Focus on National Nutrition Month!

Well folks, believe it or not, we are just over a week away from the “spring forward” at the beginning of Daylight Savings Time (it happens March 9 this year)--and although for many of us the weather may still be a bit uncooperative, we are headed for the beginning of spring and the return of fresh local food that comes with it! Perhaps this is why March is designated National Nutrition Month, when we take time to examine our eating habits and make changes to improve our diets. This year the theme is “Enjoy the Taste of Eating Right,” and with that in mind, we thought we’d focus on some great-tasting ways to improve your dietary health, and look at new developments in nutrition!

Aside from being a focus of our lives this March, nutrition is already in the news as of today, when it was announced that the “Nutrition facts” labels we’re so used to seeing printed on our foods would be getting an overhaul--in fact, this is the first change to the label since the FDA began requiring them over 20 years ago! The proposed changes still need to be approved, but if implemented they will make it much easier to tell exactly how many total calories are in food and drinks. They will also change the way serving sizes are calculated--since you’ve probably noticed that most food labels show a single serving size that’s far less than what you’re likely to eat! With these changes, the FDA is cutting down on the confusion, which will surely make it much easier to maintain a more nutritious diet.

These and other changes are important in terms of improving public awareness of nutrition, but scientifically speaking, the principles involved in a healthier diet are more or less the same as they’ve always been--focusing on fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains, as well as plenty of healthy (lean) protein and a lack of added sugars and processing. Organic foods, grown with severely limited use of synthetic additives like pesticides and fertilizers, are a safer bet for an “all-natural” diet that favors fresh foods. For more info on the principles important to selecting fruits and vegetables, check out our post on the topic from last September. 

There are also lots of recipe resources out there to help you plan ways to increase the use of healthy foods in your diet. We’ve examined sites like Fruits and Veggies - More Matters and AllRecipes.com, but we are also fans of the “World’s Healthiest Foods” website which lets you use a menu to select the healthy foods you want to include, and then delivers a set of recipes that are quick, easy and most importantly, good for you!

With these and other resources available, we expect this National Nutrition Month to be the most effective yet at combating unhealthiness and teaching the public about ways in which they can be more nutritious without having to sacrifice money, time, or--and this is key--taste!