Navigating the world of nutrition isn’t easy, even when we’re trying to make simple, healthy choices. Yes, vegetables are preferable to deep-fried donuts, but what about the smaller choices?
If you’ve ever wondered if you should be picking brown eggs over white, or swapping ground beef for ground turkey, Cooking Light’s list of Nutrition Mistakes is for you.
Here are five of the mistakes you might be making. Read all 22 mistakes over at Cooking Light.
Buying Brown eggs
Brown eggs are not the whole-wheat bread of the egg world. Buying brown just means that you're paying a premium for “an aesthetic choice,” not a nutritional advantage.
Drinking soy milk for calcium
If you’re a soy milk drinker, shake the carton before you pour, especially if you’re drinking it for its calcium content. The sludge at the bottom is settled calcium and often gets dumped down the drain.
While calcium is naturally suspended throughout cow’s milk, “fortified soy milks may deliver only 25 per cent to 79 per cent of the promised calcium” if you don’t shake it first.
Choosing ground turkey instead of ground beef
Don’t assume ground turkey is low in fat — some ground turkey has fattier dark meat in it, making its fat content comparable to that of lean beef.
If you’re looking to cut the fat, opt for ground turkey breast.
Note: The same holds true for turkey bacon. The fat and sodium content can be similar to its pork counterpart, so read labels before you buy.
Stocking up on veggies
We’ve been told to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables, ensuring that we always have healthy options on hand when hunger attacks.
Fresh is better than week-old, Cooking Light reports:
“In a week, green beans lose 77 per cent of their vitamin C, spinach loses 50 per cent of its folate, and prechopped cantaloupe, mango, and strawberry pieces lose 10 to 15 per cent of their carotenoids. “
To get the most out of your veggies, it’s best to shop a few times a week, buying locally grown, seasonal vegetables.
Buying frozen is also a great option. Fresh vegetables are often flash-frozen immediately after harvesting, retaining their nutritional value.
Eating spinach for iron
Women are often iron-deficient. The Popeye-friendly solution is an easy one, but it’s not necessarily the most efficient.
Yes, spinach is rich in iron, but the iron is non-heme iron — only two to 20 per cent of its iron can be absorbed. Iron from animal products is considerably more absorbable.
Up the iron-from-spinach absorption by adding Vitamin C to your salad. Grapefruit segments in your salad or orange juice with your spinach omelet will help you get the most out of those leafy greens.
In your healthy-eating adventures, which mistakes have you had to correct?
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