When many of us grew up, our parents taught us the importance of consuming the right vitamins and minerals, but they also taught us we could get all we needed if we just ate the good food they prepared. Of course, that was when most mothers stayed at home and prepared three meals a day for their families, and snacks consisted of fresh fruit with occasional sweets. With the fast-paced lifestyles we live today, do our children get all the nutrition they need from food alone?
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Many people have weight problems not because they don’t understand how to eat or prepare healthy food. There is some tendency to think that because a food is healthy, it must not be tasty. Avoiding these misconceptions is one of the first steps toward learning to eat and prepare healthy foods.

Choose Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Instead of buying canned fruits and vegetables, choose fresh ones when they are in season. Fruits fresh from the produce department of your market are better for you than canned fruits that have added sugar or are packaged in high calorie syrup. If you must buy canned fruit, choose those with no added sugar that are packed in natural fruit juices. Vegetables from the can tend to have extra salt and other ingredients that are not essential for the flavour.

Instead of cooking vegetables in butter or margarine, steam them and add spices or lemon juice for flavour. With so many different spices available for purchase at the market, there is no need to use excess butter or salt. You can even blend some of your spices to create a unique flavour of your own.
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