good fats, you may find yourself naturally cutting back on foods that can get in the way of your healthy diet—sugar, salt and refined starches.

Sugar and refined starches

It is okay to enjoy sweets in moderation, but try to cut down on sugar. Sugar causes energy ups and downs and adds to health problems like arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, headaches, and depression.

* Give recipes a makeover. Often recipes taste just as good with less sugar.
* Avoid sugary drinks. One 12-oz soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it! Try sparkling water with lemon or a splash of fruit juice.
* Eliminate processed foods. Processed foods and foods made with white flour and white sugar cause your blood sugar to go up and down leaving you tired and sapped of energy.

Salt

Salt itself is not bad, but most of us consume too much salt in our diets.

* Limit sodium to 2,300 mg per day – the equivalent to one teaspoon of salt. Most of us consume far more than one teaspoon of salt per day.
* Avoid processed, packaged, restaurant and fast food. Processed foods like canned soups or frozen meals contain hidden sodium that quickly surpasses the recommended teaspoon a day.

What You Can Eat

	Food Groups	Enjoy Adequate Amounts Of	Limit
	Grains	Breads, brown and regular rice, ready-to-eat flaky whole grain cereals, pasta, oats, tortillas, pita bread	Baked goods made with heart-unhealthy fat (See Fats & Oils below)
	Vegetables	All fresh, frozen, and canned vegetables	Vegetables topped with cream sauces, whole milk cheese, and butter
	Fruits	All fresh, frozen, and canned fruits	Fruits topped with cream
	Dairy Foods	Nonfat and low fat milk and yogurt, reduced and low fat cheeses, and light ice cream	Whole milk, 2 percent milk, whole milk cheeses, and full fat ice cream
	Meats & Meat Alternatives	Lean cuts of meats, such as tenderloin, sirloin, round, and lean or extra lean ground beef, turkey, or chicken, low fat luncheon meats and hot dogs, dried peas and beans, skinless poultry, fish, beans, tofu, peanut butter, nuts, egg whites, and egg substitutes (Keep meat, poultry, and fish to about six ounces daily)	Fatty cuts of meat such as untrimmed meats, hot dogs, sausages, and bacon, excessive egg yolks*, organ meats (liver), poultry with skin, and fatty luncheon meats, such as bologna and salami
	Fats and Oils	Soft margarine, olive, soybean, canola, corn, peanut, sunflower, and sesame oils	Whole milk, yogurt, and cheeses, full fat ice cream, cream

*Since an egg yolk contains over 200 milligrams of dietary cholesterol, these need to be balanced within your diet in order to harness your daily cholesterol intake. Egg whites are free of dietary cholesterol.

- By Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, LDN. Blake is a nutrition professor at Boston University and a nationally known writer, lecturer and nutrition expert.