How to Cut Calories the Easy Way
Yes, it’s hard to control your weight. No, you don’t have to give up every delicious food. Simply editing your plate can reduce the calories and help skim off the pounds.
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Use low-fat or no-fat dairy products.
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Use sugar substitutes instead of sugar.
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Skim the fat off all soups and stews.
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Choose low-fat desserts.
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Serve poultry without skin.
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Avoid high-fat, oily salad dressings.
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Make open-face sandwiches with just one slice of bread.
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Eliminate high-fat ingredients in any dish.
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Don’t butter the veggies.
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Rinse the fat off chopped meat with hot water.
When You May Need Extra Nutrients
Most nutrition experts agree that healthy adults can get virtually all the nutrients they need from a balanced diet. But not every body is the same, and these bodies may need more than the average body:
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When you’re pregnant, you need extra amounts of some vitamins, minerals, and protein to meet the needs of the growing fetus.
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Ditto for when you’re nursing your baby.
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Some medicines reduce your body’s ability to absorb and use certain vitamins and minerals. When your doctor writes a prescription, ask whether you need supplements.
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What? You still smoke? Then you need more vitamin C than nonsmokers.
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Are you a woman approaching menopause? Time for extra calcium to maintain healthy bones.
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Older men also need extra calcium.
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Is your diet strictly vegetarian – meaning no food of animal origin, not even milk and eggs? You need extra vitamin B12. You may also need extra calcium and iron.
How to Keep Food Safe and Nutritious
Clean hands plus clean prep space plus appropriate hot or cold temps adds up to safe food. The rules are simple, and the rewards are great. Here’s what you need to know to keep your food safe and nutritious:
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Wash your hands before (and after) touching food.
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Wash all fruits and vegetables before you use them.
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Follow the directions on the food package for storing and preparing food safely.
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Handle all raw meat, fish, and poultry as though it were contaminated (sometimes, it is!).
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Cook foods thoroughly.
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Keep hot foods hot, cold foods cold.
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Never eat or drink anything containing raw eggs.
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Use a separate cutting board for raw meat, fish, and poultry.
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Never taste any questionable food “just to be sure it’s all right.” When in doubt, throw it out.
Nutritional Prefixes and Suffixes
Like every discipline, nutrition has its own particular language. This chart clues you in to several prefixes and suffixes that can make deciphering nutrition-speak a cinch.
Element | Meaning |
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amyl- | starch |
an- | without |
anti- | against |
-ase | an enzyme |
di- | two |
-emia | found in the blood |
gastro- | referring to the stomach |
gly- | referring to sugars |
hydr-, hydro- | water (also: hydrogen) |
hyper- | above normal |
hypo- | below normal |
lact-, lacti-, lacto- | milk |
lip-, lipo- | fat |
macro- | large |
micro- | very small |
mono- | one |
-ose | sugar |
tri- | three |
Measurements Used in Nutrition
This chart defines the words – and the abbreviations – used in nutrition to describe quantities of solids and liquids from the miniscule (vitamins and minerals) to the relatively large (water).
Abbreviation | Measurement | Equivalent |
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g | gram | 1,000 milligrams |
1,000,000 micrograms | ||
mg | milligram | 1/1,000 gram |
mcg | microgram | 1/1,000,000 gram |
kg | kilogram | 1,000 grams |
2.2 pounds | ||
lb | pound | 0.45 kilograms |
16 ounces | ||
l | liter | 1,000 milliliters |
10 deciliters | ||
dl | deciliter | 1/10 liter |
ml | milliliter | 1/1,000 liter |