4 Weight Loss Tips for the Family

As a parent or grandparent, setting a good example is important. This is especially true around the dinner table, since children tend to pick up eating habits from the family routine. Try the following - your family may not even know they are eating more healthful meals

1. Incorporate a vegetable into every meal. Peas, broccoli, asparagus, red, yellow or green bell peppers, spinach - you name it, vegetables provide nutrients and fiber.
2. Use more beans and legumes, and less meat. Chickpeas, lentils and beans of all types are good sources of fiber and protein. Use the Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid below.
3. Serve up whole grains. Brown rice and bulgur wheat provide a delicious, grainy taste and texture - and have more fiber and protein than their white counterparts. Choose true, relatively intact whole grains like these over grains that have been ground into flour.
4. Switch sweets. Instead of soda, stock the pantry with sparkling waters. Pour fruit juice into a pitcher and dilute it to lessen the sugar content. Stock your kitchen with fresh, whole fruits, and leave the cookies in the store.

3 Reasons to Eat Tomatoes

This fruit, which many still consider to be a vegetable due to its lack of sweetness, is a seasonal staple. Chopped in salads, sliced with fresh buffalo mozzarella, pureed for gazpacho or eaten fresh off the vine, a ripe tomato in summertime is a delicious and healthful treat. Tomatoes are:

1. Low in calories.
2. Excellent sources of vitamin C, and provide vitamins A and K, potassium, manganese and fiber.
3. A source of lycopene - researchers have linked the lycopene (a carotenoid that gives tomatoes their color) with a lowered risk of heart disease and cancer (including prostate, breast, colorectal and lung), as well as being helpful in lowering high cholesterol.

To get the full health benefit of tomatoes, including their anti-cancer potential, remember that carotenoids are fat-soluble and are better absorbed when eaten lightly cooked and paired with fats such as extra-virgin olive oil.