Expert nutrition teacher gives tips on how to eat well – 03/02/2024 – Balance

Maya Vadiveloo spends most of her workdays studying food. As a registered dietitian and associate professor of nutrition at the University of Rhode Island, she analyzes large sets of data to help people make healthier decisions at the grocery store.

But at night, when you get home from work, perfect nutrition isn’t your priority. “I obviously spend a lot of time thinking about food,” she said, but as a single mother of an 8-year-old daughter, she tries to model balance and enjoyment rather than perfection and rigidity.

Vadiveloo shared seven tips for maintaining that balance and eating well when you don’t have much time.

Make vegetables your ‘lazy’ snack

Vadiveloo always keeps carrots, cucumber slices or celery sticks on hand for a quick snack. This helps her reach her goal of eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, and means the easiest choice is a healthy one. “It’s amazing how satisfied I can be just by having a bag of ‘baby’ carrots on my desk,” she said.

Focus on the perimeter of the supermarket

Most supermarkets place fresh, whole foods like fruits and vegetables, dairy, meat and fish on the outer edges, with processed and packaged foods in the center aisles.

Vadiveloo spends most of her time in the produce section, comparing prices and selecting seasonal fruits and vegetables to have on hand for smoothies, lunches, snacks and dinner sides. She complements this with a stop at the freezer, where she grabs some versatile and budget-friendly favorites like frozen broccoli, green beans, edamame, corn and berries.

Read nutrition labels on packaged foods

She tends to buy the same types of yogurt, tofu, and whole-wheat bread every week. But when you’re picking up an unfamiliar brand, you look at the nutrition labels. With breads and breakfast cereals, for example, she looks for those that list a whole grain as the first ingredient and have at least three grams of fiber and less than five grams of sugar per serving.

The teacher tries to stay below the same sugar level when buying flavored yogurt for her daughter — and often chooses unsweetened yogurt and adds honey and vanilla at home. For canned soups and jarred sauces, which can be quite high in salt, she chooses those with less sodium.

Get creative with smoothies

Smoothies aren’t just for breakfast, and they’re not just about fruit. They can be a satisfying meal with protein, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. And unlike juices, they include all the fiber found in the fruits and vegetables you put in the blender.

One of Vadiveloo’s favorite lunches is a smoothie made with frozen banana and mango, fresh spinach or kale, kefir, almond or peanut butter, chia seeds, rolled oats, and milk or almond milk. It’s quick, delicious and incorporates all food groups.

Explore your food cravings

When she finds herself craving a treat, Vadiveloo takes a moment to ask herself exactly what she’s in the mood for at that moment. Is she really hungry? If the answer is yes, she starts with a nutritious snack like mixed nuts, yogurt, fruit or baby carrots.

If she’s still craving something more, she asks herself: Do I want something sweet, savory or cold? She has found that identifying the specific desire and satisfying it is more effective than trying to avoid it or replace it with something that isn’t exactly what she wanted.

Prepare meals on the weekend

The weekend is when she has time to slowly cook big batches of her favorite comforting dishes — chicken broth with leftover bones, tomato sauce, chili, vegetable soup. Cooking broth from scratch means it will have less sodium and more flavor than packaged broth or bouillon cubes.

It freezes your broth, sauces and soups into smaller portions that can be used over the following weeks or months. A big pot of beans, seasoned just the way she likes them, can also be a quick, nutritious base for meals the following week: tacos one day, a burrito bowl the next.

Don’t deprive yourself of the foods you love

Vadiveloo describes herself as a “lover” of soft pretzels, sprinkled with salt and dipped in melted cheese, which she sometimes orders as a main dish when she’s out.

“It’s not a balanced meal,” she said, but it’s something she enjoys occasionally without a hint of guilt. Depriving yourself of favorite foods can have negative effects, research suggests, because it can make you crave more, leading to overeating. “Sometimes simply allowing something makes it easier to adhere to a healthier pattern,” she said.