Nutrition Optimization

In order to optimize the nutrition you feed your body, utilize healthy food substitutions. You may think you have heard this before but I’m going to raise the bar.
As you may know I am not fat phobic, so I will not repeat many of the discussions you have heard so many times before. You know… cut the fat, substitute whole fat for non-fat or skim products, use 2 egg whites instead of 1 whole egg. My firm belief is that food should be used in its natural state not after it has been modified, processed, or stripped of its G-d given nutrients and yes that includes fat!
Quite frankly, I’m not sure if products that are sold with added vitamins and minerals are as healthy and as good of an idea as it seems because if you start loading up on vitamins and minerals without thought to balance or whether an imbalance in other nutrients are occurring you could be causing a whole different set of problems.
“Au Natural” food choices are the best way to go. When I describe nutrition optimization, I mean substituting foods that have few nutrients with other foods that have greater nutritional value yet maintain a similar taste and texture.
Here are a couple of examples:
1. Mash up avocado and use it as a spread or dip instead of mayonnaise when you make chicken salad. Avocado naturally has more nutrients than mayo so you will be optimizing your nutrition, especially fiber, folate and potassium; http://www.avocado.org/healthy-living/nutrition
2. Use 2% Greek yogurt instead of non-fat/low-fat yogurt and sour cream. To tell the truth I do not taste or see much of a nutritional difference between brands of Greek yogurt. By making this switch you will bulid your nutrition profile by reducing sugar, adding protein and live active probiotic cultures. By nature yogurt is a dairy product when companies process non/low-fat yogurt they add artificial sweeteners sugar cornstarch etc…needless to say before Greek yogurt became convenient to buy, yogurt was not a part of my food plan. Things have changed now. Here are links to low/non-fat and Greek yogurt, so you can make your own ingredient comparisons. http://www.breyersyogurt.com/fob.html, http://www.dannon.com/pages/rt_healthy_what_in_our_yogurt.htm, http://www.chobani.com/products/c/lowfat
I would love some creative ideas from you!
Next time I will share a super delicious snack recipe that is more tasty. fulfilling and packed with more nutrients than in its original state.